Easter 2014

To start this post off, you know how Randy graduated a long time ago. . .like right before Masie was born?  Well during his last year he started looking for a new job.  As much fun as BYU is to work for, he wasn't happy there and wasn't able to utilize his skills.  Don't get me wrong, we are so grateful for our time at BYU, it helped him finish his Bachelor's degree and get his Masters, it kept us afloat for so many years but we knew it was time to move on.  Over the last 2 years, there have been many interviews, some job offers, many close calls for us to move on but things just never panned out.  He was given blessing that there was a job being created for him and I kept praying for the right job to come along and that when it did, there would be no doubt in our minds as weather or not we should take it.  After the beginning of this year, I told him that maybe we should take a job searching break till this baby came.  I wasn't really in the mood to move either a billions years pregnant or with a newborn (trust me I've done both) so he kept looking but kind of laid low not really pursuing a ton of stuff. . . and then it happened!!!!! Like a ton of bricks!  The right job DID come along and there was no question of weather or not we should take it.  

Here's the quick version:  

The company that moved us to Utah back in December of 2006 and then laid him off  4 months later almost to the day (which gave us Utah residency) called him on a Wednesday in early April.  They interviewed him on Thursday and Friday and then flew him out that next Monday to Indianapolis to give him the chance to see what he would be facing and letting him decide if he wanted to take on the challenge.  He stayed till Thursday and by Friday morning had a job offer on the table.  He then gave his 2 weeks notice to BYU (which wasn't a big deal cuz everyone knew he was looking to move and encouraged it).  He was to start on the day after Easter, work for two weeks, fly home in time for me to have the baby, stay home for 10 days and then fly back to Indiana till school was out to pack us up and head out.  It was a crazy 8 weeks to say the least.  I was very stressed wondering if he was going to make it home in time for the baby or if I was going to have to do it alone, or beg someone to help me during the labor.  There were so many unknowns and things I couldn't plan for and I hated it.  My only saving grace was that the company was going to move us so I didn't have to pack a thing, HALLELUJAH!  We did try to dejunk as much as we could during his 2 week notice and then once he was gone I did nothing hoping that the baby would cooperate and stay in till he got home, which he did and I will do a whole `nother post on that. . .trust me!  Anyway, so Easter was our last day with him till he started his new job.  We decided to head up one last time to Grandma/pa's and celebrate with them.  We had a lot of fun, and Masie discovered the sandbox for the 1st time.  She was in hog heaven.

 She pretty much lived in there except when she saw the Easter candy.

 As you can see here.  This is before the egg hunt.  We were hiding eggs and she was following behind "finding" them very quickly.  

 We let the babies go out first and have a crack at egg hunting, at which point they got bored and headed back to the sandbox. . .

 and the swing set. . . 

 while the older kids had a shot at it.

 On Sunday we went to church and took a couple of shots before we had to take Randy to the airport and say goodbye for 2 weeks.  This pregnancy really was not kind to me as far as weight gain.  Probably cuz I was so sick that all I did was lie around.

 Then we tried to get one of the kids and grandma but the only way Masie would cooperate was if she was actually swinging so this was the best we could do.  Hey, it's a picture. . .with the kids. . .and grandma. . . you can't ask for much, lol.

It was a short weekend, but fun nonetheless.  

Christmas Parties

We had 2 Christmas parties scheduled for the same day.  It was a little crazy busy but we all had fun.  It started with the annual BYU Family Christmas Party.  We think the weather kept some from coming.  The forecast said we were going to get dumped on again, but it was clear when we left so we braved it.  We didn't mind, it was a lot less crowded and we were able to do everything we wanted with time to spare.  By the time we left it had just started snowing and barely covered the ground.   Someone was kind enough to take a pic of the whole family.  

 Then I had to get our traditional shot, of course, of the kids.

 Masie was a little nervous about the crowds, so she clung close to us.

 That night was our ward's Christmas party.  They did a Hawaiian themed one this year, complete with lots of yummy food and the Polynesian UVU dancers.  Santa came as well and the kids got a picture from me and a treat from him.

Ignore his hair, he got it cut that night.

 We didn't even let her look at him for fear of a freak out.  She did really good.

 Morg's getting a little big for his lap.

 But these girls are ginormous.  They really wanted to get this pics taken so Michelle and I said do it together, so we don't have to torture Santa as long.  He was a good sport.

I can't believe that Christmas is around the corner.  We definitely not ready for it to come yet.  Still so much to do.  But we sure had a fun day celebrating.

Cougar Kick Off

The last few years we haven't been able to go to this because of soccer games, but since we didn't sign up this year for fear of losing about $200 if we ended up moving, we have lots of time to do things we haven't done in a long time.  We got lots of signatures from the girls soccer and volleyball team.  We also got some sweet shots with Cosmo.

 We met the Nordfelt's there and got a pic taken altogether.  The funny thing about this shot is there was another photographer behind me who took this shot as well.  My mom was jokingly saying, she's probably taking it for a newspaper or something.  Well the next day, it showed up on the "BYU Football" facebook page.  Pretty crazy.

 The kids also played a little beach ball volleyball. . .

 And we stood in line FOREVER to get these caricature pictures drawn.  At first we were like "ya lets get them all their own, then after standing there we decided to put the kibosh on that one and double them up.

 I figure I'll make copies of them so they all get one for their  scrapbooks.

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we got to do it again.

