Fall 2012 - highlights

This past August we celebrated our 2nd anniversary! yay!  We decided to keep it low key since I was so busy at work still and just had a quiet fun night at home.  In keeping with the traditional "cotton", Danny got me pajama pants with army on them and a "I love my soldier" tee.  He got some new army clothes he's been wanting (sense a theme? lol).

Danny also surprised me with these gorgeous flowers!

In September, Danny was full swing into school while I stayed home catching up on some projects around the house and helping him with school (and still working on some health issues).  We were able to spare a long weekend to go up to Allen and visit my parents for my mom's birthday.  It was a nice little break and enjoyed our visit.  I was even able to go shopping and find a gorgeous formal gown! very rare for me.  We also visited the Dallas Arboretum that had lots of things to see:

... some very beautiful gardens;

... a pumpkin village with fairytale homes; ... some neat houses that represented famouse artists (including Van Gogh, Monet, and O'Keeffe);

... and some cool but kinda bizzare glass art installations.

At our friends' annual halloween party - I had been working on a different set of costumes for weeks, but I just couldn't finish in time (perhaps for next year), so we rumaged through the closet and found these.  We went as 50s poodle skirt girl and nerd.  It worked out nicely in a pinch (esp. considering the skirt was part of my costume when I was in third grade!), and we had a lot of fun at the party, meeting new people and helping pass out candy to our friends' neighbors.  We'll really miss these parties.

I also wanted to decorate for the holiday, but given our tight budgets and even tighter storage space (esp. with all the moving we'll be doing), I decided to try a homemade route with flatter decorations (pinterest ideas, of course, lol).  I must admit, I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It was really easy and simplistic but had a great effect and got lots of compliments.  And it was a lot of fun just cutting out paper freehand.

Thanksgiving we got to spend with my parents again (but sorry, I didn't get any pictures... we're not exactly a shutterbug family).  It was nice to get a break from Danny's busy schedule and have time to just relax.  Black Friday sales were a bust this year, but that's probably for the best anyway, lol, and it was still fun going out with everyone.  I did get some really cute argyle socks though. :)

Danny's semester was super busy and crazy, getting his last few classes in.  ROTC actually took most of his time.  While he wasn't stressing out as much about passing LDAC anymore, the seniors take on a more administrative role in ROTC.  Danny's job was supplies, which meant he was up at school all day long and then working on spreadsheets and calling people all evening.  It kept him really busy but he enjoyed it too and did a really good job (the following semester, when they get different assignments, they had two guys in charge of supplies, just to be able to handle all the work).  Plus, of course, term papers and finals.  It was definitely nice when winter break finally rolled around.

The Wilde's annual Christmas party, complete with the traditional white elephant gift exhange.  Last year we ended up with an old physics textbook, some chocolate, and a snuggie with monkeys on it.  This year we got a mug from the highway patrol with a huge box of hot cocoa, and Danny got a dreamie (which is like the snuggie, except it's like a blanket/sleeping bag... um, yeah).  It was fun to see what people brought.  One really funny thing, we brought an old 3D puzzle, and another guy did too (luckily a different one), but then he actually ended up with ours! lol.  All in all, it was a nice night, and we'll miss our friends in San Marcos.

Oct 31 - Wilde's Halloween Party

A couple in our ward, the Wildes, love to entertain and throw parties.  They are super nice and fun and the parties are always nice to hang out with other couples our age without kids and outside of church or school or work.  We got invited to their Halloween party and had a lot of fun.  Plus it was fun to see what everyone's costumes were.  It was also kinda fun too because the Wilde's live in a pretty nice neighborhood so they had lots of trick-or-treaters the whole night.  Eventually they ran out of candy, but Chow didn't want to turn anyone away, so she started handing out whatever she could--balloons, mini hand sanitizers, packages of graham crackers, hot cocoa, etc. haha.

a must for any good party, tons of really great food

Brittany and Jeff, dressed up as pirates

us, dressed as War and Peace (though everyone kept guessing Forrest Gump and Jenny)

 

Chelsea, as a Parisian, and Jeremy, as a ceiling fan (his t-shirt says, "Go Ceilings!")

everyone playing Rock Band - they even have a keyboard! very cool :)

Some people also played croquet.  (l-r) Chow, Heidi and Danny (who won the game, lol)

Philip came as a ninja

Halloween also happens to be one of our friends, Clayton's birthday, so they had a little cake and celebration for him too.

The whole crowd - (loosely l-r) Russ and Chow; us; Brittany and Jeff; Jessica; Clayton and Hilary; Chelsea and Jeremy; Philip; and Heidi (holding Preston), Brad and Brandon.

Oct 29 - Trunk-or-Treat

Being married and in ROTC is pretty rare; there is only one other guy in Danny's whole year that is.  Luckily, they really hit it off and his family have become some of our closest friends here.  While the guys were gone for the weekend before Halloween for ROTC training, Lacey invited me to join her and her two boys at their church's trunk-or-treat.  Of course I said yes to the chance to dress up and get out of the house while Danny was gone.  And even more fun, this year I had planned on our costumes kinda being a couple theme, so when he couldn't come, Lacey was willing to wear his costume instead.  ... see if you can guess what we went as :)  ... no really got it though. oh well, it was still fun to make and I thought it turned out well.

