Graduation...

So I know it's a little after the fact, but it's never too late to post pictures right? Here are some pics from my graduation! On May 5th(yes Cinco De Mayo!!! I know what a coincidence right??lol)I graduated with my Masters degree in the field of Speech and Language Pathology. Although the past two years have been two of the most greuling and painstaking years of my life, I'm better for it and am grateful for the opportunity I have been given to gain knowledge, make friends, and push myself both mentally and emotionally. I'm so happy to have chosen this career and am excited to start working full-time again. I've been working for Jordan's Early Intervention program since the week after graduation and I'm loving it! It's such a great program and I'm learning SO much from my mentour and all of the other amazing professionals I now get to call co-workers! Here are a few pics from the big day...

Me and my honey! My best friend and the best support I could have ever asked for. I could have never gotten through the last couple years with out his love, encouragement, and faith in me. I love you matt!!
The very best family ever:)
Graduating SLP class of 2011!!
My BIL and SIL(Dave and Lucy) and niece and nephew (Camilla and Jordan) came to support me on my big day! Love you guys!
My lovely mother-in-law who traveled all the way from Alabama to support me! Love you momma and thank you for all of your love and support!
My parents who never gave me the option of not going to college. I'm grateful that they held the expectation of getting a degree so high! I love you mom and dad. I wouldn't be where I am without you:)


SCHOOLS OUT FOREVER!!!

normal again...

Hello blogging world! So many changes since the last time I checked in. Lots of great family stuff happening, finally graduated with my masters, started a new job, and various other little happy things to post about. I promise to post about all of these happenings as soon as blogger decides to play nice and let me post pictures...Let me just say that the following post is about music (and me), so it will probably be really boring, just leting you know...

Although there have been tons of changes lately, I'm actually starting to feel like the "old" me again. funny I know. What was the "old" me like you ask? well the pre-graduate school/pre-career oriented me was a LOT more involved with a little lovely called music. It's AMAZING how the lack of one thing can make you feel so empty. This is not to say that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed the past 5 years, because OF COURSE I have! And although I absolutley LOVE the career path I've chosen and my new job, music will always be that one thing that I have a special connection with.

For as long as I can remember music has been my one love (second to matthew of course). As a kid I grew up watching my real dad, who was/is a musician play guitar, bass, keyboards and singing. I grew up singing, playing violin, and some piano and finding such a comfort in it. Whether I was happy or sad I had something that could give me just what I needed. This lasted up until about my second year of college and then I had to get serious about a career, and my active participation in music kind of died off. Well I'm happy to say that after 5 years the fire is still there! Now that school is done I've been making sure I practice on my vocals at least an hour a day, and we just got another acoustic so I've been playing that at least an hour a day as well. Matt has been so great about helping me get back into my old (good) habits and has been very encouraging. He's always pushing me to get better. He's really good about playing with me when I ask him to, or asking me to sing something he wants to play. I'm so lucky to have a husband that loves music so much. It has been such a blessing in both of our lives, and I can't wait for all of the great stuff we're going to do with music together!

I'm so grateful for the blessing of music and the many talents I have around me in my life. I wish there was a better way that to express all of this rambling.

Matt's babies...

I feel like I'm constantly updating about myself and not nearly enough about my dear husband. Just thought I would post a few pics of Matt's prized posessions/reasons for walking the earth:

I'm pretty sure most people are surprised that I'm not jealous of the love my husband has for these items, but hearing him play them makes it all worth it! I have such a talented husband, plus he's admitted to me before that if he REALLY had to choose between me and these lovely ladies he'd choose me (call me naive but I believe it to be true)!

And for those of you ladies who have musician husbands and have not yet found any perks to this obsession, you obviously have not been exposed to ACCESSORIES. Look at this beauty:

It's a tweed guitar case with leather ends and lining. I can just see Matt rolling his eyes at this part of the post....STOP it:) I just wish I had these in a velize set...

What we do...

We... celebrate cute Lala's 5th birthday

attend charming southern weddings

have a party in honor of little C-Rose's birth and play an angry bird cake at said party... too cool.

do Disney on ice with my little sis and nephew:)

do sweet family stuff like seeing my brother being ordained and my cousin getting baptized by my recent convert uncle!

(had to slip in a pic of Killer's favorite spot...nestled/squished under matt's leg)

A pretty quick update but I think it does the job pretty well. In addition to the pictures above I finally finished my Intermountain Medical Center externship, and am a good 5 weeks into my pediatric early intervention externship. I can't believe that only 5 more weeks and I'm done. I think it's finally starting to hit me that I am going to be finished with school, and it honestly feels amazing/a little unreal/a lot scary lol. I also finally took the PRAXIS and will find out if I passed in a couple weeks (keep your fingers crossed for me).

