Sweet Reunion

This is my friend, Marita, from Germany.  She has been visiting for a few weeks and I was so fortunate to see her twice, this time at Village Inn (her favorite breakfast place). I taught her in the first city on my mission and have been friends with her ever since.  She is quite a woman and German through and through. Her story: She was an atheist, like most people in Eastern Germany.  Her daughter joined the church as an exchange student here in Springville.  That's what got her interested.  After many years of meeting with missionaries and learning the Gospel (well, sometimes she would teach us discussions or lessons) she was baptized.  She is truly a treasure in my life and always brings a different perspective or idea to the table.  Marita, ich hab dich so lieb!  

Women's Conference

My mom, sister, a friend, and I spent Friday at Women's Conference. Holy cow... I've never seen so many women. At times it felt like we were part of a cattle drive. Other than that, we had a great time being together, being uplifted, eating ice cream, and shopping for bags galore! We heard Pres. Monson and Julie B. Beck speak and we heard a wonderful talk about raising daughters. I love a day with the gals! (Special thanks go out to Danny for watching 5 kids all day.)

Lil' Smarty Pants

I hate bragging about my kids (yes, I include my dog as a kid) on my blog, but I have to give a report every once in a while. Tess talks so much now. She is a little parrot repeating everything I say, including the bad names I call Clover sometimes. Ooops! I'm just amazed though at what she picks up without me even knowing it. She fills in words to so many songs, knows part of her ABCs, and surprised me with counting the other day, too. She's growing up too fast! She is quite the character! Some of my latest favorites are: finding her stuck half way up the barstool with her chin on the counter saying "I want down", her constant need to pray over all her meals (she folds her arms and tells me "amen"), she tells me "no song" when she wants me to stop singing, she does the cutest wink, she tries to skip and walks on her tippy toes a lot, she asks now to go to sleep (love it), and she gives the cutest "eye kisses" (butterfly kisses). She is so rough & tumble, too, and rarely let's anything bother her. She surprises me every day with something! This is such a fun age and I'm loving it! Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures, including Easter:

Spring is Here!

Last Friday my mom, Tess, and I headed down to Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival.  The tulips were only about 50% in bloom, but it was still beautiful and great to be outside.  Tess loved it, of course, because to her the combo of Grandma and the outdoors is something to be topped.  My mom has so much fun with her grandkids, you'd never know she has back pain. Check her out rolling down the hill with Tess!  I tried to get some good photos, but Tess never holds still.  Here's what I got! Thanks for the fun, mom!

L&D Stories

For all my labor and delivery nurse friends or any of you who like funny stories about labor and delivery, here is a blog dedicated to just that.  I got the link from my friend Brit.  Be forewarned, what may be funny to an L&D nurse may gross the rest of you out completely!  There are quite a few stories I should post myself, but I'll save that for a later date. Have a good laugh!

Let the Games Begin!

We have officially started on our basement!  I get so excited, but I have to avoid thinking of the expense.  My brother, Triston, is framing for us and my dad and Brad are there to help, too.  It will be so awesome to have double the space when we are done! We're finishing it so we'll have more space for another kiddo.  Yep, that's right... it's time to start trying for another one this month.  With that said... let the games begin!
Love the power tools!

I Suck!

I suck BIG TIME, I really do now! We purchased an awesome vacuum last month and it makes cleaning so much fun! I recommend it to anyone. We got a Dyson which has awesome suction and no bags. Yeah! I hesitated because of the price. We really just needed something better than our $70 vacuum we got for our wedding. But, I love it and it was worth the bucks! I've never wanted to vacuum so much and I do it several times a week now just to get that fulfillment of seeing how much I can get out of the carpets and off my floors. So, there you have it...I really suck!