The Clark Blog

Tired of seeing our Halloween pics??? Well, we are too! LOL. At this point, life is so busy we don’t have time to post excuses… so thanks for checking back with us! During the first week of December we had a nice change in weather here… We don’t see much of the white stuff this far down south, so when it snows it’s quite an event. Avery thought it was time to put on her coat and venture out in to the thick of it!

A quick family pic…

And Mamaw was there to help behind the scenes… Thanks Mamaw!!!

Avery was totally fascinated with the snow. It’s amazing to see her experience new things…

The snow was really coming down for a while there…

Just wish it could have stayed around for longer!

Avery, Family

Since this is our first Christmas in Bellaire, we wanted to celebrate in style and take Avery to meet Santa. We still can’t believe the number of people who showed up at the event. The line for Santa wasn’t very long people wise, but he made sure to listen very carefully to what everyone wanted, so it took a little longer than we expected. But have no fear… Mommy came prepared with plenty of formula and diapers, and all of us had fun while waiting!

We were fairly certain there would be a Level 9 meltdown…

And we were right! Who IS that man… and what is that scary white thing on his face!?! I’m beginning to understand how our parents must have enjoyed torturing us!!!

The holiday event was complete with snow and sled rides… This year we just watched.

Avery even got to ride her first pony at the petting zoo! I think that was her favorite part.

Avery, Family

This year we celebrated Avery’s first Halloween in style with some awesome Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes. Avery didn’t mind getting dressed up, however, it took her a while to get used to mommy and daddy’s new look. After putting our wigs on in front of her (several times) she finally figured it out, LOL! We also had a great time celebrating with our new friends (and soon to be neighbors) Todd, Leslie and Lauren Bazin. Since their house was not finished yet, we invited them over for dinner and maybe some trick-r-treating on our street.

Avery’s expression says it all… ummmm who are you people?!?

Awwwwww…

One more pose with daddy!

Avery really liked the decorations we used on our front porch. Here’s her spoooooky face!!

This was a great shot with Todd and Lauren. We hung out on the front porch taking pics and talking to neighbors, and ended up missing our window to walk the street! The girls got super hungry so we made some bottles and also fired up the grill for the big people. Our house had a few trick-r-treaters this year, however, there’s a ton of candy left over!

One last pic of Avery and Lauren meeting for the second time. Lauren is 2 months older than Avery, so Aves got to see Lauren’s excellent crawling technique in action!

Avery, Family, Friends, Holidays

Our good friends Andrew, Nicole, Sarah and Brendan came in from Austin to visit a few weekends ago. Only a couple of the pics ended up being blog worthy, so I’m posting the nice ones below. All the kiddos had a wee bit of energy, which made most of the pics blurry! Hmmm… maybe Santa needs to bring daddy a new camera??? LOL. So we fired up the grill and had a great time watching everyone play together. It was also recently Brendan’s 1st b-day, so we opened some presents and had lots of fun!

Everyone poses for a quick pic after opening gifts…

Avery wasn’t sure what to think about this new gift opening ritual… but based on her love of wrapping paper, we think Christmas should be pretty entertaining!

Andrew made quick friends with Avery, while Brendan tried to get our attention in the background. LOL.

We can’t wait to see you guys again!

Avery, Family, Friends

So it’s taken us a while, but we are begining to realize that life is not going to slow down any time soon. I think Shelley and I fell into that noobie parent mindset where life gets crazy right before having a baby, insanely crazy after having a baby… and that little voice in the back of your head keeps telling you things will slow down soon. Yeah… right! Needless to say, September and October ended up being extremely busy months. We celebrated a few birthdays, attended a few weddings, entertained lots of guests, did a bunch of traveling, and finally… FINALLY sold (and closed!) our home in Cypress. Woohoo!

The worst part about getting behind on our blog is knowing how many great pics are waiting to be posted. I decided to upload a bunch of our favorites here, so this thread will get you current through last Friday (Oct 23)!

On Sept 11, daddy celebrated his 35th b-day in style. Gifts included fun accessories for the new grill including a couple of awesome cookbooks!

Avery hit the 6 month mark on Sept 11. She started sitting up on her own around the 5.5 month mark, and as a result, we’ve had a few funny pics in the crib.

In the middle of September, the girls took a trip to Dallas. They visited Aunt Stacy, went to a Britney Spears concert, visited Grandpa Dave, and stopped by the Great Grandparent’s house. Below are the party girls at Stacy’s party pad.

It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old… a good nap is a GOOOD nap!

Especially when you’re about to get your PARTY ON with Britney!

Avery was upset that she didn’t get to stay out late with the big girls; however, all was forgiven when she got her super awesome Britney concert T-shirt… errr onesie.

During the whirlwind Dallas trip, the girls went to visit Grandpa Dave and family. Tristan, Travis and Stacy got to meet Avery for the first time. Tristan did some Matrix style motion blur for the camera.

And Grandpa Dave showed Avery how to play some tunes on the piano!

Later in the day everyone headed over to the GREAT Grandparents house to see Mamaw and Beebop. Avery got everyone to crowd in for a pic.

Mamaw had fun with Avery…

And Avery had fun with Mamaw!

Great Grandfather Del gave Avery some words of wisdom and shared a few stories. Avery sure loves visiting with her Beebop!

After a long trip, Avery enjoyed showing off her new tricks back home… At just 6 months old, she doesn’t need much of Daddy’s help. Avery said big girls like to stand up on their own!

We are still working on her crawling technique, but she gets in to position pretty easy!

In September we also had a photo shoot at home with a professional photographer. We made sure to snap a few pics with our camera. I seem to recall “Aunt” Wendy being responsible for the outfit.

Avery got caught up in the moment and gave us a very pensive look…

But it was short lived!

At the end of September we participated in the Juvenile Diabetes walk at Reliant Stadium. Daddy really liked the breakfast burritos and tried to compete with Avery’s chubby cheeks!

Aves had time to pose with Baby Christopher too!

Here’s proof that we started at the starting line…

And proof that we actually finished at the finish line!
PS, I’m not sure if Mamaw is really faking it here… HA!

The Kgen girls posed with the Kgen babies… and Baby Christopher seems to be quite a catch!

October started off with a trip to the Bellaire Pumpkin Patch!

Mommy and Avery liked playing with all the lil pumpkins.

Cute outfit… check. Cute baby… check. Fierce attitude… CHECK!

Less than an hour after visiting the pumpkin patch, Shelley and I headed to Austin for our friend Colleen’s wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and the wine was tasty. This was mommy’s first time away from Baby Avery! Here’s Shelley and Coolio out on the dance floor!

Just 3 days after we got home from Austin, we headed up to St Louis for my brother’s wedding. I was David’s best man, so we flew up early to attend the rehearsal dinner and bachelor party festivities. This was also Avery’s first time in an airplane, so mommy and daddy didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately, Avery hung in there like a 7 month old champ!

While in St Louis we took Avery to her first Steak-n-Shake restaurant. She really liked playing with everything on the table.

David and Robin’s wedding was absolutely beautiful. Everyone had a great time and it was awesome getting to meet our new and truly extended family. (Robin has like 92 first cousins, no joke!). Anyway, my next post will be dedicated to all things wedding – as we have a bunch of great pics to share!

Avery, Family, Shelley, Steven