Elise turns Two!

Our little girl turned TWO on December 29th and I can still hardly believe she is that big!  She is such a joy in our lives and we love her so much!  I wanted her birthday to be all about her and something fun so we headed out to celebrate at Jungle Jims!  Her cousins Carter and Ava were also able to come and have fun with us!

Riding the swings!

Jungle Safari Ride!  I love how Elise is doing her "cheese" smile!

Riding in the Jeep with Carter!

Taking at turn at the Rocket!  These two couldn't figure out how to work the joystick that moves the rocket up and down but they still had a great time!

After playing and playing and going on all of the rides at Jungle Jims we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Pugh's to have cake and ice cream!

This girl had lots of practice in the days previous about what presents were, so she got really excited when she saw more of them!

Opening up her magnetic dress up dolls from Grandma and Grandpa Pugh!

Reading her new Elephant book!  It was a big hit!

We also bought her this adorable dress up!  She was so excited when she opening it she wanted it on immediately!  She looks pretty cute in it, if I do say so myself!!

Testing out her new party dress at the tea party!

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candle!  

We finished off the night with cupcakes and ice cream. What could be better?!  Thanks to everyone who helped and who came over to help celebrate our sweet Elise!  

Christmas Day

We spent the night at the Galbraith's on Christmas Eve but as soon as Elise woke up we loaded up the car and headed over to the Pugh's.  We got there around 8:45am and the present opening began!  We were all very spoiled and fortunate this year.  We had a great time opening gifts with Zack's mom and dad.

First, Grandpa helped Elise look at all of the fun treasures inside her stocking.  She saw the m&ms inside first and was pretty content to just sit and eat them all morning!  Guess that was all she needed!

Here she is with a bunch of candy in her mouth!  Remember those socks?!  Yep she wore them to bed and all Christmas morning too! What a silly girl!

Zack's parents got him the Nexus 7 (google's tablet).  He was really surprised with this gift and had a great time playing with it all day long.  

Here is Elise with her musical princess book and her Minnie Mouse bow-tique!  She doesn't look like it here, but she was excited for both of these!  

After we opened presents, some of Zack's siblings (Brian and Sonia) and their families came over and we had a delicious breakfast!  We had eggs, sausage, coffee cake, cinnamon pull aparts, fruit and juice!  We nibbled on that for hours and talked with everyone about what Santa brought!  

At 4pm the entire Pugh clan came over!  We had a very yummy dinner with bacon wrapped steaks!  The kids all had fun running around and eating all the candy off of Grandmas candy tree.  We sang Christmas carols together and got to open even more presents! Elise got 4 fun new board books from her cousin!  We've already been reading and loving them!

One all the kids presents were open we did the sibling gift exchange with all of the Pugh's. We tried to have everyone do more of a homemade/heartfelt gifts this year and I was so impressed with the creativity in the gifts!  Brian and Liz had us and had a whole theme about how we are becoming cheese-heads and that we have been in Wisconsin too long!  Every letter we opened was full of jokes and more reasons why we should move back to Utah.  We ended up with cartons of Aggie ice cream and BYU creamery ice cream.  Our final gift was an ice cream maker that will be shipped to us when we get home. Thanks so much Brian and Liz!  We loved our gift and can't wait to use it when we get home!

Christmas Eve

This year, Christmas Eve was spend with the Galbraith side of the family!  It was really small since my other siblings has to be away at their in-laws homes!  It was just us, my brother Todd and my mom and dad.  It was fun to have Elise be the only child there because she got to be the center of attention and loved every minute of it!

We had a delicious dinner of chicken cordon bleu, potatoes, salad, rolls and sparkling cider to go with it, yumm!  My mom never disappoints on holiday meals!

After dinner it was time for presents!  We opened more than the traditional "one gift" because we would be spending Christmas day with the Pugh's so we made sure to open all of the gifts from the Galbraith's that night.

My mom got all of the grandkids the book called, Bear Stays Up for Christmas.  It is a very cute book and ends with bears friends giving him a quilt for Christmas.  If you know my mom, she loves anything with quilts!  

