Here's the wonderful newsletter that the husband wrote this year! If you want to be added to our mailing list let us know via a comment/email/facebook.
Enjoy!
December 2011
Dearest Friends and Family,
I think it’s safe to say that Heidi and I have done a lot of
growing up this year. Heidi graduated college, I had an internship in Chicago,
we had a baby, and we’ve got a real job lined up for after my graduation. If
those don’t count as major steps towards adulthood, I don’t know what does.
After months of
waiting, the year started off with great news: pregnancy at last, and our baby
was due to join us the first week of October. We couldn’t be happier. Picking
out names became a common discussion topic for us (even more than it was before
we were pregnant, which was substantial). Girl names were especially hard for
us, but, as soon as we learned our coming baby’s gender, Heidi brought up a
name that finally stuck: Evette (pronounced like the French name Yvette, just
spelled more American). Even though she wasn’t out and about with us yet, we
loved having her in our home.
The Winter 2011 semester was a busy one for us: it was
Heidi’s last, so she was working hard to get projects done and prepare the
paper that she presented at a Sociology conference in Seattle in March. She
also held a job as an office manager for the credit card machine’s office at
BYU. Thankfully, carrying Evette wasn’t too hard on Heidi and the only common
side-effect of the pregnancy was that Heidi was extra tired and required 12+
hours of sleep a day for the first trimester. My time was divided between
school (International Relations + Business Strategy) and recruiting for a
summer internship. Thankfully we landed a great offer with Sears Holdings
Corporation, the parent company to Sears, Kmart, Lands End, Craftsman, Diehard,
Kenmore, etc. Heidi and I kept our sanity by attending every home BYU rugby
game (we placed 2nd in the nation!) and trying our hands at new
recipes like egg rolls and soufflés (which we nailed, by the way).
Towards the end of April came graduation for Heidi: after
only three years at BYU she graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Sociology
with an emphasis in juvenile delinquency. Lots of family came to town for the
festivities.
Thus began our two months off: May and June. At the
beginning of May, we moved into a new apartment that would accommodate our
coming angel. Heidi spent most of May moving us in, catching up on much-needed
rest and growing a baby. I spent my May working a lot and volunteering through
a non-profit called the Pete Suazo Business Center (based in SLC) as a mentor
to local Hispanic migrants who wanted to start up their own businesses. I also
taught classes on Excel and personal finance through that program.
June was a wonderful
month spent touring our awe-inspiring country. The first trip was a 4 day
adventure to explore Southern Utah, where we were able to see Goblin Valley,
Canyon Lands, Moab, and Arches National Park in one shot. Heidi was tough
enough to hike every trail and to sleep in a tent (on an air mattress) for the
whole trip, even at five months pregnant. We had no itinerary or schedule—we
just “winged it” and loved feeling so free and being able to see so much
beautiful land in one weekend.
Our next adventure
was to take a 7 day road trip to Chicago. On the way, we visited Martin’s Cove
& Devil’s Gate, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, a Minute Man Missile silo,
and Nauvoo. Again, Heidi was a trooper and we slept in our trusty tent every
night but one.
Living in Chicago was
a wonderful experience. We had the wonderful blessing/privilege to house-sit
for a family in Sleepy Hollow, IL, so we had a full, huge house to ourselves
for much of the summer. Our host family was there with us for our first week in
town and returned about two weeks before we left. During our two-and-a-half
months there we made many dear friends in the ward (our church congregation)
and at Sears.
While there, we took full advantage of living in the U.S.’
“Second City” – spending nearly every weekend downtown to soak in as much of
the city as we possibly could (we lived and worked 1.5 hours NW of the city).
