And the Future Takes Shape

Hello all! Will and I have been thinking A LOT lately about our future, what with me about to graduate and him not having anymore reasons not to go to school. For a long time neither of us have really known what we want to do for our careers.
Well, I don't actually want a career (as most of you know), but I need to work for a while until Will gets settled. He's gone back and forth quite a bit in the past few years. EMT, fireman, getting a degree in Business Management, a degree in Graphic Design. He wasn't sure about any of these, however, as I think he thought they all doomed him to a life of boredom and going to work because he had to.
Imagine my absolute joy, then, when yesterday he comes home and tells me he's decided what he wants to do for a career! Yes, Will has decided that his goal is to work for Bungie, the people who make the video games Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3!

I'm so happy because I KNOW he'll be great at it, as his passion for video games is unrivaled in anyone else I am acquainted with. It's also exciting because if he succeeds he can play all day at work and then I can have him when he gets home. It's a win-win situation.
So we've started looking online for the best game designing schools out there, and another convenient thing is that they're all technical schools like ITT-Tech and DeVry, which have campuses all over the country! This will be great when I'm looking for a steady job, because we can still go almost anywhere. Technical schools all say that you can graduate pretty quickly, too, so hopefully it will only take him three years to get his Bachelor's! Woo hoo!
As for me, I mentioned that I am working on a very bad manuscript for a book. My goal is to finish it around the time I graduate and send it out to some publishing companies as I'm searching for a job. Another goal of mine is to have lost about 30-40 pounds by then and I'm well on my way. I have a new friend in my ward and we've decided that we're going to go on walks every night (or something like that). Last night we went and we were out for an hour and a half! That means we probably walked 4-6 miles and I didn't even notice! Exercise is easy when it's not boring.
Well, that's all I have for now! But I'm so excited that our future is taking shape!

Ah, Memories!

Yet another thing that I have stolen from Jana, it's like a blog forward, almost. I must say, Jana, you truly are an inspiration to me!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses.

Drive-by Sticking!

The very first Montage of Drive-by Sticking. VVVRRROOOOOOMMMM!!! ./`da dink ./` BOOM! Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rNnI5jQxg

Hair Happenings

So I stole my title from Jana's family blog, but it's ok! Anyways, my promised update never arrived, and I apologize for that. I'm still attempting to write a horrible novel (well, a good one, but so far it's not great), so I feel like I've been writing a lot lately even though I haven't been blogging. Sorry! Also, it's surprisingly hard to type with an 8 month old trying to kick the desk, bang on the keyboard, and eat the mouse. Yes, all at the same time. I've put her down now and she wiggled over to my sewing ruler thing and is now examining that. Anyways, this past two weeks, Chaela has learned several new tricks. They include:

Army Crawling like a pro (she looks like a fish swimming on carpet)

Turning on Will's PS3

Ejecting the disc from Will's PS3

Turing on the stereo and ejecting the CDs

Turning up the volume on the stereo and crying when it turns on

Pressing buttons on the TV remote

Turning the pages in her board books

Various language skills

So as you can see it's been a busy two weeks! She's also MUCH more stable when she walks (while holding our hands), for those of you who saw her recently. She barely wobbles at all now! Oh, her language skills include a more thorough understanding of "No!," a little bit more of the /k/ and /p/ sounds (that's how we write them in Linguistics), and I SWEAR she says "mamamamama" more when I'm with her and "dadadadada" more when Will is home. That's most likely just my motherly pride, however.

This is what happens when she army crawls right into her diaper bag. Backpacking baby!

Oh, and I had to baby-proof the house recently, thanks to Chaela's new found ability to get around surprisingly quickly and stealthily. Well, it would be if she didn't yell so much. Anyways, I've started with the electrical sockets and when she gets to walking and things I'll do the cabinets, drawers, and doorknobs. We've also had to break out the playpen when we need to do something and can't keep a constant eye on her. Like anything. But I do try and keep her out of it 90% of the time so she can practice moving around. It's just hard chasing her to Will's PS3 over, and over, and over...

