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!

Home for the Holidays

I know it's been a while since our last post which doesn't make much sense because we were on vacation so we should have had more time...but you know how that goes. Anyway, we have loved reading your posts and seeing pics from your holiday celebrations and we want to share ours with all of you.

Some of you may know that Jenny's parents are selling their house and plan to move to Tucson, AZ. They have an offer and will be closing on the 18th of January so our trip up to Issaquah was probably the last one for a while. Thankfully, Jenny's brother Mike and his wife Jenn came up from Lousiana also so their entire family was together for the holidays. "There's no place like home for the holidays." So here are some pics from Issaquah. And a little disclaimer -- Jenny is the blog-master in our family but she is working all day at Melaleuca. It is the last day of the month so she belongs to them today. (But school starts in about 10 days so she's almost done working there!!!) I thought i'd try my luck at blogging so if something looks funny blame my inexperience.

We were the proud designers of this lovely gingerbread house. Well, actually it was a kit but we didn't exactly follow the picture on the box, if you know what I mean. It's a Reed family tradition to make gingerbread houses for the holidays so we did. Here are some more pics of it.

Do not be decieved. While it may look tasty it actually is far from it. I got some of the frosting on my hands as we were making it so naturally, I licked it off and was surprised to find that it tasted more like play-dough than frosting. I guess it keeps kids from picking in while they're making their houses.

Here's an action shot...

And my beautiful wife as she proudly displays the finished product.

We flew from Boise to Seattle on the 19th of December in the evening. On the 20th we did some last minute shopping and then went to Everett, WA to meet Chelsi and Kamela! It was so good to see them. Jenny and I were both kicking ourselves for forgetting our cameras but luckily Chelsi had one on her phone so we at least got something. She posted those on her blog so you can go there to see them. I'm glad nobody in our family had to fly solo for all the holiday season. Jason and Brandon got together with their families, we got to see Chelsi & Kamela, and when we got back to Idaho we spent some time with Cassie and Mark and their family along with Mom, Dad, Tyler and Tia in Blackfoot.

Jenny's Dad was working on the 21st so that was our gingerbread house day. We watched "White Christmas" while assembling our work of art seen above. That night we got together with Mike and Jenn, went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant, La Casita -- a Reed family favorite. It was really good but I ate way too much. Here are some pics that Jenny took from the restaurant.

Mom and Dad Reed

Mike and Jenn Reed

Travis and Jenny Holloway (that's us)

The Restaurant

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

Last time we posted, we were in want of snow. And now...we want it to stop! It has been snowing almost non-stop since Christmas eve. The result? Almost a foot and a half of snow! Wowsers!
Our cute little Geo--sitting in the parking lot since the snow began.
Notice the bumper and the back wheel.

A little tree outside our apartment complex.


It was, however, very nice to have a white Christmas (as a Seattlite, I had only experienced two or three in my lifetime). And although the snow is a mess to drive in, it truly is sooo beautiful! So...
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

A Rexburg Christmas

It's beginning to look like Christmas here in Rexburg. Being my first Christmas season away from home, I've had to be pretty creative with the decorations. But, pulling ideas from my mom and from friends, our house is starting to look very Christmasy and feel Christmasy too.

One of my family's Christmas traditions
is to have a chocolate advent calendar,
where we open up one of the numbered
doors and eat a chocolate each day to
count down to Christmas...yum!



Another tradition, started in my family because
my dad's family spent time in Germany when
he was young, is to celebrate St. Nicholas Day.
On the eve of December 5th, children and
adults alike set out one of their shoes, then
wake up the next morning to find oranges,
nuts, and chocolates stuffed inside! I decided to
carry on this tradition in my new family, so
here are mine and Travis' shoes filled with
goodies on St. Nicholas Day morning.



Trying to think of some kind of decoration to
put in our windows, we decided to brush up
on our snowflake making skills and fill up our
windows with "snow." Trav and I had fun
making them, and were surprised to find that
we actually have sweet snowflake making skills.
The snowflakes have been nice to have up
because we really haven't gotten that much snow yet.
Maybe we'll have some real snow by Christmas!



Then we brightened up the window a little by
putting up some lights. So far, we are the most
festively decorated apartment in our complex,
which is a pretty cool feat. I love coming home
at night and seeing our window all lit up. It
makes me smile. =)



We bought a pre-lit tree from Wal-Mart (figuring
we'll have reason to use a fake tree for a few more
years yet) and put it up together last night. Here
I am, putting the first ornament on the tree.



