Making a rainbow.

This morning we FINALLY made a rainbow.  I told Claira we would make one a week ago and she's asked every day since and so we finally had a little time to do it.  I need to do more crafts and art with her.  She loves it.  And she usually just does it on her own but I'm feeling sad because I am going to lose her to kindergarten in just a few months.  Sad.  I'm not ready for that. 

Gentry did one too.  She worked very hard and ate very little paste.  

The 2 year old's rainbow.  

The four year old rainbow.  

Thank you iPhone for being at my side and providing these pictures. 

Camry & Gentry

I was trying to blog from my phone while I feed Maren but I can't move the pictures around so that is lame. But gentry has been loving Camry lately and it has been super cute. Gentry is my most outwardly loving kid. Loves to give hugs and kisses, says I love you all the time, loves to snuggle and is just all around friendly to everyone.

And one more...

I'm mad at Google for taking away my google reader!  I'm nervous that I should switch my blog to another service.  I'm assuming that google could one day just take it away too and that would be the saddest day ever.  I realize not as many people blog anymore and it's mostly facebook, twitter and instagram but still.  I liked my old way of reading blogs.  And I love my blog even though it's getting harder and harder to keep it up but I LOVE it and the kids love it too.  I guess I'm just old school like that. :)

One more thing...

Claira said the funniest thing yesterday.  She says funny things everyday.  Let's be honest here.  But this one was cute.  She says to me, "Mom, you have all the power."  And I said, "Oh yeah.  What kind of power do I have?"  And she says, "You have the power with Maren.  Anytime she is crying and you pick her up, she stops."  And it's true.  That baby loves me and she really does stop crying as soon as I pick her up.  I'm super powerful.  :)

Almost didn't make it.

Well I almost counted my chickens before they were hatched with that last post.  That night Gentry had a major meltdown.  It all started because I wanted to change her diaper and she didn't want me to put another diaper on her, she wanted to keep her old diaper on.  I'm seriously so mean to want to change my daughter's diaper!  

So then she fell asleep on the floor and I even instagramed it because it was "cute" that she cried herself to sleep on the floor over a dirty diaper.

Fast forward five minutes from now when we are finished with dinner and I'm nursing Maren and she wakes up and is seriously ticked off.  She cries for the duration of Maren's feeding and then continues to do so and I can't do anything to calm her down.  Finally, I break down and call for back up.  If I have learned anything from having this fifth baby, it is that it is okay to ask for and accept help.  So I call Bill and Peggy and ask them to come over and hold Maren and help the other kids so that I can deal with Gentry.  She cried unconsolably until Bill walked in the room after he had been at the house for a little while, and for whatever reason she decided to calm down.  It was the craziest thing.  She ended up skyping with Than for a bit and then I asked her why she was so sad and crying and she said, "I want daddy come home."  It was the saddest thing ever.  And who knows....it was probably true.  We all need daddy to come home.  

What is hilarious is that when Pacen said the prayer last night he said, "We are grateful that Dad could stay the night."  And Than is like....What the heck?!?  I live here!  So funny and sad at the same time. :)  ANd then Camry said something along the same lines today and Than said something about not being some transient that comes and goes.  Oh and then Camry went on to say people that do stay the night at our house like Grammy, and Papa, and Shauna.....and FRank! (Frank who did our yard last year and did stay the night many many times but now it's like he's a part of our family!)  

Anyway...Than is home and it's fabulous.  Except that he worked from home today and it was impossible to keep everyone quiet and that is stressful for Than because he's usually on the phone and can't have screaming kids in the background and stressful for me being shushed by Than and trying to keep kids from being loud.  But he brought home lots of shoes and soccer jerseys and scarves and life is getting back to normal.  

Big News...I got a picture of Maren smiling!  

She really has been giving us real smiles since she was three weeks old and I could not for the life of me get her to smile when I had my camera ready.  Here are some attempts: 

Okay, this isn't an attempt, but it was when she was just over a week old and I happen to catch her in a mid-sleep smile.  So sweet.  

Here are some attempts: 

Nope, nada. 

Not a chance. 

Close, but no cigar.

But yesterday was a success!  

Woohoo!  Cute smiling baby.  And yes, the baby acne stage is in full force now.  Boo.

And I will be smiling tomorrow when I get my hair cut!  No more of this crazy, nasty, ugly long hair!  

This was a picture of us playing beauty shop the other day.  Man was I looking pretty.  

