Corn Maize and Pumpkin Patch

This was Andre's THIRD year in a row going to Cagle's Corn Maize!

This year he invited his friend Summer on what turned out to be the COLDEST day of the season! (Their smiles were frozen.)

Auntie Amy wanted to get a picture with her neice and nephew but Andre's legs were frozen and he couldn't step any closer...still turned out to be a cute picture!

Auntie Cha-Cha braved the cold too to enjoy the fall festivities. Selah LOVES Cha-Cha!

Looks like coming early didn't matter in regard to beating the "rush". (No one else in their right mind would go outdoors on such a freakishly cold evening).

Andre and Summer enjoyed jumping on the "hay-stack pillow"

Well it worked- Scarecrow Andre scared anyone else who may have considered going to Cagle's that night..oh well...we had the maize all to oursleves!

Selah wasn't so scary. :)

With the toddler leading the blind we walked through the tall and winding corn maize (grateful for protection from the chilling wind), stopping only occasionally for Andre to announce, "Wook! Corn!"

Good eye Andre!

Pumpkin Patch Time!!

Not a flattering picture of either of my children...but this was taken BEFORE we told them that they could pick out their very own pumpkin to take home!!










Andre immediately started feeling textures and inspecting each pumpkin very carefully, trying to pick them very best one.

nope. this one is too smooth...
















"That's not my pumpkin. It's too bumpy!" ;)


















Selah asked Daddy to hold her up so she could get a bird's eye view of each pumpkin. She was going to pick the very best one!


hmmm. that one? maybe.

This one definitely has a nice beat to it...Andre thought as he played the pumpkin drum...

Selah found hers!

What a cute little pumpkin!

"Can I have this one mom?" "It can hold all of weight". Sure Andre.

So we successfully picked out four pumpkins of various shapes and sizes to decorate our home.

you know what they say...

What the Hay! :)

Happy Fall Ya'll!

North Georgia State Fair 2010

You can't live in North Georgia and NOT go to the North Georgia Sate Fair!!

As redneck as it may sound The Clark's L-O-V-E the fair and we couldn't wait to pass on the love to our children.

Andre was especially impressed with this gigantic cow at the petting "farm".

A fast learner, Andre quickly discovered that mommy and daddy had an endless supply of tickets to ride all the rides. (What do you think-tickets grow on trees???)

Andre called this ride the "bus" but it was actually a pink jeep.









Too manly to ride the pink jeep, Andre's cousin Colton introduced him to the motorcycles.

These two had perma-grins the entire time and kept asking to go "AGAIN!"











Dizzy from the motorcycles, Andre decided to slow things down a bit on the dragon ride. On this one he could actually "control" the dragon by pulling up on the steering stick to make it go up and down. A blast!









We took a break to chase bubbles and replenish our ticket stash....













Armed with orange tickets, Andre once again attempted the dangerous motorcycle ride. Thinkgs were a bit tricky without his cousin with him, but everyone cheered him on (even the kid behind him)












Selah was so proud of her big brother...

GO Andre GO!

















A trip to the fair wouldn't be complete without a corndog. Andre went into a deep-fried hydrogenated oil shock, but when he came to he said, "mmmm. corndog. " Yes you may have another one...next year.
















Selah was her sweet self of course. Waiting patiently in the stroller watching her brother enjoy the rides. We got her out to take a photo.

You'll get to ride them next year sweet Selah!









We let him go one last time on the "Nemo" ride. His all-time favorite of the fair, "Yay Nemo ride!"


It was time to call it a night-but not before daddy won him a blow-up guitar. "Geeee-tar!", he yelled as we walked to the car.

Selah fell asleep with her fingers gripped tightly to the stroller. I think she was dreaming of riding a ride...

;)

Bye fair!

Keenan Clark Ironman Louisville 2010

My Daddy is an Ironman!!

Andre was super excited to learn that we were going on vacation to "tucky" (Kentucky) with Papoo (PawPaw).

He got his very own red cow bell to cheer Daddy on in his Ironman race!

Every pit-stop when we would get out of the car he would say, "Yay Tucky!" and we would say, "No. This isn't Kentucky yet..." He'd say, "Tucky? Are you?" ("Kentucky, Where are you?")










We finally got to Tucky and had a day to make our signs and get the cheering section ready to go.

We even had a streaker!! Just kidding. But Selah was ready to cheer with her enormous Ironman foam finger.

Nanny and Papoo where there to help get the Ironman party started! (and help mommy not to completely lose her mind on the trip. )









Finally, the big day was here! We hadn't seen much of Daddy since we were in "Tucky"because he'd been getting ready to race. He even slept in Papoo's room to ensure a good night of sleep. (Good idea dad. )

We loaded our signs up in the baby jogger and headed down to the river. Andre held on tight to his cow bell and we gave Selah the Ironman clapper hands. (She thought they were especially tasty.) Andre enjoyed being as loud as he could as we cheered Daddy on. Mommy saw him get out of the water but did she get a picture? No. Look, I was doing good to just be there- alright? :)








After the 10 second clip of Daddy, we powered back to the hotel room in the baby jogger, Mommy wishing she had sprung for the front swivel wheel.

Back at the room for diaper changes, snacks and naps.

5 hours later the Clarks emerged to once again try to catch of glimpse of Daddy as he suffered in the heat of the day.

Andre clapped as loud as he could but you could barely hear him in the deafening crowd.








So....we got out the trusty cowbell and Andre rang that thing as loud as his little two-year old hands could ring.

The sound of Selah slurping of the clapper hands went unnoticed.