I thought it would be nice to have an ornament
that said "2007" to commemorate our
first Christmas together, and we found a really
cute "Willow Tree" angel ornament that did at
Deseret Book, so we bought it! Our ornament
collection is pretty limited right now, but I figure
that it is just an exciting opportunity to collect some
over the years and make them our own. We
want to make a tradition, like Brandon and
Rachel, of each person in the family picking out
a new ornament for themselves each year, then
hanging their own ornaments on the tree. So,
here is the first of many to come!



And here is the finished Christmas
Tree! I just love having it in our
home. There is always a special
feeling about having a Christmas
tree, and it is no different this year.



It's exciting for us to start making
our own holiday family traditions!

Wishing we could be with ya'll
at this Christmas time. =)

For Some Laughs

Watching TV at Bart and Shantyl's recently, we kept seeing this add for "Frank TV" based on this guy, Frank Caliendo, who is an impressionist. Curious to see if he was any good, we looked him up on YouTube...and we found the next Bill Cosby. Frank is sooooooo funny, and the greatest part about his act is that he's so good at impressions, he doesn't need to do any innapropriate stuff to get laughs, so he's pretty clean. We love him! He does impressions of actors, political figures, sports commentators, etc., and is so good at them all. We've seen most of his videos several times now, and they still make us laugh.
So, to share the laughs, we decided to post one of his videos from YouTube on our blog for you to see. Hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52bmJXYQPQ

And if you do, check out some more of his videos on YouTube, or watch FrankTV tuesday nights at 10/11. It's so refreshing to experience some clean humor, don't you think?

Happy 4th Month Anniversary To Us!

November 28th was mine and Travis' 4th month anniversary. I can't believe its been four months already, and at the same time, I feel like we've been together forever. For each of our anniversaries, we try to do a little something special, either for each other or with each other. This month, we decided to make one of our favorite dinners--lasagna, and bust open a bottle of sparking grape juice, to make it that much more special.

Here's our yummy anniversary dinner.

Me stating that it's been 4 months.

My cute husband!

Us sharing a toast to US!

We enjoyed eating our dinner, and then decided to get some cold stone ice cream, as a flashback to one of our first dates. A funny thing happened when we were there. One of the guys who was making our ice cream, as he was helping us, asked us if we were doing anything special that night. I answered "Yeah. It's our fourth month anniversary, so we're going to eat some ice cream and watch a movie." He replied, "Oh...congratulations. Well, that sound like fun." He finished making our ice cream and rang us up, and then as we were leaving, he said "I hope you guys make it to your eigth month anniversary." I kind of chuckled and replied "We plan on it." Thinking his comment was kind of odd, I made a comment to Travis about it, something like "that was kind of weird, right?" Travis replied, "I think he thought that we were just dating." I laughed. "That guy must of thought we were such nerds!" (Who celebrates month anniversaries when they are dating?) I couldn't stop chuckling to myself about it.

Despite that awkward moment, we did have a really nice night, eating our creamy ice cream and watching a movie we had both been wanting to see for a while (Amazing Grace, which was really good--totally recommend it). I'm so grateful for my sweet husband, and for the opportunity that we have to be together. Happy fourth anniversary to us!

My makeover

Ever since we have been married, I have wanted
to get a haircut like the one I had when me and
Travis were first dating. But money for us
newlyweds is hard to come by, and a $20
hair cut just wasn't fitting in the budget. Then,
when we were in Oakley for Thanksgiving, my
mom asked me, "You still haven't gotten your
hair cut yet?" I said, "No, I just haven't felt
that we've had the money for it." She
subsequently handed me over a $20 and told
me to use it for a haircut. Thank you mom! So,
this past Tuesday, I went to Reflections in Rexburg
and got my makeover! I love getting my hair cut; not
only is it a pampering session, but I also come from it
with a better feeling about myself. I LOVE my
new haircut, and thankfully Travis loves it too. It's
also really easy to style. Thanks again mom!

Our Thanksgiving

We felt very blessed this Thanksgiving. First of all, Travis got a full week of school off, and I was able to request off time from work for the Thursday through Saturday of that week. So, we took off Wednesday night for Travis' family's house in Blackfoot, where we enjoyed yummy homemade pizza and a competitive game of scrabble.

