Hip Hip Hooray

Julia + Jed
Engaged at last

Last week, after what seemed like FOREVER, Jed finally pulled himself together and proposed to the beautiful and talented Julia. I couldn't be more happier for this adorable couple, they really are a wonderful pair.
Jed, you are such a lucky man, and I know you know this. Julia is not only beautiful, intelligent, funny, awesome, classy, and stunning,but she will do anything for the people she loves; I know this first hand. Thanks for making Julia so happy, you are really a wonderful catch for her. I cant wait to watch you grow and learn as a married couple.
CONGRATS!
Love you guys!

Birthday Bash for Enzo

Berkeley went to his first birthday party for his little pal, Enzo. Enzo was turning 2, he is one of my co-worker's Sebole's son. Berke especially loved playing with Enzo's dance and talk to me Elmo (there are so many kinds out there, who really knows who this one is?) Berke was entertained for quite some time with this red friend.

Enzo was very excited to eat his Birthday cupcake, this is a serious two year old birthday cupcake as you can tell. It is obvious that Enzo loves cupcakes as he couldn't be more excited to dig in.

Berkeley enjoyed playing with Sebole.....

Enzo was not quite as thrilled about his dad playing with another baby.

Happy Birthday Enzo!

Berkeley's 1st Christmas

As I looked back at last Christmas' pictures, I realized I was super pregnant and little did I know this adorable little guy would be joining us just a week later. What a difference a year can make. This year Christmas was so much fun; even though Berke is too young to understand the concept of Christmas and Santa and Baby Jesus, he does get excited when he starts playing with new toys and books.

Santa set up Berke's Leap Frog Pad on Christmas Eve, Berke crawled all the way from the other room once he saw this, pulled himself up on it and played with it for a good 20 minutes. There is just so much to do, so many colors and fun sounds. It was pretty adorable.

Then we started opening the crazy amount of presents from family and he just kept getting more and more interested in all these new devices he got to play with. Grandma and Grandpa Sorrels sent him this train which he really loved.

After opening a few presents Berke just wanted to use his toys to climb all over.

I believe it is fair to say that McDuff was THE most excited for presents this year. This dog LOVES ripping the wrapping paper off of presents. He was treated very well this year, with a new leash and collar from Santa Paws, then he got a squeaky heart (in his mouth in picture), two bags of treats, and two squeaky stuffed animals. He was in Doggie Heaven. Not only did he get to open his own presents but he was more than willing to help his little brother out with his, since he really wasn't picking up on the whole unwrapping thing too quickly.

Here we are so excited about this phone that teaches numbers, letters and music. Thanks Great Grandma Evans. (Why is it that most the toys he got this year make noise?)

As you can see Berke is stoked about this car/walker toy, he couldn't be more happy with all the loot he received this year. He got lots of fun toys, cute clothes and books. What a lucky and loved kid we have.

Christian and I were also very spoiled this year. Here is the family loot. Thanks everyone for all the thoughtful and wonderful gifts, we loved everything!

After opening presents and a Christmas nap, we all got ready and took a nice walk to CHINA DELIGHT for some Chinese Food. Berke and daddy are sure to be warm during this venture.

This year our friends the Hadley's joined us for Chinese food. It was really fun and stress free not to have to cook a big meal. Not to mention we still have not done the dishes from the Christmas Eve Party, so we really didn't need any more.

We ended the night by going to our friends Jeremy and Jeff's house for mingling and cookies. It was a wonderful holiday. We really couldn't be more thankful for our wonderful families who we miss dearly this time of year, our super supportive and fun friends who are our families out here. We are especially grateful this time of year to remember the birth of our Savior. We are in awe of his life and what he taught us. We only hope we can try to live more like him and always follow his teachings of love and compassion.
Merry Christmas to all!

3rd Annual Christmas Eve Party

We have stayed in Boston the last 3 years during Christmas. We have really enjoyed starting our own traditions and getting together with friends while family is so far away during the holidays. One of our favorite things we do during the holidays is host a Christmas Eve Party for those friends we have who also stay in Boston. Each year we have a different crowd, but each year we have a fabulous time.
We always start out with a delicious Italian dinner, including stuffed shells, vegetable lasagna, salad, bread, cheese ball, dessert, and oh soo much more.

