Fun with Christmas Trees

Well here it is another Christmas and what is Christmas without a tree right. Well we thought that we would like to introduce you to our fabulous trees of last year and this year. While you are thinking to yourself "why would you do that" let me explain. Last year Michelle was told by some of our friends (the now TEXANS) that towards Logan canyon there was someone selling trees for $5. Awesome she said!!!! So we take off towards the canyon and drove about 15 miles and nothing. Are you sure they said it was this way, I asked. YEP!! was her reply. Now let me put you in the scene: It's late at night(3:00 p.m.), we had been driving in pitch black darkness on a winding road going only 25mph for 10 hrs so we don't miss the place, there are 4 screaming kids wanting a Christmas tree, and a wife who is about to just have me pull over and go chop down the next tree she sees like a beaver and call it good. WOW!!! was all I could say. Anyway we turned around and headed back into town. Stopped at all the tree stores and nothing much was left because we of course waited 'til the last minute, when all of a sudden there it was, the most greenest, most fullest tree in the world!!!!!!!!! (see 1st picture above if not already) SOLD! I said. The kids jumped for joy, Michelle hugged me and the clerk took my money. He asked which vehicle was ours so he could help me load it on top and I told him it was the expedition but that I didn't need any help. I went and got the car, drove up to the gate, opened the doors so the kids could get in, removed the bailing twine and threw the tree in the car. Yes I said in the car. You should have seen the look on the peoples faces that had gathered around to see this astonishing event. Putting a Christmas tree inside an expedition and actually being able to shut the door. The wonders of such special trees. Of course it helped that the tree was only 4' if that. So based on that experience we decided that we wouldn't wait so long this year, and we did find the $5 tree place, it was towards Sardine canyon(the opposite direction as Logan canyon), but decided not to partake of the "special" trees. We decided to go look in town and finally stopped at Fred Meyer and noticed that they had some pretty good looking trees. Upon examining this years crop we looked in the 5-6' trees and they weren't that bad and then continued onto the 6-7' trees and there it was. It looked like maybe 6-1/2' tall and full, really green. Yep this was for us. So after purchasing the tree and having to become a body builder to lift the sucker up onto Michelle's car and strapping it down we took it home and began the process of setting it up in the house. Getting it off the car seemed more difficult than getting it on. I think it put on 30 lbs. After preparing the bottom of the tree for the stand I heaved it into the house and power lifted it to an upright position. Now those of you who have been to our place know that there is limited space in our front room which was now being taken over by this Christmas tree. We had to move the furniture back 3' just so you could have enough room to open the door back up. This tree was huge!!!! I'm not talking just about huge, I mean really huge. It had started to thaw out and settle while I was trying to get it in the tree stand and had started to really fill out. By the time I had gotten it up it had settled quite a bit. I looked at that thing and thought, man this can't be 6-7', it has to be more like 8-9' tall. Now what to do. Here is this tree that takes up all of the living space available from the door to the bedroom and now we can't watch TV. Anyway after much laughing(mainly from watching me try to move it from place to place) we finally put it in the same corner as last year squishing it up a little bit so we can get around it, but enjoying it none-the-less. So there you have it. Our fun with Christmas trees has just begun a new tradition in our family. Anyway hope all of you have a Very Merry Christmas!!!!! And by the way, we measured the tree and it is just over 8' tall.

Day after Thanksgiving in Idaho

 

 

 

 

This was a great day. We were able to spend Friday with Jason's family. We went to see Brian's headstone for the first time. It looks fantastic! Brian always did BUNNY EARS, so we thought it would be fun to have our pictures taken at his grave by giving him BUNNY EARS. Austin made a little puzzle/coloring item to place by his grave and that made him happy to be able to do that for his uncle (I thought it was cute). Later that day we went to my sister in-law/brother in-law's house and had "NiCe" facial zonings done,(I had my feet done too). Jason's sister is learning and becoming certified in facial/foot zoning. It was EXTREMELY and I mean EXTREMEMLY Relaxxxxing!!! Thanks CathyJo. We didn't take pictures of us there. Well, I do have one of Jason but he would probably get me back big time if I put it on here. So, I'm playing it safe. We'll have to remember to take pictures next time.

Thanksgiving with the fam

We had such a great time during our Thanksgiving holiday. It was to short, but nice to see the family. We were able to spend Thanksgiving day at our grandma & grandpa's in Idaho. And we also were able to spend it with my cousin and her husband, they were there too. We really had fun talking and playing a few games. We hope we can do it again soon. Thanks for making it fun!!!

