Last Week of School

Pacen has had an awesome week this week. But I have one word for the last week of school...exhausting!! It's crazy how many things we try to fit into one week. Maybe it got off to the wrong foot when we woke up Monday morning to snow. Yes, snow. It was May. They had to plow the mall parking lot. It was may. Did I say it was may??

Monday was Pacen's Kindergarten Graduation. Do you remember how Pacen's preschool graduation went last year? Here's a reminder. This year was so different! He did awesome! He sang all the songs, stood up, sat down, didn't cry, walked when they read his name, didn't hide his face, smiled, waved at us. It was like he was a normal child at a kindergarten graduation and we were so proud! It's a big thing for him. The bummer of it all was that I didn't have my CF card in my camera because I'm lame and forgot to put it back in, but my friend's took pictures for me so when I get them from them, I'll put them on here. So, after the graduation we headed off to the mall to buy Pacen Lego Batman for the Wii. He has been begging for it and had been banned from the Wii until he did something in front of people without crying. He was so proud of himself for doing it. The best part about it was that on the way to the mall I asked him why he was able to be brave this time and he thought about it and said, "Mom! Jesus helped me! I prayed last night to be brave and Jesus answered my prayer!" He's an awesome kid.

Tuesday was the Dance Festival. It's a Utah thing. Each grade learns a dance and they practice it and show it to all the parents. It was super cute, and again, I was a little worried about Pacen, but I had nothing to worry about! He did awesome and their dance was super cute.

Look! Waving like a normal 5 year old! I love it!

What I love even more...SMILING and HAVING FUN!


Wednesday was the Fun Run and Field Day. I don't think Pacen realized it was a real race until about the middle and turned on some speed and came in around 7th or 8th I think. What is great was Ty's determination--he's his little buddy next to him in the blue shirt. He has a legacy to uphold. All of his brothers have won this race a bunch of times so he had to represent. And he did tie for first...he may be small but he's super fast! I think that is why Pacen has gotten fast. He has to keep up with Ty.

The tongue is out...he means business.


Thursday we had Camry's little playgroups last day mock graduation. Why do we feel the need to have graduations for 4 year olds that are just going to preschool again next year? I don't know. Let's ask Camry.

Oh, wait. Her face says it all. No, Cam, tell me how you really feel about it?!!? She held onto that silly hat the whole time so it wouldn't fall off.

Claira had fun with the balloons...

...and Cam did have fun with her friends at the park. Who wouldn't have fun with pizza, cookies, soda, balloons, bubbles and friends?

We did make them sing some songs, and receive a little certificate. Want to know what one of my biggest pet peeves is? When you see a font that is in 'kids' handwriting and the s's are all backwards. Why not show kids the right way to write something instead of making it 'cute'. So, yeah, this certificate had those darling little s's on it. Love it. And in the friend there is that page that is named "Funstuf". Just one F. That's so cute. Let's show kids the wrong way to spell stuff. Or stuf.

Camry really loved her little preschool. She loves to be with people, loves to learn and really tries hard at all the things she does.

Friday was the last day of school. They went to school from 9:00am to 10:15am. School is strange. Pacen was sad and said that he gave Mrs. Herman a hug when he left. He wrote on a piece of paper that Mrs. Herman was his favorite part of Kindergarten. She was really great for him and was super patient. What is it about kindergarten teachers? They are just the best. I loved Mrs. Geroy and still see her when we go to Oroville First ward. Who knew that she would be Mormon?

And here's my first grader!

That is crazy that he is going to be in the first grade. I don't even want to think about him being gone all day long. I know what people say, 'Oh, you'll love it! It's better than kindergarten because it doesn't break up your day. Blah Blah blah." They are just still little and should just get to play all day. Start school when you're eight, that's what I say. Okay, not really, but I'm still really sad to think that he'll be gone all day.

These are his little buddies, Ty and Nathan. He has super great little friends, and even had a party at one of their houses after school to celebrate the end of the year. Congrats, Pacen and Camry! We are sure proud of the little people you are!

Sick Camry

Yesterday I brought Camry home from church. I'm pretty sure she has pink eye. It's not gross but just red and swollen. Pacen said, "I wish I had pink eye. Then I could come home, too."

This is Camry yesterday. Just her right eye all red.

This is Camry today. Just after her nap so she has a little moster hair.

