Triple Blow-out

Blow-Out #1:

After attending a workshop for the first half of the day yesterday, I rushed home to grab the kids who were home with a babysitter (thanks Maddy). Dad was on an airplane coming home from San Francisco. I was in a huge hurry to get up to Mountain Green so I could prepare and decorate for my big brother's BIG surprise 40th birthday party. My mom had back surgery so she couldn't do it, my sister was out-of-town so she couldn't do it, so it was left up to me. I was happy to do it, but because my brother knows the whole world we invited lots of people and I knew they would be arriving at 5:00. We had everything else planned and taken care of weeks before so I wasn't too worried about what I had to do. Anyway at 1:45 I picked-up the kids and started driving quickly down the hill. We were on our way and I was feeling good about things. Just seconds after getting onto the freeway I heard a loud thump followed by a quiet hiss. My heart sank...I knew that sound. I pulled over and examined, hoping to find nothing. But there it was:
At this point I'm a bit stressed but not too worried because I knew Sam had recently opened an account with AAA (Triple A). I called and soon discovered I was not going to get any help from them because only Sam's name was on the account, not mine. So next I started calling repair shops. 30 minutes later a yellow repair truck pulled-up behind me and a nice man named "Whitey" started lowering the spare (I admit I had no idea how to do that) and getting to work. The kids were intrigued and thought it was fun being stranded on the side of a busy freeway.Soon he informed me that my wheels had security lugnuts on them and that he needs a special key to get them off. Apparently, people with nice rims put these on so they won't get stollen. Thanks but no thanks. He told me to look in the jockey box...I did, and there was a key, but it was the wrong one. The guy we bought the car from had accidentally put the wrong key in. SO, he called another guy and 30 more minutes later he showed up with his variety of lugnut keys. Luckily, one of them fit. Pretty soon the spare tire was on. At this point I am super stressed because it is now 3:45. I'm making phone calls to my dad and my friend (thanks Connie) asking them to get the stuff because I know I'm not going to have time.

Blow-Out #2:

So it's fixed and just as I'm settling up with Whitey, I hear the kids start yelling, "it stinks!" and "gross!" and "there's poo on my seat!" I look at Quincy and she has shi* all over her legs, hands, and everywhere in the car she had been crawling and sitting on in the last few minutes! Gotta love blow-out up the back.
Tears start welling up in my eyes and I let out a VERY quiet but desperate "Oh my hell." Then Millie starts crying and gives me a look that could kill and says "I can't believe you just swore!
I was not in the mood for her scolding so I ignored her and quickly started wiping up the poop with the 5 wipes that I had left. I am very flustered at this point. Very stressed. It's 4:00, the surprise is in an hour and I'm an hour away. The kids are hungry, tired, and trashed. Joy.

Blow-Out #3:

Needless to say, we made it just in time and things worked out just fine (like they always seem to do). We had an awesome turn-out and the surprise party was a success. My brother, Uncle Shad, is a pilot and he thought he was helping his pilot friend with a candy drop. Little did he know that when he flew over his newly built airplane hangar that he was dropping candy down to all of us, his family and friends, hanging out ready to celebrate his birthday. We held a big sign that said "Happy Birthday Shad" so he could see it from the air. They landed and came over and we were all there waiting for him. Even Grandma Cindy who is recovering was able to come over for a bit. Sam arrived just in time as well. The only thing missing was a birthday cake because we had Cold Stone serve us ice cream treats. So pretend that he "blew-out" 40 birthday candles!











What a day.

The Great Man Graduates

We have called Will the "great man" for quite sometime because when he was 3 years old, one day he looked at us and said, "I'm a great man." We agreed, so we affectionately refer to him as that often.

Last Friday was another milestone in our family...he graduated from Pre-K! And don't you dare call it pre-school or he will quickly correct you.

These pics were taken the day before his graduation; they had a water party at school and he was so pumped!




















He did so well on his speaking part and he definitely sang the loudest for most the songs. You know how when people get in front of an audience some get shy, some get embarrassed, some show-off...well, Will gets silly. He deals with his nerves by acting silly and pulling funny faces (or pulling his Santa hat over his whole face like he did last year for almost the entire program). What a goof-ball. But he really was well behaved and that is another sign that indeed he is growing up. I really can't stand it.

Mom played the piano while the kids sang at the graduation and afterward he kept giving me big loves and telling me "thank-you for playing my songs."

Thanks Grandpa Tom and Alixann for coming to cheer him on! Grandpa took a break from taking care of Grandma Cindy...she had back surgery last week but is doing really well.




















Quincy was Will's biggest supporter, she kept clapping and cheering for him. She really loves her big brother and looks forward to playing with him every day. They take good care of each other.

















Here he is with some of his best buddies: Taylon, Xander, and Kai. They all live super close to us and the best part is that his school is just up the street and we can go on walks to drop-off and pick-up.













