Ahhh, Saturday.

This Saturday was awesome! The weather was fabulous, Than was home, Gentry pooped on our friends carpet. Oh, does that not belong in the awesome category!?!?! Today really was pretty awesome and it did end with Gentry literally pulling off her diaper and, you know....on our friends carpet in a house that they just moved into.

We woke up and all that terrible weather had blown away and that just makes the day start off with a bang. Than was able to get in his super long ride this morning while I cleaned the house with the kids. Camry really wanted one of our little bookshelves in her room so we organized the books and she was soooo proud of her work. I had a little pile of broken and old books on the floor and she walks up and says in a total me voice, "Soooo, what are we doing with, you know (pointing to my pile)...these books???" Today was her special day because we got to do our Daddy and Mommy date. I thought it would be cool if we started a new tradition of every birthday going on a little date with mom AND dad. We never have that kind of time with our kids and Camry has been looking forward to it for a few weeks. She's asked me a million times when we were doing it and it finally worked out. We got our neighbor girl to come over and watch the other kids for a bit and we headed to 'the outside mall' aka downtown walnut creek for frozen yogurt and to shop around. What is funny is that we'd be talking to camry and ask her a question and she'd just giggle and act all embarrassed. It was just too much attention for her to handle! Than and I kept thinking....wouldn't it be strange to just have one kid???? Camry thought it would be cool for a little while but then it would just be boring.

At the yogurt shop....

...then we walked around until we got to the toy store and she got to pick out a little toy. She picked a unicorn stuffed animal. It's so wonderful to get to do something on the individual level for your kids, but then it's awful when you get home and Claira is devastated that Camry got a unicorn and she wants one too. And unfortunately, September seems like an eternity away for a little three year old. :( But I love this new tradition and I hope it sticks.

After that, we shopped around a bit for house stuff. Now that we finally have couches in our living room we could finally start buying some other stuff and we found a rug and a side table that we liked at home goods. I love house shopping with Than because he has a good eye and can actually make a decision unlike me who just debates and debates and thinks....i can make that...or I can find it cheaper only to never make it and never find it cheaper! I'll post some pics another day.

Then we had dinner at a work friends house. They just moved here from MI and are enjoying this new california life. After dinner the kids were all playing and one of the kids was like, "Gentry has a poopy diaper on the floor." And I thought maybe I left the diaper upstairs when I changed her but as we walk up there we find an empty diaper pulled off and that there is poop all over the carpet and that she has stepped in it and walked down the hall and into another room. AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least our friends were laughing and it made it easy for me to laugh with them. Than wasn't so much laughing. He was feeling like the crazy parents with too many kids that can't keep a handle on them but I didn't feel too bad because earlier their child was brought back to us by a neighbor because they found her walking down the street. We're all just amateurs figuring out this crazy thing called parenting. :) The silver lining might be that Gentry is ready to be potty trained since she knew she had to go and pulled off her diaper so she could do it. At 18 months....not a chance! Oh that girl is giving us a run for our money.

Since then, I've been preparing my sunbeam lesson, Than's been working on his lesson, Pacen and Camry got scared while they were falling asleep by an elmo toy that just started talking out of nowhere and so now are sleeping on our bed with us. Than is slightly snoring in bed and I'm sitting her on his laptop just typing away. Oh, and Penny is on our bed too. Just to give the big picture.

Oh! And last night we watched Hugo and I LOVED it! I've been thinking about it all day. It made me think that that is what a movie is supposed to be. I was fascinated and really swept up in that world and it was smart and if you haven't watched it because you thought it looked boring and weird (like i did) you should go watch it.

But now I'm getting sleepy and I'm going to snuggle on my sliver of bed that the three (four if you count penny!) of them left for me.

Weekly going-ons.

**I took my first spin class today and it is kicking my butt tonight! My legs feel like ghost legs or something where they are all like tingly or something and just tired and Emily was right...my butt hurts and not because of the workout! Those dang seats are less than comfortable but it was awesome and I really want to do it again sometime. I may just have to join a gym again and I haven't done that since Gold's at BYU.

**It has been raining like crazy here all week! Like really like cats and dogs so much that Pacen asked me this morning if we were going to have an earthquake because there have been so many storms. Earthquakes and storms go together in a 7 year old's mind.

**Claira sings all the time and a favorite lately (besides muppet songs) is the ABC's. So she sings them and at the end instead of saying "Now I know my Abc's, next time won't you sing with me," she says, "Know my numbers ABC's, next time won't you sing with me." And it's one of those things I don't want to correct just because I think it's cute.

