Happy Earth Day

See the yellow in the picture below?

I looked out my bathroom just in time to see two boys in a raft floating down the river!

See the empty garage spot?

Dan let Nick and Kate take the Porsche down to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival!

(They met Miles and his girlfriend there. Is that so fun that these cousins are best friends?!)

See the cute baby?

Emi and Lizzie are in town!

On my way out of the mall this evening I walked through the Nordstroms kids department

looking for a pink sweater to match a dress I bought for Emi and reminiscing how it seems like just yesterday I was buying clothes for my own kids on those aisles.

When I got in the car, I got a text from Lizzie wondering if we were home and if she and Emi could come over when she woke up from her nap! Amazing how my Nordstrom shopping manifested the baby!

Lizzie's mom is home from Jerusalem for the week to attend her sister's BYU graduation.

So Lizzie and Emi are in town to be with her.

And we got to have the two of them for dinner!

Emi is squiggly and moving all around.

She doesn't like it when Grandma is telling a story and accidentally shouts in her ear.
(Now we know why Courtney has such a sensitive startle reflex!)

Look at that face!

Finally, see that I got our lettuce planted (lettuce, kale, spinach and arugala)?

And two rows of carrots and beets.

I wasn't going to bother this year with carrots because they don't grow very long and are such a nuisance to wash a million tiny stubby ones. But I feel guilty not digging them up.

And last year Dan never remembered lettuce was growing and kept buying it from the store.

So why bother with a garden.

But along comes Spring when hope and renewal fill our hearts

and suddenly it all seems exciting and promising again.

Gosh... this was just going to be a simple garden paragraph,

but suddenly I'm overcome with gratitude for Spring and renewal--

both the season and the life metaphor.

(Plus we've just watched The Chosen, and I always feel a little more tender 

and grateful after that show and spending an hour with the best Jesus ever.)