Thanksgiving & Christmas 2010

The Crazy Clark Crew had a lot to be thankful for this year....including (but not limited to) SELAH!

It was her first Thanksgiving and once she discovered that Mommy's favorite holiday revolved around food she was thrilled! (see picture)













Andre of course was all too familiar with Thanksgiving and he decided to sit right down on a tree stump in Gigi's yard and think about all he was thankful for...

stumps, rocks, crackers, violins, bubble baths, juice-juice, saxaphones, books, harmonicas, froggie, mimi, puzzles, blues clues, spatulas, gee-tars, etc....

(all things he has actually included in bed-time prayers)












After Thanksgiving, mommy wanted to get the house ready for Christmas. So the stockings were hung by the chimney with care and Dad found the biggest artificial tree he could track down.

Little full. Lotta Sap.

After hours of light stringing and hanging of ornaments (Andre called them pornaments), I had to admit...

Its beautiful Clark! :)







So now there was really only one thing we had to do before Christmas and that was to visit Santa! For those of you who are unaware-Santa and Mrs. Claus live in Canton! So off we went-with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.

So it turns out that Mrs. Claus can't have sugar plums becaue she was recently diagnosed with diabetes. (Seriously she volunteered this information to my 2 1/2 year old! what the?)

Selah is equally confused.








Anyhoo.

Once Mrs. Claus stopped gabbing our ears off about her current health issues-we made it to Santa! (who by-the-way seems healthy as a reindeer)

Andre told him his only wish for Christmas: a candy cane. If you ask him what else he wanted he said, "to lick it." :)











With our mission accomplished we headed back towards the car when we realized Selah was missing. She had accidently gotten mixed up with the various decor. Oh no- I think she spotted Mrs. Claus again...The other toys have obviously learned to look in the opposite direction when she's approaching so they aren't noticed.

Don't worry Selah- we found you! :)






And then it 'twas here-the night before Christmas! And all through the house everyone was stirring-cookie batter to be exact.

Andre made Santa's favorite: oatmeal chocolate chip. (The next morning we would discover that Santa finished off his cookie and helped himself to almost the entire batch left in the kitchen!)












Andre and Selah each got to open just one present on Christmas Eve. Andre got a brand new Jesus Storybook Bible which he LOVES. He kept running around saying, "Andre's NEW Bible!"

Selah kept trying to follow him-looking for an opportunity to rip out a page...






Before the sun woke up on Christmas Day, The Clark Crew was up ripping through presents that Santa left. (and sweeping up crumbs of cookies left behind) Being a pro-Andre introduced Selah to the art of opening gifts...

TaDa! Selah got her very own musical purse (complete with lipstick rattle, a mirror, keys and a crinkly dollar bill). She was a bit underwhelmed.





But the gift of the year was definitley Andre's new guitar! Just like a real one-except no one has been able to "tune" it properly. Or maybe thats how its supposed to sound?! Anyway- Santa really shouldn't have bothered bringing any other gifts once Andre opened his "gee-tar". It never left his side the whole day...week...month...













In other exciting news- it seemed that Santa actually forgot a gift and came back to deliver it when we SPOTTED him in our backyard!! Yes. The actual-really-real Santa was at our house Christmas morning and we got to say hello and thank him for the presents!

"Wait Santa!, Andre cried out, "let me play you a song on my gee-tar!!!"











As if Christmas couldn't get any better-It SNOWED!! (weeks later we would all be SICK of it-but for Christmas it was magical.)

Andre and Daddy made the first of 3 snowmen. Andre loved it and when he woke up the next morning he said, "Lets go put a snowball on a carrot! " ;)

Christmas night Auntie Cha-Cha would help them make an even awesome-er snowman using Mr. Potato Head's facial features. The chocolate chip teeth kept falling out but it was still cool.

If only they could find the Mr. Potato Head tongue...they could make a silly snowman....













SELAH! :)

Merry Christmas and a Silly New Year to you!

Love, The Clarks

Halloween!

Halloween 2010 was the best yet! Andre was Captain Feathersword the friendly pirate-complete with laughing feathersword and puffy paint "magic" buttons. (cutting up sleeves and using puffy paint is about as homemade as its ever gonna get in the Clark house)

"whoo-hoo there me hearties!" He even wore the eyepatch to stay in character.












For Selah's first Halloween she was a pink suede elephant! (A couple of people thought she was a mouse but clearly thats a trunk hanging off of her chin!) She was the most adorable elephant ever!











It wouldn't be Halloween without sharing it with Andre's girlfriend-Canaan. She was a beautiful pink fairy and she thought Andre's costume was hilarious. "Are those r-e-a-l-l-y magic buttons??", she thought.

Canaan's mommy of course, made her entire outfit from scratch-I hear she even has a silkworm farm in her backyard-sheesh thats intimidating.











It was "baby" Shiloh's first Halloween too! and she was a beautiful GREEN fairy! (I think we will refer to her as "baby" throughout her teens as well. It just fits.)

Surrounded by sweet girly fairies in homemade dresses made Selah question her mom's taste and intentions in picking an elephant costume for her daughter...

"Well doc-it all started when my mom dressed me up like an elephant on Halloween..."









We met up with the family to go Trick-or-Treating. The bumble bee, witch, cowgirl and power ranger completed our possy and stood patiently while the parents snapped who knows how many pictures.

The Pirate and the Power Ranger held hands the whole time. :)






Aunt Kami had the brilliant idea to let the little ones ride in a wagon! (Although she got stuck pulling it!)

Colton, Andre and Canaan had already devised a plan to divide the loot into gummies and suckers and chocolate. Their favorites respectively.









It only took a couple of houses before they caught on to the art of Trick-or-Treating.

Andre will say "Trick-or-Treat", Colton will blind them with his red laser while Canaan quickly goes through the candy-eliminating any non-essentials like candy corn. yuck.






The night was a success. And just when we were coming down from the sugar high-we got to suit up the next day for Trick-or-Treating Part II at Mimi's house!! The pirate and the elephant met up with Reese the Syracuse cheerleader. Andre hit the road with his newly aquired skills. This is how its done Reese. ;)

Happy Halloween!

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!