**What wasn't cute was when she squinted her eyes all up and said, "Hey mom, now I have cracks like you!" Yes, I have cracks on my face. I'm getting old, dang it!

**Pacen lost another tooth tonight!!!! It's his 5th one and he's becoming somewhat of a pro about it now. And it's funny because sometimes when he's talking he'll just whistle out of nowhere.

**Gentry has discovered princess shoes.

A little buddy of hers showed her the ways and I don't think she'll ever go back. However, she is a little tom boy because she loves to play sports! I was playing with the basketball and hoop with her the other day and she would not let me go in! She kept screaming (which is her favorite form of communication) at me whenever I would stop. And she is getting to be a killer bouncer on the trampoline. She was really getting air last night. Such a fun age. Challenging, but fun.

**We got two bags of old dresses from a neighbor and the girls have been in heaven. They are not exactly my style, but the girls love how frilly and princess-y they are. Thank you neighbors for hours of fun! Claira said, "OOOHhhh, I am so beautiful!" when she put one on.

**Holly Pockets (AKA polly pockets...another thing I don't want to correct) are a hit this week.

They keep them on the bar so Gentry won't mess them up but guess what....what they don't know won't hurt them.....

She was so proud! And she actually played up there for quite a while and had a fun time. She's a fast learning girl!

**We had another missionary discussion at our house tonight. I love having the missionaries over. This boy that we are teaching has been over a few times and we were talking about him at dinner and Than said something about him having some questions still and Pacen said, "Well, it's still new right?" Wise words.

**For FHE Than did a love lesson where we throw yarn and tell why we love each other and then we are all connected by love. It's a good thing we had all that yarn ready!

**Swimming started this week! It's just the swim clinic but it was really fun going back to the pool this week, but not for the rain. The kids really love swimming and they didn't lose too much over the winter.

**Monday I fell asleep on the couch at 8:00pm and slept all night! It was glorious.

**I finally watched the muppet movie and loved it!

**Alright I'm stretching here....not much exciting going on here. Just the normal everyday that we love so much. But seriously rain, rain, go away! And it just thundered super loud so much that it scared me. I'm over it!

San Diego baby.

Oh San Diego, how do I love thee??? We had not been to SD in forever so we headed down there for Spring Break. Emily graciously hosted all six of us and we had a fairly busy three days together.

Wednesday: BEACH DAY!

You can see how excited Claira was. She LOVES the beach. Not really the cold water, or peeing in a port-a-potty (she made me walk her all the way up there only then to NOT pee and then refuse to pee in the ocean too making for an interesting hour of our day! I don't even think she went to the bathroom until after we got home. TMI I know.) But look how happy she was being at the beach. I just started snapping away at her giddiness.

Gentry took a little while warming up to the beach idea, but then got the hang of it. She looks a little wednesday adams in these pictures from the sunblock but seriously, why did it take so long for someone to invent the sunblock stick. Genius!

Oh camry! She is our seashell collector. She came home with a big bag that she wanted to put in a jar in her room. So far they are still in the bag. :)

Pacen still sporting the cat whiskers. I do bathe my children. :) He was everywhere. The tide was really far in but that made for a very large area to just run in super shallow water and they loved it.

Oh my gosh Roman! I love this kid. I wonder where he gets his smile from?!?! You have to love his stylish beach wear. To be the first baby is a wonderful thing.

Play, play, play. Get it all out.

We went 'exploring' and when I looked at this picture, Pacen thought it was so hilarious that he showed his rear end instead of his face. That's his dad coming out in him.

This is the best we got of the babies. Roman wasn't exactly thrilled with Gentry. He loved the older kids but I don't think he was fond of baby competition. :)

Oh wait, more of crazy claira. :)

Wednesday night: MINI GOLF!

This is the view that I had when I was trying to make my putt! It's always an adventure with a 7,6,3 year old and two toddlers!

Whoa! What's in there????

I'm pretty sure I won the game. The person who didn't win was the lady who had her purse stolen right in front of her and all of us. The dudes just grabbed it and ran away and hopped in a car and drove off. I felt so sorry for her. People are stupid.

Thursday: Wild Animal Park....oh wait, excuse me....San Diego Zoo Safari Park. :)

It was fun but super crowded. We did get to see all the animals and the cheetah run which was really cool. They are so fast! And as I write that I'm like, duh, of course they're fast but when you see them run you are like, whoa! That's fast! Now I just sound like an idiot. :)

Gentry loved to walk instead of riding in the stroller. ARGH. She learned that one from Roman.

