it's beginning to feel a lot like springtime!

Happy first day of March! So many things to look forward to this month! It's beginning to feel a little bit warmer and looks like spring. Baby boy will for sure be here sometime this month, I'll turn 27 tomorrow, and lots of fun will come with all these events! Not to mention other fun birthday celebrations for friends & their kids & other new babies being born!

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to hear my fruit trees being pruned. The guys who do work on our yard were here and they stayed for about 3.5 hours. In that time, they totally cleaned up my fruit tree area/garden plot/rose bushes/around the juniper bushes/around the house...all in all, they took out a HUGE trailer filled to the brim and tied down with ropes of branches, junk, and weeds! I had been totally dreading getting out there and doing it myself and we all know how long it would take me if left to my own devices to do it, so I was VERY grateful for this tender mercy showing up today!

And, the sun is out, it's beautiful & warm-ish and I love it. Grayson has been playing in the cradle we borrowed from Lance & Kelsey (same one we used with Gray-I think it was Lance's when he was a baby). He will rock in it for 20 minutes at a time singing songs & cuddling with his blankets. I told him to pretend to sleep this morning. I'm sure he'll be totally helpful when baby brother is in it!

We had a great weekend. Friday night we kept Em & Layne's kids overnight so they could celebrate their anniversary alone. We LOVE having these kids over. They are no problem at all and so well behaved. Grayson talked about it all day and Zac got home with them later than we'd anticipated, so he was very antsy about them getting here. We ate pizza, watched the Olympics, and watched a movie, so it was a late night. They are all wonderful with Grayson, but Madelyn is especially good with him. He ADORES her to say the least. I told Zac I want her to come live with us for a while after the baby gets here...and I may ask her mom for that for a few days during spring break if it works out! She is one of the most genuine, sweet, & guileless 9 year olds I know. The whole time they were here if she saw me starting to pick something up, she immediately ran over and helped, she cleans up messes, and lets Grayson boss her around. She plays with him, holds him (although he is half her size!) and never gets frustrated with him. I am seriously impressed with this little girl. Jeffrey & Zachary were equally as helpful & I am glad they got to come. It was a late night for all of us but everyone slept good. I ended up with Gray at 7:00 in the morning on Saturday till 9:00 when we all got up. We played Wii, played magnetix, ate & chilled. Their parents came a little after noon and we visited with them for a couple hours too. After they left, we all took a quick nap & then headed to Cleaver's for a birthday celebration!
**Funny side note: While here, Zachary had brought his magnetix kit. The kids had fun playing with them for a while and Grayson had carried around the marbles & stuck them to stuff. (He loves marbles). One of the kids teased him and put one down his onesie and he thought that was delightful. This happened a few times and he would fish it out by his legs and then when they left, we cleaned them all up and forgot about them. Put Gray down for his nap and he slept for two hours. When he got up, I changed his diaper (which was only wet-thankfully) and there were 7 steel marbles in his diaper! They must have fallen straight down in there and he didn't tell us! I was laughing so hard and made Zac come look and Grayson was laughing and talking about it. We sanitized them and took them back to Zachary! So funny!We celebrated Dad Cleaver's, Rosendo's & my birthday. Yummy cake, food, and fun company. It was a nice night. Gray had had that late nap & was a little slow warming up, but once he did, he didn't want to leave. Crazy kid.

Sunday was a good day too. Zac spoke in church on service & the Melchizedek priesthood and did a fabulous job. He is such a tender man and I am so grateful to have him by my side. Papa Newell sat with us which was nice & Grayson was good throughout so I could pay attention. I was released from my calling in Young Women's which I was grateful for (I've been in almost 3 years), but it also feels weird to not have something to plan for! (: I enjoyed my last Sunday in there with a great combined lesson by Karena and got to say farewell to all the sweet girls. Ate lunch at Pete's, we all took a long nap, back to Pete's to hang out and have yummy milkshakes (Thanks to Lance) and just vegged. Grayson actually laid down and played with Jaeger for a while-isn't he the most adorable little baby!? Pretty cute. It was a nice night. Grateful for good families all around!