Davids Birthday

Davids birthday was October 11th. (I realize that was forever ago, but I am TRYING to catch up on all the things I have neglected to post about. Gimme a break!) The weekend before his birthday (So the 3rd and 4th) we were at my parents house for General Conference so we celebrated Davids birthday because we were with his family on his actual birthday. It was a blast, and I decided I needed to post the pictures I had taken from that weekend.

Here is the birthday boy himself, holding his incredibly wrapped presents (They are wrapped incredibly if I do say so myself. I mean... look at those bows!)


I don't remember taking this picture, but I love it! So funny. Don't worry, we gave him more than just ONE candle to blow out... we gave him 25!

See! Here are Davids 25 candles, balanced delicately on the edge of his amazing birthday cake. See how happy he is? Yeah. I like it when he is that happy.

This is a closeup of the birthday cake. Don't judge my handwriting skills. Or the massive amount of sprinkles that seem to be attacking the cake. It turned out much better than the green-glob fiasco Jenna and I tried to make for Fathers Day a couple of years back. I promise. I am improving. (If you want to see some REAL disasters, click here! After you look at them, you won't be judging my handwriting so harshly. And I am NOT a professional.)

Don't worry... this post isn't over yet! In fact... we are just about halfway through right now! I have a couple of pictures from the day that David and I celebrated his birthday. We celebrated it on the Friday before his birthday because we were going to be with his family in WJ on the actually party day. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have, I am sad about that now... but nothing I can really do about it! (Actually, I think that there are more on Davids camera... but I don't know where that is right now. It's becoming a problem that we use both of our cameras all the time!)

The morning of Davids birthday I made him breakfast and then sent him to work. It was lucky that I didn't have any classes that day because I had a TON to do! I had decided to send David on a scavenger hunt to like 8 different places. I had a lot I had to get ready though...

Here are some of the pictures from the scavenger hunt:

This was in the institute classroom where David and I met. Thank goodness for Brother Patty and "Scripture Study: Power of the Word" at 8:30 in the morning!

The spectrum was an obvious choice for a clue in the scavenger hunt! I also sent him to the third floor of the TSC (our second date consisted of helping his friend get engaged there), Aggie Ice Cream, the racquetball court in the HPER, Chilis, the Logan Temple etc...

I was only one step ahead of David during the scavenger hunt. I would put the clue in place and then run to the next location to put the clue there. It was totally nervewracking! I thought he was going to catch me. But I didn't want to set the clues out ahead of time for fear someone would move them or take them or something. The above picture is him finding his clue by the spectrum. He is the one in the light blue shirt in the background by the doors. Ignore the person bending over in the foreground. I couldn't help that he was there. I am just happy that I got this picture. At the time I was hiding by the bushes behind the HPER!

This is a picture from my parents house, but I wanted to end with a picture of David and I. I love this boy so much and hope that he had a wonderful birthday. He deserves it and so much more!

(For a picture of the present I gave to David for his birthday, go to THIS post!

Contest!

So I don't know how many of you know... but I am in the process of starting my own little Graphic Design Business (mainly for wedding invitations). I am really excited about the whole thing and SO grateful for a husband who is so incredibly supportive of me. Almost everything is on the brink of being completely ready to start going full force! (Right now, I am doing the invitations for a few weddings for really cheap in order to get some samples up of what I can do.)

The only thing that is missing is.... a name. David and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a name that is memorable, professional and fits my personality. I have decided to ask for YOUR help!

Please leave a comment with any ideas that you can come up with! If you suggest something, and it is what we decide go with... you will win a prize! In fact, you get to CHOOSE your prize.

The prize choices are:
1- a design of your choice (This can be anything really: wedding invitation, baby shower invitation, graduation invitation etc...)
2- a $10 dollar gift card to the restaurant/store of your choice (or a ten dollar bill, however you like it!)
or 3- THE GRAND PRIZE (I can't tell you what the grand prize is right now... but I will tell you all soon!)

Please help me out! Any suggestions are welcome. You can use any part of my name, Shantel Elise Peaden, or anything else. I can't wait to hear what you all come up with!

Graduate School

I don't know why I haven't already posted about this... because it is a MAJOR event in our lives. Here goes:

David will graduate with his Bachelors Degree in Accounting and Economics this December. This means that he is (we are) off to the big, exciting new world of Graduate school! We have been trying to decide where the best place is for David to do his Masters Program. There were hundreds of factors that went into our decision. David and I would start talking about our options and an hour later we would realize that within the last hour we had gone through 80 different options/things to take into consideration without being ANY closer to a decision. (This would usually result in both of us starting to laugh, sometimes uncontrollably.)

We finally narrowed down our choices to Utah State, University of Oklahoma and Oregon State (right love? I always get the "University" and "State" part confused. There were a lot of things to consider and Pro's and Con's to all three of the choices... but we finally made our decision!

David will be attending Graduate School at the one and only:

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
We love it here so much, and we are so happy to be spending another year here. David will start his Masters Program in January and he will graduate with his Masters or Accounting next December (it is only a one year program... which is great). There are a lot of factors that played into this decision, and we are really excited about it. Because we will be staying here in Logan, that means that I will be doing my student teaching at South Cache Middle School!
Whoo hoo! I am so excited. My beloved Adviser/Teacher here at Utah State , Julie Wheeler, said that my cooperating teacher is one of the best around! (Technically I haven't been placed yet, but this is where Julie told me she is trying to place me.)

Good things are happening for David and I. We are excited to be spending the next year close to all of you whom we know and love. If David decides to pursue his PHD, who knows where we will end up!