mother's day pre-church photo shoot

I just wanted a simple picture of the girls and myself.

 

so we tried an outside shot

and another 

 and another

 let's try one in the sun

 it's too bright!

 it's burning my eyes!

ow!  mom! 

I can't open my eyes.  it hurts.  whine. whine. whine.

alright. one more inside.

silly faces.

 and finally we have a decent photo.

 

in other news:

afton gave her first talk in sacrament meeting today.

she did a great job!

she was poised and confident and spoke clearly.

practically perfect.  it made this day extra special for me to hear her thoughts on motherhood.

here is the talk she gave, copied straight from her paper:

Hello. My name is Afton Hulse and I have been asked to speak on the appretiation of mothers.  To start out my thinking on this subject, I began to think of the different jobs a mother has.  Our mom clean, take their families places, cook, buy groceries and clothes, keep children happy, comfort families, attend meetings, and do other things as well.  After thinking of this mall list, and knowing there was much mor, I thought of how hard it was for us me to get up out of bed each morning.  Yet every morning my mom wakes up earlier than me and actually gets up.  My mom has the willpower to do that and I don't.  I think that's amazing, but I also think it's amazing that mothers stay sane.  Because, I know that my sister and I, sometimes bring mom to the point of her almost going bannannas.  Mothers, if this happened/ or happens to you, please know that we are sorry.  Also remember this quote by Elder M. Russel Ballard.  "There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. 

Each situation is unique.  Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children.  What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply."  To children and youth, always remember to thank you mother.  Even for the little things because eventually you'll have to be doing all of those little things yourself.  I know what you're all thinking," What difference will that make?"  Trust me that it will.  One day when I was in French class my teacher brought us a cake to celebrate 3 kings day.  She had spent her own money on it and didn't have to give the cake to us.  But by the end of class only me and another kids had thanked her for it.  She was disappointed that only 2 out of 24 students had thought to do so.  Being thanked for doing anything makes anyone feel good.  While I was on Pintrest one day I found what looked like a dictionary entry of the word mother.  The definition that was there was, "One person who does the work of twenty.  For free."  This was proved to me in a video where they held fake inteviews for the world's toughest job.  The requirements seemed crazy and inhumane.  Some were that you had to stay on your feet for an extended amount of time.  Be willing to bed down a lot.  There were no breaks in the job, you could only eat after the "associate" had eaten and you could only sleep after the "associate" was asleep.  There was an extensive list of other obscure and taxing requirements.  At the end of the interview all of the applacants found out that the job was a mother.  After the video was over, my little sister said "they forgot all the laundry!"  I've always thought that being a mother will be really easy.  But after thinking about it, I know that even though it won't be easy, it is one of the best and most rewarding jobs there is.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.