A whole lotta info on my 2 month old!

I am really behind again! Happy 2 months old to my baby girl! (ok, so she's almost 3 months now, but who really cares?) She is starting to smile a lot now, but still makes us work for them sometimes. Her happiest times are always right after she wakes up. Halli has also started cooing, which I LOVE!!! She still sounds like a cat when she's starting to get upset. Her hair is coming in more and more (the sides and back are actually getting pretty long, but the top only has about a centimeter so she still looks funny). In some lights her hair is very red, others, it's brown. (her eyebrows have the most red in them.) We can't wait to find out what color she'll be! Halli is definitely spoiled- she LOVES to be held and played with! She is still only going poo about every 4-5 days, but we're told that's normal for some breastfed babies. (McKade did the exact same thing.) She is my best sleeper by FAR! (for this age.) Last night she went 10 hours, and then after I fed her she slept another 2 1/2 before deciding it was morning time. (not to compare my kids, but all my others were up every 2 hours still at this point.) She isn't on a schedule yet though and doesn't take very good naps during the day, but hey, at least I get to sleep at night! I also have to put special cream on her face 2 times daily as she has eczema on her cheeks. We are still waiting to see who she looks like- mostly like her big sister Tyli and Dallin, but I see some of my side come out in her a lot too. Halli is such a mommy's girl and I love it! I love her so much and feel so blessed to have her here in our family!

2 Month Stats:

11 lbs, 6 oz. (54%)

24 in. long (97-99%)

I don't remember her head circumference, but it was in the 56%.

ROAD TRIP!

I just had to add this picture in- Halli wore this HUGE daisy on her head last week to church. This is a picture of one of her very first smiles. She is so much better at it now! Doesn't she look a lot like her big sister?

I LOVE having my hubby home during the summer months! (I pay for it during the school year, but it is worth it!) With school being out, Cauley has had a nice, non-relaxing break so far. (Hey, I did just have a baby you know! Just kidding.) He does do a conditioning/weight lifting program for the football team from 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. every morning, but then he gets to spend the rest of the day with us. He also gets Fridays off, which allows us to go have fun without having to wait and leave on Saturdays. We decided to take a road trip up north for a few days.

We left on Thursday, right after he got home. First we went to Sedona. I told my kids, isn't it funny we're going to Sedona in our Red Sedona?" The boys thought it was hilarious and repeated it most of the way there, and then as we were leaving. We bypassed most tourist stuff and arrived at our destination- Slide Rock. It was SOOOOO much fun! For those friends and family who don't know what Slide Rock is, it is just as it sounds. The Oak Creek runs through some rocks which, over time, has made them really smooth, and it has made a natural slide through a part of a canyon. (oak Creek canyon) It's not a huge slide, just a bunch of little small ones, and it has a few deep water places and a few areas to cliff jump. Our kids had a blast! Cauley and I took turns going with the older kids since we had Halli with us.  

(our one touristy picture- Halli was left in the car.)

Dallin going down- you can also see in the upper left picture the lower half of Cauley who is holding onto Tyli's hand.

My shorts are permanently brown from sliding on my bum. Here, I was just sitting, allowing the ice cold water to cool me down. It was really relaxing!

If you head up the canyon behind the boys, there is a little swimming area, kinda like a small dam. There are also a few deeper slides and some cliffs.

Once We had our fill at Slide Rock, we took the most twisty road I have ever- and hope to ever be on!! We drove through Jerome, AZ (one of the most interesting places I have seen!) and over a mountain to Prescott where we stayed with Cauley's Aunt Gerry. Our kids LOVE going to her house! It seems there is always an adventure waiting for them. Aunt Gerry had to work Friday so we got up and went for a hike up Thumb Butte.

Ok- a little explanation on these pictures- First, the cacti were all in bloom and it was GORGEOUS!!! This picture hardly does it justice, and a little after this picture was taken, most buds were open. The picture that looks like a rock- look closely. See the lizard? This was at the top of the mountain were we took a short break. We were entertained by this lizard, watching him do "push ups" for about 5 minutes.

This last one, of the boys, is them pointing out Thumb Butte from Aunt Gerry's backyard. See that mountain sticking up WAAAYYYY back there? That's the one we hiked.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Chino Valley to have breakfast and visit with Aunt Pearl, GT (Cauley's cousin), Victoria (GT's fiance), and Aunt Gerry. I have been married to Cauley for 10 years now and that was my first time at Uncle Grant and Aunt Pearl's home, but I can say I definitely want to go back! Good food, good company, and good fun!

