Golf Tournament

Every year Darren's uncle hosts a golf tournament through his business. Darren got to play in it this year because we were here in Oregon. His team got 3rd place! Woot woot!

 I only got to see him golf for a little bit, but after everyone finished golfing there was a big barbecue lunch and of course there was lots of playing with the baby.

Darren and I got a new camera from his parents for part of his graduation present and my birthday present. So far I love it, and good thing Kylee is around so I can have a photography subject to practice on. 

Kylee

I love being in Oregon and getting to spend time with Darren's family, especially my sweet niece Kylee! She is such a precious little baby. She is always happy and always smiling and laughing. It is so much fun to be around her! I call her Smiley Kylee because she never stops smiling...I guess until you try and take a picture of her.

 Yesterday we went for a swim together. She really likes to swim, but she got a little bit cold so she didn't last very long.

 After Kylee bailed on swimming Jared and Darren had a contest to see who could do the most underwater flips in a row. Jared won. I don't know what he is doing in this picture...showing off his muscles? Or celebrating the win?

Road Trip

Alan, Darren's brother, took these pictures in the car when we were driving to Oregon. I just found them on my camera and thought they were pretty funny. This family is a hoot!

Brynn's Open House

The day after Darren's graduation Brynn and her new husband Trevor had an open house in Pocatello. Darren and I got to stop by on our way to Portland. I am so excited that I got to go to her open house because I wasn't able to go to her wedding and it made me so sad! Brynn was a beautiful bride, and there was plenty of yummy food! Brynn is one of my best friends and I miss seeing her so it was great to spend a few minutes with her. 

Darren's Graduation

Darren graduated! Wahoo! It was really exciting to see Darren graduate from college but we know we are not anywhere near being done with school. I am so proud of Darren and how hard he worked to get good grades throughout school. He has taken some pretty hard classes but he is my little smartie pants! Even though Darren graduated he still is planning on taking a few more classes the next couple of semesters because he still has some prerequisites for medical school. He will also be studying for and taking the MCAT. How fun does that sound? Everything works out quite nicely because I still have a year left of school and so we can still be going to school together for a little while. After Darren takes the MCAT he will be applying for medical schools! So exciting!

To celebrate Darren graduating I through a little party for our families that came to see him. My cousin Carlee also graduated from the nursing program and we had joint parties with her. I made graduation cupcakes and we had french dip sandwiches and lots of fruit and fruit dip. It was a fun little party, and it was a new experience for me cooking for so many people! After our party we headed over to graduation.

Here is Darren waiting with everyone else to graduate and then right when he came off of the stage. It was really hard to get good pictures of him and these are the best we could do!

After graduation we took some pictures outside but it was after 9:00 and it was getting pretty dark so we didn't get to take too many. We figured that we would just come back to the school the next day and take some better pictures. After taking a few pictures we headed over to Snoasis and we all had snow cones to celebrate!

 On the way back to the car we took a little detour through the Hart building so Darren could show our families where he worked all semester and how he had his picture on the wall as the concussion specialist. In this picture he is pointing to his picture but it is kind of hard to tell because we couldn't get a good picture because his picture was behind glass.

The rest of the pictures are from the day after graduation. We went back to school to give our families a tour of the campus and to take some photos in daylight! 

The last picture on the right is of Darren in front of the building that has his department in it. His department was Health, Recreation and Human Performance.

Child Development

Right now I am taking a class called family foundations. It is a required class and the whole class is about "The Family: A Proclamation to the World". It is crazy that we have spent the whole semester studying one document, but I really have learned so much! Our text is just a combination of a bunch of different talks given by different people on the subject of the family. I have read some really amazing talks this semester, but a few days ago one of our assigned talks was "Mothers Who Know" by Julie B. Beck. I have read this talk many times before, and even when I read it again for my class it didn't have any particular effect on me. I mean, I love her talk but it didn't have a huge impact on me...until we discussed it in class. This section was the part that was discussed the most, and the part that I feel so strongly about:

"Mothers who know are nurturers. This is their special assignment and role under the plan of happiness. To nurture means to cultivate, care for, and make grow. Therefore, mothers who know create a climate for spiritual and temporal growth in their homes. Another word for nurturing is homemaking. Homemaking includes cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly home. Home is where women have the most power and influence; therefore, Latter-day Saint women should be the best homemakers in the world. Working beside children in homemaking tasks creates opportunities to teach and model qualities children should emulate. Nurturing mothers are knowledgeable, but all the education women attain will avail them nothing if they do not have the skill to make a home that creates a climate for spiritual growth. Growth happens best in a “house of order,” and women should pattern their homes after the Lord’s house (see D&C 109). Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work. Helping growth occur through nurturing is truly a powerful and influential role bestowed on women."


