This month has taken off

May is such a beautiful month of spring weather and fresh beginnings. I love May and Spring. I also enjoy the many good things that happen in May.  Here are a few of those happenings.

Sim and Debbie got to be in an early morning show choir and play with the school.  They had so much fun and their performances were great.  This was a combined ages performance

 Here is a song from Sim's group.  He is the one on the left with blue shirt and tan pants.  Granted he doesn't get to sing or dance much in this one . . . just take a few falls.

This is just a part of the play Debbie's group did called How to Eat Like a Child.

Debbie is the one on the left that starts the song.

Sure grateful Peter was around when it came to finding this bee swarm in the back yard. We have had 2 hives swarm and caught another one at the elementary school.  Looking forward to lots of yummy honey this year.

Music and dance had their final spring recital.  Brittany is retiring. This has been such a fun way to discover some real talent for Debbie.  She is quite the performer and loves singing and dancing.

 She is the chicken in I Just Can't Wait to be King.

 I was amazed at her in I Won't Say I'm in Love from Hercules.

And then a little bit of Toy Story and friends

 And the finale

Isaac was part of the Green Team that built a battery operated car and won first in the state competition. He also performed with the choir, made show choir for next year and received a first place ribbon for his wood working project.

We spent a family evening going up the red hills, cooking tinfoil dinners, visiting with cousins and wanted to overlook the farm that use to be Grandpa's farm where all our great dad's and uncles learned so many important lesson on how to work hard and be good men.

It was school Lagoon day thanks to Simeon and his online school.

Scandanavian Days and a 5K for these crazies

 Beautiful morning that included a rainbow with my grandkids as the teasure at the rainbows end

 Another before picture. Jack at 6 and Nellie at 5 both ran the whole 5 K.  They are naturals!

This handsome hunk of mine beat the rest of our family in completing the 5K. He is in great shape. I am so glad he is taking care of himself and all the rest of us.

 At the end of the race they are rewarded with chalk. This was Milt's third time to the end of the race. He kept going back and running in with the next bunch.

 We mom's where just photographers this time and cheer leaders.  What a great family.

To celebrate veterans and 50th anniversary of the pageant we kicked it all off with a party at the fairgrounds.  Isaac and Sim were part of the white glove color guard. They were precise and professional in their duties.

Once in position the horses raced around and then delivered the flags to the color guard and a friend of ours sang the National Anthem.

The program included honors for the veterans, children performances, and an amazing fireworks display.

The month in is ending with Memorial Day. We enjoyed bbqing hamburgers with our family and then working on the yard.  Always good things to do. I feel so grateful for family, traditions, adventures and gifts all around.

Mother's Day and a good-bye

Mother's Day 2016 started out like any other Sunday.  BYC at 9, church at 11.  Made a green smoothie for breakfast and asked the kids to get themselves ready.  Just before church I got a phone call from Kristen.  Don had passed away. My father in law. Grandfather to my children. A good man who did great things. He had a stroke a while ago that left him limited in speech and mobility.  He continued to be kind and patient and ever a good host when we came to visit.

He died and then we went to church.  It was good to go be surrounded by people who knew and loved him but mostly it was good to renew covenants, eternal covenants. Those covenants bring the hope of eternal family and knowing that this is not the end. I was in sacrament meeting, a place where we come together to worship the Lord, honor his atonement, be feed by his word and sing songs of praise.  The closing song was O My Father. It was very fitting.

We have fond memories of Grandpa and his stories, his visits. Last year he ordained Isaac to the office of teacher. We listened to that recording today.  We had him here for Christmas and enjoyed lots of visiting. He was an active participant in our holiday celebrations. We recorded him reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  And then when Simeon was ordained a deacon, Grandpa joined in the circle and then we took a picture of many of our family's priesthood holders together. It was a legacy of faith and power to have righteous fathers and sons blessing the lives of others with service and good choices.

Last Monday night for family night we went and visited Grandpa.  He was getting weaker. It has been hard to understand him and yet he continued to make the effort to speak to us when we were there. I was always surprised that he continued to try to talk so diligently.  He was telling me something and I could not understand. He got a little mad and said "Open your ears and listen to me!"  I told him I was sorry and that I was trying.  I really wish I could have understood the other things he said as well as I had understood his anger. We shared the happenings of our family and then we sang "I am a Child of God".  He joined in singing with us. Grandma Liisa came in and joined us and we shared a tender moment together.  We said goodnight and left. That was our last time with him.  It is a sweet memory.

In church today I was thinking and feeling gratitude for that time with him when I was reminded that Lehi said a similar thing in 2 Nephi 4:3 "...I would that ye should give ear unto my words" Lehi then proceeded to give testimony and counsel to his posterity, and then he died.  I can't help but wonder what Don was trying to share with us that day and each of those days that we just couldn't understand his words.  What insight and counsel was he trying to share? And then I take comfort in the message of his life.  He taught by example patience in difficult times. He trusted the Lord and did all he could to live the gospel and to share it with his family.  He continued to have faith and to endure nobly to the end.

He is now reunited with those who have gone before.  I like to think there is a very special reunion happening between him and Shirlene. She was his first wife and the mother of his children. There first born daughter only lived a week or so.  I am sure he is enjoying Kathleen too.