Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving Break is the first break of the school year that I have more than just a 3 day weekend. Thanksgiving Break means a 5 day weekend, and let me tell you. . . it was glorious!! 

The fun started when Durant flew in on his birthday. The night he flew in we headed out to see Mockingjay. 

Thanksgiving was spent with Brodie's extended family. We are so blessed to have family (from both sides) that live so close. And lucky that Mom Fish is so good at taking selfies!

Overall, Thanksgiving Break was as amazing as the Thanksgiving turkey. Even still, there were a few drawbacks, like getting pink eye (aka wearing glasses for a week). . . 

. . . and we have a clogged sink. We were in charge of making mashed potatoes for the big dinner, which was my first attempt at making real mashed potatoes! They turned out fantastic, but all of that washing, peeling, cooking, and mashing left us a real messy kitchen. With no dishwasher and a broken sink, this was the result. . . 

To finish off the break we prepped for Christmas!! We weren't planning on buying a tree, but Saturday night we found ourselves driving home with a tree strapped to the top of our car. As we drove home we had to take a quick stop at Fred Meyer because we realized we had no tree stand or lights. And when we got home we realized we had no place to even put the tree! Which is why it ended up in the middle of our living room. 

After a Sunday afternoon of lighting, tinseling, and ornamenting the tree was finished! And Brodie took a well deserved nap. Oh, how I love him :)

i'm gonna make this place your home

It took me four months to snap a few shots of our new home. . . probably because our lives are consumed with school. We are out the door at 7am and come home just before 7pm. But probably mostly because it is rare that every single room in the house is clean. Let's be honest, there's always that one room with the pile of laundry waiting to be folded, right? 

To say we love our home would be an understatement. Each night I am still saying prayers of gratitude to God for giving us this adorable place. Yes, there are definitely quirks to this little home. The home was built in 1910, so it is definitely not new. We have no garage and live on a one way street, so we park around the corner. The closets are minuscule (they are so tiny and cute!) and there is no dishwasher. And yet I still love everything about it! 

We live one block from historic downtown Camas, which is full of places to eat, shop, and run errands. We walk to the grocery store, library, post office, hardware store, and any other place you could think of. I honestly feel like we live in Stars Hollow (Gimore Girls, anyone?) where everyone knows everyone. And even though it's small, we were able to fit all of our mismatched Craigslist furniture inside. 

Ready for the grand (650 sq. ft.) tour?? Here is our tiny, historic, bungalow home :) 

our home 

front porch

front porch

entry way

entry way

entry way

living room

living room

living room

kitchen

kitchen

kitchen

master bedroom

master bedroom

master bedroom

master bedroom (with our tiny, baby closet!)

guest bedroom

bathroom

bathroom

laundry room

front yard

front yard

side yard, featuring Luna :)

back patio

back patio

Halloween 2015

Brodie and I were just reminiscing about all of our Halloweens together (really not that many . . . only 4). So here's a quick walk down Halloween memory lane:

Peter Pan & Wendy (with Anne, my niece, as Tinkerbell) - 2012

Katniss & Peeta - 2013

Kristoff & Anna - 2014

Thor & Jane - 2015

As you can see, each year we dress up as a couple from a movie. So far we have been able to stick to the blonde hero and brown haired heroine. We'll see how long we can keep that up! 

This year we settled on Thor and his girlfriend Jane. We came up with the idea while watching the Avengers with my parents in Seattle. Brodie had about a month to grow out his hair . . . which obviously didn't ever reach Thor's full length, but it was long enough for me to put in a mini ponytail! 

If you look closely you can even see two tiny little braids by his ear. It was as close as we could get to Thor's real hair. . . 

Jane is not as well-known of a character as Thor, but we modeled my costume after Jane's dress that she wears in Asgard. Everyone could tell Brodie was Thor, and the true Thor fans knew who I was. But I also had some people guess I was Helen of Troy or a Greek princess. Oh well, close enough!

We were able to go to our ward party as well as Cohan and Emily's ward party. They dressed up as Fix it Felix, Wreck it Ralph, and Vanellope. We love living so close to them! After Danner went trick-or-treating and to bed, we played games and ate some of his candy :) 

Now we need to start brainstorming ideas for next year!! Hope everyone had a happy Halloween weekend! 

Harry Potter Month

This month is Harry Potter month. I was invited by other HP fans to join in a Harry Potter month competition (this is where my true nerdiness comes out). There are 50 members - all joining together through a facebook group/email in order to compete in the competition. Each person is sorted into a house, and then as a group, your house competes for the House Cup. To earn points you meet weekly challenges and goals.

This last week's challenge was to create a music video. Videos are voted for by the house prefects to receive points. Since my dance moves are not quite up to par, I submitted my video to try and win the "most amusing" award. If you don't know who Lavender Brown is, then you can spare yourself. But if you are a true HP fan, then I hope you can enjoy our amateur dancing/videography efforts.

52 Date Nights

Brodie and I have decided we are going to go on a date once a week, every week, for an entire year.

We kicked it off by making a fort in our living room and brainstorming as many date ideas as possible. This resulted in the date jar! Each Sunday night we pull from the jar, and then choose which day of the week will work best for our date. There is only one rule for the date jar . . . no changing the date! Unless of course the date doesn't match the season (like ice skating in summer etc.)

Date #1: Sunrise/Sunset

Our first date was to watch the sunset. While we were at the beach house this weekend, we scheduled a date to snuggle up in the trunk of our car and watch the sunset. I've seen lots of sunsets in many different places. But there's something different about scheduling a time to purposefully watch it. It's soothing to watch the sun sink lower and lower, until it dips below the horizon. It only takes a few minutes, but my favorite part is when you can watch the sun literally disappear.

"We just watched the earth spin. . ." - Brodie