Camry is loving kindergarten. She is becoming just the little social butterfly I always thought she would be. She's funny because she'll come home and I'll ask her about her day and she'll say a thing or two about what they did in school but no details really. But then, throughout the day she'll just randomly bring up something that they did in class. Or start singing some song that she learned. Or tell me that she went across the monkey bars all by herself! She is dying to have her lunch with Mrs. Cerutti. They each get to have lunch with her this month....little does Camry know that is when she's going to assess Camry to see when her stay day will be, but that doesn't matter to Cam. She just keeps saying, "I can't wait until it's my turn to have lunch with Mrs. Cerutti." Or, "Do you think that my lunch with Mrs. Cerutti is tomorrow?" Or, "What do you think will be in my lunch when I have lunch with Mrs. Cerutti?" She's so cute. And today, she got to take the role (which she called 'The Rule' and I had to figure out what she was saying...so cute) down to the office. She had already told me about it twice today when she put her head on my lap after her bath and looked up at me with a big smile and said, "Mom, it was so fun to take the role to the office today." Don't grow up, Camry! Stay this sweet forever!

**Update (for those non-californians!:)): Stay day is actually a pretty cool concept I think. They assess the kids and then group them into similar reading groups of like 5-7 kids and then one day a week they have a "stay day" where each small group gets to stay a full day and that is when they do a lot of their reading and small group work. Then in January they merge two of the groups together and have two stay days a week. I've never heard of any other school doing this, not even in our district. Everyone seems to like it so we'll see.

Look out world.

Claira had a play date with these two cutie pies and they were sooooo cute. All three are pretty girly and wanted to play dress up and were just adorable. From left to right it's Maisy, Claira and Marley. If we all live around here when these girls are teenagers then look out world!

And you'll never guess what we are starting tomorrow.....Preschool with Claira! We are doing mothergoosetime again and I'm sure it will be awesome. It's more of a playgroup with crafts and books but we'll be calling it preschool. She is sooooo excited and cannot wait to do her very own preschool. She found a bell that I brought back from my mom's house that she is insisting to use. I'm excited to do this with her. There are seven kids this time so when it is our time to teach, it'll be a little crazy but it also means that we only have to teach every seven weeks! Score! That means that for about 5 hours a week, it'll just be me and Gentry. How fun is that going to be?!?!

My Girls and our weekend update.

Well, what started out as a "Hey, this is Gentry's first ponytail...Let's take some pictures!" turned out to be a full on photo shoot for her and Camry. And of course, Claira had to hop on in, too.

Here are some things that I don't want to forget about Gentry....

**She said 'no' to me the other day. For REALS and Cari was there to witness it and then she did it again to Than this morning. She had put something in her mouth and I told her to spit it out and she shook her head from side to side and laughed. What is up with that my sweet little angel baby?!?!?

**She is just getting funny. She laughs all the time and I feel like she really 'gets it'. She is on the verge of talking and I fear she may be my loudest one yet. And if you've been in my house lately you would think that that was impossible.

**She is the speediest crawler I know and she is beginning to cruise and I'm predicting that she'll be walking before her birthday.

**She wants to be a big kid already. I actually can forget about that because I'm already missing my little baby.

**Today I put her little bit of hair in a ponytail and she kept it in for like an hour and then right before church she pulled it out, so I put it in, then she pulled it out, then I put it in, and then she won and I left it out and her hair looked funny all through church all sticking up all over the place.

**She is so friendly. I hope that never changes. She smiles and talks to anyone. She'll give everyone hugs and kisses and it is very refreshing to know that I can make a friendly child.

**She can wave! She's pretty smart. :)

**She can plug her nose with her upper lip just like her daddy. It's a strange trait. :)

**She tries to put clothes on. It's so funny when she gets a shirt she puts it on top of her head. I'm telling you...she's a smarty pants.

I really wanted a picture that just showed my Camry and this is it. When I picture Camry, this is what I see. She is so pretty and fun and smart and sometimes ridiculous and sometimes a pain in the butt but I really think all girls should be those things.