We had to head back home Saturday afternoon as I had the Visiting Teaching workshop the next day to prepare for. We had a BLAST as a family this road trip, and I will always cherish the memories we made. I love my family to pieces and feel like the most blessed person alive!

Happy Birthday, D-Man!!!

I can't believe my baby is 7!!! I still remember EVERYTHING the day/night he was born! One more year and then he gets to be baptized- WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE!?!

Dallin's birthday was really low-key this year; an off year for his party, so we decided very last minute to invite his cousins over for a BBQ and cake. He has been asking for Lego cakes for quite some time now, and I agreed. However, the cake he requested inside (red velvet) was WAY too moist and didn't want the frosting on it! I struggled with these cakes (which should have been VERY easy to make!) for about 3 hours total! (Hey- Don't judge- YOU try making this kind of cake and frosting it in this heat!:)

I made the mistake, while wrestling the cakes, of sending Cauley to the store for party favors. If you know my hubby, you know his sense of humor is a little wacko sometimes. He came home with hillbilly teeth- a pair for every cousin! We definitely had a good laugh for quite a while watching each cousin try theirs on! Sorry I didn't add pictures of us adults with them- they were too scary!

These two sweet cousins didn't get to try some on yet, but they sure look cute together! "T." (Steph's baby) is 2 months older than Halli. They really look alike in this picture to me.

I asked Dallin if he wanted me to put something sentimental on here about him, and he was adamant that I did not do so. I do love him so much though! Instead of posting it on here, he wants a private note; one that he can always keep and nobody but his family can read. (He's so funny like that sometimes!) Happy Birthday, Dallin!

Hiking, D-Backs, and Halli

This is Halli. She really isn't as chubby as she looks in this picture! Halli is growing up WAY too fast! I can't believe she is already 7 weeks old! She is getting a lot stronger, holding her own head up a lot of the time, rolling from side to side (I said side to side, not front to back to front!), and yes, those lungs are getting stronger too! She is having problems with going # 2, so right now I am on a lactose-free diet (not fun in the summer time, I'm missing my ice cream WAY too much!) and we are hoping that works. She is just so constipated. (something a breast fed baby should not be!) I took her to the dr last Thursday, and other than being constipated, she is very healthy! (a good 10 lbs. 11 oz healthy! Halli is by far my best sleeping baby ever! She usually goes to bed at 7 pm, sleeps until 2:30 am, then sleeps until 7am, then wants to sleep until around 9. I LOVE it! She also sleeps a lot during the day and I'm starting to wonder if she'll ever wake up! Halli is definitely adored by all under our roof, and she really loves her brothers and sister! She is my least smiley baby by a long shot, but she does smile (sometimes it takes a lot of coaxing though!). She especially loves her daddy, and will quiet for him every time he picks her up, then cries again when he puts her down. I love it! Like all my others, Halli is a binki baby (sometimes she won't take it though). She prefers her belly over her back. She is already losing her hair, but more is already growing back in, replacing what she's losing! Halli definitely has the lightest colored hair out of all my kids! Her eyelashes have finally grown in, and are even dark brown, unlike when she was born (with only a few very white ones!). Even though she's growing steadily, she doesn't eat well still. She especially doesn't eat well when covered up!


One Friday night we headed into Phoenix (a good hour + drive!) for the Diamondbacks/Rockies game. It was so much fun taking the kids! Even though we live in AZ, we don't go to many sporting events. (Ok, not true, we got to TONS! We just go to High school ones, not professional ones!) We met up with Brad and Steph and their boys, most all of the Greer family, Jeff (Cauley's little bro!), and Cauley's parents. We had a group of 35 of us! Tyli wasn't too interested, and Halli was too hot (they had the roof of the stadium open so no AC, plus, I carried her in the baby bjorn since we had to park away from the stadium and I didn't want to deal with her car seat at my feet all night.) I guess Tyli did really like the "clapping songs." The boys had a good time though! I think it had something to do with the fact that Steph had some nephews there about their age! It was fun, listening to Cauley teach Dallin about what was going on on the field! All in all it was a good game! The D-Backs were down 4-6 going into the bottom of the 9th. We ended up tying it up, then hitting a double to knock in the game winning run! My boys were yelling "Hit a home run so we can watch the fireworks!" at the end. That's when we won. We stayed after the game for the fireworks show. My kids all really enjoyed that as well. Funny how it didn't take long after we got back to the car for all of the kids to crash! (and they slept in the next morning too!)

