BYU 2012 Commencement and Convocation

Since most all of you couldn't come, I thought I'd post some highlights from BYU's Commencement and the School of Technology's Convocation exercises. Somehow, the diploma wasn't enough to make it feel real, but the robes sure did!

Thursday Afternoon: BYU Commencement

 At the Gazebo outside the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Association and Visitors' Center

 In front of the ASB where we parted ways with Brian before Commencement. 

 The keynote Commencement speaker, Elder Dallin H. Oaks. (Awesome picture of him on the big screen at the Marriott Center.)

 After Commencement below the Carillon Bell Tower with Dad & Mom Saville. (Dad Saville is a BYU music professor, for those of you who forgot, hence his robes). 

 Our future masters graduate. 

Friday Morning before Convocation:

Sign just South of Helaman Halls

 At the Stadium by the Cougar

Brian waiting for his turn to walk across the stage at his convocation in the WILK Ballroom. 

And so you could see his grand walk, here's a video.  

 Yay!

 A shout out to Brian's awesome thesis committee: Dr. Helps and Dr. Rowe

 and his mentor/coach/faculty adviser, Dr. Lunt.

The Y and Crabtree Technology Building in the background. Our final farewell to student things at BYU. 

Don't you feel like you were there with us now? 

Today and Tomorrow

Easter!

On Saturday, April 7, the Easter Bunny came to our house! He brought too much yummy candy, although it was thankfully much less than last year. He brought Michael more bath bubbles, an awesome firetruck floor puzzle, and New Testament Stories. 

 He also brought Brian and I baskets. After finding our baskets and eating breakfast, we headed to Ogden for an egg hunt with Chelsea and Thomas's crew. After arriving, we colored eggs:

 And then had an egg hunt. The kids hung out inside while Thomas, Brian, Chelsea, and I hid the eggs. There must have been at least 400. I think we went a little nuts. Sarah and Michael got to head out first. It was so funny to watch them walk right past 15 eggs to get to the one they spotted. Talk about looking beyond the mark!

 Matthew and Heather were waiting on the back porch for their time. Someone did a countdown and yelled, "Go!" This is them just after "Go". Notice how Heather's hair is flying? They were just a LITTLE excited!

  

 After all the eggs were collected (at least we think they got all of them), we headed inside to open them and divide them up equally. It was a fun afternoon. Thanks for hosting it, Chelsea and Thomas!!

All too soon, we needed to head to Provo to meet up with the Hoyos family for dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe. The Hoyos's lived across the street from Brian's family back in Kansas. Brian wanted to see Meghan since it had been a few years since we'd seen her, and Brenton was getting ready to move to Kentucky.

 (Left to right) Jason, Baby Benjamin, Meghan, Brian, Michael, Devri, Ryan, Katie, and Brenton. 

On Easter Sunday, we went to church with Lea and Shayne. It was SO nice to go to Sunday School and Relief Society again! I also got to take Skyler, and it was a lot of fun to have a baby around again, even if he did get super mad during Sunday School and I wondered if I had lost all my mad baby-nurturing skills. But he was just starving, so that made me feel better. Thanks for letting me borrow your baby, Lea!

After church, we headed home and found Mom and Dad Saville sitting on our porch, enjoying the beautiful day. While we waited for Lea and Shayne to come, Papa helped Michael put his new puzzle together: 

 After Lea and Shayne and the boys arrived, we hid eggs, and then the hunt was on:

 First inside, and then outside:

 Cole was pretty proud of all the eggs he picked up.

After finding all the eggs, it was time for the traditional Saville Egg-Rolling!

 We tried on the grass first, and then decided to move to the concrete:

 And after all the eggs were sufficiently cracked, we went in and peeled them, and Mom made her amazing "Egg Stuff":

We enjoyed the meal too much to take any pictures, laughing about how many people were probably eating really fancy dinners of ham and fixings, and we were having our simple, traditional eggs-in-white-sauce-over-toast meal.

I love Easter; it is my favorite holiday. Every year, I ask myself again, "Is this REALLY your favorite holiday? Even over Christmas? Why?" Again, the answer is, "Yes, it is really my favorite holiday, even over Christmas, even though it is pretty close. And the why, at least this year is because Easter means hope."

Everything about Easter is hopeful, because Easter is the celebration of the Resurrection of the Savior, the most marvelous and happy event of all time.  It occurs in the Spring when the world is starting to wake up, shooting out new green leaves, blossoms, and flowers. After a long, hard, cold, dark winter, suddenly birds are singing out that better things are on their way. Nature itself is rejuvenated. It's as if all nature wants to remind us of the hope that we all have through the Savior's atonement and resurrection.

Because of the Savior, we can have hope in good things to come in this life, and better things in the life to come. Even in trials, we have the hope that He will be there to help us through them, and rejoice with us when we come off conqueror. We can overcome our sins, shortcomings, pains, sicknesses, and struggles to become the people we want to be, and the people He would have us be. The sting of death is swallowed up in His resurrection, and we have the hope that we will see all our loved ones again.

