Matt had his graduation ceremonies for his MBA May 1st and 2nd.  Thursday, May 1st, was commencement.  Friday, May 2nd, was convocation.  In reality, he still has one class left this summer before he is finished, but the end is in sight!  Then we just have to get through a CPA review course and the CPA tests.  By next year, he will really have some alphabet soup after his name!  We are so proud of him and are very excited for the next phase of life to start - one where we actually get to have some family time :)

Henlie needs an updated post all about her.  Don't you agree?

She is so FUN! She walks and runs great.  I was a little nervous about her not really using many words, but she has since caught up and surpassed expectations.

Her words:
Daddy
Mommy
Mama (Grandma)
ball
no
'side (outside)
hat
head
nose
mouth
eye
ear
cheek
toes
shoes
socks
happy
hi
bye
hello
Henee (Henlie - She uses this when she wants something, or to mean more, like more food...)
toys (although it sounds an awful lot like "toes," so context is important :))
up
sit (She tries to tell the dog to sit.  The dog isn't aware of this :))
appo (apple)
amen (yes, at the end of prayers :))
thank you (usually when she wants you to do something, like fix the app on the phone or open a banana for her) 
shirt 
jacket
door
yay 
peek-a-boo 
more (with some coaxing)
hop
bus
tada
baby
cow
moo
horse
sheep
baa
bock (chickens)
puppy
kitty
hippo
mouse (which she says perfectly)  
tiger
roar 
ee ee ee (It's what the monkey says...)
owl
duck 
peep 

She understands lots more than that, too.  It's fun to ask her were something is in one of her books and have her point to it.  She likes to point to things and hear me say what they are.  Also, this last week or so, she has started picking up on LOTS more words and sounds.  Before you know it, she'll be using sentences and stuff!  Also, she has started really trying to imitate what you say - talk about lots of new words in a short amount of time!

She likes to sing.  Sometimes she'll sing along with me if it's a song she's familiar with, like I Am a Child of God, which we sing at bedtime.  Usually her words consist of Daddy.... but she stops at the breaks and tries to match pitch somewhat.  It's cute.  She's also learning Popcorn Popping.  She usually remembers where to sing "eyes," and can do some of the actions, even without prompting.  From Grandma's house, she is learning The Wheels on the Bus, mostly the verse where "mommy" says "shh." It's so funny!  She'll make the popcorn gesture and then say "shh."  Also, she knows Once there was a Snowman.  If you say snowman or she sees a picture of a snowman, her arms go up!  We're also learning the song and actions to I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home, but that's a surprise for Father's Day, so shhh! :)

She's a freaking pro at using our phones.  I finally set up one of my home pages with all of my baby apps, and she'll get in and out of them and play around.  A lot of it is accidental, but she stays entertained.

She likes to play with the puppy and the kitty.  She prefers the kitty, but that's probably because he *isn't* willing to play.  She doesn't seem terribly bothered when she pisses him off and gets hurt by him.  She'll steal Mocha's gecko and scream at her when she tries to get it back.  She thinks it is funny when Mocha tries to get the gecko back.

She loves to swing and go down slides.  She also loves to see the horse, cows, and ducks at Grandpa Biggs' house.  She'll walk over to Grandpa and tell him to take her outside to see the horse by pointing and making the horse noise.  If that doesn't work, she'll switch to mooing.  haha


She gives hugs and takes kisses.  She doesn't usually kiss back, but she'll stick her face out for you to give her a kiss.  She will give her dolls a kiss, and recently, even though she's still sticking her cheek out to us, she'll make a kiss noise :)  I'm trying to get her to actually give me a kiss.  I'll turn her head so she's actually touching my cheek, and then I can get a wet kiss. haha

Girl loves shoes.  She loves to say shoe and play with shoes.  She loves to put Mom's and Dad's shoes on her feet and try to walk around.  She likes to get in her bottom drawer and pull socks out.  Most of the time she calls them socks, but sometimes she calls them shoes, too.  She tries to put her shoes on her feet, too. 




She knows lots of body parts and can say most of them.  She can find her eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, mouth, hair, belly button, toes, and sometimes her chin.  She also does head, but she usually calls it a hat.  She put so many things on her head that she learned the word "hat," but now she thinks her head and hair are also called "hat."  She's only starting to differentiate.



She loves to read.  She will bring books to me to read.  She'll also flip through her books on her own, sometimes "reading" them out loud.  She's also observant.  She found a duck in one of the illustrations in Six Dinner Sid and pointed it out to me, saying "duck."  I hadn't even noticed it, and we'd read this a lot :)  I love that she'll snuggle right up to me when we read, too.


She's starting to be a little helper.  She can throw things away in the garbage and go get things I ask her to get.  She helps get dressed by putting her arms through sleeves.  She can help me put her toys away, too.  Not that she always minds....

Sunday was her 18 month birthday, so she got to go to nursery for the first time!  I heard her have a little freak out while I was leaving, but she must have gotten over it quickly.  Sister Samuelson wasn't there at the beginning of nursery, but was there later.  She told Matt after church that she had never seen anyone do so well on their first day of nursery.  She also came home with her own puppets to color - and so it begins....


