Sunday, February 27, 2011

Daddy Daughter Ball

Sarah dressed for her first Daddy Daughter Ball.

Sarah and Kenny had the first daddy daughter ball on the 8th of February. It was for Activity Days and Sarah was very excited. Kenny, however, was not looking forward to it nearly as much. It was a ball, not a date, so they had to wear ball clothes. Sarah doesn't really own any ball clothes so she wore her baptism dress which is as ball like as we get. She felt beautiful and that's all that matters. Kenny dressed in church clothes and tried his hardest to look excited.

Sarah and Daddy ready to go.

Luckily, the 'ball' was fun for everyone. Sarah had fun with daddy and her friends and Kenny was surprised to discover that he too had fun. He enjoyed time with Sarah and enjoyed watching her with her friends. From what I understand it was one of those proud, my daughter's getting big, kind of nights. They played games, had refreshments, and danced with their dad's. I'm glad they got to go and that they had so much fun. It's the beginning of many Daddy Daughter activities and it was a good way to start.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Power of Moms

My wonderful friend Sara introduced me to "The Power of Moms" and their learning circles. She decided this year she was going to work on being a better mom and in the process came across the power of moms website. It's a sight created by some of the daughters of the Eyre family. Linda and Richard Eyre (for those of you who don't know and I didn't know until I started the power of moms) are the creators of Joy School. They have spent their lives helping to educate parents and to try and better the family structure. Well, as I said already, their daughters have formed this website called the Power of Moms that helps moms become better mothers and people in general. Part of the website allows for what's called Learning Circles. It's were you get together with 10-15 other moms and have a bonding girls night out. You're given an article to read and ponder and then you get together and discuss what you've read about. It's kind of like a book club, but so much more valuable in my opinion.

It's once a month and started last month with the topic of "Become Who You Are Meant To Be." This was an awesome topic and I came back feeling better about myself as a mother, realizing I was probably doing a better job than I thought, and determined to be better a little at a time. I left with this natural high and determination to get out of my rut.

This months article was entitled "Cherish the Moment." I'll admit that this topic hit a little too close to home for me. I got chocked up reading the article and then by the time if finished the three suggested articles the tears were flowing. The beginning of the article start with a quote from a lady named Anna Quindlen (apparently it was from an article in Newsweek.) The quote is as follows:

"Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach, T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with 'Goodnight Moon' and 'Where the Wild Things Are,' they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. . . the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make. . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of (my children) sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

WOW! Did this paragraph ever hit home to me. I must admit that this is one of my biggest fears as a mother, the fear of missing out on my kids. I've begun to realize lately that time is going really fast. I spend all my days getting things done. The laundry, meals, dishes, baths, homework, and on and on. I'm not spending the time with my kids that I need to be spending with them. When I only had Sarah, or even Sarah and Ben, I was much better at playing with my kids. I took them to the park, read them stories, played "Little People" with them, and all those other fun things. Now that I have 4 other kids I find myself too busy for them. There are too many other things I have to get done that I don't take the time for them that I did when there were fewer of them. Now, I acknowledge this is necessary in some ways. Four extra kids does add a lot more laundry and dishes and baths, but that doesn't mean I should stop the little things as well.

In the article we read (written by Shawni Pothier) she talks about being there for you kids, not just physically. She says, "It's about crouching on the floor and getting delirious over the praying mantis your son just caught instead of perusing a fax or filling the dishwasher while he is yelling for you attention and you distractedly say over your shoulder: 'Oh, honey, isn't that a pretty bug.'" Yeah, that one hit home too. First it made me feel better that I'm not the only horrible mom in the world who does that, but more importantly it made me realize how important it is that we pay attention to our kids while they still want our attention. I don't want my kids to think dishes and laundry are more important than them and the way I act a lot of times probably gives them that feeling. Shawni continues, and I totally agree, "I want my kids to see my eyes shine when I play with them. I want to enjoy their play as much as they do. I want to "crouch down on the floor and get delirious' over the seemingly simple things that delight them. I want to look at the world through their eyes. I want to be their's while they want me." I want my kids to know I love them and that I'm so grateful to be their mom.

I want to see the shine in my kids eyes so that when they're grown I can always remember that shine. I can see my kids getting older and though I'm excited for the next stage in their and my lives, I don't want this stage to end. As I nurse baby Adam and he holds my finger in his little hands I can't help but take it all in. I'm often, in those rare quite moments with him while the other kids are playing or sleeping, overcome with the emotions of him being my last baby and the simple fact that he's growing up too quickly and taking that adorable little hand with him. All the things that come with babyhood are leaving our house and it's so hard for me to accept. I feel like I've lived my entire life preparing and waiting for this job of motherhood and now parts of it are going away that will never come back.

