Happy Easter!

We had a good Easter today.  We all went to church and Megan sang up on the stage for the first time today.  She did pretty good.  She didn't remember all the words, but she did remember some.  Josh sang a little and Tyler got up there and tried not to cry the whole time.  He's such a funny kid.  He knows the songs and wants to go up and sing, but then he gets up there and see all the people and starts to get nervous so then he cries.  That poor kid is full of big emotions that he doesn't know how to control.

After church the Easter bunny came.  The kids were all so excited to collect the eggs.  We went youngest to oldest.  The top picture shows Allie climbing out the door backwards while the other kids waited for their turn.  Such cute kids.
After they found all of the eggs we had the kids sit on the porch with their baskets for a picture.  Of course it is impossible to get all four kids smiling at one time, but we sure did try.  They had so much fun finding all the eggs.

A few hours later we went to the Steenblik's for dinner.  It is so nice to be with family, especially on the holidays.  We had a yummy turkey dinner and then the kids got to have another fun Easter egg hunt.  The kids got spoiled with lots of yummy treats by grandma Margie.

After all that fun we went over to my parents house to visit the Blackwell's who were visiting on their way to Texas.  It was so much fun to see them and spend some time with them before they move to Texas.  My kids loved playing with their five boys and were bummed when it was time leave.  It was such a nice Easter with family! Such a nice time of year to remind us of the resurrection of our Savior.  He lives!

Megan is 4!!!

Our Megan turned 4. I kept telling my self that she would magically stop whining and crying when she turned 4...it didn't work.  She is getting better at not being so whining and she is able to calm herself down a lot quicker these days too, so I say that's great progress.
Megan is such a rough and tough girl.  She loves to wrestle with Tyler and he is not gentle with her (despite my telling him to be).  She has no problem being out with the big kids and loves being part of the group.  She is still really good at annoying the heck out of her brothers and probably always will be.
Megan is such a good big sister to Allie.  Sometimes there are issues when Allie tries to take things from Megan, but that doesn't happen too often.  For the most part they get along really well.  Megan likes to play with Allie and teach her lots of fun things.
Megan likes going to preschool.  She likes her teachers but not the boys in her class, especially Noni.  They got into it one day over a new toy and she hasn't liked him ever since.  He pushed her "2 times" (as she says) so she bit him...then he scratched her in the face.  So Noni and her aren't buddies anymore.  She knows a couple letters in the alphabet and a handful of numbers.  She is learning to write her letters and enjoys doing her "homework" with her brothers.  She is excited for another year of preschool and glad that she'll get to go 4 days a week.
She has been sleeping without a Pull-up for a few months now and for the most part is doing really good.  She has an accident if she has too much to drink the night before or if she doesn't go potty right before bed, but besides that she does really good.
Megan still really loves her mommy.   I try to enjoy it because I know she wont be like this forever.  She loves for me to hold her and snuggle with her, especially at bedtime.  She is my little best friend and I love her so much.  She is so cute and silly.  She loves to go shopping and being out of the house.  She is so full of life and excitement.  We love her so much and are so blessed to have her in our family!

Clark Easter Egg Hunt

After all the crazy picture taking we had the kids change into some play clothes before they got to have an early Easter egg hunt.  My dad bought all the kids sand buckets to collect all their eggs in.  He also gave them a chocolate bunny and a big egg with treats.  They all loved them and and were super excited to have an early egg hunt.

Aunt Teagan hid all the eggs for the kids and then they all had such a fun time finding them all.  They each got to find 9 eggs each, some eggs even had some coins in them.  After Megan found her eggs I told her she could eat one egg and handed her one...then she came back to me crying because her egg had money in it instead of candy.  It was pretty sad.  I gave her a new egg with candy and she was instantly happy again.

After the egg hunt was over the kids all played while we got lunch/dinner ready.  Then we all ate a yummy ham and potato dinner.  Then we had some chocolate cake.  Allie really loved the cake and got it all over herself.  It was adorable.
After we ate we went over to the Steenblik's for dinner.  We weren't super hungry, but we definitely wanted to go over there to spend some time with Nate before he left for Oregon.  It was really nice spending more quality time with family. 

