I DID IT!

Yesterday was the big Graduation Day! Yeah! I am FINALLY done with my undergraduate career. I don't think it feels as nice to graduate knowing that I will be going back in a few months but it still feels pretty darn great. I'm actually finished with my undergraduate career! YEAH! After the ceremony my family headed to The Black Pearl to eat some grub. It was fantastic food and great company.

The highlight of the evening is when my brother-in-law Sean was dared to eat a huge ball of whasabi and HE DID IT!!!! Afterwords, he went to to restroom and within about 5 minutes there was a lines of about 5 men waiting for him to come out. It was hilarious! But he actually seemed to be doing fine.
Brett and the family gave me money to pick out a camera, a more professional camera

Thanks everyone for your love and support. I sure do appreciate it!

Here are a few pictures (ok... LOTS OF PICTURES) from the wonderful event!

Me and Brooklyn

Jamilin, Me and Becca (my study buddies)

my best friend Heidi

Falslev Family

My parents

siblings: Dillon, me and Megan

Petersen Family

Me and Dax

Me and the Bull

Brett and me

Graduation Cake

The coupon for my new camera!

Sean: swallowing the whasabi

SpRiNg

This is my tribute to spring....
I love the spring! Everyone is so happy because there is the first real sunshine. Flowers are blooming. The grass starts to grow and turns so green. The earth is just so beautiful, it seems as if the whole world is peaceful and happy. New life is everywhere.
This spring we (my dad/family) was supposed to have two new baby horses. Unfortunately, one of our mares got what is called Rhino Virus and it ended up making her abort her baby under developed and the baby didn't make it. But last Saturday Lucky had her first colt ever. He is so darn cute! He has 3 white socks that are just opposite of his mom's. We're thinking that we'll name him Dancer's Lucky Socks after his mom and great grandma (and probably call him Socks). But I think my dad's open to suggestions so let them fly.

Lucky and the baby are also in the neighbors barn, which has all sorts of new baby horses. Here's just a few of my favorites.... ENJOY!SocksSuperman (because of the shield on his face)
The friendliest girl in the barn The weirdest colored horse now but will probably be my favorite soon

My nephew Garrett came to visit the barn and boy was he in heaven! He loved the rake and drug it around the entire time he was there. If you tried to take it away from him he showed his true red-headed temper. He gave Sadie kisses and loved sitting on the little four-wheeler. He's going to be a big helper to his dad when he gets his own horse barn one day.

WICKED!

Last night I had the opportunity to go see the Broadway "Wicked" at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. For any of you that have not seen it I would HIGHLY recommend you do so at some point in your life. It is so fun and entertaining but it also gives a great message about loving those people who may be different from you, and quite possibly those you just seem different but are not as different as you think.

Not only was the show absolutely fabulous, but the people we were there made it even better. Back in December my sister-in-law Natalie stood in line for hours in the freezing cold to get tickets for everyone. I think she ended up getting 22 tickets!!! It was so much fun though! Me, my mom, Em, Nat, Suz and Craig, Brian and Sher, the Anderson women, and a whole bunch of Natalie's in-laws. We had so much fun driving down together enjoying each other's company.

Mom, Me, Em, Nat and Mal

The Anderson Women

Mom, Em, Craig, Suz, Jan and Karen

Brain, Nat and Me
While all the gals were gone, Brett ended up watching Emily's gals at their house. He was dreading it at first because he has never really babysat before and whenever they come to our house, I'm always there to change the diapers and play with Brooklyn. But Brett was a trooper and said he actually had quite a good time with the gals.
I feel so blessed to have such a great family and to have married in to a wonderful family. The Petersen's are so kind and loving and they always make who ever they are with feel like they are a part of their family. I'm so grateful that my mom was able to go with us. We also feel so blessed to have family so close. We love and appreciate all of them so much. We sure are going to miss you during the summer but it's a relief to know that we'll be stickin around for at least 2 more years! :)
Sorry for the tangent - back to WICKED! - I LOVED IT! I'm so glad I got to go and I hope all of you who haven't seen it or even read the book will do it!

Almost Finished

My parents have been building a house for about 4 1/2 months and they are FINALLY about done. There are just a few finishing touches that need to be put on the house but they should actually be living in the house within about the next 2 weeks. I thought I'd give everyone some updates....

This is the family room/fire place...

The is the computer desk/curio cabinet (it's all one unit) This is the kitchen and a close up of the granite in the kitchen

This is the main bathroom with a close up of the granite

This is the master Bath tub and sink... the painting still needs to be fixed

The window seals are the same granite that is in the bathroom expect for the windows in the family room, kitchen, and living room.

This is Dillon's GREEN wall. It turned out so good!

Carpet should be coming on Monday and the inspection should also be sometime next week.... There actually is light at the end of the tunnel! YEAH! Maybe my parents will actually be able to get some sleep soon.... doubt it but maybe!

Quarter of a Century Old

It's true.... Brett turned 25 years old yesterday. He is already getting grey hair, starting to lose a little at times, and when we woke up yesterday morning he said to me, " I can already feel half of my testosterone gone." I just rolled my eyes and chuckled.

Yesterday was also conference so we got to spend the whole day with family and be blessed to hear the words of our prophet and apostles. It was a wonderful, very uplifting conference! Needless to say, Brett had a pretty dang good birthday. After conference we had cake and ice cream with the his whole family. We feel so blessed to be so close to his family and be able to enjoy spending time with them, especially the Sunday afternoons. We love it when Brian and Sher (Brett's brother and sister-in-law) come up from Salt Lake and are able to join in the family fun. Between the males in the house and the 3 grandkids running around getting into everything, it is never a dull moment when we're at the Petersen's but we wouldn't trade it for anything. See the videos for some sampling of the night.

