We made it to Jacksonville.

We're driving to dan's house right now. We are safe and sound in Jacksonville....our luggage (mine and Than's work stuff) and our THREE car seats, however, did not make it. Apparently JAX and LAX look just too similar and people at the baggage sorting area just couldn't figure it out.
But the cool thing that happened is that we saw someone that we weren't expecting to see in the airport! I was just writing about that! Than's buddy, doug, was in the airport on business and i walk out of the bathroom and I hear a voice say, Hey Pacen, and I look around because why would someone be calling my kid's name, and it was Doug. So, yeah for randomly seeing people in the airport. Boo for losing 6 pieces of luggage.

Braadyn my neighbor.

This is my cute neighbor, Braadyn. I took her senior pictures the other day and it was so much fun! I got kicked off a property for the first time ever...that was nice. We're just taking some pictures I say....Oh I know what you're doing! the mean voice calls back. Sorry dude. What was fun, too, was not having to make sure that the baby is looking and not crying and all of that. I loved it. And Braadyn is hot so she makes pictures look good. She's a little not even five foot fireball. I had a hard time narrowing some down for the blog, but I loved them and wanted to share. What I realize is that I take way too may vertial shots. Most of my favorites were vertical. Just trying to fill the frame, I guess, but that can be one of my next things to work on.

For all you Jazz fans out there...

I know there are a lot of you...oh wait. But even if you're not a Jazz fan, you can appreciate this. Kathy gave Than her extra ticket to Leapin' Leaners Night with the Jazz. It's a fundraising night that the Jazz do for some organizations where all the players just get to chill with the people who pay for a ticket. There was a silent auction, dinner, photos with the players, etc. Than saw an open air hockey table and asked Deron Williams if he wanted to play.

And guess what....

yes, than got to be on TV another time but that was not what I was saying...so guess what....

Than won! Than beat Deron Williams at air hockey. His life may now be complete.

Touring the Locker Room.

With Coach Jerry Sloan.

It's really too bad that Than isn't a die hard Jazz fan. Don't get me wrong, he knows enough about them but isn't a die hard like Sam. I guess that's what he gets for moving to San Fran. :)
Thanks for making all of Than's dreams come true, Kathy.

Spring Break.

Now that I have a kid in school, spring break means something again. I LOVED having all the kids home all day long, knowing that we didn't really have to get anything done. It's not like Pacen's gone for a long time each day, but when you have school, piano, swim, Camry's preschool twice a week, volunteer time for Pacen's class, reading, homework, and play time thrown in there it gets a little busy. And it will only get worse, I know. I'm no fool to think that I have it hard now. But it is an adjustment to having all your little ones at home with you during all hours of the day to then be 'busy' during the day. So, the point is...I really enjoyed our Spring Break. We played lots of Wii in our pj's, had lots of yummy breakfasts, and played with our friends.

On Wednesday, I pulled all of us out of the house since it was actually a 'warmer' day to go to BYU's dinosaur museum. I had debated going to the Thanksgiving Point one, but Than convinced me to go to the free one. Good call. Since Jana's first job at BYU was janitorial service in that building, she was gnashing at the bit to get there. Okay, really she thought it would be lame, but the kids loved it! Cam had just finished a little dinosaur unit in her preschool and knows words like paleontologist and carnivore now. So cute. They were enthralled by the T-Rex and anything they could actually put their hands on.

Why is it scary to put your head in a dead animal's mouth?? I remember as a kid there was a lion drinking fountain at the ballpark and you just knew jumanji was going to happen at the moment you stick your head in that drinking fountain. Kids are funny.

The crew minus Cali who was peacefully sleeping in her carseat.

Jana was designated tour guide. She showed us the claw of the dinosaur that she broke while dusting. All recovered now. :)

The babies. I love that picture of Claira...how she's backing up on the heel of her shoe. So curious and scared at the same time.

The boys' reading corner. I do believe that newspaper says "Fashion". Dudes will read any newspaper.

At home another day of Spring Break. These kids will just play and play and play, then Packer will cry because the big kids will be running away from him, and the Pacen will say, Mom, his crying was hurting our ears! It's hard to be the littlest of the big kids. Packer was crying and Pacen said in the nicest way he could, "Mom.....Packer.....well, he needs a nap." Probably true, but be nice to him anyway. They are just getting so big.

And here is Claira pre fall. Just happy playing with me on the floor. Now she's scar face. That pushed back those pictures I need to take of her. Argh.

In other Hancock news this week:

**Max the frog died this morning of natural causes. I'm really quite baffled as to why he 'croaked'...I'm so funny. He had food, a clean tank. Perhaps there was something that didn't agree with him in the water....I don't know. What I do know is that Pacen burst into tears....real tears over that thing. What I won't miss is buying and keeping alive crickets to feed him. It was fun while he lasted.

**Pacen is loving reading! It's such a relief that he's getting it and reading on his own. The past few nights he has asked to read books while he's falling asleep and it used to be just looking at pictures, but now I can hear him reading and I love it. This morning he said, "Mom, I read all of Green Eggs and Ham all by myself. It has 63 pages and I knew all the words." I'm proud of the Pacen boy.

