Christmas at our house

Christmas this year was a little early (we had to celebrate it before we went to Utah) and it was so much fun! We celebrated it on Saturday the 20th (Note: Matt proposed two years ago today!!!!!). I must say this year's Christmas was much more exciting compared to last year's, maybe it's because Luke was with us.

Matt loves this picture of his grandpa Clark. I had it printed and framed for him, he really liked it.

This was Luke's FIRST Christmas!!!
Of course Daddy had to get him his first soccer ball.

Matt is the greatest!
He always gets me great gifts. This year he TOTALLY hit the jackpot!!!
Thanks baby, I love you!!!
A few months ago we got a super good deal on a Professional 600 series, 6 qt KitchenAid Mixer. And I LOVE IT!!!! Those of you who know me I LOVE to bake! This is my new favorite thing. He was not supposed to get me anything else for Christmas, but he did.
I've been wanting a little weight set for a while. He surprised me with that and a yoga mat.
Maybe he is hinting something????

Grandma Clark sent Lukey some great presents.
He got a lot of great books and other things.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Clark!

A good looking shirt on a good looking guy!

When we were little, after we'd opened all of our presents we'd set them up and just look at all the cool things we got. Did anyone else do that?
So Matt wanted to do it again. He's my other little boy.

The other night our good friends, Jason and Marilyn, came by caroling and bringing presents. They are such great friends, we're grateful for them and friends like them.
Thanks you guys!!

Luke and Uncle Jason

Thanks for an amazing Christmas Matt. You are a great husband and father,
we love you!!!!

Lately....

We've been quite busy around this place! We are looking forward to our Christmas break and coming home to Utah.

Here's whats going on at the Clark house:

• Matt has been the busiest with his surgery rotations. It has been killer! He has decided general surgery is NOT for him, I happily support that decision. It has been hard not having him around and being stuck at home with no car, but we're surviving. He is at Metro, about a 25 minute drive. He wakes up at 4:30 am and on a good day gets home about 6pm, unless he's on call then he stays until sometime the next morning. Ugh! Poor guy, I feel so bad for him. He is so wiped out, this break will be good for u
• I have been busy finishing up my online classes and boy am I relieved to get them over with! I've also been getting things ready for Christmas and working from home.
• Luke has been busy learning how to escape all of the spots in the house where I try to barricade him. This morning I let him "out" and he went wild! I was chasing after him trying to baby proof things along the way. It is impossible to baby proof my house and make it look decent at the same time! Does anyone have any tips on this??
  
• Friday night after Matt got home we ate dinner and drove out to Kirtland to see the nativity display. They have it every year where people (mostly members) donate their nativity sets to put them on display. They had hundreds! It was beautiful! We loved it. They even had a little room set up just for kids with a nativity set of big stuffed animals and small toys, Luke absolutely loved that room. It was a neat experience. There were a lot of nativities from other countries, those were my favorites. It was a fun activity filled with the spirit of Christmas! I'm so glad we were able to go, we missed it last year. I am excited for next year as well.
• Last night we had a fun get together with our good friends, the Kienes. They always have fun parties. They do a lot of German Christmas celebrations. We ate yummy goodies, shared fun Christmas memories and sang some Christmas songs. It was fun being there with our friend Justin, who is lonely because his wife already headed home for Christmas (he's staying to take the boards) and our new friends Ben and Ayrel. Some others couldn't make it, maybe next year!

Also, I always love to make yummy goodies around Christmas time and I made these yummy carmel and chocolate covered pretzel sticks for the ladies I visit teach.
Sorry bad pictures.
It was a lot of work, but they sure tasted good!!!

• 

And just had to share these silly pictures of our Lukester.
These were the glasses Santa forgot to wear...

Luckly they don't have a perscription.

Things to look forward to this week:
Finishing my Christmas shopping (Matt's post call Thursday so I finally get the car!)
Getting flu shots..wooo
Renewing my drivers license.
Wrapping Christmas presents!
(My favorite, I really am considering working at the mall as a gift wrapper)
Having our family Christmas Eve & Christmas this Friday & Saturday
(before we fly home)!!!!!!
The Christmas Performance on Sunday (hopefully I get my voice back before then).
and lastly...
FLYING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I want for Christmas

Today has been a long day.
Matt has been on call since 6 am and will remain on call until 6 am tomorrow morning (at the hospital). So this morning I decided to attempt to make divinity....mmmm..how I've been craving divinity! Well unfortunately it did not turn out. I am not sure why. I've heard others tell me it did not work for them their first time either. I guess it's all about trial and error. I have yet to acquire my mothers amazing candy making skills.
I wanted to make it last year and could not find Karo Syrup for the life of me.
Well I am still sad about my failure, but I'm making fudge this week for Matt's I.Q. group and I know I can handle that one!