I really hate going to the doctor so hopefully it gets all cleared up by tomorrow. Camry said that she wished that she had green eye so her eyes would be all green like an alien. Oh dear.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Than found my keys! Well, he's the one that lost them so it was only fitting that he found them....two weeks later. What happened was that he was hiding my presents in our storage area, set they keys down in a bag that held a bunch of Zinch stuff, walked away completely forgetting that he ever had the keys in there. Today he thought, I need to get all this Zinch stuff out of my storage and in the office and while he was putting the bag in the trunk of his car he spotted them barely hanging out of the bag. Yippee! I was so close to calling a tow truck but I just held off long enough since I had Than's car while he was out of town. Now I can use my car again! Now we don't have to shove all three kids in the back of Than's car! Now I'm going to go and get my other key programmed! Okay, let's be honest...I probably won't do that but it's what I should do. :)

Where do I fit in?

This is what my bed looks like when Than is out of town. Now even Claira gets a piece of the action. They love it and I used to like it until my kids turned into giants and now take up the whole bed.

What is more precious than sleeping kids? Seriously you just gotta love them when they look so peaceful.

And then you accidentally bump Claira's arm while moving Camry over so you actually have a small space against the edge to lie down and she starts whining and moaning because she's just not as comfortable as she once was. I'm sorry my dear princess.

It's a good thing we have a king size bed. What happens when number 4 comes? I'm sure we'll all just squish together.

Our little bff's.

Claira and Cali. Bffs. So cute. They were so fun and happy on Sunday night when they were playing. Claira would spin and fall on the ground, and Cali would copy her and just laugh and laugh.

I told Claira to give her a hug and she almost strangled her. Too much love!

I would venture to say that Claira is our friendliest baby. My kids aren't mean, but they definitely aren't like, Hey, there's a kid over there. We should be friends. Maybe, just maybe, Claira will be that way.

Fun Friday.

When you have no keys, you have to bribe your friends to come over and visit. Or, you just say, "Hey, come over." And then they do. Our day started with making a little fort for the girls so I could mop the floor properly. They love having their books and toys in there.

Claira played with some blocks. So, disclaimer on Claira's clothes. I got her dressed in her little walmart dress that I really love actually.


And then she saw those pj's of Camry's that are way too big but that she loves and threw a fit until I helped her get them on. Don't worry, the dress is still on, she just had those pj's over and under it. Such a fashionista. It's actually rather frustrating because the past three days she's totally wanted to be in charge of what she wears. Today I picked out something and she took it out of my hands and threw in on the floor. She's not even two. What a diva. At least what she wanted to wear was cute unlike the dress/pj ensemble.

All the kids were playing outside and had lunch on the deck while Jana and I.....

Played boggle inside! We both hadn't really showered (i showered but put back on my pj's all in hopes that I would eventually work out...which i did!) and were in our scummy clothes and it was great. The best part was when Than came home, the kids had toys everywhere are were all outside playing and when he came in we were in the middle of the game and hardly looked up to see him. He doesn't like boggle and will never understand it really. He was like, "Have you showered today?" Almost. It's like I half showered. I ended up beating Jana, barely. It was down to the wire but I pulled it out in the end. Love that game. I really need the deluxe 5 by 5 version if anyone can find it.

Then the night ended with Kathy and Jessie and Desert Star, which never disappoints. It was a great Friday which lead to a great weekend.

This picture was not actually taken on Friday, but on Sunday. I'm cooking dinner and the girls are coloring at the table and I look up and see this. Who does she think she is, really?

Guess who just scored three goals in his game!?!?!? My Pacen boy! And guess who actually got to see them?!?!!? Me! But not Than. He's being a good scout master and took his boys on a 25 mile bike ride so they can get their cycling merit badge. But I screamed loud enough for the both of us. But no, Lanell, I did not make a fool of myself this time. :) It was just so fun to see him out there being aggressive. And when he would be getting close to the goal, I'd be screaming kick it! And then he'd just dribble around the dude and kick it in. What finesse. :) Oh man that was so fun. Love that kid. And I did bring my video camera but the battery died. Darn!

What do you do....

