25

Today is my hubby's 25th birthday. You can call him Old Man Hines now. To celebrate this momentous occasion, here are 25 reasons why I love this guy:

• He makes me laugh. Every single day.
• When we're sharing a plate of food (nachos, quesadillas, etc. - I guess occasionally Brandt DOES share food :), he always lets me have the last bite.
• He still opens my car door for me. Usually.
• He's so concerned about being a good provider for our family. He works hard on school and is constantly researching job opportunities related to what he is studying.
• He is a sexy beast.

July 2010

June 2006

March 2008

• He helps out so much around the house: laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc. Usually, I don't even have to ask - he just does it.
• He likes to cook and that's one of the things we enjoy doing together. 
• He's my best friend. There's no one else I'd rather be with.
• He takes care of me. When I was in hygiene school, he made my lunch for me every day so I could sleep in as much as possible. If I'm sick or not feeling well, he takes extra good care of me and lets me complain about how crappy I feel. I don't know what I would do without him.
• I talk A LOT. I'm sure he knows so much more about dental hygiene than he cares to. And he's so good to listen even if he doesn't care about what I'm saying. 

July 2009

July 2009

Summer 2008

December 2009

• He's so creative and talented - did you know he's writing a book? Yeah, he's the next J.K. Rowling.    
• He makes sure we have fun. He'll plan dates, day trips, even just little jaunts to get us out of the house. We have so much fun just hanging out together.
• He doesn't gossip much. I've rarely heard him say anything mean about someone. 
• He's very much a "go with the flow" kind of person. He doesn't let the little things bother him. He's a good example to me in that regard. He helps me strive to be a better person.
• He is interested in so many different things. He has a plethora of hobbies - he should really share the wealth. And not just hobbies, but he finds interest in random, everyday things and how they work. (I wanted to post a video of him putting together our new humidifier, but he said no.) I love that he gets excited about the little things in life - any new toy or gadget we get is like Christmas for him. (Remember this post?)

May 2009

June 2010

October 2009

• He is the one person I feel that I can totally be myself with. Which is probably both good and bad, since I tend to be a bit crazy. We joke that someone should make a reality show out of our life. No more of this "Keeping up with the Kardashians." They could call it "Hanging out with the Hines'". And it would be funny.
• He doesn't watch sports. He would much rather play sports than watch other people playing (makes sense right?). There are too many other things he would rather do with his time. He may watch one game a year - and even then it's not the whole game. I LOVE this about him. This may be one of my most favorite things about him. 
• He also doesn't play video/computer/etc. games very often. Usually the only time he plays is when he's with other guys and they'll pull out the Xbox or Playstation for a couple of hours at most.
• He follows me around the house. Seriously. If I'm downstairs he'll come down just to be with me. If I'm upstairs on the computer, he'll bring his laptop into the same room just so he can be near me. It's funny, and only a little odd, but I think it's cute. I get sad when I think there may come a day when he doesn't do that anymore - I hope it never happens.
• I know without a doubt that he's going to be a great daddy someday. I worry that our kids are going to like him more than me, but I should just accept that that's how it's going to be. But he says he'll make sure he's mean every now and then so they'll like me more :) What a great guy right? 

October 2006

December 2008

Summer 2008

December 2007

July 2010

• He works hard. He's always willing to help out when it's needed. He's always volunteering to help people move. I don't think he really knows how to be lazy. But that's ok - I've mastered the art of laziness.
• 98% of the time, I get to hold the remote.
• Whenever we go shopping, he pretty much always lets me get whatever I want. Luckily, I have pretty good self-control. Otherwise we'd be in trouble.
• My family LOVES him. And he loves hanging out with my family. He fits right in with the rest of the crazies.
• He makes me feel so loved and appreciated and treats me like a queen, even when I don't deserve it. I can 100% GUARANTEE that I have the BEST husband EVER!

March 2007

January 2011

Happy Birthday Brandt!!

New Year's Festivities

I'm pretty sure ever since Brandt and I have been married we've always spent New Year's Eve with the Hines' because that's when his sister, Allison, and her family make it up to Burley. So after all of the festivities with my family we hopped on over to Brandt's family and spent a few days with them. When we got there, Allison's three boys were the only ones there; somehow we missed the memo that the adults were going to a movie. It was all good though, we just hung out with the kiddos for a couple of hours until they got back. We had lots of fun hanging out and being with family. We played a lot of "Minute to Win it" games, as seen in some of the pics posted below (except for bro-in-law Tyler in the upper right hand corner pic - that's just how he likes to eat his chocolate :) ha! I kid, I kid...

