Happy Smothers Day!!!

I feel overly loved today (I think Sam has kissed me 26 times or so) He's a lover! Neve pretty much has been rotten all day but she has an excuse which is greenish yellow crap oozing from her ear and a plethora of teeth trying to make their way up or down. (I sure hope the up ones come down and the down ones come up).
I am not a hater of Mothers Day like I know a lot of moms are. I think it is nice, although I didn't get a chocolate today at church (guess I went out the wrong door) and I have been lobbying for the chocolate for years now.
This day does not make me feel inadequate as a mother and I really don't think it should make anyone (unless of course your a really crappy mom but that is rare). I think all moms really try to always do the best they can (whether that requires drugs or not is no ones business).
Our kids can learn valuable lessons seeing us not be "perfect" and then trying to work to be better and then it doesn't set them up to feel like failures as parents too. You know, if they know we weren't. This will be what I am going to use as my excuse now whenever I am a crap head......."yeah just teachin' the kids they don't have to be perfect".
The point to this post after all that ramble is to say a little sap about my mom.
My Mom is almost perfect in my eyes and I think my siblings will agree. She is our Mom so we are biased (I guess). I once got asked the question of what color do I think of when I think of my Mom and in 100% honesty I thought of white, she even seems to smell white. (not to be mistaken for white trash.....which just smells like trash)
My mom had 8 children and did a dang good job of keeping track of us all and having a relationship with us all (so poo on you Oprah when you say parents don't have time for more than 2 kids). My mom was always so calm and hardly ever swore (which is a big feat with so many kids and they didn't hand out zoloft like candy). She did say damn and hell now and then but those aren't real swear words, they are just baby ones. We respected my mom and I don't know how she managed that by being so nice all the time, you would think we would walk all over her. The one thing she did do in sacrament meeting was pinch us with her long fingernails and it hurt really bad so we tried to avoid getting into that situation. My dad worked all day and when he came home he worked again in the garage so she pretty much did all the rearing herself. On top of that she usually had the big ward callings and she was amazing at those too. My mom has always kept a very clean house and a very nice yard. I always want people to think of me that way (I may need to hire a gardener and a housekeeper to get there). She has so many amazing traits but the cleanliness is godliness one sticks closest to my heart. (which includes the blinds, the baseboards)
There is so I much I could say but anyone who knows my mom should already know all this so I will just add a few of my favorite photos (they are not traditional favorite types of photos but I feel it shows how I am like her(not photogenic)and one is of what we as Bray girls know as the "Exchange" which is no words are spoken but communication is definitely there
I wish I could remember what our faces were discussing here because it looks good but I don't.
Dave and Norma look at the camera and smile when their photos are being taken but why would you do that when you can look as awesome as us in photos with all the weird faces. My Dad smiles and some of the kids got that but the others of us got ornery/weird photo faces.
Thanks Mom
She might read this when she gets back from England (Happy Mothers Day to her and my Aunt Nancy who are on this and hopefully many more well deserved trips)