Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It may still be November but its after Thanksgiving so our Christmas stuff is going up! I am also pretty sad to report we are one of the last houses to decorate in our neighborhood. ::ugh its still November people!:: Oh well. I am so lucky to have a husband that enjoys decorating for the holiday as much as I do (or at least pretends to), aww I love him. We opened ourselves up a nice bottle of wine, put on some holiday tunes and revamped our house. I love this time of year!

See ya later fall decorations!

Todd constructing our tree.

Yes we have a fakey. When we moved here it was just a few days before Christmas and we had no idea how to leave our neighborhood let alone how to find a tree farm. Walmart saved the day and its been our tree ever since.

Fanning out the branches is an art form.

Cute hubs

Thunder was pretty thrilled to have a new place to hang out

All done!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are very lucky to have so many friends here in Rhode Island to spend the holidays with and this year we decided to make it an all day event. Our dear friends Amy and Mike came over in the morning for a Thanksgiving brunch and to watch the parade and later we headed over to Marty and Maribel's for the Thanksgiving feast. Though we missed our families we had a great day with lots of good food and good people. I think I am still stuffed.

Ready for the morning festivities. My parents were so sweet to send us a centerpiece.

Amy showing us that it is completely possible to play the wii while sipping on a mamosa.

We ate way too much.

The boys watching football at the Marty's

PJ and Tiffeny carving up their deep fried turkey. In addition we had a roasted turkey and a ham. Everyone brought what was traditional on their Thanksgiving table. We had a lot of awesome food.

The spread

The after dinner entertainment. Its still pretty nice out so we had a fire and the boys serenaded us.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving take 1....

In the spirit of Thanksgiving leftovers, Todd and I decided that we could not get enough so in addition to having Thanksgiving with our friends, we also cooked a turkey of our very own. With visions of turkey sandwiches dancing in our heads, Todd set forth to re-create the awesome turkey he made last year. It was a perfect pre-thanksgiving and as usual we set out to use our wedding china but then got too lazy. Seems to be par for the course.

Todd brining the turkey


Cute hubs :)
all stuffed!

This is the ultimate in turkey roasting laziness. This is our wireless remote-controlled meat thermometer. So now you can have snacks, throw back a couple beers and watch the game and never have to wonder how your bird is doing. Pretty cool eh?

All set!

Hey there

Time to eat! The turkey took a little longer than we thought so we didn't end up sitting down til about 9pm. Gosh I look tired. It was delicious though.

As for leftovers, there was hardly any. Todd ate on that turkey for the next 2 days every time he walked in the kitchen. Next year we are going to have to get a bigger bird as it is apparent that one Coyer isn't as good at sharing as the other.... ::blows kisses to hubs:: :)

Another class...another kicky new nickname...

Todd just graduated a new class. With a new class, comes a new sweatshirt and apparently he is now...wait for it...'The Equalizer'. Huh.

The class sweatshirt. Todd doesn't think his face has as much likeness as the 'Coyer the destroyer' shirt but of course he feels the representation of his muscles are spot on.

Being introduced at 'Hi Moms'

Giving his speech. He's getting pretty good at these. Each one is more motivational than the last.

Afterwards we all went to a bar called Billy Goodes. They have a open mic night and our friend, Sal (another DI) wanted to try out some of his new songs. He's really talented.


Marty and Maribel


Sal singing away.

Of course a post isn't complete without another picture of us! :)

Another year, another Marine Corps ball!

Ask my mom and she will tell you that I love to get dressed up. She could probably produce about 7 prom dresses and 7 bridesmaids dresses to prove it. If you need someone to throw on a ball gown and go somewhere in a pinch...I'm your girl. With this being said, its not shocking that I gravitated towards a husband that has a job that allows to me to dress up at least once a year! Tonight was the annual Marine Corps ball. As usual we had an awesome time. There was a group of about 30 together and we rented a limo bus to make sure that we attended this years ball in style. The ceremony was beautiful and we danced into the early hours of the night. Gosh I love the ball!

All dressed up!

Me and Maribel before getting on the bus

Our ride. oh la la.

The boys getting cozy.

Tif and Nikki enjoying a cocktail on the way to the ball

me and Tiff

We had some free time so we stopped at a pub downtown. Everyone loved seeing the boys in uniform

The ladies with Master Guns at the ball

Todd and PJ

The Coy-ays

There were a few 'snafoos' in my ball prep. It all started with the stellar idea to get a spray tan. Due to having arguably the palest skin ever, I trustingly told the tan lady that a level 1 tan would be more than sufficient. She apparently opted for a level 2. This subsequently led to issues with my makeup since I do not keep shades darker than super white in my repertoire of makeup. This then led to a very honest conversation with my husband that went something like this...

Shan: (sitting, humming happily putting on her makeup)

Todd: (walks in, turns towards me and immediately looks startled)

Shan: "Hey honey, whats wrong, why are you looking at me like that?"

Todd: "Ok I have to say something...don't get mad at me ok?"

Shan: "What? what?!?! is my hair starting to come out?"

Todd: "No your hair is great, however, you might want to go easy on that makeup stuff...it uh...doesn't...uh...quite match your body.....::awkward pause::...besides that you look beautiful.." (nice save)

So then in a panic I spent the rest of the prep feverishly putting bronzer on my face. As you can see I was only somewhat successful. Moral of this story is the spray tan and I are going to part ways. We just weren't meant to be. I know somewhere right now my mom is thanking the heavens for deciding against getting one for our wedding, yikes that would have been a disaster!

oh well, lesson learned.

Amy and Mike's Wedding...

We have met so many awesome people since we have been here and Amy and Mike are amoung our favorites. Amy and I have worked together for well over a year and quickly became good friends. They have been planning their wedding for a quite a while and we were so happy to be able to watch them make this step together. I miss wedding planning. :(

The newlyweds

The Coy-ays

My other co-worker and friend Kathy with her beau, Don.

I think at this point in the night I asked Todd if he would mind if we had a lavish vow renewal ceremony/reception for our 3rd anniversary. I believe he patted me on the head and said he'd rather buy a house. Different strokes I guess.

Congrats Amy and Mike!

Holy Christmas decoration inappropriateness!?!

The people across the street have their Christmas tree and twinkle lights up on their house.....

Please refer to the date of this post....

::waits for everyone to shake their head::

Seriously, its November people, like early November!

At least some people ::coughs:: know that Christmas decorations have no place up until at the very earliest November 27th..which is....uh....when ours go up.....

Oh well I'm just going to go the classy route and wait in utter jealousy and envy patiently until the socially acceptable time when we can put all our christmas stuff out...::hmph:: :)