Weekend with the Clarks

(our babysitting group from Phoenix--Johnsons, Cannons, Clarks, and Laytons)

It's one of those lazy Sunday evenings as we are all happily relaxing after our fun weekend with our good friends the Clarks. We knew Meghan, Jeremy, Connor, and Sadie in Phoenix when we were all struggling students in a struggling ward. We visited them in Hawaii when I was pregnant with Jonah, but haven't seen them all since (we did see Jeremy and Connor a few months ago at a BYU game in Las Vegas), and we had never met Carson (5) and Siscily (4 months) until this weekend. The Clarks now live in Colorado Springs and were passing through for the weekend on their way to Mesa. We had a pizza party at our house on Friday night and also invited Emily and Jarrod Johnson with their three sons. They now live in Mesquite. By getting together we reunited three of the four families from our Phoenix babysitting group. It was fun reminiscing about the good old days when we were dirt poor but life seemed simpler. Good times! We stayed up talking until midnight, and the kids all got along like old friends too.

Saturday we went up to "The Ledges" to see the Clarks' spec home and a few of the parade homes there. We took the kids to lunch later that afternoon, then met up back at our house for dad vs. kids basketball game then an adults and babies only romantic night out. Unfortunately, Jeremy got a migraine headache and ended up puking in the bushes outside of Don Pedros then laying in our van. Steve took Bridget out to the van with a stinky diaper to listen to the BYU basketball game on the radio and console Jeremy while Meghan and I had a lovely meal for two! They came to sacrament meeting with us this morning and left right afterwards after inviting us for a fun-filled "two-week" vacation in Colorado Springs this fall (that just might happen to coincide with a BYU/Airforce football game in Colorado Springs!). They might regret inviting us for two weeks!

(I will update this with new pictures of the Layton/Clark clan when the Clarks email me the pictures--my camera was missing the memory card)

Still a lot of hacking, snorting, and coughing going on around here, but everyone feels much better and we're just waiting it out. Bridget is so brilliant, she has learned to clap and sometimes wave "hi!" and is growing one red curl on top of her head. She has also slept through the night for the past three nights, and I've never had to make her cry it out in the night. So what if she still doesn't roll over! I wonder how it will affect her growing up being called "beautiful girl" and "pretty princess" all the time. We all adore her!

Nothing too out of the ordinary in Gabe's life this week--mayby he's mellowing out? Well, actually, on Valentine's Day he snuck out of the house with a trick-or-treat pumpkin filled with heart candies and showed up at Gwen's singing "Happy Valentine's Day!" This morning he told Asher and Jonah to be quiet because his brother was sleeping--his brother Carson, our house guest.

Jonah's new favorite pastime is packing up his shovel and water bottle with his friend Jake W., and digging up on the corner for a while, then coming back home and taking a bath in a swimming suit with his buddy. They did that twice this week.

Asher was excited to graduate from speech this week. No more getting called out of class. Way to go Ashie. The speech teacher said she will miss his cute smile and great attitude.

Sydney performed at the Southern Utah Performing Arts Festival on Wednesday. She accompanied two violins and a viola on the piano and their group received a superior rating--the highest possible. When I told her teacher she doesn't take piano lessons she couldn't believe it. I am now vowing to put her in piano lessons! They all practiced for months, staying after school to rehearse, and they did a wonderful job.

I just received a new text book and have been asked to revise the class I wrote last year to conform to another book. Of course I can't say "no," because I don't want anyone messing with "my" class. So I will add that to my "to do" list. It will be due in May.

Now I'm off to a family pajama party--Jo Jo's favorite thing to do on nights when there's no school the next day!