Happy Birthday Daddy

Tuesday officially launched us into our birthday season. That means from now until my birthday on March 26th we have everyone's birthday except Gracie. It's kind of fun having a birthday season, but, I must admit, that by the time my birthday comes around I don't want to see, let alone make, another cake. I guess it's good my birthday's last.

Anyway back to Tuesday. It was Kenny's birthday. I won't tell you how old his is, but I must admit it's fun teasing him about being so old and fartly. I love the fact that I will always be at least 4 years younger than him (for 2 months out of the year I'm 5 years younger.) Sarah Kate had Monday off of school due to a teacher work day so we chose that day to do his birthday shopping. The kids really enjoyed looking for Daddy's presents and even though Kenny said he didn't need anything, we got him a few presents just for fun. I told him it was for the kids. They would have been so disappointed if we didn't do anything.

After buying all the gifts I let the kids choose which one they wanted to be from them. Ben chose the Star Wars movie and the Star Wars guys (Kenny actually bought the guys himself.) The Star Wars guys have since been claimed by Ben, but Kenny knew that would happen when he bought them. Ben has taken a real liking to Star Wars and has accumulated many Star Wars guys. When he found out we were going to get Daddy the movie 'Empire Strikes Back', Ben said "Mom, do you know who likes Star Wars? Me and Dad." I think Ben really likes that he and Kenny both like Star Wars. It kind of bonds them.

Ben with all his Star Wars guys.

Sarah Kate choose the MP3 player. She knows how to pick'm. This particular MP3 player is very much like the one Kenny got last year for his birthday. I've promised him that I will not wash this one like I did the last one. He was happy to get it and Ben and Sarah even recorded the happy birthday song before he got home so he could listen to it. I think it will get a lot of use that is if we (mostly meaning I) can keep it dry.

I decided Hannah and Gracie would give Daddy the speakers for his MP3 player. They seemed ok with that! I gave him masking tape and a Milky Way bar. I know, a little strange. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said he didn't need anything so I could just get him masking tape. So, that's what I got him. The Milky Way was because Monday night he said he wanted one. After opening presents we ordered pizza and watched Star Wars. (I should note that we tried to watch Star Wars. It's almost impossible to watch a movie with 4 small kids.) All in all I think it was a good birthday. A wonderful way to start the birthday season.

The Cake! Kenny likes Angle Food cake so I thought I'd make him one. My pan wasn't big enough, but it was a good cake anyway.

On a side note, it was a good birthday that is until Kenny went to the church that night to play basketball and sprained his ankle. His right ankle has been really bad since, well, before I met him and it seems to be getting worse. It roles easily and all it took was a jump and landing on someones feet to roll it and make him unable to walk. Minus that, I think he had a good birthday.

The Pizza Chef

Sarah Kate as the pizza chef!

On Friday night Sarah Kate was invited to her friends birthday party. It was a pizza party, you know the kind where you actually make the pizza. What a great idea for the kids, but a lot of work for Mom and Dad I'm sure. While Sarah Kate was at the party Kenny and I got to spend some quality time with the other kids. You know, time to make and eat dinner and, well, that's about it. When I went to get Sarah she was decked out in an apron and a chef hat she had made and she had received a gummy pizza as a party gift. Of course, if you get a gummy pizza, a chef hat, and an apron you must go home and make the pizza, so that's what we did. With a little help from BenBen, Sarah Kate made a gummy pizza and served it to EVERYONE in the family.

If you're wondering about the face, the pizza was, well, lets say not the yummiest. Ben, however, was a good sport and ate the whole thing.

Hannah found the "cheese" and dumped it all over herself. Cheese being a orange powdered sugar substance that was quite barfy. I don't know how you make sugar taste bad, but somehow it was done.

Gracie was the only one of us, including Mom and Dad, who didn't have to taste the yucky pizza. OK it wasn't the worst thing on the planet, but I feel valid in my belief that gummy candy SHOULD taste good.

The National Aquarium

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, otherwise known as Human Rights Day, we decided to take some friends to the aquarium in Baltimore. We got a membership back in October or November, I can't remember the exact time. Anyway, since then we've enjoyed taking friends and showing them around. Our one free ticket per visit comes in handy by making it cheaper for anyone who wants to come. So we went and enjoyed seeing all the animals, watching the dolphin show, and just spending time with friends. Kenny took this really cool picture of an alligator and I thought I'd share it with everyone. If anyone wants to come visit us we'd love to take them there.

