MaMa

Ella Jane has finally learned how to say MaMa!!! I was so happy!
Ella babbles about everything and anything. She will call out MaMa when she wakes up and I just think it is the cutest thing....she still says DaDa when she wants Spencer to play with her. She is just getting so smart. Every stage has been fun but I have especially liked the last 2 months. I really enjoy being a mom and I am amazed at how much love you can have for your child. Even when she is notty and tares pages out of good books and ruins a new cell phone....I just have to laugh and look at the cute little girl smiling at me...

A NEW way of TalKiNg

Ella Jane is becoming very smart. We are taking a baby sign language class. Ella doesn't pay much attention ...she has discoverd that she can take other childrens's toys and play with them...she also likes to follow this little girl Sydney who is about 17 months old....Ella loves to play with her toys and finds herself taking them and not giving them back. Ella doesn't like it when the little girl takes her toys. I guess this is a great time to teach her how to share!
The best news it Ella has finally picked up on one sign...that is the word more!! I think by the end of the 6 weeks she may have a few more signs.
This has been a great opportunity for me and Spencer to teach Ella....although we find ourselves making the signs to each other and Ella laughs because she thinks it is funny! oh well!

New Feature This Week

So to help all of you think about things to blog about, I've included some of our favorite blogs on the right hand side of our family blog.

The Mormon Mommy Wars blog generally has hilarious posts regarding Mormon culture and is one of Heather's favorites to read. This seems to be a pretty popular blog and always has a ton of comments. On this blog you gain insight on things like "Saying No To A Calling" and funny interactions between Mormon mothers and their children.

The "Bleeding Heart Grafitti" blog is Heather's oldest brother Eldon's blog. His blog is always hilarious. On Eldons blog you learn things like what a "grup" is and the connection between Disneyland and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.


"The Good Apple" is Heather's sister Melissa's blog that she updates almost daily. She posts recipes and other fun things that might interest any or all of you.

The last blog we put up is "Bryant Milestones" which is run by Heather's cousin Liz. Her blog is more trendy and might give you some ideas on what you can post about.

On all of these blogs there are links to even more blogs, so the extent that someone runs across someone else's post on another site that they think is worth sharing, please post the link on our site. Hope this helps (and makes you laugh).

William Tell Overture

I think we can all appreciate this

Start 'em young

Today when we were planning our Saturday activities Mike said he was going to mow the lawn. Thomas responded, "no, Thomas do it." We tried to explain that it's a Daddy job but he wouldn't budge. We laughed and agreed that he'll just run away when he hears the motor, as usual. Oh no, he still insisted that he was mowing the lawn today. He'll still want to do this when he's a teenager, right?

Baby Clark

I think he'll be another cute one, just like all the Clark babies :)

Africa Ful

Now that it has been awhile since Jay and I returned from Africa I guess I should blog. We started out river rafting where I spent most of the time in the water. Then we went to the chimp sanctuary where we got to play with the chimpanzee's that was pretty much amazing. We saw lots of wild life up close and personal. Elephants, lions, hippos, and gorrillas. If I had the chance and the money I would go back in a heart beat. Nothing can really describe how incredible Africa is.

Peach Days

So last Saturday Spencer and I and Ella went with my family up to Brigham City for the annual Peach Days. We went to the Parade in the Morning and Ella really liked the cLoWnS and she thought the OrAnGe TraCtoR was something special.
We got some peaches and we enjoyed a DeliCiouS PeAcH ShAKe at the best burger joint in Brigham City.....CALLS FAMILY BURGERS !

Thursday

Only one day left all you non-bloggers! David, Justin and Kimi, JAY, and Amy. Seriously, just a comment would be enough, but do SOMETHING!!! Maybe I shouldn't tell ANYONE what I'm having until EVERYONE participates, that way I'm not the only one bugging you people.

New gadget

So, aunt Bonnie was here last week and as usual she spoiled me. She bought me a Hoover steam cleaner and it's pretty cool! I've cleaned the 3 bathrooms with it. The best part is that you can clean the back of the toilet, behind the seat where pee gets trapped. It blasts everything out and leaves your toilet really clean. Be prepared to clean up a mess, though. It also cleans grout and shower doors, corners of floors, around faucets etc. And it's a fun toy to use. The pink toilet was the worst! Cleaning the back, the bolts at the bottom and the base was so gross, but I'm satisfied that it's about as clean as it will ever get. Just another tool to make cleaning easier and kind of fun. Jill, maybe you could borrow it for the gross apartment bathroom!

