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Maggie started crawling on Christmas Day--a day before she turned 8 months and a few weeks ahead of when Ella started. Maybe it was the added incentive of getting around to all the great toys Santa brought, who knows? Our little baby is now mobile and into everything--watch out! I'm sure this video will not be of interest to many of you, but I wanted to have it recorded on here anyway.
We had a wonderful Christmas spent with our families in Utah. Santa was very good to our girls this year, but their grandparents were even better--imagine that! Here are a few pics of the festivities with our families and a handful of the presents. . .
My mom went down with us to see the lights at Temple Square before Christmas. We had to take Trax down, given Ella's fascination with Trains, and then we spent the night walking around Temple Square in the freezing temperatures and snow. I'm glad we made it out to see the lights anyway as we missed our chance last year when we were in town. It always helps us with our Christmas spirit!
The girlies in their festive Christmas dresses. . .
(courtesy of Grandma Draper)
I need to spend more time on Photoshop. I have 2 cute girls who never seem to be able to make a cute face in the same shot! There are about 10 more pics just like this--one looking, one looking away; one smiling, one staring. Any tips on transferring faces on pictures? Better yet, anyone just want to do it for me?
And while you are at it, can you move Maggie's headband to the side of her head so she looks like less of a cyclops? Gotta love it!
We took advantage of a mid-week snowstorm last week and took Ella and her cousin Emily sledding at good old Sugarhouse park. 
It was Ella's first time sledding, she was not a fan after going down the first run and having snow bury her face. It took some convincing to get her up there again, but once she did she enjoyed it and the girls had lots of fun together!
We are starting to get towards the end of interview season and are looking forward to having Brad home with us more rather than traveling all around interviewing for different residency programs. The first week of December he had 2 interviews in Denver. We decided to make a family trip out of it and visit our friends the Stutzneggers who live out that way. We had such a fun time hanging out with them. They were such gracious hosts to our family, and even gave us more of our own space than we have in our own home! We spent most of our time just visiting and letting the kids play together. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we are considering moving into their basement! You're okay with that, right Conrad and Courtney? 
Brad and Conrad--I swear if we didn't interrupt them they could stay like this and talk all day and night!
Cute little Maggie
Ella loved playing with Weston, he was so sweet to her.
Maggie with Momma--this girl is right in the middle of some serious attachment issues--if I am in the room, she insists I hold her. . .no one else will do!
Courtney and I
Rub-a-dub-dub 4 kids in a tub. It was fun to give them all a bath at the same time. but I'll be honest, it was also pretty crazy!
Thanks again you guys, we can't wait to see you soon!
Lately, Ella ALWAYS wants to play hide and seek. Unfortunately, she doesn't always have a little buddy to play with her and sometimes Daddy and Mommy want someone else to have the chance to hide. This time, Maggie got in on the action and I think they had fun together! 
In the sun he melted. . .
With Brad's help, Ella built her first snowman today. Unfortunately it melted and fell over before evening came. I'm glad I got a few shots of it while I could!
And I'm even more glad Brad is around a lot more now to make everything so fun for our girls. . .he is way better at that than I am!
Maggie turned 6 months old a week or so ago. Yea! She is lots of fun and is growing fast. She got her 2 bottom teeth in at 5 1/2 months (just like Ella did). Needless to say, nursing has become more of a chore! She is rolling both ways and will even roll across the room if she wants something bad enough. She sits up on her own really well and is so much happier now that she can see the world--she has always tried to sit up by herself when she is laid on her back.
Maggie LOVES attention and is always at her happiest when someone is talking to her. She is especially thrilled when Ella plays with her. It is fun to see just how much she adores her older sister. Ella can always get her to laugh, which is particularly helpful on long car rides.
We love our cute little Maggie and are enjoying watching her grow!
So, I'll be the first to admit that I had NO creativity for Halloween this year. I just couldn't bring myself to buy any of the super expensive costumes out there. Maybe it's due to all the money we are spending on residency interviews and such, or maybe I just wasn't in the Halloween spirit, who knows.
Anyway, Ella's cousin Emily was going to be a Utah cheerleader for Halloween, so Ella (who idolizes Emily) was eager to do the same. And since we already had a cheerleading outfit for Ella, I was pleased to not spend a dime on Halloween this year.
Wahoo!
In spite of it all, we were able to enjoy trick-or-treating at Ella and Maggie's grandparents houses (a first for us), but we missed hosting our annual Halloween party back home.
Here are a few snapshots of our little trick-or-treaters with their cousins. . .
Brad has been getting after me lately to post some of the funny things Ella says---more for our own recollection than for your enjoyment. So to fill his request, here are a couple of gems from this past week:
Ella walks into the bathroom when Daddy is going potty
Ella: Daddy, what you going?
Brad: Going potty.
Ella: (laughing at Brad) Daddy, don't do it like that! You need to sit down!
When asked how old she is
Ella: I'm two old.
(We started laughing asking her who told her she was too old, then realized she just missed saying the "years" in there!)
I made a map of the interviews we have scheduled to date. We expect to hear from a few more programs in the next 2 weeks or so. We are looking forward to interview season, although it will take Brad away from our little family a lot.
Most of interviews are out west, but there are a few really good programs back East that we are still hoping to set up. And don't miss that marker on Hawaii, yep, I would so LOVE to live there, too bad we could never afford it!
We are planning on interviewing at about 12 programs. We have 14 scheduled right now, so as we get more we will probably start weighing which ones look better to us and canceling some others. It is nice to be in that position--the total opposite of how it was applying to medical school. I'm glad Brad has worked so hard in medical school so that we have this blessing and opportunity of choice (even if it meant a lot of really long days and weeks on our own while he was away).
View Interviews so far. . . in a larger map
It will be exciting to see what happens and where we end up. I imagine it will be hard for us to weigh the pros and cons of us trying to get back closer to family and giving Brad the best opportunity for training to become the kind of doctor he wants to be.
