Thanksgiving

Some of us, but not all of us, after the big feast.

Well, we're back to reality today. The past 5 days have been wonderful! We kicked-off the holiday with sleep-overs for the kids. The more the merrier, right? They have the cutest friends...with great manners too! This was also the night that there was supposed to be a HUGE blizzard and nobody was supposed to leave home all afternoon/evening. That storm ended up to be almost nothing. Wednesday we slept in, ate a big yummy breakfast, then cleaned house and had a catch-up day. I love these days! Everyone is home to help and by the time we're done, the house is mostly clean. Is it ever ALL clean at the same time?
That evening we went to eat at Salt City Burger, then caught the Trax train to go downtown to the Jazz game. As a thanks to the fans, tickets were only $5.00! We met Grandpa Jim, Uncle Dave, Adam & Jess, Doug & Candice, and Jenny there too! They played the Hornets and it was an awesome game! The kids always have a good time. One funny moment was when Will was dancing a stiff "robot" dance along to the loud music, oblivious that people were watching. :)


Another funny moment was a Hornets fan got boooed for messing up the Jazz Bear's stunt - he got a pie to his face and his hat stolen (the bear tied it to a huge helium balloon). Funny. There is a cool play land in one corner of the arena that is sponsored by Backyard Adventures. The kids loved playing there during half time. Look who they ran into...

And of course, we had to have ice cream & Red Mango.

Here we are on Trax. For some reason, kids love this. They think they are on a choo choo train. It's nice that we don't have to worry about parking, especially when it is zero degrees, but it took us longer than we thought it would to get there.


Thursday {Turkey Day}, it was 10 degrees. No Turkey Bowl this year. So, we all slept in. Ahhh so nice. Then we went to Grandpa Judy's house to celebrate! This year, we had everyone there except for Jake's family and Sarah's family. 6 out of 8 siblings is not too shabby. It was so great to be with everyone, especially Casey's fam and Jenny who have been in Ohio. We miss you! Dinner was yummy as usual. We wrote what we are thankful for on leaves and placed them on trees for the centerpiece.

Millie & Norah

And the best part.......the Horn of Plenty! This is a tradition we all love - a cornocopia filled with all of the good junk food you can think of!




It was a great day; and it goes on....but I will leave that for the next posting.

Pretty, Cute Stuff

Some pretty and cute stuff from this past weekend:

{Pretty}:

These 3 pics were taken within minutes of each other from our deck. Yesterday we were eating Sunday dinner and the kids noticed how neat the view was outside. It was dark and cloudy in most places except for a ray of sunshine that was peeking through the clouds right onto the Timpanogos Temple and up to a section of mountains. We thought the 3rd picture looked like a storybook Christmas village like Who-ville or something. We Love Suncrest!

{Cute}:

Saturday, Quincy was carrying her fuzzy pink backpack all over the house. She does this all of the time. She loads it with random toys, books, etc. and pretends like she's going somewhere really important. On Saturday, she had been doing this for at least an hour when I noticed a quiet sound coming from her backpack. I unzipped it, and this is what peeked out!
If we had to have a kitty, this one is the one to have. It puts up with Quincy's nonsense and handling of all kind :)

{Pretty & Cute}:

We went to Millie's Ballet Showcase Saturday night. It was a pleasure to watch her doing what she loves most. This was her first recital since starting at her new dance studio called "The Pointe." We were way impressed. This night was focused on ballet, and only lasted 1 hour! Millie is not a big fan of ballet, but you would never know it watching her big smile and grace. Her group put on an awesome performance, dancing an exerpt from Sleeping Beauty. Great job!
Thanks to our families for coming to support her (and Tepanyaki wasn't bad either)!

Buck Fever

The boys have been looking forward to the deer hunt weekend since last year's hunt! Again, BS broke the "Clark" rules of the hunt and took the boys before they were "old enough." Especially Will. He went last year as a 5 year old, but we didn't worry too much because the weather was exceptional. This year, however, it was cold and snowy!


The hunt is really just a glorified camp-out with the Clark boys/cousins/dads/uncles. Usually someone has a legitimate tag, and someone succeeds at bringing home a buck.
This year, it was Uncle Adam. Sambo and Will were initiated into the hunting club by tasting deer tongue roasted over the campfire :)

I love that I don't have to worry for one second when my baby boys are away from me in the mountains, I know BS will take good care of them.

They really get into the outdoors thing. Chopping down trees, hiking, campfires, tents, finding any reason to use their pocket knife, not showering/bathing, not brushing teeth, eating lots of junk food. Like last year, BS was super proud of his boys for being tough in the cold, wet weather! The hike up is 3 hours, and this year it was 3 hours down because of the slick mud. They were sopping wet when they got back and Will had a HUGE blister on his heel. But they were total troopers; no complaining.
That's my boys.