Each year we read this Nativity Story, but this year we assigned some of our guest parts, and they all dressed up and did fantastic with their parts.

Above we see Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus with the Wise Man, Woman and Child visiting them.
Below is our Angel, she is a shy little angel, but a cute one nonetheless.

Berkeley had the big role of a sheep this year, he was pretty cute. The shepherds did a great job watching their flock.

Then we sang Christmas sons while Christian played the piano. We had a pretty big crowd this year so it sounded nice. We then had our annual Yankee Swap and ended the night with chatting and getting ready for Santa to visit.

At the end of the night, Berke put on his Sponge Bob Square Pants Santa PJ's from Great Grandma Evans, they were pretty adorable. As you can tell from our family photo, the party wore the little man out!
We had such a great time and are glad we could spend the holiday with our friends.

It's Begining to Look a lot Like Christmas

The snow hit us this weekend. All the white flakes have found their way back to New England as history shows. All the town was a buzz on Saturday hearing about the storm headed our way, and after seeing the damage done in DC, I was anxiously awaiting the down fall. EVERYONE on Saturday was hustling an bustling around trying to do last minute Christmas shopping, get their homes filled with food, and do whatever errands they needed to complete before the storm hit.
The Gentry family was no different, Christian hit Market Basket up at 7:00 a.m. for groceries, only to find out they opened early at 6:00 a.m. and thus the parking lot was full. He was glad he went then however, as we drove past a few hours later, there were major traffic jams on all streets around the Market Basket. They had to have a cop directing traffic into the parking lot.

We also didn't want to miss what may have been our last chance to get Berkeley's picture taken with Santa. So we headed to Meadow Glen aka "Ghetto" Glen Mall for a visit with the Jolly Old Soul himself. This Santa was about as cute as they come; he was so sweet and patient with all the little kids going crazy. Berke didn't mind Santa at all. The workers instructed me to not let Berke look at Santa so he wouldn't start crying. Well it wasn't easy getting a good picture because as soon as Berke was sitting on Santa's lap, he started doing his ever famous rock back and forth. He looked at Santa a few times, smiled, no big deal. We finally got a smile out of him when he got to play with Rudolph, he gave him a little honk on the nose for good luck.
I cant believe this is Berke's first Christmas, cause he looks like such a big guy in this picture.
(Sorry about the quality, it is a picture of a picture)

What else should a family do on a snowy weekend? Well if you are Berke, you find great joy playing on McDuff's bed; it is so much better than his crib.

We also did lots of movie watching, we watch ELF every Christmas, it is a family tradition. We also watched Julie and Julia, totally loved it. I was hungry the entire movie, looking at all of that delicious food. Church was cancelled, so we basically stayed in our PJ's all day and were pretty lazy. We did get laundry and dishes done, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday this week!

The Candy Man

Christian LOVES to bake! It is a Holiday tradition for him to make Christmas candy each year, this year he got together with his pal, Jeremy . I love seeing men in the kitchen; to be honest Christian is way better there than I am. I can make eggs better than him, but that is about it.
When all was said and done, we ended up with a whole lotta candy, three types of fudge, Boston creams, peanut brittle, peanut butter balls, and toffee. It is all DELICIOUS and we need to give it the neighbors ASAP before I gain 10 lbs.

While Dad was busy in the kitchen, Berke and I hung out, read books, played, and had fun with the camera. This kid gets cuter by the day!

Poor Kid

We have had one snow storm this winter thus far; of course it fell on a night when we had to go out to a Christmas Party. We dressed Berke in his winter get up and this was the final result. Poor kid looks like the kid in A Christmas Story, yep the one who cant put his arms down because he has so many thick layers on.

All I Want For Christmas

are my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth.

Wait, Santa! I changed my mind!

