I love my family. Both old and new. I would be lost without my in laws, they are a big part of my life now. I am so sad that we may be moving just as the semester starts with Alecia, Michelle, and Neil all here. I just want to be able to spend time with them. Alecia and Michelle especially though, need to spend time at school. It's their first year, and they need to spend time with their roommates and make new friends and experience the college life.
Why do people have to make their own mistakes? Why can't we all just learn from what the experienced people say and not touch the hot stove. I want to take away the pain for those that I love that continue to make bad choices. I want to yell at them and make them understand that they need to change or they will continue to be unhappy.
I love primary songs. I love that I have something to sing to my daughter that reminds me and teaches her that we are children of God, that we have a place we belong and a purpose in life. I love being reminded that my Heavenly Father loves me. It's very comforting, and I think especially so because it is sad in such a simple innocent way.
It is strange to me that sometimes when I have a move coming my way I am super excited and ready for a new adventure, for change and a new way to do things and look at things. Other times, like this one, I am not ready. I feel left in a void this time. I am very thankful to the Wildings for letting us live in their basement, but I don't know what my future holds. I am very uncomfortable with that.
I wish I didn't go in cycles of what crafts I like to do. It makes it hard to finish a project when I am suddenly no longer interested in it. It leaves me with a lot of mostly done things. I am proud to be learning so much though. Every new project teaches me something else. I love to teach other people to do those simple craft things that they thought were so hard, but in reality only take a couple hours at most.
I want to be more creative. I am in some ways, but so lacking in others. I guess that's why everyone is different. We are all supposed to help each other.
I want to write a lullaby for Maggie. I can't come up with the right words though. I feel like the music will come once I have something to put it to.
I am so sick of some of Maggie's toys. I want to take all the batteries out, but she's learning how to press buttons and cause and effect, and they are teaching her things as she listens to the dumb little songs.
Making friends is a lot harder now that I'm older. I wish it was as simple as when I was 5 and unafraid of anything. I wouldn't get rejected or feel ridiculous or inadequate. I would have friends to play with because we all had things in common, who cares that it was loving to swing and play hide and seek.
I never want to get so old that it's inappropriate for me to tuck my leg up while sitting.
I love hot chocolate. and caramel. and cinnamon. Together or separate, whichever.
I am excited for my friends to get married. I want to be more involved in their weddings, but I feel like I'm intruding if not invited to help out, even though I'm sure they could use the help.
I want to live in New York City, or Seattle or some other big city. I want to be a part of that big city craziness, but I think I've already passed the time in my life where that would be possible or even a good idea. Sigh.
Brandon has applied to at least 25 different jobs all over the country. I want to go to all of them. Maybe not Texas, that's too hot, but all the rest just sound like a big adventure! I don't think they recommend switching jobs every year or two though, just because your wife wants to move somewhere different. Luckily, moving furniture around or painting the house helps me to see enough change that I don't need to move every year.
I am scared to live in one place the rest of my life.
Maggie is amazing! She blesses my life every day with her happiness and excitement at the simple things. She is turning into such a funny girl. She laughs at some of the silliest and simplest things. Example: Bobby. Every time we say his name she just giggles. She's so dang cute! I love having conversations with her. She can say b, d, m, n, s, g, k and is pretty close on a couple other consonants. She mostly sticks with a vowels, but it's adorable no matter how much she knows. She picks the sounds that she knows out of the words I say and repeats them back to me. So when I start talking about getting in the car, she says ca! ca! or ball, ba! ba! or something like game she'll say ma ma! or we ask if she's a good girl and she says ga! ga! and keys are a kkkkk sound in the back of her throat. So cute! I love this kid. Though I do wish we were both sleeping right now - she's been awake since 5.
I need to pack.
Brandon was able to play a round of Urban Golf at Decatur with Bobby, Danny and Mark.
And afterward was Danny and Julene's reception. So beautiful!! She was gorgeous and the deorations were wonderful and the dinner was delicious! It was an all around fun and wonderful night.
Brian, Brandon, Mark, Danny, and Bobby. They even called Adrian so he could be included even though he couldn't be there.
Steve and Kathy gave us a christmas-y lei and two cuddle soft blankets, one for Maggie (which she sleeps with every night now) and one for Brandon and I which is currently cuddling me now. It's so soft and the perfect size for couch cuddling.
As you can see, the lei is super special consisting of butterflies made from two one dollar bills, mini poinsettias, ribbons and dollar coins! A money necklace-exactly what we need. 
Grandma and Grandpa were able to stay with us for a few days! We had so much fun with them, getting to know them and they getting to know Maggie. 
Michelle and Maggie are besties. They had so much fun playing together! Maggie still asks to cuddle Michelle whenever her name is mentioned. We pray for her in her new internship in California. Lucky girl!
