RN, BSN: UVU Graduation

I wrapped up my looong journey of nursing school on April 29, 2011. Talk about exciting! It feels great not to have homework, projects, clinical hanging over my head any more. I have been in school for so long, it really feels so weird, but I am grateful for a break! I love being able to spend more time with Crewser and because I am done, that means Jess can now finish up!

The Luckiest

Jess did a sweet thing and nominated Laura (his little sister) for a "sub-for-santa" gift from his work, APX-alarm. Jess wrote in to the company and just told some stories of Laura and how she is in love with "D-Will" from the Utah Jazz. They ended up gifting Laura and her family Jazz tickets with what's called a "Benchwarmers" pass so that they could all meet the players and get their autographs. Jess got to tag along that night. Here are a few of some great photos taken that night:

CJ Miles

Mehmet Okur

Laura's boyfriend, Deron Williams. She's twitter-paited. She's was waiting alllll night just to tell Deron "I think you're cool."

Matt Harpring

My father-in-law and Paul Millsap

Jerry Sloan

My niece Ivy and Gordon Hayward

My mother-in-law. I love this pic of her!

The proof!

Aren't you jealous???

Big Boy

These pics were taken by crew's aunt whitney. always so good :)

This little bugger is now 13 months old. can you believe it? Here are some recent quirks of this little buddy:

1. is walking. he took his first initial steps by himself the day before his first b-day, but can now walk to where he needs to go. cruising around on his hands and knees, however, is still his quickest way of getting around.

2. loves to give kisses on the lips to mom and dad. even with the recent episode of a runny nose, it's still cute as ever.

3. loves cars, blocks, balls, tupperware, and stuffed animals.

4. says "dada" and "daddy" and "eh". that's about it. not even an "mmmm" sound for "mama" yet. we'll keep working on it.

5. still loves his baby food. but is off formula and bottles. officially loves whole milk.

6. loves his darn binky. im def not brave enough to boot that one out yet.

7. has a total of 4 teeth: 2 on top and 2 on bottom.

8. a wonderful sleeper. a solid 12 hrs/night.

9. loves to take baths/showers.

10. stalks his mom around all day.

Crew turns the big 1!!!

I cannot believe my little buskin is 1 year! I won't say that time has gone fast, because it took a lot of work to get here, but I can honestly say how fun it's been to watch him grow into a big boy. He was such a difficult baby for the first 7 months, but then miraculously changed into a cheerful, walkin, talkin, sleepin, toddler!!! Life is good. He is so fun, so sweet, and so loved. We had a party for him at our little apt, but of course we wanted to invite the whole family! To say the least, it was a packed house. We were also lucky enough to have my mom come and visit for the new year and his birthday. Thanks grammy for hanging out for a few days!

Thanks to all for the presents! Like I said before, he's set for life on toys.

My attempt at making something creative. It was supposed to by a croc. It may have not been pretty, but it tasted good!

Crew thought it tasted good too.

Christmas 2010

We stayed home in Utah this Christmas instead of heading up to Idaho with my family because I had to work this year. I guess it's the nature of the beast being lowest on the totem pole...We had Christmas with just our little family and it was really nice! For Christmas Eve we went over to Jess's parents house for dinner, had a small talent show, and opened some gifts. Christmas morning was so fun. Crew just had a blast. This kid is set on toys forever.

Jolly Ol' St. Nic.

Crew did pretty well visiting the ol' guy! He mastered a darn good "ho ho ho", but was too shy (terrified?) to show off his skills:

At this point he was just about done. He started to pout just a tad, so mommy came in and saved him from the scary santa man.

Temple Square

Before Christmas we made a visit up to SLC to meet the Joneses at Temple Square. Every year, I'm so excited to go, but I always forget that I usually think it's boring, cold, and not worth the hassle. Of course the temple is always easy on the eyes, but this year, yet again, I found myself hustling through the temple grounds, in and out of people, pushing around a dinosaur stroller, and just hoping that our friends want to leave. BA-HUMBUG, right? On a lighter note, we did get to see some of our favorite friends whom we never get to see (because of the 45 min drive and all...).

Do you think we over-dressed crew just a "smidge"? It was actually kind of a mild night. poor kid.

Joneses. Please feel free to steal this pic from my blog. Sorry I never emailed it to you!

Sadly, these pictures definitely don't give Temple Square justice to how pretty it looks @ Christmas time:

This is more like it! Doesn't it make you excited to go next year? :)