Graduation!

 Can you believe it? Just before hitting the 10 years of marriage mark,

Nathan went and got himself graduated!

We are so proud of you, Nathan! You're a dentist now!

It's official, you can now pass out tooth brushes instead of candy on Halloween.

So, I graduate, in like, an hour.

You know it!

Nathan and Dan Yeats

Nathan and his parents

The family

Waiting to get into the church building where the graduation takes place.

The wives.

Ok, I'm going to cry, no more pictures of us.

My blossoming baby belly shows up pretty good here. Don't enlarge the picture, please.

Ben and his Mini Me

The Copes

Trying to figure out the back thingy on the robes was not fun.

See? We're still trying to figure it out.

And still!

The guys

Beautiful stained glass window in the church where the graduation took place.

Wahoo!!

"I'm legit now."

Class of 2012

Kristy, don't leave me!!!!!

And the after graduation business of being sworn in as a captain.

Nathan, this has been a long road for you and I know it isn't exactly over yet, but I am really proud of you and one day when the kids are old enough to understand all the work you've gone through, they will be proud of you, too. You've set such a wonderful example of hard work and determination for our children to follow. Thank you for working hard and at the same time, putting your family first.

We love you,

Kellie

Emma's Fourth Birthday

 Happy (Really Belated)  Birthday, Emma!!!

Wow, this is really sad, I know.  So, Emma's birthday is at the end of May and I'm just now getting around to post pictures and stuff. We were in the process of moving and dental graduation stuff, so there are my excuses.

Dear Emma,

You are a very interesting child. You take great pride in being sweet and loving and cute, but you've got a tough side, too. For your birthday this year you wanted a Spy Princess Party. I wasn't quite sure how to put those two things together, so we focused on the spy theme since we had more boys at the party than girls. Also, you're really into spies right now.  We recently took you to see The Avengers (shh, it's PG-13, but I knew you could handle it since I'd already seen it and knew when to close your eyes) and you loved The Black Widow. When you realized she was a spy and she started kicking the bad guys' butts, you almost jumped on top of your seat! You got a huge smile on your face and yelled out (in an almost empty theater, thank goodness), "She's a spy just like me!"

On your fourth birthday your hair was still long and curly at the ends, although more recently we've cut it in a cute bob and you can tell it's still got it's curl when we don't take care to make it straight and smooth. Your favorite movie is Lady and the Tramp, but you've recently discovered Leap Frog videos, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and to my delight, National Treasure. You don't like movies with witches, you love to pretend you speak parsel-tounge, and you love to pretend Harry Potter with anyone who will play it with you.

You are usually a good eater, except you still prefer to use your hands and you get pretty messy. You love preschool and at the end of the year you were voted "Most Adventurous"--mostly because you like to jump off stuff and you scared your teachers sometimes.

You are learning to read and are doing really well with the Red Sam Books and you also really love puzzles and the game Memory.

Here are some pictures from your Spy Birthday Party.  We didn't get a picture of foreign language training, unfortunately, but so you don't forget, Dad got into the action and taught you kids some important spy phrases in different languages.

Disguise Training

Sneaking under lasers training

Cartwheel contest, because spies always do cartwheels when sneaking.

Decorating your Spy Gear bags

More disguise training

Not sure where Jeremy's disguise picture is, but here's two of Link.

opening presents

Luke, Sammy, Megan, Emma, Jacob, Faye, Patrick, Jeremy

And yummy Seminary Cake!

It's been an adventurous four years and I hope all the rest are just as fun and even more exciting. We love you Emma and are so glad you are part of our family!

Love,

Mom

Finally! We Have Internet!!

Long time, no see. In my last post I said I hoped we'd get internet quickly so I could start bombarding you with pictures of our house and family and all the fun things we were going to do in Oklahoma. Well, we've been here since June and we just barely got internet. It's a long story that mostly has to do with really unprofessional internet companies, but here we are, part of the digital world again.

Our house isn't set up exactly how I want it and it is a rental, so it isn't like I can paint the girls' room or take out the hideous wooden shelf thing in the boys' room, but here we go. The first half of a virtual tour of our Oklahoma house.

