Little Brother

Well we dropped off this not so little anymore guy at the MTC. I am so excited and proud of him for choosing to serve the Lord. He will be awesome. Our week leading up to the event was full of fun.

   
Blaine flew up to Spokane to spend a week with me before he left. It was a good vacation for him and I think he enjoyed himself. The week was full of boating, canoeing, eating, and outdoor movie adventures. We spent one night sleeping under the stars after watching the first Lord of the Rings outside with a projector and sheet, complete with everyone's mattresses. I slept awesomely so we decided to try it again the next night, with Nathan's parents joining us. Well...that night ended at about 2 in the morning when the sprinklers went off and soaked everyone and their beds. Everyone was a little grumpy the next day. Gotta love those fun adventures.

After the week was over, Blaine, Elizabeth and I drove up to Utah to drop Elizabeth off at the BYU track and field camp for pole vaulting. She was a fantastic assistant driver in the front seat. She would unwrap my Kit Kats for me and everything.

Elizabeth making art with her pretzels

Nathan flew up a couple days later just in time for Chance's baptism. He was so adorable and so ready to be baptized. It has been a while since I felt the spirit as strong as I did when I watched my youngest sibling make the choice to be baptized. I am so glad I have the two little ones in my life. Our family would be sadly incomplete without them. Chance was a good sport the whole time even though he hates being the center of attention. He inherited that trait from his oldest sister ;)

I loved Chance's "little man" pants. So cute.

Blaine's mission farewell was a resounding success. He gave an incredible talk on family and made me, my mom and Erin cry like babies. He had so many people there to support him and it was a great day spent with our awesome family.

Monday night we got to go to the Spanish Fork rodeo. That is my favorite summer activity and I was so excited to take Nathan and Elizabeth to their first rodeo. I think overall they enjoyed it. The weather could have been a little cooler but it was still an entertaining night.

On Wednesday we packed up for the drive back to Washington. Luckily my awesome husband was there this time so I didn't have to drive the whole 11 hours. We also brought Erin back with us to spend a little time away from Utah. And we had to say a whole lot of sad goodbyes to Blaine. But I am so proud of him and wouldn't want him to be anywhere else. Look out Fort Worth, Texas, Elder McMurray is going to change your world!

The Last Days

Last school presentation.
Last time in the testing center.
Last day of classes.
Last group project.
Last final project.
Last final exam.
Last walk through the Tanner Building as a student.

There have been many lasts lately. But that just means lots of exciting firsts coming up. 1st day at a full time job in January, first August in forever that I haven't had to go back to school. And lots more that I am looking forward to.

This past weekend was full of fun times and celebration. Nathan's whole family (minus the missionary) came up to support me for my graduation. It was such a blast to see them all and spend time with them.

Friday April 26 was my official college graduation. It was the longest ceremony ever. Ever. But it was worth it for my few seconds of fame. I also enjoyed pretending that I was going to Hogwarts...seriously, look at our robes. I totally felt like a wizard.

Wouldn't have made it through the last 2 years without these two. Love them both!

The Tanner Building...our home away from home. 

Afterwards we went to dinner at Mi Rancherito in Payson and then celebrated Nathan's belated birthday with some cake and presents. I also got an adorable graduation carving of Jiminy Cricket from my in-laws. Nathan told them that I have started collecting Disney carvings (yes, I'm just a bit obsessed with all things Disney related).

Saturday we got to celebrate with Jared and Melissa on their special wedding day. We love those two so so much and are so happy for their upcoming adventures. We have loved spending time with them in their dating stage and look forward to having another married couple join the pack.

Saturday night we enjoyed the evening by grilling over our fire pit. My husband sure knows how to grill a mean meal. It was all so good. It helped that he got a bunch of new grilling tools from my parents for his birthday.

And that about sums up the fun but busy weekend. I'm so grateful to all my family for the support they have given me throughout my schooling. I felt like the coolest girl in the world this weekend with all the attention I got. So now I'm looking forward to spending the summer studying for the CPA exam (okay, not looking forward to that part), going on vacations, and spending time with the family.

Family Life

Lately I have been thinking about how incredibly blessed Nathan and I are to have such awesome families. There is so much love and support from everyone that sometimes I don't know how I got so lucky to be born into a great family and marry into an equally great family. So here comes a post of the awesome things we have been doing with our awesome families. (Can you tell I love my family?)

Nathan and my dad building a fire pit so the family can enjoy nightly bonfires with steak, hamburgers, and of course s'mores.

Enjoying the outdoors with our 3 dogs. It's so nice to be able to come home from school or work and hang out in the sun, jumping on the tramp, or just watching the dogs.

Making cakes to answer Blaine's date for Preference. "I'd be 'hoppy' to go with you!" We decided to keep in the Easter theme because she had asked with a basket of eggs and a stuffed duck saying "I'd be a lucky duck if you went with me."

Supporting brothers while they get set apart and ordained as elders. Nathan was able to fly out to Washington for Connor's farewell talk and I stayed home for Blaine's ordination. We both cried at our respective events.

Hanging out with Connor during his last few days before entering the MTC. We were able to go up and do a session in the Salt Lake Temple and then enjoyed a requested "last" dinner of Sushi.

