Portland for Thanksgiving!

We had soooo much fun in Portland with my family for thanksgiving! I didn't take a ton of pictures-- but enough to give you our break in a nut-shell.

We started out with Sam and Bryan's Wedding Tuesday-- SO BEAUTIFUL!!! Sam looked amazing, Bryan was glowing, and the sealing was awesome. Thanks Kariya fam for letting us be part of your special day! Then we took off early Wednesday morning for Portland-- Thanks to Holiday Inn Express we stayed the night by the airport so we didn't have to drive all the way back to provo just to turn around and come back at the bum-crack-of-dawn. They also let us keep our car there the whole week for juts $10 with a free shuttle service to and from the airport! Shoutout to our friends at the Holiday Inn!!
We were so glad that Andrew's brother Mike was able to come with us!!! He's so much fun, as always, and the more the merrier at the Silliman house!
Highlights in Portland:
1. Elmers German Pancakes!
2. Baja Fresh Chicken Fajita Burrito
3. MOM AND DAD of course!
4. Fresh CLEAN air
5. Burgerville
6. Blazer game
7. Seeing Greg Oden
8. a DELICIOUS thanksgiving spread-- thanks mom and girls!
9. Wii
10. lots of REALLY CUTE KIDS!!
11. Mom and Dad! (did i mention that already)
12. Helping mom set up the Dickens Village and solving the lighting problem
13. Shutting Andrew and Mike in the sport court and letting them act like kids again!
14. Making Gingerbread houses with the WHOLE family!!
15. Watching Xander walk!
16. Brinley asking for the "pancakes" haha
17. Gregg torturing Andrew with the gingerbread frosting
18. Celebrating family birthdays
19. Andrew getting lots of help from little hands to open his presents
20. lots of great family that we love so much and feel so grateful for! Thanks everyone!

It's November...

It's that time a year again and I can't help but think about how grateful I am for the life I lead and the blessings that Heavenly Father pours upon Andrew and I. Happy Holiday Season everyone. I hope we all can find a quite moment to reflect on the precious things of life!

Halloween at Mt. Loafer!

So I teach with this awesome woman Nicole out at Mt. Loafer and every holiday, she uses a book as the inspiration for her party. So this halloween she found this book of camp songs and old songs everyone knows that changed the words to be about monsters. It was such a cute book with awesome illustrations! It was calling Sipping Spiders Through A Straw.
So we put our heads together to create a Monster Campfire. (If you weren't already aware, I teach Resource, so we pretty much do 30 minute pull-outs all day.) Our situation is perfect for this because we can deck out our room and it's really not in the way of any other activities for the day! So we hung lights on the ceiling like lights, built a fake fire, invited my awesome brother-in-law mike to come play the guitar for us around the "fire," and made some smore's treats. Did I mention that Nicole and I were full-on Monsters? It was so much fun, especially for Nicole and I- we were having a blast! Anyway-- here's some pictures to make you all jealous you aren't in Mt. Loafer's Special Education Class!
(Did I mention we made Mike dress up like the Purple People Eater?? What a trooper!!! Thanks Mike!)

All about Andy!

I saw this on someone's blog and although I wasn't tagged persay, this post idea was just yelling PLEASE POST ME. I thought andrew deserved some attention on here! And besides, I love to brag about my awesome man!

1. Where did you meet?
In portland. He was selling for Jeff's friend Ryker and he was also living with Jeff's little brother. Plus, he went to the singles ward where my parents are in the bishopric and my mom tried to set him up with all the cute girls in the ward (it's ok, no hard feelings, she was magnifying her match-maker calling!) I was home for the summer working. We were both BYU students so we started dating late July or August and just went back to school together and continued to date in the fall!

2. How long did you date before you were married?
We dated about 5 1/2 months before we were engaged and then we were engaged for a little over 6 months. so we'll round that to a year.

3. How long have you been married?
1 year and 4 months!

4. What does he do that surprises you?
His random dancing suprises me-- who knew he could shake it!?

5. what is your favorite feature of his?
hmm... i really like his hands and of course his matt damon smile.

6. what is your favorite quality of his?
I love that he's such a hard worker. He's also a great listener and he may just be the funniest, wittiest man on earth. I'm always laughing at him!

7. does he have a nickname for you?
hmm...he has lots. It's Haley when he's being normal (times few and far between), Honey when he's being sarcastic, Diaper Rash when he's being totally and completely out of control silly, and Hun the rest of the time, with crazy random ones all mixed in.

8. what is his favorite food?
Roast and Potatoes

9. what is his favorite color.
blue.

10. what is his favorite sport?
He watches ANY sport, i think he likes playing basketball and football best. You should probably know he use to do gymnastics in high school. haha. I love to bring that up. He claims it was only to "keep him in shape"... but it's really ok Andy- i don't judge you. haha

11. when and where was your first kiss?
I think at my parents house when we were watching Armageddon haha. I was really nervous! haha.

12. what is your favorite thing to do as a couple?
We love going to any type of sporting event or going outside and throwing the football around (the peewee one of course because my little hands can't grip a real one. haha)

13. do you have any children?
Not yet!

14. does he have a hidden talent?
Andrew is a wayyyy good dancer but you'd never know unless you've saw him at some crazy BYU party (haha) in his earlier years. He can shake it, let me tell you!

15. how old is he? 25, he'll be 26 next month.

16. who said i love you first?
I think I may have actually--- I'm not sure.

17. what is his favorite type of music?
He likes most everything except for country, much to my dismay. Thrice is his favorite band but he's cool with anything.

18. what do you admire most about him?
He has a super gentle heart-- he's really kind to others and always seeks the best in people.

19. do you think he will read this?
He looks on here once and a while, so yes probably he will.

LOVE YOU ANDS!