April showers bring May....

Not flowers! It brings May Snow - what the crap! Hopefully it will warm up soon because I am DONE with the cold - as I'm sure EVERYONE is!

So this is a long overdue update – first of all, we have made an official decision – Dan has accepted Texas Tech’s offer and we will be moving to Lubbock Texas at the end of July or beginning of August and start our adventure there. We are very excited to finally know where we are going and even though it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone we love here – we feel really good about our decision and can’t wait to make new friends in Texas.

Now I know Easter was FOREVER ago it seems like, but I finally uploaded my pictures and I have to post these because they are so dang cute… well at least I think so haha. So every year for Easter my grandma and grandpa Koch have an Easter Egg hunt in their “forest” (which is their HUGE back yard with lots of tress and bushes). Since it rained this year they kept most of the eggs on the grass before you get to the trees. Jaxon was really funny and didn’t want to crawl on the grass – he didn’t like the feeling, but when he saw a blue Easter egg – he got excited and went for it! After the Easter Egg hunt, it was really neat because ALL the Koch guys were able to go to priesthood together. All my uncles were in town so my grandpa got to go with all of his sons and grandsons – we got a picture of the group and Dan and Jaxon were excited that they were able to be a part of it.

This was his Easter gift - it lights up and plays music and grows with him and turns into a table and stuff - he LOVES it - this was in the morning so he wasn't all the way dressed yet haha, but we couldn't wait to give it to him!

And finally – the most exciting news of all… Dan is graduating this Friday!!! Oh my goodness I can’t believe this day is finally here – it seemed like it would take forever, and now looking back on it – it doesn’t really seem that bad! He has one more final on Tuesday and then Friday the 7th is his actual graduation. We made some announcements to send out to family and a few friends – we didn’t do enough to send to everyone – so if you didn’t get one, no worries, this is what it looked like!

Oh and I got a new camera and I am so excited! It is a picture and video camera so we will be able to video Dan’s graduation as well as get pictures. I will post the pictures after he graduates!!!

Texas???

Well we are still waiting to hear back from a few schools, but Texas Tech called Dan a few days ago and offered him a $9,000.00 PER YEAR scholarship!!! That will take tuition down to less than Utah!!! They knew we applied to Utah and so I think they were trying to entice us to go to Texas… and I have to say – it is working. We have been talking to someone who is currently attending Texas Tech law and he has had nothing but wonderful things to say! Several of the professors are Harvard graduates, and Texas Tech is in the top 20 law schools for bar passage rates, and career placement and those things are HUGE! Their writing program is amazing and their competition litigation team has always been in the top 10 and a lot of times the top 3! Although it is hard to think about leaving family and friends… Texas is… our top choice as of right now. We will wait to hear back from all the schools and see if any of them have anything better to offer, but we are feeling at peace with Texas!

Moving along...

First of all… the big news – DAN HAS BEEN ACCEPTED TO LAW SCHOOL! We applied to a total of 8 schools knowing that there was a chance he might not get in to any. We have received 2 responses so far – and they were both acceptances. So far he has been accepted to the University of Idaho, and Texas Tech University. We are still waiting to hear back from the others and then we will make a final decision of where we are going – but it is so exciting to know that for sure he will be starting law school in the fall! I couldn’t be more proud of him and we are both so excited to start this next part of our life!

The other big news is Jaxon started crawling a while ago and it has been so much fun… and so hard! I am working from home so now instead of him sitting in one place with all his toys while I work – he is getting into EVERYTHING which makes it hard for me to get work done! But I love it. I love that when I walk somewhere he chases after me! And not only is he crawling, but he is pulling himself up, standing, and starting to walk while he is holding onto things. Now, the only reason he crawls is so he can get to something that will help him stand up. He will use a wall, your leg/pants, the couch, chairs, tables, ANYTHING. Today in church he was sitting next to his friend Thomas (who is a year and about 4 months old) and when Thomas stood up to walk over to his mom – Jaxon wanted to stand up too, so he grabbed onto Thomas’s shirt and started to pull himself up – which made Thomas fall down! It was really funny to watch! It looked like Jaxon didn’t want him to leave so he just grabbed him and made him sit back down next to him – but I knew what he was really doing. I love this stage! It is so much fun watching Jaxon get mobile and realize that he can go where he wants to go now. He is so curious and wants to see, touch, taste everything haha. He is getting so big and I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by! He has 5 teeth now with a few more on their way. He loves eating cheerios, yogurt balls, grapes, strawberries, carrots, well pretty much anything! He isn’t eating baby food anymore, we just break up bits of what we are eating and give it to him and he has LOVED everything we give him! He is developing his little personality and it is so fun to see! He is so curious and happy! I just can’t get enough of my little boy and can’t believe how fast he is growing up!

And we wait.....

The applications are in!!! Dan just finished sending off his law school applications today so now we just have to wait until April/May to find out where he has been accepted to and then decide where to go! That’s right – we will find out in April or May and then if it is out of state, we have to move and be settled in by the end of July so Dan will be ready to start in August. I feel a little rushed thinking about that and how quickly it is all going to happen, but I also can’t believe we are finally to this point! It is such a weird time because we don’t know where we are going to be in a few months. The suspense is killing me. I wish we knew right now where we are going to be spending the next 3+ years of our lives! I hate waiting… I want to know NOW! I feel like a little kid…. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?


