Sydnie's first day of kindergarten

I am a little late getting these on my blog, I had a problem with my camera, I deleted by pictures, Oops!

So I finally got her to stand still long enough to take these. She really loves school and is doing well, but she does not like GYM or Recces. I keep telling David she is not my child, those where my to favorite subjects! LeAnn, I think she is more and more like you! :)

Your it!

Rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current goals, 3 current obsessions, and 3 random facts about your self. Then tag at least 5 people at the end.

3 Joys:
1) family
2) friends
3) a good book

3 Fears:
1) spiders
2) loosing my sight
3) not being able to do for myself

3 Current goals:
1) to follow thru with losing 10 pounds
2) to get my kids on a schedule after school
3) to walk 3 miles a day

3 current obsessions:
1) cleaning
2) reading, have to find a new book - any good ideas?
3) cereal

3 random facts about myself:
1) I love camping (who ever thought I would love the outdoors?)
2) I have lived in 11 states
3) I love chewing gum

I tag, Jennifer, LeAnn, Michelle, Janet and Maria

Influence of mothers

Sydnie didn't see the humor in this, but I really had a great laugh at the situation, after she left the room.
Have you ever really sat down to think how much of an influence we are as mothers to our children... Yesterday I went to get my hair cut, I usually do not take any of my children with me, to me this is my time to get pampered after I have pampered everyone else. This time I had to take Sydnie with me, since she will not be in school for a couple more days. While getting my hair done I also got my eye brows waxed, and little miss "I don't miss a thing" must have been
watching very close.
Today she thought she would give herself a eyebrow wax with her Barbie band aids... she came down the stairs crying in despair... it hurts mommy please take them off! This was a picture moment that I could not pass up, so after a quick hug, I told her she would be OK and to just smile for me... I can't believe she was patience enough for me to get my camera.
I know that after this ordeal she will wait a long time to wax her eyebrows...
.

Fun in the sun

Cooper's First Day of Pre-school

Cooper had his first day at his new pre-school Camp Central at one of the local United Method's churches. As you can see he was all smiles, and ready for his big day.


Cooper 3 years old


His backpack is bigger than he is :)

Rewind back to summer

Where has the time gone, the kids just got out of school in May and now we are already into our third week of school.



I thought I would rewind the clock and look back at our fun summer... so if you would please stroll down memory lane with me.



Destin Florida ~ our family trip with my parents and my sister and her family

Hunter's 1st Day of 6th Grade

Well it is officially, I have a 6th grader, that wears a size 7 1/2 men's shoe. Where has all the time gone. In most school systems 6th grade is the beginning of middle school, but in our backwoods part of the South we start them early in 5th grade. With this being said, Hunter thinks he is just like all the older kids, COOL... until I kiss him on the cheek and tell him good by in front of all his friends, the joys of being a mother!

Sydnie will be starting kindergarten this year, but they will not start until next week, so stay tuned for her first day.

Football Time in Tenneessee

It is football time again, it seems like we just had the playoffs. Hunter is in his 4th year of playing, and getting better and better ever year.

Between now and November we do not have a life, football is 3 nights a week for 2 hours and all day on Saturday. We just make it a family thing and we all get into it. Sydnie and Cooper are great sideline cheerleaders for Hunter, they are always there to tell him great job and go get 'em!

Getting Ready for the Winter

We decided to try our hand at canning this year. In June I got this crazy idea that I would do some freezer jam, but as always got a little over excited this year and over did it with the strawberries. I bought 3 flats and by the time I got into my second flat I was so over strawberries, I did not want to see another one ever! My family laughed and wanted to know what we were going to do with all that freezer jam... they sure haven't had a hard time eating the jam :)

Last week David went to one of the local farms and got corn and peaches. The kids thought is was fun to shuck the corn, but they sure didn't like the mess they had to clean up afterwards. My dad helped by watching the corn on the stove, needless to say we picked a very hot day to do so... he is just a great sport about our wild ideas. David and I peeled peaches until we couldn't peel any more. I think we may have eaten as many peaches as we canned. Needless to say our tummy's were a little upset a few days later. They sure were really good peaches.

Day Twelve

Again we were back on the road, heading home. We could not go home with out seeing my Uncle Lyle in Rocksprings, WY the fire Captin.

The kids were excited to see a real fireman, and not only him but the fire truck too.

