We took our first trip with Finn and we went to Denver, CO over Father’s Day weekend. So Fun!!

Things we did:

• Packed a ton of stuff for Finn
• Flew in Airplane (We got the whole row to ourselves both flights.)
• Rented a Car
• Stayed in Hotel: La Quinta 9009 E. Arapahoe Road, Greenwood Village, CO 80112
• Botanic Gardens
• Swimming
• Went to Church on Sunday, great Father’s Day Program from the primary.
• Indoor Skydiving @ Skyventure
• Cheesecake Factory and split the “30th ANNIVERSARY CHOCOLATE CAKE CHEESECAKE” so delish!
• Lost Camera or was stolen @ the Aquarium
• Bought a new camera but got ripped off from the Wal-Mart sale’s peep, so we returned it once we got home.
• Swimming
• Pushed Flight Back: Clark was so on top of things and totally got us some free flying time just for taking a later flight. Way to go Clark!!!

Here’s some fun pics from the new camera. I lost all of the cute pics from everything we did previous to the Aquarium. I can’t even tell you how upset I was and how much I’d rather not talk about how amazingly perfect the gardens were when we took our family pics while the sun was setting. GRRRRR I’m still mad at myself (long story for a later post), oh well.

So this was our first trip where we went to Church on Sunday to a different ward. It was an amazing experience! Our parents didn’t do that for some reason or another and therefore we never really thought of it until this year. So, we are so glad that we went to church on Sunday because we should never take a vacation from worshiping the Lord or He’ll take a vacation from us. Needless to say we will be going to church if we happen to  be out of town on a Sunday. I’m so glad I married a man who is a great Priesthood example to Finn and to me and motivates us to want to be better.

Click here or here to view full size pics to order 4×6.

Thanks so much for taking us on this awesome trip, Clark. We had so much fun and actually want to go to Denver again for 3 reasons, 1- to retake the garden pics and the skyventure pics (hey a girl can wish can’t she?), 2- to go to Elitch Gardens Theme Park and 3- to go to the US Mint.

So….many of you know that Clark was looking for a new job. (Thanks for the prayers, help and referrals!) He just started working for a place called MedSource Rx, he’s in charge of OverstockDrugstore.com’s Marketing (not related to Overstock.com). He really loves it and they love him too. They sell all kinds of products  (They sell over-the-counter drugs, beauty products, baby stuff and other stuff except no grocieries) at low, low, low, prices even lower than CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and drugstore.com. He’s their Director of Marketing. Which means he gets to think of “fun & cute,” okay fine- effective, ways to advertise the site so people will buy their products. Whoot! Whoot! He’s so smart! I’m so blessed to have such a smart and hard working husband.

Anyway, he just started this C.O,U,P O.N program for friends and family. Basically, all friends and family can get a C,O,D.E to use on the site which gives us and you all 1 0 % O-F-F the entire order no minimums and each employee gets their own personal secret one to share if they want to. So, Clark’s C.O,U,P O.N  -  C-O,D E is griswold46 and expires on 4-12-2009. Yes, you can even use it on clearance or sale items! Every month they’ll give out a new one so I’ll post the new ones on our blog so you all can get  sweet deals. So feel free to use it and don’t say we never saved you anything. LOL Oh and orders over $50 get free shipping!

Sorry I am being weird with the letters above, I don’t want spammers on the site.

Today we blessed Finn. It was such an amazing experience. It’s humbling to know that Heavenly Father trusts us enough to take care of such a choice spirit and teach him what he needs to know so he can return to live with him someday. I sure hope we can do a good job. He has changed our lives forever. I don’t even trust myself with glass when washing dishes. LOL Probably not the best comparison, but you know what I mean. He was definitely worth the 7 year wait, just as we knew he would be. He’s such a little angel. He is soooo going to end up being a spoiled kid, you all have been warned and we don’t care if you talk about us behind our backs about it either.

We of course took a gazillion pics of family with Finn and some of just Finn too. I’m only posting up the good ones otherwise it could get crazy long.

He looks so handsome and dapper in his little suit. My most favorite part is his tie. I mean how cute is that? Too bad he won’t fit into it for much longer. It was a tight suit, but it was the only one left.

To order pics of Finn’s Blessing go here.

BTW: He is officially listed on The Church records now. Yippy! Now when anyone signs into the LDS.org ward site we’ll have Finn showing up right under us, just like everyone else and their kids. LOL How awesome!!! OK well, that’s just a fun perk.

Oh and here’s a bonus pic. This was what he was wearing under his little suit. Thanks to our friend for making it for us!

So, our twin nephews (Finn’s Cousins) came to visit Finn today and it looks like Cole is going to make a great Babysitter when he gets older. He’s just a few years older than Finn so maybe Jake (twin’s older Bro) would be a baby sitter before Cole, but look how cute he is with him.

I know…he doesn’t even look related with all of his red hair and pale skin but he definitely is. It’s Mommy’s fault Finn looks a bit tan, but the dark hair is both from Mom and Dad. :)  It’ll be fun to see Finn play with his cousins as he gets older. Thanks for being such a great cousin Cole!

Note: I guess Ty says the boys were calling Finn, “Finny” on their way home. I love it, really cute boys!

We took family pics at Ritz Camera today. We also got to take some pics of just the 2 of us and our little Bumpy. We are so excited and can’t wait till he gets here. B&J, Thanks for making us take these couple pics!

The kids are so cute! Click on the pictures above to order prints up to 4×6.

So the Hoopes (Clark’s side of the family) Christmas Party was at the James’ home in Lehi this year. There was a soup bar and lots of other goodies and treats. I just love soup bars! Had some of every soup. I think my favorite soup was one that Erica made, (I can’t remember what it was called) but it reminded me of the Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup at Zupas (which is my favorite soup there). Oh soooooo good. Anyway…the party was fun we got to go around and catch up on everyone’s lives and we even got to watch a cute video that the James’ made from pictures of previous Hoopes Christmas Parties where the cousins would act out the Nativity Story found in the Bible.

