Camille is Three

Camille turned three in February, so that was very exciting and a little weird to think that my "baby" is getting so big so fast and isn't really a baby at all any more.  During the week of her birthday she suddenly started acting like a complete brat, so it's nice to know that she's right on schedule for her age!  She's mostly super fun, but she's got quite the chip on her shoulder at times....  A few examples:

-The other day, she was laying on her stomach in the hallway, playing with a dollhouse.  When I walked by her, she smiled sweetly and said, "Hi, Mommy!" and then she immediately scowled and followed up with, "Now go away!"  Nice, kid.

-Early in the morning, she was snuggled up against me, tracing the stripes on my bathrobe.  I asked her what she was doing and her answer was, "I'm just... doing what I'm doing."

-Yesterday, she cried for 10 minutes because I hadn't had time to grab her a snack (we were just dropping Colton off at speech therapy and returning home, so she just needed to wait a few minutes-- I wasn't being cruel here).  At the end of her crying she yelled, "You're just ruining my entire life!"  Can't wait to see what she's like as a teenager!

Can you tell she got herself dressed?

So excited for her "new" carseat

She's very tricky-- she learned this in gymnastics class

I LOVE it when kids sit on their feet like this-- it's so cute!

This picture feels a little dirty, but aren't these socks from my sister Leah cute???

Here she is laughing as Colton puts his feet on her...?

That's some good duck face

She and Ryder look like siblings here

Here she is (on her birthday) looking impressed by her superhero brother

Kendra fastened a balloon onto her hat, and then Camille proceeded to wear it.  Reminds me of Blossom!

Here she is pouting on the stairs

Anyway, for her birthday, I invited a few friends over to play and have desserts (mini cupcakes for the kids, leftover book club treats for the grown-ups).  And then in the evening we had Costco pizza and family movie night, which is always a delight.  So I think it was a good day.  I'm always torn with how to celebrate my kids' birthdays-- how to make it special without just throwing away money for no good reason.  A few days later we celebrated her birthday and Kendra's with Grandma and Grandpa, but I think that will be another post (assuming I remember!).

Camille is such a kick-- she cracks me up all the time.  And even though I like to complain about how bossy she is, I secretly love that about her.  I like girls who refuse to let their big brothers (or even their mommy) push them around.  This girl will go places in life, just you wait!

I love my Cami-P!

Richmond Science Museum

With some of the Christmas money we received, we decided to get a membership to the Richmond Museum of Science.  A couple of our kids had been there for field trips and liked it, and we figured this would be a good Saturday activity to get us through the winter months.  We've been twice so far and it's been a lot of fun-- it's nice to spend half the day there, and know we can come back and keep exploring.  This last time, just as we were about to leave, I discovered a whole new wing, so there's still more to look forward to!

Playing air hockey against a machine

Trying to make herself as small as possible.  Doesn't this look like she's just been tortured or something?

Yeah, this looks like a movie poster for a psychological thriller.  From the 80s.  Perhaps involving a computer...

I told her to smile, but she couldn't be bothered to look up!

Snuggly Colton

Craig was proud of the American flag he fashioned out of the glo-lights

Four kids all playing nicely together!

I like that you can see Bentley helping Camille here-- good big brother!

My "big" kids chilling

We went back again this last Saturday, bringing Craig's parents with us this time.  And we had a blast again!  So this has already been a good investment and we look forward to many more trips this year!

Giant outdoor chess set!

I love how Ryder is carrying this pawn that's half his size!

Bentley insisted we see Rat Basketball and it was actually really fun-- who knew rats could be so entertaining???

You can see us sitting up front

Everyone except Colton was excited to pet the rat afterwards

Even Camille!  I think she stood in line twice to do it!

And now Bentley wants a pet rat.  Of course.

I think this was where you could experience hurricane force winds?  I think Camille and I were having a snack at this point...

