Something old...something new...

We decided it was time to make the blog officially "ours".  Over the past week or so I've transferred all the posts that have been made on my old blog since we got married. So Welcome! to our new blog, and in case you missed it, here's the last post from the old one:

Good Morning! It's freezing outside and I'm at school holding parent-teacher conferences. My goal this go-round is 25% attendance. I'm almost there too, only one more visit to go!!
Things are going well in the Cooley household. Ryan has one week of the new semester under his belt. He seems to like his classes so that's exciting. I went back to school on the 3rd of January and promptly lost my voice for five or six days. Needless to say, teaching is very difficult when you can't verbally communicate with your students. Luckily I got it back in time for a visit from my superintendent! We're both still teaching in our ward--Ryan in Sunday School and me on the 4th Sunday in Relief Society. We both like our callings and they're pretty stress-free. It's good to be getting back into the swing of things now that the holiday season has drawn to a close. We were tremendously blessed this past Christmas and are so grateful for everything we have. We're excited for this new year and the many--I'm sure--adventures it'll bring! So stay tuned!!!

P.S. To keep up on the Cooley Clan, follow us now at ryanandamandacooley.blogspot.com.

A Seasonal Update

Happy Holidays!
Since I last posted, Ryan and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary, Ryan finished Fall Semester, I started a new session at Adult Ed, we saw the Hobbit (really good!), visited Salt Lake, enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and went to Les Miserables (also really good!) for my dad's birthday. Here are the details with the pictures:

 A left-over from the last post: Our Christmas tree for this year...we went to Idaho with Heath, Sheila and the kids and harvested it. It was extra tall which meant lots of boughs for decorating!!!

 

Our 1st Anniversary fell on the Monday of Finals Week for Ryan so we celebrated with a nice dinner at home. Ryan cooked (steak, "Uncle Kevin" potatoes, green beans, green salad, and wedding cake (which was still super tasty!) for desert), we watched Home Alone, and exchanged presents. I got Ryan a watch and he got me a beautiful bracelet. The Cooleys gave us a Precious Moments figurine that's just adorable! It was a great night!

Tasty!!!

 Cake anyone?

(It was still super moist and tasted almost as good as our wedding day. Definitely recommend Shaffer Bakery!!!)

 Mmmmm.....yummy.....

Anybody have the time?

Oh...so precious!!!

 After finals were over, Ryan and I took my mom and dad to Salt Lake for a little pre-Christmas excursion. We did lunch at Maddox on the way, stopped at Smith and Edwards, then wandered the new City Creek Center. Dinner was at Siegfried's Delicatessen (so tasty! and I'm so happy we finally got my dad down there to eat with us!!!) and then we finished off the night with a walk around Temple Square to see the lights. The last time I saw the lights with my parents I was a little girl. We had a great time just getting to be with my mom and dad. We're happy things worked out to make it happen!

  On Christmas Eve, with a lot of help from my mum, I finally finished the tree skirt and stockings I've been working on for months. I did the design, all the embroidery, and just about all the sewing. I think they turned out sooo cute!

There are still more Christmas pictures to upload. Hopefully we'll get them up soon!

Hello December!

Well hello! We've sure started the month out with a BANG! Saturday Ryan and I journeyed to Idaho for our Second Annual Christmas Tree Harvest with Heath, Sheila, and the kids. We had a great time searching for the "perfect" tree, cutting it down, and hauling it out. Ryan particularly enjoyed the impromptu duck hunting on the way home. The only bummer was that we got home late and didn't feel like putting the tree up so it's currently sitting in my parents' backyard along with theirs.
Sunday we went to church, Ryan gave a great lesson on the end chapters of Mormon, then we came home and set to work getting dinner ready. We played host to Jaden and Kira--Allan and Kristie have abandoned them for a 9-day excursion to Disneyland. We made roast, Yorkshire pudding, green beans, and jello for dinner with homemade donuts and hot chocolate for Sunday cinema. We're pretty proud of the way dinner turned out. We even made gravy for the roast and pudding! Good thing I watched my mom make gravy all those years!! Thanks mom!I'm bummed we didn't get any pictures of the dinner though....I was a little busy! Haha! It was fun to have Jaden and Kira over. They seemed to enjoy the dinner. I hope they had a good time. Sometimes you can't tell with teenagers. Believe me, I know. I teach them! :) So that was our weekend--busy, busy, busy. And it doesn't look like the rest of the month will be any different. How exciting!!
P.S. One more week and we'll be celebrating our FIRST anniversary! Happy Anniversary babe!!!!

A Pinterest Failure: A Tale in the Life of Ryan and Amanda

I'm a big fan of Pinterest. I get a lot of ideas from there and for the most part, what I've tried has turned out pretty good. However, it seems that when there's a Pinterest failure, it's usually big! Case in point: Ryan and I planned to have brownies and ice cream for our Sunday Santa Cinema treat. (See the previous post if you're not sure what Sunday Santa Cinema is.) When we got home from eating dinner with my parents, I had a big, nasty headache. So as we started the movie--this week it was Home Alone--I promptly fell asleep hoping my headache would go away. The last part I remember seeing was Kevin realizing he'd "made [his] family disappear." Sometime during the movie, Ryan got up to go make the treat. We wanted to try making the brownies on our waffle iron. I'd seen it on Pinterest so why not give it a try? Cue epic failure. According to Ryan, remember I'm asleep at this point, the brownies pulled apart when he tried to separate the waffle maker once they were cooked. He even tried a different kind of waffle maker but ended up with the same terrible results. To salvage the rest of the batter, he put it in a small cake pan and baked it up. When all was said and done and I finally woke up, Ryan presented me with a tasty brownie sundae and the tale of how waffle makers and brownie batter don't mix. At least the sundae was delicious! And the funny thing is, we went over to his parents last night where he shared the tale and guess what?! Allan informed us that no, you cannot make brownies in a waffle maker. The moral of my story is that sometimes Pinterest is great and other times it's a complete bust. But hey at least the things that don't turn out usually make for funny stories! And if you've tried it and it worked, please enlighten us. Otherwise, know that it probably won't work. :)

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Last night we kicked off Sunday Santa Cinema. It's a Cooley family tradition where we watch Christmas movies on Sunday nights accompanied by popcorn and tasty treats. We decided to watch Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" first--we'd just finished Halloween and figured it'd be a good transition movie. I'm just going to say that if I never see the movie again, I'm not going to cry about it. It was weird! So weird in fact that Ryan and I came home and popped in "Holiday Inn" so we'd have something to take our minds off of the weirdness of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Luckily, we both highly enjoyed Holiday Inn. It's one of my favorites and Ryan liked it as well--it was his first time seeing it. We also decided it was a better holiday movie kick-off. Needless to say we'll not be watching the Nightmare... anytime again soon and I'd very much like to start any future Sunday Santa Cinema runs with something A LOT better! So here's to hoping the rest of the season's movies turn out!!! Merry Viewing my blog friends!

P.S. If you've never seen Holiday Inn, check out this trailer!