April Showers Bring May Flowers

April kind of showered down on us and was a very busy month. We took a trip to Roosevelt for Easter weekend and had a blast. It is so hard to get our fill of being home and seeing both families in such a short weekend. We were lucky enough to get two Easters. We colored eggs twice, hunted for eggs twice, and ate tons of good food.

Easter at the Hales

Since we've been older Easter egg hunts at my house have started to change. Instead of just candy, mom and dad put money eggs into the mix. This year I missed the memo but all of the metalic eggs were money eggs. Dad hid over 100 eggs around the backyard and then the four of us (Colb, me, Mitch, and Halli) started to hunt.

Colb and I used a bad strategy this year and me, Colb, and Hal all went to the same side of the yard while Mitch wiped out the eggs on the other side. It gets pretty wild and Mitch and I even wrestled to get a metalic egg out of the bottom of the big black garbage can. (I did win that one with a little bit of dad's help!) Next year with Bri home too we better make a different game plan.

It started to rain on us at the end of the hunt and we went inside and colored eggs. We colored all of the hardboiled eggs and then started coloring raw eggs. Don't worry, we only dropped one!

This is a picture of the Easter egg fruit basket. Colb made a yellow egg that said, "I'm a banana" and that started it. We then made a strawberry, watermelon, even a gourd (not really a fruit), and an apple.

Easter at the Duncans

At the Duncan's, Katie is incredibly creative and we had all kinds of Easter decorating materials. We tie died eggs, painted eggs, tied blown out eggs, glittered eggs, and even beaded eggs. I was also given multiple University of Utah red eggs.

Later we had our Easter egg hunt. We all had an egg with our name on it to find. This time Colb hid all of the eggs so Brynie, Katie, and I decided to hide Colb's egg. I was worried that he would find it while he was hiding the rest of the eggs, but it was the very last egg found in the hunt.

Of course, Slater was the first to find it since it was behind the license plate of the Buick. We finally played the hot or cold game with Colb to help him find his special egg.




Halli and Sissy's Girls Night Out

Everyone was still on Spring Break the Monday after Easter. Mom, dad, Hal, Mitch, and Grandma Shela came out to Salt Lake to go to the Jazz game. Halli, at 6-years-old, wasn't too thrilled about going to the Jazz game and Colb had class so Hal and I stayed home and had Girls Night Out. Halli planned our activities for the night. We made and decorated spring sugar cookies and gave ourselves pedicures.

BYU Graduation

I graduated in December with my Masters of Accountancy, but at BYU there is no December graduation so I officially walked last week. It was fun to get back and see a lot of my friends and have a reason to celebrate. I was so excited to have a hood and then didn't even remember to take any pictures of it.

Colb and I have so much family support. Mom, dad, Nelson, and Trudy all made the drive out and sat through three hours of graduation. I love and appreciate them so much!

Colb recorded a little so you can see graduation without having to sit through all three hours! It was kind of fun to move up in the alphabet and be a "D". We were the very first.

I am so thankful to have attended school at BYU. I was talking Colb (and he even agreed with me) that there is something really neat about being at graduation and being able to really talk about the future I want. The speaker talked about how to have success in life. However, it wasn't just about our future careers, but about family and living gospel-centered lives. I met and interacted with amazing people and professors while I was at BYU and loved the wonderful spirit.

After graduation I was taking back my gown when we passed the statue of the cougar. As tradition goes, I had to get a picture. (The cougar was a lot easier to climb on!)

Master's Degree Brigham Young Unviersity


Bachelor's Degree Utah State University

Test Time

Colb and I finished up the April showers by taking tests. Colb had finals this week and had tons of papers, projects, presentations, and tests to finish up. Even though I graduated and thought I was done taking tests I joined him and took the first section of the CPA on Thursday. It was kind of nice that we were both studying and had stuff to do, but I don't feel like we've really seen each other for a couple weeks.

Outstanding Chemistry Student

Yesterday we went to an awards night at Westminster for Colb. Once again we had wonderful family support as Trudy, Nelson, Katie, and Mom, and Dad came out to attend. The awards ceremony was for graduating seniors. The professors had voted on the outstanding student within each major. Colb received the most outstanding chemistry student award. It was really neat to hear his professor talk about him. His professor said what we all know to be true about Colby. He talked about what a smart young man he was and all of his accomplishments that could be put on a resume. Then he spoke about what impressed him most were the things about Colby that could not be put on a resume. He talked about the way he served others, went the extra mile, and treated people around him. Mom commented how normal it seemed to be there since we've been watching Colb get awards since we met in the 4th grade. I am so proud of him and thankful to be married to such an amazing man! He is wonderful!

Well that catches everyone up on the April showers. We're glad to be through all of that and really looking forward to May flowers!