Its official folks, I am a college graduate!

     Well, the day has finally come to put on the old cap n gown! It is amazing to finally finish a journey that started so many years ago. So much in my life has changed since the car backed out of the driveway and headed to Dixie. It was a year of learning both in school and about life. It gave me the opportunity to forge life long friendships and to learn about who I was. After that year I came back for the summer and then headed to Ukraine to teach English. While in Ukraine with my cousin we had the chance to learn so much about the world and to gain about 15 pounds (guess the freshman 15 came late). I came back to the states and got down to business at UVSC which then turned into UVU. Many headaches were suffered through assignments that seemed pointless, staying up late writing papers the day before they were due and hating every minute of math. BUT on April 29th it was all worth it. I made the trek to UVU for the last time. On the way out of the garage my husband started asking me if I spilled something on the floor of the car. He kept insisting that there was something sticky on the passenger floor carpet. I was looking down as we backed out of the garage and was staring to get frustrated because I couldn't see anything. Then after he had let the garage door close all of the way he just said "never mind" like nothing ever happened.

I was about to get mad when I saw that the garage door and the front of the house were decorated with a graduation banner and balloons. My amazing cousin had come by and decorated the house in the morning so I would see it before I left. So perfect, it got me all revved up for the days celebrations.After the drive down to UVU we filed into the graduation area and I tried to spot my family in the crowd.

Right before i walked across the stage.

Its all kind of anti climactic but worth it.

When the line got closer to the front my husband ran down and took a picture of me right before I walked across and got my diploma (holder). I was so excited when I finally spotted my family in the crowd. Hearing how proud of me my parents were brought so much emotion to me that it threatened to destroy my otherwise flawless eye make-up. We finally finished the ceremony and headed to Brick Oven for a delicious post graduation lunch.

Papa Kearl!

Oh man he is good lookin!!! love me some husband!

My Parents are so silly!

That's my gradumacation loot!

                                           
That night a few of us got together to go see Fast Five (because I love my husband so much). We played a little Dance Dance Revolution or DDR as us insiders call it while we waited for the movie, enjoyed some amazing kettle corn and watched the flick. Now that I am finally done with school and don't have to drive down to UVU at 7 every Saturday morning I can finally have a day to sleep in with my husband.

oh just me getting my ddr on.

 So all in all it was a success! boom baybeee hahaha

Easter weekend! Sweets, treats and hanging with my peeps.

We started the night off by taking the kids to 5 guys for some amazing burgers and fries. It was delicious to say the least. Then Dan dropped me off at the house (we told the kids that it was to boil eggs for us to dye but it was really so I could hide all of their Easter eggs throughout the house).

While I was hiding the eggs he took them Blockbuster to rent the new Harry Potter. He honked the horn in the garage to give me the "heads up" and the kids came through the door... the search was on!

After the kids found all of their prizes we had our Easter gift exchange. We decided not to get each other anything but maybe a little candy. We ended up bending the rules a little bit...

Dan was first, he presented me with a little Easter basket that had an over-sized beach towel for me to use for Bikram Yoga, some candy and a 4 gig card for my camera. I was really really excited then he ran out of the room and came back with another bag of goodies. He knows that I love Chick-fil-A so he got me 2 gift cards for a sandwich and a large fry! Just perfect! He did a great job but I wasn't about to be out done... I took him up to the "Easter bunny workshop" (our guest room) and showed him his gifts. Through a lot of bargain shopping I was able to get him an awesome new wardrobe to start spring off with.
That night while everyone was enjoying the movie I spent about 5 hours studying for my math final, it was not fun but it ended up totally being worth it. Saturday was such a treat, after finishing my math test I came up to a breakfast of french toast, thick sliced peppered bacon and potatoes with green peppers and onions.

After we all ate our fill we dyed Easter eggs with the kids. It was so much fun to spend creative time together, the kids did such a great job and we managed not to dye the counter top blue.

We went to temple square that afternoon to see all of the beautiful flowers and to try out my new "graduation camera" (to be clear it was a graduation present but I got it as a surprise before we knew how math would turn out). Between the 4 of us we managed to take enough pics to kill the battery. There were so many amazing sights to take in.

The spirit of the grounds was so amazing with all of the weddings and sealings, there was beauty all around us. It was a perfect weekend spent with some of my favorite people. 

Marriaged life.

 We are MARRIED!!! 

So we have now been married for 3 almost 4 months but i thought i might give a brief update starting from way back then. I already know I am bad I mean really bad at this blogging thing but I want to be good maybe that counts for something. Now that I am all done with school (yes, all done...I'll get to that later) I just might have some time to focus to getting this blog up and running with post more often then every 3 months.Soooooo We got married on December 31, 2010 what an amazing day. The day was filled with so much love, joy and pure happiness that i wish i could go back to it all the time. The day itself was a freezing cold snowy day...Dan and I were hardly affect by it.

