phone love.

Here are boatloads of pics not in any logical order.  I love that I have these moments captured because of my phone.  

Maren eating dog food.  This is seriously disgusting but it is a daily fight with her.  If I don't move it, she is to it in a matter of seconds!  

See...there she is going back for more!  What a stinker! 

Just teaching Maren the art of a selfie.  I think she gets it. 

Camry still wants to hold my hand.  This was at her field trip in front of her friends even.  How do I get this to never change???

I actually don't know why Maren is crying but it is something to document because she honestly doesn't cry a whole lot.  She is one of the most content babies ever.  It has been super sad because she has had the diaper rash from heck and I've been fighting it for weeks.  And it just kept getting worse and worse even with a bunch of lotions on it and one day I put something new on and she just screamed and screamed and I felt so bad.  But right now, it's in check but it comes back within minutes if I'm not careful.  Nasty.  

Than and I on a date night.  

Sunday morning entertainment. 

Gentry sleeping.  Oh, sweet gentry.  In church, she says, "I'm tired."  And she goes and gets her sassy and falls asleep within minutes.  I honestly haven't been to Sunday school in weeks because she is just sleeping through it!  

But the funny thing is that she really can just fall asleep anywhere.  I've gotten her taking naps again but she still fights me occasionally.  But then around three o'clock she'll find her sassy and fall asleep.  Works for me! 

Penny likes it too.  This sleep actually happened during scripture reading. 

Doc McStuffins is all the rage at my house.  All of the girls play it but Gentry is in the "check up" phase.  She is always telling me that I'm sick and need to lie down so that she can check me out.  After going through all the tools she proclaims, "You better!"  

Gentry's notes. Probably as clear as a real doctors! :)

More selfie practicing.  

At the real doctor's office!  She was being so cute with that loud paper.  This was when I thought that she had an ear infection and they said she didn't but I still think she did.  She is still snotty and congested and I can't get it to be gone and it's so annoying! But at least she was super cute while we were waiting. 

This is one of those moments that deserved it's own post.  It's one of those times when you think...is this really happening right now?!?!?  We were driving to Reno that night for Than's grandma's 80th birthday party, I had the car all packed for our trip.  I had just grabbed some fast food for the kids and headed on over to the church for Pack Meeting.  While I was trying to get everything situated, Gentry pees on the floor and Maren poops up her back.  Than isn't there and I head into the bathroom to take care of everything and I couldn't get to the changing area because they were painting and so all this furniture was packed in there so I had to change everyone in the foyer.  Camry and Claira just had to sit with a friend in the pack meeting while we got things cleaned up.  The great part about this is that I had everyone's clothes in the car since we were all packed for our trip!  Silver lining. :)  

Even blurry I had to catch Gentry looking all cute pulling her suitcase through the hotel.  

A child had my phone for this.  This is me making dinner after church.  It looks like I was broiling something maybe.  ANd I love the chair in the way because there are always chairs  pulled up so that the kids can "help".  

Monday morning shopping!!!  I love having these two little buddies with me all the time.  

Family home evening.   We were going through our 72 hour kits and it was funny because a lot of stuff expired in 2008!  Has it really been that long?!?!!   Apparently! :)  Our ward had a bit "shake out" and we were supposed to go through a day and have a mock emergency and only live on our storage stuff so we could see what we really needed but we didn't really do that.  We still should and we could but we just didn't.  :(  That's life sometimes.  But we do have a generator and water and a huge camp stove and propane and dutch ovens and a lot of food!  We are getting there.  

Normal life doing dishes on a weeknight.  

Maren love.  Night night. 

Gentry giving Maren some love.  

Maybe a little too much love. 

Wednesday afternoon have become my park day.  It seems like we have a pretty free afternoon and it's been great.  Therapy for both me and the kids. 

My little puppy.  All she wants to do is sit in the front seat.  Sometimes we cheat when we are just driving in our neighborhood and let her break the law.  

Kindergarten homework time.  Claira is learning how to read and it's so fun!  

She loves to do her homework...especially when it's art!  Here is her turkey creation.  I thought it was finished and then she got out the glitter.   Everything must have glitter for this girly girl.  

We try to entertain Gentry during homework time.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.  

I am thankful for my neighbor's trees.  We cut down our trees and I'm so happy that I can look out my window and see theirs.  And not have to clean up any leaves.  It's a total win win situation.  

On a side note, we've lost Than's keys to that truck.  It's been a week and no sign of them.  It's a real mystery.  

My girls love fairies.  Those darn fairies should write back one of these days. 

Birthday bed!  Than turned 34!  It's not bad to turn 34 when you are as loved as this guy.  

Just hanging out.  

Maren gives the best, slobbery kisses.  You seriously need a towel after she's done with you. 

I was driving and I had to stop because this tree was so incredibly gorgeous!  I love the fall and miss the trees but there is some color in California! 