Here is the rundown of some other happenings via random pictures. 

#1:  We had lasagna the other night (thanks to a very kind Anne Ereg).  I've had so many meals brought to me over the past few weeks it is ridiculous but I have been so grateful for every one.  Getting back in the groove has been really hard with five kids.  We're getting there but five kids is a lot to keep happy and keep your house moving especially in the newborn stage.  

#2.  Claira is beoming a better and better helper.  She loves to hold Maren as long as it's on her time frame but it's getting better.  The other day she held her and said, "This is just like a Mama!"  My girls are learning how to be moms everyday. 

 So is Gentry. :)  This girl LOVES to do the dishes and "helps" me all the time.  She'll sit there for at least 20 minutes rinsing them over and over. It's cute and very messy. :)

 And Gentry has an even shorter holding Maren attention span but that is to be expected.  But she will ALWAYS go and get a diaper or blanket or whatever I need for her.  She's a really good helper for a two year old. 

And she's just funny.  She makes us laugh all the time.  She is constantly getting in that swing and I just loved her taking a pretend nap with Micky and Minnie.

#3:  Camry is an artist!  She is always making things for me and drawing and it's cute.  Claira is right there with her, too.  And Gentry is getting the hang of it too although she still will color on the walls instead of paper.  ARGH!  Bur really I cannot have too many crayons or coloring books in the house.  It's their favorite thing. 

#5:  Maren loves to sleep on her tummy which I don't love but I love it when she takes long naps like she's doing even as I type!  

 #6:  This was taken today with all the sunshine coming in.  The weather was so nice today and the kids were complaining about being "too hot".  Spoiled rotten brats.  

Just a sad picture of Maren.  She isn't always happy but a lot of the time.  

Oh!  And big news for Pacen's mouth.  We had an ortho appointment yesterday and his mouth has already moved 4 millimeters!  I thought that was all it needed to move but I guess it was in a -1 position and it needs to move to +4.  So five millimeters total.  And his moved four in one month which is awesome and it means that he will be getting his braces in ONE MONTH!  OH MY GOSH!  I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S GETTING BRACES ON!  We were both so excited and relieved that the face mask time has been effective and didn't last the whole four months like it could have.  But braces...that's a whole other beast that we'll have to face.  But we'll take it.  Never a dull moment around here anymore. 

Made it.

I guess I haven't technically "made it" yet, because Than still doesn't get home from China until tomorrow but let's be honest....I basically have made it.  Woohoo.  A week with all these kids all by myself and honestly, it has been pretty good.  I was joking with Jana that I was just not leaving the house that much...basically being her!  But I did do church for the time all alone and we made it.  Gentry was just being a stinker like always.  But she's so funny that it's hard to keep a straight face while disciplining her, especially when I'm trying to get everyone the sacrament and she ever so slyly with her hand all twisted funny steals a second piece of bread and hoping that I just won't notice.  Oh man she cracks me up sometimes and other times, not so much.  

Like yesterday when she cried multiple times for just ridiculous reasons.  

Reason #1:  She is obsessed with having her shoes on at all times and now wants me to have my shoes on at all times too.  She brought me my shoes and I put them on but then I went outside and they were wet and I left them by the door and she FREAKED out for like 10 minutes crying at me to put my shoes back on and I'm trying to explain to her that they are wet and FINALLY she goes and gets me a new pair to wear.  

Reason #2:  I was making potstickers for the kids and Claira says, "Oh!  Popsicles!" And then Gentry got all excited and kept asking for a Pop-Pop and I had to say that there wasn't any and that didn't go over very well and she cried for a good 15 minutes over that one.  Darn you Claira!  :)  

Reason #3:  She wanted to wear the pj's I got out for Claira.  I ended up giving them to her and got Claira her other ones and then Gentry thought that Claira was wearing a princess dress and cried for a princess dress.  And cried.  And cried.  And cried.  Until finally Camry says, "Well mom, she could just wear a princess dress to bed."  Of course!  Why didn't I think of that!??!  I just said, "Sure, Cam.  Good idea.  Why don't you go get her one."  She's so happy and then so upset too.  

This was her the other day when she was playing with Claira. 

They are bringing out the crazy in each other regularly.

The week really has gone by quickly.  Than left on Tuesday to Denver.  Then he came home late at night and then left for China Wednesday morning.  Here is he on the Great Wall with some work peeps! 

