Birthamagrad Day

By some trick of the University, the Men's Chorus was asked to sing at commencement.  Elder Scott asked for them.  So Brad had to go to graduation.

If you're singing at your own graduation, you'll have your family come.

And if you have your family come, then you might as well go to convocation as well.

And if you go to convocation, you'll have to get pictures of everyone.

And after pictures, they'll want to have dinner at a nice restaurant.

And after dinner, you'll want to celebrate Brad's birthday since it's only a week away.

And since it Brad's birthamagrad day, we'll eat Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake.

It was actually a very nice to have everyone come to celebrate Brad's graduation.  We loved having everyone there to celebrate with us.  And it wasn't as bad as Brad thought.

Lookin' Sharp

Brad had another great concert on Saturday. Craig Jessop came to guest conduct it. After the concert the Men's Chorus took a picture. I happened to be in the right spot to snap a couple pics as well. Can you find Brad? He's on the front row, fourth from the left.

Valentine's Extended

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. This Valentine's has been a little different for Brad and me for lots of reasons, but overall it's been good.

Valentine's started for us on Friday since we knew there would be too many things going on Saturday to do all the things we wanted to. I had to run do some errands on Friday and when I returned I found a beautiful orchid plant on the coffee table. I love fresh flowers and I especially love having plants because then I can have fresh flowers all the time. There are lots of buds waiting to open up so I'm going to get to watch as they all open up. Plus, I really love orchids.


So, I wandered into our bathroom. There I found a beautiful red rose. I had to call Brad and say thanks for the beautiful flowers. Later that day I even had a special delivery. It was a giant sugar cookie with a card from Brad.


But this wasn't all the surprises Brad had. When he came home he brought with him some more flowers which are just beautiful.

The plan from there was to go out for dinner and come home and make sugar cookies. However, after dinner at Red Robin Brad wasn't feeling too great. Instead of cookies, it was Advil and Tylenol to cool his fever down. It wasn't too bad because Brad and I just got to sit and talk for the whole evening.

Saturday, I made pink, heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. I think that was the only Valentine's related thing for the day. After lunch, Brad had to leave for a trip with the Men's Chorus. They were going up for a master class with the King Singers. Once Brad got home it was off to the adult session of Stake Conference. While it was disappointing in a way to go to Stake Conference on Valentine's Day, it was well worth it. When we got home we were going to try again to make our sugar cookies. However, fever hit again and we ended up just watching a movie instead.

The sugar cookies did get made though. It took us till Sunday evening, but Brad was finally feeling good enough.


Even though it took from Friday to Sunday to get done with all of our Valentine plans it was fun to have Valentine's everyday.

Pie, Tuba Polka, and Yoga

What a weekend! Brad's family was in town so we had lots of fun. There was lots of shopping and eating delicious food. We even tried a new Mexican restaurant that was pretty good. Brad sung in Winter Choirfest on Saturday night. That was lots of fun because not only was Brad's family there, but my family came down for the occasion as well.

The real party started after the concert. Brad's parents went and got pie while Brad, Aaron, Kendra, and I headed back to our place. Sugar probably wasn't the best thing for all of us. It resulted in a performance of the Tuba Polka by Aaron. It's quite the treat if you ever get to see it. The sugar must have got to me to and I did a few yoga stances. I can't remember what quite inspired it, but we all ended up laughing hysterically. So much for yoga being soothing and relaxing.

While we were together we HAD to play games or according to Brad's mom we couldn't be family. That's just what families do, they play games. So, we ended up playing Spoons (no one got hurt) and Hearts. I believe Aaron successfully beat all of us at both games.

Another Men's Chorus Concert

This weekend my family got to come to hear Brad sing for the first time. It was a lot of fun to go out together. We went to Goodwood BBQ for dinner. Brad ordered a hamburger and requested it medium rare. A few minutes later the manager stopped by our table to tell Brad that, "Sir, I just want to make you aware that there are certain risks associated with eating undercooked meat." Brad waited until the guy was sufficiently far enough away to laugh.

