Thanks Megan & Court for the fun evening! And really, we should thank Elliot for the entertainment, since he really was a blast to watch and play with! We wore him out.
Saturday December 15, 2012
Clarks 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sugar Cookies & Roomies
We had a Christmas party with the ol' roomies... We did pizza, sang songs, and then made sugar cookies - and frosted them, of course! If only we could have parties like this more often. It's always fun to think about some fun days and then still keep up with the now days together.
Thanks Megan & Court for the fun evening! And really, we should thank Elliot for the entertainment, since he really was a blast to watch and play with! We wore him out.
Thanks Megan & Court for the fun evening! And really, we should thank Elliot for the entertainment, since he really was a blast to watch and play with! We wore him out.
Quick AZ trip
Warm - Relax - Sun - No coat needed - Sleeping in - Shopping - Swapping Presents
We took a quick trip to AZ between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so David could interview at Midwestern on Dec 11th. We did the 1/2 at dads and 1/2 at moms again as always. Here are a few pictures from our events...
Thanks everyone for hosting us and planning the fun activities :) It was nice to enjoy the slightly warmer weather. D was in shorts, I still needed a jacket and a blanket at night. I guess "cold" is relative...
We took a quick trip to AZ between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so David could interview at Midwestern on Dec 11th. We did the 1/2 at dads and 1/2 at moms again as always. Here are a few pictures from our events...
These were the gifts we packaged for the Everts clan - mostly food products from Utah like Stephen's hot cocoa, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, lion house rolls, flavored honey, salt water taffy, raspberry sticks.... YUM!
Dinner @ Briand & Justin's home
The McNeace kids (our nieces and nephew) - they grow so fast!
Chipotle with the other side...
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Festive at Home
Well, since Christmas is over I better get a few more decoration pictures up, right!?
We had a blast decorating, no shock there, and it took us 3 days to get it all up, also no shock. :) We had a little more than our usual decor thanks to Grandma Ginny and a few keepsakes. David is always excited for these holidays so he was ready to get stuff up right after Thanksgiving. I wasn't as motivated because of the tree - such a daunting task. Well, the cool thing was - apparently when we packed it away last year, we didn't take it all apart, but basically just shoved (lovingly) it back into it's box - lights and limbs and all. So David basically pulled it out and BAM, it was done!
Our outside lights are on a timer, and whenever we're home we turn on all the inside ones and I catch myself just sitting and enjoying looking at the tree and ornaments and decor. So when we someday have too many ornaments does that mean a) buy a bigger tree or b) it's time for some of them to retire? I already feel we could approach that decision in a couple years, am I old enough for that?! David's not :)
Almost all of the towns are from grandma, and we were very happy to get some this year! We have trees and light posts and even a few people - some may be a little too big for the houses, but that's how it is right? Plus we didn't get a full set, but just a bunch of random, but great, ones. We loved setting it up this year and are looking forward to having a future home with more shelf space so that you can really see the display. Our willow tree nativity set is almost complete, but its fun just having something to add to it later on. And then the santas are grandmas too. The pictures didn't get him all from his best angle (he he) but we love them and didn't have room for all that we have...
Merry Christmas! I know I'm late, but still needed documenting - along with a few other December events - to come shortly....
We had a blast decorating, no shock there, and it took us 3 days to get it all up, also no shock. :) We had a little more than our usual decor thanks to Grandma Ginny and a few keepsakes. David is always excited for these holidays so he was ready to get stuff up right after Thanksgiving. I wasn't as motivated because of the tree - such a daunting task. Well, the cool thing was - apparently when we packed it away last year, we didn't take it all apart, but basically just shoved (lovingly) it back into it's box - lights and limbs and all. So David basically pulled it out and BAM, it was done!
We made our own light pattern!