Not every day can be a good day. Especially hair wise.
Curiosity can find you some fun things! Maggie is moving around the house a lot more now. She cruises along all the furniture and even crawls for real sometimes! Head off the floor and everything. Maggie spends a lot of time with her forehead on the floor. In fact, much of her playtime by herself is spent that way, often accompanied by her butt in the air. I don't know why, but I suspect it helps her in some sensory way. 
Maggie and her new friend Jack. We got to see Mark and Jackie while they came for a visit from Utah! It's interesting to see Maggie around other kids. She doesn't really care. We'll see what happens when we finally decide to put her into nursery. (The fact that she's 5 days from being old enough to go to nursery really weirds me out.)
And so you see the exciting life of those in search of a job. We've spent a lot of the last few months getting to know our families better, and them getting to know the fantastic Maggie. I love having Brandon home. He's wonderful to have around all the time, and Maggie loves it too. She is such a Daddy's girl! She says all the time "Kuhgn da da?" - cuddle dada - aka please pick me up and play with me! It's neat to see them play and have so much fun together. And I love having him near by all the time. We even get to go on dates sometimes to the temple or the cheap theater. Grandma loves to babysit. We all have so much fun together! We've not heard much from possible employers, but we pray and continue to look. If you've any knowledge of available jobs for a business major who loves baseball, please let us know! 
that dropping rocks at the hot springs is super fun! 
Brandon can have fun looking for gold (we even found some!), 
flowers are acutally pretty easy to arrange and I really like being a part of people's weddings, especially when there are so many friends around
I love Maggie so MUCH! (at the temple after Megan's wedding)
Cupboard doors are super fun to bang against the fridge and pots and pans are seriously the best drums ever. So loud!
I turned 24! I can't believe it. I remember thinking how cool it would be to get to high school. Look at me now! Graduated college (it's finally official) married with a baby! I am so lucky!
Maggie would really love to spend all day on her head.
Corn mazes and haystacks 3 stories high can be super fun even if it's freezing
It's so neat to be able to pull yourself up table legs and then taste them just for fun.
Carter's makes the best baby costumes (they acutally fit - and it's warm!)
Baby carrots in a small bag, labeled SCARROTS with glow-in-the-dark tattoo carrots in costume is possibly the best advertising ploy ever! My little brother and sister wanted to take lunch to school just so they could show everyone their scarrots.
Not surprisingly, Maggie really likes sledding. She's going to love roller coasters.
And though it may be super difficult, we can get the whole family together at the same time to take a picture. YAY! I love my family! 
They came to visit us on their way to take her to the MTC. Really, we all just hung out and played games and such. I'm glad I got to see her some more before she left. 
then walked down to the waterfront and watched the best fireworks show west of the Mississippi. 
All in all a good and busy day. 
went to the lake, 
and had an all-around wonderful time. I am so glad that I decided I wanted to go. And just in the nick of time too, I barely had time to get my passport renewed. I loved spending time with my new family! Camping is also one of my favorite activities, so it combined to be a very wonderful weekend. We even got some pictures with four generations! 
We all look a little grubby from camping, but it was so much fun, who cares what we looked like?
while the boys played basketball.
Her four little teeth made it all so much cuter! 
Michelle and Neil and I got to hang out some. We all went to the beach with Twix too. 
Maggie wasn't super excited about the water, but she wanted to play in the ocean more than just sit in the sand. 
Neil taught me a bit of how to skim board.
Michelle and I made some skirts too! Well, we only finished one, 
but we got fabric for 3 each. I just finished one of mine last week.
It's super fun for me to think up and design these. I decided I love it so much, I'm going to start making baby dresses like this to sell at craft fairs and farmer's market's, etc. Back to vacation. Whenever possible Grandma would put aside work for a while and play with Maggie. 
When Grandpa got home from work Maggie would run her fingers through his beard. She had lots of fun getting to know her family better. 
and played with her new toys. 
she ate barely a few crumbs, but the rest of us liked it. She got lots of new cute clothes and some fun new toys. Her favorites were her owl jammies 
(ok those are my favorite-they are SO dang cute!) and a new crawl and play ball. 
It has lots of fun buttons to push and it sings her fun songs. Brandon's birthday was much less ideal. He was at work all day, so I brought in 2 banana cream pies to work for him and everyone else in the office. Then Maggie and I came later that night to the game. Of course it started raining and he got to help put out and take down the tarp on the infield, then help dry it all out. The game was only an hour and a half delayed…which meant that Maggie and I were there for about 1 inning before we headed back home. He was very tired when he got home that night, but he got a good night sleep after a labor intensive day.