Rachel's Run

Early this morning, (it was FREEZING today!) Camille and I were able to participate in Rachel's Run--a 5K or 1-mile walk with proceeds going towards fighting cancer. Rachel is a girl from Camille's ward and we wanted to do something to help out. We ended up doing the 1-mile walk (primarily because I'm not sure I can actually run a 5K, but also because Camille is pregnant--isn't she CUTE?!), and we were proud that only 5 runners beat us! :D
Steve and I have made workout schedules for ourselves so that we will be able to participate in the Onion Days 5K on Labor Day. I'm pretty excited! Steve's goal is to run it under 24 minutes, and mine is just to run it. I'll worry about times once I have actually worked myself up to running 3 miles. Wish us luck!

New experiences

I learned the name of a bird today. This pretty little thing was sitting in the tree right outside my apartment while I was working on my primary lesson for tomorrow. I thought it was probably one of the more beautiful birds that i had ever seen, but by the time I had the camera out, it had flown away. Isn't she pretty? Its called a Western Tanager, just FYI.

Parlez vous Fracais

With Steve's help, I have begun my French instruction. When my older brother Kevin got his mission call to Uruguay, I thought it was cool that he would get to learn another language. So, while he was gone for two years speaking Spanish, I thought I would try to learn a different language by the time he got home. I chose ASL and it was exciting for me.

Now that my little brother, Scott, is off on his mission in Brazil speaking Portuguese, I decided that I wanted to learn French. So, if Eric goes foreign-speaking, I guess I'll have to learn a 3rd foreign language!

DISNEYLAND!!!

As a graduation trip for both Steve and me (Steve will graduate in December), we took a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Thank you Shauna and Pat for taking care of Joshua while we were gone!

These pictures are in no particular order, just so you know
We used our maps so much, that they really started to fall apart.
This is California Adventure, which we actually went to each of the three days. We enjoyed the tall white roller coaster (California Screamin') and we entertained many people on the ride by making different faces for the camera each time we went through. We ended up buying our favorite, where we agreed the look as scared as possible. We still haven't stopped laughing about it. The ferris wheel was pretty cool. The middle contained gondolas that swung back and forth on their own track.
We posed with several characters including Sully from Monsters Inc., Jesse from ToyStory, Mickey Mouse, and Princesses Mulan, Belle and Tiana. Our wait to see the Princesses was by far our longest wait of the whole trip, and we seriously had people giving us strange looks because we didn't have a little girl with us.

This was my very first carousel ride. I promise I wasn't really scared...

We enjoyed a couple of water rides, but Steve forgot that the person in the front of Splash Mountain got the wettest. Although we didn't get a picture, can you guess who was in the front?

Classic Disney hats.

We loved the parades! They had some really fun dancing and all of the kids got so excited to see the Disney and Pixar characters that came through! They also had some pretty neat floats!
On our second day, after we had exhausted our feet the first day, we decided to try and see some shows. We got to see about 5 or 6 and all of them were spectacular! We had a great time!

One of the buildings had a class that, every half hour, you could learn to draw a different rough sketch of simpler Disney characters. The three we learned were Goofy, Winnie the Pooh, and Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Strong man in ToonTown

We enjoyed Muppets 3D, but I didn't particularly like the Bug's Life 3D. I was seriously freaking out. I took this picture for Karen.

Out in front

Legoland was fun. This is Darth Vader and behind Steve, you can see the legs to the giant giraffe

Yet another classic shot. I loved the princess themes and especially all of the Disney music that played throughout the park.

Dapper Dans--they entertained us almost as much as the Asian girls to the right who shrieked with laughter any time the song was specifically directed to them.

Favorite show: Aladdin--the genie was fabulous and the effects were awesome

Favorite ride: Natalie--Space Mountain

Steve--Toy Story Mania

We really did have a blast and it was so nice to come home and be with our baby boy again.

BYU Grad!

It has finally happened! I am officially a BYU graduate!

On Wednesday April 21, I took my last final and finished my formal schooling. I'm pleased to say that it only took me 8 minutes, and I'm fairly certain that I got an A on it! :D

Thursday was the huge Commencement walk. I got to walk with my brother Kevin and his wife, Kristen. We also found my cousin, Maggie Richards, and Kevin's friend and former roommate, Jeremy Alsup. It was fun to be able to walk with so many friends! There ended up being over 6100 graduates and we got to sit in the front row right behind the podium.

My parents were also excited to have gotten to celebrate Steve's graduation while they were here. We found out about a luncheon for the 2010 Food Science Graduates and since he will be graduating in December, he was invited to bring his family. It was fun to celebrate with him as well!

Because Elder Christofferson, the commencement speaker, is related to us through my Aunt Brynn, we were able to get three tickets for Steve, dad and mom to sit in the nice seats down on the floor. They also got to meet Elder Christofferson and also the BYU President, President Samuelson. It was pretty neat!

Friday was the smaller convocation. I opted to walk with Kevin and Kristen again so that mom and dad didn't have to sit through two ceremonies. We ended up being the only threesome that walked in his convocation. I'm so happy to be done!

Its my last week as a college student!!

Wow. It hasn't been a breeze, but I've sure enjoyed my time as a student of Brigham Young University! I had plenty of time to reflect on my college experience as I slaved through my Statisitics final for no less than two hours. I have loved being a student, but I'm thrilled to get to be a full-time mom! Wahoo!

Here are some of the Joshua achievements of late:

I love how he gets up onto his knees and rocks back and forth. Its adorable!

Thank-you mom for his new Easter outfit!
Joshua has discovered that he is able to scoot a little easier on the kitchen floor. It is now a banned area for him.

We've noticed that he has become possessive of his xylophone. I guess when we return this toy to the Gibbons family that we will have to buy him his own.