Luckily, we've been able to skype a few times a day so it hasn't been that bad as far as that goes.  It's the worst when you don't get to talk because it makes the days just seem so long.  

The first day he was gone I thought I'd venture out to the park because Claira was begging to have a picnic at the park.  And it had to be at the park because I had already done the "lets just have one in our backyard" thing and she was over it.  It was pretty windy so we couldn't stay long and things really got bad when she hid her toy in the sand and then lost it.  HOnestly, I spent five minutes digging for it and I couldn't find it either and I watched her dig it in!  But we had our lunch and it filled the lunch at the park void that she had.

And it was Maren's first park trip!  But she stayed bundled up with me.  

 And I downloaded PicTapGo on my phone and I love it.  It's super easy to edit your phone pics so I was having fun doing that with these. 

This was us Friday morning.  I fell asleep on the couch with Maren and by 6:30 am everyone had woken up to find me.  

This was on Monday I think.  Yes it was because Claira went to church in that dress, slept in it, and then wore it again.  She put on all of that stuff and declared, "I am the princess of Summer!"  She lacks to confidence. 

I can't remember why Gentry was crying but this was one of those moments where you think...wow this is going to be a great day!  Everyone crying and unhappy.  I love my iphone that I could capture this moment. :)

The weekend was actually great.  The girls played a lot.  

Pacen played a lot. 

They  played a lot together and I even played some wii with them...and then Saturday night everything kind of derailed when Pacen had a bit of a meltdown.  In a nutshell we were all cleaning and I was trying to make a game out of it and everyone was doing great and I sent Camry in to help Pacen finish his room and lo and behold, he's outside playing basketball.  ARGH!  So I calmly go and tell him to go in his room until dinner (which was an hour away) and he goes ballistic on me.  It's not fair!  It's only fair for the girls!  I don't to be in my boring room for that long!  I was done!  My room was clean! (Note:  If throwing everything into your closet and shutting the door and not making your bed means clean, then yes it was.)  I was not exactly sure what to do with the situation and even called Shauna for some advice because he was so upset and out of control.  My main dilemma was where do I just ignore his behavior and where do I step in.  I had wanted to ignore it and that is what she had advised too, and it turned out alright.  He was able to come out for dinner.  We had the missionaries over and I obviously want him to be around for that.  And then he had to go back in his room and go to bed.  We were able to talk about what happened and what he needs to do next time and it all worked out.  

I worry about him with him being the only boy because it's easy for him to be left on his own because of all the girls.  And plus with Than gone and me not able to do as much with him because of Maren, I just hope he can feel the love and not feel picked on.  He is having a hard time being the oldest and have more responsibilities (piano, more homework & reading but not really more house chores which I really should do more of that too) than the little girls and we haven't been able to work out a system yet where he can be motivated and not mad.  I need to do something positive but I need to make sure that I can implement it correctly.  That is my plan at least but my time has been so limited but I feel like we are finally on our new schedule and it could work. 

I just want our kids to be happy like this all the time!  Wouldn't that be awesome?!?!?  

I took this picture Sunday morning.  It was the one of like 100 where everyone was (almost) looking normal.  I love it.  Love it love it love.  Love all these darn kids.  

Claira was funny the other day because she says, "Having a baby is the best!"  Yes it is, I say.  She continues, "Because when you have a baby, you can just hold it and you get to do less jobs!"  And then goes to explain how everyone else has to do all the work and you are holding a baby so you don't have to help.  That's my girl!  Sadly, I know every little (somewhat selfish) thing that she says comes right from me!  I was totally that girl when I was little. 

And her is my little Maren at ONE MONTH OLD!  I can't believe it.  Like in real shock that a month has already gone by.  It's like a big blur of happiness...probably due to the fact that I'm sleep deprived. :)  She's gorgeous and is smiling although I can't get one on camera!  I'm always not prepared and then when I am prepared I can't get her to smile. Stinker!  She's eating well and gaining weight and it a very happy, content, spoiled baby.  She is hardly set down which is going to present a problem in the future but there is almost always someone who wants to hold her and that is just fine with me.  

Someone suggested that she looked like Erin and I kind of see it in this picture.  I think she has her nose for sure. 

She is the best snuggler and falls asleep best while she's lying on my chest.  I had totally forgotten how little I get done when I have a baby because I just hold them all day.  It's the best.  

 Man I can't handle how cute she is.  She is one loved baby.  Smothered is a better word. :)