Splash Park

Like I mentioned before, Thomas LOVES the water. So here are some pictures that Dustin took of him in the splash park at SeaWorld.  I can't believe my little boy is a toddler now! When did that happen?

I Have a Blessed Life!

I've been wanting to post about this for a while,  but I just haven't yet because I knew it would take me a while! But this last month I have felt truly blessed and just been truly happy!

I really don't know where to begin, so I will just spill my guts, so it will probably not make sense and not flow well... so that's me warning you!

First thing, life is just hard. It's amazing, fun, has it ups and downs, unpredictable, and everything else. We all go through trials. Through facebook,blogs, and other sources of interacting I have seen many of my friends go through some hardships.  In these last few months I have had a friend lost her father, a friend who lost her husband, a friend that had a miscarriage, a friend that can't get pregnant and has been trying many years, a friend that has had health issues and didn't know what was going on, a friend that has gestational diabetes when she is pregnant... and many more. But what has amazed me is seeing these friend's attitudes towards these trials, they look at the positives, they come closer to our Heavenly Father, they see his love and they grow from these experiences. I have learned so much from them, and they have taught me to appreciate my life and what I have, and to have a better attitude and outlook in life.

As I mention in a previous blog that I have been focusing trying to do more fun and memorable things with Thomas and Dustin, well I have also tried to focus more on ways to make my marriage better, and change my attitude in a lot of things, and I have been happier and more excited about life.

I have also tried to converse with the Lord more and have him in more in my life, too many times I get "too busy" with being a mom that I forget to thank my Heavenly Father for all that he has given me. He truly has blessed me and I have seen him touch my life so much this last month, things have been working out better, things have been clicking to place, basically I just have seen blessings all over that how can I not post how grateful I am to be blessed! I have an amazing husband who is a great companion, supporter, and everything else. I have a beautiful little boy. I have great family and friends. Everyday I get to do what I love, I get to be with my little boy, I get be an artist, and I get to be with my husband, how can I not love life?

Anyway, there are more things I'm grateful for and more I wanted to say but it's getting late, and this cold that I have is making my head stuffy so it's hard to think but I wanted to least say that I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father and this gospel, the Lord's plan is truly the plan of happiness!

I really should put a picture of Dustin on here too, because he's such a blessing in my life but I didn't get a chance to get a picture with him tonight liked I planned! So maybe another post I will....

Simple Pleasures in Life

Life has many simple pleasures,  and one of them is:

NUTELLA!!!

  

This boy of mine LOVES Nutella! Just like his mommy. We all have been sick this last week and Thomas wouldn't eat that much, it would be hard to get him to eat anything, but he never said no to Nutella on bread. So I've been a bad mother for feeding him mainly Nutella and bread for a few days, but I rather him eat something than nothing. He's feeling a lot better now so I have been able to get more food in him but this is what he looked like the other day that we couldn't help but take a few shots of the crazy mess!

Trying to clean him up, I wasn't thinking, both of us wearing white shirts, NOT SMART!

The Box

For those who know me, know that I love to travel and that I love Europe!

Ever since my Europe trip in 2008 I have promised that I would come back, I did toss a coin in the Trevi fountain in Rome which means I promised to return, so I have to keep my promise, right?

And before I married Dustin and made him promise me he will take me to Europe, even if we are old, because the chances are when we have saved up enough money we will be on the older side. 

Well, I have decided now is the time to start saving, and I liked the idea they had in the movie "UP" where they had a coin jar where they would put money in there every so often, not a lot, just a little here and there. Well Dustin & I are doing something similar but a little different but it's between him & I, but basically it's the same idea, slowly saving a little money here and there. 

I was very excited for the idea and I wanted to put our money in something, and the other day I was at Michael's and saw this box and fell in love with it right away and thought it was PERFECT for our "little bank". 

Anyway this post was mainly to show off my cool box, maybe I got a little too excited about it!

Aquatica

Can I just say this post was a pain! It's been taking me all day, I almost gave up.

Anyway... yesterday was Dustin's day off and the weather was so nice we couldn't help going to Aquatica.

We have gone to Aquatica several times but I never taken pictures till now. It a fun water park that has a lot of fun water slides, lazy rivers, wave pools, and kiddie pools. 

Thomas loved it! Thomas loves anything with water. At first he wasn't so sure about the lazy river, but after a while he loved it.

We been having a blast living so close to all these fun parks.

