graduated

Spencer graduated!! 

Wooohoooo!!!!

He got his degree in Psychology with a minor in Business and a Human Factors certificate. 

WOW that's a mouth full!!!! 

Since I graduated from byuHawaii, I wanted to carry on the tradition of getting trillions of leis after graduating!! I was a one woman team and working in secret, so I didn't make as many as I would have liked, but it was enough for everyone who came to give him a lei!! I thought about buying some, but did you know that leis in Utah are a super lot more expensive than leis in Hawaii?? Yeah I guess that seems right. So I made my own flower leis!! So fun. To let you get the feel of how exciting it is to get leis after graduation I dug up some of my graduation pics!! Woohoo!! 

My friends I met in Hawaii are some of the nicest people in the entire world. They are genuine and selfless and kind and made me leis!! That is why I wanted to return the favor to Spen. Because look at that other kid who has like 4 leis...he is basically frowning and is probably contemplating who he is going to punch next. I didn't want my Spencer to end up like that! And I have a balloon that is trailing behind me that's attatched to a lei around my neck! How great is that?! Co workers, classmates, bosses etc gave me leis too! It was SUCH a great day!! (haha I'm just kidding about that other kid..he is way nice :) 

This is me standing next to my friend Leinani born and raised in Hawaii. Ay ay ay!! She is almost drowning! This is how the Hawaiians celebrate and I LOVE it. 

And just one more photo of me before we get back to Spencer because I never documented my own graduation on this blog! Woohooo for college! Woohooo for graduating!! 

And without further ado....we will go back into real time and focus on Spencer. 

The most recent scholar of the family. 

Holy hades graduations are boring. They had one student speak and then launched into announcing names. Spencer was literally one of the last names called out of.. I have no idea how many...hundreds. Many hundreds. A quick blast into the past again.. I have only been to my own college graduation other than Spencer's. At byuHawaii they only have one graduation for everyone who is graduating from the whole university because the university is so small. But at the U, they separate it into colleges because there are so so so so so soooo many folks graduating!! Spen graduated from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. It was in the Huntsman Building. And there were choke people. (choke means "a lot of something" in pidgin. it just came out while I was writing! it must be because I was reminiscing on my hawaii life. but now that I have explained that, I hope that when I write it in the future you will not be confused.) So yeah! CONGRATS, SPEN!! It was worth the wait to see you walk out and hear your name called and get your fake diploma :) 

I LOVE YOU!!

this is right after he walked and then he came up to meet us. this is when we each put our leis around him.
summer is blurry but is still the cutest. and spen is super happy haha.

family pic!!
(is there a word for the bangs that grow after you have a baby?? I loathe mine hmmm -_-)

Nelson!

xoxo

let's fix adler

One of my favorite bloggers recently started writing again after a 6 month hiatus. Her name is Natalie Norton and she radiates love. I don't know her personally. In fact, the closest connection I have to her is her husband taught at byuh, I went to byuh, and we both consider Hawaii home. But whenever I read her blog posts, I feel like she is my bff....blogger friends forever?? Some words I would use to describe her are

strong. inspiring. talented. spiritual. mom.  

Normally I wouldn't post this video. Normally I wouldn't have even watched the video myself! If I know that something is going to be sad, I try to steer clear of it at all costs! Why?? Because when little Summer came into my life, my world changed. Suddenly I had this love for another human being that was so huge I could not contain it. And I don't want to contain it. Ever. 

I. Will. Do. ANYTHING. For Summer. 

She is my life and my baby and my angel and my world. 

And if anything bad ever happened to her, my world would crumble. 

My heart would break. 

My life would stop. 

So when I watch or read sad things, it just makes me think.. oh no. This horrible thing happened to these people, it can happen to me! And then I go crazy. I get so afraid of anything bad happening to my baby. Because I have no idea how I would cope with that. 

But I watched this video that Natalie posted on her blog. I watched it because it is Natalie and like I said she is my bff so of course I will watch her video! 