On New Year's Eve we opened presents! Brandt got a fun little helicopter from his mom, and I'm mildly surprised it still works for how many times he's crashed that thing into the wall. Allison and her family had our name this year in the sibling gift exchange and we got the coolest iPod docking station. We've been wanting one for awhile now so that was a nice surprise. Grandma Hines came over for a scrumptious dinner, Brandt and I played "Settler's of Catan" for the first time (and really liked it - though we lost miserably), and we actually stayed up until midnight to ring in the new year! (and I was in bed, sound asleep by about 12:10). The next morning we got to see the Moulton's for a bit and have breakfast with them. It was great to see them.  Then before heading home we went over and visited Grandma and Grandpa Manning for a bit before heading home. Grandpa Manning hasn't been doing very well, but while we were there he looked pretty good and even gave us a few smiles.  

It was great to see everyone and spend time with the fam. Brandt and I are so blessed to have two great families the love and support us and are just so much fun to be around. Thanks for the good times everyone!

The House of Hines' New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! Does anyone else think 2010 just FLEW by? I can't believe it's 2011 already - I feel old. As we all nurse our hangovers (that sparkling cider last night sure had some kick to it :), Brandt and I have been contemplating some goals we would like to accomplish this year. I haven't set New Year's Resolutions for a few years now because I never accomplished them - so I figured if you don't set them in the first place, then you don't have to be disappointed with yourself when it doesn't work out. Makes sense right? Well, this year, I'm going to try again, and Brandt is going to help me. There are a couple of things we'd like to accomplish, and maybe by putting them out in the blogosphere, we will be more accountable and work harder to "get 'er done". So here we go- one spiritual resolution and one physical resolution for the year 2011:

 

 1. Attend the temple every other week. Yes, this is a lofty goal for us. Our goal previously has always been to get there once a month, but lately we've been a bit lax on that. Our stake has really been pushing temple attendance lately and in our recent Stake Conference, our stake president talked solely on temple worthiness and attendance in his talk for the Saturday evening session. He promised "you will overcome all things as you worthily attend the temple." He went on to say that even parents with young children can get to the temple at least once a month. And then, he said that for those of you with less demands for your time (and I swear he looked right at me and Brandt), you should be attending much more often than that.

I know we receive blessings from attending the temple, so it will be good for us to try and get there more often than we have been. So there you have it. Every other week we will be in the temple. At least that's the goal...wish us luck! 

2. Go to the Gym at least three times every week. We were really good about getting there regularly for the first month or so after we joined Gold's, but lately we've fallen off the wagon. We've become "once-a-weekers" for the last several weeks. Since we're paying our weight in gold (no pun intended) for this membership, we need to be better about using it. Plus we need to get rid of our muffin tops. Brandt's original goal was to work out six days a week, but I laughed at him and cut it in half - three days a week is more reasonable don't you think? At least that's the goal...wish us luck!

So there are the House of Hines' New Year's Resolutions. Happy 2011 everybody! What are your resolutions for the New Year?

Christmas Festivities 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. We were so looking forward to spending time with our families and we definitely got lots of time with the family! We had a blast. Here are some pics and videos:

1. I think this was actually from the previous weekend, but it was so cute I threw it in here.

2. Can you believe this baby is just under three months old?! Chubs for sure. We don't call him "Hank the Tank" for nothin'!

3. Kate got into a doughnut and then proceeded to give Grandma chocolate kisses. She thought she was pretty funny.

4-5. We went over to my dad's house for a couple of hours during the day. We opened presents and hung out for a bit before Brandt and I had to head over to Grandma Hines' house for dinner with his family. We got there just in time for dinner and apparently we barely missed out on all the excitement - two grease fires, a few broken ornaments, a broken vase, etc. But by the time we got there, everything was back under control and dinner was great.

6. That night we had a bunch of my family over for pizza and games. Nada and Jill brought over a really neat video of the nativity - this is just a pic of us watching the video. I really liked it - it's crazy how the song fits so perfectly with the video. It's so easy to get caught up in the excitement of the holidays, so I thought it was nice that they shared this video on Christmas Eve to bring back into perspective why we celebrate this time of year in the first place. I found the video on YouTube so I posted it below for those that are interested. Thanks for sharing girls!

