Happy Holidays!!

It's been a little while since the last update but things have been a little busy! But now that Christmas has passed, I can sit down and catch up.
Last weekend Del and I flew over to Olympia and spend a 4 day weekend at my parent's house with the WHOLE family; both of my sisters and their husbands/families were able to come over as well. It's been a long time since we had all 3 sisters and my parents together at the same time so it was great.

 

Left to Right: Jake & Jeni, Julie & Malin, Me & Del

Of course, everyone knows yesterday was Christmas :) This week has been Del's week to be on-call so we got up early enough to get our presents opened before he'd start getting calls. THANK GOODNESS this is his last Christmas that he'll be at this job. I'm ready to have him around during the Holidays and not wonder if he'll have to get up and leave at any minute.
We brought Oakley inside to chill with us and he had fun watching us open gifts and then munch on wrapping paper.

Del showed Oakley his new "Grilling Bible" and Oak was very
into a steak recipe ;)

My main present from Del! LOVE Coach!

My collection of gifts. Got some good stuff!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season! I look forward to seeing what 2011 has to bring! Lots of changes to come for sure! See ya'll next year ;-)

 

On the boardwalk in Oly

Winter Wonderland! (Sort of...)

So today we have had slow but steady snow for majority of the day, which is odd since the forecast called for a 30% chance of afternoon flurries and highs near 40. Yeah, that didn't happen! Del has shoveled the driveway and walkway twice since I got home from work and I'm not sure why he even tries. By the time he's halfway done, the first part is already covered again. Oh well though, Oakley and I had a little fun while dad worked!

Pup watchin Del shovel

It was impossible to get him to sit still and look!

Proud Wife!!

Well, for those of you who don't already know, I have some awesome news! (No, I'm not pregnant like 1/2 of you thought when I called to tell you haha). But the 2nd coolest thing just happened - Dellas got offered an internship at his top choice company, Kiewit! Not only did he get in with his top company, but also his top choice of districts, their Bridge and Marine district. He interviewed for this internship about two months ago and it sounded like it had gone well, but the competition was tough. Kiewit interviewed at around 15-20 schools and only 1 to 3 people from each school would be offered a position, and Del was one of them!

Little side story - about 2 yrs ago I asked Dellas what he hoped to do with his degree and if there was a company he had in mind as his "ultimate employer." He didn't hesitate to say he'd heard awesome things about Kiewit and that he'd like a chance to work for them someday. And now he does!!

We don't know the details yet, but we have some bits and pieces of information. We know it will be paid (yay!) and we know he will not be in Idaho for this coming up Summer (and I won't be going with him since he's coming back in just 3 months to finish his last semester of school). At the interview the people had said they try to keep interns close to home if they have spouses and/or families, and that it's likely his location would be in the Portland or Seattle area. However, in today's offer letter it named Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, British Columbia, Louisiana, Texas, and Hawaii as all possible areas.

Anyway, I'm SO proud of my hubby (thus the blog title) for going for his goals and achieving the first major step towards a great career! Now, we just pray it all works out and he actually LIKES working for his "dream company."

Thanksgiving Time With the Clarks!

Here in Boise we celebrated Thanksgiving for almost an entire week instead of just 1 day! We started the week out with my wonderful in-laws rolling into town last Saturday from San Diego. They hardly stretched their legs before we put them back in the car and took them to the 2010 Holiday Expo. The Idaho Center was PACKED with fun booths and vendors with enough holiday decorations to make my head spin! I LOVE decorating for winter and the Christmas season, and thank goodness Mom Clark does too :) We spent a few hours dragging our husbands around while we drooled over the cutest stuff. Of course, we both left with a few new additions to our snowman collections as well as some other odds and ends.

The next highlight of the week was game night on Monday night. Dellas was able to get the night off of work so we stayed in while it snowed and played Cranium...twice.  For those who have never played it, you're missing out! We had lots of laughs and all of us have some incriminating pictures to prove it!

Diana acting out "The Hulk"

Del had to make me act out something until I guessed it

Mel's attempt at acting out "Humpback whale."