Things to look forward to...

6 days until my big 25

38 days until I graduate

40 days until my BEAUTIFUL cousin's wedding

47 days until my graduation party

66 days until our 4 year wedding anniversary

AND 183 days until CHINA!!!

2011 resolutions and fun to come...

***FYI: My resolutions spill is a little on the lengthy side, so if you want to just skip down to the very short/more exciting "fun to come" portion of this post feel free to scroll down:) Thanks!***

With each passing year I notice my mentality regarding new year's resolutions is continually changing, and I think it's for the better. Every year I feel like I become a little more relaxed which is good considering the fact that unfortunately I am 100% type A personality and I hate it. I think one of the many things I love about matt is that he is is relaxed; very "come what may", and I like to think a little bit of that is rubbing off on me. So this year I just want to be happy. Not that I'm miserable but, truly happy as in appreciating and noticing all of the blessings in my life and beauty around me. You know those 5 days out of the year when you walk outside and the sunshine, strangers' smiles, and your favorite song popping up on your ipod just perks you right up? I want more days like that. Cheesey I know, but seriously, I've been so stressed out with school for the longest time that I haven't had the attention span to really give myself those happy moments, and I truly believe that a person creates those moments for themselves. I'm also hoping that physically writing/typing this out and doing a 6 month update will help me stick to at least one goal this year. Given that long introduction here are my 2011 resoultions:


1. Read more: This includes scriptures every night, but also fun reading! I Maybe got through 10 books last year sad I know, but with all of my text books and classes it makes sense. So far I'm doing okay with this goal. I really need to pick it up with my scripture reading but I'm on my third "fun" book, which is pretty good considering my 10-13 hour days at the hospital.


2. Take days to just relax: This one is really hard for me. Hanging out all day vegging is NOT me. Just last Friday I was complaining to matt that I felt so unproductive, to which he responded that you need unproductive days...REALLY? Don't tell him I said this but he's right. The next day I felt rested and ready to go for the busy weekend ahead. I don't necessarily want to lay around all day but I can take a day and get things done around the house at a slower pace, and just relax.


3. Work on my talents: This is not me saying I'm talented. at all. But there are things that I am passionate about/have fun doing that I want to spend more time on. Music-For as long as I can remember I have been OBSESSED with music. I have this connection with music that I have NEVER had with anything else have encountered in this life. Actually that's not true, I would actually say that my love for music is just as strong for my love of the gospel, either way I crave it. I want to make more time for singing, making music, discovering new music and maybe performing again??? I'm singing at my sisters wedding in August, but I've been contemplating auditioning for a choir and maybe even some shows again. Crafting- This I'm REALLY not that good at, but I love doing it. So my goal for this one is to make things for family for b-days. This will be challenging because matt's side of the family is HUGE and my side of the family is pretty big too, but I'm doing pretty good so far. Plus it will be nice to let people know I'm remembering them on their special day...I'm usually REALLY bad at this. So here's an apology in advance if you get a not so good gift from me this year, just know it was made with good intention and LOVE lol!

4.Time for my husband: Now that school will be done, matt and I will finally have a somewhat similar schedule for the first time in almost four years. So my goal is to not stress so much about school/work and remember to spend time with my BFF.


5. Spiritual growth: Continue to increase it. I've got A LOT of growing to do...pretty self explanatory.


6: Love/Forgive: Not cheesey. We need a whole lot more of this in the world, it's scary. I want to love and be accepting of everyone around me. Biggest goal with this, is despite how people treat me I'm going to try to love them, because I would hope that someone would do the same for me, cause, yeah I'm a jerk sometimes too.


*****Let's hope that at least one of these stick!******


Now for the FUN stuff!

We will be boarding a flight on wednesday the 16th to see the following love birds getting married in Alabama....

My brother-in-law Spencer and his fiance Kim

I'm also excited to see family that we haven't seen in FOREVER!! Including:

My in laws, momma and Billy. Last time we saw them was last march when we took a trip down to AL.

My sister in law Bink (my favorite match maker in the world) and her family. Haven't seen them in like 2 1/2-3 years??? anyway too long.

And last little piece of good news. This little guy is now a COLLEGE MAN!

He'd kill me if he saw this pic lol, but my little brother got accepted to Weber State. I'm so proud of my little wildcat! Congrats Eldy!!!

CROW UPDATE...

