I love Sunday afternoons

my infomercial

Okay-I have fallen in love with this stuff... 24.7 . When I saw my mom's AMAZING results on her face I HAD to try it!! I wasn't skeptical at all at trying this because I saw how soft/smooth my mom's skin had become! My 3 pregnancies+nursing=bad hormones, have all taken their toll on my skin--uneven coloring, an annoying age spot (not a mark and it's definitely not a beauty), a few wrinkles, and most of all-LOTS of breakouts! So I've used Proactive and I've liked it, but my face still has felt kind of aged and just blah. So I've only used this for 2 days (night and morning - 4 applications) and I feel a GINORMOUS difference in my face. Enough to get on my blog so soon to tell you about it and to give it a try for yourself! I cannot believe how soft my skin is...my very recent bad breakouts are almost gone and my old acne scars are feeling smoother already!! As far as I know and have read about this stuff, the original product line, FREEZE 24/7, is super expensive and available at the rich only dept. stores I don't tend to visit. Just recently, this same company made a similar, less-expensive product line for CVS pharmacy (ghetto I think not) so this is where you can get it. They have 4-5 products in their line, but I just got the cleanser ($16) and the anti-aging moisturizer ($40). They had some sort of eye serum and their most potent product, some heavy-duty cream targeted at treating wrinkles (both around $40). They compare this last product to BOTOX because it has the ingredient GABA (also in their other products I think) in it and your face is supposed to sort of FREEZE. No needles and no blood. Anyways, only using my 2 products, my face feels very firm, AND, my mom's own results were from her using JUST the moisturizer. I guess my face is still youthful, so I'm putting that heavy-duty wrinkle killer on hold. Aging is natural and will happen, but I know we all want to take care of our skin. So far I have absolutely loved it and I can't tell you how excited I am!!!!!!! I'm not big on close-ups of my face so no before and afters here, you'll just have to take my word for it. So if I break out with a horrible case of acne, hives, or some sort of botox-like poisoning in a couple weeks, I'll let ya know.

TO THE FARM

We went to the dairy farm for Anna's preschool fieldtrip so these pics are about 10 days late. (notice Anna's first black eye). We had a great time! We left Kate with my sis (thanks B!) and just took the older two. Jay took the morning off to spend it with us :) knowing that the kids were really looking forward to it. They had so much fun seeing hundreds of fat, stinky cows! We also saw a calf that was only a 1/2 hour old during our hayride. We got to pet and feed goats, donkeys, horses, rabbits, and hens. David is my fearless one and he had a blast! He absolutely loves animals-he was hugging the goats and trying to hang out with the big mean turkey. A fun day-we love hangin with Daddy!

MARCH MADNESS!

It's time again for the Men's NCAA b-ball tournament! The Clark family every March has a showdown online, we fill out brackets all in hopes for the prize to be won...bragging rights and the trophy for a year. I pulled off a win in 2006, so I'm ready for a comeback this year. If you want to get your friends or family in on the action, go to

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/frontpage

You can analyze your pics or take a lucky guess (my strategy)...it's just fun to be a part of the tournament challenge. Smash's pic? North Carolina. Track my bracket at the top of my sidebar starting March 20th - April 7th.

My Saturday

We took our beehives on a retreat Saturday and had a blast, 2 leaders and 5 girls! We went hikiing early in the morning for a couple hours at Picacho Peak (on the way to Tucson) and yeah that about killed me. It's a rocky, straight up, intense hike, but I highly recommend it and would love to go again. For those of you that are lighter on your feet than I am these days, it's probably not too hard. It was a really pretty hike though, everything is so green this time of year! We hiked for a couple hours then had our ice cream reward at Dairy Queen, strategically placed right outside the park. We headed to the other leader's 1600 acre family ranch about 20 minutes away for the rest of the day. At the ranch house, we put together some gift bags for the kids going on the trek this coming up week, then went fishing at their pond. In about an hour 1/2, everybody caught about 3-4 fish each. They had so much fun because most of them had never been fishing! By the end, most of them were hooking their own worms and casting their own lines. The girls also had fun around the cattle and feeding them oranges. Then we went back to the house and learned how to shoot a 22 and took shots at some grapefruit. The girls loved that too because most of them had never shot before. We hung out, ate lunch, then packed up and left. It was such a fun day, the girls never complained and they were so much fun to be with!

Just peachy

Our peach tree made it through the past two winters! Our orange also survived, but as for the grapefruit and tangelo- they're goners. I love the blossoms and took some pics of the kids by them today. Anna loves to strike a pose.Then David, well, I can barely get him to stand still for 2 seconds and he would only growl and act like a dinosaur. What a cute kid...

What's cute?

