One Year!!!

I can't believe that Jeremy and I have already been married one year! Time has really flown by fast. On top of celebrating this big event we also celebrated my graduation from college. I don't know which event was more exciting...honestly! 

The festivities began on April 4th with Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa Rudd all coming to Rexburg. Jeremy was still in school and it was finals so he was pretty busy but since I finished two weeks before, I was ready for some company! We had fun just hanging out, celebrating mom's birthday a couple months early (in true Rudd fashion) and of course seeing The Hunger Games! Mom and I both waited to see it together and it was worth the wait! Mom and Dad also let me open my graduation present early. Mom scrapbooked my entire life through 8th grade! It was such a special gift! I didn't know they made such big binders! I absolutely love them! Jer and I also got to open our Easter box from Roxy early. We are so spoiled! Jeremy is making me ration the candy so it lasts longer and so we don't OD on sugar. Roxy just knows exactly what we like! 

Mom's Birthday present from Jer and I. We thought she could hang it in her new "Americana" office!

I absolutely love these three people! It is so amazing how much my dad looks like his parents. 

Easter Box from Rox! I about peed my pants. Jeremy was excited too but I started opening it while he was still studying. I'm a brat!

My Easter present from Roxy...Breaking Dawn...I was so happy!!! But I think Jeremy was a little jealous. 

We made a special meal for the parents and grandparents. Pork and homemade mashed potatoes!

Logan and Ava came for a little visit on their spring break.

 

 

HUNGER GAMES!

Mom and Dad Evans and Tyler all arrived Thursday night (after fighting a snow storm...in April...I will not miss that!) and Jeremy and I surprised Mom on Friday morning (her birthday) with a little visit. The siblings all pitched in on a beautiful quilt made by Joanali for her birthday and we were the deliverers. All the graduation festivities were to be today so we had to get back, do some cooking, and get ready to go.

Graduation cupcakes thanks to Pinterest :)

Graduation Lunch: Super yummy tortilla soup

A quick celebration for Mom Evans' birthday included a German chocolate cake topped with a SICK candle and accompanied by a beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" :)

*Sorry there are so many pictures of the candle, I just really loved it!

With all this family around, I felt very spoiled!

From graduation decorations to having my hair done by my sweet sister, I was really living the high life! 

Commencement started at 5:45 in the BYU-Idaho Center where Elder Ballard spoke. I was so tired, I sort of slept through a lot of it but the nap helped to rejuvenate me for the long walk out. I was pretty pumped.

One of my model shots :)

Picture with my hubby

Dad and Mom

Grandma and Grandpa Rudd

Mom, Dad and Tyler

 All my fans!

 The cooler your robe, the more important you are. Check out President Clark's red and black one! Sick!

 Elder Ballard

A little dark but you can tell I was stoked!

We headed straight to the church where convocations were to begin at 8:00. I was asked to read the theme scripture so my family got prime seating. VIP! It was fun for Grandma and Grandpa to see that my department chair was actually the son of their dear friends who used to live down the street from them in Ontario. It's a small world! If only they would have realized sooner maybe I would have gotten a GPA boost!

 Sitting up front! Woot!

 Walking in

 Brother Stanger (the department chair)

 SO HAPPY!

Me with my friend Carly

All my student teaching buddies

My friend Christine...such an awesome woman!

Sister Kay: My boss and my favorite professor! I don't know what I would have done without her for the past two years of school. The first class I took from her was only because I absolutely had to (she had a reputation of being ridiculously hard) and when I failed my first lesson plan I was ready to give her a piece of my mind. I set up the meeting and ended up being the one that was put in my place with how little I knew. Since then each of our meetings together have been priceless!

Wow! Four years later and another big milestone. So much has changed and yet so much is still the same! My parents have always pushed me so hard to do a little better and reach a little higher, and now that I have acheived this huge goal I can't thank them enough for all that pushing! I couldn't have done it without them!

Of course another person that I couldn't have done this without is Jeremy. The last few semesters have been so hard and there were so many days that I came home crying and wanting to give up and he was there to encourage me and keep me going. I was so blessed to have him as a constant support and am truly grateful!

