Justin Scott, M.E.M

After years of torturous work, I'm proud to announce that Justin has officially finished his Masters degree in Engineering Management. The professor who graded his capstone project said that Justin's was one of the best executive summaries he's seen of the hundreds that he's read for this program and that writing such summaries was an art that Justin had clearly mastered. Justin said that the real art was taking the executive summary and making it a 40 page capstone paper. Either way, I'm proud of you for pushing through to the end. Way to go!!!

Here's a closer look at those cupcakes:

Sadness

My mom always told me that when I was a baby, I was (of course) very adorable. She has often told me how people would come up to look at me to admire my cuteness, but the moment they did so, I made it my practice to immediately stick out my bottom lip in a heart-melting frown.

Well, the other day I was at the doctor, and I had Colton with me, so I turned him around so she could admire his cuteness. And what did he do? That's right! Apparently, sticking out that bottom lip is genetic. And I must say that I find it to be completely endearing. You can judge for yourself.

Sad

Sadder

Saddest

By the way, my appologies to my mother if sadder and saddest are not actually words. Darn that superlative case!!

Cute little monkey...

I can't say that Justin and I were the cutest palm trees in the world...
But I'm pretty sure that Colton is a dang cute little monkey.

And it would appear that he is destined to have a sweet tooth (he is genetically inclined to it from both his parents). He was quite literally drooling over this plate of cupcakes.

YMCA

Isn't it the worst when you fall asleep right in the middle of a rousing rendition of YMCA? He's probably best at the "Y" anyway...

Mental Pictures

I am terrible at taking pictures. It's not just that they don't turn out great...but I forget to take them at all. My mission pictures, for example, consist pretty much exclusively of me at Zone Conference or baptisms because those were the only times I'd remember to take it out. I had a whole companionship where I didn't take a single picture. Now that I have a blog, I at least occasionally take a picture specifically because I think it would make a great blog post. For example:

This was going to be a follow-up post when the Cougars were demolished by Florida State. Clearly, I never got around to it, but the devastation I felt was real nonetheless.

Anyway, the point is that I just spent two and a half fabulous weeks in Utah, and I fear that my pattern of not taking any pictures continued, so for this blog post I'll have to satisfy myself with mental pictures instead. I can think of several highlights of the trip that are picture-worthy:

• 
  
  Introducing Colton to the extended Durham family at Grandma's 84th birthday party.
• 
  
  Getting together with Emily and Kristi (who was also randomly in town) for a play group with only Colton.
• 
  
  A festivus reunion dinner at Red Robin with my dear friend MaryAnn.
• 
  
  Hanging out with Ben and Cami and Grandma Scott for conference.
• 
  
  Justin fixing the toilet paper holders in the upstairs bathrooms at my parents' house, despite his nasty cold.
• 
  
  Meeting Katie D for lunch in American Fork (and buying a lot of cookies).
• 
  
  Sharing Sunday dinner with Cousin Ted and Sarah and adorable little Drew.
• 
  
  Chad's 30th almost-surprise birthday party.
• 
  
  Dinner at Los with a some of the ladies of the L and their spouses.
• 
  
  Playing Book Worm with Joshy and having him tell me we better go get Grandma Louise to help because I'm not very good at it.
• 
  
  Getting very thorough pedicures with Margaret in a color that turned out to be one step away from black.
• 
  
  Taking a lovely walk down Timpview Drive with Cari and our two strollers.
• 
  
  My mom and dad and I sitting around the computer playing Chuzzle (we got the high score).
• 
  
  Coming home to Justin who had gotten me flowers and prepared a full at-home spa treatment for me after a long day of flying home alone with a congested infant--complete with candles, bubble bath, and chocolate-dipped stawberries. This might be my favorite mental picture of all.

The one thing I did take actual pictures of (in mass quantity) was Colton and his new cousin/future best friend Zac.

These little boys in their matching Sunday onesies were too irresistible not to take pictures of them!!!

Rise and Shout!

There are a lot of BYU fans out there. I know this. But so many people's dedication to the Y didn't take place until actually going to BYU. In some cases, even attending BYU didn't make you a true cougar fan (Cousin Ted, you know who you are--what's with this I was born a U fan, and I'm going to die a U fan? It just doesn't make sense when your diploma says BYU at the top...but I digress and that is a discussion for another post.) My passion for BYU football began in earnest in junior high school. Those were the good old days of Cougar football. Ty Detmer. Dewy Gray. Chad Lewis. Peter Tuipilotu. Kalin Hall. Jamal Willis. Eric Drage. Margaret and I used to get to each game early, and we'd wait by the door of the locker rooms at the end so we could give the team a high five. We were obsessed. We knew every player by name and number. We never missed a game. We even endured sitting in the most boring section in Cougar stadium next to the exact same people year after year after year (no offense to the faculty section, but really, you are supposed to cheer at a football game). I'm not quite so obsessed now (probably because they only broadcast a couple games a year on the east coast--although we are considering getting a direct tv, mostly just so we can watch the games), I'm dedicated enough to still put on my BYU t-shirt and cheer loud enough to wake up my son.

Anyway, this post is dedicated to the Cougar Football team for beating #3 Oklahoma, for not breaking our hearts at the critical moment, and for starting Colton's BYU Football experience out on the right foot. Colton and I had been practicing the fight song before the game. I'm glad to see that he remembered the actions.

Ra! Ra! Ra! Go Cougars!

Colton, we're going to pump you up

Let your minds wander back a decade or so to the good old days of SNL. Do you remember the skit where Hans and Frans told us that they were going to pump *clap* you up? Well, Hans and Frans have nothing on me and Justin. When they told us at his two week appointment that Colton was in the second percentile, we decided we'd better start working with the lad--and the results are astounding! A mere four weeks later, and he's already increased his mass by 50% and moved all the way up to the tenth percentile. Here are some of the steps in Justin and Bethany's Pump You Up Body-Building Program:

We discovered that the tomatoes in our garden really started to flourish when we added a little MiracleGro, so we started with that...

Of course, any effective workout program must include exercise. Due to his lack of coordination and inability to do anything but lie down, we decided to start him off with a weight-lifting program. Impressive that he is able to lift weights equal to his own body mass...

When you're on this kind of intense workout program, it's also essential to increase you caloric intake. Colton didn't want to waste any time and went straight for some delicious creamy butter. He made sure that there were no tans-fats. (He hates eating things that are unhealthy.)

Two measley little ounces of milk didn't seem like enough...so we bumped it up to a gallon.

And after so much hard work, a little dessert never hurt anyone...

Now he just needs to keep up the hard work!