Emerson Michael Clark

Here's the recap:

Born: 12/30/07 at 7:00 am

Weight: 9 lbs 9 oz

Height: 21 inches

Heather and Emerson are both doing really well. I'll try to post some more pictures on our family site within the next day or two.

White Christmas

The week before Christmas we were told we might get snow on Christmas day, about a 50/50 chance for a dusting or maybe a few inches. Christmas Eve was a beautiful 60 degrees and sunny, I was dubious. Well, we ended up with about 7 inches! It snowed all day and made it very a Norman Rockwell-ish white Christmas! Here's Thomas' attempt at helping Mike shovel the driveway.

Empty House

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve party with a few friends from our ward. Everybody brought soup and then we had a couple of musical numbers and a puppet nativity reenactment. It was a big hit.

Then we sang a few Christmas songs and everyone headed home by 7:30 to get ready for Santa. Thomas got to open one of his presents from Grandma and Grandpa Clark.  Every year the Clarks open one present on Christmas Eve, pajamas.

He decided to take his clothes off right there to put on his new "Cars" pajamas. He could hardly sleep he was so excited about them.  Hooray for 2 year olds that get SO excited about pajamas!

Merry Christmas! We miss you all!

Cat Nightmare Continues

If you remember the last 20 years, you will remember that 2260 E. Mallory Circle has be plagued with cats from the beginning!! Silly me, I thought that I left the nightmare of cats with the house.
Let me tell you what happen. Dad's Aunt Maxine passed away (Grandpa Jack's sister).
Her funereal was on Saturday at 10 AM. Dad left for the Temple about 4:30 & was to meet him at the church for the funeral about 9:30. I got ready and went out to the car. I hear this mew mew. I pause I truly believe I am hearing things but I hear it again. I sort of look under the car - I'm in a dress for Pete sakes - I'm not going to get down on my hands & knees. I don't see anything. I get in the car, reved up the engine, don't hear or see anything so away I go speeding down the freeway for about 10 miles. I pull off & stop at the stop light - mew, mew!!!!! Is it in the car with me & I just can't see it???? I pull into the church parking lot & hear nothing. As Dad & I are coming out of the funereal I tell him about my experience. Now I am parked maybe 10 feet away from the hearse. We get into the car to go to the cemetery, mew, mew. Dad says pop the hood. No way! We can't do this in front of everyone. So Dad pulls the car out of sight of everyone & I pop the hood & OUT JUMPS A HALF GROWN KITTEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently it crawled up in the hood of the car & was right up in the corner at the top & couldn't get out! I want my garage cleaned out too so I can park in it!!!

SNOW DAY!!!!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland.  We had 8" of snow on the ground and school was canceled.  The boys were so excited to get out and play in it.  Since there was no school we had them read a book and do some chores before we would let them out.  Plus it was still to cold at 8am.

Here are a few pictures.

Our cars (no we can't park in the garage yet).

Our house from a few angles.

We have a big hill on the golf course right behind our house.  I went out there with the boys and made a big jump.  These pictures don't do it justice.  They would fly for at least 6 feet.

Here is Mason hitting the jump.

Here is Logan catching some major air.

This was an awesome snow day.  Of course I didn't get much done.  I was supposed to finish cleaning out the garage so April could park her car in there.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.  Did I mention that the weather forecast is calling for another 8-14 inches tonight?

I guess there is always Thursday.

Lazy Sunday

We woke up this morning and we didn't want to get out of bed.  I have been sick for 2 weeks and April is starting to feel sick too.  We stayed in bed so long that the kids came in to wake us up!

Mason is hardly ever seen without a book around our house.  He is in Kindergarden but he is reading very well.  They just had some state testing and the teacher told us that he was the top of his class!

Here are all of our kids after taking over our bed!

Here they are after church!

This is how they keep their toes warm around here.

Here is our Christmas Corner.

We don't nearly have enough decorations to make our house into a Christmas wonderland so this week April bought a wreath and two small trees to get us into the Christmas mood.  We were going to go and chop down a tree on Saturday, but is was raining (and I was sick).  We should get our tree this week.

