Dreaming~

Of this~

(Picture taken from Pottery Barn)

But this will do~

Yep you are looking at my craft room on the window bench and floor. One can only dream of such organized crafting! The boys love when we do crafty things. In this case it was Easter cards to the cousins. That still need to be mailed out. Oops!

Visitors~

A few weeks ago we had the best visitors come to our house from Hullett Wyoming! Yes if you have never heard of it before it is a tiny town, smaller then Kanab, in Northern Wyoming near the Dakotas. Nate and Melissa came to enjoy the warmer we

ather, don't blame them it is still snowing there. We had so much fun! We layed out by the pool, went shopping, ate at some delicious restaurants and take out, saw the Easter Pageant, checked out the Mesa Temple Visitors center, talked until the late evening, and like I said before, had the best time! My boys love them! Especially Lex! We had just come from Utah were Lex was so clingy to me but he forgot all about me once Nate was here. Seriously the kid would go to him when he was hurt or crying! Crazy! Tanner would be so jealous! We love the Hartsocks so much. Melissa said that we probably wont ever live by each

other, which broke my heart and made me want to cry at first, but skype and our annual visits will make up for living sooo far apart. Melissa and I served our missions together at the Mesa visitors center, we were never companions but became close through our time at the VC. Melissa and Nate were able to go see some of her converts, friends, and did a session at the temple. Ahh, now that I am typing this I am sad they are gone. Nate and Melissa you are always welcome to come visit and we hope to see you in the early Fall. Sadly we didn't take enough pictures and I even got a new camera for my birthday!(thanks Tim, Mom and Dad)

Here we are going through God's Plan for His Family for old times sake. I remember going through this presentation a thousand times and dreaming of what my family would be like. Now I am here with them and it brings me so much satisfaction and joy!

I love Melissa's face in this picture. I can only imagine what she is thinking as we listened to Christ. I have met so many wonderful people in this little room!

The classic Temple picture! Love it and love you guys!

Hudson loved the Pageant this year. He listened so well and asked the cutest questions about Jesus. At one point when all the children were gathered around Christ he asked if he could go up there with them. Also when Christ was about healing the sick Hudson said " I have lots of owies Jesus can fix!" Hudson and Lex loved the animals, of course!

Before the Pageant we ate at Mango's!

Sisters, you will love this. In the big theater they have it set up so you can take picture with the cast. They actually take the picture for you and mail it to you! Crazy huh?!

Nate and Melissa we love you! Thanks for having fun with us!

Utah left us feeling......

EXHAUSTED!

I think these pictures say it all! We had so much fun visiting family and friends, playing with cousins, riding bikes in the sun, throwing snow balls, (yes I did say sun and snow in the same sentence. This is Utah we're talking about) lunch dates, museum, Conference, Spring crafts, jumping on the trampoline at Juju's and Ashleigh's, MTC devotional, sleepovers, Tangled, games, Priesthood session, Just Dance 2 (my favorite Wii game), baths, and more visiting. From one visit to the next, I felt like we were running the whole

time we were there. So worth the time and effort to see everyone we could though.

We were able to fly to Utah on Thursday night. Our flight was scheduled for 9:15 but as we walked away from the check-in desk we got a call informing us that our fight would be delayed 2 hours! Yeah, wish we got that call 10 minutes earlier but we made the best of our time and found ways to entertain the boys. Actually we found a little corner where there were several other couples, all LDS headed to conference, also waiting for their flight.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE being a part of such a wonderful culture where you can immediately trust someone to watch your kids while you run to the restroom? We arrived in Utah at 3 a.m. Poor Juju was there to pick us up to take us home. Hudson opened his eyes to scream hello at Juju but went back to sleep as soon as we got in the car. Both the boys did great on the plane! Wish flying wasn't so darn expensive or we'd make this a habit!

Like I said before our weekend was packed with lots of action. Friday Tim and I split up to visit friends and family. We met back up at 5 for dinner then went out on a date with Tim's BFF, Doug. Saturday was conference! Conference was definitely a highlight. I felt refreshed and determined to make my home a better place. There is so much I want to teach my boys but it starts with me. In between sessions we ran a few errands and of course visited with friends.

Judy and Jonn hosted a wonderful dinner at the church on Sunday to accommodate all of their family and mine. Love and miss those Sunday dinners for sure!

Monday we were able to see the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU. Beautiful. My question is how do you even begin to paint pictures of Christ? I have always loved his paintings and now want to have one for my home. Tim had to leave Monday night so we made our visit to the museum brief so he could get in more family time. Most of his morning was spent with Tanner at the doctor. Tanner broke his ankle Wednesday night so Tim was his support and translator for him at the appointment.

Tuesday was more visits with friends, which I wish I had more time with. Judy and Jonn serve in a branch presidency at the MTC and invited me along for the devotional that evening. I haven't been back since I was there in training 8 years ago. As we walked through the doors to hear hundreds of missionaries singing hymns I was was hit with overwhelming emotions of gratitude, love, and excitement. Gratitude because I feel I wouldn't have married such a wonderful man, with an amazing family, if I hadn't served a mission. Love for my Savior and His gospel, and Excitement for these worthy young men and women who will embark on an incredible journey to gather Israel. We sat close to the front but I kept turning around because I wanted to look at all of those amazing missionaries! Loved it! Thank you Judy and Jonn for letting me go with you! I topped the night off with a big bowl of Mint cookies and cream ice cream from the BYU creamery along with my siblings! Yum

Wednesday we visited more with the sisters and got ready for our departure. Before we got to the airport we stopped off to see Truett's new home! He has done so much work on it and I was very impressed. I feel like I didn't see Hudson the whole trip! He was so busy with cousins and Juju that we hardly saw each other. I was excited for the plane ride home so he could tell me all of his adventures but he fell asleep before take off. No joke, we sat down in our seat, buckled up, and within 5 minutes he was out. I woke him up about 15 minutes before landing so he could have some apple juice and crackers. (He would have been so crushed to miss out on that.) We discovered that Lex is a huge Mama's boy. He came home with a few good cuts and bumps. He also learned how to climb stairs! As I type all this I feel like it was a dream! We had a lot of fun. I already miss everyone:( Sadly I have just a few pictures of our whole trip. My camera was being weird. Guess it's time for a new one and just in time for my birthday!

Thank you Juju and Papa for letting us crash your home for the weekend and Thanks Ash for tagging along with me everywhere I went. Love you all so much