She always wants to have her hair down but I can't stand it like that. I don't mind with a clip or a headband, but just down drives me crazy because it just doesn't look done and just messy.

And let me tell you, she was loving getting her picture taken. All the poses were her idea. I told Than she was having a toddlers and tiaras moment...just loving the spotlight. She had a fantastic first week of school but she was soooooooooo tired Friday night. We ended up going to Than's softball game and she just cried the whole time and what is funny is that she said she didn't want to go and I should have just listened to her. She knows when she is tired and boy was she tired! And it was the funniest thing on Saturday. We got up and Than's parents were coming and so I was getting them dressed and she said, "But don't we have to go to school?" And Pacen said, "No, it's Saturday." And she got the most excited look on her face like she just for the first time could comprehend how wonderful Saturdays really are. It's hard to go to school every day!

This little Claira belle is going to be three in two weeks. She is so fun and such a mama's girl. She wants me to hold her all the time, loves her "milkee" still, and slept on me all through sacrament meeting. She has become a wonderful big sister to Gentry but still wants to do all the things the big kids do. She loves anything little like her and is just a twig herself. She is soooo close to swimming all by herself and has the cutest voice and laugh ever.

If you are wondering where the pictures of Pacen are, there are none because he takes over an hour to get dressed for church! That boy is so slow sometimes!

This weekend was fun because Walt, Becky, and Scotty came down for the day. Walt wanted to walk us through his plans for our yard. Our house is small, but we are realizing how big our yard is and how much work it will be. But Walt is willing to help us and that will help out a lot! Wanna sneak peak of our house....

It's totally gutted! Hardly any walls left. What have we gotten ourselves into?!?! :) But we did have our first little swim in our pool. It was like swimming in the arctic! We need to figure out how to heat that thing.

But before we did that, we celebrated an early birthday for Scotty. Thank you eighteen25 for the cake idea. Theirs was much cuter.

And we went yardsale-ing. It's a total walt and becky thing and all of a sudden, all the Hancock's are obsessed. But we scored this slide for free!!!!

And this really big awesome basket, Than got a pirate halloween costume for 2 bucks, we got tons of shoes one pair of sketchers that are too big for camry but she is obsessed with because believe it or not....they sparkle, some lincoln logs all for like 20 bucks or something. And the key is taking your kids because at two of the yard sales they just let the kids pick something for free. They loved it!

And we are doing the cousin christmas swap this year and the budget is $1.00, but when you yard-sale, you get tons of crap....I mean stuff that kids love! Knives and swords and hats and toys galore!

That was our weekend wrap up. We ended it by having a fantastic dinner with the Jackson's and now we are all geared up for this week. Pacen and Camry's soccer has started practice and real homework will be happening. Most importantly, Than leaves for Mississippi on Thursday to have a boys trip to the BYU vs. Ole Miss game. He and Pacen have been watching old games all week long and acting as if they don't know the outcome. They are a little ridiculous but I love it. Pacen makes Than pause the game if he has to leave and I can just see Than's eyes glowing with pride. Summer is officially over!

Camry is in the newspaper!

Turns out they still make newspapers....and Camry was in it! It's a good thing that I have friends that get the newspaper still. :)

Second day of school went off without a hitch. We had a lot of fun with these two girls. How cute are they in their matching dresses?!!?!?

This is what she looks like every time she eats. I even had to clean off raspberries from under her legs. Big fat mess.

And we even had an impromptu playdate when I had to ask my friend to bring me a cup of brown sugar. The kids were in heaven having someone to play Just Dance with on the Wii. Than is still not home but is coming soon. Late night for the Hancock fam. And it's hot. Walnut creek seems to be the most hot in August and September. What is up with that?!?!?!

Wanna know something else that is really awesome?

We bought a house!!!! Here in California!!! I can't believe it! It's totally expensive and totally a fixer upper but as of yesterday it is totally ours.

