Forever, I know...

It has been FOREVER since I posted anything (thanks to our lack of internet mostly). Sorry :(

Here are a few updates, when I get a chance I'll try to post pictures it just gets embarrassing when you are uploading pictures from your camera on the school computers if you know what I mean.

The Crazy Life:
We have been super super busy packing everything up for our move to Boise in 3 days. Everyday we make at least one load of the things we aren't bringing with us to our storage unit in rexburg. P.s. did I mention that we are only moving one car load of stuff with us to Boise?

We were lucky enough to have gotten Dom's black truck but on the 10th, a girl ran into me on my way to an appointment so now we don't have our white kia, well we have it but it is in no way driveable-pretty sure it's totalled but we have to have an adjustor come out and decide the damage (don't worry, im fine, the baby's fine, our car is just out of commission for now).

I am now only about a month away from having our little baby boy Gianni (oh yeah, that's the name we decided on by the way - Gianni is the italian version of Johnny which we liked, plus it is a tribute to my Dad's name which is John. And his middle name is going to be Mark- another tribute but to Dom's dad instead).

CONGRATULATIONS RYAN AND JENNIE! For those of you that don't know, my brother ryan and his wife jennie just had an adorable little girl (okay well not just but about a week and a half ago). She has the cutest name - Emma Rae, isn't that adorable?

Domenic has 1-count it ONE final left, and he is taking it today!!! YAAAAY!!!

Christmas is in ONE WEEK, can you believe it??

Last night the power went out for 28,700 people from: Rexburg, Rigby, Iona, Teton, St. Anthony, and the Rocky Mountain Power area around Idaho Falls- it was completely dark. Apparently there were two explosions that happened in near by cities that caused the outage. A gas tank blew in Mud Lake and a broken insulator and damaged equipment, on a electric transmission line between Rigby and Rexburg. Kind of crazy- good thing I didn't pack all of my candles :)

One Year and growing strong, and big :)

Well it's official, today is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Yay!!! 

It's crazy to think that it was a whole year ago that we got married! So much has happened since then, but time serisously flew by. 

Right now I'm sitting in our GORGEOUS Marriott room in Kua'i (pictures to come, don't worry) waiting for brunch to settle so I thought I might as well make myself useful and wish ourselves a happy anniversary haha, just kidding but it's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd better.

HUGE thanks to Mom and Dad Sanelli for putting this trip together for us and sending us, we couldn't have asked for anything better. We love it here, anybody want to move here with us??

Because I know you are dying to know, here are a few updates...

In case you don't know, I am about 4 months (17 1/2 weeks) prego (thats where the "growing strong, and BIG" part of the title came from) and we couldn't be more excited! We won't find out what we are having until this September 11th but so far we already have our names picked out, kinda. 

Girl Name:

Okay, this is a for sure, if we have a girl this is THE name we will name her, no doubt...

McKenna Nicole Sanelli 

I've loved the name McKenna and have known I would name one of my girls that name ever since high school, and Dom loves it too, so now all we need is to have a girl so that we can name her it!

Boy Name:

This one is a little unsure as of now, Domenic really wanted to name our first boy an italian name, but we can't really are on one because he likes the really italian sounding names like domiano or giuliano but I'm afraid the kid will get made fun of so we are struggling with this one.

So far we have agreed on Nicolas Domenic Sanelli, but Dom has a cousin named nick on his Sanelli side, so we don't know. 

I know a lot of people hesitate telling people what they are going to name their kids, BUT I really want to know what you think or if you have any ideas. Any suggestions?? Let us know!

More updates to come, in a week or so when we get home :)

Here's the countdown!!

The rest of July is going to be BEAUTIFUL! Here is the countdown (including weekends):

Last day of the semester (Halleluja) 7 Days

Our 11 month anniversary (can you believe it??) 7 days

Back in good ol' Washington 9 days

Off to Disney Land 11 days

My Best Friend's Wedding (yeah baby!) 16 days

I found this pic and realized that I had never put it up! It's a pic of my good friend Tiff and I at her wedding reception (I know, I know she's been married for almost 6 month now but I had to put it up cuz she looks so beautiful!)
Congrats Tiffy!!

