Good Lookin' Garlick Boys!

I realize that I might be slightly biased on this one, but man, I think I married into a good looking family. Just look at the boys! I was lucky enough to have Dave convince Michael and Brennen that we needed to get all three of them in a picture, and as I was looking at the picture after I thought, wow, these are some really good looking guys! Not to down play the Garlick girls at all, Jenette, Stephanie and Julianne are all absolutely gorgeous, I just don't happen to have a picture of the three of them together.

We had another great book club last night! It was at my sister-in-law Shayla's house. I love reading the books every month, but I think the best part of it is just getting together with the girls and talking. Thanks for hosting Shayla, it was a lot of fun! The book we are going to read for next month is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Christmas!

This Christmas was a pretty crazy one for Dave and I. There have been some definite ups and downs for us during this holiday season.

The holiday rush started on Christmas Eve. My Mom always goes all-out and makes a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner. Dave and I headed down to that in a major snow storm, the roads were so bad at one point we were considering just turning around and going home to have a quiet night at home. After stuffing ourselves at my parents, we went over to the Garlick's house and played games for a few hours with Dave's family. Then we drove back up to Salt Lake. I just want to give a little shout out to the guys who plow the freeways, you guys are awesome, I was really worried about driving home that night, but by the time we were headed home, the roads were clear and salted, I was very impressed.

Overall Christmas day was good, just busy running back and forth between my family and his. We started out opening presents at our house, and this was a big year for me because it was the first time I have really slept in on Christmas morning. I woke up on Christmas morning at 6:00, usually it is much earlier. After unwrapping presents we went down to my parents house to have a Christmas morning with my family, it was fun to see everyone unwrap their gifts. My favorite part is always watching my niece and nephew unwrap their presents. They always have so many that they don't know what to do with them all. And as usual, my parents' were far too generous, and spoiled Dave and I way too much.

Then we headed over to the Garlicks to celebrate Christmas there. We unwrapped presents there and then had a wonderful lunch/dinner. We hung out there for a few hours and then headed back to my parents to play games. At this point in the day we were pretty much exhausted so we came home! It was a great Christmas!

Dave is 26!

Happy Birthday Dave! Dave is finally 26! I am so excited, probably much more than I should be, but the thing is, those two months between our birthdays when I am older than him are two long months. He likes to let me know that I am so much older than him. But back to the point, Happy Birthday Dave!

So on the agenda for today:

Waking him up in a few minutes with breakfast in bed
Snowboarding at Sundance with Michael, his little brother
Dinner at Ruby River (his favorite Steak House)
Watching the BYU Bowl Game at the Garlicks

I will have to post pictures of our day later!

My Dave is a College Grad!

As of Wednesday, December 19, 2007, Dave is officially done at BYU! He now has a degree in Exercise Science. I don't think either of us can believe that he is really done, I think it will take a while to really sink in. I am so proud of him because not only did he graduate, but he did really well in all of his classes. Okay, I know that all of the classes are hard at BYU, but he really kicked butt in all of his really hard classes. He worked so hard, and it really paid off. I wish I had some great pictures to show of him getting his diploma, but unfortunately that is only in the spring. ( I have yet to convince him he needs to walk, I am still working on it though.) So on to our next major miles stones: finding a job until we go off to dental school!

Breanne's Absolute Winter Necessities!

I love winter, don't get me wrong, but they can be rough in Utah. I have decided that there are a few things that make living through a Utah winter possible. First and foremost: 4-wheel drive. My personal favorite, is my Toyota 4runner. I am scared to death to drive in the snow, (what can I say, I have had some bad experiences), and unfortunately seeing as how I live in Utah, I don't really have a choice, but my 4runner makes this frightening experience not so bad.

Second: Good herbal tea, or hot chocolate if you prefer. I like tea, because there are lots of great flavors, without all of the fat and calories of hot chocolate. Also, there is nothing that warms you up better when you are freezing.

Third: a great hat and scarf. It is amazing how much warmer you are with a good hat and scarf. I have become a firm believer in this the last few years. They make the biggest difference!

Spirit of the Season

I need help. Thanksgiving for me this year was a bit of a let-down. Don't get me wrong, the food was great, but there was something missing. Dave and I agreed as we were driving home from my parents that evening that it felt like any other Sunday. It didn't feel different, or special, like an important day where we focus on being thankful.

This is where I need help, as I come into the Christmas season, I want to really feel the spirit of the season, I don't want Christmas day to feel like just another holiday where Dave and I are running back and forth between families. Do you have any traditions or ideas that help you with this? For either Thanksgiving, that we can try out next year, or Christmas, we can do this year? I would love any ideas you can give me!

The Christmas Season Begins!

Saturday night we went with my family to Temple Square to see the Christmas Lights. It was beautiful because we had our first major snow storm earlier that day so the trees were all covered with snow along with the lights. It wasn't very crowded either because it was bitter cold outside.

Earlier that day` Dave and I decided that since it was snowing so hard, and we didn't want to be out driving around, we would stay in and get all of our Christmas stuff set up. I broke down this year and we bought a fake tree, how sad, this was something I swore I never would do. My reasoning behind it was this, every year we go shopping for a live tree and find a couple that are absolutely perfect, then we see the price tag and Dave tells me no. We always end up with a tree that is a little less than perfect, but it is the right price. This year I decided that seeing as how we wouldn't be able to find the perfect live tree for the perfect price, we could go with the perfect fake one.

Typically Dave and I do not set up Christmas this early, but after reading everyone's blogs, and going to Kari's house for the book club, I felt like I needed to get in gear. So thank you Kari for inspiring me to start our Christmas season a little earlier this year.