Don't let this picture fool you, we sat on the other side of the stadium! (Upper left field side.)

Cheering on the D-Backs!

This is just a random picture I threw in- Cauley took it one morning. These flowers are in our front yard. Cauley planted them for me last summer. I love them! They open really big in the morning and usually stay that way most of the day, and yet every day the sun bleaches the flowers to a pale orange. The next morning more buds open, and so on. (they're pretty big flowers too, bigger than my hand span!) Every time I pull into my driveway and see them, it makes me smile.



A-hiking-we-will-go!

(Pictures are backward- again!)

Last Friday Cauley woke up and decided it was hike day. Not me! It was too hot for me, plus that'd mean Halli'd have to hike with me, AND my toe still isn't allowing me to do too much yet. Tyli didn't want to go either, so us girls stayed here while the boys went and hiked the San Tan Mountains again. It is definitely the perfect family hiking spot, and it's nice that it's fairly close!

(looking down from the top- you can see our house wwwaaaaaaayyyyyyy out there!)

Cauley made it to the top too!

Oh look, some shade!

Cauley called me from the top of the mountain and asked me to get every one's swim suits ready. We then met him at his sister Jennifer's house and swam for a while. We love swimming (sorry no pics of that!) and have been about 1-2 times a week. (I know, we should live in the pool in AZ, but we don't always have access to them!) My kids are swimming so good (but still need to learn more!) Dallin loves to play, swimming from end to end, diving for toys, jumping in, and I am happy that I don't have to watch his every move in the water now. McKade is getting a lot better. He can now jump in, float on his back, and swim the long way across the pool without help, and he likes to just kick around the pool on noodles, and Tyli, well, she needs to learn to kick her feet or she's going to drown! Unless she's being held onto, she spends most of her time where she can touch! She LOVES to put her face in the water though, and will put her face in and walk on her hands from side to side of Jenn's pool on the sun shelf. Halli has yet to go swimming. (although she has the most adorable swim suit ever!)

Oops! Another picture out of place!

Yeah, I'm a "little" behind!

Halli D Clark on her blessing day (6 weeks old)


Some of our favorite people who came to support us on Halli's blessing day. Missing from this picture is Uncle Ray and Aunt Jeni who had to leave right away, Jeremy and Cori Contreras with their beautiful kids, and Correy and Heather Johnson and their kids. (they were taking the pictures for us.)

I have to apologize to everyone who keeps checking in on me to see if there's anything new. We have been so busy having fun the past month or so that I haven't taken time to get on here and write about it. I know that I will definitely be missing things as I definitely have post pardum brain, but oh well.
The beginning of May brought a fun get together with good food and even better friends. Every year my friend Marie and her husband throw a Cinco De Mayo party (and yet the actual party has not fallen on the 5th of May yet) at a local park. We always have the yummiest carne asada tacos, chips and salsa, and fruit. The location is perfect as we plant our lawn chairs right next to a splash pad that the kids spend most of their time in. This was Cauley's first year attending and I don't think he'll miss it from now on! (there is a picture below of my kids together playing in the splash pad.)

(1 month old. Taken by Aunt Steph May 23rd!)

My parents got to come down for a very brief but wonderful visit the end of May. They haven't been here since Tyli was a month old (3 1/2 years ago) so we were SO excited to show them all the changes that have taken place since then. (I can't describe it for those who don't live here, except that we used to live literally in the middle of nowhere, and now we don't have to travel more than 5 minutes to do most things like shop, Dr. appointments, and so on!) They even got to see our new house (that we've been in for 1 year now!). While they were here, they got to attend Dallin's awards assembly that Dallin got his Honor Roll certificate at. We shopped till we dropped, barbecued and swam with some good friends, and had a wonderful time in the 2 days that they were visiting. They ended up staying a little later on Saturday as Dallin and McKade ran in a track meet that Cauley's track team put on and then Tyli performed in her dance recital. At the Higley school district elementary school track meet, Dallin got first place in the long jump (for K-2nd graders), 3rd place in softball throw, 3rd place in 50 meter dash, and 4th place in 100 meters! McKade, who wasn't supposed to participate because he's only 4 and hasn't completed Kindergarten yet (but since his daddy put on the whole track meet, he let him) got 3rd in long jump out of ALL kindergartners! (They DEFINITELY got their jumping ability from their dad- thank goodness!)