And when I watched it I cried. And if you have babies you will probably cry too. Even if you don't have babies you may cry. But if my baby was going through something this terrible, I would want people to help. And share. And pray. 

So here you go, let's fix Adler. 

sumdog millionaire's 1st birthday

My BABY turned ONE.

On April 10th. 

Uh huhuhuhu.

MY BABY!!

The day was super fun. 

It was spent loving her to the extreme and taking gallons and gallons of pictures. 

So many pictures that they did not all make it into this post. 

We woke up without a game plan really....we just let the day lead us. 

So we woke up and she opened a present.. her outfit for the day (not the night :)!

And then we went to Jamba Juice and got the little lady a Kids Meal!!

I decided to get her the smoothie with vegetable juice in it because it sounded healthier. She liked it at first but after a little she stopped drinking it. I took a swig of it and did not blame her. 

Bluh....vegetable juice. It tasted like a tomato smoothie! 

But it came with a cheesy pretzel and she like that. & I did too :) 

Thennn, we strolled on over to the zoo. 

The free zoo that is....

aka PetCo. 

She LOVES it there! And so does her daddy. We looked at the animals there for a while and Summer just pointed and stared and pointed some more. 

Then we walked on over to the library. But it was randomly closed for cleaning, so we walked two seconds over to Barnes & Noble. We went upstairs and Summer played with the train tracks and made some new little friends. We left there with a Sunflower kit to plant in honor of our baby's first year of life. Then it was time to go home for nap time! Ahhhh, the best. 

I can't remember if I napped or not..I think at first I was like, no I need to do stuffs for the party! But then I don't think I really had anything else to do so I napped after Spencer and Summer woke up. Spencer fed Summer while I napped (it's all coming back to me now). I love love love it when Spencer feeds Summer because he is so much better at it than I am. He is not deathly afraid of her choking like I am so he feeds her more exciting things than I do (although I am getting better at this..just today I gave her a banana and watched her take a huge bite and I was only slightly terrified that she would try to swallow it whole. Thankfully she chewed and both of us are alive to tell the tale).

Anyway....

When I woke up it was time to get all ready for her party!! 

Also when I woke up Summer was ready for another nap thank heavens! Her nap schedule is all crazy so I never know if she is going to take one nap or two naps a day and when she will take them. But she took another nap right before her party so she could be happy for it. 

Spen and I went to the park to set up for the party and as expected we were running late and that was the only time during this whole party planning experience that I was slightly stressed (thankfully Spen's fam & my fam are speedy set uppers..and friends who came early helped too hehe.. mahalos!! :) 

Everything else was so easy! We had a cereal bar (had to cook nussing) and I made a bunch of cupcakes in advance and we bought ice cream bars so we didn't have to scoop ice cream (that is my least favorite part of hosting birthdays!) and I made cute party favors out of baby food jars! Fun fun fun. 

Spencer did a Korean tradition with her where he put different things in front of her on a tray such as a paintbrush, money, ball, magnifying glass, pen, etc... and which ever one she picked would determine what her future interests would be. She picked the tennis ball. I can't wait to go watch her play in Wimbledon! 

We all sang happy birthday to her and I am 98% sure that she blew out her own candle, for which I am not surprised because we have been training her to do exactly that!

For those of you who couldn't come, you won't be able to fully tell just how wonderful the party was because we didn't get close ups of all the elements. But it turned out SO good.

I guess you just had to be there :)

contrary to her pajamas, it is her birthday, and not Christmas. 

Summer's faces just make me laugh in these next pics. If you can't tell, it is her in the process of putting her forehead against the glass.

this picture just makes Spencer & I laugh and laugh!! haha! 

the cutest toms from auntie maddie :) :) 

The day after:

GramJule gave her these balloons for her party. After she woke up and I nursed her, she walked into the living room, grabbed her balloons, and brought them back into our room. 

SUCH A CUTIE!!!

Happy Birthday, Summer Ruby!!

I love you so so so so so so x infinity much!!