In the second video, Gracie would shake her head and Garrett would laugh so hard, he got laughing so hard he ran out of breath and his whole face turned bright red. Of course, when I pulled out the camera it kind of stopped but luckily, I caught just a little bit of it at the end. These two crack me up.... I can't wait to have kids so they can play with their cousins and have so much fun together.

Tonight we went to dinner at "Mi Rachito De Logan" for Brett birthday dinner. It was his second choice after "Chucky Cheeses" of course. None of us had ever been there for an actual meal and Brett wanted to try it so we went. I think you can guess by the name what kind of experience we had. Let's just say it was an adventure. But it sure was fun being able to enjoy dinner with the family. Brett and Dearth decided to take some hats off the wall and try them on. We were lucky enough they had this one there, otherwise there wouldn't have been one big enough to fit Dearth's big head.

Brett is such a great husband and I'm so thankful that he is mine. He is such a great example to me. I'm so grateful for his worthiness to hold the priesthood. He knows how to push my buttons and sometimes I just want to smack him but he always knows how to make me feel loved. I'm grateful for all of his hard work and can't wait to spend the next quarter of century (and more) with him. Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

NEW BABY!

No, I'm not pregnant but I am a new aunt! My sister had her first baby boy on March 19, 2009. Dax Zachary Jones weighed 8 pounds and i think most of that weight comes from his hair! He is so dang cute and looks just like Megan did when she was a baby. I can't wait to get my hands on the little fella. He's just going to love his aunt Chelsea (of course I will be his favorite aunt...) I can't wait to get up there in just 2 months and smother the little guy in my love. :)
Here's a link to their Blog so you can see what the little guy looks like. http://zachandmeg.blogspot.com/
My mom and my little brother Dillon are arriving in Juneau today and we can't wait to see them on the the webcam with him. I know my mom's going to cry the first time she holds him. I just wish I could be there with them.

Does the Craziness EVER stop?

So again, it has been awhile since the last post.... We've just been busy and I've been a slacker at updating this. There have been a few noteworthy things happen.

First: Jake and Lauryn got hitched. We have some more married friends to hang out with now! We're so happy for the two of them. Lauryn looked gorgeous, of course, and they both looked so happy. We're so excited for them to start their lives together. Maybe they'll make a blog soon so I can have one more blog to stalk. :) Congrats you two!

Second: Our nephew Garrett had his first birthday. Unfortunately, Brett was unable to attend because he was on his way home from Las Vegas (coaching Lacrosse). But it was quite the spectacular event. Garrett sure does know how to captivate an entire room full of grown-ups. Brett and I also love bragging that we have the cutest nieces and nephew. We're excited to finally get one on my side of the family - he should be arriving ANY day! While Brett was gone I had my two best friends over. We went to the last USU basketball game and then came back to our place to hang out and have some girl time. It was so fun to hang out with them again and while it was really fun hanging out with just the girls again, I would have to say that I love being married, especially to my best friend. (ah! that was cheesy - but it's true)

Third: my brother, Dillon, got his call to Portland, Oregon. He leaves on May 27th and he couldn't be more happy. We're so proud of him. Hopefully, mom can make it 2 years without "just happening to drive through Portland." We've always teased Dillon that he's going to have to take mom with him on his mission to help him cut his fingernails and toenails, but the other day he informed me that he did it all by himself without mom reminding him so maybe he'll be able to go by himself. :) He had lots of people (everyone in our family and some friends) make 2 guesses, 1 domestic and 1 foreign. Then pins on the map he's standing in front of is those guesses where. As you can tell he was quite excited to get his call.

Fourth: It was my mom's birthday on the 13th and we really wanted to do something special for her this year because none of her kids will be home this summer. With me and Brett returning to Alaska, Megan and Zach already in Alaska, and Dillon on his mission, my parents will officially be empty nesters. I have no idea what they are going to do - they might actually have to spend time alone together again or something.... Anyway, we wanted to do something special for her so I (with the help of my wonderful sister-in-law, Natalie) made her a quilt with a whole bunch of pictures of us kids growing up. It turned out so cute! And of course, when we gave it to my mom she cried, but so did I. :)

Fifth: As many of you are aware, my parents are building a new house. They started putting trim up about 2 weeks ago and have been getting ready to paint. And they finally got started on all the painting stuff this week. They will be in the house before you know it. But we've been super busy with helping them out. We've tried to help them out as much as possible so we haven't been home a whole lot lately... Yes, I "accidentally" got paint on my mom. Oops!

Sixth: We're been on spring break for the past week and have started back to school this week. we only have 6 more weeks (11 more times of actually going to class - not that I'm counting or anything!) We're so excited to be out of school and back to life without school for awhile. We're looking forward to another summer in Alaska. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a few visitors up there this year - that's a hint Suz :)

Seventh: My sister Megan is about to have her baby. Her due date is the 23rd but has been having contraction about every 20 minutes since last Thursday! Luckily, the baby is doing just fine. I'm just worried that Megan and Zach will have no strength left once the little fella gets here. We can't wait to have another adorable nephew! We're so excited to spend the summer with the little guy. Brett already says he's going to have him gold panning and playing Lacrosse before we leave - we'll just have to see about that one.



There's a recap on our last few weeks!