{Spring Break and Conference Weekend...}

We had an at home easter break a few nice days a few cold ones... the kids played with the other kids that were home and got some sun and new freckles...nothing better then just being outside they loved it:)  

Friday aft Dad took the 2 older boys camping at the ranch they got to release pheasants and have a campfire and shot some gophers so they were in boy heaven and had SO much fun....while they did that L and I {well and K2} went to dinner, watched a movie and tried a new recipe mini German pancakes  with blueberry sauce {we called them Swedish pancakes growing up but whatever you call them the kids love them}

 FOUND HERE

 Right now L is loving to learn to cook and help out in the kitchen so I bought her a cute little apron and oven mitt to start out our girls night together and she loved it....happy girl:) 

We ventured out to Costco and tried a new frozen yogurt place which the kids loved

 notice M's obvious delight haha

The kids got creative and jumped off the deck onto the trampoline crazies

kind of goes like this

"Look mom watch me jump off the deck and break my neck ....did you see me" 

#simplejoys #andIletthemcauseimawesome;)

 Next came conference sat/sunday Loved it all!! So amazing refreshing and rejuvenating 

TO SEE WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT GO HERE

{so excited for another uplifting weekend coming up at TOFW} 

This year I bought candy and used key words to look for in talks and if they were quiet and got the words they got a treat it worked way better then anything else in the past. {Even for a big boy ;) D} They all watched the 2nd session too instead of naps!! The most touching or just awesome to see was K taking notes touched my heart for real!!  I have good kids.

and as per tradition twice a year on conf we make cinnamon buns which the kids and big kid LOVE:) I use the pioneer womens recipe they turn out every time and are seriously to die for  

{now I just gotta figure out a gluten free sugar free version;) so I can eat them haha}

Seriously best picture of conf I found out there LOVE IT!!

Elder Bednar and Elder Perry:)

Some of my favorite quotes of Conference:

"We are free to choose our actions, but not the consequences that follow"

- I ♥ Boyd K packer...

 "How we raise our children is more important than where we raise our children." 

- Elder Stanley G. Ellis 

 "You can never get enough of what you don't need because what you don't need won't satisfy you." 

~Dallin H. Oaks~ ♥it so true

Love this one: They need us all of us...

 

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ME Thinks

 MY thoughts..My Journey

This was an essay of sorts that I wrote for a contest last week 

thought I'd share it here ...

They say life is a journey,  to enjoy it as we go along but it doesn't always go the way we plan or dream it will. My journey in life has taken a different path then I imagined 16 years ago when I got married. I always wanted children, a righteous desire right, to be a mother just as one wants to find their eternal companion and get married and have a family and sometimes are denied those blessings. 

There are so many aches and pains in life, each one different from another, some the same. Ours was a yearning for children we wanted a bigger family, together, one big happy family. But as the months and years passed and nothing happened we took that other fork in the road  the one not well traveled, and not the one we thought we wanted. But the answer to the prayers we desperately sought for. Not in the way we thought was best for us.

Through much physical, emotional and spiritual pain,  failed treatments,  tears and heartache we made the journey to adoption through all the ups and downs and roller coaster of emotions. We grew so much through each of our adoptions. We achieved the eternal goal to have a family.  But it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination, and truthfully, it's still hurts sometimes watching others get so easily over and over again what you've prayed so hard for what you still hope and dream for.

BUT when I look into the eyes of my four beautiful children, my children have a chance at a different life one not chosen by them, but by each of their amazing birth mothers and fathers. I get to be a part of that. 

I get to be a Mom. I get to have the ups the downs that each day brings being a mom. Tired, wore out, frustrated, and impatient at times like every other mother, but the immense joy and love that overrides each of those emotions makes me fully aware of the greatest desire of my life ....that is to be a mother. 

I may have not physically brought them into this world but I have loved, prayed, and lived each day to be what I am today. A wife, mother, sister, and friend. Like each of us here,  each for a purpose, a path, a mission. When I think of that it makes me want to live higher, achieve more and work harder.  To Be the example my children and family need especially in these times. To reach higher, feel deeper and to be here every day for each of them, their soft place to fall.

The mountains we have climbed together on our journey have made us who we are. Looking back at the path we've been on and each roadblock along the way has made us who we are.  Stronger together as a couple,  it's made us a family, strengthened our testimonies, our faith and brought us to our knees more times than we can count. 

They say life is a journey and that's what it is each and every day, together forever, one step in front of the other.

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Have an awesome week...

{{{ps anybody out there still?}}}
Thanks to Rhonda for my new header:)  
Also let me know if the instagram and pinterest buttons work k :)