Her first time in the playpen was a bit melodramatic, as you can see. "Ahhh! I'm in prison! But I'm innocent!!"

Outside of Chaela, not much is happening. Mostly we're just trying to get by. There are a ton of other people in our lives that are way more exciting than us right now. We know three people who are getting married in the next few months (all family, actually) and three people who are having babies within the next year. Plus I have two friends who just got a great jobs and a friend who recently had her first baby. Congrats to you all!

This is for Jordan. You will notice the yellow "drum" and the two "sticks" in her hands. Yes, she was banging on it (Linds or mom, make sure he sees this!)

Well, that's all I have for now unless something exciting happens. Pioneer day is this week, so I have Thursday off. That's the best thing happening to me right now!

DOA: Dead on Arrival

So Dustin and I were playing team doubles and he died over by a fusion coil and so I shot the fusion coil hoping to kill the guy who just killed him. It didn't go quite the way I wanted it to. He spawned right by me and then just happened to jump at the wrong time in the wrong place. We ended up losing by one kill because of it. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHqcSDAITXc

Here! Hold This Please!

Another Sticky video yay! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7E9iHCC0CA

Home again. Sigh.

It's been a pretty busy week for us. I don't really have time to post details now, but here are pictures. I'll have to post again tomorrow or something!!

Swimming suit!
First time in the lake!
Family swimming!
Hanging out with cousin Addie.
Chaela trying to eat Addie's head.

Baby face! I love this shirt.

In the pool with cousin Oden. Fish crowns!!

When babies attack... she really likes to eat people's faces.

Me hanging out with my dad, trying to catch some fish.

Fourth of July outfit! Better pictures forthcoming.

Playing with Oden's baseball bear. I know Jess likes the Sox... but this looks suspiciously like a Cubs toy to me. I'm just saying.

Family at the Duroc Bay sign.

Grandma's dock.

The bay and some of the channel. I love it!!!!!!!

The best sign ever! That's all for now, I have to go to bed, but I'll post more soon! I'll post some pictures in my facebook album later, too.

Hawaiian Swim Pants!

Some of you may know that I've been searching for a swimming suit for Chaela for weeks. The other day I heard that most Dollar Tree stores have swimming suits in small infant sizes, so Will and I went there to see what we could find. However and alas, there were no girl suits at the one in Orem. There were swimming trunks, though, so Will and I decided to get a pair of those and tank top for her to swim in. But when we got home and I tried it on her, we found out that the shorts weren't really shorts.

As you can see.

And then here are some cute pictures.

It's ok though, because I found her a swim suit on sale at Baby Gap for $6, so yay! Now she can be cute and no one will think she's a boy! But I'm glad we went there because I really like the hat and I've been wanting to get her in blue for a while because it makes her eyes look so pretty. Yay again!

Also, can I just say that we're leaving for vacation in MO this week and I'm EXCITED! Aside from the fact that it's MO, which is awesome by itself, Will and I haven't been on a vacation since we were married. WOO HOO!

Chaela's Measurements

Yesterday I was wondering about how big Chaela was, since she hasn't had a doctor's appointment in a while. It might not be accurate, but I measured her and weighed her here at home, so here's what we have.

Height: 26.5 inches (she's grown 6.5 inches since birth)

Weight: 15.0 pounds (she's gained 8 pounds 6 ounces since birth)

Head Circumference: 17.6 inches (?)

So she's grown half a foot and more than doubled her weight! Yay! I looked online and what I found says that she's below the 5th percentile for weight, right about in the 25th for height, and in the 77th percentile for head circumference. So she has a big head. Oh well, she may be small, but at least she's smart!

The Dancing Rumble Pit

So I was playing online with Dustin Lewis and we were playing Rumble Pit which is everyone vs everyone and the other players just started jumping around. It was weird, but quite humorous. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vosJNww8f64