Fireworks...oh yeah, and baseball too!

Last night was Family Night at the Spokane Indian's game. We went with a group of friends and had a blast! I wasn't sure how it would go since it was hot and the boys have no clue about baseball (Sam kept on telling people at church today that he went to a football game last night) but, there were fireworks afterwards, so that made it all worth it! The first hour or so was miserable because we were in the direct sun, but once we were in the shade it was great. We were sitting down by the field right behind the away teams bench (dugout?) and right before the game one of the players called Sam out of the crowd and gave him one of their practice balls. He was sooooo excited!

Sam and Andrew had fun playing with their friends...

Danny and Jessi came too!The boys love anyone who resembles a superhero, so they were so excited to meet Recycle Man! Andrew was a little too shy for a picture, though.
Molly was showing Sam some cool trick with the straw, I never did figure out what she was trying to do!Here's the boys towards the end of the game, Sam was pouting about Andrew holding his baseball, he was a little possessive!Andrew, the crazy man...nice hair!
The girls! Abby was a trooper and didn't fuss too much, although all she really wanted was to get down and crawl on the bleachers.

The fireworks were fun and the boys loved them! Sam kept yelling, "Wow, they're so beautiful/exquisite/wonderful!" and various other exclamations of pure joy! It was very cute. We all got to bed way too late and were feeling the effects of that ALL DAY today, but it was worth it!

My PEEPS (notice the awesome shirts...)

Over Father's Day weekend (I know, that was almost a month ago....better late than never!) we had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. All eight "kids" in her family were there with LOTS of their kids and their kids' kids. Of the 99 people in our family (starting with my Grandma and Grandpa Clark) I think that I heard that about 75 were in attendance. Not bad! It was fun to see cousins who I haven't seen in many years and meet everyone's kids. It was an action-packed couple of days!

The funny face group shot

My little family! The ribbons around the boy's necks were their medals from the family fun run earlier that day. They LOVED them and still wear them all the time!One of the nights we had a mexican themed dinner complete with two pinatas. Each of the kids got a chance to take a few swings. I love how focused Andrew looks!Here's Ela's turn with her daddy standing by offering encouragement!And the mad rush once it finally broke. There were quite a few bigger kids so my boys were on the outskirts of the mob, but Danny (my brother, in the striped shirt) was in the thick of it throwing candy to my kids to make sure they got some. What a good uncle!Saturday morning we had the First Ever Clark Family Fun Run/Walk/Ride. I was in charge of this event and it went great! We went on the Centennial Trail (there were courses marked off for 1, 3, or 5 miles) and was followed by a breakfast at the park. It was lots of fun and most people participated in some way!

Here's Andrew all ready to go!Some of the runners on the course. My brother and cousin took over pushing the stroller for me after about the first mile. Abby was the first girl to finish the 3 mile race, but only because she was in the stroller and finished just ahead of my cousin's wife :-)At the breakfast.. We went to the river at lunchtime for a picnic. The rest of the group went to Couer d Alene, but these guys needed naps, so we stayed closer to home. They certainly didn't feel deprived, though. They loved the river!

Good times and good memories. I'm so glad that we were able to do this, hopefully it won't be another 10 years before we do it again!

Naptime at our house

This afternoon, I was downstairs doing laundry during naptime. I went upstairs to check on the kiddos (they were quiet unusually quickly today and it made me suspicious) and this is what I found...

...an empty bunkbed(please ignore the mess under the bed!)...

...and two boys asleep in my bed, favorite blankies and all! They even brought their pillows with them!

They woke up when I took the picture. Sam got up but Andrew rolled over and went right back to sleep...

Too cute. Hey, a nap is a nap, I'll take it anyway it comes!

Reason to Celebrate!!!

Joe just got his scores for his fourth and final CPA exam and .... HE PASSED!!!

I can't even describe how relieved and happy I am! He has worked so hard and has given up a lot to get this done (we all have!), I'm so glad to have it done! Now, he just needs to come home from Texas (where he is at a conference this week) so that we can celebrate!

A Strange New Experience

With the occassionally warm and sunny weather in between all of the rain we've been having, I try and have the kids spend as much time outside as possible! Abby loves the outdoors and is especially fascinated with her latest discovery... grass! She loves the texture and concentrates so hard to try and grasp a single blade. She is one happy baby when she is outside, especially now that she can sit up on her own!But, sometimes this happens....and she usually yells until we sit her back up.
Finally, though, she just figured out that grass is cool on your tummy, too.

Even though she's my third, I still love watching as she discovers her world. It's so fascinating and it never gets old!

Six Months!

Abby is Six Months Old...how did that happen so fast?

Last week was Abby's six month birthday. I thought I'd record some info here so that I don't forget it!

At six months Abby is:

• 15 lbs 14 oz
• toothless!
• pretty bald still, her hair is starting to fill in a bit, it's just to light to see in pictures!
• starting to sit on her own and is really close to crawling. Right now she just gets around by rolling everywhere!
• a great sleeper (she's been sleeping through the night since six weeks)
• a good eater, her favorite foods so far are green beans and pears
• very smiley! She is by far my happiest baby
• in love with her brothers, she gets so excited anytime they will slow down enough to talk to her or play with her, it's so cute!
• a bit of a mama's girl, but she laughs the best for daddy!

Love you baby girl, we are so glad you are in our family!

He's A Whole Handful!!!

Sam is now five year's old, I can't believe it! A few days before his birthday, he was talking to my mom and she pointed out (while counting the fingers on her hand) that once he's five, he'll be a whole hand. Apparently, that stuck in his mind. On his birthday, whenever someone asked how old he is now (and that happened a lot since he insisted on wearing his birthday crown from primary EVERYWHERE) he would reply while holding up his hand, " I'm a whole handful!" It was very cute!

Sunday night, the day before his actual b-day we had my family and some friends over for a BBQ. The sun peeked through a few times, but it was mostly pretty cold!

Here's some of the kids during dinner...Sam, Ela, Andrew and Molly
Funny story about the cake, he told me that he wanted a robot cake so I got online to find some ideas. I showed him the cute things that I'd found to see which one he like best. He just shook his head and said that he wanted Dance-A-Lot Robot. Who? I found out it is a character on Playhouse Disney. So, after some research I designed this cake...

Sam with his Dance-A-Lot Robot cake.

He got this "dragon castle" from G&G Lodge and it was an instant hit with all the kids!

For breakfast on his big day we made an 'S' shaped chocolate chip pancake. Notice he is still wearing his primary crown!

This is his main present from us!

For dinner, we let him choose where he wanted to eat and of course we ended up at McDonalds!

As always, birthdays at our house go on for several days! On Tuesday, day 3 of birthday celebrations, he brought treats to preschool...Brownies with chocolate chips!

Fun Facts about Sam:

favorite color- yellow

favorite foods- chicken nuggets, sausage pizza and ANYTHING CHOCOLATE!!

He loves reading books and is getting really good at his letters and sounding things out. He is a great big brother to Abby and Andrew. He is very sweet and likes to give people compliments. He LOVES to sing, especially primary songs, and is very good at it.

He is a very special boy and I'm so lucky to have him as a my son! Love you Sam!