Recent Happenings

We’ve been pretty busy for the past month and a lot has happened. Mckay finished his classes and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

He has worked very hard and I am so proud of him for finishing 2 degrees in 4 years. The next step in his education: 5 years at Purdue University for a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. But that won’t start until August. In the meantime, we packed up and moved out of our little Provo apartment that we lived in for almost 2 years. Then for 2 weeks we lived as nomads, wandering from place to place. We went to St. Louis for my sister’s wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding and we had fun with the whole family together again.

We got to see a few of the St. Louis sites and go to a Cardinals baseball game. On the way to and from St. Louis, we stopped in Denver to visit our Easton family. We feel really lucky to have so many wonderful family members and to have seen a lot of them recently. While in Denver, we got to attend a Rockies Baseball game. Can you tell we like baseball?

With much dismay, we left our families and returned to the lovely state of Utah. Mckay has a summer internship with a company called WesTech in Salt Lake. His uncle Jeff also works there and was very helpful in recommending Mckay for the internship. As I mentioned previously, a different uncle of Mckay’s has graciously allowed us to live with him and his wife in Riverton. Dallin and I are pretty much doing the same thing, but now we’re in a different place. He still loves to be outside and go on walks. The other day we walked to a nearby park and played for a bit. I’ll leave you with some pictures from our outing.

We're still alive!

You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a long time. It's not because I didn't want to and it's certainly not because I haven't had things to post about. After Mckay graduated (more on that in a later post) we moved to the Salt Lake area to be closer to his summer job. Mckay's uncle and aunt were generous enough to allow us to live in their basement for the summer so we can be close to Mckay's work. We haven't figured out an internet situation yet, hence my lack of posting. Even now, I am posting this from a computer at the library. I don't have any of my pictures with me here, and I know the only reason most of you look at the blog is to see pictures of Dallin, so most of our updates and stories will have to wait for another day. Trust me, they're worth checking back on. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more things in a few days. For the time being, know that we are alive and well.

Joseph's Birthday

My little brother Joseph just turned 19. Since he's here at BYU and away from home, we wanted to make the day special for him. Katie and I took him out to lunch. He chose Cafe Rio. Good choice!

The baby boys liked playing with Joseph.

And Lucas really enjoyed his pork burrito.

Later that night, we had a little party complete with cake and ice cream.

Some of our family in the area came to celebrate with Joseph. I made a devil's food cake with this amazing dark chocolate creamy frosting. It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

As if the lunch and cake wasn't enough, Joseph also got birthday presents! He got a few little things that will help him be ready for his mission. I can't believe my little Joey bear is all grown up and ready to go to Guam for 2 years. Happy Birthday Joseph!

Easter and more Birthday fun!

Much like Dallin's birthday a week ago, Easter is a concept that is too hard for a 1 year old to understand. However, Dallin did really enjoy his Easter. He enjoyed playing with this ball he got in his Easter basket.

Ok, so the only thing in this basket for Dallin was the ball because I know he won't eat any of the candy, but a basket with just a ball looks boring. So this is more of a mom and dad easter basket.

After enjoying the morning and afternoon watching conference and relaxing at home, we went to my Grandparents house for an Easter extravaganza.

There was an egg hunt for all the younger kids. Dalllin found the perfect spot to hunt eggs.

But he seemed a little more interested in the dirt and wood pieces on the stump than the eggs. Such a boy!

We enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner with the traditional fixings, and then it was time for birthday celebrations. It was my Grandma's birthday, but she graciously shared a little bit of the celebration with Dallin.

We tried once again to let him play with and eat his cupcake.

We got the same reaction as last time. He loved squishing the cupcake with his hands, but did not try to bring it anywhere near his mouth.

His daddy helped him to put some frosting on his face, but I really don't think he liked it.

He did enjoy eating the plate the cupcake came on though.

Last of all he opened some presents from his great aunt.

He got some cute summer clothes, little baby sandals, and a mosquito repellent wristband.

And of course, his favorite present was the one he could put in his mouth.

1st Birthday Hoopla!

