Picture of the day :)

"Pleeeeeeease, Dad?"

This was when we were all home sick, fyi--hence Beck's crazy hair and Adam's scruff. :)

DONE!

Adam has officially completed his MBA!!! Wahoo! We seriously couldn't be more excited. I'm so proud of him. It definitely hasn't been easy trying to balance school on top of a full-time job and a family, but he (and we!) did it.

Although we are more than excited to be done, I still can't help but be a little sentimental. These last two years have flown by, and yet so much has happened, too! Beck wasn't even a twinkle in our eye when Adam started the program. We seemed a lot younger back then, too (Beck aged/ages us dramatically!). Two years ago, I was recently graduated and working full time at Yellowstone Hotel Systems, and Adam was recently graduated and manager of University Village, just beginning his MBA. Two years, hundreds of hours of homework, a new job, a new apartment, and a baby later, we have ourselves an MBA graduate! We'll see where the next two years take us!

Then:

Now:

We went to Texas Roadhouse tonight to celebrate--YUM! (Horribly lit phone pic--sorry!)

Just noticed the nice logo in the background... Blame photographer Cody! :)

Here's to our next adventure! Whatever that may be... :)

Might as well go dumpster diving

Adam and I are clean people. Some may even call us obsessive-compulsive (although we have had to resist our inclinations a lot more since Beck came along!). Then why, oh why have all the germs invaded our home and bodies?! We might as well have dove into dumpsters and chewed strangers' gum because we have not avoided absolutely any germs this season, it seems!
On Adam's birthday (Nov. 10), Beck and I both came down with something. Turns out I had pharyngitis (throat infection) and Beck had croup, a sore throat and a double ear infection. We got drugged up and were finally better after a week or so. That was sickness #1. Then not even two weeks after that, Adam and I both caught horrible head colds which lasted about a week. Sickness #2. Then not even a week after that (this Monday evening), I got the stomach flu and couldn't even keep water down. Sickness #3. Thankfully, it was only the 24-hour kind, so I recovered, and our month of sickness was behind us. But not really!
Beck now has the stomach flu. Sickness #4. This was made manifest tonight while eating a nice dinner with 30+ coworkers at Adam's work party. Barfing and bloody-murder screaming were involved. Poor Beck. Poor us. Poor people who had to witness it! We came home from our dinner party early, hungry and covered in barf. And Beck didn't even get to see Santa! Not exactly how we imagined the night would play out. It sucked because kids weren't even "encouraged" but we were told it was ok after both of our babysitters fell through last-minute. It sucked because we got barf all over us, and the carpet. It sucked because the throwing up scared Beck so bad that he would not stop screaming until every single person was looking at us. It sucked because we were starving and didn't even get to eat the amazing food. It sucked because it was in front of every single one of Adam's coworkers. And it sucked because Beck didn't get to bond with Santa--it was the real one, I swear! :) Of course we were more concerned about Beck than about the big scene we made, and everyone there wasn't even judgmental or rude or anything, but it just wasn't a fun situation overall. But once we got home, we had to look back and laugh. Thankfully we have a wonderful little boy who is happy despite his sickness. Throwing up scares him for the second it lasts, but then he's back to his happy self.
I got a really funny picture of barf-covered Beck, but our leftover computer we're using isn't fast enough to connect to our camera. :)
Stay tuned for an optimistic post! Not sure what about yet, but it's coming soon, I promise. I hope you all don't think I've turned into some one-eyed pessimistic monster! :)

Get me out of here!

Yes, -15! Here comes another Rexburg winter. Although I love so many aspects of this town, I cannot stand its weather! I hate being cooped up all day four+ months out of the year because of it. Which reminds me, I haven't mentioned lately how close Adam is to graduating with his MBA! This Monday is his official graduation! He won't be there, since it's in New York, but we will definitely be celebrating here!

I know millions of people are asking this, but it doesn't hurt to ask--anybody know of any jobs, preferrably not in Eastern Idaho? :) Adam's undergrad was in Economics, and his MBA emphasis is Fraud Management, so we're ideally looking for something in those areas. Any leads anyone has would be awesome!

I haven't made a post about Beck in forever. Now we have no pictures to post of him, thanks to our harddrive mishap. Thankfully we have a few pics that were still on our camera, so I'll post some of those soon.

Hope everyone's doing well. :)

Why I'm crying myself to sleep tonight...

And last night. Our laptop harddrive is gone. All of our pictures of Beck--gone. All of our videos of Beck--gone. All of the pictures we've ever taken since we've been married--gone. All of Beck's milestone dates I had saved in a document--gone. And I seriously just can't stop crying about it. I just want to go to bed and pretend it never happened, but I can't sleep because I'm sick to my stomach.

