graduation day...

saturday morning poor chris rolled out of bed and went to the main campus graduation.  i opted not to go cause i was so tired and needed to help my mom get ready for our bbq that night.  chris was miserable through the 3 hour ceremony... no sleep and totally nauseaus... not a good morning.  i went over and started decorating for te bbq. i had bought a bunch of decorations from the dollar store.  i really went all out. haha  but we did make a bunch of food... none of which chris or i was interested in eating... haha.... all his family came and all my family came... it was an awesome party and everyone had a good time.  of course the kids were in heaven with all the toys and tree house and play house.... lots to do and play..

COUSINS!!!!

best picture ever!

my cute grandparents

the kids all playing

big smiles for grandma!!!

thanks for coming and celebrating with us!!! it is a huge accomplishment chris had done in graduating from dental school... i'm so proud and love him so much for all his hard work... you can now call him dr. spillers!!!

convocation...

the dental school get to put on their own graduation ceremony called convocation.... they dont officially graduate or get hooded till the next day at the main campus graduation but this is a nice ceremony for the grads and family to attend.  when chris got there (they had to be an hour early)  he found out there were nearly 20-30 students also sick with stomach issues of both kinds... and about 7 teachers were sick.... and a bunch of the spouses like me were sick!  yep!!! we got food poisoning!!!!!  this is why it is now the hilarious joke that the gala had "lasting impressions" on all of us... because it made us way sick for graduation weekend.

convocation was nice... chris was handed his hood by his brother jeff... and they hugged... probably for the first  time in their lives... ha.  they were all also given this cool medal. there were a couple speeches... including one professor who said he was pretty sure he was coming down with what half the students and teachers had... hahaha... and then they walked out... i was chocked up the whole time... why? who knows.  i'm so dang proud of chris and so excited and sad for all our friends to be moving on.

this one i'm showing how sick and sad i am...

grandpa giving advice... or secrets... haha

after pics we went home and straight to bed... oh wait.... chris ended up getting sick soon after we got home which meant neither he nor i got any sleep that night! he was so restless he decided to get out of bed and prepare for daniel's blessing that sunday.... haha in between getting sick...  poor us... it was a rough night!

go navy...

friday morning there was a ceremony for all the military students put on by one of the professors who is retired navy officer.  he put on a whole great program with short movies and speeches and awards for the students.  he then swears them into their new ranks as officers... which is lieutenant in the navy for chris.  most of them wore their dress uniforms for their branch of service... chris looked sooooo good in his summer navy whites!!!! ow ow!!  the only bad thing was friday morning i woke up with an upset stomach and sorry to say... i had the cha cha's.... not a good way to start a day full of ceremonies and family!! when i got to the ceremony chris said 2 other guys were way sick... we thought it was nerves or something but definitely weird!!

it was interesting to see chris in military mode... he doesn't quite fit in yet, but i think it will be better after officer development school in june... he feels a little like dress up right now...

we are excited and nervous for our big move across the country to join the marine base in jacksonville, north carolina. 

lasting impressions...

graduation week extravaganza started with the senior gala... a big party we all got dressed up for... paid a bunch for tickets... had laughs and fun and food... lots of pics and a really long awards ceremony.  we drove to south point hotel to be picked up by the shuttle and taken to griffin mansion.  we arrive and fine our table place cards and say hello to everyone... eventually we are shuffled to our seats.  our table was really fun and we did nothing but laugh through the whole awards ceremony.  the whole time we made jokes about being at the table full of mediocrity since only one person got any awards at our table (he's going into orthodontics... he's a go getter).  the very last award they gave out was for one student from each team and it was from delta dental for future leadership... and it came with $2500 award.  low and behold they call out chris's name!!!!! what??!! he ran up there and when he got back with a super confused look on his face he opened the envelope and yep! a check for $2500 in his name!!! wahooo!!!! i was so proud.  he was totally embarrassed... he felt bad there were so many who had gotten several awards but none with money.. i was like.... $2500 baby!!! woo hoo!!!

