Sunday, October 31, 2010

4 months!

Our little Baby Clark has reached 4 months :). Well, really like a week ago, but hey, I'm updating now :). He had his check up this last week and the official stats are in:

Height - 26 1/2 inches
Weight - 20 lb 2 oz

He has passed all of our other children for their 4 month weigh-ins... that's pretty impressive if I do say :). He really is a good baby and is still pretty calm for a 4 month old. Here are some pictures of him on his 4 month birthday :)

He's gotten really good at smiling!


He still likes chewing on his hand, thumb, finger... well, whatever he can get!


Another smiling one... Just couldn't help it.
Look he actually chewed on a baby toy! Well, I put it in his hand, otherwise he would have been chewing on his hand still :).

He has started giggling when we tickle him - so cute. He has also started making more cooing noises. Time is moving along and he will just keep growing up. We just love our Baby Shark (he's wearing his shark shirt if you didn't notice ;))!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Family in Town - Random Sampler

Grandparents came into town for the baptism. Here are some general pictures at the house. Grandma Whitmer held baby when she first got here. She arrived on Wednesday and flew home on Sunday night.

Grant decided he should hold Baby because he Loves Clark and wanted some pictures. Baby loves him too.



They even lay down together and play.

Sharla and her mother went to get pedicures so naturally the girls wanted their toes painted also. So Saturday afternoon they both got their pink toes.

Punkin had to let hers dry but still loved to point at them.

Talmage received more presents for his birthday when family came into town. Grandma Whitmer bought him a shirt and a little motorized green bug. Sorry, no good pics. Grandma and grandpa Williams bought him a remote control car. He said he wanted one. It was between a red Ferrari and the Ford GT. Of course I'd get the GT.

My parents arrived on Saturday and left Tuesday morning to go home. Here are some photos of grandpa Williams with a gradually increasing number of the grandkids. First is him and Clark in their overalls.

Punkin decided to join for a picture.

The boys then got in the mix.

Here is the one and only photo of my mom (grandma Williams). She does not like her picture taken. Chica decided to join her while the boys were in the other picture with grandpa.
We are glad family were able to come and share their time with us and see the baptism of Talmage. It never seems long enough...

Baptism #1 - Talmage

October 23, 2010 - Talmage was baptized and confirmed at the Fort Worth Stake Center by Daddy. It was a small gathering but still just as special. Both grandparents came out to see it. Here was the general program:
Presiding: Bro Robert Hamlin
Leading Music: Grandma Whitmer with Grandma Williams on the piano.
Opening Prayer: Bro Blair (home teacher)
Talk on Baptism: Grandpa Williams
Talk on Holy Ghost: Mommy
Baptism and Confirmation: Daddy
Baptism witnesses: Bro Blair & Bro Hamblin
Confirmation: Daddy, Grandpa Williams, Bro Blair, & Bro Hamblin
Closing Prayer: Sandra Williams - she did a really great prayer too!
Songs: #103 When I am Baptized & #105 Holy Ghost

Here are pictures following the baptism. Talmage and Daddy
Parents and Talmage

Grandma Whitmer and Talmage

Following the baptism we all went out to dinner; partly for the baptism but it was grandma Williams' birthday. Grandma Whitmer came along too to celebrate. We went to Red Hot and Blue to eat. Once home, Talmage opened his baptism gifts from the grandparents. From grandma and grandpa Williams he got a picture and Captain Moroni tie tac.


From grandma Whitmer he received a white polar bear to help him remember to be as clean as the white bear.
So what did Mommy and Daddy give him? Life, 8 years of teaching, and plenty of opportunity. What did God give him? The Holy Ghost. Sorry, no picture on the last two.
--Daddy--



Talmage is a Cub Scout

Now that Talmage is 8...he is a Cub Scout. We bought his book almost two weeks prior to his birthday. He read it because he was excited. He quickly earned his Bobcat badge. Here he is just before his first den meeting. He had a great time and even earned a belt loop while there.

The next week was pack meeting. He was introduced as one of the new Cubs.

His birthday was the day after the "cut off" date for getting awards at the pack meeting but we arranged for Talmage's Bobcat badge to be purchased because we knew he would earn it before pack meeting. Mommy went up with Talmage to get the award. First the handshake...


Then the award. He is such a sweet boy. He tries his best and wants to do well in what he sets out to do. Just from this picture you can tell he will no doubt do better at Cubs than daddy did. I like this picture.


He got to display the pumpkin he decorated from his den meeting while we were at pack meeting. We took it home and ended the evening of scouts.

It is amazing sometimes how you see the tendancies and desires of your kids so clearly. Keep it up Talmage and you will do well in life. We love you.
---Daddy---



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Great to be 8!

