Big Hair!

alright, I am being really brave posting this picture! This is me after I washed my hair and slept on it wet last night and then I mowed the lawn this morning. I had to show it to you though because I came in from mowing the lawn and Karlee started laughing. She said, "Mom, your hair looks like Oprah!"

I totally laughed because I almost never even watch Oprah, but apparently I have enough that they know when I look like her! I am not even wearing make-up here, which is why I made it a black and white!! Also, that is why I had to make a funny face! Oh, and by the way, the back of my head probably looks even bigger than the front!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Last night was Lucy's 2nd birthday! We had lots of fun at Chuck E. Cheese! It's one of my kid's favorite places to go and last night was no exception! Audree kept coming back for more "coins" every few minutes and we finally figured out that she was playing a game where you basically just drop tokens in and get a ticket...who knows how many "coins" she dropped into that one! Then Jake put Spencer inside of the basketball game and he was one happy camper! He would just pick up the balls and drop them in the basket over and over again! When all the kids got their prizes at the end of the evening I got one of my favorite pictures of Rylee ever! She kills me!! Happy Birthday Lu-lee!!

Post Office

Alright, so my last two attempts to visit the post office have been successful, in so much as I have mailed the items I went to mail. Unfortunately, they have also been good representations of how having 4 small children can affect your mind.

So about a week ago I went to send a DVD to Sarah (my sister-in-law who lives in Arizona). I was scrambling about trying to remember the DVD, her address, the cards that Karlee made for her and my kids (so far, I have never forgotten them!). I made sure we all had shoes on (that is something I have learned from arriving without them so many times), got us all buckled in and we were off. We got to the post office and while my kids played tag throughout the post office I got an envelope and managed to get it all sent. I felt good about accomplishing so much as we headed back out to the car. As we are getting in the car, Karlee says "Mom, why is our car running?". I respond, "That's not our car, it's the one parked next to us." I get us all buckled in again and climb into the driver seat only to find out that it was, in fact, our car that was running. Keys in the ignition, air conditioning blowing, etc. I guess if I am looking at the bright side then it helped me to get home even faster when you just leave the car going. When I told Jake this story, he wasn't surprised at all!!

Then today I went back to the same post office to send my Mom her birthday present (which should only be about 4 days late...I am so on the ball!!). Once again, scrambling about getting the card signed by all the kids, remembering to bring the address, shoes all on, bow on the gift...and we are off! I get to the post office and the kids start playing tag again (that's a post office favorite!), except for Spencer who enjoys trying to pull the blinds off the windows. I manage once again to get the envelope filled out and go up to the Post Officer to send it. This time she rings me up and I open my purse to pay...only one problem. I have no money, no credit card, no checks and an expired debit card. I left everything in the diaper bag on the counter at home from the carnival we went to last night. She said now that it is rung up she can't do anything to help me...I have to pay and she can't ring anybody else up until I do. I am lucky because the post office was pretty much dead at this point, but I still have no money. I was also lucky because Jake was at home working in his office...so I called him up and he made an emergency trip to the post office to bail me out. At least the car wasn't running when we finally got back into it!

So, the moral of the story is... try not to go to the post office when you have 4 small children with you...it can only end in tears!

Race Day!

I haven't even attempted going for a run since my triathalon last month. I have gone on some family bike rides (not exactly a vigorous workout) which always end up at the gas station where we get treats! So, when Karlee remembered that she wanted to run in the Pioneer Day kids 1 mile race I tried to come up with a way to talk her out of it. She had been waiting for it ever since the triathalon and kept asking when the kids race was coming. Well, since she wanted to run in her race at 7:00 a.m. and there was a 5K immediatley following, I decided to support her and run in the 5K too.

I was so proud of her! She ran that 1 mile run like a pro...well, a pro who walks then sprints, walks then sprints, walks then sprints, etc. Anyways, she was so cute...when she came in she said, "Mom, that run was so long!"

Then I ran in the 5K. I was surprised it went so well considering my lack of preparation. I finished in 34:34. I am not a fast runner, actually more of a slow jogger, but I am glad I got up and did it! Rylee and Karlee even met me at the finish line and ran in with me! Anyways, Happy Pioneer Day!

Seven Peaks

For the last 3 summers we have had Seven Peaks Waterpark passes. It is a great way to spend our summer evenings together as a family! The kids love it and Jake and I enjoy getting outside to cool down in the pool! It's the best alternative to having our own pool ...which here in Utah would be impractical. Usually, we take some sandwiches and chips to have for dinner. But we have a really hard time convincing the kids to eat instead of swim when we first get there. So, this past Saturday we went a little early so we could just get dinner on our way home and not worry about food at the park. Of course, on this day the kids started begging for food as soon as we got there! Luckily, being a Mom, I did throw a bag of Cheetos in the bag we took. This appeased them for awhile. Does anyone else out there have kids who like to be difficult like this?? We also had to make about 4 trips to the bathroom and have 1 diaper change during the 2 hour visit to Seven Peaks...this was after making everyone go potty before we left. The kids just like to make sure we stay on our toes..."no relaxing in the sunshine, Mom!!"

