For Dad

Just a little post for Dallas. It's just as easy to blog as it is to email him things, and if I blog it it's preserved. :)

This is how the cool kids watch Sesame Street.

Whoa! Oaklie is standing up! Amaya is saying, "What's the big deal guys? I stand up all day long and no one cheers for me."

My cheesy little orphans.

Amaya and Great-Grandpa Clark.  She cuddled up with him at his birthday party for almost half an hour on Sunday.

I also found some oldies but goodies on my phone--no real theme here.

This was the line at the post office in Rexburg two weeks before Valentine's Day.  At it's height, there were eight girls in front of me mailing packages to their missionaries. Something about it just struck me as ironic and funny.

When Amaya got her new swimsuit, she loved it so much she wouldn't wear pajamas to bed. I had to bribe her with breakfast in the morning or else she would still be wearing it.

Someone's got to clean up this mess. 

I am obsessed with taking pictures of my kids asleep, especially when they fall asleep in funny situations, like while playing with toys in the car.

...or when they give themselves sleeping masks with headbands.

...and cuddle up with their babies.

....and look just like their dad when he sleeps.  Dallas' elbow has jabbed me in the face on more than one occassion.

Oaklie's rolls in her bathing suit are so much cuter than mine.

They planned this.

 When you are one year old, there's no such thing as a bad hair day.

Because sometimes it's nice to mix things up.

This is from today. Oh the complexities of sisterly relationships.



Hoppy Easter...and more!

Easter weekend was absolutely gorgeous. We had tons of fun at my parents house having an Easter egg hunt.

It was so fun this year because Amaya was walking.  She's the oldest grandchild on the Clark side so the Easter egg hunt was basically just for her.  Unfortunately, all the adults (including me) ate her candy when she wasn't looking. Bummer.

My brothers pulled Amaya around the yard on this sled which she thought was hilarious.  She waved at us like she was riding a parade float. Maybe she will fulfill my lifelong dream of being a pageant mom.

Easter baskets

Amaya has been dying for a stroller for Baby Abby for months.  She likes to pretend household objects are strollers; things like laundry baskets, the diaper genie, or her baby's seat (below). I snapped the before picture on Saturday while I was Skyping with Dallas.  He told me I should just go get the stroller for her, I said that she had to wait and he said, "I feel like she is one of those starving kids in Africa and I can't give her food because it's not Christmas yet." haha. Thankfully Amaya only had to wait one day.  She's put some serious mileage on that stoller since Sunday.

Another great thing about any holiday? The candy! Amaya is chomping down on her first Peep and Oaklie is going to town on her Ring Pop.

In all seriousness, Easter is my very favorite holiday.  The beautiful spring weather this past weekend made me think about what a beautiful day it must have been when Christ was resurrected.  I am so thankful for Him and for His infinate Atonement, death, and Resurrection.

The photo below is by one of my favorite artists, Mark Mabry.

We had a wonderful Easter, but I can promise you that Easter next year will be ever better because Dallas will be home! Below is a portion of his Easter email.

Well, i wish i could write and tell you about all the exciting stuff has been going on and how busy I have been but I was raised not to lie.  I can tell you that I am staying busy with working out, reading, sleeping, watching movies and skyping.  There are pictures attached to show you all of these things. 

Also, in about 250 pages I can finally say that i have actually read the entire standard works. I still will have to probably take about 10 more classes on what the prophets were trying to get across in the Old Testament, but I have learned a lot and that is one thing that is a plus about deployment is that you have a lot of time to study the scriptures... I hope you all have a great Easter and that all is well at home. As bored as i am here, i do still think that there is a purpose for all of us that are here and I do not regret us being here. This was the goal of the united states in the beginning of the war. well at least i think it was. Each and every day the iraqi people continue to impress me on how much they have grown.

Since it is Easter, I would like to share my feelings with all of you about our Savior Jesus Christ. I am very thankful for the knowledge of him, for his Atonement, and for his Resurrection. In Carissa's easter package to me she wrote a note and added a scripture that I believe really sums up Christ role and importants in each and everyone of our lives. It is 1 Corithians 15:19-22. I love the phrase at the very end of verse 22 "in Christ shall all be made alive". That is very comforting for me to know that even if I am here in Iraq that it is such a small part of eternity and if I do my best and apply the Atonement in my life that i will live forever thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ.

