Temple Square Trip

Well everyone, this is the first time that I have actually blogged (by the way this is Bryan writing), everything else has been blogged by my beautiful and amazing wife. I figured I should do one every now and then, so I figured that I would take an easy one. Last night (Tuesday) Danielle and I went to Salt Lake City and went to the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It is an amazing movie, it shows lots of stories from his life in a very powerful way, it is a very good movie. When we arrived there were lots of youth there (I guess that it is a popular mutual activity) and some of the boys were very rowdy and ready to move on to the next thing thinking that the it was too long, and after the movie as we were leaving they did not say anything until they left the theater. Then we had a very nice dinner at the Lion House Pantry. Then we walked around Temple Square and got to look at all of the lights and displays. It was a pretty amazing night, something that we are looking forward to continuing doing it, we were also able to get some pretty good pictures.

Picture of the Temple through some trees.

Well this is one of the nativity type scene that we saw, and together at the same time we both started singing the "Do your ears hang low?" song, it was quite a good laugh. I hope it does not give the donkey a complex.

Well this picture does not do this area of Temple Square justice, this area has so many yellow, red and orange lights it almost seems like it is on fire, quite amazing.

Happy Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving was a blast this year. We had quite the spread, and had a lot of fun. The three day feast is drawing to an end. (leftovers make yummy meals for the next two days after T-day) In Byran's family it is tradition to watch the Macey's Day Parade and eat bread. So we did it. We ate some good bread, and I got to for the first time in my life watch the parade. My family doesn't do that, but we figured out why......we eat Thanksgiving at 1pm, instead of like 5 pm! We are cooking all morning just trying to get done in time!! We were in charge of Potatoes. Then we learned that Alison wasn't coming this year and so we took her assignment of stuffing (not hard though since my family LOVES STOVETOP!!!! We grew up on homemade stuffing but when my mom learned that we liked stovetop better she stopped making it.) And you can't have a holiday without CHEX MIX!! Yum!! We made three different kinds of potatoes, the stuffing, and a homemade stuffing for my mom the anti-gluten eater, and then made the chex mix later for the movies. The best part was Bryan's Corn Cheese Log & Indian Cheese Log. The Corn shaped one was for my mom, and the Indian....well.....it was attacked!! The Indian had a wheat thin loin cloth, and that sparked curiosity in my younger nieces and nephews. They shoved wheat thins and pretzel spears into all parts of his body. He seriously looked like he had been attacked and tortured. We'll see what he comes up with for Christmas or maybe we'll just let his mom's Candy Cane one count.
We ate to our hearts content and then all spread out. The kids headed downstairs and we claimed the couches for naps. But it was short lived because the Gerbers made their PEANUT BUTTER BALLS!!! I was up and at 'em after that. I created a song to celebrate the joy and wonderfulnessosicity of those incredible peanut butter balls. It goes to the tune of "Here comes Santa Claus" Here are the lyrics: "I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers, I love peanut butter balls from the Gerbers.......(repeat to your heart's content, but beware of flying objects aimed at your head after verse 27. No worries, I am excellent at dodge ball and made it all the way to verse 32!) Peanut Butter Balls are worth all the dodging in the world!!!
Then the best part of the day happened...........Dr. Mario Tournament time! I don't play video games with this one exception! This is the best game out there PERIOD!!!

I am a champion Dr. Mario Player. My husband had no knowledge of this before Thanksgiving (luckily he married me before he found out!) I taught Alex everything he knows when it comes to Dr. Mario, and he even acknowledges it! So really when I was placing 2nd behind him pretty consistently I was really winning 1st and 2nd place every time!! I did beat him a couple times ......legitimately. I will always be the Dr. Mario champ! (at least in my mind!) But I think in the future, I won't let Bryan watch me, or my children for that matter! :)
Then we headed back to the Sun Room to watch movies on the projector. We watched Major Payne and had a good laugh before people needed to start heading home.


It was all in all a Fabulous Day!

Every Teacher's Nightmare....The Praxis!

Okay, so I have been severely reprimanded on my definite lack of blogging. I had no idea I had just dedicated followers! To you Mom, and Steph, and I am sorry. But you are the only ones that really read this so I won't beat myself up too much.
This past week has been a busy one. Grades were due as our school trimester was wrapping up. That is always a stressful time, but not as bad as last year. I didn't let myself get behind like last year. I was pretty current on their grades, it's just that late work is a killer!!
Then I had to take "thee" test. THE PRAXIS!! It is a required test for me to be able to recertify my license. But once it is done I can get my license changed from a 3 year to a 5 year. (meaning I only have to recertify every 5 years instead of 3, which will be very handy when I am a mom and need to keep my license!) It is a 2 hour long test with a mix of multiple choice and case study questions. I was writing so fast that I had to sit and massage my hand for like 5 minutes after the test to get any kind of feeling back! I barely finished in time, I had 5 minutes to spare. Then my amazing husband picked me up with flowers and chocolates and took me out for a "Congratulations! The test is finally over, and I can have my wife back!" night out on the town. He is so great, because I was so dead beat tired that we just got a movie, went home and curled up in bed to watch it, and I promptly fell asleep! Good times, good times.....
But now it is Thanksgiving Vacation, and I slept in this morning, ate breakfast, took a nap, watched some Food Network, hung out with the family and did some shopping and cleaning. In comparison, it has been a very VERY easy going day. I loved it!! I sure do love Vacations!!

