Butterfly Garden

We've had a butterfly garden for the last few weeks. The butterflies are painted lady butterflies to be exact.
We started out with 5 caterpillars; 3 were healthy and happy and we set them free to live on their own; 1 was sadly damaged by a curious 4 year old and so he remains with us for the remainder of his days; 1 had problems and so never successfully hatched out of his chrysalide. It's been interesting and the kids have had fun. I'm not sure if I'd do it again, though, because it's just so sad when things don't go the way you expect them too (sad for me - not necessarily sad for the kids)!

Here are the kids letting 2 of them go:



Check out the curled tongue on this one!


This is Limpy - he's the one that stays with us. He was originally just "hurt," but then eventually his wing fell off. Sometimes we take him outside to sit on the grass. Poor little guy (or girl, I guess!):

Our Bicknell Trip

This last weekend we went to Bicknell, UT with Adam's brother's family (Jess, Jen, Abby, Leah, Lauren). Jen's grandpa lives on a ranch down there and they love to visit. The opportunity came up for us to go with them and we took it! (Thanks Jess and Jen)

Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Abby, Ella, Leah and Henry the night we arrived.



Ella on the beloved swings!



Adam and Ella going on a 4-wheeler ride.



Jess, Adam, Abby, Henry, Leah and Lauren hiked to the rock at the top of this picture.



Henry on the hike.



Henry sitting on the rock at the top of the hike (check out the beautiful valley!).



Leah, Abby, Lauren and Jess on the way down the mountain.



I was able to have a little visit with my friend Vanessa - she lives in the near vicinity (thanks, Vaness!). PS. Henry took this picture if you're wondering about the low angle...



Henry and Ella with Vanessa's kids (Nate, Kyle, Ryan and Katie).

We had a great time and it was great to spend time with family and friends. AND it was fun for me to finally see some of Utah (15 years later...).

June 9th is a special day

June 9th has been a special day for our family for the last 3 years.
June 9, 2007 - Ella Mary Clark was born:

June 9, 2008 - Ella turned 1:

June 9, 2009 - Ella turned 2:

June 9, 2010 - Ella turns 3 today:

Thanks to everyone that helped us celebrate this special day!

Happy Birthday, Ella!

Gracie's Helmet

Grace got her helmet yesterday. This has been a really long process and I'm glad we finally got to this point because we will only go up from here.
Yesterday was hard for me. Our appointment was in the afternoon and in the morning if I would think about it I would cry. I know, I know...but I couldn't help it. I just knew it would be hard for her and I was so sad about it.
She didn't like it at all when they first put the helmet on her, but it surprisingly didn't take long for her to adjust to it. I was expecting her reaction to be much worse. They warned me that even though she may acclimate alright during the day that she would have a hard time going to sleep that first night. And she did. She cried for about 2 hours, poor little thing.
She has to wear it 23 hours a day. We can take it off for an hour each day and we have to wash the helmet and her head.
Her head is super hot. It's dripping wet all day long. That's one of the saddest parts to me. She probably wonders why her head is so hot all of the time.
All in all she's doing great and I hope her head changes quickly!

This picture kind of shows the flat spot on her head:

Here she is with the cast (she was so sad!):

Here she is just before we left for the appointment yesterday:

Here she is after the appointment with her helmet:

There you have it. Gracie sure is a trooper, I'll tell you that much!

A little of this, a little of that

I've just finally downloaded pictures from the last little while and so I'm going to do one post to cover a few events from that last few weeks.

Here are the kids on Easter Morning:

Here is an example of one of Ella's outfits (she likes to dress herself - sometimes it works out, sometimes it's funny):

Here are the kids being silly:

Here is Gracie in her highchair (I know, she looks like a boy with the blue bib...just ignore that part!):

Here we are celebrating Grandma Chris's birthday:

Here is Henry's "graduation" day for his second year of preschool (we still have one more year to go!):

Here we are at Lincoln Beach on Memorial Day:

Stay tuned for another post next week when Gracie gets her helmet!

