We are real Californians now. We woke up yesterday morning at 3 am from our first earthquake! It was only a 3.2, but it was like a mile away from our house and it was really loud. Than has an interesting time with earthquakes after being in a 7.2 earthquake in Taiwan on his mission. It's like he has flashbacks or something, it's kind of crazy. He is a light sleeper anyway, but as soon as I woke up from it, Than was up seriously yelling at me to get Gentry and move to a doorway and he was running downstairs to check on the kids. His Taiwan experience was very intense. This was nothing like that, but we stayed up for a little while and felt two more baby quakes and checked the computer and hung out for a half hour or so. It did make me think about the fact that we need to update our 72 hour kits since we have a whole other person in our family and the clothes that we have for Claira are probably like 12 month clothes or something. And we need to stock up on formula for Gentry. And water. What if I couldn't get to a store and buy formula??? I've never had to think about that before. And it made me do a quick inventory on our house...what could fall on the kids?? I want to hang these cool frames in the girls' room, but they're kinda heavy and now I'm re-thinking it. Things to think about.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
And the January 2011 worst mom award goes to.....
....ME!!!! So, in DECEMBER, Pacen came home with an assignment for a presentation on his country of origin. It's a complete at home project and then they do a 2-4 minute presentation in the class with visuals and the whole shebang. Part of me was like--what the heck!?!?! All at home...ugh. And then the other part of me thought, hey, this would be cool for Pacen to do Taiwan even though it's obviously not where we come from, but it could be fun for Than to help Pacen learn about Taiwan and we actually have things to share about that country. So....fast forward to last night when Pacen comes home from school and says, "It's my country of origin presentation tomorrow." "No it's not, " I say and then I go and check the schedule and lo and behold, he's right and I'm wrong and we have NOTHING ready for it. I take that back. Last week I thought, hey that presentation is coming up (like in Febuary!) ...we should teach Pacen how to count to ten in mandarin. So, I scramble for a few minutes trying to figure out what we should do. Than has been out of town for the past three weeks off and on and wasn't going to be home so he won't be here to help. I look some things up on the internet and then think, this is not going to happen. I call his teacher and tell him what an idiot I am and how I totally dropped the ball and how we had nothing ready. She kind of laughs and says it's okay and that I'm not the only one that asked for more time. But I felt like an IDIOT! And I told Than that and he says, "Well, yeah...you didn't do your homework!" Oh man. I really do hate having to do a bunch of stuff at home for school but that is life and I know it's good for kids and parents and I know that there are just not enough hours in the day for teachers to fit every standard in, I just am a slacker. This is a good warm up for the future when school really matters. I must not forget things like this anymore!
But, and I think this really makes up for it, I did not forget to make BYU pancakes for the BYU vs. SDSU basketball game! I know what's important around here. :)
We had a blast watching byu dominate. Pacen was keeping track of all of Jimmer's points and was VERY concerned about the big scratch that he got on the back of his arm. "Mom, why don't they see that?!!?" "Are they going to give him a bandaid?" "Do you think that if he got a cut on the other side, would his arm fall off?" We are very protective of our Jimmer. :)
On a completely different note, can I just tell you how much I love Camry? I LOVE her. She is so funny. Wednesday we were all just hanging out and she comes out in this pirate girl costume she put together. She cracks me up.
Last night Pacen's school had a family math night. I met one of his good little buddies at school and his mom. I was a big idiot there and stuck my foot in my mouth because his mom was speaking to me in a heavy accent and I ask, So, does Daniel know spanish too? And she says, Oh no, not spanish, Russian-Ukrainian. Why am I so stupid sometimes? She didn't seem offended or anything but probably thought....really...spanish???? :) But when we were talking she was asking me about kids and first asked me if we had help in the house, and then if I took the kids to day care, and then if the girls went to preschool. No, no and no. She seemed pretty impressed and just kept praising me for what we were doing. And then she asked me about Gentry and if she was a good baby and of course I said yes. And then she said...breastfed? and I said yes. And then she said, "That's why." Oh, dagger in my heart! I'm totally okay with it all now I just thought it was funny. Now if someone had had that conversation with me a month ago I may have burst into tears. Life is funny.