A Day at the Park

Today we went to the park as a family. One of my goals this last month is to do something each day that is fun for Thomas/family and try creating memories that we will cherish in the future. Life is too short to not have these moments, so we need to live life to the fullest. 

Anyway, here are some pictures, it's been a while since Thomas has been to the park. Now that he walks all over it's even more fun for him. 

Thomas' favorite thing was the swings, at first he wasn't sure about it, but in the end it was his favorite. 

Thomas is not so sure about that slide.

Our Little Artist

Yesterday while I was working on a Valentine's Day sign for Dustin, Thomas decided to help. Looks like we might have another artist in the family.

Dustin and I celebrated Valentine's a little different this year. Instead of doing everything on Valentine's it just somehow worked out we did stuff other nights. On Friday we went on a double date to see "The Woman in Black", which isn't the most romantic movie I know, but that's the one I wanted to see. I liked it, while Dustin didn't, but unlike other scary movies it affected me a little more, maybe because it involved children and now that I have a child it hit home for me. 

Than Monday we went out for dinner instead of Tuesday because I had be babysitting three other kids that day and was tired so Dustin suggested to do dinner Monday and I was ok with that. 

On Valentine's Dustin and I gave little surprises through out the day, and ended the day by cuddling and watching a chick flick. 

I would call that a successful Valentine's day/weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sunday Walk

Little Update... and Rambling Off

For a little update...

Life for the Clark's have been pretty mellow since the holidays, so it has been hard to come up with anything to write about.

We have been in Florida now for 9 months, and our plan was to stay here for a year, well that a year is coming up so Dustin and I have been thinking what's our next step? Here in Orlando we've been having  a lot fun and like the area for the most part, but we don't want to be working for SeaWorld for the  rest of our lives. 

"So what's the game plan?" I always ask Dustin, since I like to plan things out. Well, we know he still wants to be an illustrator, and I want to have more children, and at the moment we can't just rely on illustration jobs. So "the plan", yes I put it in quotes because I have learned in life that I can plan things but if the Lord has another plan I go with it. So the plan is to stay in Orlando till September, after the busy season, than move back to the west, Utah, to be more specific and Dustin will work at the Rock Pit to provide for the family, and continue to work on side illustration jobs and take more online classes, and hopefully I will too get more illustration jobs.

We have been greatly blessed, Dustin and I really want to be artists even if it's going to be rougher (poorer, starving) road, and we have been blessed to be getting illustration jobs here and there. Almost every month since we moved her I have had some random illustration job or somehow made money through my art. I know that if we both work hard at it and keep looking towards our goal we can make it! This has been really hard on me sometimes, trusting Dustin in his career and believing that we won't always be this poor. I mean when you tell people that you and your husband are artists a lot of times you get responses like, "So you paint mountains or flowers or something?" or "How can you make money doing that?" -I will admit sometimes I ask that too.... or "What do you do with art?" The last one is my favorite question to answer because I like to "lighten" them, a lot of people think art as oil on canvas hanging in a museum, which is true... but they (not all people, but a few) don't realize art is all over, I mean everywhere, to just name a few...

Advertisement: Someone had to take the picture, someone had to design the poster/magazine/flyer. Someone had to design the logo for the company. Someone had to design the packaging for a product, ex. toys, any apple product.

Movies: I'm not only talking about animated movies, but every movie out there. Someone had to design and come up with the characters/creatures in the movie. They have artists illustrate the story board before they film so they know what each scene is going to look like. In early stages of making movies they have concept artists to draw, paint ideas to come up with for the look they want for the film. 

Publishing: Children's books, book covers, magazines, text books, political cartoons...

Design: Web designing, scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, greeting cards, fabric that you purchased for your craft. 

Well, I don't know why I went on that tangent, I guess to say that you can be an artist and make money, it's just a long, hard process because you need to build your clientele and have an amazing portfolio. 

ANYWAY... back to updating... Thomas is still not walking, he can, he just won't. Dustin and I have been having him walk back and forth between us and he can walk across the room to us, but only if he wants to. I try to encourage the walking by having him hold one hand and walk with me everywhere instead of carrying him, and he does that fine and for now he's just content with that. O well...

His vocabulary is coming along, he can say mom, dad (pa), grandpa, ball, bath (ba), bottle (baba), and probably more than that I just don't recognize it yet. 

Anyway, sorry for the long post... I will make it up with cute pictures of Thomas:

The second picture he looks a little crazy.