We did a boat tour, experienced “The Taste of Chicago” (our first and hopefully
not last food festival), visited dozens of museums (nearly every one), saw
fireworks both downtown and in our neighborhood, went to a Blue Man Group show,
rooted for the Cubs at Wrigley Field, visited Chicago’s “Little Italy” (not
much like Italy at all but it was still fun), toured War of 1812-era war ships,
listened to a live performance of the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
soundtrack while watching the movie, and wrapped it all up with the famous Air
& Water show. In addition to all of those landmark events, we also
thoroughly enjoyed exploring downtown, riding on the “L”, visiting outdoor
markets, and generally getting a taste of the urban life. Heidi was also
introduced to the art of “garage sale-ing” and became quite the avid fan of
it—picking us up tons of baby clothes and gear for cents on the dollar. My
sisters Caitlan and Megan also spent two weeks each with us, and we loved
exploring the city with them.
My work for Sears Holdings was very fun and rewarding. The
project I was ultimately assigned to was largely for the Craftsman brand,
looking for opportunities to expand the brand’s reach both internationally and
domestically. I had a great boss that I got along with well and learned a lot
from, and I was delighted to receive an offer to return full-time after my
graduation.
Returning to Provo was bittersweet. For one, leaving Chicago
was hard. We had a great time there. Provo meant school and the accompanying
stress, but it also meant that baby was joining us soon. Kicking off the new
semester, I settled into a routine of preparing for job interviews with
management consulting firms (they have very intense, long case-based interviews
that require many hours of preparation), working at BYU’s Office of IT, and
doing homework in between. Heidi finished decorating our apartment, attended a
couple wonderful baby showers, and otherwise prepared for the coming birth.
Heidi and I also gained the presence of two siblings, my sister Caitlan and her
brother Scott, who arrived this year as freshman to BYU. They, along with
Heidi’s older brother Dan, have been a lot of fun to have around.
At 2:30 AM, Tuesday,
September 27, 2011, Heidi began labor—what proved to be a 38-hour
experience—and at 4:42 PM on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, our little girl, Miss
Evette Rose McQuay joined our family at 8 pounds 9 ounces and 22 inches. We did
a “home birth” at a local birthing suite with a wonderful midwife and had an
overall wonderful experience, despite the difficulties that naturally come with
a long labor. Heidi was exhausted by the end of it—far more exhausted than I
knew humans could be—but she pushed through to the end and brought a wonderful,
happy, healthy, strong baby into this world.
Family members
came in from all across the country two weeks later for Evette’s blessing on
October 9th—one of the perks of bringing the first grandchild to both sides of
the family. She received lots of support and met many loving people.
Since then,
life has been nothing short of a whirlwind, even more so than it was before.
Evette has continued to grow, gaining 5 pounds so far since birth but while not
gaining an inch in height. She has eaten well since the day she was born and
was kind enough to learn the difference between night and day almost
immediately—she’s been sleeping for 8-9 hour stretches at night for weeks now. She
has the sweetest temperament and is nothing short of happy 98% of the time.
I spent the
following weeks interviewing with firms, with fly-out final round interviews in
both L.A. and Dallas, and landed my dream job with a management consulting firm
named Oliver Wyman in their Dallas Office. I’ll be working as a general
strategy consultant there, joining them sometime next summer.
Thanksgiving
was wonderful. My parents and siblings came in to town and Evette was delighted
to be able to spend more time with them.
The last several
weeks of school were nothing short of insane for me as I struggled to catch up
on the classes I’d been putting off all semester due to recruiting and playing
with Baby. My major breakthrough was finishing my capstone course, for which I
wrote a 47 page paper on U.S.-Japanese relations leading up to Pearl Harbor.
Heidi kept us all sane with many new recipes and various crafts borrowed from a
wonderful online idea-sharing tool called Pinterest. Evette has kept us
smiling. She is nothing short of pure joy and we love everything she’s done for
our family.
We now look
forward to Christmas with Heidi’s family, my last semester at BYU, starting the
next step of our lives in Dallas, and continuing to watch Evette grow and
learn.
Thank you all
for being a part of our life. If anyone wants more than 2-3 pages of updates a
year from us, visit/follow our blog at seanandheidirose.blogspot.com/
Faithfully
yours,
Sean, Heidi
& Evette McQuay
