Camry got a hair cut!

When I took Cam in to get a hair cut, Tiff said, "Let's cut it in a cute short bob!" Okay! And I love it. I have to say, I was sad to see her hair fall to the floor, but it's so nice not having to listen to her cry over all the tangles in her monster hair. She just looks so old and so much like my sister, Emily. Camry has found her favorite spot...on the stool looking in the mirror at her new hair. I had to change her shirt and she said, "Mom...did you mess my hair up??" Oh, that girl.

In other Camry news, she can make guacamole all by herself. We eat a lot of avocados and she LOVES them and could just eat them plain. She's gotten into peeling them and mashing them up and is just one good guac-maker. She really is her mother's daughter.

Typical Hancock Saturday

Tonight we went to the BYU vs. Utah basketball game. All was well...Jimmer was playing great, the new pump up pre-game video was amazing, we were dominating...until Claira decided that she should puke all over me. And continue doing so until I made it to the bathroom where she puked a couple more times in the sink. She even puked inside down the bag of baby wipes I was carrying. I strip her down and then clean up ALL the mess. Me, her, the sink, the floor. Thankfully, Than let me wear his sweatshirt and Claira got Camry's jacket. My favorite is the guy on the way out who sees Camry cold walking without her jacket that says, "Hey, where's your jacket?" like I would just take her out without a jacket at night in january. So, I feel the need to explain myself...yes...there was lots of puke...naked baby...blah blah blah. We all laugh and it's funny. Love that guy. Love that Claira. Love the 'cougar tail' that we bought for the kids which is like 2 feet of maple donut. I always thought....who in the heck buys those things!?!?!?! Oh, psycho parents that bring three kids 5 and under to the game. That's who. That's why they make 'em. Now we're watching highlights and finishing packing for our trip to Cali tomorrow. Woohoo! What a day. It started with doing laundry and cleaning for our trip. Making salsa and Kathy coming over, then off to Than's soccer game (which they won), then of to the AF rec. center to take the kids swimming. And then getting everyone dressed in cougar gear in time to grab some food on the way down to the game. I don't know about you, but i'm tired. And poor camry was tired, too. She kept saying, "I just wanted to go home after we ate dinner." I know, Cam. I know. But that wouldn't be a typical day of a Hancock, now would it??? And you really wonder why Claira threw up.

it happened.

I've always wondered if my kids would ever throw a fit over wheat bread. We have it a lot, but I'm in love with Macey's bread that is white so I've been buying it a lot. So, I was at the store and needed bread and bought the wheat bread and Camry has been on a 'bread and butter' kick so when she asked for it and I gave her wheat bread she threw a fit because she didn't want the brown bread. But, believe it or not, she ate it and liked it just like she always had. But I knew the day would come. The day when my kids figured out that they had an opinion on bread.

Another Claira post.

Claira and I have just seem to have a little more one on one time lately. I think she's transitioning to a 1 nap baby, but still gets tired around 11 so then if I put her down she's not ready for the 1:30 nap that my other kids take, so that has given me some extra claira time. Although today Pacen was not happy that she wasn't going down with them. Everything has to be fair fair fair in this house lately! and then when I went to the bathroom, Claira went in and woke up both Camry and Pacen so my little nap time was ruined.

Claira is funny. She is actually trying to communicate so I am thrilled about that! A 'baa baa' is either milk or her passie. She does say thank you , book, dog, and bubble (why bubble I don't know) YEAH! is one of her favorites along with ME! She's been in love with Penny lately. We took a drive to look for Than's cell phone that he lost on the klondike and Claira wanted to have penny on her lap in her car seat the entire time. You would never know to look at her, but the girl loves to eat. Every morning she doesn't want to do anything but sit at the table and wait for breakfast...not patiently I might add. Along with David and Barnyard Dance, there is this very large princess book that I got Cam from DI a while ago, and it has 4 disney princess stories in it, and she's obsessed. It's really all she wants to do. She'll be carrying it around and it's pretty much as tall as she is, and back her way up to your legs until you pick her up or chuck in on my lap and put her hands over her head so I lift her up and read it to her. I mostly paraphrase when I read these because they are so long, but every once in a while I'll read it word for word and I about peed my pants when I read this at the end of The Little Mermaid. "The next day, Ariel and Prince Eric were married. As they kissed, the humans and merpeople sent up a happy cheer, linked at last by the marriage of two people whose love was a deep as the sea and as pure as a young girl's voice." GAG!!!!! Can it get any more cheesy than that!?!?!?!!? Whatever makes Claira happy.

