Our newest family member!

So we got a new kitty. It wasn't planned or anything. I blame it all on Travis' cousin Jocelyn! ;) She was nannying this weekend and the kids had 4 8 wk old black kitties. She brought them by one day and Mika and I fell in love with them! So Sunday night we "babysat" one. And today we decided to keep him.

Meet Fox!

Here are the kids just home from the bus and hearing the news that we are keeping him. Kaylin LOVES cats and I figure she's old enough to help me take care of him. When he's old enough, he'll be an outside cat.

He's playing and also very cuddly. He's soooo sweet.

Mika adores him. And he's very tolerant of her. She loves holding him and I think he doesn't mind because he's always licking something off her fingers!

The kitty lovers. :)

So yep, we are cat owners now. Brad doesn't mind and says he can come upstairs anytime. He says Vicki will be so happy have a kitty in the house, she's coming home tomorrow!

Could it be...Fall???

Probably not, but it was a very blustery day:) The kids decided to run around catching leaves as the wind blew them. 

Right after this, they insisted on getting rakes to make a pile. It's not a big one yet, but it will be soon!

So productive

Today has been a good, productive day. Travis took the kids to the Dragon Boat races at the lake this morning while I tried to sleep off this head cold I got a couple days ago. Then we headed off to Home depot to work on the family room. 

Here's Ethan helping Dad.... 

Kaylin likes to dress her stuffed animals in Barbie clothes, or in cloth towels with pins like in this pic. A seamstress in the making! :)

 Mika is obsessed with Dora. I didn't think she could be so occupied with TV...but it's nice when mom doesn't feel too hot....

Big Sisters are THE BEST! Kaylin had Mika in her room, singing her songs, reading her books and I come in and Mika's fast asleep. Notice all the lovies Kaylin has given her. Kaylin's big lion pop up pillow, a photo book, one of Kaylin's dolls that Mika always steals, Mika's favorite phone, doll shoes and bubby's dino train book. TOO CUTE!

Sesame Street LIVE

Our friends the Butlers took us to see Sesame Street Live in Atlanta! Mika was very skeptical at first, just looking around and glued to my lap. But once she saw that this was fun, she warmed up, clapping and dancing, and soon was off my lap completely.

Here is Halle and Mika. This is after the show. They are so happy! I love how their eyes are sparkling! And they look SO grown up!

Here's our little group! Me and Britt, Rhese and the girlies. Afterwards we went out to eat and enjoyed talking and the kids fed the pigeons. Thanks so much Britt! We had a blast!

My photo wall!

I know it's probably no big deal to you, but this is a huge feat in my house!! I got my photo wall up!! I'm so excited about it! Travis and I stared at it all day Saturday! The scripture holds a special meaning for us and the wood block on the right says "All because two people fell in love"--meaning my parents, with the Sharp fam pictures above it.
I still have to get 5x7 and 4x6 frames but I still put the photos up so I could see the big picture. :) It's starting to feel like "home" down here....

Labor Day

We had a blast Labor Day weekend. We had Uncle Duane and Paul's families with us on the Island too! The kids loved having cousins there to play with and Travis had a great time finding a slider to go off of and even jumping a barrel. Never a dull moment with the Clarkes :)

But one of the highlights was that Kaylin wakeboarded with her dad. She did so well. The only reason why she fell was because Travis tried to jump the wake with her. It was so cute to watch!
I can't believe it, little Mika went to. She was nervous, but never cried till the end when Travis let go and she saw the water rushing up towards her. He held her up though and her hair never even got wet.
The water went down so there was thick clay everywhere. Some of the little cousins tried to make pottery by cooking it in the fire. Most exploded--mini science experiment right there. Anyway, the mud made the water sooo dirty as well as all the little kiddos. :)
This is my fav pic of Travis on the wakeboard. He's getting so good.
Duane's family have paddleboards, T and I taking a break and sitting on one.
We went over to a sandy area that had a creek running into the lake. So Devon is standing now, but his next step he'll be up to his neck in the water. Travis and Dev thought it would be perfect to pull Ethan on the wakeskate across the creek. He did so good!! We are hoping he'll go behind the boat next year.
He played with the wakeskate most of the time. It was so cute.
Balancing on the paddleboards. I know, we are in the exact same position! My sis joked with me about it--I told her we are doing some Maori dance. ;)
Trying to get the whole fam on was no small task!
After we all fell in...

Clarke Family Pics

We went over to Line Creek, the lighting was perfect and the scenery--couldn't beat it. BUT it was soooo muggy. I'm so glad pictures don't show how sweaty I really was. This is my favorite family shot. It was hard finding a good spot on the rocks for a tripod, but it worked out pretty well.


I love this one of the brothers. If only Danen was here....
My kids could NOT stay out of the water. They rolled up their pants and their bums were totally wet! But I thought it was so cute!!

Family Time

Last time these brothers were all together, they tried this Superman stunt. They wanted to try again....never a dull moment... Kaylin fell in love with baby Sayla. Every day she came home from school begging to hold her and help Aunt Breezy. So sweet.

I had my fair share of holding her as well. ;)

They are looking so much a like these days.

Brandon is home!!

After serving a mission for the LDS church, Brandon came home from Bangalore India on Wednesday the 25th. The kids and I made these signs for when he came up the escalators. He was shaking! He came home wearing many gifts. His shirt and tie were handmade from a lady he served. He also had a symbolic bracelet from a close family that was really beautiful and wore a new watch that was a gift as well.

It was so sweet seeing him hug his family. We all missed him so much.