So if Santa is out there this post is to you.
All I want for Christmas this year is some good old Divinity!

Our smart little man

Here are some of Luke's latest tricks. He is learning things daily.
He has started to say "Nani"-nite nite, "baba"-bottle, "nanana"- banana.
It may not be that exciting to everyone, but it sure is exciting for me!
He can sign "more," banana" and "cheese."

The second video, I just had to catch Luke's funny looks he's been giving everyone lately.

Everyone should be getting super excited to see us in a week!!!!!
(Well everyone back home in Utah!)

Hubby Tag

1. Where did you meet your husband?

At his dad's office, UCMA in Payson, UT. I worked in the billing office and he worked as a medical assistant. The wonderful ladies in the billing office set us up on a date and it was love ever since! (Seriously, we met three weeks before he came out to start med school.)

2. How long did you date before you got married?

5 months, got engaged for 3 months=8 months.

3. How long have you been married?

One year & 9 months. Almost two years!

4. What does he do that surprises you?

Treats me like a princess! Last Sunday it was a rough day in nursery (with 11- 18 month old kids) and he made a comfy bed on the couch with warm blankets (it was freezing) and brought me hot cocoa with marshmallows (my favorite!). Then he made dinner. He always helps around the house cleaning and cooking. He leaves really early in the morning (5 am-ish) and sometimes he'll leave me a note that is always so sweet. He is the best!

5. What is your favorite feature of his?

His stocky figure, not too big not too skinny. His smile and dimples are also one of my favorites.

6. What is your favorite quality about him?

He has a strong testimony and has his priorities set. He is very loving and considerate of others. He cares about everyone, especially me and Luke!

7. Does he have a nick name for you?

Not really. Honey, Sweetie, Babe..sometimes Mare.

8. What is his favorite food?

Chinese food, Mexican food. He loves anything really.

9. What is his favorite sport?

SOCCER!!! Everyone knows that.

10. When and where did your first kiss?

September 1st, 2006. He had just come home from Cleveland. It was the first time we'd seen each other since he left to start school. It was a Friday night. We had gone on a date to see the Payson fireworks and watched a movie at his parent's house that night (Pride & Prejudice, my favorite), although I'm pretty sure he paid no attention. He walked me out to my car to say good night and kissed me on the cheek and then on lips!!! It was magical.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?

Anything! We do anything and everything that we can together. We love being together. If he is not at school or the hospital we are together. We love to watch Pushing Daisies, the Office & occasionally (when we have time) movies. We cook together. We make/build projects for our house. Pretty much everything.

12. Do you have children?

Yes siree! One amazing little Matt, Luke. What a babe.

13. Does he have any hidden talents?

Several! He is very creative and crafty. He knows how to sew (he helps me sometimes). He has done an awesome job at cutting my hair once (I think I'm going to have him do it again tonight). He is a GENIUS! The best personal T.A. ever. He makes delicious food. He's quite the perfectionist, so he does a great job at everything.

14. How old is he?

26

15. Who said I love you first?

Hmm...Oh he did!!! It was so sweet. Actually the night after our first kiss. A lot of great things happened over that Labor Day weekend.

16. What is his favorite music.

311.
John Denver.
Matisyahu (or however you spell it, a rapping Jew)
He likes good stuff, but some strange stuff too.

17. What do you admire most about him?

He is determined. He gets everything done and does a great job. He is an extremely hard worker and it will pay off soon! He does an awesome job at balancing school, rotations, home and family stuff. He is an incrediable husband and dad.

18. What is his favorite color?

Blue? I think.

19. Will he read this?

Yeah probably. He looks on here occasionally.

