Update: Graduation & Pregnancy

I know that it has been over 6 months since my last blog post but ALOT of things have been happening in our lives. If there was one phrase to sum it all it would be We are Blessed! Here's a quick update of our life over the past months:

December 2011 - We spent Christmas with James family here in Utah and it was the first time in a LONG time that everyone was together. Alyssa had just gotten home from her mission and Blake came up from Nevada. It was so fun to be together and we did things like take family pictures, go tubing, GHS Alumni Tourney (James year won :), Movies, and alot more fun things together.

January - March 2012 - These were probably the hardest months James and I have had since we've been married. I was swamped with student teaching and commuting to Provo and James was on his regular shift work that multiple times a month we wouldn't see each other for 3-4 straight days, then when we did see each other it was enough time to say 'hi, im tired beyond belief, goodnight' or 'hey, ill pack your lunch really quick, k see ya' and any other free time was spent lesson planning on my part. We learned so much during this time and really grew together because our time together became so valuable and we had to really share the weight of responsibilities.

April 2012 - We found out we are going to have a BABY!!!!!! :) I took a test while James was at work and I could not believe it when I saw it, so I took 3 more tests and was finally convinced enough. The next day was Easter so I decided that I wanted to tell James in a special way. I put together an Easter egg hunt with 7 eggs. In each egg I put one word from the sentence 'You are going to be a daddy!' I woke up before him and hid the eggs. I woke him up and told him I had a suprise for him. He is so sweet and played along. I told him he had to find the eggs and there was a riddle inside. So he found all the eggs and began opening them. He opened them all except the last one so it read 'you are going to be a....' and of course he starts guessing things (by the way later I learn he thought I had gotten him an Ipad...which I did, but at a later time) so he starts guessing things like Im going to be the coolest guy at work, Im going to be really sophisticated etc. I wanted to jump out of my skin and yell your are going to be a dad, but finally he opened the last egg and stared at it lost for words for a moment, then he looked up with the biggest smile on his face and said REALLY????? He tackled me to the ground and I could finally let all my excitement out I had been holding in since the previous evening!

We were so excited to share the news with our families. James, for the past six months has been telling his parents that we were having a baby at sunday dinner every week, crying wolf, so when we told his parents they hardly believed us. Jim said "Let me see the stick I dont believe it" hahaha. We really wanted to tell my family in person, so we waited until they would be out for graduation (2.5 weeks later). It was hard to keep the secret, but we waited and they were all estatic for us! The first grandbaby on either side of our families!! :)...much more on pregnancy to come.

Like I metioned above another big milestone for us in the month of April was my GRADUATION! I graduated from BYU with a Bachelors in Elementary Education with an Emphasis in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Teaching English Language Learners. I am so grateful for my education and glad that we made the sacrifices necessary for me to finish my degree. Here are some pictures from graduation.