Some Family Time

On January 2nd we found ourselves with no work, school, or other obligations for an entire day.  We decided to seize the opportunity and go exploring since this circumstance won't happen again until at least summer. 

Our travels took us down south to Cabela's which happened to provide Berkley with just as much entertainment as the zoo but for free. 

 The fish were her favorite part.  She kept asking to go back and look at them.

 We also wandered around Ikea and picked up some odds and ends.  Then we took Berkley to In-N-Out burger for the first time. 

After we got in the car Berkley kept saying, "Thanks for eat dinner with me!"  She must've enjoyed it.

It was nothing too out of the ordinary but we were happy to spend a whole day together, just the three of us.

New Year's Eve 2011

On New Year's Eve our friends Drew and Leah were staying at a hotel nearby and invited us to come party with them.  We met them at Union Station in Ogden for dinner.  It was fun to hang out with them and Berkley had a bast with their girls.  We spent some time looking at the trains after dinner. 

Lillie and Berkley

By the time we were done it was past bedtime for the girls and they were cranky so we just went home.  I was falling asleep on the couch by 9:30 so I did some stuff around the house and we still went to bed before midnight.  I swear we get lamer and lamer every year when it comes to New Year's Eve, I've never gone to bed early before.  Oh well, I'm ok with it.  I value my sleep...

5 Years

December 28th was our 5 year anniversary.  That sounds like such a long time.  5 years.  Here's what the past 5 years have included for us.
-Living in 1 grandparents' basement, 2 apartments, and 1 purchased home.
-8 vehicles (I know, we're ridiculous.)
-1 little girl and another on the way.
-1 bachelor's degree and another on the way.
-7 jobs
-2 grandparents passed away
-Lots of fun vacations
-3 car accidents
-12 church callings I think?
-Just a couple of arguments
-Lots of great memories

Look at us.  We were just kids.

We're usually so worn out from the holidays that we don't do much to celebrate our anniversary besides go out to dinner.  I decided that 5 years deserved a little more than that so we stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Logan for a night.  It was fun to go back to where me met, dated, and lived for the first 2 years of our marriage.  We went back to the place Zack proposed, drove past the places we lived, went to the temple, drove through campus, ate at a couple of our Logan favorites, were reminded how much we hate Main St traffic, and even saw the guy on the bike who waves to everyone!

 It was a sunny 60 degrees which is unheard of for Logan at the end of December!

It was fun to relive memories and nice to have some time together, something we don't seem to get enough of these days.

Our Holiday Festivities

We had such a crazy busy December it just flew by like a whirlwind.  Between several family parties, work parties, friend/ugly sweater parties, and our ward party we were pretty partied out.  We spent a lot of time with family and friends, ate way too much yummy food, and drank way too much hot chocolate.  I will say that it was so fun introducing Christmas to Berkley.  She loved every decoration, treat, present, and Christmas song. 

Berkley was helping me decorate the house.  I got out our tree skirt and she excitedly said, "Santa's coat!  I wear it?"

 Berkley quickly learned to ask, "I lick a beater?" whenever I got out the kitchenaid.

 These persimmon cookies were quite scrumptious.

 I had a couple new ideas for decor this year.  Merrisa helped me make these countdown blocks.  (Similar to my Halloween ones.) 

 I decided a banner would be much more fun for displaying Christmas cards than cluttering up my fridge.

Berkley loved adding cotton balls to Santa's beard every day.

I made these joy blocks with my family a couple years ago but I thought I'd throw them in for good measure.

 Berkley got to see Santa at our ward party.  Here she is waiting in line with her friend Dani. 

 She acted really excited to see Santa but once she was up there she was much more interested in getting a bell and didn't even talk to Santa.  Afterward, she was really excited again and kept saying, "I see Santa!  It was fun!" 

 Since my husband is completely against fake trees we get to pick out a tree as a family every year.  We usually end up getting one of the scraggly ones. 

Berkley was all about decorating the tree.  Here is one of her branches.

 She played in the snow every chance she got.  (Which wasn't very many.  We apparently had the driest December ever recorded.)

 We took our annual trip down to Temple Square with the Morbys to see the lights. Berkley was way more excited about seeing the temple and woni (Angel Moroni) than she was about the lights. 

 Berkley loved riding the train to Salt Lake.  The way home she didn't find as exciting though.  She just wanted to play games on Zack's phone. 

 Our Christmas Day was definitely unique.  We found ourselves taking Berkley to the Dr. at 2am for croup.  (Last year she had the same thing on New Year's Day.  Great track record.)  So we all slept in after a rough night.  When we got up to open presents Berkley was so out of it.  We opened a few things with her and put her back to bed.  She slept all morning while Zack and I made a nice breakfast together and opened our presents from each other.  Then I went to church by myself which was actually quite nice.

 The next day Berkley was much more herself so we continued the present-opening.  It was so fun to see her so excited about everything.

We got so many great things and our families were so generous.  I don't want to make lists of everything we received, nor do I want to sound boastful, but I do want to record some of our favorite gifts for the year.

Zack's favorites:
-Our new HD antenna.  (We've been living off of netflix for over a year so it's nice to have live TV, even if it's just local channels.)
-The Christmas Story on bluray
-Food dehydrator

Callie's favorites:
-New nightstands that Zack designed to match our bed
(Our old nightstands were not only ugly hand-me-downs but the door broke off of mine when we moved over a year ago and then Berkley broke the knob off my drawer so it couldn't be opened.)
Old:

New (built by Out of the Wood Cabinets) Zack still needs to put the handles on them but you get the idea:

-New dishwasher!!!
(Our existing dishwasher was 18 years old, didn't clean the dishes, the soap dispenser didn't open, it smelled weird, and the front color panel kept falling off.  At least I figured out that I could make it black instead of cream when it fell out the first time.)
Old:

 New (My parents gave us money to put toward it as their main gift to us.  Thanks so much!):

The protective covering is still on in the picture, that's what the black marks are.

Berkley's favorites:
-Her kitchen
-Life-like baby and stroller
-Stuffed Muno
-Keyboard (not the best gift idea on my end, it gets super annoying)

 And what Christmas post is complete without a little singing?