Busy summer and 20 Months!

I cannot believe how the time has flown. Hannah has just returned from a visit to MN to stay with Grandma & Grandpa H. She was able to take swimming lessons with all of her cousins and she loved every minute but admits that she was homesick. To surprise her, we made-over her room with a fairy/Tinkerbell theme. It now has giant leaves coming out of the walls and a green canopy over her bed complete with floral accents. Her favorite part is the reading corner with a giant green butterfly chair. She loves to sit there and just hang out.
Amidst the craziness of getting everything prepared for back to school, the little girls turned 20 months! There are so many things that they are doing now:

• They walk every where, this took a little longer but they both nailed it by the beginning of June. Emma was walking about 2 weeks before Sara. I attribute this to Emma's easy-going nature, whereas Sara is a little more cautious and meticulous.
• They both climb just about anything you put in front of them. They climb the stairs, the furniture, and us!
• They are both working on the coming-down-the-stairs. This is taking longer because most kids get to practice every time they go down whereas I hold one on my lap, while I help the other one down. Let's just say I tried letting them both go at once and it wasn't pretty!
• They are in full swing of Twin-speak. They have a little language of their own, sprinkled with some of our words.
• They go to nursery class at church. This started at 18 months. They get to go have a little lesson, sing, and play with the other kids that are 18 months-3 years all while the rest of us go to Sunday school classes. They love it!
• They are eating with a spoon and a fork. Successfully most of the time. One of their favorite foods is yogurt, and that is quite messy to clean up, but with practice I am sure that they will have this down soon.

On Wednesday, we will start school for Hannah. This year she is attending the UT Virtual Academy. It is an online public school. I will be posting more about that in subsequent posts. A few weeks ago, a computer, and boxes of textbooks, workbooks, and cool supplies for art and science showed up on our door step. Last night we made the final touches to the organization system that we will be using. It looks like an amazing system, I am really excited for Hannah because she will finally be able to challenged in language and reading and get the individual attention in math that she needs. She has already told me that she plans to finish 5th grade early so she can start in 6th. I keep telling her, "we'll see", thinking "mmm, am I ready for a middle-school child?"

She's Back!

Some of you know that I have been very busy this summer with two toddlers, a 10-year-old, and 15 credits at school. "Why?" It is a question that I have asked myself all summer. After it is all said and done I am glad that I am doing this. I believe that education is important, and just as my oldest daughter is starting to get to that stage where school is less enticing, I have showed her that it is important to me. I would like to finish what I have started 10 years ago, but I would also like to not be that old lady who is featured on the news at 82 years old for being the oldest college graduate! I can see the end in sight. I will be taking a semester or two off so I can really focus on getting Hannah started with school this fall and spend some time just dinging around with my girls. I might just take a class or two here and there to keep the momentum going. Hopefully I will be posting on the blog more often too!

Where in the world?

Where have the Clarks been and what have they been up to? Well, we have been super busy, too busy in fact to post on our blog, things will probably slow down in a few weeks. I know I need to post about our vacation and what we have been doing for the last two months but something happened today that was just too cute. Check out the video for yourself.... (pay special attention to the last 5 seconds.)

10 years

10 years ago The Clark Corner welcomed our first child into the world. Nathan and I had been married just under a year and although we didn't necessarily plan to get pregnant a month after being married we were excited and nervous and thrilled and felt extremely blessed to become parents. On the 17th of May (Hannah's Due Date) Nathan and I went to visit Dr. Moody, not my doctor but his partner, to find out that Hannah was in the breech presentation-butt first so we were told that she would have to be born via c-section. This was a huge disappointment because we studied the Bradley Method and natural childbirth. None-the-less we were happy to know that she would be born safely. So we scheduled a c-section for May 21st at 8am. Future Grandparents were called and bags were packed.

A few days before the big day my parents Deb and Dave and my little brother flew out for the big day. They brought with them a beautiful grandpa hand-crafted wood cradle for our sweet new baby. The night before the surgery I had my mom french braid my hair and then I could eat or drink anything after midnight. The morning of the big day Nathan and I drove to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and checked in at 6am. There ended up being some mix-up with the doctors and we were postponed and had to sit around a wait in a skimpy hospital gown until just before 10 when the anesthesiologist arrived to give me the worst epidural ever. It was horrible and painful. They prepped me and wheeled me in to the operation room. My parents and Dano had arrived by then and were waiting to meet the new baby. Once in the operating room they began right away. About half way through the surgery, I let out a scream because I could feel them cutting. I was quickly and completely knocked out. Nathan admitted later that he thought that I had died, but then the anesthesiologist announced that he had just injected my IV with "Angel Dust" and that I was ok. Things got a little weird then because I could hear everything that was going but could feel nothing and couldn't move or speak. I heard them all talking as they brought Hannah into the world. Hannah Mae Clark was born 10:10am weighing 8lbs. 4oz. and 21 inches long. They cleaned her up and she cried right away. That is all I remember until I was in the recovery room. In the recovery room I could hear my parents and Nathan all talking but I couldn't move or speak. I felt like I was out of my body. I started to come to and was congratulated on the sweet little girl I had just given birth to. Eventually I was moved to the Mother/Baby wing and was allowed to wake up. I remember when the nurse brought Hannah to me, it felt surreal to hold her. I felt like I might drop her, it was unreal to think that she was mine!

