Haunted Gingerbread Houses and family visits!

Haunted Gingerbread houses are way more fun than Christmas ones... and I love Christmas ones too! It should be noted that we didn't use real gingerbread, but chocolate graham crackers so I guess this post should be called "Haunted Grahamcracker Houses" but anyway--here are the results:
Rachel and Kyle:

Casey and Allie:
Kristine and Steve:
And Neal and me:
Okay, I'm lying. That was our house from LAST year which was WAAAAAY better! Our house from this year turned out like this, despite our best efforts:
Whatever. At least I look very skinny in the picture. ;) and yes, I was wearing the Halloween pajama pants. Fun was had by all, and this will continue as a tradition in our house. We love it!
In other news, Mom and Cale come out for a visit and it was lovely. I love spending time with my family! We also went to Jamestown at had a blast!



Cale is pretty darn cute and I always love seeing my Mom. I wish we lived closer to them, but at least we have Cali and Josh!
Neal and I are doing well. Sometimes I go a little crazy working full time and teaching at American University twice a week from 8-10 PM, but I love it. Hope everyone is doing well!

Putting the 'Neal' in Hannah and Neal...

Hello to all the Hannah fans out there. This is Neal! I thought it high time I posted a little something on "our" blog. Luckily, Hannah has been kind to me, and even mentioned me a little....ok a lot :) which is why I wanted to mention HER.

I'm a bit of a photo fan, and I want to focus on two of the best photos ever taken:

Hannah is the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. We have so much fun together and my life has been so great since I decided she'd be a good peach picking mate (and she decided I might be worth a few hours of her time...finally!). She's an even better wife (and she was a good peach picker, I must say), and I love her more every day. I always thought people were pretty cheesy for saying that, but I can't think of a better way to say it.

And this is the face I live for. Making her laugh is the best part of the day. I'm just glad that I'm very funny and get to hear/see her laugh often. I love my life with Hannah, and I'm so lucky to have her. She always says such nice (and true) things about me on the blog here so I wanted to say a few words in her direction too.

I LOVE YOU HANNAH!!!

I really try not to judge people when they.....

-have cheesy love songs lyrics anywhere on their facebook
-like Twilight (or the Notebook, but I've already mentioned that)
-cannot understand the different between your and you're
-put songs on their blog (it's not cute, it's annoying-- but I still love you!)
-say "I could care less" instead of I couldN'T care less
-eat pickles.. ESPECIALLY those huge ones
-pack their 5 year olds lunch to consist of a fruit snacks, capri-sun, cheetos and lemon pudding
-make fun of France and the French (ESPECIALLY if they're NEVER BEEN THERE, which is usually the case)... again, it's not cute, it's annoying. I don't tell you your passion is a cheese eating surrender monkey, etc.

I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE... (so I don't sound so negative)
-hug me
-marry me-- namely, Neal. I'll spare you the other cheesy, lovey things I love ;)
-let you in their lane when you're trying to get over
-act appreciative
-come out and visit me
-participate in my classes
-try hard to keep in touch
-give me money/gifts ;)


And there you have it.

Baseball and bargain shopping

Yesterday Neal and I went to a Nationals Baseball game to celebrate this baseball obsessed girl. Shanna LOVES baseball and celebrated her birthday by going to a Nats game.
We love her! And it was fun to be at the game! Shanna's roommate and best friend Jenny made these DELICIOUS mini little cupcakes on a stick--- they looked like little baseballs! It was very impressive.
I also randomly ran into a kid I grew up with at the game.. seriously he lived 3 houses away from me! It's such a small Mormon world!

It was good to see him. Neal is obsessed with baseball.. so I think he appreciated Shanna for having her party there!

In other news... I got these rockin' Halloween pj's for 97 cents!!!!!! That's right... thank you Old Navy. I actually got them in August. I found them shoved in with the sale pants with no price tag. When I took it up to the cashier, she was thoroughly confused-- especially since they were a design from 2005 or something. She ended up selling them to us for 97 cents-- it was a good day in Halloween land! 'Still too lazy to flip, but you get the idea. HOORAY!
This weekend we're off to Connecticut to see this lady get married-- CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER!

My mustache...

Here's a picture of us, first of all, so you all can think "they are so photogenic!" Little do you know that I REFUSED to leave until Neal and I got a good picture.... this was the first time I had "gotten ready" for real in quite a while.... so I thought it would be easy to get a good one. Plus, I'm usually super photogenic-- but hear you me.. this was like the 17th picture we took and Neal had to listen to me curse after every sub-par picture. But I digress..... (I'm very good at digressing) I just had to share a kindergarten moment I had the other day.

