Lucky 7 in Vegas!

 

It was Spring break last weekend for BS's brother and sister so we joined the Clark gang on a trip to Las Vegas!  We used to go every year with them up until the last 3 years.  I can remember carrying each of my 4 newborn babies in the "papoose" (Baby Bjorn), walking down the strip looking at the bright lights and funny people of the world.  Since they have birthdays in Jan, Feb, March, and we always went the end of March, they were just tiny.  As the years went by we started causing a traffic jam on the crowded boulevard with the double stroller, a papoose, and a slow walking child too absorbed in the lights.  Along with that, and the fact that the older kids were becoming more aware of the graphic pictures, billboards, and lack of morals in sin city...we thought we should take a break from vacationing there.
But, this year, we couldn't say no to the opportunity to escape to warm weather, swimming, shopping, and good company.  We prepared the kids ahead of time of what to expect, and it really wasn't a big deal.  We swam, shopped, relaxed, watched BYU lose to Florida, and celebrated Will's 7th birthday!
The kids loved seeing the Bellagio fountains & gardens, the themed hotels, the huge fish tank, the Atlantis show, the Hard Rock Cafe, swimming, and of course the bright lights.
For Will's birthday, the whole group ate at Cheesecake Factory at Caesars Palace.  He ordered his own piece of Reeses Peanut Buter Cup cheesecake for his birthday cake.  Then we went to the M&M factory where they have 4 levels of M&Ms stuff and a huge arcade in the basement.  The boys LOVE arcade games so this was really fun for them!

Saturday, we did some shopping and for once, BS found some stuff for himself and I found nothing!  Sambo was on a quest to find a "Fedora" hat.  We finally found the right one and of course Will wanted one too.  He likes to be just like big brother.  Sambo wore his all day and he felt so cool :)  He actually looked really cute and got lots of compliments.  I think it is so funny that he wanted that.
We all met up at the Premium Outlets for more shopping, then it was dinner at Hard Rock Cafe!
It was fun hanging out in the room with everyone and playing Settlers.  Nice job Jess on your victory!
Thanks Clarks for another awesome trip!

 

Will also had a couple of other birthday celebrations with family and friends.  Coming next...

Half Leprecaun

We love this holiday...it has become more of a big deal since Will was born and has chosen it as one of his favorite holidays. It is probably because his birthday is the very next day.
A couple of days before St. Patrick's Day, Will came and sat very close to me, looking very serious.

He made sure nobody was around before he leaned over to me and said,
"Mom...am I half Leprecaun?"

Me: "Hmmm. What is your favorite color?"
Will: "Green."
Me: "Do you love money?"
Will: "Yes."
Me: "Do you love chocolate gold coins more than anybody I know?"
Will: "Yes."
Me: "Do you play tricks on people all of the time?"
Will: "Yes."
Me: "Were you born really close to St. Patrick's Day?"
Will: "Yes."
Me: "Well then, you must be half-Leprecaun.
Will: "Oh." And then he walked off with the biggest grin ever :)
Love him!

Anyway, St. Patrick's was a fun and busy day! BS and I had decided, last minute, to join his family down in Las Vegas for their Spring break. We were planning on leaving after school. So with the preparations for that and Millie's play at school, I wasn't as prepared for the Big Green Day as I usually am. I went to bed the night before wondering what I was going to make for breakfast to make the day special. I fell asleep before I could finish that thought so I improvised and made green-berry muffins and green milk:


Notice it is still dark outside? Clarks are still getting used to waking up at 6:30 am everyday!

Here are the 3 kids before school:

Quincy had no interest in green muffins and asked for Cheerios with green milk instead:

Here she is before school:

Millie's 5th grade did a play at school on America. She had a small speaking part and did an awesome job! They were singing all of the songs that I remember learning as a 5th grader..."Fifty Nifty United States..."


Then after school we were off and on our way...Las Vegas here we come!!!

It's Private

To our Family, Friends, and Folks out there:

The 6Clarks blog is going private.

We just want to be extra safe...weird and scary things are happening in the world!
To us, our blog is a journal...the memories, the details, the conversations, the milestones, & the pictures. It saves me (Mom) the stress of trying to remember everything until I get time to scrapbook (in 5-10 years or so). On top of that, I am SO GLAD for the pictures because recently I lost 15 months worth of pictures due to a corrupted hard drive. It is unrecoverable. Having some pictures preserved through the blog is the only thing that has made me feel a little better about my laptop crashing.

