Summer Happenings

Well, in the last month a lot has changed....Cara turned 11 months old, I had my 27th birthday (WHOA!), College Football started (ie little girl wearing A&M outfit), annnnnnnnnnnnd we put our house on the market to be leased out and are buying a fixer in the Westbury neighborhood!!!

We are really excited, but I have to be honest I am pretty nervous about moving from our pristine completely finished beautiful house to one that I like to call a diamond in the rough. HAHAHAHAHA We have talked about the idea of moving in to town to be closer to our friends, church, community group, parks, pools, a huge backyard, and all the other things a little kid would like for a long time, but there never was a house that we thought was worth it.

Thennnnnnn 10619 Atwell Dr Houston, Tx 77096 came on the market. Not only was it priced well, but the original owner from 1957 still lived there! The house is completely original! I am super super excited about the potential that it has. There are gorgeous red oak hardwoods under the carpets in the living/dining areas and all bedrooms, and the 1950's baby blue and sea-foam green tile is still in both bathrooms! I am so excited about the bathrooms, and I plan to restore them to their original glory. We are going to sand and refinish the kitchen cabinets until we can save up to redo the whole kitchen, and we are going to take out the wood paneling in the den and breakfast areas and put up dry wall. I have a feeling that I will be using this blog as a way to document our adventures in fixing up our new house!

We are due to close on the Atwell house September 30th, conveniently the same weekend as Cara's birthday party. We will see how that works out! There are still some things that need to come together, like finding a renter for our current home. We have had a good amount of interest in the home, had quiet a few showings, but no offers as of yet. We live in what is known as the Energy Corridor, and there are lots of corporate leases in our area because of all the Oil Companies right around the corner, so we are hopeful that we will get a renter quickly. Please be praying for a renter for our current home, and that everything will come together in the right timing for us.

I will post a link to our current home listing and our "hopefully" future home on here so anyone who is interested in seeing the houses can!

This is where we have lived for the last 3 years!

http://search.har.com/engine/14450-Basalt-Lane-Houston-TX-77077_HAR55914524.htm

This is hopefully our new home, our diamond in the rough!




http://search.har.com/engine/10619-Atwell-Dr-Houston-TX-77096_HAR14127187.htm

On a side note, Cara has really started doing some funnnn things! She is working really hard on trying to walk. She walks alongside the couches all the time and will take 3 or 4 steps before falling down. She decided that she enjoys real people food even though she doesn't really have any teeth! She only just got her bottom two teeth at the beginning of August. Her hair is really starting to come in, but it is crazy and sticks straight up. We get so many comments on her hair when we take her out. People ask me "Is her hair like that all the time?" "Did you make her hair stick up like that with static?" and the questions seem to keep going! People are very funny when it comes to babies. I have noticed I have a very hard time keeping a low profile when I take her anywhere, but luckily she doesn't mind too much. I think I mind more than she does. :) She absolutely hates hates hates sippy cups! She will be starving and turn away when I offer her a cup. She has zero interest in learning how to use one. We are incredibly blessed with this little girl, and are so thankful for her sweet little life!

Cara has been going to the front window and watching for her Daddy to get home in the afternoons. She will stand over there until he gets home. It is soooo sweet because she will stand there and look out the window and say "Da Da Da". Love her!

Epic Failure on Blogging

So, I have a renewed interest in keeping up to date with our blog. Maybe it is the fact that most people I know are magnificent bloggers, and I am feeling the pressure to jump on the bandwagon. Or, possibly for the first time in 10 months I actually have a few spare moments to myself now that Cara has become a much better napper. :) It may also just be that I know it is the easiest way for family and friends to see pictures of our sweet growing girl!

Cara is now 10 months old! She is absolutely the sweetest baby EVER! We are so so so incredibly in love with her, and are so thankful that God blessed us with her! She truly is a delight, and one who is dearly loved. If you didn't know this by now, Cara means "beloved or one who is dearly loved". That definitely holds true!

Anyways, I am going to post some new pictures...hmm let's go back to January when I dropped the ball. Wow, I can't believe our last post was December. I will try to make this a priority. :) Here we go....time to catch up.

3 Month(ish)



4 Months

We were in Colorado skiing with some of our best friends for Cara's 4 month day! Here are a few pictures from our trip.



I couldn't resist putting this picture on here. I think she has the silliest face in this picture!





We absolutely love Breckenridge, Co! It is absolutely beautiful! Who wouldn't want to wake up to this every morning?! I know I would!



