It's only the middle of May!!!!!

I can't even describe how busy it has been already this month and we haven't even gotten to all the end of the year hoopla.  I figured if I don't want to get backed up I better get some of this stuff posted quick or it'll never get done. 

First, one of our neighbors that graduated the same time Randy did, became a Chaplin for the military.  Shortly after graduation they moved and will be stationed back east (sad for all of us).  There was an little going away party for them.  We'll miss you Reed's.

 They have 3 little kids, here are the 2 oldest.  The one on the left is Malia's age, actually older but you'd never know seeing them next to each other cuz Malia is a giant compared to this petite little thing.

 The next week was "Mad" week.  It started off with Malia's preschool going to the aquarium and I got to go along.  Good thing it's a small little place, a little less chaotic chasing around a group of 4/5 year olds.

 Here's her class, well both classes actually.  There's an AM and PM class.

 Morgan's ecosystem project presentation was a few days later, which was also the same day as the 1st grade zoo trip. Randy went on it with Micah but didn't bring a camera so I don't have any shots.  Anyway, Morg chose the Ocean for her project.  We had been so busy with everything else that we raced to get her stuff put together.  I felt bad but hey it turned out great.

 Then the next day was the last day of soccer, Yippeeeee!!!! (for me)  The kids had a fun season and scored lots of goals.

 Randy coached both teams both fall and spring season.  He had fun, it was stressful during practices since he combined the two together, but he really enjoys coaching.

 Right after soccer, Gma and Gpa came down for Gpa's birthday "linner".  We went to Applebee's then came back and opened gifts.  We weren't able to go up there considering all of the fun we were having down here, lol.

 Then the next week, James received his mission call.  We were going to have it sent to my house, but since we really had no idea if we would be living here when it arrive (just in case it was late) we had it sent to Billy's house and drove up there to open it up.  We were all guessing outside of the U.S. but. . .

 He got called to the Porland Oregon Mission and will go into the MTC on August 15.  We were all surprised because that was the mission he was born in (At the time. Prineville was moved to the Eugene mission after I graduated from High School), so he won't be going back to his birth place, but he is awfully close.  The other funny thing is my sister lives in Vancouver just over the river from Portland but is in a different mission.  Do you see the shocked look on his face?

 Then the week after James got his call, it was Kristi's turn to report to the MTC.  We drove up Tuesday night to see her get set apart and then drove home and they came down to drop her off.  We ate at Pizza Pie Cafe.

Julie had to rush home so we took a quick shot before she bolted.

 Then with the new rules with dropping off, we decided not to chance not getting shots at the MTC so we stopped at the Provo Temple to get a few.  It's a good thing we stopped.

Malia's really good at being a ham and getting people's attention, can you tell?

Then it was time for goodbye's  There really wasn't any time for tears, which was good.  Just a quick hug then through the gate she went.  We are really excited for Kristi, she's going to be an awesome missionary.  She just kept saying how happy she was that day, and we are so happy for her. 

I know I still have Mother's Day to post and we have more school performances coming up and of course the traditional end of the year festivities.  I can't believe there are only 11 more days of school for these kids, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Can't we just go a few more weeks?

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!!!

Hope of America

This was our first (and maybe only) year of doing Hope of America.

Here's a link to the news paper article about their performance 

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/students-fill-marriott-center-for-hope-of-america/article_aef76642-b741-5698-9379-f44dad25ab40.html

McKenzie is in the 2nd from the top white row, 9th person in.  She's clapping her hands right here so it's kind of hard to see her face.

Here's the shot of the flag from where we sat.  Even though we got there early, we were still in the nosebleed section.  The article has a better shot of the flag

The songs were great, and they even added some choreography to a few of the songs.  Here are a few of our favorites.

Here's "Hope of America"

"America Rocks"

"This is America."  This was McKenzie's favorite because they made the crowd do the wave.

This was probably my favorite.  They sang with flashlights and it was really cool to see all of the kids moving their lights at in the same direction, you'll see.

Grandma, Grandpa and Kristi were able to come and they loved it.  It was moving to be apart of this and feel the patriotism we all have.  Thanks to all those who have sacrificed to keep us free.

A little busy

I don't even know where to start.  I guess amidst the barfing and being sick for an entire month, lots has happened last month and I did document some of it (kinda).  The 5th graders do a state report and McKenzie chose Wisconsin (I'm so proud of her :).  It was an easy state for us especially since we lived there for a few years and left with a few souvenirs.  She found out some of stats of the state, some famous people who lived there and even had a Sprechers bottle and Milwaukee pickles to have as props (kinda brings a tear to my eyes, lol).  They did a little (actually kinda long but I won't put it on here cuz it really long) reading about Paul Revere and sang the 50 States Song for the parents.

 This was for the song they sang.  She was pretty much at the end since she picked a "W" state.

 We also got to see Randy's sister's new home (Julie).  Her and her new husband bought a beautiful home near where they were living before.  We had a house warming for them and of course I didn't take any other pictures of this evening except when they were opening gifts.  So that's what you get.

 Micah finally let me pull out one of his front teeth.  Its been hanging there for a while and it took a lot of encouragement and bribery to let me finally yank it. The other one is loose but not as loose as the other so he won't let me at that one yet.  The weird things it after pulling the 1st one the other one shifted over so now it looks like he's got a snaggle tooth.  Gotta love it.  It's killing me not to pull.

 Last week Randy's cousin, Amy, and her family came down from Idaho for part of their spring break.  We haven't seen them since Micah was little so it was great being able to catch up with them.  I again didn't get a ton of pics during our little get together but enough to remember the night.  Here's Julie and Amy

 Uncle Tom (well really a cousin) and one of Amy's youngest.

 The girls with little Julie.  She's Micah's age and such a cute thing.

 Another great thing that happened was my mom came to visit.  And we all know what happens when she comes, it's cleaning time and cleaning we did.  Well more like organize and dejunk.  We threw so many bags of trash out (thanks to my neighbor for letting us use part of their trash can), we have just as much getting donated and then we organized all of the bedrooms in the house.  It feels soo good to have things clean-er around here.  Not that it is going to last cuz the kids will find a way to destroy it soon.  My mom also deep cleaned my fridge, my oven/stove, and my tub.  I will not have to clean the oven before we move, hallelujah.

 Even though I still feel like poo, I want to try and do a better job documenting this baby than I have with my others.  So here I am at 26 weeks, is it over yet??? I did take another shot at I think at 18 weeks, I know I'm not very good at this documenting thing.  I figure if I get a few more weeks in before she comes, I'm doing way better than I ever have.