We saw fighter jets!

One thing that we all love in this family (not just Henry) is fighter jets. One of our favorite 4th of July traditions is to watch them fly over our house in the morning (during the parade) and then we watch them again fly over stadium of fire (we sit outside the stadium, of course). This picture was taken during stadium of fire in 2008.
Well, the reason I'm writing about this was because yesterday they flew over our house a few times - it was SO cool! You can hear them coming because they are so loud and so as soon as I heard them I yelled "everyone outside now!" They flew right over us twice and then they flew back and forth in the distance a couple of times, although we couldn't see them as well then (but we could sure hear them!). I was talking on the phone to my sister in law, Gillian, and she was driving on the freeway and they flew right over her, too!
IT WAS AWESOME!
We love fighter jets!

Anyone for raw milk?

I've been thinking A LOT lately about changing the food we eat to be more organic and natural. It's something I've been working towards for a while now, but I've been reading this book called "Master Your Metabolism" by Jillian Michaels. This book has pushed me and my thinking a little further along. She is very extreme in her thinking and she is all about natural food (to the extreme). I don't want to necessarily adopt all of her practices, but I have learned a lot from her book and it has given me a lot to think about. One of the things she thinks is important is eating dairy and meat that are from grass fed/range free type sources.
So today I went to check out a local health food store called Real Foods Market. I was hoping for a regular size grocery store that happens to be natural and organic, but it turned out to be another tiny one - actually even smaller than the others. But their big thing is their raw milk. It's unpasteurized and it's from grass fed cows. The sales associate told me how amazing this milk is for you and so I thought that I could just give it one gallon of a try. It was super expensive ($6.29) and you also had to sign a waiver saying that you understand that buying unpasteurized milk is risky. But again, I just wanted to give it a try. Oh - and I also got some range free eggs. Those were expensive, too ($5.99 for a dozen and they had a buy one, get one free, so I got 2 doz).
The kids and I have tried both of these things today and I'm not so sure I like either of them, actually! The milk is okay. It's thick and rich (it is whole milk) and the idea grosses me out just a little bit. It doesn't really QUENCH your thirst like regular milk does.
The eggs...I had a harder time with those. I'm kind of funny about eggs to begin with and so these are hard for me to eat. The yolks are a different shade of yellow and one of the eggs I cracked was bloody - that one had to go.
The kids liked both the milk and the eggs.
I don't really think I will be re-purchasing either of these products. Although there may be another version of extra-healthy milk and eggs out there to try.
SO - have any of you ever tried these kinds of products or anything similar? What have your experiences been?

Thoughts on Ty's Funeral

A family in our ward lost their 4 1/2 month old son, Ty, on Wednesday to SIDS. I just wanted to take a minute to express some of my feelings about the situation and about his funeral.
This experience has been a really hard one for me. I don't know if that is due to me being a woman or because I am a mother. Maybe it hit home because Gracie is only 2 weeks older than Ty. Or maybe it is because of all of those things.
I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the whole thing. I knew that Ty was okay and that they would someday be with him, but I wasn't really FEELING that that was the case. I was only imagining and feeling the grief and despair that I imagined they would be feeling.
But then I went to Ty's funeral.
It was so sad. I cried the whole time. The coffin was so tiny. But there was a beautiful spirit of comfort in that meeting. Erica and Dan (Ty's parents) gave his life sketch, which actually surprised me. I couldn't have thought that they would be able to do such a thing. They spoke of the comfort and strength that they had been receiving. They spoke of how he had made them better people and how they wanted now to live their lives to be worthy to be with him again someday. Dan told intimate details of his last night with Ty and how special it was to him. And the interesting thing was that they were comforting and strengthening all of us. We were there to support and love them, and they turned around and did the same thing for us.
Being at Ty's funeral has made me a better person. It has strengthened my testimony of many things. One, of the eternal nature of our Heavenly Father's plan. How blessed we are to be able to be with our loved ones again someday. Two, we can be comforted and strengthened even in our darkest hours. We can truly seek after and find relief from the pain. Three, the Relief Society really is an organization that provides relief to those in need. So many sisters from our ward banded together to make that funeral happen. The Elders helped, too, but the Relief Society really seemed to be the backbone behind it. I'm grateful for the caring, compassionate nature of woman and what that can mean in the lives of those in need. Four, I was reminded of the covenants we make at baptism - "to mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort." I have never before mourned for someone else's sorrows the way I mourned for them. And I know that is Heavenly Father's way.
This experience has been a hard one, and it really has had nothing to do with me. My heart brakes for Dan and Erica as they will be faced with the reality of Ty's death every day for the rest of their lives. And after hearing their thoughts yesterday, I feel peace in knowing that they will be okay. I pray for their continued comfort and strength.

