Texas... Here We Come!

Yes, we will be moving to Texas end of next month! (good job Nancy!)

Can I tell you how excited I am about this move???

There are many reasons why, but the first and most important is that we have 

FAMILY 

close by. 

You have no idea!!! Holidays, weekends, Sunday meals, random get togethers with FAMILY! I didn't realize how much I've missed having family around till these last few months where we have been with family and it was so hard to say good bye. O I'm so excited! Can't you tell?

So Dustin's grandparents, who I love by the way, will be our next door neighbors!

Than I have a brother 30 minutes away, and an uncle around the same distance, I think. (I still don't know the Dallas area very well)

Also Dustin has 2 aunts close by. 

So I  expect to be invited to some Sunday meals (hint hint) and I promise we will have you over as well!

Also some other things I'm excited about:

We will be in a house!!!! YAY! No more 1 bedroom apartment that costs too much!

Dustin's parents just purchased this home this past year, and working on selling their house in Pennsylvania so we will be staying at their house and taking care of it!

So that means a dishwasher, washer and drawer. LUXURY!

I know sad, but it's true.

And I'm pretty sure I will be able to reach our microwave!

(the microwave in our apartment now is above our fridge because there is no room, so it's probably filthy in there because I can't see inside it) 

Also I hear it's a great ward, and we live in a nice area! 

I know it will still be hot there, but Dustin says there's a fall  and sometimes it snows once a year. I will take it!

I also know texas has cockroaches, but I've gotten somewhat used to them, which means I don't cry anymore when I see one, but I still can't kill one. 

So on to our 4th state in our 2 3/4 years of marriage. 

I must say most of the states we have lived in are pretty cool shapes:

A Little Over a Year, and a Little Less Than a Month

We've moved here last May and now we are moving next month!

 Florida has been WAY fun and great experience for us but it's time to move on. Some people in our ward are surprised that we were moving but we told them we were only planning on a year, but I think they thought we would just end up here anyway. We loved Florida but I don't think I could live here the rest of my life. Also Dustin doesn't want to work for SeaWorld for the rest of his life either. 

So here are some things we will be missing when we leave:

Being able to go to any park for free

Having SeaWorld so close

Harry Potter World (that one is mostly me)

Nice weather

Always having a nice tan

Never needing lotion because it's so humid here 

Having two outlet malls so close by

Our friends

Having nice discounted movie tickets from Dustin's work

Cheap plane tickets (its so cheap to fly out of florida)

Having really good restaurants near by (not that we went to them that much, just like birthdays, and anniversary) 

Our ward

RollerCoasters, I will miss those for sure, I used to go weekly on a rollercoaster, but now I'm pregnant this is the longest I've gone without a ride, so it's probably a good time to move. 

Going swimming, and the water is a perfect temperature, just enough to cool you down. 

Some things we won't miss:

Smokers, there are a lot here

having summer year round (that's me, Dustin loves summer year round)

I'm not going to miss our apartment complex (goodbye scary neighbors)

Tourists (we live so close to all the parks, everywhere I go there are tourists, Walmart is the worst)

Being so humid, that my hair doesn't stay nice, it's just flat, somewhat straight, and my make up melting off my face right as I walk out of the door, that most days I don't even bother anymore, it's my "more natural look" I guess. 

That you walk out just for a second and you sweat like you just ran a marathon 

Getting in the car and it's so hot you can't breathe in there

Some of my favorites in Orlando:

Universal is probably my favorite park, but SeaWorld is a close 2nd.

Favorite rides:

 Forbidden Journey (Harry Potter World)

Flying in Quiditch, having a Dragon come out at you,

Whimping Willow about to hit you, Dementors chasing you. AWESOME!

Jurassic Park Ride(Universal)

The best part of the ride is the end, when it's all dark and you hear the BOOM BOOM, knowing the T Rex is coming, that it's right there (life size) and it comes down to eat you, and than you go down this major drop and get soaked. 

Rock-N-RollerCoaster with Aerosmith music: (Disney, Hollywood studios) 

Awesome, it's inside so it is neon light, best part is the beginning. You go 0-60mph in less than a second, yeah my eyes watered, and pretty sure some drool came out. 

Rock-N-RollerCoaster in Universal:

You get to choose your song, before you go on the ride, and there is a huge drop, the best song that I had playing was "I will survive" 

Manta and The Kraken in SeaWorld were also way fun rollercoasters.

Favorite food:

BUTTERBEER! Enough said.

We never went out but when we did every restaurant was aMAZinG!

4Rivers- Best BBQ

This Indian place down the street from us, best curry I ever had!

