And so it begins...: January 2019

Brent's company hosted a big BBQ company picnic at the fair.
Brent had to work that day, but got off early enough to meet us and drive over to the fair in Redmond. We got some good food and some tickets for rides.
Mitchel and Brayden had to leave after eating to go to Portland and head to church camp, but they were there for the best part if you ask me.

We all had personalized magnetic nametags....snazzy.

After we mingled and ate a little we headed out to the fair grounds to check out the rides. I ran into one of the teachers I had worked with and her daughter had ordered a huge plate of curly fries she was not going to eat, so she pawned them off on me. Emmett didn't mind one bit! I couldn't believe he could eat any more...

Right before we left we paid for August to try out these balls on water. He was so excited. I thought they were the neatest thing. I wanted to try them too! But I didn't...

Traffic was pretty bad on the way out, but when we finally hit the road the kids passed out. So I would call that a pretty successful event!

The events posted here are a little backwards. On June 13th, 2018 Brayden graduated from 8th grade. His graduation was held in the same place as Mitchel's graduation. Knowing this I thought I knew what to expect from the ceremony. It was much colder this year than when Mitch graduated. I don't think we anticipated it being so cold.
Still...We all gathered and watched proudly as Brayden crossed the stage and received his certificate of participation. Unfortunately, it was so cold and windy that I had to run the younger boys straight to the car after the ceremony and we didn't take the traditional pictures at the event. Poor little Emmett and August were freezing. We also had dinner reservations which left us with NO time to sit around and soak in the middle school graduation ambiance. The speaker was nice and talked about his time as a teacher at the middle school, and the community. He gave them some empowering words to move forward to high school. It was very touching, he did say something personal about most of the students.

Brayden is a quiet and reserved child. I am sure this was a little overwhelming for him. It was a little humorous to listen to how loud the girls cheered for the other girls and the boys seemed much more quiet.

It was also Abram's 18th birthday. We made sure to take a moment to send him a happy birthday video.
Emmett was still a so little and he cried when people sing in unison. At the very end of the serenade you can see him crying...

Again this post is like going backwards...here is Brent helping Bray with his tie and preparing for the graduation...

Had to try and take this opportunity to get some pictures of the family. We were all together and the boys were mostly all wearing plaid shirts...gotta love a guy in plaid.

Emmett was not as excited about getting his picture taken

August was cracking up at Emmett's gibberish.

Brayden and G-Ma.

Back at the end of April I had graduated from George Fox's graduate school with my Masters in the Art of Teaching (MAT).

It was crazy how quickly it seemed to be over, when really it was some of the most intense 16 months of my life...and I was not technically done. I was taking my special education endorsement, so I actually had to continue going to school through December.
My cohort were all finished though. So, it was nice to celebrate them and our accomplishments. It was such a nice intimate graduation. We all cried way too much. I was still pregnant at the time. Fighting extreme nausea and fatigue. Gotta love the first trimester...
There were only 10 people in my cohort. 5 were secondary (going to teach middle/high school) and 5 were elementary.
Fun fact: Me and one other cohort member were going for our special education endorsement, so we were not "technically" done as far as the university was concerned. So we were not able to wear a cap and gown. However, they let us be recognized for finishing our Masters, but because the degree was billed as a PLUS degree with the endorsement paired with the degree, we had to complete the endorsement before the university issued our diploma. Ugh. Red tape, technicality, blah blah. We were lucky to be included and to be able to each speak at the graduation and thank our family and friends and reflect on our experiences.

My sisters and most of the nieces and nephews came out to help celebrate, along with my Dads, Mom, and Aunt Kathy.

We headed from the graduation to our house. I opened up all the presents they got me. (totally spoiled me). We then headed to Bend to the Japanese hibachi style restaurant.

/Brayden became graduation man!

We all displayed our action research projects

My sweet Emmett and Mitchel

I highly recommend having nieces. They are the absolute best. Especially this one right here!

During the graduation ceremony there was a lot of praying and blessings going around...and Emmett needed some wiggles out, so Brent was walking him up and down the auditorium. It wasn't distracting at all!