Awesome Music Video, Check it Out!!

Colman's Birthday

Happy 24th B-day Colman!!

Pizza Partay

Our really good friends Colman and Carlie and us had an awesome home-made pizza party, here are some pics :)

Mama Mia Pizza Ria

The best part was that we got to go see 17 Again after dinner! It was so funny, and no I didn't just go to see it b/c it had Zach Effron in it, although that was a plus. Even Dom liked it, and he is SUPER picky about movies.

My Birthday!!

I know this is 2 days late, buuuut I thought Id better share with everyone how my birthday went!

So, it started out with school (yuck, well actually it isn't that bad but who really wants to go to school on their b-day anyways??)

But, then I went and got my hair done! I had them put a ton of blonde highlights in b/c that is how my hair was when dom and I met and I missed it, plus, its going to be summer soon (hopefully... In rexburg it seems like winter all year long), and my hair alway lightens up to almost a blonde (really light brown) not to mention I was getting super bored with my hair.

Then, Dom and I went to Idaho falls and went shopping!!! It's been a while so this was pretty exciting for me :) I ended up getting three super cute shirts, a scarf, a necklace, and a super cute dress (pics to come...)

By the time we were done shopping, we were getting hungry soooo, we decided to go to Johny Carino's (it a lot like olive garden) b/c I had never been there before and Italiana sounded really yummy (although I have been spoiled with real italian food so it might not have been as good now, thanks Dom for spoiling my taste buds!)

So we get there, sit down and after 15 minutes order our food. Then the fire alarm goes off! It keeps going for 15 more minutes, so we decide to leave. Don't worry we didn't dine and ditch, but the noise was so stinking loud that it was ridiculous.

I think the most exciting thing about my b-day was that I GOT A KITCHEN AID!!!!!!! Thanks to mom and pops! I absolutely love it!!!! Yes, I know... suuuper spoiled. (pics of this to come soon too).

It was such a fun day. Thanks to everyone who called to wish me happy birthday! And especially thanks to Dom for sacrificing his time to go shopping (of all things) with me :)!!!

You know it's good when it gives you goose bumps!

I found this on a friends blog and absolutely LOVED it! 

I hope you will too!

A Night Out

Between studying and working, Domenic hasn't had much spare time to do, well anything really, except study so tonight was a special treat. We decided to kick off General Conference by going out to dinner with some good friends of ours , Carlie and Colman. It has been a while since we have gotten out and a nice juicy burger was sounding really really good so we headed over to Red Robin! Anyways, we had a really good time, and took some goofy pictures. They are of course out of order but I still haven't gotten good enough, or had enough patience to put them into order. anyways, I hope you enjoy them, we had a blast!

What is a picture without dom pulling a goofy face?

Carlie drinking out of both of their cups

Carlie and Colman

Dom and Brit

The Gang

Feeling Better

Alright, so it has been 3 weeks in the making, but I really think that my mono has bit the dust. It was kind of interesting because I had been feeling horrible and super tired every day for the past 2 1/2 weeks and then all of a sudden this last Sunday I felt completely normal! I even got up an hour and a half before church (for all of you out there who have church at 9 a.m. you know how hard that is) and got ready! I even wore make up which was something I hadn't done since I had gotten sick (it is amazing what some foundation and mascara can do for you, really).

I was trying to figure out why and how I had experienced such a miracle and got better so quickly, but then Domenic was talking to his family Sunday evening and they told him that they had been praying for me and even FASTED for me that Sunday! Mystery solved. I feel so blessed to part of the gospel. I have been blessed so many times it is super hard to even imagine there not being a Heavenly Father. We are so grateful for the faith of others and the blessings we receive because of them.