I think most baby mammals are cute-baby insects, baby reptiles, not cute. I remember when we caught a big black snake and put it in the usual spot-one of the many basement window wells we had made into makeshift aquariums. Well that snake disappeared and a month or so later, my mom headed down to the basement and there she saw them-dozens of little black baby snakes-everywhere! That pregnant snake we caught hid behind one of the metal grooves in the window well and the baby snakes were so small, they squeezed through the window. That was within a couple years of being in the new house, mom how did you put up with us?

We found the cutest baby rabbits Saturday morning, in the dirt area right next to our front porch. There were 3 of them and they were so tiny and soft, just big enough to fit in your hand. We found their nest-a shallow hole with fur and sticks all around and inside it. The babies could jump, but very slow and not very high. The next day they weren't there, so we figured they were about 2 weeks old, because I read that they leave the nest about then. I also read that cottontails have only a one month gestation and give birth to a 3-6 size liter 3 times a year! That explains why they are everywhere out here, they're busy. Anyways it was an exciting day for the kids because they were able to pet and watch them. Now this is cute.

I just have to brag...

I had to share this picture of my brother Nathan on his special 5 day tour on the USS Roosevelt last week. When he saw this very rare oppurtunity to take this tour, he made sure he got on (this pic is in front of a destroyer). For the past 2 years, he has been teaching at the naval base in S.C. while getting his Masters in Nuclear Engineering. He was chosen out of BYU from a select few in the U.S. to go to SC. Nathan (and Lindsay) - you're awesome!

The consequences of ignoring your kids...

Today, as I was doing some housework(yes) in the other room, I could hear Kate complaining and crying - but just a little bit. I ignored it knowing that David was probably just pestering and knowing that her cry would let me know if something was wrong. So a minute later she comes waddling quickly into the room laughing and giggling. And what do ya know- her curly head of hair is totally soaking wet and David comes in chasing after her with a bottle of windex! AAhh! David had doused her hair completely in the windex! She wasn't sad or hurt - but I put her in the bath and rinsed it out. I'll try to watch my stinker 2 year old much closer now.

So I wanted everyone to know that Windex makes an amazing conditioner-Kate's hair was so soft and I'm being serious with you, extra shiny! I would recommend rubbing a little spray in your kid's hair, or even your own. Just give it a try. Windex sprays will give you a streak-free shine everytime, whether inside the house or outside, on glass, countertops, kids' heads, porcelain, stainless steel, and more. The Windex family now includes a wide range of products to meet different cleaning needs, occasions, and hair types. Find the one that's right for you!

Some warnings I haphazardly avoided and other useful info:

Warning from Product Label: Keep out of reach of children and pets. Unplug electrical appliances before using. Not recommended for use on wood or other varnished surfaces. Spot test other surfaces before using. Do not use or mix with other household cleaners.
Acute Health Effects- Health Hazards: Route of Entry- Skin contact. Effects of Acute Exposure- Eye: None known. Skin: None known. Inhalation: None known. Ingestion: None known. Medical Conditions Generally Recognized As Being Aggravated By Exposure: None known. Chronic Health Effects: None known. First Aid- Eye Contact: Rinse with plenty of water. Skin Contact: Wash contaminated area with water and soap. Inhalation: No special requirements. Ingestion: Immediately drink 1-2 glasses of water or milk.

A little more about this product:

When the soda Pepsi Blue debuted (remember that? and whatever happened to clear pepsi?) it was also compared to Windex. Windex has been presented as a placebo or folk remedy for external use against most non-disabling ailments. (This parallels an actual folk belief in similar use of the WD-40 brand of penetrating oil.) This may be based in Windex's remarkable capacity for removing tight rings off fingers where more traditional remedies such as butter or soap are less effective.

As for the health effects on Kate: none known.

Buzzed

David's hair has finally gotten longer-but I just didn't know how to do his hair. It's kind of curly and with or without hairgel it just goes kind of fluffy. So I told Jay to just buzz it all off last night.
Before...He never cries like this during a haircut, bad day I guess...

handsome, just like dad!

Yum is here

Okay so I'm excited because we got a new Bahama Bucks by us and we went with the kids tonight (talk about some sugar highs). Since when did it get so expensive - 14 bucks for all of us. I'm definitely an ice cream person, but I still love the sno.

We did one of my favorite things to do on Saturdays...we did some yardwork and cleanup and just hung out with the kids. Jay borrowed our neighbor's quad and took rides with the kids, dragging a big metal grate to wipe out the weeds. We flew some kites in the back and the kids had so much fun seeing their kites get really high. It stressed out Anna though, because she kept thinking hers would fly away. So I guess the question is sno, smoothies or ice cream?

Gray days ahead

Something that I'm not excited about is the increasing number of gray hairs I am getting. Jay pointed some (quite a few) out recently. thanks, Jay. But I'm concerned. I just turned 29 and it's starting to show... wrinkles and grays. I highlighted my hair here and there since we've been married - but definitely not on a regular basis. My idea was always to not color often "because once I get grays I'll have to do it all the time". I said that thinking that 35-40 was when my time would arrive. Well I guess my time has arrived.