Merry Christmas

Christmas came a little early this year as we are heading to Florida tomorrow.  Christmas Eve at the Clarke's involved watching the Hoosiers take home another win & notes, cookies, milk and carrots for Santa & his reindeer.  Aiden was so excited this morning to come out of his room and has not stopped playing with his toys all day long.  We had to wake Ellie up but once she was awake, she was ready to go!!  Now for round 2 in Florida.  Happy Holidays!!

Breakfast with Santa, Gingerbread Houses & Christmas at the Zoo

This was the first year we saw Santa without a child crying.  Although Aiden choked on a candy cane which was very scary, he made sure to tell Santa everything he wanted for Christmas: diggers, real candy, zip up pjs, jake & the neverland pirates stuff.  And on Ellie's list: a pink ball!  Aunt Mary helped the kids make Gingerbread houses....or just eat a whole lot of candy in one sitting.  Christmas at the Zoo was lots of fun and the kids were WILD!!

And the Christmas festivities have begun

We had a busy weekend after Thanksgiving!  We got up bright and early Friday morning to go see Santa at the Children's museum.  We followed that up with picking out our first real tree as a family (Matt's first real tree ever!)  Today, we brought out all the decorations and for the first time, the kids were able to help decorate the tree and they each wrote a letter to Santa about what they wanted for Christmas.  We also managed to name our elf.  His name is "Clarke".  Pretty creative if you ask me. 

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

My little princess has turned 2.  She definitely rocked the princess outfits this year but after her 2 year appointment, we determined she is not so little anymore.  She is 36 inches tall which means she could be a 6 footer!  Definitely catching up with big bro AJ...

Happy Halloween

We have had...

class parties, 

school parties, 

dance parties,

friends parties 

 AND trick or treating. 

The costumes are dirty, the kids are high on sugar, and I am exhausted! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Fall

Aiden started preschool this year.
It makes me so sad to see my "baby" in school but he is doing great.
Ellie, on the other hand, has entered the "terrible twos"!
If she wakes up on the wrong side of the crib....WATCH OUT.
We are knee deep in potty training with her.
She doesn't quite understand how to "poopy on the potty" yet.

Halloween brings a firefighter and a Supergirl princess from our family this year.

A Busy Spring

There has been a lot going on in the Clarke house this Spring.
We have pictures to prove it...


Ellie in her Easter dress, searching for eggs at Mimi's!

The Mini-Marathon crew! Matt finished his first mini in 1:52!

Ellie is trying out Aiden's new grill. Thanks Solomon's!

All the kids at Aiden's 3rd Birthday Party!

Ellie at the zoo today!

Looking forward to a great Memorial Day Weekend with The Waelty's!!

First day of Soccer

Aiden started soccer today. It was actually everything BUT soccer. They drove a boat, played with a parachute, threw the ball and did a lot of running. Whatever it was, it was cute, they had fun and were definitely worn out when we got home! Especially Ellie.

More pics from Florida

Here are some pics from our most recent trip to Florida. We spent our time in the pool or at the beach.

Long overdue update

This is very long overdue. We tackled potty training and won! Aiden is an A Plus at using the big boy potty. I think I annoy him by asking him too often if he has to go but he has had very few accidents, usually when he is in timeout or upset about something.

We went to Florida for Christmas break. This was a rough trip. I went down early with the kids. Matt stayed home to finish up a few things only to come down with appendicitis. He ended up joining us in Florida but was not able to enjoy the freezing cold weather as he was pretty much recovering on the couch the whole trip. Thank God we survived that one. The highlight of our trip though was seeing our cousin, Charlie. He was scared of us at first but then he thought we were pretty funny. We miss you, Charlie!

Ellie is all over the place these days. She is keeping up with her brother and has learned to fight back when necessary (or when not necessary). She is talking like crazy and although we don't understand everything she says, she understands everything we say!

We just got back from a quick getaway back down to Florida. This trip was much more exciting. The weather was great and we could not keep the kids away from the pool. Aiden is swimming by himself and Ellie has no fear when it comes to jumping in the pool. We had a blast! Aiden starts soccer this weekend with his "friends". This should be interesting...