Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend all started with a farewell party to some good friends who are moving away. We will miss them, but we should be able to get to see them every so often. It was a fun evening though to be with friends. The kids loved the fire, s'mores, tree house, and playing "night games". 

Sunday we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday and went to put flowers on graves. 

Monday we had a wonderful little hike. It was just perfect for the boys and their little legs. The most memorable part of the hike was when grandpa made whistles out of snake grass and we all blew away on our whistles probably disturbing the peaceful outing others wanted during the nature hike, but we laughed and had a fun time with that!

Tender Mercies

Life has just continued to go on and I have recognized that the Lord has been watching out for us. Doug lost his jump drive which had some important things on it. He searched and prayed and couldn't find it. He was feeling really down about loosing that. When I noticed that he was really down I started to pray harder and began searching with him too. While I was searching for his jump drive, I found my phone charger. Then we said our prayer together and during the prayer he was only thanking Heavenly Father for things; as he was praying I knew with a strong certainty that if he did not ask for anything, but only expressed gratitude, he would find his jump drive. Sure enough, he closed the prayer with only thankfulness. Afterward, I went outside to shut the hose off and decided to look in Doug's car which he had already cleaned out and searched for in. I reached under the driever's seat and felt something rubbery (Doug said a rubberband was  attached to the jump drive). I grabbed it and held my breath; as I pulled it out it was rush of amazement and joy. No doubt about it, it was The Lord who helped me find that jump drive. 

When we drove down to Utah close to bountiful, there was a metal latter right in the middle of our lane which caused the cars in front of us to slam on their brakes and we slammed on our brakes and the car behind us slammed on their brakes. We were totally untouched. Going from 70 to 0 mph in ten seconds  on a busy freeway and we were not touched by another car. How can anyone doubt that these are tender mercies from The Lord. How blessed!!! 

These pics have nothing to do with the stories I told: but these little guys are tender mercies too! 

Mother's Day High!

I don't know about you, but I love Mother's Day! I woke up Sunday morning and Doug made me breakfast and brought it to me in bed. I got to enjoy French toast in bed while all my little boys sat around me. 

A special thing we got to do for Mother's Day was sing the primary song "grandmother" with our family at Grandma Bitter's ward. It was really sweet. Silas and Brigham sang very well and they knew all the words. 

Brigham and Silas and Adam picked out a necklace/earrings and flowers for me when Doug took them shopping. 

The most awesome present I got though was an awesome surprise. I asked Silas if he wanted to go potty on the potty for a Mother's Day gift and he said "ok" but then he was like whatever and went on doing what he wanted. Adam said, "I go potty, mamma. I go potty, mamma". I said "ok, we can try it." Well he sat on the potty so still for five minutes and then I asked if he was done and he got up and there was pee  in there!!!! It was so awesome! Silas still hasn't figured out how to pee In the potty yet and he's almost three. 

I feel like I am still on a high from all the royal treatment I got from Sunday. I am just so grateful to be a mommy and that I have the cutest little boys!!! I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and felt special! 

Deep Gratitude

Every 3 months I get reminded of a miracle. I take Brigham for his check-up and get his blood drawn. The Dr always is so thrilled to see how well and happy Brigham is. The nurses who have worked at Teton Cancer Institute for the last five years are always so happy to see him. One of the nurses said, "isn't it so amazing?" as she was shaking her head in disbelief. The medical staff consider him a miracle and five years later they still can't believe how amazing he is doing. They make me realize and remember  how wonderful and miraculous it is that I have a healthy, smart, happy five year old. 

So, he gets his blood drawn and then I look at the results with the Dr. My eyes always go to the "flag" column first to see if something was too high or too low. Well, for the first time in the history of my son's entire life that section was blank! All of his levels were within normal range! (His eosinophils are always just a little high) not this time! This hit me hard with a large wave of gratitude. 

It became a grattitude dominoes effect. I started to think how grateful I was for my other little ones. Adam has been wanting me to pick him up and hold him all the time lately. He grabs on my legs and looks up at me and shouts, "Mom, Mmooomm!l" I told a friend on Sunday as he was pulling on my legs, "ugh, he's being a momma's boy lately" she kindly responded, "well, enjoy it while it lasts I guess". Her response was perfect and just what I needed to hear. I said, "you're right!" I quickly picked him up and kissed him. I am grateful I get to hold my little Adam. 

We were walking around a neighbor's farm ground on Monday and they have animals and a big dog. Silas wanted to hold my hand the whole time. But he not only held my hand, he squeezed the dear life out of it. But, I am so grateful to have a child know that mommy will protect him. It's a great blessing to have little fingers squeeze your hand.

I am so grateful for my husband who helped me get the kids into his car and I left him with the van that had a dead battery for him to take care of. Tonight I came home from a relief society meeting expecting to get the stack of dirty dishes done only to find that the dishwasher is going and the sink is empty when I get home. Now, dishes are not his favorite thing especially since we have poor water pressure, so when he does the dishes it means: I LOVE YOU! 

Deep grattitude is truly one of the most happy and fulfilling feelings to be felt.