...when you've lost your keys....since Saturday. That's me. A prisoner in my own house. Than came home from shopping for mother's day presents Saturday night and then somehow they have disappeared. I have scoured the house top to bottom, I've looked in and under couches, cleaned out the van, looked in the garage thinking they may have fallen out of his jeans or something, looked in his shopping bags, prayed and prayed and prayed we'd find them, looked in all laundry, even mine and my bags just in case by some weird thing he put them in my purse when he got home...nothing. We only have one key because it was expensive to get the other one programmed, so now I either pay the big bucks to have our car towed to the dealer to have another key programmed, or I wait and look and look some more. Really, I'm sick of looking. I've pretty much been cleaning or looking for the keys for 4 days. Luckily I have good friends and neighbors who take my carpool for me and pick up my produce. Where in the heck are they!?!?!?!!?!? If nothing else, my house is really clean. Well, now it's a little trashed because we just had a Zinch work party here and there were lots of kids running around with food and throwing all the toys around, but that can all be cleaned quickly because of how clean my house was to start. :) My neighbor said maybe it was Than's way of getting me to stop spending money and get my chores done. If it was, Than is brilliant! And I can't really get mad at the guy because he was out buying me presents after all. What's a girl to do? Play princesses...check. Read lots of books....check. Make desserts that just make me fat...check.

Last week I got to take a lot of pictures and now I need to stop looking for my keys and get them all edited. :) Okay, let's find my keys first. I hate those darn keys. But I want to find them because the only key chain on there is one that my mom gave me on their trip to England, so I kind of love it.

This is Camille. My friend Tiffany's sister. She's a senior and is just a happy girl.

This is Tiffany, my friend. She's going to be having a baby by next Friday and I love her.

This is her sweet Dempsey who will be a great big sister.

And this is the whole Nukaya fam getting ready for their new addition. It will be three no more.

This is Jessie. Kathy's daughter. Also a senior. We love to have jessie around. She is so sweet because at Jana's house she saw a dog in it's kennel outside and Jana told her it was in the kennel about 95% of its life and she started to cry. What a sweet heart she has.

And this is my friend, Christina's, sister's family. Got that?!!? Christina is Garrett's wife, Garrett is Emily's brother. We love all Updikes. Do you got that now!?!? How's that for great English? They have a cute little boy that made me sing songs to get him to smile.

Right now Pacen is lying on the floor crying because he wants to go exercise with me. Really he just doesn't want to go to bed. He just said, "Are you going to tell Dad I'm down here?" Why does he have the eternal fear of Than?

Than is out right now getting ready for his triathlon that he's doing in a couple weeks. Go babe!

I have gotten on my elliptical twice this week in hopes to stop the growth of my love handles. Go me! I don't think twice is gonna do it.

Every time I ask Camry a question I get the answer, "In the garbage." Or, "I threw it in the garbage." Where's Claira? "I threw her in the garbage." What!?!?! What a fun new four year old phase. At least a big fat smile follows the answer.

Claira is obsessed with taking off her diaper. Tonight she actually took off her diaper, went to her room and grabbed another on and lied down to try to put it on. Pure genius that one.

Let's hope that tomorrow brings with it my keys.

**Update: I just finished this post and looked down and Pacen had fallen asleep. What a sweet kid after all.

And then that reminded me of a picture I took of Claira on Mother's Day just before I rudely woke her up so that we could go to dinner at Jana's. Oh man she's a pretty one.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was really great. I was actually anticipating it to be sad and horrible and that is totally not my style. It was just that every time I heard a mother's day commercial or heard people talk about what they were getting their mom for mother's day I just felt a little prick of pain in my heart just thinking about how this is my first mother's day without my mom. But what...is life supposed to just not go on? No. Is everyone just not supposed to have a mom and not celebrate her anymore? No. I know that. I was just more sad this week than I thought I would be. But when the day came, it was so great. Than always takes care of me much better than I take care of him. And many many people came up to me in church and called and asked how I was doing and told me how much they love me and that always makes somebody feel good. And plus, how can you feel bad when you have three kids as cute and sweet as mine???

