Mon-thurs. randomness.

Today could possible be the first day of the rest of my life. I had my first Enbrel shot today. I have to give a shot to myself every week from now until whenever for my RA and I will have to say, I don't think I'm going to like doing that, but if it makes my body work then I'm all for it. It actually hurt more than I was expecting but maybe part of that was just the anticipation. But next week I'll have to do it all at home. I was talking to the kids about it and they asked, "Did it hurt?" And I said yes. And then I told them I'll have to do it at home next time and Pacen asked, "Will you do it when I'm not here because I'll cry." Ummm, I think I'll cry, too. So, here's hoping that it'll be like liquid magic.

This week has been kind of interesting. Not interesting like really cool things have been happening, just different I guess. I don't know why. I feel busy but not really accomplishing anything big. Just spinning wheels...you know the feeling??? It started out with Pacen having the day off on Monday. That is always fun because we rarely get a weekday with him home all day. Although this morning while we were all lying in my bed he did tell me that Gentry said that she wanted him to stay home today. He was working hard to get another one! So, Monday we ventured out to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. It was just alright for me. (I'm channeling my inner Randy---yes I still watch that show--don't judge.) I guess I should say, "It was just ai-ght for me." It was kind of small, no...really small but it did have cool birds and an especially cool bald eagle. They brought out a few animals to pet but my kids were chickens. We will be back because I bought a year pass but what is cool is that it counted as a zoo pass for the year, too. All for 65 bucks for the whole family. You can't beat that! It was fun and got us out and about with some friends.

Nice belly, Cam.

Monday night was one of those nights. Camry wasn't feeling well and then Pacen was crying about only getting to have one treat because he doesn't like just having one treat, he likes to have lots of treats (I started to rant things like, maybe you would like to get zero treats, would you like that Pacen?!?! like a really cool, totally under control mom) and then Claira got a really bad scratch/bruise on her face from her toy box and she was screaming and I was afraid that it would leave a scar...the verdict is still out on that one but it should be okay. I was just done with parenting for the night. Then Pacen was being a big punk and didn't give me a goodnight kiss and so then I kind of acted like a child and made him feel bad and then he was crying and saying he was sorry and then I had to apologize for acting lame. Did I mention that I was done parenting for the night??!?! He actually came out while I was folding laundry and said, "I just wanted to tell you that I was really sorry again." Oh, sweet boy! I need to make sure I get more sleep so I can be at the top of my parenting game and not have another night like that. I'm trying to think where Than was.....oh yeah...he had to fly to LA for the day. Flew in the morning...worked...and then flew back. Quite the commute.

Tuesday I taught preschool, was asked to teach the RS lesson on Sunday on Pres. Monson's 3 R's of Choice talk...any great insights anyone wants to share??? The rest of tuesday is like a blur...no idea what happened. I know we watched the biggest loser and had white chili for dinner. Oh, and we went to the park and played catch for a quick minute right after Than got home before the sun went down. And when I went to get Claira off the swing at the park I realized that she had gone to the park without putting her underwear on. Nice. She is doing fantastic at potty training as long as she is completely naked from the waste down when she goes. Oh, and on Monday another thing that irked me was when I was making dinner, Claira came and stood right by me and peed on the floor. She hadn't done it for a couple days and I lost it and did spank her (gasp!). I was soooo mad. But she had a really long time out and she hasn't had an 'accident' since. Although I will never tell anyone that it is okay to spank their kid! :)

Wednesday--had to go to costo and paid $3.43 per gallon for gas. Sick and wrong. We watched BYU play and helped clean the church. It was kind of fun actually. I feel bad for the guy in our ward who has that calling because I think he probably cleans the church by himself a lot. I got to vacuum the chapel and it was kind of fun just being able to think and vacuum for an hour. I couldn't hear the kids being loud and crazy so it was kind of nice. And in the end, the kids got to speak in the microphone which was a big deal for them. Pacen screamed, "Hi McKenna!" because "that is what Jacob Parra said in the microphone at the Christmas party." Yeah, that was like two years ago! What a weirdo! Hopefully we're teaching our kids a little something about service in there somewhere.

