Christmas at the Clark's

Needless to say it was a good Christmas. Thank you everyone who helped make this first Christmas so special.

Christmas Card

Alright I know it's probably a bad sign when you have to post your christmas card on a blog but here we are.








This past year has been the best roller coaster I have ever been on. As you all probably know we had our beautiful baby girls bless us on March 23, 2009. Delivery was scary but we all came out unscathed, and after two months in the NICU here we are. The girls are nine months old and are doing so well. They are both 'commando crawling' and are into everything as you can imagine. They love each other and will often get into giggle fits laughing at each other laughing. It is the sweetest moment of every day. I wish I had room to tell you all about their personalities but I will summerise with this Kaya is the sweetest little stubborn pea you ever did meet and McKenna is the biggest clown. They love to eat anything which comes within arms distance and are often found crawling after the cat. Ohh, we got a cat after we moved out to Grandpa's farm. Grandpa Clark decided it was his time to leave this earth and join his beloved wife. We were fortunate enough to be able to move to his house in Blackfoot and hopefully will be able to buy the house sometime next year. It is on a farm where Gus spent much of his childhood and we both love the peace it brings into our lives. Gus is in school and somehow still managing to work. He is still the same hard worker his dad taught him to be. I am working for Dr Mueller and love it. He takes good care of me and lets me take care of our family when I need too. For my birthday I got a sewing machine and have really enjoyed putting it to work. I have made blankets, tag blankets, stockings and anything else you can imagine.
To summerize we are doing very well, Kaya and McKenna have learned and grown so much this picture is one of my favorites from when they were born because it reminds me how blessed we truely are and I can see how far we have come.
PS no I don't know who is who in this pic I think Kaya is the one behind McKenna?

Mint Brownies for Christmas Recipe

Brownie Layer
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 stick of softened margarine
16 oz can Hersey's syrup

Mix together. Pour into greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees until done about 20-25 minutes. Cool thoroughly. (cooks better in glass pan)

Cream layer

2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick softened margarine
1 teaspoon water
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
few drops food color

Mix together. Spread on cooled brownie layer. CHILL.

Chocolate Layer

1cup chocolate chips
6 tablespoons margarine

Heat in microwave until chocolate is melted about 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Pour onto cream layer. Tip pan to spread. Cool thoroughly.

You can double the chocolate and margarine on the chocolate layer. To cut use a knife dipped in hot water which makes it easier.

Help Wanted

So our girls still are not sleeping through the night. they have once in a while but it never seems to stick. I don't know what I am doing wrong, well actually I haven't let them cry themselves back to sleep. Maybe that's my problem, I don't know. That is why I am writing this post because I need advice on what to do. I know their schedule isn't perfect because they have four different sitter during the week. I have recently tried to tickle McKenna's face and try to get her to sleep that way instead of feeding her but she just looks more awake. And since I am so exhausted I give up and feed her a bottle and she will promptly go right back to sleep. Kaya will usually sleep through the night which is ironic because before it was Kaya who got up and McKenna who slept through the night. It seems like there is always something that messes it up like right now McKenna has a cold and so she is usually up twice a night. How did you guys get your babies to sleep?
Current stats since I am way behind
McKenna weighs 15 pounds and is the biggest clown EVER. She loves her face tickled and loves to inhale and exhale really fast to move the snot in and out of her nose. Like I said clown.
Kaya weighs 14 pounds and is so stubborn but still sweet. She loves to see her reflection on the glass from out TV stand; she gets all excited and starts laughing and screaming. She is crawling ALL over, she loves to eat bananas and is fascinated with christmas lights.

Happy Halloween!!!

Our girls are 6 month and Kaya weighs 13 pounds while McKenna is still beating her at 14 pounds. They are both about 24 inches and have developed their little personalities. They are so cute and I love the days I get to be home with them.

In loving memory....

Our Grandpa, Keith Harold Clark passed away on Friday September 25, 2009. Grandpa was 84 years old and just decided that it was his time to go meet his wife on the other side. We will dearly miss him. Yesterday we held a beautiful funeral and everyone talked of all the great memories we had of him. He was a carpenter by trade and such a hard worker. Everyone told of how big of a heart he had, one story I loved was how he would help his home teacher's wife walk up the stairs because she had bad knees. He soon built a rail of the stairs so that it would be easier for her to get into his house. Ian told of how he remembers going to stock sales with Grandpa and naming all the cows as they loaded into the trailer. Gus always loved going to coffee with Grandpa and sipping hot cocoa next to him. I was touched to have several people randomly tell me how much Grandpa talked about the girls and how proud he was of them. I only wish they could have gotten to know him better before he passed. I am sad that the girls will never really know their Great Grandparents because they were amazing, and I do not think that I will ever be able to teach them how amazing their Great Grandparents were. Grandpa sure had class and we will miss him.

adventures in eating....

Kaya is in the pink Bumbo and McKenna's is purple. The last one is Kaya and the one above is McKenna

Good Morning

McKenna is eating Kaya's hand...

Eat your veggies

We feed the girls their first baby food on Sunday. It was a lot of fun even though they really didn't care that they were eating food from a spoon. No crazy faces but they are getting so big and so incredibly cute! (McKenna is in the purple Bumbo and Kaya's Bumbo is pink)





































We had to bathe afterwards and they were holding hands, how cute huh?

Cousins

from left to right McKenna, Lilly, Kaya, Parker
Four cousins born within 4 months!

4 month pics

My friends had this wonderful idea to take the girls pictures every month with the same stuffed animal so you can see how they have grown that month. Gus bought the girls these stuffed animals on Valentine's day. The top pictures are at 3 months the bottom are 4 months.





McKenna is 10 lbs 10 ounces. Kaya is 10 lbs and 3 ounces.

Recent happenings...

We said goodbye to some very good friends :
(. Who will be missed...
We have had some bath time fun....
and thankfully we have had some sleep... they usually mirror each other when they sleep it super cute