Adventures of the Waylands

Bye bye Crib Ceremony

2012-02-01T17:26:00.004-06:00

Seemed like Clark was accepting the transition with ease so we had a bye bye crib ceremony this morning. Clark and I took apart the crib and did a happy dance to celebrate his graduation to the new bed.

Happy Dance

Last night I put pillows on the floor in case Clark fell out. My neighbor has suggested it and seemed like valid advice. When I came home from book club I asked Clint if there were any problems and he said, "No, but the kids has WAY too many pillows."
I was a little confused because I didn't put any pillows IN his bed.
This is what he had done after I tucked him in:

Also for about the last month, the trend has been for me to put a blanket not only on Clark but on his trash truck too.
Today at nap, when I tucked him in, he had the trash truck on his right side with its own blanket, and his gorilla on his left tucked into the same blanket that was on him.
This is what I found when I checked on him today:

Big Boy Bed

2012-01-31T16:56:00.003-06:00

Clark and I bought his big boy bed today. I went to the library and got a book about staying and sleeping in his new big bed.

Clark and I picked it up today and put it together. He was very helpful, mostly. :)
He was all excited until I put his mattress in the bed. Then he got a freaked out look. So we went next door and I borrowed Merrik to show him the bed, which then made Clark much more excited. Slowly he started to warm up to the bed. He hit his hands on it, then started to bounce his hands and eventually half laid on it. Clint, Tavi and I all made a big deal about his bed.
Then we went back outside to wear him out some more. :)

Seemed to work...today...

I realize that this is probably the "honeymoon" phase, but hopefully it will continue to stay easy.

Wait, what am I talking about?! He's 2! There is NOTHING easy about a 2 year old. Just google, "My 2 year old makes me want to drink" and that will give you a good idea in case you aren't blessed with a little ~~demon~~ angel that is 2. :)

Hopefully next week we can take the crib down. :)

Nex Stop...

2012-01-28T20:34:00.003-06:00

...South Korea!

Unless the Army changes their mind at the last minute, we are set to go to South Korea in July. I'm VERY excited and so is Clint. Our families on the other hand are not as much, but we all knew our time in California wasn't going to last forever.

We don't know which base we will be assigned to yet. Clark and I have to get command sponsorship to go. Basically a bunch of paperwork making sure that we don't have any health needs that we won't have access to if we do move. Once we get command sponsorship the commander will have to assign us to a base. We hope to be in Soul or the base about an hour away from Soul. The jobs are different. Some are strictly running a clinic, others are just the food mission and some are a combination of clinic and deployment training. Clint won't deploy though.
Part of why we picked S.Korea was so that Clint doesn't have to deploy. I "kind of" freaked at the conversation we had about deployment. (kind of: extreme understatement of my reaction) Maybe, hopefully the idea of deployment won't be so horrible.

We hope to be able to do some traveling while we are there. Tickets to China and Japan are about $400. Same as our tickets were from KS to CA.

Now we have to figure out what household goods will be shipped and what has to stay. They only allow about half of your belongings to be shipped, but they have furniture rental places.

We also will be selling both our vehicles. The word is that Korean drivers are CRAZY!

So we will keep you posted on the progress.

Rainy Day Play

2012-01-28T20:27:00.005-06:00

Last week we had a few days of rain. A rare occurrence in Cali. So Clark and I got dressed in our rain gear and headed outside to find some good puddles.

Puddles were a plenty in our neighborhood!

Clark and I found some puddles so deep that the water was running into the top of his boots. He hasn't really gotten the concept of what an umbrella does, but he loved being able to use it.

As you can see from my pants, I had a good time splashing in the puddles too!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T17:00:00.013-06:00

Wow, I can't believe that it's almost 2012. Thank goodness. The last 6 months have been more difficult then I would have liked. I can say I've had my fair share of hospital visits for my life time. Thank fully not on my part, but for my family. We had Jack's (Clint's brother) brain surgery in August and then about 2 weeks before Christmas my dad fell down the stairs breaking 3 ribs and punctured his lung. That was the easy part. The hospital visit is what almost killed him! Man, don't ever leave loved ones in the hospital by themselves. The staff literally tries to kill you!
Anyways, that's another story, but ties into this Christmas because we were very thankful that he was home, and on the mend.

Here are a few of the good pictures I had on my camera:

Christmas Tree, most of the presents are for Clark. Typical. HA!

Clark with one of his new toys.

Broken Bob and Mental Marge. (Nick names from Santa for the year.)

And here is why those three were the best I had on my camera from Christmas Eve:
The name of the game: Name that object, courtesy of Clark's amazing picture taking skills.

Next game: Who does that food/feet belong to?:

In all seriousness, Clark actually got some good pictures:

Christmas Morning we went to church. It was amazing! Very spirit filled and we got to sing lots of songs. Just my style! Then we went Diane's (Clint's Mom) house.
Opening presents:

The camera thief strikes again!

I'd like to say Clark took these but it was me! I was trying really hard to get pictures of everyone, but Grandma and Jack were to my left and the pictures ended up looking like this even when I tried to shade the lense with my left hand. :p

Clark flying:

Clark playing with his new truck. He broke it shortly after. :( Too bad because he really liked it. The axle broke off the truck from his pushing on it and then it wouldn't roll any more.

Christmas Dinner Table:

More Clark Art:

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-30T23:13:00.010-06:00

Each year since anyone can remember my dad's family has gotten together for a family reunion. Some years we have taken over parks, and other years we have all fit into a house. This year we decided to try to take over the parks again. We had about 30 people. Not bad and we did make a big impact at the little park we were at.

Right side of the table: Clayton and his friend (sorry dude, never caught you name, I was too busy running around chasing a 2 year old!) Bobby (my dad's cousin), Scott (My brother's friend)
Left side: Nancy, Debbie (my dad's cousin's), Beka, Nate (My brother's friends).

Right side: Michael (Jen's [Jack's girlfriend] son), Clark, Clint, Karen (My soon to be cousin!)
In the background, My dad and Shelby being master cooks!
Left Side: Larry, Tammy (my dad's cousins), Dawn (My SUPER Cousin)

Clint's beautiful Grandma, Barbara and Mom, Diane!

Jen, her mom and Jack

Shelby and my dad and Mike (Jack's friend in the background).

The centerpieces I had been working on for this day: I painted twigs and die cut the leaves. The idea is to have everyone write what they are thankful for and put their name and year on the leaves. Each year we will add to them and can read them for years to come. :)

Various pictures from the night:
Jack and Scott holding Amber and Jack. Kori (The kids' mom)

Jen and Jack and their moms! I got you mom! You couldn't escape my camera today! Muhahaha. :) She hates me posting pictures of her, but I have to share my beautiful mommy with you all.

Every year we also celebrate Dawn's birthday. Come years her birthday falls on the day of our reunion.

Lastly I'm sure you saw the hung monkey in many of the previous pictures. Nate HATES USC. This is a USC monkey that joined our festivities for the day. :) Why it was allowed, no idea...

What Happens When Your 2 Yr Old Gets The Camera

2011-11-30T23:05:00.004-06:00

The other day Clark got a hold of my camera and went around the house taking pictures of his toys. :) Here are some of the pictures he took:

Can you tell what I'm doing here?

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T17:24:00.010-05:00

The weekend before Halloween we went to the Pumpkin Patch at Irvine Park. Unfortunately we picked a CRAZY insane weekend to go. Along with the pumpkin patch the park was also having a 5k run event and the little zoo was having a halloween special going on. We had to park almost a mile away from the patch. Thank goodness we grabbed the stroller!

Waiting for the train ride and on the train:

Clark wanted to take all the pumpkins with us.

He also doesn't want to smile "normally" but I like his "funky" smiles. :)

The park also had these little boards that you can stick your face into the hole. Clark decided to stick his entire head into the hole, and then got stuck!

Getting ready for trick or treating!

Clark really got the hang of things once he realized the idea of what trick or treating was all about. He even realized that most people didn't mind when he grabbed a giant hand full of candy!

