Visit from Great Grandma Wickham!

It was such a pleasant surprise to have Great Grandma Wickham come down for a surprise visit. We were summoned to my mom's home to enjoy her company. Lily was especially excited to see another Grandma. She loves her grandma's. We had to take the opportunity before church to catch everyone in a four generation shot!

Making cookies with Mom

This is our favorite Sunday afternoon activity. Making cookies with Mom. Gavin especially loves to help me out. Lily just doesn't want to give up the spotlight of attention or maybe she just wants first dibs at the batter. Jessica is typically the most help - but then she has the most experience.

Golden Girls Mini Camp and Texas Football

Jessica and Lily got to go to the Mini Drill Team camp this summer. As part of the camp they were invited to go on the field with the Golden Girls and do the camp dance, walk around the track and stand on the field as the football players ran through the Tiger. They also got to sit with the Golden Girls during the first quarter. Gavin loved the Tiger mascot the most. This was our family's first football game. We've been to a RRHS game since then and a BYU tailgate party this month. I thought - wow - this is a lot of Football for the Marcano family in one year. So for those who know us at all - you can be proud that we've made it through two half times this season!

First Day of School

All the kids are in school this year. Gavin especially was excited about a backpack like Dora has and Lily is excited to go to school with her Daddy. Jessica is on a different schedule in the district where I work so her first day was the day after Lily's. We're all getting used to getting up at 5:30am-6:00am to get to school on time.

Baptismal Days

On July 11, Jess was baptized and confirmed. The week before we attended a baptism of the son of our friends that is about her age. They came to hers the next weekend. In addition we had friends from up to 7 hours drive in for the event. It was very special for her. The spirit was strong although I was emotional regardless. I'm very proud of Jess and her decision to be baptized. She reports that it was "the best day ever!" I'm sure she won't forget it.

Summer Time

Two weeks without a nanny. Phew. We've survived, but we miss Brianne. She's where she needs to be though so we support her.
Meanwhile - I'm full time mom again for the time being. It's nice having Jhonny around for a long weekend. We got the kids a wading pool yesterday and got it home with the help of a neighbor and their truck. I didn't want one that would "pop". The kids are enjoying it. Lily has decided it's her "special" day and she gets whatever she wants. Not true, but it's nice that what she wants and what we've given her are one in the same.
We saw Karate Kid yesterday. Two thumbs up. Different with hints of the original storyline. Jaden Smith is a lot like his dad. Kind of fun to watch a minnie Will.
Jessica's baptism is in three weeks. We're looking forward to it. I hope it will be nice for her. She's growing up so fast.
And so is Gavin. I can't believe my little boy is two. He is so sweet and cute. I love his language and the new words he comes up with every day. He loves to say, "Here you go," and "It's stuck" and "thanks!" and "I want that."
I'm gaining a couple of kids this week for some friends and losing one for a few days to Grandma's house.
Tomorrow is father's day. So I've got my work cut out. Back to making more. . .well that's a surprise.

Jhonny brought home a puppy and other Spring Updates

Spring Break in Dallas

Lily's hero!

Fastest wagon in the west!

Pretty in pink!

Farmer Lily (Children's Museum)

Paleontologist Gavin

Buddy, the newest member of the family

Lily's Easter Egg Hunt at Discovery Days

(Here she is dressed in her birthday outfit she picked out from Kohl's that she couldn't wait to wear.)

Lily and Savannah comparing their finds

With my crazy schedule I rarely get to blog anymore. However to keep the journal for posterity alive in cyberspace somewhere here's the latest happenings since our snow day.

I finished up three homebound students and subbed at the high school and intermediate school. I picked up another homebound student last week and it looks like I'll get one more before the year is out. I'm still looking for a "real" job next year. I had a good panel interview in Houston to keep my options open. It was so nice to be wanted. Makes trying to stay here even tougher. Rockdale better call first or I will have an extremely hard time turning down an offer. Not to mention my parents aren't exactly voting for our extension in Rockdale.

Over Spring Break we made our postponed trip up north to visit our friends. The kids had fun playing, Jhonny had fun watching Back to the Future, and I enjoyed relaxing and visiting with our friends. We also made it to the Children's Museum and exhausted ourselves there. Thanks so much to our wonderful hosts for putting us up!

Jessica is getting ready for her baptism in July. July 11th to be exact for anyone who wants to drop in for that. Maybe you should call so I can give more details.

Lily is getting ready to turn 4 next week. Lily has been planning her party since Christmas and it's finally upon us. It should be fine if we can afford her wishes since as you probably guessed from the title above - Jhonny brought home a dog.

It was "free" and he fell in love at first sight. I've tried to reason with the poor guy about our finances and inability to provide this work and sport dog with all it's needs - to no avail. He won't let me place Buddy anywhere else. He's playing oblivious to the recent dog bite I sustained in January (still have that scar). Oh no. He's part of the family now. Maybe when we are making more money my heart strings will lighten up.

Anyway - we had to outfit the thing with a few essentials to avoid destruction of the backyard that added up until wow - Lily's birthday money was gone. We told her she got the dog for her birthday. She said she still needed presents. After some thinking, Jhonny sacrificed his Kohl's gift card for her. I took her with me to Houston on Wednesday and she had a good time shopping. Of course she wouldn't let me wrap up her outfits and has already gotten plenty of use out of them in the past few days. Happy Birthday my sweetheart.

Gavin is finally starting to talk. Phew! I was getting a little worried. He's copying everything we say - okay it's a little mumbled and abbreviated, but at least I can almost make out words. "Puppy! Outside! Cereal! Breakfast! Juice! I want that! Dora! Backpack! Uh oh, Yeah!"

Easter is upon us. This is Lily's favorite holiday. Maybe cuz she associates it with her birthday. We went to eat at Chick-filé on Wednesday for her birthday. There was an Easter sign hanging over the register. She was sure it said, "Happy Birthday Lily!" well "Happy Easter" is close enough, right? Thursday Lily had her Easter egg hunt at school. She was an expert and grabbed up 34 eggs. We had to redistribute the wealth and cut back to her favorite 12 eggs to be fair. Yesterday we invited some friends over to hunt eggs and play. They had so much fun!

We've got conference planned for the rest of the weekend. April will fly by just like the rest of the semester has already. We're looking forward to visiting Houston next weekend, the temple the next weekend and the branch campout towards the end of this month. Then it's just one more month and school will be out. I really hope Jhonny gets to teach summer school otherwise. . .well I don't want to think about that.