Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Going Away

I'm telling you.  I was absolutely terrible in getting so many sweet and wonderful events recorded.  One thing that I do not want to forget is that my three best friends threw a "Going Away" party for our family.  It was a complete surprise and so incredibly sweet.

It was outdoors at a local picnic shelter and several of our friends and family came to say "farewell" to the Clark Clan.  There was delicious food and a scrumptious cake.  The kids ran and played on the playground while the adults chatted.

Rebecca & Jessica with baby Norah
 Hannah & Hannah
 No matter the distance we're still best friends.
 My sweet friends made travel bags for each of our kids.  Sarah Jayne helps Amos open his bag.

 Jennifer, Rebecca, me and Jessica
 Our last day of swimming for the summer and it poured rain!  Jennifer was a sweetheart and bought these cookie cakes for our dessert.






Our Sunday School class had a going away party for us as well.  They made lasagna and lots of wonderful desserts.  It was held at a friends house on the lake so there was swimming and lots of riding "Big Mable."
They also put together travel bags for the kids with snacks and fun activities to keep them entertained while we moved.  At the end several members from our class shared some of their favorite Clark family memories.





Sunday, December 13, 2015

Shiloh @ 11 months

My sweet baby boy is eleven -ELEVEN!- months old.  Last night I lay in bed and remembered his birth and those first few months at home with him.  It feels like that time was much more than just a short year ago.

So much has happened during his first months of life that I truly wished that I had taken more time to record it all.   He has hit his milestones without me getting many of them recorded.  Moving halfway across the country can have an affect on things like that.  Poor guy.   The important thing is that we've all been together to witness and celebrate these wonderful accomplishments -whether they were written down or not.

MILESTONES:
Our sweet boy became mobile by inch-worming his way around.  He occasionally got on his hands and knees but couldn't seem to figure out how to coordinate moving them to crawl.  He eventually got the hang of it and he is fast!  I love the sounds of his little hands and knees thumping around the house while I'm working.  He's found the snack cabinet and, smart boy that he is, knows how to open it.  Yesterday evening Hannah & I found him eating the Captain Crunch cereal.


Shiloh has also mastered the art of pulling up.  He does this so effortlessly and has even let go and stood alone for several seconds.  He's cruising along the couch as well and we're sure that he's on the cusp of letting go and taking off!

He is hands down our best eater.  Shiloh will eat just about anything and doesn't want his food cut into small chunks.  Just the other day he ate an entire bowl of potato soup by himself.

He now has FOUR teeth.  His bottom two front teeth and his top two "vampire" teeth.  He is so unbelievably cute when he grins.



LIKES:
-Hannah especially.  Sammy when he plays in the floor with Shiloh.  And he grins every time Amos
  walks into the room.
-Food and snacks.  He loves chicken, potato soup and rice.  And Cheerios.  If Shiloh is ever missing
 just follow the trail of Cheerios around the house.
-His snuggle buddy.  It's a small gray & white velour blanket with a bunny head and floppy ears.  He
 rubs the ears on his cheek when he's going to sleep.
-He still prefers sleeping on his belly rather than his back.
-Bath time.  Anytime he hears the bath water running he makes a beeline for the tub and stands
 watching the water run.


DISLIKES:
-Being left alone for more than a minute.  He's normally right under my feet all the time.  Sometimes
  he's pulling on me and crying but normally he'll just play nearby.
-Due to our cross country trips, he's increasingly disliking his carseat.  But this month he gets to
  move up to a front facing car seat and I think that will help.


TO REMEMBER:
-Shiloh loves to blow kisses and even makes the 'mmm' noise when he does it.
-His camera face.  Whenever you pull out a camera he immediately makes his "cheese" face.
-Saying Mama, Dada, and Bye Bye.  He has little rubber bath animals and can say Moo and Ba with a
  good bit of coaxing.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

House Tour: Kids Rooms

Bless my sweet Hannah, she finally has a bedroom that is all hers.  She has the smaller of the bedrooms since it is just her.  Amos & Samuel share the other room and in a few months Shiloh will join them.  We'll get Hannah a twin bed, put the bunk beds back together for the boys and move Shiloh's crib.

There's no doubt that they all like the new arrangement.

the boys room--

before curtains...  and new toys



after curtains.  and clean sheet day.


Hannah's Room--

I made a tissue paper flower garden to hang over Hannah's bed.


I adore these ruffled white curtains.







