Jeremy has left the 20's behind for good! He is officially 30 years old and counting...I made him a caramel apple pie that we all enjoyed eating and spent the day together. It was nice enough weather for a little walk around the neighborhood. I have a special date planned out and we are waiting for my Mom to come (Yippeee!!!) visit in a week and a half and we will celebrate then. Hyrum did not want to pose for any pictures on his Dad's birthday, he was having too much fun playing with his new bouncy ball! He was quite upset when we took our family photo!

The last few days, Hyrum has been saying "Ba" for ball and first thing this morning he added the L's at the end for the whole word "Ball" =] We are very excited! We were looking at a book and anything that was a circle he pointed to and said "Ball". We think dog may be the next word in his vocabulary. Just had to share that bit of info and of course some cute pictures to go along with it!

We had a wonderful time in Texas. We just wish we could have stayed longer. Jennie and Matt had a nice sealing in the San Antonio temple and the reception was at the house later that night. They are so happy together! Susan worked long and hard on the decorations and food and everything was perfect! We had lots of people staying at the house to help out and visit. Two of Macailif's sisters (Mavis and Gwen) and his Dad were able to come and two of Jennie's good friends (Joy and Sarah). We had a full house. It was so nice to all be together again.

Thanks to our good friend Brian Hall, Jeremy and I were able to go out on a date last night to our first cultural event here in Ann Arbor. We were able to see Wynton Marsalis and his jazz band perform at the Hill Auditorium. They were pretty amazing and talented. There were five saxophones, three trombones, four trumpets, a piano player, bass player and drummer. It made me want to dance! Best of all, it was nice to go out and hold hands.

Saturday, Ann Arbor experienced an unusual thing...it was 50 degrees outside, the sun was shining and the sky was blue! We went for a nice, long, walk in the park by our house to enjoy the weather. The snow was melting all over and making lots of little rivers and puddles everywhere. We took Hyrum to the play area and let him run around the bark dust and the rubber flooring they have there. He had a blast! I think he is going to love playing outside and so will I. We are hoping the good weather will last from here on out but we'll see =]

Time for another post! It's March and that is exciting because it means spring is coming soon!!!!! We are so looking forward to warm-ish weather and nice walks in the park. We had an awesome 9 days of spring break for Jeremy. He studied maybe a total of 4 hours for a test but other than that we just relaxed together. We usually took Hyrum somewhere to play in the mornings, and relaxed at home in the afternoon and evenings. We babysat for some friends for a couple of days and it was fun to see what it would be like to have three children instead of just one. I'm glad they come one at a time (usually they come one at a time right Ruth?=] )

Hyrum has been busy the last few weeks. Among other things, he has learned how to walk and walk faster when we chase him around; how to flush the toilet; play in toilet water; reach things that are on the edge of the kitchen table and pull them off; give Jeremy a back scratch; effectively, accurately, and appropriately use the word NO; brush his teeth; and stack legos on top of each other. Whew! What a month! He is constantly pointing to things and asking "Wa dat?"
We have also discovered a few new tickle spots that come in handy occasionally.

He is learning to dance to music. His dancing usually consists of bouncing on his legs and sometimes shaking his head. Right now, his favorite foods are craisins, squash, freeze-dried corn and peach yogurt. He has all his first molars so he can chew a bit better. His favorite things to do are walking around the house in circles, and opening and closing doors or drawers or cupboards of any kind. And he really likes hiding things in drawers and cupboards too.

A very exciting piece of news for Jeremy and I is that we finally decided to buy a bed! We have been sleeping on a futon that Jeremy's brother and sister in law gave us when we were first married and for which we have been SO grateful for, but it was fun to buy a nice, soft comfy mattress!! Jeremy is still doing great in his classes and clinic work and really enjoys teaching the 11 year boys at church.

The last few weeks or so I have been able to have some great conversations with some close friends of mine. They are all spread out, Oregon, Tennessee, Hawaii, Idaho and Texas. It just made me think how grateful I am for the phone and for email to stay in touch with family and friends. I just wanted to say how lucky and blessed I feel to have such great friends in my life! What a blessing you all are to me!!!!!