after dinner and awards we took pics with friends and i took one with all the dental wives... they have been such a fun group of girls to hang out with once a month and i'm going to miss them... 

we also took a photo of the money winners... minus chrissy...  we were really excited ebony won too since she is going to camp lejeune with us this year and she has been a huge help getting all this military stuff done!!

we also got free pics taken in this photo booth thing... we took one serious and one joke... like chris is the pimp now with his money.... he's a baller. ha!

it was really a great night with some "lasting impressions"  but i'll get to that later.. haha

UNLV SDM Class 2012...

chris's class had the opportunity to go take class pics at the treasure island hotel on the big boat out front... here is one of the whole class and one of his team...

congrats everyone on graduating this week!!! 

3 months...

my baby is three months!!! wow time flies and this has been an awesome month!!  we have done a lot and so many things have been going on!! here are his latest stats:

height: 24 and 3/4 inches (75th percentile)

weight: 11.7 pounds (11th percentile)

my little string bean

he has definitely woken up this month and has started interacting more with us... some thing he has done this month:

- started smiling on purpose... the best is when he wakes up in the morning with a huge grin on his face

- he's basically sleeping through the night from 9pm to 6am... thanks!!!!

- he still loves the bath and water...until you take him out

- he is getting better all the time at standing up and is happiest doing so...

- he also likes to be held facing out so he can see everything going on... he's very curious!

- he is fussy right before you feed him and right when he is ready to sleep but otherwise he's a good baby

- his hair is growing back in and is sooo cute! it sticks straight up like a buzz and chris really wants to cut the rest to be even... but i wont let him... thats too silly...his hair looks good as is!!

- nursing is going 100% better and faster these days... no more than 20 min tops!  hallelujah!!

- his legs finally have a little meat on them!!! 

- he is too long for 0-3 month sleepers but they are still baggy on him so we have moved onto the next size as he couldn't straighten his legs anymore

- his day schedule is pretty set at eat for 20 min, wake time/ play time about an hour and then nap for an hour or two... its an easy schedule.

- he loves to play with his dad...

- he is loving tummy time less and less

- he is also becoming a definite mama's boy... anytime he is tired he immediately wants his mama!! woops!

- he has found his fingers and is constantly putting them in his mouth... he just hasn't figured out how to not gag on them at the same time... haha

- he now spins around in his bed while sleeping... i put him down one direction and in the morning he is facing in the exact opposite way... head where his feet were...

- he loves to roll on his side so when i lay him down for bed he immediately lifts his feet straight into the air and rolls onto his side.. its pretty dang cute.

- he has also acquired a few new nicknames.. i call him bubba a lot (ever since the masters tournament) and string bean...

- he is talking so much more now... i mean baby cooing talking... but its very cute.

-poor kid still gets hiccups often

part of play time with daddy involves watching tv.... they both love it... haha can't ever get their attention!

he also took a nap in his swing the other day... it totally surprised me as he never falls asleep in it... but there he was zonked out!

he also randomly fell asleep on the couch... chris was holding him and had to put him down for a second and when he turned around he was out on the couch with his hands still in the air.. haha

he also took a nap with me one sunday after church... we were both exhausted!!

these are his new sunglasses for the summer... he looked pretty cool going to church in them (chris' idea)

we also had fun at a pool party with some dental friends and their families... this is daniel's new summer hat... so cute!!!

proof that my little man is tall and skinny!!!

bloopers from trying to get is 3 month pic... he wasn't cooperative 

it really does surprise me how much he has grown in just a month!!!!

cousins cousins and friends...

this month we had some fun visits with cousins and friends... first we had gig's 2nd birthday party.  she was so cute and excited for people to come over and play... i made her a tiny snuggly wrap for her doll... it turned out super cute.  she is also currently obsessed with horses so her mom made her a tiny horse cake!  she also wanted to open presents the second we got there!!

daniel also got lots of love from people holding him... his mom and dad... and aunt emily who can't get enough and cousin tally even got to steal him for a bit and hold him!