Within the day we were informed about a birth defect that the nurse found in her hips. We were scared, we didn't know what to expect. Nathan and our best man from our wedding, Jonathan Bird, gave Hannah a priesthood blessing. (In our church, anointing of the sick and other sacramental rites are preformed by lay members of the church who have been given the holy priesthood.) In the blessing Hannah was promised that she would walk and run and play like other children and that the doctors would be guided to heal her little body. As young new parents we were scared for our little girl but found comfort in the promises of the blessing. Within a few days we were home from the hospital. My mom stayed to help take care of us as we cared for our new little lady. Nathan's mom NanEtte came to stay with us once my mom needed to head home. We had many doctor appointments for both Hannah and me the first days home. Hannah was seeing an Ortho Surgeon that first day home the hospital. He put her in a "frog leg" brace. Within in a week she was up at Primary Children's Hospital to see a pediatric ortho surgeon. After a few tests and an exam we found out that within a month Hannah would be having a surgery to correct her hips. She went on to have 3 different hip/body casts in the first 9 months of her life. She was the sweetest new baby even with all of the garbage she had to go through. We love her so much. She is growing up to be an amazing person.

1. Hannah is super bright and loves to read.
2. She is kind and loving and a great big sister.
3. She loves to dance and sing in her room when she thinks no one is watching.
4. She has been in 12 plays.
5. She loves sweets and ice cream.
6. She loves her big giant cat Dojo.
7. She is a really great artist.
8. She loves to garden, go for walks, and ride bike.
9. She skipped up a grade this year.
10. She is the most beautiful and amazing firstborn a mother could wish for!

Happy Birthday Hannah Mae! We love you!

Happy 17th Months!

I will be posting a a few birthday pics of the girls later, but I cannot let this day go by without saying Happy Birthday to our sweet little babies! I cannot believe how fast these past two years of expecting and having you in our lives has flown by. We love you Emma & Sara.

Contest Giveaway!!!

I have decided to do a contest giveaway. There are two categories:
1. Guess how much we spend on tolls.
2. Guess how many miles we have driven, (including the miles while at places, so you be able to just mapquest it. )
The two contestants that come the closest to one of these categories will receive a fabulous prize!
Just email me at nathan_melissaclark@hotmail.com with your guesses!

Summer Trip: The Rest of Week One

Wednesday: Hung out with Grandpa, Visited The Beaudry Family, Visited with my friends from Monarch Montessori, Hannah went to Isaac's baseball game.
Thursday: Went to see a very interesting play with Jamie and Ellen. Hannah got to have a special Girls' Night out with her Aunties Carrie and Jamie.
Friday: Packed up the van and left for points east! After stopping at Sam's for gas we hit the road at about 9am. I would like to take this chance to say that I absolutely hate Chicago! Beyond the crappy traffic, people drive horribly there, it is dirty, it stinks, I could go on but I don't want to waste another second on that horrible place! We spent the night in a suburb of Cleavland, OH (I should actually say morning because we finally put our heads to the pillows at 4am, the girls all slept in the van, but I just kept driving. I did stop to rest my eyes for about a half hour at about 2 am because the horrible rain was just hypnotizing me.)
Saturday: Slept in and went to visit some local historic church sites. We also went to the boulevard of 500 flags. That was amazing! This memorial has 500 flags for fallen soldiers, each flag pole has a name of someone that gave their life striving to protect our country and freedoms. (pics to come) They also have a memorial to 9-11. It was beautifully designed with pieces of twisted I beam from each of the Twin Towers, and granite from the pentagon. It was all put together on a pentagon shaped platform of grass. There is a sign there saying earth and grass from the field in PA. If you are ever driving through Cleavland, you must stop.
Sunday: We are heading out to VA & MD and will stay until Friday when Nathan comes! We are excited to have Daddy back.
Check back later tonight because Hannah is doing a toll count to tell us how much we have spent on tolls.

