My how time flies!!

I am so sorry it has been so long.  Shortly after my last post my mom arrived to spend time with us.  That was also right around the time of final projects and midterms, which then led into finals.  We also had two birthdays in there, mine and Jackson's.  We also had two graduations, mine and Tom's.  It's been a crazy two months.  I'll try to do a quick update.

Tom's mom is doing well on her mission in Chicago.

Ben graduated from Navy Basic training and is now in "pre dive".  He has had some crazy medical condition come up due to hsi training and now can't exercise for over a month and then has exactly one chance to pass the physical strength test to stay in the program.  Wish him luck....

Andy and Elise are expecting a boy and we all hope it comes early enough (but still healthy of course) that they can be added to our cruise.  Fingers crossed...

Jackson is doing great in preschool.  We had his second IEP meeting last month.  He passed off all but one official goal from last year.  He didn't pass off the one that involved social interaction, but he's making progress.  We set new goals for next year that include the social interaction again, added fine motor skills like holding a crayon properly and added some other language and motor skills goals.

Jackson also learned to ride a bike with training wheels.  Belle hasn't figured it out yet.

Belle is a crazy child.  She talks a ton...like she never stops.  And she thinks she is so funny.  Everybody loves her curly blonde hair.

Tom and I both walked at graduation on May 3rd....pictures at the bottom of the post.... and Tom passed his classes so his diploma will be in the mail soon.  I'm still working on my thesis but my appeal was granted and I will get another chance at the qual after I write a massive intro to my thesis.  I am finally finding my stride in the writing, so hopefully that is pretty soon.

We have both been applying for jobs and have a specific place we are trying to move, but we don't want to jinx it so we won't make it public just yet.

Here are the promised graduation pictures:

It was so amazing to be able to celebrate our educations on the same day

 We both bought a stole of gratitude. I gave mine to Jackson and Tom gave his to Belle.

Receiving my empty diploma holder...

Tom receivign his empty diploma holder, but his diploma shoudl be in the mail soon.

We didn't get a picture of me giving mine to Jackson, but Belle was so happy to pose for this picture