Madame (aka me): Antoine, you really need to listen during circle time.
A: Okay, I'm sorry... *Tries to give me a hug*
M: I don't want a hug from you now, I only want a hug when you listen during class. *I bend down so I can be at his level and look at him in the eyes* Please do a better job tomorrow, okay?
A: *eyes fixate on my upper lip* oka---- wait, why do you have a mustache?
M: what? I don't.
A: yes you do! I can see it. Why do you have one?
M: well, I... uh.... don't.
A: YOU DO, YOU DO! You really, really have one. I'm not lying! You have a little blond mustache!

I was totally speechless. You can't convince a 5 year old you don't have a mustache-- I've never really thought too much about it before-- we all have little hairs all over, right? Anyway. I think I was just "oh snap" ed by a 5 year old. Antoine 1, Me: zero.

Hiking Old Rag and updates

Neal, Cali, Josh, Piper and I hiked Old Rag last weekend. The weather was PERFECT and it was absolutely glorious. Isn't the view incredible? And how about this little cutie:

Josh warned us he might be a little slow since he was carrying the baby--if you know Josh, you'll know that while he might of been slow for HIM, I thought it was a perfect speed. ;) If Josh had a nickel for every hiker that said to Piper, "Can I switch you?" I think he'd have made at least 20$

We're still working on the looking pleasant while with aunt Hannah... she's still the cutest.
I love my husband...
And here's all of us! It was such a fun day!

In other news... I've started WORKING FULL TIME (plus teaching a night class at American University)!
Oh man..... I'm trying to get used to it! I'm really enjoying teaching French all day, that's for sure! I work full time at Nysmith (a school for the GIFTED, in case you didn't know...). I'm teaching 5 Kindergarten classes, one three year old class, and one eighth grade class. It makes for a very full day but I have my own classroom, and all the kids come to me, so that's nice. It's a ton of work lesson planning but at least I have the same class 5 times a day, so that means only one lesson plan. My class at American University is a BLAST, and although I feel very busy, I'm glad I didn't give it up. Neal is plugging away at Ernst & Young, and our life is grand.

Our artistic ability, fine dining and Kent comes out....

Lately, Neal and I have been more adventurous in our dates. I take the blame for the lack thereof, as sometimes I just don't feel like going out. ANYWAY-- our first excitement was Color Me Mine--the paint your own pottery place. Although $$$$ (we did it about as cheap as you can and it was $50) it was A BLAST! I did remember, however, that I am not a very artistic person. I mustered what I could though, I can't help it if it's only squiggleys and flowers......Neal had a Moab motif going on in his.. with the red rock, blue sky and inside the bowl was a night sky with stars.. very nice. I just picked up the bowls today and they are amazing!
I feel the inside of my bowl really shows off my abilities.... anyway.

Our next adventure was Restaurant Week. In DC, twice a year, fancy restaurants do a set price for a SLIM selection of three courses. We went to "La Bergerie" and it was delightful. Neal even tried escargot... and liked it! It was the best I've had. I was a little disappointed that the restaurant week choices were pretty blah... but that is to be expected, I suppose. Still, at 35$ a person, I want AMAZINGNESS! The food really was delicous though, and I was tickled to speak French all night to the manager who had to fill in as a waiter because of the crowds. The only weird part about my main dish was the garlic flan.... I could NOT get used to the texture and the fact that it was warm. It seemed like it should have been sweet... not garlic.
Crême brulé.... Delicous! Sorry for the darkness... I just felt weird taking pictures in a place that nice.. so I tried to do so inconspicuously. And last, but NOT LEAST, Kent, one of Neal's best friends, came out for a visit. It was AWESOME! It also gave Neal a good chance to see DC since he really hasn't.... I, on the other hand, have seen the sights A LOT but I still enjoy it. Just not the Holocaust Museum and the tour of the Capitol. The Holocaust Museum is about a once in a lifetime thing for me and I've done the Capitol tour no less than 5 times.

Neal and Kent REALLY like taking pictures. Kent was loads of fun to have around, and Neal was giddy to have him come out. They've been best friends for almost 10 years now, and it was fun for me to get to know him better. HOORAY FOR GOOD TIMES!