Happy Mother's Day to Me!

For Mother's Day this year, Kyle bought me a new house!  Thanks, honey!

Actually, it was coincidence that we ended up signing the Closing Docs on the home last Friday.  Tomorrow, May 15, is the actual "Close Date", and I will be there first thing starting to clean and paint.  We are so excited and thankful, and amazed we found it so quickly.  We aren't done with our current lease contract until July, so we have plenty of time to move.  It is about half a mile from where we are living now, so that means the same ward, same schools, same doctors, same shopping.  Phew!  I am perfectly happy with only a new house.  I have told Kyle I hope we can live in this one for the next 20 years so I don't have to move again for a very long time.  The home is beautiful on the inside, but the yard is a disaster--in fact, the backyard has never been landscaped and is dirt and weeds right now.  So, we have our work cut out for us.  But I'm looking forward to designing it and making it "ours". (With a lot of help from my dad on the designing part.)

You're all welcome to visit anytime!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women who have influenced my life for good.

I recently read this article: Irreplaceable Mothers.  The thoughts and ideas in it resonated with me.  I so want all the women in the world to understand their Divine role and potential as children as God.  And to know how powerful we are simply because of who we are.

Find out more about the movie Nicholeen talks about in her article here: Irreplaceable. I'm hoping to see it next week!

Easter

We had Easter together as a family this year.  I must admit it was strange not getting together with extended family, but it was still a good day.  I decided to do an Easter feast with just us.  I did the usual: homemade rolls, ham, mashed potatoes, salad, etc.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.

The kids opened their Easter gifts/baskets in the morning (I tried to limit the candy as much as possible.), then we had church, our dinner, then we went to the cemetery to visit Anneca's grave.

We were finally able to put the pinwheel flower at her grave, since the ground has been too frozen previously.  The cemetery was so beautiful, full of flowers everywhere you looked.

This Easter was actually a really hard one for me.  It was the first one since Anneca's passing, and while I felt like I should be celebrating Christ's Resurrection--and knowing that, as a result, Anneca will also be resurrected, it was a sorrowful day for me.  I do well most days, but this was one of those days where missing Anneca hit me really hard.  I long to hold her, to watch her grow, to nurture and love her.  I try to remind myself there will come a time I will be able to do this, but sometimes I'm not very good at remembering that.  Life is hard.  But, ultimately, I am more grateful than ever before that the Savior loved us enough to suffer the Atonement for us, that He overcame death, and that we have hope through the power of His name.  Yes, life is hard, but I'm doing my best to learn what He would have me learn along this beautiful journey.  And to remember that, even amidst sorrow, we can have joy, because of Him.

Harms' Visit!

Barbie, Lidya, Reagan, and Tsion Harms came for another visit the end of March.  It was the last couple of days of their Spring Break.  We loved having them here!  Barbie and I just enjoy talking and catching up on everything while the kids go crazy playing together:).  Saturday we spent the morning at Riverfront Park, exploring, seeing the Falls (beautiful with all the spring run-off), riding the Carousel, sliding down the Radio Flyer wagon, playing at the park, etc.  We also drove up to see the Whitworth University campus.  Their oldest daughter, Emma, just received a full-ride scholarship to Whitworth so will be attending there in the Fall.  We're excited and hope that means we'll get to have them visit even more!

The Saturday evening after they left, Kylene and I got to attend the first ever General Women's Broadcast together.  All girls, age 8 and older are now invited to attend, so this was Kylene's first time attending, too.  It was so neat to get to have that time together.  Our Stake had a dinner afterward celebrating Relief Society.  A fun evening with my daughter whom is becoming a beautiful young woman!