HALLOWEEN SHOULD LAST ALL YEAR!!

Halloween was a BLAST!! It really is my favorite holiday, always has, always will. Bryan and I tried really hard to make it special this year by making some fun holiday food for my family's annual Halloween Orange Sunday Dinner, and our Halloween Night Chili & Costume party. Here are some pics of what we made and of our FABULOUS Costumes!!




Now you need to know that Bryan hasn't dressed up in almost ten years! Aw, what he does for his deranged wife! :)

These are the treats made into a graveyard scene (Bryan is very creative) plus, these are special made treats for the sprue victims in the family. Love ya Mom and Gma!

Here are the treats for all us normal wheat eating people. (I am going to be struck down with the sprue for that comment! My defense against the family allergy is complete denial and plenty of mocking. So far so good!) Please take note of the cute witches, draculas, and special made gravestones for Jon. :)

The Bones were a huge hit. I think the kids liked them best because when you bit into them there was red marrow (raspberry jam) that came oozing out! Aren't the eyeballs and strawberry ghosts cool!

The coffins were a breeze to make, and so good!

The Mummy Cheese Log (completely homemade by Bryan!) was such a hit! The adults as well as the kids enjoyed the yummy cheese. We made another one just for Mom and Gma and I think they are still enjoying it! :) All of you in need of the recipe talk to Bryan! He kind-a invented it!

These little mummy dogs where every mother's favorite because the kids actually ate them! The one night that you can hardly get your kids to eat anything other than candy, and they ate these! Even ROMAN!! The notorious non-eater ate a whole one!

We'd like to send out a special thank you to all of Danielle's students who donated fingers for this dish. They are still having fun trying to write in cursive with the limited amount of fingers they have left. Camryn was especially thankful as she ate most of them!! Camryn, I'll tell my class you said their fingers sure were tasty!

I couldn't pass up putting this one back up because it illustrates the kind of lengths us Raynes will go to have a Red Headed Child! :) Chance just pray your hair come in naturally red! he he (your a good sport Marsh)

We need to VOTE!!!

Well family and friends, (cause you are the only ones that read this!! I am not a celebrity yet but my celebrity status is still in the works. I am working very hard to get my look-alike career with Yasser Arafat to take off!!) It is getting close to the that time again when it is our civic duty to VOTE!!! I know I sound very preachy but this time there is something very important happening at the poles that will effect everyone and how our children are educated in the future! It is the vouchers. I seriously urge you to educate yourselves on this. And PLEASE VOTE!! The commercials just aren't enough. None of the commercials either for the vouchers or against are doing a good job. They aren't telling us what the read deal is. If you don't know, vouchers are basically the right for private schools to get public money. They say you can get a voucher from the state for 500-3000 dollars (depending on your financial status) to take to any private school institution you want. It doesn't sound too bad when you hear it like that, but it is. They are promoting it saying that Utah spends 7000 dollars on each student each year, and we are going to lower class size by having the student go to a different school and we are only going to take 3000 of that money and the schools can keep the rest. It doesn't work that way. Class sizes won't change. Teachers will just lose their jobs. If there aren't enough students they'll just cut a teacher and keep the same amount in class size. Plus the schools won't see any of that money. If the student isn't in the school then the school gets nothing. The leftover money gets to go into someone else pocket instead of where it need to be. There are a lot more loop holes than just these for example the funding behind all the pro-vouchers if from out of state business like Walmart and such. They have no idea about our state and should have nothing to do with this. There are so many more, so PLEASE! Educate yourself and PLEASE OH PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE COME NOVEMBER!!!

The bestest worstest celebrity lookalikes!

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I'm old and in Pain!

So I am a slacker blogger. What else is new? But you must forgive me because I am in PAIN! My back started giving me some trouble a couple weeks ago. I lived with it and tried some things to alleviate it to no avail! Then Monday it got a lot worse and I was agony for the next three days until I finally bit the bullet and went to a doctor. He told me that both my SI joints are locked up. Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either, but let me educate you! IT IS A KILLER PAIN THAT MAKES LIFE VERY DIFFICULT!! :)




There are a couple of joints called the Sacroiliac (SI) that attaches the pelvis to your spine on
either side. Well my joint doesn't move. So I am now going to the physical therapist regularly and it is getting better, it still hurts but it's SO MUCH BETTER!! My blessed husband has been a saint and has taken fabulous care of me. Everyone should have one! I know I sure like mine! So recovery is on the horizon but recovery from blogging laziness....well...we'll just have to see!