Brad and Joanali surprised us by showing up for the graduation. It was fun to have some siblings there! Thanks for coming guys!

Mayley wearing my graduation cap. Stinking cute!

Jen was able to make it too! So glad to have her close!

A couple shots of me around campus. 

The proof that I have been doing something over the past four years!

Saturday was a day of relaxation and time spent celebrating Easter. We had already opened the AMAZING Easter box that Roxy sent us but Jeremy and I also hid Easter baskets for each other and even set out Easter bowls for Mom and Dad. I know they don't believe in that stuff but with all the candy floating around they were happy to have some of their own. Our baskets were pretty lame, so we had to supplement with some of the candy Roxy sent. We are just too cheap! Double thanks Rox! We also had a sort of Easter egg hunt for Nathan and Mayley in the house, died eggs, and decorated sugar cookies. So many fun things!

Mom and Dad's Easter bowls and some beautiful flowers! Easter Lilies from Grandpa...he sure knows how to make a girl feel special! :)

Our Easter Baskets

SUGAR COOKIES!!!

Mom working hard to make tons of pastel colored frosting for our Easter sugar cookies.

Tyler just eating the cookies :)

And Mayley following in Tyler's footsteps.

EASTER EGG HUNT

EGG DYING

This is an Evans family tradition that I absolutely love!

 

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying watching all the fun...Dad looks really excited too!

BOWLING

Sunday Dad Evans had to leave after sacrament meeting to get back for church. The Rudds and Brad's family left too after a yummy Easter feast. It was so nice to have so much family here for Easter. One of the hard things about living in Rexburg is nobody wants to come visit so holidays can be pretty lonely. But my favorite part about holidays is spending them with family. I was glad that so many people were able to make it and celebrate this special holiday with us.

Monday brought the big one year anniversary! Tyler and Mom Evans were still staying with us since Tyler was going to be starting school in just a week so we spent the morning with them before we headed out for our adventures. Thanks to them, and Pinterest for the idea, we were able to get an anniversary picture to document!

Our first stop was to a jewelry place to get my ring cleaned. I haven't done it since I got it and I was amazed at the difference. After that we headed to Idaho Falls. We were staying at a Best Western just for the night out there. Living the high life! Jeremy actually surprised me and payed extra for the room with the huge bathtub. Best present ever! (Baths are my favorite but our place has NO hot water so I have to boil water just to take a bath. Living with that for a year has been no fun so this was a treat!)

After we checked in, we headed over to Applebee's for lunch/dinner. Still enjoying that mysterious gift card that Jeremy had diguised as a wax scraper. :) We then spent the rest of the day relaxing and just enjoying a day together. We went swimming, played games, and actually watched TV! We don't have TV or even local stations so that was also a treat! We ended up going to Wendy's for a late dinner since we had eaten really early at Applebee's. We are so cheap but we did splurge and got frosties!

It was fun to think back the whole day on what we were doing a year ago. I kept saying, "OK, it's noon in California. What we were doing a year ago right now?" Looking back on that day and the last year filled with great memories just made me so excited for the many years to come spent together!

After a  quick trip, we headed back to Rexburg the next morning. Jeremy had to immediately start studying for the GRE 24 hours a day to be ready to take it that Thursday. Mom, Tyler, and I drove him down to Pocatello and then tried to find things to do in the meantime. There wasn't much. We went to a museum on campus, drove around looking for things to do and then ended up at Costco where we shopped, ate and eventually fell asleep in the car until Jeremy called to be picked up. We are a real party! Jeremy was glad to have the test over with. To celebrate we grabbed some Chick-Fil-A (Mom's first time) and then saw "Mirror, Mirror". 

The week went so fast having Mom and Tyler here and before we knew it Tyler was moved into his new place, Mom was heading back to California, and Jeremy was starting school. It was barely a break and Jeremy was studying for most of it, but Spring semester is always filled with fun times, so we are ready!