We had her 18 month well check today, so here is an update on her stats:
Weight = 24.4 lbs (74%)
Height = 32.75 in (79%)
Head = 18.5 in (70%)

She is perfectly healthy, although she did not like the doctor's office today if they tried to do anything to her.  She did get to be weighed on a standing scale, though! Anything more than that elicited screaming, crying, and flailing.  Good news, though, is she is done with her shots until kindergarten.  Also, we completed the MMR vaccine study. Yay for compensation! :)

1.5 years gone already.  We sure love our little girl!

We had the Hadfield Easter party on the Saturday after Easter.  We had breakfast at home, even though we were having brunch at the party :)  Matt made us pancakes, and I got one with a smiley face :)

At the party, we had yummy brunch.  We also had an Easter egg hunt in the basement since outside was so wet during the breaks from raining.  Aunt Lynell helped Henlie and Daddy helped her reach the high eggs.  She got a pretty good haul and had fun.







The exciting part was when Leia got to come down.  The absolute most tender moment was when Aria told Leia, "I love you, Leia!" and Leia responded haltingly, "I love you, too."  Made me cry.

Later, the girlies wanted to go see the ducklings.  In nearly a week, they've doubled in size! Crazy.

We were a few minutes late to church, so I couldn't get a picture of Henlie in her Easter dress that Grandma Biggs made her until after her nap after church.... She was less than happy at that point in time :)  So here is the best picture I have of her in her dress on Easter Sunday.

After church, where I had conducting and sharing time in primary :), Henlie had her usual nap.  Actually, she napped longer than usual.  Matt and I also took advantage and had a nap.  Fortunately, we all woke around the same time, except the baby wasn't happy with her change in consciousness.  I snapped some pics and got her changed so we could go to dinner at Grandma's.

Henlie saw Grandpa and, in her own little language, told him he should take her outside to see the horse.  It was adorable.  We did manage to eat before we let her get Grandpa to take her outside.  Grandpa brought out the baby ducks first.  They're so cute!









After we put the ducks away, we headed down to see the horse.  Henlie did better than usual in getting close to the horse. :)






 Happy Easter, everyone!

Saturday, April 19th, we had the Wilson Easter picnic at the park at the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon.  We had a pretty laid back morning, and Henlie even got a little nap in before heading over.  As per family tradition, we didn't eat for hours (party started at 1pm, we maybe ate around 3pm?)  My cousin Angie's family came down.  Her kids are so big!  They live far away, so we don't see them all that often.  My cousin Traci didn't come as she had just had a new baby Friday morning!  Buster (her firstborn) was there with Grandma Chris, though :)  Eventually everyone made it, and Grandma Wilson asked the kids about why we celebrate Easter.  After a short lesson, we said a blessing and had food.  It was fun to talk to my cousins.  Benjamin and Rebecca recently got a new puppy, so Mocha even had a new friend.  Henlie loved Spot.  He's a pretty cute, bouncy puppy.

We watched the big kids play in the little stream, and we saw a water skeeter, too. (Which, being the Easter season, totally reminded me of Christ walking on the water :))  We had to wait for another family party to finish their Easter egg hunt as our boundaries butted up against each other, and we didn't want to go mixing eggs.  Henlie had fun, I think.  And for an nearly 18 month old, she got a pretty good haul.  Her Daddy also took some pretty good pictures :)






After the picnic, we headed home to get ready for the RSL game.  Jennifer was kind enough to come over earlier so we could stop at Lowe's to get some pots and spray paint for our patio :)  We still ended up at the game very early.  We found an awesome spot at the little park and ride area just down the hill from the stadium.  No shuttle there, but it's close enough that the walk back after the game isn't too bad.  Plus, after the game, it was downhill!  We had so much time, that we even stood in line for the team store.  Matt got himself a scarf, and I got a windbreaker.  Also, I'm tiny.  My new jacket is so big on me, and it's a small!  It's okay, though :)  This just means I can layer under it for cold games :)  We still managed to get in our seats before kickoff.  



The game was rather sad and boring for most of it.  We were 0-0 at half, and our team wasn't looking too good.  FINALLY, Ned Grabavoy scored in the 78th minute.  The stadium was ecstatic.  That really brought the life back into everyone.  Granted, Portland pressed really hard after that.  Good thing Nick was back in the game, saving our butts.  I don't think our guys remember how to play defense.  I was quite upset when Nick got hurt again, too.  It was his first game back.  Let's try not to break him again, k?  However, we managed to keep Portland from scoring, securing a 1-0 win.  Happy day.

After the game, we were able to get right down the stairs (our seats are in the southwest corner of the stadium) and down to our car.  Because of the way the park and ride is set up, we were able to get on the road without much issue (ie. waiting)  Then we followed everyone under the freeway, managed to take a frontage road that turned into a car dealership (that was weird), drove through and around and found the connecting road to 106th.  Since we were on the west side of the freeway, there wasn't much traffic, so we got on the freeway with ease.  Best ever.  We stopped at Cafe Rio in Spanish Fork on the way home for food, then Matt took Jennifer home and we had some dinner while watching Big Bang Theory :)  All in all, it was a pretty great day!