Mothers Day.

It’s been a busy weekend this weekend. Amy and I and Stacy and Sativa, put on a baby shower on Saturday for Alice and Matt and baby Bryon who is to arrive soon. I spent all of Friday getting the house cleaned up and made a chicken salad and dinner rolls for the party. Stacy and Chet and the boys came up on Friday and spent the night. so Stacy help me with the food prep’s. Amy came Saturday around 11 am and so did Sativa. Amy made tuxedo brownies for desert and Sativa and Katie helped decorate them as Amy filled them. They are a wonderful desert. Amy provided the cups, plates and decorations and Stacy put them up. Sativa and Stacy were in charge of the games and prizes and I made a door prize. It turned out to be a very nice shower and Baby Bryon will be a well dressed boy.

While we had the shower, Chet and Grant went 4 wheeling and horn hunting. Matt was going to go with them but was sick that day so he stayed home. Jared could have went but opted to stay home rather than ride Bens motorcycle.

  Since the next day was Mothers Day, Amy and Stacy gave me my Mothers Day gifts from them and their Husbands, it was a beautiful Willow Tree  figurine of a grandmother a mother and a child, I saw it at Deseret Book and told the girls how much I liked it, and Amy brought me a gift from Ben since he had to work on Saturday and was watching Amy’s kids on Sunday. it was another Willow Tree figurine that I really liked of a young man sitting on a pile of books reading a book. it reminded me of Ben. Sunday after we got home from Utah Matt and Alice stopped by to wish me a happy Mothers Day. They also brought me a gift, of some solar garden lamps for my flower bed by the sidewalk and a cute little garden figurine of a rock with a little bird on it and on the rock it reads (God bless this garden).I have such great kids that pay attention when I show them things I like and I am impressed that they care enough to remember the things I really like. It’s not so much that they spend money on me that’s important to me. It’s more that they do remember me on special days like Mothers Day. and know my personality enough to know what I will like. I guess it boils down to the fact that I am remembered and cared about. So many many mothers aren’t these days.

On Sunday (Mothers Day) since all the kids had been up the day before Grant and I went to Roy Utah to visit my brother Gary. he had, had another bad spell with his cancer and was in the hospital for a couple of days, he had a pulmonary embolism. Which is blood clots in his lungs. The Dr’s had to put him on some very strong meds to dissolve the blood clots. he got out of the hospital on Saturday so we went and took him out for breakfast on Sunday. We didn’t think he would be up to going anywhere but he was ready and waiting to go. Then we went for a little drive up Ogden canyon and around to I-84 and back to Melissa's house where he is staying for now. It was a nice day and I am glad I could share it with my brother.

MY Mothers Day Thoughts of Gratitude and Pride.

It’s just wonderful having so many daughters to divide the work out to. it makes life easier on all of us when we are doing something like having a Baby Shower. I love my daughters so much. There is always a special place in my heart for my own dear daughter Amy. she is my best friend and she looks after her brothers so well. I know I can trust anything and anyone to her and she will take care of them if I can’t. I love her so much and am so very proud of her. It has been a very hard year for her and David. losing their little Gabriel. But they have born it with acceptance and trust in God’s will. And Amy has worked very hard not to wallow in self pity but to make others lives better because of her loss. She truly is a women of Integrity and Faith. I also love my daughter in laws very much. each one has her own abilities and strengths. I see how each fits with my son’s so well. They too will step in and help any member of our family if it is in their power to do so.

This year has been a very hard year for our entire family watching what Amy and David have gone through. and yet each of my boys with their wives there beside them have been there for their sister and her family. I am as well very proud of my son’s. and when they read this if they ever do. I want them to know how much I love them and am proud of them. I have seen them change and grow into honorable men who will stand for what it right. They honor and respect their dad and I each time they work to do what is good and right. Each of them works hard to support their families. And are daily discovering new depths of goodness and integrity within themselves, and are learning to act upon what they have discovered about themselves.  

I watch Chet with his young family, how he is so proud of Justin’s accomplishments such as learning to ride a bike and all the other things that a 5 year old discovers and accomplishes. I see how gentle and caring he is with Clayton who has special needs and I am so grateful for the Strong but gentle man he has become. He and Stacy fit so well together. I love to see him treat her with the respect and love that he does. And I know how much this new little one means to him and how much he is looking forward to meeting him or her when it arrives. He and Stacy have had many trials in the past few years and I am so grateful that they have relied on their faith and trust in Heavenly Father to get them through it all. Stacy herself has an inner strength that matches Chet's and balances them well as a couple.

