Daniel Graduates

The end of May marked the end of school life. A very exciting time for all of us. Student life can really suck sometimes, but we made it through 4 years of undergrad and 4 additional years of Optometry School. I know how hard Daniel has worked these past 8 years and I am just so proud of him. I don't know if I could do it, and I am just so grateful to him. He totally rocks!!

Since Daniel's dad is also an Optometrist, he was privileged to hand Daniel his diploma during graduation. It was a pretty cool thing to have your dad up there with you. It made it extra special. 

 Daniel and his parents. 

 Lyla and grandpa.

 Daniel with all his buds. Also known as the LDS guys in his year. 

 Lyla made Daniel a 'Happy Graduation' poster. 

Mother's Day

Today was a wonderful day. I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day, and the celebrating started at 4:30am. Lyla decided that she couldn't wait any longer and just had to wake up. So her gift to me was allowing me to wake up super early just to play with her. So that was fun. A few hours later, my awesome husband made some yummy banana pancakes for breakfast. 

My big gift was a book that Daniel made using photo's of us and Lyla. He added a little story that is almost like a story to Lyla. Below are a few pages from the book.

The Cover

I feel so blessed that I have been given the chance to be a mother, and that I have an amazing daughter that fills my everyday with joy!

8 Years

This was us 8 years ago. What did we know?

A lot has happened since then. Daniel and I both graduated from BYU-Idaho. Next week Daniel will graduate from Optometry School. We have lived in 6 different apartments, in 4 different States. We have traveled through 14 States together and driven close to a million miles (not really). Sure we had our not so good moments, but we also had a lot of great ones too. I think that this past year has been our best year ever. We were blessed with our amazing daughter Lyla, and Daniel is about to graduate. So as of right now, things are pretty much awesome. I can honestly say that I am happier then I have ever been, and I am so excited for this next year, because I know it's going to be even better.......... if that's possible!!!

 Daniel got me some gorgeous roses for our anniversary, and then we went out for Ice Cream.

 We don't usually do gifts for our anniversary or valentines day. Instead we plan some kind of activity to do together instead. This year for our anniversary, we went bowling. Neither of us had bowled in close to 7 years, so we were waaaay out of practice, but it was still a ton of fun, and I don't think we did that bad either.

 Lyla was very entertained by our skills;)

 Not bad for our first game........right??

My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. 29. That's one year away from 30. And it was probably the best birthday I've had in a long time. Not because we did anything special, but because I was with the people I love. It's my first birthday with my sweet daughter, and Daniel graduates from Optometry School next week, so it couldn't get much better. PLUS, since my birthday normally falls around Mother's Day, I used to have a hard time celebrating my birthday when a reminder that another year has passed and I still wasn't a mother was looming overhead. But now I am one, and I have a lot to be grateful for.

Daniel spent the morning making me a Carrot Cake. He was really proud of himself, and wanted to document all the steps. I don't really know why, because he always makes me a Birthday cake, and he is always amazing at it. But I gotta say, it was seriously yummy!!

I spent my morning making this car seat canopy. It was a little gift to myself. I love sewing, and I love having sewing projects. And this was something that I have wanted to make for a while, so I thought my birthday would be the perfect day to make it. I didn't really know what I was doing since I didn't have a pattern. I had only seen a picture of it online, and decided to give it a try. And I love it.

 Most canopy's have just one piece of fabric over the front, but I decided to do a slit down the middle so that I could easily peek at Lyla, and so that one side can be down to block sun (in the car) while the other side up so she can still see out. Whatever........ I love it!!

We had a late lunch/early dinner at Genghis Grill, which is a Mongolian Restaurant. I got my meal for free because it was my birthday. And the food was seriously yummy!! But it was POURING down with rain, so we were both soaking wet while enjoying our food. 

But it was a great day, and I don't know if it could've gotten much better!!

Bug in a Box

Today my little bug discovered the fun of playing in a box. 

My Brother

 So, I have a brother. His name is Chris. Although I rarely ever call him that. To me, his name is Pumpkin. In fact, some people don't even know his real name because I refer to him as Pumpkin. When we were kids, we were kinda close. We would climb rocks in our front yard, make up sword fight and dance routines, and lock each other in the garage for fun. But it wasn't until we moved to the United States that we really became close.

Moving to a new city or state is hard enough, but we moved to an entirely different country, and that really sucked. We left behind all our friends, and everything we knew. We were thrown into a school where everyone spoke a different language. Yes, it's still English, but Americans have their own kind of English that was different to us. So we learned to rely on each other, and he soon became my best friend. We would stay up many nights just talking about everything.
When Pumpkin joined us in Rexburg at BYU-I, we would have him over every Sunday night for dinner, and I loved it. Sometimes he would stay over, and we would just talk and talk. The best part about our relationship, is that we are EXTREMELY open with each other. I think ever family has their version of close, but for us, it's the fact that we talk about everything. Sure we don't talk on the phone everyday (especially since we moved to TN), and we hardly get to see each other...... but there isn't a topic or question that he could ask that would shock or surprise me.

When I say we talk about everything, I truly mean it. At first, Daniel would say 'I can't believe you just asked him that', or 'I can't believe he just said that', but he soon learned, that there is no holding back with us. And I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love my brother. He still is my best friend (besides Daniel), and I am so glad that our move to the USA brought us closer together.

He has now graduated from BYU-I, and moved to Arizona. He has been married to Alyssa for 2 years, and has a son named Hudson. I got to see him last year for a couple hours while we were in Utah and meet his new family (I was pregnant at the time), but besides that, I haven't really seen him in almost 4 years. Sooooo....... in just a few weeks, Daniel and I are making a stop in Arizona on our way to Washington to see my lil bro. I am beyond excited. Which is why I wrote this, because I am excited, and can't hold it in. So YEAH for me getting to see my lil Pumpkin!!!