Lisa's first haircut

Last week Lisa had her first ever real haircut. (When she was about 6 months old, I did trim an awkward long strand of hair from one side of her head, but I wouldn't really call that a hair-cut). Before this cut, her hair was all the way down her back , constantly full of tangles, and she really loathes having it washed or brushed, so it was definitely time to do something! We were very excited that we could go to her Aunt Aimee, who is attending Evan's Hairstyling School here in Rexburg, to have it cut. Of course, we also promised she could have her nails painted while she was there too. She had a fun day at the beauty salon and cutting that five inches off has definitely made a difference in how tangled it gets. Now she can eat her lunch without dragging her hair through her ketchup. And I can actually run my fingers through it without getting completely stuck. Amazing! Thanks, Aimee.

Graduation and Easter weekend

Where's Waldo...I mean, where's Ryan? Surprisingly, he was looking right at the camera when I took this picture from all the way across the stadium. We are so proud of him for his accomplishments. He has been such a superb student (as I'm sure he always will be whatever his course in life). Lisa was happy to see daddy home from his special day. She stayed home with a babysitter. Much more fun for her, I'm sure. That weekend we also had an Easter egg hunt for Lisa. She emjoyed her Strawberry Shortcake Crown from Marmee as well as the solid chocolate bunny she is chowing down on in the picture ahead.

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.