20. Who do you tag?
Jenny, Susie, Mandy, Maddy & whoever loves to talk about their amazing hubbies!

Santa came to town and if you missed him well that's just too bad

I hear that being Santa for parties and malls and stuff you could make some good money. I told Matt if he ever finds some free time he should look into that. (Free time? hah yeah right.) Well this is round TWO of Mr. Clause.
Last year he dressed up as Santa for our Hess Christmas party.
This year he willingly played the role once again at our ward Christmas party.

He forgot his glasses, they would have hid his face a little better.
And might I add this suit was very fancy!
We took this picture (above) in the Chapel in the dark. I wanted a pic of Luke with Santa, but we had to do it before the kids that were following Santa saw him.

By the way, it is ALWAYS VERY VERY weird seeing your husband dressed up as Santa. In fact it is always weird seeing anyone I know dressed up as Santa. One year my dad dressed up as him for a Christmas party and I had to drive in the car with him, he was driving.
It was freaky.
He was handing a candy cane to Luke it the pic above.

For the most part, the kids loved seeing Santa. The older kids knew who it was and other small children ran out crying. It was fun seeing everyones reactions. All of the adults were cracking up. You'd be surprised to hear his Santa voice. He's pretty good.

These are pictures from Santa last year.
He made a grand entrance flying around in circles in his parent's backyard on the snowmobile.
And another picture from last Christmas that always seems so weird to see.
As soon as you have the baby it still seems so weird to look back at pregnant pictures. Thanks for being a silly, funny husband Matt.
You are always such a good sport.
I Love You!

Thanksgiving-Weekend-O-Fun

This year we were lucky enough to be with some friends and family.
We headed down on Wednesday to Washington D.C. to stay one night with Meg and Dave, then early Thursday morning we took off to Richmond, VA to spend the holiday with Bryce and Maddy Egbert, they are in their first year of med school. They are our really good friends. We had a lot of fun together.

These were our thankful turkeys.

Luke and Britton will be good friends one day.
On this trip...well Luke was for some strange reason terrified of Britton.
When Britton would walk by he liked to watch him, but the second he got close or barely touched him Luke would scream! I dont' know why because he has never acted like that before. He was very sensitive over the weekend.
Maybe because Britton is bigger than him and walks toward him like a little zombie! (He's still learning to walk, so he walks with his arms out in front of him, hehe it's so cute).

On to the turkey!

Bryce was the turkey man.
He put the whole thing together, or pulled it all apart I guess and cut it up and it tasted wonderful.

The dinner table (and Luke).

Bryce cutting the turkey.

Us patiently waiting to eat an amazing meal!
MMmmm... I'm dreaming about it right now. It was SO good!
I don't know why Matt is making this silly face, he wouldn't stop.

Later that night we gave the boys a bath.

Luke wasn't so sure about taking a bath with someo one else.
He looks a little worried.

But they sure are cute!!!!

They became better friends later on in the trip.


On Friday we went on a little tour of Richmond and saw some amazing, beautiful, HUGE, colonial style homes. They were beautiful!! They were extremely close together and had like 7 chimneys. It reminded us of Mary Poppins.
After we went to Maymont Park to play around for a little while.
It was a beautiful park that was once a plantation. It had an old mansion and a lot of land. It's now opened up as a public park it also has a free petting zoo, but we didn't get to go.

Britton is turning one on the 13th of December.
He's about six weeks older than Luke.

They learned to share even!
(or at least it looked like it).

This picture was so funny.
Some how my camera took a in action-clear picture. It made us laugh.

Dave and Meg came with us and we were so happy they were there. After leaving Bryce and Maddy's house on Saturday we drove back up to D.C. They showed us some even bigger houses that were also extremely beautiful! It's alwasy fun to see them. We went to a park too, it was very pretty, but quite a bit colder.
Meg cooked us a yummy dinner and we watched a Clark favorite movie "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." It's funny, a little weird, but good. It's an old musical.
Sunday we went to church with Meg and Dave and then headed home.
It was a LONG drive home. It was supposed to take 5-6 hours (what it took to get there), but the traffic was awful, it was raining the entire time and a bit foggy. It ended up taking 8 hours. Not to mention Luke threw up in the back seat. I felt so bad because we were on a toll road so we couldn't get off for about 20 more miles. I cleaned him up as good as I could, but he was so tired he fell asleep in wet clothes. We ended up getting off and changing his clothes. So it felt really good to get home that night!

Thanks Bryce and Maddy for having us stay with you over the holiday weekend. We had a wonderful time!!!