Kids doing small chores

So I asked Cameron to do the dishes that can't go in the dishwasher and he was so excited. Boy, I know that won't stay the same. So because he was doing the dishes Ashlyn wanted to do something. I let her vacuum. She didn't want to stop. I thought it was pretty cute and Cole just walked around wondering what he could do. He just watched. Austin was the lucky one he was at scouts, but he'll have his turn.

Brian's Birthday!

Today November 13, 2008 is a great day for us to think about. It has been four months since the passing of our beloved brother/brother in-law, and uncle. We just wanted to reflect on what would have been his 34th birthday. Brian, this goes out to you, "Happy Birthday". Brian was such a tease always giving the bunny ears. This day is also a day that our niece Brittney shared with Brian. They have the same birthday! Happy "Sweet 16" to you Brittney!!

Concert

Okay so Austin had to go to a concert within a certain time frame for his music class. So we went to the Jon Schmidt concert. He is a classical performer/entertainer. At first when we were trying to decide if we should go to this I was excited and so was Austin. Jason on the other hand wasn't so convinced that he really wanted to go. He thought it sounded so boring. I finally talked him into it and he was glad. This guy is sooo Goood. He totally rocked!!! He had two different opening performances from other groups and they were so awesome too!!! One was his 16 year old sons alternative rock band that performed for the first time that night (saturday) they have their first album coming out in spring "09" I would buy it. The other performer was Jake White. He plays the guitar and sings too. This guy is way good! He had one guitar that had two necks on it. If you've ever watched the movie "August Rush", he plays like the kid did in that movie. So, So good!!! Then came Jon Schmidt. He has a great sense of humor and makes his piano playing fun for everyone. One song he played while laying on his back on the piano bench and crossing his arms, another song he took off one of his shoes and played with his toes with his socks on!!! He was funny and very ENTERTAINING !! All of them were GREAT !! We had a really good time and enjoyed the whole night!!! We will definitley go to his concert again!!!! We only have a few pictures, and they aren't very good ones, because our batteries in the camera were dying.

Made me stop and think

So you see, I haven't posted anything for a while now. I've been tagged two other times and still haven't done those, sorry for that. Other than that I haven't done anything fun and spectacular!! I've got some pictures that I took of Cameron's pizza that I made on his birthday at the beginning of the month and some other pics that are about a month old. So, I don't think I'll post those, but you never know. I might have to. Okay enough of that. So today, We were shopping for the rest of Austin and Cameron's Halloween costumes at the D.I.. When we were getting ready to head for the register in walks this (ok I know I shouldn't judge or comment so I hope you won't think I'm rude/mean) woman wait, that's not a woman. It's a man in a bright pink dress, white nylons, and black high heeled shoes. I had to take a double look to make sure I saw him/her correctly. Then I thought maybe he's in costume for halloween. NO, he/she wasn't, he/she had real cleavage. I could not believe it, a transvestite! I never would have thought I would see that in real life, only on t.v shows. Well it really was. CrAZy !! I'm so thankful that I know my gender was created for me, by a loving Heavenly Father who has special purposes for us. How blessed I am to know that I am a female and that I have the privelege and blessing of that special creation. I feel saddened for those who think they need to change who they are and what Heavenly Father has created them as. I hope and pray that people will be thankful for the genders they are born as, for that is the love of the Lord and he knows who we are to be!!!

Tagged

Here's the rules for this tag:
1: Each player starts with 8 random habits/facts about themselves.
2: People who are tagged need to write a post on their blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3: At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

Okay, so it's been quite a while since I was tagged and I am just getting to it now. Sorry it has taken me so long. I really can't think of 8 facts, so they might be kinda dumb. Here it goes:

1. I am really really short. My actual height is 4'10 1/2". I used to be 4'11" I must of shrank. I'll blame it on having kids :)

2. I am a perfectionist. It drives me crazy to have a messy house, dirty clothes (just ask Jason or the kids), or a dirty car (although you wouldn't know it because it's always dirty).

3. I will not go out anywhere without my hair and makeup done. Although, I have taken Austin to school without all my makeup on, only so he wouldn't be late.

4. I make the best homemade bread. At least that's what my family used to tell me when I was younger. My recipe makes 5 loaves at a time and NO, I do not use a bread machine. I have a Bosch to mix the dough and then I do the rest by hand.

