Merry Christmas!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!!

Love,

The Clarks!

Family Photos

I figured it was time to try and take some new family photos. Mandy of Memories by Mandy met us out a park for a photo session. The first half Madi cried because it was too cold and then when she was better about it Elliot wouldn't sit still anymore....so Mandy had her work cut out for her! Overall I'm very happy to have some new pictures of us! Mandy was so patient with us! It was great!

Here are a "few" of our favorites!

A tea party.

Madi was invited to a friends tea party! She had so much fun! Here are some shots from the party!

Madi & the Birthday girl!

Her friend was a little excited about the gift!

Christmas with my moms side

Here we are celebrating Christmas with my mom's side! First things first...we had to award the Nascar trophy and toad since we were all together. Here is Mason presenting Chad with the trophy...

and Jon getting the toad from mom. Nice...just what we need...more toads!

Hanging out with Papa.

Playing a little blokus

Reading with Madi

Two of my boys

Grandma & Grandpa and the kids!!

Two cousins!

Squishing Great Grandpa

Being silly

Christmas Parties and more...

We got to watch Isaac sing once for church...

Here is one of the songs Isaac sang at church

and once for school...here is the row we took up at school! He loved having everyone come watch.

Here he is at his school party making a gingerbread house.
Eating with his girlfriend...seriously..he comes home all the time from school and tells me what she wore that day...hmmm

Next was Madi's concert.

Madi's fan club! My favorite quote of the night was when Madi first walked on stage - Isaac yells - "hey thats my sissy in the sparkly headband." Got to love him!

Here is a clip of one of the songs from Madi's concert.

She really wanted to make sure I took a picture of her and Amber!

On to Madi's class party...

decorating cookies

Mom Clark was very nice to let Elliot sleep at her house while I took Isaac with me to Madi's party...he loves being there. It was cool to see Madi make sure he had a place to sit by her..she even went to get him a chair. So nice!

Snow Day and more...

The kids loved having 3 snow days! It was fun to see how excited Madi & Isaac were just to have time to play together. It was wonderful to see them all getting along so well. I think they really miss each other when she is gone at school so long.

Here are the brothers snuggling! Isaac has been so sweet to him lately.

What better way to spend a snow day is with your friends! The neighbors came over for a bit...school and winter keeps them from seeing each other a ton so they were very excited to have time together.

The boys playing catch.

Then the girls decided to sticker the boys...

I spent the snow day putting together the Georges letters to send out....It was fun to have the kids ask if they could help~

And this is where we found el after nap...or during should I say. Since he has moved to the big boy bed you never know where he'll end up sleeping..

Our Christmas with the kids!

Every year we take the kids out the first week of December to cut down our tree. We have gone to this place for 3 years now. This was the first year the kids remember all that we did and counted down the days till we could go as a family. That was so exciting that they looked forward to OUR day so much. We wanted to set aside one day with the kids getting our home and hearts ready for the season. It seems like everything is so busy the days before Christmas and we were excited to set a tradition earlier in the season when life doesn't feel as busy! So we bundled the kids up and headed out.

Isaac helping to keep Elliot close by!

Ready to board the wagon...Elliot loved watching the horses.

The family shot...

Making snow angels!

Elliot could not figure out why we made him lay in the snow??

Picking the tree...

Cutting it down...

Warming up with cocoa & popcorn

After we got our tree we usually head to McDonalds to let the kids play at the playland...but we had to change that up a little bit and grab it to go since Elliot was soooo tired. Check him out in this video trying to stay awake...too funny!

Once we got home we let the older kids open "the big gift" while Elliot slept.

Here was their reaction...I think they liked it.


Mommy & Elliot

Isaac's year to put the angle on top!

I have this thing about the kids matching Christmas morning so we always get them a new pair of Jami's on this weekend so they can wear them for Christmas! so after Tubbies we got them to sit nice for a picture...

Then we took the family shot...

What a great day!!! Even though this was not "the real Christmas" according to Isaac...it was the best day! We loved just being together as a family!

First Christmas Party

My dad's side of the family likes to do Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Our family is getting pretty spread out and if any of them decide to come in town for Thanksgiving, they can do Christmas too! Here are some shots from the party! (I must not have had the right setting on...lots are blurry)

Elliot with Great Grandma - of all the kids he wanted her to lift him up...he's quite a load to lift for anyone..not to mention grandma!


