Thanksgiving and Christmas prep!

At a Christmas party with friends. We dressed up in matching Christmas pajama's and made a cute gingerbread house.
At the Forgotten Carols play... a Christmas must!
On our way to the play

Our little Christmas tree, with my tinkerbell ornament Dane got me last year, and the bear's reading together ornament that I got him. We will add our new ornaments to the tree this year!
The "Christmas Corner in our house". Dane's brother and our sister in law loaned us their mini tree with all the ornaments for Christmas! We were so grateful, because it was basically our only Christmas decoration... it was just the right amount of decor for our tiny apartment. :)
"Angel baby" Ella... still an angel. When she saw me for the first time this trip, she snuggled right up to me, and hugged me. We bonded on our Summer road trip together.
The girls... minus Jodi and Jen.
Maddimoo sleeping on Aunt Jilly.
She was out!
Cute little girl
Cute little Gracie...she was sick here, but just as happy as can be.
Thanksgiving grub! Yum! Daner's is eating the pumpkin cheesecake I made.
Ayden's birthday party...I miss this family
Cute Ayden opening up his presents

My sister just did a Thanksgiving post... so it inspired me to do one too! We had such a blast and got to spend time with both of our families... sadly we took no pictures with Dane's family (oops). Thanksgiving day was spent with my family... and we had a blast. We loved spending time with all the kids... and Dane and I got to have a "date" with them... which we haven't done in forever. We did Thanksgiving activities, and made up a fun thanksgiving dance, that the kids performed for everyone. My sister hosted the WHOLE family (almost) and we all were very comfortable in her cute house. The Turkey was AMAZING, and I think we will forevermore deep fry our turkey (that is, when we actually host our own thanksgiving...down the road). The set up was beautiful, and the table was lined with pumpkin/squash decorations, leaves, handmade place cards, and Martinelli's! It was so fun to see the kids getting older (and they all did seem SO much older from the last time we saw them). It was a blast! We can't wait for Christmas to get in some more family time!

A good book...and a movie or two

There is nothing like a good book, and even better is reading that good book with the one you love. Dane and I LOVE to read together. If you haven't tried this you should. You can read the book separately and discuss it later, or read at night together (which is what Dane and I do...more specifically I read to Dane... and I know he likes it because he doesn't fall asleep, and he "ooohss" and "ahhsss" and laughs at all the right parts. :) It's a fun and different way to connect with your man (or woman). We started reading together almost two years ago when we started dating. Here is a small list of the books we have enjoyed together, and I would highly recommend:
The Last Lecture: This book is short, great, and totally inspiring
Harry Potter: My oldest sister told Dane he basically couldn't be a TRUE member of the family unless he did read the series... therefor, Dane read the series and has become Dumbledore's number 1 fan! ps... he is still not over Dumbeldore's tragic fate.
Twilight: Dane didn't mind the first book so much.
Two summers ago we both listened to lots of books on tape due to long Seattle drives, and I filled Dane in on all the ins and outs of Great Expectations, and Confessions of a Shopaholic (great one on tape!)
The Guernsey literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Crazy title, lovely book. It is one you could pick up again and again. Dane was not this books biggest fan.
The Glass Castle: Dane didn't read all of this one with me, just the second half, but he was hooked. Great book...sadly it has some "language", but amazing true story.

And the book we are currently reading together and DEVOURING is a book called,
Provenance. I totally recommend this book! Dane and I read it every night before bed, and before we know it we are TWO hours past our bedtime! That's how good this book is!

It is about the biggest art con in recent history! True story! This con man forges hundreds of paintings with the help of a struggling artist, and this is the story from their beginning, until they get caught! (I haven't gotten to that part yet, but it's quite obvious that they DID in fact get caught).
Totally engaging, and intriguing! It has a very "catch me if you can" vibe.

While we are on the subject Dane and I are SERIOUS movie junkies. We LITTERALLY see just about every movie that comes out. We also live right near by a clean flick, so we get to see EVEN more movies then normal. A new personal favorite of mine is "Martian Child". It is a book as well, (I've never read it, but I'm sure it's even better). EVERYBODY should see this movie! It is so heartwarming and endearing. Dane and I loved it, and John Cusack is great in it. Rent it! It is such a sweet movie and very entertaining (I think it was a PG 13... not tottally sure since we get everything cleanflicked I never know what anything is rated). Another fav. this time of year?
"The Holiday". Great little chick-flick.
"Iris if you were a melody...."

Halloween! Finally!

on our way to party
love love
Ya!

Cat woman
at Natalie's house


Our Sunday after Halloween feast. I made A yummy roast with carrots and potatoes (a recipe from Martha Stewart) and a yummy homemade pumpkin pie.
Dane pouring our "wine" (Martinelli)
Tuckered out at the end of the night.

