Graduation!

Yay! Graduation Day!!
Ben graduated from the University of Utah with a Master's in Business Administration.
We are so proud of him!
And so happy it's over with!!!

Ben's school buddies. The first 3 I don't know, then it's Mackay, Mike & Ben. We're trying to get season tickets for U football this year with Mike...otherwise Ben is going to go through Mike withdrawals. I think Ben spent more time with Mike then with me the last 2 years.

The Grads following the bagpipes to the Huntsman Center.

You can't see him, but Ben is sitting in the 3rd row back on the right hand side 3rd over.

Sorry I caught you off guard Mom! Ryan was less than pleased sitting there during Ben's graduation. He said it was "boring". Good thing Grandma got him to sleep!

Awe, so cute! My newly graduated husband!

Ryan just woke up and did not want to be in pictures. That's why his head is down.

My family who came to the graduation. I took a picture of Ben with his parents with their camera, but forgot to take it with mine! I'll have to get it from them.

We all enjoyed a nice dinner at Good Wood after the graduation. Thanks for all the family who came to support Ben!

It's so nice to have Ben home. Last Saturday Ben did not know what to do with himself! Thankfully we have a pretty busy Summer to keep keep Ben occupied.

Every morning when Ethan wakes up he asks, "Mom, dad have work?"
Mom: "Yes, he does".
Ethan: "Mom, Dad have school?"
Today I was able to say: "No, Ethan, Dad is finished with school, he will be home tonight."
Ethan with a confused look on his face, "Why?"

Hopefully he'll get used to Dad being home. :-)

My Double Burrito

Ben came home from work and the boys wanted to play. Here was the result:
Lots of burrito boys!

That is the cutest double burrito I've ever seen!

We also went to Wheeler Farm last week for Ryan's preschool. This was the only picture I took, can you believe it?
They had a great time at the Farm even though it was freezing!
Picnic*Cows*Roosters*Pigs*Root Beer Candy Canes* Tractor Ride*Bunnies*Preschool Buddies

Real Estate Challenge

Ben participated in the Real Estate Challenge at the U this year. About 100 teams entered from all different Universities in Utah and there were only 6 teams that made it to the finals. (Ben...if I'm giving wrong information..sorry...too bad you don't blog). Five teams from the U and one team from BYU. We had lunch today in a Banquet room at Rice Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah. Governor Herbert was the Keynote speaker. We also rubbed shoulders with the President of University of Utah, the Dean of the Business School, Ellis Ivory, and others. It was a really neat experience (I'm sure more for Ben...I was just a "guest"...although I was asked if I was a Judge, does that mean I look old, or maybe smart??...Yeah, we'll go with smart.). I'm very proud of Ben for all the hard work he put into this and we are both glad it's over.

Side-note: Graduation is in 2 weeks!!!!!
(Thanks to my friend Lisa for watching my kids for me. You were a life saver!)

See, I'm special...they typed my name. HA!

These are not great pictures, but here are the finalist if you can see them.

Ben's Team - Graystone Capitol
Ben
Mackay Reid
&
Mike Shepherd

Just Because

Ben brought me home some flowers yesterday...Just Because.
I love my husband.
Call me boring but roses are my favorite. Especially Red & Pink.

Ryan had his Kindergarten Orientation yesterday. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a kid in school. They gave us a packet and sent the kids to a classroom and told the parents to go to the gym. Ryan has a really hard time in large groups unless he knows everyone, so he was pretty nervous and did not want me to go. The teacher asked for all the kids to sit on the color rug, and Ryan did. And I slowly walked away. He stayed and did so well. I told him before hand that they were going to serve sugar cookies, but I called the office and they made rice crispy treats for him, so he could eat those. He did so well telling the teacher he was allergic to eggs so he needed a different treat. I was so proud!

Ryan on the Kindergarten play ground. He is now excited to go to school because he gets to play on the play ground everyday.

Smith's is having an awesome sale on Quaker Instant Oatmeal and Quaker cereals. 5 for $5. I bought a lot. I got all that (above) for $30 and saved $72. Can you believe it? It expires in a year, so I thought I'd go back and get more early this morning and bought $30 more. It's good for food storage and it's something my kids can eat.

Ryan was such a good helper at the store. He loves Smith's little shopping carts he can push himself.