Easter Family Pictures

Birthday/Anniversary Dinner

We all met at The Black Bear Diner for dinner to celebrate Tyler and Megan's birthdays and Lloyd and Margie's 39th wedding anniversary.
We all had lots of yummy food to eat and enjoyed each others company.  It was a perfect way to end such a fun day.  The Steenblik's are always so nice to treat us to dinner!

Tyler & Megan's Birthday Party

Today we had both sides of the family over to celebrate both Tyler and Megan's birthdays.  Both Tyler and Megan have been so excited for this day to come.  Megan doesn't actually have her birthday for another week, but was so happy to have presents today.

Megan was so excited when she saw everyone coming in with their gifts.  She really wanted to open the large gift that Tony and I had for her and did not want to wait.  After almost everyone came and the kids were all playing we decided to get the party started with some cake and ice cream.

We lite the kids numbers (4 and 9, of course) and came in the room singing Happy Birthday.  Megan and Tyler were so excited to blow out the candles and Megan didn't even wait until the song was over to blow out her candle.  They were both super cute about the candles.
After everyone had their fill of cake and ice cream (some of those kids are little piggies) we had some present opening time.  Megan was so so excited!

Everyone was super generous and both Tyler and Megan loved their gifts.  Megan got some books, clothes, bubbles, treats and gum, stickers, a pretty necklace from Grandma Margie, and a cute little bunny house from us.
Tyler got a fun dinosaur book that you use to build a dinosaur, Pokemon cards, books, Book of Mormon cards, a tie, and a magnetic tiles set.  They were both very spoiled and had a wonderful time opening up all their awesome presents.

After they opened their presents then all the kids went back to play outside.  It is always so hard for the birthday kids not to open up all their newly gotten goods and play with them, but it's always better to have them wait.  Less messy and crazy.
We are so thankful for all the support we get from both sides of our family.  We love them so much and our kids love their cousins so much too.  We are so lucky to have such an amazing family!!!

Megan and Tyler looking at her new necklace.

Megan showing Grandma Margie her necklace.

Megan with her bunny house set.

Tyler Turned 9!

Our Ty-Ty is 9 years old!  Can't believe it.  These kids are all growing up way too fast.  I want so much to keep him little and precious.  He has learned so many "interesting" things this year from the other students at school.  I know that each year that goes by his innocents is going to dwindle away.  I don't baby him, but I try to keep him from trying to act older then he is.
He likes to talk about when he grows up.  We tell him that he is a grown up for a long time but a kid for a very short time so he needs to just enjoy being a kid.  Luckily he is still a kid and believes in all the kid things, like Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc.  I tried to tell him leprechauns aren't real and he told me their are too many facts that prove they are real, so I said okay.  I figured if he wants to believe, who am I to take that from him.
Tyler is a great kid.  He loves school.  He does pretty good in most subjects (spelling is his hardest).  He is super helpful.  If I ask him to do something he always does it willingly and with a good attitude (not always as quickly as I would like - but he'll work on that).  He is super good with his brother and sisters.  He plays nicely with Josh and they have a lot of the same interests.  He has a hard time with Megan sometimes but mainly because Megan loves to pester him.  He is super good with Allie.  He really loves her and is very helpful keeping an eye on her for me.  He is what every little brother/sister would want in a big brother (most the time).
He still really love soccer.  He likes riding his bike, scooter, skate board, and roller blades.  He is pretty good with all of those things and it's fun to watch him.
Tyler loves his mama.  He gives me hugs and kisses everyday.  He still gets really emotional at church when he has to give talks or sing in sacrament meeting.  We are guessing it is stage fright.  He says he's not nervous and that his emotions just come out in crying and he doesn't know how to control them.  It is hard to see him struggle with that and not be able to help him.
Tyler is awesome.  We are so lucky and blessed to have him in our family! 

