Easter Pictures

We had an incredibly relaxing and fun time in Moscow for Easter this year, I'm so glad Joel was able to get the time off to visit home!

We went to the Ryan's house for Easter:

Here are my parents all spiffied up for church:

Dad decided he should teach Lucy how to use an I-Phone:

We also spent time with the Williams' and Points':

Les and Lu having a narcissistic moment. Only joking. I think they were comparing eye colors?:

We went mini-golfing (sorry for the horrible light, forgot to change the settings on my camera!)

And Brian taught Lucy Adele a thing or two about the game (I'm not sure how much she picked up, though):

Lucy 1 and Lucy 2 became fast friends on the trip:

We also played several games of Ticket to Ride with my parents and watched some Bones episodes with them. And we went over to the Church's for a fun evening of games and fellowship, although I forgot to bring my camera that time! I'm impressed at how much we were able to fit into four days. It was so nice to be back in Moscow for a bit, and to get to share Easter with our family!

My best friend

Okay maybe this isn't my best friend EVER, but it's pretty close. I don't know how I survived three years of marriage without my dutch oven. I think I use it at least once a week, if not twice.



Where else can you take this (yes those are chipotle peppers on top, yum!):



And then six hours in the oven come up with this:

Which then gets shredded into this:

And served up like this (sorry this pic is rotated for some reason blogger insisted on rotating it every time I tried to upload it):

Delicious! And I submit that if I had made it in a slow-cooker it wouldn't have tasted nearly as good. Although I have no good argument for why that would be except for that my slow-cooker burns all my big cuts of meats. So that was our dinner last night, and it took maybe 15 minutes of my time to prep. The recipe is called Spicy Dr. Pepper shredded pork and is on my new favorite food blog here.

Oh, and Whiskey wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter. She likes Lucy's plastic eggs almost as much as Lu does.

Lucy giggles

Here's a little video for the grandparents of Lucy giggling. We never get tired of hearing her laugh, it's one of the best noises out there.

A New Haircut and the Sweet Life

Today I went to Novo Salon and spent a good deal more on a haircut than I used to back in Moscow. But it was definitely worth it! Not only was the atmosphere of the place really enjoyable and relaxing (they offered me tea when I checked in), but the gal who cut my hair did an amazing job. She looked at pictures with me and we talked about my hair texture and face shape, and then she came up with this fabulous short cut! The best part about it is that it will look good curly too. I'm really happy to have short hair again.

Also, Joel and I went to the Sweet Life last night and split an eclair. This one, specifically:

I LOVE the Sweet Life. Such good desserts, and a fun date-night getaway!

Joel and Lucy waiting patiently in line. Sorry for cutting your head off, hubs.

(P.S. Joel says: check out Lucy's mad dog look. She gets that from her dad.)

6-Months Old!

Happy 6-Month Birthday to our beautiful Lucy Rose! We are completely head over heels in love with this baby. She has the most adorable smile and laugh, and she's growing up so fast!

Hendricks Park

On Sunday the weather was nice so we decided to go explore an area of Eugene we'd never been to before. We'd heard that Hendricks Park with its rhododendron garden was beautiful, so we decided to go visit. And it was gorgeous! (Sorry for the weird focusing issues on some of the pictures, still figuring this new camera out!).

We took Lucy for a swing on the swings:

Which she enjoyed, but not as much as being out of the front-pack:

One of my favorite things about this garden was that it wasn't all neatly manicured lawns and shrubs; it felt wild and remote.

Check out the wild turkey:

Loved this lamp-post:

Memoirs of a Kitty

I was talking on the phone with my sis a while back and I mentioned something about Whiskey. And her response was, "Wait, Whiskey's in Eugene with you guys? I thought you left her in Moscow?" I have to admit I felt a little bit guilty about that. Apparently I haven't written a single post about our furry feline since Lucy was born. So here is proof that Whiskey is, in fact, still alive and living with us in Eugene: In Whiskey's opinion, her life took a turn for the worse about 5 and a half months ago, and has been spiraling downwards ever since. First there was the arrival of the noisy, hairless second pet on October 15th. Suddenly our laps and attentions were occupied by someone other than her, and that was disconcerting enough. But then, to make matters worse, one day we shoved her into the back of a car (her least favorite place on earth), drove 10 hours, and dumped her in a completely unfamiliar place, announcing it was her new "home". Gone were the days of going in and out of the house whenever she wanted. She is now stuck on the second floor of an apartment complex, with only a small balcony as her access to the outside world. Are you feeling sorry for our kitty yet? I hope so, this post is my cathartic way of getting all my guilt out there in the open. I'm certainly feeling a lot better now that other people can feel her pain. But there has been a bright spot in these dark days. There is no longer a constant fear in the back of her mind that she's going to get shanked by my parent's cat in her sleep. And in Whiskey's mind, that is a decent trade-off. So while Lucy may have taken center-stage, Whiskey will always be our favorite little kitten.

Eugene Yard Sale

I went to my first yard sale in Eugene. It was actually a compilation of yard sales held in the Lane Event Center. It was massive, busy, and overwhelmingly full of vendors and shoppers. I did score a few fabulous finds (including a hand blender that I have now used to make ice-cream shakes and fruit smoothies). But the only ones worth taking pictures of were these two cute pictures I found for Lucy's room. Lucy's nursery has a walk-in closet, which up until recently was filled with boxes of books, boxes of clothes, and boxes of things I didn't know what to do with. Unfortunately, from my seat in the rocking chair I had a nice view of all of this clutter, and it was not making me happy. So after my parents brought me down this nice white bookshelf, and after I found these two cute pictures for $2 each at the yard sale, I decided it was time to do some organizing. At some point I'd love for this walk-in closet to be an adorable play-nook for Lucy. For now, at least it looks well-organized from my rocking chair seat, and these two pictures make a world of difference. Much better!

Lucy learns how to make rude noises

Alright, here's a video of Lucy making adorably rude noises with her mouth. For some reason when these blog posts automatically upload to Facebook the videos don't carry over, so if you're viewing this on facebook and want to spend a minute and a half watching my child do something that perhaps only her parents (ok and the grandparents) find really funny, you'll have to go to our blog!