February 2011 in Pictures

Started February off with a snow day...

And they kept coming...feel like the kids are going to go to school all summer.   

Here's a sampling of our snow days.

 

 (Cant really tell from this picture, but I built 2 forts for the kids)...they used it for snowball wars. 

Superbowl.  For the first year in many we didn't host a Superbowl party.  It was WEIRD.  Quiet.  We actually got to watch the game...(well Wade watched the game, I watched the commercials).  The favorite...no question...

 

Probably watched it 20 times.  Think we loved it so much because we live it.  No doubt about it, we're a Star Wars family, everyone in this house loves Star Wars...see below. 

The Hulk vs Vader.  JP screaming in the back...normal night in our house. 

Goodbye...

You will not be missed. 

Like I said in my last post, I had Lasik.  There was pain...mostly just the first day.  Nice doctor gave me a Valium after surgery so I'd sleep through most of it.  Worst part...a week of ripping off the tape on my protective eye sheilds each morning...AND scrubbing my face of all the sticky residue.  Best part...HAD to stay in dark bedroom with eyes closed for the afternoon/evening of my surgery (Ahhh...quiet....something I NEVER get).  Riley was so sweet.  She desperately wanted to cook me breakfast in bed the day after AND it had to be pancakes and chai tea latte...really sweet thought.  Loved every bit of it...until I had to get up and clean up the kitchen...from my breakfast and theirs.  C'est la vie...my siesta didn't last long.

Riley has such a big heart.  I love that she thought to do that AND she was so adamant with Wade on what she wanted to make and wanted to do it all herself, with no help from the him or the kids. 

 

Before Valentines Day, Cade got off the bus with 6 green hearts he made in class.  He had 6 different sizes starting with a tiny one for JP and a they went up from there.  That night after we did homework, ate dinner, took Riley to tumbling, put all the kids through the bath, Wade and I exhausted, walked into our room to find this and I just melted.  What a sweet kid. 

Brooke keeps spilling at the kitchen table so we decided to put her in the high chair...JP didn't like it one bit.  He'd scream at her and push her across the floor trying to get her out.  The rest of us laughing hysterically.  Poor kid...it was just SO hilarious we couldn't help it.

One more note about Cade.  The boy is neat.  He keeps a VERY clean room.  Even filling out his valentines.  He separated them by color and stacked them into neat piles as he filled them out.  I used to be like that.  Before I had FOUR children I was uber organized.  I've laxed a bit on that the last couple of years...now a days I'm just trying to stay afloat. 

  

Valentine Parties.  Very. Big. Deal.  Valentines parties might be a bigger deal than Christmas parties.   

Mondays we have gymnastics so we had to eat  a late Valentine dinner.  Tonight we had fondue.  Such a great dinner with all sorts of fresh vegetables, a couple fruits, chicken and bread.  Dessert was chocolate covered strawberries.  Very Valentin-ey!

Typical meal time...Sampson knows the best seat in the house for getting fed.

Helping me unload the dishwasher.  This one doesn't take after his brother in the "neatness" category.

The best birthday gift.  Wade and the kids detailed my car for me.  The windexed windows, vacuumed mats, and cleared out all the toys.  A much needed bath for the old silver bullet.  Perfect, perfect gift...

that AND having the 4 best kids on the planet!

Saturday night, family movie night. 

Riley began basketball at the end of the month and loves it!  She's out there with all boys (one other girl on her team of 11).  She hustles, she's energetic, this may be a really good match for her.   

Hope to catch up with March before April hits...stay tuned.

A Month in Pictures

I feel like all my posts the last 6 months or so are all "re-cap" posts that are weeks (or months) behind.  At this point blogging is very low on my priority list. But, I do get to it when I can. So for those friends/family that are still with me, here's what we were up to in January...yes I realize it's March...such is my life right now.   

January 1st starts out the same way every year, with our annual New Years picture.  Each year I get a shot of the kids holding their New Years Day sign as a way to document how much they've grown in a year. This is our 8th annual picture...it all started back in the day with Riley on her 1st New Years...

Fast forward 8 years and 3 kids later...

Pretty impossible to get all 4 looking and smiling at the camera.  Settled for 3 out of 4. 

