Peek -a- Boo!!

Yesterday was the day we've all been waiting for!! Ok, not all but a lot of people!!
We had our second Ultrasound and found out the sex of our baby!
Although it has not been revealed yet, I will still show some pictures and tell you all about it.

The night before I had trouble sleeping. I was dead tired but too excited to sleep.
I woke up to go potty and I just prayed it would be past 2 by now! It was 4:30.
I laid back down, trying to sleep but I just laid there with tired eyes closed tightly.

My alarm was set for 5:30 to allow time for showering and getting ready without rushing.
At I must have dozed off for a minute or two, because at 5:25 I heard the shower turn on... DANG IT! My brother John who stays here during the week beat me to it. Oh well. I got up and made Eric's lunch and ate breakfast and chugged my 24oz of water by 6am.

I showered and got ready and we were out the door.
Eric took his work van because there was no point in driving all the way home again, and he started work a little earlier too.
We go to the doctors and waited for about 5 minutes, then into the special room we went!
It was so much fun to have Eric there.
The Ultrasound tech is my favorite! She is the sweetest and funniest lady.
The lights go out and the green cold goo goes on my tummy and right away we see a tiny skull! Perfectly faced at the "camera".
It was a shock to see it, but it was fun. We made jokes about it being dressed for halloween, and of course Eric thought it was the coolest!
After all the "boring" measuring of my other parts were done, we moved to view the baby.
It's little arms were up across it's face, then they would move. It's little feet kicked and kicked! We saw the heart and Eric got to hear it for the first time. Eric was full of questions and the sweet lady answered them all.
Then we got to see who our baby is, and wow this baby was not shy!
She told me to hold still so we could see the baby move it's mouth, so I did.... nothing.
Maybe it thought, "Oh Nap time!" Then Eric decided to get me to laugh, ya know "Shake the baby" which he tells me to stop doing all of the time.
Sure enough, that little thing was trying to hang onto something!! We saw the arms go wild, and the mouth move, probably cussing my name.
It was so much fun, I could have stayed there watching all day.
Everything checked out just fine fluids, size of the baby, etc..

The Tech gave us an estimated due date from the size of the kid, which is again Feb. 27th.
The doctors gave me one of March 2nd, so somewhere in between we can expect this sweet little thing to make an appearance.

One thing for sure, this child is NOT camera shy!

I am not sure why my camera turned these red...

This one the baby looks like an alien for sure!

Boys and their toys

Back in 2007, Eric and I purchased a 1964 Cadillac Sedan DeVille.
It is the car we drove off in on our wedding night, I took it out for dinner with the ladies, and we've gone on a few rides here and there.
Well for the past few months the poor thing just didnt get attention.
After much debate and going back and forth we are selling it. It's bittersweet, we love it, but Eric doesnt have the drive for it as much, and with Baby Clarke making it's way into our lives, who knows what will happen.

There has been talk about a motorcycle for quite some time. "One day" has been repeated over and over. Well ladies and Gents... That "One Day" was Friday the 24th of September. The day where a soon to be father became an extremely giddy little boy.
Eric found a sweet deal on Craigslist a few weeks back, I believe the price was about $3000.00 and there was an issue with title.
Thursday, he spotted the same bike, title issue resolved, and $2000 less!
Money was shuffled and Eric got his bike!
He worked on it, Saturday, putting parts back on(it came with all the old parts and some new in a box) wiring it and getting it ready. There is still a bit to do and perfect it, and we need to get that Cadi out before its ready.
Today he is out working on it again. It's his new addiction and all he can talk about is what he wants to put on it, or how to fix it. I'm glad to see him enjoying something again.

Although last night at dinner he started to look up handle grips and I had to ask him to give me the attention for just that night. After all it was for our Anniversary!

I can't wait to see it complete and YES I am terrified to have him out on the streets with the moron drivers of Las Vegas. People just don't look out for motorcycles! So PAY ATTENTION!

Baby stuff!

September has been a busy month... not just for me, but for hospitals! So far I know of 5 babies that were born in September. Its very exciting!

As for the Clarke baby, we've got time!
The morning sickness is gone. There are still some smells, such as other anal gasses...., and other things that can trigger my gagging. I recently got over a cold, I didnt think it was that bad, but once Eric got it, hahah yes he got a sickness from me for once, he was just yucky.
I guess it goes to show that taking vitamins really does help.
Now this gets gross, and Im sorry but mucus is one of those things to trigger vomit monsters.
I have never had the ability to suck my snot back... bleh and spit it out..... (deep breath) and now being sensitive to this stuff, its worse.