Making the rounds in the neighborhood:

As you can see Sponge Bob visited our neighborhood and Merrik was way excited about it. I think Clark got excited because Merrik was excited.

*Again I'm sorry that the order of my pictures aren't correct. I have yet to figure out Blogger's new system. They use to upload in the opposite order in which you clicked on them to download. Now it doesn't seem to matter which order I click on it. So if any of you know how to upload the pictures in the correct order, pass on the secret!

Time Flys!

2011-11-04T16:55:00.009-05:00

Look who turned 2! All of us can't believe that its been two years since our wonderful little boy entered this world and all of our hearts!

Birthday cupcake!

Getting some food on Daddy's head, but helping him clean it up!

Opening presents:

And as for how much he's grown in the last 6 months, here are his stats from 18 months:

Weighed 29lbs which is the 80%
Height: 34 1/2 in which is the 95%
Head circumference 20 3/4 cm which is WAY off the charts!

Clark's current stats:

Weight: 32 lbs which is 90%
Height: 37 inches +97% at the top of the chart
Head Circumference: 20 3/4 which is the same as at 18 months, so he is headed back toward the chart instead of being completely skyrocketed off the charts. Or as Papi says, "He's growing into that big head of his!" (Of course in a very loving way.)

Elmo's World

2011-10-22T23:25:00.008-05:00

This year I finally settled on Clark being Elmo for Halloween. I was talking to Clint's mom and she said, "Let's make the costume!"
Umm, doesn't she know I have no idea how to sew? Or the slightest idea of how a sewing machine even works?

So with a little hesitations, I said sure.

I went to the fabric store and found this awesome fabric that would be perfect for Elmo's fur.

When I went up to the cutting counter, I told the lady I was sent to buy the fabric but had no idea how much I would need. I said it was for Clark, who was in the cart with me. Some ladies chimed in and helped, saying that we would need more fabric then we originally thought, so I should get extra. Then there were comments like, "Man, I wouldn't want to work with that fabric." and "Yeah, that's going to be a challenge."

So I left the store with a bunch of red furry fabric and seriously hoping Diane had some mad sewing skills.

Not only did she have mad sewing skills, but she taught me how to sew! Probably not the easiest fabric to work with and as you can see it made a crazy, insane mess, but I LOVE IT! I told her that Clint was going to be mad at her for teaching me a new addicting craft.

(Sorry the pictures are out of sync. Blogger is being lame and not uploading the pictures in the order that I assigned them.)

After working hard of the body of the costume we couldn't convince Clark that the costume would be fun to wear.

This is what happened when I put it on him:

He hated it!

Tonight we had our church's Trunk or Treat. Not knowing if Clark was going to wear his costume or not, we dressed him regularly and brought the costume. Surprisingly, he was ok with wearing the hat but refused to put the costume on. I spent many parts of the day putting the costume on my arms and dancing around the house and playing around to convince him that wearing the suite would be fun. When we arrived at church I showed him all the kids in their costumes and he couldn't get changed fast enough.

It didn't take him long to figure out that if he stopped at each car, he would get candy to put in his Elmo bucket. :)

Clark is also going through this stage where he doesn't smile regularly, but funky. But I like it!

Cooling off while eating dinner. It was a hot day and the costume was very warm.

This is the mess of a child I had once I was home and allowed him to eat some of his candy. Sticky candy, drool and the red fuzz from the costume made this:

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-22T23:18:00.002-05:00

This week Clark and I went with our neighbors to our local pumpkin patch. The boys had fun!

Jen turned 29...

2011-10-22T22:54:00.004-05:00

...FOR THE THIRD TIME!

This year for my birthday we celebrated at the Beach Club. Thankfully it was warm enough that we could even swim! The water was a little cold, but Clark, Logan and Merrik didn't seem to mind.

I'm so thankful for having a loving husband who listens to my constant complaining about wanting a stand mixer.

I also got some really cool Stampin Up supplies and I will post pictures of the invitations I am making for Clark's birthday.

I definitely got spoiled this year! :)

Food Adventures

2011-10-18T23:04:00.005-05:00

After Diane, Grandma and I all read The Last Chinese Chef, Grandma thought it would be a good idea to do a food competition of our own.

Here was the official invitation:

"On Saturday afternoon the Shrimp Fairy will deliver a 2 pound bag of medium sized frozen shrimp (very meaty) to the Clint household, the Diane household, and the Barbara household. It is up to each household to come up with a Super Shrimp Dish to be served during family dinner time on Sunday. The dishes can be hot or cold - any type of dish will do such as shrimp bisque, shrimp and rice, shrimp and spaghetti, shrimp and vegetables - just whatever whatever strikes the culinary imagination. A green salad and artisan bread will also be served.

Households may not reveal to each other what they are going to serve.

The Shrimp Fairy"

Then there was some "friendly" words of competition:

"Hark ye of little faith, the Goddess of Shrimp will lay waste the shallow artifices offered by the clumsy and the inept with a dish of such exquisite delicacy and divine perfection that the Heavens will open and pour forth the blessings of butter and wine upon all mankind forever and ever."

"Competitors,
I intend to take those shrimp and produce a thermonuclear level of destruction that I will rain down upon your heads. The fierceness of my cooking prowess will create such intimidation that none will be willing to compare their shrimp to mine. For in so doing they would experience so much shame at their own unworthiness that they would disembowel themselves on the spot. I intend to dominate this challenge and nobody is capable of resisting."

"The hour of your culinary destruction is nigh at hand. REPENT!"

Can you tell who wrote each quote?

And here was the feast:

We had everything from Coconut shrimp, shrimp scampi, a lemon garlic shrimp, shrimp/corn chowder and shrimp aspeck (spelling?). Jack, Clark and I were suppose to be the judges. Unfortunately everything tasted so good, that we couldn't pick just one winner.

The other food adventure that Clark and I experienced was going to the Orange County Fair grounds and eating from the food trucks. Many of the trucks were from the Great Food Truck race that was on foodnetwork tv.

The two that I recognized were the Seabirds truck and the Lime truck. They were two of the competitors that were on the episode that was in Manhattan, Kansas.

Neither of these trucks were my favorites. The Seabirds were Vegans and I was disappointed that they won a challenge giving them sol access to Aggieville (the big bar/restaurant area in downtown Manhattan). Kansas is cow land, not vegan land.

As for the Lime truck, one of the guys made a comment about having to dumb down their menu. I was very insulted. Even though I'm not a native Kansan, I'm still proud of the state and the many friends I made while we lived there.

Unfortunately while there, I didn't remember that the Lime Truck guy made that comment and because the Lime truck had the best menu, and the guy taking the orders was kind of cute, I order this:

Ahi Tuna "Poke" nachos. It was really good. Between me, my brother and my dad we managed to get food from pretty much all the trucks.

We plan on heading back when Clint gets back because he missed out due to having to work late that day. :( We want to wear our purple proudly and tell the Lime Truck guys how it really is, but we might have to dumb down our sentences for them.

The Joys...

2011-10-15T00:01:00.002-05:00

...of sleeping with your gorilla:

...of picking tomatoes from your Moogies garden:

...of playing with trucks in the dirt with Daddy:

...of getting to play with friends at the park:

Finally Finished!

2011-10-06T00:21:00.007-05:00

Remember this:

Icky carpet be gone!!!

Ta DAAAAA!!!!

Sea World

2011-09-05T22:03:00.016-05:00

Since the other weekend involved Labor Day, Clint got both Friday and Monday off. So on Friday we all went to Sea World. It's been a good 15 years or so since the last time I've been and I was really excited to see what Clark would think of it.

First we took him to see the Penguins, Polar Bears, Walruses and Beluga Wales. Sorry that so many of the pictures are the back of heads, but I was trying my best to get Clark and the animal that we were looking at. :) So some of them I was more successful at capturing his expression. :)

You can see the Polar Bears in the right corner of the habitat.

Beluga Wales

Waiting and watching the Shamu show.

