Holidays 2012

So it's been a while since I posted and for that I apologize. I'll give you a watered down version of our Thanksgiving and two Christmas celebrations.

We had Thanksgiving with my family in Alpine which was a lot of fun! Colin, Kibby, and Jack and Peter and Tim were all there which of course made for a wild dinner! We invited Sabrina to spend the day with us and she graciously accepted and it was so great to have her with us that day. You'd think we would see more of Sabrina and Summer when we only live about 2 and a half hours away from each other but I guess life is busy. Imagine that??

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving:

 Here are my technology obsessed brothers...and we wonder where Clarke gets it!

 My mom never disappoints! Beautiful!

Cute boys with their cute Grandma 

As for Christmas this year, Clarke met Santa at a Spina Bifida support group activity at Boonodocks. It was so nice to talk with families who understand what we're going through with Clarke and who don't bat an eye when you start asking about catheters and bladder studies. It was a really fun night and Alex and I hit the jackpot in the arcade and won tons of tickets! Haha it was great.

After Alex finished finals we spent a few days hanging out at home and then we headed to Utah County where we saw Alex's grandparents (I guess not in Utah county but you know) and then we flew to Virginia to spend Christmas with Alex's family. Sabrina flew with us which was AWESOME! It was nice to have help with Clarke but also to catch up with her since we hadn't seen her in a while. Clarke did amazingly well on the flights. We had two layovers which was rough but he slept for a little while on the second flight and he was pretty darn happy on the other flights as well (as long as he had someone's ipod to play with - no joke - if he even sees an iphone in church, he'll burst into tears when we tell him it's not ours so he can't have it. Ridiculous.).

After arriving in Virginia, we proceeded to have an amazing week with Alex's family. It was the first time all of us had been together in a long time and it was SO fun for his family to spend an extended amount of time with Clarke. Clarke slept well the whole time we were there and he was just awesome (as usual). We went into D.C. a couple of times and went to the National Zoo. We met up with Amy, A.J. and Jane and my parents and Tim who were staying in NJ. It was super fun to see all of them and spend time with them! Denise and Mario were very generous and fed them two nights in a row. We had a great time being together.

As for Christmas, we got a ton of fun stuff from Santa and Alex's family. They were very generous but we mostly had a wonderful time just being together as a family. We wish we could see Alex's parents and Adam more often. It's hard to live so far away but we are very grateful that we got to spend such an amazing week with them!!!

After we flew home (Clarke did great on the way back as well), we had Christmas #2 with my family on New Year's day. We played stocking BINGO (a new tradition that I think we will continue on future Christmas eves) where we played Bingo and won stocking stuffer-type presents. For example, we won a small calzone maker. We've had some delicious calzones as of late. We also got really fun stuff from my parents and siblings at this Christmas. Clarke was pretty spoiled between the two Christmases. It was so fun to see him and Jack play together with their new toys. They are such cute cousins and we wish we saw their family more too. We had a great time being with family and laughing together. That's one thing my family is really good at - laughing. You can always count on it when we get together. I love that about us.

Overall, we a had a fantastic time this holiday season. I wish we had more to celebrate/ look forward to during the first few months of the new year. January is probably the most dreadful month of the year for me - ESPECIALLY since we moved to Logan. It has been snowing a ton and it just barely got above the negatives or single digits. It's freezing here and Clarke and I are freezing with it. My mom and I have daily conversations about our need to get out of this weather. Hopefully we can make it happen soon! I'm so done with this but I know it's just begun! Ahhh!!! Anyway, here are some pictures of Christmas:

Meeting Santa

Our lovely Nativity play on Christmas eve

Singing lots of Christmas hymns on Christmas eve - what a fun tradition!

Clarke's adorable pajamas!!!

Christmas morning! 

Clarke riding the metro for the first time! 

The Natural History museum

All of us at the Dulles Airport Air and Space museum. Awesome museum but even more awesome people.

Cousin love

Oh how I miss these girls. Love them!

Clarke playing with the kitchen my parents gave him for Christmas. He loves it! This is one of the rare moments when Clarke is just in his diaper. I don't know, we just don't do the no clothes thing. Maybe we're weird. 

I don't have any pictures from our Christmas in Alpine which I am very sad about! Sorry to be so lame!

The end.

Cutest wave ever

Where did this little guy go? He's growing up so fast!

Lips and Computers

Clarke loves to kiss and smack his lips. 

Clarke is also slightly obsessed with computers.

Birthday boy

So we had a great time celebrating Clarke's first birthday. We opened up a few presents on his actual birthday and then had cupcakes that night. He wasn't too sure about the cupcake so he mostly just played with the frosting and spit out whatever cupcake made it into his mouth. Silly boy!

