Happy Halloween

Halloween 2009

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. It seems that Halloween sneaks up on us every year and is gone way to quickly. The kids were able to do a lot of fun Halloween things this year. On the 24th Ben and Sarah Kate went to a Halloween party at a friends Abbie and Anders house. It was a costume party and because I thought the invitation said the 29th instead of the 24th, I didn't get their costumes done in time. Luckily Sarah went to see if another friend could play that day and she just happened to be getting ready for the party. Sarah Kate came home, we got them dressed in last years costumes (thank goodness they still fit) and drove them to the party. The kids had a blast and I'm so glad they didn't miss it.

I finished making costumes about 2:30 AM the morning of the Spooktacular which was our next Halloween fun. I blogged about that already so if you're curious just read on and you'll find it. Halloween day was our next big Halloween fun. We woke up in the morning and carved our pumpkins (again already blogged about this.) After pumpkins Ben and Sarah Kate had another party to go to, this time at Cy and Carina's house. They got to dress up in their costumes (this years costumes this time) play Halloween games, bob for apples and other fun things. They got home around 3:00 which was just as the little girls were waking up from naps. The kids played for awhile, we ate dinner and then headed to the church for Trunk-or-Treating.

It's always fun to go to the church and see everyone elses costumes. We let Sarah Kate wander from car to car with friends while I took the other kids around and Kenny stayed at the car to pass out candy. Luckily the weather had warmed a bit (it had been in the 40's, that day we got in the low 50's) and with a bit of layering the kids stayed nice and warm. It's so much fun to watch my kids trick or treat. Every car we came to Gracie would say 'tree trae' and when they gave her candy she'd giggle. It was so cute to watch and most people giggled right along with her. She was very cute and very much in heaven (that girl loves candy.) Ben's the worst trick or treater ever. He gets distracted and doesn't care to much about the actual trick or treating. We have friends who own a local video game take and trade store and they brought their car with Guitar Hero in it. Ben was good to hang out there for awhile while I finished with the girls. It was a lot of fun and we got way to much candy.

The kids playing in all their candy at the end of the day. Yea! I'm going to be throwing a lot of that away.

After the trunk-or-treating we came home to do a little trick or treating in the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is pretty pathetic when it comes to homes who participate in trick or treating, but we got to go to a number of houses and the kids were just fine on candy. About 2/3's of the way done Ben decided he was bored and wanted to go home. We all headed home where I switched places with Kenny who took a turn going out with the girls to the remaining houses while I stayed inside. It was a very good Halloween with a ton of candy. Having 4 trick or treating kids sure makes the candy add up quickly.

Spooky Spooktacular

Trixie the Halloween Fairy and Pirate Ben leaving for the bus the day of Spooktacular

Every year Rimrock Elementary hosts a Spooktacular for the kids. This year it happened to be on Thursday the 29th (they didn't have school on the 30th because it was the end of the term.) The kids look forward to this every year. They get to wear they're costumes to school that day and do Halloween like things all day. At noon there's a parade through the halls so everyone can show off they're costumes and then the Spooktacular begins at 12:30. They go around playing games and buying candy, all proceeds going to the teachers and their classrooms.

This year I made costumes for the 4 oldest kids. Well I should say we made costumes for the 4 oldest kids. Kenny helped immensely, especially with Hannah's costume. I should have started a little earlier than I did because I was up until around 2:30 the morning of the Spooktacular finishing Ben's costume. Luckily I got it done in time and Ben and Sarah looked great as they headed off to school that morning.

Sarah Kate walking in the parade

I took the kids to the doctors for Gracie's 2 year check up and Daniel's 4 month checkup (they're both doing great) and then waited for Ben to get home from school. When he got off the bus we had about 15 minutes before we had to leave for the parade at the school. Kenny made Ben a pirate hat (something I'd forgotten to do) while I fed him a corn dog and got the girls and the baby dressed. We barely made it to the school in time for Ben to walk in the parade (I actually didn't get to see him because I was parking the car, but that's OK he still got to walk and that's all that mattered.)I love this cute upside down picture of Gracie

Playing games during the Spooktacular Ben wasn't too into taking pictures, he really wanted to play games and win prizes, so this is the only picture I got of him.