I think of my little Hannah, so sweet and loving. I feel so guilty about her speech. If only I'd taken more time with her like I did with Ben and Sarah, maybe she wouldn't be so speech delayed. I beat myself up over that so much. I feel like, in a way, I've cheated the kids out of the mother they deserved. However, I've also come to acknowledge that I can't change the past, only the future. I'm in that moment Anna Quindlen spoke about, "the trenches of motherhood," and I'm determined from this moment on to really cherish the life I have. It's going to go really quickly and I don't want to miss a thing. I'll still have to do the laundry, dinner, dishes, and so on, but I can take time out to listen to my kids story or watch their silly thing they do. I can take the time to read them a bedtime story or two and give them the silly kisses and hugs they love so much at bedtime.

After reading these articles I had a few moments with Dan. He was the only one awake and Ben and Sarah weren't going to be home from school for another 15 minutes. Instead of putting him in his boaster seat with a snack so I could clean the kitchen, I decided to get down on the floor and play with him. The girls had brought out a crib toy earlier in the day that had a spiny toy on it. Dan sat there for the entire 15 minutes we had alone together spinning that toy and giggling like it was the funniest thing in the world. At that moment I soaked up that little boy. I watched his eyes sparkle and joined in on his giggles. At that moment, there was no one else in the world and Dan ate it up. I realized from that moment, this is what I need to be doing. I need to be cherishing as much time as I can with my kids because I only get one chance. I don't want to look back and think, "I didn't live in the moment."

Monday, February 21, 2011

Aspiring To Be Like Ben


Adam has discovered his fingers and he quite enjoys them. He's getting his top two front teeth right now and chewing on his fingers seems to help the process. He often turns his hand around and sucks his fingers backwards. Lately I've even caught him sucking his pointer and middle finger just like another boy I know. Too cute! I doubt it'll stick, but it's fun to see the similarities anyway.

One of my favorite pictures of Baby Ben and I. He was about 16 months old and, of course, sucking his fingers.

And yes, Ben still sucks his fingers. He does it without even thinking and we can't seem to break him of the habit. Mostly it's only when he's tired, but it's definitely still there.

Jumping Bean


I love watching Ben play the PlayStation. Whoever said video games are not exercise never watched Ben play. The boy just can't sit still. He does it without thinking and doesn't even know he's moving. On this day he had been jumping like this for at least 15 minutes. It's amazing he never got tired.

Bubble Boy


Dan has a new trick; blowing bubbles. This isn't the greatest video of it, but hopefully you get the idea. It's very cute.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Daddy's Birthday Donuts


We have 5 birthdays, starting with Kenny's and ending with mine, within a 2 month period and for 3 of those birthdays we have cake, lots of cake. Last year Kenny and I decided to have donuts for your birthday's instead of cake. By the time my birthday comes we're pretty tired of birthdays and cake so donuts make it easier to enjoy them. So, after Kenny opened his presents we got the donuts out to decorate. It's a fun little tradition I think we'll keep forever.

The kids decorating their donuts.

Kenny blowing out his one candle.

I was very creative. After I wrote this Sarah said, "Mom you're not married to an old man, you're married to an awesome man." I couldn't argue with that.

Sarah's donut.

Nice face bud! The frosting I bought to write on the donuts was a little dark. We all came away with very colorful faces.

Hannah loved her donut. Can you tell?

Gracie eating her donut. Yummy!

Dan got a little bit of my donut. He enjoyed it very much and got messy eating it. Just what a 18 month old should do.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Daddy's Getting Old

Kenny's birthday got a little better as the day went on. The kids and I went downtown to get Daddy's present and his birthday donuts. They were well behaved and everyone was happy. When we got home we had pizza for dinner (seems to be what we do on birthdays) and then it was time to open his gift. We got him two gifts this year, but the kids "tricked" him into thinking he only got one. They were so excited about the trickery, especially Ben. I think Ben was more excited about that than anything else that night.

Opening the movie we got for him.

We put his first gift in a gift bag and that was the one he got to open. It was the movie 'Strange Brew.' It's a very funny old movie that we haven't seen in years. Next, and this is key to the surprise, he had to put the movie in the PlayStation so we could watch it. Kenny said we didn't need to watch it yet, but after my insistence with that look of 'you really need to do this,' he got the clue and put the movie in. By then he knew what was going to happen, but he did a great job being surprised and acting excited for the kids.

Looking at the kids surprised because there was something in the PlayStation he wasn't expecting.

Holding his new game with another surprised look on his face. He did some great acting and the kids totally bought it.

