Semester Coming to a Close

I blame the fact that I have not posted the past few months on the fact that we have been busy with school. Actually, it is because I prefer to post photos to show what is going on, and I finally got around to cleaning a few up! So much has been going on. Like I said in the previous post, we had a great time in Florida over the Christmas break. Samantha got to spend some time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin.

Sammy and her cousin, Marcus

 She even met Santa Claus for the first time.

Samantha celebrated her first birthday in February and since she is obsessed with Super Why (a character on PBS) I made her a Super Why cake! I ran out of icing around the edges, but I think it turned out alright.

Samantha seemed to enjoy it. She had cake from her head to in between her toes before she was done.

Sam is standing up and getting into everything now. She isn't quite walking yet, but she walks around with her little car's help.

She is our little spunky girl!

This is from when we were in Florida. It was at a park that I used to play at as a kid. We have a park just outside our apartment here in Provo. On the warm days, we try to make it out there. She especially loves the slides.

I still can't get over those blue eyes! Our little recessive gene baby.

 

 She loves making a mess. This was her first experience with red pasta sauce. After her bath that night, there was a sauce ring around the tub! It was crazy.

A few months ago, we enrolled Sam in a baby swim class. It wasn't so much to teach the kids how to swim but was more to get them used to the water. She had a blast. Samantha was in there with 3 year olds that were afraid to go under the water. Not Sam! She loved it and would even open her eyes under the water. We're definitely making the community pool a regular place this summer.

John and I have been keeping pretty busy with school. The semester ends in about two weeks and I am very excited. Its not that I do not like my classes--I love them in fact. I am just ready for a change. We may both end this semester with straight A's, which would be fantastic.  GREAT NEWS too! John received an ORCA grant from BYU to do his short animated film, Bert. Its about a guy who hates his job and to make life bearable, he day dreams about Hawaii. The idea is fantastic and things are moving along on that front. John recorded the narration for the film last month and he is working with a composer now to get the music recorded next month. He also got a new animation disk for his desk so he all ready to go. So he will be busy busy busy this summer animating. I am SO proud of him. 
All in all things have been going well. I recently changed my major from English to Recreation Management and Youth Leadership. I love English, but the part I am most passionate about is creative writing and this is only a small portion of the program here at BYU. I love to read and talk about books, but writing theory papers kind of sucks the fun out of it for me. And besides my first passion is being outdoors. One day, when I grow up, I would love to be a Park Naturalist. You know, the people with the funny hats and brown uniforms at state and national parks. I will have to do an internship with this major, which I am excited about, but that won't come for another two summers. I buzzed my head again. This time for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. I may be keeping it short for a bit. We'll see.
The other BIG news for me is that I got a new mountain bike. Its a Specialized Myka Disk and I am loving it so far. I ride it to school during the week and then hope to get out on the trails on the weekends (if the snow will ever go away). Speaking of snow, it was 70 degrees yesterday, and this morning we woke up to 6 inches of snow! Hopefully it'll be gone soon. Its supposed to be up in the 50s tomorrow, but then will dip back down at the end of the week. So anyway, I went to a Ladies Night Out event at Mad Dog Cycles two weeks ago to see if I could meet any other girl mountain bikers and they actually have a Ladies ride every month. So I am looking forward to that. I also managed to win a $200 cycling outfit in a raffle while at the event!

In other news, I have been asked to teach the 4-year-old Primary (Sunday school) class at my church. There are six kids and they are all a hoot. It should definitely be a fun adventure! Yesterday and today was General Conference (a televised broadcast from the leaders of my church) where we got to hear some amazing sermons. They spoke a lot about strengthening families and helping one another. I always feel so uplifted after conference. It was truly inspiring.