Dan's Graduation Day!

In December, Dan graduated with his bachelor of arts in Special Education! It has been such a long road, with many ups and downs. When graduation day finally came, I think we were both so shocked it was hard to believe it was finally here. Dan has been a trooper all through school. Studying has never come easy for him but he was bound and determined to earn his degree in order to provide for his family. You wouldn't believe the amount of hours and crazy schedule he put in just to make sure he got enough studying in to succeed. Let's just say his morning wake up call usually was before 3 am. I am so proud of him I can't even begin to describe it. What is his next step you may ask? He is currently in his first semester of the LDS seminary teaching program and loving it. He begins his first round of student teaching next week and if he does well, he will move onto a second round of student teaching in April. The recruiting process is extremely competitive, but we have high hopes, and plan on either way, Dan should have a teaching job at the end of the year either in Seminary or in Special Education. He has done great so far and is loving all that he has been able to learn. This is the first time I have ever seen Dan so excited and confident about his future career so we shall see if it is meant to be:)

 

Dan's brother, Andrew, graduated as well. It was fun for the brothers to be able to share their day together and made for twice the fun come party time!



 

To celebrate Dan's last night of school and no more homework (well at least for his bachelor's degree since he is back in school again!) we went out to dinner. Both Daphne and Dan loved getting to eat Brick Oven's endless Pizza and Salad dinner special. Daphne was super excited about pizza that night, she wouldn't hold still enough to pose:)

 

 

Daphne and I had lots of fun during the graduation ceremony. We enjoyed playing in the halls with Boston, hanging out in a box, and practicing how to stand up. Listening to boring speakers is highly overrated anyways! The poor girl was super tired so we spent lots of time with both of us bawling (I rarely get happy emotional, but yes, I did this time. I couldn't have been more happy that we finally reached such a monumental day and I was overly proud of Dan for how great he did!) and her crawling all around in the lobby. We did enter back into the ceremony in time to shout for joy as Dan received his diploma and then right back into the hall again:)

Daphne was happy it was finally time to go home and party! She tolerated our picture-fest for a few minutes thanks to the candy necklace she gave him.

Dan and Andrew were thrilled to run into an old friend, _______, at graduation day as well.

Party time! We had a family members over to celebrate after graduation. We had fun just eating and visiting. I went against my normal need to make everything "over-the-top" and attempted to teach myself to keep things simple. I came soooo close to following through with that plan until the night before when I was so stressed about the simplicity that I had to do something about it! With the few resources I had, I recruited my SIL's via text (as well as a few people on facebook) to help me come up with creative sayings for the food. I think we had way more fun coming up with ideas than people actually had reading them at the party, but it did the job of lowering my stress levels! Maybe someday I will learn the art of simplicity, but in the meantime, I can always over plan and be my crazy busy self I guess:) Some of my favorites were: "Olive a man in a cap and gown", "Mustard been time to graduate!" "Party like there is no Tomato!".
 

Camera time for the graduates!

The poor babies had a very long day, but thanks to the Grandpa's at the party (somehow I missed a picture of her with my dad) for saving the day! Daphne got to climb stairs with Grandpa Jasmer, help Grandpa Crandall hold Boston, and get pushed around on her ducky by Grandpa Black.

Jasmer Family

Black Family

Daphne and I are so proud of our handsome graduate!