As you can see, the Shamu show has changed a bit. The trainers no longer participate in the water with the wales due to an few trainers being killed/eaten. Therefore, the show isn't as spectacular as it once was.

During the show we all got kind of hot watching Shamu so we left early had some lunch and went to the dolphins. They were in an area that you could go right up to them and pet them. Sea World also had for an extra fee the ability for you to swim with dolphins, but that obviously wasn't going to work with Clark.

Unfortunately Clark was more interested in playing in the water then attempting to pet the dolphins. But it was still fun watching him play.

So if you have known me for a while, you know that I'm not the best of always showing my excitement about things that I really think are amazing. After I met Clint I had to change my ways so that I wouldn't hurt his feelings when he gave me something, but I earned the nick name Eeyore. My grandfather had taken me to Del Mar race track and took us back to the deck that the trainers stand on. I got to to see the horses running very close and thinking back to the day, I still remember the excitement I had. Unfortunately I didn't show it and my grandfather didn't think I liked it. And it seems I have passed on the Eeyore gene to Clark.

For the whole day he just was kind of "eh, what ever," or "cool" but it wasn't until we went to the aquariums did he really show his excitement.

Clark loves to watch the fish especially the really big ones! One gigantic fish came by today and Clark said, "WOW!" Hilarious.

Sorry that some of the pictures came out fuzzy. I had to take off the flash and it did funny things to the camera. And the pictures of the shark tank weren't as good as I would have liked. Oh well.

And yes, that is my child trying to climb over the rail to get to the gigantic shark mouth.

Consequences of a long hot day.

It's been a month from...well, you know!

2011-08-31T23:25:00.013-05:00

First it started with this:

Our dishwasher broke and leaked water all over.

The week before I had our carpets cleaned, but I had called them back to treat the worse area again for some spots that had reappeared. So that night when the carpet was still really wet, I thought it was from being cleaned so I called the cleaners out again to vacuum up the water. Still soaking wet.
Without realizing it, both days I had ran our dishwasher.

Then 3 days later we realized it wasn't coming from the carpet cleaners, but from the dishwasher, so we pulled back the carpet. This was Saturday morning.
We called the insurance company, and by Sunday afternoon, we still hadn't heard back and our house was starting to smell like mildew. So Clint being frustrated and worried that the carpet was slowly turning into a health hazard, he decided to cut it out.
Leaving us with this:

The insurance lady came out on Tuesday and did some tests on the walls/floors and called out a water abatement company. That left us with 6 giant fans, a dehumidifier, and an air purifier in our house for 3 days. Yuck!

About a week later, the insurance claims adjuster came out and told us that they would pay for the damages. Took measurements and sent off a sample of the carpet and pad to be analyzed so that the insurance could tell us how much to pay us for replacement. The lady told me that she wished we hadn't cut out the carpet because they would have cleaned it. Our thoughts were that the carpet was beyond being cleaned and that cutting the carpet was the best decision Clint made. Clint and I had also decided that we wanted to replace the carpet with hardwood. But I'll get to that later...

While the insurance lady was at out house I received a call from Clint. He said that his brother was in the hospital due to an intense headache. The hospital did an x-ray and found a mass in this brain. Mission Hospital was sending him to CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County). So Clint quickly came home and went to the hospital.
The Doctors at CHOC said that Jack had a tumor in his cerebellum and that they would operate the next day.
Jack had been dealing with sever leg pain and just a few months before started to come down with migraines. Migraines tend to run in the family and so no one thought to be alarmed.

Here are some pics of Jack post op. The awesome mo-hawk and a picture of the back of his head. We tried desperately to talk the nurses into shaving his entire head, but I guess they were too busy.

After many hours of worry, Jack came out of surgery great. I'm very impressed with him! Well, proud of him actually! I look up to him for finishing up with school work for the year despite being in a massive amount of pain from his legs and his head. He finished up with his junior year of high school just a few days before being hospitalized! That takes some guts! And to know that he did all of this not only with pain, but a brain tumor. Jack, your an amazing young man and I'm proud I get to call you my brother-in-law!

To show you all that Jack is recovering well, here are some pictures from last week:

Clark showing his Uncle Jack how to ride his bike:

Jack riding bike:

So now that you all know that the amazing Jack is on his way to recovery, I can finish my story about our floors.

Once Clint and I decided to put hardwood in the house I called 6 different flooring companies and had them come out to the house with samples. We narrowed it down to two companies so we had them come back. The one that we picked, almost didn't get a chance to meet with us because he originally was scheduled on the day of Jack's surgery. Boy am I glad the guy called me back! He was able to get the floors we wanted even though it wasn't one of the samples he brought with him.

So then this also left us with the decision of what to do with the horrible fireplace in our house.
This hideous thing:
We knew that with the new floors we were going to have to at the very least rip out the hearth.
Check!

And since the flooring guys we chose were the least expensive we were able to get the front of the fire place refaced. Here is the progress.

And as Clark says, "Ta-DAAAAA"

Ah but the saga doesn't end with the pretty fire place... our floors are held up at the port in Los Angeles. I guess some security thing happened and they decided to x-ray the 80 containers that came in yesterday. One of which has my floors in it! SO SAD! This leaves us waiting until they are delivered. I thought that by Friday we'd have pretty floors and a beautiful fireplace, but we are stuck waiting again! RATS.

So I'll keep you all posted on the progress of my not so great, but great at the same time month...

Water Adventures

2011-08-07T23:29:00.008-05:00

This week Clark and I did a lot of hiding from out house. Hiding because we had some flooding due to our dishwasher leaking which lead to us having to have professionals come out and dry out the walls and the concrete under where the carpet was.
They had 6 fans, a dehumidifier, and an air purifier going downstairs. The machines made it extremely noisy and raised the temperature of downstairs to about 80-82 degrees. Not very pleasant. So Clark and I did a lot of activities away from home. We would get dressed then go out for doughnuts or beagles, then go do something fun and not come back until 1 for nap time. He would nap, I'd hide upstairs where it was cool and I could close the door from the noise. Then we'd leave again until bed time. The only time the machines were turned off were the 2 hours or so that Clint and I would be downstairs to watch t.v. before bed.

These pictures were when Clark and I met our friends at the Irvine Spectrum. They have a little area of water spouts for the kids to play in.

Then another day we joined our neighbors with a slip and slide.

Clark's first experience with a slip and slide.

No Cats Were Harmed In the Making of These Videos

2011-07-30T17:56:00.006-05:00

As many of you know, Clark and Wes are the best of friends. Just last night, Clark finally more or less, learned how to pick up the cat. The funny thing is that Wesley loves the attention. The second video shows you that Clark doesn't run away, but sits down and waits for Clark.

New Toy

2011-07-17T16:19:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was telling Clint that although we are trying our hardest to not be a family that has a house full of toys, we do need more toys for Clark. He is getting older, and has jumped into the next age category of toys. Granted, I was a little early in the purchasing of some toys, like the Alphabet Train when he was 8 months old. (Rated for kids 18months+) But that is beside the point. We also have half or so of our toys over at my parents' house because there isn't a parent/kid friendly backyard, well not at his age anyways. It's great for kids like 7 and up that are much more independent that you can send off to "explore" the backyard(s).

So because we are sharing our toys with my parents and Clark is getting older, I've been on the hunt for something new. I discovered the Berlington Coat Factory a month or so ago too! They sell MUCH more then just coats. It really should be named the Berlington Home Factory or something like that. Not only do they sell coats, but they sell all sorts of clothes and some stores even have a Baby Depot. It's like a mini Babies-R-Us. This is especially important if you are like me and are boycotting B.R.U. because they bait and switch and are a little over priced. So the Baby Depot at Berlington has pretty much everything you need for a baby from cribs, to carseats, strollers, highchairs, feeding supplies and clothes. Just no diapers or actual food.

They also have a small toy section. Within this small toy section I found this:

I thought it was a reasonable price, and Clark and I love playing with it! Plus, it has lots of storage. Besides the two drawers, there is a shelf between the drawer and the top that holds his slowly growing collection of trucks.