We had a great timehappy

Dane looks like a little boy here... my fav. pic of him for the night.
Our good friends Edmond and Jassi... they were characters from a movie called Clockwork Orange.
Natalie and Grant... they were APX salesmen
Candice and Cody... he was decapitated, and she as a hoo! From hooville. (spelling)?
In character
cutest baseball player ever
Cat Woman

oh how fierce... my tail kept showing awkwardly/inappropriately in all my pics... so this was the least awkward tail showing pic... :)
Cute Kambri.. our good friend's daughter... she trick or treated at our house... so much fun. Sienna (my cousin's daughter) trick or treated us too! It was very fun.

We started Halloween off with going out to breakfast and seeing a matinee of "Where the Wild Things Are" Visually the moving was amazing, but it was a little more depressing than I thought it would be. We still had a great time though
on our way to breakfast
At the beginning of Halloween week Dane and I carved pumpkins and baked pumpkin seeds... just like last year :)
We are trying to match our "pumps" faces. Dane's pumpkin was creepy and mine was meant to look scared of Dane's pumpkin.
our Halloween pumpkins, or "pumps" as we call them.
our cute haunted house!
We made this ALL from scratch...ok, ok, this came from a box...but we followed the box PERFECTLY and were very pleased with our results. We had tons of fun.
Dane's got skills
my dollar store decorations. We had these little leaves and pumpkins all over our house, with black and orange candles on black little plates everywhere. It was pretty cute

We had such a fun Halloween week! Dane and I carved pumpkins, and made a haunted house, and he got me a beautiful bouquet of Halloween flowers! He did the same thing last year, so I guess it's becoming tradition. Halloween is almost like a birthday for me... I just love it so much! We started our actual Halloween day with breakfast and a movie. We then came back home, relaxed, put on a movie, and hung out, had a couple cute trick or treaters, and then we got in our Halloween costumes and met up with all of our friends. Every year in Rexburg Pinnacle (an alarm company) throws a huge halloween party. We all went to this party when we were single, and we thought it might be fun to go and dance, eat free pizza, and party... but when we showed up to the place.... there was not one car outside! Not even one! When we looked in the building, NO lights were on! We could not figure out what had happened, but it was obvious that there was no party going on. After waiting around outside trying to figure out what we would do, we found out that the party happened the night before, because curfew is later for single students on Friday, than it is on Saturday. Needless to say we all felt very old, and very out of the loop! Haha. The boys had heard Taco bell was serving free Halloween tacos so we all headed over there and had a great time. Then Natalie and Grant were kind enough to offer up there place to hold an impromptu Halloween party, we all split up and got goodies for the party (pizza, candy, soda, etc) and we ended up having such a fun time! We danced a little, ate alot, and played a REALLY funny game that kept us going all night long. So much fun...Halloween turned out to be just as wonderful as last year, (well almost... it's not quite the same without the nieces and nephews... but it came pretty dang close). I bought Dane a little card for helping make Halloween so awesome, and the card had a picture of a ghost in a bathroom on it, and a person in the stall reaching over, and trying to take the Ghost's sheet. The line read, "It's Halloween, don't take any sheet from anyone". hehe... I know... inappropriate, but Dane loved it... and the Ghost was very cute.
Hope everyone else had a great Halloween as well... now on to Thanksgiving!

Wondering why we have a donate button on our blog?!

No, Dane and I are not asking for random contributions to ourselves (although it is odd to have a donate button on our blog). Some of you are already aware, but this Holiday season, Dane and I have decided to support a women's shelter in his home town of Kennewick. This shelter presently houses about 15 moms and 10 kids (including teens) who are all victims of domestic violence. The shelter expects more families will arrive, as they do every year, nearer to Christmas. Dane and I would love to help lift these families spirits, in any way we can. If you would like to help support this cause by donating any amount of money, Dane and I would love to help facilitate this. We have created a pay pal account that you can donate to, online. You do NOT have to have a paypal account in order to donate. When you make a donation, there is a box that says, 'purpose' where you can tell us exactly how you would like your money used, and we will make that happen! You can tell us to use the money toward a particular gift card, or to buy a certain gift. You can tell us you would like your money to go toward one child, or multiple children, or toward the Shelter's General Christmas fund! Wherever you would like your money to go, Dane and I PROMISE to get it there. I spoke with the woman in charge of the shelter and she will help us ensure that your money is donated exactly where you want.

You can donate in just 3 easy steps!

1. click on the Donate button on the top right corner of the blog
2. Type how you would like your donation spent in the 'purpose' box. Next to that type in the dollar amount you would like to donate, and click update total
3. To finalize payment either Log in to paypal on the bottom right of the screen,
or if you don't have a pay pal account click on 'Continue' on the bottom left hand of the screen and enter your credit car info. then click, 'Review donation and continue'

Then your done, and you have made your donation!