 I think it was just because we were so excited to be together for all eternity.Our poor families had to wait for us in the freezingness as the temple was running a little behind. Not our faults:) There were a few brides with complications and also some translation issues that kept us. I was fine with it, i could have stayed in there with my new husband for ever! After just a few snap shots of all our friends and family we hurried over to Rodizo Grill for some amazing food! Deeelish! A few hours later we went to Alpine where our reception was being held. I got to walk in and see a beautiful set up that was just done

 ...no worrying went on in my mind the day of or setting up the night before, it was just done!!! What a relief! I was able to just have fun and not stress about the small things. It was all perfect. So beautiful and fun everyone said...Dan and I really are not sure what went on at the reception for it was all a blur. We walked out of there so confused that it had already been 2 hours of talking to people and hanging out. It was a perfect night. We were excited to start the new year off with each other! How nice is it knowing that we will never have to say goodbye again!! Thank goodness...i couldn't have spent one more second with out this guy! He is really to good to be true!!!! 

Off to our relaxing get away in HAWAII! Oh so fun...walking out of our hotel right to the beach were we could lay out, read, talk, build sand castles (subdivision more like it) and soak up the amazing Hawaiian sun. We loved every second of it...oh wait i take that back. There were a few hours where Dan thought i was taken or drowned in the ocean and that sent him on a little emotional roller coaster that was pretty traumatic for him...haha..its pretty funny to look back on it.(i don't know if he thinks so yet). 

 We had so much fun out there all 8 days filled with some sort of adventure even if it was just sitting around doing nothing with each other. Dan is the best vacation partner ever.I cant wait to one day go back to paradise with him!

It was a sad day when we had to come back to reality. Thankfully we had our cute new home to come back to which made it not so horrible. Actually very pleasant knowing that i would still get to be with Dan all the time.

Dan went back to work and I back to work and school for that one last math class blahh. Dan says, "we do the things we have to so that we can do the things we want to." I had to keep telling myself that to get me through this math class and to know that, yes my husband has to go to work and cant just stay with me all day crafting or what not. haha I have really enjoyed making this house our very own. I am getting the hang of crafting so our house can not look so empty. I love doing what i can to make sure Dan gets to come home to a nice neat house that he doesn't have to worry about cleaning when he has just got done with a full day of hard hard work. He is always so grateful...it makes it worth it.

Since being married we have been on a few little trips that have been a blast. We fist got to go to Lava Hot Springs with my Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and their adorable kids. All the kids just flocked to Dan. They loved playing with him in the springs. I don't think they stopped jumping to him, splashing him and begging for surfer rides on his back both days that we were there.He is such a big kid, has so much energy that he also loved getting to play with all the little rugrats. It was Dans first time to Lava and it was perfect. It was cold cold cold outside, snowing and snow covering the ground and then hot hot hot in the pots!! We cant wait to go back! On the way back we hit up Smith And Edwards Country Boy Store, another first for Dan. (he had no clue what he had been missing out on haha good thing he married me!) We loaded up on treats and jerky and continued on home. Fabulous vacation with the hubby!

We also went to Nevada to visit his parents. His moms birthday is in March so he goes down every year to spend it with her. He also speaks to a few classes at his old high school each year. Dan loves speaking so much, he does a little motivational speech type thing to the students in his old shop teachers classes. The kids just idol him. They think he is the most amazing guy ever ( i happen to know that he is the most amazing guy ever). He hopes to one day be a professional motivational speaker...he is so good with his words i can totally see this happening. We took his mom shopping for her birthday to get her what ever she wanted and she chose running shoes for the 2nd or 3rd year in a row. Man i wish i used my running shoes enough to need a new pair every year. Ha i don't need a new pair ever...wait a minute i don't even have a pair of running shoes. I guess that's why i don't run haha. Nevada was a great trip, warm and relaxing!!

So as of late we have been just doing our thing. Me school and work, him WORK (all caps cuz my work cant be compared to his work, he is the hardest worker i know). I am actually officially done with school took my final on Saturday morning cross your fingers that i passed that math class. It was my very last class to graduate! I will be graduating on April 29th...if i passed. hahaha i think i will just walk even if i fail and no body will ever know the difference. Yeah so they didn't say my name who cares i will run across and consider it good!!

Well that was a long post i apologize but that's what you get when its been almost 4 months. I will be better i promise. Cant wait to get some pictures up form Easter weekend and write all about them!!!

The Count Down Gets Real!!!

Time is flying! I will be all done with school December 18th (yes, that is a Saturday blaahh) and then starts my lovely time off. I'm sure that i will stay busy enough will all the finalizing of wedding plans and making sure it all comes together nicely. I am beyond excited for December 31 to come. Dan and I have been counting down for some time now but its getting so close that are count down is getting REAL. No more 107 days till, 77 days till, 37 days till but a minuscule 26 days till we are to be married for time and all eternity!!! It doesn't get any better than that. If you know Dan then you know that i totally scored and it truly does not get any better! So as we start our lives together we will be able to post more often because we wont be as crazy busy as we are now trying to plan a wedding and all. I cant promise that they will be something worth reading but oh well!

It's official, we have a blog.

As the days roll by the excitement is rapidly building. 44 more days till the wedding. We are so excited to tie the knot and start off 2011 as Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. More to come... new at this blogging stuff!