Postless

Our lives have been so crazy I haven't even thought about updating this blog!  Unfortunately, I have few pictures to post. We are officially homeless!  We found renters at the last minute, but we are excited about them!  We managed to sell all of our furniture except my piano (thank you craigslist!) and fit everything else in a mini van.  Jordan was unable to part with his elk sheds so they along with our ironing board were strapped to the top of the mini van.  A little redneck but it did the job.  My parents have been kind enough to let us store it all in their basement as well as allowing Brynlee and I to stay here while Jordan travels.  He is currently in Minneapolis and seems to be enjoying it.  We miss him like crazy!!  We're hoping to be able to find a time to see each other soon, but for now the webcam and phone are our link.  I don't know how those pioneer women let their husbands serve missions for years at a time without some of our modern technology!  We were glad to get to spend some time in Utah before Jordan left.  So fun to see family!

I am still in the job hunt and hoping something ideal comes up soon.  Brynlee is getting bigger, cuter, and smarter.  She loves Luke and Natalie!  I am so grateful for their help (Grammy and Grandpa too!).  We've also been able to hang out with lots of friends here.  We went to a splash park last week with some good friends.  She had a blast.  The only thing missing was my CAMERA!  I'll have to post some pictures soon.  Our friends/neighbors in Des Moines, TJ and Macie, were nice enough to watch Brynlee a bunch while we were trying to get packed and moved our last week.  Macie took some fun pictures.  You'll have to check out this link: http://theclarkbark.blogspot.com/2010/05/dont-go-brinley.html

We're looking forward to a fun summer!  Hope to see some of you soon!

Spring Has Sprung!

This is my favorite time in Iowa. It is gorgeous!  It turns green so quickly and the trees get pretty leaves and beautiful flowers.  They smell awesome.  Brynlee and I have been taking full advantage of the lovely weather with a few outings a day usually.  Ankeny has great walking paths, ponds, and parks.  I am going to miss it.  Here's some random pics since the last post.

She really still loves to read books and has most of the ones we own memorized to the point she says the last word of the phrase before we do. She really loves to play with my old stethoscope too and wants to listen to everyone's heart.  We ask her all the time if she is going to be a doctor or a nurse....or which one's smarter. :) Though she replys both equally, I know she knows which is superior.

She is pretty well attached to the sun glasses. She usually wears them upside down, and if she's not wearing them....her baby is.

Brynlee has been talking more and more and we're getting a kick out of the things she says.  She has been getting really good at saying a prayer over our meals pretty much by herself.  The other day she started to pray saying, "Dear Heavly Fafer, Thank you for..." then there was a pause, and then she excitedly said "five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!!!  It was cute. We just put our house up for rent yesterday and have had 4 responses already.  Hopefully we'll find the ideal renters!

Easter

I feel so impressive posting about the day on the day.  Mom, I hope that I have this done before you go to bed :).

"If your happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it...."

I thought I would try and be a good mom and dye some eggs with Brynlee while Jordan was at Priesthood.  She wasn't sure what to think but did a little crayon artwork and we called it quits.

We got together with Josh, Samantha, and Libby for an Easter egg hunt.  The girls were adorable and caught on rather quickly.

They were so fun.  We had dinner with friends and enjoyed their company.  We are so grateful to have such good friends close by.  We loved General Conference!  We are especially grateful today for Jesus Christ and His willingness to sacrifice for us.  We are grateful for the atonement and its amazing power to help us through life and enable us to return to our Father in Heaven.  It is so wonderful to have the gospel in our lives and to have an understanding of why we are here, what we need to accomplish, and be able to look forward to eternity!

That Magnificent Girl and Her Flying Machines

The most frequently heard word in our house is currently "hopter," (helicopter) followed closely over the last couple of days by "airpane" (airplane). Brynlee is obsessed! It all started at Christmas time when my parents got all of the boys micro remote control helicopters. She was scared of them at first which moved into this crazy fascination. She has seen the "real thing" a few times and continues to be amazed. She begs to see Jordan's helicopter and gets a real kick out of seeing Grandpa's RC model on the webcam and in person. She really gets a kick out of watching the video of herself at Christmas watching the helicopter. It causes problems when we want to actually use the camera. She really thinks birds and kites are amazing too. Maybe we have a future pilot on our hands. Here are some pics from flying kites today. Jordan looks a little like Mr. Rogers with his slacks still on from clinic with tennies and a sweater :)

She is also getting really good at identifying all of her colors and counts to 8 quite well, making it to 10 on occasion. She is saying "I love you" so cute. It is so fun to hear her try to say new words and we find it hillarious how she is constantly labeling things including messes she has just made.

