matt came home from school today sporting his graduation cap.

he is done!

done done done.

his graduation ceremony is tomorrow.

and then we will no longer be in the poor-student stage of our life.

we will now just be poor-normal-people.

woohoo!

we went to LA this weekend to find a place to live.

and this picture about sums up our trip to california.

NOT.

although we did make it to the beach a couple times, our trip was not relaxing like the picture.
it was busy.
because LA is oh, so busy.

i am really excited to move to california.

but incase anyone is concerned that i am under the impression that my life there

will be spent mostly lying on the beach, with celebrities..

don't worry.

i have already figured out that is not the case.

i have also figured out that there are many homes in california that do not back on to the beach.

[including ours].

lame.

i've found out that people weren't joking when they said that driving in california is insane.

and apparently people also weren't joking when they said california is expensive.

and it is also slightly less sheltered then rexburg.

and yes, these things all make me nervous.

at times, scared out of my mind.
i have shed a few tears. duh.

and i have even questioned our decision to move there.

especially now that we are packing up. and it is starting to feel real.
but then matt sent me this:

"Yes, there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts. You can find an apartment. You can win over your mother-in-law. You can sell your harmonica and therein fund one more meal. It's been done before. Don't give in. Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. He wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself. Face your doubts. Master your fears. "Cast not away therefore your confidence."
Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you."

Elder Jeffery R. Holland.

[matt is such a nice boy, huh?]

this move is scary.
but we have done a ton of prayerful consideration about it.
and it felt right then.
so - according to president holland - that means it is right now.
so i need to stop fretting, because we have such an adventure before us.
and heck, i'm gonna be living somewhere that you don't run the risk of getting snow any given month of the year.
and i'm pretty pleased with that.

only 2 more sleeps in rexburg :(


a few pics..

i harvested our bean plant.

we planted 3 beans. we got 2 beans back. (one pod was empty).

shoot.

remember this lovely get-up?

we found it while packing. and it fits holden perfectly! haha.

it's official..

we are moving to
california!

matt has accepted an offer to work for a company called PCL in the LA area.
we are really excited!

..and definitely nervous.
do you have any idea how big LA is? it's unreal.
talk about going from one extreme to the other.
rexburg --> LA
but we are ready to take on the big city. [we think].

and we figure - if nothing else - be an unforgettable adventure for our family.

since matt started applying for jobs, he has received all sorts of offers, in all sorts of places, with all sorts of salaries.
and it has really made us sit down and decide what is most important to us.
and what will make us happy.
we really feel that we have made the right decision for our family.

matt and i are making a quick trip to california tomorrow to find us a home. 
and when i say quick, i mean QUICK!
matt graduates on the 12th and we get kicked out of our rexburg apartment on the 15th.
and he still has finals to take before that.
ahhh!
we are happily taking any advice we can get on where to look.
or if anyone wants us to house-sit their mansion on the beach, we would be willing to do that :)
matt's office is in glendale.
but he will either be working on a project at UCLA or universal studios.



[my head is now constantly humming the OC theme song.
califonia... california... here we cooooommmmeee!]

this is how my easter weekend started..

not ideal.
do you have any idea how hard it is to clean up 14 broken eggs?
so hard.
those things are slimey little buggers.
the worst part is that i couldn't even blame my kids for the disaster..
that one was all me.
but things definitely improved from then on. we had a really fun easter weekend.
lots of family time. lots of friends. and lots of playing outside.

we participated in 3 egg hunts on saturday.
#1 was at porter park. it was INSANE.
matt said it reminded him of braveheart..
everyone lined up around the perimeter of the park and then rushed the field when the whistle blew.
i guarantee it took no more then 15 seconds for the 5000+ eggs to be snatched up.
15 seconds max!
there are way too many kids in this city!

then we headed to egg hunt #2 at broulims.
it was also pretty crazy.
they blocked off 3 aisles and covered the floors and shelves with obscene amounts of eggs.
it was squishy, and chet is just about the least aggressive kid i know, so he was funny to watch.
[we also got our picture with a super creepy bunny..]

[good thing i bought holden an easter bucket]

in between egg hunt #2 and #3 we had our first picnic of the year at smith park.
it was awesome.

egg hunt #3 was at our apartment complex.
it was probably our favorite one.
it was more low key, and the eggs were actually hidden instead of just tossed everywhere.
chet liked having to search, and we liked watching him.
by the end of his 3 hunts, his bucket was full and he was pretty pleased with the idea of easter.

we spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside.
and then in the evening we went over to our friends house to decorate eggs.
i can't remember the last time we did that. it was fun!
but now our fridge reeks of hard boiled eggs. mmm.

one of my roomies from my days at BYUI came to town this weekend.

we have been planning to meet up for the longest time, so it was pretty exciting that it finally worked out.

cortney and i only lived together for 1 semester - 8 years ago - but we had an instant bond.

because just a couple weeks after we moved in together both of our boyfriends reported to the MTC

[on the exact same day. what are the odds?!]

as you can imagine, we were a pretty depressing pair at the start.

but 8 years later, we are a much less pathetic sight. thank goodness!

we are both married [to those boys] and we have a total of 5 children.

chet just loved the camberlango kids. and with good reason.. they are such nice kids.

it makes me sad that we don't live closer.

we didn't get to spend a ton of time together but, the time we did get, was so fun.

we did all the classic rexburg activities..

played at porter park, ate at 'craigos', and toured around campus.

my favorite part was probably a late night ice cream date - just cort and me.

we got to reminisce about the good ol' days and catch up on what's new.

it's fun how, even when you don't see good friends for a long time, it's like you were never apart.