Birthday #6

Happy Birthday, Ethan! Yesterday he had his first friend birthday party. My mom used to give us a big party every year and she did it for all of her kids. Even made great cakes, too. Kudos to her. It's not an easy thing to do. We made it only one hour. Darren had to do a Christmas bird count in Idaho Falls but Tracie came up and helped. Thanks to her, we survived.
















Eating cake and ice cream with his friends.



















Ethan's favorite uncle, right now, is Jeff because Jeff gave him his old guitar for his birthday. So any uncles that want to compete better get working on it. That will be hard to beat. The kids keep saying Ethan got 3 instruments for his birthday. Kevin gave him his toy ukulele (or however you spell that), Jeff gave him the guitar, and then the guitar also had a tuner with it. So, to them, the tuner counts as an instrument.




















Ethan with his new scooter (that came from Black Friday sales). Too bad it's been snowing all day and he can't even go outside and ride it. And since it will probably not get above 30 degrees until late February or March, the snow will not be melting anytime soon. That's what happens when you have a birthday in December.

Christmas at the Carousel

Tonight Santa came to the Rexburg carousel. Ethan had written a letter to him in kindergarten so we went down there and delivered it. Santa even pretended like he could understand what it said. Santa's great! We drove by the park first without telling the kids what we were doing because we didn't want to wait in any long lines. But there were no lines. There was only one child in front of us.




















Santa and Ethan















All the boys with Santa. I was surprised Jake didn't get scared.















Everyone got to ride free on the carousel. Darren rode with the boys and got some great pictures. Jake looks like he's freaked out here but he really wasn't.















Kevin and his photogenic expressions.















Ethan

Thanksgiving 2008

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend. Last time I tried to update them I couldn't find most of my Thanksgiving pictures. But this time they appeared. (I'm sure it was me and my greatness with technology).




















Kevin helping Darren put up Christmas lights. He's going to do a great job when he gets a little taller.















Parker, Darren and Jacob riding the Trax home from temple square.















Jacob on the Trax



















Carson and Kevin standing in the circle that turns when the Trax turns. They thought that was pretty cool.
















Ethan, Jacob, Kevin, Parker, and Carson on temple square.















Grandma and Grandpa Clark with most of their grandsons at Temple Square.



















Another Temple Square picture. This one kind of shows how wound up they were. If there was anything available to climb on or any water to play in they wanted to be right there.




















Darren trying to take a nap after Thanksgiving dinner.















Darren photographing the Thanksgiving spread. Everyone worked so hard and it looked so great it had to be documented.















Me, Kristi, and her sister, Emily at the 5K run in Bountiful on Thanksgiving morning. We had a workout before we pigged out.




















This was from the drive down from Idaho. Ethan was trying to play the gameboy but it was too bright so he was creative and put the backpack over him.

It's Autumn time

I can't get through a fall without posting a leaves post. Especially with our yard. One weekend in October we raked some leaves but there were still a lot on the trees so we knew there would be more raking to do. Thursday I was in the mood so I went out and raked alone with my Ipod. Kevin had been home all day because of fever during the night but he never acted sick at all during the day. With all three kids home and Darren gone to Idaho Falls, I decided I needed a break. So I didn't even want the kids to come out and help me. I left Kevin in charge of the kids in the house and I worked alone. When it was time to put the leaves into the bags, however, I did need help. So here are some pictures of the kids helping pick up leaves. Kevin was the bag holder and the rest of us picked up leaves. Jacob and Ethan aren't much help and I was tired from raking the leaves. I didn't have the energy to make them stay and help. But I'm feeling it today. My back and thighs are sore from bending and straightening so many times. The front lawn still needs to be done but that will wait for another day and Darren.
















Kevin showing how the wind is blowing the bag open.



















Jake posing on the leaves. He was good at wrecking the piles.
















Ethan tearing apart his Halloween pumpkin with a garden shovel. He started doing it on the cement but I made him move to the garden.















Jake putting leaves into the bag while Kevin holds it.