5. I was a cheerleader in 7th,8th,and 9th grade. Don't ask me to do any tricks though, I'm terrible and can't do anything, seriously!!

6. I was also homecoming queen my 9th grade year. Don't worry it was a little po-dunk school. Not much to shout out about. Although I'll admit I thought I was pretty cool then. Now I look back and think what a retard I was, only because I thought I was cool.

7. I got married when I was 17 (I turned 18, 2 months later).And it was also 4 months before high school graduation. Was sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple 17 months later to my sweet hubby and our first son. Sweet memories I'll never forget!

8. I was featured with Jason in an Ensign article in April 2003.. We were models for a story featured in it. I was also going to be in a book called "Where do babies come from" as a model, because I was pregnant with Ashlyn. The Illustrator drew me and it was going to be published and sold at Deseret Book. I found out later that they had to many pregnant women already drawn and so they didn't need the one of me. I was a little saddened. I thought it would be so cool to be in a book, wouldn't we all. I got over it though. Oh, and they did sell the book too.

I tag: Julie, Lisa, Jeni, Angie, Megan, Kjrstin, Keri, and Tana. If you don't do this I'll have to hurt you all. J/K. If you don't get around to it that's okay.

HAIRCUT TIME AGAIN

Well we decided that Cole needed another haircut and he is soooooo cute!! Yes we are prejudice. This time he let us use the clippers on the back and he didn't even cry. His little head is so cute.

Do you ever feel like nothing seems to go right, and you feel like you've done all that you can to improve life's tasks? I've, let me re-phrase that we've been feeling exactly that way. You've all heard of the phrase "when it rains it pours" that's what has been happening with our family over the last few months. I sound like the biggest baby ever. So let me just say that I know we've been extremely blessed with all that we have. I can't say that I'm grateful for all of our trials we are going through at this time because I'd be lying. When we finally get over the boulder that lies before us I will say I'm grateful. I know I will be, because we've had several boulders placed before us many times. And it's after those times that you can look back and understand why you had to go through them. There is always a reason for everything and the Lord knows what is best for us and when the time is right. Until then ugghh is all I can say.

Cole's Somersaults

Hey we just finally got some video of Cole and his amazing acrobatics. He learned how to do these by watching Cameron doing them about a month ago and we just finally got around to posting it. Ashlyn is getting him to do them in this video.

Cameron -vs- Rock

Well it's been awhile again, but we finally got some down time to catch up on some things. As you can see our little "DARE DEVIL" (besides Michelle) of the family decided to play a game of rock throwing with one of his friends at school Friday and it just so happened that Cameron's friend has quite the arm. They were trying to see who could throw the rock the farthest, apparently at each other, and either his friend throws at 90mph or Cameron just doesn't dodge that fast as you can see. We got a call from the school saying we needed to come and look at Cameron cause he wasn't doing so well. After getting there and seeing the damage we decided that we need to sign him up for UFC!! Anyway he required 5 stitches and had the biggest goose egg I've seen since the last time I told Michelle I was too busy to do the dishes.(J/K)!!!!!!!!! He gets the stitches out on Wed.

End of Summer Fun

I had a little idea in mind one afternoon and I thought boy, my kids would love me and think I'm the Coolest MOM..... at least I hoped they would think I'm the coolest, if I let them do something that I thought was fun when I was a kid. I let them slide down the stairs in a sleeping bag!!!!! Okay, now when I pulled the sleeping bag out they asked me what I was doing? I said well you'll have to wait and see. I was teasing them that I needed to wash it (in reality I really was going to wash it, but that doesn't matter). I sat, and down the stairs I went they got so excited and asked can we do it, can we do it? They had a blast and laughed a lot. The only bad thing about that is the carpet. It got a little worn down, but after a couple vacuumings it kind of fluffed back up. At least the kids had fun. Okay, I had fun too.