Madi opening...Grandma made a ton of doll clothes..I love the one made from one of my old bridesmaid dresses...very clever!

very excited about his transformer

the group shot...Easton just didn't want to take a picture...then just after this was taken Carson decided to body slam the poor kid! Yikes...

Elliot checking out Katelyn

Elliot trying to leave...again..

Papa and little man

Most of Sarah's crew...

Eating pizza!

Turkey Day!

Here we are celebrating Thanksgiving with the Medendorp side..Look at the cute Indians! Dand made the feather hats for the kids!

Hanging with Great Papa!

on to bowling with the Clarks!

Obviously Isaac didn't want to take this picture...but not bad for all of them!

Big Boy Bed!

My baby is no longer a baby! We decided to take down the crib when Elliot decided to climb out of it! One morning I heard this big thud...yup...he climbed out only to land on this face....so it was time! Since we had a long Thanksgiving weekend we thought, no time like the present! The first night was great. We got the room all set up...took apart the bunks and gave elliot the top bunk with the rails on the floor...and Isaac got the other bed across the room. In 15 mins both boys were asleep. Crazy...definitely not how it went with the other two.

Here he is sleeping...yes I'm that mom that went in at 11 pm and used my flash for a picture!

He has done pretty well since that night. The night times are great...he does get up a little early some days(5:30 twice, but who's counting)...its naps that are the hardest. I know I had it so good because he was still taking 4 hr naps in the day (2 morn, 2 afternoon) and then 11 at night...and now he's getting maybe 1 hr a day. Eventually I think he'll figure it out and get back on schedule. The hardest part is realizing how fast all this went. I know..everyone says it goes so fast...but I don't know that I was ready for it. My babies are getting way too big!

Lego Mania!!!

The post you have all been waiting for!!! My dear son Isaac absolutely lives, and breathes Legos...Here he is posing for a picture he wants me to send into his lego magazine to see if they'll publish it and his creations! Too precious!



So when we found out the Henry Ford Museum was having a Lego exhibit in Detroit...I called Christin to set up a visit! What I didn't know was she had a way to get us all in for free! Love it! So we headed on over for the weekend and took the kids to see Legos! Here are some pictures from the trip!






The adults helping to build a wall...architects can't leave it be!


Sneaking a smooch!

Building his Castle!

More building...

Elliot all dressed up like a dragon!

One of the models you could see

The group shot!

The kids...yes there were a lot of them! But they loved it!

Life size soldier out of legos.

Checking out the rest of the museum

more building...

King Isaac - look at that mind go!

King & Queen...the dragon was off defending the castle! :)
A happy boy leaving! He loved it!

Overall it was a great trip! So much fun doing this for the kids and getting to spend the weekend with great friends too!!! Loved it all!

Friends....and crazy hair day!

Isaac was so excited he go invited to his buddy Mason's birthday party! He was playing outside before the party and I called him in to leave...usually he never responds right away..especially when outside on a georgous day in November...but I find him in the car holding the gift with shoes and coat on! Wow...we're talking less than 3 mins from me calling him to the car. And I was prob delayed in finding him! Guess he was excited!

Isaac is in Cubbies right now and one of the nights was crazy hair/hat night! Here are the boys! Too cute!


Madi had fun helping me with his hair....its what he wanted!

Hanging with the Grands

The kids are really into map making these days...Madi thinks its cool she can say Cartographer. I love it they make these maps and when we're driving they tell us what direction we are going! Too cute!

Papa & Grandma even got to help out!

Here Madi is at Isaac's soccer game....combing Papa's Hair..What grandparents don't do for the Grandkids!

Halloween!

We started out the Halloween Festivities with a trip to our Church for their Harvest Festival!

The kids loved it that Brianne was there serving! Always fun to see her! If you can't tell...Madi is Gabriella from High School Musical and Isaac is a Transformer - Bumblebee! Thought some of you may need help with that!

Here we are at Isaac's class party! Listening to a story while the moms setup!

Waiting for the parade to start.

At Madi's school...two of her good friends!

Showing off her craft!

Carving Pumpkins...El was asleep...oops!

ooey gooey hands

October 31 we had the Peuler side over for Trick or Treating, Birthdays, & the U of M/ illini game all at once...nothing like a catch all party~! So we made I & M cookies for the occasion...we don't need to mention who won....I'm sure you've all heard my illini fans gloat by now! :)

Ready to head out Trick or Treating

Here are all the kids & their cousins heading through the neighborhood!