The Last Supper

After 20 years this was it. The last shindig at 2260 Mallory Circle. So Heather, Glenn and families this is what you missed out on.








As tradition would have it we of course had some extra guests for dinner. Extra points if you know the guests.

We topped it all off with Melissa going nuts on the pies with Linnea throwing in some awesome cheesecake as well.


We missed you guys.

A Texas Thanksgiving

When we moved out to Texas in early November I had a creepy thought in the back of my mind - Yikes! I will have to cook our ENTIRE turkey dinner! Then we got the idea of driving to Nebraska to see my family. BUT after 1100 miles the week before, there was no way I was going to get FIVE kids back into the car for a long drive up North.

I secretly thought about going out to eat that day. Why not? No one, and I mean NO ONE, knows us around here! It wouldn't matter! We could just go to a fancy downtown Dallas restaurant and have a great day! (But, I felt a bit sad inside.) Our next door neighbors were going to the Dallas Cowboys game that afternoon - what the heck, it wouldn't be so bad to go out to eat!

But it just didn't seem right!

A few days before the Holiday, I began asking the boys what they would like to have on Thanksgiving Day. Christopher wanted chicken and Zachary wanted Uncle Brent's Famous Lemon Meringue Pie. At that moment, the phone rang and it was some people from the neighborhood that we had met at church. They popped the $100 question - Would you guys like to come to our house for Thanksgiving Dinner? YES!

So, Thanksgiving morning arrived and I was able to run my "10K Frisco by myself run" in the balmy 50 degree temps while Glenn took a long nap (or let's just say that he slept way in). The kids played Legos and watched Star Wars. Later that morning we decorated cookies.

Then we headed on over to the neighbors with our Lemon Meringue Pie, green salad, cookies and of course - the bubbly pop! Everyone had a good time and we stayed late into the evening! (This family has 3 boys and 1 little girl.)

She cooked a yummy turkey, stuffing & gravy and her husband did the mashed potatoes. Her mother brought additional pies and there were rolls (but not quite as good as Grandma's). So, all-in-all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving but we look forward to when we get to see our cousins again!

Frozen Turkey Day Race

So, until I married Heather I had no idea that Thanksgiving Day races even existed. Just for the record, some day I intend on running the Turkey Trot down in Mesa. This year, though, one of my friends in Colorado talked me into running the Highlands Ranch Turkey Day 5K (his company is one of the sponsors so he could get me in for free). I haven't been running in quite a long time, but I agreed (because it was free). We only started "training" for this race about 6 weeks before it started, but we were confident that we could at least finish. Well, Thanksgiving morning came around and so did the below freezing temperatures (the high for the day was only going to be 32 degrees). The race started at 9:00 am and it was bitter cold. I have never run anywhere with so many layers on. Despite the cold, I did finish the race (under 40 minutes which was my only goal). I think running a 5K in below freezing Colorado is somewhat equivalent to a 10K in Arizona, right?

WORD ASSOCIATION

DINING ROOM-Kneeling down for fast sunday prayers. Ugh. :)
MEDICINE CABINET- Sneaking Vitamin C Pills
THE CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS-The smell of Christmas
THE SWING- Eating apple pancakes during a rain storm
THIRD STORY- aka Mr. Boogy-Man's room
ROOF- Santa Claus aka Brent running on the rooftop Christmas Eve
CUL DE SAC- Attempting to sing Christmas Songs
EMPTY LOT (aka Snail Forest) Riding bikes and building forts
READING ROOM-Grandma's organ and Melissa singing
GRANDPA'S OFFICE-Overwhelming smell and a cheery face
WEIGHT ROOM (aka grandma's living room) Dim lights, hazy fog, old diaries
SWIMMING POOL- Grandma in a bathing suit with the milk cartons
KITCHEN TABLE-Bad breath and a ping pong ball
BALCONY-Shooting bottles and Brent sunbathing

That's it for me. Who's next?