Nope – NOT YET!

January/February

So other than being busy with who knows what the past 2 months – not a lot has been going on in the Garner Family. January was a fun month and we set goals for this year. February Dan and I took a little trip (without Jaxon) to Las Vegas for the Superbowl and had a great time! It was a much needed little vacation and my mom is WONDERFUL for watching Jax while we were gone. Valentines Day was fun and to celebrate - Dan, Jaxon, and I went out to dinner on Saturday night and then once Jax was in bed Dan and I went dancing at our church. Our ward was so cute and set up the chruch like a reception center almost and had a live band and a cute couple from the BYU ballroom team come teach us some dance moves and we had a blast dancing the night away!!! We can’t believe how fast this year is already flying by. Jaxon is already 8 months and I can’t believe in just a little bit we will be celebrating his 1st birthday!!!

Cute Necklaces!

Ok so I know I am so behind in posting. I will have to post an update next week - my life has just been so busy like everyone's! But my friend is making the cutest flower bib necklaces for a fraction of what you can get them at anywhere else. So click here and find out how you can order them! I have put a picture of them below so you can see how cute they are and the AMAZING job she does at making them!

Christmas

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We were very lucky this Holiday Season to be with our families!


Before Christmas we wanted to go see the lights at Temple Square. We were a little nervous about taking Jaxon because of how cold it was, but we bundled him up and he ended up LOVING it! He was so happy the entire time!

The Sunday before Christmas we had the Garner family Christmas Party and had so much fun! We played several fun games, ate wonderful food, and got some fun presents! Next came my mom’s side of the family Christmas party. We always do the nativity scene with all the little kids and this year Jaxon was asked to be the baby Jesus. He was good at the beginning, and then a few min into it he started crying so I had to go be by him and try and hide behind the manager for the rest of the “show”.

Then on Christmas Eve we started the day off with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel with the Garners which has been a tradition with them forever, then we all went and saw a Christmas Carol. Next we went to the Koch Christmas Eve party which the entire extended family still attends and had a blast there too. We haven’t done the nativity in that family for years, but they decided to start it up again since there are little kids to do it now and Jaxon was asked again to be baby Jesus – he did MUCH better this time, probably because “Mary” was so cute with him and held and played with him.

My cute grandpa came down with a Santa hat and beard on and since we didn't take Jaxon to see Santa (since he is too young and wouldn't even know) we figured we would get a picture with this "Santa". Jaxon just wanted to play with his beard haha. But he was cute!

At that family party we always get the Koch shirts. Now if you have known me for a long time, you know that every December my Grandma and Grandpa give us shirts to wear at our family reunion in May. Every year it is a different color – and has a different saying on it. It is always fun to try and guess what it is going to be. This year this is what the shirts look like.

I used to be embarrassed of the shirts when I was younger, but when we are hiking at Zion’s and people see a group of 75 people all wearing the same shirts – it always gets people talking and asking us what group we are with – and when we can tell them that we are all a family – they are always shocked and it usually turns into a missionary experience.

Christmas Eve after the party, we all opened our new pj’s, watched a Christmas movie and went to bed.

Christmas morning we woke up to my little brother Landon calling from his mission. He didn’t tell us what time he was calling – so we were planning on getting up at 9:00 since this will probably be the last year we don’t have to wake up super early on Christmas haha. It was a very nice surprise to wake up to him and it was so good talking to Landon and hearing about his mission – I can tell he is such an awesome missionary! Then Dan and I went downstairs and had our own Christmas before we went upstairs to be with the rest of the family. We just did one “big” present for each other this year since next year is Law school and we need to save – so I got Dan a nice chess set.

He has wanted one since we got married and I saw this one and thought it was perfect. It is SUPER heavy because it is marble. I also got him some golf stuff, and a new game (we love games!). He got me tickets to see Michael Buble in concert in March (WAHOO!!!!), and a movie!

It was the PERFECT Christmas. Then we went upstairs and Jaxon opened his presents from me and Dan, and then from Santa. We had breakfast with my family and hung out for a while and then went over to the garners to do presents over there. They spoiled us! We had a fun time over there! I was bad with pictures this year – I didn’t do any of all our gifts – but here is most of Jaxon’s loot. He wore several outfits on Christmas as you will see in the pictures - he was in his jammies at the beginning of the day, at the Garners we changed him into one of the shirts great grandpa gave him because he was hot - and then we changed him into a long sleeved shirt he got from us at the end of the day. HAHA! Fun times!

Christmas morning in our PJ's

Opening his first gift - it was a pack of baby Einstein DVD's

We got him this play thing lol (don't know what they are called) but he loves it!

Sitting on Grandma and Grandpa Garner's couch playing with some new toy's they gave him

This is almost all the stuff he got for Christmas. He got a blanket, some beenies, lots of toys, a snow globe, clothes, books, DVD's, and the big play thing.

Christmas was absolutely wonderful and it is so much fun with our sweet Jaxon!