Easter!

I had a pretty exciting Easter this year! The Curtis family has a tradition they do every year for Easter. The conditions weren't ever right last year, so this was my first time.

1) Dye eggs-by the way, they need to be pretty cool. :)

I like Tyler's grenade egg. :) One of J's is a brain.
I made an orange one with swirls and then one I will show you in better detail soon.

2) Find a hill. Must be steep, smooth with a couple bumps, and easy enough to walk up and down it several times.

3) Climb to the top of said hill and roll eggs from top.

4) Go down and retrieve your egg NOTE: It helps if you watch your egg all the way down. I figured that out later. :)
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 remembering your previous note. This is the point where they all start to look the same because they're shell-less now. Keep repeating until your egg turns into just the yolk and explodes everywhere.
Then, you can repeat for the other eggs you have! We each got two to roll. This is my second. I really liked making him. He was an angry egg on one side...
And a dead egg on the other (sorry it's blurry)
I loved how it looked when I got it after the first roll. :)

Here's its shell.
This is after losing its shell.
And then here's the yolk! I can't get my videos to work on my computer right now, but I did get a fairly decent video of the yolk exploding from what I could tell on the camera.
It was a fun Easter!

On more of the purpose behind the holiday, I love Easter. It's always a beautiful holiday. It always helps us remember the reason we are so blessed. I would be nothing without the love of my Savior, Jesus Christ. He atoned for me, died for me and was resurrected for me. He went to the lowest of lows so that he could rise above the highest and bring me with Him. I am eternally indebted to Him. Everything I have is because of Him. I know that He lives. I know that he loves me. I know that His gospel is true and if a person follows Him, they will live forever in His presence. He is my Lord.

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified, that for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine to rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine, that he should extend his great love unto such as I, sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt! Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?

No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat, until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me!

Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

"I Hate You."

Worst words in the world.

Worst feeling ever.

The saddest three words anyone could say.

Linda's Birthday

It was my mother-in-law's birthday at the end of April, so we went over for the day. For the first half of the day, we weeded and organized the outdoors. In the afternoon, she went out to dinner with her hubby. While she was gone, J and his little brother went and played video games. I rocked out to disney music while I made an awesome cake!

Chocolate, chocolate frosting, and....
...homemade decorating icing!!
And then I made it in several different colors!
Linda took a decorating class in March, so I used her tools and book to help me figure out what to do. :)
I think I did a great job! I'm not thrilled with my writing, but I've never liked my writing-on paper, on a board, or anywhere...
She liked it. :)
She's such a beautiful woman. I'm so blessed to be a part of her family. She's so full of love and kindness. I know I can always come to her if I need help with something or just someone to talk to.

Spring in Nampa

I really never liked gardens. I hate weeding and really don't like bugs and bugs are found in dirt. I love the life that comes from gardens, but I'm still not a fan of weeding and stuff. :)

In front of this little house we're renting, we have a small garden. When we moved in, there were a TON of dead leaves and pine needles. One day, these Snowdrops popped up. I had to dig them out from under all of the junk, and look at what else I found!!

The beginnings of Tulips! And Daffodils but they're in a different picture.
I kept cleaning out the pine needles and loved coming home to such a big abundance of happiness everyday!
Then, I checked them EVERY day to see if they had bloomed. This day, I couldn't wait any longer to take a picture. :)
Then they all wanted to join in!
The tulips drove me crazy!! I wanted them to bloom so badly!!
This is the other half of the garden. I have no idea what it all is, but man, it's HUGE! It's about twice as high now! Those daffodils never bloomed, though.
Then, the tulips finally bloomed! I was so thrilled! They were my little babies!! :)
I love the colors of these daffodils. So purty!
And this just reminds me of Temple square! They were gorgeous tulips! I loved them!
Mmmm such beautiful colors!

Graduation

So this is about 4 months late. But I figured it was fitting since my name was in the program from graduation that was on the 9th of April.

I had student teaching in Nampa, so I was going to be out of Rexburg for a while. It made more sense to walk at graduation in December rather than come back and stay in some unknown place for a couple of days in April. So I've already graduated! And now I'm officially a "former student" of BYU-Idaho!

I passed my student teaching and loved every minute of it.

I passed every class. I didn't have to retake any classes once!

I made some friends I will never forget.

I've learned some lessons that can't be forgotten.

I found and married my eternal companion.

I survived -32˚ weather.

I stayed up until 4:30.

I cleaned up a lot of toilet overflows late into the night.

I stayed out past curfew.

I got "Q'd" on purpose. (Q'd was when you got quarantined. They put a big red Q on your door and no boys could be at your house for a week. It was the last week of school, so we did it on purpose. Then we mocked it and put the entire alphabet around it written the same way... they weren't happy. but it was awesome)

I went to the sand dunes for a bonfire.

I went sledding the week of finals.

I made the ugliest tie-dye shirt ever seen.

I had many BAMO parties (boys are missing out).

I made at least 5 tents in my living room.

I never had a ncmo.

I used my senior prom dress just about every semester.

I got a C in a religion class...not my finest moment...

I learned the name of everyone in my children's lit class.

I took the teacher I disliked ALMOST the most twice. and ended up loving him at the end.

I got an award for a high score on the Praxis.

I went Latin dancing almost every week of a semester.

I wore the swimsuit you have to wear in the campus pool. Not as bad as it sounds. :)

I had a class in the Snow at the bottom of campus and then 15 minutes later a class on the third floor of the Hinckley at the top of campus.

I forgot a paper at home and ran there and back in 5 minutes (opposite ends of campus)

I have gotten a 100% on a test in the testing center.

I passed those evil math diagnostic tests. very very VERY evil.

I had LOTS of roommates get married.

I moved EVERY semester and twice during one.

I learned how to cook.

I learned what Relief Society is and what it means to be a member of it.

The list goes on and on...

Graduation was awesome. It was on December 17th and 18th. Convocation was the 17th and Commencement was on the 18th.

We were the first group to graduate from the new BYU-Idaho Center. It's just like the conference center only smaller and it has 10 basketball courts on one end of it.

J and I both graduated the same time but in different departments. So I went to mine and he went to his. The picture above is me right before my Convocation.

I also gave the opening prayer at Convocation. That was a really cool experience.

Mom and Me right after.

Me with my diploma cover!

Sam came too. That was really cool.

Both of my wonderful parents. I would never have made it this far without them.

My cute hubby.

Both of us with my parents.

With J's family.

My cousin Elise graduated too, so it was a great opportunity for our Gma to come. She's Dad's mom and so she came up with them. I'm glad she came!

The braved the snow to come to my graduation. I think Rexburg wanted to show what it could do! It snowed just about every day that they were here!
These are the Pixtons. We love them. They were such good friends! They were our first married friends. We miss them tons!

My graduation was awesome. I loved it. I was so thankful to have my parents and brother come especially since I wasn't going home for Christmas for the first time ever. It helped to have seen them only a week before Christmas. I was so thankful they came to be there to see me walk across the stage and to help me pack for my student teaching. I loved being able to show them where I went for the last 4 years. I loved showing Sam the wonderful campus that he plans on going to in a couple years. It was great. I got the wonderful graduation gift of my parents and little brother!