Trivia-Which is better Summa Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude?

Last night was Adam's School of Business Graduation Banquet. They had a very nice dinner and Awards Ceremony. We didn't know what was better, Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude. We thought that Magna was better than Summa. Adam looked pretty silly when he congratulated a friend for getting Magna "which is the highest honor" and then the friend had to explain to Adam that actually it is the Summa that is the highest. Pretty funny that a guy who is awarded Summa Cum Laude doesn't even know what it means.
And next--how is it pronounced? I think we heard about 5 different pronunciations given by college professors last night at the banquet. They had a very nice dinner and Awards Ceremony. Adam doesn't like me to brag, (or make fun of him being a smart nerd) but I think it is very commendable that during the past 2 years at BYUH Adam has done so well, so I had to write about it. Last night Adam was recognized for graduating Summa Cum Laude and was also awarded the most outstanding student in his major. He got a nice award plaque, a gift basket with lots of Hawaiian Macadamia nut goodies-my favorite part, and the nicest lei we have ever had-Ady's favorite part as you can see!

Here is a photo of Adam's plaque. Sorry about the flash. Congratulations Honey!

what happens when your blog gets left signed in....

This is Adam's little sister, Rachel. I have been living with Adam and Kasey this semester, watching Adyson and my own baby, Jett, as my husband has been gone for basic/AIT training stuff.
I've been waiting for the opportunity to post on their blog since I got pictures of Ady trying to breastfeed her baby doll....that's what happens when we all share Adams laptop and everything is left signed in!
At first when I got here, I was a little worried about Jett's survival being around Ady. As he was learning to crawl and pull himself up to a stand at the couch, she would go out of her way to knock him over. It's not uncommon for children to do such things when they fear competition for attention....but has still been extremely frustrating for me as it's my baby bonking his head on the hard wood floor every time.
Turns out....with a little effort....I may have convinced Ady that Jett can be her friend. They are now playing together and feed off each others giggles and she even lets him jump on her bed with her now!

Best part is that Ady now imitates EVERYTHING I do as a mother.....she is going to be a super sister!

She breastfeeds....(to be honest, I'm suprised it has taken this long before she started this)
She's teaching her baby to walk....
Feeds her baby cheerios....
Rocks her baby to sleep.....
Wakes baby up by poking her eyes out....(I didn't teach her this)....
Tickles her baby.....
plays with her baby....
More breastfeeding.....more discreetly....
Gives piggy back rides.....
And she also gives Anakin Skywalker pod racer rides.....

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is how much Ady loves the beach! I'm glad I finally got some video footage of her.




And by the way, it's a healthy boy! The ultrasound technician was very sure about it yesterday at our appointment. He now weighs 1 pound. We are very happy, actually I am very happy...and Adam is "just as happy as if it was a girl-it doesn't matter what it is, he would be the same." I just think it makes for a nice round even family. I am also half-way with the pregnancy...finally! I am feeling huge already-is that normal to just bulge out on the second one since you're already stretched? I'm very glad the 1st trimester is over, but the sickness lingers some still-along with all the other horrible pregnancy things like heartburn and lack of initiative to do much.
Even with all the lack of motivation, I was motivated enough to give my bosses a 3.5 week notice this week(I know- normally you give 2 weeks, but they already know Adam is graduating and they wanted as much notice as possible). I am on my way to my next job of being a full time mommy! I never thought I would be really excited to stay home, especially since we don't have a set plan, but I am. I am sure it won't be easy, especially if I am to become a great home wife/mom, but I am sure staying home as a mother will be the most valuable thing for my family.
Adam is considering going to grad school to get an MBA(no, he doesn't have a fever--and yes his study habits changed tremendously for the better these last 2 years). He is looking into returning to USU for their one year MBA program.
Well, just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for this life and the opportunities it gives us to enjoy, grow, become, and be blessed.

In the last month

So I have been informed that it has been over a month since our last post, and Kasey thinks it is my turn to update the blog. For Halloween Ady was once again a Lady Bug. She still kinda fit the costume and being as we are preparing to move in 6 weeks, we decided to save money and just reuse the one from last year. She loves picking flowers, even these yellow ones which are basically a weed.

We've also been to the beach many times in the last month, and Ady loves playing in the sand. She even likes to be buried.


Sometimes Ady likes to be buried all the way up to her neck.

This is Ady playing with her cousin Jett at the beach. Ady seems to really like Jett at times, and is nice to him, and other times she is kinda rough with him.

