Saturday, May 7, 2011

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! There was a time in my life when Mother's Day was not my favorite day. I so longed to be a mother and that opportunity seemed so impossible and out of my reach at times. How grateful I am for Abby's birth Mom, Amanda, that saw us on the LDS Services website and gave me the greatest blessing--the chance to be a mother. I now cannot imagine my life without my Abby and treasure every moment with her. Now I find myself waiting once again for that amazing opportunity. Abby prays every night and day that Heavenly Father will bless our family with a new baby. What an incredible big sister she will be! I know that day will come and I am always learning to be patient!
We are so grateful for the mother's in our lives. We are especially grateful right now for my Mom, Karen and Matt's Mom, Barbara. What great examples they are to us of love, faithfulness, generosity, patience, determination, and hard work. They have taught us so much and we know that we are who we are today, largely because of their examples. We wish we could be with them everyday, but life has a way of keeping things busy. We hope they know just how much we love them and how much it means to us that they love Abby so much. She treasures both grandma's and keeps you in her prayers constantly. I pray that there are countless more Mother's Day's to celebrate with both of them as we could never thank them enough.
Barbara
Karen
We also love Matt's Great Granny Ruth! She is an inspiration to us all!
Jen and Abby
Here are a few swimming pictures from this past week.
Pond Update:
Friday morning we went to the pond store and picked up some plants. Now the pond looks a little more like a pond and we treated it for future fish! Matt has worked so hard and it is really coming along. It is so peaceful!
Garden update:
Yes, more is growing!
Jalapeno Peppers
Roma Tomatoes (look in the middle)
Saturday I had the opportunity to direct my first stake choir in Bakersfield. I directed a Stake Women's Choir that sang for a Stake Relief Society Event on Temples. It was a 3 hour event and it was wonderful to make music, hear good speakers and socialize with amazing women. I love directing choirs and this just made me ache to do it more. The women sang beautifully and brought the most incredible spirit to the meeting. I cannot wait to sing with them again. I snapped a picture when we were all done--it's tough to take pictures of choirs at Church events!
Saturday night Abby wanted flowers on her toe nails, so I painted our toes to match.
By the way--I have the best husband. He normally has meetings on Sunday mornings and I have choir, so we don't really each other until Church. He went downstairs--I thought he was grabbing a quick breakfast when suddenly he called us downstairs. He had made strawberry pancakes and bacon and had it all ready for us to eat. It was so yummy. Then he said his meeting was supposed to be in 15 minutes (he was not ready) and I felt so bad. Finally he laughed and said, "My meetings are canceled!" Now he is making dinner--I love this man!