Our outside lights are on a timer, and whenever we're home we turn on all the inside ones and I catch myself just sitting and enjoying looking at the tree and ornaments and decor. So when we someday have too many ornaments does that mean a) buy a bigger tree or b) it's time for some of them to retire? I already feel we could approach that decision in a couple years, am I old enough for that?! David's not :)
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Recap on November
So since I didn't write about this, figured I would:
For Thanksgiving we went to the Evans' and Clark's - and had 2 meals within 1 hour. Ahhh, its sad that we really love all this food and yet can't eat that much of it. Jan's was nice with Jeff and Andy and a few other neighbors and relatives, but we couldn't stay too long. We made mashed potatoes that morning and took them with us to the Clarks. They were a HIT, so I've decided I inherited my Dad's whipped potato jeans :) First try too! We stayed at the Clarks most of the night playing, or looking at Black Friday ads (yeah that was me). We drew names for Christmas gifts and headed home to sleep so we could get up for a few quick Black Friday things.
First off, I was against the whole "let's have Black Friday on Thursday at 8pm!" Yeah, since I was a kid, Black Friday was on early Friday morning. But for some reason the last couple years it has creeped to Thursday. Besides that it sucks for employees, my problem is that I want to
1) enjoy my Thanksgiving, watch a movie and sleep well
2) get up early with only the very devoted shoppers rather than the young crowd that was there last year
3) not have to wait in line during my Thanksgiving meal
4) and just have the same tradition as usual
So it kind of made me mad, especially since our Black Friday last year wasn't too successful plus we had a 2 hour line and the DVD player we bought was on sale for less the next week! (oh yeah we totally returned ours and saved even more) Friday we got up at like 7am to check a few stores and see what was there since we really didn't need anything. BUT, we did find Christmas lights 1/2 off wahoo! And we got the BEST gift this year from my mom and Black Friday - an electric piano!!! It really is awesome, I have missed being able to play and sing for all these years.
And then we did the Benihana tradition with the Clarks - pictures of it all below. Surprisingly I don't think anything traumatic happened that day with them all, but good food of course!
And lastly we always decorate for Christmas during the Thanksgiving weekend, this year was no different :) And we had a lot to put out so it took us a couple days. Pictures up next.
For Thanksgiving we went to the Evans' and Clark's - and had 2 meals within 1 hour. Ahhh, its sad that we really love all this food and yet can't eat that much of it. Jan's was nice with Jeff and Andy and a few other neighbors and relatives, but we couldn't stay too long. We made mashed potatoes that morning and took them with us to the Clarks. They were a HIT, so I've decided I inherited my Dad's whipped potato jeans :) First try too! We stayed at the Clarks most of the night playing, or looking at Black Friday ads (yeah that was me). We drew names for Christmas gifts and headed home to sleep so we could get up for a few quick Black Friday things.
First off, I was against the whole "let's have Black Friday on Thursday at 8pm!" Yeah, since I was a kid, Black Friday was on early Friday morning. But for some reason the last couple years it has creeped to Thursday. Besides that it sucks for employees, my problem is that I want to
1) enjoy my Thanksgiving, watch a movie and sleep well
2) get up early with only the very devoted shoppers rather than the young crowd that was there last year
3) not have to wait in line during my Thanksgiving meal
4) and just have the same tradition as usual
So it kind of made me mad, especially since our Black Friday last year wasn't too successful plus we had a 2 hour line and the DVD player we bought was on sale for less the next week! (oh yeah we totally returned ours and saved even more) Friday we got up at like 7am to check a few stores and see what was there since we really didn't need anything. BUT, we did find Christmas lights 1/2 off wahoo! And we got the BEST gift this year from my mom and Black Friday - an electric piano!!! It really is awesome, I have missed being able to play and sing for all these years.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Fall Phone Pics
Well since I joined the $2.50/month group, I wanted to upload pics while I could...
Here are a few pictures from what we've been up to lately, from my phone:
Here are a few pictures from what we've been up to lately, from my phone:
Pumpkin and Eyeball Cakeballs
First game with our new Monopoly board
Pork Chops & Rice
We found boiled peanuts at the SLC Farmers Market - David's first!
Flowers growing finally in the late summer
I won an award at work - this is me with our CEO
Homemade salsa - seriously we have the best recipe if you want it!
Beef Strogenoff - yum!
Broccoli Cheddar Soup - one of David's new favorites
Just one of our usual FaceTime's with Sophie and her parents, awe!
Gelato and celebration of our 3rd engagement anniversary, thanks D!
