How to eat some yummy fries.

French fries just make you happy. And fat. But happiness is worth the fat. Unless you are Emily and have stopped eating fries all together. Criminal.

You gotta dip it in the fry sauce...obviously. And then just shove as much as you can at one time. I've never been a one at a time fry eater. I always eat at least two if not three at a time. I even like eating two chips a time with salsa. My favorite chips are the ones that have been fried together like stacked 4 or 5 high. Yummy.

Then you stick the bag on your head hoping that at least one more will fall out. Like checking your food bag to make sure that any didn't fall out when you took out your fry bag. And then you just eat straight fry sauce...if you're from Utah. :) Utahan's love that fry sauce. I'm not a lover of all fry sauces. My fave is from Red Robin. Sometimes they just have too much mayonnaise. Really I just love ketchup....or ranch. Ranch is really best. Brings back memories of the bowling alley when I was a kid. In case you didn't know this fact about me, my sisters and I were all on a Saturday morning bowling league. I won't lie...we were pretty good. Occasionally my mom would splurge for french fries but we were commanded NEVER to eat them with our bowling hand. Greasy hands plus bowling just never mixes well. I had a denim jacket that my mom sewed all of my bowling patches on and someone stole it from the softball fields. Who would want a denim jacket with tons of bright ugly bowling patches on it!?!?! Someone from Oroville who is white trash. Who knew french fries could bring back so many memories?

This makes her happy.

Claira doesn't care how she sports princesses. As long as she has some princess thing on, she is happy.

She knows right where Camry's underwear is and finds it almost everyday and wants me to put it on over her diaper. And then when I change her, I'll forget to put it back on and she just brings it to me. The girl is a nut.

And Pacen is a sports nut, but we already knew that. His teacher, Mrs. Herman, told him that there was a BYU game on last night and so he wanted to invite Ty over to watch it.

I have to say watching and listening to them was just as fun as watching the game. They get so into it. Mom, that was Jimmer! Mom, do we get a free shot? Miss it! Miss it! Miss it!

Our mission is complete. We are sufficiently brainwashed over at our house.

sleeping kids

This is where my kids are sleeping right now. It started out a few weeks ago when Camry wanted to sleep in Pacen's room because Claira kept waking her up. At first it was on the weekend and then it turned into an every night event. Then Claira wanted in on the action so Pacen and Camry went to sleep in the girls' room...both Pacen and Camry on the floor and Claira in the bed. Tonight Claira was all upset and crying and the kids just said, "Aww, mom, just let her sleep with us." So, I let her. (It's a good thing Than is out of town...he'd never have gone for that one!) I went down to veg out on the couch for a while and I heard lots of bumps and moving around upstairs, but I just let them be. Then, when Lost was over I went up to check and they were all asleep and they are all just so adorable. Claira is obsessed with those pajama's that she has on. She is really trying hard to keep up with Camry and wants to be just like her. Not a bad girl to follow I'll say. All Pacen wants to do these days is play basketball and football...in the house, outside with his friends, watch BYU on TV. He's really a sports junkie. Today he had been playing all day and then finally I tell him we need to sit down and do his homework and he's like, Mom! I didn't finish my game! I don't know what the score is! You know, his ever important game of pacen vs. pacen in our living room. He's been all into what girls like him these days at school. On Friday he came home and said, "Mom, guess what?" I said, "You love me." And he paused and said, "Yes, but also four girls at school love me!" He was so happy with himself. He said Jasmine, Ruthie, Amira and Mariah love him, but he told Ruthie that he'd marry her. Lucky girl. I would love to have him marry a girl named Ruthie because that name just makes me happy. Name that movie...ruthie.....pigface.....draper.... I love that show. I love my sleeping kids. I love my electric blanket. I love my penny snuggling with my every night while Than is out of town. I love my Than working hard traveling around the United States. This week is the ATL. I love my mom. I had a dream about her last night. Those are always the best nights but it wasn't a great mom dream. (But any dream is better than the curling dream that i had all night long the night I fell asleep while watching curling on the olympics!) I had to go and fight a doctor because they wouldn't give her the medicine that she needed. I'm a good fighter. :) I really feel like she's close by me. Especially when I'm all alone. Almost like I could just look over my shoulder and she'd just be there. And maybe she is. Camry has been into calling people lately and she says, "Mom, lets call Grandma. Oh wait, there's no phones in Heaven." Man I miss her. I feel like I just want to watch as much of the Olympics that I can because we always watched the figure skating. I asked Than, "Is figure skating not as popular as it was when I was younger, or was it just my mom that thought it was so cool?" My mom took us to a Smuckers Stars on Ice program at Arco Arena for crying out loud. We loved it! Okay, now its time for me to join my sleeping kids. I'm beat.

The Great Piglet Debate

Okay, there is no debate. I know the answer. Piglet is a boy. Everyone knows this...except for my kids. The other day Camry 'found' (saw where I was stashing away a bunch of stuffed animals) Piglet. She began exclaiming, "Mom! I found her! I found her!" Who??? Oh, yes, piglet...the girl. She has been playing with Piglet everyday since she rescued 'her' from stuffed animal exile. Claira and Camry fight over 'her' even though we have almost all the Winnie The Pooh plush animals. And every time cam or pacen talk about Piglet, he's a she. And really, he's a very feminine he to begin with so I see the confusion. One of these days I'll have to set them straight.

This is one of Claira's favorite spots in the house. It's a good thing she's skinny or we'd be buying ourselves a new dishwasher! She loves to unload....or throw all the dishes and silverware on the ground. You'll often find Penny up there as well trying to drink water off of it. Sick, I know.

When I was uploading these pictures I saw this one and thought...holy crap...how junked up were our counters this morning?