Than being a condor.

That cute boy.

The boys gotta stick together in this family! They are waaaaaayyyy outnumbered.

We got a great life lesson to teach our kids from the lions if you know what I mean. We had to take a picture to remember this wonderful event. :)

The crew after an incredibly long, fun day.

Friday: Recover and shop! Now I can handle that.

Saturday: Drive home and get ready for Easter and church lessons.

Now I'll ask again....when is summer going to be here?!?!?! I love being on vacation.

Camry's Kitty Cat Party

Camry pretty much had the best 6 year old birthday ever. She was spoiled rotten pretty much all day, but I always say your birthday is only once a year so you gotta milk it for all it's worth! :)

Camry was lucky to have her birthday fall on Spring Break so we could have her party right on her birthday. The bad part was that there were a few friends that were out of town so they couldn't come to the party but it worked out just fine anyway. Honestly, there were plenty of kids there and I don't think I would have wanted anymore there anyway!

Actually, let me back track. The first picture that I took for Camry's birthday was on the friday before her birthday when I took in some brownies to her class. This is why Mrs. Cerutti is awesome! One of the girls brought in a toad from the nature area and she didn't even flinch! The kids were all crazy because they saw me with the brownies and then in comes the toad and she took it all in stride. A sign of an excellent Kindergarten teacher. I just love her and hope the rest of my kids can have her.

Camry and a few of her friend on the playground.

The night before her b-day, I was getting sort of emotional at the thought that this little baby could be turning SIX. That's crazy to me. So I snuck into her room and snapped a picture of her sleeping so I could freeze the last moments of her five year old life. Claira begs to sleep with Camry every night and Camry lets her most of the time without too much of a fuss. They are so sweet.

And while I was at it, I snapped a few of the other kids sleeping since they were all in the same room. Yes, Pacen has his own bed but once he's read his books and if Claira is up in Cam's bed he'll climb in Claira's bed. I love my sweet little sports boy snuggled in a bunch of pink sheets.

And then there is the sweet Gentry on top of her blankets and backwards.

Camry was super lucky that Than was able to stay home from work and so we opened presents right when she woke up.

I had to find a new place to hang my birthday banner because I didn't realize how huge it was in this house. And you can see some of our yarn kitty cat decorations hanging there too.

I love how excited my other kids get. Claira knows that whatever Camry gets she gets to play with too so it's a pretty exciting day. :) And poor Gentry just wanted exactly whatever Camry had opened and it was difficult to distract her. It's hard being the 18 month old!

Camry changed into Loren's dress as soon as she opened it. It was a hit!

Her 'real' makeup was also a favorite. But lets be honest, everything is a favorite at one point or anther. The moving, meowing toy cat has also been cried over a lot so that was also a favorite. Both favorites. :)

I wanted a picture with the birthday girl.....

And then it turned into a picture with two girls....

And then Claira wanted one with just me.....

And then Pacen wanted one.

And then I looked at them and went in to fix my hair. It was getting a little funky.

We were all ready for the party!!! We had ears (that camry made almost all by herself) and tails for everyone, and sweedish fish and goldfish for the kitties! It looked cute in there.

We also had the little yarn balls when you walked into the house hanging from the light, but I never got a picture of them. Than said I was being out of control. Kaylee would say that I was making it magical. I'll take magical any day!

When they got there, we painted a nose and whiskers on everyone. This picture makes me happy.

We played pin the nose on the cat. I have mad drawing skills, I know. You can hire me for all of your parties for a small fee. :) Camry and Claira colored it and it was done in 5 minutes. I'm all about getting it done quick!

All the kitty cats.

We had a few other games. Cats licking ice cream out of their cat bowls. Thank you dollar store for making this party possible. :)

A mouse hunt....

Aren't these cute mice?!?!? It's a good thing Cam's birthday is by easter.

A game of Cat and Mouse...

Than was the cat. Dads make everything a little more fun. He's a good sport, too, with the ears and whiskers.

And we played Cat, Cat, mouse and the cheep cheep game but instead it was called the meow meow game. You can make a cat came out of anything!

Time for cake! Every time I make a cake for my kids I wish Jana were here to make it for me but I think I did pretty good on this one! It's totally ghetto but Camry loved it!

Make a wish.....

Open some presents....

Hang with some friends.....

And pretty much have the best birthday party ever!