It seems like just yesterday... well, maybe not yesterday, but not long ago that we welcomed our first baby to our family. Talmage was a beautiful baby (seriously, I'm not biased at all). He has been such a sweet boy and an amazing big brother! Talmage is now 8 years old and becoming such a big kid!

Look at what a sweet baby he was! See, I told you he was beautiful ;)


We had a simple family celebration. He wanted another volcano cake (like he had the year before) and he helped decorate it. The pink frosting is supposed to be red lava. Not my best cake, but it tasted good :).
Blowing out the candles.


Eating the cake and ice cream. I think he's happy about it!


Opening presents. Sandra and Grant had a great time wrapping up stuff to give to him. I love it when they share ;)

The present picture. (Sorry, I didn't let you see every picture of every present... I figured we'd just get to the point). He was really excited about his presents!
I also took treats to his class for his birthday, but I left the camera at home. The night before he made a list of what I needed to do (well, it turned into a list for him) the next day. It had - go to school, go to the store, bring treats to class, come home from school, make a cake, have the Blair's over, light candles, blow out candles, and open presents. Such a great kid!
We are now looking forward to grandparents coming to town and his baptism this Saturday. He is all ready to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's been amazing to see him grow and get ready for this big event! We just love you Talmage!
Things about Talmage:

He loves school!
He loves reading - and likes the Hardy Boys series right now :)
He is a good friend and wants all of his classmates to be his friend.
He is a great big brother.
He loves beanie babies - a little too much sometimes, but it's very sweet :)
He is excited to be a cub scout!
He wants to be a Detective when he grows up (inspired by the Hardy boys books)
He likes wearing glasses - he doesn't like it when people can't tell him and his brother apart.
He has read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price (and has started the Bible). He is a really good reader ;).
He is sometimes shy in front of people.
He wants to play soccer - we'll have to work on that in the spring!
Talmage is an amazing boy!!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Random

I usually like to have a theme to my post, but I figured there are just some fun random pictures I wanted to share, so here's a random post :).

Jeff and Baby Clark. Clark really was happy, just not in this picture. It is amazing how fast he is growing and changing. Before long he'll be moving and eating baby food. Until then we enjoy our calm little boy!


Daddy went to the scout shop and picked up the badges for Talmage's cub uniform as well as the Wolf book. Cub Scouts here we come. Here is Jeff going over the book and such with him. He is really excited :). This starts the long years of cubs... that will then turn into boy scouts!

Talmage lost his other top tooth on Monday. It was really wiggly that morning and he could turn it sideways. I told him that we should pull it, but he wanted to wait til after school. I told him that it would probably come out during school. Yup, I was right. I wonder if secretly he wanted it to come out at school :). He got to go to the nurse and get a tooth container and everything. It happened at lunch, go figure ;).
I love it when the kids get along and play quietly. Who doesn't right? Recently the kids have rediscovered the coloring books. They have spent many an hour at the kitchen table with all of the markers out, working together to color all of the cool pictures :).


Even when they want a picture in the same book... they share. It was fun to watch the boys color these pictures. They figured it out all by themselves - priceless :).

That's some of our latest happenings. Next week brings a birthday and a baptism. Those will be fun events to share :). It will be fun to have family in town as well! October is flying by!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

While the kids are away...

The Punkin will play :)

Mhari gets a lot of one on one time with me now during the day. She is talking more and really loves to be "helpful" with the baby. It is nice just having two again so I can get out and walk in the morning too (with the double stroller).

There really isn't anything too exciting happening around here. Here is what I can think of in terms of family happenings: Sandra did swallow a bead and we almost had to go to the ER. Thankfully Daddy helped her get it to go down. No fun (but also no pictures, not sure that's a picture taking moment).
Talmage has another really loose tooth :). That's always exciting!
We had no school yesterday and we just enjoyed being together and helped Daddy pick out new glasses at Costco.
Honestly there's not much to say and I haven't gotten many good pictures to blog about. I guess I should be looking for fun things to take pictures of. Oh, Clark did giggle for the first time. It was adorable! He's done it one more time, so now I'm trying to get that on video.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the stuff Punkin does while the kids are at school. Oh, and if we go anywhere during the day she always asks if we are going to get Sandra from school. She misses her sister (and her brothers too).

This is her in her swimming pool :). These pillows have been a great many things over the years. I love that they are so creative. I just want my couch to survive all the playing too ;)


Here she is one day during quiet time. She really likes to draw. This time she had gotten a hold of the markers and colored on her legs. Then I gave her the pencil to use instead. Those washable markers sure don't wash off skin very easy :(.
I am really enjoying our time together. Mhari is a sweet girl and she's really growing up! What happened to my baby girl? She's so big!