Knoxville

It seems like forever ago, but weekend before last Graem and I headed up to Knoxville for the Carolina game. I won't bore you with all the details of the weekend...details would mean that I would spend most of this post complaining, and I know yall don't want to read that! Instead, here's a quick recap:

Knoxville is nice, especially if you like hills (they don't call it rocky top for nothing).

Neyland Stadium is the pits (this is where my complaining could get really out of hand...suffice it to say that I'm thankful that rocky top is not home sweet home to me!).

We won (yay!).

I ended up sick on Sunday, and I'm still not entirely sure if it was a reoccurence of really bad morning sickness, or we overdid it on Saturday, or I picked up a GI bug.

The leaves on the drive up and drive back were beautiful.



Tailgating on the water looks like fun!


We tailgated most of the day with our friend Blake, who works for Colonial Life in Nashville. This picture of Graem and Blake cracks me up...


All in all, it was a nice little getaway and I know the boys were glad we took a trip, because they had a blast with my parents at the farm. We try to do one away game each year and I'm glad we went to Tennessee this year, but its not at the top of my list for future trips! The ironic thing is that Vanderbilt, also in Tennessee, might just be my favorite road trip for a game!

Our Third Sweet Baby Boy

I feel like everyone in the world was holding their breath on Wednesday to find out the gender of baby Clark #3! And thanks to text messaging and Facebook, and now my blog, now the whole world knows!



Yes, we are having a third boy. Last night Graem and I joined the Smyths to see "Rain," the musical tribute to the Beatles, and all day today I've been singing "one and one and one is three...come together..."

I have to admit that this pregnancy is so different from the first two that I really thought it must be a girl...of course this is only the third time that I've been wrong in predicting the gender of my children...so much for a mother's intuition! But I learned a long time ago that God knows best and I know He is giving us this baby boy for a reason. I know God has big plans for this little fella's life and it is an honor for me to get to be his Mama. And there is definitely something special about three boys...there aren't many Mamas that can say they had three boys ages four and under!

Now that I've had a couple of days for the news to sink in, I thought I would share some random thoughts I've had and/or suggestions from others about raising 3 boys.
1. The southern gentleman is an endangered species; I'm glad to do my part to increase the population.
2. Since I'm only capable of producing heirs, I must have been meant for royalty.
3. We need to increase the coverage of our homeowner's insurance.
4. I plan to pick the wives of all 3 of my sons.
5. Graem thinks a third boy justifies the need his wish to buy a camper.
6. Boys love their mamas best.
7. It's a good thing I like to cook.
8. We will always have female pets in our home.
9. I believe that boys can be well-mannered, kind, considerate, and respectful and still be "all boy."
10. My boys are fortunate that they'll have brothers as playmates and friends for life.

It's November!

November 2nd, to be perfectly accurate...which means my big ultrasound is today! (11/2/11 at 2 -- yall know I like numbers!) I'm so excited!! I'm praying for a good appointment, with news of a healthy baby who has his or her legs spread wide open! :-)

I have some catching up to do with pictures from all of our Halloween festivities. Well, not all of our Halloween festivities. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have any pictures of our trick-or-treating experience. Roper ended up with pink eye on Halloween so he was quarantined at the house.

Most of you know that I grew up on a farm, so on Halloween we always went to the fall festival at our church and then went trick-or-treating in my grandparents' neighborhood. Most days of the year I do not love having neighbors on all four sides of me...I miss the privacy of living in the country...but Halloween is one exception. I love our neighborhood on Halloween! We get lots of trick-or-treaters...I feel like all the children from Lexington County that don't live in proper trick-or-treating neighborhoods end up in our neighborhood and I love it!

So even though I don't have pictures from the actual night of Halloween, I do have some of our little firemen, aka Sam and Elvis. (You might recall that Mason went through a prolonged phase of referring to himself as Fireman Sam, and he referred to Roper as Elvis...Fireman Sam is still around, but thankfully the obsession has tapered somewhat).

My plan was to dress Mason as a fireman and Roper as a dalmation, but Roper insisted that he be a fireman too. Here the boys are before the Browns pumpkin carving party...



On the way to the party I needed to run in the grocery store to pick up some chips to go with the dip I made...and lo and behold there was a fire truck in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot! The firemen were so nice and let the boys climb all over the truck.



Here are our pumpkins...Graem's emoticon pumpkin came in second place in the contest. I was pretty proud of my bat too, but I heard at least one trick-or-treater refer to it as a moose...



Our next Halloween outing was to Boo at the Zoo with the Smyth family. It was Jr. Gamecock Club night so we got to visit with Cocky and the cheerleaders. Roper loves Cocky...from afar...he refused to get in the picture.



The Smyths...










A hot dog dinner was included with the Jr. Gamecock Club thing, and they also had a d.j. The children were cracking us up with their dance moves!



Ro-ro loves baby Frances...


