Papa's Girl

I can't stand Mountain Dew. But my dad LOVES the stuff. I think it runs through his veins. I'm pretty sure he includes Mountain Dew in his food storage. I found Aubrey the other day giving a can of Mountain Dew a ride in her stroller. She's a papa's girl!

She even cries when I take it away!

The day we've been waiting for!!!

We have been waiting for this day forever...or at least three years. Both descriptions seem about accurate. Jeremiah graduated from law school on Friday, April 23. Although he technically graduated from the University of Toledo College of Law, he spent his third year of school at Brigham Young University and therefore walked with the BYU Class of 2010 for graduation. Graduation was held at the Provo Tabernacle, which is beautiful. My niece, Natalie, watched Aubrey, and after two hours in the benches with the boys, I sort of wish she'd watched them too. But it was important to Jeremiah that the boys be there for his special occasion, and after three years of studying and studying and studying...and finals...how could I say no to that simple request? Roman and I made a few trips up and down the spiral stairs, Roman threw Hayden's gum onto some poor, unsuspecting man, and they played games on my phone until the battery died. But in the end, we got to see Jeremiah graduate and I was so proud to see him receive his diploma. Jeremiah's worked really hard for this accomplishment and even with some of the events in the last three years, he did amazing.

Jeremiah's sister, Amy, and her son, Edmund, flew out for Jeremiah's graduation. Jeremiah was excited that his sister would be here to support him and celebrate with him.

This is the only picture I have of Jeremiah walking. My camera decided that the lighting was too poor and didn't take any more photos (unless you want to see a lot of black???) and my video camera ran out of tape. Luckily Amy, Josette, and Melanie took photos and video for me too.

After graduation, there was a reception out on the lawn, but it was also cold, windy, and rainy so we just took some pictures before heading out to change clothes before dinner.

Jeremiah's mother was so proud of him!

I was also so proud of him...and super excited to have a break from being the law school wife. The dean had all the graduating students stand up and applaud their family and friends who supported them through law school, and because I couldn't see Jeremiah during this time, I later told him he better have just about clapped his hands off for me!

After changing clothes, we went to Brick Oven for dinner. Brick Oven is usually a staple when Amy is in town, and because we got there so early (before 5pm!) we got seated almost immediately. I love their salad bar. In fact, when I am pregnant I crave their salad bar.

After dinner, Amy and Steve took Jeremiah to run a few errands, including picking him up a new iPod Touch (I'm pretending it's really mine, I love it) and ice cream and toppings for what was supposed to be a family gathering for cupcakes and ice cream. However, I had other plans. I got in touch with some of Jeremiah's friends and planned a surprise graduation party for him. It was a lot of fun. Josette, Melanie, and I decorated the house in blue and white. Jeremiah was really surprised to come in and see his family and friends there. I was surprised too...that no one ruined the surprise! I thought for sure he would figure it out, but I must be getting sneaky in my old(er) age.

Jeremiah greeting Matt, one of his friends from high school.

Here's the table. It included blue and white York bites (not M&Ms as most people thought), chocolate graduation caps (inspired by Bakerella ), and "Y" cupcakes. Although I wasn't thinking clearly, because most of the children were later running around with blue-tinted faces. The picture on the easel is a Constitution reprint from Cultural Hall that I got for Jeremiah for graduation. Hopefully it makes a great piece for his office one day.

Aubrey with her ice cream. Any shyness she had for all the strangers around her was pushed aside when she had her ice cream. Everyone was her friend, that's how happy she was.

Jeremiah's friends from high school, Matt and Rachelle.

Jeremiah's sister, Sophie, was in town picking up her daughter, Cecile, and she had great timing. She was able to come to Jeremiah's party!

Jeremiah's friend, Justin, who has a knack for wrestling with my boys (they slept so well that night!).

Justing wasn't the only one who wrestled with the boys. Cecile and Natalie had to get their wrestling in, too. It's so fun to have nieces who love my kids so much! They are so awesome!

