Roman Sampler

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

All day Saturday and Sunday was spent traveling.

So, AirFrance kind of screwed up our flights so we got not one, but TWO 5 hour layovers. Which were made so much better by these seats. We both slept here for over an hour once we snagged them. And the in flight dinner was SO GOOD. They had chicken curry. I really hope they have it on the way back. I'm dying for it :) As well as some more Gossip Girl, Friends, and CSI episodes like they had on the way here.

Our hotel attendant suggest this restaraunt. And we have now eaten here 3 of the 4 nights we've been here. The fourth night we fell asleep before eating dinner. MONDAY

We got into our own hotel (after being bumped the night before into a room that barely fits a bed). Our room is big, has a huge bathroom and an AMAZING tub! We are knee to knee on the toilet and beday.

We spent the morning in Vatican City. That's the Pope's house behind us.

We spent the afternoon in southern ancient Rome.

TUESDAY

Here's our great new stuff! I got Cashmere tights: And Kyle got a sweet new jacket, which he is using to come onto Pinnochio:

The Pantheon. After seeing the Pantheon we spent the night wandering beautiful streets like these.

WEDNESDAY

I bet you never would have guessed that this was Kyle's favorite part of the trip so far. It's a graveyard with famous graves like Keats and Shelley with cats that live there.

I turned around after walking away after taking the picture and Kyle was basically emptying his pockets into that box.

This is the graveyard with the Pyramid behind us.

We're having a great time. Just two days left! See you all soon.

Goomba

Kyle and his brother buy each other an online game for Christmas every year that they can play together. But this year the game they want doesn't come out until February so I made this Goomba from Super Mario brothers for his brother to have on Christmas.

Merry Christmas to the Cheaters

We had Christmas early. Six days early to be exact. Kyle knew he was getting a game and he wanted to play it before we went to Rome. And like I'm going to argue with opening presents early.
This is Kyle's reaction to his surprise gift--which was Lady Gaga, his love.

Here's me with a very tired looking face and lots of wonderful presents!

This was my big surprise for Kyle. I wasn't (and still am not) finished, but I laid out what I had for him. It's quite a big blanket/rug. It's 5-6 feet wide and tall. I just have about four rows left on the top of his head now.

This was the Christmas morning mess. We left it there for quite awhile, but we had to clean it up to make room for our new table to be delivered today. Pictures of that wonderful new item will be posted soon!

Nativity

Kyle and I totally starred in the Nativity this weekend. Kyle was Joseph and I didn't quite qualify for being the virgin Mary, so I was the Angel Gabriel. During the practiced I proudly and loudly proclaimed "For with God nothing is POSSIBLE!" And didn't understand why everyone was laughing at me...

During the real thing I got the word impossible down, but apparently declared that Mary was the Son of God. What would I do without my husband to let me know all these dumb things I say?

Other than that it was really fun and went really well. A member of my church sewed all of the 15+ costumes to fit each actor. It was amazing. The whole thing was great. And I felt really supported by our family who came to cheer us on.

A Coplen Weekend

We ended up at the Coplen's a lot this weekend. Jessica had her first formal dance. After much dispute Jessica finally gave up her tennis shoes for nice shoes.
Justin switched up their Christmas Card. Enlarge the picture for labels as to whose head is on whose body.

And Friday night we were honored guests of Jer's birthday party at Classic Skating. Kyle hates skating if you can't tell by his face:

But he did much better than the last time we went there. He stayed in the kiddy rink the whole time last time. This time he was so pro.

The birthday boy:

And how the birthday boy spent most of his time at Classic:

Most of us pooped out pretty early on, but Jer and his friends never wanted to stop.

25 Things You Didn't Know About Kelli

US Weekly has a list every week with 25 facts about a celebrity. And I am so the celebrity of this blog so...here's my 25!