Well, well, well. We have joined the forces of the bloggers. (Could it be that we are strong with the blogger force because redheads have a higher metaclorian count?) Except David who sometimes struggles, he must have misplaced some of his metaclorians!! Anyways, we thought this would be a great way to show everyone wedding pictures without having to get out an album and sit while they look at them and ohhh and ahhhh. We thought this was much more efficient and concise! Since that is what people told Bryan that I am, efficient and concise. (I don't know if that is always the case though. Just ask my students, sometimes I really know how to ramble on!) Okay, Okay, efficient and concise does not a good blog make, so I will try and curb these and be as cumbersome and rambelsome as possible. (yes, kennedy side of the family I did just make up that word, see, I am a kennedy too! ;{>
Long story short, here are the wedding photos! Just a real quick thank you to our fabulous photographers, Uncle Roy and Brett Sykes. You both did a great job, we are very grateful.

We would also like to give a great big THANK YOU for all the hard work that family and friends put into the wedding and also the preparations for the wedding. We could not have done it with out you and we're so happy to have been able to share this event in our lives with all of you. It was everything we hoped for. We love you all!!! -Bryan and Dani

Sisters, and their kids, what could be cuter!

We seriously had some fabulous family and friends pitch in to help with everything, Thank you!

Ah, yes, Brystal the photographer in training.

We're cutting it! The coolest cake in the world is getting cut!

Just a quick reminder of the skills of those that set up for the reception. They made it look amazing. Seriously amazing! We already have wedding groupies that tell us all the time they copied our wedding!

Bryan and his family at the wedding reception, beware the attacking apple tree! The tree's were out to get us that night! But doesn't the picture look amazing set on the back drop of my dad's gorgeous backyard. It was quite the setting.

The happy couple, we were really happy to have it finally going!!

Oh look! Twins all around! Lora and Kristen, Bryan and Derek! Sam, no worries dude. We'll find you a twin somewhere. :)

They are both almost rid of us, can you see the happiness in their faces!

I LOVE THIS CAKE!! Best part, it was the cheapest cake EVER!!! Kudos to Stephanie Price for doing the cake stand. It came out FABuLous!

Nice, normal, what is there to poke fun at? Oh we'll think of something. Could it have been the thinly veiled fear that was creeping over us as a pink clad (gag) wedding party of gigantic proportions was inching CLOSER and CLOSER! They were almost in the picture with us!

Brett, I know you are an artist, and you were getting one of those artistic vibes a-going, but its my wedding, and this is about as artistic as it gets with me! :)

My dress was so sweet. Can you see the individual beads (white polka dots get it get it!) that my incredible mom sewed on by hand! Thats right BY HAND!!

Please notice, the flowers are STUNNING!!

I got a good looking man! Yes sir!

Yup, its our wedding day. We can do this now.

At first glance you think, ah yes. Danielle finally has a bridal shot! But THINK AGAIN!! I am flashing all my best Bronx gang signs! My brothers from the hood woulda come running if they'da seen it!

Brett is a master mind of all things photo! ( and sweat suits) The smart man let me sit down before anyone got hurt!! :)

My feet hurt, my face hurts, I am just going to lean here and try to look "weddinglicious"

Ah, I love this man, oh wait, it looks like he has something between his teeth! Ah, I love this man!

Ah! Cute!

Boo-tay-licious! For snizzle my nizzle!

Okay, Okay, one normal shot for posterity sake.

We were trying to sneak off but they saw us! :(

What can I say, we both were/are exstatic!

Man! Did I want those earrings out like no one's business. THEY HURT! But boy did they look fabulous!! :) What a girls does to look good on her wedding day.

Is that really a Halo around my head? I can't believe that! (But I (Bryan) believe it!)

It must have been that someone upstairs has bad aim and was sending it Bryan's way and I suddenly moved and got in the way!


Look! Another one with Bryan as a midget!! :)
Ask for further details if you dare, or forward all odd looks to Melanee Raynes, she was the one doing the 1st midget picture taking!

Ya gotta love 'em! I couldn't have done it without them!!

We both really lucked out on the whole "in-laws" thing. They are the bestest of all the restest! (oh please, oh please, don't tell my students I just said that! My grammar AH!!!)

Doesn't Kurt just have the most killer vest ever! It made my heart happy to have him wear it! Man! I've got a cool family!

These are my NYNYN Homies!

This is how I feel about my Maids of Honor! :)

Na, they really were wonderful maids of honor! They made it just wonderful!

The bridesmaides, cutting loose! Well, most of the bridesmaides, we are missing Daniela, Janelle, Denise, and Alison. They were probably all tending to their offspring! Can you believe it! Taking care of their children over bridesmaidal duties!!

The new Kennedy Klan!