Our new red and green light-bulbs
And we were all decorated by Nov 25 :) More pics on that to come
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Thankful
This past week I've been able to reflect on my many blessings and listen to some from David too. We are very thankful :)
Work - For me, while work can be rough sometimes, I'm happy to have a job. Unemployment is high, and David has been looking for a job since August and we haven't seen any success yet. So it is very fortunate that I have what I have. When the days are tough, it's easy to remind me of that.
David's health - So, David's knee bursitis threw our lives for a little curve ball. He especially is so thankful that he is now at 96% back to normal!! It's taken therapy 2-3 times a week for the last two months plus all his extra exercises and lack of sleep... I know David is just happy that he can bend his knee, 3 weeks on our couch really was hard for us both. The bursitis was sucky but reminded us of some of the most precious blessings that most all of us probably overlook sometimes. With the bursitis, David has had to postpone several dental interviews :(. This also sucked. But we're trying to just hope there was a reason and that the interviews in the next couple months will still be very good. One side note, he was supposed to go to NYC for an interview at end of October but if y'all remember, the big Sandy storm hit that same weekend and we realized he may have been stuck there or his interview may have been cancelled either way! I'm glad he didn't get stuck there, for my selfish reasons I guess. And another trial that turned into a blessing was really that David didn't have a job through all of this - so he could stay home and heal quicker and not have to maybe quit or something.
Okay so both of those: Bursitis = no NYC interview = better since Sandy hit during that same time; and then: No job = David could stay home and heal from Bursitis, okay and totally help me at home, I'm spoiled. What I was trying to say - is that both of these have been trials, but in the end, turned out okay. Well, I hope that works with all our trials, good to hope and think.
Our home - We have been blessed to be here in SLC and staying in a family owned home, allowing us to not go into too much debt before dental school. While it may be harder in some ways to live here, I still am very grateful to have a place to relax when I'm home, a place to cook and fill up with all of our many belongings and memories.
The Gospel - This one almost missed the list, on accident, but we keep it high in our list. Its great to have so many temples nearby, our temple is now closed for a month, but we'll be visiting some neighboring ones instead. I'd say prayer has gotta be at the top of this one, as we're praying for lots over here lately.
Our friends & family - Of course, this one is a given, but we are thankful for all the love and support from those close and far. It makes my day to know those who think of, care and pray for us. There are just some who show it so well and reminds us to continue doing this ourselves.
Each other - Okay so when we asked each other what we were thankful for, this was #1 on both of our lists. Honestly, having each other to be with, that's all I need. Sometimes that gets clouded up by all the decisions we continue making (or hope to make someday) but it doesn't get too far down there. We're happily married and even if we didn't have any of the above, we could survive :)
And the list goes on... but we'll just leave it at that for now.
* Side note, I don't have any photo memory like the rest of you! Argh! Purchase or no?? *
Work - For me, while work can be rough sometimes, I'm happy to have a job. Unemployment is high, and David has been looking for a job since August and we haven't seen any success yet. So it is very fortunate that I have what I have. When the days are tough, it's easy to remind me of that.
David's health - So, David's knee bursitis threw our lives for a little curve ball. He especially is so thankful that he is now at 96% back to normal!! It's taken therapy 2-3 times a week for the last two months plus all his extra exercises and lack of sleep... I know David is just happy that he can bend his knee, 3 weeks on our couch really was hard for us both. The bursitis was sucky but reminded us of some of the most precious blessings that most all of us probably overlook sometimes. With the bursitis, David has had to postpone several dental interviews :(. This also sucked. But we're trying to just hope there was a reason and that the interviews in the next couple months will still be very good. One side note, he was supposed to go to NYC for an interview at end of October but if y'all remember, the big Sandy storm hit that same weekend and we realized he may have been stuck there or his interview may have been cancelled either way! I'm glad he didn't get stuck there, for my selfish reasons I guess. And another trial that turned into a blessing was really that David didn't have a job through all of this - so he could stay home and heal quicker and not have to maybe quit or something.
