Happy Birthday Babe!

Than is 31 today! Happy Birthday, Babe!!!! 31...now that is OLD! :) WAAAAYYYYY older than me. I met Than when he was 16 and pretty much knew I wanted to marry him. I was a little obsessed 15 year old. But, he didn't love me then. He had to go on a mission and come home to realize that I was the only one for him. And what a lucky girl I am to be married to him. He is currently out running 16 miles, training for his first ever marathon with his sister, Shauna, in December. He works super hard to provide for our family. He serves diligently in his church callings. He plays with our kids. He loves me. He honors his priesthood. He leads our family. He puts up with my crap. (And I put up with his, too. :) ) He loves his family. He calls his mom on a regular basis. He loves my family. He is caring and thoughtful. He's romantic. He's handsome. He loves my cooking. He's tries new things. He's out-going and friendly. He is a crazy sports fan and even though he's a die-hard A's fan he can still find joy in my giants winning. At his work party this week, a few people came up to me and told me how hard he was looking for tickets for us to go to one of the World Series games. He loves me. I am a lucky girl.

And my kids are dang lucky, too. He's just a great dad. Here are four of my favorite moments with Than.

With Pacen....

With Camry...

With Claira...

With Gentry...

And this was Than last night. What a good sport to dress up with Camry again. How many dad's do that?!?!

Happy 31! We love you baby!

Park Time.

Pacen's school gets out at 2:00. I love it and hate it. I love it because it's like the day is only half over and I get to spend a lot of time with Pacen and I don't feel like he's gone all day. I hate it because Claira has to take a nap still and I have to put her down after Pacen gets home and that leaves us at home all afternoon which I don't mind, but it gets a little "boring" for Pacen. You know, unless I let him play the Wii all afternoon. That's not "boring". But yesterday, Claira was begging to stay up and play with Pay-pay and Cam so I thought, what the heck....let's go to the park. I'm really glad I did because today the weather is getting cold and it seems like it's going to rain soon. We have a little park near our house that we can just walk to so we packed everyone up and headed out. It only took me like 20 minutes to get everything I needed together to leave the house! I hate that part of a new baby. It's like you want to leave and you just can't quite get out the door fast enough before someone needs to be changed, or you need to grab a snack or water or whatever. But it was well worth it. We enjoyed the sun and sand and grass and slides and swings. Who doesn't love a park day?

Camry just wanted me to take pictures of her doing everything. She's my little ham these days. Pacen just wanted to do cool boy things like jump off of stuff and play with sticks and throw balls. We need more boy stuff in our lives filled with three girls.

Here Pacen is posing with the princesses. Thank you, Aunt Kaylee. They never leave Claira's side.

More posing and jumping.

This could be one of my most favorite pictures. Claira loves to play in the little tunnel.

Playing football. It's quite interesting playing catch with a baby in the front pack. I was pretty impressed with myself (I even impressed the kids!) when Pacen threw the ball low and I kicked it up right into my hands. Now that is talent.....and complete luck!

And proof that baby Gentry and I were there. She slept all snug and warm the whole time while we played. I also was impressed with Camry when she wanted to take a picture of me and she turned my big fat camera vertical to get a better shot. That's my girl.

3 Weeks.

Our sweet baby Gentry is three weeks old. Technically three weeks and two days old but I did snap these pictures on Saturday. She's sleeping pretty well and she's already getting chunky. I love it! And on Saturday she started making sounds! She's really quite quiet. She doesn't even cry loud yet, but on Saturday she made a real goo sound. And I'm pretty sure she's smiling. She made the cutest face at Than today and she was wide awake and it just looked real. She's just adorable. What can I say...we make cute babies. :)

The many faces of Gentry.

The real reason she was smiling. Darn baby.

Awesome Weekend.

I'm not sure a lazy weekend could be any better. Friday night we had a little movie night with the kids and watched How to Train Your Dragon. Thank you, China! Than made off with a few movies thanks to their pirated ways. We even have Toy Story 3 but you can tell it's really ripped off because in one part you can hear the audience laughing. And the sound is just a little off. But, it was cheap and that's how we like it.

Then on Saturday Than took off on his second 13 mile run in preparation for his marathon in December. The kids and I ate pancakes. I like that much better than running 13 miles. We watched the BYU game, shopped at Target for a 6 year old girl birthday present (That could not have been any harder! We weren't sure if 6 year olds still like princess stuff, or if they liked barbie or even worse...dare I even write it...Bratz....we ended up getting her this little jewelery making kit and she ended up getting two of those...darn!), took the kids to a Halloween birthday party of a girl in our ward (actually Than took them and ended up staying the whole time because the kids were afraid to stay by themselves...those are my kids!). I just hung out with Gentry all afternoon. It was quite fabulous. I didn't do anything productive. And then it got better as the night went on because I just hung out on the couch watching my Giants beat the Phillies!!!! We're going to the World Series baby!!!

