Our First Idaho Snow Day

Spring has been slow to start this year, but I'm not all that surprised. I mean, we do live in Idaho. When April hits I'm ready for spring and warmer temperatures, but I really don't mind springtime snow. It normally snows a little, makes everything white and beautiful, and then 2 or 3 days later the snow has melted and we're back to spring. We experienced this cycle most of the later part of March and early April.

Around 6:30 on April 6th, I was woken up by a phone call. I was still so tired and to be honest at first, I thought it was my alarm (I use my phone as my alarm clock.) Luckily I was coherent enough before the phone stopped ringing to realize it was not the alarm clock. I looked at the number to discover it was the school. I answered just in time to hear a prerecorded message telling me school was canceled because of the snow. SNOW!!!! It's April 6th, I thought. How could we have gotten enough snow on April 6th to cancel school. I really didn't care all that much about the amount of snow, all I cared about was that I could go back to sleep. So I turned off my alarm, which was set to go off in about 10 minutes, and rolled over and happily went back to sleep. I must say, I think it was the best phone call I've received in who knows how long. :)

The girls attempting to make a snow man. They didn't get to far before they gave up and did something else.

It turns out we only got about 4 to 6 inches of snow, but for some reason they canceled school for that. The only thing I can think is that because it was April no one was prepared for it. Whatever the reason, we were glad to have a day off. I must say I found it a little odd that after living here for nearly 2 years, our first and only snow day was in April. That's so different from Virginia. In fact they missed a TON of school this year because of snow. I realize they got 2 huge (at least a foot of snow) storms during the year, but if I remember correctly they missed about a month of school. If it had been Idaho we maybe would have missed 2 days. Got to love the west. We're more practical.

Ben eating snow off the sand and water table.

Gracie sliding on the castle slide. That's much more fun for a 2 year old than making a snowman is.

So we spent most of the day inside playing together. I did, however, let the kids go outside to play in the fresh snow. We had to dig out their snow clothes (which I had just put away the week before) and get them all bundled up, but they had a lot of fun. Another thing about spring snow is it's generally wetter and the air temperature is warmer. I felt kind of bad bundling up my kids to send them out in the 45 + degree weather, however the snow was so wet, I had to. They didn't mind to much and enjoyed playing with the last snow of the season.

I chose this picture so you can see just how wet the snow was.

Easter

This is how Gracie eats Peeps. Head first.

Easter is the first holiday in my year of not going anywhere for holidays. Last Christmas I decided we were going to spend this year at home, wherever that home may be. I've been feeling like I'm missing out on my kids young years because I'm too busy getting ready to go somewhere or driving there. Easter was the first major holiday in the year that was designated a stay at home holiday. Sadly, because of my increased exhaustion and sickness from this baby we still didn't do as much as we wanted to for the holiday. Oh well! It was still nice and relaxing.

I boiled eggs early in the week, but because of our busy schedule leading up to Easter, we never did dye them. That's something we'll definitely do next year. When Easter Sunday arrived we spent the morning listening to conference. After the first session of conference we got a call from Kenny's brother Michael and his family saying they would be passing through Pocatello on their way back from Boise. They wanted to know if we could drive down and see them. This went against my stay at home for the holiday rule, but we decided to make an exception considering they were moving to Alabama the next week and we're not sure when we'll be able to see them again. So we drove to Pocatello and met them at McDonald's. Not the best activity for Sunday, especially not Easter Sunday, but we felt it was important to go. The kids had a blast and I think they liked their McDonald's dinner better than they would have liked the Easter dinner I had prepared.

Ben was the most excited for candy. I couldn't get him away from it.

All of Hannah's pictures were out of focus. This is the best I have. She was sure happy to get a ring pop.

Sarah acting surprised for the camera. She new Daddy was taking a picture of her and so she did her best to be surprised.

The Easter Bunny was a little bit of a slacker this year and failed to come while the kids were sleeping. Luckily he came while we were in Pocatello and the kids were so happy to return home and find their cubby's in the mud room filled with Easter baskets and candy. They ate too much candy and then because of the late hour we sent them to bed. It was a very nontraditional Easter, but it was memorable and that's good. Next year maybe we'll strive to be more traditional. :) Oh, we did have an Easter Egg hunt the next night for FHE, but I forgot to take pictures. Ooops!

Daniel didn't get much candy, mostly baby food, but he was still happy.

Gracie ready to behead her peeps.

