March, where have you gone?

Is March really over? That is crazy. Pacen told me that "Patrick's Fool's Day" was on Friday. But it makes me happy that today, in March, it was the most weather ever. We had a picnic and Camry asked if we could move the blanket into the shade because she was too hot. And then I told Pacen to go play outside and he said, "Nah, it's too hot out there. We're doing good things in here." He just wanted to play the Wii and I sent him outside immediately. And then he did this....so cute.

I told him to find a bigger tree to climb and then he said all of the trees in our yard look broken. Yeah, it's true. Really if this house had a usable yard it would be soooooo much better. Usable as in nice, soft, flat, green grass. For now we always have to wear shoes.

I also took these pictures today.

I was doing the dinner dishes and I looked over and saw Claira just hanging out naked in the shopping cart with her doll. I sneakily grabbed my camera (that is why I leave it in my kitchen most of the time so it is always handy!) and shot a few that are so sweet of her just loving her doll and then she obviously heard me and got that cute "you caught me" look on her face. I love that girl and her imagination.

These are some cute moments that I've caught during the past weeks.

My kids just LOVE Gentry. I'm sure they really think that Gentry is theirs and not mine! I will often tell Camry to "babysit" for me so I can get something done. And she is so good about it and will talk and play with Gentry on the floor. I walked back in and found them like that. So cute.

Oh, and that is Camry's birthday crown. I got one for her at Michael's because she is always asking for things and it was 75 cents and she has been wearing it non-stop! 75 cents well spent. She is so excited of her birthday to come.

And another day I found this. Gentry started crying and Pacen said, "Don't go, mom. I'll get her." I walk in and see this. He's climbed into her crib and has practically put himself to sleep rubbing her ears and she couldn't be happier.

And of course Cam had to get in on the action, too.

The rest of these are just random from the past month and if I let them go any longer they will get lost in the depths of my photo files.

This is just my view from the kitchen stove. I often encourage them to play Just Dance while I make dinner. They are out of my hair and they get a little more tired for bedtime. I love the My Little Pony that is all blurry. My girls are all about that show now and when Claira says Pinkie Pie it's just about the cutest thing ever.

I took these pictures while we were watching the cougars beat the zags last week.

Toys are fun for babies, brothers, and dogs too!

Hey, whatcha doin'??? I wanna play.

Wait...don't forget about me!

And we'll just end with our crazy Claira. We've had a pretty great March despite all the rain. Yeah for sun! Remind me...why are we driving to Seattle on Friday?!?!? :)

Gentry's First Food.

This was actually the only picture I took on the night that we first fed Gentry food. (And I feel bad...it was like three weeks ago!) It was dark outside and I hate using my flash. But we did take video! I, being the parent of the children, think the video is pretty cute. Nothing crazy AFV funny or anything like that, just typical time in our little family. Claira using an insanely high pitched voice that only dogs can hear while baby talking to Gentry just makes me smile. It seemed like eating for Gentry was old hat. She really ate ALL of the organic whole grain brown rice cereal (I sound so organic! Ha!) and was pretty much ready for more.

I took these pictures the next day. A babies arch nemesis...their own hands. There is just no way to fit all of your food, the utensil and your fists in your mouth at the same time. Many have tried and I'd like to believe that all have failed.

And look! She's even already fallen asleep in her chair! I love that!

But now she is absolutely awful while sitting on my lap at the dinner table, or anywhere, really. She just grabs for all food. Holding her and fixing a bottle is impossible. Today at the park she grabbed a blueberry muffin and just about put it in her mouth. She's a food-aholic! Ahhhhh, she must be mine.

Hair.

Gentry has this little piece of hair that never fell out and it was getting a little out of control. So before I gave it a little trim, I had some fun.

The alfalfa and the sweep over bang.

The curly-q and the combover.

The slick-back-car-salesman and the vampire.

And my two personal favorites....The Einstein and The Dwight Schrute.

The good news and bad news--Good news....this is the cutest picture ever. Bad news....it was while she was sporting the Dwight.

Kathy!

On Thursday, Kathy came to town! We call her Aunt Kathy, but really, she is Than's dad's cousin so what does that make her to us...second cousins.....second cousins once removed....who knows? All we know is that we love her and are so glad that we have her in our lives! She is super fun and happy, beautiful, giving (almost to a fault!), loves my kids to death, loves us to death and really would do anything for us. She really only has one flaw....she's a Utah fan. But we even let that slide because we love her so much. But she did wear her BYU shirt Thursday just for us. Too bad it didn't bring us luck!

We were hoping to go to Six Flags with her on Saturday, but it just has been raining, raining, raining. Instead, we had Walt, Becky, and Scotty come up and we just played games and ate all Saturday long. It was fantastic!

Funnest moment of the day was when she is holding Gentry and Gentry poops all over her!

I know you're thinking, "That is not funny. In fact, that is disgusting! And why in the heck did you grab your camera instead of helping her?!?!?" And I fully agree. But what makes it so funny is that my kids always puke or poop on her. It never fails. The first time was with Camry and we were freezing our butts off at a Bee's game and I feed Cam, and then hand her over to Kathy, and as soon as I start to say, "She may need to burp," Camry spits up right down the hoodie that Kathy is wearing. Her first thought, "Oh yes, that's warm." Second thought, "Shoot! That's puke!" Another time, Kathy decided to do the "Finger Check" with Claira. You can figure out what exactly the finger check is. But despite all that, she loves, loves, loves them. She really has the biggest heart.

Before we took her back to the airport we snapped a few pics. And I forgot to mention that she HATES to fly and she does it anyway for us. Not without her valium, but she still gets on that big amazing machine that she is convinced is going to crash every time she gets on it. That is big time love! Can't wait until next time!

Author's Tea

Every first grader at Pacen's school has to participate in "Author's Tea." They each have to write and illustrate a book and then read it in front of all the first grade and guests that they invite. It's a pretty big deal. At the beginning of the year when they told me about it, I thought and even said, "Well, we'll see if that really happens!" (Do you remember preschool graduation!?!?! It's kind of fun to remember things like that.) I really had doubts but Mrs. Howitt never did. And today was Pacen's turn and he was so excited! And we were shocked. We've been playing it up all week and he was all ready.

The inside of the program.

Pacen's cheering section. Kathy is out here, not just for this, but I'm so glad it worked out that way. And Peggy and Bill, our adopted grandparents out here. In this picture they are taking care of Roman....first grandchildren get all the attention!

Waiting patiently for his turn. They saved the best for last.

Reading his book. He's such a stud. His book had three components...all his favorite things. Basketball, Darth Maul, and ice cream. It was fantastic. Very Pacen.

Afterwards eating treats and signing his book. He was trying to get away from me. Can you believe that?!?!!? He's already embarrassed by his mom. I'm so proud. :)

The video. The moderators are the best. They are very well trained first graders.

And you can see his whole story here. I love technology. His story is The Stranger Who Took the Ball. We are so proud of you, Pacen! You are becoming such a brave little guy!