Yeah, it's like that

At 34 weeks pregnant, I feel like she and I may be running into the same problems...

1. Bending over and getting up and down is rough.

2. Rolling over at night takes way too much effort.

3. Those baby kicks hurt sometimes.

4. How can we not waddle?

5. We wear the same thing every day (even maternity clothes are too tight now).

6. I'm hungry too.

7. Our hips will never be the same.

But there are a couple things I'm grateful for...

1. I'm actually looking forward to labor, thank you epidurals!

2. I really don't know how she can do anything else BUT stand.

3. I don't want to see those stretch marks.

4. I'm am very very excited for a baby I know will be adorable and fun to hold.

Before bed the other night, Anna told me, "Mom I like when your belly is all fat n' stuff". At my appointment last week, the Dr. said the baby was measuring TWO WEEKS big, which is no big surprise. My last two also measured big, and for those of you who can witness, all of our kids were the chunkiest babies! David was 8'2 three weeks early and hit 20 pounds before 4 months old. So I have a feeling this boy might just do that too? They will probably take me a couple weeks early, which puts me at the beginning of February. I'm getting really excited! (this is David at 5 months...)

And more BIG news...WE ARE FINALLY MOVING. Not the funnest thing to do at this point, but we are so glad to finally sell our house after forever on the market. We will be closer into Mesa, away from these rattlesnakes and other creatures:) So this week (and the past month) has been packing, cleaning and more packing for the big move this Saturday. It just so happens I was 33 weeks pregnant with Kate when we moved last time. We are so good at timing things.

Here is our "adults only" get together we had on Saturday with my family for my sister in law, Karin's birthday. It was a blast! What would a party be without a Wii...I knocked Jay out boxing a couple times and might I say it felt GREAT! Just something I can beat him at until we can play raquetball again.

Karin, I am so glad that you are so glad that you moved from Utah to Arizona (hat we got her) A little bit of cream soda never hurt anybody Here are the kids marveling at a praying mantis they found before church. And here is our newest little sunbeam, quite the handsome guy.

Adventures in December

Christmas Day at Grandma & Grandpa Olson's

Nothing beats the anticipation on Christmas morning...
Let the fun begin (new bikes for David and Anna)!

Christmas Eve at Mommer and Papa's (Anna with her cute buddy and cousin, Amberly)

David with Grandma Olson
HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY TO ANNA on December 27th!! (with Grandma Olson)

We had a little girl cousin birthday "P" party at Grandma's. Everything was "P"...pizza, popcorn, everybody wore pink, pedicures, pinata, pop the balloon, and polka-dot cake. It was a fun day!My brother Thayne and Lanae and their four boys came down for a visit after Christmas. The day before New Year's Eve, we hiked up at Usery Pass. The weather was PERFECT! Then we ate at Tia Rosa's YUMMY! This is Kate eating and loving a lemon...
We spent New Year's Eve at Mommer and Papa's house with LOTS of cousins and LOTS of fun. Jay set off some fireworks he's been saving. On New Year's Day we went on a hike at Thunderbird Mountain on the west side and saw the possible sight for the temple. The kids had SO much fun hiking and hunting for lizards with their cousins AND we had even more perfect weather.
The cutest hiker EVER!
I have to mention Anna's amazing ability to do puzzles. This one was a 300 piece Hannah Montana puzzle from Santa that she worked SO hard to finish it. Not bad Anna, WOW!

Did you know rattlesnakes are out in DECEMBER?

Just a warning for all of you who think you are safe and rattlesnake season is over - IT'S NOT. Okay maybe I'm the only one who worries because we happen to live smack dab in the Little Happy World of Rattlesnakes or something...But we found NUMBER 5 a week ago off the side of the road on the way home from church. We only have a picture on Jay's phone so it may be a couple days before I actually get it on our blog. And speaking of wildlife, the Clark side of the family is known for our encounters with nature. If anybody knew my family growing up, we always had our window wells full of captured reptiles and other things (much to the displeasure of my mom). That's what happens when you have five brothers and a dad who loved to take us out hiking every Saturday. Since we all haven't grown out of that yet, we started a blog to show our findings to each other and anybody else who is interested. So if you want to see a lot of gross or just rarely seen creatures check out http://clarkwildlife.blogspot.com/
Here is yet another little creature who fell snare to Jay's animal killing spree... Jay knew this mouse has been back in our shop for a while and finally got it with a mouse trap. And that's not a rat, its just one huge fat mouse. The kids were pretty fascinated. Way to go dad!And it's that time of year again for Christmas cards, and this year was the biggest PAIN for us getting a normal picture of the kids. So I thought I'd share our different attempts, every time a disaster thanks to a wiggly two year old who is not much of a poser. Can you just feel my frustration behind the camera?See if I'll try all this all again next year. But here is a rare picture of Kate smiling at the camera.

