Goodbye Provo! :) and :(

It's SO incredibly exciting to be finished with school, but so sad to be leaving BYU and Provo and our ward in Wymount. It has been wonderful to be here for school and we will miss it so much! Other than my mission, I have lived in Provo since the fall of 2007, so it was going on 9 years! Mitch came his freshman year in 2008 and we have loved being here as a married couple since December of 2012. I was so proud of Mitch for finishing his master's degree. He studied Information Systems and got his minor in Computer Science. While we love it here, we know we can't stay forever, and we are looking forward to new adventures in Washington!

So going back to March for a quick update on my blog, Lydia and I had a blast at the Aquarium with Stuart and Summer's family. It was so fun! I loved seeing all the fish, touching the starfish and seeing all the tropical birds in the South American section!

Here we are in the shark tank tunnel! :D

Lydia loved playing on the tree frog with her cousins. It was a blast!

We had fun playing on the orcas as well. :)

We all enjoyed a pleasant surprise when my brother, James, came to Provo on a business trip! There were 4 of our 8 siblings there, Kay, James, Stuart, and me, along with our spouses and children. It was super fun and we got together for breakfast at Kneader's :) yum!

March took a sad turn when our dear Grandpa Robison passed away on March 20th. He is a good man and we love him and miss him dearly. We look forward to the day when we can see him again. We were so grateful that we were able to go visit him the week before in their home.

It was a beautiful service for a spectacular man.

Lydia turned 10 months old the day that Grandpa Robison passed away, on March 20th. Though we truly mourn his passing, it was a blessing to celebrate the growth of our dear little baby.

Lydia also had her first Easter egg hunt! :D She colored her first egg and we had so much fun running around the Steed home to find eggs for her on a beautiful Saturday afternoon following the morning session of General Conference. It was a wonderful and inspiring weekend! My mission President's wife, Sister Cordon, was called into the Primary General Presidency and a week later, we had our mission reunion and we were all able to hear her story of being called, as well as her testimony and that of President Cordon. I sure love them dearly!

Grandpa Steed read Lydia an Easter story.

Lydia also had her first Easter dinner. She ate TONS of blueberries!!! You can see her joy by her happy little, mouth-full of blueberries face!

The following week was a blast as my brother, Adam, came down from BYU Idaho to visit during his break between semesters!!! It was so fun to see him and spend so many days together as a family. :)

Yay for cousins!!!

Lydia loves being on "Dada's" shoulders.

Every sixty seconds though, she has to lean down to check on Dada, to make sure he's still there! :D

I also finally opened my business!!! The Pink Flamingo Press, Multilingual Children's Books! It's been so much fun to do!

Here I am at my former school, Bluffdale Elementary, telling parents about the first three books we have, Penguin in the City, A Friend for Tiger, and Monkey in the Zoo!

Here Lydia is on our way to Bridal Veil falls! I love it there in Provo Canyon!

We went with Summer and her kids and with our dear friend, Holly! She is from China, and Lydia and I just love her!

Holly was baptized this month on April 9th as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We are SO happy for her!

That next week, we were able to go do baptisms at the Provo Temple. It was wonderful!

Here Lydia is on her little bed in our room. She has been sleeping in our bed since she was about two months old, and though we have LOVED it, she is getting too big for our little queen-sized bed! Luckily she loves her little bed, and will soon move up to her "big girl bed." :)

This is Lydia's favorite page in one of her new books. We read together every day and she loves turning the pages as fast as she can! We have to read quickly! :D This page though, she doesn't like to turn. We think her favorite animal is the lion, she loves her little singing, stuffed lion too. :)

This is Lydia's new favorite spot in our apartment complex, the tube on the playground! She LOVES climbing up the steps, sitting in the tube, and would love to stay there all day if I let her! :)

I took this picture last week when I saw just how beautiful the grass and trees are now in Provo by our apartment. We sure will miss it, but I'm excited to see how green it is in Washington State!

This is a 3D printed model of what Mitch's brain looks like, to scale and everything! He participated in a study a few weeks ago and they did and MRI scan on his brain as he answered computer programing questions. It's been fascinating to look at this model! We held it up to his head for this picture. :)

We took TONS of pictures on campus this weekend for Mitch's graduation. It was fun to reminisce on our time here at the Y. Here we are sitting with Cosmo, the Cougar!

Here is Mitch with the real Cosmo, at the Marriott School Convocation.

Mitch holding the Y :)

I love this sign!

Mitch's #1 home away from home: The Library!

Mitch's #2 home away from home: The Tanner (business) building!

Mitch's #3 home away from home: The Talmage (math and computer science) building!

Lydia crawling up the Y. :)

Mitch riding the cougar at the football stadium!

Lydia fast asleep! She was so good and patient!

The Steed family in front of the statue of a father, mother and little girl that I've always loved on campus! It's just north of the Clyde (engineering) building where Mitch and I met in church!

Mitch took these pictures the day of graduation.

Here he's sitting with the other master's students.

Lydia leads the music as the graduates enter the Marriott Center!

Mitch and his parents at our post graduation party!

Uncle Nathan took little Lydia on the slide at our playground!

Mitch and Grandma Robison. We're so happy she could make it!

Pre-mortal twins!!! Me and Tiffany! I love you so much! Her husband David on on the right. She also graduated that day in Elementary Education and they joined us for our family party, because let's be honest, they're family! Tiffany will be teaching 3rd grade next year at the very same school she went to growing up! It seems like yesterday that Tiffany and I met (or were reacquainted!) in our Children's Literature class and were roommates before her mission!

Holly and her husband Hua came too, but I didn't get a picture with them, unfortunately!

That night we also celebrated Lydia's first birthday! (Even though she is 11 months old now :)) This is her 11-month picture.

Here she is, about to blow out her candle! We seriously practiced this week having her blow out candles so she would be prepared on the big day! :D It worked, she totally did it, and did a great job! Happy Birthday, Lydia!

After all the celebrating was done, we went on one of our favorite hikes, me, Mitch, Lydia, my Dad and Bradley. We had a blast and made it all the way up to the Squaw Peak trailhead! It was pretty cold though, so we didn't go all the way to the top...and it would have taken like, two hours more than it already did!