Camry.

I was as feeling a little guilty last night for not having taken a picture of Camry yesterday so this morning I snapped a few of her. It was raining in the WC for the first time in a really long time and she rediscovered her fascination with umbrellas and insisted on taking an umbrella to school this morning even though it was barely raining. Camry got ready quickly so she could go outside and stand with her umbrella. Claira also went outside with her to play in the rain but came inside because she said it was 'boring'. Standing outside in the cold is not my thing either! I told Camry that she could pretend that she lived in Seattle and she says, "It doesn't rain in Seattle. It rains at Disneyland!" It makes sense if you had her points of reference! (here and here)

Camry is such a fun girl and is becoming a really great big sister. I think it's been a little bit difficult being the older sister for her. Just wanting all the benefits of being a baby maybe. But it seems like now she sees how cool it is to be a little older and she is learning and reading and writing and I'll find her teaching Claira how to write letters and reading books to her and it really is so sweet. And she's so proud of what a good reader and writer she is. You can tell she is working hard at being a good student and just loves school. And she lets Claira sleep in her bed all the time. Sometimes she fights it but a lot of the time she'll see Claira crying to sleep with somebody and she'll say, "Come on, Claira, you can sleep with me." And when I go into check on them Claira is snuggled right up to Camry. And she's great with Gentry. She almost always can figure out why Gentry is crying and what Gentry is asking for.

I just love her. Today she came home with a scholastic book order and wanted this book that came with two little puppy "figurines' they call them. I call them garbage. :) Camry calls them priceless. Anyway, the book cost 6 dollars and I told Camry that she would have to earn that money if she wanted to get the book. I told her that I'd find some jobs that she could do for money and I had her come up and fold the laundry with me which she's never done before and she did seriously amazing. She had everything in nice, neat rows and hung up everything...even Gentry's pajamas and she was so happy doing it. The novelty will wear off but it was so fun to do that with her. At the end she was like, "Mom, my legs are tired! This is hard work." I gave her a couple quarters and she had six coins and was like, "Well, now I have six!" We had a little money counting lesson and she told me she could do a few jobs everyday to earn the rest. I think she is very determined to earn this money for those dollar store glass puppies. I just love that girl.

2nd grade poetry night.

Pacen had a Poetry Reading Night in his classroom tonight. They have been studying poetry this month and have written a few poems and got to choose one to read to the class. His was about a black hawk flying at night. He did really awesome! He was pretty nervous about it. Yesterday he said, "Mom, we're pretty busy tomorrow night, right?" And I was like, "Nope! The only thing we have planned is your poetry night!" And he looked all deflated because his master plan didn't work. And then this afternoon he was all worried that he'd be embarrassed but all of a sudden, he snapped out of it and was all excited to go. And we all got to go, even Than, and that was really great for Pacen. Than got home right before we had to leave and while we were eating dinner, Pacen was saying, "Oh no, today is Tuesday! He has scouts tonight!" But I told him he was planning on coming and he was all smiles. Dads make a difference. So good job, bud! We are proud of you overcoming your fears of speaking in front of people....even the parents. But seriously....pull out that tooth!!!! It's just hanging there and it makes my stomach turn a little when I look at it.

Looking in the mirror. Ahh! That tooth is gross.

Claira wanted a new hair-do today. She wanted two buns, a headband and a bow so we worked it out for her. And she was dang cute all ready for preschool!

This is what she is doing even as I type right behind me. She fell asleep watching Mitt's yeah for me winning arizona and michigan speech. Pacen came running up to me saying, "Mom....the TV's on and there is breaking news.....Mitt won Michigan!" I love that kid.

This is gentry at like 9:30 am. She had already pulled her hair out.

Sad, I don't have a picture of Camry today. She looked so cute in her pouffy skirt and bun head. She got a great book from the library today. She's on a cinderella book kick and this one is the horse version. It's the best of both worlds....Horses and Cinderella!!! Pacen had this project he had to do where he had to create a book character's face on a can and stick papers in it of clues of who the character is and he was fighting me doing it....obviously put it off until it was due and was just being a stinker about it but we did it...anyway, while we were working Camry came up and was like, "Oh! I want to do one!" And Pacen looks at her and says, "No, this is waaaay too complicated." Camry worked quietly and created a little face out of all the materials just fine.

So we had a great day. Happy Gentry is back. All four molars came in over the past two weeks and I think the pain is over and she has been sooooo much happier. I really do love happy Gentry. I love ornery gentry, too, but happy gentry is so much easier for me.

Kathy Came!!!!

Kathy came out to visit us this weekend and it was a blast!

It's always fun when Kathy is around. The kids were all over her the whole time she was here and she played basketball and jumped on the tramp with them, bought them some presents, went to the drive in, and down to the city and we had a typical crazy hancock weekend!

To start off the trip, Kathy asked if I minded going to the temple with her Friday morning. I arranged babysitting and and we were off. I was so glad to get there with her during the day. I haven't done that in a long time and I would really love to fit that in my schedule sometime. And the weather was so perfect. It could have been the most perfect weather I have seen at the temple ever.

Even doing school carpool is fun with Kathy around.

Friday night we packed ourselves in the van and headed to the drive in to watch Journey 2. When you go into a movie with like negative expectations, it actually turns out pretty decent. I even genuinely laughed out loud a couple of times! We bought tons of junk food and brought some blankets and turned the van into the perfect little drive in seat and had a super fun time.

