It's a GIRL!!

Christa had her baby!! Of the four babies being born these past and next few weeks, Christa's was the only one that we didn't know the sex of. And the verdict is in: it's a GIRL!

Alexandra Bailey West

was born just after 10am yesterday morning, weighing 6 lbs, 13 oz and reaching 20 inches long! Christa had a successful VBAC, YAY!! And from what I hear, mother and baby are doing well. I still don't have pictures yet but I'll post one as soon as I do!

Tally so far: 1 nephew 11/6/08, 1 niece 11/16/08
Still to come: 2 nieces (unless doctors are wrong but I really doubt that), 12/12/08?? and 12/15/08!

Thanks Chuck!!

So in the middle of all the busyness, I suppose Chuck felt he wasn't busy enough because while Mom & I were cleaning Lissa's apartment, Chuck was painting mine! Anyone who's seen our front room would agree that, although a beautiful color, it was too dark and it was too much for that room. I was never offended that people didn't like it....it didn't take us too long to figure out we didn't like it either (well, for the whole room, I mean, so much of it; I still always liked the color) but we just didn't really have the funds to change it. Anyway, Chuck never liked it. And since he's a painter by trade, I'm sure it bugged him more than others. So he painted it! He and Paul picked out a color, a much lighter blue, and started Friday night. It was a surprise for me. I really like it. And of course we got to talking about what we would want to do next.....and before I knew it Chuck was working on painting our kitchen too! Seriously, I never expected any of it. Not to mention, the first thing he did when he got here was fix our leaky shower valves so that we can finally take care of the huge hole in our downstairs bathroom. So here are the results!

New Baby, Great Visit!

This past week/week and a half has been very busy, but very wonderful!!

Saturday, November 1st: Paul & I (along with some of Nate's family) helped Lissa & Nate move into their new apartment at the U.

Monday, November 4th: Lissa, Peggy (Nate's mom), and I worked on getting the baby's room unpacked, along with some boxes of books.

Wednesday, November 5th: Mom & Chuck got here, Lissa was admitted to the hospital. Mom & Chuck showed up at about 1:30 in the morning and since they kept Lissa's key to our house after their last visit, we didn't have to wake up to let them in which was nice. The next day was spent recovering from their drive and then that night Mom, the boys & I had planned to spend the night at Lissa's apartment so we could be close first thing in the morning and work on cleaning the apartment in the meantime. We went up to LDS Hospital with Lissa that evening as she was admitted to be induced (at already a week and a half late). We hung out at the hospital, played a very quick game of Monopoly (Mom won!) and I ended up coming home with Paul & the boys that night instead of going to Lissa's apartment while Mom and Chuck stayed at the hospital the whole night.

Fun side note here: Melissa was checked in by one of Mom's Young Women from Sacramento!! She used to babysit us as children. She and Mom hadn't seen each other in 20+years!! Turns out she only works about 2 nights a week there and she wasn't even supposed to work that night but ended up going in anyway! She and Mom talked all night long from what I hear. It was a fun surprise for both of them.

Thursday, November 6th: Lissa called me at about 9:30am to let me know she was at a 5 and her water had broken and after getting my car registered (finally!), the boys and I made it to the hospital at about noon.....just after they took her in to do an emergency c-section. I was really bummed to hear that when I got there. Turns out the baby was face up and every time she contracted his heartbeat dropped dramatically. She never got past a 7. So that makes 4 for 4 for the Clark girls and c-sections. I'm really hoping Christa can make the VBAC work. C-sections really are no fun! When they finally brought Lissa back to the hospital room, Nate was following her with a baby!

Clark Abram McDonald -- 7 lbs 8 oz, 20 inches

Friday, November 7th: Friday night Mom and I did spend the night at Lissa & Nate's so we could get it cleaned up before she got home since she didn't have a lot of time to unpack that week. She treated me to dinner Friday night and that was fun. (I took her to T.G.I.Fridays; she'd never been there before but she loved it!) By the time we got back to the apartment it was pretty late so we didn't get anything done Friday night and it ended up taking nearly all day Saturday. Mom was up by 6:30, I was up by 7:30 and we started working by 8, if not before, and besides taking a few minutes to eat some breakfast and take showers, we worked non-stop til about 6pm. We didn't even stop for lunch because we were making such great progress and we kept hoping we could get it done sooner. We were hoping to spend more time with Lissa at the hospital that day but hopefully she was grateful to go home Sunday and feel like she could actually rest without having to worry about unpacking still. Too bad we didn't get any before pics to share!

Happy Halloween!

