Graduation!

Last Thursday and Friday was Graduation! It was an eventful few days and so good to spend it with family. Thursday was commencement. I celebrated with a scrumptious mint brownie before the festivities began. Besides waiting in the hot sun before doing the processional, it was a wonderful occasion. Elder Rasband spoke, and we were all fans of him. He was very personal and sincere and inspiring. Chris was working, unfortunately in Park City, but we met him at Carrabba's for dinner. It actually worked out pretty well because he got a table for us. Jamir was also walking, so Chris' parents were in town for the occasion. We went to dinner with them, Amy and Jamir, us, and my parents. The food was delicious! Yum yum.

We spent that night in Provo in a hotel room my parents had gotten. Thank goodness because we had to wake up early for my 8am convocation. My parents gave me a too generous gift of an iPhone for graduating. They sure do spoil me, but I'm excited about my new toy. :)

I had the opportunity to speak at the School of Education's convocation on Friday. I was nervous about it and the fact that I was quite pregnant. But I made it through fine, minus some technical microphone difficulties. It was a nice opportunity to reflect and put into words some of my experiences and things I have learned during my BYU experience. I think because of the nerves, it didn't really hit me I was actually graduating until about the end of the ceremony. Walking across stage was great and sitting down listening to the ending remarks, I realized I was really done! I'm so grateful for the amazing experience of attending BYU. I'm grateful for the countless things I have learned and the person I have become. Thank you BYU!

 cute pic (minus the thumb)

fabulous Rachel in all of her beautiful leis

(Chris really did graduate in December of 2011
but since he never walked his mom wanted
a picture of Jamir and him in robes so he
borrowed mine for a few pictures)
Such handsome men :)

we thought we better show off the belly to
 prove to our son that I was very pregnant with him

haha. we're so funny

For lunch, we headed to Firehouse Subs and thought of our sweet Parker Jay. It was there, right before dropping Park off to the MTC, that I announced we were having a baby. It has been an eventful six months since then. Those sandwiches are just so delicious. I think that brisket is just about the best thing ever. It was a lovely day.

Firehouse first-timer

It is weird to not be going back to school this fall. This is my first time ever not doing so. But, I'm excited for a new type of schooling, namely having and taking care of a child. So now that I'm all graduated, we are pretty much ready for this boy to make his appearance any time now.

Shower Power

Two weeks ago I headed to Pocatello for a fabulous baby shower. Getting to Poky was more of an adventure than normal. My car was struggling kind of the last hour or so. I was flooring it and barely made it up the last hill on the freeway before Pocatello. I got to the appropriate exit thankfully, stopped at the light. Then when I tried to press on the gas again it would hardly move. I coasted to the gas station and called my mom to come get me. It was a little stressful, but I am so grateful I made it there safe and sound. I was definitely blessed. So our transmission went out in our Saturn Vue- Ramona. Bummer.

The baby shower was that evening at Aunt Karen's house. A big shout out and thank you to Karen, Michelle, and Rach. It was the cutest shower! The decor was so fabulous, everything being gray and yellow. It was just adorable. And of course the food was delicious. It was a party with so many fabulous ladies there (plus Ben:). Thank you all for your generosity. Our baby boy is one lucky soul who will be a styling little man. I keep joking that I will have to change his clothes twice a day so he can wear all of the cute clothing we have. I dreamed the other day that he was born kind of chubby and of course I was worried that he wouldn't be able to wear all of his cute newborn clothes. Silly mom dreams. Anyways, it was a fabulous shower. 

I loved Rachel's cutest fruit
baby that she made.

Thank you Auntie Karen for the fabulous party. I'm realizing I didn't take nearly enough pictures of all the wonderful people there.  But, what do you do? Although getting to Pocatello was a little stressful, the party was a hit.

Baby Corner Prep

We are now counting down days! What?! 29 days until our due date. I am 36 weeks tomorrow. We're getting very excited to welcome our baby boy into our family.

So, of course we have been getting ready. We only have one bedroom, so we have designated a corner for the baby in our large living room. I few weeks ago, we bought a dresser at a garage sale and decided to spruce it up with some paint. Choco of course made it a work of art. It is cute, and the corner is coming together. Of course the dresser took longer than anticipated and we ran into a few bumps along the road, but the final product is just adorable if I do say so myself.

we found these lamps at a garage sale so
decided to spray paint them too

round one

lamps and frames

turns out I'm not so great at not getting
paint on me. I had blue toenails for a
couple of days.  oops

of course, we should have sanded in the first
place but didn't. so we got to scrape of round one
and sand and then try again. you live and learn.

after re-painting the blue area for the tree,
Choco drew the outline for the tree in
newspaper, cute it out, and taped it on.
quite the laborious process. 

newspaper tree taped on, we
painted the whole dresser our
key lime green

after removing the tape and newspaper.

Unfortunately, Choco's beautiful tree got a little less detailed when he cut it out, and when he taped it, so it wasn't exactly what we had been imagining. But, with a little extra touch-up work he got it to look better. He even added yellow and gray leaves to tie in those colors. Finished product:

our baby corner

I love to see the (Draper) temple

A few weeks ago we went to the Draper temple. I love the temple. And I love my husband. It was a lovely day, and we even took a picture. I promise I was very pregnant at the time, so my dress is deceiving. Anyways, we love to see the temple.

Fourth of July (a little late)

It is August! Oh that time just keeps on flying. I do want to remember our fun Fourth of July weekend we spent up in Pocatello about a month ago. Carrie and her boys came, which is always a party, so Chris and I came up and spent the weekend.

The Fourth was a great day. We went to the parade and of course ate delicious food at Grandma's. My favorite is that my mom sent a picture of me to Park a while ago. He was hilarious and basically said I was huge and super pregnant. And of course he asked "When's the BABY due?" We sure miss him. If he could only see me now :)

Happy Asher enjoying his baby Cheetos.
He was hilarious.

sweet Carter. he's so cute!

Sure love Care!

I requested a trip up Scout Mountain to roast hotdogs with Grandpa Boyce. I must confess I was mostly motivated by the desire for some smores. It was really fun! We did get rained on, but waited it out and were able to roast some marshmallows! My mom saved the fire while the rest of us sat in our cars. Go mom. And can I just say there is nothing better than a perfectly golden smore cooked over a fire. Of course, I pride myself on being an excellent marshmallow roaster so that helps. It was a memorable little adventure. And now Chris has experienced one of my favorite summer activities in Poky.

my delicious smore

Jack. look at that happy face

I know this is blurry, but I kind of loved it. my mom told us to
"look like we love each other." We sure do.  He is the best!

Chris had to drive back on Sunday to work, but I stayed and went to Bear Lake with the fam. It was a beautiful day, not too hot. All of the boys were so cute and loved it. We sure loved having those Allen boys around. Chris and I are such fans of Asher. He is just too yummy and fun. We'd be more than happy with a little baby boy like him.

oh Max. I love that little face.
he was so happy eating those cheese balls

Asher resting. yum