Everyone Loves Gracie

Gracie is getting big and more interactive. That makes her fun for the kids. They love to make her laugh, smile, talk, or just stare at them. It's a lot of fun to watch, especially Ben and Sarah. They jump up and down, make silly faces, sing silly made-up songs, and other goofy things in front of Gracie just to get a reaction. Most of the time she looks at them like they're insane, but they get a reaction and that all they want. Luckily Gracie loves the kids. If she's ever crying I can usually get one of the kids to talk to her or play in front of her and she calms down.

Hannah has decided she's big enough to hold Gracie and loves to do so. Her favorite is to carry Grace from one parent to the other. This requires help from the first parent. Luckily she's never tried to do it on her own.

Ben is a very loving big brother. He loves to lay with Gracie, give her hugs and kisses, and talk baby talk to her. I would have to say he's the most successful at getting her to smile, but really, who couldn't smile at BenBen.

Sarah Kate is still the little mom. According to her, "Gracie likes me the most Mom. She even likes me more than you." As I said before Sarah is a great help, most of the time. She gets me burp cloths, diapers, wipes, clothes, and anything else I might need. It's wonderful to have her.

Last week I went to Sarah's school for lunch. She'd been asking if I would since before the Christmas break so I finally got a babysitter and went. She wanted me to bring Gracie so she could show her friends her baby sister. The kids all loved her and they all wanted to touch her face. It got a little overwhelming when 20+ kids were trying to touch her face at the same time, but she loved the attention and was all smiles. Next it's Ben's turn. I think he'll love going to the school for lunch and Sarah will enjoy having him there. I'll have to report on that next week.

Yes, We're Still Here!

OK! I admit it's been awhile since I last wrote. I've been a little busy. I can't really figure out what I've been doing, I just know I've been busy. Go figure. So here's a little update on what's been going on here. Let me start out by saying it's not much.


Ben got a haircut around Christmas time. (I don't remember exactly when, it's been awhile.) The lady that cut it did a horrible job. The curl was completely gone because of the way she cut it. So last Sunday, before church, Kenny decided to fix it. He trimmed the top (as much as he dared) to make it match the front. Ben has some curl back now and we're so happy. It's so sad when the curl goes away.

My three oldest kids are coming up on their birthdays and that means they're due for a growth spurt and they need a little extra sleep. I've decided to put Hannah down for 2 naps occasionally because she's so grumpy that I'm losing the patience battle. Anyway, last week, the 9th to be exact, we had tons of errands to run so poor Ben and Hannah spent the morning buying groceries, going to the bank, and other random stuff. Our last stop was the bank and they had been so good that I decided to get them a sucker as a thank you. Well, as you can see, Hannah was so tired she couldn't make the 15 minute drive home without falling asleep, mid sucker. She stayed that way while I unloaded the groceries and took Gracie in. It was so cute I had to take her picture.

I've been requiring a lot more help from my kids lately. When I say a lot more help it's improtant to know I didn't really require much before now. Anyway, Sarah Kate has done a good job helping with Gracie.




Hannah likes to help feed Grace as well, though she's more interested in cleaning her face than actually feeding her.

"I'm never running again until I'm 10!"

The first day back to school I got Sarah Kate up and took her into my room to get dressed so as not to wake Ben. I successfully got her dressed, fed, and hair done without waking any of the other kids. It was wonderful! On the way to the bus stop she decided it would be fun to race. In her words, "First one to the bus stop gets a rotten egg." (She still doesn't believe me when I tell her that you don't want the rotten egg. Oh well! It's cute.) She took off running and after about 3 steps she tripped and skidded across the ground. I immediately ran to her and tried to help her up. Amid tears she said, "I'm never running again until I'm 10!" She's a bit of a drama queen and really wimpy when she gets hurt or thinks she got hurt that at first I didn't think much of her crying. Then I looked at her pants and saw a big o'l hole. Under that bid o'l hole was a big o'l bloody knee. So, as the bus was driving up, I picked her up and carried her home.

Sarah's owie 2 mornings later!

When we got home Ben and Hannah were just waking up and they were very interested in Sarah's cut. She cried and cried and told me she couldn't straighten her leg. To her credit it was a large owie and I'm sure it hurt quite badly. It took her about 10 or 15 minutes before she could straighten her leg. During this time I got the other kids dressed and hair done to take Sarah Kate to school.

