Ward Chili Cook-off

This year, the Elders' Quorum was in charge of the Ward Chili Cook-off, so I got a chance to help out with the party planning.  I decided to make it a western theme, and made a photo booth with accessories.  Here's a few of my little cowboys!

 



Max Turns 6

Here are some highlights from Max's day.

 

Gift opening at breakfast

The jumpy thing at the mall with our friends (also named Clarks)

Lunch at Chick-fil-A.  Without any notice, they provided balloons, hats, fans, and a stuffed animal!

Dinner with the Clarks (our family this time) and a DQ cake (lame I know!).

All in all, despite zero planning, it was a pretty great day.

Soccer

Max played YMCA soccer this summer.  He really loved it, even though he was very timid during the games.  What he lacked in talent, he made up for in smiles.  He had one moment of glory this season.  He ran up to the biggest kid on the other team and stole the ball.  His coach started clapping and shouting "Way to be aggressive Max!" Max was beaming and giving everyone thumbs up, while someone else stole the ball from him.  It was still a proud moment for me.  I may or may not have teared up.

 

Evie's Ear Piercing

Evie and her little friend Hazel decided that they wanted to get their ears pierced. After watching Hazel go first (Hazel didn't even flinch), Evie was super excited to do it too.  I don't have any pictures of Evie's turn because the poor thing was crying so hard.  We almost had to leave with only one done! They look really cute though!

 

Teeth

Max lost two front teeth!  Ryan loves extractions, so when they got loose, Ryan couldn't wait to pop them out!

 

Drama

Poor Evie! On our trip to Pennsylvania, Evie dislocated her elbow, broke her arm, got a tick bite on the same elbow, and got Lyme Disease from the tick bite, all in the same evening!  It took 2 weeks, 2 ER visits, 2 pediatrician visits, and 2 orthopedic surgeon visits to get everything propery diagnosed.  Good thing she is pretty tough.  And luckily she loved her hot pink cast!

 

Ian's Birthday

Now we are a family of six!  I went to the hospital on the morning of July 27th for an induction, and after a smooth and problem free labor, Ian was born at 7:50 pm.  He was 7 lbs 13 oz, and 22 inches long, healthy, and beautiful!

 



Makeup

The inevitable happened - Leo got into mymakeup.  The funny thing about it is how he actually got the eyeshadow on his eye and used the lipliner to make a cat eye!  Ryan is not enthusiastic about this talent!

Summer Fun

What do you do when it's too hot to stay inside and too hot to play outside?  Run through the sprinklers in your underwear!

 



Clark Party

Before we moved, we had a little party with Linda and Greg.

Here's Maddie and Greg with the baby.

 

Cast Going Away Party

The night before Evie's appointment to get her cast off, Jessie had a brilliant idea of letting all the kids sign the cast.  I didn't let anyone sign it when she got it on because I wanted it to look cute! She loved all of the attention, and I think was a little sad to see it go.

 

Max's First Day of Kindergarten

Adventures in Sewing

While Jessie was in Indiana helping me after I had the baby, we decided to try our hand at sewing clothes.  Here's highlights from our little photo shoot in the back yard.

 



Ian's First Bath

Happy Birthday Evie and Grandma

Mom's birthday and Evie's birthday are just one day apart, so we were lucky enough to have a double birthday party this year that included Dad and Jessie's family.  Evie turned 4 and Mom turned 29.  At least that's what she told us.

 

Hello West Virginia!

We have moved!  We are settling into our new home and job here in West Virginia and it has been quite an adventure so far.  The kids favorite part of the move?  The colossal packing paper fight Jessie set up in the dining room. This was, shockingly, only a fraction of the paper we used.