In the rush to get ready for church, I just look past it all. But from right to left I see a box of cereal from our power breakfast, a bag from Than's trip to walmart last night, our huge sugar container from our downstairs storage area, our popcorn maker from last night when Than and I watched The Proposal, another walmart bag, and my wonderful waffle iron. Note how I did not say that we had waffles this morning. :) That is just one glimpse into our busy, tired from too much playing on Saturday, Sunday mornings.

Camry

Okay, after I scanned this I can't really see the point of what I was putting it on here for. I'm getting another one..okay, the one with Belle is better. Do you sense the trend of what Camry likes to do??? We have a constant spread of crayons and markers on our kitchen table that never seem to get put away for more than ten minutes.

At the beginning of the year, we made goals and Camry really wanted to learn how to write her name. So, we worked on it. Not so much we, but really her. I wrote it one time for her with a high lighter and she copied it and then a few days later she was just writing her name like she's just always known how. And now she's just a writing fool. This morning I look over at her writing in her little notebook and ask what she's doing and she says matter-of-factly, "Writing a book." Okay, cam. She always writes Dad on things, but it started out Daad every time until Pacen said something. I kind of liked seeing her write Daad. It was just cute. Just like I didn't correct Pacen on how to say water until just a little while ago. He always said la-ter but now that he's big and five I can't just keep him saying things wrong just because I think it's cute. Cam is just a determined little fireball. And what else is cute is that her and Claira are beginning to play better together. It's fun to see sisters in action. I think it's taken a while since Pacen and Cam are so close but now Claira wants to be big and she just loves doing what they do. It really is monkey see, monkey do. Claira copies everything! It's a good thing my kids don't swear. :)

My sweet little valentines...

Pacen came home like this from school on Friday...

So, of course, Camry and Claira had to wear the little heart, too.

Pacen was soooo excited for his Valentine's day party. It was the first thing he thought of when he got up in the morning and had to make a little box just for his Valentine's just like Sophie. My kids really are great because when Camry came home from her preschool party she immediately shared all of her treats with Pacen and even brought home a cupcake just for him because they were soooo good. And then when Pacen came home he shared his candy right with the girls. I love it. They really are just good little friends.

Our Valentine's Day was great. Than took me out to Thaiphoon (we are obsessed with that place) and then to see Valentine's Day the movie...very cliche but exactly what I wanted to do...and don't go see that movie. It's not like I felt like it was a complete waste of money, it just wasn't that good. How can you have so many famous people in a movie and have it turn out so poorly!?!? It was very blah. But, it was a fun date night with Than.

Last night we spent the actual V-day with Jana and Ben. We sat and ate steak and potatoes until we were about to puke and then played 2 rounds of Dominion...one of which I actually one. Yippee.

Aren't my kids just cute? Every mom thinks that, but I REALLY think that. I love that Pacen has the day off and we can just hang and not have any real place to be. Claira has been trying to talk more and more lately and we just sit and laugh at all the things she tries to say. She can 'say' every one's name, except for Pacen. She just calls him Daddy. And every time it's like the funniest thing all of us have ever heard. We'll go and say, Say Camry...and she'll say it. Say Mommy. And then it gets to Pacen and it's always daddy.
I'm thankful to have so much love in our family that can last all year long.

California Trip

The reason for my super long blogging hiatus was our trip to California. Than had business in San Fran, my grandpa Gentry turned 85, so we made a week out of it visiting family and playing with cousins.

No trip to Grammy's would be complete without spending time in the hot tub!

Another reason for going out was to give Kaylee our car. That baby has been with us for almost our entire marriage. Than had a little trouble letting go. Hopefully it'll show Kaylee as much love as it showed us.

When we bought the car it had 27, 000 miles on it. Thanks mostly to driving all around the state of Michigan for Neighborhood Gold we ran it up to 224,157. Love that car.

Waiting for Scotty to come home. Is it 3 o'clock yet?!?!!?

I got to have Taco Tuesday with Angelee and Mikila. While uploading my pictures, I found this beauty. Thanks, Angelee!

And now my kids want a jeep. Gee, thanks for that one.

I love that Olive is pushing Pacen. The two year old pushing the five year old. Olive loves her Pacen and would do anything for him. It really did become a fight between Cam and Olive at times who got to sit closer to Pacen, etc. Hey, i'd fight over Pacen, too. I love that kid.



These pictures really are the best. Looking at them just make me laugh. We had Charlies (world's best chinese...yes it does come from a place called Charlies) the night before and had eaten La Comida for lunch and no one was really hungry so we made the kids pb&j for dinner and then Becky busted out the Charlie's leftovers and it was like a swarm of hungry animals coming after her. Pacen started it by asking for a bite, then Camry, then Pacen went to get his own fork, and then it was all downhill from there.

I think Becky may have gotten like three bites of her dinner.

That was all that was left when the savages were finished. You are a kind Grammy, Becky.

Cousins....well cousins and an uncle.

On Friday night we drove to the wonderful Wellington, Nevada. I love the way it smells when we open the car to get out. The sagebrush just screams Grandpa's house. I love it. This was an intense game of Goldfish...oh I mean go fish...the kids can't seem to get it straight.

The reason for the trip was Grandpa Gentry's 85th birthday party. He spent his years as California Highway Patrol officer and said that if he had a chance to do it all over again, he'd do it just the same. He's a true man's man. Great hunter and fisherman. Loves to tell tall tales about his adventures. I just really wish my dad was alive to tell those tall tales with him. I really love him. It's strange that he's my only living parent or grandparent. I'm glad that I have a relationship with him. He's a man of very few words, but I know that he loves me and is proud of what I have done.

Notice that little blob on the ottoman...yeah, that's cam. She couldn't handle such a crazy party. :)