Kasey's cousin Heidi and Aunt Patrice are here visiting right now, Ady loves to hang out with them and loved going to Haleiwa to get shave ice. She couldn't quite reach the hole for the photo, but you can see the top of her head and tell that she really wanted to put her face in the hole for the photo like everyone else did.
As for the the rest of the news for the month... We've been really busy. School is almost done for me. Kasey is looking forward to Christmas vacation and seeing family. We have one way tickets to Utah purchased, but no job or final destination lined up for us. I have another interview in a couple days. I've been trying to negotiate a purchase of a resort we like in Minnesota but can't come up with the 250 thousand dollars needed as a down payment. As for the baby, they no longer think that the baby has down syndrome, they have decided that the baby probably isn't as far along as originally guessed. Being as they thought the baby had a spinal problem or neurological problem we had to go in last week for lots of tests and a special ultra-sound. They measured the baby's various parts and determined that it was probably a week or so off in the guess of the due date. So the new date is April 15th and everything looks healthy now. Other than a crazed two year-old terrorizing her cousin, stress from doctors and a pregnant lady that lives here, and the lack of an answer to everyone asking us what we are doing and where we are going next, things are going really well with our family. Until next time...

It's our 5 year anniversary!

5 Fabulous Years

4 Years College-almost done!

3 States-UT, FL, HI

2 Kids- (one on the way)

1 Great Relationship

0 Pets right now!

Yay!

Lego's Grand Opening in Honolulu

No surprise, Adam being the adult Lego fan that he is couldn't miss the chance to go to the Grand Opening of the Lego Store in the Ala Moana Mall. Luckily his friend Eric, whose son,William, happens to be Ady's friend, is also a fan, and we all went together and Adam had somebody to be excited with him. (since I'm not exactly the kind to be ecstatic over this stuff) Here they are at the life size surf board exhibit that was being built out of Lego's. They even got to help build a block to go in the exhibit. Ady enjoyed it and liked playing with the Legos too-especially when she found the pink ones. Looks like Dad has a new friend he can count on for years to come to play Legos with him.

Update

Well this is just an update to the last few rather vague posts. First just to let you all know that I smashed down the yellow M&M out of Ady's nose during Relief Society, thankfully before she could push it up any further to really get it stuck. However she did have odd color snot running out of her nose for the next hour or so.
Next, thanks for all those who have been concerned for us. We are doing as well as can be expected with a pregnant ornery lady in the house. I am due April 9. I think the sooner that gets here the better. However, on the positive side, this pregnancy and morning sickness is different than the last(if you know about that, your probly still surprised we are having another kid). I've only had a couple of days where I was vomiting and been really nauseous--unlike last time where I was soooo sick and vomiting about every 30 min for the whole first trimester. I am still not feeling well, but its way better than last time, so I can hardly complain. Maybe the difference is its a boy? I am also craving food this time, which is great to me, since last time I practically had to force myself to eat and nothing sounded good. But now, I feel better if I eat, and I feel like I need something in my stomach about every hour or I'll be sick, so I feel like all I do is sit at work or home and eat. I am also very exhausted, which i don't remember being before. So I pretty much eat and sleep. Well I make it to work usually too. Thats another nice thing is that BYUH and my bosses are very understanding and happy for us and I have some saved up sick leave. Its almost like it's expected for you to have a family and work here--unlike Key West.
I still have to thank Adam for pretty much doing everything from the grocery shopping to the laundry to putting Ady to bed every night. I just haven't felt good enough to do much, and Adam just fills in with what needs to be done even while attending school full-time. I know I'm not an easy pregnant lady to live with(sorry too, Rachel), but hopefully this 1st trimester will be over with soon and life will get easier.
On a cute note, we did go to the Dr. and have an ultrasound, Ady got to come with us when the time came they turned out the lights to see the screen better and she was sitting on Adam's lap while they took the measurements. It was all quiet. Then Adam asked her if they were looking at her little sibling and she turned around, put her finger to her mouth, and told him to "SHHHHH" It was so cute. And the baby is normal with a normal heartbeat, and we are very happy for that.

Family News

Well I thought I could make up for the small quantity of posts recently with a quality post. You know what they say, quality not quantity. Of course Ady was very interested in the news.

Growing up and becoming independant

Ady is probably better with a computer than I am. This morning when I got up, I heard a movie playing and went into Ady's room. There was Ady sitting in front of a laptop watching Care Bears. I assumed that Kasey must've gotten it set up before she left for work. So then I called Kasey to ask if she had fed Ady anything. But when I asked Kasey told me that Ady was still asleep when she left for work. That means that Ady got up, turned on the computer, went and got a DVD, put it in, started it, and hit enter when the menu came up. Pretty good for a two year old I'd say. Makes me worry that tomorrow I am gonna wake up and find out she walked to the store to buy some candy.

M & M

What do you do when your 2 yr old sticks a yellow mini M&M up her nose in the middle of Relief Society?

