Graduation

Well it has been an awfully long time since I have posted anything. We have just had so many things going on lately, so its been very busy. I will have a few catch up posts shortly. First of all was graduating from BYU.

Matt and I both graduated and it was so fun to be able to walk together. Matt received his degree in Geospatial Intelligence and I received a degree in Exercise Science. It feels so weird to be done, it will be weird when Matt starts law school in the fall and I won't be starting school :( Hopefully I can get into a dental hygiene program wherever we end up and then I will back to school. It is so amazing to achieve this lifelong goal. Both my family and Matt's parents came for graduation and it was so much fun. We got to eat lots of good food and we all went to Texas Roadhouse after the actual graduation...soo yummy! And after that we had to pack up our house and move it into storage. We were lucky to have Matt's parents help us to pack everything and even help clean, we were so grateful for that.

We are both just so priviledged to have such wonderful and and supportive families who are always there for us and who have helped us to get to this point in our lives and we are so grateful for them. :)

Now here are some pictures from graduation.
Walking across the stage to get our diplomas.

Here we are with my family minus Blake who had a Basketball tournament that weekend.

And here we are with Matt's parents.

Of course we had to take pictures by these big signs on the way up to campus.

Posing with the cougar


More updates coming soon.....

Where in the world will Matt go for law school?!

So this post will be long just a warning. To start I want to talk about our last minute trip to Vegas that we took the week before graduation. We had no school on Thursday and Friday so we decided to drive down to Vegas and then California to go and look at Pepperdine's Law School and UNLV's Law school. I am so glad we took this trip because it has helped to narrow at least 1 decision down. So we packed up and left Utah at like 7:30 pm Wednesday to get to Vegas. We got there at like 12:30 and then we left Vegas at 3:40 AM! to drive to Malibu, CA. Luckily my husband is awesome and I had a little bed in the back seat while he drove that first stretch. We had a meeting at 10:30 with the admissions lady at Pepperdine to take a tour and sit in on a class. Let's just say we were less than enthused with Pepperdine. It has a beautiful location and is a very good school but we just didn't click with it.

So we went into this thinking it was definitely where we would want to go and came out of it knowing it is not where we should go. We just did not get a good vibe here, the school felt like a high school and people were so inappropriately dressed. We just expected that people in law school would try to be a little more professional and take their schooling seriously. Anyways we have decided that we will be turning down Pepperdine it just was not the right fit for us and we really do not feel like that is where we are supposed to be, plus I don't care to deal with the traffic, crazy drivers, and ridiculous living costs. So yay we have made at least one decision! So after our visit we drove to Beverly Hills to see my sissy in law Rachel and go to lunch. It was a quick visit but it was fun and we were glad we got to say hi :) then we drove back to Vegas and of course hit the awful 5 o'clock LA traffic :(. We got home at like 10:30 exhausted.
Ok ya still with me?.... So on Friday morning we went to take a tour of UNLV's law school. I was almost like let's not even go but I am so glad that we did. We met with the admissions director and he was soo nice. He knew Matt's file and commented on his essay, it was so nice to have him be personable with us. We loved it! I have actually never been to the campus before and I really liked it.

We had such a better feeling about this school and the students we saw acted so much more mature and were dressed nicely. The school is very young and isn't as well known as some of the other schools we have looked at but there are soo many more perks to going to UNLV.
1. Matt has a bomb scholarship offer to UNLV
2. We would be close to both our families (mine in Vegas and Matt's in Oregon)
3. We could buy a HOUSE, and finally get a dog :)!
4. I can get back into horse back riding :)
5. I can apply for dental hygiene school and hopefully get in :)
6. We have lots of friends in Vegas instead of moving back east and knowing no one :(