Monkey Man Dan

After the parade we wandered through the crowded halls finding games to play and activities to do. Sarah Kate decided she was old enough to go on her own, and we agreed so she left with a friend and we didn't see her very much. We enjoyed our time with the youngest 4 and they really enjoyed their time.

Witch Hannah

I wish I could take credit for this awesome costume, but the dress was all Kenny. My husbands the coolest!

Witch Hannah and Indian Gracie running in the gym while Ben waited in line to play a game.

Gracie watching electricity (the room was actually dark so it was much cooler)

Around 2:00 Kenny took the 3 youngest home for a nap and I stayed and helped with the game in Sarah's class. I got to hand out the candy and vampire teeth when kids won. Ben stayed with me and helped pick up the hula hoops after kids tried to throw them around pumpkins. It was a lot of fun to help out in the classroom. After school got out I decided to ride the bus home with the kids. Kenny had the girls and baby in bed and I didn't want to make him come get me. The bus driver was very nice to let me ride home and the kids thought it was WAY cool. I haven't been on a bus in about 15 years, not much has changed. I sat with Ben and while we were driving he kept asking to make sure I wasn't scared. What a nice boy.

Pumpkin Carving

Apparently all the rain in Eastern Idaho this past spring has made for a scarce pumpkins come fall. Normally this time of year when you go to Walmart the whole outside of the store is lined with pumpkin boxes. This year I only saw 2. I kept expecting pumpkin boxes to come, but they never did. By the time we realized why, all their pumpkins were sold. Lucky for us they still had some at Winco. We didn't have much to choose from, but we did manage to come up with some good ones.

Drawing faces on the pumpkins

Baby Dan loves to sit in the highchair and watch his siblings.

Halloween morning we woke up and pretty much immediately started carving pumpkins. Everyone was still in jammies without hair done, but we had a busy day and needed to get them done. Kenny spent the first part of the morning gutting all 6 pumpkins (what a wonderful guy) and then it was time to carve them. Ben and Sarah drew their own faces with a little help from Daddy and Hannah told Daddy she wanted a baby faced pumpkin (she loves babies thanks to Daniel.) Kenny did a wonderful job carving them while I fed the baby and started getting the kids ready for the day.

Carving Sarah's pumpkin while she and Ben watch.

After gutting 6 pumpkins, carving 3 of the kids plus one of his own, Kenny was all pumpkined out. I told him I'd carve Gracie's pumpkin and the pumpkin Dan and I shared. I had Gracie draw all over her pumpkin and then I did the best I could to make a face out of it. I love Halloween and all the fun things there are to do this time of year. All in all I think our pumpkins turned out great this year. There are sure getting to be a lot of them.

Sarah with her pirate pumpkin (the pumpkins saying 'Rrrrrr')

Ben's one eyed pumpkin (it's a total Ben pumpkin)

Hannah's baby face pumpkin (We're aware it looks more like a monkey face, but she was pleased with it and that's all that matters.)

Gracie's pumpkin drawn by her and cut out my me. She did a good job for only being 2.

The pumpkin Dan and I shared. He didn't give much input, but that's OK, he's cuter in pictures.

Daddy's graveyard pumpkin. Daddy always makes the coolest pumpkins.

Little Girls, How Funny

Hannah and Gracie have done some goofy things lately and I just wanted to share some pictures we've taken of them. First off, Hannah is way into dress-up, like always, which is fine with me, but her choices of outfits have been less than stellar.

Kenny posted this picture on facebook with the following caption. . . 'Sometimes as a parent it's important to find a way to look at your kids objectively. And when you do, if you're being honest, you just have to accept that somehow it's all gone horribly, terribly wrong.' I thought it was hilarious.

The other day, Kenny went downstairs to get the kids for dinner and he found Hannah in front of the TV. He ran upstairs, got the camera, and snapped a picture before she knew he was there.

If you look closely you can see she's watching pool. It's actually Cyberchase on PBS. She's learning math skill on her bouncy ball. WOW she can sure choose an outfit.

Gracie's been getting into everything lately. When we moved the big kids downstairs, we put Sarah Kate's bed right next to the gerbil cage. It's perfect for Gracie who loves the little critters. Normally she just opens the lid and tries to get them out. Last week she must have decided that if she can't get them out, she'd just join them.