I watch Jared and Sativa being newlyweds and learning to give and take. They both work hard at making their marriage work. I am so proud of the kind but strong man Jared is. When they married they became a family of three as Sativa had a little girl named Audrina. I watch Jared with Audrina and I know she has stolen his heart just as her mother has. He treats her as I know he would and will treat his own children. with firm discipline and plenty of love and caring. I think little Audrina has wrapped us all around her little finger . Sativa is working hard to adjust to living here on the farm. It’s not what she’s used to but it’s where Jared wants to stay so she is learning and adjusting to all the things you don’t find in the city, like voles in the yard, Weasels living under your house, coyotes howling just behind your house, mountain lions on the hill in front of your house, mud always being tracked into your house, etc etc.  I remember making all those adjustments plus living just a few yards away from your in laws is not easy. Jared try's to fill in and do what needs to be done on the farm for his dad as often as he can. We greatly appreciate that.

Matt and Alice are still basically newlyweds as well. Even though they have been married for two years this August I think you don’t get over being newlyweds for about 5-10 years. It takes that long to really get to know each others quirks and adjust to them. Decide what you can live with and what you can’t and make necessary adjustments to your selves for the sake of your marriage. I have seen Mathew grow up so much these past few years. I know he has met his match in Alice. She fits him so well and I know he loves her very much. He truly cares what she thinks and feels,  I see it in his eyes when he’s talking to her or teasing her. They are expecting their first baby very soon and it’s fun to see the excitement and insecurities in their faces when faced with parenthood. Mathew is working so hard to be a good provider for his family. He was quite the rowdy teenager as was his brothers. but some of his rowdiness has cost him financially, and I am so proud that he has taken control of his life and fixed many of his past mistakes. They are working hard to become financial stable so they can put a house here on the farm. Nothing brings me more joy than knowing that my kids are striving to live up to what their dad and I have taught them. and to see them pass those values on to their children. I love having my grandkids here on the farm and living close around. I hope that Matt and Alice will be able to move onto the farm soon. Then we would have at least 3 of our grandkids here on the farm for me to enjoy. Matt and Alice's little Bryon and Jared and Sativa’s little Audrina and their new baby Payton.

I am equally proud of our Ben. This past year has been a ruff one for him in many ways. Your senior year of high school set’s you up for many many changes. Ben has been so ready for those changes it’s been hard for him to like being in school, he just wanted to get on with his life. Now he is living with his sister Amy and working at a car lot as a lot attendant, he started at the Toyota lot but now they have moved him to the Subaru lot. he really likes his job and the people who work there and they seem to really like him. He also is a big help to his sister. He has been working on sprucing up her lawn and yard for the spring and summer. This week Amy was able to go with David to Las Vegas for a Tech convention because Ben was there to take care of the kids at night. he goes and picks them up from who ever has them during the day after school and takes them home and get’s them to bed and then get’s them up and off to school and looks after Isaac until it’s time for him to go to work, then he gets Isaac to whoever is watching him for the day. I am so grateful for Ben, he is a joy in my life as are all his siblings. But he is a little different from his siblings as well. he likes to have his life planed out, he needs and looks for structure in his life. He is not like so many other teenagers who will graduate and then just float through life for a while, to Ben that is a waist of time. He has high expectations for himself and he likes being a part of things that are constructive and good and productive. All my kids are like that to a point but Ben actively goes looking for ways to make his life fulfilling which is a bit unusual for a 17 year old. Just floating through a day is not an option, it makes him grumpy and unsettled. He gets that from his father.He likes to feel he’s accomplished something each day. He loves to go out of his way to serve other people and has a tender heart for those who are hurting. he gets that from me I think. I miss having him here at home a great deal. each of my kids have been my friends and i have enjoyed being around them when they were teenagers and younger, and have missed them when they move out. but having Ben move out has been hard for me I think because , there are no younger siblings and his life and activities was such a big part of my life. But I am glad he is where he is, and making a future for himself.

I am so grateful to Father in Heaven for my 5 children and the things they each have taught me by just being themselves. I love each one and am so proud of the progress they are making in their lives. I have 11 beautiful grandchildren even though I have not yet met 3 of them, but they are mine just the same. Weather they are born yet or not. I am so looking forward to meeting them when they make their entrance into this world, I know they must be the most valiant spirit children of our Heavenly Father. For they are coming in the last of the last days of this earth. How blessed am I to have the family that I have, to have two perfect grandchildren Clayton and Gabriel who are so perfect that Satan has no way to tempt or harm them.  To know where we come from and to know where we are going after this life is over. To know that we can be together again as a family, what great blessings these are.