yay!

After much pleading and prodding and me sticking my foot in my mouth big time and subsequent groveling, we think we can say with some certainty that Grandma Jan and Aunt Becca are coming! For real! As in, they will actually be here in five days!!

I mean, really, who could resist!

You know they want to kiss these cheeks!  

And hear this giggle! Who wouldn't??

And a live performance of one of M's beautiful serenades will make it all worth it!

we've even already figured out where the nearest Starbucks is! :)

Blooming Madness!

My Mom grows double-bloom daffodils. Aren't they pretty? I am enjoying my first spring here in years! I have forgotten how pretty wisteria is and the amazing dogwoods! I'll get more pics soon.  

We're also looking forward to...

my Mom's birthday on Saturday!

General Conference this weekend!

my brother's birthday on Monday!

Gracie comes home in 8 days!!!!! woo hoo!!

Grandma Jan and Sarah, I mean Becca, are coming in a week! ...hopefully!

Easter weekend!

Grace's boyfriend is coming to visit on Easter Sunday!

Craziness!

picture this

My Dad stands up the other day, puts on M's necklace, grabs his shirt tails and prances, yes prances, around the room singing, "dream come true, dream come true" over and over in a high pitched voice.  

have you met my Dad?????

Madam Librarian

Tobler Sunday Dinner-Thai Style!

Dad has a very cool resident who we'll call Joy. She's part Thai, she's friendly and sweet and we wish she'd somehow just become a Tobler herself!

She came and cooked with Teriney and it was sooo fabulous.

Below is Pad Thai with prawns

some of the gang, we missed getting a pic of the chef, in the little bowls is a coconut, chicken and mushroom soup that was to die for! 

green curry with chicken, eggplant and zucchini

red curry with beef, baby corns, bamboo shoots, and pineapple

noodle balls, so pretty and yummy

For dessert we had sticky rice with mangoes! so yummy!!!! sorry, no recipes to share but enjoy the eye candy

Christian's baptism

My oldest nephew had his eighth birthday today!  That means that he can be baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

My parents gave him the scriptures for his birthday and I made him a bag to carry them around. It's a work in progress. I want to make some kind of flap so that if it gets dropped, everything won't go flying, but we'll get there.

I asked him one time if I made him a bag, what would it look like. He said, blue and yellow with a Harry Potter lightning bolt on it.  How'd I do??? It was fun to make!

And something else I finally made. I've had these cut out and ready to sew for weeks but finally did it last weekend while W was on his way home from Dallas. I couldn't sleep waiting for him, so I stayed up until one am sewing.  I'm in love with them!

mom's checklist

I had a sweet conversation with my Mom on the way to a church Enrichment activity. We were talking about my sister's new boyfriend.  He wants to come and visit at the end of the semester! augh! (a boyfriend coming all the way here to meet all of us crazy people!) and it's not the boyfriend that was her Valentine! augh! (she's only nineteen! she can't have boyfriends!) We were talking about a Mom's right to pray for her children and receive revelation for her children.  

In my head, I was thinking, Did she pray about W and me?  Did she get a good feeling and was thrilled with my choice or a bad feeling but supported me anyway? augh again!!

Timidly, I asked her! She said, Oh, I feel totally responsible for W! When we met him, it was like checking things off a list in my head of qualities that I wanted for my daughter.  It was the year that I walked on the treadmill everyday and would walk and ponder and pray a lot.  I prayed for Joe that he would find someone that..... and I prayed that you would find someone that would take care of you and adore you and other qualities that I would list in my prayers. I knew you needed to get married because you'd be such a good mom.  So, I didn't even really need to pray to find out if it's right because he had everything I'd requested for you. 

It made me feel so good about my sweet husband that even if he drives us nuts sometimes, he's exactly not only just what I wanted but what my Mom wanted too.

And that's another reason why my Mom is so wonderful!

**parentheses added for explanation that augh! is not a bad thing. It's more, I can't believe my sister has a boyfriend that might come to visit and she's nineteen!