Month in Review: October 2007

Welcome to Month in Review: October 2007, documenting key events for our family history. This is a great way to catch up with the Clarks.

• We announced the creation of our new website, Wife Advice, a place where we share anecdotes and our own brand of marriage "advice." A few days after we set it up, it was named as a finalist in a $10,000 blogging scholarship competition. We didn't win, but we gained a lot of new readers. We're having fun with it. (Be sure to submit your questions, for a chance to win dinner on us!)
  
• Tommy gave a speech on termites. Helping him find pictures online was creepy (I don't really need to see those critters close up).
  
• We enjoyed General Conference. Tommy was disappointed that he had to miss a session to go to a birthday party. Ahh, the power of candy.
  
• I'm way too excited about my new dishes.
• Chris had a week off of school. It was nice to have him home on more evenings than normal. We went to the gym together a few times, which is always better than me going early in the morning and him going late at night.
  
• Michael is a cute younger brother to Tommy; he really is his shadow, and loves to mimic his sense of humor; they have a lot of cute little inside jokes that I don't even understand. Michael is also a great older brother to David. He is obsessed with kissing David's head, and will follow him around the house, clinging to him. Thankfully, David is a good sport about it all.
  
• Chris's dad came for a visit, and we all went to Pocatello for Quin's baptism, which Chris had the privilege of performing. We stayed the night at the hotel where Chris's mom works, so it was a fun, quick trip.
• Chris's dad gave us a new blender, because he loves making smoothies, and apparently our old blender didn't cut it. Thanks, Ron!
• My brother Kevin and his wife Kelly were sealed in the temple (my name-matching sister-in-law posted a few photos). We were sad to miss it, but look forward to seeing my whole family at a reunion next year.
• Chris turned 31. For a whole 2 months, he cannot tease me about being older than him. The most exciting gift was a little practice-size amp for his electric guitar, and the promise that I will set him up to take a few professional lessons!
  
• We are on pins and needles, waiting for David to start talking more, as it's one of the cutest stages. So far he is saying "hi" and "bye" and lots of other stuff that only he understands.
  
• Tommy has been on a school break for the last two weeks. Our routine has been thrown off (read: life is hectic, the house is a mess, and Michael refuses to nap), but we've had some extra fun as well. Tommy was excited to visit his old stomping grounds, and join us for story time at the city library. He was even more excited that they had every volume of the literary masterpiece, Captain Underpants.
  
• I survived the major ordeal of getting all the winter clothes out and sorted. It's getting tricky, because David is much bigger than Tommy and Michael were at his age, so it's hard to figure out who wears what. While sorting clothing may not seem like big news, it is actually a major accomplishment for me to have the right clothes in the right places before January.
  
• We had a fun Halloween. I missed out on taking the kids trick-or-treating, since I was at traffic school (a small price to pay to have my driving record wiped clean). The kids had a great time, and Chris said they were very polite; hopefully that will last as we enter the begging for/stealing candy season. We posted some photos of Halloweens Past. And here are some shots from a fun Halloween party we attended: