Fabulous flowers!!!

Look at what is growing in our yard!!!

Grape Hyacinths

We think these are forget-me-nots.

Little Purple Pansies touched with yellow gold!

This little guy got stepped on... a couple times. But look at him, he made it through and bloomed beautifully!!!

Various kinds of tulips...

It is so fun and exciting to have so many flowers growing! Our raspberry bushes are starting to come back as well- and we look forward to lots of yummy raspberries this summer! Hopefully we will get more because they are actually getting taken care of this year!

Mothers and Striped Pajamas

Last night Thomas and I decided to take advantage of our favorite free Redbox rental Mondays! We finally got "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", which Thomas had looked at on the Redbox website and really been wanting to see. I thought it looked interesting, something about a boy who finds and makes friends with another boy on the other side of the fence in a concentration camp in WWII Germany. We were ok for a movie that we knew wouldn't necessarily be a "light" movie. I definitely wouldn't call it a feel-good movie. I really don't know how to describe it, honestly. It is the story of a German boy whose father is in the military, kind of a WWII from the German youth perspective. It describes the way German people reacted to Hitler's regime, both for and against and the struggles this family went through in trying to support their country and their father as he was called to serve as a soldier in different capacities, and how each family member changed as a result. I highly recommend it to anyone that is up to watching a movie that will touch you deeply and emotionally, and leave you a little jarred and unsettled. It left us both very thought-filled and we talked about it for probably close to an hour as we were going to sleep last night after watching it. After seeing it, even this morning as I've been going about housework and things, it's still kind of lingering in the back of my mind. I'm really not sure what it is about it that struck me so hard- it's such a poignant expression of humanity and what a life is worth. I really don't want to say a whole lot more about it, since none of you have probably ever seen it. If you ever do see it, let me know what you thought about it.

My first Mother's Day! Well, my first official Mother's Day! It was simply wonderful- Thomas cleaned the house last weekend for me and he made us scrumptious waffles for breakfast. Church was really nice- we got chocolate from the ward (always makes life better!) and I got to teach the Sunday School lesson on dealing with challenges in marriage which I really enjoyed doing. Our evening was quiet, we called our mothers and just relaxed. Thomas let me beat him at Boggle :), but he is actually getting a lot better- he actually beat me a couple times. I blame Scrabble on Facebook.

I have been thinking a lot about my moms (I have 3 fabulous mothers) these past couple weeks as I've looked forward to Mother's Day. As Audrey grows and I think more about the fact that I was once as small and as young as she is, I realize all my mothers have done for me in my life as I have learned and grown. It also makes me realize how little-prepared I feel to offer words of wisdom and knowledge as the mothers in my life have- will I be as wise when the important teaching moments come? I hope so. But I am so grateful to have had such wonderful examples of what a mother is and should be and needs to be. I love my job. Seriously the best on the planet.

A book to put on your "to read" list: Esias: Remnants of the Past. A good friend of ours has gotten this book published, and I just recently finished reading it- and I am SO anxious for the next one to come out. It is an epic-style fantasy novel about the life and destiny of Emane Esias. Read more about it, including excerpts on facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=72958700204&ref=ts
or check out his personal website: www.jonathanvernon.com.

Realizations and Goals

Every time I read the NieNie Dialogues, I always realize how selfish I am. Whenever I feel like I have too much to do, or I don't want to do all that I do, reading her words always makes me realize what a blessing it is that I have so many wonderful things to do, and that I am able to do all those things. Hearing her wish she could sit on the floor and play with her children again, or pick her crying child up and comfort him- it makes me realize how blessed I am, and how much I really love serving my family.

Last week at our Mary Kay unit meeting, our director said some things that I really loved, that I wish I had the courage to dare to do. She was talking about using our time in our days more efficiently and helping us realize that we really have time to do whatever it is we decide to do. If I want to do something bad enough, if I make it important enough to me, then I can make time for it to get done. This is something she has talked about before many times- and I know she is SO good at doing this. I also know it has taken her years to learn this skill of using all our time, not just living appointment-to-appointment. She said that she doesn't watch TV anymore, because she just can't sit and do nothing anymore. She said she just can't do it- she has too many other things she WANTS to be doing. It's not that she wants to watch TV and just doesn't let herself because she knows it's unproductive, but she's gotten to a point where she doesn't WANT it anymore. I loved that- and I really admire that. She also challenged us to quit "dorking around with mediocrity" and get up and find and fulfill our potential. :) It made me think of all the things I do in a day, and wondering how much I really COULD do if I cut certain things out. I'm sick (again- usually I only get sick twice a year-ish, and now twice in two months... maybe then I'm done until next year?) so I don't think today is a good day to start. But I'm definitely making some goals for myself once I recover concerning idle uses of my time.

In other news, Audrey has learned to click her tongue, and it is definitely one of her new favorite sounds. She can take a few steps if I help her- getting the hang of the whole "one foot in front of the other" deal. She is also learning to stand and hold onto things by herself, like the couch, a chair, the wall, her crib, whatever it is. She also ALMOST pulled herself up to standing position yesterday. She is getting so strong! I really think she might just walk before she learns to crawl. Her horrible diaper rash is better, which she is happier about- I'm wondering if it was just a random thing, or if she was sensitive to the new kind of wipes we tried. I wondered for a while if it was food-related; I'd heard that babies can get diaper rashes if they are sensitive to a food they are eating, but I pulled her off all solids for a while and it didn't make a difference. Who knows. My good friend Qait told me that Extra-Emollient Night Cream worked wonders on really bad diaper rashes (don't laugh, it's true). Too bad- it's kind of an expensive (yet amazing) diaper rash cream though. But Desitin finally pulled through if I slathered enough on. She is still teething- still an off/on kind of thing. I kind of feel like the teeth that were so close to surfacing have retreated back into her gums. :P

Thomas is in Salt Lake for the day- he and Michael went to go pick up his shipment of shoes and to spend his free coupon he got for Tucano's, a Brazilian-style place- I can't remember the real word for it, but basically it's like a meat buffet. He should be back by tonight; I'm glad he is only gone for the day. We were going to leave yesterday, and go all as a family, but I got sick and felt I should stay here. I also didn't remember I signed up to do initiatories at the temple today- which I'm still determined to do, provided I can find someone to watch Audrey for me. We really need to get better at getting to the temple regularly- we have such a gorgeous temple just down the street from us.