I included this video because I think watching him hammer the little "nails" is totally adorable! But then again, I think everything he does is adorable!

Fun Trouble

2011-07-06T23:52:00.006-05:00

Playing nice with Wesley:

Getting a little more aggressive:

Yep, that's right, he is sitting on the cat!

Lately Clark has been obsessed with Clint. He wants to do everything Clint does. Including wearing his shoes:

Clark has learned how to use the water sprayer and loves to water the plants, the house, the fence, US and the windows.

I love his tongue sticking out too!

Fireworks

2011-07-06T23:29:00.006-05:00

Clint and I are really lucky to live so close to the lake and the firework display. We decided to watch the fireworks at the lake because we weren't sure how Clark was going to react.

At 8am July 3rd the city allows residents to place blankets/chairs to hold their spots around the lake. I went at 11am on the 4th to add another blanket to the two that the neighbors and us had put the day before. This is what I saw:

Clint's mom and grandma and my dad joined us for a BBQ. Delicious hotdogs and watermelon and yummy treats. As the night went on we were a little worried because it was only 8pm and Clark was getting very tired and cranky. Clint's mom had offered for us to put him to bed and to stay at the house while the rest of us went to watch fireworks, but it was important to us that Clark experience this. Even if we had to go home.
We decided to walked over to the lake and the sea of people and blankets. Clark instantly got in a better mood and had a wonderful time!
Clark with cookies crammed in his mouth.

The gang waiting for fireworks:

Clark getting ready to watch the fire works and watching them from my lap:

The only time Clark freaked out was when people started to cheer and yell after the National Anthem was sung. But as for the fire works, he thought they were amazing. When there was any pause in the show, the would tap his hands together and say "more!"
He stayed awake until right before we walked through the door, but by then it was 9:45:

I gave him a cookie in hopes that it would keep him awake, guess he had enough earlier that day. :)

The Cuteness That Gets Me Through The Day!

2011-07-01T22:59:00.005-05:00

This last week I've been battling headaches/migraines. Especially the last two days. Yesterday I was sure I was dying. Maybe not really, but my head hurt so bad it hurt to breathe. But at least I have this wonderful little boy that never fails at putting a smile on my face and giving me a reason to thank Heavenly Father for him being in my family.

I also wanted to share how Clark really knows how to get messy when he is playing. Tonight we were playing with our neighbors and Clark always seems to swim in the media in which we are playing. Chalk, bubbles, dirt...tonight it was chalk and he had a rainbow of colors on his clothes and skin.

Fun With Friends

2011-06-22T22:53:00.004-05:00

Clark and Merrik riding Merrik's Jeep.

Clark at the park with Logan and Cora eating Cantaloupe. Yummy!

I put a video of Clark and Merrik riding around in Merrik's Jeep. I just love how they don't look where they are going when they press the gas pedle!

Playing at the Beach Club

2011-06-16T23:14:00.007-05:00

Yesterday Clark and I joined some friends at the Beach Club to go swimming. It was a georgous day and I never had been to join in the water activities.
Clark got to play with Loga, Cannon, Ocean and Sage while us moms got to chit chat. :)

As you can see, Clark was also enjoying his watermelon while swimming.

Clark swimming and splashing with Logan.

A day at the Beach Club/Lake

2011-06-12T21:54:00.009-05:00

This last week my cousin John and his family, Vivi (beautiful wife, but I didn't get a picture of her, sorry Vivi!), Anika (beautiful daughter) and Blane (handsom son) came to visit. I haven't seen John since I was in high school, so it's been about 15 years. I think Clint and I just started dating when I last saw him. They live in El Paso so we don't get to see him that much. On Friday we all went to the RSM Lake by my house. The lake has a lagoon that you can swim in and has a sandy "beach" and sun chairs along with picinic tables with BBQs. It's called the Beach Club and part of our membership of the RSM association gets us access to this and the 10 or so other parks in RSM.

There is also a volleyball court which provided a great place to dig in the sand for the kids. (Clint included). I love that he got right in there and I am pretty sure he came home with just as much sand in his pants and shoes as Clark did! I am especially thankful that he was the one digging because I hate the sand.

Clark and Anika:

Clark and Blane:

Clark and his daddy:

Clint and Clark after Clark just threw a shovel of sand in Clint's face:

The lake also has it's resident fowl. There is a variety of ducks and Canadian geese. As you can see they are large geese. Some of them as big as Clark, but for the most part, they are fairly tame. Providing us with lots of entertainment for Clark. He ran after the geese for at least a half hour each time. He even went down by the lake (always with an adult) and ran after the ducks too.

Clint even got into the running arond afte the geese and Clark thought it was even more fun to have Dad running after the geese with him!

I got some other pictures too.
Clint, my dad and John. I caught my dad and John enjoying the yummy food. Sorry guys!

My brother Jack!

Family picture:

Fun Clark pics

2011-06-12T21:48:00.004-05:00

Clark trying to put on my boots. He does this with Clint's work boots also.

Clark is FACINATED with trucks. We will be driving around and he'll see a truck and say "Truck, truck!" Then he says "More!" Like I can controll the trucks on the road. He also loves these toy trucks I got him.

Lastly, Clark has started taking off his diaper after we put it on him. He undid one side then said, "It broke!"

It's in the Jeans/Genes

2011-06-03T22:14:00.004-05:00

See these jeans?

They are the EXACT same pair my brother and I wore when we were Clark's age. So they are a pair of Levi jeans that are just about 30 years old!
Last night we were visiting my mom and dad. Earlier that day, I had been thinking that I really should be carring around an extra set of clothes for Clark. I use to always carry some when he was younger because we usually would need the extra outfit, but now we usually don't have issues execpt when he upends a water bottle on us both, soaking both of us! Thankfully I put the sweater in my bag.
The other funny thing about the pants is this:

See the pants hanging on the wall? Yep, those are the same ones I put on Clark after he poured the water on us. My family likes to hang clothes on the wall for art. Hey, they are 30 year old pants, so it's allowed! :)

A Day at the Beach

2011-05-29T16:09:00.006-05:00

The great thing about the Army is that every time you have a holiday you not only get the one holiday off, you get an extra day. So since Monday is Memorial Day, Clint also got Friday off. Thankfully it was an awesome day for the beach.

We went to Laguan Beach to Shaw's Cove because you can park close and it's a nice beach that isn't too populated. This beach also has some rock formations that allow for water to pool up and for us to play in. Since there was a little pool of water, next to some rocks I was able to show Clark sand crabs. They are these little shelled creatures that make great fishing bate, and are a lot of fun to play with.

I got this picture off the internet. It's a GIANT sand crab but the ones we were playing with were little babies. About 1/8 of an inch long.

Clark was totally freaked out at first, but eventually warmed up to playing with them. Clint would pick one up then Clark would pick it up and throw it back into the water. Oh and for the record, I was the one who originally dug them up to show Clark. I'm not a sissy all the time. :)

18 Month Check Up

2011-05-19T15:31:00.002-05:00

Clark definitely is growing. When he once was able to walk under the counter overhang at my mom and dad's house, he now hits his forhead if he tries. He also feels heavier, but surprizingly didn't gain that much weight.

These are the stats from his 15 Month check up:
Weight: 26lbs 14oz which is the 75%
Height 33 1/4 in. which is the 85%
Head Circumference 20 1/4 cm.

Here are his current stats:
Weight: This one is a little off because we measured him on two scales. One of the infant scale which he weighed 27lbs 5 oz. I thought he had lost weight so we went out to the big kid scale and he weighed 29lbs, which puts him in the 80% So depending on which scale you want to believe...I'm ( my arms and back and shoulders) am/are going with 29lbs.
Height: 34 1/2 in which is the 95%
Head circumference 20 3/4 cm which is WAY off the charts!

The doctor was also very impressed with is verbal skills and behavior. I'm proud of my giant noggen big/little boy!