Last night started the first of the 3 Nights of Halloween trick-or-treat treat this year. We had a ward Halloween party complete with a chili/soup dinner, a carnival for the kids (where they got really cool glow-in-the-dark bracelets!), and then some trunk-or-treating. We got the boys all dressed up in their costumes, Wyan the Wion and Ben the Great Pumpkin! They did fantastic trick-or-treating and said thanks to everyone. Ben exclaimed somewhere in the middle of the trick-or-treating, "I love Halloween!" And Paul reported that as he buckled Ryan in to go home that Ryan told him, "Trick-or-treating is awesome!" They're both very excited to go again tonight. I told Ryan as I put him to bed, "Tomorrow is Halloween!" And he said, "Again?!" So I had to explain that last night was the fake Halloween and today is the real Halloween.

We usually go to Grandma's ward trunk-or-treat every year on Halloween night so that's the plan this year. And Saturday night (I know, weird) the Cosmo Kid's Club is doing their Halloween party on BYU's campus for kids club members.....which (naturally) my kids are. And Ryan is so excited about trick-or-treating with Cosmo that we'd really let him down if we don't take him. So that's it, 3 nights in a row of trick-or-treating!

Happy Birthday Mom!

This is MY MOM! Today is her birthday and I just thought I'd let everyone know what a great mom she is! She has been a huge support to me throughout my life as well as a great roommate, a personal/spiritual advisor, a fun grandma, and most of all a best friend! She is incredibly talented and has always been a wonderful example to me of faith, hard work, endurance, and love.

I love you, Mom!

Sorry!

So I know it's been a very long time since I've posted. Sorry about that. (Side Note: Has anybody else noticed my posting habit? It goes 1, then 6, then 2, and then repeats all over again? That means next month should be a good month! (Well, that's when I was only thinking I'd have one post for this month. I guess I kind of messed that up since now there are/will be officially 4 from this month.) Anyway, we've been busy, busy, busy between Cub Scouts, Enrichment, (I'm both Wolf Den Leader and Enrichment Leader in our ward. It makes for some busier moments for sure.) and Halloween! And preparing for Mom's visit and this weekend we're helping Lissa move..... Anyway, busy is good, I really do get more done, I think.
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So for the last couple of weeks Paul & I have made a goal that I get up with him every morning so we can read some scriptures together before he goes to work. It started of pretty well and then a week into it, his schedule got changed and now he's going in half an hour earlier...7:00 instead of 7:30. Which wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't already hard enough for me to get up at 6:45; now it has to be 6:15! But even through the schedule change I have continued to get up with him and I must confess, even though it's hard for me (anyone who knows me well knows I'm not much of a morning person), I actually like it....sort of. Tuesday, Paul, trying to be considerate, allowed me to sleep in and to be honest, I kind of wished I'd gotten up. I told him thanks for the thoughtfulness but I think in the future I'd prefer he just get me up! And I meant it!!.....I KNOW! If I have a night where I really just don't sleep well, I'd still prefer to get up and then just take a nap later. It's only been about 2 weeks I've been doing this but it really has made a difference for me. I've been able to take time after Paul leaves (and if I'm lucky, before my boys are up but most of the time now Ryan gets up to see Daddy off in the morning) to read scriptures personally and really take time for personal prayers in the mornings. It took less time than I thought for my spirit to adjust to that....now if I could just get my body to adjust!
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This month Ryan and Ben have been watching a lot of home videos from when he was born, birthdays, Halloween and Christmas last year, and just random recordings. It's been so much fun to watch how much they've progressed and how much they enjoy watching the younger versions of themselves. They will watch them over and over and over again and never get tired of them! I'm so thankful we took the money when we had it to invest in such a worthy toy. I will always be able to treasure the memories we make as a family and they've meant more to me than I ever thought they would have.
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Thus far this year we've been able to take the boys to 3 BYU football games. It's been fun but it's a lot of work at the same time. I'm really embarrased to say though that 2 of the three times I had my camera on me and I didn't get any pictures. I'm still learning to be in the habit of taking pictures. Anyway, we took the boys to one game with Grandma & Papa and then two games with Kendra & Graham. Ryan did awesome! He sang the fight song everytime we scored and appeared to have fun. Ben on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the stadium and the experience, but wasn't as big a fan for sitting for 3-4 hours straight. At the first game we took him to, by half-time he was done. I took him down to get something and he refused (and I mean reFUSED) to go back up to the seats. So we walked up and down the ramps the entire second half of the game. For his second game, I was able to convince him to stay for 3 quarters before we walked the ramps, and then the third game I was able to keep him in the bleachers the whole game. I think he had the most fun at that game too because he actually danced and sang the fight song when we scored and was more attentive that time. I had a camera (thanks to Kendra) for that game but then the batteries died before I could get his little dance recorded. Oh well, there's always next year!
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In other news, Lissa and Nate came and hung out with us Sunday night and that was fun. I figured since she's supposed to be having a baby any minute now that we'd better have them over one more time before we probably won't get to see them down this way for awhile. So we ate chicken & rice (or as my family has always called it "Sunday Chicken") and then played Settlers of Zarahemla. I've never been very lucky in that game because I always manage to position myself on numbers that just don't get rolled very often. It can be a lengthy game but Nate was apparently positioned perfectly in the first game because that one lasted, what, 20 minutes, I think? And he beat us so bad I don't think anyone else had more than 2 points by the time he won. The second game took a little longer and was more of an actual challenge. Lissa & I both made it down to the end and were tied right before going out...Fortunately for me, due to Lissa's over-development (she didn't have anymore cities that she could place which would have won her the game) I was able to pull off my first win ever in the game! It was very exciting! I later learned I may have made a somewhat shady deal so I'll have to be more careful next time, but I considered it part of my strategy....and it worked!
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Other than that, I'm sure there are several little things throughout the month I probably said I needed to blog about but since I never did it, I probably don't remember what half, if any, of those instances are. I really do want to make sure I don't miss the special little things that make day-to-day life so enjoyable (my boys are SO FUNNY!!), and I've received some rather pointed comments for not blogging enough, so I will make a renewed effort to blog more. Please forgive me.