1. I play Spider Solataire until I win even if my eyes are burning and I'm exhausted.
2. When I win Spider Solataire I feel disappointed because that round was obviously too easy.
3. Pasta is my favorite food, but I only like white sauce.
4. I have only one thing at each restaraunt that I order.
5. I love Soap Operas. More than anything else.
6. I unashamedly pass this passion on to my nieces in spite of their mother's disapproval.
7. I am bored with US weekly and am looking forward to my subscription expiring.
8. I have a favorite client.
9. Kyle tells me that's unprofessional.
10. I hate basketball season.
11. I look forward to the weekend all week long and then am so disappointed with how boring it was.
12. I can check my email ten times in under an hour with the same high expectations that someone may have emailed me (this is only at work when I have no clients).
13. I will knit or crochet obsessively even if my hands are killing me.
14. Kyle wrote a song called "Big Old Undies" about me.
15. Kyle tells fart jokes because he knows I'll laugh hysterically.
16. I am so excited when I come up with new ways to organize and strain my mind to find people to show that might share even a fraction of my interest. I even consider blogging about it.
17. I find the indents that long toe nails or finger nails leave after you cut them insanely interesting.
18. I think about what I'm going to wear the next day from about noon on.
19. I hate my teeth. With a passion.
20. When I'm sick I get fairly certain that it will never end.
21. I hate my nose. Not because it's ginormous, but because it is always bugging me.
22. I finish books mostly because I am so anxious to start the next one.
23. I play the piano for hours when I'm depressed.
24. If Kyle would, I would move to LA in a heartbeat.
25. I try to trick myself by setting my clocks ahead--and it works.

Oh the Kraftiness

I found the best craft blog. This girl is crazy creative and has tons of patterns and instructions for all sorts of crafts. Check it out: http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/

Yay for Christmas!!!

I love Christmas. Here are my decorations thus far!

I made the sock countdown from that picture Shauna sent out. Each sock has a candy in it to countdownto Christmas! The socks and candy were all from the dollar store, so it was only $15. Super cheap and cute and great!

I put up our tree yesterday and decorated it.

Sadly, this picture doesn't do it justice when it's all lit up. And I got these cute little presents as Christmas/Good-bye presents for my piano students.

Look Out Below

My blog is being stupid and published the post I did yesterday as November 8th, so peek below the Masquerade to check out my giraffe.

Masquerade!

Last night was St. Mary's annual Masquerade ball. It was fantastic! First of all, dressing up was so much fun. We got our masks off of Amazon.

And we got to know people from church better. Here are the wonderful people we sat with, who definitely rigged the voting because amazingly they all won the costume contests...

And they took photographs there during the silent auction (which we won some handmade cards and a trip to Wendover for crazy cheap).

And the photographer just thought Kyle was the greatest because of this photo.

And at the very end they held a raffle. We had bought 5 tickets for $20 and won the grand prize of a $500 card to the Venetian hotel in Vegas that we can use for rooms, shows, dining, and shopping! They have the Phantom and the Blue Man group there as well as TONS of shopping stores!!! I am so excited!!!!

Definitely the best Masquerade Ball I've ever been to :)

Kraft Klass

If you read Amy's post you already know about Kass's craft class. Mine didn't turn out as cute as theirs...but it was fun.

Copy Catter Follower

Kass has this cool magnet board at her house that has the days of the week and all the meals she makes on magnets. So since I never know what to eat or make I decided to copy her. I got all the stuff from Ikea a long time agoand it's been sitting around because I didn't want to screw it up or make it totally ugly. But today I couldn't stand all this stuff laying around anymore so I went to work. I haven't written the meals on the magents yet, but here's where it is in my kitchen: And here's a close up:

I love how it turned out!

Happy Halloween!!!

Kyle suggested we carve pumpkins. I hadn't because I thought for sure he's say he didn't want to. So I was thrilled with his idea! We did it with Wendy and her kids..at least some of them. Some were way too cool. Or grumpy. Your call.

Last Contest of the Semester

Justin got 2nd place on both of these photos!!!

Anderson Halloween 2009

I must say, in spite of the rain, the Halloween party was super fun. Above is Kyle and I.

The Stevensons

Kurt and his Krew...get it? ha ha!

Shauna and her kids.

The Coplens and a picture of Jeremy that Kyle promised to haunt him with for the rest of his life.

Skanky and totally hot Rainey and Jeff.

And their kids.

And here come the people with few enough children that they can all be named. Kory, Amy, and Axel.

Ashley, Brandon, and Ashdon.

Jerome, Kass and Story. (And Jerome did dress up--that name tag says "Joelle").
Isn't my mom the coolest? She actually got dad to play the couples game!!

Here's our look-alikes. I seriously confused Leisha for Dusty several times.And these two....

And the thousands of babies....

And the main event--the shoe game. It was Keri's idea. I forgot to give her credit. It was really fun and you could really tell who thought a lot of themselves with their answers. Notice how pissed Jessica is that they got this question wrong:

This was the after party. It ended quite soon after this picture:

P.S. If you want an actual disc of these pictures leave a comment or I'll just assume you are good with stealing them from this post.