We had a wonderful Easter Sunday this year. The day before we called "chainsaw day," because we spent the entire day with a borrowed chainsaw felling and dragging trees out of our yard. It was so much work. We're really pleased with the results. And we were really  glad to have a day of rest the next day. It was truly a delightful Sabbath. That night we got invited to a flashlight Easter egg hunt at a friend's house. It was loads of fun! We dyed eggs and watched general conference which was full of all sorts of surprises! The most exciting one for our family was when President Nelson announced that there will be a new temple built right by us! Woohoo! We whooped and hollered and got misty-eyed all at the same time. Our kids are at very nice age for conference watching. Come October conference we'll have a new addition! How exciting! A little conference-time snooze for Asa. Our egg hunt was fun. We have the best yard for hiding Easter eggs,...

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house! We enjoyed having members from both sides of the family around. We got to have Jenna and Preston and Toby around for a couple weeks while they were in the midst of a cross-country move. These kids adore them! Bri and Mason came for Thanksgiving and got us all off our behinds to go do a day-of Turkey Trot. The weather was just so beautiful, and it was lovely to be outside getting sweaty. We enjoyed spending time as a family in the kitchen. We ended up with some good eats. Preston's cheese grits were my personal faves. The Aarons came for the big dinner and we had a packed house full of good feelings and good food. And our thankful tree. So many blessings.

This year has been a lean one as far as available time and money go for our little family. Moving is the main culprit, in my opinion, for several reasons. I think Nate and I have grown as a result. We've attempted to stretch every penny and every minute as far as they could possibly go. It has been excruciating, in all honesty. But I think the effort has been well-spent, and will pay off in the long run. Having a garden was one of those things we didn't really have the time or the money to do this year, but we both felt strongly that a garden was worth investing in. So we worked really hard and got a couple raised beds put in and filled them with soil that turned out to be pretty crummy, and a modest crop of little plants. I feel like there was so little time available to spend on the garden this time around. Asa and I were the main caretakers, as a result. I remember spending what seemed like forever out there trying to get the plants well-watered every couple of days. It wa...