I hope I never forget our dance parties, our boom chicka booms, our eye spy, chats and morning prayers in the car. I hope I never forget that the girls love to roll down the windows and stick their hands out and although the windows down isn’t my favorite I love seeing little fingers in the side view mirrors. I hope I never forget bats in the cave, joke gasping, and endless teasing. I hope I never forget that when Keagan is cold or tired she wants to cuddle, scratching Keagans back as she falls asleep and especially tracing her surgery scars across her back or playing with Riley’s ears when she’s tired and her cute noises and sighs when she is asleep. I hope I don’t forget the little cross cross thing Riley continually does with her feet when she sits or lays down, how she shakes one tippy toe when she stands and that Keagan is an awesome Whistler!
I hopeI never forget lazy weekend mornings. Oh and please never forget nights like this last Friday night where the weather raged outside but inside we all laid on the couch together to cuddle, giggle and watch a movie. Or like last night where we had quite the adventure and SO much laughter with Mrs Taryn eating Korean food, missing Bethlehem city and hunting for Christmas lights. Or that Riley’s greatest enemy in life is currently commercials and that on the weekends she could sit in her high chair for hours to snack and watch Paw Patrol. I hope I never forget Keagan telling me about how Heavenly Father answered her prayers in helping her remember all of her lines in Elf Jr and that she could watch baking videos, edible tricks and Evan Tube all day long if I let her. And that she makes some fun and colorful concoctions in the kitchen by cooking, baking, melting, dipping, layering and sprinkling things.
I hope I never forget how happy Riley is to have her best friend Jackie and how much she is loved and almost fought over at school. On a side note I would be happy to forget a third grader tripping her at running club though! I hope I never forget how thoughtful and helpful Keagan can be as a sister and a daughter especially taking care of Riley in the car, cleaning and organizing things for me (she is seriously cleaning the kitchen right now) and calming Riley down when I have lost my patience with her tantrums. And just how happy and sweet Keagan is when I bring her lunch and sit and talk with her about the horrors or 4th grade play ground drama and how she is strong enough to deal with it but that I am also always on her team!
I hope I never forget the girls darling Scottie Choir Christmas Performance at school and that I could pick out Keagans voice, that Riley did a good part of the motions with the songs and that Gramas came to support them. Or that in between two of the Elf Jr shows Keagan wanted to go see Izzy’s and lots of other friends choir performance because Izzy came to support her!
I hope I never forget how much the girls love the total magic of our Elf on the Shelf and looking for Elmer every morning in December! Or how much Keagan loves coming to Young Women’s with me almost every Wednesday night while Riley happily stays home with Nana to go to bed early. On a side note I know I will never forget how much I love the sweet young women I serve and the amazing women like Jessica Williams who I serve with and get to do fun things like decorate girls cars on their birthday!
I hope I never forget the Easy Bake Oven shenanigans with the girls and just how disgusting easy back oven pizza is. That Gramas babysat so that I could actually go to dinner with my work friends but that Keagan thought I was totally abandoning her and that we had a really amazing service opportunity yesterday with the Activity Day girls and their awesome leaders. We went to an affordable senior living center and wrapped presents for the residents, brought treats, befriended them and decorated their Christmas tree! It was amazing and I was SO proud of all the girls and SO happy to have been able to be a part of it. And my sweet friend Bessie toon Riley as her side kick and made her feel so special! To top it off we were able to pass out 20 of the blankets that Nana has been making and the residents absolutely loved them, especially my new friend Barbie!
And I hope I never forget more service opportunities at Speedy Scottie’s where we donated jackets for those in need, a fun Reading Express night in our Christmas Jammies at school, how much the girls still love that I work at their school and want to help me, celebrating beautiful Addie’s 16th birthday and just how amazingly positive Riley is at yet another doctors appointment at Texas Childrens!
And finally I am thankful I have a place to document all these little things because I almost forgot about something I definitely want to remember and had almost forgotten because I missed documenting it here. Month and months ago Riley and I were yet again down at Texas Childrens Hospital for a doctors appointment when I helped a lost family find their way. The dad said to me “thank you! This is our first time here and hopefully our last” when I realized how many hundreds of times we had been there and that we will be doing that for the rest of Riley’s life. Grief washed over me on behalf of my sweet brave girl and I was pushed to break our normal routine and take that little miracle to the zoo. I sat and watched her as she sat and watched the elephants for quite some time with a mix of sadness and gratitude. A weird emotional concoction that I am very familiar with. But the forever exemplar Riley was just as happy as can be and I don’t want to ever forget that!
It’s like I always say, this life does not at all look like anything I had planned! And it can be very, very hard at times. But it is still such a beautiful, fulfilling, joyful, wonderful life! And it’s just as much the little things as it is the big things that make it that way! So today and every day, I’m sure thankful for the little things. They just might be the big things after all.
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