How does life fly by as fast as it does? Wasn’t it just 2003 and this precious baby girl was being placed in my arms?? Didn’t she just make me a mother? Or wasn’t she just the spunky five year old full of imagination and excitement for all things in life?But instead she is turning 23, which was the same age I was when I got married to Kevin. Wow!

Lily has always been an amazing gift in our family. A sparkle and glue that pulls all of us together in a very special way. This past year she has been especially amazing, and we sure missed her when she was gone at the beginning of the year for her final semester at BYUI in Rexburg. She is a peacemaker, a ray of sunshine, is always “happy to help,” and has a way of getting along with her brothers that is magical. Her testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ is firm and unmovable, and she constantly blows me away.

Right now she is home and finishing her very last graduation requirement before she gets her Bachelors in Computer Science. Unfortunately, she was never able to get an internship (a graduation requirement) because they just really are impossible to get right now. In fact, to be able to take the course the course she is in that covers the requirement, she had to prove that she had applied to over 100 internships within a six month period – which she did, but did not get. In fact, in the ridiculousness of today’s world, most of them did not even have the courtesy of sending out a no.

And so she is home, finishing her very intense course, and is on track to graduate mid July from college!! And since she is taking the course virtually, she was actually home to celebrate her birthday with us for the first time in three years. It was so wonderful to have her home!!!

She started out the celebration the day before with a date with Chris downtown. They had dinner, amazing ice cream, and had so much fun.

He took her to this fun and quirky place downtown called the “Hopscotch Museum,” and they had a blast exploring. I think one of Lily’s favorite parts was the glowing ball pit. And then he spoiled her with some very fun gifts that she loved.

On Lily’s actual birthday, we woke her up singing “Happy Birthday,” and I made her a special breakfast. It was so nice to spoil this sweet girl of ours.

Since it was her birthday, she decided to come with us to our ward instead of the single’s ward, which was fun. Chris even joined us and spent the afternoon and evening with us. For dinner we had her favorite – ribs and homemade macaroni and cheese, along with corn on the cob. (Luckily I had lots of help from Derek and from Pamela, who was wonderfully visiting for the weekend. I was in a LOT of pain and wasn’t doing all that well.)

After dinner, it was time for presents. Arthur was especially anxious for her to open her gifts because he was so very excited for what he and Derek were giving her.

Lily loves a lot of fun Japanese music and things, and there was a movie of one of the virtual singers – Miku – which they bought her the DVD of the concert. She loved it!!

Then it was time for cheesecake. Pamela made an fabulous caramel sauce to top off the Costco cheesecake, and Lily was in heaven. (And it was delicious, even if I could only eat a few bites. So worth the pain it caused me to swallow it – ha ha!)

It was such a fun day of celebrating our sweet girl. We can’t wait to see what the next year holds in store for her as she graduates and starts a career, and so many other adult adventures. We sure do love our Lily.