Oh Christmas Tree

For Family Home Evening last night we went and got a tree.

Dusty helped me put it up and Tucker helped me decorate it.

Thanksgiving and my kids

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Grandma Val, Torie and Talon came up Sunday night and stayed through Thanksgiving. Colter was scheduled to come up on Wednesday but through a series of delays due to snow wasn't able to come up until Thursday. So Thanksgiving morning we sent the men to fetch Colter from the airport in Lewiston while the women-folk stayed back and prepared the feast.

We had plenty of snow for Thanksgiving.

We resently bought Tucker a new snow suit. But we forgot to buy him some boots. So Dusty made work of getting Tucker some boots on Friday.

Tucker doesn't like to play in the snow for very long. He comes in after a while and stands by the fire.

He's my son.... Cold.... don't like it.

Kimber has decided she likes to climb.

She loves this new game.

?

 Torie showed us how to play a very silly game. Talon and Tucker joined in.... the rest of us just watched a laughed.

Grandma Val, Colter, Torie and Talon left Saturday afternoon.... before eating their quota of Thanksgiving leftovers I might add (Dusty and I will be eating leftovers for a week) :). We sure enjoyed having them up to visit.

But now it's back to school and back to work.

Kimber's Birthday

Kimber's first Birthday was Nov 18.

Dusty was still in school so we decided to wait a little while to celbrate.

So Dusty got out of school Friday, I finished my last shift of the week Monday morning, and I set to work making Kimber's birthday cake so we could have Kimber's party that night.

We went to "Pizza planet" (Zeppos bowling alley) for pizza and bowling to kick off the bithday party.

Tucker loves "Pizza Planet" and Kimber had fun running around and screaming.

We were the only people there (due to the big storm that came in and dumped a foot and a half of snow), which was nice because then I didn't feel bad about the kid running around because the weren't bothering anyone.  

Well Kimber fell asleep on the ride home so the rest of the pary had to be put off.

So Tuesday afternoon we were able to have a party for Kimber.

 Kimber's Ladybug Birthday cake

 I took some Picutres of Kimber and her cake.

 Then Tucker felt the need to be in some pictures too. Kimber was Ok with sharing the spotlight.

Tucker helped Dusty light Kimber's birthday candle and then he was very excited to help her blow it out.

Tucker helped Kimber open her presents.

 Kimber didn't fully understand the opening of the wrapping paper to dad and Tucker helped out alot.

Maybe she'll get it by Christmas

 We decided to just put Kimber up on the table so we didn't all have to get down on the floor. it worked pretty well.. plus Kimber looked so little and cute sitting up there.

 And of course the eating of the first birthday cake.

 Kimber was actually very lady like, and didn't make much of a mess... to my slight disappointment.

(aren't pictures of a 1 year old eating birthday cake supposed to be messy?)

 Tucker kept making Kimber laugh. He sure loves her.

Tucker and Kimber ran from one present to the other. Tucker was just as excited with all the presents as Kimber was. I had to keep reminding Tucker that these were actually Kimber's toys but that he could share them if she was ok with it... which she was most of the time.

Happy Birthday My little Lady 

Kimber 1

We went out to McDonalds for Kimber's first birthday dinner. She got to have her very own happy meal (she didn't eat very much), and she played on the toys with Tucker as much as she could.

We had lots of fun.

And she's such a cute little bug

Kimber's 1st birthday- snow

November 18, 2010

Kimber's first Birthday.

I can't believe that my little girl is one year old today. We'll do the birthday cake and presents this weekend after Dusty gets off for Thanksgiving break.

But Heavenly Father sent Kimber a Christmas present--- SNOW!

Since Kimber was just a baby last year she doesn't remember snow.... but she is SO excited about the snow this morning.

I came home from work this morning, opened the door, and Kimber came toddling over to me and started shouting when she saw the snow.

 Tucker was excited to get a handful of snow for Kimber to touch.

 Kimber 1 year old today.... looking out at the snow.

Happy Birthday Kimber

Smooth as butter

The love of butter must be a Clark family gene.

We had finished eating breakfast... except for Kimber, she was still eating her french toast and eggs.

So I walked away from the table for minute and Dusty and Tucker went and wrestled in the living room. Well Kimber must have finished her food and then she found something else on the table to eat.

Butter

"Hey Mom, this is really good"

"Do you want to have some with me? !"

"Does that look mean I'm in trouble mom?"

"But I am so cute you should cuddle me."

"Ok, Ok..... but it wasn't me..... he did it."

(She is pointing at Dad)

I think the "head on the shoulder don't get mad at me cute look" must be programed into female DNA.

Love her to peices.

Fall Color

Kimber's birthday is coming up and I've been watching cake shows and getting ideas.... BIG ideas. So last night I sketched out my idea for Kimber's birthday cake. Nothing fancy just: I three tiered cake, square base with two round layers above..... ok it was a little elaborate. Dusty rolled his eyes and asked if it was Kimber's first birthday or if she was getting married.

So

I changed my design to a two tiered cake.

