My great excuse for not blogging lately

It's been awhile since my last post, I know. My usual excuse is that our internet is too slow at home to blog at all so I have to go to the public library to use the faster internet. But my other bigger excuse will be obvious in the following picture. Once Ryan gets home from student teaching each day, I just haven't had the energy to go to the library for some internet time!

That is because we are expecting our second baby! Yep-I am now 14 weeks along. The due date is set at Sept. 24th, but I'm hoping for another early bird (Lisa was 3 weeks early). I've haven't had much morning sickness at all (it was the same with Lisa), it just feels like the smallest thing takes all my energy. And food still looks and smells disgusting. All of it. Except ice-cream, of course! And for some reason Mac and Cheese has been my lunch craving for the past week. Lisa definitely doesn't mind that. She has been such a good sport letting me rest when I need to and always taking good care of me. She makes me feel so good all the time, especially when she says things like, "Mom, thanks for all the nice things you do for me," and just telling me that she loves me all the time. She is such a sweetheart. And she's got spunk, too! Playing pretend is about her favorite thing to do right now and it is fun to watch her be so creative. She also loves playing at the library with all the toys they have there.
We've only got 2 MORE WEEKS in Ogden and then we're headed back to Rexburg so Ryan can graduate. Hooray! Good job, Ryan. He's applying for teaching jobs in Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. We've got our hearts set on Idaho. We've kind of come to think of it as home over the past five years. So we'll see what happens.

The latest sewing endeavors

Thanks to Becky, I had the opportunity to sew two crib bedding sets over the last couple of months. One was for Becky's little girl and the other was for a lady Becky recommended me to. It was a good learning experience and I had fun doing it. I'm glad Becky helped with choosing colors because that can sometimes be a hard part for me. Ryan was very helpful by watching Lisa for several hours each day during last weekend so I could finish the second set. It was a very satisfying project, although I hope I can get faster!

Beauty and fun in Ogden

Our apartment has a great view right outside. I love how the mountains are so close. Ryan has now been snowshoeing twice in that canyon and he only has to drive 20 minutes to get there.

Very nice. There is also a great paved trail along the Ogden River that goes right through the middle of town within walking distance of the apartment. It is good to get out-we certainly can do more of it here during these winter months than in Rexburg. Of course we always take any opportunity we can to play at a park and do some monkeying around.

Children's Treehouse Museum

We discovered a gem of Ogden last weekend. It's called the children's treehouse museum and it is so much fun. It's this big Museum with dozens of room full of every toddler's dream toys, including creative and educational displays. Lisa had a great time playing every imaginable type of pretend games...doctor, dentist, school, kitchen, puppets, art projects, and even a sailor in a boat. I was amazed she was entertained for over three and a half hours. And she would've stayed longer, but we were getting hungry. She was definitely tired as you may be able to tell from looking at her eyes in some of the pictures, but it was totally worth it. Lisa and I even ended up taking the bus on another occasion to go again because we like it so much.

Temporarily in Ogden

We are now living in Ogden for three months while Ryan does his student teaching. Things seem to be working out well. A big thank you to family and friends who are always so willing to help us and who make life so good. Here are a few pictures of our apartment. We were excited to find a furnished place so we didn't have to bring our furniture. It's a little small, but will suit us just fine for this short adventure in Utah. We opted to just get dial-up internet, so I probably won't be doing as much blogging for awhile. The public library has a good connection--that's where I am now. I can come here to post pictures while Lisa plays with the dollhouse she enjoys very much.

Natalie came for a visit yesterday and the girls looked so cute reading together on the bed, especially Maddy. They didn't seem to mind the smallness of the apartment at all.

Hooray for snow!!!

This morning when I woke up it felt strangely quiet and I thought to myself, "I wonder if it snowed last night..." . I looked out the window and was pleasantly surprised--it HAD snowed! It was quite warm yesterday so I was not expecting this, and it definitely has made my day. For some reason I have had a hard time getting into the Christmas festivities, but this took care of it for me.  After playing in the snow, we came in and baked and decorated Christmas cookies. And now I feel like having Christmas music on and making more Christmas crafts with Lisa. We probably won't put up our little tree because we're going to California in less than a week, but I'm looking forward to Lisa getting to see the trees at our family's homes. There won't be snow in California, so hopefully it won't melt too fast here and we will make sure and enjoy it for the next few days. Let it snow!

Evidence of how warm it was yesterday...the trikes are still out on the sidewalk and everything. Snow has certainly taken its time getting here this year. 

I haven't really stopped smiling since I saw it was snowing this morning. We were dressed and outside by 9:15am.

Lisa has been asking to bring out her sled for the last month, ever since the last light dusting of snow we had, so I'm glad we could use it this time.

I was so happy that when Tucker saw us from the window Becky brought him and Oakley out to play with us.

Oakley looked so cute in her little snowsuit. She isn't smiling at this second, but when the sled was moving she was laughing her cute little laugh.

Everyone look this way and smile! Oh well...at least the snowman is smiling, right? And looking right at me too! One of our neighbors, Jeff, and his son, Bradley, were outside making the snowman and they let us join in the fun. 

"I need another huuuuuuug!"

In this family, bedtime is always a big drama event every night. We start with letting Lisa know that in five minutes it will be time to brush teeth, the mention of which sends her into a meltdown. After brushing teeth we read books, which can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 20. Then we may or may not lay with her for a few minutes singing songs or just snuggling. Then it's time for mommy or daddy to go out and we give plenty of hugs and kisses. How loud or long she yells, cries, and whines after we go out depends on her particular mood that night. Some nights there is no end to the things she "needs". We've tried to eliminate the constant asking for more things by making sure she has EVERYTHING she could possibly need, such as tissues, sippy cup, wipes (yes, she sleeps with a container of wipes next to her in bed), baby doll, etc. But then she just starts yelling, "I need SOMETHING!" The one that makes me smile the most is when she stands at the door yelling for "another hug". I couldn't resist recording a little snippet of it here. 

Don't you just want to go in there and hug her and then hug her some more?