My teacher called on random people to say what they thought about this particular talk. The first person who spoke up made a comment about how in today's society, the word homemaking has a negative connotation. Everybody readily agreed and we talked about it for quite a while. It is funny to me that homemaking is thought of in such a bad way. There is nothing I want more in this world than to be a homemaker for my family. There were a few girls in my class who obviously didn't like that woman are expected to be homemakers their whole lives and just cook and clean their house, but to me, homemaking is so much more than just cooking and cleaning. Obviously, everyone is not like me and different people have different desires, but it was really eye opening to me that people felt bad about themselves for just being a homemaker and just having the responsibility of taking care of their children. It is the greatest responsibility that we can have! 


Another girl in my class, who works on campus, talked about how her job is to call people who have graduated from BYU-Idaho and see what they are doing today. She said that often times when she calls woman who have graduated from BYU-Idaho, they are embarrassed to say that they have not used their degree at all and they are only a stay at home mom. After they tell her that, she says she asks them how they have used what they learned at school in raising their families, and often times, they come up with a lot of answers. My teacher pointed out how everyone in the room has been changed more than we know by attending college. I think that is so true, and I know that I personally have changed in so many ways for the better. It is contradicting how the church urges woman, well actually everyone, to get as much education as they can, and then sit at home and raise children. I think it is because it is important to have as much knowledge as we can as we raise our children. I know that I am going to parent my children way differently than I would have without the knowledge that I now have.


I guess the point of this post comes back to how my major is child development. When I tell people that my major is child development I feel embarrassed, as if I chose the easy way out or the easy degree. I have changed my major three times and I finally settled on child development, and I didn't choose it for the easy way out. There is no doubt that child development is an easier major than biology or chemistry or some other majors, but I chose to study child development because that is what I love, and mostly I want to stay at home with my children. I am not saying that I will never have to work, because I think I will if Darren ends up in medical school, but having my major as child development lets me have a job that will still allow me to be at home with my children and work, such as doing a home daycare or preschool. There are many jobs that I would love to have, such as being an early intervention specialist. I think that is my dream job, except a job that I want more than that is to be a mother. I know that everyone doesn't love children as much as I do, and that is okay, I am not trying to be preachy, I just feel strongly about my choice to stay at home with my children (that don't even exist yet) if I am blessed enough to be able to do so. Also, I think that every mother should feel like they are making a difference in the world by raising their children to the best of their ability. It is okay to be a stay at home mom, and it makes me sad when people feel bad about themselves for making that choice. 


I will end my little rant now with this quote from Sister Beck:
"Who will prepare this righteous generation of sons and daughters? Latter-day Saint women will do this—women who know and love the Lord and bear testimony of Him, women who are strong and immovable and who do not give up during difficult and discouraging times. We are led by an inspired prophet of God who has called upon the women of the Church to “stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord.” He has asked us to “begin in [our] own homes” to teach children the ways of truth. Latter-day Saint women should be the very best in the world at upholding, nurturing, and protecting families. I have every confidence that our women will do this and will come to be known as mothers who “knew”

I know I am not a mother, and so I don't know fully what that entails, but this is how I feel about motherhood. I have wanted to be a mother my whole life, literally. As a child, you could never find me without a baby doll attached to my hip...and when possible a real baby. I am excited for the future when I have the opportunity to raise my Heavenly Father's children.

 Sweet hair, huh? 

My College Graduate

Today I took some pictures of Darren for his graduation announcements. I am so excited for him and I am really excited for graduation in 2 weeks. Too bad I still have a year to go!

The Dynamic Duos

We had our last softball game tonight. Only 7 of our players were there...we were missing 4, so the team picture above isn't really our whole team. We had so much fun playing on a softball team this semester. Our team has really come a long way and we have learned to work together. Hopefully we will all play again together next semester.

The 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July holiday this year! To start off the day we had a fun barbecue with our friends and I made these cute little individual fruit pizzas. It's my little tradition. I have only ever made them one other time, but I think it is a tradition that I want to have fruit pizza on the 4th of July.

After our barbecue we headed down to Idaho Falls with Carlee and our friends Haley and Andrew for the biggest firework show West of the Mississippi! (well at least that is what they say) There was a lot to do in Idaho Falls including a car show, a pie eating contest, and lots of food venders. We walked around for a while and looked at all of the things to do. There was a lot of stuff for little kids to do and it made me excited to have kids and celebrate holidays with them. 

We heard that you had to arrive really early to get a parking spot and a place to sit, so we arrived around 3 and the fireworks didn't start until 10. There was a lot of lounging around but we brought board games and cards, and we played catch and some rounds of pickle. 

It was a beautiful day by the river and a great day celebrating the 4th of July. The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love all of the red, white and blue and I love all of the patriotism. I feel like being American is something that everyone can bond over and there is always a feeling of unity on the 4th of July. I am so grateful for all of the freedoms that we get to enjoy by being a part of this great country. 

Of course we finished the day off with the long awaited firework show. It was pretty good, I just felt like we were a little far away from the fireworks. But still, it was really long and really pretty.