Dusty was concerned that I was still making it too elaborate, especially since I wanted to use fondant and I've never used it before.

He had a point. SO I thought I would give it a trial run and then design Kimber's cake based on that.

So here it is.....

I cut alot of corners since making a cake today was a last minute plan. The fondant is supposed to be refrigerated for 24 hours.... I think I gave it 30 minutes.

I decided since the cake was to serve no real purpose I would make it seasonal. So I cut out some leaves and make them all fancy..... would have been much easier with a cookie cutter.... noted.

Then I tried to "quilt" the fondant... the lines and beading on the cake....Hmmm... not a good idea to use a knife to mark the fondant.... it will cut it......noted.

Next time I think I will try to find something a little nicer to put the cake on than an old cookie sheet.

I'm glad I played around with this cake today.... Kimber's cake plan has just gotten a lot simpler.

But it was fun.

And a lot easier to work on after the kids went to bed :)

Backhoe repaired

History: Tucker's backhoe was broken a month or so ago while we were babysitting. Tucker was very upset. a couple days later Dusty packaged up the backhoe and shipped it to Grandpa Raybould for repair.

Grandma and Grandpa Raybould came to visit this weekend while they were up this way for a conference.

Grandpa brought Tucker back the repaired backhoe..... it looks amazing.

An original back wheel

The repaired back wheel

The original hub was cracked and broken so Grandpa had to make a new one.

Thank you Grandpa for fixing Tucker's backhoe.

And thank you Grandma and Grandpa for visiting us. We love you.

More Halloween

After we got home from Joni's Halloween party we went to work on our pumpkins

We distracted Kimber from playing with sharp objects by giving her gummy worms.... but after a while that didn't work and she had to play on the floor.

She didn't mind.

 Tucker wanted a bull on his pumkin so Dad was in charge of figuring that one out. Tucker was very excited.

Kimber would come up every now and then to see what was going on.

 Tucker was a little less grossed out with the goo this year than last year. But this is why we keep dad's around: last year Tucker had clothes on when he got to this part.... dad decided to skip that mess and keep the clothes clean by setting them aside.

 Mom and Kimber working on the "girls" pumpkin

 The ward Party was supposed to be a Trunk or Treat.... well that was moved inside due to rain. There were other wards in the building so we each got a hall. It was very crowded.

 Tucker went bounding down the hall trick or treating by himself. I helped Kimber.... She didn't really care about the candy..... She found "kitty"... well actually they were dogs. But they were small like the kitty.

Don't ask me why there were dogs in the church... beats me....?

 Tucker found the boys and they all hung out and ate candy and cookies.

Max is on the left, Tucker center and Cody is on the right.

 We got SO much candy Trick or Treating. Mom and Dad helped with the eating of the candy. :)

Kimber and Tucker by their pumkins after we got home for the ward party

Kimber's pumkin

Tucker's Pumkin

Halloween

Our family had several halloween parties to go to this year. We went to the play group party on Friday. We skipped the hospital party so we could go buy a camera photograph Halloween this year. And Saturday morning we went to Joni's Halloween party.(co-worker)

Tucker and Kimber playing with toys while the other kids are arriving.

Kimber was such a cute little lady bug.

Tucker really wated to be "skeletor" (off of the 80s cartoon Heman)... a skeleton was close enough to make him happy. (He is already planning to be Bravestar next year)

Both my children for some reason were both really drawn to this tractor.... it must be in the DNA... and not my DNA.

Kimber had so many places to go... she never held still.

Joni had all sorts of games for the kids to play... this one is pin the nose on the jackolantern.

I don't think Tucker totally understood the point of the game because he totally missed put came over to me afterwards like he had just won a million bucks. It makes me smile trying to picture what must have been going through his mind.... (So I put this thing on so I can't see and I go put this paper on the wall... hmmm... weird.... but all the other kids seem excited about this.... I bet I can get this paper on the wall too)

Tucker feeling like a million bucks after getting the paper on the wall.

Kimber was just happy to have so much going on... she didn't even need any attention... she was just happy running around.

I just had to throw this picture in. She is just such a little bug... it's so cute. To give you an idea of just what a little bug she is... she will turn 1 in two weeks... she just started wearing 6-9 month clothes a few weeks ago.

But she is healthy... and just cute.

Just workin' here mom.

Tucker followed this little girl everywher... her name is Tireney, she's about 2.

I can't decide if he latched on to her because she is cute..... or if it was the fact that she was dressed like a cowgirl... she's not wearing her hat in this picture.

Tucker and the Boys plaed with the motor cycle down stairs. Tucker has no fear... I think these other boys are about 6 and 8.... but that didn't stop him from jumping in and playing too.

Boys playing on the hammock in the basement.

We don't have stairs at our house. So Kimber was facinated with them.... she would climb up to the top and then shout so I would come get her and bring her back down... and then she would climb up to the top again. She really needs to work on getting down.

My cute little bug.

After we got home I made Dusty some Carmel apples.... before we started on the pumpkins.