Let me see, I will go ahead and tag Torrie, Mom, and Brooke to post their 3rd file-4th picture.
We LOVE our teachers!! 
Now that you have seen the cute pictures of the kids let me show you what 90% of my pictures of Brooke look like. Brooke is a beautiful little girl who is NOT a fan of taking pictures. I don't think I have to worry about this one wanting to live her life in the fast lane of modeling.
Brooke took these picture of Morgan and me. Morgan LOVES to give very intense kisses (verging on painful). I just love them because they are so sincere and heartfelt.
If you're struggling with the pictures that would be peanut butter. It took four shampoo jobs to get it all out.
Saturday the kids and I got to hang out with a coworker/friend and her kids. It was so much fun getting to know her and meeting her adorable kids. We really had a blast playing and eating at Chick-fil-a and then moving the party over to the Discover Center. After we got home Riley would tear up at the mention of any of the Johnson's names. She makes BFFs very easy.
One thing that I find very cute about Jacob is how he really tries hard to be just like his dad. Dad likes football, Jake likes football. Dad talks about cool fast cars, Jake talks about cool fast cars. Dad follows baseball, Jake follows baseball. You get the picture. Jake tries so hard to keep up with the big boy talk but of course his knowledge is semi limited (I mean the kid is only 9 years old). Jake learned a while back about some super fast car called a Viper. I know nothing about cars but I hear it's like the awesomest of awesome cars. Now any time Jake sees a semi sporty looking car he always asks either me or Jeremy if it's a viper. We can be driving down the street and a yellow Dodge Neon with a little pinstripe job and an added spoiler and Jake will immediately say, "AHHHH Mom is that a Viper?!?!?" To which I have to remind him Vipers are very rare to spot especially in Amarillo, Texas. Jake thinks he sees a Viper like two or three times a week, but of course has never really seen one. Well on Saturday just down the street from us was a fundraiser for a big private school in town complete with a car show. I slowed down so Jake could check out the cars and he screamed, "Mom it's a REAL Viper!!"
Sure enough it WAS a real Viper. Jake was very excited and couldn't wait to tell daddy that he saw a REAL Viper (not a suped up Neon).
Sunday we had our biannual Clement conference tradition of watching the first session of conference followed by homemade biscuits and gravy (Jeremy makes them not me). Jake and girls were Jeremy's little assistants and the food turned out wonderful. My man knows how to cook!! I love our little tradition of watching church in our jammies and eating biscuits and gravy twice a year. Don't you all love Conference Sunday? I loved listening to Sister Dalton's talk on women of virtue. It was inspiring to me and I thought she was a very good speaker. I also felt so proud as President Ballard spoke on all of the advances in South America through missionary work. All my favorite men served their missions in South America and were part of that rich missionary history. I ended up taking some allergy medication with my biscuits and gravy so the second Sunday session was not quite as crisp in my memory, thank goodness for DVR I will have to take the next few evenings to re watch the talks while not under the influence of Benodryl.
Tonight for FHE the kids and I (sadly Jeremy works every night until about 8:30) drove around downtown Amarillo leaving little notes for strangers. I got this idea from Nie Nie and thought it would be a big success with our family. Two weeks ago we actually talked about the importance of being kind to everyone and how it is nice to serve others. After talking about being kind to strangers I gave them the idea of leaving little notes for people. They loved the idea and we went out to Target to pick up the supplies. We then worked on making the little notes and making a list of nice things a stranger might like to read. The two older kids wrote the little messages while Brooke drew some little decorations on the cards. Tonight was the big night to actually leave all our little love notes for others to find. We left them all over including; the police station, library, a small downtown park area, bus stop, civic center and the kids school. After we were done we still had several so we left a couple at some of our friends houses anonymously. The kids were so funny about it all. They would race out the car and look around before leaving the note and racing back. At first they didn't really get why we weren't telling everyone it was us who left them but I explained that sometimes we do nice things for others without telling them it was from us. We really had a fun time hanging out together planting our little love notes for strangers.
