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!