life lately

i'm trying really hard to not COMPLETELY fall off of the blogging wagon. i haven't written in my journal for a month-ish (!) and i don't want to miss everything that's going on in our lives right now. not that we're doing anything that exciting, unless you count constantly trying to make dane smile and laugh exciting (which we do). but here are a few things that have gone on around these parts lately:

• a few days ago, i was driving down the highway near our house, talking to tommy on the phone and driving to the grocery store, and i glanced up and there was a GIANT SPIDER on the window--on the INSIDE of the window--about six inches away from my face. you can imagine the chaos that ensued--there was some screaming and hyperventilating. (we're lucky i didn't crash.) but i managed to pull over, grab a piece of paper, and kill that spider, saving my life and dane's. 
• one of our christmas presents tommy and i are giving to ourselves is a pair of sneakers for each of us. we ordered them off of zappos (on sale!) and i've now had to order FOUR DIFFERENT PAIRS because each time the shoes are STILL TOO SMALL. there are no words. if this most recent pair of shoes (mens 11.5) are still too small, i'm giving up and only wearing slippers for the rest of my life!
• we've been on a baking binge lately--three or four different recipes of cookies, the leininger traditional christmas almond poppyseed bread, cream puffs, and more. also, tommy made some awesome thai curry for dinner on wednesday. i think it's hilarious when people act all amazed when tommy's made something (which, since i'm nursing a lot of the time while dinner is being made, has happened really frequently lately) because um, he's just as good of a cook as i am. come on people.
• dane has decided to give up on napping unless it's in my arms or the swing, or sometimes in his carseat when we're on a walk or in the car. this is a fun game for both of us--but it may have been a contributing factor to the eleven hours he slept straight last night! although of course i didn't get to sleep until after midnight and then woke up at 5:30 wondering why i hadn't been woken up yet, and couldn't get back to sleep. he's also recently grown out of his 0-3 month clothes and is now snuggling up in the 3-6 month outfits . . . what a big guy!
• we leave for our three-week trip to utah and california in a week and a half! dane's first plane trip, which we are semi-nervous for. it's basically going to be a full day of flying (two stops in the middle) so we'll see how he handles it (and how we handle it). but oh, man, we are excited to see our families and for them to see dane.
• for the last three christmases we've been married, we've only had a few christmas decorations, namely two nativity sets we'd gotten as gifts and two cheap red stockings we'd gotten at the dollar store in provo. but this year i splurged and bought a four-foot tall pre-lit christmas tree where we could put our few ornaments we've collected and under which we could keep our few presents we've already gotten. i love the little christmas corner we have in our apartment now.

having a christmas tree (albeit a mini one) has prompted us to take lots of pictures like this:

if dane had his way (which he basically does) we'd just rock like this in our rocking chair all day long, him sucking on his hands and me smelling his hair (which really, we basically do).

he's got a good life. i've got a good life. we've all got a good life around these parts.