Spring's Around the Corner

It appears we're finally leaving the deep depths of winter behind as it now rains rather than snows every couple of days. Emerson joyfully keeps track of all of the birds he hears and sees and each crocus peeking its head our from the muddy ground, squealing with delight that spring is on its way. Our back yard is finally emerging from its snow blanket for the first time in months. Unfortunately this means the projects we need to conquer this spring are also revealing themselves.
These past several weeks we've had a new little friend spend a couple of days with us each week. Olive is a few weeks younger than Stella, is the daughter of some close friends, is as cute as her name, and brings a lot of fun. Emerson and Stella ask each day if it's an "Olive day" or not. They think of her as another sister and virtually dissolve in tears each time she leaves.
Which brings us to another reason to dissolve in tears: Tad was called to the high council for our stake (major calling for a Mormon) this past Sunday. Actually, we're really excited about it. Tad will have the chance to share his superior speaking skills while serving Heavenly Father and helping people in our stake. The only down side is that Tad now will be in the ranks of the usually much older men in the church, the High Priests, and will therefore not be able to attend meetings with the men in his same life situation. But Grandpa Lynn, Tad's 97-year-old grandpa, is flying in from Portland area to officially ordain Tad to the position of High Priest, so there are definite perks already!
In news for the less squeamish, Stella decided that at age 20 months, she's done with diapers. She insisted on using the potty for the necessary bodily functions starting two weeks ago and has already transitioned over to underpants, all on her own terms. We're so proud of her and know that she sees it as another opportunity to be like her favorite person, her big brother. Who are we to complain? There are plenty of less than desirable behaviors that have already rubbed off on this younger sib, so we're delighted to have some positive behaviors passing on. In addition, Stella has decided that the usual vocabulary for a girl her age simply won't suffice and continues to speak with such clarity and grammatical completion that we find our mouths hanging open in amazement on a daily basis.
Now if you'd like to have your mouth hang open in awe of our boy's cuteness, we urge you to watch him on Fox 13 news. Follow this link to see Emerson explore the Utah Museum of Natural History with his preschool pals, Luke and Jacob:
http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentid=5870564
Emerson's friend Luke's dad is a reporter for Fox 13, so he asked to use Emerson in a story about free/cheap places to take kids in Utah. It basically ended up being a feature on our boy, and you can click on the related links to see the other half of the story which also has some good Emerson (and a little Stella) clips.
We hope you all are well and wish you a happy spring!