Happy 3 month birthday Kaniela!

Crazy to think that 3 months ago today we had this little dude come into our lives.  Here are some fun pictures for you to see his growth.

Newborn

1 month

2 months

3 months

We're pretty proud of our little stud, and we can't believe how big he's gotten.

So What's Next?

So now that Kevin's graduated...everyone is asking what's next for this Wunder Family?  First off...

First off... a good detox diet.  For the last four months, our schedule has been so crazy.  Aside from completing the Moab Half Marathon (notice that I said "completing" and not "running"), I practically have done nothing but sleep to stay healthy and in shape.  Starting within the next week or so, Cea and I will be starting a detox diet in hopes to kick start a much healthier lifestyle.  With school done, my schedule is much more flexible and less frantic, thereby making her schedule a lot easier as well.  We look forward to taking control of our health (I want to be able to still tackle Kaniela when he's 18).  Cea looks forward to getting back to her pre-birth figure (even though right now you can't tell she had a kid by looking at her).

I start a full-time job this Friday.  In this economy, we feel very fortunate that both of us are employed.  Cea has been working at our apartment community for the last eight months or so, and I've been there as well for the last three months working part-time.  She is the resident director, dealing with any time of disciplinary action, counseling, roommate disputes and student activities at the community, and I've been functioning as the Marketing Manager.  It's been a great experience for us, and we feel it a great blessing to have jobs at this time of the economy.  We'll be here for a little while, and the situation will allow us to really get a good footing for our family when we decide where we're going after Utah.

Over the next little while, we'll be here in Utah, enjoying the community and friends that we've made over the last few years, and in due time hopefully find me a job in advertising (when agencies really start hiring again).  Our time here will really give me the opportunity to work on my portfolio without having the stress of not having a job.  It will also be a great opportunity for Kaniela to spend time close to much of our family in Utah!

Thanks for always stopping by...

Happy Graduation Day

I'm not going to lie, this is going to be a little sappy... I apologize in advance.

After eight years out of 'em, I put back on a cap and gown and graduated today from Brigham Young University.  For most people, eight years out of high school would yield a graduate degree, but not for me.  After a year at school, a year at home, two years on a mission a year of trying to get into the business school, failing to get into the business school, and three more years of classes, I have officially graduated with a Bachelor or Arts in Communications with an emphasis in Advertising, and a Minor in Business Management.  It's been a long, but super fun road.  I'm so glad that I ended up where I did and studied what I studied. 

Here are some fun pictures of the day along with some thanks to those who helped me along the way.   

First, thanks to my little family.  Cea has been the greatest cheerleader, and Kaniela the best motivation that I could have had to stick it out.  Even when he wasn't around, Kaniela was probably the biggest motivation to my education.  Hopefully I'll be able to use what I've learned to provide for him what he needs.  To Cea, thanks for always reminding me of what's important and putting me in my place...especially those nights that I really didn't want to study.

To Mom and Dad, thanks for being such a great support and for always pushing me.  I never remember a time when it wasn't an expectation to do well in school and graduate from a university.  They always had the standard set for me and did whatever they could to ensure that I reached it.  Thanks, and I hope I can be as great a parent to Kaniela and his future siblings as you two have been to me.

What would a university experience be like without great professors and mentors.  Doug McKinlay and Jeff Sheets are just two of many professors who have played a role in my development.  To Doug and Jeff however, I say thank you for your examples and influence not only in our field of study, but also in life in general.  You two have taught me many great life lessons and I will always value your wisdom.  To all my other professors I say thank you also, and sorry that I couldn't get a picture of you on the blog...you all have been a great influence to me.

To amazing classmate and peers, I look forward to the day we get to work together again.  We've accomplished some pretty amazing things for college students and did some pretty amazing work.  The late nights, Halo fests, sushi outings and projects completed will not be forgotten.  Best of luck to you all in your internships, jobs, families, and lives.  When you are all wealthy creative directors, strategic planners and account managers, Kaniela will expect birthday presents each year :)!