The Dare Devil

2011-05-18T23:21:00.006-05:00

I have never doubted that Clark is all boy. He never fails to find a mudd hole outside or a puddle of water to jump in. We usually go through at least two sets of clothes a day because I refuse to having him running around "messy." I want him to look as presentable as possible. Sometimes, stuff happens in the car on the way somewhere and I just have to breathe and realize that kids are kids and can't go around looking perfectly clean. Not even his parent's manage that every day. :)

He also has started to master his skills of climbing and jumping on and off stuff. He will climb onto the foot stool that goes with the rocking chair and leap over to my lap. He thinks this is hilarious.

Must have been where he learned this:

and this, indoor jungle gym, aka barstools:

He has also learned neat tricks from the dog. (How to clean up your eating area)

And then there's just playing with his friends. Clark and Merrik playing on one of the exercise stations that are around the lake. Last picture is Clark and our other neighbors, Frankie and Alex trying to convince the cat (black blob on the stairs) to come play.

Then there are the moments that remind me that he's still young. After all you can't grow up too fast if you still wear a diaper and your diaper leaks on your mom while you are laying on her.

Just love how it looks like I peed my pants.

Guy Time

2011-05-13T16:22:00.004-05:00

Clint and my dad went out to the desert for some guy time. Looks like they had a good time. Camping out under the stars, eating pork rinds and salsa, and lots of sand.

Jack's Birthday

2011-05-13T16:16:00.003-05:00

Tuesday was Jack's 29th birthday. He had some friends over for Taco Tuesday and to celebrate.

Michael (Jack's girlfriend's son) patienly waiting for some cake. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BROTHER!

The Mom Bed

2011-05-13T16:14:00.001-05:00

I guess as long as your with your mom, you can sleep in any position.

Maybe In Another Life...

2011-05-06T15:59:00.006-05:00

My parents moved into their in house in 1992. There is a nice walking route from their house to another street that goes up this giant hill and gives you a nice work out. I've done this walk since we've lived there and I've always LOVED this house. Out of all the houses in my parents' neighborhood, this is the one that I've loved the most and that was just from seeing it from the front of the house. I've never been inside it. But this week I took my friend walking throught the neighborhood and low and behold, the pretty house I would love to have is for sale.
Isn't it pretty...

...too bad the asking price is $1,195,000. Yep, that's a MILLION BUCKS. I've always known I had expensive tastes, which at our current income rate, is more of a curse then a blessing. :( So maybe in another lifetime, when we make more money and aren't owned by the Army, we could have a house like this one. The swing set in the back yard was the salt in my wound. Oh well.

Clark Laughing

2011-05-06T15:39:00.002-05:00

Bear with the video. Clark had my camera when we were playing and managed to take video. We were high fiving and I would pretend to fall backwards after his hand hit mind. So because he had the camera, most of the view is our couch and lots of shaking, but it's great to listen to him belly laugh. Hopefully it will make you laugh too!

Rollercoasters and Sprinklers

2011-05-06T15:31:00.007-05:00

Today Clark and I were outside our house playing with the neighbors when one of them brought out "The Rollercoaster." It's just plastic with a little car that the kids ride on. This was a lot of fun for all the kids.

Then on the way back to the house the sprinklers infront of our place turned on. All the kids ran over and started playing in them. Getting totally drenched!

Like how Clark is finding the mudd?

Here he is saying, "What happened to the sprinklers?"

Pictures of Clark

2011-05-05T15:26:00.004-05:00

Clark has learned that the magical black box on the wall provides him with endless entertainment. :(

On a much healthier note, Clark and I went down through the park behind our house so we could play in the creek.

Then here was the consequence of so much playing in the water.

Clint's Birthday

2011-05-05T15:10:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we celebrated Clint's 31st birthday! We had friends and family over for a BBQ and I am pretty sure that all of us had a great time!

Thought I would show you the new addition in the front yard area.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T22:14:00.012-05:00

Saturday we went to Clint's mom's house for an easter egg hunt. Clark's Uncle Jack dyed eggs and then I bought some plastic ones that I hid stickers and candy in.

Like how we both have the same expression on our faces?

This is the cake I made. I got the recipe from parents.com.

The Easter Bunny came by our house and dropped off some goodies at our door step. Here are the pictures of Clark checking what was behind the door.

And to finish off the night, we went to our friend Kostas' house for a Greek Easter celebration. Yummy Greek food, roasted lamb, delicious!

I think my two favorite parts were looking at pictures on facebook upstairs and seeing pictures of the lamb being cut up down stairs. We were finding out what was going on downstairs before we even got downstairs via facebook! And then when we went back downstairs, Clark and Clint were standing on one side of the kitchen and as I was walking towards them when I overheard somone say, "That little boy is SO ADORABLE!" :)

Clark found a water puddle, and had a blaste getting VERY wet. Sorry the picture of the boys isn't that great, but Clark was trying to run off and was too wet for Clint to hold him in his suite.

Sick Baby=Lots of TV Watching

2011-04-21T22:35:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, Clark was sick. He had a fever between 100 and 101 and clearly had a sore throat. Poor kid. So I bought some popsicles to help.

Since he had a fever, I kept him in the house. So we watched A LOT of television. Thankfully we have Netflix and I was able to have access to several Seaseme Street episodes and other cartoons that I thought he would like. After all, you can only watch the same three episodes of Handy Manny so many times.
With all this T.V. watching, Clark became VERY acustome to getting his way and getting to watch what ever he wanted to watch.

Apparently lots of t.v. watching leads to this:

So Clark has been enlisted in a 12 step program to cure his addiction to the television. He is doing pretty well, although usually the first thing he does when we come into the living room is point to the t.v. and make a mmm noise.

He even got the remotes today and managed to turn the t.v. on, then say," Ut, oh!" Hilarious. We aparently have some more work to do. :)

Good Friends...

2011-04-15T00:05:00.003-05:00

...bring you chocolate beautifully decorated in hopes it will make you feel better!

As many of you know, I've had a headache for the last 2 months. They range from needing 2 advil and being fine the rest of the day, to a migraine that sent me to the docotor for a shot, that I think might have made me feel worse then the headache. and didn't even get rid of the dang thing. Just made me feel horrible the rest of the day.
So since I've been suffering, my friend Tamara brought me a Godiva dark chocolate bar decorated with pretty paper.
Although it didn't cure the headache, it was the very wonderful thought that counted!
Thanks Tamara!

Videos of Clark

2011-04-14T23:29:00.002-05:00

Clark showing that he knows the names of parts of his face:

Clark singing:

Clark stuffing food down his shirt:

Clark at the Park

2011-04-14T23:12:00.005-05:00

Clark and I went to the park today with some friends. It was such a great day for the park, and Clark had so much fun despite some of the expressions on his face. :)

Enjoying snacks with his friend, Logan.

We also got to play with our neighbor Merrik.

We had lots of fun today!

Home Projects

2011-04-03T22:28:00.007-05:00

This weekend, Clint had the lovely projects of fixing my truck AGAIN and he really wanted to relay the terracotta pavers out front since they were all wibbly wobbly and easily to trip over.

It felt good to do some manual labor and it was fun...until the next morning waking very stiff and sore.

As you can see the reason for the uneven pavers was this giant root that had snaked its way under.

The picture of Clint sitting with the root infront of him was taken right after he fell backwards trying to pull it out of the ground. Thankfully he fell on the pulled up pavers and didn't get hurt. But he did have to hack his way through a big root.

We aren't completely done, but I thought I'd show you the progress. The difficult time we'd had was in the last tiles. They just didn't want to fit! So we had to go out and buy a new solution, which were these little grey tiles.

We are also going to make a little planter by the fence and continue the grey pavers along the fence line.
And we're going to plant some other plans along the fence that is to the right of our walk way to our front door. We also want to put some hanging plants and pots on the fence rail to make it look like someone actually lives here. We also are going to hopefully plant Jasmine next to the pilars so they can grow up the pilar and smell good.

I'll keep you all posted with our progress.

Correction

2011-03-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

I will not in fact be turning 31 this October, but 29... for the third time!