4th of July

Well we had tons of fun this last weekend.  Being as it was a holiday weekend, Kasey got work off on Friday and we decided to start celebrating that day.  First we went to Honolulu and took Ady to see the movie Up.  We had fun and Ady was very cute to watch.  She sat in her own seat and didn't even move for about 40 minutes.  I kept checking on her and her mouth was open, eyes wide in amazement, and pure ecstasy written all over her face.  Then about 40 minutes in, she was so enthralled that she wanted to share with us and everyone else in the theater.  I felt a little tap on my arm and thought I would just ignore it.  But no, another tap, this one a little firmer, and then I heard, "dad, dad, dad, dad" about 15 times.  I looked over and asked what.  She whispered, "bird, dad dere's a bird."  I kinda chuckled and looked over to see if Kasey had heard.  But no worries Ady wanted to make sure that her mom knew she saw the bird.  "HI BIRD, HI BIRD, BYE BIRD, DAD DERE'S A BIRD, BYE BIRD."  Sometimes I am amazed at how loud Ady can be, the rest of the time I am amazed that she isn't being really loud.  Don't worry Ady doesn't discriminate, she also made sure to say hi and bye to the dogs.  After the movie we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and got home late that night after a very fun family night out.  

On Saturday had a barbeque and I grilled Aloha burgers with some friends. Then later we went to the store and bought ice cream and waffle cones. We eat a lot of ice cream at our house but never in cones. Kasey wanted ice cream cones so we decided to mix things up a little bit and headed to the store. Ady loves ice cream and we decided to just give her her own cone. She thought it was so cool. She could walk around and eat at the same time. She seemed so happy. However we aren't sure if she ate much. She likes waving her arms around and dancing when she gets really excited. Twice she dumped her ice cream on the sidewalk. Don't worry though, she quickly bent down, picked up the spilled scoop and put it back on her cone. but between the sidewalk and what you can see all over her, we don't know if she actually ate any. What we do know is she loves chocolate ice cream with brownie bits.

We spent 3 dollars at Walmart last year on fireworks, but due to rain never lit them. So this year we decided to get them out and light 'em up. First we walked around the community and watched as people who spent more than 3 dollars light theirs. Ady was pretty nervous for the first 15 minutes. But after a while she really warmed up to the fireworks and by the time we made it to the park to light our sparklers and bloomin flowers she was saying, "more, more dad, more pire lights pease, again, do again dad." Hope all of you had a great 4th of July.

Fill in the blank: Popcorn-opc=__________

Adyson has decided that she really likes popcorn.  She is also learning to talk now.   So she has learned to tell us that she wants popcorn please.   However, she doesn't seem to think that the middle of a word is all that important, and struggles with the "L" in please, so "I want Popcorn please" comes out like "I want porn pease."  Ya, so she kind of forgets the middle part, and it makes it sound pretty bad.  Normally we just laugh because she is 2 and we just tell her "it's popcorn, Adyson."  But the other day we are walking down the isle of the grocery store and she sees the popcorn and starts yelling "Mommy, I want porn, I want porn.  More porn pease Mommy."  Although it was pretty funny we were a bit embarrassed and decided that we need to be  more progressive in teaching Ady how to speak correctly.  Of course, that is being difficult so for now we just don't go down the aisle with popcorn.

Blogging is Life

Having just spent nearly 3 weeks with my husband off on his trip to Minnesota to look at a future business opportunity for us, I just want to write about a couple things. One is that I am grateful for internet and this blog, because we were both able to keep in touch and even see the others pictures and read the stories. I really appreciate a good thoughtful or funny blog. Blogging can be a good hobby. I think it opens a whole new world. Not only is it something Adam and I like to do, it can be a way to reconnect with old friends, keep in contact with those who are far away, it can be a venting means, it can be an aid to "keep a journal"; it can help a person express themselves. Great things can and have come from blogging.

The second thing I want to write about is although there are many things that could be said (good and bad) about blogging and what people blog about, I just want to thank all those who "Blog-Like-It-Is." I tend to sugar coat things--even in my own pesonal journal. I guess I just want to be forgetful of bad times or I just can't imagine to share something that could potentially be embarrasing to me. But a big thank-you to those who share real life-Iwa, Tara, my husband, Marie...just to name a few, there are more, but you know who you are. As much as I'd love to be a perfect woman/wife/mother...I'm not, and sometimes I just really appreciate reading about your crazy lives too.

BWCA Wilderness Trip

So for the last two weeks I have been driving all over the state of Minnesota, and I do mean all over as I have driven over 1500 miles, looking at resorts and similar businesses. I have really enjoyed my time up here and I love taking pictures of pretty things like this sunset. Well I have also taken time to look at schools, hospitals, proximity to churches, and local attractions. So one day I went and visited 3 state parks. This lighthouse is at one of the state parks and I thought it was a cool lighthouse up on the cliff overlooking Lake Superior.

