- January: Hallie, Brandon and I were sealed in the old Ogden temple (before they closed it and gutted the entire building) and became a forever family. Tomorrow will mark the 1 year anniversary....
- March: Per the verbal agreement made before Hallie's adoption being finalized in December of 2010, monthly visits occurred on previously scheduled dates until the month of March. I decided to end the visits one month early due to the fact that Hallie was used to her new name, and had started saying it and talking about herself in 3rd person. Her bio family is not aware that we changed her name, due to privacy and safety reasons. I didn't want them to pick up on the fact that we had changed her name.
- April: Hallie turned 2 years old! We had a very low-key party with aunts and cousins, with cake and presents. It was a fun day!
- May: My brother in law came to live with us for a couple of months. Justin amazes me. He is an electrician by trade, but really, he is a jack-of-all-trades. You name it, that guy knows how do it, fix it, solve it, or whatever. Our new home was strangely not built with a door on the lower level that lead to the outside. So, one of the first things we asked Justin to help us with was to install a door from the garage out to the backyard. Another friend of ours came to help us out as well. The 3 guys did a great job. We had cement poured underneath our wood deck in the backyard to make a large patio. We bought some patio furniture for a great deal, as well as a nice new grill to add to everything. Justin assembled the patio furniture for us when it came. He also helped us put in our sprinkler system, and our new lawn (I have never understood how you can buy a house in Utah and then have to pay someone to come put your lawn in for you, I thought that was always done for you, but I am ignorant). We then added some curbing to what hopefully will be our garden with flowers and stuff this year. We got a TON of stuff done in those couple of months that Justin was with us. It really helped our house feel more like home.
- July: Brandon and I celebrated our birthdays! He turned 29 and I turned 28. I can't believe that he is turning the big 3-0 in 2012!
- August: We celebrated 7 years of marital bliss by driving to Idaho to drop Hallie off with her grandparents and we left the next morning for Bend, Oregon for a 7 day stay to hike, explore, and do all sorts of touristy things. It was sheer and utter bliss. We saw and did things that I will never forget. We had both decided that if there were a stronger job market there, Brandon would for sure be applying. What a majestically beautiful place. We didn't want to leave, but we were very anxious to get back to Hallie. Even though she had just as much fun as we did playing at her Grandpa and Grandma's house, we decided that we don't want to leave her that long again until she is a little older. A BIG thank you to my amazing in-laws for watching her!
- October: Halloween was a blast in 2011 because Hallie understood what it meant. I even went against my nature of hating Halloween and had her help me decorate the front door with Halloween decorations. She picked her very own costume....wait for it....a Ladybug! I got a great deal for it because being the horrific procrastinator that I am, I bought it at Babies R Us, 3 days before Halloween. It had wings, a hat with antennae, with a black and red dress. She reveled in the fact that we were able to knock on the neighbor's doors and say "trick or treat" and they would either hand her candy, or let her get some out of a bowl. Some of our neighbors thought that she was so cute that they gave her extra candy. It was a successful night!
- November: Thanksgiving was spent with my in-laws in Cambridge, Idaho, where Brandon grew up. It was nearly an entire week of great tasting food. My mother in law is one of those "dying breed" cooks, she makes nearly everything from scratch. She taught me how to make Brandon's favorite pie: coconut creme. There is no temptation there for me, since I am allergic to coconut ;).
- December: Christmas was a big deal this year. The first week of the month, the city we live in held a one night holiday event at the town hall. All the trees surrounding the building were decked out in lights, and there was a long line waiting for families to get their kids in to see Santa Claus. The wait wasn't too bad, since most of it was inside. We weren't sure about how Hallie would react to seeing Santa, because you always hear about the nightmarish experiences terrified children have sitting on the Jolly Old Man's lap. When it came to our turn, Hallie was thrilled. Santa opened his arms out ot her, and I told her to go sit in his lap. You know what this girl did? She opened her arms out to him too and walked right up to him saying "HI!". I almost bawled with joy. She was excited to see him. She told him what she wanted to Christmas "presents, and toys", a little too general if you ask me. But then she told him she wanted ponies, cars and trucks, and dolls. Santa asked us if he could take her back to the North Pole with him to be one of his cute little elves. What a fun night. Hallie helped me decorate the house for Christmas. She was so gentle in putting the ornaments on the tree. And generally she was amazingly obedient when asked not to play with the ornaments. I loved the fact that if Hallie was ever misbehaving, I could hold the concept of "no presents from Santa" over her head and get her to be happy or to behave. I asked her at one point if she thought she was going to be on Santa's naughty or nice list, and she joyfully replied "I'm going to be on Santa's HAPPY list, Mama!" If there was such a list in existence, you better believe I know her name would be on it. We celebrated Christmas in Denver this year with my parents. It was great to just be able to kick back and relax. It snowed several inches there before we arrived, so a day or two after we got there, Hallie, her Daddy, Grammy, and Pa and I helped her build her first snow man. We tried sledding, but she wasn't really in to it. There is always next year though! On Christmas morning Hallie got tons of gifts. Her favorite things have been some Little People sets, and a doll that Santa brought her.
This is the recap of last year, and I know this year will be another great year. 2011 was insanely good to us. I am very grateful for that.
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