Changes in Thinking

2011-03-24T22:47:00.010-05:00

One of the funny things about kids is that they completely change your "original" idea of life. My "Plan" for life was I was going to have 2 kids, a boy and a girl, and be done by the time I was 28. 28 because I wanted to still have energy to run after my kids, and I wanted to allow my children to have a good relationship with their grandparents, so I needed to start the family earlier.

Well, this year I will be turing 31 (yuck! making horrible face that you can't see) and I am blessed to have Clark, but he obviously didn't want to leave heaven to come to Earth on the same time frame I had in mind. And neither are any sister or brothers that we would like to join us, hopefully more then just one more.

Very clearly the Lord has a plan for me and my family, and now looking back, if we'd had Clark at the beginning of Vet school or before Clint had started, it would have forced us to make tough decisions about me working or staying at home and the consequences of either of those decisions.

Clark has also brought about SEVERAL changes in my views of life. I never thought of myself as the stay at home mom type. I always thought I would have a career and a family and life would be wonderful. Well, once Clark was at home with us and I had to return to work, I went back kicking and screaming. I kept myself from crying, because despite how often I do tend to cry, I HATE crying, but was sucessful in not crying on my first day back to work. Although, I did call G.G. (Clint's grandma) several times that day to make sure all was well. As it was! :)

Clark made me realize that being a stay at home mom is AWESOME! I have been having so much fun watching him grow every day and I feel I have a wonderful connection with him because I am always there. Once I decided that the staying at home mom gig was the future I wanted, I imagined me playing at the park and hanging out with other moms during the day.

This changed a littel because after I had quit working, we moved back to Orange County. Although I grew up here, many of my friends live in San Diego and I didn't have any friends here. So I had to make new friends.

After we bought our house, we were blessed to have great neighbors that have a 2 year old son and not only did a friendship start for Clark, but us mom's have become good friends. We walk together almost every morning and take the boys to the park. Our new ward has also introduced us to other new moms and so Tavi, my neighbor, and I go and meet other moms at the park and we're slowly making a network of friends to hang out with, just like I had imagined.

I guess the biggest change that Clark has brought to my way of thinking is education. As a teacher, I haven't necessarily thought that public eduation was a bad thing, especially being a public school teacher, but I do feel that it's VERY flawed and needs LOTS of revisions.

Part of watching Clark grow has also allowed me to see the individual he is developing into to. He picks up on skills quickly and maybe it's my mommy goggles, but I feel that he's an intellegent kid. This I see as a problem and worries me as a teacher/parent. Since I am a teacher at heart, I am already doing things to teach him letter, numbers, and so on. Reading is most important on my list. I see Clark going to school and getting bored and becoming a behavior kids because he already knows the material. Let's face it, it's not a common situation for a public school to have small class sizes, ESPECIALLY in California. (This is something else I could write an entier blog about in itself). For at least the next few years the Army owns us and we're subject to going where they want us to go. And as thinking about our making the Army a career, I worry about gaps in his education becoming an issue due to moving around with the Army.

This has lead me to thinking about home schooling. My experience with homeschooled kids was that they were freaks. They were socially awkward, and miss fits. I did have the advantage of working with a girl who was homeschooled and was nothing like my previous experience. She said that her mom networked with other homeschooling kids. To me she was "normal" and I was very surprised that she was homeschooled.

As I've talked to parents that homeschool and done research I've noticed that homeschooling has drastically changed over the course of the years. I started thinking about it because my friend Jeanette had brought up some valid points on her blog and that later got me thinking. Also just the thought that, "Hey, I'm a certified teacher, and I can do just as good job, if not way better, because I won't have a bazillion kids in my class to teach."

So to keep this from being the longest blog post ever, I'm going to stop here, because I really just wanted to write out my thoughts on homeschoooling because it has been the biggest change to my thinking, so far, that Clark has done for me.

Baking

2011-03-18T22:24:00.004-05:00

A few months ago I made the decision to start making my own bread because it's MUCH cheaper and totally more delicious! A friend of mine, Julia, gave me her recipe and it's been very easy to make and tastes great. Over time, I've experimented with changing the flavor a little. I've added flax seed, which tastes o.k., but hasn't been my favorite. I've also made another recipe that was handed down from Clint's mom. Unfortunately this recipe calls for 10 cups of flour, which will either make 2 GIANT loaves or 4 regular size loaves. I like this recipe because it uses dried milk which I have WAY too much of. When we moved here, I thought our box was ruined, so I bought some more to come home and realize that our original box was perfectly good.
The part that I'm having a difficult time with is this:

Holey loaves! Every loaf I make has a stinken whole in the middle of it. I have done some research on how to make the bread more fluffy and spongier but I can't find a straight answer about how to not get a stinking hole in it!
I guess on the good side, it it tastes good, except I think this loaf is going to feed the birds at the lake or something because it's not cooked all the way through either. Plus, I've been having a good time feeling like I'm being a good mommy and making more food at home.
On another semi-good, semi-disaster note, I made a lime meringue pie for St. Patrick's day.

I didn't realize you had the beat the heck out of the egg whites to make the meringue more fluffy, but it tasted REALLY good. I had 3 slices. (Don't tell Clint). HA! Like my green fingers?

Clark's Smashed Finger

2011-03-15T21:28:00.002-05:00

For those interested...the fingernail fell off...and it was disgusting!

Jen's Story of Love at First Sight

2011-03-12T22:16:00.011-06:00

As much as a romantic I am, I have to admit that Clint and I didn't have love at first sight. For one, he was dating someone else when we met, and I was too consumed with surviving high school and my desire to be at the barn instead of being at school.
So the first time I saw a 58 Chevy Corvette it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT! I was driving down Antonio Parkway going to the barn and saw a baby blue 58 Corvette driving the opposite direction of me. My thought was, DANG, that is an awesome car! What is it and how do I get one?

Unfortunatley today when Clint, Clark and I went to the Temecula Rod Run there wasn't a 58 Corvette, but this was the closest to it that I could find. It was a yucky orange, blah! And if I did want to go out and buy my own they really nice restored ones start around $35,000 or so. Guess I'll just have to wait a while.

Clint also found a love. He has been thinking about building a hot rod and this is the one he has been thinking of building.

This is another one that he liked.

We took this picture of a Ford Falcon for Clint's friend Jon.

Along with the Corvette, I'm also a big fan of antique trucks.

This truck was called a Cameo and had a cool paint job.

Here are two pictures of a Ranchero that we took for my brother. It's actually for sale for $16,000.

Picture of me and Clark infront of a car with a really cool grill.

The inside of a 57 Chevy Bel Air

Pretty blue car.

Oh and for the record, I just have to say that Clint is lucky that I like cars so much and that going to the rod run was almost as fun for me as for him!

Week's Recap

2011-03-04T22:33:00.003-06:00

This week has been a bit rough because Clint has been gone and in my attempt to keep myself busy I made dentist appointments and doctor appointments. NOT the best idea! I had a root canal on Monday which caused IMMENSE amounts of pain. My vist back to the dentist on Wednesday wasn't much better. So the beginning of the week wasn't that great for me.

Clark also had a rough week. He REALLY missed Clint this time. Wednesday night was the only night so far that he slept the entire night and in his own bed the whole night. On top of him not sleeping very well, he has been falling A LOT! I am not sure if he is just growing or if he is trying to learn to run and falls. He fell on the corner of a toy and got a big goose bump on his forhead. Then the same day he fell on his face at the park and got a mouth full of sand and a scratched up lip. Today he fell and hit the back of his head and to add insult to injury, he slammed our roll top desk down on the finger he smashed on Sunday.

But on the positive, he is talking, or trying to talk a lot more. He already has a clear vocabulary of:
Hi
Bye bye
Ut Oh
All Done
Momma
Dadda

Then he is saying the same stuff that we say. We were on the phone with Clint and I told him to say I love you to his daddy, and he totally said it. Of course, if he said it out of the blue, you might not be able to tell what it was.
He also says thank you and please if you tell him.

