A Quick Hello!

Well, I've done it again and let too much time go by between posts! I am still here and doing great. We had such a great summer with so many fun things that I want to share. I need to get my pictures in order so that I can share our many adventures.

But, to bring you up to speed, we had a great Christmas and New Year. In January, I was released from serving as Primary President for almost 4 years. It wass a bitter sweet thing. I miss working with such great women in Primary and the kids, but have really enjoyed my new calling as Activity Days leader for the 8-11 yr. old girls.

For Spring break we went to Chicago to see my cousin Letti and her family and visited the Zoo, the Museum of Scence and Industry and visited down town. It was a blast. Then, Meagan's Odyssey of the Mind team took 1st in regionals, 2nd in State and went to the world finals in Ohio in May where they took 12th place out of 60+ teams from around the world. She was incredibly busy but it was all worth it. We are really proud of her.

This summer we had the best vacation when we drove to Arizona and back and then drove to NY. I will be posting about our traveling adventures with the fun details and pictures soon!

After we got back from Vacation, Joe was promoted to Director of Merchandising Services at Meijer which was very exciting! We are really proud of him!

Now we are winding down and getting ready for School to start and Soccer season. I can't believe how time fllies by so fast, but it has been a great year so far!

ANNIE the musical

December 4-6, 2008


Meagan and Kailee were both in the school musical Annie in December. We were so excited and proud of them. They did a great job! Kailee played the part of Molly, the youngest orphan and Meagan played the part of Pepper, the bully orphan. I was all choked up on the first night because I was so proud of them and I got all choked up that last night they performed because I was so sad that it was over. It was so neat to see them on stage and see them do so well with their parts. We had a lot of friends come to see them perform which meant a lot to us since our family lives so far away. Last year Meagan performed as Lilly in the musical Alice in Wonderland. It has been so fun to see our girls develop such a fun talent.

Yesterday (3-14-09) we went to Goshen, Indiana to see my cousin Kaite, perform in her high school musical Beauty and the Best. She played the part of Belle and did a wonderful job! It also turns out that i have a second cousin once removed or something like that, who played the part of Gustan. He also did a great job as did everyone else. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture but the entire performance was wonderful. They really went all out, we are so glad we got to go see her.
We look forward to the next musical!


Kailee as "Molly"


Meagan as "Pepper"


Our good friends, the Smiths, ( and many other good friends) came to see the girls perform.

Thanksgiving 2008 in Palmyra, NY

November 20-23, 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving in Palmyra, NY with Janelle's parents who are serving there as full time missionaries. Grandpa had suffered a heart attack on Novermber 4th and was recovering nicely, until a bad sinus infection set in the day before we came. So, we spent a lot of time just hanging out at the apartment. We had a wonderful time and are glad that Grandpa is feeling much better now. Here are a bunch of pictures of our stay.

After a long drive to Palmyra Joe sits down tovisit with Grandpa while Janelle and the kids hang out in the kitchen with Grandma. We started a fun game so Janelle went to invite Joe to join us and found Joe and Grandpa both fast asleep. Which is pretty good considering all the noise we were making in the kitchen!

Grandma Clark was playing a game that her mother created and is in the process of being published. It will be called 5000 Answers. The kids and grandma were giggling so hard. I quick pulled out the camera to get a clip of the fun.


Joe took Dallen and Sydni for a walk by the Sacred Grove.

Sydni and her snow ball

Dallen and his snowball


On Thursday (Thanksgiving) we met at the church for a big dinner with all the site missionaires. The food was delicious! Grandpa was not feeling well so we took a plate home for him. We missed having him there.


Sydni wanted a blanket made by Grandma, so we bought some fabric before our trip so that she and Grandma could make it together.


The blanket is all done!

Grandpa needed some rest so we went out shopping with Grandma on Black Friday! We got hungry so we stopped at Grandma & Grandpa's favorite place to eat, Connie's Diner.

The food was yummy, especially the sweet potato fries!

On Saturday, Grandma and the kids made our favorite Sour Cream Apple Pie!

Saturday Evening Grandpa was feeling better so we took a family picture. Yeah, we're a little goofy!

Ok, here's a more serious pose :)

Time to head home but we stopped for some quick photos by the Sacred Grove.

Yup, Kailee is wearing her p.j. bottoms, but she was comfy on the ride home :)

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for a great Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2008!

October 24th 2008

Trunk Or Treat!

Our ward does a Trunk or Treat every year and it is always such a good time. Here are a few pictures of the night. It was really cold out so I don't have many outdoor pictures, but inside, it was fun and games :)

Meagan and her friends, Abby, Sierra, Kamber and Jessica


Bishop posing as a politically confused american.


Sydni and her buddy Emma

Inside watching someone perform the "Thriller" dance.

Dallen at the ghost bowling game

Sydni bobbing for apples

October 31, 2008

Haloween night

Meagan and Kailee had plans with their friends so we took Sydni and Dallen trick-or-treating with our neighbor Jo Jo. It was a beautiful night with temps in the 60's! I think it has been about 10 years since we had that warm of a night for trick-or-treating. Usually we are freezing our buts off and half the time we have drizzling rain. It was so nice to get out while the sun was still up and not be freezing cold. The kids had a blast and came home with more candy than any kid could ever need! ( but they didn't mind :)

Sydni, Dallen & Jo Jo pausing just long enough for us to take a picture.

Sydni's B-day

October 17, 2008

Happy 6th Birthday to our sweet Sydni Ann!

We went to Red Robin for Sydni's birthday dinner and to welcome Joe home from a week long business trip to Las Vegas. The food was so yummy (as always)!

Sydni loved being sung to and getting her special ice cream sundae and balloons!

The Next day we had a Fairy Princess birthday party for Sydni.

The girls had so much fun playing fairy games, getting their fairy facepainting done and dancing the fairy dance with their new fairy wings and wands.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

I promise!

I Promise I will update our blog! I am such a slacker! :(
I think the business of the Holidays just took over and I just never made the time to update our blog. Also, loosing the adapter for my camera's memory card and having other computer issues came into play.... But it is a new year and my computer and memory card are ready to go! I have a lot to updates so be prepared :) We had a great Halloween, a trip to NY for Thanksgiving, the girls performed in the musical Annie and Christmas was wonderful. Stories and pictures are on their way!

ABC Orchestra

Meagan plays her violin in a group called ABC ( Anything But Classical) Orchestra at her school. It is a fun group that gets to play all kinds of fun music and have special performances. This morning they were featured on the local news, thought you might enjoy the clip. If you look closely at the very first of the clip you will see Meagan in the back, long hair, side bangs, pony tail and a big smile. You see her again behind the orchestra teacher for just another moment. Yeah Meagan, you've made it on TV!