I was worried she's step on one of them, but never fear, everyone was OK. I have an odd feeling Bug Eater and Blackberry stayed as far away from her as possible.

Last but not least, it's been fun watching how much these 2 little girls love each other. Growing up I always wanted a sister and it's been so fun to see my kids experience the things I never had. With Gracie's new bed comes the freedom to get in and out of it whenever she wants. Normally we catch her playing, get her in trouble once and then she goes back to bed and to sleep without any problems, but you can never be too sure.

Gracie has this thing with her diaper, she loves to undo it. Weird as it may seem I think it's a comfort thing for her. (Ben sucked his fingers and twirled his hair, Hannah pulls out her belly button, and Gracie plays with her diaper.) I've tried potty training her (she's not ready for that yet) and I've tried duct taping her diaper to her (that doesn't work either because she works at it until she manages to get it off.) We've resorted to pull-ups during the day because, even though they're more expensive than diapers, she keeps them on which keeps the poop off our floor and makes it so we use way less of them. You're probably wondering why I'm telling you this. Well at night we still put her in a diaper because they hold more so every night I have to go in and check to make sure her diaper is still done up and on her (it very rarely is.) On the 27th I went into the little girls room and this is what I found. . .

How cute is that?! Gracie sure loves her big sister and Hannah loves Gracie. I hope they stay great friends their entire life.

Dan's 4 Months Old

What a cutie! OK I'll admit he looks kind of dorky, but a very cute dorky. (I love the teething drool.)

Dan turned 4 months old on the 23rd and he's sure growing up quickly. We've loved having him in our home and it's been fun watching the kids really enjoy their baby brother. Sarah Kate is big enough that she can hold him by herself and she loves to get him out of his crib when he wakes up. Ben just loves having a brother around. He's good to talk to Dan and to hold him occasionally. Hannah enjoys singing to Dan and Dan loves to watch her sing to him. Whenever he's crying and Hannah sings to him he automatically stops crying and listens to her until she stops (then he cries again.) Dan sure loves his siblings and they love him. Gracie's all about the kisses. She loves to give Dan kisses and hugs whenever possible. It's very cute.

His deer in the headlights look.

A sideways look.

As far as Dan goes, he's very cute. He's been a little slower in some area's than my other kids, but he's still doing well and he seems to be growing up too fast. He finally rolled over from his belly to his back on his 4 month birthday (one area he's been slower than my other kids.) He's been smiling for quite a while and he is ticklish in his armpits. I enjoy tickling him and listening to his little baby laugh. He's even started liking Kenny more which has been good for Daddy. Though Daddy is still up in the air some days as far as liking goes, football is not. Dan is so funny because one thing he really likes is to watch football. For some reason it's another thing that calms him down. He'll sit and watch football for close to an hour and not fuss. It doesn't work like that with other shows, just football. I guess it's good we're in football season. We finally got our football lover.

Dan's just figuring out his bouncer and so far he likes it.

Dan's tall and skinny, so unlike his older brother at this age. At his 4 month check up on the 29th he was 25 3/4 inches (75%) and 13.5 pounds (about 23%) He may be skinny, but he's getting a little chunk in his chin and I think his skinny frame is pretty cute. One thing that hasn't changed much is his hair. Surprisingly he still has a full head of black hair. I thought for sure he would have lost some by now, but with the exception of a little bald spot on the back, he hasn't lost any. He still looks like a little man thanks to all that dark hair and I wouldn't change it for anything. I can't believe he's already 4 months old. It seems once they finally come out into the world the time goes by so quickly. Lucky for me he's a good sleeper, sleeping through the night and often during the day. A true blessing from baby number 5. We're so blessed to have him in our family and I can't wait to see what else he becomes as he gets older.

Dan's getting too big for baths in the sink so I've been bathing him with the little girls on occasion. They love it as you can tell.

Dan loves bath time. I mean really, who doesn't.

My Gracie Grace

Grace Autumn just minutes after birth.

I like to tell a little about the birthday kid around their birthday. It's fun to look back from year to year and see how much they've changed and how much they're still the same. Gracie was probably my hardest delivery. She was upside down which made it impossible for her to come out. I was induced in the morning and by early evening she was still not coming out. The midwife was starting to talk about a c-section when Gracie finally decided to turn and quickly come into the world. I was so happy to be able to have her naturally and not have to have a c-section. She arrive at 8:20 in the evening; weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long (pretty easy to remember) She's been such a joy ever since.