Alaska

Well it took me awhile but here it is. Alaska is a beautiful place, I highly recommend going there. The first day there we went out halibut fishing and we all caught at least one, but dad and I both got a little sea sick and lost our breakfast. After that I decided it was better to overdose on the motion sickness pills before going out on the ocean and it made things a lot more enjoyable. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday we went fishing on the Kenai reiver which was just right outside of the cabin we were staying in. We had to get up early and then went out on a riverboat to catch salmon this was probably my favortie fish to catch. When you fish for salmon you just get your bait out in the water and then sit and relax for a while and the next thing you know your fishing pole is bent in half and you get to reel in a big fish that fights the whole way in. The other two days we were there we went to Seward and went out on the ocean to fish for salmon, ling cod, and red snapper. These days are when we saw the eagles, whenever we caught a little fish that wasn't worth keeping our guides would wave it in the air and then throw it out into the ocean and as soon as it left there hands the eagles would leave the trees and swoop down and pick it up about 20 feet from our boat. That was pretty amazing to see. It was an awesome trip and we all enjoyed it. We came home with 450 pounds of fish between the five of us. Now I just somehow need to convice Kim that she likes to eat fish.

Becoming a Handy Man

One thing we discovered after we moved into our new house was that the toilet in the master bathroom ran a bit. Every 15-20 minutes it would refill and it generally would kick-on at the most opportune times as well. It's happened to both me and Heather that right as we were about to do our business, the tank would start filling up, giving us a little bit of a scare (especially in the middle of the night).

Well, I tried my hand at fixing the porcelain thrown recently. I replaced the flapper (the thing that covers the hole in the tank), but unfortunately it still leaked. So back to Home Depot (we make a trip there at least once a week for something we need). The next step was to replace the entire flush valve system. So back at home, I took the tank apart and installed the new unit. The result: no more running toilet! I now feel like I am well on my way to becoming a handy man around the house. I just hope more things don't break in the near future, because our trips to Home Depot are adding up fast.

Vacation

Hi! Well, while Dad was fishing in Alaska, I took the week off as well, thinking I would have a little R and R. While I had a few evenings of R and R (rest and relaxation,(Peter and David), most of the time was spent shopping, house cleaning and getting kids ready for school. Did not accomplish as much as I had hoped, but managed to clean the refridgerator and a few cupboards. I also took a couple of extra days off around Labor Day as Aunt Bonnie was here for a week. I had more rest while she was here. We went to the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy theater and then to lunch at the Garden restaurant (best creme brulee). Jay was with us and you know how he's always telling us that he and his friends don't date? John LaFrance blew that cover when he walked in to the Legacy theater holding a cute BYU coed's hand. When Jay saw him, he just put his head down and started chuckling. All this talk about how he and his friends just always hang out - and no girls! Anyway, back to the movie - I highly recommend it! It was very powerful!
Last Tuesday, Bonnie and I went to the temple (which I did manage to do with aunt Linda as well while Dad was in Alaska). Jay and Jill are settled in at BYU, and Peter and David are glad to be back in school. I just keep plugging along, hoping to someday catch up on housework and be debt free! Love you all! Mom

Peter's first few days of school.

I am now in high school. It is much better than junior high in my opinion. The classes I am taking are Seminary, Drivers Ed, English, Biology, Geometry, Reading, World Civ, and Art. The only class that I really hate is Art. It is so dang boring, I'm only taking it for art credit. It is a waste of my time though. I had my first school lunch since like 4th grade and I realized why I had been taking home lunch for all of those years. It dosen't taste good at all. Sorry this wasn't my most intelligent writing, but now that I'm in English maybe I will start writing a ton better, and not so boring. I can write better than this though. At this point right now I have strait A's in school so I'm doing pretty good.

What is it?

Ok, so I FINALLY have a doctor's appointment set for the 13th and we will be finding out what I'm having... BUT I'm not telling anyone what it is unless you ALL post something or comment!!! Except Jill, she's been good :)

First day of school

BYU is definately a unique place! To start off every class today every teacher has to make a remark about how so many people from his/her class last semester met in the class and got married, or look guys at all the pretty girls in the class and girls look at all these handsome RMs. So besides looking at all the cute guys in my classes today I also made a trip to the bookstore and spent about $135 on books for just one class... so that was really depressing.
After a trip to the magical bookstore I headed home and had to cook for myself, which is definately a different experience than I had last year when I was fortunate enough to have dining plus and never had to cook for myself. At least this year I hopefully won't gain any weight because it is definately a lot easier to eat healthier when I have to buy my own groceries. No more freshmen 15 for me, because I am officially a sophomore!

Arizona Trip

Well, Michael survived his first visit to Arizona in August. He and Thomas spent a lot of time in the pool. Thomas got very brave with his floaties and lots of older kids to imitate.

We had fun hanging out with my brothers and sisters. Now that everyone is older it seems harder for us to all get together. But now when we do get together it's funny how old everyone really is. When the 3 boys were teenagers they used to prove their manliness by wrestling and tackling each other. Now that they are all approaching 40 they dare each other to do "really hard" yoga poses. Oh yes, these are my rugged brothers.

Melanie's wedding was quiet and simple, she asked me to take pictures for her. Here are some samples.