December with the Clarks...

December can get a little crazy around here with all of the fun Holiday happenings. I'll give you the short version - Really, this is the short version. I'm going to skip the first grade class Christmas party (that I got roped into making 26 graham cracker gingerbread houses for - don't ask), Relief Society Progressive dinner (they drove us from house to house on a school bus - it was hilarious), and all other holiday chaos for the the sake of briefness, and the fact that I didn't get any pictures of those events, he, he...
Ancient Egypt day at school. After this event, Hayden told me that he wished that he could live at school. Apparently it was THAT good. I got to go in to his class and help with the celebration, I was in charge of helping the kids make mummies and sarcophaguses, that's right, sarcophaguses. Am I the only person in the world that didn't know what that word meant? I had to learn it from my first grader. (The first person to leave a comment with the definition of a sarcophagus - from your own brain, leave Webster out of this - will be the Clark Clan Chaos' Commenter of the Day - I will do a special post all about YOU!)

Pop-Can Chicken. Rob roasted his first chicken with his handy-dandy pop can roaster - and it was mighy tasty! Way to go Rob.

First Grade Christmas Program. This was the best picture I got of Hayden - walking off the stage - it was the only time we could see him. They had the lighting set up weird and you couldn't see any of the kids on the top-right row of the risers. (Hayden said that he was on that row because he was the 3rd tallest kid in the first grade - the first two were girls - funny, huh?). It was sad to not see his cute little face while he was singing, but oh well, he had a great time and sang his little heart out. I know this because he's been singing his songs all around the house for the last month.

Thorton Winter Fest. We took the kids to see the lights at a winter festival - it was such a great way to get into the Holiday spirit. They had a Christmas village, an ice skating rink in the midst of hundreds of trees covered in twinkly lights, ice sculptures, and carolers. The kids loved it! Sophie was especially in awe...



Wrestling with Dad. This isn't just a holiday event, it happens frequently, but it was the first time that our dog, Stella, decided to get in on the action. She loves to play with the kids when they are on the floor, she is so tolerant and gentle with them.

Elf Practice. We had a real cold-spell here (like 5 degrees) that lasted for a good week. The kids got pretty stir-crazy being in the house so much, so when it got remotely warmer they were begging to play outside. Sophie kept running out the back door whenever we let the dog out, so Ana decided to get herself and Sophie bundled up to play. Sophie looked just like a little elf...


A Visit to Whoville. Ana went with our neighbor, Paige, to a Christmas party. The theme was "Whoville", so Ana was transformed into Cindy Lou Who for the occasion.

Preschool Pajama Party. For Ana's Preschool Christmas party, they all wore their PJ's and decorated sugar cookies. It was the perfect little event for this wild bunch. (Photo compliments of Jen Anderson. Thanks Jen!)

Breakfast with Santa. For our ward Christmas party this year, we had a breakfast. And man, I have to give some props to the Activities Committee! Has anyone else ever gone to a ward Christmas party and waited in line for like 2 hours to see Santa? It seems like that always happens. Well this year, they handed out numbers to everyone, so you got to sit and socialize until they called your number. It was the best! So here are the classic "Santa Photos"...



Christmas Sweaters. And last but not least, for your veiwing pleasure... Rob and I went to an adult Christmas party with some of our friends. And Rob thought it would be a good joke to get the ugliest Christmas sweaters we could find from the thrift store, and wear them to the party. It was hilarious - and man, they were ugly! I love that Rob likes to keep things fun, we'll be young (at heart atleast) forever...

So, that was the short version. Merry Christmas everyone!

Our Tree Needs Help!

It's been a couple of years since we've had a walking baby around the house. I had forgotten what havoc they can create for a Christmas tree. On top of a monger-baby, the middle section of lights on our pre-lit tree decided to stop working, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out the problem. So when all was said and done, only the top 2/3 of our tree had any ornaments, and the middle 1/3 had no lights. Oh well, I guess we'll take Sophie over a beautifully decorated tree. And my sister so kindly pointed out that I could just add some more lights to the middle, which I did. Seriously, why didn't I think of that?!? Despite it all, it is still so fun to put up decorations for the holidays. The kids' excitement is nearly tangible!
Decorating...Decorating...Undecorating...Not tall enough? Just get a Dad-Lift...And if you get sick of undecorating, just start decorating yourself...

Lindsey's Wedding...