Congratulations, Mr. "Wilbur T. Thomas Clark!" (That's what he tells people his whole name is). I sometimes worry that people think his name really is Wilbur. Can you think of a worse name? Oh well. :)

Business in front, party in back

The boys finally gave-in to letting us buzz their hair for the summer. With Will it was a no brainer...it only took 4 swipes of the clippers to give him a Mississippi mud flap:

Sambo, however had to go a different route - his is more of a weak classic mullet:
At the end of the haircuts, Dad offered to pay both of them $5 bucks to wear their hair like that to church but I guess they got scared off because we couldn't stop laughing!
It's amazing how much the boys look alike with their buzz cuts, especially when they smile, and how they look completely different with longer hair. Sambo's is a brown thick straight rug and



Will's is blond wavy fine.
Mom looks forward to hair gel-free days this summer!

Take a Hint

This post might make some of you mom's out there a little mad or even a little jealous. At least those of you that have had/are having issues and challenges with potty training. Here I am, in complete denial that my baby girl is a big girl, not a baby, while she keeps giving me hints that she is ready to be out of diapers.
I bought the Quincess a new "froggy potty" about a month ago. I was not intending on buying one that day, I just walked by it at Target and there is was, so cute and cheap. I thought to myself, "Maybe we will work on this in the fall when the kids are back in school and I can stay home for 3 days."
But she keeps giving me hints like carrying her potty into every room and sitting on it, asking me to take off her diaper and then sitting on it, putting her babies on the potty and saying, "baby going potty!" and putting Elmo on the potty and saying, "Elmo going potty!"Then today we were at Subway and she looked up at me and said, "I go bafroom" and started walking towards the bathrooms. I quickly took her in, ripped off her diaper, and sat her on the toilet. She sat there for a few seconds then let out a big fart! Okay so it's not actually going potty but she tried!

It's amazing to me because we haven't taught her any of this (not talking about the farting)...she is simply the youngest child who is very observant of EVERYTHING her siblings and parents do! She really is incredible in her ability to understand most things (for a 2 year old) and her ability to communicate.
SO, I guess I'm gonna have to accept that she really is a "big girl" and pull-out those cute tiny panties and get going on the potty training. The only problem is finding a 3 day gap where I don't have to leave the house!

My Little Shadow

In a previous post I mention how Quincy mimics just about everything we do (as most kids do). Well the other day I got a bloody nose just as I was rushing out the door to take the kids to the bus stop. I didn't have time to deal with it and I was also worried about getting blood on the new car so I quickly stuffed a wad of toilet paper up my nose to plug it. You know what I'm talking about.
A little later that day, Quincy disappeared for a minute, then came out of my bedroom looking like this:
I was laughing so hard! My friend Megan was at my house and I'm sure she thought we were WAY weird!

Oh BTW, we did get our new car a week ago and we love it! It's an Escalade ESV. It's the size of a Suburban. It's black. Never had a black car. It was a good deal. It has DVD and Playstation. Apparently it has sweet wheels...I wouldn't know. It's pimped out. I just need my doo rag.

WOW

For the Reflections contest at school last fall, Millie made a video (well, started to make a video) about the theme which was "WOW." In the video she introduced her idea as "WOW" being "MOM" flipped upside-down. Then she goes on to say all of the things that make her think WOW about her mom (me).
It made me feel so good to hear her talk about all the things I do that she notices and loves because most of the time I feel like none of my kids notice or appreciate it all that much! I know other moms know what I'm talking about. Most days we just exist to serve, take orders, drive around, feed, pay for, and bathe our kids. But its the moments when they do say, "thanks mom" or "I love you so much" or such things as giving hugs/kisses that make my heart melt and make me feel like the most blessed woman in the world.
I experienced lots of these moments the last couple days...Mothers day weekend. Saturday Grandpa Tom (my dad) had everyone up for a delicious dinner. He did all of the work, thanks Dad! It was so nice to be able to relax for awhile. Sunday I woke-up to Sam and the kids fixing my favorite breakfast. Then it was overload of home-made cards and gifts from the kids, each expressing their love to me. I also got a pedi gift certificate :) Then we went to church where the kids sang a beautiful song in sacrament. After church we drove down to Grandma Judy's and had a really enjoyable afternoon/evening as well as a yummy dinner that everyone contributed to, so no moms had to work too much. Thanks Judy, Casey, Jess, Candice, and Jenny! We even got to talk to Uncle Elder Sean in Minnesota!
Being a mom is the best, and having the best mom(s) ever is the best! I love you mom! Hope all the "moms" in my life had a nice day and remembered how we have the most awesomest job in the world (hard, but awesome)!
Oh yeah, and thanks to Aunt Bee for coming and having a sleep-over with us Friday! The kids LOVE when you guys come! It helped Millie feel not so jealous about you getting married and caring more about Doug then her! ;)

Random Clark Happenings

We LOVE Draper Park! We spent about 2 hours there recently and it was perfect in that it has really fun playground stuff for all ages, as well as a great bike/jogging path lined with trees. Here are some pics:
Then the boys had a great time giving dad a buzz cut:

Next Amilia danced AWESOME at her duet and team comp. last Saturday...the boys even went to support her as well as Grandma Cindy, Aunt Heidi, and Alixann. She really is a good little dancer/tumbler... such a cute little thing!
One of these days I need to upload a video of her dances. Oh yeah and her piano recital (I promised Grandpa and Grandma I would).

Whew! That's it for now.