WE'RE DONE!!!!! Well almost

It's hard to believe that we were here just 3 years ago.  It's been a looooong hard road, but we've made it, kinda.  Technically Randy has one more 3 credit class to finish until he's officially done, which will be completed by the beginning of June, but since we really don't think we will be here in August when the summer session ends, we decided to have him walk in the Spring Graduation.  We have struggled since the day we got married as to which was the right direction to go for Randy's schooling but once we figured which path to take, Heavenly Father sure took over the reigns.  We have gone from clueless on how we were going to go back to school to getting relocated to Utah, losing a job, miraculously getting Utah residency, going  to and finishing a Bachelors from UVU, thinking we were going to move to Cedar City to finish school and having that fall through, to being led to the EMPA program at BYU and not having to pay for his graduate degree all in 5 years time (which to some might sound like a lot, but when you have 4+ children things sometimes take a little longer, lol).  I can't count how many times I have felt my Heavenly Father push us in a different direction than what we was going during this time.  I am sooo grateful that He did though otherwise we may have ended up with a completely different outcome.

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD!!!!

Now for the fun you've all been waiting for. . . the pictures, ta da!  Randy picked up his clothes early and we decided instead of waiting till graduation day to take pics when there would be tons of other grads doing the same thing, we'd go to the signs at BYU the day before and take advantage of less crowds.  I have so many shots and really wasn't in the mood to do a lot of editing so I just put up a few random ones. 

It was a little breezy, can you tell?

I love this shot.  We were walking back to the car and I couldn't resist shooting this.

Micah sporting his dad's cool hat.

Randy walking in, he's 9th from the end with his arm up pointing.

 A little closer shot, looking right at us.

His mom's camera got even closer, I love that he looks like he's marching.

This was right before his row got up to go to the stage.  That's one of his EMPA buddies that decided to graduate early as well.

Really blurry I know, but here he is going up on stage.

On the other side with the 2 other EMPA guys.

We were naughty and left after he walked.  Apparently in the business school, over half of the grads were getting their graduate degrees.  I really couldn't sit any longer for them to go through the Bachelor's as well especially since Randy was literally right at the end of the graduates.  Blame it on #5.

Here are the families that were able to come and celebrate with us.  Julie and her kids.

Alina and Ki Ki-these 2 are troopers.  They had already sat through another graduation early that morning.  Alina's mom graduated with her Master's in Education.  Thanx again Alina for coming.

Of course us-minus Morgan who decided she should make this day extra special by barfing, the poor thing watched movies on my bed all day.

Randy's parents and sisters.

Even though she looked like trash we didn't want to leave her out.  We had to get at least one shot of her with her handsome daddy.

At home for a couple more shots.

I'm going to regret this later, but I couldn't resist.

After it was all over and we checked up on Morgie, we went out for Linner at one of our favorite places, Rib City.  It was probably our last time eating there and man it will be missed.

Grandma tried really hard to get these kids to sit still long enough to get a cute shot, this was the best that we could do, the little stinkers.

Next on the agenda, getting a job.  Right now Randy's got a really great opportunity in San Antonio and we will find out by the end of this week if he got the job.  We are hoping things work out for us down there, but I've learned over this past years that it's really not in my hands.  So if we are suppose to be there I know that Heavenly Father will have a huge part in it.  However, prayers couldn't hurt, lol.  Here's to the next chapter in our lives.  Congrats Toots!!! We Made it!!!

So Far this December. . .

It's only the 12th and I feel like it should be Christmas already, not that I'm ready my any means.  It has just been so busy already.  Probably because we live so close to BYU that we have to do our Christmas stuff early in order for the students to be able to enjoy so Christmas traditions with their ward before they head off to see their families.  Regardless, it's been nuts.  The 1st weekend of Dec. was the annual BYU family Christmas party.  I can't believe this might be our last year we might go. Notice how everyone is wearing blue to support BYU except Micah.  What have we done to make him think supporting the Utes is ok?

 Malia has this weird obsession with making "crazy eyes."  Everyone decided to try and join in.

 Notice Micah's list.  He wants an Elf so that he can have him make Micah toys all year.  Where does he come up with this stuff?

 After the party we went and got ourselves a tree.  We had to wait about 4 hours to put it up though cuz Randy had a huge paper due, so we had to wait for him to finish.

 Then this weekend was our ward's Christmas party.  They decided to be a little different and go Hawaiian.  It was catered by a family in our stake from Hawaii and we even had some Polynesian dances to enjoy.

 Even Santa came dressed for the event with his shorts and lei's.  Micah asked for a robot to do his homework this time. He cracks me up.

 Malia letting know Santa she's 4.

 Morgan had a grass skirt on but kept stepping on it (since it was really mine) so she gave it up.

 Oh and another exciting thing that happened already this month is . . . Malia cut her hair.  In my 11+ years of being a mom, I have been very lucky to not have a child cut their hair.  Malia said that she didn't like it in her eyes anymore.  When she realized what she did, she started crying immediately.  We couldn't figure out why for another 5 minutes.  She looked natural with bangs, until you looked more closely at the side.Malia has always been my button pusher.  Here she goes again.  My friend Brookie cut it and blended it in, but it is still driving me crazy, so I'm going to take her back and have her butch it. 

 Here's the clump of hair McKenzie found in her room. 

Next up. . .Christmas.  Hopefully we'll be ready.