5 Months



6 Month(ish)



I love the faces she makes. This is one of the rare pictures where you can really see the color of her eyes. We are not certain exactly what color they are going to be, but I think they are so pretty!


7 Months





8 Months



Picture of the Grandparents- Philip's parents (left) were in the country this summer, so Cara was able to spend some good time with them.


9 Months



I actually caught Cara pulling up on the couch for the first time!



10 Months

2 months

Wow, I feel like a complete failure for not keeping up with our blog. It isn't like I have been busy or anything. ;) The last 10 weeks have really flown by. I am happy in some ways for those weeks to have gone quickly, but I am also sad that our little girl has grown up so quickly. The first few weeks were very challenging to say the least. Cara had a hard time adjusting to life on the outside. I think she would have been 100% fine with going back into her nice cozy hiding place for a while longer. She has really started enjoying life a lot more in the last month. That is welcome relief to both me and Philip. We have absolutely fallen in love with her, and are completely thankful and blessed to have her as our daughter.

Philip is an AMAZING father, and I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with having him as my husband. He was such a trooper throughout the labor, delivery, and first few weeks of having a newborn. Labor went really well! The midwives at St. Luke's were amazing, and I was able to go completely natural! It was a great experience and such a special time of growth in our relationship and I really learned to have dependence on Philip. It definitely wasn't "easy", but felt extremely accomplishing.

Cara has really grown up a lot in the last few weeks. She has become so much more social, and really loves to laugh and smile. This is very welcome considering she spent her first 5 weeks of life crying most of the time. :) We just absolutely love sitting and talking to her and having her reciprocate her love for us by cooing, smiling, and laughing. We were talking the other day about how appropriate the meaning of Cara's name, she is definitely "one who is dearly loved"!

This time of year is definitely my favorite, and I am just so excited to share this season of Advent and Christmas with our baby. I look forward to teaching her the true reason for Christmas and the love of our savior coming to this earth as a baby to save His people!!

We went Sunday, December 5th after church to get our Christmas tree. Christmas tree shopping is never an easy thing for us to do. We are such perfectionists, and every year we spend hours looking for "the" tree! We finally picked one out after 1 hour and 45 minutes, took it to the check out counter and were about to pay for it, and I started having second thoughts. Philip assured me that this tree was going to be just fine, and we didn't change our minds! We had it loaded on top of our car, brought it home, set it up and put lights on! I love that we get to share our Christmas traditions with Cara! We turned on Christmas music, Philip and Cara danced in front of the tree, and Philip put the lights on while Cara and I hung out on the couch. It was such a special time!

I am going to add pictures to catch you up with the recent happenings in our life. We wish you a happy, blessed, joyful Christmas. What a special time to celebrate the coming of our beloved Redeemer and Savior!!!!



This is Cara at 1 month. She loves her swing!



Cara is 2 months old in this picture!



Cara and Daddy dancing in front of the Christmas tree.



After 2 hours we finally have the "perfect" tree!!!



This is where Cara spends a good amount of her time most days. I love having her close to me, and she loves it too!



We are at Coffee and Cars with Philip. Coffee and Cars is a get together the first Saturday of every month where a bunch of people bring exotic cars and you can walk around and look in them!! Philip and I have been going with friends for a couple of years now.



This is a very special picture to us. My great grandfather, Cara's great-great grandfather, is 95 years old and Cara's middle name namesake. We wanted to get a picture of them together ASAP. It isn't very often that you get a picture with 5 generations!



Here we are with my Pawpaw. I love the way he is looking at her in this picture. So sweet!

She's Here!

Cara Turner Clark
Born 10/4/2010 at 2:53pm
7 lbs 4 0z, 19 inches

Minutes old: Monday (10/4)


Monday (10/4)


Tuesday (10/5)


Tuesday (10/5)


Tuesday (10/5)


Coming home outfit: Wednesday (10/6)


Thursday (10/7)


Thursday (10/7)

37 Weeks and Full Term!

September 7th was a great day! Not only was it the day that Cara officially turned 37 weeks old, but it was also my 26th birthday! I know that just because Cara is considered full term it doesn't mean that she will be making an appearance any day. I would hope that she would come sooner than later, but I don't want to get my hopes up. :) I know that she will come when she is ready, and I am so thankful that my body has done a good job of keeping her safe and healthy. We can't wait to meet our sweet baby!

