Learning to Blog

This is our first attempt at a family blog. We've seen how helpful other family blogs are in informing everybody of family news so we've decided to go all Web 2.0 on everybody as well. Those familiar with our family newsletter will be able to find our blog under the same name (http://theclarkbark.blogspot.com/). We are just finishing up celebrating Christmas and here it is already Jan. 4th. Today Macie and I will be putting away all the Christmas decorations (about a week later than usual) and trying to avoid the post-holiday blues. In an effort to cheer ourselves up, we'll be picking up our new car tomorrow in Ankeny. Mostly the reason for trading in is to get rid of the recently problematic Yaris, one of the last physical reminders of this summer's flood. We are very excited to get a bigger vehicle with brand new warranties and much needed space for our growing family. Our new car will be a Chevy HHR, just like this one: It's a little weird looking, and I guess you could say it is reminiscent of the old 1920's gangster roadsters or whatever, we liken it to a little party wagon. We've even already decided to name it 'Georgie' which does not sound very party wagon-ish, but it fits the car to us. Mostly, after test-driving and researching many, many rejects, the HHR was the best fit (only one left standing) to our intense standards. Sassy seems very excited to be able to ride with the family once again. This will be the first time she has been able ride in a vehicle at the same time as Topher. While Georgie gets decent gas mileage, we still are probably going to be renting a Corolla or something a little more efficient to drive out to Utah this summer. Not that we don't want to take it out there, but putting 2,000 miles on our brand new car is not exactly what we had in mind. In other news Topher has been having an ongoing growth-spurt for what seems like the last 3 weeks. Once we started supplementing his diet with formula, he has quickly packed on the pounds, gaining 2.5 lbs in 2 weeks at one point. We don't know for sure, but it seems as if he is part pot-bellied pig. Topher really enjoyed his Christmas with my parents this weekend. He probably won't take an active role in present-opening till next Christmas, but that didn't stop him from enjoying his new gift from two of his favorite aunts (Lindsey and Jo). Here he is enjoying his musical rainforest jungle gym. Macie got a plethora of new books, which she desperately needed to avoid cabin-fever during these cold months with Topher. She gets a lot of mileage out of her books, reading them each multiple times if nothing else is available, but it should take her a long long time to read through all her new books from Mom and Dad Clark and Linds and Jo. T.J. received a couple new movies, which is his favorite past-time, and will be happy to add them to the family dvd library. He also got a much-needed gift certificate to Old Navy which he'll be using to buy some new jeans. His favorite 'comfort jeans' are quickly deteriorating... which reminds me of a famous Seinfeld bit, that is the tragedy of the T-shirt. With every washing, it comes closer to death. Well, we're going to wrap it up. Hope everybody enjoys this and looks forward to future posts. -T.J.