Questions

Benny often asks what things mean. I love that he wants to know about things.

Andy often asks "why?" This one, as so many people know can be overdone. I do always try to give an answer and not simply "because." A lot of times the answer is, "Because that's how God wanted it to be." I used this answer on just Friday or Saturday (I'm not sure which day of the road trip it was) when Andy asked, "Why do we grow?" I thought about how everything grows. Nothing living just appears and stays the same. It either grows or withers and dies. I thought about how our spirits are living, growing things and about how it doesn't make sense to think that once we get to a certain point spiritually we will stay that way for the rest of our lives. If we don't constantly work at progressing spiritually, we can't just expect that we will become spiritual giants.

I'm sure this is nothing new. It just struck me when I thought about Andy's question. Maybe I should have answered it a bit differently. We grow as a reward for our good efforts.

Sometimes I start to wonder why things go so well. Or why we have been so blessed. Very quickly I stop myself. Instead I express my gratitude. I have felt this way for quite some time. I feel very taken care of. Most recently I have felt that prayers are being answered on my behalf and I'm incredibly grateful.

In the past when Spencer has been gone, while we have all survived, I have not handled things as I should. My mentality was pretty much just to get through the time Spencer was gone and then things would be better. Yes, things are better when Spencer's around, but life must still continue when he's not. This time things have been different. I have done more with the kids and it's been great. What's funny to me is that I'm figuring this out with four kids. It would have been much easier to figure it out with two. :) At least I'm learning it at all!

It's kind-of hard to explain what it is I'm feeling and learning. I can say - as I've mentioned before on this blog - that your capacity grows with your experience. A little over a year ago my sister Bethany shared a quote with me: "That which we persist in doing becomes easy to do, not that the nature of the task has changed, but that our capacity to do has increased." (Heber J. Grant, Improvement Era, 1936)
I think what's going on right now is that I am in the middle of this. It's a wonderful feeling to see your capacity increase. It's tiring, but wonderful. I think I may just need to get used to being tired.

I was going to keep going, but I need to stop myself because I need to finish packing for our trip (leaving bright and early tomorrow morning!).

To those of you praying for us -- and anyone who has ever offered a positive thought in our direction -- Thank you. It has been felt.

Our own little Cindy Lou

Lilia's first time wearing "a shirt like Daddy" for bed.

Lately and comparisons.

Spencer's been gone quite a bit lately. We finished up his rural rotation with him spending the night at home 4 nights out of the last 11 in March (and I just realized he won't step foot in our house at all for the month of April). He was really only home for the weekend, though. Wednesday, 30 March he got home at 5p and the kids and I took him to the airport the next morning at about 7a to fly to Salt Lake for his first PM&R rotation at the University of Utah. He'll be there the whole month. This Thursday night my dad will fly out here to drive back with us starting early Friday morning. I don't think I've ever been looking more forward to a road trip in my life. I am really looking forward to spending some time with Spencer. I know this isn't going to be a vacation, and we're only going to have one weekend together (he's flying down to AZ for a conference one of the weekends we'll be there), but we'll have our evenings at least!

We've been trying to keep busy while Spencer's been gone. Between visiting teaching, doctor visits, a trip to the zoo with some friends, and spending three of four general conference sessions at a friend's house (whose husband also happens to be out of town right now), we've done pretty well.

Some pictures.

On our way to enjoy BYU play in the Sweet Sixteen.


Andy's been having fun building more things.
Showing off his airplane.


This is the closest we've ever seen the cheetah.




Lilia enjoyed the most freedom she's ever had at the zoo. She was barely buckled into the stroller and had a great time wandering around. And she loved the playground.


I could take pictures of this little girl all day!






Just tonight.



And I think I may be mistaken, but when I first took Anne's picture I thought she looked just like Lilia. Now, the more I look at them I think they look quite different.
What do you think?