My little baby is One year old now. Time sure flies when you're a mom. I can still remember being in the hospital with him and bringing him home, so it can't have been THAT long ago.

Since Dallin is still pretty young (despite his recent age achievement), there wasn't much that we did to celebrate his birthday, since he won't really remember it. Our celebrating was more for my sake.

Here is Dallin at his birth minute, 12:02 pm. He was taking a nap but he woke up when I came in his room.

I think he was mad that I was looking at him and not picking him up.

He got happier later on in the day.

We did a few of the things that he likes to do. We went grocery shopping. He loves sitting in the seat like a big boy.

He got a present from Grandma Crapo that he was pretty excited about.

Tada!

This will be great for helping him learn how to walk. He really loves it. Thanks Grandma!

Dallin also got to play with his cousin and his aunts. He really liked this hat that aunt Sarah put on him.

I made him some cupcakes that look and taste really amazing.

Dallin is still learning how to eat solid foods without gagging. We gave him the traditional cake of his own to dig into and attack and I hoped he would at least try to eat a little bit.

He never brought the cake anywhere near his mouth, but he really loved squishing the cake and frosting between his hands. I guess if he enjoyed himself that's all I can ask for.

Happy Birthday Dallin! We love you so much!

Engaged-iversary

On March 29th, two years ago, Mckay asked me to be his wife. It seems like it was such a long time ago and it's hard to believe that it's only been 2 years. I know that some of you reading this have already heard the engagement story, but I wanted to write it down here for journaling purposes. And if you haven't heard it, then it's new for you!

It was a Saturday and I was supposed to meet up with Mckay eventually. Since we had been dating for a while it was typical to see him every day for some reason. Originally he was going to come over in the morning but he was busy doing things and kept pushing the time back. I was starting to get a little frustrated that he kept changing the plan and was too busy to see me. I learned later that he was busy planning the proposal. After getting tired of waiting for him, I went to campus with my roommates. Mckay eventually met us on campus and then we all started walking back to my apartment. Trying to sound like it was a spur of the moment idea, Mckay suggested that we walk a little bit and get some ice cream. Our destination was the BYU Creamery by Deseret Towers. We walked by the towers where we had met 3.5 years before.

(I don't love what my hair was doing that day. if I had known what was going to happen I would have done something different with it.)

The towers were being demolished but the Morris Center was still there.

Back in the days of freshman year, this was the place to eat, get your mail and socialize. We have many fond memories of that building. We sat on the steps outside the Morris Center (the very steps pictured above) and ate our ice cream while we talked. Then Mckay pulled out this book that he made me and gave it to me to read it. This could have tipped me off that something was about to happen, but if you knew Mckay like I did, it wouldn't seem that extraordinary for him to make a book for no reason. This book is called, "If you give a boyfriend a Kiss."

This book is patterned after "If you give a Mouse a Cookie," a well loved children's book. The book starts, "If you give a boyfriend a kiss, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. When he finishes the milk he'll probably wash out the glass. He might get carried away and wash every dish in the sink!" (This was a common occurrence for Mckay to wash my dishes.) The book continues with each act leading to another, and they were things that we had done together. Things like taking walks and naming the trees around us.

The book ends with the boyfriend getting ready to go home so he asks for a real kiss. "And chances are, if you give him a kiss...

He'll ask you to marry him."

At this point Mckay pulled the ring out of his pocket. He asked, I said yes, and then we spent the next hour calling everyone we knew.

After some of the excitement had died down, we spend the rest of the evening together. We went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and then to see a movie, "I am Legend."

That day was such a wonderful happy day. I'm glad that Mckay asked me to marry him. We've had many wonderfully happy days since.

One year ago

One year ago today was Dallin's due date. On that day, I was hoping to be doing this:

And looking as skinny as I did here:

But this is what I actually looked like:

Notice the hospital bag all packed and ready to go?

Oh silly past Sheri, you still have another week before you will even use that bag!

That extra week of pregnancy was not fun, but I guess it was worth it.

In case you could figure it out from this post, one more week until Dallin's first birthday!