To go along with the book they all got a little stuffed bear, a special box, and a quilt the size for the bear!  Elise loved to open the box and put the quilt back in and out.  She could have been happy with just that one present!

Elise is our little present so we had to keep adding bows to her!  I also opened some socks (exciting, I know) and Elise thought those were pretty great. She insisted on putting them on and even wore them to bed that night!

When Todd comes that means that his dog, Cheeto, will also be there.  Elise loves Cheeto and follows him around anytime he comes over.  She is a little aggressive with him at times so Zack and Grandpa were trying to help her be soft when she pets him.

My mom has a cute little manger that holds a baby Jesus.  Elise had a lot of fun holding the baby and playing with the hay in it too.

Elise is pulling a funny smile in this, but it's the best one we got!  We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Galbraiths!  We finished off the night putting Elise down to sleep and the rest of us stayed up watching the movie Silent Night.  It was neat to see the story behind one of my favorite Christmas songs. We are so grateful for the holiday season and the warmth and love it brings to all!

A Visit to LA

We've been all over the place this break!  After being in Utah for only a couple of days our family of 3 headed off to sunny California!  We went for a visit to see our friends David and Rachel.  Zack and David are great friends and it's been a while since we saw them last so a trip to CA was in order!  David is out in LA where he is going to dental school at UCLA.  It was a nice break and fun to have some nice weather too!

We did lots of fun things like trying out a bunch of new restaurants, saw a lot of movies, and even went to walk around Hollywood.  Of course I didn't take any pictures of anything until we went to the beach!  So here are the few pictures we have from our trip!

We headed out to the beach at Santa Monica and it was a beautiful day!  It was around 65 degrees and sunny!  It was so much fun to watch Elise experience the ocean for the first time!

This girl would have ran straight in and never come back if we'd let her!  When the water washed up onto her feet she giggled and laughed so hard!  She couldn't believe what was going on- it was so cute!

She ran all over the place!  She loved to have the sand on her feet, find seashells and run up and down this lifeguard watch station.  

We really could have stayed at the ocean all day with her, and probably should have!  We were poor planners and only could stay for about and hour because we had to catch our flight back to Salt Lake!  Next time, we'll come prepared!

Playing at Grandmas!

I love going home to Utah because Elise had a million new toys to play with and lots and lots of cousins to run around with!  Over the past few weeks I've snapped some pictures of her just playing pretend!  

Grandma Galbraith has a fun dollhouse up on this bookshelf so it is the perfect height for Elise to get in there and play with all the things inside!

Caught readings all of Grandmas books!  Is there anything better than finding them reading!?

Since being in Utah we've realized two things- First, that Elise LOVES dress ups!  She is a total girly girl and loves to wear crowns, dresses and high heels!  Once they are on it's hard to get them off of her!  Second, she loves Elephants.  She calls them Elos.  Grandma Pugh has two elephants in her house and Elise has insisted on carrying them around with her wherever she goes.  It's  so cute!

Grandma Pugh also got this cute little table as a new edition to the play room and Elise has spent a lot of time up there playing tea party.  Where did she even learn to do that!?  I'm not sure but I love pretending with her!  She is growing up so fast!

My New Toy

This week I got an early Christmas present in the mail.  My in-laws called to double check our address and told me to be on the lookout for my gift.  They told me it was heavy and large and so instead of giving it to me in Utah they were mailing it so I wouldn't have to worry about taking it home.  Boy did they pique my interest!  I hadn't told them anything I want for Christmas nor had they asked!  I love being surprised, so I was excited! 

The doorbell rang on Tuesday and sure enough, it was the UPS guy.  I looked on my porch and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a serger!!!!   I was so excited!!  I never would have even thought to ask for one for years! They got me a Brother Lock serger. I got it all set up and am already looking for some great projects to make that use a serger.  If any of you have an idea for me, send it my way! 

Thank you so much Linda and Evan!!  I love it and I know this is a gift I can use for years and years to come.

Friday Five

It's been a while since I've done a Friday post!  I feel like we haven't had much going on to talk about.  I guess today we still don't, but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway!

