The Halloween/Birthday Weekend Re-Cap

I believe this is how it all went down.

Thursday, October 28th. Camry's little preschool party. They learned a song that Camry loves....A mean old witch with a hat. This was her walking out for the "parade". You can tell that she does not lack confidence! She was so proud of her costume and especially her high heels.

Thursday night we headed to Than's office in the city for the Zinch family Halloween party. They loved Than's costume! Pacen was a little upset that he didn't win any of the 'best costume' prizes (that's why there shouldn't be any prizes!) and we explained to him that if you are a super hero, you pretty much don't win any costume contests. But Than was a good dad and gave Camry and Pacen some "prizes" the next morning for their costumes. They were pretty excited about that.

Friday, October 29th: Pacen's School Parade

Our little iron man. I love the picture with his class. He looks comfortable and happy to be there. His teacher's name is Mrs. Howitt and he loves her. I'm glad for that.

Friday Night: Ward Halloween Party and Trunk or Treat

This was the best picture we got of all of them. Claira went without a nap in the afternoon and was not very happy. She cheered up after a little nap in the car on the way to the church and was a great trick or treater by the end of the night.

At the party, these were the only pictures I took. I pretty much only saw the backs of my kids as they ran around. Claira was in heaven in the bounce house as long as she was the only one in it. Our ward went all out since Halloween was on a Sunday and our kids loved it! Thank you, Lafayette Ward!

Saturday, October 30th. Than's birthday! When you get an ipad for your birthday, that's pretty much all you get. But, so he had something else to open, I bought him his favorite hair gel. I'm so thoughtful. And the kids drew him some classic kid drawings. Can you believe he's 31!?!?!? That night we got a babysitter and shopped and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. It was nice to be on a real date...well, with Gentry, too.

Sunday, October 31st--We crashed! We were so tired. I made him a cake and it was good, but we were just treat-ed out. We had Carrie and Cache over and tried to make donuts and they were okay for a first attempt. We only had one small group of trick or treaters....our house isn't very trick or treater friendly.

And there you have it, folks. That was our Halloween in a nutshell. Here's to next year's Halloween overload!

A huge milestone in a little girl's life...

Gentry went to her first BYU Football Game!

And BYU actually looked like a real football team again! Gentry may just be good luck for them. Our whirlwind trip to Utah is over. We played some games, we saw friends and family, the kids played, Than got to take in a BYU football AND basketball game, I got to eat Cafe Rio and shop at Rod Works, and ended it by having terrible traffic coming home over Donner....I had to buy chains only to sit on the Interstate for 2 hours barely moving and have the snow lighten so we didn't even have to use them....argh. I could have done without the last 5 hours of our trip but all in all a success. Thanks for driving, Sam.

And I'll start my thankful month with saying I am thankful for cool awesome phones that take pictures so when you forget your camera in the car at your daughter's first BYU game you can take a picture and email it to yourself so you can post it on your blog.

Oh--and I forgot to mention two funny things.

#1--I went to the game without a BYU shirt on. I know. GASP!!! I'm too fat for my cute one and I don't like just wearing work out T-shirts. So, Pacen asks me, "Mom, why don't you have a BYU shirt on?"

I reply, "I'm too fat from having a baby and it doesn't fit right."

"Then why'd you have a baby then?" Pacen says while giving me a little smirk.

#2--Each game Bronco (BYU's head coach) hands his hat to someone in the crowd on his way into the locker room after a game. And guess who he gave it to this week? Shauna would be able to guess. :) It was Than! Than wanted to go down by the players so that he...I mean "Pacen"...could go down and give the players high fives and as Bronco was walking out Than yelled good game coach or something like that and Bronco walked over and handed Than is hat. Than was in a little piece of BYU heaven. And I'm sure it will be worn to many more BYU games. It's a good luck charm now!

Here's my advice.

Don't ever have a baby in October. It's just sooo busy. Since when has Halloween been such a big deal?? Kid party after work party after trunk or treat after school party after school parade after preschool party...it's exhausting! Then throw Than's birthday in the mix all after having a baby is kind of crazy. But, all that posting is for Monday, when we get back from Utah. BYU is playing and so we're heading out if a few hours to trek across Nevada to see friends and watch BYU and hopefully shop, too.
But, in order to satisfy Becky's demands...here are some updated pictures of my ONE MONTH OLD! She slept until 5 am this morning so that made a happy momma. She is starting to smile more and more and I've tried to get a good picture but it's like I get all excited and then it's all blurry. She is very content but always cries with Than. She just loves me. What can I say? My kids are still all over her at any moment. The poor girl hardly gets a moment to herself. She's getting pretty chunky and definitely looks older and is awake more. And she's losing her hair. Boo. She's going to look funky here in a little bit so I'll cherish her days with hair until she's a bald baby for a while. And my babies always get a bad case of baby acne and that is the worst. Hopefully hers won't get too much worse.

As always, Camry is a great photographer!

I LOVE this baby! She surely doesn't have my pasty white skin...that's a plus!

I snapped these on her one month birthday. But apparently she wasn't too fond the shutter sound.

But, yes, I am soooo glad that October is finished with all it's craziness. I love it but it's busy. But it's not like it stops in November and December. Let's wait until January to have some peace and quiet....or maybe there's no peace and quiet with four kids?!?!? :)

Happy Birthday, Em!

Today is Emily's 28th birthday!!! Happy Happy Birthday! You know its funny because as you get older you forget that other people get older too and then I think...Man...Emily is 28! Holy cow! It's like I think she should be 20 years old forever. She is a beautiful pregnant girl and only has a few more weeks! She is probably the most prepared woman to have a baby...the classes are all taken, books are read, research is done....now we just need a baby! Let's go birthday shopping in 6 months when we can actually enjoy shopping again! And I just thought of this. Mom had Erin when she was 28...you're samers!

Fear the Beard, baby.

Can you believe it?!?!? The Giants won the World Series!!!! And what is music to my ears....Pacen said he wants a giants shirt with Buster Posey's name on the back for Christmas. And Camry wants a Buster Posey dress. And Claira can say Buster Posey.

Oh, man, I just want my mom here. She'd be loving it.

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.