I think I'm sold but we still want to take a trip back east to see our other school options there. So we are working our last 2 weeks at our jobs in Provo and then we are moving to Vegas for the rest of the month to my house until we can figure out where we are going. We are planning a trip during that time. We are going to look at Villanova in PA (where we have another scholarship offer also they have a sweet study abroad program in Rome!:) ), University of Maryland, American University in DC (pretty sure we are turning this down, it is a very liberal school and just doesn't sound like what we want), and William and Mary in VA. I forgot to add that we may take a trip to Texas to see University of Houston, and we will most likely drive to Arizona to look at ASU. We were also accepted to Willamette in OR with a scholarship but we have turned that one down. It is going to be a busy trip and we have a huge decision to make very soon. So that is plan for right now, I am very excited to finalize our decision and get started on this next step of our lives. Anyone who has gone to any of the schools or visited them etc. let me know what your impressions were/are.

Ok lastly I am gonna finish up on the rest of our time in Vegas. Friday I was able to get my hair done yay! Seriously I don't know what I am going to do if we move far away I just don't trust anyone else with my hair (Leslie has been doing my hair since I was like 10 or so and has known me since I was a baby). We ate Raising Canes, their chicken fingers are soo good! Also Friday night we got to go and see Le Reve at The Wynn. My dad got us tickets and it was a sweet show. All of the acrobatics and effects of the show were really fun to watch, we were both lost on the story line though. But I am glad we got to go see it, I had no idea that the whole stage is a big pool!


After the show Matt wanted to walk around a bit (great idea since i was in heels...not. Here is the Wynn fountain.

We went as far as Caesars Palace and then came back. I was trying to take Matt to the Nike Store in the forum shops but it is closed until summer they are like renovating it. So we walked all the way over there for nothing :( Well not for nothing it was still fun just walking around with Matt.

(Ok im getting on my soap box here but I just have to defend my hometown for a minute. I am sick of people always bagging on Vegas and saying its soo sinful and gross. Um hello ya if you spend all your time on the strip that is what you will find but your asking for it there because you know what to expect before you go so its no big surprise. Also can I please point out to these Vegas haters that what you see on the strip is not Vegas those are all the tourists! The tourists bring the trash to the strip, get drunk, act slutty etc. You can ask just about any person from Las Vegas and the majority of them will say they never really go to the strip except to see a show, try a nice restaurant, spend a night in a fancy hotel for a special occasion, to show visitors around because they want to go, or to go shopping. Also there is a HUGE LDS population in Vegas so its not all bad. Once you realize that Vegas is not the strip you see that it is a nice place with nice homes, people, and things to do. Im sure all of my fellow Las Vegans have been irritated by this too at some point or another so you know what I'm saying.) We love it there that's why so many of us have gone back!

Ok back to the trip...On Saturday it was so nice to sleep in a little although my body clock is still set to wake up at 7 am :(. We went around with my dad to look at storage units, and then we all went to dinner with my grandma and Aunt Edyth to Lindo Michoacan for my dad's birthday.


Afterwards Morgan, Matt, and I went to grab Yogurtland for everyone :) We watched the new Narnia movie which was lame. On Sunday we had to leave pretty early to get back by 7 to show our house to some potential new tenants. It ended up being too expensive for them but we fulfilled our contract so we don't have to stress about finding a renter just show the house to interested couples :)

Well that wraps up our trip, we have a lot of big decisions to make in the next month wish us luck!! Oh ya and I have graduation to blog about next :)

Dilemma solved

I finally got my hair done and I love it, I'm back to my more natural dark hair. Oh and I didn't cut my bangs I'm gonna try growing them out for a little while longer. :) What do ya think?

Palm Springs (unofficial Spring Break)

Well we have been doing a lot lately and I just have been too lazy/busy to try to blog. So I will just update quickly and with lots of pictures. So since BYU doesn't give us a spring break we created our own. Matt's parents rented a beautiful house in Palm Springs for everyone to come and stay at. This year we were very happy to have a bed we could sleep together in :), last year our room was 2 twin beds and you bet we still slept together but not very comfortably haha.It was a little cooler and overcast the first couple of days that we were there but the last 2 days were perfect! Also side-note: Any vacation where all the kids are present is amazing birth control for us haha. It is wonderful to have these kinds of trips every year to keep us on track ;). We have been the couple in the family to wait the longest before having a baby, so we feel very accomplished. Awwww its so nice to go to sleep at night and not have to worry about anything but me and the hubby, we always get to eat first because we don't have to fix kids plates , and we can do whatever we want and not have to worry about where the kids are or who can watch them. I realize that this sounds a little selfish but I don't really care, we deserve to have a few selfish years to ourselves to complete the things we want to do and just be together.(sorry for that little tangent):) Anyways, these pictures are not necessarily in the order that they occurred but here they are.