-As of Monday of this week, I'm 14 weeks pregnant! Which means I am in my second trimester now.  Hooray!  I've been feeling great and never even got sick!  Things are good :)

- Elise has decided she would rather be a cat.  You can often hear her say, "Meow Meow" when she is upset or happy about something.  The best is when she'll wake up at 3am  from a dream and instead of crying we get meowing. It is hilarious!

-Saturday morning we have a Relief Society activity for our Church!  I am on the committee that helped plan it and it will be a lot of fun!  It is a Christmas craft activity.  We are making ornaments, banners, cards/tags and some yummy cookie mixes in a jar.  I'm also making some delicious wassail to bring :)

-Thanks to our Netflix account, we/I've been getting sucked into a few new TV shows.  On my own I've been watching the show Felicity.  I've been enjoying it and Zack has been judging me for it.  Together we have started to watch the show Firefly.  It's only 14 episodes but we like it so far!

-Sunday night Zack said to me, "Well it was nice while it lasted.  See you Dec. 14th."  He has already been busy and studying hard for his finals week!  This week hasn't been too bad but I know next week will be worse!  In other Zack news he registered this week for Step 1 of the BOARD exams.  Kinda crucial and important for becoming a doctor. Scary and exciting all at the same time!

Nemo's been Found!

Elise's favorite movie as of late, is Finding Nemo.  She loves the part at the end when Nemo and his Dad are reunited!  She gets very excited and it is so so cute to watch!  Please watch the 18 second clip.  You won't regret it.  You might even just smile about it. 

 

Thanksgiving

This year we kept things small. We stayed right here in Milwaukee and didn't even need to get in the car to get to dinner :)  We decided to get together with our friends, the Rogersons.  They live in the building next door.  Katie's husband Colin is an M3 and they have two cute little girls.  Katie and I planned out the menu a week in advance, and mmmmm it was delicious! 

This was the first time I was ever in charge of making so many Thanksgiving dishes!  Since being married I have brought a dish here and there but this year I was in charge of a lot- it was a fun task to tackle! 

One thing I was in charge of were the rolls.  I used my mom's recipe since it is my favorite!  She only makes these for our family a few times a year so I knew that I had to make them!  They turned out great and I think I made her proud!

I also made an apple pie.  I cheated a little on this- I used a store bought pie crust but I did all the filling myself!  I think it was delicious even thought I didn't make the whole thing from scratch! 

Here is the rest of the spread all laid out and ready to eat!  I was also in charge of the green bean casserole, pretzel jello and a veggie tray.  Colin and Katie made a delicious turkey and I'm glad that they took charge of that! 

We started dinner at 3:30 and Katie had her table set beautifully!  We put the girls in the other room at a kid table and we got to enjoy our meal!  We had a great time :)  The girls had a lot of fun playing with each other and we even got them distracted long enough to squeeze in a game or two to play! 

We have a looong list of so many things to be thankful for!  I'll spare you the long list but know what we are incredibly grateful for the wonderful lives we lead, for family, for the Gospel and many many more blessing that we have. 

Zack's Birthday

Zack turned the big 2-7 on November 14th!  We tried to celebrate the day in style and to make sure that he felt loved and appreciated!  We started out the morning by surprising him with breakfast in bed- crepes!  They were delicious, if I do say so myself! 

Unfortunately, real life does continue even if it is your birthday so he had to head off to school!  Elise and I wrapped all of his gifts and made him his birthday cake AND his favorite cookies (homemade oreos) while he was gone! 

When he got him the fun began!  We had a yummy dinner complete with the famous "You Are Special" plate :)  After dinner we got out all of our surprises! 

Elise had so much fun helping Daddy I'm pretty sure that she thought it was her birthday, it was so cute!!  Instead of a traditional card we made him a candy gram!  It's way more clever and funny and comes with a bunch of candy, so who wouldn't like it?!

I always have a very difficult time thinking of anything I can get for Zack for his birthday, I was so relieved when he liked his shoes!

