swimming with laughter...

sam and meesha invited us over for a little bbq one night and said we could swim.  chris really wanted to take daniel in the pool so we got him all dressed up and ready to go.

he seemed to like the water and then chris started lifting him out of the water and something so amazing and fun came bursting out of daniel's mouth... thats right laughter... like real laughter... thank goodness i had my camera ready!!!

and now he surprises us again and again with more laughter... it is so cute!!

daniel's blessing day...

we waited till graduation weekend to bless daniel in church.  we wanted chris' family to be able to come which worked out perfectly since they were all coming for graduation!

I had also decided to make daniel's blessing outfit and my mom gave me the brilliant idea to make it out of the fabric i have left over from my wedding dress my mom made for me.  it was tricky making this tiny outfit and of course my little man is tall and skinny so the outfit ended up being short and fat on him... hahaha i'm not an expert seamstress... but i'm learning and next time will figure out how to alter patterns.

sunday morning we got up and got him ready and  i was trying to time it perfectly where he would fall asleep at the beginning of sacrament and sleep through the whole thing... no luck. he cried. but luckily you couldn't hear it in the microphone at all... it was just loud for the men in the circle.

the circle included: Chris, Sam, Kelly, Grandpa Vern, Grandpa Virgil, Greg, uncle Dave, uncle david, and uncle stacy.

chris did a great job!! he had prepared and pondered all week and he said some really beautiful things!!

after we took some family pics:

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!!!