And you know the worst/harshly ironic part about this all is? We bought an external hard drive on Friday and were going to move all of our files onto it today during our downtime. But our harddrive crashed last night.

If you know of anything we can do, please let me know. We had our friend look at it (he used to work at a computer repair shop), and he said it's gone. But we're still trying to have hope that something will work. There are some "drive saver" companies you can send it into, but they charge thousands of dollars. Worst situation ever. ONE day too late! So bitter. Sorry for the purely negative post, I just can't help myself right now.

"I can't put my arms down!"

Rexburg winter is upon us! And this is how Beck feels about bundling up for it... :)

Great deals @ Old Navy!

Have I mentioned I LOVE a good deal? Haha, who doesn't? :) Anyway, I went in to Old Navy today to get a price adjustment before the time period expired(see below for details), and thought I'd glance around the store while I was at it since I had a 30% off your entire purchase coupon. Well, they also happened to have all of their clearance items on sale for an additional 50% off, and they let you stack the coupons--yes, amazing scenario! So needless to say, I got some great deals--which I have outlined in detail below, mainly to make me feel good about myself. ;)

Sorry to not post about this sooner! Like I said, I just happened upon it this afternoon. If anyone is interested, you can use this online coupon code for 30% off that is good through tomorrow (Sunday): BHCN177GGW83 Also, if you go to this web address (sorry, links never work on my blog), you can get a one-time-use free shipping code when you sign up for the Banana Republic (same company as Old Navy) e-mail list: https://secure-bananarepublic.gap...onfirm.do?

Ok,now on to the good deal details! So the picture may not look like it's that much stuff, but it really is:

For me:
2 argyle sweater cardigans
1 long-sleeved blouse
1 short-sleeved blouse
1 pair of cargo pants
1 set of sticky-note magnets
1 wallet
2 notebooks
1 small make-up kit bag
(Forgot to include these last four items in the pic!)

For Beck:
7 long-sleeved shirts
3 sweaters
1 one-piece outfit
1 button-up plaid shirt
1 long-sleeved polo shirt
2 pairs of jersey-lined nylon cargo pants
1 pair of fleece sweats
1 pair of pin-striped dress pants
4 pairs of shoes

For Adam:
Nothing. He said he didn't see anything he liked, but I think he really just wanted to get to Sears. :)

So...... total retail value: $401.50

My steal price: $82, including tax! Wahoo!
__________________________________
Oh, and a note about the price adjustment I mentioned earlier. Last week we bought Adam a nice jacket at Old Navy for $69.50, and then I had a 30% off coupon, so still a pretty good deal. But this week they went on sale for 30% off, so I decided to call and see if they would credit me back at all since I had just bought it the week before, and to my pleasant surprise, they did! As long as you do it within 14 days, they'll credit you back the difference. So I got $15 back! Good little tidbit to know!

Way cute video of our sick--yet still ridiculously happy--little boy!

**We decided for fun to submit this video to America's Funniest Home videos, which means we had to delete it from YouTube and our blog. Hope you got your fill while it was up, grandparents! ;)**
Somehow the germs of this season have caught up with us. Beck had a little bit of a cough on Monday, so I took him in Tuesday morning, thinking it would probably just be a little cold or something. Nope. He officially has the croup, a sore throat, and a double ear infection! So sad! I thought I was doing so good to protect him, too--sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. Guess those germs have a way of getting in anywhere, though. I also came down with a throat infection (pharyngitis), so I'm on the same medicine as Beck. Twinners. :) Even though Beck is so sick, he is still the happiest kid ever. This is a way cute video of Adam and Beck playing when Adam got home from work. Can't help but smile when you hear that laugh, can you? :)

TEXAS! Longest post ever... :)

We're back! We've actually been back for a week, but we've been recovering from being gone so long. :) There's a million things I could say about our trip, but for the sake of time I'll give a few highlights of each "stop" throughout it. Overall, it was an awesome trip for Beck and I!
Oh, and of course, the ONE thing that didn't make it to Texas with me was my camera. It got left in Lindsay's car when she dropped us off at the airport. :( Thankfully, my phone has a decent camera on it! Ok, here we go... I won't be offended if you don't read all--or any--of this. Feel free to just look over the pics if you would like. :)
Salt Lake:Our friend Lindsay was going down to Utah to hang out with her brothers, so since she's amazing she let Beck and I tag along with her. We stayed in my aunt and uncle's condo in SLC Friday night (thank you, Kent and Sue!) since our flight left so early the next morning. But we still had time to have a little fun before we hit the sack. We hung out on Temple Square (the weather was perfect!) and hit up Taco Bell.





