Another fun weekend!!!

TJ's husband and I planned a surprise weekend getaway (small, but tons of fun) for TJ! She has been long overdue for a break, and how could I pass up another trip to see Wicked again!! I was pretty proud of myself navigating around Chicago like I had lived there forever! We did a little window shopping, ate at a yummy Italian restaurant, saw the show, and then drove back home! We got home about 4 in the morning!!! So fun!

But then.....I got to get up a couple hours later and take a small number of my Young Women (and YM) down to the temple in Louisville, KY to do baptisms. Luckily, my home teacher offered to drive my van home! I was more exhausted that I have felt in a long, long time!!! But the entire weekend was worth it!
Just a handful of my girls....

Most of the other girls had school functions and couldn't make it. We still had a good time though!

And the 3rd place goes to.....

Zachary!!! Fabulous job!!!

Welcome to the world!!!

Everyone please welcome the newest addition to the Clay family! My sister, Julianne and husband, Ryan, just gave birth to their first baby on March 12th! He weighed 8 lb. 15 oz and was 21 inches long and is absoluetly adorable!

Here are the proud parents!!! Good job, guys! He is beautiful!!!

The New Boss!!!

Well - all of Chris's co-workers have a new boss! Yep - HIM!!! Chris got a promotion to be the Implementation Manager at work! He is still fazing out of his old job and doing the new one on top of it. He is completely swamped and totally stressed! I wish I could help take some of it for him and make things easier on him. I am grateful for his hard work and for all he does to take care of his family! He is wonderful! I will try to get a picture of him up soon.....that is, if he is ever around to get one taken!!!

B-ball teams looses - Family wins!!!

So, tonight Zach's basketball team lost to one of the hardest teams on the league. They did a great job and Zach scored one point! But I could really tell that Zach has had enough by this....

His team was running down for defense.....that is....all except Zach! He was drugingly dragging his feet as he WALKED down to the other end of the court - complete with the eyes rolling back in his head. The expression on his face was....."aren't we done yet?!?!" That was all until his coach yelled out to him to run and get to the other end and help his team. Totally funny! Then, his coach had him sit out for the last quarter and he wanted to come and put his coat on before the game was even over! In fact - he asked for his coat right at the beginning of the 4th quarter! Being the totally mean mom I am, I made him go sit back on the sidelines and finish the game out.

Well - so much for that experience! He totally wanted to do basketball when we signed up and in the beginning of the season. I guess he is feeling like it is just not his thing! That's fine with me. We just want him to get some exposure to different activities. He totally loved wrestling, so we might just stick with that.

I have been feeling pretty frazzled the last two and a half months! Basketball started in January and wrestling started in February. I know there needs to be a balance in everything and I really tried hard to keep things together while we were so busy with Zach's sports. I have realized that these are not that important in the long scheme of things. I think Zach even has noticed that too. Tonight when he offered the blessing on the food for dinner, he thanked Heavenly Father that we will now have more time to spend together as a family. Such a sweet boy. He is a great kid and I am excited to just relax at home more in the evenings with my darling kids!

In church, the talk given at General Conference by Elder Dallin H. Oaks (Good, Better, Best) has been talked about quite a lot. I think it is for very obvious reasons. I just re-read it last night and encourage you all to read it. Here is the link.... http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-38,00.html Hopefully that will work. If not, go to www.lds.org and look up the Oct. 2007 Sunday afternoon session and it will be in there. He talks about how there are many good things we can be doing with our time. But we need to make sure we are doing the best things, not just the good things. We have to choose wisely what things our family will participate in, making sure that we give highest priority to what the family needs. We also need to be making sure we are teaching our kids how to be strong in the gospel by what we spend our time doing.

Anyway - I am grateful for a break in sports and for the time that I now have to sit and teach to and learn from my kids and hubby. Hopefully now, dinners will be more healthy and not a quick PB&J! I just want so badly to do what is best for my kids and to raise them to know that they are loved more than anything and that they are special! My family is the most important thing to me and I love being a mom!!!

Is it blond or brown?....

Many people have commented on my "blond" hair. It really is still brown - just a light brown. I think it looked a lot lighter up against Megan's dark hark. But I am not sure I am liking it. I got it re-highlighted just before my trip, and it was kind of a disaster! I had to have her re-fix it twice, and it is still not wonderful. Luckily, Megan is my CO hairstylist, so she fixed my extremely awful haircut, but we didn't have time for her to fix the color (just what she wanted to do on her vacation)! She works wonders with my hair! It was about 4-5 inches longer just about 2 weeks ago! I am still trying to adjust to it! Anyway....that is my hair drama! But thanks to everyone for the compliments!

Basketball boy!!!

Zach has been playing basketball since January, and wrestling since February. He is doing really well at both, but prefers wrestling over basketball. I am proud of him for trying his best and sticking with it! Good job, Zach!!!

The wrestling video is the end of a match that he won. The videos of him doing more maneuvers on the other kid were too big to put on here, so I will try to get them shrunk down and post it. Anyway - I just thought his face was cute when he got to run over to get his award.

The wrestling is put on by the high school wrestling team. The high school boys teach the kids all the moves and at the end of the clinics, they get to do a little tournament. It is a lot of fun and there are tons of boys that do it. Chris loves watching Zach and then practicing with him when they get home. (yes, Chris used to wrestle) I just think it looks like a bunch of boys rough-housing! That's ok - at least he is having fun!

Anything up there?....

Chloe seems to like to do this quite often these days.....

What a fun weekend!!

Let me just start out by saying that a weekend getaway for mom's are an absolute must!!! Believe it or not, I have never gotten away on a "girlfriend" trip and was long overdue for one! Chris has never had all the kids (all 2 of them!) by himself for an overnight and weekend! We decided to be brave and just do it! I am grateful for my husband being so supportive and letting me have a break and doing such a wonderful job with the kids. I wouldn't think he would do anything otherwise b/c he is the absolute best dad - but I am a mom and I worry about my kids! That is part of my job description!!

My wonderful friend, Megan, flew out from CO on Thursday! We haven't seen each other since last summer when our family went back to CO for our family vacation. We attended Time Out for Women, put on my Deseret Book. I am so grateful for all the speakers that were there and for the messages they shared! I really needed that spiritual boost! And definetely so thankful that Megan decided to leave her cute boys and come all the way out here to good old Indiana!

Megan and me with Hilary Weeks, one of my favorite LDS singer/songwriters! (Note: Yes, I know I look pregnant - but I am not!)
We met up with my neighbor, Carrie and her "Chicago friends" for dinner at Red Light. I think it is Thai food - but not sure. We even had to flag down a cab to get to the restaruant! It is a big deal to me b/c I have never done that!!! Luckily, Megan was the brave one!

AND.... We got to go see WICKED!!! So much fun!! It is an awesome play!

I have a blog...finally!!!

I decided that I would finally start a blog to keep track of fun things my family and I do, and also as a place to keep in touch with friends and family. Hopefully I can completely figure this thing out so that I will use it often. Make sure to send me a message if you visit!!