KOBE's Japanese Steakhouse, we went for my b-day and I haven't stopped talking about it since. 

Favorites in SeaWorld:

I love Seaworld so it's going to be hard to say goodbye.

They have way good lemon-aid, sometimes I would just meet up with Dustin for lunch, just so I could have some of their lemon-aid. 

Love the Dolphin and Whale show

My favorite animals were the penguins, I was really bummed when they closed the exhibit because they are fixing it up and it won't be open till next year. 

But I most admit I know a lot about the penguins, that when we watched Mr. Popper's Penguins I named which penguins they were before the movie said it, yeah I'm awesome. I also got to touch a penguin because I answered a question right. 

I will miss Thomas' excitement every time we go to SeaWorld. 

So we will miss you Florida, we moved here with no place to live, no internet or maps to find our way, no furniture, no kitchen stuff, just clothes and us. We lived only on tips the first 2 weeks, we understood the true meaning of "starving artists", but hey, it was fun and quite the adventure,  but we are excited for our next adventure!!!

To our next adventure!

Any guesses where we moving to? Most people that read my blog probably know, but hey some might not, I didn't know a month ago so hey, any guesses?

Can We Say Emotional?

I'm using a picture of Thomas, but it's not him that's been emotional in this household, it's been me. When I was pregnant with Thomas, people warned me that I would get emotional and cry about silly things like a commercial on TV or something, so I was prepared, but it never happened, I didn't get emotional. 

Well, I wish I could say the same about this pregnancy, O boy....

Have I been emotional or what? I have cried in the most random movies, I mean Mulan??? I got teary-eyed when the people of China bowed down to her, and Lord of the Rings in I don't how many parts, wow! 

But the most I have been silly about is how I want snow! How I have been in summer weather for over a year now, and I cried to Dustin the other day, "I want snow, I want a white Christmas." Pretty pathetic I know, but it's kinda funny at the same time.  I went off how some of my best memories as a child was playing in the snow after school than coming home to a nice home with my mom making something really good for dinner that would warm me back up and do my homework by the Christmas tree afterwards. Than I went off how I want my children to have the same memory, O boy, ha ha I was being pretty emotional and sentimental about it. But Dustin's been really good about it, and I have been in a chick-flick mood as well, so he's been suffering through some of them with me.  Some of the movies we have been watching are: Two Weeks Notice, Serendipity, While You Were Sleeping, Pillow Talk, and many more. 

I'm very grateful that Dustin is been good about me and my little mood swings. But it show pass... I hope.

A Little Update and Random Facts

It's been a while since I have brought the camera out that I decided I needed to start taking pictures like I used to. I felt a little out of practice since it's been a while, but I thought I got a few cute shots of Thomas. 

Here are pictures of Thomas lounging on our bed learning about the alphabet on the Ipad.

Some updates with Thomas:

He has always been a daddy's boy, but he has been more so lately. He only wants Dustin when Dustin's around, when he gets hurt he wants Dustin over me (if Dustin is home) when in the past he would want to come to me. I can't help but feel a little sad about it because I feel like maybe I'm a bad mom, but I do think part of it is because I say "No" to Thomas a lot more, and Dustin will deny this, but Dustin lets him get away with a lot more than I do. But I guess it's a good thing since baby #2 is on it's way so maybe Thomas will handle it better?!?

Mulan is his favorite movie at the moment. He's still a big flirt, we were at the water park the other day and he totally was smiling at one of the life guards and trying to show off, and she was cracking up about it. Than she switched shifts, than we saw her later in the day while we were on the lazy river and she was there and he gave her the biggest smile and waved, and she started laughing. O boy, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble. 

He's eating a lot more now, so hopefully he's putting some weight on. He used to like his new car seat, but after the long drive to Tennessee he gets mad when we put him in it. 

Some random facts I have thought about about our family:

(You don't have to read them it's more for me to remember) 

Dustin and I have been married about 2 1/2 years and we have lived in 3 different states and about to move to another end of next month. 

Every holiday/birthday since we have been married has been in different state, to just give you an idea:

My birthdays since marriage: Idaho, Pennsylvania, Florida

Dustin's birthdays: Idaho, Florida, and soon Texas

Thomas' Birthdays: Born in Idaho, Florida, soon Texas

Christmas: Utah, Wyoming, Florida, and probably Texas this year

Easter: Utah, Pennsylvania, Florida

4th of July: Idaho, Florida, Tennesse

Anniversary: we got married in Utah, Wyoming, Florida, and probably Texas this year

It's been fun moving a lot I just hope one day we will stay in one place for a while.