Josh Lost Two More Teeth

Josh has what they call "shark teeth" in the dental world.  His adult teeth grow in behind his baby teeth and it makes it very hard for his baby teeth to get wiggly and fall out on their own.  We got lucky with his first tooth but this second tooth was not budging.
A few months ago when the kids had their dental check-ups Josh had a cavity so the dentist figured he would pull the tooth while we was already working on Josh.
So yesterday I took Tyler (who also had 2 cavities...I swear I brush my kids teeth) and Josh to the dentist.  Because Josh moves so much and has dentist anxieties they have to sedate him.  So we had to go early so they could give him some "sleepy juice" and then we had to hang out in a room watching a show while he got good and sleepy.

They got Tyler in and did his teeth while I was hanging out with Josh.  I started getting super tired too while waiting.  I think all the crazy traveling just kind of hit me.  That or that sleepy juice was in the vents.
After Tyler was done they came and got Josh and took him back.  I had to wait in the front.  Tyler played on their tablets while we waited.  The doctor came and talked to me after he gave him the shots.  He said Josh did not like that and was struggling.  He also said Tyler had a hard time with his procedure because the cavities were on his back teeth and the dentist had to push back on his mouth to reach them.

I thought maybe the dentist should take out the tooth next to the one that they planned to take out because the adult tooth was so wide.  The dentist agreed and said he'd pull them both.  Once he was done he came and got me and said Josh did great.  The cavity filling was good and the teeth came out super easy.
Because of the sedation Josh was a little out of it for about an hour after we left the dentist.  He got to be pushed out in a wheel chair.  We took Tyler back to school and then went to grandma's to pick up the girls.  Josh feel asleep in the car so I quickly ran in and got the girls.
Once home I put him in the chair to watch some shows and he said he was hungry.  I started him out with crackers and he quickly ate those and asked for a corn dog.  After that I knew he would be perfectly fine.  He wasn't in any pain last night or today and thought it was pretty cool that the tooth fairy came and gave him $2 for 2 teeth.  I wanted to take his picture and the girls quickly wanted to join in the fun.  I sure do have cute kids, messy face and all!

New York - Day 3: Statue of Liberty & Home Again

Saturday was our last day in New York.  We all ate some breakfast and then we packed our bags to check out.  The hotel held our luggage for us so that we didn't have to lug it around the city.
Our main stop for the day was going on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the main bridges, etc.
We got on the subway that was a few blocks away from our hotel and headed towards our stop.  We got a little confused at first, but quickly figured it out and got to the right gate.  Once we got to our stop we just had to walk a few blocks down to the water and over to the docks where the boat would pick us up.
We had to wait for about a half an hour or so for the boat so we had plenty of time to take silly selfies, have a bite to eat, and use the bathroom.  Teagan took a survey and got a free t-shirt.  Good times we had waiting to load onto the boat.
We sat on the bottom of the bus close to the front.  Most the time the boat was pretty calm, but every now and then it would get into choppy water and I was getting really sea sick.  The air from the opened door helped and we were able to all have a good time.
My parents, Teagan, and Kevin got off the boat in Brooklyn to go on another bus tour while Wendy, Julie, and I stayed on the ferry back to where we got on.  Wendy's flight left a lot earlier then ours so we needed to get her back to the hotel and didn't want her to go by herself.