This evening we went out and harvested all of our ripe pumpkins. The kids had so much fun planting and tending to their pumpkin patch this year. I think we might have over planted because the pumpkins seemed to take over a good fourth of our backyard. It got to the point that we couldn't mow a huge chunk of lawn because the pumpkins outgrew the dirt plot we had set up for them. After harvesting the pumpkins we went to a few of our neighbors and shared "the fruit of our labors". It was a really nice way to spend the evening together as a family. We still have about 15 pumpkins that are picked and ready to give out. I think we will have to have some of our good friends come to the "Clement pumpkin patch" and pick out a pumpkin or two. In the pictures you might notice an injury on Morgan's face/head. That would be our first injury due to the bunk beds. Poor baby fell out of the top bunk onto the bottom bunk and then bounced into the girls play kitchen. When I asked Riley and Brooke how she got up to the top they both swear she climbed up there herself. I guess no more free range for Morgan in the girls room.
-A mum is a HUGE wreath like ornament you wear on your chest if you're a girl and your arm if you're a boy. I think the big goal is to add as many trinkets/ribbons on your mum without toppling over when you put it on. Most people make their mum by starting with a teddy bear in the center and building out from there.
-The most popular of popular girls will wear more than one mum. The most I have seen on one girl is three.
-You do not necessarily have to have a mum for all four years but I would guess that 95% of senior girls would feel very sad if they didn't get a mum for their last year.
-All Friday I find little trinkets (small football helmets, whistles, bells, ribbons, sports emblems etc.) that have fallen off some poor girl's mum. It's like the girls are walking pinatas... if you bump them hard enough you WILL get a prize.
I took Jake and a couple of his friends to the big game and they were all thrilled with all the little prizes they were finding all night long. I wanted to take a picture of this particular student without looking like a creep or something. I got a side shot so you can't fully see her shirt.
It read, "Future CHS homecoming KING". I thought it was very clever (rolling my eyes).
***side note*** We won the game making our record for the year 3-1. This in itself is a worth bragging about. Last year we had one win which we celebrated heartily because it was our first win in like 4 years. We have possibly the worst record in the state of Texas. GO LONGHORNS!!!
I'm afraid daddy is spoiling our little girl. Each morning he asks her what she wants for breakfast and then he makes it for her (usually it's either pancakes or eggs and toast). Often times she then gets to eat her breakfast in bed while watching Noggin. Can you say, "wrapped around her little finger?"
Jacob, Riley, Brooke (my bff not my daughter), and myself all went to Dallas this weekend for the NPF walk for awareness. On the way to Dallas Jake made this comment to me:
When we got back to the party she was wiped out and had to replenish with donuts and a short rest on one of the tables. Jake on the other hand ran most of it and beat us handily. I tried to remind him that it was a WALK for awareness not a run but he's got a competitive side to him and he wanted to "win".
The "party" included two of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders signing autographs, a funny clown,
and Reba McEntire's sister (I can't remember her name) singing. To call it a party would be a bit of a stretch but hey it was the first year. The award for "my favorite conversation of the weekend" went to Riley and the two cheerleaders.
I'm starting to think anyone who wants can just declare any old day a holiday. I have a hard time believing either of those days were ok'd by congress or anything. I'm sort of considering coming up with my own official "unofficial" obscure holiday. What do you all think?
It was a really nice day with very short lines. In the five hours that we were there we were able to do pretty much everything we wanted to do. The kids had a blast and I was surprised that my little Riley was tall enough to ride most of the fast rides too. I have always told people that I loved roller coasters. I mean I have been to Disneyland countless times and I LOVE going on Space Mountain (their fastest ride). I guess I never really knew how intense roller coasters could be. Bottom line is I don't really like roller coasters.
I was a trooper and went on all but one of the coasters (Riley wasn't tall enough to ride on the Superman ride so I graciously sat out with her) and each time I walked off the ride I felt like I was going to puke. NOT FUN!! For future reference, I like kiddie roller coasters. As we drove back to Lubbock late Saturday night to drop off Brooke and both Riley and Jake agreed that this was the best day EVER.
We got in to Lubbock so late that I decided we would just spend the night. The kids had some fun the next morning playing with Garth Le until it was time to hit the road and get back to our family back in Amarillo.
I owe big thank yous to several people. Thank you to Torrie and her family for watching my girls Friday evening until Jeremy got off work. Thank you to Heather and her family for watching my girls all day Saturday while Jeremy worked. And of course thank you to Brooke for joining with me for the walk and for the fabulous time we had in Dallas. I couldn't have done all this with out my wonderful friends helping me out. I love you guys!!!
***Side note***
Brooke has been working VERY hard the last couple of months on losing weight and her hard work is paying off. I'm so proud of her. She has a much healthier life style now and it's inspiring. Who knows Brooke maybe the next time you see me I'll be a smaller version of myself too. :)
