The Finished Basement

We finished our basement last fall.  (And by we I mean Zack.) It was completely unfinished with one framed wall, laundry hookups, and rough plumbing for a bathroom.  We basically used it as a big, messy storage space.  Now it has a small bedroom, a bathroom, storage closets, and a laundry room with food storage shelves.  Here are some before and after pictures. 

Looking down the stairs.  

 The corner we turned into a bedroom. 

 A better view of the bedroom. 

 The corner we turned into a bathroom. 

 The walk-in shower.  The lighting in this picture doesn't do the tile justice. 

 The vanity.  I really love the quartz counter top. 

 Last, but not least, the corner we turned into a laundry room.  Zack even built that custom pedestal and put a counter top on the washer and dryer. 

 The shelves wrap all the way around to the door.  This room might be my favorite. 

It's so nice to have it done and have a nice, usable space now. 

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?

Finally!

After a few speed bumps we finished the name above the crib.  Now Berkley won't forget her name, phew!  Zack built the shelf and cut the blocks and I did the rest with a little help from my crafty sisters. :)  I think it turned out pretty cute.

Preparations

Well the time is near and here is what I have to show for it:
We were too lazy to take a picture at 36 weeks but here I am at 38 weeks. She dropped between 36-37 weeks so the belly pokes out a lot more now that she's lower.

Remember when I thought I looked pregnant at 20 weeks? Pahaha, what a joke.

We had both of my family showers on Saturday, January 2nd. (Thanks Lisa, Rylee, Misty, and Merrisa for throwing those for me! They were great!) So after that I spent time organizing and finding places for everything.

These are some shoes Zack picked out at old navy for 97cents. He loves them and kept them hung up on his dresser forever. When I was packing our hospital bag he requested that I bring a going home outfit that matches these shoes so she could wear them home. Pretty cute.

This girl definitely won't go naked! She ended up with a bigger wardrobe than her parents put together! Thanks everyone for the cute outfits!

We also got TONS of diapers. Even after this picture was taken we were given a huge costco box of 216 more diapers! I've been told they go through them way fast but I think it will take her poo quite a while to fill up all of these babies!

One of my projects was a bow board. Zack made the frame for me for Christmas and backed it with the extra fabric from our rocking chair pillows and I added the ribbon.

Now I just clip all of her bows to the ribbon and it keeps them organized as well as being a cute decoration! I also made most of those bows and there is room for plenty more!

Here is the crib Zack handcrafted out of walnut. He did a great job in my opinion! It converts into a toddler bed and a full-size bed too so we will always have a use for it. How practical.

I decided against buying a ridiculously expensive crib bedding set and opted to buy these bedding separates on clearance at target. They are cute and that way I didn't feel bad about getting something not so gender neutral. Don't worry, that pillow is from the rocking chair and she will not be sleeping with it.

Speaking of the rocking chair, here she is in all her glory. Lisa helped me re-cover the pads and pillows. If we have a boy in the future, the pillow fabric can easily be changed.

And here is the lovely dresser Zack built. He did it antique white and walnut to tie everything together. I think it's pretty gorgeous.

And for the grand finale, here it all is. I have one last project going above the crib. It may or may not be finished before the baby is born but I'll post it when it's done.