Fall Break

I have some catching up to do...

Hotch Potch was at Oh Sweet Sadie last weekend so things have been busy. But, it's over and I am officially working on simplifying my life! A few weeks ago, I finally faced reality that there are just not enough minutes in the day to get even one more thing accomplished. Something's got to give. I have been learning how to saying No. It takes practice :)

For example, I'm not going to design Christmas cards for people this year. Not because I don't like to do it, but because it's something I don't HAVE to do. And my sister and I are taking a little break from Hotch Potch. What started out as a fun hobby, has grown to a business that is more than we hoped for. It's very flattering, but it's not something we HAVE to be doing. Life is short, and I need to slow down and enjoy everything now!

Like this morning, I have some time to sit on my couch in my bathrobe by the fire, cuddle with my Quincy, read stories to her, and catch up on our family journal {aka blog}. I still haven't posted on our fun trip to St. George over Fall break last month. I am way bummed because I cannot find the pictures I took from this trip. I have spent the last hour trying to find if/where I downloaded them. I am baffled {See? Too much on my mind to remember what the heck I did}. Good thing I have a few from Sam's phone and Ashlee's camera.

Wednesday night we went to Tuacahn to see Tarzan! It was amazing with gorillas flying above us and all! The kids LOVED it. We met up with Jake and Ashlee and the cousins after for pics with the actors.

Thursday, we went to Sand Hollow to go boating with our awesome friends, the Pogues. Again, I wish I had my pictures. The kids had fun tubing, and Jamie taught Sam and I how to surf on the wake behind his new sweet boat. So fun! We had a blast and decided that we definitely need to take our boat there when we make our trips to St. George.

Friday, we met up with the cousins again and went to Dixie rock playground to run and hike on the red rocks. My kids love going up the "narrows." It was really fun and good exercise!

The Champ

Presenting the Utah County Football Conference 3rd grade Champions:
The Lone Peak Knights


Saturday was Sambo's championship game vs the American Fork Cavemen. They played at Lehi High School on the turf and they thought they were Big Time! The Cavemen were undefeated so we knew it would be a tough game to win. But they pulled it off with the score 7 to 6. Other than a false start, Sambo did a great job and we are really proud of him! He has had such a great experience with this football team and LOVES it so much. It has been fun to watch him learn and grow. I can't say that I am sad about the season ending...daily practices were getting old :)

He is wearing gold socks so he would stick out...those numbers were hard to see!

On a different note, Sambo was also chosen to be Student of the Month for 3rd grade. He got the best report ever from his teacher. Good job Sam. What a champ.

The Pumpkin Bandit Strikes Again!

Every year for the past 4 years, our jack-o-lanterns always disappear the night of Halloween. The first time this happened, we were baffled. See here and here for a little history. We have learned not to place out our carved pumpkins until literally moments before it's Trick-or-Treat time to avoid them getting swiped.

Having uncarved pumpkins on the front porch has never been a problem. They have never been taken. We had 3 large pumpkins on the porch when we left for St. George a few weeks ago. When we came home, we found that 2 big ones were gone! Only mine was left {the ugly one with warts all over it}.

Our first thought was that it was Daisy and Chops, but we couldn't imagine how they were able to carry or roll those heavy things off. Who knows???

While we blame Daisy as the suspect, we really have had no solid proof of this crime.

This year, we caught her in the act:

This pic was taken at midnight on Hallow's Eve. BUSTED!!!

Halloween part 6: Halloween!

Autumn Fairy:

The Grim Reaper:

An Army Guy: {correction - an army guy with a bloody injury}

Little Miss Cinderella:

Little Miss Cinderella laughing at Nacho Libre:

It was nice having Halloween on a Saturday this year. We started out the day with Sam's football game then lunch at In and Out Burger. They won! On to the semi-finals!

Then we came home and carved pumpkins. Millie even carved her own pumpkin and did a great job! We love to keep the seeds for toasting. Yum. This year, BS did something extra cool with the jack-o-lanterns. He poured some concoction on a roll of toilet paper and placed it inside the pumpkins and flames were coming out for a good 2 hours. It was way cool because it was pouring rain and the flames burned strong!

Because of the cold rain, the girls dressed up as a football player and a spider for trick-or-treating to stay nice and warm. BS took the kids and met up with many friends/neighbors for a fun night. The rain even stopped eventually. When they returned, we warmed up with hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup in orange pumpkin bread bowls. I was dressed as Belle, but darnit, didn't take any pics of myself ;)


As usual, this year was a candy success! Kids put all of their treats together and filled a box AND a paper shopping bag. Holy cow. A few days later, they had already forgotten about it and it sits in the laundry room waiting to be eaten. The favorites are all picked out.

Today was a great day. What a fun month! And I haven't even posted about St. George or Deer Hunting yet!