Last Wednesday I picked up my Dad and we went on a 4 day Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness trip. That means that we spent 4 days paddling through lakes, carrying gear and a canoe from one lake to the next. Well we survived the bugs, the awesome thunderstorm and our canoe disappearing one night. That's right, the morning after we took on a crazy thunderstorm I got up and the canoe was gone. I looked around for a bit and finally spotted it way down the shoreline and across the bay. Took me a while tramping through the woods to make it around to it but we got it back and continued on. So here are some pictures from our trip. Lookout, this is gonna be long, so if you wanna stop here, feel free.


So our first day started out like this, the water was glassy and smooth. We paddled for 12 or 13 miles this day. Not only did we paddle for a dozen miles but we had to portage 5 times. And along the way we saw some cool sights like this Island with its reflection.

This is one of our campsites. I liked the wildflowers that were all over at this spot. One of the funniest things about this trip was my Dad. Every time we would make it to a new spot, he would get out of the canoe, find a bare spot of ground or large rock, lay down and fall asleep. Seriously, he would fall right asleep for a couple of hours, never moving. The first day I thought I might have killed him but when I got close I could hear him snoring.


Of course we did some fishing! We went out fishing one evening and we caught about 50 fish. We caught mostly smallmouth bass, which are my favorite to catch. We also caught some walleye, a dozen northern pike, and a couple of other species. It was so much fun.

My whole life I've heard from my Dad how he hates fishing. Of course he hasn't been fishing for like 35 years and never with me. Well he decided to give it a try. He caught like 15 fish that one evening and even allowed me to take his picture with this walleye. If you know him at all you know how hard it is to get him to take a picture. And I only had to ask once, he didn't even complain about having his picture taken. It was kinda funny when we started though, cause it started raining so hard and he looked back at me and asked "what do we do now?" I told him we keep fishing. He gave me this look like I was an idiotic weirdo, but he kept fishing. By the end, it was me having to tell him it was time to go since the sun had set and we hadn't even had dinner yet!

This is a waterfall that we paddled over to look at. This is why we had to Portage between lakes, most of them are connected, but you can't canoe from one to another sometimes.

This was how the trip ended. Our last night we got to watch the sky turn orange and then pink and then purple. What a great last 4 days. I can't wait to do it again sometime.

sand and water

We went to sharks cove last week and as you can see ady loves to play in the water...
and she loves to drink the water.

Ady loves to play in the sand...

and she loves to eat the sand.
I am starting to wonder if she is sodium deprived...I can't imagine how, but if she is, at least she getting it at the beach.  We tried taking a sunset picture after swimming and playing in the tide-pools, but really we just got in the way of the sun...too bad Dad is not here to take our beautiful sunset pictures for us.  We miss him! Today Ady was pointing to a picture of her Dad on top of the dresser, and she kept saying Dad, Dad, nice, nice, nice Dad.  Then she would lean over and kiss the picture.  I thought it was cute.

Adyson-self portraits

Ady is into taking pictures lately.  She always wants "my turn" on the camera.  Here are some of her latest shots.  If you can't tell by the next picture, she likes to hold the camera by the lens so she tends to get her fingers in the pics alot.  She is so funny cause she hold the camera up to her face and squints her eyes and says "Cheese." I think she is taking after her dad with this fascination in cameras-except she likes to take pictures of people and especially of herself.

The next pics are Mom's portraits of Ady.  I'm feeling good that I got a couple where she actually looked at the camera and smiled.  I wanted to get her hair in the one picture cause it really is getting so long and she is only 2.  According to my mom, I never even had hair until I was 2.  Wonder where she gets it from?  

Minnesota

Kasey wants me to post pics of Minnesota on here for those who aren't on Facebook. I arrived in Minnesota yesterday and spent most of the day traveling. But I did make it to Cabelas and had a great time there. Kasey always tells me that I make shopping miserable because I complain when I have to go. I have found a solution, if we go shopping at Cabelas, I won't complain at all. This morning I went hiking and had a nice relaxing time walking around. I saw some deer but didn't manage to get a picture. Here are some pics from my hike.This first one is just a pond with the sky reflected on it.

This is the Vermillion River. I spent most of my morning hiking along the edge of it. This river flows north, which is opposite to most of the rivers in the U.S. These two just show a couple of scenes from the rivers edge.


Here are the falls, there was quite a bit of water coming over them. They aren't that high but very dangerous due to the amount of water that goes over them. They used to have a professional kayak race through here, but after a couple of years of having several people die going through this section they now make you carry your kayak over the land and around the falls.

Here is the final picture, it is a bunch of lily pads on a bog near the river.