Wow 4 months!?!?! Sorry to all friends/family that have been asking me about updates, honestly since my last post life has been a BLUR. As of now things are crazy and at the same time exciting. Since I last blogged Matt got a raise at work and his band has been doing AMAZING! They auditioned for a minor record label here in Utah (Spyhop Records) and were selected to be on a compilation CD that the label is releasing of local UT talent. They're doing a nice job of booking gigs, writing new music, and are possibly/maybe wanting to go on a short tour in california? this summer! I am so excited for them! I have been completing my first of two externships at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray since December and I love it. I'm in the neuro acute rehab unit which is so interesting, and challenging and I love it so much. It has been such an amazing experience and I have met so many great people, I'm really going to be sad to leave. I'm currently in my eighth week so only two weeks left and then I start my pediatric/early intervention externship on March 2nd. If everything goes as planned I should be finishing up my second externship the week of graduation and then I will be home free! can't wait.

As if this post isn't long enough already I have included a picture update of life in the nest. I'm sorry that some are out of order, either way Enjoy!:


Matt blowing out the candles on his birthday (Jan 31st). Yup, there are 24 candles on that baby.

My beautiful cousin Vianca and her hubby:) They were married civily on January 28th, and their reception is in May. Guess who gets to be her maid of honor...

My Little bro Edward on his 14the birthday(Feb. 6th). Funny story: Edward has been OBSESSED with the Packers for about 3-4 years now. Not only did the Packers make it to the super bowl this year, but the super bowl was on his birthday and they won! Needless to say he was quite giddy....yes, like a school girl. Below is his Greenbay blanket I made him. (For those of you who have received blankets from me, I swear I do other types of crafting/sewing LOL! I just get people asking me to make them ALL of the time!)

We had a sweet little christmas spending time with family, friends and just the two of us as well. We try to do our own christmas by ourselves every year which I love, and this year for one of my gifts matt made me this box for my wedding ring! Isn't it so sweet, he also burned that design into the top and drawer of the box. I love it not only because I LOVE homemade gifts but because it's also functional aka I'm ALWAYS losing my wedding ring. I love and am grateful for a husband that pays attention to small details and acts on them.

Our ornament we picked out for 2010. There are many personal reasons why we picked this but I'll spare you the details, isn't it cute/a classic though?

The Castle cake I made for Lilly's 5th birthday (December 6th). It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, but it was fun and she really LOVED it. Below is one of the; seriously, 500 pitures she had me take of her and her cake. It was so fun to see her excited! I can't wait to make stuff for my own little one's one day.

My nieces Priscilla and Emyle came to visit from California for about 3 weeks over Christmans break! I love these girls, they are so sweet and beautiful and Lilly just adored having them around.

Emyle and Priscilla

Halloween pics:

Lilly as Cinderella


Matthew as John Winston Lennon

Lilly and I at my work for our pre-school halloween party as uh...bat/pumpkin heads???

The boys playing a show at Mestizo on Halloween

John and yoko

Matt and I after the amazing Avi Buffalo concert in October! Such a SWEET show. We got to meet and talk to the band afterward and they were the NICEST people. My favorite band member is their drummer Sheridan, she is such a talented musician.

Our Jacko's

There you go! An overwhelming amount (maybe 2-3) posts to come due to my slacker behavior.

Lita...

Dora Alicia Alvarado Beloved Mother Our sweet, loving mother and grandmother, returned home to her Heavenly Father. She was born April 14, 1929 in Santa Ana, El Salvador to Rosalvina and Pedro de Alvarado. Alicia married Armando Fernandez and had 10 children. She loved her family and always did her best to help and care for them. She always wanted her children to stay close to each other. She tended many of her grandchildren and loved to talk to them about her life experiences and the gospel. Alicia was a member of the LDS Church for many years and served an LDS mission to San Antonio, Texas. She loved the Savior and His gospel very much and was very close to her Heavenly Father. Alicia loved the outdoors and nature. She also loved dancing and was very creative. She is survived by her children: Alfredo (Edna) Escobar, Sonia Fernandez, Martha (Bruce) Gourley, Edgar (Lucely) Fernandez, Eduardo (Carmen) Fernandez, Roxana (Jeff) Bush, Ileana (Steve) Stephens, Cecil (Arthur) Daley; 35 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren. Preceded in death by her husband, Armando; two sons, Rene Armando and Renato Fernandez.


When I was 7 years old my parents got divorced and when I was 9 my mom got remarried. I remember being scared to death to meet a new family and having to pretend that being shoved into a new life wasn't awkward. I had to meet TONS of "new" aunts, uncles, and cousins(my dad came from a VERY large family), and then there was Lita. Altough she wasn't my biological grandmother, I remember her making my mom, brother and I feel loved, welcome and at ease. Thank you for that moment and for every moment in which you made me feel at home Lita. I will always remember your kind and loving spirit. You are loved and will be missed.

My cute daddy:)

My dad and his siblings




We love you Lita, till we meet again:)