The After Party

Right after Joe's graduation we had to hurry and get home to relieve Joe's sister Elizabeth, who had all three boys, plus her own daughter.  Then Joe was out the door again to head up to Auburn for a job interview and I had to get cooking for a family dinner to celebrate graduation and to thank everyone for their support while Joe was in the nursing program.  

 Rachel, Nathan and Gary

Jesse and Leah

Houston and Elizabeth

Grandma LaRue

Barbara and Patti

Elizabeth and Joe with the AWESOME cake she made for him.

Later the kids had round two roasting hot dogs.

Joe's Graduation

Nursing School is officially over!  Joe's graduation was at the Sutter Center for Health Professions off of Garden Highway.  Joe was voted by his classmates to give the speech at the pinning.  (I'm still trying to get it to load, so you can see it, but the file may be too big)  He did a really good job.  He was by far the best speaker.  I heard the speech several times, but it was still good and even better, when he delivered it at the graduation.  I was able to pin him at the ceremony, which was exciting and emotional.  It felt like this day would never get here and then it came so fast.  

Joe also made the news that night as he danced his way out of the room.  I couldn't see him, because there was a pillar in my way, but there was a pause in the procession and I knew what he was doing.  All I could say is, "He's dancing, isn't he?" (I'll try to upload that video too)

Here are some of his friends from school, Jenine (left) Christine (center).

The study group from left to right:

Paul, Jenine, Joe and Christine

Joe and Linda.

Linda was Joe's clinical instructor for first, second and fourth semesters.  It's rare to have an instructor more than once, we considered it a blessing.  Not only was Joe comfortable with how she taught, she would not let him slack off and had high expectations for him.  Even though he would sometimes complain about all the extra stuff that no other clinical group seemed to do, I'm sure it will help him in the long run.

From left to right:

Joe, Jerry and Joe

My Boys

For some reason Luke got it in his head that this was a smile.

I have no idea what Jake is doing, but you get the idea.

Joe's Last Day of Clinicals

Joe's Nursing School is coming to an end.  Thank goodness.  At times I think we both wondered if this accelerated program was such a good idea for our family, but now that it's almost over we couldn't be happier.

Noah's Two Month Appointment

Noah weighed in at 13 pounds 9.5 ounces, which is in the 89th percentile.  He measured 24.5 inches long, which puts him in the 93rd percentile for height.

When the doctor came in, Noah was sitting on my lap in just a diaper and her first comment was, "He's a healthy baby."  I just smiled and thought, "is she calling my baby fat?"  Then she looked at his height and said, well he's just a big boy, because he's tall too.

I was just happy to find out that his head is average size!  It seems silly to be so happy, but the other two have HUGE heads.

Easter Sunday

This Easter, General Conference was on, it was sooooo nice I would like to add.  Since we moved into a new church building we are at the completely opposite time from all of my family, which means we don't get to see them as often as we would like, since we just get out too late.  However, with conference we were able to visit both sides without any problems.  I only got pictures of the morning.  The boys got up around 6 like normal.  I was up with Noah, so it didn't matter and we just let Joe sleep in.  He's so lucky!

Dyeing Easter Eggs