Plane ride: We got to the airport a few minutes late (my fault), and then my bag was 10 pounds over, so I went from a light carry-on bag to a stuffed carry-on bag and a huge backpack, not to mention a 25-pound baby. And of course, my gate was the very last gate, and I was coming from the very first check-in spot, so I had to haul, while carrying about 70 extra pounds. Great start to the trip, eh? :) Beck did awesome on the flight though, and didn't cry once. He loved the lights, and the people, and the windows--pretty much everything. It was so cute, every time someone came over the loudspeaker, he would jolt and then look around the whole time trying to figure out where the voice was coming from, and then give me a look like, "Mom, don't you hear that?!" It was so funny. While getting off our first flight, an amazing couple helped me carry my bags, and it turned out they were headed to San Antonio too, so they took my bags and my baby and let me rest during the layover. And then we sat by each other on the second flight. They were definitely angels sent to help me survive! :) I appreciate them--and the Lord for sending them to us--sooooo much.


Elise's:It was so fun to see Elise and her little family! Dallin is so grown up now, and it was so fun to meet Tanner for the first time. And of course it was great to see Elise after a year and a half! And David, too! While there, we went shopping, went to a little Mexican restaurant, made and glaze-frosted amazing sugar cookies, went to the park and fed ducks, witnessed how crazy/energetic Beck is, played Rummikub and just caught up on life! Elise was a great hostess and was very accommodating, and made great meals every day. Thanks for letting us come visit, Elise! Here are a few pics:








Granddaddy & Hanne's:Adam's grandparents live just outside of San Antonio, so Beck and I were able to stay with them for a few days too! Beck is their only great-grandson, and they were finally able to meet him. And let me tell you, it was love at first sight, both ways! While there, we saw cows and chickens, rode on a tractor, shopped (thank you, Hanne!), ate some amazing bbq at the City Market in Luling, ate real schnitzel and other yummy cooking of Hanne's, and banged on the coffee table (Beck did, anyway--he was obssessed with the thing!). It was so cute to see the instant bond between great-grandparents and great-grandson. Now the only grandparent Beck hasn't met is Great-Grandma Jojo. :( Hopefully sometime soon! Here are some pics:









Houston: Granddaddy and Hanne were nice enough to pick us up from San Antonio, as well as drive halfway to Houston to meet up with my fam, who hadn't met them either, so that was fun! We had lunch at Schobel's (thank you, Granddaddy and Hanne!) and then said goodbye, which was so sad. :( We stopped by a cool airplane museum on our way out, and then headed on to Houston. ANd there we basically had a mini family reunion; we had everybody there except Adam and my brother-in-law, Alex. While there, we ate a lot of yummy food (Los Cucos, Rudy's, Chick-Fil-A, Church's Chicken--all amazing!), shopped, played games, made homemade chicken divan and fudgy brownies, got lost and/or stuck in traffic (x 10), went to an aquarium, looked at Tim & Aimee's soon-to-be house by a beautiful lake (which I got 19 mosquito bites from!), took a tour of historic Houston homes, went to the coast (Galveston), went to a Halloween play date and carnival/trunk-or-treat, had cousin pictures taken of Jared and Beck, experienced IKEA (LOVE it!), almost got in two car-wrecks, and I also finished the 7th (and last) Harry Potter book while there! We attempted to go see the 6th Harry Potter at the cheap theater in celebration, but we got lost. :) It was so good to be together again as a fam, and was so nice to get a break from changing diapers--thank you, Mom!






























Plane ride #2: This time we were running late again (someone was blocking our car to get out of the parking lot), and my bag was 15 pounds over this time! I'm not usually so unprepared, I just didn't have a scale. So I ended up with a stuffed bag and backpack again, but thankfully there was another angel on this flight! I was the last one to board the plane, and there was a lady standing right at the front that said, "There you are! I heard a baby and waited so I could sit by you and hold your baby." Something out of a fairy tale, right? I couldn't believe it. She sat across from me and played with Beck almost the whole time! I also sat by a very nice man and had an amazing flight attendant who did so many little things to help (thank you Morgan of Southwest!). I was so grateful I was surrounded by helpers/angels on all of our flights!

Whew, that's tiring just thinking about all that we did again. Beck and I were so exhausted by the end, we were happy to get home! Adam picked us up from SLC and after hitting Tucanos (yum!), Beck and I were both able to sleep a little bit on the way home (yes, he is getting better about falling asleep in his carseat!). It was such a great trip!
...I hope at least my mom or someone looked at this whole post because it took forever to do! At least it's done, finally. :)