I've been tagged!

Thank you, Mindi, for tagging me and giving me an excuse to do a fun blog post!
Here are the tag rules:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged

And here are my responses:

10 years ago I was...
Just beginning two new phases of life--young womens and middle school. I was also taking my first art class.

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Go to school
2. Go to work
3. Do homework
4. Go to the Democratic caucus with Travis
5. Email my grandfather

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel everywhere!
Own my own house and decorate it however I want.
Own two cars (that are less than five years old, and have less than 200,000 miles).
Own a really nice camera and take pictures of all the places I visit.
Put most of the money in the bank for mine, Travis', and our kids' future.
Donate to charities in my dad's and mom's name.

3 of my bad habits are:
Napping when I shouldn't.
Leaving my snow-covered shoes on when I walk all over our apartment (much to Travis' dismay).
Allowing Travis to do the dishes more than I should (he is so good about doing them!).

Places I have lived:
Issaquah, WA (age 1-19, in the same house no less)
Rexburg, ID (I'm going on my fourth year of school here, and am now a registered voter here!)

5 Jobs I have had:
YMCA--swim instructor and life guard.
Cold Stone Creamery--server.
Lakeside Montessori--teacher assistant.
Title Nine--retail assistant.
BYU-Idaho Writing Center--writing tutor.
Two jobs that I'd like to forget: ROC and Melaleuca

Things most people don't know about me:
I love Jane Austen books and movies.
I love the idea of being a stay-at-home-mom as my career.
I get excited about checking the mail every day.
I despise onions, tomatoes, and medium rare meat.
My favorite animal is a pig.
I'm married to the most wonderful man in the world (in my book, anyway).

So, who's tagged now?
Travis
Chelsi
Tia
Brandon

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!

I don't think we ever posted the correct answer to the poll we put up a few weeks ago. Most of you probably know by now that Jenny is the new Primary President in our ward. Stacy Stone, Levi's wife was the president until they moved to Utah a few weeks ago, due to his graduation from school. Our ward primary right now consists of two children, both 2 years old. We're excited for this new calling and I know Jenny will do a great job. She told me the other day that if she can't do anything else she can love those children very much. I think that's the most important thing.

This looks like a new post but it's actually a continuation of the previous post so read that one first, please. Thanks.
So after dinner at La Casita we went back home to exchange gifts. It was not quite the 25th but we wanted it to feel like Christmas so we read the Christmas story from the Bible and then gave each other gifts.
The first picture is Jenny's mom opening the gift Jenny got for her, some nice facial stuff from Nicole Miller and a nice bag to put them in.















Below is Mike and Jenn opening a gift from Susan. They live in Louisiana and Jenn is flying back and Mike isn't sure how long he's staying or not staying in Washington so gift cards seemed like the most convenient gift for them. That is what you don't see under the green paper in the box in the picture.




















Here's Papa John opening the gift we gave him, President Gordon B. Hinckley's biography. He was also very excited when he opened a package of brand new, gold toe socks. That was the only thing on his list and he would have been devestated if he didn't get any.




















This is me opening the DVD Mom and Dad Reed gave me, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. They also gave me a very nice temple bag. So I no longer have to use my old school backpack.

Jenny was the one taking all the pictures so we don't have any of her opening gifts... unless I have some on my camera. I'll check. Nope. And for the life of me I can't remember what she got from her parents so she'll have to let you know later. I do remember that Mike and Jenn brought some sleeping bags for us that they actually meant to give us as a wedding gift...but due to the cost and hassle of shipping they became Christmas presents instead. I forgot to mention that Chelsi got us some camp chairs so we are slowly collecting the gear we need to run away to the woods if we ever get a free weekend. Hopefully we'll have more than one opportunity this summer. That doesn't have much to do with Christmas...but we are very thankful to everyone who gave us anything this Christmas. I love the Christmas spirit of giving.

We will be sure to post the last of the Issaquah pictures as well as pics from our very white Christmas in Blackfoot as well, so stay tuned!