"A bee Clark? It was a big bee!"

From the desk of Darrin:

During my mission I had this inside joke with one of my companions that had to do with the movie "The Santa Claus". It is the part where the main character was turning into Santa and had put on a lot of weight. While he is in a business meeting he tells everyone that he was stung by a bee and then orders all these cookies and hot chocolate for lunch. A lady says "A bee Clark?" He replies "It was a big bee.” Needless to say this past weekend I had my own case of this type of so called "bee stings".

While on my Saturday morning run, I stopped at the last drink stop and had some Gatorade to finish off my run. This was just your average blue Gatorade, the same stuff I have drank time and time again. Well right after I had some I started to run again and felt like my tongue was starting to get some canker sores on it. There was only about a mile from the last drink station to the cars where we stopped. By the time we reached the cars I felt like my face was frozen and it was hard for me to talk. This is a picture taken right after the run.As Darcy and I walked to the car I told her that I felt like I had some type of food allergy happening. She replied by telling me I looked funny, and then once we got to the car she started freaking out because my face was swelling up so fast. I talked her into just going to the store and getting some allergy medicine instead of the ER (which is where she wanted to go). By the time we stopped at the store my left eye was so swollen that I could hardly open it. After a couple of antihistamines, shower, and a blessing from my Dad I started felling better.
(I am smiling in one of the pictures and not in the other, can you tell the difference?) By the end of the day I was practically back to normal. I am still not sure why this day Gatorade was the catalyst for causing this reaction, but let’s just say I haven’t had any since that morning.
This is me, this morning; I really don’t see that much of a difference. I think I can rock it either way.

A Quiet Eve

This New Years Eve we had grand plans of reenacting last year, which we would have done but after talking to the pediatrician and being advised against taking Kale out to the hot springs, we opted for bowling instead. To be honest I was pretty happy with that, the hot springs are always fun but not so much if I am sitting in the locker room nursing a baby alone.
We had a great time bowling and my nephews even came with my mom and dad.

Driving home we stopped for a quick stop to pick up sparkling cider and went home. It was about 8:30pm, we lit some sparklers, gave a quick 2010 cheer and put the kids to bed. I was worried that with no party to go to, or friends/family to entertain we would feel a little put out. As Darrin and I got in our PJ's made a comfy bed on the floor and cuddled in front of a movie I knew there wasn't anywhere else I wanted to be right then.
Cheers to 2010!

Here's Poppy (my dad) loving his Grandkids.

Growing

Here's some recent pics of our new 6 month old. It's hard to believe he is already 1/2 a year.
He's full of smiles (seriously such a great baby), sleeping most of the night 7pm-5:30am, and just started rice cereal, those are the quick stats...on to the pictures.

Holiday Chaos - I've been self diagnosed

This time last year, was complete and utter CHAOS. I was taking photos, printing cards, reprinting cards, and taking more photos. And to top it all off, I was pregnant and highly emotional, all of this adds up to one big giant ball of stress. It was not such a good holiday.

This year I was determined to make it different and to feel different. I have been still photographing, but I put aside the card printing (trying to learn from my mistakes) and I decided to take a break from being pregnant too, just to guarantee a more Merry holiday. I thought all was going well, till this morning.

As I was reading a friend's blog she posted she was having a baby boy! I was completely surprised. As I read farther on it turns out she had an earlier post that she thought she was having a girl. As I read, I felt like the worst friend, that I had no clue she was even pregnant, let alone halfway through! I was silently blaming my husband for not even passing on the good news. Which then I thought, maybe he doesn't even know yet.

I started tracking down the post for when my friend initially posted her good news (thinking maybe no one knew she was pregnant, and the gender post was her initial announcement). Turns out that she did make her grand announcement clear back in August. As I was reading her comments of her good friends wishing her well, lo and behold there was a friendly comment from who else...?

ME! I am seriously losing it. I don't remember posting my comment at all. Like I said before I didn't even think I knew she was pregnant. I thought my good blogging husband must have put a comment on there for me. After reading what I wrote, it was definitely not my husbands comment.

How can this be? Is it truly possible to forget all of this and be just as surprised 4 months later!? I have resorted to blaming it all on the holidays and I will just start diagnosing my condition (because I think there is a condition here) to HOLIDAY CHAOS.

So to my good friend that is expecting a boy! CONGRATS AGAIN, I really am so happy for you!

I'm a Darfish

From the desk of Darrin:

So the other night I was home with the kids (“babysitting”). As I was cleaning up dinner I almost stepped on Eden, because she was right behind me just lying on the floor like this.
I asked her what she was doing and she didn't respond. So I stepped over her and kept doing my thing. I again almost stepped on her lying on the floor (she had moved to a new spot). I asked her again what she was doing, "I'm a darfish” she said. “What is a darfish”, I asked. “Darfishs don't talk” she said. It took me about 10 minutes and finally Baylie coming into the kitchen and telling me that she was a Starfish before it all made since. I will miss these days of little kids, and their imagination. I love them so much.

wrist-strap required

We are so fortunate for our TV that our children always wear the safety strap while playing the Wii. As for our girls standing so close to each other while playing Wii Tennis, well that lesson was learned the hard way!

Let it snow

Our first snowfall. I bundled up the girls and got the camera. As I was watching them, and especially Jaya when she stuck her tongue out to catch the snow, I was overwhelmed with that childhood wonderment. Do you remember that? How everyday brought something new.

My friend just recently passed on her mother's wisdom that as a mother we need to make everyday magical. I've been thinking about that, and wondering and hoping that I do that.

What I've realized is that a kids' life is already magical, it's just up to me to play along.