 

All. Day. Long. 

This is what he does.  All day.  Empties drawers, makes messes, all the while looking adorable.  He's got me trained.  And he knows it. 

We took a road trip to Columbus, Ohio to visit my brother Todd's family. The kids had some extra days off around Martin Luther King Day and Lori was throwing him a big 40th Birthday Bash so we felt like all the stars were aligned.  We were so happy we got to be a part of his birthday.   

Todd, Lori, and 2 adorable nephews Aiden and Garrett...

Wade was traveling (shocking, I know!) So the kids and I loaded up and I drove up by my lonesome.  He met up with us there.  I'm so glad we went, we had such a great time and the kids all really got along and loved hanging out together. 

That's Cade holding up his tooth, which he lost while we were there!Jack-o-lantern smile

Looks like Garrett's wondering why big brother is loving on someone besides him!

Most Unusual (this is for any Wilson's reading this).  There are now 2 of these huge crosses on the trip...
Brooke caught a glimpse and yelled, "OH MY GOSH.  JESUS HAS GOT TO BE THERE".  It was so cute. 

 We drove to Indianapolis on Sunday night so that we wouldn't be driving all day on Monday.   Such a good call.  We got back just after noon and had the rest of the day to "chill-ax" (as the young-ones say now). 

JP thought the sleep number adjuster was a phone.

My view from the driver's seat... I love this view.  My heart feels this way sometimes.  Full and crowded and happy and just about max-ed out...about to overflow.  Really, REALLY love my family.  

Snow days were abundant in January (and February for that matter).  

We've had so many stinking snow days it's unreal, kinda feel like the kids might be going to school all summer.  However, we had a lot of fun.   It usually snows once a year in Tulsa...and when it snows it might be 70 the next day and melt it all, so you got to get out in it while it's there. 

We're still under the mindset and we took FULL advantage.  

JP's Very 1st Sled Ride

Pretty sure we were on our sleds everyday we could.  Plus snow forts, snow angels, snowman building...you know all the favorites.  And we went through a few gallons of hot chocolate and a little of Wade's favorite...hot vanilla.  

 

I love Riley in this picture, she's testing out her snowboarding skills.  Riley's name means brave and valiant...does she ever live up to that.  I caught her one day "body sledding" down the back stairs of our deck.  She was trying to get Cade to go down, but he wasn't about to go there.  She did manage to talk Brooke into it though. 

This is my all-time favorite snow picture.  Not that it's a great photograph but my heart hurt for JP that he was stuck inside when his siblings were out building snowmen.  We spent some time outside earlier in the morning and he just got so cold I had to bring him in.  Some day J.P.  Some day it will be your turn to stay out until your feet turn purple.  Until then watch and learn, these kids play hard!  

2 of our little neighbor girls came over for some hot chocolate after playing outside.  The girls were so giddy, I just wish I could bottle up the joy sometimes.   

It's not always sunshine and roses.  With the fun, comes the clean up. Blah.   Every single door in my house looks like this.  Kids come in they peel off shoes, coats, bibs, and anything that is cold or wet.  Somehow a sippy cup got tossed in there too. 

In closing, a couple other random photos: 

Brooke's favorite condiment on hot dogs?  Peanut Butter.  Don't ask us how that started, we don't have a clue...but she LOVES it. 

Sometimes I wonder if Wade has a little "hair envy".  He likes to do this to the kids hair after they get out of the bath. This picture is noteworthy because it may be the last picture of me in my specs.  I'm not usually photographed in my glasses...don't really wear them much, but it's required for the 2 weeks prior to Lasik, which I had in February.  Went from 20/100 to 20/25 in one day.  Sweet!

Blech...

Not doing so well on the bi-monthly blogging, am I? 
Hubs has been traveling a bunch.  Exhausted at the end of the day.
Have a free minute now and all I can think about is sleep.
Maybe I'll try tomorrow...

Wrapping up 2010

I know it may seem like I've fallen off the earth sometimes, but with a busy family of 6, we have no choice but to maintain a constant state of organized chaos.  Although I have great aspirations to maintain by blog more frequently it is quickly falling down my priority list. Unfortunately.

But I want to do what I can, when I can. 