Okay so both of those: Bursitis = no NYC interview = better since Sandy hit during that same time; and then: No job = David could stay home and heal from Bursitis, okay and totally help me at home, I'm spoiled. What I was trying to say - is that both of these have been trials, but in the end, turned out okay. Well, I hope that works with all our trials, good to hope and think.
Our home - We have been blessed to be here in SLC and staying in a family owned home, allowing us to not go into too much debt before dental school. While it may be harder in some ways to live here, I still am very grateful to have a place to relax when I'm home, a place to cook and fill up with all of our many belongings and memories.
The Gospel - This one almost missed the list, on accident, but we keep it high in our list. Its great to have so many temples nearby, our temple is now closed for a month, but we'll be visiting some neighboring ones instead. I'd say prayer has gotta be at the top of this one, as we're praying for lots over here lately.
Our friends & family - Of course, this one is a given, but we are thankful for all the love and support from those close and far. It makes my day to know those who think of, care and pray for us. There are just some who show it so well and reminds us to continue doing this ourselves.
Each other - Okay so when we asked each other what we were thankful for, this was #1 on both of our lists. Honestly, having each other to be with, that's all I need. Sometimes that gets clouded up by all the decisions we continue making (or hope to make someday) but it doesn't get too far down there. We're happily married and even if we didn't have any of the above, we could survive :)
And the list goes on... but we'll just leave it at that for now.
* Side note, I don't have any photo memory like the rest of you! Argh! Purchase or no?? *
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Halloween-ween
This could be a LONG post. But it's the best holiday so it's allowed, right?!
Since we were a little limited with D's knee (read last post if you are clueless) we didn't get to everything but rolled with it and still got some good Halloween-ing going.
Decorations
Someday when we have a big home we'll go all out, but until then we just did a little here and there. I was pretty happy with what we had actually. And the fun new addition this year was my grandma's ceramic halloween house set. I like that it's hers and also just how awesome it is.
Date Night Halloween Themed
Instead of a true party (because of D's knee, time and cost) we went with a more intimate group. We invited my old roomies and their spouses over. Megan & Jon brought Eliott and he slept in our back room, so cute. And then Court and Caleb came over too. They just moved here for 1 year and live a block away (yet in another church stake of course) so I'm feeling WAY spoiled to have a few good friends nearby. As we chatted I noticed that each of us may be in different states next year, so we better do this a few more times.
I don't have pictures for this one. Boo. As they were leaving I realized. Funny how sometimes the BEST occations aren't memorialized because we're too busy having too much fun. But it was one of those times, even a week after I would stumble upon it in my thoughts and just think how fun it was. I'm sure back when we were roomies we could have imagined hanging out later in life with spouses (and some of us kids) but that was such a dream, not real.
Anyway, we planned dinner: Chili w/pumpkin shaped cheese to top, Salad, Rolls, Scary Cake Balls (which I guess I did take a picture of later when I took some to work), and also Apple Cider later that Jon made with a Cocoa Motion. A very cool kitchen gadget, I'd recommend it. We chatted for a long time afterwards and then decided to watch Hocus Pocus instead of other game options. I guess it's hard to write how FUN it was, you had to be there I guess. But our invite list was small - again, when we have a big home and such, we'll go ALL OUT. Although I think a smaller group was more fun for me this time. Thanks Megan & Court for coming (not like you gals read this thing)...
My Work
We did our normal - invite the families and go trick or treating around the office - celebration. David came, yay, finally a friend at work! My team (HR & Legal) dressed up as a group; we were the Addams Family. I was Morticia, yup. We also decorated our HR conference room for the little kiddos to get treats from. Sadly, our room was a little too scary, especially when Cousin It was visiting (it was my boss under all that hair!!) I think we did pretty good didn't we???
And here's the work group - The Addams Family
School Carnival
David's mom works at an elementary school and every year we go help with the carnival activities, hand out candy, and clean up. It was on the Friday before Halloween - we spent several hours there but had fun with the Clark kids. Since it was the same day as my work party, I got pretty exhausted and we finally headed home with some candy that was left over, yay for David!
Pumpkins
We carved pumpkins two days before Halloween-ween :) (Call it an FHE of sorts) Of course, I'm not as original so I did the classic pumpkin, and David did one that is totally him.