Day Eleven

This is the day Sydnie had been waiting for our whole trip, Making Cookies with Grandma! Sydnie is always reminding me that I do not make cookies as good as grandma. We decided to stay an extra day to spend with Grandma and Grandpa and take time to do a little shopping in Idaho Falls and Rexburg. I found some great ideas for the house and new stuff at the book store. For those that do not live around Idaho/Utah you know how hard it is to find church things, and trying to pick things from the Internet is hard at times.
Well this was our last day in Idaho it was time to start heading home, we sure had a great time!

Day Ten

We are finally getting to our last days in Idaho.

Sunday we went to church with David's family. Cooper thought it was great that when it was time to be quit in church, he was able to get away from David and go see his Aunt and Uncle and tell them, "now daddy can't get me."

Sunday afternoon we had took time to visit my Grandpa and Granny, it was good to spend some time with them and catch up with them.

We also got to see Uncle Rogers tractors, these are future want to be farmers, but these city kids do not know how to work.

Day Nine

Let's go fly...

We made it to Menan, ID home of David's Family. No longer did we park the camper we were head to Idaho Falls, to see Gram and have Matthew take us flying.

Matthew has his license to fly single engine air planes, and

The kids had a great time flying, Cooper thought it was cool to be able to talk to everyone on the headset (I don't think he looked out the window once)

The kids waiting for a ride in the plane

After we went flying, we headed to Green Canyon

Eight Day

Clark Family Reunion

Let the games begin... 2008 Clark Family Olympics, The Games That Rednecks Play.

We have not been to the family reunion in three years and the kids were so excited to get to see all their cousins. We got settled in, and I did not see my kids I think for two days, except to tell me, "this is the coolest mom, can we stay forever!" The first night we rode horses (this is all that Hunter to could talk about for the last three years, "when can I ride Uncle Rogers horse?"), played golf, volleyball, softball and sat around the camp fire and were entertained by Cris and Jayme, playing their guitars.

When ever I need to find Cooper, I could always count on him out behind the cabin, fishing. Sydnie and her two cousins Haley and Kennedy were like the three amigos.

After a restful night, the games began with some great events: Javelin throw(straw throw), standing long grin(who had the biggest smile), the foot race(who had the longest foot), boxing(who could put the pillow in the pillow case first with boxing gloves on) and many more fun games. After games we had lunch and made ice cream in a bag,(you can find the recipe at famiyfun.com) and visited with everyone. After dinner each family did a skit it was a lot of fun!! We stole the song "Granny had a altered farm" we had heard at the Bar J and turned it in to "Roger had a altered farm". It was a hit. John's kids did a cute skit about a fly, thank you to Roger's family's song they sang, "Were from the country and I like it that way", Sydnie is still singing it and now I can't seem to get it out of my head. The next morning we ate breakfast, did the pinatas, which my kids love, since we do it for every holiday (we have been practicing). We took a big family picture out in the middle of the wild flowers, and cleaned up and headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had such fun time.

Ann you rock, you always have great ideas. Thank you for the great food, games and making it such a success!! We are already saving our money for next year.

Day Seven

July 16th

We Found Gold!!

(to pay for our fuel back home)

This day we meet up with our cousins to spend the day in Virgina City and Nevada City. MT. We toured a small town in Nevada City, this was an eye opener for the kids... they thought it was crazy to have a bathroom outside...

We road the local train a mile and half to Nevada City, Cooper thought it was great! There was a little rain, so we found shelter in an ice cream parlor. We all enjoyed ice cream for David's birthday.

We had just enough time left to go pan for gold. The kids really enjoyed this, they found how just how much hard work it was, for only a sliver of gold.

Day Six

Yellowstone National Park

Like all our days on our trip, we started out at 4:00 am, packed the camper and headed to Yellowstone.

What a day, I think we saw every animal that you could see in the park that day...

We decided not to go see Old Faithful, but to try to see everything else in Yellowstone. We visited the following:

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Mud Volcano

Artist Point

Tower Fall

Mammoth Hot Springs

Again, Cooper the Trooper walked the paths with us... he even did the stairs down to Artist Point to see the breath taking view of the Lower Falls, mom wanted someone to carry her by the time she made it down the 300 steps.

We all had a great day seeing the beautiful lands that Heavenly Father had created.

This picture is just for David, every time I took a picture of a bison, he kept telling me not to get a picture of the bottom end... Here is one just for you David!

On our way out of Yellowstone, we stopped in West to see an old friend... Ann, we have known her for 8 years now, but have never meet. She has been a great asset to our company and family. We were only able to stay for a couple of hours, we had a great dinner with her and she showed us her home town of West.

The kids even got the chance to ride a buffalo, and buy candy from the local candy store.