Then, on Thanksgiving morning, we met my cousin Ben and drove to Oakley. Arriving in Oakley, we were greeted by my parents (who we hadn't seen since our Open House) and my cousin Elysia. It was soooo nice to see my parents again. Usually I am home, working, for the fall, so I have definately been homesick this fall as Travis and I have been in Rexburg. While waiting for our late Thanksgiving dinner, we visited with my aunts and uncles, cousins, and Grandma (most of whom live in Oakley as well) and finished up the final dinner preparations. Then we ate! We enjoyed most of my families traditional Thanksgiving favorites, shared the things that we were all grateful for, and discussed some of our goals for the future. Although we were having Thanksgiving in a different place, I still felt at home. It was also wonderful to spend my first Thanksgiving with Travis! I love getting to share these special holidays with him.

After dinner, Travis, me, and my mom and dad, traveled to Paul, ID where Travis' family was (for Thanksgiving at Aunt Candaces). At Candaces, we ate goodies and played a wild game of spoons. My mom sat out, watching in horror, and saying to herself, "I've never seen such a killer game of spoons before!" Dad and I were novices to the Holloway family spoons game, but both had fun and did pretty well. It was definitely a interesting experience, but a Thanksgiving tradition I will continue to look forward to. Trav was the co-winner of the game with his cousin Robert--yeah Trav!!! After spoons, we visited with family and my good friend Lori, and then slept downstairs in sleeping bags, as is tradition for the cousins.


Playing spoons at Candaces.

Friday morning, we went shopping in Burley with my mom and aunt Jane for Christmas. After many hours of shopping, we returned to Oakley for Thanksgiving left overs and a movie night.

Then, on Saturday, me and Travis rode down to SLC with my cousins Audrey and Andy to attend a session in the SLC temple before my Aunt Carol's sealing. It was sooo neat to do a session in the temple. It was my first time doing a session with live actors, and the whole interior of the temple was so pretty! We had a really nice time. Then, at the sealing, family and friends on both sides came together to share in the wonderful occaision. I was so happy for Carol and Ken to finally be sealed in the temple. They were both glowing with happiness and love. =) It was a good reminder of the covenants that were made at, and the feelings me and Travis had at our own sealing.

After the sealing, we took pictures at the temple, then headed over to the Golden Corral for some grub. Even more family joined us there, and I had a really nice time visiting with family members that I hadn't seen in awhile. I love my family! Aftern stuffing ourselves thouroughly, we left Utah and returned to Blackfoot, where we again stayed the night (thanks to Travis' very generous parents).

On Sunday, we enjoyed spending time with Travis' family again, as we joined them for church, then dinner and visiting afterwards. I so love my in-laws too! Then, our vacation almost at an end, we said goodbye to Trav's family, and returned to Rexburg.

The trip was a definite success. We felt so lucky to be able to spend time with both of our families for the holidays, and loved every minute of it! =) We are both very grateful for the wonderful Thanksgiving trip that we had.

In the Clouds

Max Lucado, in his book "God Thinks You're Wonderful" wrote:

"(God) could have left the world flat and gray...but He didn't.

He splashed orange in the sunrise, and cast the sky in blue...

Say nothing and listen as heaven whispers, 'Do you like it?

I did it just for you."

We get pretty nice sunsets here in Rexburg, but this one was

particularly nice. When Travis saw it through our living room

window, he said "Look! We have to go outside and take pictures!"

And so we grabbed our cameras and our coats and ran outside. We

both love photography, so we had fun taking several shots. Then

we held each other and just stared at the beauty of it. I'm so grateful

to our Heavenly Father for creating such a beautiful world for us to

live in.

Check out my Slide Show!

Here's to Phil

Those of you who are familiar with the history of Holloway family automobiles will appreciate and understand this simple, yet monumental milestone. Some of you may know that we were given a car by John Reed, Jenny's dad, shortly after we were married. This gem you see below is that very vehicle. Not much to look at, you may say. While that may be true, the car does run and that's really all we care about. It runs and runs and runs and keeps running and is still running 280,000 miles after it first hit the asphalt. Not bad for a 1990 Geo Prizm.
In the Holloway family, as most of you know, we try to keep our cars until the wheels fall off. And it is to all those beautiful pieces of machinery that I dedicate this post. To the first green truck, and the yellow beast that most of us learned to drive stick on, that popped out of first gear, didn't have a handle to roll the window down, and whose truck bed was rusting out... We musn't forget Big Blue, the deisel suburban that Mom and Dad traded in for $1 and still graces a lot in Blackfoot with its presence. And last but most certainly not least, good old Phil. I don't think anybody who heard Phil sing could ever forget that van. What a trooper.
I don't know how many miles we put on those cars but it was in number, not a few. So to follow the Holloway automobile legacy, we share with you our milestone moment with our beloved geo.
Here's to Phil.

