Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Hoosiers, Graduation, and First Birthday

So it has become time for a massive update, tons has happened the past three months.  The first and probably biggest piece of news is that Ryan was accepted to Indiana University to start grad school in the fall!  Which of course means that we are moving to Indiana in August!  We're pretty excited to say the least.  Ryan was also awarded an awesome fellowship, which of course sweetens the deal.  Ryan flew out in March to check out campus and housing a little bit and he loved it, so he turned in his acceptance stuff right there on the spot.  I know essentially nothing about Indiana, but I've heard good things about the Midwest from people that have lived there.  So we're trading in our cougar blue for crimson Hoosier red (I don't even know what a Hoosier is), and looking forward to a new start.

   The next big thing that happened was graduation.  Ryan and I both graduated at the end of April with our bachelor's degrees.  Ryan in Russian and me in Construction Management.  My "official" graduation is actually in August since a few of my independent study grade didn't get submitted in time, but I'm done with all real course work and it feels great.  We barely survived finals week though, with all our final papers and projects we were going crazy, Lauren decided to go crazy too. She has been a trooper all year long, but in that last week she decided enough was enough.  She literally screamed every time I left the house and decided that it was time to cut her first teeth, all four of them at once.  Which in turn led to explosions every half hour for four days.  One of those explosions happened to be all over my mom in the middle of convocation.  They both had poop all over them, and spent the rest of convocation in the car.  A few days after graduation we moved out of Provo and back to West Jordan, where we are living in Ryan's parents basement to help save money for the BIG move.  Ryan will be starting an internship in about a week, but in the mean time we've loved having him home and Lauren has loved having both of us home all the time instead of in shifts.

 Ever since we moved Lauren has turned into a whole new kid.  I think it is due to all the extra attention.  She loves playing with her uncles and most days we can't even get her to eat breakfast or dinner because she is too busy making googley eyes at her uncles and grandpa.  Today is her first birthday and it is amazing to look at how much we have all changed in the past year.  It seems like it has been so much longer than a year, we love her so much and have enjoyed every minute of her.  She has such a funny personality.  She squeals in delight whenever Ryan or I chases her and loves to push or pull anything that can be pushed or pulled.  She is on the verge of walking and loves trying to pick up large or heavy things like scriptures or soccer balls.  I love her smiles, her big hugs, and her laugh and especially when she crawls over and lays on my chest, sighs and says "Mom."  Having her made getting though school hard, but also easier at the same time.  She could always brighten my day when I got home and she would almost jump out of Ryan's arms to see me.  Every time I did poorly on a test she could always made it better and helped me remember what is really important.  I love watching her discover new things and learn every day.  She has been catching on to things so quickly, it is so amazing to watch.  We love Lauren and look forward to lots more years.  Happy Birthday Lauren!

Nothing like a little negotiation to get you excited to go to the dentist...

In light of some pricey dental work I've had done in the past couple weeks, here is something to make you laugh, or at least smile a little bit. On of my teachers showed this in class when we were talking about negotiations.  I'm sure Ryan wished he could have done this before I went to the dentist. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB9c2ocJOx4

Calling Out ShAnneDrew Strabley!!!

Shiloh,
Since I know you are one of the only people who reads this blog, this post is for you.  As you know we got Ryan's favorite game, Carcassonne, for Christmas.  Due to an awesome sale at the toy store, we bought two of the expansions over the weekend: Traders & Builders and the Dragon.  We played yesterday and they pretty much rock, even though Ryan totally kicked my trash.  We're calling you guys out for a game night, at your convenience of course.  You pick the time, we've got the place.  Prepare to get your game on!

Sincerely,
RyLaurNah Woozly

Last Semester!!

We're already three weeks into our last semester!  At times it seems like April won't come fast enough, but there is so much to get done in between now and then.  Ryan and I both have about 13 credits this semester and then I have 3 independent study courses to finish my April 2nd in order for them to count for graduation in April.  I made a very idealistic plan of how to accomplish it all over Christmas break but now I'm way behind where I need to be, time to kick it into high gear I guess...or just postpone graduation, but I really just want to be done.  Ryan has just finished applying to grad schools, sadly we won't find out anything until March or April.

On another note though, Christmas break was great and Lauren is growing like a weed.  She is currently on the verge of crawling and will only do it out of shear desperation.  She gets up on all fours then takes one crawl and then plops back down on her stomach and flails her arms and whines until she realizes that I 'm not coming to pick her up and then she'll come one more crawl and plop back down again.  This will usually repeat about 4 times and then she refuses to go any further and starts crying.  One of these days she'll figure out that it is an effective way to get around.

Here are some of the recent pictures:

Christmas Morning

Lauren loved all the paper

Her new dress that Grandpa got from Russia

Playing with stacking cups

Crawling position

Final Finals

We finally both finished our finals on Friday evening.  This semester has definitely been a stressful one, Lauren has been such a trooper though. It's been weird for me to not even be worried about getting super good grades but just trying to pass my classes. At least my grades will be able to spell words though, words like BAD, ADD or ACE (hopefully no E's though...). We've now got two weeks of blessed Christmas break.Wahoo!!
Here's some pictures of getting ready for Christmas...Lauren is a great helper...

The Christmas Spirit

Check out this clip if you haven't seen it anywhere else yet. . .

The Christmas Spirit