April

Somehow April escaped me before I captured it in my blog.

Life lately has felt like this:

Not so comfy. But I keep doing it because I'm learning and if there's one thing I'm committed to, it's the process of learning. Thank heavens for my wonderful husband and our beautiful little boy. Every smile, kiss, laugh, "I love you," makes everything worth it.

The "not so comfy" things? Finishing up my first semester back at school (which, by the way, I finished with an A & a B), wrapping up a yucky financial "situation" that we've had on our plate for three years now, facing financial failure, my eating struggles, my cooking (or lack of) struggles, and managing our household on unemployment income (again, as of Monday). I only mention these things to make it clear that even though I focus on the joyful and positive, life is certainly never without struggles of some sort. I am happy and finding joy in every day that goes by. A large part of that joy comes from the determined feeling of keepin' on keepin' on and seeing the results of that perseverance in the little things (which in truth, are not so little.) Just knowing that progress is being made is a good feeling. Every day I do a little better in some area, and that feels good. Anyway, on to summarize April.

It started with Easter and General Conference, which we got to spend up in Salt Lake with our family.

We were all together at my Dad's for their annual Easter egg hunt with all their grandkids, and every single one was able to be there.

Joseph just enjoyed walking around outside with his Dad.

He really didn't care much about the eggs. So I grabbed a couple of them for him and once back inside, he was loving the candy inside and stuffing his face with chocolate. I'm glad we just gave him one little egg.

General Conference was wonderful, as always. John and I had the blessing of being able to attend the Sunday afternoon session in the Conference Center. I am excited to go back through the talks. I just got my Conference Ensign in the mail, and it's in full color for the first time! I love the look of it. I was amazed and disappointed at how many people disregarded the request inside the Conference Center for no flash photography. Looking around at others I saw so many flashes when the prophet came and so many cell phones held up either taking pictures or recording video. It is sad to me how attached society is becoming to technology and the "importance" of capturing every experience live rather than setting aside the gadgets so as to truly live the important experiences of life!

Anyway, my mom, Saydi & McKay came back down with us to stay for a week. It was their spring break and I loved having them here.

We played in the water park on main street, and amazingly there was no one else there! I don't even know how that was possible... that place is always packed and swarming with kids every time we've gone since then.

We went to Fiesta Family Fun center and played games and the kids won tickets to trade in for their little prizes. We did the bumper boats there and got a little wet.

We went to the temple grounds and ate salt water taffy and played "police."

Joseph was loving my water jug and kept lifting it up himself to get drinks from it. The sun would get in his eyes every time he lifted it, causing this adorable face.

And we heard the news that Russ and Rachel (my brother and sil) are having a girl!

We spend a lot of time with our friends Nic & Katie and their little girl Addy who is a little younger than Joseph. They enjoy their time together.

I spent the next two weeks finishing up all the work for my two sociology classes. As a reward for a semester well done, I went to BYU Women's Conference with Katie at the end of April and loved it. I'll be sharing my notes from it on my other blog soon.

I brought Joseph with me and he got to spend a few days with his Grandpa & Grandma Ball and my sister too, which he really enjoyed. I'm glad that he got to spend that time with them.

I stayed with my cousin in Provo who is getting ready to go on a mission. It was so fun seeing her and talking my head off till 1 in the morning!

And last weekend we had a ward luau that was quite enjoyable.

But that's going into May, so I better get back to April. I'll just update ya quick on what Joseph's doing now. He loves loves baths. Numerous times a day he signs bath by rubbing his chest and saying "ba? ba?" asking if he can take one.

He also loves loves outside. Really, what kid doesn't, right? Every chance he gets to take hold of our finger, he'll walk us to the front door in hopes that we'll take him outside. I've been trying to go out with him every day for a little bit of time and he loves it. He loves brushing his teeth and his hair (what little of it he has.) He absolutely loves to play in the car. We will roll down the windows a bit and let him play in the driver's seat (without the keys of course) while we work in the garage, or sometimes even just sit in the car with him. He loves it. He also is pretty stubborn about wanting to feed himself.

It's still a challenge to get all, or even most of his food into his mouth, so I've taken to getting out two spoons when I feed him. One for him to feed himself, and one for me to feed him in between the bites he attempts. The kid loves music, a lot. He can stay quite entertained playing at a piano for a while.

He also will give his stuffed animals kisses, but whenever I ask him for one, he completely ignores me. Rude. However, a few days ago he did blow me a couple of kisses. I guess he's okay with showing Mom affection from a distance. He's a smart kid and is constantly making us laugh by showing us the things he is learning. It is so fun being a parent and seeing all the growth occur. He's got this little baby signing book that he knows all of the signs in. It's his favorite book and it is so adorable watching him pull it out, open it up, and then do the sign that's on whatever page he opens it to. My favorite sign he does is for flower, which he does by putting his hand in a fist (like he's holding a flower) up to his nose and "sniffing" except he blows air out of his nose in short little puffs. And the biggest news is that he is finally (at 17 months) walking on his own now, without holding onto our finger, and more often than he walks on his knees! It's a lot of fun to see him toddling around.

Well, there ya go. Hopefully my next post won't be "May."