We went to the Opener Bees game last night. The game went an extra inning so it was pretty long, but it was still fun. The weather was perfect...light jackets and we were golden. They also had a firework show, which we were asked by the kids every 3 minutes when it would start.

Eating their tasty Dippin' Dots. Gotta love 'em!
(that's Ben in the green shirt, he does not so much like pictures or picture taking...he's weird like that).

What the What??

Can you guess what this is?

It's not a freaking weird looking tree that is extremely out of place and quite frankly an EYE SORE!
It is a Cell Tower.

I think I'd rather look at an actual cell tower than that ugly thing. It seriously does not fit in.
Ben works at Rocky Mountain Power...I told him they should have all the power poles look that "beautiful". HA! He had a good laugh.

Where did we find this lovely "tree"? In Utah County after we went to Pirate Island (but did not get any pictures there).

As most of you know, I love chocolate. And what do I love more than chocolate? Chocolate with peanut butter (but I only eat it at night after the kids go to bed...since they're allergic). You can tell by my growing waist. I've been doing P90X for the past two months and have not seen a huge difference. Don't get me wrong, I love the workout. I know I am getting stronger...but I don't see a difference.
I've been pretty bummed about it, until I looked in my pantry one day and saw this junk (above). That is why I have not lost weight. So...I threw it in the trash. And I threw the kids candy away (I'm mean, I know), I threw Ben's twizzlers away. The only junky thing I'm keeping is my smore pop tart that I eat when I'm craving something sweet. I also stopped drinking soda...it's been 14 days and counting. So here's hoping the waist will get just a little bit smaller and my arms will look a little bit tighter.

I went to see Last Song last night with my Aunt Nancy, cousin Kelsie, cousin Amy, and my mom. I love Nicholas Sparks movies! I actually like to cry sometimes.

I've been having headaches every freaking day...does anyone have these? What do you do? Is it because I've cut back on sugar? Please help! :-)

Easter Weester

We had a really great Easter Weekend this year. It was nice and relaxing. I love when Conference falls on Easter Sunday.
Here are my cute boys dying Easter Eggs. Yes, Ryan is allergic to eggs...we don't let him touch them at all. We put the egg on his spoon and he lowers it in. Then we sanitize the table and his scrub his hands.

Ryan was in my room at 2 a.m. saying that the Easter Bunny had come. I told him to go back to sleep and not wake up until 7. Well, he was up every 30 minutes until 7 saying, "Mom, is it time to go find eggs yet?"
We had a talk with the boys about the meaning of Easter. We told him what "resurrection" meant. (About Jesus coming back to life). And he said, "you mean like Optimus Prime?" Classic!

Here are the boys walking down the hall to see what the Easter Bunny had left.

Ryan coloring a dinosaur on his new easel. And might I add that his dinosaur is awesome and WAY better than what I could have drawn. My dinosaur would have been a stick figure.

Dad helped Ryan build a jet with his Tinker toys.

Handsome Ryan posing before finding Easter Eggs.

Cute little Ethan coloring on the easel.

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Also, I did not post Ryan's first loose tooth in December. He lost his first tooth on Christmas Eve, so Santa and the Tooth Fairy came on the same night. Ben said maybe Santa and the Tooth Fairy would fight if they got their at the same time...Ryan said, "well, Santa would win".

So here he is with his second tooth. They are the two bottom front teeth. The tooth is tiny, but it's in the bag he's holding. Pulling teeth kind of freaks me out a little. Ryan wanted Grandma Linda (Ben's Mom) to do the first tooth (on Christmas Eve), and he was trying so hard to wait until Easter so Grandma Linda could pull his second one also. Sorry it didn't last that long Ry! Mom had to do it this time.

The Journey of the Yard

Some of you may remember this photo (above) from last year. It's the Before photo.
We are slowly working on our yard. It will be a long journey that's for sure. I'll be posting new photos as we do more work.

Here is the After.
So far we hauled in 8 truck loads of dirt. We're trying to make the front yard flat with a retaining wall along the front edge.

In the back yard the builders of the home left a huge pile of construction garbage in our back yard. Yuck huh? I wouldn't be surprised if there were snakes back there.
(above) They are removing the pile
(below) The pile has been removed. Yea!

And cute Ethan playing with his mini skid steer. The boys loved watching all the dump trucks come to our house.

Yard: To be Continued...