Happy Mother's Day to my mama

I know I've talked about how much I love going through the old scanned slides that my father took as I was growing up.  He wasn't the best photographer in the world, but he did a really good job documenting the important events of our lives, and he had a good eye for special moments as well.
In thinking about my own mom yesterday, I went looking specifically for pictures of my mom with each of her babies.  My sister did this on her own blog and beat me to the punch, so I won't put all of them up.  But here are a couple that I just loved.  They are very different, but I love both of them.
OK, here is the first:

What is not to love about this picture?! 
My mom had my sister in 1974, me in 1976, Naomi in 1978, Brigham in 1980, Rachel and Jacob in 1984, Benjamin in 1987, Abraham in 1989, Christian in 1991, and Eva in 1994.  So there was never a time in my whole growing up years when there was not a baby or toddler (or two or three) in the house.  I always knew I wanted to be a mother.  I remember as a very little girl, dancing around to, "When I grow up, I want to be a mother!  And have a family!  One little, two little, three little babies of my own."  There has never been a time in my life when I had any hesitation about wanting to have children of my own.  My mom was and is such a good example of the fulfillment and happiness there is in being a mother.  I am so very grateful to her for the gift of each of my siblings in my life. 


Here is the other one:

This is one of those magical moments that my dad captured on film.  This was probably early morning, as he was getting up to get ready for work.  He worked in downtown L.A. and I remember that he left very early to beat the traffic.  I'm not sure if Rosalynde crawled into bed with my mom after my dad got up to get ready, or if he had been banished by the tyranny of babies and toddlers.  Either way, I'm sure this was a very common sight in the wee hours of the morning in those days in that house on Harmony Place.
I love the peaceful sleeping faces, skin glowing in the early morning light, the muted colors, and the utter serenity of the moment.  My mom looks like a sleeping angel here, doesn't she?  She is still the shining center of our family, and we will always be drawn to her light.