So maybe all the falling is doing some good. HAHAHA!

"Eventful" Sunday

2011-02-27T22:00:00.006-06:00

Our Sunday has been to say the least, eventful. Clark woke up in a bit of a mood, meaning that he threw stuff at us because he either didn't want it any more, or just was mad that it was offered to him in the first place. Clint was moody also and therefore Clark and him were butting heads a little and I still have a darn headache that hasn't gone away since last Sunday.

Clint's mood didn't get better after a "gigantic gouge" Clint's words, or "small scrape" my words, was put into the passenger side door as I was getting in the car. Clint is a "little" over protective of his car. It's the first car he's been able to pick out and order from the dealership brand spanken new and so he wants it to stay perfect forever. So any imperfection in his car makes him go crazy. I was lectured yesterday about the crumbs in the back seat from just one day of driving it around with Clark. This is the second scratch/gouge I've put in the car. I scratched his tail light with the car seat and now I've punctured the side of the car with the brake handle of one of his bikes. We just need a bigger garage then house for him to be happy. :)

After church Clark and I took a nap while Clint got ready for his trip. After Clark's nap, he was a little grumpy still so we went for a walk around our complex. The thing about our complex is that there are lots of dogs that use the grass areas as their toilets, and it tends to freak Clint out a little. Today Clark really wanted to crawl around on the grass and put his hands on all the spots that a dog would find appealing to potty on. He was digging in the dirt, picking berries and leaves off of plants and putting them in his mouth, and tripping and falling. Finally to tip us all over the edge, Clark picked up a rock and was walking with it, tripped, and smashed his pinkie finger between the cement and the rock.

As you can see from the pictures, he did a number on his finger. Of course he wanted me to kiss it, dirt covered and everything. This has been by far the worse oowie he has gotten. He normally is a pretty tough kid and will brush off and keep going, but this one he screamed the entire way back to our house, then cried for another 10 or so minutes while we ran some cold water over his hand. I'm pretty sure he's going to lose the finger nail, and I'm sure it won't be the last one in his life.

Thankfully the rest of the evening went fairly smoothly. Clark's Grandma bought him a drum set.

It has a drum, tambourine, harmonica and another whistle thing, that I can't remember the name of right now. It is a great present because it will live at Grandma's house, but despite my throbbing headache, the drum really wasn't too horrible to listen to.

To end the evening, Clint is finishing up getting ready to go to New Orleans tomorrow. He will be there for a Junior Officer Concile Conference, which is going to be teaching him about career planning. This will come in handy if we decide to stick with the Army. We bought Clint a new bag because he wanted something with wheels, but that' was smaller then my bag that has wheels.

This last month Clint has been traveling a lot, but at least it's only for 5 days at a time, not 5 weeks. :)

Kitchen Helper

2011-02-23T23:25:00.003-06:00

Last night I hosted my first book club and I made cookies for treats to share. Clark was a little cranky so I thought I would have him help me make the cookies. I had him sitting in his high chair and put the bowl in front of him and would help him scoop ingredients into the bowl. He did great, but started to want to put his hands into the mixture and throw it out. I let him down and gave him a plastic bowl and spoon and put some oats in for him to pretend to mix like mommy was doing, knowing full well that the bowl would end up on the floor and the oats all over the place.

I don't think making cookies has ever been more messy or more fun!

Clark wanted to climb on top of the table and get ingredients, which I was sure would end in a bigger disaster. So I let him eat a few of the chocolate chips. He cautiously put one in his mouth, realized what it was and gave me this look like, "Wow, this is AMAZING! Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" It was great and despite the extra clean up I had a lot of fun cooking with him and can't wait for Clark to get older so that he can really be a true helper.

Oh and my first book club meeting went great! We talked a lot despite not having a book to discuss. We are going to read The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I've read it before and liked it, and hope the other women will too.

Happy Birthday Grandma Wendy, aka Moogie

2011-02-21T17:40:00.002-06:00

Today is Clark's Grandma Wendy's birthday. We got to celebrate her birthday last night at our weekly Sunday dinner. Clint made a red velvet cake with home made cream cheese frosting. It tasted wonderful and I was so happpy that we could celebrate together this year. Unfortunately, I had a massive migraine and so did the birthday girl, and my camera battery was dead, so no pictures. :( I'll have to take some pictures next week to make up for yesterday. :)

Happy Birthday Moogie!

15 Month Check Up

2011-02-17T22:14:00.007-06:00

Today we had our 15 month check up for Clark. We had to delay the appointment a little because he's been fighting a cold for the last 3 weeks. YUCK!
Stats:
Weight: 26lbs 14oz which is the 75%
Height 33 1/4 in. which is the 85%
Head Circumference 20 1/4 in. which was WAY off the charts. The doctor thought it was incorrect, because it was so high, so she measured again, and confirmed that this number was correct.
I'm pretty sure he's gone down in weight just a smidge, but the doctor wasn't too concerned about that. It wasn't a significant enough amount.

Here are some more pictures from yesterday and today.

Clark and I playing with a Coke box.

Reading with Uncle Jack.

Our neighbor has this tent and tunnel. The tunnel she gave to us, but the tent we are borrowing. We trade off on toys and it's fun with with big objects like this so that you let your child play with it for a while, and when you're done with it taking up so much room, or just done playing with it, you give it back. She also let us borrow the water table. There are perks of having a neighbor with a son that is a few months older then your own. I think it's been working better for me then her because she has cooler toys that we don't have so I haven't been able to reciprocate the favor yet. I think I'll have to make her some bread and cookies or something like that.

Oh and for those of you that don't know or have forgotten, there is nothing wrong with the cat's leg other then he has allergies and licks the hair off his lower half. So don't think Clint practices his skills on the cat. Despite his medical malfunctions, he is just a little neurotic. :)

Lucky

2011-02-15T23:24:00.007-06:00

Lucky is how I feel. Lucky to have such a wonderful family. I have this adorable little boy who is such a light in my life. Plus he's so dang adorable!
Can you tell he has a teacher as a momma?

I'm lucky to have the opportunity to hang outside:

I'm lucky that he is such a character:

I'm lucky I get to go to playgrounds with him:

Lucky to have such a fun little boy to share memories with:

As you can tell I have lots of pictures of Clark, but not that many of the rest of my family. After all, Clark is the one I spend the most time with. :) But that doesn't mean that the rest of my family isn't as important to me. With out the help of my parents and Clint's mom and grandma our life wouldn't be as entertaining and would be a whole heck of a lot more difficult. And of course without Clint, we wouldn't have Clark. :)

Splish Splash

2011-02-07T23:05:00.008-06:00

Today our neighbors let us borrow their water table to play with. It was almost 80 degrees today and the water table was a welcomed play date. I took a lot of pictures and video, but I couldn't pick which one's were the best, so I'm sharing them all!

Hugs!

2011-02-02T23:52:00.003-06:00

This week Clark has started to give us hugs. We love it! He gave me a kiss for the first time on my birthday, but this week he started to hug us and the neighbor's little boy. Hopefully he didn't spread his germs with his compassion.
I'm sure some of the hugging is to make up for the screaming, biting, throwing and pinching he has been doing lately. Poor guy has been fighting colds, ear infections and teething for the last 2 months. At the beginning of January I thought he was just turning into a testing toddler, but then my sweet,happy little boy came back for a short visit. We're now back to the terribleness of youth, due to his cold and a molar that just broke through this week. I'm sure my sweet, much happier Clark will be back soon...I hope...

Birthday Celebration

2011-01-21T22:28:00.006-06:00

Today we celebrated my dad's 61st birthday! It's the first birthday he has been able to celebrate with Clark.

Time to enjoy the yummy cake!

Clark having fun on Grandpa's new camping table.

Sunny California

2011-01-17T23:15:00.004-06:00

Right after we moved back to California, Clark's sunglasses had fallen out of the car and I had ran them over, totally smashing them. Since then, I've been looking for some replacements. I don't know if it's been the extremely warm weather we've had lately or if it's just the change in products at the stores, but Babies-R-Us is finally selling glasses. And they had a good selection.
What do you think?