Thursday---today--i had preschool again. I'm trying to get Camry to write her name the Kindergarten way with only a capital at the beginning but we're getting some resistance there. That girl might just be a stressing out perfectionist, but I was like that until the 4th grade and then I distinctly remember having a conversation with my mom that made me relax. Maybe I can channel her and figure out what to say to cam. :) We had lasagna for dinner. It was yummy. And my favorite new salad dressing. 1 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp vinegar (regular or basalmic) and 1-2 tsp. of montreal steak seasoning. Throw your salad and that in a bag and let your kids shake it and viola...the best salad ever. I'm a ranch girl through and through but this is cheap, easier than making ranch every week, and seriously yummy. Thank you, Peggy. I really need to work on my lesson now. Than is gonna kill me because I've been complaining about not having time to do it and now I have some free time and I'm blogging. Whoops. But I'll leave you with some random pictures.

I was feeding Gentry and just saw this. It was funny. Claira just being upset going through potty training and Pacen just being Pacen.

I am in love with this picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day right now. I randomly bought that frame from Home Goods and the next day I found that picture. It was a perfect fit!

We had 9 deer in our yard the other day. It was crazy. This was only 6 of them, the others were out behind the fence a little ways off. I love to watch them run.

We got to have Jacob's flat stanley with us here a little while ago. It was fun although Pacen hadn't read Flat Stanley so he didn't really get it. Oh well.

And this picture came from Feb. 12th. I know this because I was going to try to join carrie in a 12 on 12 photo thing where you take 12 photos of the normal everyday things you do on every 12th of the month, and I only got one. This is how we do every morning. Everyone ends up in our bed and they fight over who gets to sit next to Gentry and me. I believe Than was out on a run at this point. He's running a half marathon in a couple weeks and he hasn't had too much time to train. Looking at that photo is funny because you think....did you sleep in your clothes or did you get up and put your cardigan on for that really snazzy photo?? Answer number one, folks. I keep falling asleep before I put on my pj's. But tonight I put my pj's on at 5:00pm so I am all set for tonight. Okay...lesson time.

Nevada Part 2

On Friday morning, we drove to Wellington to visit with Grandpa Gentry, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike, and Marc and Emily who had driven all Thursday night. I love Wellington. I think it's really beautiful and I can't get enough of the smell of sage brush. It just takes me back to my childhood driving and visiting Grandma Helen and Grandpa Gentry. We'd always stop at this ghetto gas station in Carson City and we'd buy soda, cornnuts, and skittles and play a game where you would put a skittle in the other person's mouth with their eyes closed and they'd have to guess what flavor it was. And we had a mickey mouse calculator and we would count cars. Anyway....

I was very excited for Gentry to meet Gentry. And I think that they are very fond of each other.

We had more fun in the snow...

It's always more fun when Dad and Uncle Marc are around.

Roman's first snow experience. Why do we feel a need to put a baby all by themselves in the snow? I don't know, but I know I did it to all of my kids. Actually, I spared Gentry. I really just forgot her snowsuit or I know I would have done it. :)

Then everyone had to do some snow angels...

Some were happier than others about it.

And of course, we had some cute baby time. Roman got to wear his first BYU shirt. It's a big moment in a man's life. Little does he know, we're going to brainwash him slowly but surely. :)

Disclaimer...I didn't sneak into Marc's room to take these! It was all Emily! But aren't they cute!?!?!

Most of the time was spent chatting, eating, and playing Dummy Rummy. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike were great hosts to us. The kids got to watch lots of movies and try not to drive everyone crazy with their loudness. We all just really love it there. It's kind of nice because they're internet is super slow and we don't get cell service there so it was like a vacation from technology for a few days. However not good for Than who had to drive a half hour to get service so he could do an appointment! But he made it work. We are looking forward to our next trip out to visit all the grandparents. Maybe we'll do it in the summer so we don't have to use our chains!

Nevada Part 1

Wednesday was a very loooong day for Than. On Tuesday night, he found out his flight was canceled from Wisconsin (I think) to Reno. I was going to pick him up at the airport on our way up to his grandparent's house. But, with the change of plans (ie an airline being LAME and just canceling flights!) he flew into San Fran early Wednesday morning, I picked him up and then we packed up the car and drove to Nevada. The weather made for less than desirable driving conditions on I-80, but we paid a dude 30 bucks to put our chains on and we were golden. Actually, we didn't have any cash and neither Than nor I really know how to put chains on, so we asked the first dude if he would take a check and he said no, so we went to another guy and he looked at Than (in head to toe BYU gear) and said, "Well if you're a BYU guy I should be able to trust you." And so he put our chains on and actually gave Than a step by step teaching on how to do it. He was awesome! And Pacen played his DS almost the entire way there, and the girls played on Than's iPad and everyone was pretty awesome.

So we made it to Silver Springs. We didn't have any plans except to hang out and visit, and that we did. We did eat some yummy tacos, Hancock sausage biscuits, and pasties. And the kids watched a few movies with G G Pa.

