The Clark Blog » Steven

Galveston 2011

Steven — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:52:04 +0000

Since our last post back in Oct 2010, all kinds of great things have been going on here in the world of Clark. Baby Addison was born Feb 2011, and brought a tremendous amount of new love and energy to the house. Avery has been an excellent big sister and loooves taking care of Addison… albeit sometimes too much.

Shelley and I decided to take a break from the work routine and took both the girls to Galveston. This was our first “official” family vacation since Avery was born, so we were long over due. We rented a house on the beach waaay down on the west end, and even invited the grandparents and my brother’s family to come down for a day. Everyone had a great time and we will definitely be going back asap!

Addison had fun soaking up the rays…

and so did Cousin Aiden!

Addison put her feet in the ocean for the first time…

Nana and Papap were happy to get the grand kids warmed up for the “big” family pic.
From left to right – Aiden, Avery and Addison

And here’s the “big” family pic… No really, that’s just about all of us!

In all my years of going to Galveston, I’ve never seen the sea weed this bad. It was literally 2 feet deep on the beach. Every day I’d plow a path to the ocean… and every night it would get plugged back up! That’s the house and our camp on the dunes.

At base camp, daddy teaches Avery the art of building sand castles!

Here’s Cousin Aiden, chillin in the rocker…

Shelley chillin with Cousin Aiden…

Uncle Dave chillin with Addison…

Addison chillin with her serious side…

…as well as her Hollywood drama!

And to finish the post, here’s Avery’s last trip to the dunes before heading home!

Much thanks to the home owners for their EXCELLENT accomodations! You guys were super nice and we will be back for sure!!!

Woohoo an update!

Steven — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:13:43 +0000

Hi everyone! Things are busy as usual around the Clark household. Our family and friends celebrated Avery’s first birthday with a big party in March. She’s growing so fast it’s hard to keep up. Believe it or not, I’ve got about 9 posts in the works right now to get the blog back up to speed. The first 3 entries have been published below. Things are finally starting to settle down at my new job, and I couldn’t be happier with the new career path. Avery continues to keep us on our toes as she learns to walk faster and get in to more “stuff”.
She is absolutely awesome.

Keep checking back, and I’ll keep the material comming!

Making the Band

Steven — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:00:03 +0000

With Aves on vocals and daddy on tha geee-tar, we’re a band in the making. Aves loves her music time! PS… anyone else think her pj’s remind you of Fruit Stripes gum???

Here’s where we really hit the harmony… Aves can wail!!!

The super duper update post…

Steven — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:25:00 +0000

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!

Labor Day at the lake!

Steven — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:19:01 +0000

This weekend we drove up to Conroe for the Petershagen’s Labor Day party at their lake house. Most of our families have known each other since Kindergarten, so it’s really neat to see the next generation of kiddos running around and playing with each other. This was Avery’s first visit to the lake, and since she will be 6 months old this week, we decided to let her try out the swimming pool. Needless to say, she’s not a waterbug just yet; however, she did like kicking her feet and splashing the water. Daddy had lots of fun regardless!

This was my favorite pic of the day…

We started easy on the first step of the pool…

Then Avery got excited and started jumping up and down…

So we moved to deeper waters…

And this is what was hiding under the hat!!

Alright water… you don’t like me and I don’t like you.

We kept at it for a while, and by the end Avery was exhausted. Thanks to everyone poolside for putting up with the cries of pain and terror. And sorry that Avery cried too!

Nothing like a nice pep talk from dad to make ya feel better. We’ll get it next time Aves!!

Back at the house… Joel shows off his finely tuned double feeding technique with the twins.
It was quite impressive… I have much to learn from this Jedi master.

Mommy helped Avery get in to something a bit more comfortable…

And Grandma Clark stopped by the couch to come play with her grand baby… Look at Aves sitting up so pretty. She likes holding her sippy bottle too!

Thanks to the entire Petershagen family for a great time at the lake. We can’t wait to see everyone again at the next big bash!!

Karsyn’s b-day and Coleman’s shower!

Steven — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:32:05 +0000

Our good friends, Wendy and Nolan (the other Clarks) are expecting baby number 2 in October. Shelley helped the girls plan a combo baby shower for Coleman and birthday celebration for Karsyn. So we packed up the SUV and headed to the Woodlands for fun and festivities. For those of you who love to bake or need baked goodies for a party, check out Krystle Thorn’s blog SmittenSugar. Krystle is a good friend of Shelley’s and made the cake pops and airplane cupcakes below!

This was one of my favorite party pics of Shelley, Avery and Wendy.