We have had 2 beds now but have never paid for one.

I am greatly outnumbered in this family in gender and hair color (but this might change soon or not)

We haven't owned a TV now for over a year now, and we really like it. (That's why we never know the TV shows everyone is talking about) We watch movies on our computer. 

We have never had a dishwasher, or a microwave, washer/dryer in any of our apartments. 

If our apartment ever has a fire it will be burned up fast by how much paper we have in our apartment, ever corner I swear we have paper with drawings coming out  (most of them are Dustin's). We have drawings, drawings upon drawings under our bed, in closets, under the coffee table, on and in our computer desk.... I drives me crazy because it's always growing and we throw a lot away. I can't wait till we have a studio, even than I don't know if it will solve the problem. 

We are both artist but yet we have no paint or canvases in our apartment, and we can't ever find a pencil to write with. 

One of the things Dustin and I disagree about the most is our art, pretty funny in a way, but we have a lot of different opinions how things should be done and our processes are way different. Also we get after each other if we do art for free for someone (not that we do it often) but we both have done it. And I will admit I have walked away from him more than once after a critique he's given me. 

And we have worked on one project together and that will probably be the last ( I think it's the only thing we don't do will together) I laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn't cool. ha ha

BUT, I do go to Dustin a lot when I need help deciding how much to charge people when I get a job, and he helps me charge for how much it's worth vs me always charging WAY too less. 

Anyway, Just some random facts.

And They Say Artists Can't Do Math

It's always a joke how artists can't do math, well I personally think Dustin and I are pretty good at addition. 

Before our first anniversary we added another number to our family, and now we are adding again and becoming a family of 4 on January 25!

The painting is not quite done, but I never can get to it to finish. 

We are very excited! Before I was pregnant we thought the next one would be a boy, and we thought that would be fun so Thomas can have a little buddy, but now that I'm pregnant we are leaning more that maybe it's a girl because this pregnancy is already WAY different. I didn't get sick right away like with Thomas, that I didn't think I was pregnant for a while, it's probably a good thing I didn't get sick right away because I was pregnant during all of my traveling so it was a blessing, when I was in Dallas that's when it started to hit me a little more, and the week the Dustin's sister visit and the Family reunion were probably my worst weeks, but other than that it's been a pretty easy pregnancy that I kept forgetting that I was pregnant. Also I got heartburn staring 6 weeks while Thomas it wasn't until the last 2 months, and this pregnancy I'm graving fruits, sour candy, chocolate (totally a girl thing) while I was pregnant with Thomas I would skip all of that and wanted a big thing of mashed potatoes and gravy with roast beef, and real food tasted better than a dessert. Also I have been WAY more emotional and moody (poor Dustin) during this pregnancy. Also last time I was pregnant we could think of all the boy names but no girl names, and this round we can't think of any boy names but just have girl names.
But we will see what we have, we are happy either way, having a boy would be fun for Thomas, having a girl will be fun because we want both genders in the family, so it will be interesting when we find out.
 Also I'm carrying this baby different as well, I started popping out at 6 weeks ( I show early), and this week I'm surprised people haven't started asking yet, I guess maybe this time the baby is up higher while Thomas was so low, so I just looked "thicker" versus "pregnant" but this week EVERYTHING seems to be getting bigger. Which is the reason I'm announcing it, because I've actually liked not having people know, it sounds bad, but it was nice not having that be the only thing people will talk to me about and since people wouldn't ask how far I was all the time, this pregnancy is already gone by pretty fast for me, even thought it's only been almost 13 weeks.
Yesterday I went to the Dr and heard the heart beat! Best sound EVER! It took them a while to find it so I got really nervous since this was the first time going to the Dr this pregnancy but it was there and it was strong! I also was nervous for the weigh-in because I already feel like I gained quite a bit, and Dustin agrees that I do look pregnant vs last time when I said I looked pregnant and he didn't see until 16 weeks, and with Thomas at 12 weeks I had already gained 8 pounds so I was guessing 10 punds this round. Also already my pants are tight, and some dresses don't fit me when they fit less than a month ago. But I weighed a little less I thought I did before pre pregnancy, so I guess I weighed less than I thought, which was a good surprise, but now I don't know how much I have gained thus far. I'm guessing I've probably gained around 5, well that's the number I'm going with.

So this explains my lack of blogging, taking pictures, and everything else. So hopefully I will start picking up those things again since I'm on my 2nd trimester.

Living the Dream

This last weekend I received a call from a company called Sommer's Sports and they asked if I would be interested in designing a shirt for them for a triathlon that was coming up, the gotcha was they were in a tight schedule and needed ASAP. 

