A Perfectly Busy Weekend

I had a beautiful birthday. The kind that will probably never be duplicated. Every birthday for the rest of my life, I will remember that I share that day with my baby sister. I will remember her face as she looked across the alter at her sweetheart and covenanted to be his forever. I will remember being in the temple with my parents and all of my siblings.

What a beautiful, perfect day.

It will go in the books as one of the best days of my life.

Genny looked incredible. Ben looked incredible beside her. They are happy. (unfortunately "a man" who ran around with a camera the whole day, failed to get any actual "pictures" of said happy couple, only video, so this picture is "stolen")

This picture is one of the the only ones that I have of the "wedding day" and that is because I took it. My lovely baby and my incredibly hot husband.

All the little nieces (all TWELVE of them) we dressed in beautiful matching white dresses with purple sashes. It looks like Violet was trying to get away from my handsome husband, but really, she just like looking at the world upside down --- and is adorable --- and incredibly wiggly --- and incredibly heavy to wrestle with for an entire day. :) Nels complained the next day about his arms being sore from carrying around his camera all day . . . let's just say that I was able to sympathize. :)

Genny got married on my birthday. Two days later was Easter. I love when my birthday is close to Easter.

We stayed in Utah for the couple of extra days so that we could spend the day with my family - minus the newly-wed Mr. and Mrs. Worthington.

Once again, I wish we'd gotten pictures of us all decked out in our new Easter attire, but alas, twas not meant to be . . . maybe this coming Sunday. - But we looked great. :)

After church we all headed to my parents' house for an Easter barbeque (??? - weird? Yes. But simple.) and the annual Easter Egg Hunt that my dad likes to do for the grandkids. I tell ya, my dad puts on an excellent egg hunt. Add Jake, Ben, and Chris to the hiding mix and there are many eggs that will never be found. They're good. :)

There's always lots of this . . .

A little of this . . .

Waaaa! *tears*tears* I can't find any eggs, Mom!! - Oh, there one is. :)

The excitement of climbing all Grandma's trees to get the "coolest" ones . . .

 . . . while "less ambitious" children get twice as many eggs by just finding the ones on the ground.

And lots and lots of smiley kids running all over.

I must say, my siblings make some of the most beautiful children I've ever seen.

A wonderful, beautiful Easter weekend.

A Fabulous Friday

Wow. Sometimes I think I will never be a blogger again . . . sad. The baby seems to be sucking my brains. However, I did have a fabulous Friday.

1. Nels took the girls and I out to see a movie tonight. We saw "Cloudy with a Side of Meatballs". It was great. I LOVED the movie. No potty humor, not overdone. Just silly with a great style. Even Elsie sat through it, switching quietly from parent to parent. Definitely recommend it.

2. I volunteered in Hazel's classroom this morning and had fun. It was nice to watch Hazel interact with the other kids. She loves school so much! I think at times she gets a little bored --- waiting for everyone else to finish each instruction before she can move on to the next, but she's just really happy to be there. It makes me think I could totally do kindergarten homeschool and be done in about 1/10th of the time, but Hazel would be devastated. It was nice to watch her. She's such a kind and smart little girl. She's so happy. I love her.

3. My wonderful mother came to visit for two days this week! It was so nice to spend time together! She sort of came to celebrate Hazel and Elsie's birthdays early with them and we made the most FABULOUS carrot cake that I've ever tasted. MMmmmm. I've never really liked carrot cake, but like with many things, it just seems to be one of those things that a lot of people don't make correctly. :) :) LOL! It was a good recipe! On Tuesday we went to Bear World -- about 20 minutes from Idaho Falls. It was a lot of fun. -- Spendy, but a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed seeing the bears and the elk and petting the deer and goats, but they REALLY enjoyed the free rides afterward. We went about 2 hours before they closed and it's late in the season, so we all but had the whole park to ourselves. An ideal way to go. Thank you SO MUCH, Mom, for coming and loving us. Elsie has been asking for you ever since.

4. We've had a stray cat trying to adopt us for the past month. Thankfully, she's really a very pretty calico -- a little skinny -- but a very nice and well kept cat. -- (Apparently only pretty calico cats want to be part of our family! :) Well last week I was preparing to take her down to the Humane Society - as I don't really want to be adopted and she'd have no problem finding a family - when she disappeared for a few days. Wednesday I saw her a little bit and then that night the girls came running in the house saying there were kittens under our neighbor's shed (right next to our dividing chain-link fence). I knew immediately they must be Flower's kittens. (Yep, my kids christened this stray "Flower" when she would come around every once in a while this spring.) They are probably about 3 or 4 weeks old and needless to say, I'm really glad that I didn't haul her off to the Humane Society. The problem is that I'm a bleeding heart for any kind of needy animal (as can be vouched for by my family). :) Anyhow. I'm kind of excited for my kids (okay, and me) to get to play with these baby kitties for the next little while before I take them all to the Humane Society. :)

5. I've got a few new projects completed and coming up for my bedroom that I'll have to share in a week or so. I'm happy to finally have my bedroom really come together as a completed room! Lots of things that I REALLY like. Things like a turquoise desk, a covered closet, and a sweet little chandelier. As soon as I finish painting the mirrors and making the new pillows, I'll post some pictures. ---- Of that AND the recent accomplishments on our yard. ---- OR any curious people could just come VISIT!!! :) Any and all are always welcome! :)

Comings and Goings

Well, I don't really know how to separate the happenings of the past couple of weeks into specific posts, so it's going to just get conglomerated into one big post. This is mostly a record just for my own journalling purposes, so I won't be offended if, halfway through, you decide you've got better things to do with yourself than read my weekly play-by-play.

