Rounding off 25.

This is going to be a long one, so sorry! Last year, before I turned 25, I made a list of 25 goals, so I thought it would be fun to post them on here and see how many of them I can check off. It's hard to think about how much I've done/accomplished/changed in a year. It feels like it has been at least three years since I wrote all these. Anyway...results are in bold italics.

1. Finish my book -check
2. Stop being so hypercritical of my work. -check...ish
3. Be excited for other people. -check
4. Travel more -still traveled lots, but maybe not more than we did that year!
5. Exercise more-and I don't mean like go to the gym every day, but get fit in my own way. Dancing, running, simply getting out and doing things instead of sitting on my butt in front of the couch with some Ben & Jerry's in hand. -HA.
6. Don't be so quick to say no. -I actually feel pretty good about my achievements in this one. Go self.
7. Don't be so quick to write myself off. -given recent circumstances, I'd say I've done a pretty good job
8. Be up for adventures. -sure?
9. Stop stressing about the little things. -see last post for a brief description about how I don't care about anything anymore.
10. Know my strengths. -my strengths and I are well acquainted currently, thank you for asking
11. Take more pictures. -check
12. Ignore the haters. -check
13. Go to more concerts. -check
14. Maintain strong relationships with my family even though we live in different cities now. -very much check
15. Let the positive things people say about/to me affect me more than the negative. -check
16. Allow time/room for myself in my own life. -a few weeks ago I bought a face mask for the first time in my life, so not only am I making time for me, but I'm also becoming a real girl. double achievement.
17. Make decisions when it is important to do so. -another one where I just have to laugh
18. Try new things. But when I say things I mostly mean food. -I got pregnant and ate pizza rolls and fried potatoes. I'll try again this year.
19. Cook more and try new recipes. -how many of these can I use pregnancy as an excuse for?
20. Cook more big meals on the weekends with Brandon. Cooking is one of our favorite things to do together, and we definitely don't do it enough. -one more, why not
21. Laugh more. -did this, need to do it again
22. Stop being defensive before I need to be. -big old fat check
23. Continue learning French. -nope.
24. Read more. -I command all of you to read The Selection series. If there were more books that kept me as entertained as that one, I would never interact with another human ever again.
25. Surround myself with people who allow me to be myself and don't make me feel insecure. And also stop allowing other people to make me feel insecure. -check.

I would make another list of 26 goals, but honestly, at this point, I think that keeping myself happy is just the overall goal. There are a lot of different things that go into that, and some days require different things than others. I'm learning to be very comfortable and confident in myself, and I think that has been very instrumental this past year. I'm going to continue to do me, and I think 26 will be a good year for me. I'm hopeful, anyway, and I think hopeful and happy are the two best things to ask of myself this year. Here's to 26!

Godfather's for my father.

Honestly I'm just really sorry about the title. Sometimes I think I'm way funnier than I actually am.

My family came down to visit this past weekend! My parents, brothers, and their respective ladies all made the drive down just to spend time with us! It was so nice to have everyone here, especially since half of them hadn't been down before. It's also just really nice that we have the room for everyone. But anyway.

Friday was my dad's birthday, so we took him to the new Godfather's in South Jordan. He used to work at Godfather's in Idaho Falls, and it is his favorite pizza place, so we was stoked to hear one was opening down here. The pizza was sooo good. Brandon and I can't stop talking about the Chicken Bacon Ranch, and I have a feeling we'll be going back pretty soon. The best part was that the staff came and sang Happy Birthday, even though they don't technically do anything for birthdays. My brother asked, and they just agreed because they are so great. We all stuffed ourselves so full that we couldn't even do cake and ice cream when we got home.

On Saturday we went to the aquarium! The oldest of my two brothers loves all things that live in the water (or at least the ones he can buy and keep in a tank, which is a lot of things, turns out) and it was fun to hear him rattle off all his water creature knowledge. Honestly, going with my two grown brothers was like going with children; they were so excited. After the aquarium we went to Ikea because why not. We started our journey off with some snacks (pizza, froyo, and hot dogs), and made our way through the store. This was the third time I had been to Ikea in about two months, and I found some pretty good things this time! My mom kept complimenting my decorating game all weekend, so I felt like freaking Joanna Gaines walking through that store. Maybe sometime I'll post pictures of some of the things we've done with our house. I don't feel like it's all that impressive, but my mom likes it, and moms never tell you they like something just because that is their job. That night we finally did cake and ice cream and played a couple rounds of Sushi Go before crawling off to bed.

Sunday morning went by way too quickly. We had breakfast, and then everyone packed up to leave. The siblings all left and headed straight home, but my parents wanted to go see Carter, so we drove up to Logan with them and hung out with our boy for about half an hour. We took him a bunch of flowers for Valentine's Day, and replaced the stake on one of his solar lights. It was nice to take my parents, and this was their first time being back after his funeral service, so they were able to see his headstone!

All in all, it was a really good weekend. My brother and his wife brought their dog, and it was so fun to watch her with the cats. She is a bigger dog than the cats have ever been around, but is super calm, so the cats weren't quite sure what to think of her. Every time the cats would get brave enough to go close to Maebe we all got so excited. Sometimes I don't really know what we would do for entertainment if we didn't have the cats haha.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!