**My aunt Leslie came to visit Friday night but couldn't stay long because she and Lyle were sick. The highlight of her trip was wearing the BYU shirt we bought her while she was drinking her starbucks in AF. :) Like I told her, you don't have to be mormon to love BYU.

**While at the BYU spring football practice, we ran into our friends, the Darringtons! They lived in Michigan while we were there, but moved to Seattle and we don't get to see them very often. I love the Darringtons. Heather and I became great friends and she was actually there when Pacen was born. Not like in town, but like in the room with us. She drove me to the hospital since Than was across the state working and just stayed the whole time. I loved it and needed all the help I could get with 2 hours and 45 minutes of pushing. And I love running into people like that. I always want to see someone at the airport that I haven't seen in a long time. I love stuff like that. It's so exciting.

**We leave for our big two week vacation on Wednesday. Than has a bunch of conferences so instead of being apart for two weeks, we're just tagging along! We're all going to Jacksonville, Florida (to visit the Jagoda's and Disneyworld!), then off to New Orleans (any idea what to do there with three kids?), and then to Memphis to visit the Taylor's! Than's trips couldn't have worked out any better as far as visiting people goes. I'm pumped...I only wish that part of it could have coincided with Pacen's spring break so he didn't have to miss another two weeks of school, but what can you do? It's only kindergarten, right? I didn't say that.

**I have a cold and it better be gone by Wednesday.

Feel Bad for Claira

Yesterday while at our neighbors house, Claira fell off of their front steps. Big bump. Big scratches. Big tears. I partly blame her because she keeps thinking that she is a big girl and tries to go down the stairs frontwards instead of backwards. What's wrong with backwards!?!? Backwards keeps you safe, Claira! It's just been a tough week for Claira's poor little body.

Camry's Birthday...finally.

Saturday was Camry's Birthday Extravaganza! It just wouldn't be your birthday if you didn't wake up to a birthday sign, all your presents, and balloons! That just makes a girl happy.

After getting to open one present, we headed off to Build-a-Bear. That place sure knows how to suck your wallet dry, but it was worth it. She loves her bear...actually a dog as she corrects me all the time. Her favorite thing is the extra present Auntie Leslie bought her. It's a little blow drier and brush and she, Pacen and Claira just sit there and beautify this dog all day.


Yep, she chose a tinkerbell dress, a pink purse, and ruby red slippers. That just screams Camry, doesn't it? Her name is Tinkerbell.

Claira needed a little something to keep her happy. It's hard to be one and have your big sister get a cool new stuffed animal, so we got her a baby dog. It made her so happy and she even made that face that we hope doesn't become permanent. :)

Moments after that she runs away from me and I grab her arm to keep her close, I hear a pop, and I know. I know that I just pulled the poor thing out and she's crying and stops using her arm. I'm feeling terrible, but not terrible enough not to go to lunch with everyone. We kept hoping that it would just go back without too much damage, but no, it didn't. She just kept crying and wouldn't use her right arm to save her life. So, Than and Loren took her in to the Pediatric Urgent Care and it was Nursemaid's Elbow like we had thought. They tried to get it back in twice but couldn't and she just cried and cried and then they had to take her to the ER to get an x-ray, and then back to the PUC to check it all out, and it still wasn't in, so they tried again but she still wasn't grabbing anything. They said it could be just sore but that if she wasn't using it by the morning we would have to see some orthopedic guy blah blah blah. Luckily for us, she did start using it a few hours after we left the PUC. It was such a sad thing because you could tell that she just wanted to use it, but couldn't. She tried to eat cake, but couldn't get her hand up to her mouth. And she wanted to hold dolls but couldn't. Oh, it was sad. And her little eyes were all swollen from crying so much. So sad.

But, while they were dealing with that, we went Miniature Golfing! There was a birthday going on after all! :)

My kids love this! And we love this! It's a win win.

My birthday girl! I love her.

Marc was the designated helper. Kids love their Uncle Marc.

After mini-golf, we went over to Emily's for a little cake and ice cream. Claira returned and did finally start using her arm! Cake and two working limbs...doesn't get better than that. It was pretty much a Tiana birthday. We love Princess and the Frog.

Don't worry...the birthday continued late into the night when we finally got back to Loren's. We weren't calculating a trip to the ER when we said we she had to wait until we got home to open her presents. But she was still a happy birthday girl so all was well.

And Claira was smiling again. Happy day.

And not 4th birthday is complete without a brand new princess bike! Actually, we bought it for Christmas but she had too many presents so it just sat in our garage for the past few months. And she loves it! I love birthdays!

The next day was Easter and we had to fit in dying Easter eggs, an Easter egg hunt, a big Easter dinner and pack our car all before 1:00pm. We almost did it! Our dinner was fabulous, but I must admit that when Emily and I were in the kitchen running around like crazy people getting all the food ready as fast as we could so we could drive back home to Utah, I said, "Where's mom when you need her?!?!" Now that mom's gone, we do all the holiday cooking. What's up with that!?!? But it was pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

Our egg hunters.

The Whole Crew.

Happy Late Easter!