Friday, December 4, 2015

House Tour: Living Room

Our living room is basically just like our old house...one big open space.  This suits our little family.  We love to sit in the floor and play games.  They all like to wrestle with Bobby in the evenings.  Now there is even more room to do all these fun things they love!

View from our front door.

View from our couch.

Sammy & Amos' room is on the far left.  Water heater is in that little closet then their jack 'n jill bathroom.  Hannah's room is to the right of the bathroom.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

House Tour: Kitchen and Dining Room

We have what is called a galley kitchen.  It's really narrow and I know some people might not like that but I love it.  There is a ton of counter space and cabinets, which is something that was definitely lacking in our old house.  Oh and plenty of outlets in convenient spots.  Our old house had four cabinets (two of which held cleaning supplies), two drawers, a small pantry and two electrical outlets at the counters.  Not to mention that I was the dish washer.  Not anymore!

Kitchen:

 My iPad cover kept slipping and causing this blur around the pictures.  Annoying.

 My laundry room is right off of the kitchen.  It's not very large but it's functional -and inside.


Dining Room:
View from the kitchen.


 This is one of my favorite going away gifts that we received.  Ms. Betty, from our church, gave it to me and said that this was an apt description of our family.  That blessed me so much.  Sometimes you wonder if you're being a light or if all anyone is seeing is your craziness!  

Since I took these pictures (back in October) we've added a bookshelf, printer, cabinet and keyboard. Not such an open neat space anymore but, it's only for a year right?  ;-)

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

House Tour: Master Bedroom

I finally have a new computer!!  Yay.  When we moved we had to give all of our computers, printers and iPads back to Clemson.  That made updating the blog a bit hard after we moved and there is so much that I need to record.  

First of all I want to put up pictures of our temporary home here in the city.  We have a year lease so hopefully our house in SC will sale so we can buy a permanent home before the end of next year.  There are things I love about our house and things I don't like so much (but again, we're only here for a year.)

My favorite room of all is the master bedroom.  I love the fireplace.  And the fact that the crib is no longer half a step away from my side of the bed.  

....
Two closets.  Mine is on the left and Bobby's is on the right.
The door on the left goes into our bathroom and the door on the right goes into the dining room.




The master bath is a room I almost hate.  I don't like the green counters or the carpet at all.  

Friday, October 23, 2015

Jonesboro, Arkansas

At the end of September our family finished packing our boxes, kissed our family & friends goodbye then set out for Jonesboro, Arkansas.

City living has not been a hard adjustment.  After living in the mountains away from a small town and an hour or so from a big city, I throughly enjoy being literally five minutes from Walmart.  And ten minutes from the mall that includes Target & Bed, Bath and Beyond (two of my favorite stores). Three minutes from our super awesome library.

The kids love it too.  And they are especially loving our rental house and all of the space.  Hannah finally has her own room.  Right now Sammy & Amos share a room and eventually Shiloh will join them.  We have plans to buy a four bedroom house when our year lease ends and our old house sells.

As I've mentioned, we are already enjoying our library.  They have an entire room devoted to children's books & activities.  This past Wednesday, Hannah attended an art class there.  Throughout October & November they are having Art-O-Rama where kids learn about a different artist each week and then try to reproduce some of their artwork.  Last week they studied Michelangelo and the kids taped their papers to the bottom of the table and laid on their backs to work.  It was so neat!

We've also found an Awana program for the kids at a church just three minutes from our house.  Amos was so excited that he took his leader's hand and went to his class without a backward glance.  Hannah & Sammy were a little more hesitant but by the end they were having fun and begging to come back next week.

There are a few kids in our neighborhood but Sammy is so shy that he won't approach them without Hannah.  They're trying to make friends with some of the kids but I'm not sure how friendly some of those kids are.  Keep praying that we will make friends and have other adults/kids to fellowship with soon.  That has been the hardest adjustment of all, being so far away from all of the family & friends we love.

I still need to update on Shiloh, I've been neglecting my monthly updates but I plan to get back on track with those asap.  

I'm trying to figure out how to upload pictures from the iPad and as soon as I do I'll share pictures of our house.




Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Chaos

My dear sweet husband recently mentioned that it has been a while since I've updated the blog.  And so it has. 

There has been so much going on lately that I feel like our lives are in complete chaos and updating the blog is low on my list at the moment.  Then again, there's so much happening that I don't want to forget certain things.