We feel like it was one of those "meant to be" things. So many things fell into place for us to get it. It's not easy buying a house out here. First off, there are hardly any that we can afford. And when we can afford them, they are in a bad area, or wrong school district, or busy street, or only 1000 square feet, no yard, no neighborhood, a complete dump., or investors come in an give a cash offer that people like us can't compete with. We had found another house that was in our price range but it was on a busy street and didn't really offer us a great area for our kids to play. Basically what we were looking for was a house in a neighborhood where the kids could play, a yard, hopefully big enough to fit us, perhaps sidewalk (that is hard to find out here) and hopefully other kids to play with. Not too much to ask, right? Anyway, we had looked at this house that was in our price range and we hadn't found much....like any in our school zone and at that price, so we were tempted but I was just not into it. It just didn't feel right to me and as I was driving the kids to swim I thought, why can't we just find a house in this neighborhood??!?! So, a few weeks later a house turns up in that neighborhood! And in our price range! So, we go and take a look and it's a TOTAL fixer-upper. Like everything. BUT....it had a yard, a pool, sidewalk, neighbors, it was in our school boundaries, can basically fit us (we'll be squished in a few years but that will just make us grow closer as a family, right???) and the price was right. We put our offer in, along with some others including cash offers, but they accepted ours! We had written a letter expressing our desire to live in that neighborhood and described our family and he actually bought it! I'm kidding...it just explained our lives and how we want to be here and how we swim on the neighborhood team....oh yeah...the pool is two blocks down the road! How awesome is that?!!? Anyway, the guy who was selling was looking for a family and luckily he found us. We have been working on our loan all summer (they practically wanted our blood) and as of Monday, it is ours! We can't move in until the end of October because really, the whole thing has to be fixed. New kitchen, foundation work, the downstairs had been completely gutted, new bathrooms. I'm telling you. It's going to be a major overhaul but we have the best contractor working on it. He's a guy in our ward and he has done some amazing homes and we have total faith in him to make our house pretty. If it were up to Than and I alone, it would be a hot mess and never be fixed. But with Ryan, it will be awesome. They started demo yesterday and now we have the ball rolling. It's been a crazy process but we feel totally good about it. If you would have told me a year ago that I'd be buying a house in Walnut Creek, I would have said you were on crack but it's all just working out for us. My biggest hope is that the kids will make friends and be able to play outside again. Oh, and one of our neighbors was a kid in Pacen's class last year! And his little sister and Camry are in the same Kindergarten this year! Our new neighborhood even had a little barbecue this summer ands invited us so that we could get to know the neighborhood. Just what we were looking for! We can't wait to move in. It'll be a stressful couple of months but we'll get there and then we'll have our very own house again. We'll have to have a big house warming party and invite everyone over...and have everyone do some yard work because the yard is a mess, too! :) So add that in with all of our other summer craziness and we have had one very full summer!

Ahhhh!!! The first day of school.....

I can't believe Camry is in Kindergarten!!!

I feel like I was more sad for Camry to go to school than I was for Pacen to go. I was more scared and worried for Pacen, but more sad (just to lose my little buddy) and excited for Cam. She has been so looking forward to this for weeks. She kept on asking me, "How many days until Kindergarten?" Yesterday we went to meet her teacher and I could tell she was getting nervous. But we got there (found that they had her name spelled C-A-M-E-Y on everything), found her room, met her teacher, and then she was good. I was telling her that I would walk her to class on the first day and she said, "But you don't need to walk me because I already know where my class is." Oh, okay. Just like that you're all ready to go and don't need me anymore! :) I love how independent she is. She gets nervous but she doesn't let it get the best of her. She feels out a situation and then goes with it. I know she is going to LOVE school. There is a girl on her soccer team that is in her class and a girl in our neighborhood so she is good! She already told me the things she learned and was all excited to tell Pacen about her day.

What she might have been most excited about was wearing those shoes! She is drawn to anything with glitter and/or sequins. And finding her backpack was a joke. She was very particular and drawn to every tacky 'character' backpack in the store so we finally settled on one that was relatively cute but the quality is terrible. I should've just ordered the pottery barn ones like I had thought about but then got cold feet and wanted to let her choose....big mistake! :) No, she's happy and loves that it has a stuffed animal on it.

