Niece's Reunion

Last weekend we had a Niece's Reunion at my in-laws house. It was so fun! I married into a great family with some amazing women, I didn't realize until I was writing this blog that I was the only "in-law" in the group this year because they made me feel like I have always been in their family, again, I married into an awesome family.

We did a lot of fun things and here are some pictures of a few of them. I was a slacker and didn't take that many pictures so I got most of these from aunt Laurie!

Saturday was my favorite, probably because it involved a lot of art. Lisa, my mother-in-law, asked if I was willing to teach an art class that day, at first I was a little nervous but I had so much fun! And everyone did so great!

After painting we hoped in a train and went to downtown Dallas and went to an art museum, there was some awesome art in there, I want to go back sometime with Dustin.

And here are the three pictures I took while I was down there, I wished I had taken more.

Then we went to out to dinner and did some line dancing:

We also had a baby shower for Kali, that was so fun, and my SIL Emily, did such a great job hosting it. 

It was a fun weekend and I hope I can go again next year!

Snap Shots of February

I feel like I have been neglecting this blog here, and I don't like it, so hopefully I will be better in the near future.
We have been pretty busy here in Texas with just everyday stuff. So here is a little update on everybody in the Clark clan:

Dustin: Is busy teaching and with his new calling with the young men in the church. He still continues to do art on the side, and it planning to do caricatures back in San Antonio's Sea World during spring break. Also the caricature company that works with Sea World is now coming to Six Flags near us and they were interested in having Dustin becoming a manager there but we weren't too interested in doing that but he's meeting with some people tomorrow night about it, but he's more interested just working there in the summers and draw instead of managing, but we will see what will happen.

Thomas: Thomas likes being in primary, the other week we just had stake conference and we left before the closing song and prayer because Oliver was done and needed a nap and Thomas cried for a good half hour and asked to go back to church. He has a lot of friends from church and he seems to be everyone's favorite, and least all the kids make me feel like that way. He's so sweet most of the time, but it's usually when it's just me at home, but he always tells me thank you and please and asks if I'm ok and makes sure Oliver is ok, but he is also going through the terrible three's, so far three has been harder than two. He loves daddy and always asks when is he coming home.

Oliver: Is my mover, he is always moving, and always doing something. He isn't walking yet but I'm not rushing it, that's for sure, he's already keeping me busy. He likes to give me kisses and is starting to say thank you. He loves going outside and doing whatever Thomas is doing. He likes to draw and read. I feel like he's picking up a lot of words everyday and will be an early talker. He likes to wrestle and he's pretty good at it. And still is a big mother's boy.

As for me, I'm just trying to keep up with this motherhood thing, sometimes I feel like I'm doing great while other times I feel like I'm lacking in everything. I've been in a crafting mood and drawing mood so I have been doing that when I have free time which isn't much, but I hope to post some of that later.  Right now I'm a sunbeam teaching and I'm liking it for the most part, my partner is a brand new convert so I've been doing all the lessons and it's been interesting having her help because she doesn't know a lot because she just joined so sometimes her comments are not right and come from her Baptist background so that's been fun and interesting and trying to correct her without making her feel bad. But some exciting news, some of my clients from last year have commissioned me to do a Peter Pan painting! Which I'm very excited about since I have been wanting to do a Peter Pan painting for a while! So I'm going to be busy doing that next week! And the painting is going to be HUGE like 10 feet or something, I can't remember the exact dimensions but it's big, so my painting has be really clean for it to look good but I'm excited for the challenge, and how awesome to have a 10 feet painting up on display!

Anyway there's a little update!

Our Little Reader

Oliver loves to "read". He loves to pull our books off the shelf and look through all of them. Many times when I go looking for Oliver because I haven't seen him awhile he will be sitting on Thomas' bed with a book on his lap. 

I hope he will always be my little reader!

Are We in Texas?

We have had some crazy weather here in Texas. It's been really cold and this morning when I looked out of the window it was snowing! The kids were excited and we were hoping for no school for Dustin but he still had to go to work. So while he was at work we decided to go and play in it!

Oliver's First Birthday

This last Friday was Oliver's birthday! I can't believe this little guy is one! It went by so fast, I can't imagine life without Oliver. Friday morning we let him open his presents before Dustin went to work.

And Thomas was being such a great older brother and helped with the unwrapping...

And for breakfast Dustin decided to give him a cupcake since we weren't doing cake that night because Dustin was going to be gone for a scout's camp out {we usually don't give out cupcakes for breakfast-just wanted to make that clear ha ha} and Oliver inhaled it like a vacuum it was hilarious I wished we had filmed it, but I did get some pictures.

Then Saturday we had my brother had his family come over for pizza and cake. I made a monster cake because we like to call Oliver our little monster.

When we sang Happy Birthday to him he wasn't sure what was going on but he thought the candle was great and was trying to blow it out, but Thomas helped him with that, what are older brothers for?

Happy Birthday Oliver! 

Words can't express how much your family loves you!

Oliver @ One

I couldn't help myself and put a crying picture in here.

Oliver will be one in 2 days! Crazy!

So here is Oliver at one:

He's not walking yet, but he's cruising all over the place and will climb on everything.

He forgets that he's the smaller one and likes to start a wrestling match with Thomas.