And this is an Oroville sky!  I miss that big open sky and all of it's colors.  

Maybe a little too confident.

So Claira is playing with her friend, Maisy, right now and they are drawing pictures for their other friend, Marley.  I am just listening to them chatting and I hear Maisy say, "Oh, Claira, I really like your flowers.  Yours are way prettier than mine."  

And Claira says, "Oh, I know.  I'm good!"  

We may need a little lesson on humility in the near future. :)

My four girls and one boy.

Sunday was the primary program for our ward.  And it was pretty awesome.  My kids got to play some songs for the prelude music and they did awesome!  Our piano teacher just teaches my kids and so there aren't any recitals so this sort of counts for a recital for my kids. :) It also helps that our piano teacher is the primary pianist so we got the hook up.  But seriously, the kids played great even though they were nervous.  I'm equally proud of both of them.  Both of them have fears of playing in front of people and they were conquered.  A few weeks ago, Camry had a talk in primary and I totally spaced it, but luckily the talk was on service and so I had the idea that she could talk about how she just started taking piano lessons and that by developing that talent, she was going to be able to serve in the church. She had just finished learning popcorn popping and so I thought she could say that little sentence and then go play.  BUt, she did not want to talk and play.  She just wanted to play.  But being the pushy mom that I am, I made her speak and play and she did fantastic!  But right as she was walking back to her seat, she totally burst into tears and totally lost it.  I think it was just the release of stress of playing the piano for the first time in front of an audience.  It's tough doing that.  But she was fine after a while and for the primary program...there were no tears!  Hooray!  

Pacen was super nervous and said that he was getting a stomach ache but he did amazing like I knew he would.  He had a HUGE milestone a couple weeks ago.  He was asked to give an announcement in Sacrament meeting about the Cub Scout Sock Drive.  In Sacrament Meeting!!!!?!?!  He cried and cried and said that he didn't want to do it but we sat him down and had him write out exactly what he needed to say and he practiced it and when it came time for him to head up there, he just went right on up there and read his message and sat down like a champ!  What was really awesome was that in Relief Society they passed around a little envelope to donate some money to the sock drive (the Bears donated socks to a homeless shelter) and they ended up donating $132.50!  Isn't that amazing?!?  When I showed Pacen the envelope full of cash, his jaw dropped and a big smile came across his face.  I told him that that money would not have been collected for all those people had he not gotten up there and shared that announcement and I could tell that he felt pretty good about what he had done.  

So compared to giving that announcement, giving his talk seemed like a piece of cake.  (Even though his talk was much longer, he must have felt better not being the only kid up there.)  And his talk was awesome!  He talked about prayer and about him and his "crazy little sisters" serving missions.   It was great. 

And Claira is a singing machine.  That girl can SING!  Loud!  And not necessarily on key but we are going to work on that because she loves it so much. :)  She gets the "singing face" and is so into it and it's the cutest thing ever.  She knew every work and hand motion and I couldn't help but stare at her cute little face and love her. 

She had no trouble speaking into the microphone and was just as confident as can be.  It's fun having three kids in the program.  Next year I'll have four!  That's crazy.  Of course, Gentry slept through the program just like she sleeps through most sacrament meetings these days.  It's her routine!  

Before church I wanted to take everyone's picture.  Pacen was less than thrilled to be taking pictures, as you can tell.  

 I called it good and put the poor thing out of his misery.  

 Camry is just a doll.  I really wanted to take a picture of her before her baby teeth fell out.  Our kids lose teeth incredibly late.  Maisy (Claira's five year old friend) has lost almost all of her top teeth and poor cam just has one top tooth barely loose.  But it's funny because her little teeth are moving around like crazy with those upper permanent teeth moving in.  It's kind of funny when you take a good look at her mouth.  That smile will be a changing in a matter of days!  

This is her "When I'm a teenager I'm going to look like this a lot" face.  

OH my gosh I just love her. 

Claira just kills me with her enthusiasm and excitement for everything.  She just loves having fun and learning and creating.  And she's funny.  I love her cute personality.  

And here is the Gentry pie.  She is darling and gives me so many hugs and kisses.  I just love her.  I love her spunkiness.  She is making me a better mom because she challenges me every day.  Sometimes I just think, "Where does she come up with that?"  I love it.  

And here is the Maren baby girl.  

She is 8.5 months old and is figuring herself out lately.  She is getting more and more loud and opinionated.  She is super squirmy and hates to get dressed or her diaper changed and loves to play with the kids.  She really is into EVERYTHING and can get into the cupboards and pull stuff out and puts everything into her mouth.  And I mean everything.  I have to watch her like a hawk!  

ANd you can see some hair finally growing in!  Still no teeth, which is strange for my babies but that doesn't slow her eating down any!  She has mastered that task and just screams for more.  LIke literally screams. :)  She is super snuggly and wonderful.