-just for your information, pay pal automatically will take 2.9% plus .30 cents out of every transaction received in my account. This is an automatic charge that pay pal requires for any pay pal transaction. So if you donate $5, the amount that will end up in my account will be about $4.55. The other .45 cents will be sent directly to pay pal.

For anyone who would prefer to mail a donation directly to the shelter, you can go to their website at www.dvsfb.org

Feel free to link any of your friends to our site, if they would like to donate as well! This will make a BIG difference in these families lives, at an extremely hard time of year.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Life in Rexburg

Guitars unplugged with Candice, Nat, and Sienna
Waiting for our husbands to perform
cousins
before the show
Dane and I in the car on our way to the show!
I don't get very dressed up these days, so I had Dane take a pic. :)
Pumped up for the show!
ready for the show!
Dane's punky outfit, for Sir Rupius!
Rock star!
On our way to the corn maze! We were all bundled up!
Visiting Dane's highschool best friends in Boise
Group pic!
Candice threw her husband Cody (Dane's besty) a ninja turtles surprise birthday party (the kids obsessed) so Dane and I bought Turtle shirts for him and I and Candice. It was alot of fun!
Candice and Cody or as I accidentally say all the time, Candy and Codice. haha whoops!
My first lemon merengue pie. Made from SCRATCH! It turned out VERY yummy!
When we FIRST moved to Rexburg, and it was still Summer, we went to the park to read, and watch movies.
It got a little cold so we bundled up like burritos!
Burrito!
The spread
Our view from our car camp out
Dane and I in Focy. (We call my little Focus, Focy and Dane's Taurus, Taury... weird I know)
The bed we made in the back of the car
Cute boy
It was a beautiful day!

We have had a great last four months together here in Rexburg. I haven't been posting pics. lately so I will tell you all what we have been up to in the pictures. Dane and I have had a lot of fun here in the Good Ol' Burg. We miss Seattle a lot. Especially the Fall season. Rexburg has summer, then Winter, and that's about it. We miss Seattle rain, and our FAVORITE restaraunts, and of course our family and close friends. We also miss being only a few hours away from Dane's family. What we do love about Rexburg, is our cheap but nice apartment, tons of GREAT friends, being back in school, and doing some of our favorite Rexburg only activities. Over the 7 week school break Dane and I had no jobs, so had lots of little "mini adventures". One night we took a drive out to R mountain, and found a hill with an awesome view. We parked, set up a comfy bed in the back of Focy, and watched a movie, with LOTS of yummy snacks, while looking out over a beautiful view! It was very fun, until it got dark and I got freaked out we might be eaten by a wolf, so Dane drove to a well lit camp site near our house, and we finished our movie there. Not as fun for Dane, but what can I say... he knew I was a baby when he "picked" me up. :)
When it was a little warmer we loved going to Porter Park to just chill. One day we brought blankets and pillows and Dane brought Macy (that's our Mac laptop... we tend to nickname everything we own... and every name ends with a Y... again...weird I know) to watch a movie on, while I brought my fav. book Wuthering Heights. Across the park a band was playing lots of covers from John mayor, Jason Mraz, etc... so it was fun having some chill music in the background. We made a last minute trip to Boise for Dane to chill with some of his boys, and we had a great time. More recently we went to the haunted corn maze with Candice, Cody and some other friends. We love having them here, and will miss them, when they move to IF! :( The corn maze was fun, and we got lost for hours...good exercise though! Dane wanted us to stay lost because his philosophy is that we paid 12 bucks to get lost in a maze, so the more lost we are, the more we get for our money.... Oh Dane... I love this boy. 2 nights ago Dane and Cody (along with Natalie's husband Grant and a guy named Eric) all performed for their last time in Guitars unplugged. Dane and Cody have performed in this almost every year with their now retired band, "Sir Rupius". Dane had a lot of fun practicing, and getting time to just jam with Cody. He loves performing with this kid, and EVERYBODY in Rexburg knows Dane and Cody for, 'Sir Rupius'. Almost every time Dane and I go out, somebody comes up to him, remembering him from his band. When they tried out all the judges and other performers remembered their band, and would say things like, "I saw you play in Pocatello... I came to your show in IF... which one of you wore the cape"? Which by the way... the cape boy would be my husband. It's Dane's signature. With out the cape, Dane can't be goofy and jump around. I asked Dane a few times before the performance if he thought he could do with out the cape... now that he is a grown up, but that was out of the question. I had a blast watching him perform, and having so much fun. At the end of the show, to show my support I shouted, "Dane you rocked that cape"! And I have to say, he really did ROCK that cape. I'm sure our nephew Luke would have been proud. :)Dane said him and the guys were excited to have wives in the crowd (this is a Sir Rupius first). I remember watching Dane and Cody perform back in the day, and they would say things like, "this goes out to the ladies" and I always felt bugged by that... but now I am his Lady, and I was proud to be there! I posted a video from the show. You can tell they had a lot of fun with it! Anyways... that's pretty much our life right now! Post more later!