Underwear party at our house!

I've been recently motivated to potty train Ella by my sister in law, Jen, and by my neighbor, Kandice. It's just such a task that I tend to push it off until a "better time," which rarely actually comes. So today I decided that even though I'm sick, we're doing it!
So far we've had one little success and Ella has found that if she is wearing big girl underpants, her babies and her puppies need to, too. If you look closely in the picture, each doll/stuffed animal is wearing a pair of Dora underpants. Ella is too cute, I tell you!

Karate Class

Henry has also been taking a karate class through the community ed program. Tonight was his little graduation and he earned himself a white belt! He got to punch through a board and everything!
For some reason, he will not wear his gee, and now that he has the belt, he won't wear that either...he's funny that way sometimes. The only costume he's worn with his own free will and choice is his army costume.
Here he is hitting the board and showing off the board and his belt.
I kind of wish he liked it because karate teaches great skills like discipline and respect. But we'll keep trying different things and see what he wants to do. I won't mind if we come back in the karate direction, though.
We asked him what he wants to try next and we threw out soccer or baseball and he said he wants to do golf!

Tumbling Class

Henry and Ella have been taking a tumbling class this last month. It was with a community education program and so it is just 1 month and 1 time per week and now it is over.
They LOVED it. Especially Ella. She thought it was the best thing ever. I thought about signing them up again because they loved it so much, but I think Ella needs to be just a few months older so she can follow directions better.
Here are a few pictures of them on their last day:

Congrats to Adam

Adam has been working so hard and this last week he got an amazing raise that will be a HUGE blessing for our family.
Way to go, Adam!

Beautiful Ranunculas

My very favorite flower in the whole world is a ranuncula.
We celebrated Valentine's Day a week late this year and my sweet husband searched and searched and found me some beautiful ranunculas. They're usually hard to find and only available for a short time during the year. I wanted them for my wedding, but they are only available on the other side of the world in September...so I didn't get to have them then.
Aren't they so beautiful? I love them!
And thank you to Adam for getting them for us to look at!

One more...

The following is a conversation Henry and I had tonight while he was putting on his pajamas:
Henry: My underwear is stuck in my bum.
Me: That's called a wedgy.
Henry: What's a wedgy?
Me: It's when your underwear is stuck in your bum.
Henry: That's so silly!

Kids do the darndest things...

Yesterday I was tossing a balloon back and forth with Ella. She's getting better at catching, but she sometimes wouldn't look at it and it would just fall to the ground. I told her to keep her eye on the ball. She promptly put the balloon up to her face and said, "Like this? Like this, Mommy?" The best part was the eagerness and enthusiasm in her voice. She is such a character.

Grace is 3 1/2 months old!

I can't believe she's almost 4 months. Here are a few pictures of our cutest little Gracie girl:




She's a sweetie. And she's also a tricky baby. She cries a lot. But I can't imagine loving her any more than we do.