At the end of July, Bobby flew to Arkansas for an on-campus interview at Arkansas State University.  He left on a Tuesday, returned home Thursday and was offered a job on Friday.  He is going to be their new Director of Environmental Health and Safety.  So the Clark Clan is moving to Arkansas at the end of the month!!

We (namely Bobby) had already been packing up our house so we could fix/clean it to put it up for sale.  Now we're cleaning, repairing, packing, organizing, painting....  it never ends.  On top of all of that we have to find a house to move all of our stuff into.  There are several that we're interested in so we'll have to wait and see what will work out and be the best for our family.  Chaos.

The kids are very excited about our move.  They're sad to leave family and friends but looking forward to a bigger house and a new adventure.  Our goal was that Hannah would have her own bedroom before she turned 10 (in January) and we're barely making that deadline.  She has repeatedly commented that she'll be glad to be away from the boys.  I think she will but I do think she'll miss having the boys in the room with her.  Sammy just wants to find a place to do Upward Basketball and a church that has an AWANA program.  Amos is just confused.  Poor guy.  He thinks all of our friends and family will be in Arkansas with us.  And whenever we're going somewhere he asks, "Are we going to Arkansas now?"

I'm sad to leave my family.  A little panicky about leaving my Mama for sure.  But I am very proud of Bobby and very excited for this opportunity for him.  It's going to be an adventure and we're going to love it.  I'm just ready to be moved, unpacked and settled. 

We've been spending every spare minute with family and friends. 
Hannah & Shiloh have fun while Sammy is taking his tumbling class.
 Amos & sweet Sarah Jayne. 
 Shiloh & his best buddy Collin.
 Oh this kid.  I love him!


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Recently...


  • My computer took a permanent holiday which makes uploading picture and updating the blog difficult.  And my 5 button isn't working on my cell phone so I can't use 'jkl' in any of my text messages.
  • Shiloh turned six months old.  He is such a beautiful baby and his sweet little personality is emerging more each day.  He's still laid back and now that he can sit unassisted he's much happier in the evenings.  He can roll both ways and has gotten onto his knees several times but still isn't crawling.  He loves his older siblings, especially Hannah.  He's our snuggliest baby by far.  At this point he still doesn't have any teeth but I think they're coming soon.  He's started rubbing his tongue over his bottom gums so maybe they're on their way!
  • Sweet Amos James turned 3 years old last weekend.  I can't believe it's been three whole years.  He is unbelievably smart for his age but I think it's because he has Hannah & Samuel to talk to and play with.  He is very very verbal and such a little comedian.  He loves tortellini, bubbles, Skippyjon Jones and anything Toy Story related.

          Just two days before his birthday he had a near drowning experience at a friends pool.  He   
          wore his puddle jumper all evening until we got out for dessert.  Then he got back in the pool 
          but  just sat on the steps, playing.  He stood up to get out and slipped off the steps and went 
          under -butt and head toward the bottom of the pool.  My friend, Rebecca, and I were standing 
          nearby and she immediately jumped in and pulled him out.  He swallowed so much water that   
          he vomited twice -all over me.  I spent a sleepless night keeping an eye on him for dry 
          drowning.  Thankfully he was completely fine and went back to the pool the next week and got 
           right back in.
  •  Samuel & Hannah have been so helpful with Amos & Shiloh.  They're growing entirely too fast for this mama!  Right now they're both in a tumbling class -separate classes- and are having so much fun.  Hannah is getting better & better each week.  Samuel just started last month and he's almost as good as Hannah because he is such a natural athlete.  They've been enjoying their summer vacation since we go swimming each week and then have tumbling.  

  • Bobby has been working super hard at fixing our house so we can sell it.  He's been painting our porch and storing all of our belongings in our storage building.  Our house is starting to look empty- which I rather enjoy.  He's doing all of this and working three jobs!  He's super husband! 
  • In June we all went to Indiana because one of Bobby's (many) cousins got married.  We stayed with Ryan & Bethany and there three kids.  It was a fun, crazy visit for sure.   And they were kind enough to watch all four of our children for us so we could go on a quick lunch date.  Thank you so much Bethany!!!
  • We've been trying to do something fun with the kids each Saturday.  No technology, just getting out of the house and spending time together as a family.  So far we've been to Caesar's Head State Park, Sassafras Mountain, Tallulah Gorge, and today we saw the Minion movie.  They are loving it! 

The Clark's Next Big Adventure

So much for keeping the blog updated this year 😂  The Clark family is embarking on another adventure though and it's too big not to doc...