Because we stayed on the ferry we got a much closer look at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island then we did on the way to Brooklyn.  We went out to the front of the boat to take pictures but it was pretty hard because so many people were in the front hanging out and wouldn't move to let others get a good picture.  That's why we have a bunch of people behind us in our pictures.
After we got off the ferry we decided to just walk back to the hotel.  It was only like 1.2 miles away and it would give us a chance to do more site seeing.
We wanted to get a Philly Cheese Steak from a street vendor so we had to go to like 3 before we found one that offered them.  This one was different from the one that I went to the day before and they charged a dollar more.  We got our sandwiches to go so we could eat them back at the hotel.  Once we got there we quickly realized that these were not steak sandwiches but something totally different and not good at all.  We decided after 2 bites that they were not worth and threw them in the garbage.  We then went to the pizza joint right by the hotel and got us a slice.  We took it back to our hotel and enjoyed it thoroughly.  It was only $1.50/slice.  Tasted pretty good too.
After eating it was time for Wendy to catch a cab to the airport.  After seeing her off Julie and I decided to go to the Sketchers store and buy her some shoes.  She didn't buy the ones she originally wanted but founds some super cute boots for half off.  After the shoe store we walked over the Hershey store where Kevin met up with us.  Julie bought a couple things and then we decided to go find the food vendor I went to yesterday to have a good cheese steak to eat at the airport.
My food guy wasn't in the same spot and we didn't find another one like him on the way to the hotel, so we just got another slice of pizza since Kevin hadn't had any yet.
We got our luggage from the hotel and took our shuttle back to JFK airport.  The traffic wasn't nearly as bad as when we came so that was nice.
It didn't take too long to get through airport security and find our gate.  We unloading our stuff by my parents and Teagan while Kevin, Julie, and I went looking for a little snack (because we didn't eat enough already).  Kevin got a sandwich and Julie and I got some ice cream.
Our flight left on time and we were once again in the 7th row.  The flight was nice and smooth and we even got a little sleep, but not much.  After we landed we got our luggage and the shuttle to Park N Jet.  Julie and I got in her car and she took me home at about 1:00 am Sunday morning.  We had a great time.  We are all so very grateful to my mom (and dad) for making this happen!!!

New York - Day 2: Dinner & Broadway

Once we were all dressed and ready we headed down to the lobby to meet everyone for dinner.  We decided to go to an Italian restaurant earlier that day and Wendy made us reservations so we wouldn't have to wait.  We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to eat and get to the show on time.

The restaurant wasn't very far from the hotel so we walked to it (I tell you it was so nice having our hotel right in Times Square).  On our way we walked passed a cop on a horse.  We of course had to talk to him and pet his horse.  They were both very friendly and was surprised to hear we were from Utah.  He said he doesn't hear of many people coming from Utah.  I guess it is kind of far.
After the cop and horse we were at the restaurant.  We got right in and our table was downstairs.  It was a fun atmosphere where us loud and silly Clark's fit right in.

Our waiter was Italian and I got to use my limited knowledge of Italian with him...he was very impressed...Kevin was not so impressed.
The food was served family style so we ordered four things to share.  I didn't think that the food was all that good.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.  It could be because I am used to more Americanized Italian food, but we had such a good time it didn't really matter how good the food was.

We did order dessert to share and it was super good.  It was called Chocolate Decadence and it was.  We thought it would be funny to take a picture of me holding it like I was going to eat it all...silly Kevin photo bombing me.
After we had eaten all the food Kevin thanked our parents for the dinner and started clapping for them and all the other tables around us joined in.  It was super funny and we loved it.  He said after that he was hoping that would happen and it totally did.

After dinner we were off to our Broadway show, Wicked. It wasn't very far from dinner so we walked there.  We got to walk through the theater district and see a bunch of different shows that are playing.  Well we didn't see the shows, just the buildings they were being shown in.
We got to our building and quickly used the restroom before finding our seats.  My parents did a great job booking our seats because they were super good.  We were in the balcony, but we were on the side that come down several rows towards the stage.  We had a great view of the stage.
The show was super awesome.  I love the music of Wicked and have the CD, but I have never seen the show.  I was glad to understand the songs better and the story line.  With the good night sleep we all got the night before none of us fell asleep on this show.
After the show was over we started our journey back to our hotel.  Once again it wasn't very far away.  The night life in New York is crazy.  So many people are out and about at super late hours.  The lights on the huge electric billboards really light up the block and their are people just everywhere.
Their were people dressed up in costumes, like Minnie Mouse, Elmo, Olaf, etc and they want you to take a picture with them and then they expect you to tip them.  Julie didn't realize this and wanted a picture with Olaf.  Two Elmo's jumped in the picture and a Minnie took the picture for them and then they all expected a tip.  She was kind of mad, but had a good attitude about it.  She said it was her first New York swindling.

It was so fun to be out there with my family seeing all these sites that we have seen in so many movies and shows.  Kevin and I saw some of these earlier in the day, but it was that much more fun to be there at night.  We all definitely had a wonderful time. After this we went back to the hotel for our final night's sleep before heading back home and a good nights sleep was definitely had...by me at least.