Graduation

The time has finally come, Craig is officially Dr. Moss.  He has worked so hard over the last 4 years and it definitely paid off with him graduating Magna Cum Laude from optometry school.  Craig graduated on Friday, May 8th, but there was a whole week of festivities leading up to it, so I will start at the beginning and work my way to the grand finale.  Because of graduation all of our SCO friends were back in town for the whole week leading up.  The boys all had a week of cap stone, which allowed all of us girls and kids to get together throughout the week.  Tuesday afternoon we all met at the zoo, it is free then for all TN residents. Brooklyn loved seeing the animals and riding the train around the farm animals.  After the zoo we headed downtown to the Peabody Hotel for a rooftop party for the class of 2015, we let Brooklyn tag along to this one.  Wednesday morning we met friends at the botanic gardens, Brooklyn just kept wanting to play with the hula hoops.  Thursday we met at Overton Park and played for a few hours before heading over to Craig's school where they were doing a bbq for all of the students families that were in town.  After the bbq we had to head to the bookstore and get our SCO apparel.  Thursday evening we left Brooklyn with a babysitter and Craig and I headed downtown to the Cook Convention Center for a class banquet.  There were a couple of speakers and a video while we ate dinner.  It was a fun evening and nice to honor all of the graduates and recognize their hard work.  Brooklyn did great with the sitter they watched a good amount of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but she even went pee for her (that is the first time she has gone potty for anyone besides me or Craig).  After I dropped the babysitter off Craig headed to the airport to pick up Stan and Diane.

 Friday was then the BIG day.  Craig had to head down to the Cannon Center early and then the rest of us headed out after grabbing some lunch at Subway.  The graduation was really well done. The speakers did a great job and then it was time get their hoods and to walk across the stage to get their diplomas.  Seeing Craig get his diploma was such a great feeling, I just felt so amazingly proud of him and what he had accomplished.  Not only did he get into one of the top schools in the nation, he got a scholarship, rocked all 3 parts of boards, got the award for the best clinician in his class, graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was a great husband and father through it all.  After the ceremony they had a little reception and we were able to take a lot of pictures and say goodbye to all of our great friends. Brooklyn had so much fun throughout the week with all of her "buddies" as she calls them.  She just kept chasing all of the boys around (man are we in trouble).  I had a blast seeing all of the girls again, I am sure going to miss them. We really have had great friends while we were in Memphis. On Saturday we went to the new Bass Pro Shop that they put into the Pyramid in downtown Memphis.  It is the world's largest Bass Pro Shop and it is really amazing.  We are glad we got to see it before we headed out of town. Craig is going to make an amazing doctor.  Not only does he really know his stuff, but he is so great with people that I am sure his patients will stay with him for life.  Eagle Vision One is lucky to have him.  Our whole married life has just been school, it will be nice to be finally making money for a change (yay for student loans) and to begin this phase in our lives.

riding the train at the zoo

Brock, Will, Brooklyn, and Paul fascinated by the elephants

Peabody Rooftop Party

Botanic Gardens with Paul and Dax

Playing in the dog house with Brock

Overton Park

Playing in the sand with buddies

Banquet dinner
Sam, Jen, Lauren, Katie, Brandi, Kelsie (and Iszie), Krystal

Jordan, Michael, Braden, Craig, Robby, Michael, Cade (and Dax)

Playing at home before graduation

Patiently waiting for graduation to start

she of course had to have her own program

the class of OHPNTZ (2015)

getting his hood

receiving his diploma

Michael Cole and Craig...I mean Dr. Cole and Dr. Moss

Dr. Norton, Craig did his last rotation at his office

Braden, Robby, Mark, Ryan, Michael Richardson, Craig, Michael Cole

Awesome April

showing off her new tutu

April really has been a great month for us.  Craig got a job, we sold the house, the weather has been great.  We really don't have anything to complain about.  We have been busy getting everything packed up and selling furniture and just getting ready in general for the move. The house is a complete disaster right now, but I guess that is to be expected with the move.  I taught my last classes at the YMCA this week, hopefully I can find a gym in Boise where I can teach a few classes (luckily now though it will be just because I want to and not for the money, yay for a real job!). Craig finished up his last externship and is ready for graduation.