Kevin and Ethan showing how tired they are after all that work. (and all the bags of leaves that came just from the back yard)

Late Halloween

I'm slow at getting the Halloween pictures up but here are two of them. I have a great video of Kevin doing the Limbo at his class Halloween party but it took so long to load that it just stopped. I have given up for now but if any of you know the best way to get videos on here, let me know. I have a MAC if that makes a difference.
The boys right before trick or treating














Kevin doing the limbo

Blue potatoes

If you have been following Darren's blog lately, you'll know that he has been photographing potato harvest. One night this week he came home with a gift one of the farmers had given him. Blue potatoes. For Sunday dinner today we tried them out.
















The blue potato with skin.
















The blue potato peeled.
















Mashed blue potatoes. Darren, Kevin and I weren't hesitant to try it but Ethan was. He thought it looked like frosting and frosting with gravy or butter did not sound very appetizing to him. He finally tried it and the potatoes were gone by the end of dinner. They tasted just like white mashed potatoes. Purple potatoes with brown gravy doesn't look very pretty, however.

Family Birthday Party

Today is Kevin's birthday. Because some of my family and some of Darren's family were still here yesterday (from coming to the wedding) we decided to have a birthday party for Kevin, his cousin Carson, his cousin Luke and his Grandpa Bartholomew. It turned out to be a fun afternoon.





















Kevin hitting the race car pinata.





















Ethan hitting the pinata. I think he made the most dents but Kaitlin was the one that finally broke it all open. (I think - correct me if I'm wrong)



















Jacob trying to hit the pinata. He didn't do so well.


















Collecting all the candy. Some of the kids were really picky and, because they spent so much time looking for certain types of candy, they didn't get very much. Others just grabbed everything and got a big bag full.
















Luke, Kevin, and Carson blowing out the candles on the leftover wedding cake. Thanks Tracie and Jeff. We did the same thing after Nalani's wedding, too.















Kevin with all of his presents.
















Jacob "holding" Cameron with Grandma Clark's help.




















All the kids eating their pizza.

Tracie/Jeff wedding

Tracie and Jeff got married Friday. It was a full day of wedding/family. The weather was so beautiful until 4:30 when the ring ceremony was supposed to start. All of a sudden the wind started blowing everything away. So it was a quick move to the church house. Lots of hands make fast work and it was soon up and running. Here are a few photos of the day.
















Getting ready to cut the cake






















Eating the cake
















Darren, MaryAnn, LaCee, Rose and Ryan hanging out after the lunch.


















The Bartholomew nieces and nephews at the Idaho Falls temple. I just realized all the boys are standing up and the girls are sitting down.

















Andy, MaryAnn, Tracie, Rose, Ryan, Susan, and Gary. All of the siblings except Ben. We missed you Ben.

Famous TV couples

Second post of the day. I go for a couple of weeks without posting and then have to catch up. Last Saturday I was supposed to do the games at Tracie's Idaho Falls bridal shower. But my family and me got sick so Darren took the refreshments and games down for me and gave them to Tracie's roommate to do. I felt bad leaving it all on her shoulders but there was no way I could have gone. I also stayed up late the night before preparing the games for the shower and was disappointed I didn't get to see the fruits of my labors. So I decided to just post it on my blog. Here's the game. I will list the last name of several couples. You have to fill in the first name of the guy, the girl and the TV show. You get a point for each name (girl, guy, TV show) Let's see who watches the most TV. (And no cheating - I got these off a web site so that would be easy for you to do, as well. But you can't do that: - ))
Heffernan
Mariano
Ricardo
Cleaver
Brady
Barone
Halpert/Beesly
Taylor
Keaton
Kwon
Huxtable
Shephard/Grey
Addams
Witter/Potter
Arnold/Cooper
Flinstone
Geller/Green
Costanza
Crane/Moon
Buchman
Scavo
Morris/Kapowski
Bundy
Simpson

Family Pictures

One of my birthday presents this year was a family picture. Darren arranged with Jeff Smith, a photographer on campus, to take our picture. He took lots of shots. I chose to put the ones on here that show the fun of taking family pictures with three energetic little boys (especially a three yr old). There are some great ones that are not on here. Anyway, I feel much better knowing that we have a current family picture now and I think they turned out great.

Homecoming

Jacob, Ethan and me went to the Madison High School homecoming parade today just for the fun of it (Okay it was really for the candy). Here are some pictures of the afternoon.
















Jacob, Ethan and a couple of our neighbors waiting for the parade to get to us.



















This is what Jake did while the noisy army tanks passed by us.















Watching the parade