Summer Trip: Day 3 & 4

We spent a nice morning having breakfast with Ahnah and Maren then left for Historic Winter Quarters in Omaha, NE. Then drove the rest of the day to Grandpa & Grandma's House in Otsego, MN. Thankfully the girls all slept nicely and we have been dingin' around all day. I managed to vacuum out the van while the twins took their nap. We are trying to make the rounds to visit as many people in MN as possible. If you would like to come and see us, stop in at Rockwoods on Saturday May 30th @ 8pm.*** (by that time Nathan will have joined us so you can see him too.)

***this date has changed because on Friday night we will be celebrating Hannah's "decade" party

Summer Trip: Day Two

Oil Change for a mini-van =$30

New Tires for a mini-van =$350

New Breaks for a mini-van =$150

Cross-country trip with my 3 daughters =Priceless!

Today was an adventure! I heard a weird noise with our new tires-I kept thinking that it was maybe mud in the wheel well or something about the pavement. It just wouldn't stop, so I decided to stop at Walmart Tire & Lube and have a guy look at it. It turns out that something was done wrong when the Dealership changed the breaks and a bolt that holds the caliper in just fell off while I was driving. It was making a horrible thumping sound. The guy didn't have to fix it, it wasn't even something that they do there but he said he would run to the parts store and get the part to fix it. He left and when he returned he said the parts stores that were actually open on Sunday don't have it in stock, and that he went to his house and got a bolt from there to make the repair. Talk about an angel!
We are staying tonight in Lincoln, NE with our dear friends the Lingards. We will just see whose front lawn we end up on tomorrow!

Summer Trip: Day One Summary

On Saturday we packed up the van and said goodbye and gave lots of hugs and kisses to "daddy" and left at about 1 pm MDT. Everyone is doing great! We stopped in Rock Springs, Wyo for gas and to stretch. That Walmart there is gross, by the way, I am not sure if any other place in that town would have been any better. We got to Laramie by about 7pm and the girls were starting to let me know that it was their bedtime. I saw a sign for Ramada that said free hot dinner and free hot breakfast, so I couldn't pass that up with 4 mouths to feed. I, of course, have packed lots of things in the van for everyone to eat so we don't have to stop to feed all of us, but that was too good to pass up. The staff at hotel was nice and the room was adequate. Hannah loved the fact that dinner included a salad bar--fresh food--yeah! After taking 10 trips to the van to carry stuff in, while Hannah played with her sisters in the room-with the door locked, chained, and a secret door knock to signal that it was me, I set up the pack-n-plays and proceeded to get everyone to bed. Just so everyone knows, I do not ever want to be a single mother, it takes a ton of work to get everyone to bed at home, and even more work during a road trip! Day two will bring us to Lincoln, NE, more later!

One small step for mankind, One Giant Leap for Emma!

Both of the girls have been cruising around furniture and walking with handholding for some time but Emma is venturing out on her own!

Horsing Around!

Where have the last two months gone?

Well hello there, long time no see. I am sure you are all wondering where I have been and what I have been up to the last two months. I have been chuggin' along in life trying to organize the rooms around the house, finish projects, empty boxes, make 72 hours kits, plan menus, save money grocery shopping by cutting coupons, helping the little girls learn to walk, helping my big girl plant a garden, and well just keeping busy.

Teething has been a real chore. You don't even want me to tell you about the sheer amount of poop or vomit that a little 15 month old can make but I will tell you that I did give 4 baths to each of the girls in one day and I also wased 14 loads of laundry that same day for the very same reason. No they didn't ahve 14 loads worth of messes but it was laundry day so in addition to the 8 loads of laundry I do each week, I washed all sorts of crib sheets and blankets and pajamas and towels that day. The end is in sight, I hope, now we are on the runny nose stage, which can be super gross too.

Hannah is doing great with school, next year she will be doing part 5th grade and part 6th grade so she can be challenged. So smart and equally sassy!

Nathan just got a new job that is a part of a really great company, that is stable and a nice place to work. There is growth potential there--teaching has been set aside yet again, but time will tell.

I have been geeking out with making my grocery budget as small as humanly possible, the other day I saved $50 in coupons for one trip. AWESOME. I spend my free moments during nap time checking out www.funwithfoodstorage.net and www.squarefootgardening.com I am getting pretty good at making homemade bread. Let's just say if we ever lose a job again, please don't take this as a request, but I will be ready for it in the kitchen.

I had a great birthday, lots of calls, emails, a delicious gift card to Olive Garden-thanks Jamie, and a beautiful plant-thanks Ellen, and a nice night with new friends-thanks Tuesday nighters.

I promise to post more again soon, and pictures too.

