About me

My name is Mandy Hayter. I grew up in the beautiful state of Utah (if you haven’t been, do yourself a favor and add it to the list because it is amazing). But to say I’m from Utah doesn’t give a full picture of who I really am. My parents first emigrated from Samoa—a tiny island nation in the middle of the Pacific—to New Zealand when they were both still young adults. They met, married, started their family and lived there for many years before making one last ocean-crossing, life-altering jump across the Pacific to the good ol’ USA before I even happened. I was born in California, but lived the majority of my life in Utah, and I love it! Utah is home—and the mountains, don’t even get me started! I love my heritage, and I love being part of the continuation of such a complex story of grit that started with my parents.

Before leaving for school, I spent a year and a half of service living in Santiago, Chile that changed my life forever for the good. Upon returning, I knew my next destination was to attend university. I chose Hawaii for my college years, where I graduated with a degree in business management, and finance in three years. Was I dreaming of becoming a financial advisor as a child? Definitely not—and I should mention that it is still definitely not my dream job. Against my creative intuition—but perfectly in-line with my business minded self—I did work as a financial advisor. But I always knew that I would have to tap in to my creative side if I ever wanted to be truly happy with my work. 

I met my husband, Spencer while we were in college, and it has been total bliss since the day we met…Yeah, no; But marriage is so much more than what we dream of when we are eight, and I love that devilishly handsome and well-built, not to mention intelligent man of mine. 

After we got married, we had to make some choices with our lifestyle that would eventually lead us to the very path I am on today. At the time, Spencer was working for company that maintains nuclear reactors that required 6-8 months of travel a year, so we decided together that I would leave my financial career behind for a while and we would travel and see the world on his company’s dime. During the course of those 2 years, we saw 24 states and 5 countries! That is also the time when we started having babies.

I am a momma of 2 (Amor + Leif) with number three coming in just 8 weeks. We are so excited to meet the newest member of our growing family. After we started having babies—About a year and a half ago—Spencer decided to leave his career and make a big career change and prepare to go to medical school—which meant 2 years of classes just to apply. This is how we ended up in Southeastern Idaho; our temporary, and very cold home.