We were able to go to a Redbirds game this month with some friends from the ward.  Brooklyn was a little nervous about the fireworks at first, but ended up loving them, she kept going, "fireworks boom boom".  We will miss the Redbirds games for sure, we always had a lot of fun at those. I guess it is time to support the Boise Hawks now.  We also spent a ton of time outside.  We went to the park almost every single day.  The only days we wouldn't was if it was raining.  Some days we would even go once in the morning and then again in the afternoon.  She loved to have "buddies" there.  For some reason she doesn't say friends but calls them buddies instead.  So if we went to the park and no one else was there she'd ask me "where's buddies?" and then if people would show up she would get so excited and start yelling "more buddies!" She loved when we went to the driving range one Saturday.  She took her clubs and was so excited when daddy let her hit a few really golf balls.  She really is just the sweetest thing and I love her growing personality.

Sitting on the bluff at the baseball game

Swinging "high" at the park

Driving the "boat"

She loves to watch the rain

Building a "house" at Overton park

playing with friends from the ward

showing off her new trick

Enjoying a Popsicle in the backyard

 I feel like Brooklyn's vocabulary has doubled this last month.  She speaks in broken sentences now and is constantly surprising us with new words and phrases like "Jesus baptized".  Just is completely obsessed with puzzles.  We got her a Minnie Mouse puzzle from the dollar store and she does it at at least 10 times a day. and most of the time all by herself. She can count to 10 now without skipping 7.  She loves to read her books to herself.  She has them memorized enough that she will say what is going on on that page and then turn the page and keep going through the whole book.  Sometimes she asks if she can read them to us. We had a little bit of a regression with her potty training.  She was doing so well, like well enough that I was about to say that she was totally potty trained, and then all of the sudden she was pooping in her undies.  The only thing that I can think of is that she is getting some anxiety with everything that is going on because it started right about the time we really started to pack and get rid of some big pieces of furniture.  Luckily she is still doing great with going pee in the potty and she is getting really good about telling us when she needs to go, instead of us having to ask all of the time.  Hopefully once we get moved and settled she will get back to normal with the potty.  She is still napping most of the time. There is usually at least 1 day a week that she doesn't nap, but she is pretty good to hang out in her crib for at least an hour. She loves to commentate when we are driving.  She tells me the colors of the street lights and when I should go and stop, she will count the cars and trees as we drive past, she will talk about the clouds and sun in the sky.  Her favorite thing to tell me is "2 hands mommy" which makes it really difficult when I get a phone call, but I guess it is safer that way.

She loves having "pink lips" like mommy

She loved going to the driving range with Daddy

Enjoying her reward for doing so well with her potty training (before the poop in the undies thing)

Having fun with "Petty"

She wanted a picture taken with her monkey

Count Your Many Blessings

Our family has truly been blessed during the last month.  We are happy to announce that Craig is the new associate at Eagle Vision One in Eagle, Idaho.  He officially signed the contract yesterday, April 13, 2015.  Craig has worked very hard over the last 4 years not only in his school work but also networking with people in the Boise area.  We knew that the Boise area was very saturated with all kinds of health professionals, but knowing this would be our number one place to get a job, Craig started early.  He was constantly emailing different doctors or if we were in town he would stop by a few offices.  At the end of January we had gone back to Boise so that Craig could interview at several different places, he was offered a lot of part time work, but nothing full time.  All of the sudden a few weeks ago Craig was offered 3 different full time positions, one in Yakima, one in Nampa, and the other in Eagle.  After some negotiating and a lot of prayer and fasting he finally made the decision to become a part of Eagle Vision One.

The other blessing that we got was selling our house here in Memphis.  Our neighbor had recently sold their home to an investment group so we decided to give them a call.  They made us an offer and then sent a contractor out to see if they needed to take any amount off that offer because of repairs.  Luckily they kept their initial offer and we accepted it.  The process could not have been any easier.  We really lucked out.  Although we might have been able to get a few thousand more had we sold it traditionally, it was not worth it to have the stress of showing the home and wondering if it would sell before we moved.  We close on the house on May 11th and head out that same day. We feel so truly blessed right now and could not be any more excited about this next chapter of our lives.  As much as we have loved our time here in Memphis, we can't wait to get back to Boise and to our families.  I am so proud of Craig and know that he is going to be an amazing optometrist. Eagle Vision One is lucky to have him.  We know that the Lord has had His hand in all of this and hope to do our part to look for opportunities to bless others.