She recently turned 18 months old. At her appointment she weighed a whopping 21 lbs 10 oz putting her in the 13th percentile! We almost had a party to celebrate her double digits! She also measured at 32 1/4 inches long putting her at 68th percentile for height. Jordan is getting nervous :). She has been sick over the last day or so, but has been such a trooper! We are so lucky to have such a sweetheart! Here's a fun video of her dance moves. She loves to be dizzy! Thanks for the new outfit Gramie!

Some of her other obsessions have been the color yellow (she will tell you its her favorite), nursery, Josh, Sam, and Libby (our friends and neighbors), and Chelle who is on a mimish (mission).

Of course she loves the rest of our families requesting to talk to Ty, Ren, Haws, or whomever she has made particular mention of that day and frequently brings me the webcam so we can talk to 'Grampa'.

Life otherwise has been marching on! Excited for March to be over! Still not much in the way of lookers on our house. We really will sell it to any of you :)! It would be a fabulous investment property! I still don't know what I'm doing while Jordan does his clerkships. We appreciate the offers we've had for help! This will be a challenging year, but the end is in sight! Hooray!

Milestones

We finally hit the 20 pound mark and were able to turn Boo's carseat around.  I knew she would like it, but never expected the "ooos and ahhhs" from her that we've got.  She loves it!  It seems like her vocubulary has exploded over the last week or so as well.  I love the big words like "applesauce," "eyebrow," "butterfly." I absolutely love that please, thank you, and sorry come natural now.  She loves identifying everything. She especially loves looking at our family pictures and can pick out almost everyone in both of our families.  She gets a little confused sometimes.  At the store this last week, she called almost every young blonde girl "Chelle" and dark haired girl "Nat." Our biggest struggle right now is getting dressed.  She loves to be naked and usually fights getting clothes on.  It's kind of horrible, but the quickest immediate fix is for me to fake cry and then she says sorry and puts on her clothes.

She loves playing with her baby.  She gets out the changing pad, and a diaper and wipes and goes right to it.  This time she got the salsa out of the pantry too.

I'm sad this picture turned out blurry.  She has such a cute daddy :)!

Brynlee loves to eat!  The bowl of cereal she was eating in this picture was her 4th and final, along with more blueberries than I could eat.

She is also obsessed with coloring.  We invested in the twistable crayons though so she doesn't eat them.  They're doing the job.  She is getting some molars this week so it seems everything is going in the mouth.  Jordan tells her "mouth bad."  Now she repeats that every time she puts something in her mouth.

Check out the pony!  Her hair is getting long!

Oh, quick update about us.  Our house is officially for sale!  We are praying hard for a miracle and ask for your prayers as well.  I did not get the "Weekend Package" job I was hoping for which has brought us back to square one as to what I should do this summer while Jordan travels.  I'm not looking forward to it!  I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and I'm sure a window will open and it will all work out.  Jordan has only a few months left on campus!  It is so weird we have been here almost three years.  Time has flown by and we have been so blessed!

I must start this post with a warning that this is going to be long.  I haven't posted new pictures in a while, and I think my mother might have a nervous breakdown if I don't post a good update, so here it goes!  Of course nothing much has changed here (as usual).  We are just enjoying our sweet girl and getting more and more pumped for the winter to be OVER!  I am excited to introduce Brynlee to the warm sun and green grass again.  When Rachelle was here we saw a goose in the grocery store parking lot.  Brynlee was so stinkin excited. It was hillarious.  I think our next zoo trip will be a blast.  It was so fun to have Rachelle here.  Brynlee asks at least once a day where she is.  Here are some pics of our growing girl.

She has crazy hair!  It is so cute a curly and fun to put in pony's and pigtails, but they never last long.  Oh well, we take what we can get...most of the time her hair is as wild as she is.

Brynlee loves playing with her best friend Libby.  She also really loves nursery.  We can spend hours singing "Fun to Do," "Once there was a Snowman," "Do as I'm Doing," "Popcorn," "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," and on and on.  The interaction with all the kids is fun for her and its especially fun to have Libby in nursery now.

Bath time is still the best time.

My bottow drawer is full of glass pans which used to make it too heavy for Brynlee to open.  No longer!  She loves to get the pans out and sit in them.

She really does love doing her own hair and even having her hair done...

Brynlee loved dressing herself and her baby in Rachelle's clothes.

Yes, that is the same girl.  She just left her hair done for a little while.

I was hurrying to get the kitchen clean this morning so that I could move on to pack stuff up in her room, only to turn around and find I was going to have to clean the living room too.  She is a lot of work, but much more fun!