Thanks to all for a memorable Hoopes Christmas!

Here’s some pics which we took at the party. Click here to order 4×6 prints of the pictures below.

Oh, and I totally loved her tree! It has little picture frames as ornaments with pictures of her family in them. I was sooo going to do that this year, but along with a ton of other things I never got around to it. Our tree didn’t even have any ornaments or decor on it this year. LOL But her tree turned out better than ours would have anyways, cause she’s more creative. I mean I don’t even know how to put little berries in a tree.

Here’s the video of past Hoopes’ Christmases. See if you can spot Clark.

The Woods hosted the Winegar Family Christmas Party this year. Great food, fun, catching up on each others lives (because we don’t get so see them nearly enough), some Ping Pong playing between Matt & Clark, the traditional singing of the 12 days of Christmas with parts and especially great desserts. There was a chocolate pie and it was amazing!!! Aunt Tam and cousin Jennie are in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (they have amazing voices) and they gave us 2 CDs this year. Rejoice & Be Merry and Praise to The Man. Aunt Tam sang in both the CDs and Jennie sang in Praise to The Man. I think last year they gave us Spirit of the Season. I just love adding to our Christmas music collection because the same ole songs just don’t do it for me anymore. The MoTab Choir is so uplifting and always brings the true spirit of Christmas into our home or car.

Bumpy’s favorite song was Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly from the Rejoice & Be Merry cd, he loved the chorus and would get really excited and move a lot when that song would come on. I think he loves all Christmas music.

Special thanks to The Woods for hosting and organizing a wonderful Christmas Party and for the super thoughtful and uplifting CD gifts. Click here if you’d like to order 4×6 prints of any of the pictures below.

Guys are so funny when it comes to getting pics taken of them. I guess it’s cause they don’t want to be online.

At 2pm my Mom and Mother-in-Law threw us the Family Baby Shower at our home. The decorations were super cute and done by a couple of my sister-in-laws. We had a soup bar! Oh how I love soup. Jude brought a couple soups (chili and a cheddar soup), some yummy desserts and my Mom made her famous green soup (it’s like a basil minestrone), made the cutest onesie cake ever and we played a couple fun games.

I got to see some of our family which we hardly ever see these days (I wish I would have taken a pic of everyone), so it was great to have everyone there. I had a lot of fun and again everyone was so generous.

I can’t believe we’re really going to be parents soon. The 2 baby showers make it seem more real because up until now we didn’t have anything for the baby except the room and crib. I hate being the center of attention unless it’s at a club (which hasn’t been the case in about 7-8 years). I guess Bumpy is the real center of attention, but peeps just have to look at me in order to look at him. LOL. I’m excited to see him and so is everyone else.

Here’s some pics we took at the Baby Shower. Click here to order 4×6 prints of any of the pictures.

Thanks to everyone who organized, put together this awesome baby shower for Bumpy and everyone who made a special trip to come. These 2 Baby Showers were the best ones ever! We love you all!

P.S. Stephanie was the one who guessed the closest and the “smallest” for my belly size. Thank you Steph!

On friday my boss, Chris, offered to lend me another book. I already have two of his so I told him I’m reading too many books right now, and that I’d have to finish a few before I took on another. He asked me what I was reading and when I couldn’t even remember all of them, I realized that I might have a problem with starting new books before finishing what I’m reading. Over the weekend I decided to tally up everything I’m “reading” right now. Here’s the list (in no specific order):

1. Patriots*
2. Guards, Guards*
3. Prophesy - Key to the future*
4. Uncommon Genius
5. If You Want To Write
6. Elements of Style**
7. Pirate Hunter
8. Bonds that Make Us Free**
9. Book of Mormon Student Manual (Religion 121–122)**
10. The Brothers: A Novel*
11. Guerilla Marketing**
12. Don’t Make Me Think**
13. Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads
14. Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve written any blog posts, and I don’t entertain any delusions that anyone has really missed my posts; nevertheless, I feel the need to explain my absence from the blogosphere.

Since January of this year, I’ve spent most of my free time working with some friends to develop a new service for creative-minded people. Well, the service is finally to a point where I’m ready to share it with all of my loyal blog readers (that’s you Linda).

It’s called Review Fuse (www.reviewfuse.com) and it’s a service for writers, aspiring writers, or even writing dabblers who want to get some good feedback and constructive criticism for what they’ve written. The basic concept is that you submit what you’ve written and other members of the service give you detailed reviews and feedback. In return, you then review the work of other members and tell them what you think. The cool thing we’ve found out about this method is that you often learn as much or more by reviewing others as you do having your work reviewed.

Of course there’s a bunch of other stuff we think is cool like our peer matching technology which attempts to match you with other members with of similar preferences and skill levels, our review frameworks which make it easier to write a review by guiding you through the process, inline commenting so you can write your feedback while you read, and private writing groups which are coming soon.

So, if you like to write please visit Review Fuse and try it out. In fact even if you don’t like to write, you can visit the site and read some great short stories. Also, if you know anyone who likes to write, please help us spread the word. Tell them in person, or better yet, add the Review Fuse blog to your blog links (assuming you have a blog of course). And, of course, if you visit the site, please tell me what you think.

If you don’t like to write, but wish you could get feedback on what you love to do, don’t worry, our ultimate plan is to take over the world expand Review Fuse so that it can be a service for facilitating other types of peer-to-peer critiques. Let me know what you think would be cool to get reviewed in an online community.

Check our “How it works” vid below for more info.

signed,
Clark