Graduation and Photography

We graduated from BYU!

sort of.

I still have 4 classes to take this spring, and Scott has one. But, we wanted to have pictures for our posterity, so here they are! (the pictures, not the posterity)

It was a nice, mostly sunny weekend, and we loved having Scott's parents and my mom come and visit us. We really got the house cleaned up! The speakers were all interesting and made it seem like a pretty cool thing to be a BYU graduate.

Friday night we had the whole Jones family over till late. It was great to see Kimberly and Joey and toss around baby names some more. We tried talking Jason into buying a mattress so he doesn't sleep on the floor all summer while he lives in Salt Lake. And, VeAnn gave us the update on the dating scene. So fun, so funny. It was nice, too, that Robert and Karla stayed after everyone else left. It always feels a little sad when you have people over and then they just leave!

This weekend was full of photography. Besides the extensive graduation photo shoot, Scott and I took my friend Jessi's engagement photos and then yesterday, we took my cousin Kodi's family photos. We are having fun practicing our photo skills on unsuspecting victims. It's a good deal for them (free) and a good deal for us (portfolio, experience, fun). We've never taken pictures of babies before, so trying to get Jake to smile (or at least look at us) was new and exciting.

Know anyone looking for a cheap photographer? Send them our way! Low low prices and a fun time guaranteed!

Bookbinding Projects

Scott and I took a bookbinding class together. We learned a lot and are very proud of our creations. What do you think?

Scott's Projects:


Coptic Book

Flat Back

Paper Case

Clamshell Box

Final Project: coptic with a wood cover and decorated signatures. He dyed the paper himself with walnut ink.


Nancy's Projects:

Coptic Book
I made this for all the "love notes" that Scott gives me with the flower he brings me every week.

Clamshell Box
The green is left over from a table cloth we used at my bridal shower. I thought it would be nice to have a snazzy pink and green box for my love note book

Flat Back
This silk is left over from my bridesmaid's skirts



Paper Case


Final Project
I used an unfinished wood cover. I monkeyed with the color of the butterflies so they would match my thread, then I glued them onto the wood. Let's hope they stay stuck!

Procrastinating

I'm totally procrastinating a paper (well, to be entirely honest, it's 3 papers) right now by blogging, but I thought this would at least seem productive. I find that I'm usually extremely productive when I'm putting something off.

Today was our first experience in Primary. My cousin Katie asked if Scott and I would substitute in Sunbeams for the next few weeks. We were excited to agree, and then we found out we weren't going to be substitute teachers, but substitute crowd control! Apparently, they need 2 extra adults to successfully manage all 7–9 Sunbeams. It was quite a job. We learned a lot and now have so much more respect for all the talented brothers and sisters who have the responsibility to keep Primary both entertaining and reverent every Sunday. I might need to bring a snack for myself so I have the energy to keep up with all the little adorable hooligans.

It was great to learn about the creation of the animals and to sing all those fabulous songs again. Wish us luck for next weekend.

Meanwhile, we made some mean lasagna today. It overflowed a bit, so the last few hours we've sat freezing in our family room while we air out the billows of smoke caused by burning bits of cheese in the bottom of the oven. I'll have to post some pictures of the successful lasagna and the experimental one, but for now, it's back to writing papers. Scott is too inspiring as he crouches over the current bookmaking project. He's amazing.

Nancy is now Award Winning

On Wednesday, April 9, 2007, Nancy got a special folk award for her quilting project. This quilt project was a big 50-60 page or more project that was a lot of work. I got to attend and it was a special occasion. We got a full meal, two types of desserts (one was kind in that strange zone between brownie and cake). She got both a cash prize and the award.

Super Weekend

Sweet Pea Projects

It was a very productive weekend for me. In addition to watching conference, I mounted and cut out 5 of these very cute baby-in-a-pea-pod decorations for Kimberly's baby shower. I'm so excited to be an aunt! I got it in my head to also try to sew a little baby-in-a-pea-pod, but it was trickier than I had anticipated. It turned out cute enough, though, cause Aunt Carolyn had some wire to make the pea pod a little more shapely. What do you think? Maybe by the time VeAnn or my sister has kids they'll be a little more pea pod and a little less freaky. The paper ones were cute, though. The inspiration came from the scrapbook paper that VeAnn used for the invites. I traced it on illustrator and just went crazy.

Sunday it was on to VeAnn's birthday present. This one was a bit less time consuming and probably more useful. We learned a binding called Japanese Stab Binding last Tuesday in bookbinding. I love it! So easy compared to the others, and lots less pre-prep time. I'd like to go crazy and make tons of these little notebooks. I think they'd make the coolest presents when given in threes: coordinating, but not exactly the same. Like, earth, wind, fire or stoplight, or florals, or ocean scenes. The possibilities!


It was so fun to have Scott's mom here for the weekend too and get to play with the siblings and the cousins all weekend. What a treat! We had yummy food at the shower and got to talk a ton, and then we all played apples to apples (not my favorite game) after tasty tostadas on VeAnn's birthday. I even took some pictures of how crispy and nice Scott fried them (the tortillas not the people).

My Lovely Sisters-in-law

The tortillas, but sideways. Anyone know how to rotate pictures?

The adorable (and tasty) birthday cake Kimberly made for VeAnn

I'm back (or here for the first time)

Some wonderful war story might make sense of my long absence, though it has only been a simple battle between the books and me. The war ends the third week of April!

Scott

It snowed, and then it melted

Yes, real snow.

I woke up Sunday morning with a sore foot (I broke my foot a few years ago) and the pain was warning me that it would be a wet day. "I think it's going to snow today," I told Scott. Then we looked out the window. It had already snowed. Lots. I just wish it were funny.

The roads were so icy on Monday morning that our drive to school took over 30 minutes and we got to watch at least 2 cars slide until they were all the way reversed on the wrong side of the road. And one poor truck several cars in front of us couldn't stop sliding for a quarter mile. He just kept drifting, then over correcting, then fishtailing, then drifting again. It was almost entertaining. The rest of us in little cars just moseyed along without too much trouble, though, and thankfully, it's been melting ever since! Can we say winter's officially over? I hope.

Anyway, spring had already sprung for our poor little daffodils who live in our front yard. Maybe they'll survive as we kiss the ice goodbye.