But then....











We saw him!!! Looking mighty fine as he ran over the bridge. We kept looking for a red shirt, green hair, blue viser and black socks. (harder then one might think actually)

Daddy reached out to give Andre a high-five and just like that he was gone again. Off to run a marathon after swimming and biking. whew!














Andre thought that he had tagged him in so he took off!

Mom had to intervene and put him back in the dreaded jogger to fight through the swarms of people back through the streets of downtown Louisville in 95 degree heat. (Did I mention the stroller doesn't have a swivel wheel?)











Well there may not be alot...a few....ok there's only one picture of Keenan racing but at least we have his video of his finish! (above)

We were so proud of Keenan! Andre and Selah were both asleep in the room minutes after this picture was taken. (and Andre might actually be sleeping here.) It was a long day (for all of us):)

Keenan did it. HE IS AN IRONMAN!!!








It is a little known fact that actually the Ironman is a 4 part event: Swim, Bike, Run, Tattoo.

So off we went to cheer Daddy on in his 4th leg of the race. Ironically thats where he chose to get his Ironman tattoo-his leg.

This was Selah's first (AND LAST) trip to the tattoo parlor.










TA DA!

Not many people can sport THIS tattoo. But not many people can swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and run 26.2.

I thought the tattoo would be about 1/24th of this size-but thats not how Keenan rolls. ;)











Well is was hard to explain to Selah that she couldn't have a tattoo when her Daddy and Mommy have one.

At least she went with something conservative:

The flaming-tribal-angel-wing. nice.














"Tucky" was fun, but the Clarks were glad to be home!

Back to our beautiful home and back to our normal activities- like playing at the park.

This was Selah's first time in a swing!












WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Summer Time!

Summer is here and almost gone and we've been too busy to blog about it!

Sweet Smiley Selah is almost 5 months old and she is a happy girl. We say that she makes our home sweeter...She's rolling around on the floor a lot (Andre didn't move until he was about 9 months old and then he rolled around until he was about a year!!)

She's finally big enough to enjoy the exersaucer. FUN!





Big Brother Andre keeps us moving. He wakes up bright and early ready to boss us around. ;) But he does so manipulatively...

Andre, "shalk!"
Me, "You want to play with chalk?"
Andre, "ha-kay!" (ok)

wait a minute! that wasn't MY idea!






Andre is finally used to having a little sister around. He went from indifferent to inconvenienced to interested.

He likes to wake her up from her nap and she always gives him a sleepy smile when he says, "Se-yaaaah, Ake up!"

He also is the first one to inform me when she has spit up, "Seyah spit", as he hands me a burp cloth.

And whenever she cries he goes over to her and kisses her so she'll stop. ;)










Andre loves to climb the stairs, climb up on the table, and climb in the washing machine.



This is one of my favorite pictures of him climbing on something appropriate- a 3 foot climbing wall.


I love the shadow of his curly hair!









If she's not smiling she's usually sleeping. :)

It wears her out to watch her big brother run circles around her everyday.













The biggest news of the summer was Andre's 2nd birthday! Thats right folks we are now entering the "Terrific Two's" (what did you think I was going to say?)

Andre woke up on his birthday morning to a huge "2" balloon in his room. We even let him have cake for breakfast! This is his birthday cake-he looks a bit underwhelmed.

"Seriously mom? I had a bigger cake on my first birthday!!"











Oh Andre- that was just an appetizer cake! Here is Andre's real birthday cake at his pool party. Complete with Elmo, Mr. Noodle and Dorothy.

We sang Happy Birthday and Andre helped himself to TWO cupcakes!

Andre,"Mo. cake. peas."
Me "More cake?"
Andre, "Ha-kay!"





Canaan was there to help him get the icing off his face and remind him that he needed to wait thirty minutes before getting in the kidde pool.



She's a great girlfriend.









Reese (Andre's cousin) also enjoyed the birthday cake and didn't even wait thirty seconds before she jumped in! She decided to keep a little cake on her face so she could keep enjoying it while she swam, "Where is that Canaan girl when I need her?"








Everyone had a great time at the party. Mommy, Uncle Bryant and Cha-Cha posed with the kids...



The celebration was in full swing until...






An Alligator was spotted in the pool!

Quickly Canaan swung in to action-saving all the plastic squirty fish from inevitable danger. All the while Colton bravely squirted the gator in the nostril.

The team effort saved the party from disaster!









Sweet Selah was unaware of the danger she was in with the alligator...She's was too busy looking fabulous in the bikini that her daddy did not want her to wear. They compromised and she wore the matching cover up.

Andre had a blast at his party and he got lots of cool stuff.

One of his favorite gifts was the slide his friend Summer gave him (which is now a permanent fixture in our house) He calls it "SummerSwide" and he watches Sesame Street perched on the top of it every morning. ;)

Here he his wearing his Bee Friendly shirt from Poppy and Karen.

Doesn't he look so much older?!?!

He really looks old here.

Wow they grow up so fast don't they? :)

Selah was proud of her big brother and looked forward to having a party of her own someday...

Until then she can only enjoy ice cream when it is a cute doodad on her shirt.

(the shoes stayed on her feet just long enough for the picture)

Isn't she adorable?? :)

This picture just makes me laugh because it Andre looks freakishly big (like he and Keenan could share clothes) and Selah looks freakishly small (and with a serious-tiny-Nascar driver-look)

I love my family. :)








And the best picture is summed up in the in the words sung by Auntie Cha-Cha,

"Hold me clooooser, tiny daaaancer!"

teehee. :)