GG Ma had lots of fun holding Gentry and enjoying the rest of the kids. This is her showing me how a Hmong woman would let her baby sit up. It's a stool and baby seat all wrapped into one. Who knew????? Gentry was not a fan unfortunately.

And there was sssnnnnooooooow! Yippee! My kids have been dying for some snow. And they had a great time until one of Than's cousin's dogs jumped on Claira. I take that back...it wasn't one dog, it was three dogs that started jumping on her at one time. Luckily, they are just stupid dogs, not mean dogs and there was no harm done, but it did make them a little afraid to go outside. But they got some snow time in anyway.

I am so in love with this picture. Gentry and her great grandma. Love it.

And this one.

Than's grandparents really are amazing. Than's grandpa, Herman, has a long legacy in the church that comes from the line of Levi Ward Hancock, and even goes down further to the signer of the Declaration of Independence John Hancock. Their line comes from John Hancock's brother, actually. Than's grandma, Carolyn Ruth (where our Claira Ruth comes from) is a convert to the church. Together they raised a fantastic family, they have served THREE LDS senior missions...one to Nebraska to serve the Native Americans and two to the Philippines. They've never had a lot of money but they have made amazing sacrifices for their family and for their religion. My kids are so lucky to have them. Camry always says that her best grandma is G G Ma. We were so glad to have some time to go up and visit them.

Second video ever. Just for Erin.

Erin is the best aunt ever. And she knows how to shake it.

First Ever Video.

Camry's preschool class went on a field trip today to the fire station but I'm too lazy to go to my car and get my camera. It's really windy here right now and I'm tired. I'm getting everything all packed to go do a grandparents visit for the weekend. Pacen has thursday through monday off so we are heading off to Nevada to visit grandparents on both sides of our family. Than's grandparents live in Silver Springs and my grandpa gentry,aunt nancy and uncle mike live in Wellington. Both raging communities. I'm excited for my grandpa to meet his namesake. I always wonder if he thinks me naming my baby girl after him was weird. He is a man's man but I just love Gentry as a girl name. And I think Gentry loves it, too. She was so cute today. She is obsessed with her bouncer thingy that hangs...she can get some air! I was putting some clothes away in my room and she was just so happy jumping and laughing. Claira is doing good with her potty training. She's not telling me she has to go so that is annoying, but she didn't have an accident today so that is a success. Camry is just fun to be around. She had her little field trip and we actually played most of the time at Burger King because 5 minutes after we showed up the firemen had to go out on a call, but she could just play and play and play with her friends. And then she asked if she could go to one of the kids' houses afterwards so she could play some more. Pacen has a Sock-hop tomorrow at school and apparently there is a dance. He wasn't sure if he was going to dance with Reese or not. What??!?!?! You're six, right? Just making sure. He was super excited because in his class there is going to be the food. Best food ever....root beer floats and french fries, and in Mr. Siegel's class, you can get fake tattoo's and get to slick your hair back. It's going to be awesome!!!

So, while I was skyping with Than I tried uploading a video and it worked! So now I'm going to post so Than can see it. I've had the little flip video forever it seems like and I've never really used it. So yeah! One of my goals to take more video of my kids might actually work out!

And just as a side note if I was actually planning on posting this on my blog I probably wouldn't have sounded like such an idiot. But this is me, baby. I have an annoying voice.

Exploring.

I think the best words to come out of Pacen's mouth are...Hey mom, let's go explore. And then we did and it was lots of fun. We have a big back yard, but it's not flat and I think is kind of intimidating in it's not-groomed-ness. If my kids were just a little older and a little more brave it would be awesome, but we aren't quite there yet. But we did go out exploring the other day and it was pretty fun. And there are blossoms on a couple of the trees and I love that.

It's really pretty now that it's all green but when it gets hot it'll be all brown and dead and then they really won't want to go out there and explore.

And in other Pacen news......Pacen has a little crush on a girl in his class named Reese. He told me the other day that he got her lunch box out of the lunch box bin for her two days in a row. Such the gentleman. And then he told me that they play two square together and that Aiden told him to sit next to her. And they are going to play two square tomorrow together, too. And that they went walking around the field today because the big kids came over to play and they were afraid they were going to get out. I get little bits and pieces but he's just so cute and gets this little shy look on his face when he talks about it. Sam teases Pacen about having girlfriends and Pacen's response every time is, "Come on, dude." And then he goes and hits him in the leg. My little boy is growing up!

Sister Love.

It just might be a little too much love.