Terrible blogger here. I mean, seriously. I blog once a year, and my first blog is ALWAYS focused on what a terrible blogger I am. But this blog thing drives me nuts - I love writing, but I am OCD, and I am not smart enough to figure out the blogger format, and it drives me absolutely bonkers! I end up spending 10 minutes writing and 45 minutes formatting, ARGH! So here goes, no editing here. Just going to vomit out my thoughts from now on and NOT WORRY about how they look. Annual Clark Family Update (Again, since I only seem to blog once a year): We are GOOD. I quit my terrible job and now work from home. Still working my butt off, but making my own schedule, VERY much enjoying the people I work with, and just loving the life choice of happiness over stress! My hubby is GOOD as well - he is in a higher stress role for the department, so we say a lot of prayers to keep him going strong while he figures out what's next. I'm so proud of him - he's moving towards his college degree (was on the Dean's list last semester), and truly is a wonderful father. He is my equal in our home, and I love being his teammate. The kiddo is about the most hilarious little person I know. She is super sassy, but is FULL of hugs and kisses and loves. She is a Momma's girl, but definitely plays her daddy when she needs to. She talks and talks and talks, and probably has the vocabulary of a four year old. She loves reading and playing with babies and purses and tutus, but also is going to be a total athlete and will play "ball" for an hour! She loves her Mimi (actually is pretty obsessed with Mimi), Papa, Grandpa, Nani, Papi, and all the other people in her life that love her dearly. She is my little best friend, and I am so grateful to have her in my life. Claire is good and I've actually heard she is less fat than she was! She's great with Rae and her "crazy eyes" show up less and less as she gets more and more used to a baby all up in her business. So with our many jobs(I work at ExcelHC, but also have decided to BLAST out selling skinny wraps, which has been very fun and exhausting, we have rental homes/investment properties, and like I said, Aaron is in school almost full-time) and activities and crazy ideas and plans and dreams.... we are a TINY bit busy and sometimes exhausted. But the Clark family is overall - GOOD. :) Happy Tuesday!

I love these pictures... the fuzzy blanket pictures. My mom has these pictures with about every single kid, and I love them. She is an amazing photographer, obviously. But there's something about this blanket that just makes for a beautiful picture.

And Rae is obviously a beautiful baby. Yes, I am the most definitely partial Mother, but she is plain gorgeous. Beautiful skin, tons of hair, short and petite, and HUGE dark brown eyes.

But really, her personality is what makes this kid stand out. She's sassy - she most definitely knows what she wants and makes it very well known. She's become a bit shy - We've had a few friends over lately, and the moment Aaron or I are out of sight, she is a mess! (Secretly, I love it.) She's a "rough-house" - she LOVES being "wallered" and bounced and wrestled with. Makes me totally frantic, but I swear she gut laughs! She LOVES her Daddy - While I have to "waller" her, all he has to is giggle, or even look at her. It's sick.

Most of all, she is just darn sweet - She wakes up smiling, she is EASILY brought out of a funk, she's easy going and rarely fussy, and she snuggles up to me close when she's ready for bed. Sweet sweet sweet baby.

And check out these legs. Not even long enough to bend over the bumbo. So so funny.

Bubbles.

There's lots to say about my little mini... She talks, and talks, and talks, and talks. She wakes up happy. She loves to be "rough-housed". She has not lost an OUNCE of hair. She is snuggly and loving and so so sweet. She loves her Daddy, and listening to him laugh makes her LAUGH. She rolled at three months, and is now an expert. She loves baths, and walks, and toys.

Just an example of one of her many new discoveries - I'm so glad I got a small video of this. The bubbles have already calmed down and she's back to constant babbling and cooing. But the bubbles were quite constant for about a week. Very serious, slobbery, persistent bubble blowing. She is quite hilarious.

And some more...

She gets her point across... and yes, we thoroughly enjoy baby talk in this house. We're not ashamed of it either!

Stinky blogger.

So last week I worked for HOURS on a very well written (if I must say so myself) blog... No pics, just writing but I worked really hard on it. Then I tried to upload a video... which proved to be catastrophic. The upload took FOREVER, so I let my computer just sit and do it's thing for a few hours... When I came back, the video was still not uploaded, and formatting was screwed up. So... I tried to copy/paste to a word document... and "POOF", my blog was gone. And it's still gone.

So - this morning just trying the video. I have tons to put up here, because Rae has become SO funny and interactive. She's going to be a talker... as if that surprises anybody!!

Here is one of many... And please ignore the obnoxious dogs in the background.

http://youtu.be/gX7DT_yWQiI

We have rolls!

Little Rae... literally, very little. Yes, she was over 6 lbs at birth, but I swear I just have a muscle bound daughter, because she was TINY... Her newborn clothes were GINORMOUS, and she barely fit in her seemingly GINORMOUS carseat.

Yes, her arms are in there somewhere...

Our wonderful nurse who bossed me around and taught me how to burp, change clothes (lol), and swaddle. We loved her.

And seriously, her little legs were so skinny! They said she was a bit early, so she didn't have time to get too chubby... but I do believe I have seen some baby pics of her daddy (if I remember correctly he was wearing roller skates) where his legs looked just like this! And her pacifier is bigger than her head.

She grew pretty quickly... doctor said she's gained about an ounce a day, which is wonderful. She's in the 7-8th percentile in height... which also makes me laugh. And she's still so tiny in that big chair! This picture also makes me laugh... the kid did NOT sleep longer than 15 minutes for quite some time, unless she was being held (which was lovely but exhausting) or unless she was in the Boppy. We have 3 boppies, thanks to my Mom and Aunt Kristi. THANK GOD FOR THE BOPPIES.

