April

April was a really full month.  We had Eli's birthday and my birthday.  We celebrated Easter, Felicity started violin, and Mike and I took a trip to Utah for my niece Leah's wedding.  

Easter was good.  We enjoyed General Conference, did all the typical Easter things, and visited the grave.  Felicity wrote Laila the sweetest note and left it in the vase with the flowers we took.  We also started a new tradition this year to try and make Easter more Christ-centered.  We bought luminaries and lit them on Easter Eve to remind us that Christ is the source of light and then when he died there was no light but that his resurrection brought the light back.  

Utah was a good, quick trip for me and Mike and I am so thankful for Eli for taking such good care of the girls.  The girls were also really helpful and I appreciated not having to worry about them while we were gone.  Mike and I had hours of conversations about topics we often avoid because we can't agree or understand one another.  This time we really focused on listening to understand and there were so many things that we previously would fight about that we were able to actually talk about and find some understanding.  It was really hard and there were a lot of tears on my end but we both felt it was so, so good for us.  We didn't really find solutions but we made progress and it helped to bring peace and connection for us. I had initially felt grumpy that we were driving and not flying but we wouldn't have had the opportunity to discuss these things if we had flown.

I also spent a lot of time in April taking graduation cap and gown photos for kids and working on grad announcements and prepping for the grad party for Eli.