A Guide to My Links

I've added quite a few sites to my "Blogs that Kayla Frequents" list and I thought a short guide was in order (mostly because I have nothing else to blog about this week except how my due date got pushed back. Aaaagggghhhh):

Bethany & Andre: Recent additions to the list. Bethany and Andre (I keep typing Andrew is and it's driving me crazy) are good friends of ours from the ward. They live just down the street and I really love that some of Bethany's writing is as neurotic as mine (plus I just like her a lot). She's also currently expecting a boy!

Hassell Castle: Just added! I think they just started their blog today..I'm that speedy. Alex and Brooke are good friends of ours that moved to AZ shortly after we did. Alex and Aaron knew each other at BYU . The Hassells have a beautiful baby girl and hopefully will be posting lots of pictures of her! Alex can be seen jumping off the diving board here.

Janssen's Everyday Reading: This one should have been added to my links list long before now, but I was lazy. I met Janssen during our freshman year at BYU. She was friends with some friends of mine and I saw her now and again. Then I recently found her blog and realized how awesome she really is. She's very smart and is secure enough in her intelligence to occasionally blog about shoes. I like that in a woman.

Nikki & Sam's Married Blog: My sister Nikki and her husband Sam. They both post on a sort of regular basis. It's worth a read for the kitten pictures alone, but they try to keep friends and family apprised of their weekly activities. With some opinion pieces and pictures thrown in for good measure.

The Ras Fam: Another recent addition to the list and family from the ward. We were sitting in the lobby one Sunday and she mentioned she reads our blog WITHOUT mentioning she had her own. Fortunately, Bethany links to it, so I found it pretty quickly thereafter. Lots of precious pictures of her children and, apparently, a new business venture!

The Whiting Fam: Nicole was a girls camp friend from Cali. Miraculously, we ran into each other over 7 years later while Aaron and I were engaged and we've been friends with her and Devon ever since! Super cute baby and lots of wakeboarding talent over there.

The Bastians: Yet another cute ward friend and recent addition to my list! She, like Becky, mentioned she read our blog without mentioning she had one of her own. But I found out anyway! She has 2 incredibly precious daughters and, as I just found out, curly hair (you'd never know).

The Lindseys: Just found out about this one as well. Traci is my visiting teacher and she also has a couple of really cute kids. She runs a small business that helps her stay home with her 2 children, the youngest of which has spina bifida. She created a foundation with her business that distributes funds to various hospitals and associations that support spina bifida research. If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is.

Dave & Raquel Thomson: Raquel was and is one of my best friends from the junior high and high school years. We moved into the same ward at about the same time in '99 and carpooled to junior high every day. She somehow survived hearing about my crazy dreams every morning and we've been friends ever since! Not a super regular blogger, but I do love the pictures of her cakes!

Bonjour, Louis!: I met Lewis Gunter when I started working at the BYU library the summer between freshman and sophomore year. In the time that I've known him, he met and married Natalie, had a baby, changed jobs a couple times, and had another baby. It's only been 3 years, but he's kinda speedy like that. Also not a super regular blogger, but we love him anyway. Bonjour Louis comes from when I was taking a French class and would walk in to work and say, "Bonjour, Louis!" and he'd respond with something in nonsensical made up French. I learned how to say "I am 100% beef" in French from him.

Nate & Nicole Murray: Nicole was my freshman roommate at BYU. To know Nicole is to adore her to smithereens. I want to put her in my pocket and carry her around and occasionally pull her out to sing to and mother me (both of which she excels at). An unfortunately slacking blogger. Her writing is awesome when she has the time to do it!

Andrew & Shawna: Aaron and Andrew were roommates up at BYU at some point. Andrew eventually married Shawna, who is awesome, and they live in Cali with their brand new baby girl. Their blog is full of good things like baby pictures and celebrity sightings.

Becca Shmecca: I can't even tell you how long I've known Becca..let's just say a long time. We grew up in the same ward in northern California, moved away, lost touch, reconnected, and fell in love all over again (at least, on my part). She and her family are fantastic, which brings us to:

Christy Loves Lucy: Becca's older sister, Christy and her new baby Lucy. Lots of precious baby pictures here, folks. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by sunshine, rainbows, and beautiful blonde hair.

Seester Nikki: My little sister Nikki's somewhat defunct blog. She used to be a fairly regular writer, but now she blogs at their married blog pretty exclusively.

Dave Barry's 24 Blog: This marks the end of blogs of people I actually know in real life. Dave Barry is always hilarious, but his blogging during 24 is exceptional. Make sure to click the links since they often show Edgar as Jabba the Hut or Audrey as a squirrel and random stuff like that.

DesignMom: Fantastic blog with inspiring ideas, guest bloggers, and giveaways. My friend Kristy found DesignMom through my blog and actually won an awesome giveaway. I was really envious. Sister of Jordan at Oh Happy Day.

CJane: A fantastically entertaining blog by a Utah housewife who WAS struggling with infertility but recently found out that she's pregnant! Very exciting times over at CJane. Sister of NieNie.

NieNie Dialogues: Probably one of my most favorite blogs. A woman of few-ish words and lots of pictures which is what my blog WOULD be like if I wasn't so fond of hearing myself talk (watching myself type?). She's actually local and, as it turns out, in my stake. It made my month when I ran into her at stake conference last week. Sister of CJane.

Oh Happy Day: One of the most creative people I've ever seen. She posts about neat things she finds and creates. Pretty inspiring, especially when I'm in a creative funk. Sister of DesignMom.

Cute Fluffy Things Posted Daily: Cute Overload. You either love it or you hate it. I luurve it. It's won Webbys, which means the people who hate it are WRONG!

Read Other People's Secrets: PostSecret. A fascinating project run by a man named Frank Warren. People anonymously mail him their secrets on a 4x6 post card and every Sunday he posts a handful of them. Reading the new secrets is one of the highlights of my week. If you choose to visit, just know that you'll probably become addicted. Also, be aware that some of the secrets are of a sexual nature and occasionally contain uncensored nudity and language, so if you're not down with that, you might want to avoid this site altogether since you never really know what you're going to get. Otherwise, it's an inspiring, heartbreaking, eye-opening site.

So there you have it. I wish I could say these are the only blogs I read, but...they're not. Not even close, really. Peeking into other people's lives is totally addicting and I'm always finding new ones to bookmark!