crazy town

Boo.  More than and month without a post.
Life is crazy right now and it's all our fault.
We have five kids and time consuming church callings and volunteer to help coach our kids' sports and have our kids in too many activities.  We knowingly have 'over-scheduled' ourselves and it is just as bad as we thought it would be.
I'll give the rundown.
Pacen:  He is in middleschool, does Piano, Kumon, Flag Football, Boy Scouts and Swimming.  It's the swimming that puts us right over the edge.  And we knew it would but we really wanted to try out this fall clinic at this other pool and it is really awesome and really great coaching but it's just too much and we know it and are just getting through until the middle of November since we've already paid our money.
But for instance, this was his day.  It's Wednesday, so it's a late start day so he didn't have to be at school until 9:25.  Which is awesome.  I wish everyday started at 9:25.  So I woke him up at 6:45 so that he can get dressed, eat breakfast, practice piano, and do Kumon.  (Math worksheets basically).  Then he got some screen time and watched his beloved Full House.  Full House is still a pretty big deal in our house.  Then he was off to school, got home at 3:45, had his piano lesson at 4:00, left the house at 4:45 for Claira's swim time, had his swim time, I grabbed dinner at Yalla which is super yummy, they ate in the car, we picked up Morgan and Connor for Boy Scouts and Activity Days, and drove to the church, where I am now as I type.  I have no kids with me for an hour and I have my computer and I'm loving every second.  :)  Then he will get home, finish his homework and go to bed.  Tomorrow he will wake up at 6:15, get ready and do Kumon and Piano, do school and then Flag Football and homework.  It's just too busy but like I said, we did it to ourselves.
Camry:  She's in 4th grade.  She does piano, kumon, soccer, swimming and drama.  She just got the part of the Pomeranian in her school play which she wanted and tried our for.  She was voted into Student Council last week and had their first after school meeting this Monday where she is going to go for a lead student council position where she has to give a speech in front of the whole school....representative at large...and was also voted team captain of her soccer team.  She is crushing it!
Claira:  2nd grade and loving it.  She is in piano, kumon, swimming and drama.  She got the part of the Mother in her Jackie and the Beanstalk play.  She has a solo!  It's going to be awesome.  I feel bad for her because she didn't do soccer this year and really wants to be in a dance class but I can't find one that fits our schedule.  I feel REALLY bad about it and need to fix it.  The only one that I can find is on Saturday and our Saturdays have been really full and we've been gone some too.  I need to do that for her soon. Claira is a reading fool.  She just finished the 4th Harry Potter and is already onto the 5th.  She loves school and is so good at it.  Her class is kind of unruly this year and she keeps on saying how everyone is loud except for her.  I hope she can stay obedient and a good learner even though her class is a little disruptive.  I seriously find her reading EVERYWHERE.  It's the cutest thing ever.
Gentry:  She's loving TK.  Like loving it more and more each day.  She can write her name!  It's so awesome that she is getting a love for learning!  She loves to read books now, she colors, she is just growing and growing. I love it.  And she is doing drama!  She has the part of the shepherd and she is so dang excited to be in drama I can't even stand it.  She knows all the songs and just has so much confidence and enthusiasm it is crazy.  And she's doing soccer and killing it.  She scores a bunch of goals each game and just has the best attitude and is smiling all the time.  Everyone loves Gentry.  She is really just a ball of happiness...that is, when she's not throwing a fit which is really far and few between these days.
Maren:  She's just stuck hanging out in all this crazy.  She is good about going with the flow, and good about the car since she can watch her Backyardigans DVD over an over again.  Pacen picked up this DVD from school and Maren is obsessed.  We all sing this corn song as loud as we can when it comes on.  I'm trying to get to the park as often as I can with her and do some good one on one things.  But I will tell you that it is difficult when you the kindergarten schedule.  I do need to be better about meal planning so that I only have to go to the store once a week.  That would help me a lot.
But it's been crazy with Claira's birthday, a Relief Society event (I'm in charge of all RS Activities with my calling right now), a Baby shower for a lady in my ward,  RS visits, Gentry's birthday, and Than being gone a few weekends for BYU football games.  OVER SCHEDULED!  And we just threw in a quickie trip to Nevada this past weekend to visit our grandparents.  We left Saturday at 1:00pm (after all the games), drove to Silver Springs (where we saw a pack of wild horses!  It was amazing!), Than went to Priesthood Session with Herm, I hung out with Carolyn, the kids played, we ate pasties for dinner and enjoyed each other's company.  In the morning, we had breakfast and then headed off to Wellington to visit my family.  Grandpa Gentry wasn't feeling up for a visit so he stayed home.  That was sad but I get it.  He's going to be 90 and he's just in pain all the time.  Growing old kind of stinks sometimes.  But we had a great visit with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike and the kids had fun and we loaded in the Motorhome and came home.
Are we seeing why life is so crazy?!?!?!  Than plans trips to UCLA and Michigan (not his fault!  Adam had free tickets!  How could he not go?!?!)  for BYU football.  I'm heading to Washington for William's baptism this weekend with Claira.  It just goes on and on.
Oh!  And Than and Kaylee did their triathlon in Monterey!  That was one weekend where we all headed to a beach house in Sea Cliff and Than dominated the Olympic distance tri and Kaylee kicked the crud out of her first triathlon ever!  The cousins got to play and it was just a fun weekend.  WE fit in a trip to the aquarium and ate lots of yummy food and it was awesome.
Oh!  And we finished the Book of Mormon!  It's taken us like 4 years to read it as a family but we did it!  And now we get to start it again!
Oh!  And Than is starting a new job.  It's been an interesting few months trying to figure this decision out but it's happening.  He's leaving Degreed and starting with a new company out of Utah.  I 100% feel like it is the right decision for him.  This job really seems like the perfect fit where degreed was something that he really wanted to be a perfect fit but it just wasn't.  So, the next few months will be very interesting and telling.
But life is good.  The kids are doing good.   They are happy and still love spending time with us and still love church and want to spend time with each other.  It's a good life.  But this past month has been crazy town for sure.