I'll tell you when they were not sweet yesterday...sacrament meeting. With three kids, we have really good sacrament meetings. Not a whole lot of crying and fussing. I still feel like I can get lots out of the talks and listen most of the time, but not yesterday. It all started when I told Pacen and Camry that they were going to go up and sing in church for mother's day. The primary kids usually sing a song or two during sacrament meeting on mother's day and father's day. It's easy. When it is their turn to go, they invite the primary kids up, they walk up, find a place to stand, sing a song, and go sit down. Let's be honest, it's not like all the kids even sing. To my kids' credit, we have been gone for many weeks with all our travels, so they didn't really have the prep time practicing the songs. But still, the moment I tell them, which was right at the beginning of the meeting, both Pacen and Camry are in tears, camry has been rubbing her head against my legs messing her hair all up, Pacen is in a ball crying on the pew. It's a mess. I tell them that Than will walk with them up and they need to just relax, but they couldn't relax the whole time. At one point we thought that they were fine, but when it was their time to go, they freaked out again. We were mad and Than told Pacen that he couldn't play the wii until he went up and spoke in front of a group in the microphone. I told Camry she couldn't watch TV for a week. We were ticked. I can understand Pacen not going, but Camry is perfectly able (as well as Pacen but we know his history) but it's like Camry has learned this from Pacen, or is a good faker and just didn't want to to up by herself. I would think Camry's attitude would have been more like, Let me show you what I can do that Pacen can't. Oh well. Pacen has the 6th article of Faith to say during Sharing Time next week, so let's hope he does it so he can play the Wii. Argh. And then Than put water in Claira's sippy cup instead of milk and she wasn't happy about that. And he brought fruit snacks to church which we don't do very often and she was ticked that they were gone. So, she was not a happy camper in church either. Thank goodness for Primary and Nursery!

Than worked super hard making sure I had a good mother's day. He made a fabulously sweet breakfast called Creme Brulee French toast. Serious calorie overload. He got me some great presents even though he's been traveling all week he still found time to make me feel special. After church, he and Ben made dinner and we played some games over at Jana's and it was just fun. I ate my guts out and now need to go on super diet!

Me and my boy. He's just realized how fun it is to make funny faces in the camera.

My girls. Pacen took this picture. He's a natural. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love my job of being a mom. But I really do love it. I love the snuggling, the hugs and kisses, the playing, the learning, the cooking (its' true...it's just not as easy when Claira pushes herself in between my legs and the cupboard I'm standing against. I get it...pick you up. But sometimes you just can't.), not the cleaning but that is all part of the mothering gig.

Find the common theme.

The theme is not just soccer. Check out that kid's tongue! I was scrolling through my pictures that I took of Pacen's game this morning, in every one where he was kicking the ball, he was also sticking his tongue out.

That's my kid because I know that I do that too! It's something about kicking the ball harder or something. It just helps.

No goals today. I still have not witnessed one but he played so hard! And he's so fast. I know he has actually worked on running because our little neighbor boy, Ty, is super fast and Pacen has had to learn to keep up.

He was a little disappointed today because they called a hand ball on him. What are you gonna do?

Go Gators! I'm glad it wasn't raining like it was last week. Can summer weather just come already!?!?!?

Best Thing Ever.

Nope. Not my baby. My baby is awesome. But this baby is awesome, too. And special. He's a first. Or she's a first. We don't know yet. What makes this baby so awesome and special is because he is my sister, Emily's, first baby! I love just typing it.

My sister is pregnant!

That baby is in her tummy right now. And has made her rather sick. I keep asking her, what is wrong with you?!?! Pace women don't get sick! And she responds....I am normal. YOU are not. All women get sick, just not you. I know, I know. And I enjoy every minute of it. I love that she is having a baby. I love that she is going to be a mom but will never, and I repeat never, ever wear mom jeans. She is much too stylish for that. I love that she will be mommy and Marc will be daddy. I love that she has already read multiple pregnancy books and had a long list of questions for her doctor on their first real visit. I love that she is going to have to clean up spit up and snot and puke and poop and smashed up food on his face and she can't comprehend it yet, but it will not even phase her. I love that she bought her crib bedding before she was even pregnant. I love that her baby is going to be the cutest, most stylish baby you've ever seen. I love that she is going to be able to feel her baby move soon and that is the most wonderful and amazing feeling ever. I love that she gets to feel that incredible feeling of love come over you when you see your baby for the first time and you think, that is my baby, and I really would throw myself in front of a bus for it. I love that she's already had cravings, and mood swings, and has already worn a bella band even though she's not even showing. I love that she's going to name the baby Erica if it's a girl. Okay, that's not true. But I do love that I get to go and help her when the baby comes. The only thing missing is mom. I can only imagine how happy my mom would have been to see Emily pregnant. We got to see a version of mom being excited when we saw our Auntie Leslie's reaction. You would have thought that she won the lottery... jumping up and down and screaming like a crazy woman. I can just see what mom's face would have looked like when she told her. I really can just picture it in my head and it's a beautiful thing. Yeah for babies. Yeah for being pregnant. Yeah for second trimesters when you are feeling great and you start showing. Being pregnant is a blessing and an adventure and pretty soon, you get to deal with this.

Okay, let's not think about that yet. :)