Christmas 2013

For Christmas Eve my father came up with the idea to go to temple square to look at all the Christmas lights. For those unfamiliar with my dad...this came as a complete surprise. He rarely likes to go to crowded places much less bring up the idea.  We decided that arriving at temple square at dusk would minimize the amount of crowds that we would run into. It worked.

Andrew got to try out his dinosaur hat and gloves. We were worried about Andrew getting cold. I think I got cold before he did.

Arriving at Temple Square

Family picture in front of our temple

How sweet!

Andrew had a ball dragging Grandpa and Grandma around the square

Christmas morning Wendy and I woke up before Andrew. I'm anticipating that this is the last year that I will wake up before my children on Christmas Eve for a long time. We finally had to wake Andrew up so we could make it so the Stuart Christmas Brunch.  Wendy had filled our stockings and Andrew's boot with lots of yummy treats. Andrew had helped me wrap all of the presents the night before.

Boots with yummy things inside!

Christmas tree with presents

Christmas morning Stuart Family Picture

After eating a yummy meal with the Stuart family we moved over to the Ashton house. There Marsha gave the million and one presents she had bought to everyone. Everyone else passed out their presents too; just not in the same volume. By this point Andrew had realized that wrapping was a lot more fun to pull off than to put on. Wrapping, boxes, toys, and lots of people. He was in heaven. We had a fair amount of fun also.

Marsha finds the picture booklet we made

Finding Minion Stuart

Saffron and Babes in Toyland

Lisette in poncho and hot

Ian and Miles in their hats

Stuart family in their hats

Brian and Ashton Family in their hats

Samuel found the treats

Andrew played with Cora

After present board games!

Snow

This actually is Andrew's second winter. I'm not sure that he remembers much of his first winter. In his memory he is experiencing snow for the first time.

Winter has led to several adjustments in our daily schedule. Previously after his nap, diaper change, and lunch Andrew and I always went on a walk around the neighborhood or the park.  Andrew does not understand that snow should change this routine. So, every day after lunch we still go out for our walk. Fortunately we have a full snowsuit and snow-boots so Andrew doesn't freeze. Andrew has quickly discovered that he likes the crunch of snow under his boots. He likes very shallow snow or the sidewalks. His initial foray into the deep snow of the lawn resulted in a cold face.

What do I do with snow?

I'll try walking in it.

 Several days ago Ben piled up  snow from previous snowstorms. It  looked like there was a little snow volcano in the back yard. After waiting several days a new snowfall covered our little volcano. We now had our own little sledding hill.

This is the result.

As with most new things Andrew had to think about whether he enjoyed it or not. Ben was slightly worried by the silence that greeted the first two runs. As you can smiles soon appeared!

Graduated...for the third time.

No, that's not counting my high school graduation.  I used to joke in high school that instead of a career that I would be a professional student. After three college degrees (2 Bachelors, and one associates) and the intent for another (Doctorate of Nursing Practice), I'm realizing that my joke may be a reality. Still, I'm glad my undergraduate portion is over. I'm looking forward to entering the graduate portion. Primary care provider has always been my end-game.

I digress, I'm sure you are less interested in my musings of past and future educational attainments than last Friday's graduation.  Yes, I graduated from Weber State University on December 13th, 2013. I had to be specific because recently I found out just how minimalistic I kept the knowledge of my graduation date.  KaLyn had to see a Facebook post; Kevin and Scott found out in Lorraine's weekly family news e-mail.  I feel slightly bad that I wasn't more vocal about letting people know about the graduation.

Part of that is that until about a week prior to graduation I didn't intend on walking. I view this graduation as a milestone; not an ending. I had attended the full graduation at USU and felt that it was extremely long and boring.  Upon reflection, and encouragement I finally decided to walk. The main factors were; one, it has actually been a long-time coming and I should celebrate that; two, with departmental honors, and a high gpa I would have a bunch of stuff around my neck and it's a way to brag through pictures without bragging overtly. Yea, I'm shallow like that sometimes.

As expected the ceremony was long. I was scared how Andrew would deal with being confined to one spot for three hours. I shouldn't have worried; Aunt Dejah attended the graduation. Between the books, puzzles, games, and even food Dejah made sure little Andrew and Elliot were rarely bored. For the times that Dejah was unable to entertain Andrew there were other amusements...such as the stadium stairs.

I also managed to stay awake,  fortunately as it would turn out,

The keynote speaker graduated from WSU thirty-eight years ago. She told us that when she graduated she never would have imagined that she would be back as the speaker and receive an honorary doctorate. She stopped at that point and slowly asked,

"Now, which one of you will come back in forty years?"
"Let me give you some of my ideas..."

"Benjamin Stuart, he'll be back here. Where's Benjamin?"

Benjamin is slightly hyperventilating but raises his hand. 

"Benjamin is going to create a ground-breaking patient care algorithm."

Benjamin is still speechless; apparently he is also on the jumbo-tron.  Benjamin is still trying to figure out how the speaker knew his name much less his degree. Benjamin is slightly relieved as she goes on to mention another graduate.

Throughout the remainder of her speech the speaker continued to call out graduates names and make comments based upon their major. It's a novel way to make sure all the graduates are paying attention for sure.

My fellow nursing graduates.

Tassels are dangly.

Proud parents

Proud wife and son.

Fist Bump - that's how was say congratulations

Thank you all for who came on such short notice.

Future Grad

ps. Did you notice all the bling? :)

Splitting Thanksgiving

Our holidays as a married couple have been surprisingly stress free. Both of our families like to gather everyone together for all the big holidays.  So far we've been able to navigate visiting both families for every holiday. A major component of this success lies with two attributes of our families.

First, both of our parents live near to us. This means that we can visit both families on the holidays without having to travel long distances. We don't have to pick between visiting one or the other family.

The other attribute is that Ben's family has a tendency to celebrate holidays on days that aren't the actual holiday. This occurs primarily when Michael and his family come down to visit.

This is what happened for Thanksgiving this year. We were able to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Ashtons. Then two days later we had another Thanksgiving dinner with the Stuarts.  Lots of good food; surprisingly I didn't gain much weight!

Ashton Thanksgiving

The Patriarch surveying the table.

Dejah introduced Andrew to the joys of eating whipping cream straight from the can

We met Kevin's Girlfriend

Blew out Dejah's birthday cake candles

Andrew explored underneath the table

Good food; good drink let's hurry up and eat

The girls talked it up after dinner

Andrew played...

...and studied.

Stuart Thanksgiving

After the food was served all of the Stuart's gathered together to take family pictures.

Two babies. Guess I better get used to this!