Overall, it was a fun day, but by the end, we were exhausted. In fact, I'm pretty sure the dishes weren't done until the following afternoon and we all slept in until 8am the next day (which really isn't sleeping in for me, but when the kids are usually up at 7am, I can't complain). Thanks to everyone who made it such a special day for Jeremiah. He made it through three years of law school and survived, I'm so proud of him!

Spring Break 2010

This year, we chose to spend Spring Break by taking a way-too-long drive to Washington to visit my family. Carissa flew out here to help me drive back since Jeremiah had to stay in Utah to prepare for finals. Because we were leaving the day before Easter, we had the Easter Bunny make a special trip to our house on Saturday morning (mostly because Jeremiah wanted to see the kids search for their baskets). The Easter Bunny must not have a sense of humor, because he didn't hide Aubrey's egg. It was just sitting there on the couch and she found it right away. Roman found his behind some couch pillows and Hayden found his behind Jeremiah's guitar. They were more excited about the candy then the crayon rolls, although I'm pretty sure the Easter Bunny was thinking they were a great idea for the upcoming road trip.

You'll have to excuse Aubrey's bedhead. She had her hair in pigtails the night before.

You'll also have to excuse Hayden's lack of facial expressions. And his holey socks. We woke him up because we had to get on the road. He just hasn't had his morning DP yet...oh wait, that's me.

Roman and Lovey found their basket really quick. He was a little more excited about his crayon rolls. I'm going to love them at church, too. No more crayon wars!

We then were off on the road. The boys were really good at entertaining themselves (obviously). Aubrey needed constant attention (mostly from me, but she occasionally found the boys entertaining), which made a fourteen-hour road trip feel more like a fourteen-day road trip. She still hadn't quite warmed up to Carissa, even refusing her binky if it was Carissa who happened to be handing it to her. You know it's serious when Aubrey refuses her binky.

After arriving at my parent's house Saturday night, and giving up and letting the boys sleep in my bed with me (which meant NO sleep for me), we got to spend Easter with my family. My mom hid some eggs around the house filled with candy and quarters. My boys are obsessed with money, mostly coins, and figured they had enough quarters to buy themselves a new Wii game (sadly, they were about $56 short). They also loved spending time with their cousins since they hadn't seen them since last July. Aubrey was overwhelmed with the amount of strangers around her, although she did let Bryan hold her (sorry, Brent!) and she warmed up to my parents really fast. And I'm pretty sure my parents warmed up to her, too. I think they would have kept her if I'd asked them to.

All the cousins....wait, how did Lovey get in there???....except Aubrey and Madelynn. In order, Hayden, Rix, Olivia, Roman....uh, Lovey...Bryce, Cole, and Jack.

Aubrey got some candy and a Dora ball from the Easter Bunny. I don't think she knew that it was candy until I opened it for her, but she LOVES balls. That Easter Bunny is so smart.

Roman got a yellow car and some candy. And his stash of Esater eggs.

Hayden, I think, was trying to eat his car?? Wait, Hayden, that's not the candy!!!

Here's the original princess (before Aubrey and Madelynn ruined her single-princess status). I love Olivia and her girl-attitude/drama/hormones.

No, this is not a picture of Celeste looking a bit like Rix at an early age. This is Rix looking like Celeste...see, Pearson genes don't kick butt, at least not all the way. Rix is such a smart little boy. Although that means he's pretty good at logic-ing his way out of things.

Here's Madelynn, who has seriously grown up since last time I saw her (at least she's walking!). Madelynn is super social, she's like Aubrey's opposite. Aubrey was even shy of Madelynn, even though that didn't stop Madelynn from trying to become instant BFFs.

Aubrey chose to perch on top of Papa during the chaos that was the Easter egg hunt.

After all the festivities, we had Easter dinner consisting of ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, salad and deviled eggs followed by my orange raspberry cake. My mom had the kids help her make an egg-shaped rice crispy treat and then decorated it with frosting and sprinkles. Aubrey just ate hers plain. Less of a mess :)

Mom pulled out the handheld games and got four instant friends.