I really love my husband.

"I am one stomach flu away from my goal weight." --The Devil Wears Prada

We have had the stomach flu this week and after 4 pounds I can tell you it is NOT WORTH IT! Monday morning I got Amaya out of her bed, fed her and Oaklie breakfast, and went into their room to get their clothes for the day, only to find my rocking chair covered in puke. Apparently Amaya woke up in the night, vomited on my chair, then went back to bed.  Not a drop on her pajamas.  I guess she didn't want to be a bother.  We've been sick on and off all week.  I've been thrown up on more times in the past week than most people experience in a lifetime.  Fingers crossed we're almost all better!

Dallas sent me this:

Literally, he sent me this picture via Skype and told us to get feeling better. Aww..thanks Dal.

PS This is my 100th post.  Not bad considering my blog is only 2 1/2 years old.  I think I was supposed to include a witty list of 100 things, but I think I'll pass.

Sleepyhead

Poor little Oaklie was so tired tonight when I was feeding her dinner.  I really wanted her to finish it because if she doesn't go to bed with a full stomach she's up at 6:00 am.




Definately a classic for home video night.

Weightlifting Competition

I haven't been very good about updating pictures of Dallas so you're going to get a lot at once. Here's part of the email he sent us:

Things have been pretty slow and then fast. we will go a couple of days with nothing and then have a couple of days when we don't get a break it seems like. things are good though and besides working we are keeping busy with working out and flag football. yeah i know it is a pretty tough life.



the pictures that are attached are of us training the fijians that work with the united nations. it is funny because you put on a u.s. army uniform and go to a couple of weeks of training and the rest of the world thinks that you are highly qualified. it was a lot of fun to train them. it was just on some of the basics of escorting high priority people. i don't know if ssg walker thinks that i know what i am doing or something because he made sure that when he wasn't teaching that i was. i am just kidding, we were trained really well before we left and i think we did a pretty good job with the fijians. the fijians are an awesome group of people. i am sure rondo can shed more light on them but they are really nice and very humble. (Dallas' cousin Rondo served a mission to Fiji) they are a lot more disciplined that u.s. soldiers as well.

 Dallas was in a weightlifting competition a couple of weeks ago.  He doesn't like to brag, so I will--he did really well, placed 2nd in his weightclass and lifted something crazy like 1400 lbs.  Lifting weights seems to be the hobby of choice for deployed soldiers :) Just kidding, he really enjoys it and I'm glad he had stuff to keep him busy.

 This photo makes me laugh everytime I see it :) It's from Boots in the Sand's  facebook page. They're the official Facebook page for U.S. forces in Iraq.

Way to go Dal!



I Am a Child of God

Amaya LOVES music.  When she was six months old, I would sing her to sleep and she would "sing" with me--usually a long moan.  She loves dancing and loves to lead the music in church :)  She loves singing in nursery and has the actions down pretty good to "Popcorn Popping", "Daddy's Homecoming", "If You're Happy and You Know It", and "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam".  I got a clip of her singing "I Am a Child of God" to Dallas on Skype (I'm helping).  The only word she knows for sure is that the last word is "day" and she always belts that part out. :)

A few more picture of my little children of God...

I have no idea how Oaklie got herself into this predicament.

Giving kisses.

Amaya thinks she's Oaklie's mom sometimes.  Here she is rocking her to sleep before her nap.

I heard Amaya and Oaklie laughing the other day so I came in the living room to check on them and this is what I found.  Amaya is saying, "Horse! Horse!" and Oaklie is squealing and laughing!

There's nothing I love more than a sleeping baby...except two sleeping babies.

Oaklie has been devouring food lately.  She is especially preferable to crackers, or as Amaya says, "Chachers."

I don't know about you guys, but I am loving the spring weather I see when I look out my window today.  I think we'll go put on our shorts and go outside and enjoy it.