Some things to be thankful for

We had a fun Thanksgiving at my parents house with some other family. Anna was so excited about all the food and ended up going back for seconds and then went back for thirds for mashed potatoes. She even licked the plate clean. She was so proud of herself! Our family has the tradition of weighing ourselves before and after (and yes, writing it down) to see who gains the most weight. My brother Nathan won a couple years ago by gaining 12-14 pounds! Anna was excited because she gained 1 pound and she also sang about 3-4 Thanksgiving songs for everyone, my favorite went something like this (to Oh My Darlin):
"Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey are you getting nice and fat? We are ready, we are ready, we are ready for Thanksgiving.
Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey do you ever wonder why? People eat you at Thanksgiving and not chicken pot pie?"
This year, Anna came up with the idea to make smoothies when we watch the parade on TV on Thanksgiving morning, something we'll do every year now. I LOVE everything about Thanksgiving, especially the tradition of decorating for Christmas the day after. I love getting out the Christmas boxes with the kids, I've never seen them so excited!

Anna's first missing tooth

I am so excited I finally lost my tooth, it has been wiggly for over a month now! I woke up at 6am yesterday morning and ran into my parents room saying, "My tooth is REALLY loose!!". So my dad got up with me and checked it out. He asked me if he could pull it out and surprisingly I said, "okay, I guess..." So he went ahead and just yanked it out, it bled a little bit but I was so brave. I left a decorated envelope with my tooth in it last night and sure enough, the TOOTH FAIRY came and left me another envelope with a dollar in it and man was I happy. I had my gingerbread house on my dresser next to my bed and I saw a few pieces missing this morning...I think the tooth fairy needed a little snack last night. I'm saving my money, and now I have over two dollars. I am starting to memorize The Articles of Faith and I just learned the second one (my Mommer gives me a dollar for every one I memorize). Growing up!

*****

Here are some pictures from this past weekend...

ASU Game - this was the kids first time and they had SO much fun, we sat by the alumni band and that kept them dancing and happy the whole time.

Jay's dad's birthday party - we had it at a church and had fun eating and playing in the cultural hall and making our annual Gingerbread houses. Jay's mom makes all the frosting and we bring the candy and go to town. The kids love doing this!

Our new two year old

*And a little about her...
1. She is so adorable, I can't get enough of her and her big personality.
2. The song "Back Down" comes to mind when she is in the middle of a screaming fit on the floor.
3. She NEVER stops jumping. This little girl seriously bounces everywhere she goes. I think we need a trampoline...
4. I LOVE her new words. She pretty much says (or tries to say) everything the kids say. She will stop and get a serious look on her face and say quietly, "Croc-a-dyy-ul" (crocodile). Or I love when she says, "eets high" or "eets told" (cold) or "eets harrd".
5. She is happy, smiling and giggling for most of her day.
*Not enough mom to go around...

...but if I had a picture to post at the moment you would see that there is plenty of me to "around". At 26 weeks...

1. I feel huge already!

2. David came up to me, rubbed my tummy and said, "Mommy I LIKE your tummy!!"

3. It feels so great to not be sick.

5. I still get really tired, especially at the end of the day. Poor Jay has a boring sleepy wife, he makes fun of me for falling asleep on the couch EVERY night.

4. This little boy is always hungry - I can't seem to stuff MY face enough to keep HIM growing (and me to actually feel full).

5. I crave ice.

6. I get out of breath so easy, especially in the mornings.

7. I'm not looking forward to the third trimester.
8. So I guess almost all these things are complaints.

9. And back to not enough mom to go around now...what am I going to do when the 4th kid comes? All I need is two extra arms, an extra hour of sleep, a maid...heck just another one of me.

*A few things I'm excited about...

1. CHRISTMAS!!! I love everything about it and I admit I can't ignore the Christmas station. Anna asks to listen to it every morning on the way to school

2. THE TWILIGHT MOVIE!!! yeah absolutely can't wait for this. I'm going with my sister in laws next week...

And just two more random candid pictures of David at my mom's house a couple weeks ago. He loves her desert tortoises, she has 3 that are actually kind of cute and really smart and is currently trying to breed them. This one is Minnie May Lemonada.

Vote for ME

Right when Anna came home from school, she snuck a door hanger on my bedroom door that she made at school. It was decorated and on it she wrote, "VOTE". She told me all about how that in some countries, people can't vote and that tomorrow I can go vote for the President of the United States. Then she said, "Mom, you can vote for ME to be president, but if I win I have to do it for FOUR years!" I am on a serious election overload at this point, but I still can't help but be obsessed with what's happening tomorrow and all that has gone on in the past few months. I've always been Republican (in my considerably short time as a voter) and probably always will be, but this is the first year I really took a long hard look at what I believe and have realized and loved the responsibilty that comes with being an American. So we'll see what (and who) goes down tomorrow...
This is the pre-Halloween candy pigout picture...on our way to our ward's trunk-or-treat.

Oh I just can't resist putting this picture up - this is one handsome little handy man.

I love Kate's silhouette and her chubby cheeks (don't you want to eat them?).

And finally a shout out to our sweet little princess...HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY tomorrow (voting day). Here's a look back at me on the way to the hospital 2 weeks early and 7'2 (I'm pretty sure I'm already that big now)...

crazy hair and big eyes from the beginning...

We love everything about you - your bubbly personality, your temper tantrums, your sweet cheesy smiles, your sassy glances, and of course your cuddly hugs and kisses. We can't imagine our family without you Kate.