February

Well, clearly nothing happened during the entirety of February. Ok, that's not completely accurate. I have just been blog lazy. Actually I wanted to write about the awesome trip we took to CO in January. We have been blessed to be able to visit Aaron and Diana at least once a year. It's been really great. They are wonderful people and it is so enjoyable to be around them. This January we went and stayed for about 4 days. We enjoyed the winter weather and actually stayed pretty warm. We mostly just took it easy and relaxed, but some of the things we did included: taking a walk, buying German pastries, eating Thai food, bowling, getting pedicures (for the girls), going to a hockey game (for the men), hanging out with Aaron's family, and having a cookie baking party with Judy (Aaron's mother).  It was very awesome. I was still feeling a bit sick on that trip, but getting plenty of sleep and being able to relax helped me a lot. When I returned home, I felt very renewed and much better. I've been feeling pretty good since then, just tired still.
The month of February brought many fun and wonderful things. To start, we found out we are having a girl! I immediately got to work dreaming of the things I would want for her. I've got the nesting itch so bad I decided to start another blog called Lilly Baby Wishlist. It's been fun to put together. We're really excited, although a name for this little baby has proven to be elusive.
February also brought my Grandma (my Dad's mother). She has been staying with my parents for the last month and it's been so awesome to see her. We've made Valentines together, watched The Scarlet Pimpernel, had lots of dinners together, gone to the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center, and even got to celebrate her birthday. It's been great having my grandma here. I love that my children are probably old enough that they'll remember her visit. Also, with my grandma here, others came to visit. I had an uncle and an aunt from San Diego come and also and uncle and an aunt from Nevada. A great aunt from Michigan came and a second cousin all the way from Tempe :) It's been really really awesome to see so many relatives that I haven't seen for a long time.
Another fun thing that February brought us was parent teacher conference at Braden's school. He's doing very well scholastically and socially and pretty well behaviorally. He talks too much during class, though, something we're all trying to help him work on. Hopefully with our prodding he will begin to be more diligent at obeying the classroom rules.
Jade also started "preschool" this month. Three times a week, her and I work together on teaching her some things she will need to know for Kindergarten. She is getting much better a writing her name, although she does prefer to just write "Jade" instead of "Jadelynn" and sometimes she still writes "Jabe". She'll get it right. She is suuuuch a smart girl. I hope that she will realize this. She is constantly comparing herself with Braden and sometimes is very hard on herself. This is in spite of the fact that she can already read the books he brought home at the beginning of the school year. She really is very smart and ready for school.
So it's been a great month and a half. I'll have to take a picture of my "bump" one of these days. It popped out suddenly during the middle of February. In the meantime, I hope that March is also awesome and that we can welcome warm weather again. Thanks for reading! Hope you had a great February.