It is also really convenient that I got better just in time to take my finals! Thank you Heavenly Father! It also means that I get to help Domenic with his monstrous work load and start being a wife again in stead of a zombie, good news or bad news, I'm still weighing the pros and cons of both :)

To all of you that prayed, fasted, etc. for me, we really really appreciate it all! Thanks a bunch, your prayers have been the best medicine.

Life as of late

I am so so sorry I have been slacking big time on my blogging, especially since I have been harassing my sister to post on her blog more frequently (sorry Keitra). But, I do have a legitimate excuse.

Besides the fact that there is only 2 weeks left in this semester and Domenic is SUPER busy with tons and tons of homework and tests, I happened to be lucky enough to somehow, don't ask how because I have no clue, catch mono, get a bladder infection, have a late visit from the crimson tide, and have an enlarged/ over-active liver that is super painful.

So needless to say, my life has consisted of sleeping and peeing constantly for the past week straight. 

Why do I tell you this? Probably because I am super bored not being able to do anything all day and feel like a zombie, but also because of something Dom said to me while I was feeling the poopiest. He said, "well brit, what do you think we are supposed to learn from this?", and my immediate response was probably not the most kind, but went something like this: "sometimes we don't have to learn from things Dom, things JUST HAPPEN". 

After having too much time to sit in my bed or on the couch and try to think, I really do believe that there is wisdom in what he said. Even if we can't see a reason for things happening the way they do, it is still so important to have faith that our Lord and our Savior know, and we should find comfort in that. Simply believing is enough to pull you through the worst of times, the times when you feel the most helpless, and completely lost. It is a source of optimism and hope that things can, and will be better.

It is time to stand up

For more information and commentary on the recent controversy over HBO's "Big Love" and showing of LDS Temple ceremonies, please visit this link to LDS.org where you can read The Church's stance on this topic.

Valentines Day!

As promised, here are pictures from our Valentines Day Date! It was so fun to just hang out with Domenic, he is the sweetest guy in the whole world. I love him so much. He made me my favorite dinner, his famous white sauce with mushrooms and onions and fresh pasta of course, such a sweet heart. This is the same dinner he made me last year for valentines day when we were dating. We pretty much tried to re-inact last years v-day date and i think we did a pretty good job.

Yuuuum!!!!

What would valentines day be without sparkling cider and awesome glasses?

The awesome set up, way to go babe! Domenic has some good taste.

Cheers!

These are the goodies Domenic's parents sent us for Valentines day. It was so exciting to get a package (something that doesnt happen very often) we acted just like little kids when we got it and ripped it open! Almond Roca is the best!

Domenic gave me a beautiful red rose, and ENCHANTED!!! I was so excited I jumped up and down and gave him a huge hug which was when he told me that he hadn't actually bought the DVD yet, but was planning on it (this one was his friend's wife's movie). But i was still excited that I get my own someday :)

You know you are a newly wed and in college when the only thing you have to use for wrapping is old Christmas bags. I love it.

Dom would probably kill me if he knew i had posted this picture of him, but i had to because the card is SO cute!

I got him Meet the Robinsons and the Sandlot,two of our favorite movies.

Can you guess what we made for dessert???

Sportin' the aprons

I love my husband! haha he ALWAYS makes me smile.

This is the apron I made with a tremendous amount of help from Domenic's extrememly tallented Mother.

Washing the strawberries

Dipping the strawberries

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES!!!!

Just a little background info, last year when we were dating, Domenic planned this super cute and romantic valentines date where he actually first told me he loved me :) He was insitant on me not bringing ANYTHING to contribute tothe dinner but i didn't listen and made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert anyways. Well it just so happened that he did the same thing so we had about 2 dozen chocolate covered stawberries. What a coincidence! So we had to made more this yearin memory of our valentines last year.

We had left over chocolate so we decided to make chocolate covered raisins (they tasted just like raisinetts, although we were cracking up becasue I called them craisins instead. Definately the wrong name)

.....And Chocolate Cheesecake(with a homemade graham cracker crust)! So good.

Happy lovers day!

Yup, we are in love.