The End of Birthday Season

We call the 2 months between January 29th and March 26th 'Birthday Season' at our house. There was a time, back when there was only 5, instead of 7 1/2, of us that all of our birthdays fell within these 2 months. Kenny's starts the season and mine ends it. It's normally a wonderful time filled with lots of cake and celebration, but I'll admit this year was a little less wonderful. It was nice, don't get me wrong, but I'm actually kind of glad it's over now. With the stresses of our life, my exhaustion, and trying to be happy in the mist of sickness and other things, I must admit this was the least of my favorite birthday seasons. Next year will be better. :)

As I said our birthday season ends with my birthday and so as March 26th approached I was anxious to see it come and go. We didn't do much, just took the kids to Walmart, but that was just fine with me. Kenny got me a framed picture of the quote, "Enjoy the simple things in life . . ., for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things." It's my favorite quote and it now sits on top of our bookcase next to our most recent family picture. I look at it everyday and I love what it makes me think of and how it reminds me to not miss a moment with my family.

The morning after my birthday we had my birthday donuts. Kenny had had a long night the night before and was sleeping in. I didn't want to wake him, so I went ahead and let the kids decorate their donuts without him. Big mistake. Sorry Kenny! How was I suppose to know he wanted to be a part of it? I felt really bad when he noticed what I had done and when he was very sad that he missed out. Next year I PROMISE to let Kenny do the birthday donuts for me. I'm lucky to be married to someone who would get upset over not being able to decorate silly donuts for my birthday.

Sarah's Donut! It says 'Happy BD (birthday) Mom FS (From Sarah)' We didn't have enough letters. :)

Ben's says 'Ben 31'! Good job bud.

Hannah's donut was a masterpiece of miscellaneous letters and beautiful frosting.

Gracie didn't care to much about decorating. She just wanted to make a mess like we do with the cakes.

Dan got baby food instead. It's OK he enjoyed it.

All in all it was a simple, yet good birthday. 31's not bad and I think I can handle getting older for a few more years. I'm still amazed I'm in my 30's, but I'll always be younger than Kenny and that keeps me happy. :)

My donut. I'm so creative.

Hannah's Castle Cake

Hannah really wanted a purple castle cake for her birthday this year. She knew exactly what she wanted and what it looked like and I tried my very hardest to give her what she wanted. In true Newbry fashion we blew out the candles, cut the cake, and then let the kids go to town. Fun was had by all.

Blowing out the candles.

A little help from Gracie.

I love this shot. Going in for the kill.

Ben ate his cake very nicely this time. WEIRD!

Gracie didn't eat quite as nicely.

And here's the birthday girl with her cake face. Good job Hannah.

"I Not 3 No More"

Hannah had a birthday on March 16th and though she was excited for it to be her turn for a party and for her presents and cake, she was NOT happy to be turning 4. It was a rough week for her when it comes to changes. When I told her she was now 4 she nearly broke down into tears. She said, "But I not 3 no more." It took her at least 2 weeks to finally accept that she was indeed 4 and even then she didn't like it. Whenever anyone asked her how old she was she would say, "I not 3 no more." If they then asked if she was 4 she would look at them sadly and tell them yes. Silly girl. Too top off, we've been bringing out our short sleeved shirts and all of her clothes from last year are now being passed on to Gracie. Not cool in Hannah's book. She doesn't mind sharing with Gracie, she just doesn't want to stop wearing them herself. I have an odd feeling this little girl will struggle with change her entire life. It's been almost a month and she has finally given up being 3. She's still not sure exactly how old she is, unless you ask if she's 4, but we're still working on it. Maybe by the time she's 5 she will have fully accepted 4 and will enjoy it.

Opening one of her presents.

The week of Hannah's birthday was a rough one in our house. The whole family was very sick with ear infections, stomach flu's and fevers, and we had to put off Hannah's birthday until the 18th instead of the 16th. Luckily she is young enough not to know the exact date of her birthday so she didn't notice how late it was. When it finally came she was excited and that's all that matters.

I love the looks of excitement on Hannah's face when she opens a gift.

Hannah has the third kid birthday in the space of a month in our family and by the time it rolls around to her birthday she is very prepared. She knows just what she wants and how she wants her party to go. It's very cute! This year she told me for months in advance that she wanted a castle cake. That's the cake she got last year, but she was so determined to have another one this year, I didn't mind making it again. Also, when asked what she most wanted for her birthday she said a dress. Surprise! She wanted a pink dress to wear around. Not a dress-up dress, but a pink dress to wear to the store. That's easy enough and since she needed clothes, it worked well for us.

She LOVED her pink play dress.

Showing off how pretty she is in her dress. (Too bad she has napping hair. Oh well.)

Hannah had a simple family party in which she got to unwrap presents and have pizza and cake with her siblings. It was just what a 4 year old could want. She loved her presents and her cake and she felt special on her special day and that's the most important thing when you're 4. She got a pink dress, of course, and a skirt (we ended up taking the skirt back because it was too big,) a bouncy ball, a ZuZu pet like Sarah's, and some safari animals. Pretty good for being 4, not 3. :)

Doing what Hannah does best. Singing and dancing in her new dress.