Lindsey's wedding day was such a great day! It was so fun to see all of my family and to witness the creation of a new eternal family. We love Lindsey's new hubby, JJ, he fits in with the family really well. I think that we'll let him hang around:) Here are some of the highlights from the day...

New Moon Festivities...

I went with a bunch of friends to see the premiere of New Moon at midnight on the day that it opened in theatres. It was so fun - way better than the first movie! I decided to have a little pre-show party to lengthen the festivities (any reason to throw a party!). We had some Twilight themed treats that I thought I'd share. It was a super fun night to spend with the ladies...


Yes... those were virgin margaritas.


The party ideas were compliments of www.hwtm.com - one of my favorite websites.

Family Pics 2009

My good friend, Marylin Kelley, took our family pictures this year (check her out at www.marylinkelleyphotos.blogspot.com) and I'm super excited about the way they turned out. Since we'll only send one family picture in our Christmas card, I thought some of you might enjoy seeing some of the other cute shots that she got...

She can have her cake and she better eat it, too...

So whoever has been around me for the last month has known that I have been eating, sleeping and dreaming CAKES! My little sister, Lindsey, (whom I love to death and who will forevermore hail me as her favorite sister in the family) got married the day after Thanksgiving and she asked me if I would make her table centerpieces for her reception. Being the loving, kind, generous and charitable person that I am (wink), I most graciously said, "Of course Lindsey, I would do anything to make your wedding everything you dream it to be." OK, so I really don't talk that way, but I said sure, and that I would love to help out with whatever. So, she decided to have miniture wedding cakes for her centerpieces - which I had never made before, but had always wanted to try, so heck, why not?

About a month ago I decided that I needed to get started on them, so I went and got some styrofoam sheets (because the cakes were fake. Did you people really think that I would make 14 real cakes?) I tried to cut the forms for the cakes by hand, but it just wasn't working out. So I ended up buying a band saw on Craig's List to cut the styrofoam and spent the next four days cutting styrofoam cakes and covering them with fondant. Which by the way, I learned that you have to frost the styrofoam before covering it because otherwise the fondant won't stick. The band saw rocked, I was going to sell it after making the cakes, but I liked it so much that I'm going to keep it for future projects. So here I am, up to my armpits in styrofoam...

Yes, that is my kitchen, covered in an inch of styrofoam dust, that no matter how many times I vacuumed it up each night, the next morning another thin layer would have settled and was waiting to greet me...

So the cake making went on, cutting and covering. The kids loved helping, some times a little too much, but helping none the less...


Ana especially stayed by my side throughout the whole endeavor. We would watch the "Food Network Challenge", (where they make all of those fancy cakes) while we were doing it. At one point while I was practicing with the fondant, it completely broke and fell off the cake form. Ana scoffed in disgust, "Mom... we cannot put this cake on the judges table!" That was my queue that there was a little too much cake on the brain in our household...

But we managed to get them all covered and they turned out pretty darn good for not ever having done fondant cakes before, if I do say so myself. (heck, after four days of nothing but cakes, I think that I'm allowed to be atleast slightly proud of myself, don't you?)...

After we were done with the fake cake fiasco, Lindsey asked me if I would make the real "wedding cake" (OK, so she asked me a long time ago, but this is when I got around to doing it). So I started trying recipes, and more recipes. Let's just say that our neighbors and friends probably never want to eat cake again in their lives because they were the recipients of so many "experiments". Once again, my faithful sus chef, never left my side...

So we nailed down three very tasty cake recipes, packed up our fake cakes, and headed for Utah. (Seriously, Lindsey owes me for the rest of her life!) Once there, I spent the next three days decorating the centerpieces. That was the fun part! I loved making each one unique. And of course, I had my helpers. But there wasn't much for little hands to do at this phase, so they resorted to decorating each other. This time my nephew, Dallin, and sister-in-law, Becca, were in on the "help"...

This is what they looked like on the tables at the reception. Sorry for so many pics, but I couldn't just show ONE. This was my life for the last 4 weeks!...









This was the wedding cake. No fondant here, Lindsey likes frosting. She wanted three individual cakes - one chocolate, one carrot cake and she let me pick the third flavor. I spiced it up a bit with a marble cake that was made to look like zebra stripes - it pretty much rocked...

FYI, the decor for the reception was all antique/vintage; pearls, lace gloves, old dressers and lamps. It was so beautiful!
Thus ends my cake parade. Fun while it lasted... But I'm sure glad that it's over.