On Saturday we had a little birthday party for him. Clarke was pretty tired by the time we gave him his cute cake so it didn't quite go according to plan. I'll let the video speak for itself.

I cannot believe that it's been a whole year since Clarke was born. It's so strange to think about where we were a year ago with Clarke. We've come a long way since that crazy hospital experience at the beginning of his little life. We had no idea where this next year would take us and although it's been rough at times, it's been the best year of our lives. We are so grateful Clarke is doing so well! He is crawling, climbing up on things, getting into everything, and just being the happiest little boy we could have ever asked for. He is such a joy and we love him so much. What a little miracle.

Here are some pictures of all of the birthday festivities!

 Decorations on the morning of his birthday. 

 Kissing the horse (no, not biting its head off) that Aunt Barbara sent him. Such a sweet gift. We love it and it will always remind of us Uncle Peter. 

 This boy loves his mac and cheese. It's about the only table food he will consistently eat. 

 Loving whole milk! 

The cupcake experience on his actual birthday

 His "I'm so done with this cupcake and I want that camera, so give it to me" look.

 Opening presents 

 Watching some Disney sing along songs with Mom - he does not cuddle like this very often so it was so sweet. 

 Sharing pears with Mom

Alex made Clarke this adorable birthday cake. Good job, Dad! 

Clarke was not so sure about the cake. Can you see the tear streaks?

Singing happy birthday to him on his actual birthday.

Now contrast that experience with this one. So sad!

Happy Birthday, Clarke!

Clarke Henry turned one year old today! I can't believe it's been a whole year since that sweet little boy came to our family. We love him so much and can't imagine our life without him.

We had a fun day of presents and cupcakes and we'll have more festivities this weekend. Pictures to come!

Halloween festivities and such

Here are some pictures of our recent adventures here in Logan. 

Clarke being cute.

 Alex treated me to a living room crepe picnic one Sunday evening after Clarke was in bed. I love him. 

 Clarke watching the rain one blustery and rainy afternoon. He was mesmerized. Is that not the cutest, sweetest little face? Oh and the cutest, chubbiest little hand? Oh how we love this little boy!

 Our pre-carving pumpkin decorations. Compliments of Grandma Gretch - thanks Mom!!

 Decorating some Halloween sugar cookies. Again, compliments of G-ram. Thanks, Mom!

The mouse family at a Stake Primary Halloween party. It was early in the month so we didn't quite have our real costumes put together so we went with this theme. As you can see, Clarke wasn't quite as into his mickey ears as much as he was at Disneyland this summer. Darn.

 Tired boys. This little man did not want to nap.....seems to be happening more and more often these days.

 Dad and Clarke built a fort last Friday afternoon! Clarke didn't quite know what to make of it.

 Alex and I proceeded to have our Friday night date inside the fort after Clarke was in bed (pizza and a movie.......not the most comfortable date ever but still adventurous I suppose). Who knew lacrosse sticks were such great fort-building tools?!

Our real Halloween costumes! The Lion, the Scarecrow and Dorothy. Sorry for the semi-lame pictures -we took them with our self-timer but you get the gist.

 Our extraordinarily happy little Lion!

 Our sweet, adorable little lion

 Our mischevious little lion

 Our annoyed little lion (how he spent the entire evening)

 Our courageous little lion who is trying to grab the camera. 

 The carving of the pumpkins. You can probably guess who did the spooky one. Yes, Alex. I carved the cute cat with some sweet, off-centered ears. I also carved the moon/star beauty. 

Overall, it's been a pretty fun month!! Halloween hasn't even happened yet but we'll probably take Clarke trick-or-treating around the townhouses we live in and then it's off to bed for that cute boy. He turns a YEAR OLD next week so we'll definitely be posting about that in the next little bit! I can't believe it's already been a whole year! It's been quite an adventure but we could not have asked for a more perfect little boy to be in our family. We feel so blessed to have him and we love him so much!

Happy Halloween!!

He's crawling!

Clarke is officially crawling!!!!! I don't think he quite realizes what he can do with this new ability but he's getting there. He is at such a fun stage and we love him so much!! He is ten months old and growing up so fast! What a cutie!

And just for the sake of cuteness:

 This boy loves his bucket!!!!

 Clarke scratches the side of his head when he's tired so that's why he looks like a mad scientist in this picture. He was super tired right here although this picture makes you think otherwise. 

 Bear Lake! So fun!!! We love living close to the lake. Next summer will be a blast with little Clarke man!

I just found this picture from this summer. Love.

P.S. We live in Logan and we love it. That is all.