Oh, and we went to a pumpkin patch to get all the Clark pumpkins with the kids. Here are a few pictures.
The Night
The night of Halloween we went to the in-laws place, and went trick-or-treating with the kids. Well, until David's knee wore out so we just waited for them to come home. They are getting older - in years past they loved having us come with them - but they had a couple friends with them this year and they were getting "embarrassed" - wow, I've hit that point/age!?!?! David's mom also does chili, hot dogs, and lots of jello wigglers along with other Halloween dishes, so we were well fed. Again, no pictures, but we had orange on at least so that was a little festive I guess.
Oh, did anyone see "The Neighbors" tv show for Halloween? The Aliens called it Halloween-ween, and it has stuck with me.
Since we were a little limited with D's knee (read last post if you are clueless) we didn't get to everything but rolled with it and still got some good Halloween-ing going.
Decorations
Someday when we have a big home we'll go all out, but until then we just did a little here and there. I was pretty happy with what we had actually. And the fun new addition this year was my grandma's ceramic halloween house set. I like that it's hers and also just how awesome it is.
Date Night Halloween Themed
Instead of a true party (because of D's knee, time and cost) we went with a more intimate group. We invited my old roomies and their spouses over. Megan & Jon brought Eliott and he slept in our back room, so cute. And then Court and Caleb came over too. They just moved here for 1 year and live a block away (yet in another church stake of course) so I'm feeling WAY spoiled to have a few good friends nearby. As we chatted I noticed that each of us may be in different states next year, so we better do this a few more times.
I don't have pictures for this one. Boo. As they were leaving I realized. Funny how sometimes the BEST occations aren't memorialized because we're too busy having too much fun. But it was one of those times, even a week after I would stumble upon it in my thoughts and just think how fun it was. I'm sure back when we were roomies we could have imagined hanging out later in life with spouses (and some of us kids) but that was such a dream, not real.
Anyway, we planned dinner: Chili w/pumpkin shaped cheese to top, Salad, Rolls, Scary Cake Balls (which I guess I did take a picture of later when I took some to work), and also Apple Cider later that Jon made with a Cocoa Motion. A very cool kitchen gadget, I'd recommend it. We chatted for a long time afterwards and then decided to watch Hocus Pocus instead of other game options. I guess it's hard to write how FUN it was, you had to be there I guess. But our invite list was small - again, when we have a big home and such, we'll go ALL OUT. Although I think a smaller group was more fun for me this time. Thanks Megan & Court for coming (not like you gals read this thing)...
My Work
We did our normal - invite the families and go trick or treating around the office - celebration. David came, yay, finally a friend at work! My team (HR & Legal) dressed up as a group; we were the Addams Family. I was Morticia, yup. We also decorated our HR conference room for the little kiddos to get treats from. Sadly, our room was a little too scary, especially when Cousin It was visiting (it was my boss under all that hair!!) I think we did pretty good didn't we???
School Carnival
David's mom works at an elementary school and every year we go help with the carnival activities, hand out candy, and clean up. It was on the Friday before Halloween - we spent several hours there but had fun with the Clark kids. Since it was the same day as my work party, I got pretty exhausted and we finally headed home with some candy that was left over, yay for David!
Pumpkins
We carved pumpkins two days before Halloween-ween :) (Call it an FHE of sorts) Of course, I'm not as original so I did the classic pumpkin, and David did one that is totally him.
Oh, and we went to a pumpkin patch to get all the Clark pumpkins with the kids. Here are a few pictures.
The Night
The night of Halloween we went to the in-laws place, and went trick-or-treating with the kids. Well, until David's knee wore out so we just waited for them to come home. They are getting older - in years past they loved having us come with them - but they had a couple friends with them this year and they were getting "embarrassed" - wow, I've hit that point/age!?!?! David's mom also does chili, hot dogs, and lots of jello wigglers along with other Halloween dishes, so we were well fed. Again, no pictures, but we had orange on at least so that was a little festive I guess.
Oh, did anyone see "The Neighbors" tv show for Halloween? The Aliens called it Halloween-ween, and it has stuck with me.
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