He's a very happy baby for the most part.

He's a good eater and likes most things I feed him. He loves cheese, yogurt, grapes, and peas the most I would say.

He can say momma, banana, more, bye, go; and he probably can say more, but those are his most common words.

He loves to cuddle with mommy but loves to be chased by daddy.

He loves nursing and doesn't care for the bottle, so it's going to be fun trying to wean him.

He likes to roar like a lion or Hulk (thanks to Thomas).

He makes the Darth Vader breathing sound anytime he sees a Darth Vader picture or toy, again, thanks to Thomas.

He loves playing with his plush soccer ball from Christmas and likes to chase and toss it around. 

He's not a fan going down for naps or bed so that's always fun.

He's at the age where he doesn't like to sit still for church, so we are counting down the days till nursery.

He loves outside and playing on he playground with the other kids, he loves going down the slide and swinging.

He's so much fun and brings so much joy in this family. I have learned a lot from this little guy, he's sweet and genuine and makes me want to be a better mom! He makes our family that much better, and this year has been more than amazing!

We love our Oliver!

Growing Up

"Young boys should never be sent to bed... they always wake up a day older." --J.M. Barrie

That's how I've been feeling lately.

Hello 2014!

Well 2013 went by fast but we are excited to start 2014 and we are anticipating for a good year, for some reason even number years have been my favorite since I've been married, so I'm excited to see what 2014 has to bring.

Some things we have been up to:

We have been eating a lot of chocolate around here:

We have been blowing some bubbles at the park now that we are starting to have some nice weather. 

Thomas started Sunbeams this year! I still can't get over that, I also just got called to be a Sunbeam teacher but Thomas isn't in my class, so I was a little bummed about that. I'm trying to have a better attitude about this calling, I've been Sunbeam teacher many times in other wards, it's the calling I always seem to get so I was hoping to get something different, but I think my class this year is going to be fun, and it's fun to see Thomas during sharing time. 

Christmas 2013

I finally have some time to blog about Christmas. This year we celebrated Christmas in Rexburg with my parents. I was very excited because, one, it had been over a year since I've been in Rexburg, and second, my parents haven't had Christmas with my kids before. And it was great; and I have a lot of pictures to prove it! And I'm already miss having them around especially when Thomas asks to see grandma and grandpa from Idaho, and asks where the snow has gone? But before we left we had a little Christmas with Dustin's  parents and the kids loved what they got from grandma Lisa and grandpa Doug. Grandma Lisa gave Thomas some cool super hero underwear hoping to get Thomas excited for potty training, but that died pretty quick when Dustin told him to put it on his head. So we will see how potty training is going to be like in a couple of weeks... maybe I should have Dustin do it....

 

The Sunday before Christmas we headed to Idaho, which was our 4-year anniversary so we celebrated earlier that week. Then we stopped at Denver at Dustin's uncle's house then finished our drive to Idaho that Monday.

On Christmas Eve I went shopping with my mom which was fun, we went to the toy section and she asked what the kids liked and packed a whole cart-full of toys for Christmas, she spoiled them, and we also got Thomas some snow clothes. Also that day the kids went outside and played with real snow, I say real because in Texas this last year it was all ice when we had that strange ice storm. And the kids loved it! Oliver crawled all over and eat as much as he could, and Thomas was excited to build a snowman, and I thought their snowman turned out pretty cute. Grandpa West came also came out to play and helped pull the kids on the sled, which was a big hit.

Then Christmas Eve night we gave the kids baths and let them open their pajamas and got ready for bed when a visitor came...

Thomas was so excited when Santa walked in the house, it was really cute.

And, Oliver not so much....

But he liked hanging out with Grandma West:

Then Christmas morning, it was so fun and exciting this year, it's really fun being a parent and seeing your kids get excited, it brings the magic back.

Everyone woke up pretty early, but Thomas slept in a little bit so we were all waiting for him, but when he realized it was Christmas morning and that he could finally open his presents he got pretty excited.

Thomas ready to see what Santa brought:

Opening presents:

I forget how long it takes for younger kids to unwrap presents, they want to start playing with their toys right away and have little interest opening the next present.

Us Christmas morning with our new pajamas and our lovely bed hair:

Later in the week we went to Smith Park and went sledding. Thomas loved it, Oliver liked it but rather play in the snow.

Then for New years we headed to Utah to hang out with some of our families, it was so good to see everyone and Thomas loved playing with his cousins. 

Susie and Thomas shared a bed at night, they were so cute together.

While I was in Utah I got to do a photo shoot of my new niece, I haven't finished editing them but I got this picture before the actual shoot and really liked it, so here's a picture for my mom.

We headed back this last Friday and stopped at Denver for a day to hangout with Dustin's sister and family  and now we are back. It's nice to be home again and get back to schedule but I miss my family already... if only we could all live close by... that would be great. But it's been great having all the new toys, the kids have been entertained all week so I have had time to work on stuff. 

So we had a great Christmas and we are excited about this new year!

I know this picture is blurry but I wanted to show you another Thomas drawing. We got him an easel this year (he got a lot of art supplies for Christmas which he has loved) and the other day he drew this whale, this kid is awesome, and the circle things are sharks and their teeth. Anyway, had to show it because I'm one proud mom!