Great news of the day....Than's home! And we're actually going to do something as a whole family today! And we're going to work on Pacen's project. :)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Back in Business.
I think Gentry is back on the bottle bandwagon! She just ate an entire 6 ounce bottle! Woohoo!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Our Mornings.
Our mornings are sometimes interesting. I have it pretty great right now where I do a little carpool with a girl in my ward where I drive in the morning and pick up her little girl, and then she brings home Pacen in the afternoon. I love it because I can get Claira down for a nap but I don't always like getting everyone out the door by 7:50am. Luckily for me, my kids are awesome and are very helpful a lot of the time. This is usually what it looks like in our house right after Claira wakes up. She pretty much says, "Mommy I need milk-show." Milk and show are pretty much one word now and that is the routine. She wakes up, I get her milk, and she plops herself in front of the TV for 30 minutes while I get Pacen ready and his lunch packed. On this morning, Pacen was already up and wanted to hold Gentry for a while before he had to get going. He always wants to watch a show, too, and occasionally I'll let him eat his cereal in the front room but I'm not always that nice.
Camry is usually the last one up in the mornings. She's inherited the "Erin Sleep Gene" where she can pretty much sleep through anything. She always wants Ovaltine in a sippy cup which I think is funny because she's almost 5 but I don't really care. This is the only time she uses a sippy cup and I probably should stop letting her do that but I drank my ovaltine with a spoon for most of my life and I turned out just fine. She is very good at helping with Gentry in the morning. I just need someone to entertain her and she usually is pretty good about it. Sometimes she's cranky but let's be honest...I'm sometimes cranky in the morning too!
After I get Pacen all ready, we start to head out the door around 7:47. It's at that point that I realize that I have forgotten to have a morning family prayer with the kids so we try to do that before we're late. I'm telling Cam to get her jacket and shoes on and then Claira usually wants to bring 50 toys and I tell her not to bring any and then she starts crying and then realizes that she doesn't have a jacket on like Camry and starts to cry about that too. She wears her minnie galoshes over her pj's and follows us out the door. I look like a hot mess because I rarely get dressed before we leave and my hair is crazy and my pj's are still on but it's all good because I don't ever have to go anywhere before 9 anyway. I would love to get up earlier and work out and shower before the kids get up but we are just not there yet. After we get home, I get the girls and myself dressed, get the girls breakfast which is usually cinnamon toast but I broke down the other day and bought them sugar cereal and they've been eating it every morning. I just think life is funny because every morning is just about the same. It's like groundhog's day. And every morning it seems like we have tons of time and then all of a sudden it's 7:47 and we have to rush out the door. But that's our routine. I find myself telling the kids to hurry up all the time and Camry will say, "Mom, are we late?" and I'll think, no, not really, but you would think that wouldn't you because I keep harping on you to hurry up and get in the car. Anyway, that's our routine. It works for us.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Baby George is coming.
This weekend we headed up to O-town for Kaylee's baby shower. I was talking to Pacen and he said, "You're having a party to celebrate baby George who is in Kaylee's tummy? That doesn't sound very fun." Spoken like a true man. But it was fun and it turned out really cute and she got tons and tons of stuff and isn't that the whole point of baby showers anyway? That and eat good food. Check and check.
Lisa made the cutest little centerpiece. She does flowers and just has amazing talent. Who can think of this stuff??? And there is so much detail it's ridiculous. She had me take a few pics for her website.
I got to hang with Angelee which is always fun. And you know if you take a pic of yourself on my camera, it's going on the blog.
Kaylee pretty much kidnapped my baby over the weekend. I was like...maybe I can hold her once in a while??? And Gench is starting to become obsessed with food. She follows my food all over the place. Which might be a good thing because she became anti-bottle over the weekend. ARGH!!!!!!!! It has me a little stressed but I'm confident that when she's really hungry and I'm really not nursing her, she'll come back over to the good side.
Please like your bottle again, Gentry. Make your mother happy.
The cousins got to play a little bit as well. If we can just get Scotty to be this sweet with everyone, life would be good.