Watching all this post season Giants baseball has actually been hard for me. It just makes me miss my mom so much. I just want her to call me after a giants win and say, "Hummmm baby." She would be so excited to watch her boys playing so well. Back in the day, my mom would get "GaintsVision" for her birthday. It was some special cable thing so we would get all the games. We would go to games with just her. Actually, my first game I went to was a Giants vs. St. Louis game...back in the days of Ozzie Smith and I think my dad was there. But, I don't remember him at any of the other games we went to. There was the famous Giants vs. Atlanta double header we went to where our muffler fell off on the way home and was dragging along the road sparking and it was Sunday so there were no car repair shops open, and so someone from Cal-trans took off our muffler so we could drive home but that made it unsafe for us kids, so she kept waking us up making sure we weren't passed out from fumes but it was the middle of the night by that point and I remember stopping at the Coffee Tree and eating french fries. That was my mom....taking us three girls to a game in San Fran all by herself. What an ordeal that was for her. All alone...no cell phone, no garmin, probably no money. But now it's one of our favorite memories of her. Man, I love baseball. I love that she made us love baseball and I just feel bonded to her when I watch the giants. Anytime I listen to KNBR68 I think of her. I can't even see the radio station 680 without thinking of her. So, hopefully the giants will win it all. I just wish she were here to enjoy it. And really, they had to wait until the year after she died to go to the World Series?!!?! They couldn't have just gotten good a little faster?!?! :)

Here is the spot where I spent most of my Saturday.

I love snuggling with this baby. She kept me warm with our cold weather we're having.

There was another amazing-awesome thing that happened this weekend. Pacen and Camry actually participated in the Primary Program!!!! I never feared that Camry wouldn't do it but sometimes I think she acts afraid because Pacen acts afraid. Pacen has never spoke into the microphone at church before...he hadn't even been able to walk up to the microphone without fear and tears before. But today was a major turning point for him. They walked up together, sat with their classes, actually sang all the words to all the songs, and said their parts clearly into the microphone!!! It was really amazing. It might not sound like a big deal for some, but Pacen has never done this....not even come close. I've pretty much had to carry Pacen up whenever he was supposed to say a prayer in Primary and we've never even attempted anything else. When Camry said her part, I felt like a big dumb mom because I was just beaming with pride, and then when Pacen said his part I just started crying. And I felt kind of stupid for crying over that and then I look over at Than and he was wiping away tears, too! We were those stupid parents but it didn't even matter. Speaking in front of people has been so hard for Pacen and he's really getting over his fear. He had to memorize a Halloween poem for school and recite in on Friday and he did that, too! When I asked him about it he said that he said a little prayer before he went and Heavenly Father helped him to be brave. He's so sweet. And Camry. She was so sweet singing all of the songs during the primary program. She knew every word and she stood up tall and just looked beautiful. She loves the A long time ago in a beautiful place song. We have sang that song so many times at FHE and it just made me feel so good when the whole primary was singing it. It just reminds me of her now. Anyhow...we were just proud parents today. It was a pretty big accomplishment for our little home.

Love these kids.
And love those Giants! Just win baby!

Loved Much?

Over the weekend....

We had some visitors this weekend and so this is what I spent my afternoon cleaning. Fun, huh? This room is much too inviting for dumping toys. But, even with all this mess, Claira could still find a spot to read a book.

Kaylee, Olive, and Will came to visit Thursday night and just left this morning. Becky, Scotty, and Walt came to visit us on Saturday and spent the day with us sitting and staring at our pretty Gentry. We also watched BYU lose miserably and ate our weight in ice cream, chips and salsa, and popcorn. The kids played and played and played and played. They just have fun together minus the times when Scotty gets mad at Pacen for watching the BYU game. Poor little guy only has one day to play with Pacen but Pacen is a good BYU fan and had to root for his team. And you might not believe it, but Scotty is so sweet with babies. He loved to hold Gentry and was super soft with her. We had a great Saturday just lying around.

This is what Gentry looked like on Saturday. She wanted to have a fashion show for Grammy so she pooped through three different outfits just for her! She looks old in that first picture. You know, old for a newborn. Kaylee was trying to get her to smile. But you know how babies are....bring over the camera and it's over.

This picture wasn't taken over the weekend, but it's just so cute! Look at Pacen surrounded by all those girls!