Sweet Finds

You know that awesome feeling when you get a really awesome deal on something or find something cute for really super cheap, well I had the opportunity to have this kind of experience yesterday!

SO I have not been shopping in FOREVER, mostly because money is tight right now (such is the life of a newly wed couple) and good shopping is a half hour away from Rexburg in Idaho Falls.

Anyways, I finally got out of Rexburg and ventured out to I.F. with my good friend Kari. We ended up leaving at around 8 a.m. and then got to the D.I. at around 9, but they weren't open until 10! So then we went to this other 2nd hand store and found some sweet stuff for our houses!!! It is amazing what you can find at places like that. Anyway, I don't have pics of the stuff but you will just have to take my word for it, it rocks! 

Here is a list of some of the stuff I got (just in case you were wondering) :

Jacket for Dom ($3.50, not second hand but BRAND NEW from Old Navy, right now all of the mens clearance is an additional 50% off, amazing.)

3 pillar candle holder (9.00, regularly $20-25 i'm sure)

Curtain rod ($1.50, even at ross they were still like $18)

White Vase ($1.00)

4 Pillar candles, 2 round and two square ($2 each, all brand spankin new! and they smell really good, vanilla)

Picture Frame ($0.75)

2 Shirts for me (Brand new from Old Navy also, $5.00 each)

Glass mini-hurricane candle holder ($1.00)

And a couple other things I cant remember at the moment. 

Needless to say I had a BLAST (Kari, you are amazing!)

P.s. in case you were wondering, we DID do something for lovers day, but I have been too busy to put pictures up but don't you worry, they will come!

Custom Design By Britnae Sanelli

I spent all day today toying around with this photo shop program I have and ended up making some pretty cute stuff. Although I have yet to make a successful blog layout that actually fits my page right, I did manage to make a couple of postcard designs so that we can finally send out our thank you cards (or in this case, postcards) from our wedding about 5 months ago (pathetic that we haven't done them yet? Yes, I would say so).

I have so much fun making these little things, this kind of stuff is dangerously addictive for me so I think I am going to have to start using as a reward for getting real work done!

Shoot, if I would have known that I was capable of doing this sort of thing, I would have made my own wedding invitations! Anyways, here are what the postcards look like!

Front

Back side. On the left is where we write our personalized thank you note, on the right is where the address goes :)

Post card front #2 (actually the first one I made)

Back side of post card #2

HUGE thank to Shabby Princess for providing all of the cute papers, ribbon, staples, etc!

Blessed

Well, I know that 7 a.m. is not my ususal blogging time, but I had to write this down.

This morning in Rexburg, Idaho is probably the coldest it has ever been (since we have been here, and I hear it does not get much better). It is -19 (as in negative 19) degrees outside, feels like -38 (so the weather.com website says), and barely anyone's cars will start, especially ours. Looks like we need to pull out and plug in that engine warmer after all.

Anyways, so first Domenic goes outside to start the car... nothing. Then, ten minutes later I go out to start it, absolutely nothing. At this time I am praying really hard that the car will start.

It wouldn't normally be a huge deal to walk to school in normal circumstances but considereing that domenic just got diagnosed with bronchitis that has a high risk of phnemonia, I was freaking out about him walking 15 minutes in the snow.

I knocked on our friends door downstairs who are from around this area and in our ward, their car wouldn't budge either. So here I am freaking out about Dom walking, saying what seemed like hundreds of little prayers, and our next door neighbor from our floor pulls into the apt. complex building parking lot having just been from the school dropping her husband off (so I knew her car would start).

Needless to say, I waited for her to come into the building and asked her to take my husband and our friends to school. I explained how Dom was sick, how it was snowing (how it snows in -19 degree weather is still a mystery to me), and despite my morning breath, awesome pajamas, combined with some crazy beadhead I had going on, she was an angel and gladly accepted to take them to school. Needless to say, I am very, very, very grateful for her!

Heavenly Father never lets me down.

New hair!

I finally did it! I cut my hair, I ended up going with the nicole riche one. I had no idea where to go in Rexburg for a good cut, especially since I have never gone short before so I was super nervous. 

