9/11

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one- for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us?No one- for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?... No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow- not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below- indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

What these kids will say

Here are a few funny things the kids have said these last few days.

Tonight, as I was rocking Madaleine for bed, she said, "Mommy, let's have girl talk." I said, "Ok, what do you want to talk about?" She replied, "Princesses, butterflies, flowers, castles, and ponies." Sure enough, she told me a very elaborate story that had all these things, and a few more added in.

Gavin saw a little boy dressed in a spiderman costume. He thought that the costume was the neatest thing ever. When I was putting him to bed, he told me exactly who spiderman was and what he did. (He is a man with a blue and red suite and flies on a rope apparently). As I was putting the covers on Gavin, he said, "I just really want a spiderman with a winder upper."

Every time we eat, we say the "food prayer". It normally goes something like this... Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food, may it nourish our bodies. Please bless the hands that prepared it. Be with our family and friends, amen. Both kids are good about saying it, however Gavin always says, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food, help it nourish our bodies, bless the hands that "repaired" it..."

Len took Gavin to the grocery store one day, and Gavin convinced his daddy to buy him a pumpkin pie. Gavin's prayer before he ate his pie went like this... "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this pumpkin pie, thank you for the hands that picked it out..." He knew very well that Mommy's hands had not "repaired" it, but instead that Daddy's hands had picked it out.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, we're having a ...

GIRL!

We are very excited that we will be adding another little girl to our family. She looks great and is measuring right on track.

There is a bit of a concern though. I have whats called a velamentous cord insertion which is going to have to be monitored very closely. Basically, the cord is not attached to the placenta like it is in 99% of pregnancies. Instead, it is attached to my bag of water. There are unprotected blood vessels that then run from where the cord is attached to the bag of water to the placenta.

Also, these vessels are in the lower part of my uterus, which can cause even more issues. This condition is called vasa previa, and is a very serious condition. Long story short, I am very worried and need all the prayers I can get! We will go back in another 4 weeks to take a look at things and make sure little girl is still growing properly.

I'll keep everyone posted!

And by the way, Len took a belly pic of me the other day, but Im not in love with it. As soon as we get a different one, I'll post it!

Clark Happenings

Well, since my last post was in April, I guess I can't really call this post an update. We just have to sort of pick up from here and now. There have been some big changes in our household these past few months. The biggest one being...

I'm pregnant with baby number three! This picture cracks me up because the kids are so crazy. Madaleine is doing a really big "cheese" smile, and Gavin is also doing one of his "cheese" smiles, but also distracted by whatever is on tv. The kiddos are really excited about being a big brother and big sister. They ask about their baby dot (that is what they call the baby) every day and give my tummy kisses. I think they are going to be great with their new baby!

Here is a good profile picture of the baby when I was about 13 weeks. I think the baby looks like Madaleine here :) I am just about 18 weeks along now, and am feeling pretty good. We had a few scares in the beginning, but those issues have seemed to pass. This pregnancy has been so different from my last one. First of all, there is just one baby this time. That's a huge difference. Also with this pregnancy, I find myself to be a little more nervous about the well being of the baby for some reason. I don't know why, it's just in my head and I can't seem to get rid of all the nerves this time. We also really haven't done much as of right now to prepare for baby. We find out if it is a boy or girl next week, so I'm thinking after that we will start to get serious about everything. We saved everything from Gavin and Madaleine... so it's just a matter of sorting through it all and getting it all ready to go.

Of course these two have been busy this summer. I put Gavin in gymnastics and Madaleine in ballet/tap class for the summer. They both loved it. We just wrapped up with each of their last classes. Daddy got to come to Gavin's last gymnastics class... and he showed off all that he had learned. He had such a great time bouncing all around this summer and just getting to be a little boy. Madaleine got to preform for us on her last day, and her little dance was the cutest thing ever! Of course I was the only crazy Mom in the room holding back tears. I just couldn't help it... the girls (especially mine) were just so sweet. I asked them what they wanted to do this fall, and they both agreed that they wanted to try soccer. They will start in September. I am interested to see how the coach gets three year olds to play soccer games. It should be fun.

