Ainslie's Birthday

Saturday was Ainslie's second birthday! We had a great little party with everything that birthdays should have. Like balloons . . . And cake for tasting.There was lots of other tasty food including some extra fancy hamburgers. Ainslie liked the broccoli cupcakes.Ainslie got some fun presents. Some familiar. . . And some new . . . Grandma and Grandpa brought the big surprise . . .And Ainslie already loves going for a spin.Unfortunately, the rainy/snowy weather left us feeling a little bit like this poor guy. Good thing we're headed for warmer weather!

Graduation

It's hard to believe that we are done with school, but after today it's official. We started the day out at a breakfast reception for the students in Janae's Public Policy program.

Janae decided to walk at the law school's convocation ceremony, so it was nice to see friends from the MPP program.

While we were walking across campus we wanted to stop for a quick picture in front of this statute. We matched up pretty well.

In the afternoon we headed over to the Provo Tabernacle so that Josh's dad could take a few pictures before the crowds showed up. As usual, Ainslie was very excited to "Papa."

One of the best parts of today was the chance to see so many family members who have helped us make it to this day.

Long ceremonies aren't really Ainslie's thing, so we tried to get her worn out before things got started.
And we were very grateful to everyone who took a turn outisde while Ainslie was running laps.

Although we're happy to be finished, after as much time as we've spent, it's a little hard to say good bye. We're definitely going to miss the good friends we've made.But friendships go on. Fortunately, homework does not, and we're done.

Bring on the rest of our lives!

All Done!

Somewhere around two years ago (four semesters back, to be exact), Janae headed back to BYU in pursuit of a Masters of Public Policy . . . Yesterday she took her last test, and today she handed in her last two papers. Four semesters, way too much homework, far too many late nights, and now it's all done. Today Josh picked up our robes for graduation, and Friday we'll walk. This is real people, this is not a drill . . .

First day heading back to school:After the last test:

A Tale of Two Breakfasts . . .

As you may know, Janae is pretty amazing in the kitchen. In fact, she has a blog that documents some of her kitchen adventures. Josh, on the other hand, tends to avoid the kitchen when possible. This morning, Janae made a delicious fritata with broccoli, peppers, and crab. Josh doesn't do crab (they're too much like underwater spiders), so he thought he'd try making breakfast for himself. Smelling the fritata, it was clear that cereal couldn't compete with Janae's work, so he thought he'd actually try cooking something. It's probably no surprise whose breakfast came out better. The visual evidence is particularly telling:

Done with Law School . . .

Josh took his last final on Thursday afternoon.

That's it . . .

He's done with law school . . .

Incredible . . .

Janae still has a couple tests and a few papers left, but she's really, really close. Graduation isn't until next Friday, so what do we do until then? Well, here's a glimpse of what Josh has been doing with his free time . . .

We got a ton of snow over the last few days. That was disappointing, but Josh got some fun pictures of it melting.
The snow took down several trees in our neighborhood, but he still managed to get a few pictures of the spring flowers. Josh and Ainslie are looking forward to some quality play time together. While Janae is wrapping up her studies, they'll be at home knocking over domino stacks.

Unfortunately, Josh's bar study materials showed up in the mail today. His prep classes don't start for a few weeks, so we're going to pretend the bar exam doesn't exist until then. For now, that box of books makes a great slide.

Happy Easter!

Easter really snuck up on us this year. With finals and other end of the semester things in full swing, the Easter Bunny didn't even have anything to bring to our place. But fortunately, we were able to be a little bit festive with friends and family at the Webbs' house.Ainslie was pretty excited to go looking for easter treats in the backyard. Janae was happy to help while Josh took pictures. Each find was placed in the bag, but a few were opened right away.Once her cheeks were full, Ainslie was willing to share a few of the Reese's eggs.But Josh didn't need to rely on Ainslie alone. he got out and found a few chocolates to take care of his own sweet tooth.The most popular finds of the afternoon were the kites that Grandma and Grandpa hid in the backyard. We didn't waste any time opening this one up. Ainslie was excited to see it go.And when the wind out back wasn't very good, we headed to the front to see if the ol' reliable canyon winds of Spanish Fork would be enough to get this kite going.The winds were great, and Ainslie loved flying the kite!Everybody else had a great time with the kites too. Kate and Brady were pretty good at getting the kites flying and doing tricks. Ainslie wanted to make sure nobody missed the excitement.

It was fun to spend time with some of our family. We hope that all of you had an enjoyable holiday and had the chance to think about the meaning behind the holiday.

ABCs