Is it too early to start lifting weights? Joshua found my 5-lb weights and insists on dragging them across the floor.

He does his best to get into everything. Somehow, even though he doesn't know what buttons are, he can crawl right up to the computer and know exactly where the button is that will turn it off!
He enjoys blowing raspberries, even will a mouthful of food.

He LOVES chasing balls! He's getting good at it too! In the last two pictures, you can see that we have tried just about every line of defence. In the kitchen, we put our chairs across the entry. For our shoe container by the door, we have a blanket over the top. All of our doors are closed in the room and there is a large blanket that covers that cords and the computer. He's too smart!

Easter Party

To celebrate Easter, we thought it would be fun to have our Utah neices and nephews over to hunt for easter eggs. Having felt like I had cleverly hidden each of the 40 eggs, I was slightly disappointed when the hunt didn't require more than about 3 minutes. I'm glad to know that we have smart neices and nephews.

After the hunt, Steve and I hosted the Mosbackers and the Gibbons families for Easter Egg Special, a special Easter dinner that the Monson family has as a tradition. Besides Lia and Quinn, it seems that everyone enjoyed it.

Mikayla even had 3 helpings!

Joshua and little Nathan got to know each other.
And we had a good time sitting and talking!

On Easter morning, we were surprised to see snow outside! Come on spring!!

I was entertained to see how well my little easter egg decorations collected all of the snow.

We want you to know that we are truly grateful for the Savior. We each have a testimony that the Savior lived perfectly and that he suffered for every sin before dying on the cross. We also have a testimony that he rose from the grave and has overcome death. We are grateful for the sacrifice that He made for us that will allow us to return to our Heavenly Father.

Happy Easter!

Friends Come to Play

A few weeks ago, little Kaitlyn came to play while Steve helped her parents move. She was only here for a couple of hours, but by the time she left, Joshua had begun to notice that she could get to his toys faster than he could. I'm certain that it annoyed him and within 3 or 4 days, he had figured out that scooting forward had its advantages. Joshua is now very mobile, although it kind of looks like watching someone walk with a limp. Its SO cute though! Keeping him out of the shoes and away from the cords has been an added challenge, but we are happy to see him learning and growing!

Speaking of growing: Joshua has graduated to a new carseat. It is still rear-facing, but he now sits upright. It has increased a few of our challenges, particularly when we are trying to get him to sleep during church. The solution: there isn't one. He doesn't sleep during church anymore.

I've been very proud of my accomplishments during March. First off (this might have been at the end of February, but I can't remember) I finished my Christmas stocking. Just so none of you view me as an underachiever, no, I never planned on having it done for Christmastime. Here are some of the pictures. I'm rather proud of it!

Secondly, I finished my Independent Study English 314 class. It was notably harder than anyone I've talked to who have taken the class as an actual class at BYU. I struggled to finish it in time (especially when I found out that I had 3 fewer weeks than I was expecting) but it is over and I am very glad to have it over with.

Finally, Steve and I were able to compete together in the BYU National Dancesport in Dance 380 (Social Dance). The competition was Mambo and we had a blast competing together. We came away in the top 10 of over 60 couples. It was really fun to be able to compete with my sweetie!

I turned 23 in March as well. I had a wonderful birthday, first surprised with presents from Steve (a beautiful necklace and a darling headband with a bow on it) and then chocolate from various friends and family. At the end of the day, I had my dress rehearsal for my orchestra class, I went to the remainder of my dance class and then we went home. Matt cooked delicious hamburgers for my birthday dinner and we finished the evening with Stargate SG 1. I have been tremendously blessed in my life! I have a tremendous husband whom I love and who loves me very much. I have a sweet little baby boy and I am currently so close to attaining a degree from a very good university. I love the Lord and I love who I am!

I hope you all had a wonderful March!

Valentine's Day

I surprised him with cake, he surprised me with an adorable hedgehog that makes kissy noises.

Matching Bracelets

We decided to get matching bracelets this week. What do you think about the pink?

Who does that?...you might be asking yourself. Well, anyone who has to get in and out of the hospital.

Yep, the hospital. Its been a long week.

Sunday and Monday were spent with Steve and I both sick with the flu. Steve got out of actually throwing up, but I didn't. In the meantime, Joshua came down with a fever, but really didn't seem that affected except for a bit of a cough.

When his fever didn't break, we took him in to the doctor to find out that he had RSV Bronchiolitis and an earache. For being so sick, he sure was pleasant!

Wednesday night, he was not getting enough oxygen to his blood for our doctor to feel comfortable with sending us home and we landed in the hospital. After some bloodwork, an IV and getting his airways suctioned out, Steve stayed in the hospital while I went home to sleep before a big test that had to be rescheduled because of my having had the flu.

I got back to the hospital to find that neither Josh nor Steve had really slept. Steve had finally decided to wrap Joshua up so that he would stop chewing on his IV.

We thought his hospital gown was ADORABLE, but kind of sad at the same time.
He HATED having all of the attachments required for monitoring his oxygen and his heartrate. After about 12 hours of being monitored, they felt comfortable in sending us home.

LOVE this kid!
We have had more doctors appointments than I would ever imagine and we have to go to the hospital twice a day to have him suctioned out. It seems like today he is finally coming out of this a little bit and he is just happy! After we had originally been released, it was still terrifying to put him down to sleep and have him out of our sight because we wanted to make sure we could take care of him if he suddenly started getting worse. We're grateful that he is doing better and are so happy to have him as a part of our family!

First time swinger

Also in Vegas, we found a nice chapel and attended church with one of the wards. Afterwards, we found this beautiful park and let Joshua swing for the first time. He LOVED it!

(Oh, and we can sometimes get him to wear shoes!)