The Men's Chorus is always highly entertaining and they didn't fail to deliver. They did a lot of my favorites and added some new ones that I'm absolutely wild about. They performed the same piece they did for Homecoming with clanging bottles and banging sticks which is so much fun. I wish the archival CD for the first half of the year came out at Christmas instead of waiting till the end of the year. I guess I'll just have to be patient or have Brad sing them to me.

Side note to our weekend: I think it is so funny to look at how my family of blondies now represents almost every color in the hair color continuum. Adrianne just dyed her hair brown, my mom highlights hers to be blonde, and Malinda likes to turn her hair red. Now if I just dye my hair black we'll have all the colors covered.

Homecoming

Wow. What a weekend this last one has been. First of all, Brad's mom was in town and I haven't seen Janet since before school started. So, we got together and went to Goodwood Barbeque. Mighty tasty. Then it was off to Homecoming Spectacular. I was so excited because I've never been to Homecoming Spectacular, Homecoming parade, True Blue Football, or anything Homecoming related. I think I got to go to the Homecoming Game two years ago but that's it. I don't know why, I just haven't. Plus, this was the year to go because Brad was singing with the Men's Chorus as the finale to the show. And what a show it was. There was a jazz band, folk dancers, pioneers (of course, it's BYU), and even Jenny Oaks Baker (which was AMAZING!) However, I believe the best part of the show was the Men's Chorus. One of the songs they sang they had sang at their first performance of the year and I absolutely fell in love with it. It might have something to do with the bagpipes. They just give me goosebumps. There was also the hiliarious compliation of Welsh folk songs. There was choreography, whistling, banging sticks, and clanging of bottles added to these traditional folk songs. Quite the sight. Sister Hall also enlisted the folk dancers to help them out. She got down off the podium and had them throw her into the air. And I'm not talking of some small distance. I mean high up in the air. I'll have to post a clip once it comes out on BYU TV.


So, Saturday rolls around. Janet and I went crazy decorating our place. I really enjoyed going shopping with her for stuff to decorate with. We got a few things actually up on the walls which is a big step forward. Once I get everything done I'll get some pics up. Unfortuanetly, some fun must come to an end. Brad and I had homework. But we broke it up by. . .


. . . setting up our tent in our living room! We've been wanting to put it together since we got it and it seemed like the perfect thing to do as a break. Thanks Ryan and Shanda for the tent!

Sunday was also a good day. Sunday was Brad's Dad's birthday. Instead of a birthday cake, we had banana cream pie (yum!) We also got to see our niece Ella Packer for her baby blessing. She couldn't have been a more perfect and adorable baby. There's not too many better ways to spend a Sunday than with the Packers.

I love the fall

This weekend was great. We started it out right by going to Brad's choir concert. For those of you who don't know Brad sings in BYU's Men's Chorus. They were extremely good (but I'm not biased at all.) One of my favorite pieces was the combined choirs song that they will continue to sing throughout the year.

Saturday was also good because I went up to the conference center with my mom to go see the Relief Society broadcast. It was cool to be up in the conference center. I also just liked being able to spent some time with my mom since we haven't been able to do that lately. Brad spent the evening with his brother Aaron eating Cafe Rio and playing games. They haven't been able to do that in awhile so it was good for them to get together too.

Sunday was the most exciting day by far though. My old roomie Shelley came over with her boyfriend, Trevor, this morning so that we could swap stuff. She had a bunch of photos she took at our wedding to give to us. They were exciting to see since she caught some great candid shots. However, Shelley had much bigger surprises than that. Turns out that Shelley and Trevor got engaged on Friday! I'm so excited for the two of them because they are such a great couple.



After church we went for a drive up the Alpine Loop in Provo Canyon. It was amazing to see all the colors up the canyon. It was nice to get out for a drive because we have been meaning to go up the canyon for the past month.

We also had dinner tonight with a couple of my friends from work and their husbands. It was fun to get together and chat. Dinner was fabulous and the desserts divine. All in all it was a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.