Now that we've watched a spiritual video on the true meaning of Christmas, lets move on to the commercial side of the holiday shall we? I had to post this picture of my mom's tree. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!! Every year she has such a gorgeous tree and this year was no different. Even with hurting her knee a few week ago and being a hop-along for the last several weeks, she still somehow managed to decorate her tree. Brandt and I were a bit "Bah-humbug" this year and didn't even put up a tree in our apartment, so it was fun coming home and seeing all the fun decorations. Good job mom!

 7. Hanging out Christmas morning waiting to open presents. Kate could hardly contain her excitement (watch the video below.)

8. Henry slept through most of the excitement. Until he had a good blowout and then he was wide awake :)

9. Fran made these super-cute aprons for my mom, Kate, and Bryan.

10. I think Lindsay's favorite present was her new, green, double-insulated, bigger-than-her-old-one, water bottle. Good job Craig!

11. Linds and I had the same gift idea for mom - lots of pictures :)

12. Brandt's main gift from me was a new fly-fishing vest. He's had his old one since he was in elementary school, so I figured it was time that he upgraded to a big-boy vest. Craig had his name in the sibling gift exchange and he got him a hydration pack which fits perfectly in one of the pockets on his vest. Again, good job Craig :) My main gift from Brandt was....UGG BOOTS! Yes, I love them.

13-14. Lindsay had Zac's name in the sibling gift exchange - she got him this awesome shirt from J-Crew. She figured it was pretty cool, ya' know, being from J-Crew and all. Somehow, she missed the Twilight reference. She thought it was referring to a car wash. The funny thing is she got the same shirt for Craig awhile back and he's been wearing it without realizing what it meant. We got a good laugh from it. It's ok Linds, we all have those "chicken filet" moments every now and then.

15. The two sexies on Christmas Morning. 

16. The two sexies later that day. We clean up nice eh?

17-18. A bunch of us hanging out before dinner.

19. Mom in her new apron, Kate, and Lora working on dinner.

20. Yes, she is eating dough from Lora's dinner rolls. Awesome.

21. And finally...the crash. She ALMOST made it through dinner, but alas, she gave in. (watch the video below)

Ok, here are three of  the most hilarious videos you will ever see. I may be exaggerating, but maybe not. They are pretty funny.

"Kate on Christmas Morning...Too Much Candy!"

 Eight Hours later, I shot the next two videos:

"The Crash Part 1"

"The Crash Part II"

HILARIOUS right? Gotta love that "Cake on Fire" :) So after the festivities of the weekend, Brandt and I headed home Sunday night so that I could work on Monday. Usually our office takes the whole week between Christmas and New Years off, but this year they decided to work one day, which was a bit annoying for me, but kind of nice at the same time money-wise. So I worked on Monday and then that night we drove right back to Burley for some more fun!

22. Rex and Sammy playing X-box. I thought it was so cute how Rex had his head up on Sam's shoulder so he could watch the TV with him.

23. Brandt with the kiddos.

24. LOVE this girl. 

25-26. So if you haven't figured it out by now, we are big gamers in our family. This year we tried out a few new games. These pics are of us playing Mad Gab Card Game, which was pretty fun. We also tried out Monopoly Card Game, which was also a lot of fun as long as Sammy didn't play (gave the rest of us a fighting chance at winning), Bananagrams (thanks to Craig, I will forever know the meaning of the word "quelp", and Rook (we weren't big fans of Rook, but in his defense, I don't think we gave him a fighting chance). 

27. And of course we played the ol' standby Dominoes. Here's Brandt making fun of us because he hates playing Dominoes.

28. This shirt makes Henry's eyes sooo blue. Love it.

29. Puppy and Baby Henry.

30. This is the outfit I bought for Henry. Isn't he just the cutest thing you ever did see? He's also the best baby I've ever met. He's so good to just let you hold and cuddle him. The only time he cries is when he's hungry or tired, and even then it's not for very long. And he rarely spits up (this made Brandt a fan of Baby Henry right away). I love this kid and miss him like crazy.