Thanksgiving in Utah

My parents, wanting to see their grandson, and not wanting to fly to Boston, decided to buy us tickets to Utah instead, for Thanksgiving this year. We usually stay home for the holidays and travel in the summer, but since the tickets were free and we were ready to experience the FREE grandparent babysitting I have been hearing so much about, we went.
Berkeley did very well on the 3 out of the 4 flights. The last stretch home, he was DONE being confined, but all the other flights he was a champ. Everyone comment on how well he did and of coarse how adorable he is.

We arrived in Utah on Wednesday evening and ate at my favorite...CAFE RIO!!! Then Christian, my brother, Stevie and I got up early Thanksgiving morning for a 5k Turkey Trot. It was FREEZING while waiting for the race to start, but once we started running things were good. I am glad I ran, because it was the only exercise that occurred on our trip and we did a whole lot of eating. It is weird, how much I have come to love to run (short distances). After I ran my first 5k in Louisville I never thought I would run again; but hey this year I have run 3, so never say never.
Thanksgiving was delicious and fun to be with my entire family. It is nice to be with family for the holidays; it has been awhile.

Friday morning, my Mom, Marci and I were crazy and got up at 4:30a.m. to hit the sales for BLACK FRIDAY. I am not sure why, I have never seen Target so insane, it was somewhat traumatic for me. But we did get some good deals and we felt pretty happy about that. Black Friday was also my 29th Birthday. I spent the rest of my day having lunch with many of my friends at Leatherbys and eating lots of ice cream. Below is Joel and I who just happen to share the same birthday, but until this year never got to celebrate together.

Later that evening, we used some of that WONDERFUL FREE grandparent babysitting and went to Wendover with my Dad and Lori to see Dwight Yoakam in concert. It was a fun time for all. Thanks Dad for the tickets!

Berkeley loved spending time with his grandparents. By far his favorite activity was watching the choo choo train go around the Christmas tree with grandma. He was just sit and watch it, it was adorable.

Tristen and Berkeley are cousins and only two weeks apart. They could not be more different from each other, but they both have the cute factor happening for them. It made me a bit homesick to realize how much family time Berkeley is missing out on; he could be so close to his cousins and grandparents if we just lived a few thousand miles closer.

Saturday I got my hair did. I love how cheap it is to get your hair done in Utah and how fabulous it looks when you are done. Oh to feel beautiful again.....priceless. We had the opportunity to get together with the Sorrels family at Chili's as well.

Here is Berke with his Grandpa and Grandma Sorrels. He was wearing his Utah shirt for the big BYU vs. Utah game, but we don't really need to talk about that, other than he wears RED well.

Grandma and Grandpa Sorrels with all four of their grandchildren, next year they will have FIVE. Nope, it's not me adding to the family, it is Stevie and Marci. I love seeing my nieces and nephew, they are so stinkin' hilarious.

My mom really wanted to celebrate Berkeley and Tristen's Birthdays while we were there; the boys started to find joy in unwrapping presents. They also each enjoyed a chocolate cupcake for the occasion. Berke was more interested in using the cake as finger paints than eating it, but he did manage to suck some of the frosting off his fingers.

Maren and Brock recently moved to Provo, Utah; since we were so close we couldn't pass up a chance to see their new house and their adorable kids. Berke was excited to play with his cousins even if this picture would suggest otherwise. We love the Kirwan family.

We went with the Kirwans and my parents down to Temple Square. We haven't visited Utah in the winter time for awhile, so it was nice to do the old tradition again. It really was so beautiful.

We also got to visit the Taft family on Thanksgiving and by taking the famous "Taft Park City Outlet Shopping Trip." There is nothing we Tafts like more than a really good deal!!!

Check this out:
Berkeley with his Great Great Grandma Taft

Berke with his Great Grandpa Taft

Berke with his Grandpa Taft

It was nice to have Berke see all of his family in Utah, even though I think he was a bit overwhelmed with all of the people all of the time. It was a really fun trip and I am so thankful for my wonderful family.
Christian and I realized we are not Westerners any longer; our skin was sooooo dry, we were not used to it at all. I would wake up every morning with a dry throat. Berkeley's cheeks turned bright red from being so dry. We also kept a steady stream of chap stick flowing.
Overall, great trip to Utah. Very busy, very fun, very needed.