Saying goodbye to Connor as he heads off to be an amazing missionary in the Baltic Mission. He has 9 weeks in the MTC to learn Latvian. As much as I would like to pretend I won't, I'm gonna miss that kid. I couldn't ask for a better brother-in-law.

Enjoying the traditional yearly Easter Egg Hunt at my Grandma Roberts' house. The food is delicious and the company excellent.

Heading down to Saint George for Conference weekend. There was a lot of swimming, eating, resting, and playing on red rocks. This was one of those vacations that made me more tired when I got home than I was when I left.

Watching my little brother open his mission call. He reports to the MTC on July 24th for the Texas, Fort Worth Mission!! We are so excited and so immensely proud of him for his choice to serve the Lord as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Now I am just trying to survive the last little bit of school. It is finally starting to hit me that I will never have to set foot in class again. And I cannot wait. So that's it for now...until graduation!!

The Last 7 Months....(and our new baby!)

I have been lacking significantly on this whole blogging thing. I got busy with school last semester and then the thought of writing a big summary blog post just seemed much too overwhelming so I continued to put off an update even when school was over. So I decided that I would just do a quick update with the major points of our life the last few months. If I can remember all the major points :)

November:

We had our first Thanksgiving as a married couple.....in separate places. One of the bad things about working in the food industry is that restaurants don't close on holidays. So Nathan had to work and miss the Thanksgiving feast at my Grandma Roberts' house. But don't worry, I'm an awesome wife and saved a plate for him in the fridge to eat when he got home late that night :)

December:

We had fun trying to make our little apartment as Christmasy as we could. We bought our first mini Christmas tree complete with lights and ornaments. Nathan even wrapped my presents early so he could put them under our little tree. 

We spent Christmas in Washington with Nathan's family and had a blast. Complete with all I could eat delicious homemade cinnamon rolls. And the Webb's cinnamon rolls are about a million times better than Cinnabon. Just sayin. But luckily my little sister's Alex and Elizabeth got Just Dance 3 for one of their presents so we burned off all the calories with hours and hours of choreographed, dancing fun :) I love that game. So much.

January:

With a new semester starting, we needed to bring it in with a bang. My cousin Mary had her birthday party at Fat Cats bowling alley and we had a blast bowling until after midnight....way after my bedtime! But in the end it was all worth it because....I FINALLY beat my husband at bowling. I can't even remember the exact score at this point but all that matters is I beat him after many, many attempts. 

February:

This month brought our first Valentine's Day as Mr. and Mrs. Webb and with that came the best present a husband could ask for. We brought our first baby into our home ;) For those of you who haven't yet, meet Akaya. 



Akaya's 1st night at home

She is a basset hound Labrador mix and she has taken over our hearts. Or mine at least. Haha I just can't get enough of her. Nathan and I usually work completely opposite hours since he works at a restaurant and I have the typical day time job. It's amazing how big of a difference it makes that I have a dog to come home to every day. There is nothing like an excited puppy to bring a smile to your face. I'm her favorite person in the world and I love it. Nathan, not so much. He's still trying to convince Akaya that he should be the favorite :) 

She immediately became best friends with my family's dog Charlie. When we first got her she was about the same size as full grown Charlie but she has continued to grow and is now much larger. But I don't think Charlie has realized that. To him, he will always be the big dog at his home. And please excuse the massive amounts of pictures. Haha, like I said I'm obsessed with her :)

We also celebrated my sister Erin's 19th birthday on the 17th. We went out to dinner for yummy Chinese food and and also played Just Dance 3. Like I said, I love that game. But I also love my sis. We have had our ups and downs but now that we are both getting older and she has gone off to college I'm finding we get along much better. She has always been one of my best friends, but now she's an even better best friend :)

March:

We went to the ever increasing in popularity festival of colors during March. It was my second time and I didn't really have the desire to experience it again, but Nathan hadn't been yet so I went for him. It's one of those need to experience once things but never again. I'm not a big fan of the whole strangers throwing colored chalk in my face. But it's fun one time :) We went with a bunch of my cousins and my little brother Blaine. Nathan and Blaine had fun, especially when my mom made them hose off outside in the freezing cold well water ;)

April:

This month we flew out to Washington to visit Nathan's family for a quick weekend trip. We were celebrating Nathan's Grandma Witt's 100th birthday. I met more of Nathan's family that I hadn't been able to meet yet and we had so much fun playing volleyball, eating, and studying. Haha I had a test the day we got back so I was lucky enough to have to bring my textbooks with me on this trip. But even so, it was an awesome break to rejuvenate right before finals week.

May:

And this brings us to the current month. Our first month of summer has been pretty uneventful so far. We enjoyed spending time together for the first few weeks because without school, I get home much earlier in the day from work. Nathan just got a second job at Mimi's Cafe here in Orem and he is loving it. That also means that I see less of him again but that's life when you are starving college students. I start my summer internship at Deloitte in Salt Lake next week so I'm getting ready for that. I'm excited but nervous but mostly excited for the great experience it will be. 

Well that's all for now folks. Hopefully I'll be better at updating in the future so I don't have to do massive summary blog posts anymore. But nonetheless, I hope you have enjoyed!