Little Artist

Last Saturday, when Hunter asked Andre what he wanted to do with him for "spending time", Andre said, "Color?". So Hunter made it special and got out some paints. Look how precious. Andre really is interested in art.

Graduation

The day finally arrived. Hunter graduated from Art Center College of Design! If special honors existed for graduate students at Art Center like they do for undergraduates, Hunter would have graduated "with distinction" because he did so well on his grades...not that he was at all concerned with grades. I am so so proud of my husband. What a wonderful education! It has been worth every penny.

Way to go, Hunter!




Almost all of Hunter's family were able to attend Hunter's graduation. I don't know why my group shot with everyone in it didn't turn out, but we are so grateful that you would drive such a long way to come celebrate with us. Thanks, Mom & Maren, Kami & Azar and the kids, Tyler & Julie and the kids, Jordan and Katie and the kids, Dad & Kathy and Keli. We love you all! We're sorry you couldn't come, Brodie, Nelcy, Thalia & Daryan, and Wing family. We felt your prayers and support all along. Brodie, you should know that Hunter kept a photo of you by his desk through the roughest times. He didn't stop thinking about you for one moment. He even made sure to wear one of the classy ties you gave him for his graduation ceremony. Love you, Bro. You're a fighter and an inspiration to us all.

Look at the smile on Paulo's face. He was ecstatic! He had been praying for this day for months so that Daddy would have more time to play with him.


Don't I just have the greatest husband in the world? Yes, I think so.

Hunter's Exhibition

I wasn't lying when I said that the last few weeks had been INSANELY busy. Hunter worked so hard on his thesis. He stayed up, on average, until 3:00 a.m. every morning for two consecutive weeks. Here he is working on the lighting of his exhibition space.

Finally, it all came together. He designed the whole space: the posters, the rounded corner sign that glows, he designed and built the table, chose the color for the paint, designed the lighting, installed the shelves--everything!

Here you can see some of his projects that were displayed on the table. He cut holes for three small screens that he mounted underneath which played videos he made that explain his projects.

Here you can see his Dermatext Bracelets and his Mobile Tacticons.

Here, you can see his Textural learning tool and Health Columns.

And here, his Textural Desktop.

The pictures don't do the projects justice. If you're interested, you can read more about Hunter's thesis on his website:

concepthunter.com

He'll be updating it throughout the summer with all his thesis documentation. So, stay tuned.

I must say, it was so fun to see the exhibition go up over time. The room used to be one big empty room, and I was fortunate to be able to see the spaces go up little by little.

I got to help Hunter quite a bit on his exhibit, thanks to our good neighbors who watched the kids while I helped. I painted the walls grey, helped Hunter build a wall which separated his space from the one next to it (not pictured), and helped him put together his table. I spray painted the headphones to be white so they matched everything, and I sewed the straps that mounted the screens to the bottom of the table. I also sewed the casings for his Dermatext Bracelets (sadly, the only one that worked out was the test model with all the wires coming out of it. The updated one, which was supposed to operate wirelessly, I'm afraid I might have caused to go haywire when I was trying to bend the wires to fit in the casing that I sewed. Oh well. We just simply ran out of time, so we couldn't fix it. So other than that failure on my part, I was glad I could be of some help to Hunter. You know, he really has a brilliant mind. Most of the time, I can't help him get his ideas to production, but at least I could help him with the simple stuff.


I was able to be present at his final thesis review. First, the faculty and some students were able to preview the space.



Next came the presentation. Hunter delivered his ideas very clearly and his presentation went very smoothly.


The discussion portion afterward lasted the whole thirty minutes. It was eye-opening to be in a room with twenty faculty from Art Center--brilliant minds--all discussing amongst themselves different applications of my husband's ideas. No wonder Hunter felt like his head was going to explode on his first day of school almost two years ago. These people are incredible! We're fortunate to be associated with them...and it makes me proud that Hunter can hold his own around them.

Bunkbed

Since Uncle Jon is going to be coming to live with us soon, we decided to transition the kids into bunkbeds a little early. It was a bit of an ordeal finding bunk beds that I liked, and I'm really happy with this one from Walmart. I put it together myself, and it is very very sturdy. I especially like that I can convert it into twin beds later on if I want.

So here are photos of Paulo and Andre waking up for the first time in their new beds. They were thrilled.

Playing on the Stairs

I love that my boys play on our stairs. Usually they play trains or cars. Sometimes they build legos on the landing with Daddy. So cute.



Hunter finally captured the pacifier smile with the tongue half hanging out. Eee!



And they usually sit on the bottom step to put on their socks and shoes. A couple times Andre has carefully backed up to sit on the bottom step for a snack.

Easter Sunday Coloring Eggs

Easter morning, we dyed some hard boiled eggs and ate them with our breakfast. Paulo was very careful dipping the eggs, but it got pretty messy when Andre got involved and started dumping the eggs in the cups repeatedly. It was very sweet though, and a memorable morning for all of us.