We don't get a lot of Olive time when she's there, but we love every minute of it. We stayed through Sunday even though Than had to catch a flight early Monday morning. He has a cool thing going up there. There is a woman who is investigating the church up in Oroville, but only speaks Mandarin. Than has taught her twice now and served as her interpreter on Sunday. He is loving using his chinese and it is always a great experience to teach someone the gospel. So now whenever we go up there they are going to try to meet. It could be few and far between but at least she has that.
Now Than is out of town until Thursday. It has been amazing weather the past two days. We walked to the park yesterday and Camry had on shorts and a t-shirt. It's January!!!! I love it. Today we are also making it a park day. When Than is out of town, the days go by so much more smooth when I get the kids outside to play. It makes me not feel so bad for putting them to bed early.
A few funny things about my kids:
This morning it was foggy when we took Pacen to school. Claira walked outside and said, "Mom...it's spooooooky."
Pacen came home yesterday from school and was SOOOO pumped because on Wednesday at school they were going to have root beer floats. And he said, "And mom...they're only two dollars!" What?!?! That seems a little pricey to me but he was so excited to use his own money to buy a root beer float. I need to give my kids more money experiences. But sometimes I just feel like that's one more thing I don't want to deal with but I know its a good thing to teach them money responsibility. Does anyone out there have any good ways of doing that that is low key? That's on my parenting to-do list.
Camry the other night said something like this. "Mom did you know that when you get stunk by a stunk you smell really bad and you have to take a bath in tomato juice. Asher told me that when you get stunk by a stunk." I didn't have the heart to correct her because she sounded so cute saying that.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Not as interesting a read. :)
Since I put an article on here about some random blogging peeps, Than said I should post an article that was related to zinch. I'm not exactly sure what it was all about, but one of the head honchos at zinch was at this little party with Michelle Obama. If you read the article, you'll find zinch....wait...better idea....read the article and tell me what it says about Zinch and if you comment you'll get a prize!!! I guess what I think is really awesome about the whole thing is that Zinch was just a little idea a few years ago started by just a handful of people, and now its a legitimate company with people having dinner with the First Lady. I'm still glad that we took that big risk 4 years ago even with all of Than's travel. It's pretty cool to see a company form from the ground up and still be going. I thought it was a long shot at best, but amazingly, it's all worked out. We'll see where it is in another four years.
And why not put a cute little picture of Gentry's tootsies on this post. It makes total sense.
Okay, okay, Than just read that and thought what I wrote made me sound like a moron. He said, "That is what you wrote?!?!?!!?" This is what it's all about in Than's words. The Obama administration has an agreement with China to exchange 100,000 plus college students over the next 5-10 years and one of the main components to help them achieve this initiative will be Zinch! It is REALLY cool that they would use Zinch for this. Maybe I need to be more understanding of Than's job. :)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Blast from the Past.
I had to go through a ton of my pictures yesterday and I ran across these from a long time ago. It was 2005, we lived in Michigan, Pacen was around 16 months old and Than had surprised me for my birthday (he's always been good at surprises!). He had flown Jana out to visit me with her new baby Benji! I was totally floored! I love Michigan, but it is FAR away and it was so good to spend some time with Jana.
That was then....
This is now! They are still good buddies and hopefully will stay that way despite our move to Cali. Pacen was SO excited to show benji his DS and Benji was SO excited to show Pacen is PSP. They are video game NERDS! But they love to play, too.
And I figured while I was at it, I'd put up these pictures from Jana's trip out. It was the fall, so we had to do the michigan thing of visiting a Cider Mill. They have the most delicious cider and donuts.
And then we went to the D. Downtown Detroit is such a treat for those that have never seen it in all it's burned out building glory. It's pretty much just as ghetto as everyone would think, but there are some nice-ish areas. And for us, it was our home away from home for three years. Well, Livonia anyway.
And here all three of us are. I'm glad things worked out the way they did and we can all still be such good friends. And I'm glad Ben is willing to listen to hours of Oroville stories when. He's a good sport. And now our kids are friends. What is better than that!?!? Oh yeah, living in the same town. The other day Claira started crying because she wanted to go to Cali's house so we had to skype instead. Thank you technology!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Interesting Read
Than and Sam found this article on cougarboard I think. Anyway, they both told me about it and I think it's pretty funny/interesting since I am one of those stereotypical mormon moms! I think the end is my favorite part.