The girls and I took the kids on a playdate to McDonalds. Three adults and nine kids. I think people thought we were crazy. Or polygamists. Luckily the playarea was quite entertaining and the only child I had to supervise was Aubrey. Carissa had it really easy, because not only did Jack and Olivia go into the playarea, but so did Madelynn. She followed Olivia all the way up to the top! Hayden was upset that Aubrey refused to do the same.

What a mean Aunt Celeste, not letting Madelynn try to climb up the slides that all the big kids are sliding down at lightening speed! It's not like she was in any danger, right?

At our first of two playdates at Celeste's house, the kids tried playing Pokemon/Bakugan, but it didn't turn out too well because none of them really know how to play even though they all thought they did. We then had pizza while the kids tried to play outside in the rain.

Aubrey was really surprised to see my outside the window. It's like I'm magic.

My parents loved it when Aubrey warmed up to them. Aubrey would crawl over to Mom with a binky, her lovey, and a book.

It seems like I spent most of my time with my sisters and parents. The girls and I went to The Ram for dessert one night (bread pudding!!!) where we laughed so hard I was crying...although I can't remember what exactly we were even talking about. We also had movie night at Celeste's, and even though the movie wasn't all that great, we had fun. Two girls' nights out in one week?! I'm so lucky!

I did make a trip up to Tukwila to meet one of my besties, Heather. We've been close friends since 4th grade, and I finally got to meet her husband (he's seriously awesome, he was awesome with the boys and is awesome for Heather). We met at Rainforest Cafe and Aubrey was (surprisingly) deathly afraid of the robotic animals. So of course the hostess sat us next to a small herd of elephants. Aubrey did not leave my lap the whole meal. She didn't even lift her head off my shoulder. I thought for sure she was asleep, but she was just hiding. And when the animals came to "life" during the "thunder storm", she freaked out. But even with her girly-drama, we had a great time. Not only was my dijon chicken TODIEFOR, but Hayden and Roman enjoyed the atmosphere and I had a great time catching up with Heather and Juan.

On our last day there, we had one more playdate at Celeste's house. Luckily the weather was great. Mom even joined us for a little bit.

Look at this playground! Bryan and his brother, Dave, built it from pieces donated from Mom and Dad, and my kids were in backyard heaven.

Mom was adament that we get a cousins picture. The odds of getting nine kids to hold still, look at the camera, and smile is about as likely as me winning the lottery. If I even played the lottery. But I think the pictures went really well. The boys were in good moods and Aubrey was so wedged into the ladder that she couldn't move even if she wanted to.

Here's Aubrey faux-walking.

I'm not sure whose idea it was for the three of us to take a picture on the slide. I'm sandwiched in between Carissa and Celeste, and Celeste has her feet digging into the gravel just to keep us three from sliding off. To top it off, the kids are at the top of the slide, threatening to slide down into us...well, Carissa would have gotten the worst of it, so I guess I wasn't too concerned. Although her foot was digging into my back.

Aubrey was not a fan of the slide (her tears gave it away) but she loved this little car to ride around in, and luckily she has some awesome cousins - thanks Bryce and Cole! - who babysat/pushed her around.

After saying our goodbyes, which is always the hardest part, we went home to give the kids naps and so I could pack up the Trailblazer. This time I had my dad driving back with me, and I was looking forward to some one-on-one time with him....and it didn't hurt that he drove the whole way. On the other hand, that meant I was on Aubrey-duty the whole time. We drove to Baker City, Oregon and got a hotel, driving the rest of the way after a good night's rest. The nine hours the next day was a little easier, probably because I may or may not have drugged my kids with Benadryl, which may or may not have been the reason Aubrey took a two-hour nap and the boys stared blankly at the DVD player for hours. It was nice to be home and in my own bed and with my own husband, but I do miss my family again!

The best part of the road trip:

Aren't they so cute when they are sleeping?! Here's to hoping our next Spring Break is spent in Washington with our family!!!