Now, when I walk into a room with all my kids I'm very noticeable, but when I walk into a room that is having a moment of silence, I'm even that much more noticeable. Such is the case when we got to the school. I'm not sure what the moment of silence was for, but I do know that when we walked in everyone was very quite except Gracie who took the opportunity to show her cute baby sounds and Hannah who showed everyone her not so cute grunts. Then of course Ben had to ask, really loudly, "Why is no one talking?" It was not the most successful moment of silence. There is never a dull moment with my kids.

Oh! For all those who were worried, on the way home from the bus stop, Sarah Kate raced me again. This time there was no falling. I thought for sure she'd never run again until she was 10! :)

Happy New Year's

Yeah! It's 2008. I bought a new calendar a few days ago and was showing it to Kenny when Sarah Kate saw it and asked why it said 2008. I explained to her that it was almost new years and that meant that soon it would be 2008 instead of 2007. Her reply, "But I LOVE 2007. I don't want it to be 2008." (You have to make sure and get the whine in there, it's not the same without the whine.) To that I replied, "Well, you'll like 2008 as well, I promise. You get to turn 6 in 2008." That changed everything, "I LOVE 2008" (with quite a bit of jumping up and down.)

I can't believe my little one is going to be 6 this year. Where has the time gone. I got her up for school this morning and carried her into my room so as not to wake up Ben. My goodness, she's heavy. I looked at Gracie in her bed and realized Sarah Kate used to be that small. I feel so old.

Our New Year's was wonderful. We spent New Year's Eve with friends having dinner and playing games. (Here's a tip. If you're ever near a 5 Guys restaurant, go. They make great hamburgers and wonderful fries.) Gulicks, our friends, got a new princess movie for Christmas so the kids were entertained for almost 2 hours straight. It was wonderful. We were able to play games and talk like normal adults. We made it all the way until 11:00 before we couldn't handle the kids any longer and called it quits. First we lit sparklers, yes at 11:00 instead for 12:00 and then came home and put the kids to bed.

New Year's Day was a day of doing nothing. Around 4:30 we finally ventured out of the house and went to Walmart to use the kids gift cards they got from Grandma. Sarah Kate got Barbie stuff and Ben got Star Wars figures. We were interrupted by a call from Kenny's cousin who was in town from Idaho and wanted to have dinner. It was a great interruption and we had dinner with them at Bob Evans (another eastern restaurant, I think).

It was a great way to start the new year. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that a wonderful 2008 will follow.

I don't have any New Year's pictures to share, but here are some painting pictures. We love to paint!

Sarah Kate got wooden butterflies from Santa. She painted them so pretty.

Ben enjoys mixing colors to make aqua marine.

Yes, Hannah has colored teeth, again. :)

New Years Resolutions

OK! So I've decide to try the whole New Year Resolution thing this year. I've never done it in the past because I'm smart enough to know I won't follow through, but I need to make a lot of changes so I thought the New Year would be a great place to start.

Here goes!

First, Lose Weight! I know what you're thinking, BORING! True, almost everyone has this exact resolution, but don't forget I did just have a baby and I definitely do have extra weight to loose. I also have a motivator. If you ever want to loose weight for the new year just plan a family cruise in late April with a bunch of skinny new mom's. That's enough motivation for anyone.

Second, Better My Gospel Knowledge! This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but just haven't. I'm going to study the scriptures, say my prayers like I should, and I want to read the Ensign start to finish every month. Then there's temple attendance, Family Home Evening, and actually preparing my lesson before the Saturday Night before I teach.

Third, Take Care of Myself! As a mother of four (five if you count the big guy) I've noticed I don't take care of myself anymore. I think that needs to change. I'm not expecting much, just maybe doing my hair one or two days a week (a ponytail does not count), putting lotion on, getting sleep, you know silly things like that. Hopefully it will help me with my Fourth resolution.

Fourth, Be a Better Mom! I wouldn't consider myself a bad mom, but there is definitely room for improvement. Less yelling, less stress, more listening, and more time spent teaching and playing with my kids. They're growing up so fast. I don't want to miss a thing.

Fourth, Keep my House Clean! This one is a dream, but I am going to try to do a better job. When my dad came out in November he asked me how I keep my house clean. I gave him a simple answer, "I don't." The kids are learning to help a little more so hopefully it'll stay cleaner.