Update on our lives

Hello to everyone and sorry I've been a little out of touch. We've been very busy!
Gracie is now 6 1/2 weeks and she's doing well, despite a few "issues" we've run into over the last 6 weeks.
Feeding issues:
At first we had trouble with feeding. My milk had a hard time coming in and Gracie lost a bunch of weight and then wouldn't gain it back and so the doc put us on a strict feeding schedule for a few weeks and we had to go in every few days to watch her weight. Eventually that all came together and she started gaining weight, which was great because the constant feeding and supplementing and pumping was a bit overwhelming and tiresome. She's now gaining weight just fine, although now she's been spitting up more and more. I'm not sure if it's reflux, but I'll just watch it over the next few weeks to see if it continues to get worse.
Head Shape Issues:
One other issue is that her head has become mis-shaped. She always has her head to one side and that has flattened one side, caused a bulge to go out the other side, pushed her forehead forward and pushed one of her ears forward, out of alignment with the other ear. SO...we're supposed to work with her on stretching her neck to the other side. If she's not improving by her 2 month appointment, we'll need to work with a physical therapist. Then we may or may not need to put her in a helmet at some point. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Gracie and sleeping:
She's been sleeping great! That's the good news. For the last week or 2 she will sleep from about 10:30 until 5:00 or 6:00 and the other day she even slept until 7:00 - it was great! It's so nice to have a nice block of sleep time, let me tell you!
Henry and Ella:
The other kids are doing great. Henry is really into playing computer and wii games and loves to run around outside with the neighborhood kids during playgroup.
Ella is into everything and acting very much like a 2 year old. She's a little stinker, but she's also so much fun and full of life. The picture of the marker on the cupboard was her masterpiece from yesterday. Yep - it's permanent sharpe marker. It came off the counter and the oven, but won't come off the drawers, the fridge or the dishwasher. I've been told to try magic eraser and so we'll have to buy one and try it.
Henry and Ella are finding how much it is to play with each other (most of the time), which is great for giving them something to do while I'm nursing the baby half the day.
Anyways - that's about it. Hope you made it through this long blog post!

Gracie's Blessing

Okay! Now that I've finally posted the Halloween post, I can now move on to Gracie's Blessing.
We decided sort of last minute to do her blessing on November 1st. We weren't sure when we were going to do it, but then my dad was in town to pick up my mom and so we threw it together and it all worked out very nicely.
Here is a list of who was in the circle: My dad, Jim (Adam's dad), Jess (Adam's brother), Lance (Adam's brother), and Kevin (Adam's brother in law). Then Adam also invited our home teacher, Matt, and 2 of his good friend's, Matt and Howard. It was very nice of everyone to come and support us.
Adam gave Gracie a wonderful blessing and she only cried just a little bit! :)
The above picture of just Gracie isn't the best, but believe or not, it was the best of the few pictures I took that day...unfortunately...

Halloween Pictures

These are a tad late...BUT I wanted to post a few pictures from Halloween.
Henry was an army guy - he's wanted that for a while now since he's really into army and war things.
Ella was first a leaf fairy and then Minnie Mouse (a couple of days before Halloween my parents picked her up a few costumes that had been discounted so we could give them to her for Christmas - for dress up. She saw the minnie mouse costume and wanted to wear it...).
We went to 3 parties - 1. Josh and Jessica Hakes party the weekend before Halloween 2. the party at Adam's work the day before 3. Our ward party the day of. And after the ward party Adam took the kids around to trick or treat for a few minutes. Needless to say, we had plenty of Halloween fun and ended up with WAY to much candy!

Thank You Provo!!!!

Wow! What a night for Provo politics. Thank you to all you Provo voters who went out and voted. Thank you especially for voting for Laura Cabanilla, Sterling Beck, and John Curtis. These were hugely important races and after a long wait for change, finally, we have it. Thanks to those who campaigned, who read fliers, who hosted signs, who got involved in the discussion and cared enough to vote! I am quite excited for the possibilities presented us with the changes now brought to our city. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

Day 1

Above is Mom feeling good and eating well. Below are some pictures of our baby girl's first day. She's a cutie.

Here she is with Grandma Carole.

And here with Grandma Chris. We are so glad both our grandmas could be there!




Everyone is well and should be home sometime tomorrow. The kids and I are both excited to have mom back home and to welcome our new baby.

Adam.

Finally Here!!!

Grace Clark was born this evening at 8:15 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 18 1/2" long. Amy had her water broken by the doctor at 6:45pm and had an epideral right after that. We sat and finished watching a movie and then at 8pm the nurse checked her and she was a 10 already. The doctor came in, Amy pushed 3-4 times and the baby was out. Simple and easy. It was as perfect as it could have been. The baby is doing wonderful and so is Amy. Everyone is happy! Definitely worth the wait!

