Don't be dumb and Stay classy

July 2014 was probably one of the busiest, most hectic months we've experienced so far in our marriage.

We started the month off (literally) with the birth of this cutie-

Brandon's family came down for the 4th of July and to see Giselle.  My mother-in-law, Marilyn and youngest sister-in-law, Emma (pictured left) stayed for the month of July to help with Giselle while Brandon and I finished up the semester.

and then 3 weeks later I graduated college.

 

 Me shaking hands with Associate Academic Vice President Sexton and Dean Ivers of the College of Language and Letters.

 

 This is one of my favorite History Professors at BYU-Idaho- Lawrence Coates.  He kind of reminds me of Professor Flitwick from Harry Potter.  I took 5 history classes from him in the 4 years I was at school.  He is now the oldest professor in the Department of History, Geography, and Political Science because the other older professor- Brother Inama, is retiring July 2015.

 One of my friends-Sarah Willmott.  She lives in Canada and we had many interesting conversations in our U.S. Constitutional History and Law class.  She's really cool and I enjoyed being in class with her.

My other friend Katherine Andersen.  She and I had a blast in our European History class.  We both love the French language and culture.  Needless to say- the semester long group project with her was TONS of fun.

 Brother Lamoreaux!! He was my professor for Foreign Government in 2012.  Since that class, he and his family have become close family friends with Brandon and I.  We were also in his ward while we lived in the house.  I taught his son, Jeremy Jr., in primary.  Words cannot express how awesome this man is.

Commencement and Convocation were a blur.  For those not familiar with how graduation works at BYU-Idaho here's a watered down version-

Commencement is when ALL the graduates from the college for that semester and their families and friends gather in the BYU-Idaho Center (a miniature of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah) and we listen to the President of the College speak.  Then they have the graduates stand up, "present" us as graduates of the school, and say "y'all are getting diplomas." (not exactly in those words) For Commencement services, family and friends DO need tickets to get in.

Convocation is when the graduates split up into their respective Colleges.  Mine was the College of Language and Letters which includes the following Departments- English, History/Geography/Political Science, Humanities and Philosophy, and the Department of Languages and International Studies.  We met in the Grand Ballroom in the Manwaring Center.  At Convocation, the Dean of the respective college speaks to the graduates and then there's a guest speaker.  After the guest speaker, they read our names and our major, we walk across the stage, get our empty diploma covers, and sit back down.  Once everyone has walked across the stage, everyone applauds the graduates and then all chaos commences as we try and say our final goodbyes to friends, classmates, and teachers and then get the heck outta dodge.

Anyway. The one thing I remember from the speakers was from Convocation.  Dean Ivers' closing remarks to us graduates were "Don't be dumb. Stay classy."  That's a pretty great motto :)

One thing I will say though-technology is an amazing thing.  My family couldn't make it to Rexburg for my graduation due to scheduling conflicts and geographical spacing (one of my sisters lives in Hawaii and my brother was on his mission).  Even though they couldn't attend in person, most of them were able to watch it online through the school's website.

Brandon's dad and sister, Darcie, came back down for graduation.  His other sister, Alyssa, wasn't able to attend because of work and his brother, Cameron, was already down here because he attends BYU-Idaho as well.  

I'm grateful that I was able to attend this wonderful University.  I learned a lot and grew in many ways.  Yes, dealing with the Financial Aid Office, trying to find housing, getting used to all the updates to I-Learn (similar to Blackboard) and many other things were frustrating. But overall, the last 4 years when I attended college were great.  I'm glad that I had the opportunity to come here :)

Baby makes 3!

A couple months after the big move and me starting a job at the local Kmart, we found out I was pregnant.  I'll admit up front- I was scared because I had just suffered a miscarriage right at the beginning of the second trimester a few months prior.  However, once I went to the doctor and got things confirmed-the scared feeling mostly went away and I was starting to feel excited.

We had decided to keep the gender a surprise- well, it was more of a compromise between Brandon and I.  Throughout the pregnancy I had mixed feelings about it.  The first trimester, which was during the fall, I didn't really think too much about it-mainly because I was still skeptical about whether or not I would be able to carry this pregnancy all the way through.  The second trimester was the hardest because all the baby sales were happening and Kmart had some AWESOME deals for the sales as well as the winter clearance items.  Once the third trimester hit, I was gearing up for birth AND finishing up school so my mind was distracted fairly well.

There were some complications with this pregnancy.  Easter morning, Brandon and I headed to the hospital because I was having contractions.  While the nurse was getting me hooked up to the monitors and asking me the routine questions, Brandon was sitting there cracking jokes and making me laugh.  Both the nurse and I weren't particularly happy-mainly because it threw off the contraction monitor and it hurt like crazy for me to laugh.  We were there for 8 hours while they got everything under control.  At least every other weekend after that, I was back in labor and delivery due to pre-term contractions. Needless to say- the nurses and I were on first name basis by the time I was ready to deliver for real.

Thankfully I got to my due date...actually I went passed my due date much to my discomfort yet relief on everyone's part.  Our baby girl was born July 1st, 2014.  We named her Giselle :)

Here are some pictures of the cute bundle!

This last picture was taken in the "lounge area" of one of the bathrooms on campus.  Giselle is barely a week old in this shot. Yes, I went to school 5 days after having her because I was 3 weeks away from graduating! Which I will talk about in the next post :) Until next time!

The House

So the first big life happening was the move from our first apartment into the house.

We moved into that cute little house at the end of August 2013.  There was the top floor and the basement and we rented the top half.  It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath apartment with washer/dryer hookups.  It was fairly old house and it had it's quirks (we could feel a draft through the front door when it was windy and sometimes the leaves would get blown in under the door) but We LOVED IT.  The mantle of the fireplace in the front room was PERFECT for decorating.  So here are some pictures of how I decorated the house-

First up- the Fall Wreath. I had lots of fun putting this together

Next is this wood sign. It says "Families: Forever, for always, no matter what"

The mantle at Christmas! I LOVED this mantle. I'm sad that we don't have one anymore.

The Christmas tree! It fit perfectly in that little corner.

So yeah, most of the decorating happened around the holidays (go figure).  Sadly I don't have any pictures of the everyday decor but you live and you learn.  The living room was one of my favorite rooms mainly because it had really cute charisma. As is evident by this next picture of the front door and closets-

My other favorite room was the kitchen. And boy, was it ever a kitchen.  Look at all that counter space!!

And let's not forget the pantry!!

So that's the overview of the house we lived in for a short while. We were planning on staying there until Brandon graduated but as usual-things worked out in our favor and we ended up living there for just under a year.  The time we spent in that house was great and I hope that our future starter home is just as cute and has just as much character :)

Two years later.....

So it's been 2 years since I last posted.

It's amazing how fast time goes.  So here's a glimpse of all the major life happenings since July 2013:

-Moved into this cute little house

-Baby makes 3!

-My College Graduation

-Moved out of this cute house 4 days after graduation

-Spent 4 months in Utah with family while Brandon went to Washington D.C. for an internship

-Moved back to Rexburg after Brandon got back from D.C.

-Baby makes 4!

As the days and weeks go by, I will expand on these adventures and others that we have had! Until next time!