Funniest Thing Happened

I had the funniest thing happen the other night. It was about six o'clock in the evening and I was cooking dinner and getting the table set. My phone rings, I look at it and it has an Arizona area code so I'm thinking oh my brother (Clint) is calling me. I answer and at first there was silence, I said hello again and there is a man on the other end saying is Dominique there I said who, he says Dominique, I said oh your so silly. Again there was silence. I said who is this, thinking okay Clint stop teasing me now. The man then says this is American Express security calling for Dominique. That caught me off guard big time. I said sorry, this is the wrong number I don't know this person and I'm sorry I called you silly. I thought you were my brother calling and teasing me. He said so this is the wrong number I said yes and then he just said thanks have a good night. Let me tell you I felt so dumb!! This guy totally sounded just like my brother. He had a Spanish accent when he first asked if this Dominique guy was there, but my brother speaks Spanish quite well, so that's why I thought it was him playing a joke/teasing me. I was wrong. I laugh every time I think about it. I'm just glad this man doesn't know me. It's good to have a good laugh, keeps things fun!!!!

"Busy Busy"

Well our ward was split a few weeks ago, and with a new ward comes a new Bishopric, presidencies, and teachers. You all know about how that works. So last Sunday the 17th we get a call from the 2nd counselor from the bishopric. We already know that they are going to extend a calling it's a dead give away when you get a call 40 minutes before church starts asking if they can come and talk to you. So we do the usual "I wonder what it's going to be, I hope it's not this or that". Let me inform you that the Sunday prior to the 17th the bishop approached both Jason and I, at separate times and said he was glad we weren't moving because he could use us. So we already had an idea that we would get "The Call" so we weren't surprised by the call. What did surprise us was our callings that they extended. We thought for sure we were going to be primary teachers, nope we were wrong . . . .We couldn't believe our ears did we hear them right? We sure did. Here's the big surprise I'm the second counselor in the YW presidency and Jason is the Sunday school instructor for Gospel Doctrine.WHOA is about all we could say all day. Actually I've been saying that all week. Hopefully everything will go well as we begin a new journey.

Funny Kids

Okay so Ashlyn is sitting here next to me playing w/Cole. She screamed and said Oh, I scream like a girl. I couldn't help laughing. I told her it's because she is a girl and continued laughing. She asked me what was so funny and I said you are because of what you said. Another funny thing that she said was last night. She wanted to say family prayers. When Ashlyn says prayers they tend to go on and on and on. She was blessing that she would be nice to her brothers and they be nice to her, to do what mom and dad tell her to do more than one time and so forth. So I whispered out loud to her so we could end the prayer, that we have a good nights sleep, she then whispers back out loud I don't need any help. It made the rest of us giggle sofltly until she was done and then we all cracked up. . . . We just love her!!!!

THE JOB

So here you have it. I thought I'd better update everyone on the job thing. We will not be moving. Jason has a part-time job working in a pharmacy at a local grocery store. He is also working at the same job that he's had for the last year and a half. We are so grateful to the pharmacist that hired Jason on. He has the kindest heart and we are extremely grateful to him and the others that he will work with.

blogging

Have you ever realized how much time and effort goes into a blog, I'm sure you all have. Needless to say I haven't been keeping up and being very faithful w/it. Sometimes I don't even know where to start. I'm still fairly new at the blogging world too, so I get a little confused/frustrated when I can't get things to work right for me. But w/more time and practice it will get better. On second thought, don't take my word for it because I can't promise that it will get better :).

Right at this moment I find it very difficult to blog. I have a little 13 1/2 month old baby boy that thinks he needs to be at the computer punching every button in sight. He isn't very happy w/me because he does NOT like to be told NO. He is so cute that it is hard to get mad at him. I just put him down for a nap much better now. Here is a pic of the little guy.

HOLY COW let me say that again HOLY COW !!! Can I just say why do things have to be so difficult? I just don't get it. Okay so here it goes. As some of you know Jason had a job that he had just started, (the run around job that took 4 weeks before he finally started). Well last night he called and told me they were giving him more problems. Back to the real problem, he is in the pharmacy tech field and has to have a license for every state you plan to or will work in, so his license was suppose to have been received at the place of employment, it hadn't arrived and the state couldn't find it at first (they finally found it,but still hadn't mailed it. This was over a week ago) so he wouldn't be able to work for the next two weeks from today 8/6. The state called Jason today and said it would take two weeks for the company to receive it). Needless to say we weren't going to put up w/this run around any longer. Jason told the company thanks, but that it wasn't going to work out for him. He worked there for a whopping two days and what was even better is that they gave him the wrong employee #. So, he is on the job hunt again. We do feel really peaceful about him not working there anymore silly us, it wasn't right to begin with, I guess.WOWZERS the life of the Clarke's sounds fun doesn't it!!!! We know things will work out and we will be blessed by our decision. There is a blessing in disguise out there just waiting for us.