Amy has her cell, so feel free to give her a call or me a call (801) 691-3249. We are at UVRMC in Provo. Call me or Amy for the code and room number. Thanks for all your support!

No baby!

This little girl is sure stubborn. As you can guess, the stripping of the membranes yesterday didn't work. It was the second time they've done it and I'm now dilated to just under 4 cm and 80% effaced. I don't know what she's doing in there!
Our next plan is to be induced Monday late afternoon/early evening if the hospital isn't full. The doctor I saw yesterday is one of my two favorites at the clinic and he will be on call starting Monday night at 7:00. So that's what we'll shoot for. I have to get the strep B antibiotic and so I'll probably go in a little earlier to get that going, but other than that, that is the plan for now!
Seriously - what IS she doing in there??

Newborns and the Swine Flu

The swine flu is supposed to hit Utah kind of hard this month and so hospitals are cracking down to protect the newborns. Utah Valley (where we will be delivering) is not allowing children under the age of 14 into the maternity section of the hospital and if you are over the age of 14 you can only enter if you are completely healthy - no kind of sicknesses at all.
This is wonderful because I want my baby to be protected. It's actually a little stressful to have a baby right now with the idea that she cannot be vaccinated and she will be vulnerable to the swine flu. This is also terrible because I was so looking forward to Henry and Ella coming to see us at the hospital. Hopefully they'll be okay with waiting the 2 days until we are able to come home.
Also, Henry hardly ever gets sick - seriously, I don't remember the last time he was sick. Today he woke up with a cold...
On a similar note, today I will get my membrane's stripped (again) and HOPEFULLY we'll have a baby today or tomorrow - stay posted!

Henry is 4 years old!

First of all, this is Henry 4 years ago today. Isn't he so cute?

Today Henry has had a birthday extravaganza. We started off with lots of messy presents this morning (everything he got has a lot of little pieces - plus there were balloons all over the ground and so our house is now a disaster!).


Then he had school and then we had a few hours at home. Henry and Ella helped get cupcakes ready for Henry's party.

We had a little friend birthday party at the park in the late afternoon. They ate cupcakes and opened presents and played with a balloon launcher that the kids LOVED (although I took no pictures of that...).

Then we went to Chuck E Cheese's for dinner and Henry and Ella had so much fun playing with all the games (I took no pictures of that, either...).

THEN we had a yummy peanut butter and chocolate cake (from Target) here with Grandpa Jim, Gillian and Kevin and our friend, Cristina (and Grandma Carole - she's been staying with us as we wait for this stubborn baby that won't come out of me).

Wow - long day. I'm exhausted! But I think Henry enjoyed the day and the many festivities.
Happy Birthday to Henry!

Just about a week to go!

Well, we've got a week to go. Here is a photo, although, I don't think I look like I'm ready to pop in it. Sometimes I look at myself and think - wow, that is one big belly. And then sometimes I think - you know, it's really not that big. And don't mind how tired and old I look the picture!
I would like to have the baby tomorrow. :) So we'll see. Henry's birthday is Tuesday and our anniversary is Wednesday and so I want to stay clear of those days and I don't want the stress of worrying about it. But we'll see what's in store. Everyone send birthing thoughts our way! :)

Finished Kitchen Cabinets!!!

We're DONE with the kitchen cabinets - hooray! We have been working on this project for far too long, but it is now complete.

Here is a before picture of the kitchen:
Here are a few pictures of the kitchen now:
This last picture shows the beadboard detail on the doors. We got that idea from Adam's brother Jess and it wasn't hard to do (well, I didn't do it, but Adam was able to install it fairly easily).

I really couldn't be happier that this is done. Seriously - hooray to be done!
Thank you to Adam for helping me accomplish my crazy visions!
And thanks to everyone else who has helped us with this project!

35 years to celebrate!

Today is Adam's 35th birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADAM!
Luckily we have this file folder on our computer labeled "pictures of Adam" and it is great! Here are some fun pictures that have been taken over the last 35 years.

Here is Adam as a child:

Here he is growing up just a little:

Wait a minute...is that kid old enough to date??

Here he is on a mission:

Here he is post mission (I'm assuming these are post mission):
Here he is as THE greatest Superfan of all time:

Here he is as a great outdoorsman:
PS I've NEVER in my life seen a better rock skipper - he is seriously a world champion!

Here he is being silly:

Here is our favorite husband and father:
Adam Clark is our world - we love you, baba! Have a fantastic birthday today!