I really enjoy the comments I get about the blog. I know how much I enjoy reading other people's blogs and what they're up to. So... if you would like to continue reading it, send an email or leave a comment and I will send you an invite.

Cheers,

Sam and Holly

Turning Four...again & again & again

Our baby girl turned 4 on February 19. It's so hard to believe she's that old! While it makes me sad to see her grow up, I have to say that we can't get enough of her at this age! She really is the most awesome ending to our family. She is the perfect mix of tom-boy and girly-girl. She plays really well with her brothers and the boys of our neighborhood {especially dinosaurs, toy weapons, and spiderman dress-up} , but easily transforms to a little princess dressed-up in her Cinderella or Tinkerbell dresses when her girl friends come over to play. When we were talking about her birthday party last month, she said, "I want a Cowboy party and a Tangled party." See what I mean?

I love how she loves to go on errands with me. My happy little sidekick everywhere I go. Seriously, she doesn't give me a moment's trouble. Such a good girl and I love it. Not to mention she is fun and cute too!

She is an animal lover. Every night/nap she MUST sleep with her pillow pet rabbit, her blankie, and 2-5 stuffed animals of her choice. Here is a pic of her sleeping with her monkey "Bananas" and "Unicorn."

Sometimes she replaces a stuffed animal with a real one...our dog Daisy!


It's only fair that a girl this good deserves 3 birthday celebrations! The first one was at the traditional Fast Sunday dinner at G & G Clark's house. All of the Clarks get together at Grandma's house on Fast Sunday and we celebrate all of the birthdays in that month. Nobody else shares a birthday in February so she got it for herself. Since it was close to Valentine's Day we made a pink cake with red sprinkles. She got a Strawberry Shortcake movie and a darling plush cupcake that houses a cute little puppy inside:





The second birthday was on her actual birthday. We were in Moab...man what a way to celebrate! Besides all of the fun that comes with being on vacation, we went to a pizza joint and had a cookie sundae for her birthday treat:

The last celebration was with the Guffey's. We went up to the cabin, she shared this party with her cousin Bode. His is just a couple weeks after hers. She got a plasma car thing that she loves!



I hope she knows how much we all love her and how happy we are to have her in our family!

We love you Quincy Lu.

Cozy Fun

For Valentine's Day, I gave BS a little get-a-way with me. We stayed a night at the Alaskan Inn up Ogden Canyon. I took a picture of the cabin we stayed in called the Kodiak. It was bliss.

The original plan was to spend the whole day skiing at Snowbasin and then go to the nearby cabins. But BS was soooo sore from the 34 mile race he had ran just 3 days prior. We also didn't get out the door as early as we hoped. So, we opted for lunch at Settebello, a little shopping at the Gateway, a movie with coke and popcorn, and then we checked-in to our little abode early. Later, for dinner, we drove 3 miles down the canyon to eat at one of our old favorites called The Timbermine. Yummy steak and baked potatoe and a cookie pie. Every bit as good as we remember.

Then it was back to our cabin where we got to sleep-in until 10:00! Breakfast was delivered to our room.
We returned home just in time to get Quincy to her dance class after pre-school. It was only 24 hours, but it's amazing what a little break with your hubby can do. Thanks Megan and Josh for taking good care of our kiddos!

Here is BS skiing the back country:

Jimmered

As mentioned in other posts, our kids are huge Cougar fans. Especially Millie. I don't know where they get it from. I mean, both BS and I are BYU alumni, but we aren't hard core Cougar only fans. We cheer for the U too.
Millie has been a big fan for a few years now. That was pre - Jimmer Fredette. Now she is totally hard core. She has a crush. Even BS has a man crush. Check out these shirts he got for the girls:

With the boys just ending their basketball season, they have really been into the Jazz and BYU basketball games as well.
So, we took the kids to a game last week against Colorado State. It was an awesome game and we had a really fun time! They have the school song memorized and they love to stand and cheer with the band and crowd. Millie is intensely watching them in action:

We are even considering going to Las Vegas next weekend to watch them in the tournament.

But this very moment as I'm typing this post, we are watching them play and they are losing BAD. They just lost Brandon Davies and it's getting hard to watch. BS just walked out of the room and won't even watch anymore! He gets really into his sports.

Here's Will and Sambo during one of the cheer songs during a time out - basically singing Ooo Ooo Ooo... Go Cougars! Watch him after the song...classic Wilbur T. Thomas...in his own world thinking about something and counting who know's what!?
And then there's Sambo - soooo fired up!






Keeping our fingers crossed.
Goooooooo Cougars!