Graduation

Last Friday, SM graduated with his PhD from USU. It was such a great day and we are excited that he is really done. DONE with school!
This is a picture of SM with his dissertation committee chairperson. Chris has been such a help and there for us. We were blessed to have him in our corner as we completed all the paperwork and jumped through all the hoops.

Cathy is othe other person that helped with getting everything done. She was also taking pictures at the graduation and I hope to get a copy of her photos. We took Chris and Cathy out to lunch earlier in the week to thank them for all their work and efforts. I love that the Lord puts certain people in your path and that they took the time to serve us selflessly.

And here we are...looks good, yes?!

I can't remember this guys name, but he was the dean of the college or something...anyway, it turns out that my father-in-law knows him and actually set he and his wife up on a date, they in turn fell in love and married. If you feel the urge to start whistling "It's a small world" now would be the time to follow that urge.

There was a reception afterwards. We had some yummy cheese, crackers, veggies and fruit tarts. I'm sorry to my in-laws, since I was the one holding the camera, I got to take their picture a lot...and most of the time they weren't aware I was taking it. Next time I'll tell them to smile.

New Baby

Yesterday we went to the hospital to welcome a new little niece into the family. My brother-in-law and his wife decided not to find out what the gender of this baby was before it was born and so we all were in suspense until she made her appearance. I really thought it was going to be a boy, but I really wanted a little girl so that she and her sister could play together.

This is a picture of her older sister looking through the crib to see this new creature. Her older sister wasn't so sure about having a new baby at first but after just a little bit of time she was ready to hold her...but had to wait until today when they came home from the hospital.

Here's the proud dad looking a bit tired after a long night and day. But I have to say that everyone is glad that she is here and healthy.

And Grandma got to hold her.

Just look at that hair! There really is a lot of it and it's at least an inch long.
Lovely!!

Here's a photo of her older siblings. They were just as excited to see her as they were when they saw the train out the window.
And this is my favorite picture of her. She looks a lot like her older sister!

"Timberrrrr..."

A week ago, my family became a work crew. My dad's office needs to have the landscape done quickly and so we all showed up to help. This is the second time this year that we've done this and I think it's become one of my favorite Saturday activities. In the above picture, my SIL (sister-in-law) and I are trying to move dirt to make it even so that eventually we can plant some bushes.

Here's my SIL again and my mom moving some of that dirt. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture after we finished all our work so you could see the beauty we created.

Earlier in the week, there was a big snow storm that put snow everywhere, and then it rained on the snow, making old branches really heavy. At Dad's work, the old tree had one large branch broke but was still connected to the tree and so the guys took the challenge to get the branch off the old tree.

They hooked up tow straps to the tree and to my brothers' truck. Then they pulled and pulled and went many different directions, trying to break the rest of the branch from the tree.

At one point I thought that maybe the tree would win. My brother would punch his accelerator and then when the tow straps would pull taunt, the tree would lift the trucks' back two tires and the truck would be pulled back.

The branch finally did come down. Not where we exactly wanted it since the tip landed on Dad's office roof...but it didn't cause too much damage.

One of my brothers ran home and got a chain saw so that we could cut the huge branch into smaller pieces so that we could then move the branch and get everything ready to landscape.

Trampoline

While we were in St. George, the weather had some beautiful moments. One of those moments allowed us to venture outside and watch the girls (my nieces) jump on the trampoline.

Aren't these girls so cute!! I had to get a photo of the static in their blond hair.

General Conference

General Conference was a week and a half ago, but it is still not too late to talk about it. SM and I traveled to St. George to visit his sister and her family. Above is a picture of my niece playing "Conference Bingo" while watching conference.

While I was watching/listening to Conference, I did some knitting and crocheting.

And this is SM watching Conference...but he didn't want his picture taken. In fact, I tried taking his picture many different times, but this is what turned out most of the time.

And here are the other two participants to watching/listening Conference. SM's sister knitted some cute scarves and his brother-in-law spent most of his time awake, even though in this picture he's having his own "Lehi's dream."

PhD

Monday evening we went to Leatherby's to celebrate...SM has finished everything for his PhD and has everything turned in to the appropriate departments. Yipee!

And as the evening progressed and the news sunk in...my husband got a little silly. And I, being such a great wife, put these pictures on our blog for everyone to share in his silliness.

It was also really yummy ice cream and the atmosphere was fun!! On a serious note, I am very proud of SM. He has worked on this for nine years and never gave up even though at times he may have wanted to just give it up. My husband is so awesome!

Spring Trip to Seattle 5

We had a miny family reunion in Seattle. My uncle was up there for work and my cousin and his wife and daughter had just moved from Arizona to Seattle within the last three months. So we all gathered together for Sunday dinner right before SM and I headed home. It was AWESOME to see my uncle and cousin since it has been years since I saw them last.