Happy Easter

Since General Conference was over Easter weekend our ward did their Easter program the Sunday before.  The choir did a great job and Brooklyn loved it.  I have never seen her sit so still during sacrament meeting, even with very noise kids behind us.  She was totally zoned in.  I forgot to get a picture of her in her Easter dress, but she was super cute.  One of these years I will get her a hat to go with her Easter dress like I used to wear back in the day.  The following Thursday, April 2nd, our ward had their Easter egg hunt.  They did a short program before they let the kids hunt for eggs and the whole time Brooklyn just kept saying, "egg hunt, egg hunt"  Everyone luckily just thought it was cute.  After the program they let the kids loose in the grass behind the church building.  Brooklyn was super excited and was a little picky with what color of eggs she wanted.  She would walk right passed an egg if she didn't like the color of it.  She especially loved the candy inside of the eggs.  We had to give the plastic eggs back, but we might have kept one, Brooklyn was obsessed with opening and closing it and it wasn't worth the tantrum that would have come had I taken it from her.

Craig had to go out of town Saturday night and was gone for a few days, so it was just me and Brooklyn for actual Easter.  Brooklyn wasn't feeling super great and was pretty grumpy so we didn't have the best of days, so needless to say I will be reading all of the conference talks in the near future.  Some friends from the ward invited us to join them for Easter dinner and it was nice to get out of the house.  I wish I could have watched more of conference, but what I did catch was fantastic.  I am looking forward to reading/watching/listening to all of the talks.  Even though I didn't hear much of conference I was still able to fill the spirit and hope that Brooklyn did too.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to listen to our living prophet, apostles, and other church leaders.  I am also so grateful for the Savior and His gift of the atonement and the chance it gives us to live with Him again!

Brooklyn's First Haircut

Brooklyn finally got her first real haircut.  I had trimmed her hair a few times, but I decided it was finally time to take her to get it cut by someone who does that for a living.  She just needed a trim and i was hoping that by getting it trimmed everywhere will help the front of her hair grow a little longer so that she doesn't forever have a baby mullet.  So I took her to get it cut on April 1st.  She did an awesome job holding still.  She just stared in the mirror watching the lady cut it.  I came totally prepared with toys, treats, and kindle, but didn't have to use any of them.  It only took like 5 minutes, but still cost me $15...oh well, what can you do?  You can't tell a big difference, but it does look healthier for sure.

Before

After

happy girl after her treat for holding still

March Madness

I love this time of year, spring is finally here and watching a lot of basketball. Good thing Brooklyn likes to watch sports. We have had a fun month.  The weather has been crazy. We've had ice storms and snow storms and then 80 degree weather.  Sadly I left Brooklyn's winter coat in Boise since I thought she wouldn't need it here, so she didn't get to play in the snow a whole lot, but she still had fun.  We have been trying to enjoy time outside whenever the sunshine has been out.  We have been to the zoo a few times, sadly our membership ran up so we won't be getting there anymore before we leave.  We go to the park as much as possible.  Brooklyn loves to "swing high".  We also spent a morning at the Botanic Gardens and go on walks around the neighborhood. We are just trying to get outside as much as possible before all of the spring showers hit us.

Brooklyn is still doing well with her potty training.  She is getting more comfortable with pooping on the potty, it only happens every 3 or 4 days, but at least she will sit on the potty for longer than 30 seconds and will try to poop instead of waiting until she has poop hanging out of her bum. She is doing really well with keeping her pull-ups dry when she sleeps.  She is dry about 99% of the time when she wakes up from her naps and is dry about 75% of the time when she wakes up in the morning.  She really wants to stay in her minnie undies when she sleeps and I am about to give into it for nap time.  I guess I will just have to be prepared to do a little bit more laundry. She keeps talking more and more.  She repeats everything we say and loves to try new words.  She loves to count and try to do her ABC's.  The cutest thing she says right now is "love you mommy" and "love you daddy". When she wakes up in the morning and from her naps I will walk into her room and she will go "hi mommy, baby awake"  She still loves to play with her golf clubs, she is getting really good, she has an awesome follow through. She loves all of her puzzles and watching Disney Movies.  She is obsessed with "Anna Elsa" aka Frozen.  We borrowed it from friends and she just wanted to keep watching it. After we returned the movie to them we started watching Lion King and she gets so sad when Mofasa dies.  She will just keep saying "Daddy wake up".  She is so dang cute and I love her to pieces.

Showing off her new shoes

Using her diaper pail as a drum

She had to stop to pet the "doggy" at Old Navy

She had to stop to smell the roses