After the museum, Craig's parents treated us to dinner at Chuy's.  It was a bit of a wait (which is why I'm wrestling Ryder here) but the food was EXCELLENT.

Here's another one where I don't look scary

The kids discover Push-Ups.  And yes, Bentley has mastered the art of looking weird for a picture, while making it look as if he doesn't know his picture is being taken.  Trust me, that face was on purpose.  My wacky son...

One of the weird things about all this is that... (drumroll, please)... WE DON'T NEED A STROLLER.  I haven't done day activities like this without a stroller in 11 years!  Such progress!  Yay for family fun!

Church Callings

Life continues to be busy.

A few weeks ago, they released me from working with the young women and put me in the Relief Society presidency.  I'm actually pretty excited for the change-- I loved working with the girls and I adore the YWs president, but she was super disorganized and it was starting to make me crazy.  You know that phrase, "Nature abhors a vacuum"?  Well, with the vacuum of leadership and organization, I was slowly turning into the type-A person trying to make sure stuff actually happened.  I felt like I was getting sucked into that role against my better nature.  It was weird.

The R.S. president is super organized, so I think working with her will be a good change.  Also, she's very social and I've been lonely in this ward-- everyone lives so far that people hardly ever bother to get together.  So I suspect that spending time with other grown-ups will also be good for me.  But it's going to be a lot of work, too-- I spent over an hour on Sunday evening calling sisters to conduct visiting teaching interviews.  It was exhausting.  But good-- good to hear what they're trying to do, what they're concerned about, good to get ideas of what changes can be made to improve things.

Here's to working with grown-ups again!

Sew Done

You know that I can't sew, right?

Not only do I not know ANYTHING about sewing, I actually come from a long line of non-sewing people.  My Grandma Bentley was so bad at sewing that back when girls had to take home-ec classes (or whatever they called it then), they finally just had her sit in the back with scissors to cut out other people's bad stitches.  She was THAT hopeless!  My Mom, who is very capable in many ways, used to hire people to sew stuff for her whenever she needed costumes for my sisters' hula classes or whatnot. 

So I've always known that I come by my inability to sew very naturally.

But I've still sort of wondered if I actually tried to learn, just maybe I might be capable of sewing.  I mean, my Grandma Hansen loved to crochet, so maybe-- like with every superhero story--there was some hidden power lying dormant in me, just waiting to be tapped...  if someone were to teach me... very patiently..?

But I think it's time I gave up on that notion.  I've tried sewing things for church a couple times, and both times I mysteriously ended up with these race car sewing machines that were impossible to control.  (REALLY!  Both times!!!  Other women came to help me and both times they were like, "Yikes, this machine is really difficult!"  So I'm not just making excuses for myself.  It wouldn't even occur to me to make something like that up!)  The second time, we were making infinity scarves and while I actually like mine and occasionally wear it, I always try very to hide the stitching because it loops all over and back on itself in a sort of amazingly bad way.

I did show it to one friend because I knew she'd find it funny (she wrote a book on quilting, so yeah, she knows how to sew).  She tried to be nice and say it wasn't too bad and then she got to the actually really bad part and she began howling with laughter.  I was happy to laugh along with her, so don't feel bad for me here.  I'm not aiming for pity, I'm just trying to give you an honest picture of literally how incapable I am of this stuff.

But I still occasionally think I must be able to figure it out.  I mean-- it all makes sense in my head, so how hard can it be?  But in the last couple weeks I've tried to hand-stitch a couple things back together (the belt loop on my bathrobe and the loop on the back of Ryder's tie) and it really was kind of amazing how much I could mess up these simple tasks!  At one point I accidentally poked the needle all the way through the tie and then back in an inch away!  How did I do that without even realizing it???  I have no idea.  I suspect that sitting on my bed and chatting on the phone while trying to do a task which I am wildly incapable of doing is a bad idea.  But still!!!!!

A couple snips with the scissors and it was fine.  My Grandma would be so proud.