He Did It! Lance is a Graduate!

He did it! Or should I say we did it! We survived. Lance accomplished his goal of receiving a BS in Finance over the course of 2 years from the University of Utah. He had an insane schedule while trying to accomplish this and he fully agrees with me when I say that I was essentially a single mom raising our 2 boys during this time. Lance worked 33 hours a week and took 16-22 units a semester. Needless to say, he had very little sleep, little time for family, no time for hobbies like working out. So for those of you who haven't seen him in a while, you might be surprised to see him now at about 300lbs. Just kidding, he hardly had time to eat. I had to force feed him.

We are so proud of our Lance! He worked so hard. I was really impressed with his passion for finance and his natural gift for the difficult mathematics involved. He is a great student and maintained a 3.9 GPA.

We all sacrificed to get to this point. I mean, I even sold my car when we moved here and only had a car available around his schedule, which was almost never. My brother-in-law, Lee gave up his basement so we could make going to school work. We will always be so thankful for his sincere generosity and support while Lance achieved his goal.

I really can't believe he's done. Yesterday he had his last final and then went to work all day. When he came home at 9pm the kids and I surprised him with a candy bar poster that read:

CONGRATULATIONS Lance !

Do UNO how proud we are of your aMAZING accomplishment of getting your WHATCHAMACALLIT(diploma)? We are still in SHOCK, think our eyes are playing Twix. But we will not SNICKER, you will only hear a SYMPHONY of cheers that you graduated. It was a long ROCKY ROAD with MOUNDs along the way. LOOK, you have proven you are not an AIRHEAD, LEMONHEAD, or a DUM DUM. But you are a SMARTIE. You were turning into a NERD with all that CRUNCH time, but now you need to TAKE 5. We hope you SKOR a PAYDAY somewhere around a 100GRAND. But don't let it slip through your BUTTERFINGERs. You will be a MR. GOODBAR working on 5^th AVE. I hope you will be my SuGAR DADDY and take me on shopping SPREES. Or a FAST BREAK to a resort where we can MAMBA. You are RED HOT, a BIG HUNK and a HOT TAMALE. There are many GOOD & PLENTY times ahead. We may hit a SOUR PATCH. Remember you can always count on us if you need a LIFESAVER..

Love and KISSES, Amanda, Gavin, Jackson & Mya

I copied some of it from someone else, but added my own ideas too. He loved it! And it was a lot of candy! So if he eats it all he may weigh that 300 lbs!

Here are some pictures of when he walked in May to experience graduation (even if it was a few months early)!

Jackson's Toy Story Birthday!

Since my boys love Toy Story and the third movie happened to come out on Jackson's 3rd birthday, we just had to have a Toy Story Birthday!

I took Gavin and Jackson to the theater dressed in their Woody and Buzz costumes.

People actually stopped them to take pictures of them! We had such a fun time!

This is essentially the first kids cake that I've made. (I'm not a baker)

It definitely looks homemade, but I am still proud. Jackson LOVED it and that is priceless.

It's Andy's bed in case you all were wondering...

Happy 3rd birthday Jacky! Yes he's wearing his pj's in this pic.

We celebrated a few days later when daddy could join us for the cake.

We even got to celebrate with Uncle Chip and Austin and Chase!

Even Gavin was spoiled by Uncle Chip!

Pacific Beach

We went to San Diego for New Year's and stayed for about a week. One day we went to Belmont Park. The rides were closed, but us Utahns thought the weather was decent enough to splash on the shore. It's amazing how pale we get after 4 months of no sun.

Christmas Day

The boys stayed up soo late on Christmas Eve. I told them if they were awake when Santa came that he would probably just skip our house. That didn't really work. We didn't have a Christmas tree so presents were piled by the fire place. We all had such a fun day. My big Christmas present to Lance was to tell him that I was pregnant by way of a wrapped picture of my positive pregnancy test. He was shocked, surprised and I think eventually elated. It is so hard to keep that a secret from your spouse. It was a wonderful Christmas.

Snow Day!

Rain, snow or shine, Jackson always loves to push the broken car.

My little snow angel.

Halloween Church Carnival

Here are my adorable Buzz and Sheriff Woody from Toy Story.

This was hilarious to watch. Obviously the game is to put your hands behind your back and try to bite the doughnut. Jackson (2) took one look at the other kids playing this game and grabbed the doughnut and took a big bite. He thought he outwitted them all!

And Gavin goes around.

And around.

He made me dizzy.

Here Jackson is so pleased with himself.

Here we are all together. I am Jessie from Toy Story 2.

The boys still ask me every time they dress up if I will too. So fun!

Doughnut on a String

Fall Carnival

Here are the boys stuffing their faces with kettle corn. I don't blame them, it was sooo good. We had to park about a mile away from the carnival on a busy road. I was carrying two chairs and all our blankets and jackets and trying to keep my kids on the dirt path, by the busy road, and out of harms way. When we finally got there my arms were almost broken and then when the kids started whining about wanting food I realized that my wallet was not in my purse. I found 50 cents in the bottom of my purse and had to sing at the booth to earn that kettle corn. Really. The guy gave me a huge bag after I sang a Little Mermaid song. Don't ask me what I did to get them on the air jump.

Here we are getting ready to watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin projected on a truck. This is Utah people.

And I loved it.

Gardner Village in October

Admiring the witches and their spooky cauldron.

Hay Maze!

Our Monkey

I'm really cute and I love to eat my vegetables. First!

A Ball

Recently we were invited to a fundraising costume ball. There was a silent auction, performances, dinner and dancing. I get so competitive during silents auctions. Is that even possible? Once I have my eye on something I have to be the last bidder. You can see what I wanted and got below! The dinner was great. Dancing was even better. We had such a good time with our friends. Thanks Christy and James!

My Gangster.

Make fun of us if you like, but we came home and took movie star shots. At least tried. For some it comes naturally. Others...

One word. Zoolander. This is for Ryan, Cristina, Blaine and Jenny. You guys called it. Hehe.

And this is so he can't get too mad at me for posting the previous picture of him.

Now I'm embarassed too.

Jackson thinks it's funny.

This is what I bid on. A ton of Stampin' Up stuff. I'm a dork, I know.

But I'm so excited.