Avery, Wendy… and Barbie.

While mommy helped setup the party, daddy helped by keeping Baby Avery happy…

Later mommy gave daddy a break and posed for a quick pic.

All of the party girls…

The Clark Boys and the little Clark Girls!

Adrienne and Baby Reese Sicinski pose with me and Baby Avery.

Karsyn’s B-day party had lots of goodies…

Including “cake pops” by Krystle Thorn @ SmittenSugar

And “airplane cupcakes” too!

Avery got really mad when we told her she couldn’t eat a cake pop…
It’s tough being 5 months old!

Towards the end of the night, Daddy and Avery were mucho tired…

Rock the bump!!! Shelley and Wendy are going to the Britney Spears concert in Dallas later this month, so Shelley bought Wendy a concert T.

Thanks to everyone for throwing a great party. It was really cool seeing the kiddos interact with each other, and we’re looking forward to the next big event!

Our future neighbors!

Steven — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:11:44 +0000

This weekend, our new friends and future neighbors, the Bazin family was checking out progress of their home in Bellaire. They own the lot just two houses away from ours, and the construction workers were busy pouring their foundation. We happened to be outside preparing to run errands, so as luck would have it, we were able to meet for the first time! Todd and Leslie have a beautiful little girl named Lauren who was born about 2 months before Avery. It was really cool to see the kiddos interacting with each other.

This pic turned out great. Avery looks like she wants to join Lauren in her stroller…

Future same street BFF’s???

Best of luck with the new construction guys. It was great meeting you and really looking forward to hanging out “full time” early next year!

Family pics galore!

Steven — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:53:03 +0000

It’s true. I’ve been intentionally slacking on the blog just to see how many emails and phone calls I would get to post more pics. Well, my inbox is full so mission accomplished! Hmmmkay, all kidding aside, we at the Clark household strive to keep our readers happy with fresh material. And since we’ve had several different visits from the grandparents over the last few weeks, I’m making a bulk post for all of your digital needs. Let me know if you guys need higher rez for prints etc. My originals can produce 8×10 prints if necessary.

This is one of my favorite shots of Avery with Mamaw Scott…

Another favorite of the girls out by the front porch…

Someone tooted in this one…
They all blame each other, but who looks more guilty???

Grandma and Grandpa Clark also came to visit… no tooters here.

With all the tooting going on, Avery figured out how to play “pull my finger”. She’s so smart.

She tricked Grandpa Clark too!

Grandpa Scott came to visit as well…

I really like this one…

Aves gets the royal treatment with her rice cereal…

Yup… our little jokester pulled Grandpa Scott’s finger (errr thumb) too!

And to finish the post, a pic of daddy showing Avery how to stay in great baby shape!
This is how we practice her crawling position…

First Father’s Day!

Steven — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:58:41 +0000

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Everyone will be pleased to know I finally found our camera and charger. The camera was hiding in a backpack (which I had already searched several times), and the charger was in my swim bag… soooo not sure about that one. LOL. Anyway, we took some great pics today, so feels nice to actually have something to post on the blog! Ps… Avery hit the 3 month mark on June 11.

Me and my baby girl on our new front porch…

You can’t quite read it here, but her shirt says “Daddy’s little stinker!”

And what’s a Father’s Day celebration without Grandpa!!! Dad says I’m stealing his thunder, but I’m pretty sure Avery is stealing the show!

Grandma Clark was able to make Avery laugh for the first time a few weeks ago, and she got her to do it again today! Aves likes having fun with her grandma!!

Finally moved in!

Steven — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:56:15 +0000

Soooooo it’s been a long time since our last post and I don’t really have a good reason – other than we are going through the absolute craziest time of our lives!!!! LOL. We finally moved in to our new home this past weekend. It took 2 full days, 2 big trucks and 8 movers to get us relocated, but we’re finally here! We are currently living in a jungle of boxes and doing our best to clean and organize. We recently got phone, tv and internet hooked up, so at least that feels normal. The week before I was in California on business, got home at 1:00am in the morning late Friday and had to meet the movers in Cypress at 8:00am. Yeah baby!!

To top things off… I’ve been taking all kinds of pictures over the last few weeks for our blog, but I don’t know where the camera is, and even if I did, I don’t know where the charger is for the “special” Sony battery it takes. I started taking pics from mom-in-law’s camera, but managed to lose that for a few days and then found it behind my laptop screen. Like 10 inches from where I work every day.

So the only pic I have right now is our first dinner on the back patio… before we actually moved in and before the final cleanup took place. Hope to find my camera and post a bunch more pics soon!