HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY ELOISE!!

We are just in shock that our little baby is one!! We had a chill little party with her while we were visiting Dustan's family in Colorado for Thanksgiving. Her birthday was just a couple days before the festivities. It was fun being able to celebrate with some family--if we had the party in Tucson, where we live now, we wouldn't have had anyone to party with! Because Eloise's cousin Elodie's birthday was just a couple weeks beforehand, we celebrated with her as well.

We started off the party with some presents. Thank you to everyone for spoiling my baby!! Dustan and I got Lou a xylophone. Some of her other gifts were books, a mini push bike with two wheels up front, a baby doll, and some other toys. Eloise loves her new gifts! Though she didn't quite get the concept of opening presents, she was definitely excited about the things she saw underneath :)

After presents, it was cake time!! Eloise was a little confused/fascinated by the candle that I helped blow out, and was dubious about the cake at first. But when I helped her get a small taste, she loved it! She's a chocolate fan, just like her mama ;) I especially loved that she would go in for a bite without using her hands at all, haha. Soon, there was chocolate cake everywhere!

We sure are grateful to have this little girl in our lives, Eloise is such a blessing and such a joy. Happy first birthday!!

BYU Master's Graduate!

Dustan has officially graduated from Brigham Young University with a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering!! He defended his master's thesis at the end of October on "Coordinated Multi-Arm Manipulation with Soft Robots" and passed with flying colors! Basically his thesis work enables manipulation of rigid objects using multiple soft, inflatable robots (like Baymax from Big Hero Six). Here's a video of some of his final results. Even though he wouldn't graduate until he finished and defended his master's thesis, Dustan walked at BYU's graduation at the end of August to celebrate early, which is where these pictures are from. He accepted a full time job with Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona, which is where we are now!

Just below are a couple pictures with Dustan's advisor, Marc Killpack, and a few of his lab mates at the BYU RaD Lab.

And here are the rest of our favorite photos we took at the nice BYU sign on campus :)