Big Boy Bed

Clark and I bought his big boy bed today. I went to the library and got a book about staying and sleeping in his new big bed.

Clark and I picked it up today and put it together. He was very helpful, mostly. :)
He was all excited until I put his mattress in the bed. Then he got a freaked out look. So we went next door and I borrowed Merrik to show him the bed, which then made Clark much more excited. Slowly he started to warm up to the bed. He hit his hands on it, then started to bounce his hands and eventually half laid on it. Clint, Tavi and I all made a big deal about his bed.
Then we went back outside to wear him out some more. :)

Seemed to work...today...


I realize that this is probably the "honeymoon" phase, but hopefully it will continue to stay easy.

Wait, what am I talking about?! He's 2! There is NOTHING easy about a 2 year old. Just google, "My 2 year old makes me want to drink" and that will give you a good idea in case you aren't blessed with a little demon angel that is 2. :)

Hopefully next week we can take the crib down. :)

Nex Stop...

...South Korea!


Unless the Army changes their mind at the last minute, we are set to go to South Korea in July. I'm VERY excited and so is Clint. Our families on the other hand are not as much, but we all knew our time in California wasn't going to last forever.

We don't know which base we will be assigned to yet. Clark and I have to get command sponsorship to go. Basically a bunch of paperwork making sure that we don't have any health needs that we won't have access to if we do move. Once we get command sponsorship the commander will have to assign us to a base. We hope to be in Soul or the base about an hour away from Soul. The jobs are different. Some are strictly running a clinic, others are just the food mission and some are a combination of clinic and deployment training. Clint won't deploy though.
Part of why we picked S.Korea was so that Clint doesn't have to deploy. I "kind of" freaked at the conversation we had about deployment. (kind of: extreme understatement of my reaction) Maybe, hopefully the idea of deployment won't be so horrible.

We hope to be able to do some traveling while we are there. Tickets to China and Japan are about $400. Same as our tickets were from KS to CA.

Now we have to figure out what household goods will be shipped and what has to stay. They only allow about half of your belongings to be shipped, but they have furniture rental places.

We also will be selling both our vehicles. The word is that Korean drivers are CRAZY!

So we will keep you posted on the progress.

Rainy Day Play

Last week we had a few days of rain. A rare occurrence in Cali. So Clark and I got dressed in our rain gear and headed outside to find some good puddles.

Puddles were a plenty in our neighborhood!





Clark and I found some puddles so deep that the water was running into the top of his boots. He hasn't really gotten the concept of what an umbrella does, but he loved being able to use it.

As you can see from my pants, I had a good time splashing in the puddles too!

Christmas 2011

Wow, I can't believe that it's almost 2012. Thank goodness. The last 6 months have been more difficult then I would have liked. I can say I've had my fair share of hospital visits for my life time. Thank fully not on my part, but for my family. We had Jack's (Clint's brother) brain surgery in August and then about 2 weeks before Christmas my dad fell down the stairs breaking 3 ribs and punctured his lung. That was the easy part. The hospital visit is what almost killed him! Man, don't ever leave loved ones in the hospital by themselves. The staff literally tries to kill you!
Anyways, that's another story, but ties into this Christmas because we were very thankful that he was home, and on the mend.

Here are a few of the good pictures I had on my camera:

Christmas Tree, most of the presents are for Clark. Typical. HA!



Clark with one of his new toys.


Broken Bob and Mental Marge. (Nick names from Santa for the year.)


And here is why those three were the best I had on my camera from Christmas Eve:
The name of the game: Name that object, courtesy of Clark's amazing picture taking skills.






Next game: Who does that food/feet belong to?:




In all seriousness, Clark actually got some good pictures:




Christmas Morning we went to church. It was amazing! Very spirit filled and we got to sing lots of songs. Just my style! Then we went Diane's (Clint's Mom) house.
Opening presents:





The camera thief strikes again!




I'd like to say Clark took these but it was me! I was trying really hard to get pictures of everyone, but Grandma and Jack were to my left and the pictures ended up looking like this even when I tried to shade the lense with my left hand. :p


Clark flying:

Clark playing with his new truck. He broke it shortly after. :( Too bad because he really liked it. The axle broke off the truck from his pushing on it and then it wouldn't roll any more.



Christmas Dinner Table:


More Clark Art:

Thanksgiving 2011

Each year since anyone can remember my dad's family has gotten together for a family reunion. Some years we have taken over parks, and other years we have all fit into a house. This year we decided to try to take over the parks again. We had about 30 people. Not bad and we did make a big impact at the little park we were at.


Right side of the table: Clayton and his friend (sorry dude, never caught you name, I was too busy running around chasing a 2 year old!) Bobby (my dad's cousin), Scott (My brother's friend)
Left side: Nancy, Debbie (my dad's cousin's), Beka, Nate (My brother's friends).




Right side: Michael (Jen's [Jack's girlfriend] son), Clark, Clint, Karen (My soon to be cousin!)
In the background, My dad and Shelby being master cooks!
Left Side: Larry, Tammy (my dad's cousins), Dawn (My SUPER Cousin)




Clint's beautiful Grandma, Barbara and Mom, Diane!




Jen, her mom and Jack





Shelby and my dad and Mike (Jack's friend in the background).


The centerpieces I had been working on for this day: I painted twigs and die cut the leaves. The idea is to have everyone write what they are thankful for and put their name and year on the leaves. Each year we will add to them and can read them for years to come. :)



Various pictures from the night:
Jack and Scott holding Amber and Jack. Kori (The kids' mom)


Jen and Jack and their moms! I got you mom! You couldn't escape my camera today! Muhahaha. :) She hates me posting pictures of her, but I have to share my beautiful mommy with you all.







Every year we also celebrate Dawn's birthday. Come years her birthday falls on the day of our reunion.


Lastly I'm sure you saw the hung monkey in many of the previous pictures. Nate HATES USC. This is a USC monkey that joined our festivities for the day. :) Why it was allowed, no idea...