one night chris was camping with the young men so i went over to emily's to go out to dinner with her and her boys since greg was gone camping with the girls... cody couldn't wait to sit and hold daniel for a while and daniel was loving it!! he kept smiling and talking like crazy the whole time.. it was too cute!

we also had a fun visit from our favorite hicks family!  adelaide was so cute wanting to hold little man... and when she wasn't holding him she was playing peek a boo

we also got to see the twins... and boy are they cute!!! ella and riley... 8 months old now... and just so dang cute!!! i just wanted to squeeze their legs the whole time!!

we love visitors and being able to show off our cute little man!! 

the spillers fam in az...

after chris finished classes at the end of april we decided to take a road trip down to tuscon, arizona so chris' spillers grandparents could meet daniel... and me.  we got up early loaded up the car and headed off.  the drive was actually pretty easy. daniel slept most of the way except to eat briefly, and then he was right back to sleep.

 we made it there in the early afternoon.  grandma lil first thing apologized for her messy house which was perfectly spotless but she swears there was dust... haha but seriously it was spotless.  grandpa bobby was worried the dog would jump up and scratch daniel so he yelled at him the whole day. it was too funny.  they of course were completely smitten with our little man.  grandma held him for a while until he was ready to eat.  at that point grandpa and chris headed off to the hotel to get us checked in.

that evening grandma lil made us a feast!  it included prime rib, potatoes, salad, fruit salad, chocolate cherry cake, and a bunch of other stuff... we definitely ate well that night.  after we headed off to the hotel gave little danny a bath and went to bed... it was an adventure bathing him in the tiny sink of the hotel.. i think he enjoyed it!

the next morning we ate a gourmet breakfast at the hotel courtesy of grandma and grandpa... it was really good... i loaded daniel up in my wrap and we walked over... it was such a nice day in AZ... not too hot!

after breakfast we went back over to grandma's and they took us to lunch at the golden corral.  that was quite the adventure!  we then went back to their house and looked at old pics both from chris being a young kid and from grandma's life back in casper, wy.  they were a crazy bunch of people always hosting the best parties!! it was really fun to sit around and hear about her family and her kids and how chris' dad was such an easy child to raise.  i came away with some great gems as she gave me all the pics.  excited to have those!  that night we had left overs from the night before and then took pics so we would have proof that grandma and grandpa got to meet the first spillers great grandson.

i will say it was hard to get the grandparents to look at the camera as they only wanted to stare at the baby!  but we finally did get a few of them looking:

daniel was being so cute and smiley we had to take a picture of that too...

that night we went back to the hotel and went for a quick swim and then headed to bed... daniel had fun looking at the toys in his little bed...

the next morning we said our goodbyes and headed off to flagstaff.  we had decided as long as we were in az we should see the grand canyon.... i've been once but have no memories of it... the next morning we got up and while i got ready chris entertained daniel by watching tv... a little too close maybe??

 and then we jumped in the car.. it was raining in flagstaff so we were prepared for the same... but as we got about 30 min on the road the rain turned to heavy snow and the temp dropped to 32 degrees!  after a short debate we decided we had better turn around because it only seemed to be getting worse... but we did stop and take a few angry pics in the snow first!  

when we got back to flagstaff it had started snowing there as well!! view from our hotel room:

instead we went to the mansion of the first family of flagstaff.... the riordan family... massive home!! and i got to play on the 1904 steinway piano!! that was awesome.  then we went to dinner at black barts steak house... they have singing waiters.  it was fun entertainment with awesome food!  on the way home we stopped and got a little ice cream... when getting out of the car chris dropped his shake on the seat and dumped out half... i had to just laugh because the night before we had gotten some ice cream and chris had dropped his head down on the ground and had to scrape off the top half... he was not having luck with ice cream this week!! haha 

that night we gave daniel a bath in the sink and he was just in an awesome mood and smiled and even laughed a little and just talked the whole time!! it was so fun!!!

even though we didn't get to see the grand canyon we still had an awesome trip and were really glad we got to see grandma lil and grandpa bobby!!