Tyli was part of a little dance group this past 6 months. A young lady in my ward who is 13 decided to teach dance starting in January and she did a GREAT job! (Way to go, Keagan!) Tyli LOVED going to dance and most of her little friends ended up in her dance class with her. Their dance was to a clown song, hence the clown costumes. It was so fun having my parents there, as well as being supported by the whole Clark family. Thank you to all who came! My parents and I at Tyli's recital.


(Ty's right behing the cute little girl with the walker.)

I am going to end right here for now as I just thought of lots of other things we have done, but didn't upload the pictures from my camera yet. Most of the pictures I have on this post is from my wonderful sister-in-law, Stephanie. Thanks, Steph! (Check back soon for more posts!)

Meet Halli

Once again, all pictures are backwards. I'll start from the beginning this time.

Friends from my Relay for Life team- Rashelle, Marie, and Debbie! (the real reason Halli decided to come 10 days early!)

Such a proud sister!

The Big Protector (brother).
Meeting for the first time!

The Proud Daddy and his beautiful daughter!


Halli's first night.

Halli right after her first bath

(Cauley "evaluating me")

(Me, showing one last look at my HUGE pregnant belly!)


Well, like life, nothing with the end of this pregnancy happened the way it was "supposed to." I was actually scheduled to be induced on Sunday, April 25th at 3:00 p.m., but questioned whether or not my "date" would stick. (The hospital I was delivering at has been so overloaded with babies lately that no inductions were taking place when they were supposed to.) So, knowing this, I headed down to join my teammates and have a great time walking in the Queen Creek Relay for Life on Friday afternoon. We were all laughing so hard because the lady who was in charge was VERY concerned for me and the baby and pointed out where there were nurses stationed, where the firemen and ambulance were stationed, and where to find a cart to get me some place quickly if needed. I didn't know until later that she had told the firemen there to keep an eye on me. (They seriously were watching my every move all night long! It kinda gave me a complex!) I walked with a few friends for a while, but had some pretty hard contractions that were anything but regular so I took it easy, eating the fruit bouquet I won in a raffle that night from Edible Arrangements, walking around "shopping" at different booths, and chatting with awesome friends. I seriously LOVE being a part of Relay for Life! My walking time was from 10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. and by then I knew I had overdone it, so Debbie and I walked really slow. By 11, I could barely move any longer so I packed up my chair and went home.



I woke up at 3:02 a.m. to go to the bathroom and had another hard contraction. Before I was able to climb back into bed, another one. I laid down, another, and so on. I woke up Cauley so he could time them (I couldn't see the clock) and within a few more, we knew we needed to call someone to come stay with the kids. We got to the hospital around 4 where we spent some time walking around the L&D floor, trying to make some progress (I was only at a 2 & 60%, but my contractions were every 2-3 minutes or less still.) After a long walk, and me being exhausted, we were reevaluated and admitted to the hospital. Time to have this baby! I was immediately started on antibiotics because of an allergy. It took forever to get to L&D because all the computer systems were down (and stayed down even after we left the hospital on Monday!)


Things were not going as fast as I'd have liked. My body didn't want to be done being pregnant, and the Dr. and nurses didn't want to hurry me along either. (The antibiotics I had to have had to come with 2 doses every 6 hours apart.) I was frustrated, but what can you do? I tried holding out on the epidural for as long as I could, but by 3 in the afternoon my body couldn't take any more. I was EXHAUSTED!! I got my epidural, which was a wonderful experience this time, unlike with Tyli! FINALLY, around 6 p.m. I had had all my antibiotics and the Dr. told me he would break my water. Once that happened, I went from a 3-5 in half an hour, and then was ready to push in another 45 minutes. I pushed for about 30 minutes before the Dr. told me I had to stop because she was stuck, and probably wouldn't move without help. I wanted to cry, but opted for help with suction. A few contractions later, out came my beautiful baby girl- quietly looking around at her new world. I was worried she wasn't crying, as was everyone else in the room, but she was just content to give us a quiet squawk every few seconds when prodded. She is seriously my quietest baby by far! We all spent another 2 hours in L&D before being shown to our new room.

