Congratulations, Mark!! We're so proud of you!

April 24, 2009- a big day in our home! Mark graduated from BYU! Now we have two BYU Alumni...we know we are surrounded by Utes in the family, but we are still very proud COUGARS!

Mark graduated in Business Management with a minor in Spanish. He's filling out med school applications and we're hoping to start next year! :) His family came up for graduation and it really meant a lot to us to have them here with us. We really appreciate the love and support.

Emily dressed James and Anna up for the event. Here is James in his BYU Jersey!


Anna had a pink "Y" shirt on and Emily found this amazing BYU bow for her hair. It was so cute! :)
The grads! Mark is the first person on the far left, first row of graduates in the bleachers. If you look in about the middle of the row of random people just in front of the white half wall, you'll see me and Mark's grandparents. I got really lucky and was able to sit right by Mark!

Here's our grad...Walking up to the stage...

"Mark Williams Brems"
The degree! :)
Although we were all very happy to be there for Mark, graduations can get a bit long. Most of us make it through okay, others have a harder time. Anna represents the latter crowd here... (good shot of her super cute bow, though).Giving Mark his leis.
A close up of the money lei- it was the first one I had ever made.

Grandma and Grandpa Brems! We were so excited to have them there.
Father and Son...
Robert, Emily, James, and Anna...
After, we met up with Mark's family and had a bite to eat. Mark's cousin Shauntae also graduated so we got to see a lot of his family. It was fun to see everyone. CONGRATS, SHAUNTAE!! :)

After dinner we came back to our place for Mark's graduation present. Angie also got hers at the same time for her graduation from Idaho State. (Congrats, Angie!) The before shot...
Is this not the giddiest face ever....he got a MacBook laptop!!!!! He was so very excited. We have been watching Apple's refurbished website for a good deal and his parents made Mark's dream come true! Thanks guys! :)
The day before the Marriott School of Management's graduation was BYU's traditional Commencement Ceremony. All the graduates file into the Marriott Center and there is a short ceremony. There is also a main graduation speaker- this year it was Elder Nelson. Also, President Uchtdorf was given an honorary doctorate. It was a really fun event. Although, I was holding Anna so I don't have many pictures of the actual event. Here's a quick shot of the before.

A few after shots of our graduate...notice James and Anna are wearing BYU gear on Thursday too!



Notice Mark is no longer wearing the "white thing". It's called the Stole of Gratitude. You wear it during graduation to show gratitude and honor to your family and others who have supported you. You then give it to one of your family members as a token of appreciation. Mark gave his to Robert.We really had a great time and, again, thank everyone who helped to support Mark during this time! We love you all!

CONGRATULATIONS, MARK!!!! :) I love you! I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished!

Graduation Week

The weekend before graduation, Robert, Emily, James, and Anna came to visit. It was so much fun!!! We truly had a blast!! It meant a lot to us that they sacrificed so much to be able to be here to celebrate Mark's great accomplishments, and to play!

Here are some pictures of a park visit they went on while I was at work one day...

I love this...James just looks like a little man walking across the bridge.

"Ooh, a water park! I want to go there..."

Anna enjoying some sun rays with her daddy...

I love Anna's hair...

He's going to be a true monkey some day....

So Robert and Emily went out to dinner one night and let us babysit the kids...it was so much fun! James and Anna are so good...and SO CUTE!

Mark took his last final on Wednesday and asked if he could have his graduation gift then since he was officially done. I was excited to give it to him so I did. (I was especially excited about the wrapping paper...Go Cougs!)

"Oooh..."

It's a Wii! That's right all you Wii playing folks....we can now play with you. Robert and Emily got Mark MarioKart for the wii so we can join their online games with Heather and Ethan! Woohoo! Happy Graduation, Mark! :)

The day after graduation our friends Kevin and Vanessa got married. Kevin was Mark's roommate last year, and Vanessa was my roommate. They met through our Sunday night dinners- we're so happy for them! We couldn't miss the sealing so we left the family for a few hours. We were grateful to have been able to take part in the sealing and feel of the sweet spirit there. Congrats, Kevin and Vanessa!!

Well, unfortunately we couldn't get any pictures of the bride and groom because everytime we tried we just got blocked. But here are a couple pretty pictures we took while waiting for them to come out.


After the sealing we met up with Mark's family at Rodizio's Brazilian Grill. His parents took us out in celebration of graduation. It was very nice of them and we had a great time. And of course it was a very exciting event for me- celebrate Mark with the surroundings of one of my favorite cultures. I even got a chance to speak some Portuguese...I really need to find more opportunities to practice, but it was really fun. We really did all have a great time together- a big thanks to Mark's parents for coming up and for taking us all out to spend some time together.



After dinner, we went to the Dinosaur Museum. It was a blast. Last time Mark and I went (see Valentine's Day blog), we kept thinking how fun it would be to have had James with us...this time we did...and a few other kids as well...

First, Emily let me hold Anna while we were there. I tried out her snuggle thing...it was fun. Although I felt like a total mom. It makes me laugh when I see the pictures though- I don't realize how short I am until I see pictures of me next to a baby and 2 year old- maybe it's just the camera angle. :)
James found a cave and had some fun running in and out of it.

Mark and James.
At the museum they have this great area for little kids. It's a canal of running water filled with sand and dinosaur and plant toys. It's the ultimate sand box! Here's James playing in the sand with some dinosaurs.
Well, James eventually had some other friends join him...some bigger boys. I'm not sure who had more fun, the big boys or little ones...
The big boys eventually made their own creation and blocked some of the water from flowing by making a dam. They found the art of erosion fascinating. Even better than that was there was a high strung grandma near by and she got all bent out of shape because they were taking all the sand from her granddaughter- who happened to be a little ways away and the boys had gotten all the sand from a little corner where no kids were playing. There is never a lack of entertainment when you are in a little kids area- if you get bored of watching the kids, you can watch the parents/grandparents getting all worried about their kid.
Since the boys were playing we made them put on their little aprons....I love how Jason and Robert are all big and tuff and Mark has his little toy dinosaur with a giddy smile- such a little boy...I love it! :)
James with a fun puppet.
"Oh, Hi!"
That night Angie and Jason came over as well and we all had a great time together. First we went to the mall. We had the guys meet us there so James could go to Build-A-Bear. It was funny, but we had to take a picture of him with his box after. The funniest part of it all was right after this picture. He quickly decided he didn't want his box anymore, but instead wanted my Victoria Secret's bag.

After the mall we went to Fro-Yo for frozen yogurt. We were all chatting and realized James had gone over to the next booth and found his reflection in the napkin dispenser. He decided to have a conversation with himself (which he had done earlier in the week with his reflection in our door knobs at home). He would say, "Oh, hi James!" "How are you?" "Come on, let's go!" Then he'd quickly run away and return only to have the same conversation with a few variations. It was so funny and cute! :)
The next morning everyone was leaving. Sad. :( Jason held Anna while Robert and Emily got ready and packed things up. They both fell asleep...


One last shot before they hit the road. We really miss these guys a lot!!!
Thanks again everyone for coming and celebrating such a special event with us. We really appreciate all you do and for all your love. Robert and Emily, we had a BLAST with you guys!! Thanks so much for spending so much time with us and letting us enjoy your cute keikis (kids)! We love you guys!! :)