So the other day my little cutie and I decided we would be goofy and take some pictures of ourselves. We let loose and had a lot of laughs posing w/fun faces or weird some might say, but we had a good time doing it! hope you enjoy.:)

Do you ever wonder why life throws such big curves in the road? Well, we do.You see Jason has been done with school (as of now, possibly could go back in a couple or fewwww yrs)for four months and has applied to at least 80 yes, I said 80 jobs with nothing in return except we have chosen a candidate w/more experience yada, yada, yada. Well ya see, you have to start out somewhere, but no one is willing to give anyone a chance to start out. It's all about EXPERIENCE. So w/no luck after three months we figured we'd keep pluggin along same ole routine.A month ago he got a job offer (this is a long story so I'll make it short)he called to accept, they w/drew, the next night they called back re-offered. We accepted on the next day.Jason went to do all the required stuff than they said we'll we need you back next week,anyway it has been four weeks today, since they offered the job, and he just started it.(They wanted him right away supposedly).There's more to it, but I skipped over all the middle frustration.Anyway, we don't know what to think about this particular job,with all the run around we've been getting. So,we'll see if it works out or not.We know that if it is suppose to work out it will. Please wish us LUCK!

What a month (July)

Well, we wanted to do a little something in our home to remember Brian, so we put a picture and a little saying above the picture on our wall. On the bottom part of the picture we put a sticker that says "A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and impossible to forget". Here is a picture of what it looks like on our wall.
We are so grateful to know that we have a loving Heavely Father who always watches over us. We have been so blessed and we know that we will See Brian again someday.

Memories to Jason's brother Brian who passed away

We would like to dedicate these few pictures to our loving brother, brother-in-law, uncle, and friend. Brian ment so much to so many people especially our family!!!!! He was a big old teddy bear and would give you the shirt off his back. We will miss his many jokes and teasing and playing with his niece and nephews. He will always be remembered and will be deeply missed! We will meet again!!!!!! We love you Brian!!

Bear Lake Adventure

Hey there everybody! Sorry it has taken a while to get things updated, but we have had a very busy last little while. Our friends John and Jalynn Howell had invited us to go to Bear Lake with them Saturday and so we decided to go and have some fun. Little did we know that when we got there we would be going out on a boat! Jason and the kids were a little skeptical at first because they had never been out on the water before, I on the other hand am an expert at the water crafts.j/k! We went out on a biscuit which you had to lay on your tummy and hold on for your life. All of the kids got a chance to drive the boat and tried to shake us off the biscuit. When it was Cameron's turn it was just me, jason, john, and jalynn on the biscuit, he decided to take a very sharp turn and off we went, all except john. jason just about lost his shorts, they were down around his knee's, poor fish! Later we tried to wakeboard and boy is that hard, but what a blast! After we had swallowed about half of bear lake trying this we went back to their property and roasted hot dogs and marshmellows and sang happy birthday to Austin who is now 11 yrs old. We sat around the fire, told stories, had everybody laughing, and had a great time! Thanks to John, Jalynn, and her parents for the great water adventure and food!!!! MORE PICTURES TO COME!!

Jason trying to wakeboard

michelle trying to wakeboard

cruise in

marshmallow/hotdog roasting

I wanted to let my sweet hubby know how proud I am of him. He is such a dedicated husband and father, and a very hard worker! He completed the pharmacy technician program is certified and licenced and looking for a job. He hasn't had any luck finding a job in his field yet, but I know something will come. You did it!!!! I love you so much!

Cole's B-day

jason's b-day

Well here it was my birthday and of course michelle goes and out does herself in getting my gift, but as you can see the girls are the ones who play it!!!

day of fun

Our Nature Walk

Well we have decided to be more adventurous this year so we went on a little nature walk. We taught the kids how to skip rocks and enjoy the outdoors. It sure was nice and peaceful. We all really enjoyed it!

Our First Haircuts

Well Cole's hair was starting to look like a big old mop and so we decided to give him his first hair cut. Michelle now thinks that he no longer looks like a baby. We cut the other boy's hair this morning and Ashlyn has been wanting hers cut for so long now that we finally decided to let her. She was so excited!! They cut off 6-1/2 inches. Yikes!!! It looks great though. She told us that she really likes it and the people there said she looks really cute. When getting out of the car Ashlyn told us that now people will say I'm pretty!