For her Grandmas and Grandpas....

We made a video of her first Easter Egg Hunt. Brady shot most of it, except where it gets really shaky. That was me. We're still learning. I edited it and this is the result:

She is a little sassafras. We were laughing at the part where B gives her a flower to put in her basket and she clearly says "No" and throws it on the ground. 

Then when she won't give B a high five. That little toot.

This picture kills me. She is so funny.

Can you tell this day was OVER documented? We have like, 20 more minutes of video, and a million more photos. Don't worry, I won't post anymore. We just had to laugh.

Liv makes a friend

 His name is Hoppy. She named him all by herself.

love at first sight

"Hoppy!!!!"

"are you you hungry, Hoppy?"

"don't worry, i'll save you!"

"we'll be best buddies forever!"

*Wish we could take credit for this adorable Mr. Potato head bunny, but it was from her Grammy and Grampy :)

Traditions

One of the fun things about getting married is blending the traditions you have from both families. I'm actually not being sarcastic, I really do love that I get to take my very favorite traditions and then add fun new ones!

My very favorite tradition on Easter is dying eggs. I think they're pretty, and its fun to try and come up with different things to put on them. This year I pretty much did it by myself. B isn't quite as into it as much as me, and that's okay. I'm excited for when I have kids old enough to have fun coloring eggs with me! I saw this video from Martha on using a lace pattern for eggs and I thought I'd give it a go.

Mine aren't as picture perfect as hers, but I really liked them anyway and will probably do it again next year.

We always colored eggs the night before Easter and then the Easter Bunny would hide them outside the next morning. Brady's favorite was finding candy eggs hidden inside. SO we combined the two and had all the plastic candy eggs hidden inside, and the real eggs outside. Olivia wouldn't have understood "Easter Bunny" anyway this year, but B is kind of thinking that we shouldn't tell our kids there is an Easter Bunny at all. What do you think about that? I don't know what I think yet. Easter Bunny is fun and all, but its still fun even when you know its just your parents that did all the crazy hiding of the eggs. Hmmm.

I love deviled eggs! B makes really good deviled eggs with more than just your avg. mayo and mustard. I left it up to him to make them this year, and they were tasty. He was trying to be fancy because we heard on some morning show to use a frosting bag with a star tip when putting the mixture into the egg. We don't have any frosting bags or tips, so he cut a star shape in a plastic bag. They ended up looking like p....well I'll just let you use your imagination. It was a good effort though!

A new tradition for both of us (we talked about after seeing all my smart friends and family's posts about Easter) will be next year when we do an Easter countdown the week leading up to Easter, and do all the egg hunting, baskets, and candy on Saturday so that Sunday we can focus on the true meaning of Easter with church and family. I'm always looking for ways to focus on the Savior so if anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them!

Easter Morning

Olivia LOVED Easter! She's really started to be expressive and it was so much fun to watch her excitement.

This picture sums up the entire day:

And then right after this was taken she accidentally dumped the entire basket out, but I thought it made for a cute picture. 

We kind of had to throw things together, because we got home from our Zion's trip on Saturday evening.

I'm thankful that she's still young and doesn't need too much to get excited. Her basket consisted of a few mini eggs filled with jelly beans and chocolate, a dora watch (from the dollar store), and some Easter stickers. Also, we bought that little pink chair because all the sudden she always wants her own seat so she can sit like a big girl. 

 She was a joy to watch! Her eyes always dancing with excitement, and just absolutely thrilled that the eggs had candy inside!

Amazing

The other post was more just for us to remember our trip. This is a post just for Brady. 

I couldn't let the opportunity to show how thankful I am for him and how proud I am of him pass by.

At the Awards Ceremony they said really nice things about Brady and all of the guys who won. I just wanted to publicly say how grateful I am for all of his hard work. 


It was really nice to see him be recognized for his sales contribution to the company. He has had to work only part time because of my schooling. I cannot express how much it means to me that he was willing to put his work and schooling on the back burner so I could achieve my dream. 


With that said, even only working part time, he has been the top salesman in the company (not just Orem) month after month. I just think its kind of amazing that he was still able to crush goals and come out on top time after time, while not physically being able to work as much as others. The other two awards (on either side of the President's Club Award) are MVP of sales awards that he had previously won.

We are very sad to have to leave this company in a few months. It may sound cheesy, but it has really been such a blessing in our lives.

Way to  go Brady! You amaze me!

Time Lapse

Its about to get real here on B+T. Like really real. So real that you might get a glance at my underwear. Okay, there's no might about it...you will get a glance at my underwear. But if I'm being honest its actually pretty much all my tank top that I wear as undershirt, so don't get mad at me. Be warned!


Now that the cautionary remarks have been given let me explain. Brady decided it would be interesting to shoot a time lapse video with his iphone without telling me he was doing so. So every 60 seconds for 96 minutes the iphone took a picture.