"But the basic messages expressed in these blogs -- family is wonderful, life is meant to be enjoyed, celebrate the small things -- are still lovely. And if they help women like me envision a life in which marriage and motherhood could potentially be something other than a miserable, soul-destroying trap, I say, "Right on." I won't be inviting the missionaries inside for hot cocoa now or ever, but I don't plan on stopping my blog habit any time soon."
I think the comments that people left are a little off the deep end. Anyway--interesting read nonetheless.
3.5 month Gentry
Gentry had a doctor appointment today. Here are her stats:
Weight: 15 lbs. even
Height: 24 3/4 inches
Great milestones accomplished:
She can laugh. She can reach. She can grab. She kicks her legs when she's happy. She can pull Pacen's finger right into her mouth which he really gets a kick out of. She is super ticklish and squirms like crazy to make me stop. She is still my super sleeper (may that never change!). She has some funky hair going on right now. Most of it is gone except for some strands on top that are hanging on for dear life. She is very interested in food and eyes everything that I eat. She loves taking a bath, whether it be in the bathroom sink (see above picture) or in the bath with Camry or Pacen holding her, or in the shower with Dad, it's all good to her. And she has mastered being a bottle fed baby. Yesterday I only nursed her in the morning and believe it or not, she's still alive and rather happy. I had this strange notion that bottle feeding her would change her personality or something, but it didn't. I'm crazy, I know. I have until February 9th to be completely done and I'm sure that will happen. And one thing I really like about bottle feeding is that she can look right at me when I'm feeding her and she holds my pinky. And Camry absolutely loves to feed her, too. She is Camry's Gench and Genchy Pie. We love you baby!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Paint.
Today we had a day off from a schedule and it was fantastic. I asked Pacen what he wanted to do today since it was his day off from school and all he said was play the wii and play football. Done and done-er. I can totally handle that. One thing that I did do today was set up an easel that mom had gotten Pacen for his 3rd birthday. Yep, I said 3rd birthday. We've just had it and I haven't wanted to set it up because it would take up a lot of space but I've been trying to de-junk our toys so I figured I could bust this thing out. Better late than never. So, thanks Mom! Thanks for giving my kids way too many presents that it has taken me three years to set this one up.
So, yes, we had lots of painting today. And lots of chalk. And the paint smells like something out of a dentist's office. And there is somehow paint on my wall up above my head. I asked Camry about it and she said, "It wasn't me. I'm not that tall." Oh yes, then it must have been me that flicked paint on my wall. She's so smart.
And I love Pacen. We all know that. And I'm not making fun of him. Promise. But it did crack me up when he says, "I want to paint a boat." And I'm like, Okay, yeah, a boat. That's a lot different from the typical house with a tree and a sun. Good thinking, dude.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
We liked it so much, we did it twice.
Than has had a rough week at work. They're just doing all sorts of stuff over at zinch.com and when he was driving home on Friday night I asked him what he wanted to do. He said, "I wanna go camping or something. Just get outside." And I said, "Well, we can't do that, but we can go for a walk and let the kids ride bikes." And that is what we did. We have a great flat, paved trail really close to our house and so we headed out as soon as Than got home and enjoyed the last hour of sunlight. Our kids haven't rode their bikes that many times so they aren't that good yet. But, maybe now that we have this little trail I can take them out more. We just don't live in a 'neighborhood' with a safe place to ride right outside our door which leaves it up to me to take them to a place and I haven't done that very much. But this little trail seems like a good place for them to learn and I can get out and walk, too.
The sleeping babies.
Then on Saturday, Than's parents came down for a day visit and we decided to do it again! This time we rode all the way down to Rite Aid to get some ice cream. When I say we I really mean Than, Walt and the kids. Sam, Becky, Claira, Gentry and I walked some but then drove the rest of the way. The weather was great and the kids had a great time.
Scotty doesn't really need any encouragement when it comes to daring stunts. He is fearless and got some good air on a few little jumps.
It is nice to live in Cali and have it be January and be able to ride bikes and to live so close to Walt and Becky. We love it and I know the kids love it, too.
Next goal: No training wheels. Than told the kids that they could pick out a toy when they learn with not training wheels and Jana would be proud...Camry said that she wanted a pillow pet.
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