Merry Christmas! Love, the Hawkins

Dear Friends and Family,

2011 has been a great year for our new family! We started out the year with a spectacular wedding, celebrating with many of our friends and family, and then jumped back into school at BYU. Amy went to Taiwan for the month of May for a nursing study abroad where she worked in a local hospital and in the community with the nurses of Taiwan. Alex stayed home and continued school and work at the Missionary Training Center and cared for our first baby, Maizy, a little duckling.

We spent the summer working and going on vacation. We visited Eugene, Oregon to see Amy’s sisters compete in their first track meet at their new stadium. Then, we visited Fresno with Alex’s family and spent a few days relaxing at the Cabin. In August, we finally took a honeymoon to the Caribbean. The islands were beautiful and relaxing on the cruise ship was just what we needed before school started again. Luckily we avoided Hurricane Irene.

From there, we were right back into school. Amy started her last semester of nursing school and Alex continued his Civil Engineering Degree. Amy is now a college graduate and is looking forward to passing her licensing exam and finding a job in Emergency or Critical Care nursing. Maizy grew up quick and was sent to boarding school in October. She is happy in her new home in Salt Lake City where she has a pond to swim in and other ducks to play with.

The coming year will be amazing as our family learns and grows. We wish you all the best and a Merry Christmas!

 Love,

The Hawkins

The BOYS Christmas Party

This week, all of Alex's high school friends planned a Christmas party for all "The BOYS" and, if they have one, their wives. Since we all live pretty far from each other now, we don't get together often so it was great to finally have a big party with everyone there. We met at Bri's parents house in Sandy. Dus and Bri planned dinner and delegated other things like dessert (which we brought- caramel popcorn) and drinks. We had almost everyone there! Dustin and Bri, Alex and I, Josh and Heidi, Alex and Alisha, Chris and Lindy, Rob, Derek, Andy, Tay Park, Justin Gowan, and Jentry and Lauren came too.

After dinner we played some great games. One where you roll dice and if you get doubles, you put on oven mitts and use 2 knives to try to get into a symphony bar than is wrapped in news paper and duct tape. Once the next person gets doubles, you switch. The goal is to eat the most chocolate.

The next game we played was called the name game. We all put a slip of paper in a bowl with our names then we all drew one. We were that person for the round. The teams were boys vs girls and the goal was to get three girls or three boys in the front seats. The catch is that you needed to call people by their new name. Very fun! And the girls won!! :)

We did a white elephant gift exchange too. Seriously, I have never seen so many great gift for a white elephant. Of course their were some ridiculous things...but good for the most part. I ended up with nice cutting knives ad Alex traded last minute for pictures of ducks...haha. We now have pictures of maizy :)

All around great night! :)

Here's to you, BYU

4 1/2 years

67 classes

154 credits

+1000 clinical hours

1 job

1 wedding

1 million memories!!

The past 4 1/2 years have been the best of my life. Here's to Heritage Halls, where I made some life-long friends, did some crazy stuff, and met my wonderful husband (even though we didn't know it yet).

Here's to car parties, dance parties, dress-up parties, concerts, football games, wedding dress dress-up, color festivals, starting a "band", and so much more!

Here's to lots of studying, Lala (Law library) and 2, count em, 2 applications to the College of Nursing, and thankfully 1 acceptance.

Here's to nursing clinicals, reading, labs, simulations, classes, and the fact that I'm done with them all!

Here's to SNA and all the craziness/opportunities it brought

Here's to BYU Wellness for giving me the best job on campus!

Here's to my wonderful husband and our beautiful wedding in the Salt Lake Temple :)

Now it's the end. I have a husband, a Bachelors or Science in Nursing, hundreds of great friends, and millions of memories. Now real life begins, with jobs, responsibility, families, and so much more. I have had the time of my life at BYU but I can't wait for what's ahead.

Here's to you, BYU! I couldn't have asked for a better time here. 

Finally feels like Christmas

Finals are just about over (Alex just has one more tonight) and we are happy to say it is finally starting to feel like Christmas. Since my freshman year here at BYU, I feel like the Christmas spirit is very delayed...mostly begins we never get done with school more than a week before Christmas...Freshman year, we had finals until the 21st, 4 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!! How on earth can you get in the spirit that quickly?! Luckily, we have over a week this time around, giving us plenty of time to finish our Christmas shopping, hang out friends, spend time with family, and REST! Even though we've had school, we still made time to put up our Christmas tree and a few lights :)

Even though I am official done, done, DONE with my undergraduate education, I still feel like I need to pack in the vacation time with all the things I don't have time for during school. I won't be convinced of my completion until January 4th, 2012, when Alex goes back to school...and I stay at home and do whatever I want! I've thought about getting a temp job...Christmas at a department store or maybe at a bank...but every time the thought comes up, I remember however excited I am to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Needless to say, temp jobs are no longer on my to-do list.

We're excited for a break and lots of time to spend together. Merry Christmas!

7 days

In 7 days I will be completely and official graduated from BYU College of Nursing! Can you believe it? After 4.5 years of undergraduate education, I will be all done. And when I say done, I mean DONE DONE. No more classes, no more homework, no more unpaid slave work...I mean clinicals, DONE! And it doesn't stop there. No more student means no more job. So, in just 7 days, I will go from 9 hours of class, 15 hours of work, 24 hours of clinical and roughly 6-10 hours of homework each week to.....no class, no work, no clinical, and no homework. Needless to say, I need some hobbies. Since school is wrapping up, I have very little to do. Alex, on the other hand, has A LOT to do. Tests, homework, study, work...the list goes on. After just two days of very little to do, I'm already bored...So here's my new plan:

• 1-3 hours of NCLEX prep study each day (my goal is 100 questions per day starting next Thursday through the time I take my test. If I can average 600 questions per week, I will complete 4200 NCLEX practice questions before I take my exam!)
• Set up a daily workout schedule 
• Temple every Tuesday morning
• Blogging every Sunday afternoon 
• Register for an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) class
• Learn Spanish 
• Do our taxes (I'm serious...and very excited about it)
• Go to Sister Black's Church History lectures (Yes, I will be sneaking in. BUT, 4.5 years of tuition has to give me some benefits, right?)
• Become a Family History Guru! (To contribute to my temple trips each week)
• Organize my recipes
• Volunteer at a hospital
• Actually do some of the things I've pinned on my DIY pinterest board. 
• Look for a new, sparkly place to live come April 
• AND plan our 1 year anniversary :) 

After a very long 17.5 years of education (plus preschool, if you do that sort of thing), I am done for a while. Who's to say how long, just a while. Next step, job hunting! I am still hopeful for a job at Timpanogos Emergency but that would require someone to quit, die or give up their job for me....none of which I see happening soon. Hopefully something will work out. Until then, I will enjoy my first break in 17.5 years.