Around the house...

So one day I headed in to wake up El to go to the bus stop and found him like this...too funny!


Then I woke him up and this is what I got! Guess he wanted to sleep more!

Science Experiment day....so a mom can only play legos so much! I had to switch it up one day...we looked online for some fun/easy science experiments and found these.

The colors aren't the best..but he had fun! Not a great picture but this is suppose to be teaching him how different liquids have different densities...you can read up on it here.

This one he LOVED and so easy! We did it a couple of different times to show everyone as they got home that day!

Couple of drops of food coloring in milk...

then add 1 drop of dishsoap! Watch the molecules disperse...

A warm day...had to get out!

wearing dads shoes!

Harvest Fest...

A local church was having a free Harvest festival so we decided to hook up with our neighbors and take the kids. It was pretty chilly so after a bit we had to take off..but overall it was a lot of fun.

Lots of face painting and pumpkin painting!


Yum! Cotton Candy!


This is all he wanted to do! Go figure!


Cheese!

The kids squaring off...

Now the adults! This was too funny!

I love to hear the kids just chuckling at their dads!!!

Really Behind...

So I'm really behind...It's been over a month and not many posts! I even looked and saw I only took 80 pictures for the entire month of September...usually I average at least 300 per month! I know, I'm a little crazy with photos! So here are some recent pictures of some "stuff!"

Here are some shots from Isaac's fall trip to the Pumpkin patch with his class...he was so excited to bring home his pumpkin and couldn't wait to decorate it! I didn't go this day but another mom was great about sharing her photos!! Thanks Heidi!!

His Class

Love the hat

Win Rockettes Tickets with GRKids!

Check out the new giveawy GR Kids just posted! Wouldn't it be fun to go see the Rockettes!

http://www.grkids.com/2/post/2009/10/unbelievable-4-tickets-to-the-radio-city-christmas-spectacular-coming-your-way.html

Check it out!

Art Prize take 2!

So our friends from Illinois were up for the weekend and we couldn't wait to go back downtown. We had one night for just us adults and a nice dinner at the Bull's head! Yum! Then the next day we took the kids back for more! It was so nice just to walk downtown!

The kids were very fascinated with the mural by the Children's museum...they loved the mirrors!

and of course the balloons!

The four of us with no kids! Yeah for date night!

Art Prize...take 1

So one Sunday we headed downtown (with thousands of others!) to see the airplanes! I'm sure you've all heard about it! Isaac was so excited to see those planes fly off the buildings and loved that he got a couple! It was a ton of fun to just walk around with the Clarks and take in Art Prize together! Here are some shots from our trip.

I know this isn't part of Art Prize...but Isaac thought it was cool!!! Go Blue!

Just taking a break...for a sec that is.

Admiring the art with Dad.

The group shot!

Nessie...

This was how we kept track of the kids...there were so many people! Unbelievable! What a great thing for GR!

Open House

Isaac's school had an open house to let the kids show their school off...so Isaac couldn't wait to invite both Grandparents and show them his new school!



Here he is hugging Elliot before class....really he's hugging not choking!

A couple of Neighbors are in his class and Isaac just loves that. Mason - his new best friend didn't want to be in the picture but Emma was all smiles!! So fun for them to know other kids in the class and see them in the neighborhood.

Soccer!!!

So Isaac is loving playing soccer this year!!! He smiles all the time and just goes hard! I fyou ask him how many goals he made he usually says something like - 72! No modesty there! He does know how to celebrate after a goal though! And then he looks to see if everyone saw it!

Here he is concentrating before the game

The fan club! I love how well our family all support us!!

Elliot trying to scam some food from Grandma & Grandpa!

Our friends from Illinois even came out to cheer him on!

Madi decided not to play this year..I think she loves playing one on one with daddy instead!! Nothing wrong with that!

New Pictures!

So I needed so new pictures for our living room wall and just took a night so try and get some good shots! We had some old frames that had other prints in them and I thought they might look good collaged on the wall with pictures of the kids. I wanted some nice closeups and took these...

Here is the final layout...as you can tell we chose a different shot for Elliot since the one above was a little washed out by the sun...next time I won't use such a close up of Elliot and I think I'll like it much better! But overall its what we want for up there!

After pictures the kids just had fun outside...Here is Elliot running....

and then tackling!

Brothers!!! Too cute!