Lots Going On

I tried to post this over a week ago and something went awry, but here it is now:
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So it's been awhile since I've posted. There have been several little things where I've thought, hey! I need to write that down, only to continue NOT writing things down. I've put a few things in my MSN quote bar but then forgotten to type them down somewhere else so I don't even know if I remember all those funny little quotes.
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I do remember one though. It was a couple of weeks ago and Ryan asked Ben, "Ben, can I get you some water?" I thought it was so thoughtful of Ryan to ask Ben if he could serve him. And Ben's excited reply, "Yes!" was nice since he doesn't always want his big brother's help. But I had to laugh after that when Ryan then said, "Mommy, can you get Ben and me some water, please?" Yeah, serve his brother indeed. I guess he follows the sentiment, it's the thought that counts.
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Oh! & I just remembered the other funny quote I put up there of Ben's. Ben was being unreasonably emotional one day, throwing tantrums left and right and so I threatened him with a nap if he couldn’t get himself under control. "I'm going to put you to bed if you can't calm down." The threat only made him more upset. And then after a few moments of me not paying attention to him (trying to give him time to calm down) he started yelling, “Put me to bed! Put me to bed!” I willingly complied and he was happy to be put down. He took a long nap too!
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We really have had a quite a bit going on. I don't know if I mentioned that Paul & I are the new Wolf Den leaders in our ward. Wow! Talk about a challenge. Seven (it was EIGHT but one recently moved) active little 8 yr old boys! Last week Paul had a conference in Park City for his work and was there for a couple of nights so I got to do cub scouts all by myself Wednesday night. I thought about cancelling but knew that wouldn't really be fair to the boys. Instead I got one of the parents to join me and then we went over some requirements that would help most of the boys accomplish yet another "achievement" for a bead, that much closer to earning their Wolf. I was nervous about Paul not being there but it worked out pretty well. I put together a "Utah State Flag Pop Quiz" for the boys of 10 questions pertaining to things on the flag so that we could learn about the Utah state flag and they were awarded three pieces of candy corn for every answer they got right. I actually gave them the quiz before we went over any of the answers but they still did surprisingly well! Overall, I really think it was one of our more successful activities. The boys payed pretty good attention--well, better than usual anyway-- and I think they may actually remember some of it.....maybe not but it still went well.
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We've been attending BYU football home games and they've been a lot of fun. We took the boys with us to the last two and go figure, I had the camera and don't think I even got any pictures.....oh well, it's not like I don't have enough pictures of my boys with BYU football! Paul & I decided that we're not so sure if we could continue to be season ticket holders though because it takes up so much of the day. Two games a year (which is what we averaged before this year) was about enough for us. We really enjoy watching the games at home with friends and family. We'll see what happens though. We're not against the idea entirely for future years, we just think it may be better to wait until children are grown and they can enjoy it better too.
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So far we've been visited by the "Phantom Ghost" twice this year which was fun. There's a cute little poem attached to a plate of goodies from an unseen stranger and in turn, it becomes your turn to be the Phantom Ghost for someone else. That was fun. It's made Halloween a little more fun this year.
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Honestly, I've got a LOT on my mind right now but my thoughts are very unorganized....I just figured it's been awhile since I posted so I should probably post something. Sorry it's nothing exciting. I'll be getting back on track soon.