We were really blessed to get a great location for our recovery room. It was totally out of the way from all the others and had no neighbors- just a supply closet! It was so quiet and nice that we all got pretty good rest. On Sunday we had a few visitors, 3 of my friends from Relay for life (top picture) and my kids who were brought by my in-laws. It was fun sharing our new sweet moments with good friends and family! Monday Morning came and I begged to get to go home- which we did, just at about noon! Aunt LaRee came right as we were being discharged, and it is always fun to see her. Then we came home where we are all happy to be, getting to know our new beautiful family member- Halli D Clark!

Halli D Clark
Saturday, April 24, 2010
8:20 p.m.
7 lbs 10.4 oz
21 inches long

*The D in her name stands for 3 important women in her life; her great grandma, Dora Turley (Cauley's grandma), Halli's grandmother, Debi Ruth (my mom), and my Aunt, Dorothy Ruth.

A little bit of this and that- with a few pictures this time.

I have been doing lots lately to prepare for this little girl to get here and I thought I would add it here for journaling purposes. For those who haven't checked it out lately, Cauley finally did update his blog (it's under my family list on the left hand side under "our other blog").

First off, my baby shower; thrown by these two beautiful ladies, my sister-in-laws, Stephanie and Jennifer.

Here is the dessert table from my shower. The funniest part was I let Tyli come and her first thing she spotted was the diaper cake that's in the background. She said, "Mom, look at that pretty cake!" I asked if she knew what it was made of and she just looked at me like "crazy lady, it's a cake!" So I said "It's made of diapers." "OOOOH GROSS!" she yelled. I laughed so hard!
Here is the other food that was served. Doesn't everything look so yummy? (It was, too. I think I ate WAY too much!)
Here is just one picture from the Clark family's Father and Sons outing the same weekend as my shower. All the guys met at Grandma Greer's house (Brad's mom's) and camped out in her backyard. It was perfect for them! (They had a fire and slept in tents- what more do you need to camp out?) For more details about this, go read Cauley's blog.

Cauley's latest around-the-house project has been working on our backyard. This is a total "before" picture. He has since extended the patio to the far end of the air conditioning units and as far out as the dirt goes clear across. It looks so nice! He also got the jungle weeds (we've had lots of rain!) outta there and cleaned up the yard. It really looks so much better- come and see!
(See the pavers hiding behind the slide?)

You know you're about ready to have a baby when everyone in the ward, including some men, keep asking "How much longer?" Seriously! (I'm HUGE!) *For those who want a belly shot, check out Cauley's blog cause I refuse to post that for journaling purposes! I just had another ultrasound on Tuesday because my belly is what my doctor calls "all baby- not even room for an ounce of fat". (Of course he's wrong, but it sounds good, eh?) Anyways, since there is no give to my belly, he wasn't able to tell how she is laying. He thought she was head down, but couldn't figure anything else out so he just wanted to make sure. She is indeed head down, bum straight up, but instead of facing my back or front, she is sideways, mostly with her feet and knees toward the head. (I was told that's why she sticks out so much- it's her hips and shoulders poking out at everyone.) I have almost gained a full 20 pounds now, so she should be a healthy weight like the others. I am just getting tired of going to stores and having those nosy people say, "Oh wow. You have a baby in your belly!" I was a little insulted the other day when I went down the ice cream isle (not even for ice cream, just cutting down the isle for milk) and a guy who was on that isle looked at me and busted up laughing. "Need a snack?" he said. Oh well. I just hope she gets here soon! I did finish my preschool year out with a graduation last week. Now that it's done, I'm grateful for a little more flexible free time. I am also getting ready to participate in the Queen Creek Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society again. It's next weekend and I plan on walking until this baby falls out!

Cauley has also been very busy helping me get ready for this baby around the house, school, and track. He has been working so hard and I appreciate all that he does. It's hard, having him leave really early (around 5:30 a.m.) and not ever getting home before 6:30 p.m., usually after 10 on meet nights, and then having him busy still with school or track stuff until late at night. Even his weekends are taken. Can you believe he had the nerve to ask me to prom for this Saturday. (He has to chaperon and we usually do that together as a date.) I think I'd be the laughing stock of the world, showing up literally ready to pop!

Well, you are somewhat updated for now. This summer has LOTS going on, including a baby being born, a few family weddings (which we are SO excited for!!!), baby blessing, my parents may come down for a visit (first time in 3 1/2 years!), and other fun adventures. I'll try and do better at posting- unless everyone is right about #4 being a LOT harder to get used to.