Here's Lacey with her two boys, Westley, 3 (dressed as an astronaut), and Logan, 2 (dressed as a skeleton)

... they didn't exactly want to pose for pictures... oh well...

... Logan ate a really sour piece of candy, not sure if he likes it or not.

They go to church in San Antonio with their cousins and grandparents.  Here is their trunk.  The boys in uniforms and the girl dressed as a gnome are their cousins.

Afterwards, Lacey's extended family treated us to dinner out.

... finally got a picture of just us together (it's pretty difficult with two very wiggly little kids). so, have you figured out what we are yet?  Yes, I am a hippie and Lacey is a soldier.  No, we aren't Jenny and Forrest Gump. ... any guesses?  We went as War and Peace. :)

oh, and before we went, Lacey offered to do my hair, and I thought she did a nice job.  She pulled two small braids on the sides together and banded them with a flower.  Not exactly easy to do by myself.

Halloween and Institute Dance

Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays growing up.  Dressing up in fun costumes, going to fun parties, carving pumpkins, and getting tons of candy - what more could a kid want?  While I'll admit that Halloween has lost a lot of the appeal now that I'm older, we still try and keep some of the fun of the holiday.  We didn't get a chance to carve a pumpkin (next year, for sure) but we did get lots of candy (curse the temptation of chocolate in the grocery aisles, lol) and we did get to go to the institute halloween dance which gave us an excuse to dress up, though we kinda decided to go last minute so we had to come up with a costume quickly, and since it was our first one as a couple, I thought it'd be fun to do a couple themed outfit.  I think it turned out nicely considering, and being able to use some stuff we had around, together it only cost us around $2.  yay!

... we also made and decorated cookies for halloween.  I thought the sugar cookie ghosts and pumpkins turned out great (and it was a ton of fun making new face designs for all the pumpkins), but the gingerbread bats and cats, only so-so.  I wanted them to be darker, you know, like black cats, but I guess gingerbread isn't dark enough (Danny said "that's brown - not black!"), and it's near impossible to make black frosting (though I have seen black food coloring at the store... maybe for next year).  Perhaps gingerbread should just be left for Christmas.  oh well, live and learn.

The Institute Halloween Dance!  ... if you can't tell who we are ( or who I am, people got Danny pretty quickly ... I didn't have a lot to work with, clothes-wise, at the time), we went as Clark Kent / Superman and Lois Lane.  I even made us reporter badges with our pictures on it.  Danny actually wore those glasses his entire mission, with his hair parted too, so I just used an old mission photo of him for the ID badge.  And he loved the shirt.  So easy to make, and best of all, he didn't have to wear tights, haha.

Some other friends and their creative costumes.  (l-r) Lisa, Nai, and Allison came as crayons, and they even gave themselves names on the sides like Lightning Yellow and Tickle Me Pink.

One of Danny's former roommates, Danny B. and his girlfriend (now fiance) Megan came as an Orkin pest control guy and a ladybug - too cute!

Danny talking to Jon, who always has fun homemade costumes (last year he was the game operation), dressed this year as a sock monkey

Rachel as a spider (she went back and forth as to whether she was Charlotte or not)

Mauvreen as a geisha

Russell as Phantom of the Opera, and Elaine as a black magician (?)... I think

Jenna as Minnie Mouse, and Gina as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

At one point in the evening, they started playing limbo - it was quite impressive to see how far some people went, though I think some people's costume gave them a huge advantage or disadvantage.

Take Mark's, for instance (he came with a friend as the Duos Amigos ... there were only two of them, haha).  He was doing really good until he tripped over his poncho.

Then you have the winner, Jake (who is supposed to be the incredible hulk, but is just way too skinny to pull it off, so everyone just called him the green man, lol), in a skin tight body suit - no clothing to get in the way at all.  huge advantage. ... though, he did deserve it, he really just could limbo like crazy... I didn't even know a body could bend that much, haha.

Awards time!  It's always fun to see what people came as and who wins, though it's totally a popularity contest since the winner is decided by loudest applause.  Oh well.  The winner for the cutest costume went to this girl dressed up as Gone with the Wind's Scarlett O'Hara.

... waiting for results for scariest costume.  Though the sock monkey was creepy and seeing the guy dressed as Kim Jong-il be put in the category was funny and the zombie cowboy was scary, the winner was Cruella De Vil.

the best couples award - there were tons of people in this category.  I thought it was great the two couple going head to head were Peter Pan / Tinkerbell and the two pirates, until the audience (back to the popularity contest aspect) added in a third couple ...

Scott and his girlfriend Kylee came as Tiger Woods and his ex-wife (he had a lipstick kiss on his cheek and she had a bent golf club) ... it was funny, but not nearly as well-done of costumes as the others (and it's not like I expected us to win, but the pirates and peter pan/tinker bell had such cool and elaborate costumes).  Oh well.

Most original costume went to Kate, who came dressed in a fruit filled straw hat, flipflops, and a beach dress covered in prescription pill bottles for prozac and zoloft (fake ones, mind you) - she was a tropical depression! haha.

and of course, hands down for best group costumes?  The Village People! :)  Isn't halloween so much fun?