On the Mend

As most of you know, I have had mono for the past 3 weeks. This, besides being a major pain, has been the main reason that there have been few posts from us lately (since I am the primary poster and haven't felt well enough to really post, or more importantly, do anything post-worthy). At any rate, I am FINALLY on the mend, with only a (very-itchy) rash left as a residue of what I now believe is one of the most evil/brutal viral diseases one can contract (aka mono). I wish it on NO ONE, and hope very much that I don't get my sweetie sick. I just wanted to let you all know that I am doing much better, and that I returned to work on Monday, so things are going pretty good for me now. Thank you all for your prayers, advice, and kind words. They were much appreciated!! And thank you Travis for taking SUCH good care of me; you have been my nurse and my angel throughout the past 3 weeks, and I LOVE YOU!!!

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

The Monday before Halloween, we had
Travis' parents, and brother Tyler, as well
as our good friends Bart and Shantyl over
for FHE. We ate mamma Holloways
delicious chili and pumpkin roll, and then
carved dad Holloways home grown pumpkins!
It was so nice to have them all over. We're glad
to have them live nearby.

Here's the gang getting started on their
pumpkin creations.



Here is Trav getting our pumpkin started. We
decided to carve our pumpkins together (which
turned out to be really nice when de-gooping came
around). I think we make a good team. =)

Our friends Bart and Shantyl working on their
pumpkin. Bart is going to school to be a dentist,
so we teased him that pumpkin carving would
be good practice for his future career.

And here are our pumpkin creations:
a happy pumpkin face (notice the
pumpkin top eye brows, tombstone
eyes, and witches hat nose. We thought
we were being pretty creative)...

A view in the dark: (they look so
much better that way!)

And a racoon in a pumpkin (this one
was NOT our design, but I thought
it was really cute so we did it).

After crafting our pumpkins, we placed
them outside our door for the trick-or-
treaters to enjoy. Pumpkins galore!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

More Halloween Pictures

Finally, our blog decided that it
would allow me to download the
rest of the Halloween pictures--
so here they are. It's so fun to be
festive!
Here is our door decoration. We have
several LITTLE kids that live in our
apartment complex, so we didn't
want to get anything too scary.

Our coffee table is the center for Halloween
fun in our apartment.

And for those outside--cute, smiling pumpkin
stickers!

I have to say that I still think Halloween is one
of the coolest ideas ever! I mean, free candy by
the pillowcase full?! Please!

We love to hear your comments!

I just wanted to let those who are new to blogging know that anyone can comment on our blogs! Part of the joy of blogging for me is to see what our friends and family say about our updates, because we blog to share our life with you! So, PLEASE, comment away! We'd love to hear from you!

Getting festive for Halloween

My mom is huge on decorating for the
holidays, so with halloween drawing
near, it just didn't feel right to not decorate
our apartment. So I went to Walmart with
Travis' sister, got some decorations, and
me and Travis finished putting them up
last night.
For some strange reason, only one of the pictures
we took of the decorations would download, so
I'll try to post the rest of them later.

We love our little apartment. It's becoming
more and more a "home."



P.S. Do any of you married people realize more and
more how much you are (becoming) like your
parents? Not only do I have to decorate like my
mom used to but...my dad has to have candy corn
every halloween, and now I'm addicted to that too.
Never before did I need to have more than a handful
of candy corn, but now I HAVE to have it on hand (it is
what is in the little white bowl above--and it's our
second bag!) Maybe we're all just prone to want what
we're used to or to traditions. Either way, it makes me
chuckle.

Just Monkeying Around

Trav was looking through our pictures, and
uncovered a few honeymoon pictures that
he thought we should share.
We have a tradition of making funny faces,
particularly monkey faces, at each other,
and the last night of our honeymoon we
decided to make them across the table
at each other at Mulligan's Restaurant.

My monkey face...I'm working on the lip trick
that Travis has been teaching me.

Trav's monkey face...isn't it amazing?!

It's so wonderful to get to hang out with my best

friend and partner everyday. We have such a

great time together!