My sister had some coworkers who said that the place "Hair We Are" (yeah , i know I thought the name was suuuper cheesy too) was really good and reasonably priced. So, with a wash, cut and style, it was $20, which  I thought was an awesome deal!

The girl who did my hair came highly recommended too so I felt a little more comfortable. Anyways, here is a picture of my new hair! I had no idea my hair was as long as it was before I cut it, but I guess the girl ended up cutting off 7 inches! Crazy huh?! 

Digital scrapbooking

So lately I have been branching out a little in my creativity and started using digital scrapbooking materials to make fun stuff like my the header at the top of my page (compliments of thecutestblogontheblock.com). I found this web site that lets you download free kits that are SO cute.

Here is the website http://www.shabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp

You do need photoshop to make things with them though. I didn't have photoshop so I downloaded a free one called paint.net (http://www.download.com/Paint-NET/3000-2192_4-10338146.html). It is basically the same thing as photoshop minus the hundreds of dollars you would have been spending. Don't you just love free stuff?!

Here is a picture of one of the kits I downloaded, I havent done anything with it yet, but it's super cute.

Pear Cake Recipie

By request, here are the pear cake recipe and cream cheese frosting recipe. I love the pear cake and the cream cheese frosting together, I think the frosting is what really makes it so good, but then again I am a sugar-aholic so anything tastes better with more sugar :)

Yummy Pear Cake Recipe:

http://profumoprofondo.com/2008/05/01/simple-pear-cake/

The Last Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe You will EVER Need, Seriously.

http://www.slashfood.com/2007/10/24/last-cream-cheese-frosting/

Pear Cake!!!

Sorry, I couldn't get the writing up to the top of the post so you are going to have to scroll down to the end for that. But for now, here are some pictures!

Sorry this is side-ways

Ta-Da!

Yum yum yum

Cream cheese frosting!

Have you ever had pear cake? If you haven't you are seriously missing out! It is delicious and the perfect thing for those over-ripe pear that you have sitting in your fruit bowl that will never get eaten alone.

Domenic has been begging me to make a pear cake (apparently his favorite next to german chocolate) since we bought pears last week so I broke down and finally made it lat night. It turned out way better than I anticipated.

Anyways, I know I'm a nerd, but I had to post some pictures because I am so dang proud of myself!

Gabi's baby blessing

Don't you just love long weekends?! Like everyone else, we got school off Monday for MLK day so we packed up, and left for Wendell, Idaho (a tiny little town just 20 minutes outside of Twin Falls which is about a 3 hour drive from Rexburg). 

This last Sunday, the 18th, was Keitra and Isaac's little girl's baby blessing. It was really fun to have a lot of family together. 

My dad flew in from NY, my mom and brother Kyle from WA, and then Dom, me, Ashley (Kyle's girlfriend), and Breanne (Isaac's sister) drove up from good ol' Rexburg. Almost all of the John-Kathy Horne family was there. We missed Ryan and Jennie being there. 

Here are some pictures from the weekend, we had a blast!

Grandpa Horne and Gabi

Ashley, Grandma Horne and Gabi

She has the CUTEST smile! 

Dom and Gabi

Brit, Michael, and Shylee (Isaac's sister's kids)

Shylee and her silly face

Kiera had piggy tails in her hair, and this is what it looked like when Rene took them out.

Dom and Keira

Michael was in the closet throwing stuff on top of Dom (who was pooped from playing with the kids) and then to top it off, Shylee came along and sat on top of him. haha I can't wait until we have kids.

Me and Shylee playing pattie cake

Ashley and Kyle. Typical.

Gabi in her blesssing dress. Isn't she getting so big?!

HAHA! I love this one. She is so funny.

what a cute family!

another smile

Uncle Dom with the little Gabi girl.

Daddio making his famous mashed potatoes.

Horne Grandparents and Gabi, the first time she was with both of them at the same time.

Grandpa Horne and Gabi! Look at those ears! Can't you see the resemblance?