 The next couple nights were a little more low-key at home. We played some Wii, hung out, talked, and ate way too much! Diana quickly became Oakley's new best friend too. He could hardly contain himself whenever she was around.

Kisses!

Diana had to take a lint roller to her clothes after this!

 

Thanksgiving Day was spent at Ned & Renee Pontious' (Del's Aunt and Uncle). I made my favorite dish, greenbean casserole, while others provided the amazing turkey, stuffing, gravy, and tons of other delicious food! We had a total of about 15 people which made the day extra special. Even though the gathering didn't include too much of our immediate family, it was still great to have such a great group share a fun night together. And just to paint a ridiculous picture, if any of you had peaked in on us, you would've found 6 of the 15 or so people in the living room, face to our phones, playing the most addicting game ever - Angry Birds. Please, no one with a smartphone should download that game! Although pathetic, it was funny.

Unfortunately, I had to work the day after Thanksgiving but Mom Clark did some shopping on her own and found me some cute things! I've been much too spoiled by her this week! She added on lots of cute winter decorations and a card/picture holder for any holiday cards I get this year. So anyone who's doing one, send one to me so I can display it! Haha. 

Today, Diana and I braved the snow and crowds and ran some errands. We spent a few hours at the mall then headed downtown to check out the Boise Festival of Trees.

Mom Clark and I at the Festival of Trees

All-in-all, it has been a great week having Mom and Dad Clark in town! It's been way too long since we saw them (over a year!) and it'll be sad to see them go since who knows when the next visit will be. We've had a great start to the holiday season and look forward to more family time next month when we head to Olympia for an early Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scrapbookin' Fool

With the weather quickly deteriorating I've gotten back in touch with my inner-creativity. I decided it's time that I put together a wedding album. But not just an album with pictures thrown in it, it's my goal to make an actual scrapbook of the day. So, Dellas took me to Michael's and I got myself started with some scrapping basics and got right down to work. In the last week I've completed the following pages.

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Let me know what you all think! I'm trying to keep the pages fairly simple or I'll be doing this for the next year! It's still all about the pictures, not the "decorations" so I'm trying to fit lots on some of the pages.

The Many Faces of Oakley

I decided it's time to give an update solely dedicated to Oakley. We got Oakley a year ago this month; I believe it was Oct 24. He's provided us with a lot of laughs, annoyances, and plenty of entertainment in the last year so I want to share some with everyone :)

Oakley does this whenever we take him anywhere. He "yawns" while we're moving and the wind makes his jowls flap. Love it!

We call these Oakley's "spit-cicles"

Now, I've never been very good at taking videos when funny or cute things happen, but I have caught a few things that made us laugh. So here those are.

Del put a lifejacket on Oakley and it was too funny. Oak would run & jump around while chewing on it.

Every now and then we give Oak a new bone. He gets SO excited and shows off by running around playing with it before he chills to chew on it.

Make sure your sound is on, but not too loud, for this one...Del is "singing" in the background and Oak is obviously very confused & does his head tilt. And don't blink! It's short!

Punkin' Carvin'

In the spirit of Halloween (a little early), Del and I decided to carve our first pumpkin together. We went to Albertson's, picked out the perfect one, and brought him home. I had planned on printing out a stencil/template to help us get the design first since neither of us are the best artists; however, I forgot that our printer ink was out so I brought the pumpkin into the office and, with my stencil on the screen, I used my best drawing skills to copy the design. After admiring my impressive skills, we got to work!

Here's Del scraping out all the punkin guts. Yes, I helped too!

Del and I took turns carving

Of course, you can't carve a pumpkin without roasting the seeds!

The finished product (it says "Welcome," kinda hard to tell in the pics)-- may not last till Halloween, but oh well

All lit up

I have to say that I found an awesome recipe for the seeds too! The few times we roasted them growing up we would just basically salt them so I wanted to try something different. This recipe has you melt butter, add garlic salt and Worcestershire sauce and spread over the seeds. It was very tasty!