Word Association

Mom asked me to write about the house. Instead I decided to play a little word association, a la "What-about-Bob" here it goes:
BACK PORCH - broad jumping into the pool
STAIRS - sleeping on it waiting for teenagers to come home
BEDROOM - long talks after the teenagers finally got home
POOL - Melissa and company watching JAWS during nighttime swimming party
POOL SWEEP - snake
DIVING BOARD - an 8.5
FRUIT TREES - Mom and I joking about sitting there watching them grow
CUL-DE_SAC - street dance
FRONT PORCH - How many family members can fit on the swing
SIDEWALK - Brent stomping in the rain holding an umbrella
OUTDOOR FIREPLACE - David Thomas singing "How 'bout them dog-kickers"
ATTIC - cats
EAVES - Bees
DINING ROOM - signing the tablecloth at Thanksgiving
LEAVES - Grandkids diving into piles of leaves
TREES - getting the kids to "hug" them
ROOF - watching the sunset, sitting on top of the house when Charlotte was here.

I could do another 100, but I want to hear your memories. Go for it.
DAD

Doggy Dress Up

Allison has been home sick the last 3 days. This is what she's been doing to keep herself occupied. Notice, he even has a bracelet on.

Winter Is Here

When it gets cold around our house this is what we do.

Make Hot Chocolate.

And sit in front of the fire.

Thursday November 8, 2007 8 AM

Long day ahead! 10 hours the first day!







Headed for Texas


Tell me one more time-









and they are on their way!








Now it's Friday November 9th & they are in Frisco, Texas!
We're waiting to hear the details & Cindy's reaction to the new house! And everyone else's reaction to being out of the car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conversion Story

I am sure most of you have seen the Glenn Beck show on CNN. I came across his conversion story on you tube a while ago. I still can't make it post to this blog, so click on the link.

Not So Fast

Paige got her first real "haircut" today. By that I mean something other than supercuts. They straightened her hair and all that fancy stuff.

I couldn't stop starring. Who was this young lady?

Man I am going to have a rough time with this growing up thing.

Teaching an "Old" Dog New Tricks

I know this may sound silly, but I made it a point that when I got married I would always put the toilet seat and lid down. It was just a small thing that I knew I could do to add a little more happiness to my marriage. How have I been doing over the last few years? Excellent. It's a shocker when Heather finds that I haven't put the seat and lid down.

But all that has changed over the past couple of months. I am now in trouble if I put the toilet seat and lid down. Why? Well, given the nature of pregnancy, Heather has been making more frequent late night trips to the pot. Given that she is barely half awake during these midnight runs, she is quickly awaken when she sits down on the cold, closed lid. I've now been repremanded for keeping the lid closed. Unfortunately, this has been a really hard habit to break. In fact, I've only successfully done it once.

Only two more months!

Silly Me

I posted my picture just for a second so I could get the HTLM code. I deleted it, but for some reason in won't go off.

Actually, I just wanted you to all look at my beautiful self. KIDDING!!!!

Melissa

The Peoples Republic of California

For some time now we have all heard our beloved, older and wiser brother Eldon tell us all about how wonderful California is. More specifically, Southern California. The weather is perfect, they have cool theme parks and the beach of course. While they may have a point on two of the three, I would not like my children to be in their school system, or the new and improved school system passed by their Govenator.

• A sex education class would be obligated to discuss homosexuality with the same detail now used to discuss heterosexuality.
• Any discussion of “mother and father” may be banned, but at the very least, would have to be paralleled with a discussion of same-sex parenting. Illustrations in books would have to reflect the same thing.
• Literature discussions would certainly have to include books about the homosexual lifestyle. In the youngest grades this may be introducing books like King and King and Heather Has Two Mommies.
• Certainly, activities like Homecoming King and Queen would have to be altered to admit the possibility of a Homecoming King and King.

Cindy sent an e-mail about this. You can check out the details here.

Well Eldon, California is nice.... But I'll just come and visit once in a while.

Halloween in Denver

We had a fun Halloween, Thomas was a lion and really got into it.
He had so much fun trick-or-treating and getting candy. Earlier that day he had had a little stomach ache so we made him wait until today to eat any of his loot. When we got up in the morning I flipped on some cartoons and jumped in the shower before breakfast when I came back downstairs this is what I saw

He had found the candy but at least he sat at the table to eat it. He's a funny kid.