Here is the result:

Afterthoughts...
a) I was really into that dinner.
b) Its true. When I've eaten one too many deviled eggs, I unzip my skirt because I feel that my stomach might pop.
c) Proof that we do try to keep a clean house, but 5 minutes later a little tornado feels the need to dump ALL the blocks out. Oh and I guess we don't like to throw trash away thats on the end table.
d) Our neighbor was returning a plate to us, and chatted for a few minutes, which should explain the shots of the door. And now you can see that Liv draws on EVERYTHING.
e) Im dying over the shot at 0:23 when B and I are hiding behind the book. I'm working with Olivia on her attention span. Actually we're working on quite a few things now that I get to home with her regularly (colors, not saying NO to mom or dad, and getting a longer attention span). She listens for about 30 seconds (or less) when I read to her, so we were trying to get her to think we were telling secrets and maybe she would want in. She didn't.
f) When we get her dressed for bed we turn out the main lights, which is why it gets dark at the end.
g) I guess the secret is out. Taking care of Liv is as easy as sitting on the couch and then rolling around on the floor for a while, and then reading a magazine and looking at your iphone.


We've watched this about a million times. Watching only Liv, then only B, then only the chip bag, etc, and we think its pretty bomb. So unfortunately for you, you will be seeing a lot of the time lapse videos. Hopefully we can figure out how to hook it up to our real camera and get some better quality photos.

*This was taken last night (Sunday evening). We went to Zion's this weekend on a company retreat and it was really awesome. Pics and stories later. And yes, it was Easter and instead of posting the ah-dorable photos of Liv finding her Easter eggs we posted this first because we thought it to be of most importance. Joking, I'll post the real Easter post late- as usual.

President's Club @ Zion's

The company my husband works for does something called 'President's Club', where only the best of the best will make it in. They hold it every year, and everyone in the company is essentially competing for this award and a spot in the prestigious club. 

B made it! And as a side effect of marrying a hard worker, I got to go along for the ride :)

We were treated so nicely- a beautiful hotel room, fancy dinners, a duffle bag full of ipad and iphone accessories, a Patagonia vest (one for him and one for me), and Brady received an awesome crystal trophy and a beautiful handmade italian watch. We were definitely not expecting anything like this. This was so nice of the company and Brady (and I, even though I didn't do anything, ha!) felt so appreciated.

It was really awesome for me to get the opportunity to meet the the President and Directors of this great company. Simply Mac is a company with great values and I was impressed by everyone I met there.

This year it was held in Zion's National Park. After we checked into our hotel (The Desert Pearl Inn), we explored the main street, and then went to a nice dinner at the Switchback Grill. We failed to get any pictures together during this entire trip. Oh excuse me, we actually have 2. The one above, of the backs of our heads and then one of us hiking. I wish we could remember to get pictures together!

The next morning we hiked the Emerald Pools trail. 

We only have about a million pictures, so get ready for an attack of the collages:

That evening the awards ceremony was held at the Majestic View Lodge.

Brady and Steve Bain (President of Simply Mac)

Joel, Jon, Blain, Brady, Steve, Tyler
Brady receiving his award from his manager, the president, and the directors.
He and Blain are goofballs.

Brady receiving his watch.

It was such a fun trip!

Thanksgiving point

I can't even explain how nice it was to go to bed last night (Sunday evening) and know that I didn't have to wake up for school today. It was amazing to be able to just hang out with my family all evening and not have to leave early to do homework or study.

This weekend has been quite nice too! I ENJOYED the weekend. No studying and nothing looming over my head.

My parents took Liv, and her cousins (along with the Moms) to Thanksgiving Point

On the drive up Livy, Addie, and Ellie had all fallen asleep, so Sarah and I stayed by the cars and chatted while the others went in and had lunch. My parents brought us out something really yummy. I must have been really hungry because I don't even know what it was. Chicken Salad maybe. It totally hit the spot.

Olivia woke up and we headed over to the gardens. When she saw the waterfalls, she was beside herself with joy. She wanted to get out of her stroller, and then proceeded to pace back and forth biting her finger, pointing at the falls, smiling, and saying "wa wa"

I finally took her hand and she tried to RUN down the giant hill towards the water.

 After spending an ample amount of time at the waterfalls, we headed up to the tents. Grampy bought us some homemade doughnuts, and all the other kids did a craft. Olivia chose to play in the dirt instead of doing the craft. She knows what she likes.

grad·u·a·tion

Getting ready

I love my cute mom and dad!

 I also can't get enough of this jack-o-latern smile!

Ceremony time

Presenting our class gift to Dr. Molen and Co.

Meanwhile...

Waiting to receive our diplomas

Yahooo!

And immediately following me walking across the stage this little girl was DONE!

This is how she got to spend her time, while the rest of us were locked inside (haha)!

 Celebrating with dinner!

We put the crazy horse (Liv) to bed and went out for din-din with my fam. 

The original plan was to take her with us, but man oh man. She was not havin it. Thank goodness for good neighbors!

Two of my sistees

 And its over. I still don't know if I can believe it. Twenty months of Dental Hygiene school is over. 

No more clinic 3 times a week, no more waking up early and sneaking out of the house so as not to wake my sleeping baby and husband, no more sitting so long in a classroom that my bum becomes numb, no more PE's, no more papers, no more group projects, no more staying up til midnight to study!!! I am so grateful for my family who is always there for me. My sister Carrie and her family for always being willing to come and be my patient on short notice. My in-laws for their support and help with Olivia. My husband for listening to me cry and have nervous breakdowns/anxiety attacks on a regular basis. And for still loving me and doing everything in his power to help me. I know I know, I'm not accepting an Academy Award so I'll just stop there. But I really am incredibly grateful ALL of my friends and family who supported me through this crazy time!

Although it seemed like it would never ever end, it did. And we did it! 

And I am SO happy!