Which is a high stress level job, because let's face it, art just takes a long time. I took the job anyway, because I figured they could be a client that would use me for future use, and if I did a good job, and literally save their skins, they would be willing to come to me again, and this would not only build clientele but also resume and portfolio booster.

So I send them ten sketches and ideas that very same day, and they liked them but they wanted something different, which puts more stress on me, because I have to come up with more ideas and less time to do the final product, but after some communication I had a better idea what they were looking for and I send them three more sketches and they LOVED one of them! SUCCESS!

Than it was rushing to get a finish product between being a mom, and making dinner, the apartment on the other hand just was a mess because it just wasn't happening. ( I can only do so much)

I send them the final an hour before the dead line, and they LOVED it, but they said they needed it in vector format! WHAT?????? I was sick in my stomach because to do that I would have to redo it all, I asked him if the format that I send them would work, they weren't sure since they have never used a PNG, but after asking around they found out it would still work. PHEW!!!!

Anyway, they were so pleased with my work they want to continue working with me, I have already done another shirt, and will be doing some concept work for them, (which something I want to do for some major animation company in the future, if it ever happens) so a great portfolio boost!

Anyway here is the design, it's not the quite how I wanted it, but for a tight schedule I'm proud of it, and over 700 people will be wearing it this Saturday!

Being an artist can be frustrating at times, I'm not going to lie, sometimes I was frustrated while I was working on this project but I also had a lot of fun, I'm lucking that my work is something I love, even though I usually wouldn't pick to draw runners, swimmers, or bicyclists it still was fun to just draw. So I'm hoping I can still continue with art, and I have been lucky because every month some how I have made money with my art, it hasn't been a lot, but it's a start, and if I continue to have clients hopefully it can be a better second income, but for now I'm just building up my skills and portfolio.

Hayden Reunion and 4th of July

This last Sunday the Clark family headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a Hayden family reunion and to celebrate 4th of July. 

Thomas has now been to 16 states in his little life, he's quite the traveler.

The drive there was long, about 9-10 hours depending on how many stops you take. 

Thomas did pretty well for the most part, as for me, I got car sick especially the curving roads and going on the mountains, that about 5 minutes to the condos, I made quite a mess, thank goodness I made it out of the window but the mess was all over the outside of our car, poor Dustin had to clean it with some water and I started crying because I felt bad, but than afterwards I laughed because one I finally felt good after such a long car ride and also what a great story to tell for years down the road. I'm sure the people behind us thought it was funny.

Anyway once we hit the condos I felt A LOT better so it was good to see everyone, and we hung out for the rest of the night. 

On Monday most people went to a town that Grandpa Hayden lived for a little bit during WW2 and this town helped build the A bomb. The stories he told were way interesting, they had to have an ID to get in the town and no one knew they were building a bomb they just knew it was to help out for the war. 

The town is still there and there is a museum there as well. Dustin and I are didn't go because it was a long drive and we thought Thomas couldn't handle another long drive, and probably me after getting sick. So we hung out in our condo and went swimming and later everyone joined us. 

Than later that night we walked down the town of Gatlinburg, it was a fun town to walk through:

Than Tuesday we went back to town and played some black light miniature golf and Lazer Tag with Lara, Hayden, Ashley, and Matthew. I'm pretty sure I got wasted on both games but it was way fun. That night we had a little talent show and games and pizza with the whole group. It was a lot of fun too but I didn't bring a camera which is too bad because we played "Minute to Win it" which was pretty funny. And having Ashley and Matthew doing a Dolly Parton impression was priceless. 

Maybe later I will get pictures from someone. 

Than everyone headed to wait for the midnight 4th July parade, the first parade of the year that Gatlinburg does every year. Dustin and I stayed back because we didn't feel like fighting the crowds and having Thomas staying up that late didn't sound too fun to us, but we had fun just hanging out and have no work to worry about. 

Here is a picture of Thomas having fun taking a bath in the jacuzzi that night.

On the 4th we hung out a little but than we had to head back to Florida, so it wasn't the most exciting 4th but we thought it was worth it to see everyone for a bit. So we stopped at a hamburger place on the way and had rootbeer since it was 4th of July. Again it was a long drive and Thomas got tired of the car  a lot quicker this time.

What was cool though, was when we arrived to Orlando it was late at night and we got to see every firework show, and there were a lot. My favorite was down town Orlando because the fireworks by the skyscrapers was awesome! I wish I could have taken a picture.

Anyway, it was fun to see family, and it was nice to celebrate a holiday with family for the first time since we have moved to Orlando.