A Good Daddy...

When we are little girls we dream about our weddings and how we will look like princesses, as we get older we begin fantasizing about the dream husbands we will have and how they will sweep us off our feet, then as we become adults we begin thinking about having children and how excited we will be and how thrilled our husbands will be.

Well, I never in my wildest dreams figured it would all work
out...just like that in the end.  I got the beautiful wedding, the dream husband who swept me off my feet and honestly, still does, and we were excited about our babies together.

My husband is amazing!! He married me and loved my daughter from the moment we started dating.  He has become her daddy in ever sense of the word.  He loves his girls so much and worries about them daily along with trying to teach them how a man should treat them.  He does this through the example he shows them of the way he treats me and when he takes Kiley on "dates" to show her how it is done!

However, every daddy also needs a boy.  He needs someone to be "rough"

with and talk about gross things and build things with.  We are so blessed to have had two little boys....amazing little boys.  Each one is so different and add so much to our lives.  They are polar opposites and they are best friends and worst enemies within minutes of the other.  They love their mommy and idolize their daddy.

He is a good dad and my kids are so blessed to have a dad that
always wants his children to know they are loved.  He is the dad that goes outside and plays basketball and baseball even when he is exhausted just because they
wanted to play.  He is the kind of dad that wakes them up with silly songs or glasses of water.  He is the kind of dad that, while being funny, gets his family stuck in a snow bank in which he has to dig us out of for hours, and he is the kind of dad that sheds real tears when he tells them how much he loves them.

My husband makes sacrifices every day for our family, some of these sacrifices are life-threatening and extremely dangerous.  They have caused pain in his life at times and hurt.  He has had to experience things in his life most of us would never dream of.  Each day he functions on small amounts of sleep, yet he wakes up and is happy to see his kids and looks forward to the day ahead and the time he gets to spend with them.

I am grateful for this man in my life.  I am thankful to have had children with him and to be able to raise them with him.  I am so happy to know that he puts our family at the center of his universe and for all that he does for us...daily!!  

He is one of the hardest workers I have ever met and would give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it.  He is kind and helpful and thoughtful.  He cleans toilets and changes diapers and holds hair when a child is puking.  He takes over when I am sick and he does random acts of kindness.  He is the best of the best and I am so happy he is my husband and the father of my children!!

Another good week!

This week was busy and hectic and chaotic and well....just another normal week in the Gilmore Family household.  The end of the school year tends to be a little more so but not much more packed full of events than the rest of the year.

Braedon had two baseball games this week.  They won the first one against the Mets but lost to the Angels.  He played well and while striking out a few times, he hit a few really good ones and ended up walking a couple times (good eye son!)  He went on a field this week and
his dad, brother, and Maya went with him. They went on the Mogollon Rim hike among a few others.  We went to the store the day before and picked out all the lunch goodies so we could pack their lunches.  He was so
excited...those field trips are a pretty big deal when you are a little kid!

Kiley had her final track meet this week.  She ended up with a ribbon for 4th place in the 400 meter!!  It was a pretty big deal.  We are really proud of her and her hard work in her sports this season.  This
child has managed to constantly have sports in her life, mutual at church every Wednesday, a play every Tuesday and Thursday night and she still managed to maintain A's this year.


Chase was able to go to his friends house this week and could hardly sleep the night before.  He was so excited he got mad at Toby when they got to his school and he dropped him off.  Chase was pretty sure he got to skip school since he was going to his friends house...um, NO!  He got over it and worked it out but he was sure confused for a bit.


Maya is Maya.  She is getting really fast now and wants to clean the floor with her mouth.  Every time I turn around she has some small rock or piece of paper or microscopic speck of something in her mouth...how does she even see those things.  She has also started pulling herself up on everything and finally STARTED TO HOLD HER OWN BOTTLE!!! Hallelujah!!! That will be such a huge help.

Next week I anticipate a similar amount of madness.  Toby has oral boards on Tuesday and a graduation on Wednesday.  Friday we leave for New Mexico to go to our niece's college graduation and come home Saturday.  Sunday I leave for Laveen until Monday night for a school conference.  Then...just two short weeks of school left and summer here we come!!