My Man The Graduate.

WARNING: This post is a total brag-fest. Read at your own discretion:)

Graduating from college while living with your parents as a typical college student is wonderful and amazing.

Graduating from college after you're married, working full time, and scraping by to survive is extra wonderful and amazing, but ...

Graduating from college after you're married, working full time +, holding big boy church callings, and being a father, is freaking wonderful, amazing, and a blasted miracle.

My man chose the third way to do it and he is freaking wonderful and amazing! Jon has not stopped working his brains out since the day he left for his mission. He returned home a few days into Spring semester 2006 and started right up. He got a job within 2 weeks of being home, and he proposed to me within 3 months. We got married 5 months after his return and we had little Tag about 21 months after that. All the while working full time and attending school full time, and up until about a year ago, he was working a second job picking up bodies for a mortuary (we cannot wait to share that story with the grandkids:).

So, he earned his Bachelor of Accounting and I am so so proud of him. He has really held it together and has worked hard to give Tag and I the time we need from him while balancing his work, calling, and school. The past 4 months or so he has been working for an accounting firm through the busy season....that means late nights and every Saturday. We missed him a ton, so I can only imagine how lost he felt rarely seeing us or being at home. We are thrilled for the summer and are going to take advantage of every minute together. Fingers crossed, and on to Grad school!!

Congratulations Babe! Tag and I are so proud of you and grateful for all your hard work, so we can hang out at home together all day!

Finals Week Studies
Cheering for Daddy

President Ann Milner

We bleed purple.

Weber State is Great, Great, Great!

That night we had a little party with our family. Plenty of Weber memorabilia.

College tuition for 2 people...$50,000+

Child's Weber State Shirt....$19

What's another 19 bucks, right?

Easter & Baby Animal Farm

Easter was wonderful this year. I finished reading the series, "Fishers of Men," by Elder Lund, a couple weeks before. The first book was so hard to gain interest in, but once I got going I really enjoyed it. It helped me understand a lot more of Christ's life and the Atonement, and got me interested in reading the New Testament and Jesus The Christ. It really made for a more meaningful Easter Sunday. That evening we went to my mom's house for dinner and as always, she made a delicious meal for all to enjoy.

Tag got some books and sidewalk chalk in his Easter basket. He busted the sidewalk chalk into a million pieces. The books are okay though.

The day before Easter we went to a baby animal farm somewhere near Logan. It was a ton of fun and Tag seemed to enjoy it. Any of the cool looking pics are by brock...the others are mine.

The red- headed Indian boy.

My Fave By Brock.

Good thing we hadn't heard of Swine Flu at this point. Tag would have missed out on handling the piggies;)

A Boy for my Boy

Tag now has an adorable boy cuz on the Bush side. Peter Kaleb Mcfarlane was born on April 22. He has a great head of hair and of course is as sweet as ever. It is so amazing to be around those little newborns. It is just impossible to deny the amazing Spirit and confirmation of our Heavenly Father's perfect plan. Welcome Kaleb!

Baby Girls' BDays

I am lucky to have so many adorable nieces! The order of these pictures is correct on opposite day! Why isn't uploading easier blogger??

Sweet Ivy turns 2 on May 7th. This little girl was born while I was celebrating my graduation in Mexico. I didn't get to see her until she was 6 days old! Another fun tidbit...Tag and Ivy are exactly nine months apart....We like to believe Tag was hecho in Mexico:) She was the cutest, smiley baby. Now she's talking and calling Tag by name...time moves too fast!

Miss Amoree Kate turns 1 on April 24th. This pretty girl and her cuz, Tag, are only 2 1/2 months apart, so we expect them to be good buds (if he would just stop beating on her)! The night she was born I got the phone call and then told Tag and he gave the sweetest smile. I don't care what ya say, I know it was just for her!

Maliya Bug turned 2 on April 4th. She is such a nice girl to Tag boy and I just happen to be a favorite of hers, and I kinda like that:) When I went to see her at the hospital, I felt Tag's little spirit so close by and knew it was time for our family to expand.

