The Clark Blog

Avery’s friend Christopher had his first birthday party at the Houston Zoo. This was Avery’s first trip to see all the animals, and it for sure won’t be our last. Avery had so much fun at the petting zoo, we almost had to take a goat home with us.

Avery and Christopher pose for a party pic!

The cake and cupcakes looked like little zoo critters. Very nicely done!

Of course, the cupcakes didn’t stand a chance with Aves around…

After the party we had full access to the zoo. Our first stop was the animal carousel and Avery had some concerns…

But it only took a few rounds before we made friends with Mr Cheetah!

Afterwards, Aves got serious and asked if the stroller was really necessary…

But it’s hard for Aves to keep a straight face!

Later we went to the petting zoo. I’m not sure if the cage was meant to keep the animals in or the people out.

Here’s the goat we almost took home…

And here’s the pig we almost took home…

And here’s the BIG kitty cat we almost took home…

We never got lost thanks to my onboard GPS…

Avery really likes maps…

I believe this was a type of antelope. You can see by the size of Avery’s finger, it’s a very tiny animal!

Aves makes her monkey face at the giraffe exhibit… funny girl.

And one last stop at the gift shop before leaving the zoo!

We all had a great time and can’t wait to go back!

Baby Avery, Family, Friends

Our friends Mark and Amy Potts had a few extra tickets to the Texans vs Titans and invited us to tag along for a parent’s night out. The seats were great, the beer was cold, and the game… well… it still hurts to talk about it, but we had a blast regardless!

The club seats were AWESOME, so we had a great view of the pre-game festivities…

Our excellent hosts… Thanks to both of you for a wonderful time!

Friends

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!

Baby 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!

Baby Avery, Family, Friends

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!!

Baby Avery, Family, Friends, Shelley, Steven