This fall the kids will start preschool. They are excited about it. I just can't believe that they are big enough already for preschool. Where has all the time gone? And I still can't imagine what I am going to do with myself for those days when they are in school. For the past three and a half years, I have had my babies with me by my side. I will probably be the only crazy Mom crying when she drops her babies off at preschool. At least for now I can blame it on all the hormones :)

I am planning on posting belly pics/pregnancy highlights soon. I sort of regret that I didn't do that when I was pregnant with the twins, so I'm going to try to do it this time.

That's it for now... until next time.

Good Friday

This week

It has been just one of those weeks for us. We have been staying busy with all sorts of different things.

Have you not been loving this weather???

We can't get enough of it and have gone to different parks to play every single day this week! Today, I needed to run to the grocery store. Madaleine had other plans, and asked if we could go to the park and play instead. When Gavin asked where we were going, Madaleine quickly answered, "To the park and play because I told Mommy that. "

I also had to renew one of my certifications required for my job this week. These girls were having way too much fun.

I am also doing two different bible studies. The first one is by Denise Glenn, and it is called Wisdom for Mothers. It has been a great study and goes through all the different areas of being a child of God, a wife, and a mother.

The second one that I am doing is with my church and is called Faithful Abundant True. It includes two weeks each of Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore. I loved how each of these women spoke so wonderfully about how to go deeper still with your relationship with God. This was the first time I have ever done a study with Kay Arthur, and I'll admit, it took me a while to get her precept style of study... but I really did get a lot out of it and I loved how passionate she is! Of course I also loved Priscilla and Beth... I have never done one of their studies without learning so much and loving it.

Next time, I don't think I will be able to do two studies at once. It has really taken some effort to be able to get both sets of homework done every week plus do everything else that needs to get done in my day. I fell short a few times. I have decided that I will only do one at a time from now on, that way I can put all my efforts and focus into just that one.

Other than that, this week has just been full of all the normal (not so fun) things like cleaning, laundry, and cooking.

There is one more thing...

Gavin is extremely excited that the plumber is coming to our house this afternoon. He has already asked me if he could shake his hand and show him all of his tools. :) He has a thing with plumbers. I think he got it from one of his favorite shows Calliou. We have had the plumber come out once before to unsuccessfully retrieve a firefighter christmas tree ornament from the toilet. Today he is coming because I clogged the garbage disposal with way too many pasta noodles. I, however, am not as excited as Gavin is to see the plumber again. :)

Sweet Nothings

This post isn't of anything in particular... just a few sweet nothings.

Tonight at dinner, Len said the prayer before we ate. It went something like "bless this food to nourish our bodies and thank you for the hands that prepared it...". Len was finished with the prayer and said amen. Apparently Gavin thought that there was something big that his Daddy left out of that prayer, because he very quickly added, "And please help us to have brownies."

Of course I had to make a big pan of brownies after that sweet little request. :)

This is the kids tonight eating their favorite dinner... "basagna" (lasagna)

My hubby... I love him to death. He has his quirks though. For the past few weeks, he has been sending me emails from work with pictures of the car he would like for us to get.

This is a Mercedes Sprinter my friends... and Len is obsessed. I have no idea why. It is hideous. He is serious though. He keeps telling me that everyone would be so comfortable and have so much room. He thinks it's the greatest thing that you can actually stand up in the back.

I don't think so. I really don't know where he comes up with these things.

This is Gavin "fixing" his sister's bike. He has one of his toy screw drivers. Any time he is fixing something he tells me to call him the plumber.

Our kids have this thing with saying their names are different characters from different shows they watch. They insist that we call them by these names. Most recently they have been in love with the new show Bubble Guppies. There are two characters whose names are Molly and Gill. We were at the park the other day and a older girl (she was about 7) asked them what their names were. Of course Gavin said his name was Gill and Madaleine said her name was Molly. It was the funniest thing to see all the other kids call them Gill and Molly, and they actually responded to it like it was really their names.

I have caught myself calling my kids Uniqua and Pablo in the grocery store isle trying to get them to behave. I'm sure that made people wonder about us.