6 Weeks old

Gracie is probably our most independent child. She loves to be around her siblings, but she also loves to be with just Mom and/or Dad. She's hit the age where she can do everything herself (this has been somewhat of a blessing because Hannah has hit the age were she can no longer do anything for herself.) Speaking of Hannah, it's been fun to watch Gracie and Hannah growing up as sisters. They are very close and are normally very good at playing with each other. Gracie's just getting into the playing age and she and Hannah really enjoy hanging out with each other.

Disney Cruise (April of '08)

7 Months

One of Gracie's favorite things to do is sing. She wanders the house singing all throughout the day. It's taken awhile to figure out some of her songs, but she has 3 now that she frequently sings. One is Sunbeams, very cute and easy to know what she's singing. Another favorite is from Imagination Movers on Disney Channel. She'll turn in circles singing "turn around, turn around." Being that we don't watch Disney Channel that often I wasn't sure what this song was. Kenny was smarter than me and knew immediately what it was. Her most favorite song is by far my favorite. She runs through the upstairs with her hands out wide singing "How know" over and over again. This took awhile to figure this one out, but after some thought Kenny suggested Enchanted's song 'How do you know?' This is another movie we haven't watched in a while, but I have the song on my mp3 player and we listen to it sometimes during the day while I'm cleaning. Sure enough we put the movie in and when it came to that song Giesle runs through Central Park with her hands out wide singing "How do you know?" and there goes Gracie running through the upstairs, hands out singing 'How know.' Very cute. I'm going to have to try and get it on video.

Halloween 2008. Gracie surrounded by all the candy.

Gracie's 1 year picture. California coast; November '08

Gracie's tall and skinny, much like her big sister Sarah Kate. At her 2 year check up she was 36 inches (95%) and 24.4 pounds (19%). This is amazing to me because she loves candy. Most of my kids like candy, but Gracie LOVES it. She would eat only candy if we let her. Kenny has commented that she could be 300 pounds by now if we left her to choose her own food. Instead we feed her a lot of mac and chesse, sandwiches, chocolate milk (hates the white stuff just like the other kids) fruit snacks and whatever else she'll eat. She's normally a pretty good dinner eater (as good as any 2 year old) we just have to watch her candy intake before dinner. :)

Hot tubing at Grandma Newbry's over Easter weekend 2009 (18 months)

Gracie's annual summertime photo. (July 4th 2009; 21 months)

Gracie is such a fun kids and we love having her as part of our family. Her smile is contagious and so is her laugh. She's full of spunk and has a little tantrum side to her sometimes, but overall she's very good. So that's my Gracie in a nutshell. It's hard to believe she just turned 2. In some ways it seems like there's no way she's already 2, but mostly it seems like she's been 2 forever. No matter what, I'm excited to see what her 2's bring.

Gracie's 2

Gracie with her presents ready to open them.

Well it's official. My baby girls is now 2. Her birthday was on Tuesday the 19th and she was so excited for it. I didn't know how much she would remember about birthday's since the last one we had was back in March, but she seemed to remember plenty. I'd been telling her a few days before that her birthday was coming and that she was going to be 2. On Tuesday morning she woke up and everyone immediately told her Happy Birthday. She must have figured out it was her birthday because I would catch her singing Happy Birthday to herself throughout the day. What a cutie. She was all set for the birthday party and after a few problems with the cake (read the next post for more on this) we were ready for a party after dinner.

Ben gave Gracie a flower and she loved it. Yum! It smells good.

The rest of her presents were basically centered around her doll house. She got a baby with a crib and toys from Hannah and a big sister doll complete with a bed from Sarah. She thought they were great and really enjoyed playing with them.

Gracie playing with her dolls.

She was so content with the dolls we almost didn't have to bring out the doll house. However, when she opened it she was very excited. She got a huge smile on her face and we were happy that she was happy. She couldn't wait to get it out. Luckily it was easily put together.

No Daddy I don't want to stop for a picture. I want to play.

Gracie with her first doll house.

Everyone having a turn playing.