What amazed me about this picture is the expression that Clark and I are sharing. I often feel like Clark looks like a carbon copy of Clint and that aside from thin hair, he doesn't have too many characteristics from me. I guess this picture proves things wrong. :)

Oh, and just so you know, Clark picked out his glasses. I tried several pair on him, and this was the one pair he liked and didn't immediately rip off his face.

Here Clark is in front of the lake by our house. I walk around it most days and it has been particularly gorgeous this week.

This was right before I bought the sun glasses. He desperately needed them that morning.

Blue Teeth And Fun With Clark

2011-01-03T23:04:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago I went to Target to get some fat sidewalk chalk and was told that it was a "seasonal item" and that they didn't have any, but they did have regular sized, multi-colored chalk so I bought some for him.

I had sent Clint out to play and this is how the two came back:

Clark loves to get into this little closet in our house. Since organizing it was low on the totem pole I had our aprons on the floor of the closet. Clark liked pulling them out and running around with them, so I decided to put one on him. Sorry some of the pictures are a little fuzzy.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-03T22:19:00.008-06:00

What a pleasure we had this year to be so close to family that all we had to do was drive the few minutes to either of our parents' houses in order to spend this wonderful holiday! No expensive plane tickets, then spending hours traveling, sleeping in unfamiliar beds, and worrying about how Clark was going to manage with naps and the excitement. We were able to sleep in our own beds and didn't have to worry about disrupting Clark's schedule too much. Who knew a kid's nap schedule could so heavily rule your life! Enjoy the recap!

This is a video of Clark stacking Coke cans. When we showed up at my parents' house that night, he wasn't able to stack them. By the time we were ready to go home, he had mastered this skill. He's done some stacking with some small blocks at home, but nothing this heavy. He was so very proud of himself! Pay attention to how he even got excited when he missed once.

My family has always opened presents from each other on Christmas Eve and then Santa comes Christmas morning! I love this tradition and it makes things SOOO much easier when having to share our attention between our parents. We also twist Thanksgiving and do a family reunion/Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving allowing Clint and I to spend Thanksgiving with both families and not having to eat ourselves sick. :) So we spent Christmas Eve at my parents and Christmas morning at Clint's mom's house.

Many Christmas Eve's though, Clint's mom, brother and grandma have given us the pleasure of joining us at my parents' house. Sorry I don't have good pictures of them from Christmas Even because most of the pictures that night were of Clark. :)

I thought for sure that Clark would have been more into the unwrapping of the presents, but he was more interested in the playing with them.

Christmas morning at Clint's mom's house.

Uncle Jack opening his present.

Clint wondering if his guess is correct for his big present:

Yes it is!!!

With moving into this new house, the last month we've spend a lot of time trying to find a place for all of our stuff. We went from a house that had another bedroom and WAY more storage, to a smaller house here and no storage, so we've done lots of selling, free-cycling, and throwing away. With all this organizing, Clint has really been wanting one of these tool boxes. Almost every day before Christmas Clint said, "I really wish I had one of those nice toolboxes." or "You know what would be nice? One of those toolboxes." or "I could do, [this, this and this] if I had one of those toolboxes." Every time I had to keep from smiling and offer helpful tips to keep him patient, like, "Maybe we can save up and in like 20 years we'll have enough."

Here are a couple more pictures. One is Clark with one of his presents, one of Clark and my dad and one of our dinning room tables before dinner.

I have to apologize to everyone that I didn't get a picture of. I was having too much fun handing out presents or enjoying the celebrations to get pictures of everyone. My brother thankfully took some great shots of Clark for me. So don't think I didn't love you, I either didn't have a picture or you looked terrible in it and I don't feel like publishing bad pictures tonight. :)

Clark's First Visit With Santa...

2010-12-21T23:41:00.003-06:00

...and he HATED it!

New House

2010-12-21T22:55:00.021-06:00

Drum roll please...
It only took 70 days to get here, and we almost lost the deal more then once, but here are the much waited for pictures...
Living Room Before:

Living Room After:

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After: (Clint did so much work on painting cabinets and making the kitchen look so much nicer. We love it!

Dinning Room Before:

Dinning Room After:

Clark's Room Before:

Clark's Room After:

Hallway Before:

Hallway After:

Master Bedroom/Bathroom Before:

Master Bedroom/Bathroom After:

Not much has changed in the bathroom/shower area yet.

Downstairs Bathroom Before:

Downstairs Bathroom After:

Entryway Before:

Entryway After:

Front of the house. We haven't done anything to this area yet, but soon there will be some plants and a BBQ. :)

As you can see, we aren't completely finished getting settled in, but at least all our boxes are unpacked except our China because we haven't gotten a buffet for it to go into and my teaching boxes which will sadly stay in a box until I decide to go back to work.

So come visit us!

Some Days Feel Like There's a Monkey On My Back

2010-12-02T22:11:00.004-06:00

At least Clark is an adorable "Monkey" and the weight of him on my shoulders isn't as heavy as the weight from buying this house.

It only took a mere 70 days from our offer being accepted to us getting the keys to our new home. We had set backs due to Veteran's Day, then further set backs due to the incompetence of our escrow lady. She very nearly cost us the entire deal and we almost lost the house. After we wired money into the escrow account, she called our loan officer and said the money wasn't there. Wrong, she just didn't look hard enough. Then she forgot to put the unit number on the documents so the bank rejected the papers. Not that the unit # has much significance. We still have no idea why it's there. The post office says we don't need it and it doesn't match the number on the house. Then the real kicker was that she said we had to have our own hazard insurance when the association was paying for it. The people at the bank denied our documents again and said the deal was no longer valid because we had taken too long. Thankfully our loan officer talked to the bank and explained that the escrow woman was a class A IDIOT and bought us another day.
So last Monday we were able to get our keys and move in. :) I am pretty sure that the TV shows lie and don't actually give keys to people minutes after they sign documents or California is just messed up and makes you wait. It was an entire week for us, but should have happened much faster if the escrow lady wasn't a moron. Oh well. Hopefully we're done dealing with her.

I don't have pictures yet of our place because there are still boxes everywhere and we aren't done painting and fixing up the kitchen. Although, I can provide you with this picture though.

Clark got into the down stairs bathroom and had unrolled an entire roll of TP. My friend Jeanette has a similar picture on her blog only her TP is in a diaper box. My bathroom isn't big enough for a box, so the bathroom sink is making due until I use it all up and put a new roll on the holder. :)

Awake

2010-11-19T05:27:00.004-06:00

It's 3:28 in the morning and this is what Clark is up to!

Instead of fighting him to go back to sleep I am waiting out the Benadryl. Before you think I'm a horrible mother who drugs her kid to get them to sleep, Clark has had a really bad rash and the Benadryl was for that, but there is the nice side affect of the product.
He's been sleeping pretty horribly this week. Wanting to be up and in our bed. The in our bed part is normally fine because he'll sleep, but this week it's been Clark wakes up, then comes to bed with us and insits on laying on me. Fine too, but it doesn't last long and he rolls around on me and Clint and none of us get any sleep.
So here I am writing a blog at 3:30 waiting for him to get tired.

So while I'm waiting for him to get sleeping again, I've noticed changes in his development as a growing kid. For instance, he loves to play with my cell phone. He holds it up to his ear and says, "YA YA YA" or looks at the screen. My phone has a Pandora AP and Clark loves to listen to the music because I think he thinks it's talking to him.
I was also noticing that he is now able to crouch down, pick up something and then stand back up.
He's also mastered the skill of turning off the kitchen light. He hasn't yet learned to turn it on because he's not tall enough.

Moving to my parents' house has been a great bench mark for measuring Clark's growth. When we first got here Clark was just a blob on the floor. Then he learned to move around on the floor, then crawl, and now he's running around the house. He's also almost completely stopped spitting up. :)
It will be nice to use our new house as a bench mark for further growth and some serious sleep training...