2014: an incredible year

Dave's nutcracker collection

 It has truly been an amazing year for us Clarks.  We have a wonderful new home that the girls love and even the dog has had a renewed vim, a delightful little boy who makes us smile all the time, good things going on at our jobs, and life is full of joy!  Call it lucky, blessed, whatever, 2014 has been incredibly good to us and we pray that 2015 is just as good.

In early December we went to the Santa Train at the science museum to visit Santa.  We all got Rudolph noses, the girls got their hands painted with snowmen and snowflakes, and Sam finally didn't cry on the train.  They also got to go 'ice skating' for the first time and it was complete with lots of giggles and falls.

We decorated a HUGE Christmas tree this year and the girls had a lot of fun doing it, though I had to move a lot of ornaments around when they weren't looking.

A Jake update: holy cow have things been moving fast!  He's crawling for real now, not just doing the inchworm thing, he's pulling himself up and starting to creep along holding things and walk using his new shopping cart walker (complete with popcorn popper).  He loves food.  All food.  Even food that makes him have a silly face he still wants more.  His favorite things are breadsticks (which make a terrible mess but he keeps gnawing on them and it makes him happy) and anything sweet, which includes all fruits and squash.  He loves to talk and smile and make raspberries at people, which is something Catherine taught him to do.  He wants to do anything that will make her laugh at him, they seem to have a special bond.  She will always try to make him smile if he gets upset, which still is rare.  Samantha recently has been taking a liking to him, too, and is always excited to see him when he wakes up.

The girls have been doing great.  As you can see, they still love helping in the kitchen.  Catherine recently has been working on her writing and is getting much better, and she really is getting involved in her reading, Busytown books seem to be her new interest.  Samantha has been loving everything it seems.  Everything is her favorite and she gets so excited about what is going on.  Her new thing seems to be making up stories to go with what she's playing with.

It snowed!  It wasn't a white Christmas, it was gone in less than an hour, but it was still wonderful to see.

Here is Samantha singing into her Frozen karaoke machine and Catherine taking a picture of it with her new camera.  Guess these were the right presents, great job Aunt Mary Anne!

Jake got to meet Penny and play with his cousin Lily.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  We cannot express how blessed we feel to have had a year like this one, and pray that it continues into the next for us and for all of our friends and family.

Last bit of fall fun

The girls are adjusting to life with a little brother on the move.  Catherine loves to try to make him happy if he is upset, which usually happens if he is left alone.  He definitely likes to be where the action is.  Catherine is pretty good at getting him to smile, she's a good big sister.  They all love to read together.

We had a ton of fun raking the leaves.  The girls even helped out after they had their fill of jumping and hiding in the leaves.

And here is our photogenic, smily little man who drools a LOT.  Can you see it dripping off his chin?  I have to wipe it off between takes and even that doesn't always work.  Yet still only 1 tooth to show for it all.

 Isn't he dapper in his fancy outfit and sweater vest? He's crawling and pulling himself up and is ready to do whatever the girls are doing!