GO JAZZ!

So, those of you who have known me a while know that I've always been a pretty big JAZZ fan. So, a couple weeks ago I was pretty excited when we scored some sweet tickets to the Jazz vs. Blazers game. Ok, ok - I know, the Blazers suck - but I was excited to be there regardless. We took along our good friends, Kyle & Kristy - and we had a BLAST!

And yes, if I were really a big JAZZ fan, I suppose I might have worn some JAZZ colors to the freaking game.

Nope - I wore red. So, all I have to say about that is... GO UTES.

And here we are taking TRAX back to our car -

Who's that weird dude behind us?

Thanks, Crockett's... we had a blast.

Oh... and we WON by the way!

Game Night

Well... as always, I made myself a promise that I would get all my shopping done early this year so that I could enjoy the holidays with my family. Yet again - another broken promise. Sad - maybe I should stop promising myself things I know I'll never acheive. Maybe I'll just embrace reality and say "Who gives a rats". Oh well - you know what they say... "It's the most wonderful time of the year".

My POINT: I haven't had time to blog. So - look out because The Clark's are gonna be on Blog Overload here - so stay tuned for some major blog postage.

A while back - (like a week & a half ago) we had some friends over for a long overdue "game night". It was originally planned to be bigger - but a few friends got sick at the last minute - and a couple were out of town. But we had a good time, anyway. Played us some good ol' fashioned "Yahtzee".

Don't let 'em fool ya - their havin' the time of their life!!

Well, at least the kids look like they were havin' fun!

By the end of the night - this is what I found! We pooped 'em right out!

MOLLY

So... some of you may know that we have this dog, Molly. We truly do love her - even though she gets put on hold sometimes. Well - she's a sweetheart. One of her favorite things to do is to shovel with Ross. Everytime he tosses the snow off the driveway, she jumps into it. She LOVES the snow. Check it out:

She truly is amazing. She has unlimited energy - and can jump higher than any dog around. She's super fast and super loving.

WE LOVE YOU, MOLLY!

So PROUD!

A very exciting thing happened in my household about the day after Thanksgiving. We are so excited to say that

COLE CAN WALK!!

I seriously cannot believe that my baby boy, (who will be ONE next week, I might add), is WALKING! Can you believe that?? - WALKING! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the little guy cruisin' around. I'm tellin' ya right now - TIME FLIES. It slapped me in the face once again the other day when I realized that my baby boy is going to turn ONE. How is that even possible? Seriously. I can't get over it. I'm here to tell you.... cherish every single moment... Don't sweat the small stuff.... take time to smell the roses... yadda yadda yadda ... We've heard all those sayings so many times, but they are so STINKING true - I can't say it enough. Over the past couple of weeks he has become quite the little mover.

He is so much happier now that he can walk. You can't wipe the smile off his face now that he can get places the way everyone else does. And of course the tongue always has to be out when we're concentrating. What a big boy!

Don't blink or life will pass you by.
(sniff, sniff)

Thanksgiving

Okay so as usual, this is long overdue ... but important nevertheless so here we go. We had a really awesome Thanksgiving holiday this year. Normally we alternate which family we go to every other year. Well this year happened to be the year we were supposed to go to the Clark's house. However, we were lucky enough this year to have BOTH! My family decided to come to Utah this year - so let's just say we got to "have our cake and eat it too". It was great! We had our normal Thanksgiving dinner at the Clark's on Thanksgiving Day - and then we had a slightly smaller version of it the day after with my family! It was great.

Let me just take this moment to say how THANKFUL I am for my wonderful family. I tell ya - it's true what they say "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". It is so easy to take your family for granted when they are always around and close by. But when that all changes in the blink of an eye - and you can't do anything about it... it really puts things into perspective for you. About 4 years ago my entire family were afforded some new and exciting opportunities which caused them all to move to sunny Arizona and away from me. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to go through - but it has truly made things so much clearer to me and made me realize how truly greatful I am to have such an amazing family who, no matter what, sticks by each other and loves each other unconditionally. I am greatful for this trial and experience in my life and for the lessons that it has taught me. I know it happened for a reason and I am thankful that I understand that and appreciate the important things in life.

And for those of you who know my little Mason, you know how long he counts on the fun and excitement of having his cousins and grandparents come and sleep over. He soaks in every moment of staying up late, eating treats, staying in your jammies all day, playing games and whatever else comes along with it. So when the time actually comes for everyone to go home, Mason literally falls apart. The day of departure, he will literally cry sobbing tears the entire day long. He is so much like I used to be it isn't even funny. We always call him our "Gentle Giant" - and this is one of the reasons why. He truly is one of the sweetest, kind-hearted kids you will ever meet.

Even my long lost brother (above) decided to show up and prove his exsistence. Seriously though - most people think that when I talk about Chad (my brother) that I'm making him up because he NEVER comes to visit. I think I was even beginning to wonder if I was making him up. UNTIL... he was here a couple of weeks ago - and Paula even got to meet him! So - I officially have a witness that he does exsist. Thanks for coming, Chad & Andrea - it was a pleasure having you guys and we hope you'll come again real soon.

And it wouldn't be Thanksgiving Day for us without playing a little FOOTBALL before the big feast! Ross and Mason went up to the park that morning and played a little football with some friends and family. This was a treat for Mason since he rarely gets to play an "official game" of football with a whole bunch of people on REAL TEAMS and everything. So, they had a good time - came back really cold and hungry... ready to eat some TURKEY!

So, all in all, we had an AWESOME holiday filled with family, fun and lots of FOOD.

And now we are finally back to normal - the tears have officially stopped and as hard as it is, we are going on with our every day routine. Just waiting for the next get-together so we can have another reason to party.

Let me just end by saying ...

WE ARE BLESSED.

Blog Neglect

So once again I find myself neglecting my blog. Let's just say what I always say... "I've been super busy". Ok - 'nuf said.

Anyway, I think we are finally seeing the light from all our remodeling construction. Our bathroom is just about done! I'm so excited to finally have my house back. I never thought I'd want to stop remodeling - but I truly need a break from all of it. Anyway... we finally got our new carpet! Yahoo! Those of you who have been in my home know that my old carpet was awful and that we desperately needed some new. So we finally did it. It was a long process - and with the help of some really good friends, we moved all the furniture out of our entire upstairs. (Thanks Kyle and Kristy) So needless to say, we didn't have any beds upstairs. So, we had a family "camp-out" in the basement.

And what's a camp-out without a tent, right? So, we let the kids get out the "shark tent" and their sleeping bags and we made the most of having to "rough it" in the basement.

And here's where mommy and daddy slept:

We won't mention that we were in such a mess that it took us a few days to get things back together. Let's just say our camp-out lasted multiple nights! Anyway... we survived and we are excited to have everyone come see our improvements. We are finally just about through.