We had some very brave friends make the trek from Omaha... floods and all. This is their sweet little girl, only two weeks older than Rae. She was a tiny thing too! And notice the highwater jean shorts... they are my absolute fav. Of course, even as I'm writing this (at almost 10 weeks old), she is still wearing them. I have a million cutie 0-3 month SUMMER outfits, and I swear I'll be shoving her in them in October lol.

So before I had Rae I became OBSESSED with the Baby Bargains book (Thank you Grandma Lilly!). The book has all the baby items you'll ever need, and it compares and contrasts where to get them, and which items get the best ratings, etc. Well, our chair got great ratings... it is built to last much longer than other chairs because it is so BIG and it grows along with the child. Except I didn't think about the fact that my husband was born at 5 lbs and I was a little one myself... so we swim in this chair. We sink and sink and sink until we are almost out. Very funny indeed.

We do love this chair... Rae takes after her Daddy and watches TV with us. Very funny. I swear, she is a pretty darn happy baby... She gets hungry and she doesn't like pee in her diaper, but pretty much the rest of the time she is sweet and happy and so so cute. She is smiling and laughing and squawking to herself pretty much most of the day. So fun!

And our most recent pic... Aunt Megan came over yesterday and hung out with baby Rae... fed her and played with her until she zonked. She's still tiny (hoping she's over 10 lbs now), and still very short. She's still wearing most of her newborn clothes, and I STILL love those highwater jeans shorts. BUT... we finally have rolls!

A Month of No Blogging.

One month (and one day)... My DAUGHTER is one month old! I absolutely cannot believe it. I feel like yesterday I was the VERY pregnant crabby lady who felt like she was never going to reach the finish line... the lady who decided one Thursday that she was probably going to have a baby soon and needed to work out, landscape, clean the house, ETC., so that she was ready if it actually came... and it did! One month ago I have to say I could have never imagined what my life would be like with a real PERSON to take care of... I could not imagine her hair, her nose, her lips, her cry, her personality, or the amount of pure JOY that little Raena Joy could bring to my home.

I told myself I was going to be the total baby blogger. "I'll post every day so we can remember every single moment." Hahaha... And here I am blogging a month later (5 weeks now). What can I say, we've been a little busy. :)

One month ago, this little hairy girl came into the world. She had skinny little legs, a swollen head (we had to use the vaccuum), big black/brown eyes, LONG fingernails, and I swear she was the hairiest baby ever! Raena weighed 6 lbs 8 ounces, and "supposedly" was 19.5 inches long, which we later found out was about an inch off. She was born at 9:03 AM (after only 7 real hours of intense labor, which I will give full explanation to at a later point), and had the sweetest little sad cry I've ever heard. Long story short, she was PERFECT.

Yes, very confused. What the HECK just happened to me!?! And who are you!?!

And my swollen head HURTS, thank you.

And stop poking me! I'm fine... no actually, I'm perfect!

We stayed at NKC hospital for two days, and THANK GOODNESS for that! The nurses were great and taught us a ton (such as putting on Rae's clothes in less than 10 minutes, Mommy was being way too soft and Rae was too wiggly!). We had lots of visitors and actually got some sleep... then we headed home with our little tiny girl - when we left the hospital, she was 6 lbs 2 ounces and a little shorty!

A week later, I am editing this blog... so now it has been not a month, but FIVE weeks! My little one is five weeks old. And since I STINK at blogging, here are some pics to show the huge transformation... She started off so tiny, very swollen, kind of red and blotchy, and looking like a newborn. She had skinny legs and was COVERED in hair.

Now, she's fattening up, her cheeks are getting chubbier and chubbier... she has BEAUTIFUL skin... she smiles and makes some eye contact... She makes the FUNNIEST noises, and she definitely communicates with us regularly... She looks like a beautiful beautiful five week old... and she's still COVERED in hair. :)

Week #1... Ama Kim came and helped SO much... brought another Boppy (our very favorite things), cooked and cleaned, and of course took some awesome pictures!!!

And one of my very favorites... We somehow got this picture at one week old! Already so much personality... we are in so much trouble.

And Week 2... we had tons of visitors! One of the many blessings in our very big and blended family is how much we are LOVED, especially by all our Grandmas. Some of my very favorite memories as a kid are the times I spent with my Grandmas and Great Grandmas (and Grandpas of course). How can you forget a Grandma who sits you on her lap and sings with you and plays harmonica... or a Grandma who makes you sandwiches and cuts of the crust, and banana orange juice just because it's your favorite... or a Great Grandma who whispers in your ear, "I love you very very very very much, and don't you ever forget it". That was my secret ritual with my Grandma Joy... the same Grandma Joy who miss Rae Joy is named after! Week 2... we are LOVED.

Week #3... Happy Father's Day! My husband... the man who SO badly wanted a boy (and who now thinks he's going to be "blessed" with all girls haha)... loves this little girl SO much. I have way too many things to say about this, so it needs its own post... but all I can say is I am so so lucky to be with a man who has such an ability to love... a man who changes diapers without batting an eye... who stays up all night with baby so Mommy can sleep... who happily dresses her in bows and lots of pink (has a little trouble picking out the right size, so she swims in Daddy outfits hehe)... is already so protective of his baby.... and did I mention he stays up all night so Mommy can sleep? Seriously, HAPPY HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

And Week #4... What can I say? She gets more and more beautiful every single day.

And my new favorite...