Than is on a plane even as I type coming home to us. Yippee! I'm listening through the monitor to Pacen, Camry and Claira talking on my bed. They all sleep with me when Than is gone and it's fun, but it doesn't always make for an early bed time. I started to read Charlotte's web to them tonight as they were lying in bed. Obviously, Claira could care less but Pacen and Camry were so into it. I wasn't sure if they'd be able to comprehend what I was reading but anytime I asked them what was going on, they knew. One of my favorite childhood memories is my mom reading to us. One summer when I think I was in the 8th grade maybe, she read Jurassic Park to me. I really don't know how that came about, but every night she'd read some and it was so fun. And when the movie came out, I realized that she had been pronouncing Velociraptor wrong the whole time. Oh well. So, we'll see how far we get on that one.
Tonight I did a little FHE on keeping the Sabbath day holy since Halloween falls on a Sunday this year. I thought the kids would be all sad and throw a fit (probably since that is what I would have done if someone would have told me I wouldn't be able to trick or treat!) but they didn't. We just talked about why we do what we do and they were completely okay with it. The funny part came when I was asking them what we do get to do on Sundays and Pacen says, "We get to watch BYU play on Sundays." And I said, "BYU doesn't play on Sundays." "Well, sometimes they do." "No they don't." "One time they did." "No they didn't." "Well, Austin Collie plays on Sunday." Ahhh, yes. You got me there. Austin Collie does play on Sunday and we do watch him. That Pacen. He cracks me up.
So now I think life is going to slow down a bit. We don't have any planned visitors for a while and Than will be home and life will be normal. I'm a fan of normal. I'm going to be watching my Giants play baseball this week and hopefully win. My goal is to organize my little pantry thing because it is just a big fat mess. I have a couple birthday gift cards to spend! This week is going to be good.

See...I may have spent the entire day in my pajamas but I did do something productive today. :)

Happy Birthday to me.

Look who came to visit me for my birthday! It's Angelee! I don't think we have been in a picture together for a long time. I'm pretty sure we look as good as we did back in the day. Angelee's hair is long and flowing. She really did drive all the way down to the WC just to have lunch with little old me for my birthday. Isn't that so nice!?!? It really did make my day. And she made Gentry the cutest little thing for her room and so I suggested she make one for Claira, too, since they are sharing a room and she said yes! What a great friend. It's good to know crafty people!

So, my birthday started with getting all the kids ready for school and I had to actually get dressed too because I had to go out in public for Gentry's two week appointment. It's quite a task to get myself and all four kids ready before 9. When I was helping Pacen, I was kidding around with him saying that I couldn't believe that he forgot my birthday and he said, "But when is your real birthday?" And I said, "Today." Then he said, "Well, where's all your presents?" He was a little confused. I got Pacen off to school alright and then the phone calls kept coming and coming. Obviously I love that everyone remembered my birthday and loves me, but it did make me lose track of time and I ended up not taking Camry to her little preschool and was even late for Gentry's Dr. appointment. Nursing just takes a long time! And I thought I had planned enough time, but I needed more. More time is not a gift you can get for your birthday apparently.

The day continued with Angelee coming and all the girls (me, cam, claira, gentry and angelee) going to La Fogata for lunch, picking up Pacen, Angelee going home, getting a special delivery of delicious cupcakes that Than had set up before he left, taking the kids to soccer, Sam taking us out to dinner, and then Kaylee, Olive, and Will coming at night. It ended up being quite a full and fun day when I had expected it to be just a normal day. What can I say...I have lots of people that love me!

Two Weeks.

Gentry is a growing, healthy baby. We had her two week check up this week and she's up to 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 inches. That's a lot of growth for two weeks! Funny thing is that she's still not as big as Camry or Claira at birth. She is super content and is getting more and more alert each day. She is very strong and holds her head up pretty well for a little one. She lets me sleep at night (let's not jinx myself) and we just love her. Camry calls her "little wormy" which came from her being squirmy. Camry will be holding her and when she's done she'll say, "Can you get this little one off me?" Camry is just cute with her and is always up in her face. The other day Gentry was awake and Camry said, "Well, hello bright eyes!" She's just a little mom in a 4 year old body. Gentry has given us many 'smiles' and I swear one of them was real. Right now she's sitting on my lap and making little whining sounds because she's hungry and I'm typing. Alright, I guess I'll feed you.

Funny Claira.

So I was on the computer yesterday morning and I hear Claira come up behind me and say, "Momma, I super wet. I stinky diaper." And in her hand was a diaper and wipes just ready to be changed. Think she's ready to be potty trained!?!?

Now if only she could teach Gentry that trick.

Last day of my twenties.

Erin called me this morning and said, "What are doing to celebrate the last day of your twenties?" Long pause on my end.....uuuummmmmmmmm......lay around in my pajamas, nurse a baby, play 'treasure map' with Camry, tickle Claira, help Pacen with his homework, eat a dinner brought to me by a girl from church, watch Peter Pan with the kids, send Than off to China, not fold the laundry that is sitting on my couch, get mad because I didn't realize that the grapes that I bought from Costco had seeds in them.....pretty much a perfect way to spend the last day of being a 29 year old...except for the sending Than off to China part. I'm not a big fan of that. I don't mind his travel, but I really don't like the international travel. He just seems too far away. He is. He's in China for crying out loud. How much farther can you get??!?!

