Pre - Christmas

The fun continues...

First, here's the kids in their Christmas outfits ready for church:


By the way, our ward was split just a couple weeks ago, we have lots of new families to meet! I also have a new calling - Activity Day Leader! I am excited especially because I will be with Millie!

Then, we had the lovely annual Christmas sing at Ridgeline Elementary:




Then, one of our favorite Uncles came home from his mission 2 days before Christmas!
Welcome home Sean! We went to the airport to greet him then had a party at Grandpa Judy's!


Millie and Sean are tight! The brothers: Sam, Sean, Adam, Jake


The Party:

Here is Quin looking so cute in her party outfit from Hotch Potch:

*And in between all of the events leading up to Christmas, Mom is sacrificing sleep - sewing and sewing, card making and card making....in order to meet deadlines for Christmas orders. She also thought she needed one more thing to do and offered to help her friend sell adorable headbands that are in high demand. Hustle and bustle. Whew!

Pre - Pre - Christmas

Because Sam and I have families that live close (within an hour both North and South), and also because we are so blessed to have such an awesome neighborhood and friends, there is always a get-together of some sort, and especially around the holidays. It all starts about the 1st weekend in December (yes, we did just get Thanksgiving over) and from there it's just party after party after party. This is a good thing! We love parties!
So, this post is about a couple of the events we had a couple weeks ago. Though there were other parties, these are just the ones I took pictures. To my friends and family who are reading this, I would like to thank-you for the fun times at Christmas parties this year and I would really like pictures from you if you don't see your party below (especially Whitney) :)

Neighborhood Hayride with Santa:
We hosted the 2nd annual neighbor party where we donate to a charity instead of making/giving neighborhood gifts. Everyone came with a donation, rode with Santa on a hayride, sang carols, enjoyed hot chocolate and doughnuts, and mingled. It was super fun, and a great turn-out.
For some reason, Santa Claus looked a heck of a lot like Grandpa Tom! Quincy was really nervous and scared of him at first, but after a few minutes with him, she warmed up to Santa not knowing who he really was! But thanks to him, she is no longer afraid of Santa! The boys had no idea either. He did a really good job.

Family Party at the Cabin:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

P.S. Happy Birthday Sam! We love you!

Christmas Card

O Christmas Tree

The tradition of getting our fresh Christmas tree continues, except this year the 6 Clarks picked-out our tree in record time! We picked the coldest day of the winter so far to take family pictures and get our tree!
I used the pictures for our Christmas card and you would never guess that we were sooooo freezing! I even had to take Quincy's picture an hour later because she was crying in all of the others. A little hot chocolate and a candy cane did the trick. We also told her she could have her picture taken with Daisy and that perked her up for 10 seconds so we could get a grin out of her. So even though you can't see Daisy in the picture, she was sitting there and got cropped out. The other kids were champs.
Anyway, we used the bribe of telling the kids that we could go pick-out our tree next if they were good.
So here we are, next to our choice. We were out of the car, in the tree field, and back in the car in 10 minutes! Loaded on the car in 20. This usually takes a good hour or so but because of the nippy weather, we really didn't care WHAT our tree looked like. Sam and I were so glad that the kids felt the same!
But it's funny how sometimes, whether you spend 1 minute or all day on something, the shorter way turns out better. Because it fits perfect into our cozy little family room. I debated putting it in our front room where it can be seen from the street, but I like to have it where I can see it all day, next to the fireplace and stockings.
The kids did an awesome job decorating it! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!
Quin on the way home...whew what a big day!

Christmas Recitals

It's always a joy watching Millie perform in her Christmas recitals...
First was her dance performance at the Festival of Trees. We love going to the Festival of Trees, it's a fun tradition, but I swear the whole population of Utah was there the same night we were! She danced to "Let it Snow", the same routine from the filming of the Disneyland parade.

Sambo opted to go to tumbling instead of watching "boring dance"

Isn't this a lovely pose?The next week she performed at a recital at Summit Academy. Here she is dancing a lyrical:


Then last week was her piano recital. Even though she won't admit it, she really likes piano. She really dislikes practicing, but she loves to perform her songs once she knows them.
She did a great job, below is a clip of her playing one of her songs, a duet with her teacher Jill.


She is also lucky because her friend next door takes from the same teacher so they get to hang-out together.
I'm so proud of her confidence and the way she glows when she is on stage. Good job Mills.

BTW: Watch for her on Christmas morning on channel 4 dancing in the Disney Christmas parade. She is wearing a snowman costume. Also watch the backgrounds for maybe a glimpse of our family?

Little Mommy

During Thanksgiving break, I walked upstairs and I had to grab my camera because this is what I saw:Quincy was wiping and changing her cousin's diaper! This cousin is only 3 weeks younger than her but outweighs her by 10 pounds. She did this all on her own and I love how Bode is just chilling and letting her wipe his bum and put on his diaper like she's a grown-up!

Oh I love this girl.

Thanksgiving at the Cabin

I've mentioned before our excitement about being able to go back to our family cabin in East Canyon. We spent 4 days there over Thanksgiving weekend and I can't begin to explain how good it felt to be back there. As usual, yummy food and lots of fun things to do....or not. You can do nothing if you want and it's the perfect place to do everything and nothing. Besides eat and relax, here's a taste of what we did:

Four-Wheeling

Making Fudge and licking the bowl!

Exploring Outside

Traditional breaking the "Wishbone"

Play the Wii together

Lay Around

Play with Cousins

Target Shooting with Uncle Kirk (even Millie did it)

Helping Uncle Shad paint

Getting in the tubby lots

Wathing the BYU vs. Utah football game!

(They are supposed to be making a "Y", they are avid Cougar fans)

Good Times I tell you!

Back Burner

The blog has been put on the back burner lately. I have been up to lots of stuff.
Stuff like:

Christmas Shopping.
Designing Christmas cards.
Sewing.
Recovering from a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.
Christmas decorating.
Doing our tradition of finding and cutting down a Christmas tree.
Church calling.
Working at the hospital.
Planning neighborhood Christmas parties.
Planning friend parties.
Planning family parties.
Carpooling.
More driving, mostly to Mtn. Green and back.
and such.

Oh yeah, and this:www.hotchpotch.blogspot.com

Starting a business is lots of work! Holy cow. But it has been so much fun to spend so much time with my sister. We are doing this for fun and with encouragement from many.

This is what I have not been up to the last 2 weeks:

Cleaning.
Cooking.
Doing laundry.

Nope, those things have also been put on the back burner the last couple weeks. Because of that, this is what my room looked like yesterday:

Yep, that's a gigantic pile of dirty laundry on the floor, thanks to my kids gathering all the clothes from their hampers. This picture really doesn't do the hugeness justice! And my bed isn't made!

But notice I said yesterday. Because today I sewed 16 pairs of Christmas PJs/nightgowns trying to meet a deadline and some elf did ALL of my laundry. He's the best ever I tell you. Thanks.

And the kids have been awesome. They think it's pretty fun to see everyone's family pictures when I'm doing cards, and being my mannequin when sewing.

I will post Thanksgiving and other happenings soon. I hope.