I find it ironic that my last post was about Cade cutting his own hair which we haven't had any of the kids do.  Now we've had 2 kids join the "self-haircut" club...more on that in a later post.  In the interest of catching up with myself, I'm going to try to wrap up 2010 in one single post.  So grab a cup of coffee and hunker down.  This might take a while...I will do my best to keep it brief.  

In the final weeks of the year, we had Wade's parents visit from Tulsa, JP got his first haircut, Wade had a birthday,we hosted our 1st 'Cousin Camp' sleepover, Cade and Riley had their school Christmas parties, a 5 day visit to Tulsa, and one fabulous Christmas celebration for our little big family.

Here is the last 2 weeks of the year documented in pictures:

JP in desperate need of a haircut. 

This one was hard.  My baby.  I have always had a hard time cutting the kids hair.  At the time of JP's haircut, Brooke still had never had a haircut except for the bangs.  He is (and has often) been mistaken for a girl.  But a man at Walmart called him a princess and I figured we'd better git r' done.  Cade's first haircut was on Wade's birthday when he was 15 months old, so I decided to keep the tradition alive and do it on Wade's birthday - JP was 19 months. 

Side note: it snowed on his birthday and so I went the day after--but close enough. 

 It wasn't pretty

but what a difference...

Wade's folks came to visit. His parents both turned 60 this year and we gave him tickets to see a Rams game here in StL. Rams lost, but they still had a great time at the game.

 

Wade had a birthday...

Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

 

(I just LOVE this photo)

and the boys in it.

  

We hosted our 1st "Cousin Camp" where we had our local nieces over for a sleepover.  It was so much fun.  Everyone got to make their own gingerbread house for our Gingerbread Village. 

We watched movies, played the wii, took the spotlight out to the woods and saw deer. 

This video is great.  The girls were all playing Just Dance on the Wii.  I love it for so many reasons. 

•  Brooke shaking her toosh and not at all on the beat
• Kelsey having a hard time keeping up, but trying her best
• Cade being all big brother-y.  I had this amplified by 3 growing up.  Just being a pest so she'd mess up.  Really reminds me of my childhood. 
• Wade conducting business in the background...he's such a hard working man...always one hand on the pulse, even on his vacation.  He worked 1/2 the days he "supposedly" took off. 

Back to our sleepover..we decorated Christmas cookies, made snowflake candy necklaces and drank hot chocolate. 

Just had a really fun time doing lots of Christmas-y stuff.  Plus it gave their mom and dad a chance to go to dinner and finish Christmas shopping.  Grammy came out to help with the cookies and the gingerbread houses because basically I wanted the kids to learn from the best.  And mom is definitely the best cook I know.   

Along with the good, sometimes comes the bad.  I got my long-awaited kitchen table and chairs...which Brooke promptly autographed.

  

Riley and Cade had their school holiday parties.  The nice thing about our new school is that they split the Christmas parties up between 2 days. We lucked out into different days.  Usually I'm running back and forth from one class to the next which is really difficult, really loved being able to focus on one class at a time with all the crafts we had lined up.  This was the big hit of the kindergarten class...build your own coffee can snowman.

Riley's favorite was making her own reindeer food.  Oats and sprinkles (so that it will glitter in the moonlight).

We Clarks had a fabulous Christmas.  Everyone got the top thing on their list. 

Whoa...that's a lot of stockings.

  So many blessings this year, we're so grateful for all of them.   

 

Left for Tulsa the day after Christmas. 

Always good to spend time with family, but we were able to see a few friends too. 

There's never enough time to see everyone, but we were able to see a few old neighbors and as luck would have it, I was able to join my old book club for their Dec meeting and it was SO good to see all of them for so many different reasons.  Really a remarkable group of ladies, and a great support system for each other as they are all in different stages of life. 

And no trip to Tulsa at Christmas time would be complete without a trip to Rhema.  A favorite holiday tradition.   

So that's it.  2010.  Whew.  Sorry for lengthy entry, but I use this blog to help me remember events when it comes to scrapbooking.  Hoping to be more regular in my updates in 2011.  Realistically I'm aiming for twice a month.  

Had a really eventful year this past year, loved most parts of it, and we're just enjoying the ride.