Everyone wanted a turn playing and Gracie was nice enough to share. Well, everyone but Sarah Kate wanted to play. Sarah's getting to old for baby toys (unless you catch her by herself and then you may see her playing with it, gotta love that age) and she was kind of bummed that Gracie didn't get anything she wanted to play with. It was kind of funny. I had to remind her it was Gracie's birthday, not hers. Kids are so silly sometimes. The dollhouse was a hit for everyone else though, even BenBen liked it and I didn't know if we would ever get them away from it. Luckily we still had cake and they were all excited for that. So after a little bit of play time we headed to the kitchen for cake.

Cute picture of Gracie with her dollhouse.

Gracie's Tinkerbell Cake

Gracie's birthday cake was a bit of a pain this year. I had planned on making her a castle cake, like Hannah's from last year, but I couldn't get the cake to come out of the pan. So after two tries, one on Sunday night and one on Monday morning, I finally gave in and went to Michael's in search of another cake pan. I wanted Ariel, being that she's Gracie's favorite princess lately, but sadly they were all out. Instead I settled on Tinkerbell, but she came with her own set of problems. I tried one cake, only to have it get stuck to the pan like the others. I went ahead and made another cake that was due out of the oven while I was at the school helping in Sarah's class. I asked Kenny to get it out while I was gone. He did just that, well he got it mostly out of the oven. See he was holding baby Daniel and when he was lifting the cake out of the oven, Daniel lunged forward. Basically it was Daniel or the cake. Personally I think he made the better choice. Cakes are replaceable, babies are not. So that was attempt #4. It was 12:30 when I got home and saw the cake destruction. I decided to throw in the towel. I mean, she's only 2. She doesn't care what kind of cake she gets. She doesn't care whether Mommy made it or whether we bought it at the store, as long as she gets a cake. Then about a half an hour later I decided that I cared. It's the thing I do. I make and decorate cakes for my kids birthdays. I've done it since Sarah was 1 and I really want to always do it. I'm not that homemakey, but this is something I can do, so I decided to give it one more try. Guess what! It turned out perfect! What a relief. I decorated it as fast as possible, a record of about an hour and a half, and it was a hit. I'm so glad I tried again and that it finally worked.

Gracie with her Tinkerbell cake. Looks pretty good for all the work it took.

Normally I try and hide the cakes and not let the kids see them until it's cake time, but due to the difficulties of her cake, I really didn't care if she saw it before hand or not. One of my favorite things was while I was decorating the cake on the counter, Gracie climbed up and sat next to me saying TeenBell (Tinkerbell) She then started singing to her self, Happy to you cha, cha, cha. Happy to you cha, cha, cha. It was soooo cute. She was very excited for her birthday and I loved watching that excitement throughout the day.

Lighting the candles. Can't you just see her excitement?!

After her little family party it was time for cake. She was so excited and climbed up on the counter, laid down on her belly and waited. We finally got her back in her stool so Daddy could light the candles and it was time to sing. She'd been waiting all day for this part (as I mentioned earlier) and it was no disappointment. I snapped a bunch of pictures while we were singing our "Happy Birthday to you cha, cha, cha" song and you can just she her excitement and how much she loved it. I had to include 3 pictures because she was so excited and so cute that I couldn't bring myself to cut any of them out.

So happy to be sung to.

Singing along for a bit.

Back to just enjoying the singing.

After singing she blew out her 2 candles.

Gracie trying to hold Dan. I don't know that he enjoyed it quite as much as she did.

After the candles were blown out it was time for cake. In true Newbry cake eating fashion, the birthday kids gets the head (if it's a person, if not they get whatever part they want) and the kids eat it like crazy people. This birthday was less messy than previous birthdays, but the kids still had fun.

Gracie's favorite part was . . . You guessed it, the frosting.

Hannah's beautiful even with frosting all over her face.

After eating most of the frosting with his hands Ben finally decided to use a fork.

Sarah Kate's too grown up for silly cake eating now, but she's still cute.

Baby Dan's too little for cake, but he still wanted to get in on the action.

All in all it was a great birthday for Gracie. I absolutely love watching my kids grow up. They are such joys to be around and their excitement for life consistently humbles me. I loved watching the excitement on Gracie's face with all the presents, cake and attention she got today. It was a good day.