Here we are in the backyard, which had an open view to the golf course.


We rode bikes.


We played the game "Headbanz" with the kids.


We sang and ate Birthday cake for Akoni-32, Matt-25, and Amanda-23(gosh im so old now!)


We golfed. (On alittle putting green in the backyard and at an actual golf course, I drove the cart and I actually hit a ball over the water and not into it! Major life accomplishment).






We got to eat at Cheesecake Factory on Matt's birthday and to celebrate the other birthdays (Kid free!) And mom and dad E treated all of us, it was soo good. thanks so much!


We hung out by the pool (attempting to get some sun and wearing my new swimsuit and awesome hat!).



And Matt was busy being his usual silly self :) I sure do love that boy!


Well there is a quick recap of our fun little break. We are glad we were able to go down and enjoy the nice weather to get a break from this nasty overcast/rainy/snowy Utah weather.

Well many more post updates to come....

Dilemma!

Ok so I have a dilemma that is very very serious. I will be getting my hair done soon, (which is way overdue) and I don't know what to do! I have been growing my bangs out for the last little while but now I think I want to cut them for summer. What should I do!? And my husband is of no help on the matter he thinks I look good either way so I have to decide myself :( Seriously though, give me your opinions friends bangs or no bangs? Here is a sample...

NO bangs...?


or bangs...?

Accepted!!!

So I just have to announce that Matt received his first law school acceptance yesterday and I am so proud of him! He was so excited yesterday this is the first school we have heard back from so far so hopefully we have many more acceptances headed our way :) I'm so grateful for this bit of news because now we can relax a little since we at least have one option and a pretty good option at that so no matter what we will be going to law school this fall! :) There are still a ton of schools that have Matt's file "in review" right now so hopefully we will be getting some more responses soon. I will have a another post with all of our options soon :) As for now I am just so excited that everything is finally becoming real for us, I just cant wait until we can high tail it outta Provo (yay finally!) and move somewhere new and exciting :) Law School here we come!!!

I think I should get this book for myself so I have some clue as to what it is that my hubby will be doing everyday. Haha. :)

I can't wait for this!! :)

So Matt and I went looking at lab puppies yesterday! We wanted to see if we like black labs or yellow labs better and I think it will be a yellow lab. It was so fun and I just love those cute little puppies. I can't wait until we can get one! Seriously I can't stand waiting for anything I just want to take one of those cute little guys home now but we cant :( Well in the meantime I will be looking at lots of cute puppy pictures like this...

Valentine's Day Festivities

So Valentine's Day was awesome this year! (Well all of our Valentine's Days have been awesome together.) First of all here are some pictures of a few of the Valentine's Day decorations that I made. First is some letters that say "Kiss" and I put a kissing picture of us next to them, and second is a yarn wreath I made with sparkly white felt rosettes :). I love how they both turned out! It was just enough decor without being too much.



Ok so to start off when I woke up I found surprise #1. There was a pink mug sitting there with a little note. It also was full of milk chocolate dove hearts with the little messages, i love those. I have been wanting a pink tumbler mug for so long so this was perfect! It was cute Matt wrote a cute little poem to go with it, he is so creative and good at getting things to rhyme.

(The flash makes it look like the little card is blank but its not)
Before Matt came back to pick me up for work I hurried and set out his surprise. I had made his card using the little candy sweethearts with the messages on them. It turned out perfect, I was so proud. Underneath his card was a "love coupon" to go to that new indoor surfing place at The Riverwoods. He was very excited when he saw both his surprises and I can't wait to watch him try the surfing thing.

