October & November Just Flew By!

October was a busy month and yet full of fun.  We had such a great time getting ready for fall and Halloween.  We really enjoyed the fall festivities here in El Paso.

Jack has really started getting into helping with chores.  I LOVE IT!  He helps vacuum, sweep, pick up and water the lawn.  He's such a great helper!

This guy LOVES his yogurt!  The only problem is that he keeps taking his bib off and we have a major mess on our hands when he's done.

"What Mom? This is how I play."  Hurricane Beckham strikes again.  Those eyes!! Hmmm...bath time? I think so.

Painting pumpkins!  This will be a new tradition in our house every year now.  The boys had a fun time with it.

So much fun!

I was upstairs helping Beckham when I heard a lot of crinkling coming from downstairs.  I think the picture tells you exactly what happened. Haha.  This kid.

We LOVE going to the corn maze here.  We enjoy getting the boys out for a family day and they have so much fun.  Jack could not get enough of the slides this year.  

I think Daddy enjoyed the slide just as much.  

Heading back from the pumpkin patch on a tractor ride.  Jack picked out the most disgusting little pumpkin he could find and wanted it.  We called it "the charlie brown pumpkin".  They gave it to us for free, that should say something, right?! He was so happy and proud though.  How cute is he!

Our little family on the tractor ride.  The boys really enjoyed the pumpkin patch and the tractor especially.  We also visited a little animal zoo and they loved seeing the goats, donkey, chickens, and bunnies.

Somebody really enjoyed his spaghetti-o's. Beckham James :)

Jack and I enjoy making sugar cookies for the seasons and holidays.  He's a master at mixing his colors :) 

For the church Halloween party we were all crayons.  The hats didn't last long but I thought I had the best looking crayon crew around.  My cute boys!!

Clark Clan :)

Pumpkin Carving on Halloween.  

Beckham helped too :) 

A first time trick or treating and it was a major success.  The boys LOVED it.  They would run to each door and knock.  We only went for about 20 minutes and they still came home with buckets full. I think overall October was a great month in the Clark home.

November is of course a favorite month of mine.  I love Thanksgiving and my bday is in there too. I have such great friends here in El Paso and I keep forgetting to post pics of our awesome gang.  We try to get together at least once a month for a girls night and we have such a blast! Love these girls! 

Jack and I decorated turkeys to hang on the fridge.  He loved this! He was so proud of his turkeys he created.

Birthday fun for me!  Every year we start off my celebration with cinnamon rolls because, well, they are super tasty and my favorite breakfast.  The boys helped devour these with me.  My friend Sarah made me the delicious chocolate cake and watched our boys on my bday so Pres could take me to lunch :) We ate at a Teppanyaki Grill place and it had amazing food!  Eating out is one of my favorite things to do.  I love trying new foods and feeling spoiled :)

The next day was Thanksgiving and boy did we have a spread.  It was super tasty and fun to celebrate with our little family and of course watching football.

Jackson helping Daddy water the lawn.  Love him!

We LOVE nap time in our house.  Everyone takes a nap around 1p and you can tell how well the nap went by the hair we see when they wake up.  I think Beckham's speaks volumes of how well it went this day.

The boys were helping me get stuff ready for baby girl and they had to try on the bows.  Haha.  

I LOVE the age Jackson is at now.  He loves being more involved with holidays, crafts, play time, etc.  He helped me decorate our little tree this year and had so much fun. 

Pres participated in the No Shave November for work and I think he won :) Proud of this man of mine! 

These past few months we have also welcomed two little babies into the Clark fold.  We are so thrilled and excited to see all of these little miracles coming to our family.  I cannot wait to meet these two angels. 

Brian and Shelby welcomed their first baby

Grace Eliza Clark

 August 10th 

7 lbs. 10 oz. 20.5 in. long

Happy, Healthy, and Adorable

Mikale and Ammon welcomed baby #3

 Lincoln Arthur Williamson

November 14th 

7 lbs. 15 oz. 20 in. long

Happy, Healthy, and Adorable

We are getting very excited to meet our baby girl in the next few weeks.  So grateful December is here and our little angel is just a short time away from joining our crazy gang.  Hope you all have enjoyed your holidays so far!

Girls Trip of a Lifetime!

At the end of September I had the opportunity to spend five days with my besties from childhood.  We have been friends for over 20 years.  Yea, crazy! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  It had been almost six years since we had all been together.  The last time was at Preston and I's wedding! It was such a blast to catch up with these incredible women in my life.  The best part about a friendship like this is that six years can go by but when you get together it's as if no time has passed. Love these girls!!