A sweaty fireman and a goat...


All 5 of the children...

The State Fair

Until a few years ago I had little to no interest in the fair. I was kind of a snob about it -- the people seemed strange, the food was greasy, the rides didn't seem safe, and the whole thing was kind of dirty. Then my friend Tara introduced me to Pronto Pup corn dogs and Fiske fries...and my friend Sally introduced me to the fried mushrooms and lemonade. Sometimes grease is good. :) I've learned that I only like to go to the fair during the daytime and preferrably on a weekday. And now that my children are big enough to go on the rides, it has become something that we anticipate every year!

We actually made 2 fair outings this year...once just me & the boys and the second time my mom and my nephew, Robert, joined us.













These boys love ice cream! And so does baby #3. :)

School Pictures = Good (Again)

For the second year in a row I have been equally surprised and impressed with the boys' preschool pictures. Once again, they turned out really cute. Last year Mason's were especially good, and this year Roper's are especially good.





Mason also had soccer pictures a few weeks ago. I was somewhat hesitant to order these, because we didn't get proofs. You had to pay for them up front. So I ordered the smallest package and a team picture and hoped for the best! They turned out really good too! I think Mason looks so much like Graem in this picture.





Photo credits: Stephanee Seay Photography (school pics) and Southern Sports (soccer pics).

Litchfield

I mentioned in my post yesterday that we spent the weekend at the beach...my Aunt Ruth let us use her brand new condo at Litchfield and we had such a relaxing mini-vacation. October is a great time to go to the beach...I could hardly believe it, but people were actually swimming in the pools and the ocean!

We took lots of walks/bike rides...


...hunted alligators...


...enjoyed the scenery...






...had races on the beach...






...and I did my best to ensure that we left Aunt Ruth's beautiful condo with brand new furniture exactly like we found it, which was difficult considering we had pizza for lunch one day, ribs for supper one night, and 2 messy children, that look like this after eating toast with jelly:



After the Carolina *victory* on Saturday, we headed back to the beach for a bike ride on the sand during low tide. Once we got there, the boys quickly lost interest in their bikes and were fascinated by the tide pool left behind during low tide. You can see the progression in the following pictures how putting their feet in the water turned into running around, which turned into jumping in, which was followed with rolling around in the water. At some point Roper took off his shirt. :)













When we were at the beach in August, Graem took Mason to the go cart track and had some tickets leftover, so we rode up to MB to race go carts. I'm still not sure if this was for Graem's entertainment or the boys'??









This was our first trip to Litchfield as a family and it brought back many wonderful memories of vacationing there when I was growing up. My grandparents had a condo at Litchfield so we went there often...I can remember walking on the beach with my grandmother looking for shells...visiting my grandmother's friend from college at Debordieu...sitting on the beach at night with my grandfather watching a meteor shower...and watching the Atlanta Braves on tv with my grandfather. It is a very special place and none of us wanted to leave. We are very thankful that we will get to go back often! Thank you, Aunt Ruth!

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

My friend Miriam posted a link on her blog for these cupcakes, and I knew I had to try them. A new Starbucks is open in town, but I haven't visited since I have eliminated cut back on my caffeine for Baby. So I thought these would be a good alternative. I have to say they are better than the drink! You could even make the cupcakes decaf if you wish.

On the way home from the beach yesterday, I remembered that I was signed up to bring a dessert to small group last night. We were pushed for time, and the easy thing would have been to pick up some cookies on the way, but I had already purchased all the ingredients for these, and they only needed to bake for 18 minutes. And I have been obsessing over them since I read the recipe and purchased all the ingredients. :) So I gave them a shot. I had to ice them before they were completely cool, but surprisingly the icing didn't melt.

I pretty much followed the recipe, except that I don't know what espresso powder is & couldn't find it in the store. I just used instant coffee granules & they did the trick. Unlike Miriam, I used the canned pumpkin that the recipe called for. Like Miriam, I used cream cheese icing.

Cream cheese icing is so easy to make...1 stick of softened butter + 1 block of softened cream cheese + 1 lb powdered sugar (4 cups) + 1 Tbsp milk. (Double the recipe for a cake). If you are like me & pushed for time, you can soften the butter & cream cheese by zapping them for 60 seconds at 50% power. Cream the butter & cream cheese. Add the sugar and milk and mix until smooth and beautiful and delicious.

Several people at small group asked me how I got the icing to look so pretty. I used a pastry bag, which in all honesty is the easiest way to ice cupcakes. Much easier than using a spatula. You can use a ziplock bag with the corner cut off for a pastry bag, or you can buy pastry bags at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. Or you can make your own with parchment paper if you are good at origami. I also used this tip to make the swirls, which you can buy at Hobby Lobby for only one or two dollars. And it is an over-sized tip so you don't even need a coupler.

Mmm...I think I will go have another cupcake. :)