Thankful Hats

For FHE this week we talked about being Thankful- we told about Jesus and the 10 Lepers and a little activity about things we should be thankful for. I want my boys to understand that everything we have is from our Heavenly Father and Jesus. And we can tell them we are thankful when we say our prayers Tyler said an awesome prayer!

Then we made Indian hats (accompanied by Indian noises) and wrote on the feathers what we are Thankful for.

Jackson is thankful for:

Bus/Buzz (he loves both and says them the same way)

Airplanes

Grandpa

Milk & Cats

Toy Balls

Tyler is Thankful for:

My Animals

My Friends

My Family

Mountains

My Toys

They make cute decoration too!

Pilgrim Place

My mom took the boys to the Pilgrim Festival a couple weeks ago. They had a blast and came back looking a little different!

They did a train ride through the Festival,

built a castle and airplane at the glue-in (I remember doing this as a kid!!), they walked around for awhile and then waited in line for face painting- Tyler really wanted his face painted. While waiting in line, they stood by the cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn and of course my Mom treated them to 2 of the 3!

Jackson became Captain Jack Sparrow!

Tyler asked to be a Tiger (surprised?) The lady who did Tyler's face was an expert and had written 3 books on body and face painting!

Tyler made angry Tiger faces in the mirror all day and cried when we had to take his painting off to go to bed. I said, "It's ok little Tiger" And he sadly said, "I'm not a Tiger anymore, I'm just Tyler now." so sad!!

50 Free Holiday Cards- Shutterfly Blogging Promo

So, if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for good deals and especially freebies! I love Shutterfly- I've ordered a few Photo Books, Calendars, and Photo Cards in my time and I'm always getting emails for coupons and promotions. This year, they are giving 50 free holiday cards to bloggers who do a write up!

This week we are headed to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with my brother Tommy and his family, who just had an adorable baby named Caleb. Since we'll all be together we will be taking pictures and I plan on taking full advantage of the opportunity. It's not every day/month/year we get the Jeff Clark Family looking all pretty/handsome and holding still (wish us luck).

So, imagine my family on one of these cards:

These are the ones I love with one picture, but if for some reason the stars align and we are able to get more than one picture with every family member's eyes open, smiling and looking in the general direction of the camera, I love these:

There seriously are so many to choose from, they are all so cute- will you please help me decide?! If you want to get 50 FREE holiday cards, go HERE! It doesn't matter what size blog you have or how many readers you have. And I heard back from them in about 3 days.

Thanksgiving Turkey Tradition

My mom pulled out the Thanksgiving file for me today, and I have great memories of doing this each year!

As a family, we would fill in the turkey feathers with something we would like to do for each family member to serve them. We would have a lesson on gratitude and that we show we are thankful for each other by do nice things for one another. Then throughout the month, when we finished that nice thing, we could color it in.

Here is the image we used, you are welcome to save it and use it, even add some feathers if you have a bigger family :)

We always added "We are Thankful for our Family" at the bottom and signed our names. It's fun looking at the Turkeys created in the past when the kids were really young. When Katie was a baby, she "agreed" to give Mom a full night's sleep, big brother Tommy would wake me up for morning cartoons, and Daddy would play on the swing set with me.

We always talk about how the first year we did this Tommy said he would get a Camaro for Daddy. He still hasn't colored that one in yet :)

Here's a closeup of our signatures-- I love how I wrote my i's :)

This is definitely a tradition I would like to continue in our family, starting with this year!

Successful surgery

This is mostly for journaling purposes and a little bit for birth control too since this recovery is reminding me a bit of my c-section pain :)

This is right after I woke up when it's still hard to open your eyes and if you look close you can see the ring I drew on my hand since I couldn't have my real one on :)

I am alive and well just a bit achy and sore. Yesterday was a long day. Jeff and I got to the hospital at about 10:30 for my 12:30 scheduled surgery time. Right after They got me hooked up around 11 they informed me that my surgery was really 2:30 so I got to sit there and watch daytime tv for another 3 and a half hours, which I hate unless it's tlc :) but somehow with the help of my comical husband and his droid x time flew by pretty quickly and soon enough I was being wheeled back on a gourney.
Everything went well during surgery, they repaired the hernia, placed some mesh and soon enough I woke up. I loved my discharge nurse who brought in my husband and hurried me out the door. I remember the first time I stood up to walk to the bathroom a rush of emotion came and I felt like I needed to cry. Not for any reason at all, just to cry. I didn't though, and she told me it was all from the anesthesia. I also have had this strange shoulder pain that she said only some people get that and its kinda a phenominon. Its actually trapped gas and i definitely remember having that with jackson, although back then i thought it was from hard labor before the c-section. She told me she could tell that I'm very sensitive to the anesthesia for two reasons. That I'm a light weight and also that I don't abuse drugs. Yes and yes :)
I slept pretty well the first night, although I hate being able to only sleep on my bavk. I'm a stomach and side girl so I wasn't seer comfortable. But when I woke up in the middle of the night for more pain killers, I was happy to not have to feed a baby ;) how did I do that every 2 hours every night. I guess just cuz we have to. Once again I'm being reminded of my last surgery and how much easier this has already been. No baby to care for and no blood transfusion to completely wipe me out!
The boys are doing so well! It helps that my Mom is so wonderful and I smile every time I hear them call for gamma instead of mommy! They have been so soft around me and so good with all the others who have played with them today. Jackson keeps lifting up my shirt and saying booboo and kissing it better for me.
I am so thankful to my family and my husband for taking care of me and letting me watch Friday Night Lights all day. I definitely feel like saying y'all and tackling somebody... Not really ;)
Oh and p.s. Sorry about the typos I'll fix them later. I'm on the iPad!!

I is for Insects, Ice cream and Instruments!

I is another fun letter!

Today we did preschool again at our house. Monday we played I-Spy at the park, and today we talked about both I sounds.

1. Read my i sound box- great book for I words

2. Wrote letter Ii on paper and magna-doodle. I have to stick in little tricks to get Tyler to participate. He was more than happy to write Ii on the magnadoodle!

3. Drew our own insects and decorated with insect stickers.

4. Ice experiment! Yesterday Tyler and I made ice cubes with an insect (fly) toy inside. We went outside and watched them melt in the sun and added warm water to get them to melt faster. We talked about water+cold= ice and ice+warm= water...

(pics coming soon)

5. I got some insect bath sponges and they got to start dissolving during playtime outside.

6. snacktime!

7. Ice cream cone coloring for the abc book... We are making a spiral bound book at the end of the year. With every letter we make a 41/4X51/2 piece (1/4th of a paper) with the letter on it.

8. ate ice cream dibs :)

9. Made musical Instruments from paper bowls and beans!

Then Miss. Julie came and did a fun rhythm exercise with them. They loved this!

Even Jackson sat and followed along...

...or danced along:

We had a great day!

Now I am gearing up for hernia repair surgery in the morning. Wish me luck!!

...actually, wish my mom luck who's gonna be in charge of my kids for a couple weeks! :0