Surprise!!!

Keith will be finished with his last semester at the University of Utah next week. He has earned his Bachelors degree in Organizational Communications.  He started a little over 7 years ago when Caitlyn was a baby.  He was laid off when I was pregnant with Caitlyn and he had a hard time finding a job.  When my dad gave him a blessing he was advised to seek out his education.  Discover Card offers tuition reimbursement so we decided we didn't have any excuse not to start his schooling (besides the fact that neither one of us wanted to.)  We were both scared and worried that it would be too much, but he started anyway.  It has been a tough, long road, but we made it!!!! I am so proud of Keith.  He has worked so hard and done so well and I thought we needed a big celebration.  I decided to throw him a surprise party.

Here he is walking in and trying to figure out what was going on.  I have been planning this for a few weeks and I wasn't sure if he knew or not.  I told him that Katie was throwing a Christmas party for our old Young Women's group.  I dropped him off at their house and told Keith that he needed to go with Ben to get ice and then we would meet them at the church. 

I didn't tell the kids until right before the party because I didn't want them to spill the beans. Caitlyn was so excited when I told her, she kept saying, "this is the best day ever."  The kids were all so excited to hide in the dark and yell surprise.  I was so happy to hear that Keith had no idea.  I had to make up a lot of stories and have a lot of help to pull this off.  Thanks everyone for your help!

Ben did a great job of keeping Keith occupied while we were getting everything ready. We were worried the story would make Keith suspicious, but then Katie and I realized that our husbands are used to us asking them to do things for us that make no sense to them!

I sure love this guy.  He is amazing.  I was terrified when he started that we would miss out on life while he was in school.  I was worried that the kids wouldn't have enough time with their dad, but Keith made sure that didn't happen.  He has been so selfless with his time.  He has done homework at night while we were all in bed, worked crazy hours and not taken time for himself to make sure that we remained his top priority.  Last year he went into Caitlyn's class once a week, coached Jonah's soccer team, went on field trips and helped with class parties.  Our kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful dad. 

He has also managed to work full time (usually more than full time) and be very successful in his career.  He has been promoted quite a few times over the last few years and received many awards and recognitions at work.  Last year they picked two people in the center (there are over 1500 people that work in the center) who they thought deserved an extra raise.  Keith was one of those two.  The vice president had some very nice things to say about Keith while he was explaining why they picked him. I am so grateful to be married to such an ambitious, hard working man.

This is such a big accomplishment for Keith. He was nervous he wouldn't be successful in college, but he graduated with honors with his Associates Degree and he has an A- average overall. 

I was so excited to give him this special night to celebrate his accomplishment.  Thanks to our friends and family for coming out and supporting us.

Caitlyn, Jonah and Wyatt had a blast with all of their friends and cousins.

I don't think it has really hit me that after next week he will really be done.  I can't imagine our lives without homework.  I am so proud of us for sticking with it.  I wish I could say that I never complained, but I did try hard to support him.  I tried to take care of everything at home so when Keith was home we could just spend time with him.  I made sure he had plenty of time to do his homework and tried to do fun things with the kids while he was busy.  The kids have been very understanding as well, it helps that they don't know any different!

Congratulations Keith!!!!