THE BEST PART

Probably the best part of the day however, was that I got to share it with my little sis!  I remember when I graduated high school, Becky went to my Mom and asked, "Mommy, who's going to come to all my stuff?" 

It was a family thing that we would always go and support each other in whatever we did.  Becky had been at countless volleyball and basketball games, tennis matches and has sat through many an entertaining awards ceremony for her brothers.  But with all of us at college, who was going to attend hers?  All the brothers made efforts to come home often to watch her soccer games, track and cross country meets, and her always entertaining math competitions, and we even were all able to make it back for her high school graduation.  It was always special to be with family in such special times.

Becky graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering and will be entering the work force with a very good job...making a lot more than I will...probably because she studied a lot more than I did.  It was good to be able to share the day with her.  Mugsy, sorry that Bruce wasn't here, but I hope that Kaniela and I were good replacements.

It's amazing where life takes you.  Today, my parents attended that graduations of their two youngest children, making every one of the Wunders college graduates.  Who knows what lies ahead for our family.  

We're grateful to all of you for your support and interest in our lives, and wish the thank all of you for what you've done for us!  As I said once before, I love a quote that basically said that who we are is the sum of our interactions with others.  I definitely realized the truth of that today....MAHALO to all of you!

A Fun Time with Family.

This was a busy weekend in our home.  Kaniela was blessed on Sunday.  Because a baby blessing is a really significant event in our church, we had family come from all over: Hawaii, California, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah for the event.  It was great to spend time with family and Kaniela was able to meet a lot of family members for the first time.  We'll have more pictures to come and more stories about the weekend as we gather pictures from friends and family, but for now we thought that it would be fun for you to see a little of our weekend.  We'll post more soon.

Kaniela's baby blessing outfit.  The material was picked out by Coco Wunder and sewed by Grandma Shaffer.

We like this family picture!

The men who came for Kaniela's blessing. 

Playing Rockband with the Wunders.

All the Shaffer Grandsons hanging out with Pampa.

We'll post more pictures and tell more stories later!

What a busy week...

This has been such a tiring week for the family.  Sorry that it's been over a week since we updated about Kaniela.  I'll try to make it up with this post.

Kaniela has been growing quite a bit this week.  We've had a lot of fun as we continue to watch his personality grow.  It continues to amaze me that he grows and develops so fast.  Here are our new favorite things about Kaniela:

1.  He continues to coo and talk more with us.  We'll sit with him and say, "Kaniela tell us a story," and he'll usually respond with a coo or too.

2.  He is becoming so aware of the world around him, especially in the morning.  When we're still groggy and waking up, he'll want to play.  In fact he'll cry until we give him attention.  Normally, one of us will pick him up and put him on our lap, or sit him on our stomach, and he'll just look at us, laugh, smile and stare.  It's really cute when you tickle the side of his cheek...he'll just light up with a smile and laugh at you.

3. Bedtime is also fun.  We read him the same book each night: Pajama Time.  The other night when all three of us went to the bedroom to read together, we were sitting in bed and Cea pulled out the book and said, "It's Pajama Time."  His face lit up and he starting to coo.  It was so cute!

4. He is awake so much more now.  We usually lay him on his back and let him coo and look around.  Sometimes if you don't play with him, he'll get grumpy and let you know it, but once you go to play with him, he lights up and smiles again.  

Here are some fun pictures from this past week.  Hope you enjoy!

Kaniela is able to sit up a lot more.  This is how he and I hang out together now.


Kaniela telling us a story.

I'm very proud of Kaniela.  He is quickly learning the way of the MAC.

