Ba-rok-on!

On Tuesday night, Travis and I attended the Democratic caucus in Madison County. Over 200 people showed up and crammed into Madison Middle School's library to give their vote. It was a much larger crowd than expected (Madison being the "reddest" county in the country). Everyone was pleased with the turnout. Although we lean toward the Republican side, we still thought it would be fun to participate in a caucus (the Republican caucus isn't until May). Trav has really been following the 2008 election, so it was nice for us to be a part of the process even in a small way. It was also neat to see fellow BYU-I students, as well as BYU-I professors there--and overall, people just being politically active. The result: 2 delegates for Obama, and 1 for Hillary Clinton. Idaho overwhelmingly voted for Obama (thank goodness). It was a fun night. =)

Attendees discussing politics:

Two Obama supporters discussing the issues:

Travis' old calculus teacher trying

to recruit Travis to give an "appreciation"

vote for John Edwards.

Here we are, waiting for the caucus to begin.

The "V" here is for "voting."

At the end, we got to vote for people from the

caucus to represent us at the state convention.

Aren't you so glad that we live in the USA and

can take part in our country's politics?!

A weekend at Bear Lake

In January, we had the fun opportunity to hang out with Travis' family in Bear Lake for the weekend. It was an especially nice treat because Travis' brother, Jason, and his family were there (up from Texas), as well as his parents, brother, and sister. I finally got to meet Jason's wife, Mindi, and their two cute girls--Cailyn and Jessica. It was Trav's first time meeting Jessica too. I love my in-laws, and enjoy any opportunity we get to hang out with them. We had a fun time visiting, swimming, and playing games. Thanks for having us along Jason and Mindi! We love you!

Here's Trav with our cute neice Jessica.
She is such a doll!

And already a social butterfly. =)

Here's Mindi reading to her daughter Cailyn,
(the book Cinderella, of course). Me and Cailyn
had fun being ballerina's later on and twirling.

Cailyn was a super helper, and helped "Papa" make
pizza, and "Lita" make rice crispy treats. Thank you
Cailyn!

Trav and Jason had a good time jamming together.

They share similar tastes in music, and so were able

to play a lot of songs together. These two brothers

are so much alike, and a lot of fun to see together.

Thanks for entertaining us guys!

We were so glad to spend time with y'all, and

hope to see you again soon!

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!