aaron.anica.emily.isabel.claire

We arrived safely.  Emily enjoyed the flight.  Her eyes got really big as we took off and she exclaimed, "Wow!" as we looked down on the ground beneath us.  We've just been hanging out here.  Our apartments are really nice and we get to hang out at the pool everyday.  Emily will be an olympic swimmer by the end of the summer.  This is the life!

Some of you have experienced first hand Emily's obsession with Chris Brown's new song "With You." I caught her performance on camera and thought I'd share. Yes she is using a flashlight for a microphone, and I apologize if my videography makes you nauseous.

Our soon-to-be Brother-in-law and Uncle, Ben invited us to go out and visit the baby animals at his parents farm. Emily loved the animals and hanging out on the farm. She made friends with Walt (Ben's dad) and before leaving tugged on his shirt and said, "Can I come back tomorrow?" Emily holding a baby kitten This little colt liked her, maybe he found her size less intimidating She's a little nervous about the horse eating out of her hand Emily holding a baby chick

I finally did it! While I am so excited to be done with school, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'd like to go on to get my Master's degree either sooner or later. I figure someone else has a plan and who am I to say what's going to happen next. Last Friday was graduation and what a wonderful day it was. My little sister and I graduated together. This made it a very special day and a lot funner with her by my side. I have to admit that during parts of the commencement I got a little emotional because of what it's taken to get to this point. As a mother going to school, I often felt overwhelmed because I was spread so thin and felt I couldn't be a great mother and a great student at the same time. There have been so many blessings in the past couple of years that have allowed me to do this and to know that this is what I was supposed to be working towards. While listening to the speeches I thought of the countles...

I've been a slacker at posting this month because of school so here is the latest and greatest in our lives. I had a final today and my last one is tomorrow! Yeah for the end! I was home with Em most of the day and didn't know what to do with myself without any homework. We had fun though. Aaron left us on Sunday. He is in Memphis and Em and I will fly out there the end of May. I have graduation, my sisters wedding, and a freelance photography job I have to complete before joining him. He is working out there for the summer so Em and I are going to join him and just hang out. I might either go crazy or decide I like doing nothing. She's pretty excited to hang out with mom all the time, but I'm pretty sure she might get tired of me real fast. : ) We had a little family night on Saturday before Aaron left. We went to dinner at Bistro 258 in Ogden. We had the most amazing dessert. It was called "Fuzzy Peaches" and it had fresh peaches with brown sugar pan-seared ...

For my photography final I wanted to do a series of pictures on fas hion so I contacted several boutiques in Ogden and Salt Lake trying to find one that would work with me and let me use their location and clothing. Many of them were quite rude and told me no; however, I was very ecstatic to find one on 25th Street in Ogden. It's called "Slavy" and the owner is the nicest lady named Slavy from Yugoslavia. I loved her clothes and she was totally chill with us coming in and doing our thing. My friend and my brother-in-law's girlfriend willingly agreed to be the models for my shoot and we had a blast!

I arrived home from school this evening to find a delicious dinner prepared by my wonderful husband and daughter. We sat down to eat and before she took her first bite, Emily looked at Aaron and said, "Thank you Chef!" She then turned to me, my mouth full of food, and said, "Mom say thank you to the Chef." I looked at Aaron with a smile on my face and said, "Thank you to the Chef." I thought this was so cute that I want to make it a tradition. Maybe it's because I'm hoping for some appreciation on the nights I cook (especially if they thank me before the first bite) or maybe I'm just glad I have a grateful daughter.