Blooms

I love to see the trees blooming in the spring! It's so magical and wondrous, and it feels heavenly to see them abundant with flowers! I just love the sight of them, and admired them for as long as it lasted!

the blossoming apple trees seemed so inviting

the plum tree had beautiful pink blossoms

Even the bushes on the north side of the house bloomed
this year! I don't remember that happening before.

There's an old, large, overgrown apple tree in the field below our house that I absolutely adored this year. It caught my eye every time I drove by, so one evening I walked down and took some photos of it, too.

It kind of looks like a mis-shapen heart

These pictures don't really do justice to truly how magnificent it was!

Mother's Day felt different to me this year. Josh and Ammon were gone to state golf in Lewiston, Idaho that weekend. I stayed busy working on projects around the house in their absence, and I took the 3 younger boys to Stanley with me on Sunday for cousin Sammy's mission farewell where I did a special musical number. It was a nice church service, and a lovely family get-together afterwards, but when I drove home that evening, I missed Josh being here. I texted him this photo that evening, with the message: "Enjoying my mother's day gift to myself. Wish you were here in the hammock next to me, though."

I felt like I didn't get to relax or be treated special for Mother's Day like I wanted (I literally only got to sit and relax in my hammock chair for about 5 minutes before I had to get up and fix the sprinkler in the yard because Jonah messed with it, and then I got wet from it and decided I wasn't meant to relax on Mother's Day). I even went shopping for my own gifts the previous day, which hasn't happened before. I got the flowers that I wanted to plant around outside, and I bought my own card and had the boys sign it, too. Micah gave me a lindt chocolate ball (my favorite!), which was super thoughtful of him, and Kanyon gave me a ceramic cast of his handprint that he'd made and painted at school, which was cute (but it accidentally broke on the bus when he brought it home). My mother-in-law bought me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers that were delivered to my work at school on Thursday, and they brightened up my home and my spirits for over a week, as different lillies in the bouquet continued to bloom and the smell and sight of them was simply spellbinding.  

I bought the "For you, Mommy" bouquet card for myself

Kanyon's handprint gift

The bouquet after I first got it, with just one open lillie

After a few days, the second lillie opened.

Then two more on the back bloomed vibrantly