P.S. These pictures were taken with my waterproof little pocket camera...not the highest quality photos...but you get the idea!

Snake Drama

So, several weeks ago we were hanging out at Jake's parents house on a Sunday afternoon. All the cousins were there and we were just enjoying being outside. One of the boys noticed a small snake slithering in the planter. Grandpa helped to catch the little guy and everyone wanted a turn to hold the snake. Well, everyone except the moms and Karlee and Millie! Rylee (who LOVES to catch bugs and butterflys) was immediately infatuated with her snake friend. Once she held it she was in love. When it was time to go home we had to let the snake go back into the planter. Rylee cried the whole way home and was upset for many days.

For a couple weeks after that everytime we went back to Jake's parents house she would search the planters for her old friend. To her dismay, he never returned.

Then one Sunday a couple weeks later we were visiting again. The adults were all inside chatting and the kids had gone out to play. Suddenly, Rylee ran into the house screaming..."There are snakes out there!! Come out!!" I looked over at Grandpa Clark, who had a big smile on his face. We ran outside and found that Grandpa had planted a bunch of plastic snakes in the planter for Rylee. It took us awhile to convince her that these snakes weren't real...she thought they were colorful African snakes (I think Uncle Adam told her that one). Anyways, we got to bring those snakes home and while she still looks for the real snake everytime we go back, she seems content.

Thanks Grandpa Clark for some good laughs and for thinking of Rylee when you saw some plastic snakes at the store!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A Week of Firsts!!

This was a big week for our family! The girls have been busy making this summer count! Karlee has been working for a long while on her backhandsprings. She is this tiny little 6 year old and this week she conquered something that I never did! So this week Karlee did her first backhandspring on her very own! Go Karlee...I was so proud of her that I let her pick where we had lunch that day ( which made Rylee upset!), she picked Del Taco with a slide in it!

Then Rylee has been trying to be brave enough to ride her bike without training wheels for a long time...she chickens out everytime we try to take them off. We keep saying that now that she is 5 she needs to learn to do it! Finally, today was the day! I promised not to let go until she said I could ( I thought I would be running next to her bike for the next 15 years!). Surprisingly, she said "Mom, let go!" after only about 10 minutes and she was riding off down the street! I was so proud of her that I let her pick dessert tonight (and that's even better than picking lunch!)...she picked chocolate cupcakes.

It was an exciting day for Jake and I too! We planted our first garden this summer and tonight our first zucchini was ready to eat! I cooked it up and it was so tasty! We are so excited...hopefully there will be even more veggies soon.

Just to be clear, I didn't shower until 5:30 tonight and my kids were stinky and covered in mud all day. So, even though I have mentioned some great moments here, let's be real...you've got to give some things up (like showers) in order to accomplish some other things! That's just the truth in case you were wondering!

Bigger than Christmas!

Well, The Fourth of July really is bigger than Christmas for this family. The day begins with the big parade at 9:00a.m. and doesn't end until the Stadium of Fire ends at about 12:00 midnight! BBQ's, golf tournaments, naps and sparklers all fit in somewhere inbetween. Anyways, this year was no exception. I even made all the kids matching 4th of July pajama shorts to wear! Well, it is always a blast to hang out with the hundreds of Clarks that join in on the fun (literally, they are multiplying like rabbits!). So, here are a few pictures of our big day! Hope you all had a great one too!

Just Gettin' Started!

Alright, so I have been fighting this whole blog thing. I mean, who wants to read about my life anyways? Plus, I read all these other blogs and everyone else's life seems be going so smoothly...what will people think if I write about what is REALLY going on at my house? So here is the deal...I won't post only the fabulous days...in fact, I will focus on the reality. This might be frightening and possibly cause my children to be taken from me one day...but it's a chance I am willing to make for your entertainment.

I went out to dinner with Mindy, Sheralyn and Jenny the other night (high school friends) and they convinced me that I am totally behind the times by not having one of these...so I hope you enjoy. Also, all my friends with blogs never email me anymore, so hopefully now we can all keep up with eachother this way.

Oh, and about dinner with "the girls" the other night...what a blast! I probably talked their ears off...I tend to do that with adult listeners (please accept my apology) and the waitress was way bummed that our 3 hour dinner at Olive Garden cut her tips by about 3/4 that night...hey, it was a Tuesday night, get over it! It reminded me that I actually had a life before children! So thanks gals for a great night out!