evan, lindsay, nina, elena and esther

Above is a phone picture Evan took yesterday morning when he woke up and walked into the living room. It says "I love daddy". Nina and I cut it out from old nat'l geographics and strung it up, and made breakfast for him before he woke up. I love Nina's daddy. I'm so glad he'll be this little baby's daddy too. After church we joined the Alexanders for a father's day feast - hot wings, homemade mac n cheese, and cheesecake. Good excuse to ignore my sugars for a while.



A couple of posts ago I mentioned a trip to Utah we recently made. Here is the tale. Evan had been there already for a BYU-I art travel thinger, and we met up with him after he'd had two days visiting firms and studios all over SLC/Provo.

Usually when we visit utah we're running around like crazy trying to stop at as many stores or food joints that aren't available in Idaho. We also visit as many people as possible- family, friends and mission peeps. In two or three days we often don't get everything done that we had planned. For this trip I made my usual list and we were able to make three of the family/friend visits, including - mission trainer and great friend Sariah and her husband Chris and two beautiful babies, and my cousins Heather & Ross and their their newborn Oliver and older brother Soren. But we didn't make a single shopping errand or eating out stop (les madeleines, El viruleno, and others -- we'll see you next time). And we were glad! Because it meant that we had a lot of time to relax and hang out with Jaqui & Travis and the Iannones.

Jaqui's sister Stephanie graduated high school and we also attended her sister Bella's baptism. They let us crash and become a part of their big family weekend. It was Nina-heaven - a trampoline and great backyard, a pool nearby, a cat, lots of food, lots of people to love her including new her friend Bella. We escaped the rain in SE idaho and had really warm nice weather with barbeques and bocce ball. Evan stepped away from his BFA project and other work and we spent real time together, a few days after our anniversary. It was just a nice break. On our last day Jaqui & Travis used their mad photography skills on us. The picture posted above is a teaser they sent us. We can't wait to see the rest!

I don't know if we'll have a chance to be in utah again before we move. It's kind of weird to think that we won't be living a 3 hour drive from there. Hopefully we can visit soon to see people and to realize our yet unfulfilled dream of hiking in one of the beautiful places there with a rented llama in tow. One day, we're gonna rent a llama

Since the sun and warmth finally melted narnia, I mean Rexburg, it was time to get out and enjoy it a little! This was a big spurt from June 1st to forget to include in the last post! (thanks Kaysi for putting these pictures up on facebook so I could have them too!)


Nina's smile here reminds me of her Grandad.


These first two were at Big Springs by Island Park. This is where this river originates, fresh and perfectly clear right out of the ground. Luckily this drive to big springs didn't include a $725 towing fee. (see a few posts ago if you want to read the tale)


And then at beautiful Mesa Falls:

It could be that my brain is on half function (pregnancy) or maybe I'm just lazy (pregnancy). EIther way, the blog has suffered.

We tend to take pictures in spurts, so here are a few spurts:

Taken on April 22:

In addition to altering her clothes, Nina likes to take off her crib sheet during naps or bedtime. I think the way she's wearing this onesie looks kind of like the type of shirt that goes under a sari. you know? just sorta?

Taken later that same day:



From May 15th:




Nina hunting a friendly neighborhood cat.

From May 30th:




May 31st:


Nina's first time on a trampoline, she loved it! Some neighbors, the Backsteins, let us come visit their rabbits, and then jump on the trampoline. They are a great family

From today, June 12th!






This headband is a part of her toy box. She also likes to try to wear it on her waist. She loves smoothies.

Other spurty updates:

Would you believe that I am 32 weeks pregnant already? THIRTY TWO!! Or a mere FIFTY ONE days from the due date, Aug 1st. Or just seven weeks. This pregnancy flew by.

Nina came 11 days early. That was really nice! I hope this little girl comes a little early too, that would be really GREAT! I'll take what I can get.

Nina is charming us beyond... whatever. She is adorable and fun!! t's nice because she had been a bit of a pill for a couple of weeks. Three weeks ago we attempted potty training at 18 months. It went well until the sixth day when a two day fever hit her poor little body. That was the end of getting her to do anything for the time being. After several days she got better and it seemed like her personality was permanently altered. (does that happen to anyone else's kids when they get sick?) ah well. She's changing all the time.

She learned how to say mommy finally!! Evan taught her. She's been saying daddy for months already. MONTHS. Like the majority of her life. I don't think there's anything happier than hearing her little voice say mommy. She's also saying "here you go" "thank you" "Caw caw!" and other useful things.

Some other random things --

+Nina puked on Evan's head today. And on the mailbox, simultaneously. I think she'd been going too crazy riding on Evan's shoulders after eating.

+We found a really cool type face in the bottom of one of the boxes I sorted this week.

+We love hearing Nina laughing to herself alone in her room when she wakes up some times.

+We miss Kaysi.

+We had a fun fun trip down to Utah last weekend. Loved seeing Sariah and Chris' new baby Miriam, Heather & Ross' new baby Oliver, and Travis & Jaqui & her family.

+Nina has selective separation anxiety. She mainly chooses to be upset when we leave her in the nursery at church.

+I'm getting bigger and waddlier and Nina likes to run away from me and make me chase her. Constantly.

+It's nice now that she's got her yeses and no's right, she had been mixing them up. She knows she's saying them right and is very emphatic when she says yes.

+I managed to play walleyball three times, do yoga once, and go swimming once in the last few weeks. We try to walk a lot too. Doing my best to stay active.

+I'm proud of the rexburg farmers market. It may never have the ideal ratio of produce vendors to craft/food vendors that a good farmers market would, but it is doing so much good for this town.

+We love our ward here.

As for Evan, he has the student version of "trunkiness". In other words he's ready to be graduated! (July 23rd!!) He's going full speed on his BFA project, classwork, and work. In two weeks he has a trip to Seattle/Ptown to interview with design firms. He is planning on bringing Nina with him, so I'll have a nice little weekend to myself to rest my very pregnant self, maybe do some packing. Wake up and do whatever I want for a couple of days! Fancy that