master of acoustics

i've always thought that a master's degree would be the coolest degree to get because you could say, "i'm a MASTER of... (insert degree here)," the way that he-man gets to say that he's the "master of the universe." as previously posted, ben just graduated with his master of science in acoustics. he officially graduates in december, but he walked at graduation last week. his siblings, doug and kadi, joined him in the ceremonies. it was totally a fun week of festivities with both sides of our family. ...and a totally awesome week of taking millions and millions of pictures. and here they all are...


probably our last visit to BYU's marriot center for a long time... sniffle, sniffle






hail the conquering graduates!







shafer silliness







ben and doug working it in those sexy robes







me and ben with my parents






the graduates with their parental units





in front of tucanos - arguably the most delicious top sirloin and garlic steak in the world... let's just say that they are masters' of the meat universe



carter and joel playing with cars... they are being so good, but let me just throw this equation out for ya: graduation + kids = not fun





ben working the runway







the busath clan







the shafer clan





check out the "hood" that the masters students get to wear - very stylish

and finally... our excited, little family ready to embark on a new adventure and definitely ready to not be so poor anymore... oh wait, we are moving to california's bay area... we'll still be poor, but excited nonetheless :)

BEN GOT A JOB!

wednesday, ben had an interview at quiet solution in sunnyvale, ca and we're stoked to announce that they totally loved him and offered him a job! ben's really excited about the company, the product they sell and his responsibilities that he will have. now he just has to finish his thesis, so he can start working. his thesis defense is scheduled for september 18 and his tentative start date with quiet solution is october 1... lots of work to get done in a very small amount of time... it's been a crazy summer and it's about to get even crazier. yay, ben! you rock! thanks for working so hard for our family and we love you so much!

graduation announcements

i just finished making ben's graduation announcements, and i thought they turned out pretty cute... well, hopefully they aren't THAT cute... i tried to make them look as masculine as possible, but that's pretty hard when you are making a homemade card. :) here they are...


here's the photo of us on graduation day that i'll include...

joel's injuries: edition #4,971

our sweet, little joel seems to have a knack for having accidents. when he was 13 months old, he grabbed the just un-plugged curling iron and burned his hand pretty severely. a few months back, he climbed out of his pack 'n play when he was supposed to be napping and attempted to scale our dresser, toppling it over on himself. he got pretty lucky, though. it didn't land on him and he walked away with just a big scratch down his face. he still has the scar from the scratch, but i'm hoping it will fade with time, so he can be his usual, pretty self once again. these are just a couple of the more memorable injuries, but i have another to add to his repertoire. my family is hanging out at lake tahoe at the moment. the cabin we are staying in has this huge stone fireplace right in the middle of the family room... let me just interject to say that anyone who is contemplating putting one of these in the middle of the living area where there might be children running around... this is not an intelligent idea. when i first walked into the house, i remember looking at said fireplace and thinking, "that is an accident waiting to happen." sure enough, on monday morning, joel slipped on a toy boat that was laying precariously next to the stone fireplace and cut his lower lip open on the edge of the stone... sweet. ben held joel with ice on his lip and he cried for... a really long time. it bled for probably 45 minutes. yuck. i gave him some motrin and after he calmed down we put him to bed and he slept for like 4 1/2 hours! i guess he cried himself into a comatose state. i'm happy to report, though, that it's healing quite quickly and he seems to be his usual, charming self. i'm sure as you are reading this, you are probably thinking that maybe we are unfit parents and you are probably right... most of these accidents that have occurred could have been prevented by simple precautions. however, i think it's just in joel's blood to be accident prone. thanks ben. :)

here's my dad next to the fireplace of death.

how could my life be better?

a friend of mine has a friend who has the most entertaining and fabulous blog. i don't know this girl, but i love to check in on her blog regularly to get a good laugh or to get the wheels in my head turning. she just recently urged her readers to "live a better life" and she is right. here are some changes that i have decided i NEED to make so that i can live life to the fullest:

1) have a little more patience with my husband and my children... crumbs on the carpet are not that important

2) when i have an idea about something i want to learn or do, do it... don't wait until years down the line when i finally think, "i wish i had taken those guitar lessons when i had the chance."

3) think of others more often... more notes, more phone calls, more sacrifices of time and money to give to others in need

4) save more and spend less... instant gratification does not make me truly happy

5) start being happy with me... it's okay to want to eat healthy and exercise, but i have worked hard to get where i am and i shouldn't obsess about the fact that i'm not a size 2 and just enjoy the fact that i look great

horsey ride

ben was still getting over the flu a couple of weeks ago when this happened. poor guy... joel and kadin wanted to do it over and over again. ben just couldn't resist, though. how could he really? i mean, look at those faces. :)

nothin' like a good mullet

doug, our official family barber, gave my boys haircuts a few weeks back. joel's hair was sooo long and we decided to see how he would look with a mullet... just to see. let me just say, wow. our little joel could pull off a pretty sweet mullet, that is to say, if mullets really were sweet.

here's a picture of the boys with their faux-hawks a couple of days before we cut their hair.

i just realized that i never took a picture of the boys right after they had their haircuts, but here's a shot of them with their cousins, carter and mason, this last week at our shafer family reunion. the picture is a few weeks after their haircuts, but you get the idea... i'd also like to ask if anyone has ever seen a cuter quartet of little boys in their whole life? i say no!

a serious addiction...

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

i saw this on a blog of a friend of mine. i think we all should stop and take inventory of our blogging addictions. hopefully your addiction isn't as scary as mine. :)