Finally, big news for Daddy.  This past semester was my capstone semester for my program.  Basically, it is a culmination of everything that we learned in our program.  We have to develop a strategic campaign for a client.  This year, we were lucky enough to work on a project with Volkswagen.  Three teams were involved, and we all competed in a final presentation to some pretty influential people for Volkswagen.  After months of hard work, and weeks of very little sleep for most of the team, our campaign was chosen as the winner for the competition.  Major props to the team; Nate, Jes, Sarah, Brad, Tommy, Bill and Jimmy.  You guys were awesome to work with!

That's it for now.  Now that I'm getting sleep and that the project is done, I'll have a lot more time to post.

One of My Favorite Ads Ever!

I love this advertisement.  I think that the message is amazing and the kids in it are so cute.  Thanks to Chris Rodriguez for tracking it down!

Sweet Summer Baby!

We are all very excited about the warm weather! Even Kani got all dressed up in his shorts and sandals... He loves the sun, must be in the blood!

He is very happy to be in shorts! It's his nature! 

His first pair of sandals... I couldn't resist! :)

Kaniela is now smiling.. Here is a small smile. We were so excited to see him smile and we make him do it as much as possible now.. He is always the happiest right after he eats... Just like his Dad! :)

Kaniela and Daddy were all dressed up in the summer wear! Aren't they cute?
Another thing Kaniela started doing this week is talking to us! He tells us great stories and they are very detailed. If we could just understand him, I'm sure we would learn a lot! I have been trying for a week to get him on video and we finally did! Yay! So Here you go, Kaniela's debut cooing! Hope you enjoy!

Fun developments in the Wunder hale (home)!

Fun developments indeed. This has been a fun week in the Wunder Hale. Kaniela continues to grow, and we love watching his development. He had is two month doctor's appointment last week and are excited to say that he has grown quite a bit. It's funny because when everyone sees him for the first time they always say, "Wow, he is so small!" Our response is always, "If you only knew how small he was before."

We're excited to say that he is now over 9 lbs and is about 21.5 inches. That's a 3+ lb, and 3 inch growth. He's no longer in the 4th percentile in growth, he has progressed to the 5th percentile.

Here are some fun pictures and videos from the past week.


As Kaniela becomes more awake and alert, one of his favorite things to do is sit on Daddy's lap and watch him work on the computer (it doesn't work so good with Mommy). The other day I had to work on a video for a friend, and he sat there for about an hour or so and just stared. After getting a little bored, he and I decided to dance a little.

You gotta love how bored he begins to look towards the end of the video.

As Kaniela gets more and more aware, he is becoming more sensitive to his parent's feelings. Cea's birthday is tomorrow (be sure to send her a birthday comment), so Kaniela bought her birthday present early this year. Here's a shot of her two new toys...

After years of patience, Cea finally got HER computer. I tried to talk her into getting a MacBook instead, but she said that if we had a laptop I'd try to take it with me to school...it's true. She knew that the computer was coming as we had been planning and saving for it for some time, but had no idea that Kaniela was planning on getting her an iPhone. She is thoroughly enjoying both. Everyone has been asking her, "What's so good about a MAC?" Try it just once...it will change your life: way faster, way cooler, way more user friendly, and way sexier looking (is it innappropriate to call a computer sexy? I think not!)


It's General Conference weekend, and as we do most years, we've spent the entire weekend with Cea's family. Her birthday is always around Conference time, so we spend the weekend with Cea's family so that they can throw her a birthday party. It has been so relaxing to just sit and relax with Kaniela. I'll admit, I've been a hog and have had him in my arms any chance I've had this weekend. Here are some cute pictures of the two of us hanging out this weekend.



We love Daddy-Son time! Sorry there's not pictures of Kaniela with Mommy...she was behind the camera all weekend.

Funny story...Cea was changing his diaper this morning and he pooped all over her...now he's a little embarassed!


We love that picture!! That's actually from a few days ago, but it just fits so well into the story!

Thanks for always coming back to read. Kaniela loves the comments that are left on the blog and we love the fact that you can all watch him grow!