Party for Presidents' Day?

I love school holidays, even if I'm not in school anymore! Mom and the kids came over to spend a few days since they had no school on Presidents' Day. There's not much to do in Cache Valley in February (unless you're a snowboarder or snowplow driver) so Mom and I took the kids down to Salt Lake City to visit temple square and the new City Creek mall. It was a cold day but fun to get out and run around.

 

After living in Utah for 2½ years, I've done the Temple Square thing so often that the new has fairly well worn off, but it was super fun watching the kids explore and see things that they recognized from watching General Conference.

 

 

 

As we walked into the Conference Center, Morgan's eyes got really big and she whispered: "This is where the prophet is!! Are we going to see him today?!?"

 

 

 

 

But our favorite part was taking pictures in front of the temple! The kids proudly said as we drove home "Best Day Ever!"

 

 

And finally, Levi's stepbrother and one of my good friends from high school, BRADEN came home last night! He's been serving a mission in Cuernavaca, Mexico for the last two years. Welcome home, Elder Campbell!

 

 

 

 

Holidays!!

Our friends all decided we should get together for a Halloween party this year, & it ended up being at our house. No biggie, until Levi said, "We're having a Halloween party! You can't have a party without decorations!!" And so... we decorated! 

I'm figuring out that all it takes to have a successful party is food and access to YouTube.
The boys were entertained for hours.

And then Thanksgiving was here! We spent the holiday in Arbon, giving our thanks and stuffing ourselves with Levi's fam. That evening, I was able to electronically be with all of my family at once! My uncle and his family flew to Oregon from Georgia, and so we all Skyped! We had Georgia Berrys (Mike's family), Oregon Berrys (the grandparents, Lloyd's clan, and Melinda's bunch), Nebraska Berrys (Mum and the kids - Dad does not Skype), and me - the Idaho/Utah Berry-Nutt.

This was the first time we've all "been together" since Levi and I got married. My heart was so full!

And then came Christmas!! We wanted to surprise Morgan and Zane, so we left Logan at 3 AM (yes, as in 0300 hours!) on Sunday morning and drove all the way to Nebraska in a snowstorm, so that we could hide in their rooms before they came home from church. So worth it! I WISH I had a picture of the looks on their faces when they found us.

Before we left UT, Levi and I had our own Christmas and opened all of our presents from each other. (We thought about waiting until we got back on Christmas night. And then we laughed and laughed and said "Yeah right!")

Yes, that is a "Santa-wrapped" present. I was pretty proud
of how it turned out!!

 

This was the first time since I graduated high school that I've gotten to be with my parents and the kids on Christmas. We had so much fun! 

We got up extra early Christmas morning to open presents, and then Dad had to go take care of the cows and we had to head back to Utah, so Levi could return to work the next day. We were hopeful that SOMEDAY we wouldn't have to take these lightening trips across dreary Wyoming to windy Nebraska to see my family....

 

 

  

We rang in the New Year with our friends out in Arbon, as we learned the joys of the "Just Dance" Wii games. I don't think I've laughed that hard in YEARS!

 

 

 

Day 730!

 

 

Funny how the last 2 years seems like it's flown by, but at the same time, it seems like we've already been married for forever! (In a good way. Ü) We took our traditional trip down to Salt Lake to wander through temple square with the crazies, looking at all the lights, and stayed at our favorite antique hotel, the Peery.

 

 

Benihana's was a FANTASTIC choice for dinner! And who knew we would end up sitting with a lady from SE Idaho who's son was in Levi's class, and one of my coworkers haha. Small world...

 

 

Love my best friend even more today than Day 1!

 

 

Families Are Forever

It's been a long time in coming, but last weekend was well worth the wait! Mom and Dad and the kids came from Nebraska, and after a day of... 

...Pretzel Maker with my kiddos...

...many tears and an anxiety attack....

...and finally a sweet girl with pierced ears

... and then after shopping and picking out pumpkins, we went to........

the temple!

After 12 ½ years, I'm finally sealed to my family! As we walked in the front door, the man at the front desk said, "The Landers? Yes, we've been waiting for you!" Totally made me cry. :) We are grateful to our friends and family who were able to come and share this special day with us!

When we got back to our apartment after dinner, Zane jumped out of the car, and then turned and gave me a big hug and said, "I'm so glad that you are part of our forever family!!" :) He and Morgan understood a lot more than I thought they would. They also thought that the double mirrors in the sealing room were pretty cool!

I'm SO grateful for my forever family!

Living Room Revamped

When we bought our entertainment center almost 2 years ago, I told Levi I'd only get it if he promised we could paint it black. So this month, I decided it was time to finally revamp it. Cami has done lots of projects with spray paint and so she held my hand and helped me, layer by layer and can by can.

And so, we started out with a plain veneer entertainment center from Shopko.

After 5 cans of gray Valspar Perfect Finish Primer....

And FOURTEEN cans of Rust-Oleum Black Lacquer...

It is finally complete. :D

We've also been talking about getting a love seat for months, so I figured while we were in the middle of improving the living room we'd better do that too!

(Nevermind the random gun... this was in the middle of hunting season, after all.)

And since we were having fun with the living room, I decided to spruce up my plain, boring washer and dryer as well. I saw a blog about painting them a while back, but Levi said no way because they would just scrape and peel every time we move. Too much truth to that statement. So, I went with a simpler approach.

Vinyl stickers. Pretty whimsical, I know, but I like them. :D And I plan on changing the colors seasonally.

Now that we've got it all put together, it finally feels like home!