Driving in the car is fun with Kathy, especially with her camera! They were getting a little crazy back there.

We were wishing that they were showing a decent 2nd show so we could have had a double feature. Unfortunately, Ghost Rider 2 is against everything I believe in. :)

I believe that this was Pacen and Camry's attempt at "3-D" pictures. I have strange kids.

Saturday we headed into SF for a farmer's market and some kid shopping. I don't go into the city near enough. I guess its a good thing because I still like going down there whereas Than has to drive in almost every weekday....that gets old fast. But he was still happy to be out and about with all the people. One person we happened to run into was Candy! We don't get to see her very often so that was a treat.

We wandered around and ate and looked around and ate and looked around and ate...you get the picture. There was just too much good stuff to try!

You really just wanted to buy all the veggies they were so pretty.

The crew.

Pacen's front tooth is going to pop out any minute! And actually, I'm very sad about him losing his front tooth because his mouth will never be a little kid mouth again. You know with my genes he'll get some big old horse tooth to grow in and have a very pretty smile (eventually!) but it just is more of a reminder that he's not a baby anymore and that is sad for me. But I will be glad when it is gone because he will barely touch it and that big tooth is having to do all the work coming down and his mouth is looking a little strange already. Claira bumped it tonight and you would have thought she pulled it right out the way he was acting. There was quite a bit of blood and he was FREAKING out. He is so like me.

After lunch.....

It wouldn't be SF without some street performers. I did put in a dollar because I can appreciate the fact that they are playing music rather than painting themselves silver and acting like a statue.

Gentry was curious about everything and did in fact try to eat that bird poop. Sick and wrong.

Me and my babe. What a pretty face he is making. After I took that he was like, did you see what kind of face I made!?!? He was very proud.

Daddy keeps everyone very clean.

After all of that, she still had time to play with the kids at home! And check out gentry's ponytails!!! It was a first.

And I can't get these pics from Kathy's camera to rotate so I'm going to stop trying.

Overall, a very, very fun weekend. WE are so blessed to have Kathy in our lives to love us and love our kids. Everyone needs an aunt Kathy in their life. We would just prefer her to live right next door instead of in Utah but we'll take what we can get. :)

This is what happens when.....

...you play "puppies" at school with your little white leggings on.

Guess what...it felt like summer today!!!!!

So the day didn't start out as well as I wanted it to. Most days haven't because Gentry just cries and cries in the morning. And I just have no idea why she is crying and she won't sit in her high chair and eat but she will throw herself on the ground and scream at the top of her lungs so that is great. :) I know it's started because she was sick but now she needs to go back to happy go lucky Gentry. Anyway, today she started off with her crying....

...but then out of nowhere, she just cheered up.

And I was sooooo grateful. And Claira really wanted them to have matching bows today. She is very into Gentry these days.

And I had everyone up a little earlier and Pacen and Camry made their lunches which was mostly fabulous.

I'd say like 70% fabulous, 30% me nagging over and over and getting frustrated. I went with Pacen on his field trip today and I had to make my lunch, too, and Pacen was so sweet because he said, "Mom, I cut my sandwich in two so you would have one too." Oh, what a sweetie!

The field trip was to the Black Diamond Mines and it was pretty awesome. The more that I find out about Walnut Creek and the surrounding area the more I really love it. There is just soooo much to do here. And it's so diverse. You can go into the city and see a show (Like walt and becky did last night for the first time!) or you can do something totally in the country. It's a pretty cool place.

I just love the look on Pacen's face in this picture. He so begged me to come and he loves me, but he has to be a cool 2nd grade boy and give the, 'really mom....really?' look. We had a really fun time today, just me and Pacen. He's just getting so big. But he still held my hand as we walked for part of the way on our hike so that made me smile.

I really love to watch him play with his friends. He can just run and run and run and they were playing robbers and sheriffs and it was so fun to watch it all go down. And that was the inside of a mine. I really want to go back someday and take a 'real' tour. It was pretty interesting to see where the town was and how they lived.

The whole class. Hats off to ms. carter because she has some very difficult boys.

In part of my, 'lets get Gentry not to scream all the time' goal, we've been giving Penny walks the past couple of days and she loves it! Penny, not so much with Gentry tugging at her neck, but for us it's been fun. And for some reason, everytime I go to take Genchy's picture, she squats down and gets in her pose. And in that one, she gave me a very silly cheese face.

And we're off...she holds the leash almost the whole time and tries not to hold my hand......stinker.

She was getting tired.

Isn't she so cute?!?!!? And seriously the weather is killing me right now!!!!! It was so warm and wonderful today and it wasn't like just in the sun it was warm but not in the shade, it was just warm all around. I jumped on the tramp with Camry, Pacen played lots of basketball and they were all hot and sweaty and when they came in to watch a show it smelled like kids playing outside....you know that smell????

And while we were on our walk, one of my neighbors gave me some old play food and it was like heaven sent because I set it all out for Gentry and she played with it for like 30 minutes and I was able to get something done for the first time in a while. Woohoo for Gentry!!! Maybe she's over getting her molars and ear aches and sickness and she'll be my sweet baby again.

In other news, Camry figured out what she wanted for her birthday when we were in the big disney store in SF yesterday.....the rapunzel wedding dress. It's gorgeous and only 150 bucks!!!!! Is that all?!?!?! Sadly, I'd really love to buy it for her if I could even justify it a little. :)

And she wants a kitty cat birthday party and now claira just came down the stairs crying so that is my cue.