So life is good here in our house. The best news of the week.....drum roll please......................

Claira loves Gentry!

She no longer tries to push her off of my lap when I'm nursing her and wants to hold her all the time. It is the cutest thing when Claira says 'Baby Gentry'. She gets all high pitched and sweet sounding and I love it.

When I was uploading these pictures I kept thinking...how many pictures can we have sitting on our disgusting couch!?!?!? So many. And our couch is so gross. But it's where we hang these days. I was looking through pictures of our Utah house and it made me miss carpet. Oh, how I love you carpet. Especially for kids.

This picture I think is just funny. But those are my girls. And thank goodness for "Big Toe Little Toe" and "This little Piggy." For without those it may have taken Claira longer to warm up to Gentry.

See what I mean....lots of pictures on the couch. Here we are just hanging out at night.

Oh look, one of the boys on the love sac. A total change from the couch. Oh wait...Than's on the couch. Than lives in that BYU sweatshirt at night. I never can really put it away because then he's like, Where's my sweatshirt?!!? It has to just by lying by the bed in order for him to find it. Thank you James' brother that I can't remember the name of right now who gave that sweatshirt to Than 10 years ago. Dan! Dan Eastman. That is his name. Thank you, Dan. Than can sleep in comfort.

Oh look, it's Erin and Rick on the couch. They were so nice to come and visit us over the weekend. They drove up Friday, spent the day with us Saturday, then turned around and drove back on Sunday. They played like crazy with the kids all day. All the typical games of War and Go Fish and Hide and Seek and Wii. The best quote ever from Pacen was, "Rick is like a kid, but he's a grown up." So true, Pacen, so true. That's why we love him.

Erin has never been around my newborn babies. We've only flown or driven out when they were at least a month old or so, so it was fun to see her with a newborn. But all time best moment was when I asked her to go upstairs to get me a diaper for Gentry. She heads up and comes back down and hands me one of my pads from the hospital. At first I thought it might be a joke, but it was no joke. I bust up laughing almost to the point of tears and she does the same. In her defense, those pads do look a little like diapers, but still...so funny. I'm sitting here chuckling about it as I write. Classic.

Let's see...what else. Oh yeah. My 30 for 30 is over. It ended yesterday when we all went out to breakfast. It was funny because I explained to Pacen that he would miss a little school if he came to breakfast with us and that it was his choice if he wanted to miss a little school to come and he said that it would be okay as long as we told his teacher. But then then the whole time at breakfast he was so worried about what he was missing and on the way home from school he talked about how he really liked going out the breakfast but how he didn't like missing school. It was quite dramatic for him.
So my last present was awesome. Than turned my blog into a book! I love having it in book form. It's so fun to read and see what life was like. I realize I blog pretty frequently, but it made me want to blog even more so I can remember more. Than is so thoughtful. He really is the best gift giver. I'm spoiled. My mom would always tell me I was spoiled, but deserving. :)

The kids with their hot chocolate. They were 'freezing' sitting outside in our perfect California weather. Claira ended up using her dress as a napkin by the end of breakfast. That girl.


It's funny to think of what life was like when I turned 20...I was at BYU, living it up at King Henry. At 21 Than and I got married. I graduated from BYU and taught school at 22. We moved to Michigan. I had Pacen when I was 23. Had Camry at 25 and we moved back to Utah. Bought our first home that year. At age 26 I learned how to play soccer. That's an important milestone. I scored my first goal which could compare in excitement to having a baby. :) At 27 we had Claira. That's when mom was diagnosed with cancer and was going through her first treatment. My arthritis was flared up pretty good all through age 27 & 28. Mom died when I was still 28. At 29 we moved to California and had a sweet little baby Gentry. And now I'm going to be 30. That is pretty crazy. I wonder if I'll still be blogging at 40 and how different life will be then. Pacen will be 16. Is that even possible!?!?!? That's just too much for me to wrap my head around. Can't we just freeze time? I guess that's what the blog is for.

Okay, time to nurse a baby again. She has only been waking up once during the night and it's been fantastic. She's still not a perfect nurser but she's gaining weight and is happy. I think the little scratches on her head are going to leave a scar but hopefully it won't be too bad. She really has just been content. Yesterday was the first day that she scream/cried. And of course it was when I was checking out at the grocery store and she was inconsolable. And of course it was at the same moment when Claira was crying for a sucker. And of course I was in a ghetto Food Maxx and none of the workers could muster up enough energy to come help me bag my groceries. It was fabulous. But really, besides that moment and later that same day when it was time to nurse her but I had to put her in the car seat to pick up Than from the BART station, she has been practically perfect in every way. I guess we'll keep her.