Sometimes Claira is sad. And whiny. And demanding. And pathetic. But we love her face off. She's been kind of a daddy's girl lately. She'll cry when Than leaves and be super excited when he comes home and throw her arms in the air and walk towards him. It's adorable. And when she tries to run she puts her arms behind her back like she's going so fast her arms just can't keep up. I love this age.

Success!

Will you look at that?!?!! Claira has kept a clip in her hair for about three hours now. That's a record! She did pull it out once, but was trying to put it back in. I found a cute little tutorial on how to make some cute clips like that by adding felt and I just might try it now that we've had a little success! Who wants to make something that will just be pulled out in minutes...not me. Thanks, Claira. You may have just made my entire day.

And, yes, if you were wondering, she is almost 17 months old and that is all the hair we have. She is my baldest baby.

Friday Nights are Crazy...okay not really

So I had two 'bad mom' moments recently. Both of them dealing with Claira. Yesterday, while Jana and I were trying to distract our kids enough to get in a game of Dominion (a favorite as of late) Claira and Cali were thrown (lovingly) a pile of books for entertainment. Within a few minutes, Claira is screaming, Cali is screaming, Cali has a book that Claira wants and Claira is tugging for it...or maybe Cali took the book from Claira and Claira was standing her ground...you really have no idea when it comes to 1 year olds...anyway, instead of helping my poor daughter, I ran and got the camera because it was hilarious how opinionated these two little girls are at such a young age. What is even more funny is that Claira saw me come over and take the picture and then stood up and came and hit me. (Yes, she hits and we're trying to put the kibosh on that as soon as possible.) Apparently, she didn't think it was as funny as I did.

The second thing with Claira today. She was playing with Cali's beanie. She'd put it on and it covered her eyes and she would spin around and we'd laugh and she'd do it again, and then she started walking really quickly towards the hallway and so I say jokingly, "Claira, you're going to fall down the stairs." And seriously, not three seconds later, I hear her fall down the stairs!!!!! It was so crazy. I really did not think that she'd actually fall. I thought she was just trying to be funny and that she could see. Oh, it's funny now. Not then. I felt super bad.

In other news, my kids are cute. I had the crew at my house today and they were all coloring (a way to keep them from fighting over the same toy) and I take their picture because they're cute and I say, "Hey guys look at me and smile," and Pacen says, "But, mom, we're just too busy." It's true.

And last night we watched Avatar--I was pleasantly surprised--and Pacen was so excited that I let him make his own little pizzas. It really is the little things that make us happy.

And Camry is cute. She worked so hard for like half of a bubble. Why make a bubble wand so small...seriously.

Tonight I'm letting the kids sleep downstairs...they are sleeping as I type. We watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and then after that turned off the Haiti telethon was on and Christina Aguilera was singing and Cam goes. "That girl is scary lookin." I got love for xtina, but I concur, she was a little scary lookin'.

And check out these boots!!!!

Than is camping with the scouts. It's the Klondike tonight and it snowed a few inches over the past couple hours. Poor fellas. But dude these shoes are awesome. Homemade with bike tires for the soles and they even have claws on them. That family knows how to prepare. I really hope they aren't freezing. I'm glad I'm sitting here watching the last week of Conan (yeah! Team CoCo!) on DVR watching my kids sleep lying her with my electric blanket on my comfy couch and not out sleeping on the snow.

How we roll in the winter...

I don't do anything...that's how we roll. We barely go anywhere. I absolutely hate being cold. Just hate it. Becky got me a little electric blanket and it's my new bff. So, instead of braving the cold, I choose to stay inside and am really pretty content about it. Except when we need milk and it's all I can do to just get up and go to the store. So here's what we've been up to lately.

We have a Princess in Training. Whenever Camry dresses up, Claira dresses up now too. She only has one little dress that fits, but she is happy in it. And she has the perfect princess to learn from.

We read books. I'd like to say LOTS of books, but we just get to read the same books over and over again. Claira loves David and Barnyard Dance and even does a little dance to it as I read it. I just read Camry The Paper Bag Princess and she loves it. I took some books from my mom's house and I introduced two of my favorite books to the kids this week. Book #1--The Cat Who Wore a Pot on Her Head...a total classic!!! There was an audio tape with this and for some reason I thought it was the funniest book ever when I was a kid. The other is Tikki Tikki Tembo...full name tikki tikki tembo no sa rembo charri barri ruchi pip berry pembo. LOVE THIS BOOK. My sisters and I would do handstands in the yard and see how many times we could say his name. We were super cool. And my kids thought they were pretty cool too.