Glad it is over with!

We go in Tuesday to find out if we will have a Cru or a Molly! I am very excited, I've been counting down the days since my last appt. We scheduled the appt early so Eric won't have to miss work.
Oh and a side note, No one... I repeat, NO ONE will be finding out the sex until Grandma Clarke gets her package from us. I have prepared a little announcement for her and the other grandmas and I won't be wasting a cute present. Our baby will be the first grand child for her and I feel she has a right to know first. So just be patient with us.

I still havent felt any kicks, I thought I did last sunday. It was something I have never felt, but who knows. Until I feel it again I won't know. I've heard between 16-20 weeks is when you should begin feeling the baby. That will be a neat experience for sure.

For now that is all. Baby is safe, Mom is doing great, and dad.... well he's goofy and that's fine because we love him that way. :)

We received our first baby gift. A Sailor Jerry diaper bag!
Thank you Ben and Nicole!

Baby loves oreos!

3 years ago.... last Wednesday

I became the newest Mrs. Clarke!
It seems much longer, but then it doesn't. Either way I still enjoy being Mrs. Clarke.

Recently Eric started school again, and dang am I proud that he finally made that choice. Sitting on a big GI Bill (Military school fund for FREE) and doing nothing with it made me sad.
Well thank you to Mr. Bush, before he left he did a once over on this bill and made it so if Eric was to re-enlist I could use that money. Well that didnt happen, but Bush also made it so that while attending school, Veterans, receive housing allowance. WOOO!!!
So Eric goes to school Monday Thursday and Friday after work for about 4 hours. He has classes he likes and loathes. Don't we all?
So with Wednesday being our "big day" and with him working and schooling, I didnt want to be out late and have to rush. So we went to Taco Bell.
TACO BELL?!? hee hee. Let me "esplain"
Our wedding was a blast! There were loads of people there and I wouldnt change that ever! I never made it off the dance floor from our "not supposed to happen receiving line"
Therfore I didnt make it to the food. But some of the food made it to me, thank you Shelly.
I had a mini hamburger, some fries and a drink. But that didn't fill the stomach of a bride.
After Eric and I took off, we made a circle around las vegas to ride the strip. It was fun and of course people would shout at us. FYI Cadillacs arent made for traffic, so before the car overheated, we turned off and figured that was good enough. Besides we had more important things to attend to... :) like finding food. We passed a few places and spotted a Taco Bell, so in our wedding get ups and "sh"fancy car, we did a drive-thru. Took it back to our hotel and while we ate one handed, we used our other hands to fish millions of bobby pins out of my hair. That is all you need to know.

My dinner, the #4
Eric's dinner... the giant box of food.

Taco Bell on Sept 22nd holds a special place in our heart!
We went out to dinner on Saturday night and with much debate we chose Cheesecake Factory.
I am glad we did! I had the Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella pizza, and Eric had the black pepper shrimp something or other. It had plantains beans rice and shrimp. Both meals were very good. I made sure to leave room for some cheesecake and grabbed a slice of the Turtle Cheesecake. MMMMM
Afterwords we met up with my brother, Kevin, and our good friend Ryan down at the Car show in Henderson. After walking about a mile we found them and hung out for about 2 hours. At about 10:30 the cops drove by and said "go home" literally. So we hiked another mile to the car and went home we did. I was dang tired.
I am so grateful for Eric and I really enjoy our time together. He does a lot for me and this little one growing in me. I still love him as much as I did that special night 3 years ago, but more.

Doesn't that just look good? Baby wants cake!

Shelstones!

Meet the Shelstones! What the heck I know....
As you know each year on Labor Day weekend we have our fabulous Gifford Reunion!
This years theme, Cartoon Characters. Our family decided we would be the Flinstones, but since our Grandfathers name is Sheldon, we made it the Shelstones. Growing up he had a nickname of Shed so we werent from Bedrock, we were from Shedrock! Clever!