My birthday was such a wonderful day! I honestly didn't think that being 9 months pregnant and uncomfortable would make for a very good birthday, but I have such a wonderful husband and he made it a super special day! It was a pretty odd day because this was the first birthday I have celebrated where I was by myself all day long. For the last three years I was at work on my birthday and before that I was in school with friends, so it was pretty weird not being around people. I decided that I would use my Christmas gift, a gift card to Urban Retreat, from Philip and go get a pedicure and manicure to relax! It was wonderful! I sat and read a book and listened to music on my Ipod. I was also really excited because I LOVE rain, and it was an extremely rainy day on Tuesday. After I relaxed at the spa, I went and had lunch at Panera Bread and went to get my hair cut. I came home after getting my hair cut, and took a 2 hour nap. :)

I woke up just in time for Philip to come home with some beautiful red roses and him informing me that I needed to get ready for dinner because we had a reservation at 7 pm. We got dressed and headed out into the rainy Houston weather. Philip took me to our favorite special occasion restaurant, Vic and Anthony's! We had a wonderful steak dinner, and I was surprised with a dessert and a jewelry box on a platter from our waiter. I guess when you have a a very pregnant wife you are almost always promised multiple bathroom runs throughout the evening, so he and the waiter were able to sneakily make the exchange of my present. I was extremely surprised at what Philip gave me! He gave me a pair of princess cut diamond earrings!! I have never had or been given diamond earrings, and it was such a wonderful surprise! He was soooo cute and proud of my birthday present. He did such a wonderful job planning my birthday, and I couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate my last birthday prior to Cara coming! We had such a wonderful evening together, and I could not ask for a better husband!!!

The countdown begins!

I can't believe that in a just a week and a half Cara will be considered full term! Time sure has flown, and we have spent the last month or so really trying to get ready for her arrival. We have had a few baby showers since I last posted, and we were really blessed to get most of the things we needed for her! I finally washed all of her blankets, clothes, and cloth diapers so that we won't be stressed out even more doing those things when she gets here.

We finished our birthing classes and took the hospital tour so we know where we are going. :) We finally got the glider rocker and have set that up in her room. I absolutely love it, and I will just go sit and rock during the day. I can't believe how relaxing it is!!! Soon I will not just be rocking a belly, but a baby!

Pray that Cara and I will be safe through labor and delivery, and that Philip and I will adjust well when our precious little girl comes home! We are just so so so excited to meet her, and we can't believe she is going to be here in weeks.









Also, I want to brag on my husband! He built these cabinets!!!! They are 16 feet long and 4 feet tall. He did such an awesome job building us some garage storage! He is currently staining the cabinets to prevent weathering and warping, and then he will be putting on the cabinet doors. He is so talented, and I love to just watch him work!!! Have I mentioned that I just absolutely love my husband?! I don't think I could say it enough. :) Anyways, here are two pictures of the cabinets so far.

Baby Girl's Room

I know it has been a really long time since I have last written on here. Since I last blogged about a month ago, a lot has changed in the Clark household.

I am officially unemployed indefinitely! I couldn't be happier about this! I will be staying home when baby girl makes her appearance in September. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to stay home and raise my child. I am blessed beyond words to have a husband who encourages me to stay home no matter what the cost. Luckily, we have been planning for this time of our lives since we were married 4 and a half years ago, so living off of one salary will not be a big shocker.

We have started getting her room ready!!! I will post some pictures of how her room is coming so far. We have a lot left to do, but have her furniture, curtains and crib skirt all done!







Cara Turner Clark

We have decided to officially tell everyone the name we have decided on.

Other than the fact that we like the way Cara sounds, the meaning is what really made us ultimately choose it as her name. Cara is Italian, and means "beloved or one who is dearly loved". She is very much dearly loved by us, but when I see the word beloved it makes me think of Christ. Jesus often refers to us as His beloved throughout scripture, and I desperately want Cara to be His beloved!

Her middle name, Turner, is a family name on my side. My great grandfather is 94, and has been such a blessing in my life. His last name is Turner, and I have always wanted to use the name Turner to honor him. I can't wait to get a picture of the two of them together when she is born! Imagine having a picture of 5 generations, he is Cara's great-great grandfather!!!! I had the chance to visit with him yesterday, so this is the latest picture that I have with the three of us together.



Cara is offically 26 weeks old, and is continuing to grow!!! We only have 3 more months until we get to meet our precious little girl!!! I can't wait to see Philip hold her. He is such a sweet sweet husband, and is going to be an amazing father. I am so blessed to be able to call him MY husband!

I will try to be better about posting updates in the future!!!