This guy is the old pro now. The first words out of his mouth this morning were, "When is summer break?" No joke. This kid loves to play. School is secondary. But we are working on it. He was so happy to be back with his friends, was a little apprehensive not knowing his teacher but he did great!

This little girl was a little upset that she did not get to go to school today and really wanted new school shoes. Isn't she cute in the dress that Peggy made her?

She carried around her backpack and water bottle all day just like a big kid. Don't grow up yet, Claira! Stay and hang out with me!!! :)

I went to the school early to drop off the kids and do Family Reading in Cam's class. Every Tues. & Thurs. we can go into Camry's class and read with her in the morning. Fun! Isn't kindergarten the best!?!?! While we were walking in a reporter from the Contra Costa times stopped me and wanted to follow us around and take pictures of us so I let her, but then I felt silly taking a lot of pictures myself so I only have a few from school. Her teacher is going to be great. I'm excited for cam.

I went to say goodbye and she was already off doing stuff so I snapped this picture and left. I love that girl.

Pacen has both of his church friends in his class and his little buddy, Aidan. It's going to be a fun year!

After running some errands, we picked her up. She's just so dang cute. She told me about all the people she saw at school and the friends that she met. It's so much better to be the second child going to school. You just know what is going on because you've been watching your older sibling.

We're all back together in the afternoon! Oh, how cute. Pacen spent a lot of time with Gentry...I'm pretty sure he missed her most. Well, and me, of course. :)

Oh, school. It's fun and this year will be great for me to spend more one on one time with Gentry and Claira but I love the craziness of summer. No more breakfast at 10 and park days and swimming. Here we come homework and projects and early mornings! Ready or not, here we go.....

if you need a laugh today.

The Colbert Report
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So, my friend sent this to me and I think it's pretty funny. I may not have time to update my blog, but I can watch this video and laugh my head off.

Driving from the Utah.

We expanded the phone game to make everyone feel like they drove twelve hours today from Utah back to sunny California.

The day started off well. Kathy had the kids up until like 11 last night and so they slept all morning until Elko. We left at 5:30am (utah time) and they were not ready to wake up and honestly, I was not ready to wake up either! I had too much fun playing and didn't get enough sleep but we made it.

The view from my seat. What darling sleeping kids I have.

Leaving Wendover....I think. It all looks the same.

If you've ever made this trip, you know the tunnel!! It's funny now because the kids drive through the Caldecott Tunnel so many times this one isn't as exciting anymore, but still a landmark nonetheless.

The girls that kept me company all morning and well into the afternoon.

Pacen played his DS until it died. I wasn't in the mood to regulate time limits today. And Gentry was fantastic today! I don't think she cried once. I sure love that baby!

How fun is Nevada?!?! I know you're wishing you were in the car with us today. Or you've fallen asleep with boredom from this post. Either way. :)

Where my cruise was set all day. And the game that Camry and I played. You know...Guess what I drew....a classic. That picture was Camry's.....a pirate cat. Love that girl. Until she said that Erin is a better drawer than me. How do kids pick up on that so early?!?! She really is better. It's that left-handed-ness of hers.

Almost to Fernley to visit.....

....Than's granparents! I called them while I was on the road to see if they'd like to come meet us in Fernley for lunch and they did! It was super fun but my kids were less than obedient in Jack in the Box....almost embarrassing really, but we'll try to forget that. We'll chalk it up to playing and not sleeping for four days straight. Camry has already written her apology note so all is well again.

Ahhhh.....Northstar. I remember as a kid getting close to Northstar because of the big open meadow in front of it.

I'm in love with Tahoe and the trees. It's so refreshing after hours of the sage. And I had to give a shout out to my ancestors on my mom's side....The Donner Party. It's true.

And the last pic I took...coming down out of the foothills into the sacramento valley.

After that I had to talk on the phone to keep myself awake! That last hour was a doozy but we made it and everything is all cleaned up and we're ready to do it again. Well not immediately but I know we'll be doing it again soon for the cougar football season! And it's so nice to be a whole family again. I hate being apart from Than. We work much better together! And he dominated his triathlon! I'm so proud of our little triathlete!