Now on to a vacation I will never forget!

We had been planning this girls trip since about February/March of this year.  We were so excited that no one would be pregnant or nursing when it was time to go in September.  Oops! My bad :) Being almost 7 months pregnant at the time didn't slow us down though.  We had a BLAST!  We ended up deciding on a trip to Clearwater Beach, FL for our five day get a way. I think we all would agree that it was a perfect vacation.

We were all coming from different places around the country so we did our best to schedule our flights as close as we could.  Wynnie was coming from CA, Rhiannon from UT, Katie from MA and I was coming from TX.  Wynnie, Katie and I were the first to arrive so we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch while we waited for Rhiannon.  It was delicious!  We grabbed some cheesecakes to go and grabbed Rhiannon from the airport.  We put our stuff at the hotel and walked straight to the beach. May this sweet vacation begin!

Some pics from the trip...

Together again!!

Me, Rhiannon, Wynnie and Katie

We may be in our 30's but we will always be young at heart!

Wyn rented the car for us and was our driver for the trip.  It felt great being chauffeured around. Thanks again Wyn for driving :) 

Backseat buddies

Our first full day in Clearwater the girls went shopping while I went to get a prenatal massage.  Yes, it was awesome.  They came and got me when I was done and we headed to the mall.  Of course we had to all squeeze into one of these photo booths. So much fun!

It was so nice just laying on the beach and talking.  The sunsets were beautiful and the company was perfect!

Beach fun in the sun.  Can you believe that white sand?! It was great!

Florida Sunset

Beach time

One of the days we were there we did a dolphin/snorkeling excursion.  It was so much fun!  We headed out on a boat and cruised the waters for a while.  The dolphins in the area are attracted to the wake of the boat.  When the captain would spot a pod of dolphins he'd slow down and the dolphins would come and play in the wake.  They'd surf it or jump in the air right by us.  It was so beautiful. Dolphins are incredible creatures.  

A view from the boat as we were riding out to sea.

After some boat time we ended up on this island where we docked and could explore.  There was an old fort there that you could walk around.  It was also a great place to find sea shells.

There was a manatee in the water as the boat was docking. 

They aren't the prettiest looking creatures but it was super cool to see.  The Captain told me that if I was to get into the water the manatee would come up to me out of anyone else.  He said that they believe that manatee's can hear the heartbeat of a baby in the water.  They would want to come closer to any pregnant woman because of the soft sounds they hear.  Everyone wanted me to get in to try but let's be honest, this thing is huge. I was slightly terrified ... ok, extremely terrified for that big thing to get close to me or my baby. Haha

Hanging out on the back of the boat.

One night we all got dressed up and headed to a really nice dinner by the water.  It was delicious!  I got the salmon and it was to die for.  So dang tasty.  They also served bread with an oil based dipping sauce mixed with all different kinds of herbs.  (You can see it in the top left area of the pic.)  It was incredible!! The waiter may have told us to slow down on our bread consumption haha.

Me and Rhiannon at dinner. 

Katie and Wynnie at dinner.

The next day we headed to a more southern part of Florida for a little kayaking experience.  

Just by chance Wynnie's brother, Jeremiah, who's also a pilot, was in town for a flight that day.  He was able to come with us and it was so much fun to catch up with him and honestly to have a guide while we kayaked.  Us girls had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. Haha

We definitely had a great time kayaking.  We kayaked through mangrove trees that had millions of these tiny crabs.  It was fun to maneuver our way through but dang was it exhausting by the end. We also saw a dolphin in the water on our way back to the drop off point.  It was crazy to see a dolphin in the little lagoon we happened to be kayaking in.  

We spotted this raccoon as we were leaving the kayaking place.  We have lots of pics from the kayak experience but I didn't take my phone so I didn't have any.  I'll have to get some from the girls.

These two crazy girls.

We had way too much fun!

 Our last night there we went to dinner not far from our hotel and right on the beach.  It was absolutely delicious and they had live music while you ate.  It was fun watching people dance and sing.  We had so much fun!

This was one of the desserts we got. Donut holes smothered in awesomeness. Oh my goodness! I think I gained at least 10 lbs on this trip but it was WORTH IT!

I couldn't believe how fast the time went by but as they say when you're having fun time flies.  We were all so grateful that we could do this trip and spend the time we did with each other.  We vowed not to let 6 years go by again before we see each other.  We are so thankful to have the hubbies we do as well.  They took time off work and were stay at home Dad's while the Momma's could have a get away.  

I am so looking forward to the next adventure we take.  LOVE YOU GIRLS!