Howdy

Well, we made it here safe and sound with a pretty uneventful trip. When we first walked into our apartment our first thoughts were, "Ghetto!" but now that we have everything set up it definitely feels like home. There are a lot of broken things and carpet stains but we don't really notice them anymore. The day after we got here Aaron ran into our next door neighbors. They are a young couple who are also LDS and he is a grad student at A&M too! They also have a little boy who is almost a year old! This discovery made me super happy and was an answer to my prayers. They told us that they were the only members in this area until we moved in.
And even more good news: We found out that Aaron got a full tuition scholarship!!!! We were planning on taking out student loans so this is a super great blessing for us.
Aaron found a little lizard in our apartment while he was shutting the window and he accidentally cut the lizard's tail off in the window. Luckily we were able to catch it quickly but the tail is still on our window sill and I'm trying to make Aaron dispose of it. In the past two weeks we have seen a lot of bugs we have never seen before. There are a lot of toads too. They just jump out at us when we go on walks.
It is super hot here. Temperature wise it's about the same as Utah but the humidity is deathly. Whenever we go outside we get super sweaty. Poor Ethan cries whenever we get in the car because it feels like an oven.
Well, that's all for today.

Next Stage

We have been enjoying our last bit of time living here in Utah. We will be moving a week from today! I am both excited and nervous. I am mostly anxious about the 22 hour drive down there. I'm sure it will be longer because we will have to drive slow with a trailer. :( Hopefully Ethan will be good on the drive. He's been good in the car lately and just watches out the window. We will be driving our car and truck down (the truck will be pulling a trailer with all our stuff). Aaron's brother, Nathan, is going to be driving down with us, which will be a huge help. I guess I better start packing now!

Hawaii

Last week and the week before we went to Hawaii with my family. We spent the first week on Maui and the second on Oahu. It was a nice to go on a relaxing vacation because our big trip to Europe last year was a lot of running around. The beach in Maui was awesome!! It was just half a block away from our condo. It is the second best beach I have ever been to- Cancun being the first. Ethan was scared of the water at first but soon became quite the beach baby. I unfortunately lost my sunnies twice in the ocean. The first time Aaron found them in the water 20 minutes later. You would have thought I learned my lesson not to wear my sunnies into the ocean but big waves kept on taking me down by surprise. I love to play in the waves!!!

It was nice to visit Oahu again. I can't believe it had been almost 10 years since I went last. We visited all the touristy places such as: the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, Waimea, Hanauma Bay, and the Dole Pineapple Factory. The place we stayed at on Oahu had a bunch of man-made lagoons that we had fun playing in too. Oh, and not to forget shopping!! My family loves to shop. My favorite store we went to was a Japanese department store. It was just like being in Japan again.




Ethan with his Uncle Jacob and cousin Seth

Photos

I'm slow at posting pictures but here are some of our recent move, Aaron's graduation, etc.

Ethan's first rice cereal feeding

Playing on his tummy

Aaron and Ethan "in the hood"

With Aaron's sister Janelle, Aaron's mom, and my mom

Ethan "helping" us pack

Recently

I love living in a house with a big kitchen and yard!! It's been almost 2 weeks since we moved into Aaron's mom's house. We will be here until the middle of August, which is when we will be moving to College Station, Texas- Aaron was officially accepted to Texas A&M a few weeks ago!!!
Aaron's mom is living in SLC for the summer so we get to house sit and take care of Elise, Aaron's 17 year old sister. We planted a garden a few days ago and Aaron has been loving the big garage for all his projects. He is building a custom bumper for his truck. He taught me how to weld today!
Mother's Day was great this year- my first one being a mom. Ethan gave me the best present ever! He slept for 10 hours Saturday night with one brief feeding and then had a super long nap Sunday afternoon. It was amazing! Aaron gave me flowers and a CD of hymns. I love being a mom and I am even more grateful for my own mom now that I am a mom. I hope I can be as good as a mom to Ethan as she is to me.

10 Reasons

I haven't been in the mood to blog for awhile but my sister-in-law Sami tagged me a while ago so I guess I'll give in.

10 Reasons Why I'm Lame

1. I don't like to spend money on myself. Aaron pretty much has to drag me to the store sometimes.

2. I sleep in until 10 or 11 am. It is so so hard for me to wake up earlier than that especially now that I wake up a lot during the night for Ethan.

3. I worry too much. Most of the time it's about totally absurd things.

4. I get motion sick when I swing on swings. Just the other day I was barely swinging with Ethan on my lap for about 5 minutes and I felt like up chucking after.

5. I like to watch ET, Extra, Access Hollywood, etc. For some reason I find celeb news so fascinating. Aaron thinks it's funny!

6. I can be a little too competitive sometimes and I don't like to lose. I get mad at Aaron when we play Stratego because he always finds my flag way too fast. Also when we play Chinese checkers he ruins all my awesome moves.

7. I always sing the wrong lyrics to songs. I don't do it on purpose, but for example, I honestly thought the song "It's too late to apologize" really said " It's too late to fall in love". Oh well, I secretly think my lyrics are better!

8. I am obsessed with this season's American Idol. I like the Davids!

9. I think it's fun to organize things. I like to organize the luggage in the trunk when we go on road trips.

10. I have spent way too much time on this!!!!!!!!!!

10 Reasons Why I Rock

1. I can beat my husband at leg wrestling 18 out of 20 times! Arm wrestling is another story.

2. Aaron and I came up with an awesome business idea: "Mansies"! These are onesies but for men. I think this would be very popular with the plumbers because they wouldn't have to worry about showing off their bums every time they lean over.

3. I make really good pizza! I'm not very good at rolling out the dough into a perfect circle though.

4. I won the fight for Aaron with my roommate. Luckily she's married now and over it.

5. I have a great husband who helps out with Ethan in the middle of the night and takes him in the early morning hours so I can get some sleep.

6. I can measure out exactly half a pound from a big block of fudge. Thanks to working at the BYU candy counter.

7. I can do an awesome baby voice- unfortunately for my siblings who feel like I am torturing them every time I do it. Friends at work told me I was good enough to do voices for cartoons though.

8. I just got called as a family history indexer! It is fun to do and really easy.

9. I am good at playing practical jokes on people. Ask my sister Lindsey about the time I put a lobster shell in her bed. When she found it she was laying in bed and was too afraid to move because she thought it was alive.

10. I have traveled to 23 different countries. Hopefully more will be added to the list in years to come.

Tag! You're it: Lindsey, Rebecca, Brooke Berges

Lately

Here are pictures of some things we have been up to lately:

Aaron and Ethan washing the car

Poor sleepy babe

The Hatch cousins after an Easter egg hunt

Ethan's incredible balance

Aaron's 24th Birthday!!!