14 months!

It is hard to believe that the girls are now 14 months old. Both girls say all sorts of words including their own little versions of Mom, Dad, Hannah="Na", yes, no, boo, and all sorts of other words we still don't understand. They love to talk to each other in their own little language. They squeal with glee whenever we pick Hannah up from school, they know the place and love the sight of other children. They both can pull themselves up from laying to sitting, from sitting to standing-by furniture, and love to cruise around the couch and table and chairs and us. Both have snuck up a few stairs when the incentive was good enough, (i.e. trying to get to big sister's purse or Dojo's kitty food dish.) They behave well during church and love to make faces and smiles at all of the people. They love music, they love it when we sing and they love listening to all kinds of songs on the CD player. They both be-bop their little bodies along to the beat, Emma seems to have a strong sense of rhythm and Sara just loves to boogie. Their favorite food is yogurt, any flavor really, and string cheese, and bananas. They eat just about anything. They still take two naps a day. One in the morning about 2.5 hours after waking (around 9am) and one after lunch at about 1pm. They go to bed (after a bedtime snack of yogurt and fruit, family prayer and song) in their own room in their own cribs with few minutes of white noise and usually dose off and may even fuss a little. They usually sleep through the night unless one of them is sick, or teething. They have been very healthy babies that have only had slight colds a few times during these past 14 months and once or twice have just had icky fevers. They love to take baths, together of course. They love to go shopping just like big sis did when she was little. They love to visit Dad at work. They love to play with the cordless phone and TV remote. They are getting so big. They already wear 18-24 month clothes. Sometimes we dress them alike and sometimes we dress them in similar outfits that have different colors or patterns. They love to play together, they could do it for hours. We are grateful everyday for our sweet, healthy, happy babies!

A little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll

It all started when Marie Osmond was on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, then our local community theatre also did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Our family watched the video of Joseph starring Donny Osmond. Then the Osmonds were on Oprah and several other media outlets. Somewhere along the way Hannah found out that the Osmonds are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was over-the-moon excited there were other LDS people out there and that they were on TV, too. Here in Utah a study of state history is a part of the curriculum at her school and so came the written reports of a famous Utahan. Did she pick the Ute Indians, Brigham Young(first Utah Governor), Karl Malone (Utah Jazz player) Philo T. Farnsworth (inventor of the television)? Nope! She picked Donny and Marie Osmond. We are out window shopping yesterday and she found a CD, not just a CD but a box set of "Donny & Marie Osmonds Greatest Hits" is was a 3 CD set in a special tin case. Hannah knows that we have been very careful with the family budget, trying to keep the extra purchases to a minimum. But I could tell she really wanted it. It was on sale for only 11.99, so I had to get it for her. After all most moms of a "tween" are dealing with obsession of Brittney Spears or other pop stars that are less than desirable role models that sing about being a "slave for love" or "oops I did it again." Nathan and I spent the whole night listening to our daughter in her room, in the shower, everywhere, rocking it out to "I am a little bit country, I am a little bit rock-n-roll", "Puppy Love", and "Paper Roses".

Smarty Pants!

Hannah made the honor roll at her school. She proudly presented her special certificate to us at dinner last night. Toward the end of dinner she seemed a little off and I inquired as to what was going on.

Her reply: "My only wish is that my school had the bumper stickers that said 'My child is an Honor Student at Lakeview Academy'!"

Smarty Pants!

Just so you don't think we fell off of the face of the planet...

Things have been sort of weird around here lately. In the last few weeks,

• I decided to go back to school to get the rest of my BA degree, it was super awesome for a week but after I realized exactly how expensive out-of-state tuition is, I decided to wait until at least this summer.
• A 6 year old little girl that lives a few houses down from us, passed away unexpectedly. When an old person dies, people reflect "So-and-so lived a good life" but when a child dies it is very unexpected and hard. Amazingly so, she had an incredible spirit. Phenomenal family, special girl.
• Nathan started Full-time at Walmart, we are thankful for the blessing of more income and wondering what exactly God has in store for us.
• The babies, specifically Emma, has been sick this weekend, no symptoms except a high fever, not wanting to sleep at night, etc. I am quite worn-out from three nights of not sleeping.
• Hannah doesn't have school today so we are going to try to go get the safety and emissions test done today. Nathan and I tried to go on Thursday, but get this, they ran out of the stuff needed to calibrate the machine for the test. So hopefully Hannah and I will be able to get out and get that done.
• Tomorrow Nathan has the day off, so we are planning on going to one of the dinosaur museums in the Utah Valley. Hannah is super excited and even better, it is free!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday!
Much love from Utah.