This year we planned ahead! It was so nice to have our own huge tent! A few months back we recieved a Costco catalog in the mail with a sweet deal on a Coleman tent. Of course we jumped on it and scored it for about $60 less than its selling for.
We also made sure that Eric put in for that Friday off. Every year we work the Friday and get on the road late at night.
So this time we drove up Thursday early evening, made it there by 10 with an hour stop in the St George Walmart. ... special special people....
We were only the second people up there so we scouted out a sweet spot!
Oh and dont get too excited because even though, "full battery" and "camera" were on my list and crossed off, I didnt take a single picture. Whoops.
Thursday afternoon, I packed everything but Erics clothes. I had the car just about loaded and ready to go. Eric got off a little early and we were on the I-15 by 5:00pm without traffic!
Friday morning Eric woke up early, perhaps about 6am. and set up my sisters tent she had sent with us. They got in Way late Friday night.... wait I should say way early Saturday morning and Im sure they enjoyed not having to set up a tent in the dark.
So Eric set it up by himself, while I was passed out in the tent.
Once I was up I busted out the muffins and we had breakfast.
No one was up there still so I read my book all day and Eric Cleaned both of our guns and cleared out bushes that grew in the middle of camp.
It was a nice lazy day.
We were a bit bored and needed ice so we drove down the mountain for a good hour to kill time and hope that when we returned someone would be there. Of course not!! We sat alone for another hour or two.
I never knew how jumpin the party was Friday evening cause we were always so late, but it was fun to be there when others arrived.
Saturday Morning we ate breakfast and of course... headed for the skeetshoot.
Now keep in mind I have strayed away from soda and I push my self to drink lots and lots of water. So with that said.
We go down to the shooting area and set up our chairs and sign up for the shoot.
This is my favorite thing about the reunion. I've been shooting since I was 14 so this is 11 years now. Crazy, who give a 14 year old a gun? My dad!
I prepared myself before I went down by grabbing more waters, fruit leathers, and a muffin incase I got hungry. Before the shoot I thought the women would be up soon so I stood waiting for our turn.
There were about 2 rotations before I got to shoot but once it was my turn I was ready... sort of. I downed a good portion of my water and got on the line.
It was hot and I was wearing a fabulous Shelstone Orange Tshirt like the rest of my family. The way the rotation went this year is, 5 shooters, 5 stations, 2 shots at each. Easy enough but it seemed so long. I remember getting to the 3rd station and then I wasnt feeling so hot. I shrugged it off and kept going... Then I woke up in a trailer with almost my whole family around me.
Here's what happened, so I am told.
I got to my 2nd to last post and I guess handed my gun to Eric and dove for the bushes. Emptied my inners and started to walk up to camp. Eric said at that time he grabbed our chairs and guns and would follow up. My brother in law Chris walked with me a little ways up the road when I was throwing up again... or something. My sister in law Annette drove by on a Quad and they put me on the back and thats where I just went limp according to reporters.
Once up to camp a group of guys were rallied to help get me in a trailer. Once in there I received a neck cooler, a blessing, a nasty Capri sun (that I remember), water and an IV. After the blessing is when I came to but I still dont remember much about it. I know my brother in law Chris was in my face when I woke up and soon I had my dad, Eric and my brother Kevin. Oh and another guy but I have forgotten his name. I guy this other guy used to be an EMT for so long and is now the Captain of a Las Vegas fire station. Lucky me he was there. Also My brother Kevin has had training in things like this. He is the one with the medic kit with the IV.
After a lot of fussing, water,a small fan, and the AC in the trailer, I was doing better, still just bleh though.
I wasnt dehydrated, but they were putting it together that being pregnant, at a high elevation, lack of iron, the sun and a fabulous orange shirt it was heat exhaustion. Woo!
Needless to say I wasnt doing much the rest of the day or the next. In fact I slept through most of them.

After that was all said and done, I didnt place in the skeet shoot, I didnt even finish my turn, I missed the auction, and I couldnt make it through the skits.
That made it sort of sucky but relaxing was nice.
This year we stayed to Monday, when usually we head home Sunday afternoon. It was fun to get up and take down camp at a slow pace.

All in all it was a good trip, minus the excitement.
But I am doing better now and I have a sweet looking bruise from the IV!
This was a picture from on the way home through Zion National Park. They are redoing the roads and have these stop signs through out the park. It took a good 5-10 minutes to get through each. I just found it odd to see a stop light in the park. Oh and don't mind Yoga lady doing her yoga. she got out of the car at each light.