-- As I said in Lilie's post, Nels worked 85 hours the week before last. Thankfully, he's on salary, so he didn't get paid overtime. :) He is my hero! He goes to work each morning without complaint to serve our family so faithfully. I love him so much for his sacrifices!

-- We celebrated Lilie's birthday!!! We love her so very much!!!

-- Found a great, old, full-sized metal bed to put Elsie's room for EIGHT dollars at the D.I.!!! Hooray for me! I was looking at ones exactly like it at a salvage store for $150 and a new one (which I never would have been able to find, since they don't sell new old metal beds :) would have cost a LOT more than that! It is almost exactly like the one that I slept in all growing up and I'm totally in love! I'll show off pictures when I get around to making a new quilt for it! :) Happy day for 8 BUCKS! :)

-- Since my mother ended up having to work on Lilie's birthday, she and my dad were able to come up last Wednesday and stay the night instead! It was so wonderful and we had SO much fun! I love my family and am always so grateful when they take the time to come visit us! It means so much to us all. The girls where so excited to have them come that they were bouncing off the walls all night long! It was insane! - and funny. Since they left, Elsie often stands on the couch, looking out the window and asks for Papa. She loves her Grandpas so much that she will often  walk up to any older man that she can find and cuddle up to his knee and call him Papa - letting him hold and cuddle her. It's funny. She really likes Grandpas. 

-- My parents took the time to go to the nursery with me while they were here and buy me an early birthday present. -- A bush. Awesome, huh?! Some of you may not think so, but it is seriously one of the most exciting things to me to look out my bedroom window and imagine my beautiful bush filled out with pretty green leaves! Hopefully, by my birthday, it will be!

-- While at the nursery, I picked up $25 worth of spring flowers to plant in my happy little flower bed! It is now a multicolored mass of primoses and pansies, just waiting for my daffodils and hyacinths to bloom!! I'll take pictures as soon as they do in the next couple of weeks!

-- We had the opportunity to head up to Island Park this past weekend and stay at a friend's cabin for a night. We had tons of fun getting to know them better and playing in the snow. Then we woke up Saturday morning to a Lilie who only ate ONE pancake and requested water instead of milk (absolutely unheard of)! She later threw up and ended our little vacation - not wanting to spread any diseases to the generous people who invited us. We had a great time and really enjoyed the drive up there. We will be doing that again when the snow is melted up there. As a result of our shortened trip, we DID get to spend a BEAUTIFUL afternoon here in Idaho Falls, laying on the grass, planting my flowers and another bush, inhaling the heavenly smell of mulch :), and just enjoying a slow and lovely day as a family. 

-- Hazel read an entire book today, with minimal help. "Hop On Pop." I'm so proud of her! She loves learning so much and has always been very proactive in learning how to read. She was so happy and she works so hard at it. It makes my heart happy to see her learn so much and be so pleased with herself!

-- Got to church (mostly) on time, actually had Family Home Evening (hooray!), cleaned my fish tank (sucked up one of my fish in the process -- which Elsie, after I stopped the suction and showed her the little orange fish in the hose, thought was hilarious :), and I have read FOUR books in the past few weeks (a huge accomplishment - as I'd all but stopped reading books in the past year and a half)!

It's been a good and busy couple of weeks. We are such a happy family! So happy to be together! I love them!

Random Pics

Elsie LOVES eating apricots with mi madre!

A LOT!

And dirt.

My sweet Lilie being my big helper in the yard!

A Day with Five Little Monkeys

My sister, Melissa, had a new little baby this past week! We are SO excited to have little Alaina here! While she was in the hospital, her two older girls stayed with Grandma & Grandpa. The girls and I decided that Grandma's house wasn't busy enough and headed down to Utah to add to the craziness! :)

FIVE little girls at Grandma and Grandpa's house! The zoo was a natural choice of entertainment!

The MONKEY house.

The elephants were FANTASTIC! Did you know that
elephants can paint pictures and kick balls!?
They are SO fun to watch!
I think the elephants are my new
favorite animal at the zoo!

Maddie did NOT like these big,
stinky "ammals"! All big things she
didn't like were "Ammals". :)
(Rhinos, bears, monkeys . . . )

Hazel, Karlie, Lilie

Elsie, on the other hand, LOVED the elephants!

Mama and baby orangutan in the background.

BIG kitty!
Elsie loves our cat, Gertie, and thought
this BIG kitty was very entertaining!

Five sweet little girls!
(Lilie, Hazel & Elsie, Madilyn, and Karlie)

It was a rainy day to begin with, but before we came,
it cleared up! Throughout the day, it got progressively
stormier and started to rain quite hard
while we were in the big "Bird House",
on the FAR end of the zoo!
On the walk back the girls loved being duckies
in the puddles and catching the raindrops!

What a wonderful day! If any of you have never visited the Hogle Zoo, I HIGHLY recommend it!

Gratitude

Tired today. So tired. Tired girls, tired mom. It's so nice to visit family, I love them so much! I love my mom. She is my best friend! I am so thankful that the Lord sent me to her. She is an inspiration to me and teaches me so much! I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for such a blessing. She has helped to shape me into the person I am and gives me direction on the person that I want to be. She loves beautiful things and colors, she cares for people truly, she is hardwired to serve, to move, to give. It doesn't seem to take any conscious thought - that's just who she is. She sees people for who they really are and is so very sensitive to the Spirit. She loves the Lord and I genuinely believe that the deepest desire of her heart is to serve him - to be like him.
I feel so very grateful for the women who have gone before me. For my mother, for grandmothers that I hardly knew or didn't know at all, but I can feel them. I can feel their spirits and the strength that they carried with them throughout their lives as I read about them, hear their stories, and in the lives that my parents live - they people they choose to be - and even in myself - in my children.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude.