Behold, My Little Ones

Jewels

 I have always LOVED the following story, and feel the same about my own children-- ALL thirteen of them!

"The story is told that in ancient Rome a group of women were, with vanity, showing their jewels one to another. Among them was Cornelia, the mother of two boys. One of the women said to her, 'And where are your jewels?' To which Cornelia responded, pointing to her sons, 'These are my jewels.' Under her tutelage, and walking after the virtues of her life, they grew to become Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus—the Gracchi, as they were called—two of the most persuasive and effective reformers in Roman history." ~Gordon B. Hinkley

Mother's Day Selfies

I have had a goal for a very long time to get a photo taken with EACH ONE of my children.

Just to put it out there, and get it off my chest, chubby moms like me don't love to have our pictures taken very much. But one day I realized that if anything ever happened to me, my children would not have many visual records of me WITH them!

And whatever I look like, my children LOVE ME. They see me in all my chubbiness every single day, and that is how they will remember me.

THIS IS MY LIFE. This is who I am. And while I may not be a "hot mom," or look like a fashion model, I am the mother that they wake up with every morning, cry on, look to, and kiss goodnight each evening. And they need to know how much I love each and every one of them.

When you have 13 kids in your family, that is not always an easy thing to get pictures taken with each individual! But, I decided that for Mother's Day, I wanted to take the time to get a photo of myself with each one of my children. It was a wonderful Mother's Day for me!

We decided to do selfies, since it's fast and easy, though I'm not the greatest selfie-taker. LOL!

Since there's a lot of photos involved, we'd better get started! Here we are, in all our glory!

Fiona, my thirteenth jewel in my motherhood crown.

Fun and energetic Avalon, our tenth baby.

Grayse (our ninth jewel) and Mama

My sweet Eryn (#11) and me

Davy-boy (#12) with his mama

My MacKenna, the eighth jewel

Lliam-lad, jewel number three

Our Ronan, lucky child number seven

Our beautiful Bonny, the fourth child in our family.

Gentle and good Dierdre (#6)

Life is fun with Gavin, our fifth child

Lovely and placid Morganne; my first-born angel.

Best Mother's Day Present

The very, VERY best part of Mother's Day, was getting to Skype with our MISSIONARY!!!! And yes, I even got a selfie with our wonderful Elder Brennan. We miss him dearly, but are so proud of him and all he is doing to love and serve the people in the Spokane Washington mission.

Our hard-working, fun missionary, Elder Brennan Keppner. He is our second child and first son.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO WONDERFUL WOMEN, EVERYWHERE!!!

Love, Mama Rachel