Ten Things That Made Me Smile Last Week

 In no particular order, here are 10 things that made me smile this past week...

10.  A "dam" surprise!   One morning I was taking a drink out of my water bottle when the kids started making snarky comments about it.   I was confused until I looked down and found a  sticker with strong Lara-humor-vibes sticking to it.   It took me a second to figure out how it had gotten there overnight, then I remembered a visit from my sister, Heather, the night before and I didn't have to wonder any longer!   😀

9 . The sun started shining again!    We went through a couple weeks of very un-Utah-like  days of endless clouds.   It was cold and dreary and every day it would rain or snow a bit more.    It's still cloudier than usual for Utah, but  we've definitely seen the sun a bit more this week and it's made me very happy!  

8.  Letters from our missionary.  We take great pride at making sure our missionaries are the mail receiving  champions of their missions, but we know missionary life means they don't have time to actually write back all that often.   This week we were surprised with snail mail letters from Adam....something that made us all smile big!  

7. A full row of girls {+Glen} at church!   Emma had to run to her ward after sacrament meeting, but I loved having the whole G Girl crew for the first hour of church.   I miss people knowing my older kids.    

6. Lucie snuggles.  She's not actually much of a snuggler normally, but there were a few times when I happened to be taking care of her when she was a bit on the tired side, that I got to enjoy some sleepy snuggly moments!  I loved every second of it. 

5.  Finding a way to share!     I started making the Come, Follow Me activity sheets again this year and worried because I didn't really have a good forum for sharing them, since my FHE blog isn't all that well-used anymore and our current ward doesn't do paper programs.   Then I remembered that I had an email list from a few years ago.  I sent out a note and got about 15 people who indicated they were interested in receiving them by email once a month.   I was very excited, because I enjoy making them and I enjoy the opportunity it gives me to dive in and study each week's reading with more purpose and depth, but I also like knowing that they're being appreciated. 

4. Lucie dances!   Lucie is a girl who can dance before she can walk!   She's got rhythm and moves and it's hard not to get in on the dancing with Lucie leading the way. This week we introduced her to "Baby Shark" and, much to Cami's chagrin, she's now a fan!   She even figured out a way to ask for it by signing, "more," and then saying "dance" or doing the baby shark action.   {sorry, I can't figure out how to embed it, but here's the link if you want to watch a video of her dancing, though now I need to video her dancing to Baby Shark}

3.  Healing well!  I went to my post-op doctor appointment and was declared to be healing well!    I can start introducing more intense  physical activities in about 2 weeks. 

2. A nice comment on my FHE blog.  I know that my blogging habits (and the reasons why I have spent so much time on them over the years) is inexplicable to most people, but suffice it to say, it was NOT to garner attention or feedback.   Having said that though, there really isn't anything more satisfying than  when I get a nice comment on something I spent many hours on.  The particular blogpost {that I got a comment on} was one that I put a lot of thought, prayer, and heart into several years ago.   In real life, it was completely ignored and got zero feedback,  so getting the occasional pat on the back, a handful of times in the 7 years since sharing it, is extremely heartwarming to me.   I'll be honest, it feels like I was led to create that blogpost more for the online world than for my own ward.    

1.  Cami and Lucie being here!    It's been an absolute delight to have Cami and Lucie here for the last week and it's going to feel awfully lonely around here now.    

Honorable mentions.  To close off this blogpost, here are a few honorable mentions that are making me smile this week...

We ordered some caramel apples from our favorite ice cream shop in Pennsylvania!   We would have loved to have ordered ice cream as well, but we'll take what we can get! 

I taught Lucie how to say, "Baaaaa," when asked what a sheep says and I am very excited!   

 

We got Lucie this little puffer suit for Christmas and it made me smile to have her try it out on a walk the other day.  

Emma is fully entrenched in her life at BYU, so she's only been able to come home a couple times while Cami's been here, but I love that she's close enough that Cami and her can still hang out while she's here.  

What's making you smile this week?