So that was our Christmas festivities. Congrats to you if you made it through the entire post; I didn't mean for it to be that long, but I had more pics than I thought. It was so good to see everyone and I can't wait to do it again! Now we're off to spend New Year's with the Hines'. The good times just keep on comin'!!

Family Bonding

Lindsay and her cute family came for Christmas this year which is so much fun! In wanting to spend as much time with them as possible while they are here, we went to Burley last weekend. Sammy brought his girlfriend, Mindy, home for the weekend as well so it was great to finally meet her. We had lots of fun staying up way too late, playing games, and just hanging out. Here are some pics we snapped from the weekend.

In that first picture, everyone thought Syd looked like she wanted to eat Baby Henry...we got a kick out of that. While we were all sitting around talking one night, Brandt built a tower out of Kate's blocks and put Pocahontas on top like in the movie. It lasted for about 45 seconds before Kate tore it down. On Saturday, we had a birthday party for basically anyone in the family that had birthdays in December.  We made homemade chili, cinnamon twists, and cupcakes...mmmm mmmmm Good!! We had a full house which was so much fun.

We also took family pictures on Sunday after church (hence why we all look so sharp ;)  It is so hard for certain people in our family (ahem...SAM, ZAC, AND SYD) to be serious for the 30 seconds it SHOULD take to get a good family photo - so the process ends up taking FOREVER. And this is the best one we got. Sorry Sam...it's your own fault :)

A very fun weekend indeed. I was sad that we had to leave and come back to Idaho Falls to work during the week, but those bills aren't going to pay themselves (though I wish they would...wouldn't that be neat?) See you all next weekend for CHRISTMAS!!!

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides

I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was spent at the House of Hines. It was a lot of fun and Dani has chosen me to sum up the activities because it has been awhile since I posted. We left Wednesday afternoon despite the warnings and blizzard conditions that had been present the day before. We were fearless and brave as we entered the eye of the storm. The picture to the right shows the conditions we faced (there is a road in that picture somewhere). It was 35 MPH all the way to Blackfoot and that was whether we wanted to or not, it was bumper to bumper the whole way. Along our cold and slow travels we came across this truck and these two dogs. It had to be in the teens temperature-wise let alone the wind and these poor guys were riding in the back of this truck on the freeway. I swear the one on top of the hay bale was looking to jump. He'd had enough and we couldn't blame him.
 
The rest of the trip was good until right where I-86 and I-84 meet. Then we had to funnel all of the holiday traffic into one lane and we faced more bumper to bumper traffic.We felt bad for the car in front of us. You could tell that the trip was getting long for them  too because the  woman in the passenger seat, I assume the mother, kept reaching back to the  little waving hands we could see poking out of a car-seat every 10 minutes...then 5 minutes...then 2 minutes...after that they took the next exit and were out of there. Hopefully their holiday turned out  ok. As for child-less us, we made it safely and enjoyed the peaceful four-hour drive while listening to Christmas music. On Thanksgiving morning a few of us went to run in the Turkey Trot. Afterwords all of the family had arrived and we were ready for the feast. All of the family was there except for the Petersen's who were missed, but they kindly made us the place-holders as scene on our table prepped for the feast.

After the meal we played games, talked, and had various desserts. Here is a particularly, shall we say, well endowed, candy turkey that was a part of the meal.

We had planned on having smoked turkey as a part of the lunch but, this being our first attempt at said smoked bird, it took quite a bit longer than planned. However, it turned out to be a perfect dinner, after about seven long hours of smoking we were treated to a wonderfully cooked turkey that was devoured in about 15 minutes.

After all that we decided to stay up and brave the midnight sales at Wal-Mart. It wasn't so bad for the wife and me. We started out by the towels and sheets; when the sale was official we had nice ladies searching through the pile shouting, "I have a king-size set in red," then someone would step up and get what they needed and move on. It was all very civil and if we did get pushed over we were guaranteed a soft landing of pillows, sheets, and comforters. My two sisters were not so lucky and started out by the DVD's. Needless to say there was some pushing, groping, odd smells, and general barbaricness that would accompany such a gathering. By the time we had all gathered our stuff and waited in line to check out for 30 minutes everyone was ready to go home. Here is a picture of the ladies smiling with our cart full of deals despite the nights events.

The holiday was a lot of fun and it was good to spend time with family. Thankfully the road back home was much clearer and only took the standard two hours rather than the four it took on the way down.