So at around 9 am came surprise #2. A pomegranate pick me up Jamba for breakfast, my favorite! It's actually a little joke we have to always get a Jamba on Valentine's Day. This also came with another clever little poem. I wanted to type up what the poems said but Matt made me promise not too, he is embarrassed but I think they are awesome! :)

After work Matt took me to get lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. It was perfect! We had the Chipotle Chicken Pizza and a Sicilian Pizza. They were both soo yummy :) Seriously you have to try the Chipotle one its amazing!

I don't have any pictures of Matt, he didn't want to be in any of them :(.
After our lunch we headed home to take a nap. When I walked in the door I found surprise #3 waiting for me. A beautiful arrangement of 1/2 dozen red ecuadorian roses :)They are so pretty and they are continuing to grace our kitchen table :)

There were a few more things on the table as well. Surprise #4 was a note that said to "Meet here at 6 for a dinner by Chef Matt". And Envelope 2 had surprise #5 in it. Tickets to go see "Just Go With It at Thanksgiving Point. I had really been wanting to see this movie and it was soo funny. We were laughing the whole time, seriously if you have seen this the coconut part I was dying at hahaha. Also surprise #6 was some yummy caramel and white chocolate with cinnammon sugar covered pretzel sticks. This plus my dove chocolates were perfect movie snacks!

(I wore my hot pink peacoat to be extra festive :)
So while I got ready Chef Matt prepared a delicious Valentine's Day feast for us. He made filet mignon with a tasty rub on it, grilled veggies(bell peppers, onions and zucchini) that was seriously soo tasty, caesar salad, and asparagus in a butter and white wine sauce. He kept saying he messed up on everything, but seriously it was flawless! I loved every single bite, it was the perfect dinner. I had said I wanted a home dinner instead of trying to battle the crowds at a restaurant and Chef Matt far surpassed any restaurant :)Plus he served it on our pretty wedding china and we had sparkling cider :) Side note: This boy cooks the BEST steaks! he seriously is a grilling master. I am sad I didnt take a picture of our dinner set up, I was too anxious to eat it :) After dinner we changed into comfy sweats and went to the movie. It was a perfect day. I love how Matt was able to make the day feel special for me. I love you Matthew Alder Ekman so so much and I am so grateful and happy that you are MINE forever! I feel totally overdone though, but Matt says Valentine's Day is a day for husbands to spoil their wives and that what I did was perfect, so that made me feel better :). Anyways I can't wait for all of our future Valentine's Days together. Up next we have birthdays, graduation, waiting to hear back from law schools and then deciding where to go,our 2 year anniversary, and moving to a new state in hopefully May or June. We are going to be busy busy busy these next 2 months just the way I like it :)

Being married really makes Valentine's Day so much more fun!! There is no stress attached to it so it really can just be a fun day to surprise and love each other. It is fun to do little special things for each other. I love sneaking around to set stuff up and surprise him. I was actually telling Matt yesterday that everyday with him is like Valentine's Day because everyday we celebrate our love and do special things for each other! I know that sounds cheesy but all you other married folk will agree. :)I hope Matt will enjoy his little surprises and I know that I will! I can't wait to get off work today and spend the rest of today with my Valentine! I mean who wouldn't want to spend the day with this hottie!? Happy Valentine's Day babe! I love you forever!


Also I plan on doing lots of this today. But lets be honest we do lots of this everyday! :)

(Oh how I wish we were back in a tropical land on the beach right now, but thats ok fun vacation coming after graduation! Yay cant wait :)

New post with pictures of actual Valentine's Day festivities coming tomorrow!
Loves!

Aww Color Me Mine :)

Here are some pictures from one of our most recent date nights at color me mine. I forgot to take any pictures during the painting process but here is the final result. I painted a goblet and Matt painted a cereal bowl. We love all of our fun creations from color me mine. It is one of our favorite date activities!