Shanell's Graduation!

I am so excited to finally be graduating! I have such an amazing support system that has totally made this possible. Family and friends (you know who you are!) have watched my kids, offered rides, made dinners for an entire semester, tutored me any time of the day or night, made me treats, encouraged me through emails and phone calls, done birthday lunches entirely around my schedule, paid their daughter to take my kids on vacation during finals week, have taken my kids during finals week, spent countless hours studying with me, put up with my tears and emotions, made fun of me for being upset about a B+ on an exam, understood and supported my hectic schedule, understood I only have friends between semesters, and most of all shown an incredible amount of love and patience. My husband and kids have been nothing short of amazing and giving- truly the driving force of my continuing education.

Thank you, all of you!

Hopefully this is just the first graduation and the first degree, I am excited for what is to come.

This announcement personalized with Smilebox

Easter and Such

The library here sponsored a panel discussion with several authors, hosted at a middle school. Afterwards, they had a book signing with 4-hour lines; luckily, we were about halfway by the time the signing started.

Sydney read a lot of "The Princess Academy" before, but decided to start again to keep it fresh. Here she is with the author, Shannon Hale. Syd was really excited.

She also signed "Goose Girl," which Syd hasn't read yet, and "Austenland" for Shanell.

Meanwhile, Shanell and Royce were in the much longer line for Brandon Mull, author of the much loved "Fablehaven" Series. Royce hasn't officially read the first book yet, but we all used to listen to the series in the car together a few years ago. Here's an example of their hijinks while waiting the 2+ hours:

And here he is with the author. I had the opportunity to give the book to one of my students who was a lot further up in line, but Royce really wanted to meet him. I'm glad he did; the guy was really nice and talked to Royce about legos, origami and building things with dad. I couldn't imagine being at all friendly after several hours smiling and signing books, but Mr. Mull was upstanding.

Easter Saturday was something else. There was an Easter egg hunt at one of the North Logan parks, which lasted all of 60 seconds, and consisted of hoards of ravenous kids who who left nothing in the wake of their full-run devastation. After this event was the real fun, playing on the playground and hanging out with neighbors and other folks we haven't seen in a while.

Royce was happy his best friend showed up, and their siblings also had a ball in the decent weather.

Dyeing eggs was a real treat. We got the oldschool Paas brand, and spent a good part of the day on our multi-colored designs.

And here they are on Easter sunday, showing off their acquired treasures and donning some new clothes.

March!

What have we been up to?

March has been busy and fun and everything in between.

Here is just a few pics...

Royce was very animated and cute in his very 1st opera as a reptile.

BRAVO, BRAVO! WELL DONE, SIR!

He made everyone laugh and certainly made the 2nd graders opera extremely entertaining.

We went swimming in Vegas over our Spring break.

Hanging out in the Hotel and making the most of the new bridge the kids found.

Swimming again at another fun hotel...

(I think this was my favorite kids pool)

Roller skating, garlic bread, pizza, makeovers, origami, secret ninja missions, nail painting, and much more during an activity packed late night.

Checking out the lucky socks and fun activities left behind by the visiting leprechauns and eating the rainbow of fruit while excitedly waiting for the traditional green eggs and ham. This year I also served it with shamrock shaped kiwis and rainbow water.

Finishing off our St. Patrick's festivities with a traditional dinner of corned beef, cabbage, red potatoes, and irish soda bread. The food was good and the company even better, thanks for coming up for dinner!

Ladies Night

I forgot to post pics of our ladies night a couple of months ago. Syd and I went down to SL and met up with some other fantastic ladies for a night at the opera.

When we went to visit with our own expert on opera, Grandpa Buggy, he asked Syd who she was rooting for, she said she was rooting for the witch. =)

Miss Mandy, myself and Syd properly waiting in anticipation for Hansel and Gretel to begin, certainly not sneaking in funny pictures.

Hanging out in the lobby of the Capitol Theatre with Aunt Trishie.

All of us....

And the Syd and myself.

I love opera night with the ladies and can't wait to do it again!

Randomness

Thursday nights in our home are what we like to call "movie night" because Tyler teaches and I get to pretend like I am spending quality time with my children while sneaking as much homework as humanly possible into the span of a movie. It usually works really well.

Tonight, however, I am so distracted by my children singing in the shower that I finally decided to do something else for the duration of these drawn out showers. In my defense, it is not easy to tune out two kids in two different showers. The problem arises not from the volume or the tune of the song, but rather from when you start to listen to the crazy lyrics of their made up songs. So, I am taking a break and thinking random thoughts instead.

I am grateful for good friends for my kids, and the great relationships I have with their parents. Sometimes no one else gets you other than a parent who has kids going through the same funky stages in life.

The kids have been taking advantage of all this great new snow we keep getting.

The tube seems to be the fastest sled, but I think it works better if you actually get on top of it.

Boys can get crazy! He would run and dive on the tube and sled his way down. As I was watching from the window he ran and dove, but he overshot his mark and completely missed the tube and sled down the hill on his face. It was super funny to watch, something you would see on a funny video show. I'm glad he didn't know how funny I thought it was. =)

More New Pics

I thought I would post some more of our family pictures, here they are in no particular order.

Did I mention that I love how these turned out? I don't usually like pics with myself in them, but these are definitely ones that turned out well.

New Pics

We finally got our family photos taken, and they turned out great. Leslie from Memories in Raw took us out to this old sugar factory for something different and fun. I will keep posting a few here and there when I get a minute. We all had such a great time- I will absolutely be doing this again!

If you get a second- check out Memories in Raw here. I love that she doesn't just take stock photos of all her clients, they are all unique to the clients.