We also got him a new sweatshirt and long sleeve shirt to get him through the cold Wisconsin winter. 

When we sang him Happy Birthday Elise was very excited and enjoyed being sung to.  I think she is getting to be a pro at this birthday thing!  Zack requested I made "BTS" cake or Skor cake if you will. It was very tasty!!  It was a great day and lots of fun!  We had a great time celebrating one of our favorite people!  Happy Birthday Zack, we sure do love you!!

Getting Even

That's right!!  We've decided to go from 3 members of our family to FOUR!!  We are very excited to welcome a new little one.  Due date: May 28th 2013!  Here is a picture of our cute little bean :)

So far everything is going great!  I've been feeling a little dizzy and sick here and there but fortunatley, I've been able to keep everything down!  Thanks everyone for the well wishes!  And thanks cousin Emily for letting me steal the blog post idea.

Notre Dame vs. BYU

We were lucky enough to get tickets to go to the Notre Dame vs. BYU football games a few weeks ago!  My Dad was kind enough to get them for us when he found out that they would be playing and how close we lived!  Its about a 3.5 hour drive from our home- not bad! 

The best part was that a few of Zack's siblings and his Mom all decided to come out for the game too!  We were able to spend some time with them in South Bend as well as Chicago; it was a great weekend!

Here is a picture of Touchdown Jesus as they all call him.  Unfortunately, more touchdowns were made in ND favor than our this game, but we still had fun! The campus at Notre Dame is really pretty and for how large a school it is, it's very close together!  We had fun roaming around the campus to the bookstore and other places.

It was a beautiful day and perfect weather for a football game!  It was fun to be at an away game (neither of us had been to one before!) and to sit among all the other BYU fans who came out to support!  The game started off great!  We just won't talk about the rest....

After the game we decided to do the true "Notre Dame experience" and eat at Legends Grill.  Let's just say it wasn't that legendary...but we had a fun time with everyone!  We loved having Zack's family out for a visit- thanks for coming guys!!

Trick or Treat!

Every year the medical school lets all the kids come trick or treating!  It's great :)  All the offices on every floor decorate and make the school look very fun and spooky!  It's lots of fun to go and follow the footsteps on all the floors to find the different places to go!  There is lots of yummy candy to have and the best part is- I don't have to be outside in the cold!  It's a pretty great set up if you ask me! 

When we got ready to go I tried to get Elise to wear her costume (Minnie Mouse) and she would have NOTHING to do with it!!  I was so sad!  Nothing I could do would convince her to wear it :(  I even brought out another costume I found the week before for next year and she still didn't want it!!  So she finally let me at least have her wear her Halloween pajamas!  I guess that's better than nothing, right? 

We were joined by our friend Angie and her cute girl Kennedy- who Elise calls "Kee", it's pretty cute!  She made a pretty cute little witch!

We got there on the latter end of the trick or treating hours and I'm pretty sure we were some of the last people to come around to the offices!  Everyone kept telling them to take lots- more than one!  So much for teaching her to just take one from everyone! She did get good at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you", so I'll take it!

We were lucky enough to have Zack get a little break from studying so he could come with us!  It was a fun treat to get to see Daddy for a little bit during the day!  After you trick or treat they have even more treats and juice and games to play down in the cafeteria- we had a great time!  Can't wait until next year!! 

Carving Pumpkins

There's nothing like waiting until the LAST minute, but Elise and I were finally able to carve/paint our pumpkins on Halloween!!  I got it all set up and Elise got really excited when she saw what was in store!  I quickly devised a painting smock out of a trash bag for her to wear so she wouldn't ruin her clothes and, of course, some still got on her shirt- but that's okay! 

Elise is a very focused and attentive girl when she wants to be!  Activities like coloring and painting she wants it to be perfect :)  She had a really fun time with her pumpkin!

Mom and Elise saying "cheese" to the camera!

I don't know if you can see it very well, but I carved an owl into my pumpkin!  Elise was really excited when I lit mine and put it out on the front porch. She kept trying to go out and look at it, it was really cute!  We had a great time and I see many more carving nights in our future!