April 24, 2008: GRADUATION .. finally!!

Graduation was AMAZING! We've been working for 10 years toward finally being finished and this was the best finale we could've asked for. Graduation started on Thursday with Convocation where Elder Bednar spoke and did a wonderful job. All the speakers did a great job, they were very inspiring and did great at keeping with the spirit and it was not boring at all! There were over 6,000 students graduate and only 13 with their Ph.D. They really honored the Doctoral students and it made me so proud! It was awesome to have Micki (John's sister) graduate this year with John. I was glad to have Spencer there with me through both programs. I have LOTS of pictures, get ready!!

They had all the Ph.D students stand, John is on the front row, 4th from the left.

John's Dad is a BYU Professor and got to be a Line Marshall for the Convocation, it made it really special to have all of them dressed up in their robes.

John & I. Me being the PROUD wife!




















John & Micki -- she worked really hard and we're so proud of her! It was awesome to have her be able to walk at the same time as John.




















This is a picture of John's Doctoral hood. Pretty cool.




















Thursday was also Spencer's birthday, so we really splurged and ate at Tucano's. YUMMY!

Catching Up ...

I haven't posted for awhile, things have been kinda busy around here. Here are some pictures of lots of our goings on ...

Josie is my faithful American Idol watcher. She cheers after every performance!

Josie and Maggie are loving Sam, and he gives them lots of love in return.

A couple of weeks ago we woke up to mucho snow. It is starting to depress me when I see it. Winter is lasting WAY to long!!

Sam is getting so big! He is very curious and very frisky, but we love him to peices!

Missing Tucson...

This week I've spent a lot of time on my blog looking at pictures from last year. It's the closest thing to a journal that I have, and I've enjoyed going back to see what we were doing last year at this time. I woke up to snow again this morning, for the third time this week, and it got me thinking about how it would be right now in Tucson. I am so grateful for the time we had there, and that we truly enjoyed our time there. The culture change was a shock for us, we embraced the weather, we depended on our dear friends, and now I miss it like I never thought I would. Daily I would drive by the hills covored in saguaros, it has it's own kind of desert beauty. So, this post is dedicated to the things I miss about Tucson right now.

Obsessed?

Just to go along with my other post, this is for all my fellow fans-- I found this today and thought I'd share. CHECK IT OUT!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8q3l6L1ZDA

My heart is a flutter ...

Look here to know why:
http://amhphotography.typepad.com/photos/kalama/index.html

Curious George

More like Curious Josie, or maybe I should say Destructive Josie? So John was in the bathroom tonight and Josie wanted in (the door was locked) and who knows how the wheels in her head turn, but she found a "quippie" (clippie), and WA-LAA, in she goes! Where does she come from ??????????????

Welcome Sam!

We are expecting the PARENTS OF THE YEAR award this week (I'm sure we'll do something by next week to have screwed it up)! We have finally made all our kids' dreams come true! Okay, just one of them. We surprised them yesterday with a KITTEN!! We've been looking since before Easter and yesterday we found the perfect new addition to our family. He is 8 weeks old and we are naming him Sam. He is definitely getting all the attention he needs from our over-excited two year old. I wish I had a video of her this morning when she saw him after she woke up-- classic! I'm sure his favorite time of day is when she's asleep. We are really excited and hope that he'll live longer than a year. We got him straight from his mother, so there shouldn't be any weird cat diseases this time.

Let the Hunt Begin!

Just as we'd finished eating our last peice of Easter candy, we were lucky enough to have our supply reloaded! We had our egg hunt at G & G Livingstone's on Saturday. It was awesome to have it a week later, just as we were longing for more of the goodness that Easter brings. All Maggie wanted was the "silver" egg (it contained $$). She didn't even care about the candy, she knew just what she was looking for. With a little help and prompting, she found it! It was a windy day, we're anxiously waiting for Mr. Sun to please shine down on us! Thanks G & G for all the YUMMY treats, too bad we couldn't do it every week-- our supply has once again ran out!

MISSING:

March 28, 2008 9:30 p.m.
Missing: Two front teeth
Johnny Livingstone is missing his two front teeth.
The culrpit: the Tooth Fairy a.k.a. Mom & Dad
Reward: $1 per tooth

The Hunt ... Pt. 1:

My kids love to HUNT for their treats! I should scatter them around the house and make them look for them everytime they ask for one! We had our Easter hunt at a park near Jess 'n Jordan's house, they were good egg hiders! The kids LOVED it, they're at that perfect age. We had a perfect Easter Day including a great church program, yummy Easter dinner, a fun hunt for candy, followed by a scavenger hunt for a bigger treat. Jessica's kitty was tormented lots and lots by Josie, and was probably happy to see her go, and we ended the day by watching The Sound of Music. Everyone was burnt out by bed-time and we all fell right asleep back at our hotel!

EASTER!

So I'm a little slow getting up our Easter pictures. We spent Easter in St. George and I took a lot of pictures on Easter, but failed to get pictures of the kids swimming everyday (except Sunday) that we were there. The weather was amazing and we were so glad to be able to feel the warmth of the sunshine! I love Easter, it is a wonderful time of year to reflect on the Savior and the gift he gave us not only to be resurrected, but to be able to be families forever! I am so eternally grateful and hope to live up to being worthy of having my family be with me for the eternities.

Easter Festival

Last week we went to the city's Easter Festival. It was a lot of fun, Josie liked the Easter Bunny more than Santa Claus! The kids loved getting their faces painted and decorating their bags. They got lots of candy and played some fun games and they really liked the dinner and remembered that they actually do like sloppy joe's (only if I don't make them)! We left when the wind picked up and it got too cold, but it was a fun time. It is fun to explore different activities we can do together and make some fun traditions and memories.

Spring & Webkinz

Last week the weather was BEAUTIFUL (high 50's)! We tried to enjoy every minute by being outside as often as possible. The park we have in our backyard has been so great, the kids can take Josie out and I can watch from the window-- it is wonderful! Aunt Stephanie sent the kids new Webkinz for Easter and they figured they needed some sunshine also. Josie LOVES horses, she thinks they're all named Spirit (from the movie), and so she kept saying, "Spirit, slide." We're hoping more sunshine will follow in the next week, as it is snowing and blowing this morning!