'Merican

On May 9, 2013 I officially became a United States citizen!! It is quite the accomplishment. I love this country and am proud to be a citizen. That said, I will also forever be a proud Canadian :) 

The process of becoming an American citizen is a long and slightly painful one. I will say that getting a greencard is definitely the hardest part! I thought the interview for citizenship would be grueling and hard and most Americans couldn't pass it (because that's what I had always heard) but that was not the case. A lot of the answers to the questions they asked me I would have known without reading through the little study guide they gave me. All in all, it's a process I'm glad is over and I am proud to be an American!

We had to drive to Boise for the interview. I am so glad we have such a great little traveler!

The hotel we got was....cheap. Haha. But it worked great and it was literally across the parking lot from where I had my interview.

I passed my interview!!

TJ bought me a dark chocolate Kit Kat to celebrate. I LOVE those. Mmmm dark chocolate... :)

Then it was back home to Idaho Falls. For the record, we drove 8 hours in total and my interview was only 15 minutes long. Ha!

3 weeks later we went back to Boise for my oath ceremony/swearing in. It was a nice little ceremony in the USCIS building. I had always imagined it would be in a courthouse or something like that, but it was just in the lobby of this building. It was still great, though :)

 They read off the countries of all the people that were getting citizenship that day (there were 41 of us, I believe) and had us stand when our country was read. I was the only Canadian! Represent! (side note: I did not wear red and white on purpose. Honestly.)

 There was a short ceremony, we took the oath, then President Obama showed up to congratulate us and say a few words.

 Receiving my certificate

 They gave us all little American flags. Hunter really liked mine :)

I did it!!

TJ gave me this flag as my 'becoming an American' gift. This is called the Canamerica Friendship flag. I died laughing when I opened it!

 To celebrate we went out to Tucanos for lunch

 Hunter loved sitting in the high chair, eating yummy fruits, breads, and cheese from Tucanos, and totally flirting with our waitress. Such a lady killer.

 First meal as an American! Cheers :)

10 months

We have a 10 month old baby. Double digits. Whoa.

Hunter is a crawling, cruising, climbing machine. He is a busy boy, always moving!

Things he likes to do at 10 months:

- crawl

- climb the stairs

- clap

- nod his head

- point

- dance - bouncing, bobbing his head, swaying, arm-swinging-hoe-down, you name it.

- EAT! He doesn't eat any baby food any more (yay!!) and he'll eat pretty much anything he can feed himself.

- be chased. He laughs and giggles and tries to crawl away so fast.

- I think his favorite thing is destruction - anything he can pull off a shelf, out of a bin, or disorganize/mess up/destroy. (such a boy)

10 months old!

Right after he turned 9 months he decided it was time he started crawling for real and pretty much did it overnight. Now he gets faster by the day!

Evidence he's been having a good time :)

Loves feeding himself

and eating his toys...

 This little boy loves his dad and always wants to be doing what he's doing.

and wearing what he wears :)

We like to visit him at work

and at the track. (TJ helped coach the track team at one of the local high schools) The pole vaulters sure had a cute little cheerer! 

The water bottle obsession continues...

He loves to play with this fridge farm magnet set

He is such a silly boy. He makes me laugh all the time.

He loves when I play guitar, and helps me play guitar

Point!

We had a fun visit when Josh came up after he finished up his semester at BYU

Most of the time he is so happy when he wakes up. I love coming in to this face :)

We finally took down our March Madness bracket and let Hunter go to town on it. He had a blast!

We love being able to go on walks and the swings more often with nicer weather

We went to Barnes & Noble for a family date night

I love how he clutches the remote. He'll do it to my phone, too :)

Hunter thought it was hilarious to throw all of the socks out of this bin as fast as his little arms could!

He figured out how to clap all by himself

He learned how to give high fives

He likes to sleep with his little bum in the air.

And more pictures. He's just too cute!

Happy 10 months, Hunter! We love you!