Welcome to our house!

Sit down for a while.

Wanna play Legos with the kids?

Stay for dinner?

Probably don't want to sleep over, though. At least not in one of these rooms.

Plenty of color in this room.

See those hanging things off the walls? Yeah, I taught the kids how to accordion-style fold two thin strips of paper to keep them quiet at Church yesterday and now they are all over their walls.

We've really liked it here so far. We have a fabulous neighbor family on one side that has a 13 year old daughter that loves to come over and play with the kids or invite them to her house. I love it! I actually get time to get things done when they go over there or she comes here and keeps them busy.

We have a huge backyard that the kids can play in when it isn't 109 degrees outside. A couple nights ago we drove out to an abandoned farm, set out some chairs, and watched the meteor shower. It was amazing. I'd never seen so many stars, let alone so many of the shooting variety. We've already gone down to Texas more in the last couple months than we usually get to do in a year.

The church here is different from any congregation we've ever been part of. There aren't a lot of young couples for starters.  We've always been in a congregation with tons of students (hey, we've always lived in college towns). This congregation is mostly older families (kids in college or all grown up) and Native Americans. We've really enjoyed it so far though and there is a group of women here that I'm really enjoying and becoming friends with. Nathan is teaching the youth Sunday School class, I am in charge of the programs each Sunday (hey, gotta have a program for the dads and kids to draw on, right?) and was recently asked to teach Relief Society (the women's group). The primary is small enough that age groups are combined, which is a good thing; it means Jeremy and Emma are in the same class. This way he knows someone in his class each Sunday; he's so shy!



Well, that's it for now.  I'll post pictures of the rest of the house and some of the fun things we've done next time, which hopefully won't be too long.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Change? Ya Got Change?

First off, let me know if you caught the movie reference with the title of this post.


It won't be easy, but it has to be done. Change. This is the last night we will ever sleep in our first house. This is really the only home Jeremy and Emma remember ever having. Neither remember the apartment we lived in when we first moved to Ohio, and neither remember living in the apartment in Logan, UT.

Lincoln, of course, will not remember this house in a matter of months. And the new baby won't know it at all.

Friday we head out and start our trek west to Oklahoma (and yes, every time I type it, I sing the letters). We will be moving to a small town with about 2,000 people, plenty of cows and horses, and more land than I'm willing to mow. At least with our push mower, anyway.

this is our new house. don't be deceived, it only looks spacious :) most of the "space" is the garage in the back. but isn't it gorgeous!

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited. Very excited. But right now, on the edge of leaving friends, schools (with the world's best art teacher and super fabulous preschool teachers who actually understand Emma), trying to sell our house, and leaving a really awesome ward (church congregation), I will admit: I'm nervous.

I came to Cleveland kicking and crying and now I feel like doing the same thing with leaving. I know once I get to our new house, neighborhood, and ward I'll meet more people (I've already met so many wonderful people down there) and love it there. But still, the change gets to me.

However, with this change will come more blog posts :) I'll feel like I actually have stuff to write about and reasons to take pictures. So, hopefully we'll be able to get our internet set up quickly so I can post pictures and new adventures.

Hope to see you all soon :) And I mean that literally for those of you in Oklahoma (yes, I sang each letter) and those of you in Texas that I will be so much closer to now!!!!!!

Time With Dad

 Things that have been done since Dad has been home. . . .

1. Jeremy got some real vampire teeth

2. A bog was explored

A Purple Pitcher Plant (I know it doesn't look purple), a carnivorous plant growing wild in Ohio.

Apparently, getting a group shot proved to be too difficult.

Megan lost her front teeth a few weeks ago.

I have no idea what Jeremy is so surprised at, but I love this face.

Cute messy face

Looking for bugs. Apparently Jeremy, Lincoln, and Nathan ate bugs while I was away.

Classic Emma hair

lily pads galore

The reason for going to the bog was the look for pitcher plants.

Mission accomplished.

Ah, sweet!