Glacial Rexburg Winter

The other day the DJ's on the radio decided they didn't have enough creative words to describe just how cold it was so they asked people to call in with more ideas for them. Glacial was their favorite... And this morning's temperatures were most certainly "glacial." At 8:00 this morning Rexburg was enjoying a brisk -20 degrees with the wind bringing it down to -34 according to weather.com. Supposedly it was the lowest overnight temperature in 10 years. It was cold, but we somehow managed to survive. Today I learned that no matter how cold it is, it could always be worse... At least it wasn't snowing.

What cute neices and nephews we have!

All of our neices and nephews are SUPER CUTE (what a lucky aunt and uncle we are!), but we are going to highlight Gavin and Megan Black in this blog, because we got the fun opportunity to babysit them last week while Cassie and Mark were on a VIP tour of the Rexburg Temple. So, here they are!

Megger-moo, as papa Holloway calls her, is about

the cutest girl around. I love her little smile!

Gavin is a candy loving kid! He yoinked

a tootsie roll pop soon after he arrived at

our apt., and enjoyed it the rest of the

time that he was here. Trav played "who's

that?" with him, as they looked at all of the

family blogs. He knew us, Cailyn, his own

family, and the Blackfoot Holloways right off

the batt, but picked up pretty quick on everyone

else in the family.

Gavin was all about watching

He-man while he was here. Every time an

episode would end, he would say "Bye Bye He-man."

And when a new episode would start, he would

excitedly yell, "HE-MAN!" What a cool kid!

Megan loves graham crakers!! She

wouldn't have ANY of us stopping

feeding them to her til she was good

and done. She is definately ready

for big girl food. Yummy graham crackers!

Thanks for letting us hang out with

your wonderful kids, Cassie and Mark!

Blackfoot Gingerbread Houses

On Christmas Eve, the Holloways assembled their gingerbread houses--this time in Blackfoot. Mama Holloway cut the graham cracker walls and roofs, Cassie and Mark provided the decorations, and Travis made the icing. We all had fun creating (and eating) our houses.

Here's mama Holloway cutting the graham crackers:

Here are mom and dad Holloway making their

gingerbread house, with Megan and Gavin as

their inspectors. Notice mom's "nipple"

decoration (later turned into a holiday

wreath). Oops =)

What a cute little on-looker Megan is!

I thought this scene was so precious--Grandma Lita

telling Gavin all about their gingerbread house. He's

such a smart little guy.

Gavin's favorite task was to test taste

all of our candy decorations (a very important job).

And as he had no complaints, all of the decorations

were a go!

Gavin and Megan's parents, Mark and Cassie

Black, making their gingerbread house:

Cassie talked to Chelsi, our sister, as she decorated

her gingerbread house, and Mark worked away

on their mansion.

Travis' brother, Tyler, working on his complicated

gingerbread design:

Trav's sister, Tia, came in to help him out (it all

worked out, by the way, and ended up looking

really great).

Here's my sweetie working on our traditional

graham craker gingerbread house.

Our finished product...yum! (Notice our little

outhouse--my idea, and the tree with a star on

top--Trav's creation). We were pretty proud.

We all had a fun time making our

tasty treats, and a nice little Holloway

village!

Stockings Hung by the Chimney with Care

As we are an official family now, me and Travis decided that we would make our own Christmas stockings this year. We wanted to do them in the same fashion that Travis' parents made his--the red felt, white fuzzy top, felt decoration, and iron on letters--you know, traditional stockings. So, we raided Porter's for all of the materials, then came home to create our masterpieces. And with some sewing guidance from Travis' parents, were able to complete some pretty good- lookin' stockings (if we do say so ourselves.)

The Holloway Family Stockings.

My stocking:

Travis' stocking:

Then we hung them up on the railing...

And woke up Christmas morning to find goodies in them from Santa!

We love our stockings, and the traditions we are creating early on in our new little family!