We drink Ovaltine....and lots of it.

And we wrestle. And wrestle. And wrestle some more.

I get a little worried about tears, but mostly we're all smiles.

And Pacen can still win. That makes him happy.

Pacen fell on the ice and scraped his chin. The worst of it all...he got blood on his Max Hall jersey!!!! But, thanks to Jana and her Oxyclean, all was restored to perfect white.

Sometimes we get grumpy. But mostly we're happy unless Claira takes the princess that we really want to play with in our beloved princess castle. The princess castle really is the best present ever. Hours and hours of enjoyment out of that one.

And remember Max...he's still alive and well swimming along in the dagobah system.

another first...

Pacen had a 'first' today. He had his first piano lesson! He was super nervous about it and even said, "But mom I'm not good at piano lessons." I told him he would do great and that I'd go with him (his teacher is across the street and down two houses and fabulous...love utah) but if he acted scared and didn't answer her or looked at me the whole time I would leave. But I got to stay the entire time! He did so well! Now he and Camry have been singing, 'Three black bears go down stairs," over and over again. He is still super super shy, but is slowly coming out of his shell around adults. I'm proud of my little Pacen boy!

January 2005

I was just thinking about what my life was like a few years ago. I found these pictures of January 2005. I was actually looking for some on this day, but these were taken on Jan. 14th. What-ev. It got me thinking about my time with just Pacen around. We had some fun. He was the perfect shopping companion. We were living in the frigid Michigan...even though it is so cold there, I have nothing but warm, happy memories....aawwww cheese!

Pacen was 6 months old and just super happy and fun. He didn't crawl until 9 months so we had plenty of sit and be happy time. Than worked for Neighborhood Gold driving around the state. We had many many trips to California visiting family, and many many late nights playing games with our friends since Pacen didn't really sleep at night anyway. It was a glorious time.

He always stuck his tongue out like that. Good times.

Two from Today

This is what I found when I walked by Pacen's room during naps. So cute. Penny loves to sleep with Pacen.

And you gotta love pictures of my kids where one of them is screaming. I think she's screaming because Pacen yanked her over to get in a picture and she wasn't down with that. She is miss independent.

I'm writing this watching american idol...Randy looks like he is wearing yellow eye shadow and has way too much makeup on. Camry just threw up and so she's sitting here next to me. I'm pretty nervous that she's going to throw up again. A guy just came on AI and I'm pretty sure he's mormon. Yep, said he served a mission and is from Sandy.

Oh, man. I need to go to bed. Let's all pray for no more puke tonight.

I heart faces

I'm entering the I heart Faces contest. Never done it before, but I'm making it a goal to enter little photo contests and unfortunately I have to post this on my blog to enter and everyone has to know what I entered. Yuck.

"Pre-school"

In our neighborhood we have quite a few kids all Camry's age. A few of us moms hold a little 'preschool' for the three year olds. Rian told me about Mothergoosetime.com, which she heard about from Heather, and now we use it...and it's great! For around 45 bucks each, we got all the supplies we needed for the year, plus daily lesson plans with more than enough material for the day. All I do is pull out my bag for the day and go. It's super nice and easy and the kids really love it. And I love it because I only have to teach one week (tues. & thurs.) every six weeks. That gives me some time with only Claira and some time to volunteer in Pacen's classroom. It's really a win win.

The Boys: Zach, Levi, Kamden, and Jesse

The Girls: Camry & Hailey

I really just love to listen to them talk when they think I'm not paying attention. Camry makes them play house with her and they seem to enjoy it. She picks who she's married to and even was holding Zach's hand the other day until I told her to knock it off. "But, mom, we're the mom and dad," she says. And I just will never get over the way that boys are just boys and girls are just girls. They just come that way. I'll have Hailey and Camry in her room playing with her princess stuff, and then the four boys will all have some sort of weapon in Pacen's room. Three is really a great age to be.

Kyle and Becca's Wedding

Meet the Foster's!

Kyle and Becca were married on December 19th, 2009. They let me shoot

their wedding. Needless to say, I was a little nervous having never done it before.

Straight out of the temple...

The Reception. Carnival Theme. It turned out super cute...I think we all were a little skeptical! Kyle's dad built everything and it was pretty amazing to see the cultural hall turn into real carnival complete with lots of games, cotton candy, funnel cake and giant pickles.

They gave away small bags of cracker jack's as their little Thank You's and even though they were not intended to be thrown and the bride and groom on the way out, they were. Such a big mess!

Congrats Kyle and Becca!