For me this year, Easter brought the hope that we will be able to have more children. As I sat in Relief Society, listening as the final week of the Savior's earthly ministry was recounted, I couldn't help but think about all that pain the Savior was willing to put himself through for us. I thought, "If He could do that for me, I can set myself up for the possibility of more pain for me and the risk of another miscarriage in the hopes that we could bring one of Heavenly Father's children to earth." This isn't an announcement, but it is a HUGE step for me, because I haven't been willing to consider more kids until now. I KNOW that our Savior lives, and because He lives, I can do all things with His help, even face my fears about getting pregnant again, because I know He'll be there for me, come what may. And it is all because of Easter. How could it not be my favorite holiday?

Mr. Cool

Probably about a year ago, I went to lunch with Lea and her boys and Mom Saville to Del Taco. Not necessarily uncommon, but this particular time, I actually ordered a kids meal for Michael, and the toy inside was a pair of goofy sunglasses with green lenses. They were too big for Michael, and now, a year later, the two ear-perch pieces are gone. Somehow, they ended up in the backseat of the car, and when Michael would climb in, he's see them and go, "Oh, my glasses!" and would then try to put them on his face. So, when I saw kids size sunglasses at the dollar store, I had to get them: 

Since Michael's birth, I have often stood amazed by how much personality is packed into this tiny little person, and as he keeps growing and gaining more words in his vocabulary, he keeps getting funner and funner. Like the other night, he wanted his picture taken. And since he was sticking out his tongue, I thought I'd join him: 

Brian said that a few weeks ago, he heard Michael playing in the other room. Here's the conversation:

      Michael in his normal voice: You're not a car; you're a bus!

      Michael in a falsetto voice: I'm not a car; I'm a bus! 

      Michael in a falsetto, dramatic voice: Oh no! (car goes off the end of the hearth).

Not too long after this happened, Michael and I were driving back home after a trip to the grocery store. Here's the conversation I heard:

      Michael in his falsetto voice: Are you Daddy?

      Michael in a deeper-than-normal voice: Yes, I'm Daddy. And you're Michael.

      Michael falsetto: Yes. Are you a boy?

      Michael deep: Yes, I'm a boy. And you're a boy.

Several weeks ago, I made a meal in one of our crock pots. Apparently, I haven't done many crockpot meals since we moved into the house because when Brian went to put the crock pot away, he wasn't sure where to put it. Finally, he decided to put it in a cupboard with our tupperware. Michael was watching from the other room, and then came over to Brian in the kitchen and said, pointing to a different cupboard, "It goes there." Sure enough, Brian found the other crockpot in that cupboard, and we had a good laugh over it. 

He's also been praying a lot lately--all by himself! Sometimes, if we hesitate too long trying to figure out who's turn it is to pray, Michael will just start going off. And other times, we have to remind him about the essential things before he closes his prayer. Two weeks ago, we were in the Dollar Store, and all of a sudden, he started into a prayer. Last night, he blessed the food before going to bed (we've all done it, of course, but that was a first for Michael), and tonight, he blessed us that Family Home Evening would "nourish and strengthen us". And "Bless Daddy come home safe" often makes its way into his prayers, even when Daddy is kneeling right next to us. He'll also randomly bless people. For a while there, Uncle Shayne was getting lots of extra prayers, and he randomly blessed Baby Kallen, a baby in our ward. He was probably reminded of Baby Kallen when he was prompted to bless Uncle Callan, but still. We love that he loves to pray, and we hope it lasts throughout his life. 

Last week, we were stopped at a light on Orem Center Street, under an over-pass, waiting to get on the 15 when Michael asked, "Are we hiding, Mommy?" Ha ha!

He's great at spotting construction vehicles, especially excavators. He's probably one of the few that thinks all the construction around us is awesome. "A cement truck!" "A Dump Truck!" And of course, the time we were driving together and he was silent for a good ten minutes and then he yelled from the backseat, "A CRANE!" That startled me a little bit. His favorite, however, seems to be "Excavator!" He also notices buses, trucks, fire hydrants, smoke detectors, fans, and speaker in stores. 

He also loves talking to his loved ones on the phone, and I laugh at the things he has to say. It's fun that he can recall events that happened several days before, like when he told Brian about how he got in trouble at Lea's for hitting Danny with a golf club. Brian re-told the story to me, and it directly matched up to what Lea had said to me. And on Sunday, when we asked him what they talked about in his class, he immediately responded, "Temples!" 

He's really into doing things all by himself, which is good and bad at the same time. He'll throw a fit if we lift him into his car seat or his bed. He always tries to open the heavy glass doors at church, and I try to hide the fact that I'm giving him a little help; otherwise, we'd never leave that building. Stubborn boy!

It's Gone Now

It's a terrible picture (I took it on my phone a few weeks ago), but here's the spot were so many fond memories took place my Freshman Year:

What you are looking at is the spot where Kimball Hall once stood on 900 East in Provo. They've leveled it. It's like a thousand voices have just been silenced. *Sniff*.