Utah Christmas Vacay Part 2

I'm trying to play catch up on a whole lot of blogging. The rest of Christmas, Utah trip again and Luke's birthday...Here are bits and pieces, some of the highlights of our Christmas trip-and not really in order!

Clark Sibs.

All the cousins were there and it was so much fun!

We started the first ever, annual Clark Christmas Eve Party, which includes a talent show. It was mostly, playing the piano, some singing, trumpet playing, rhyme reciting, the bells and this awesome dance by Cameron and Adrienne.

Every Christmas Eve the Clark's also read/act out the nativity.

Christmas Morn.

Cameron asked for a girlfriend...and so it happened! haha

One thing you may not know about my cute husband is that he has a thing for collections....seriously, I won't even tell you all of the collections he has. Among the many, he has a hat collection. Doesn't he look like the husband on sister-wives? haha. 

And poor Devin had infections in his eyes....

 The Clark Fam in Sunday best.

 The loot from G&G Johnson's.

 And four wheeling up in the mountains, and sledding in the snow!!! Ahhh, how I miss the mountains.

 We got a 3 generation pic here.

Clark in every day attire....not an easy feat to do two family photos of this size! (Too lazy to organize these better!!)

The day after Cmas Daddy had to take off and go back to Cleveland (story of our lives..sniff, sniff). After that we went with the Clarks to Temple Square in SLC. And then I spent most of the last couple of days with my family...which isn't really pictured because I was tired of taking photos at this point. :)

  I did get to have brunch with some of my besties!

 Matt's bro Cam really is the man, he always plays with all the grandkids, especially the ones that are daddy deprived! Thanks Cam!

It was a great and unexpected trip home for Christmas this year!

A run of bad luck

-2.5 weeks ago our water heater started leaking (it was 30 years old after all). Thankfully, Matt had it replaced before I got back from our vacation! :)

-Devin got a double ear infection while we were on vacation and it probably peaked the night I left him at my in-laws (sorry!). Thankfully, my Father-in-law quickly started him on some antibiotics for me. Oh and the same night, there was an earthquake not far from my in-law's house. Weird!

-Then, low and behold, Luke got the flu, which I really should start expecting because it happens pretty much every time we visit Utah. Thankfully, it didn't last longer than a night. 

And the one that takes the cake....

-After all very long day of traveling from SLC to CLE, and complete pat-down, search through every single bag, item, child and stroller I was traveling (all because they don't have "one of those fancy machines that costs like a bijillion dollars(according to the TSA girl)" to search unopened baby food! Which I have traveled with several times and never had a problem), we finally arrived in Cleveland.We called daddy as we were taxiing in and he was on his way to pick us up. We jumped off the plane and the dreadful phone call came from an unknown phone number that Matt had been in a car accident. Luckily it was his voice I was hearing on the other end, so I knew he was okay enough to call me. All he said was, "I got in a car wreck call the Kiene's (our heros! Oh why do they have to move! sniff, sniff) to pick you up." Thankfully, Marilyn picked up and soon enough she rescued me from the airport. Thank you Marilyn!!!!!! A hundred times!!!

Well, Matt was going under the speed limit, not texting or talking on the phone, driving straight through a green light when pretty much out of no where an oncoming car turns left right in front of him. He didn't have enough time to stop and smashed into them, lost control and hit a pole. And the car that turned in front of him, spun and smashed into another car that was stopped at the stop light going the opposite direction. The airbags deployed and Matt has suffered from some whiplash and bruises. We are so grateful that he is okay! 

Our van is totaled and right now we are living on a prayer, hoping that the guy who was at fault has car insurance. 

It was a long day, but it never felt so good to be back together as a family Friday night.

Here's a picture Matt snapped with his ipod. He said that even inside car the dash board was cracked.

And since he's been a hardcore soccer player all of his life he doesn't think this bruise is anything special, but I think it's huge, purple and disgusting! The picture doesn't serve it justice.

Oh and then the next day I had the flu. 

Booo!

We're ready and waiting for some good things to come our way now.....any day now.... :)

Utah Christmas Vacay Part 1

This year for Christmas, we had originally planned on staying in Cleveland. Matt was on the best rotation in the world and he had 3 days off for Christmas. We love our family, but we also really enjoyed having our own Christmas here last year, so I was happy to stay again. A few weeks before Christmas we found out that the entire Clark family was going to be in town. 5 of the 8 children, and their families live across the U.S. so it was a pretty big deal. Everyone would be there, but us. So Matt was able to get an extra day off, we purchased some tickets and before we knew it we were on our way to Utah for Christmas.

It was very exciting! Two of my sister's had no idea we were coming. My sis, Susie especially had no clue at all. We showed up on her steps and surprised the heck out of her. It was awesome and her reaction made the whole, hiding-the-secret, worth it.

As always, our weekend was cram packed. I have been so busy since we got back with photo shoots, my YW calling, planning preschool lessons (no more Joy School) and looking at our options for preschool next year (which surprisingly has taken a lot of time too), it has been taking me a lot longer than usual to process the 700 and something photos taken on our trip! So...here are some.

There is NO Clark family gathering without a few hours spent at a church playing all sorts of sports, always including soccer.

Each year it's crazier and crazier with all the new little people running around!

This year with cousins it was especially great! The McArthur kids are getting older and love to carry and play with the younger kids. It's so nice to have little helpers around.

Matt had not seen anyone in my family, besides my parents, for 2 whole years! We were lucky enough to have had Matt's whole family come to Cleveland a year before. So, we had a lot of family to cram into in about 3.5 days. We wanted to go see my grandparents. On Christmas Eve morning my parents took us out for breakfast and then we headed over to my grandparents to visit with them and their cute dog Sammy.

And Devin was terrified of him.

It may not appear this way in the pictures, but every time Sammy jumped at him Devin made these awful screams that sounded terrifying! It was sad, but a little entertaining.

I tell people, my parents live in a yellow house and they believe it, not too odd. Then I tell them and my grandparents live in a pink stucco house, no one believes me. Well, here's the proof. It's a light pink, and fits my grandma and mother perfectly.

Alright, a whole slew more are on the way....

Christmas in Cleveland and little bit of Devin.

The Saturday a week before Christmas, Santa made a special stop at our house. We went to Utah over Christmas weekend, so we decided to have our own Christmas day early. 

It wasn't quite the same, because Matt worked the night before. He couldn't be there for any "Christmas Eve" festivities. And we had to stay upstairs until he got home from work in the morning. He brought home bagels and orange juice from the hospital for breakfast. The kids were very excited. It was fun to see Devin's reaction. He wanted to deliver all the gifts, but didn't really have a big desire to open any of them.

Our little Christmas.

Matt asked for some of Frank's hot sauce....well sometimes Santa stops at Costco.

Matt did a GREAT job this year. He bought me red, leather gloves, a yoga mat, boots and gold, glittery, Steve Madden shoes. Sadly, they didn't fit that well, so they were returned, but it really was the thought that counted this time! :)

We spent the remainder of the day returning half of the stuff we purchased! And lounging around, like Christmas should be. 

Off the topic----here are a couple of pics of Dev. He loves to growl and play with these little animals, it's so cute.

One of his cousins sent him a Christmas gift and he wanted the box more than the present. He'd sit in it until he couldn't get out.

Next up...is Christmas Part II-Utah Style....

Merry Christmas!