Happy Birthday Girls!

the good with the bad and a little TMI

Ya know when you wait till the last day of the month to take care of emissions, inspections, and registration on your husband's vehicle? So, you get out the door in the wee hours of the morning, with your squirmy one year old to hopefully avoid a crowd at the closest Jiffy Lube? But, you don't avoid the crowds and have to wait in a miniature room with 10 other people and a squirmy one year old, who still insists crawling is faster and get his pants all dirty on the greasy, nasty floor? Just for them to tell you an hour later that a brake light is out, and they don't know how to change it?

So you take it to the local Big O' Tires, and they are kind and get it right in, but you find yourself in another waiting room with lots of people? And immediately after entering your squirmy one year old grips onto a chair, gets into a mini squat, eyes start to water, and grunts noisily for all to hear? And in your embarrassment, you run into the bathroom with him to find there is absolutely no place to change a stinky one year old? So, you hope with all your might that it will be fast and you take the rotten smelling one year old back into the stuffy waiting room for all the waiting strangers to sniff? Then just when you think someone is going to tell you to get your smelly kid out of there, they tell you your car is done and not to worry about paying for the little light, but to just come back and see them again?

Well, I sure do! Thanks Big O Tires, I will come back and see you, minus my poopy boy.

The social event of the year....

and yes, I was in attendance. My creative sister-in-law, Amanda, threw a very exclusive Twilight Party last Saturday. I'm bummed I didn't get pics, but it was complete with blood dripped glasses, Twilight decor, blood cake, Twilight trivia (of which, I took 2nd place), and of course the viewing of Twilight. We randomly got chosen to be each character, and I was Jasper, the somewhat creepy, Edward Scissorhands, love to Alice.

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I had a fangtastic time..ha ha! Thanks Amanda!

Soon to be Mine

This cute little number is at Payless right now for $22.99, and I will soon be bringing her home as a "well done Melissa" present, from me, for me.

Along my battle to drop the pounds, I have decided I need little rewards here and there, and shoes are just the right fit for this.

5 down, 3 more to go til I own you, you sweet, delicate, pale yellow, spring wedges of my eye.

New reward coming soon.

Circus Party Bash!

Oh boy, did we have fun with our little Tag's circus birthday party! I decided to use a circus theme way back in October and was able to find lots of fun stuff along the way. Our Bishop was nice enough to let us use the church house, so we were able to have all the family together. We had hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, nachos, and a cotton candy maker we never got around to using.

These pics are all compliments of Uncle Brock, the assigned photographer for the event. Thanks bud!

Tag's adorable clown outfit. Yes, homemade, but I can't take the credit. My good pal/sewing teacher , Jamie, helped me every step of the way, and she sketched the pattern....amazing!

(he didn't love the hat, I have no idea why!?)

Ya, I'm pretty proud of these cakes. I found pictures online and just copied.

A centerpiece.

My funny clown again.

Just washin the cake down with some milk.

(These pics are kinda out of order...why is it so hard to upload pics on blogger?)

Diggin in.

Bathtime in the church kitchen sink.

Happy Birthday to Tag.

(Notice face paint on Tag's cutie cousin Jayde. Aunt Karaline was assigned the circus face painter.)

Good ole game of pin the nose on the clown.

Sweet Amoree Kate partying with clown nose in hand and girly face paint.

I had a bag for each of the kids with a clown nose, circus book, animal crackers, etc. I also made clown hats and let them each decorate their own. Here is Isaac dancing the night away.

What is a circus without a clown and dancing gorilla?

Dancing gorilla attacking my brother.

I had Jon come out as my dancing gorilla to the song, "I like to move it, move it."

Despite the fact that the kids were all terrified of him at Halloween time, they LOVED it!!

What a lucky boy Tag is!

Cousin Savana dancing with the gorilla.

Tag's Daddy is multi-talented. He was also Jonny the Juggler;)

Grandpa Abel, the clown. Doesn't he look authentic? Thanks Dad!

Tag and his cousin, Maliya, were not fans of the clown. Tag could just not see Grandpa under that makeup and was not about to hang out with him too long.

And last, but certainly not least. The bearded lady! I didn't even have to get a costume for this one. Thanks for growing those whiskers out Aunt Nikki ;) Ha Ha!

Thanks to all the family for being such good sports and helping out.

I had so much fun with this!