When Kenny went to take the disc out of the PlayStation so he could put his movie in, he discovered his real present. Gran Turismo 5, a PlayStation game he's been wanting for a long time. The kids were so excited, he was happy to get his game, and I'm happy not to have to listen to how much he wants the game. :) After getting his game, we decorated donuts and ate them. Yummy! So his birthday ended up better than it began, which was good. Happy Birthday Kenny! Here's to another 36 years of birthdays!

This is a present Sarah Kate made for Kenny. She cut the pictures out of the newspaper and made a note for him with them. I thought it was so funny and wanted to share. I love the 'famous guy' and the 'head in a bag girl.'

Kids Rules Of The House

I had one of those bad mommy days on January 29 (which also happens to be Kenny's birthday, I know bad day for a mommy blowup.) I was stressed and the kids weren't doing ANYTHING they were told to do and they were whining and complaining like crazy. You know, just one of those mornings. I wanted the morning to be perfectly wonderful for Kenny so he didn't have any added stress on this one day. Totally not what happened. Around 11:30 I completely lost it and completely yelled at the kids. Then I cried to Kenny about how sorry I was for ruining his birthday. Kenny, being the awesome guy he is, told me I hadn't ruined his birthday (I really had, but it was nice of him to say anyway) and that the kids have been getting worse and worse and this day was coming anyway (true, but why on his birthday.) Long story short, they all got in big trouble. They then, got a big lecture about how they need to take care of things and why. Sarah Kate got in the most trouble and had to sit by herself for a long, long time. While she was sitting alone Ben, Hannah, and Gracie were told to make a list of things they could do to help take care of the house and help Mommy out. I thought it was great so I thought I'd share. Here it is written in Ben's handwriting and his spelling too.

Translation and explanation:

No spinning fast on the chairs (very smart considering how that chair downstairs looks)
No poking holes in the wall (this would be directed to Sarah, the little stink)
No going under the car (this was my favorite, you know, because we have such a problem with it. When Ben brought it to us he said, "so we don't get oil and dirt all over our clothes and bring it in the house." It was real hard to keep a straight face on that one.)
Do what you are told when you are told to do it (my dream rule that will probably never come true to it's full potential.)
Clean up your messes (I assume this means without mommy having to yell at you over and over to do it.)
Only color on paper (another great rule; our poor art table downstairs looks very used.)
No food or drinks on the carpet (this has always been a rule, but for some reason I always find wrappers, crumbs and spilled drinks on the carpet downstairs. I wonder how that happens.)

So that's their list of things they should do to help take better care of the house. Pretty good for a 6, 4, and 3 year old. We hung it on the fridge for everyone to look at often. They've done a fairly good job so far, especially on the not going under the car rule. Hopefully it'll continue to improve.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Happy Birthday Mr. Guymon

Sarah's 3rd grade class

I have been so impressed with Sarah Kate's 3rd grade teacher. When she found out she had a boy teacher she was heartbroken, but in the many months since that 'dreadful' day she has discovered that boy teachers aren't nearly as bad as they may seem. I'm sure the other two 3rd grade teachers are good teachers, but I feel so fortunate that she got Mr. Guymon. He's a first year teacher, straight out of college, and he has that 'I'm going to save the world one kid at a time' type of mentality going. He's done some amazing things and he really seems to be trying hard (as opposed to Ben's first year teacher who doesn't seem to be trying very much at all, but that's for another post.) Sarah found out that Mr. Guymon's birthday was on January 20th and she really wanted to give him something. I toyed with the idea of letting her give him a candy bar, but didn't want her to be the only kid giving him something (you know, in case the others wanted a reason to tease her.) So I thought up this great plan of creating a candy letter for him.

I spent a few minutes with the kids on the 19th, letting them know what we were going to do, getting idea's of which candy bars to use and how to use them, and taking a picture of them with Mr. Guymon. That night we bought all the candy bars we needed, made a copy of the picture and attached it to the signed paper which ready "Happy Birthday Mr. Guymon! World's Best Teacher!" and sat then down to create our masterpiece. With a lot of help from Kenny and a little help from Sarah we came up with a great little note. I actually had a lot of fun doing this. I was surprised at how much fun it was. I guess I'm missing that creative side of me that has gone away with the addition of all my children.

The poster we made for Mr. Guymon. It reads:
Mr. Guymon,
How do you change a bunch of Nerds into a Symphony of learners? It'll Take 5 months with the greatest 3rd grade teacher ever. We've learned that Whatchamacallit in the sky is the Milky Way and that Big Red star is actually Mars. Even through the Mounds of Snickers, we can see we Skor(ed) a great teacher and we're Extra lucky to be your Peeps. We think you're worth 100 Grand.
Happy Birthday from the kids in Room 9


The following day the little kids and I took the poster and signed piece of paper to school and presented it to Mr. Guymon. He thought the gift was great and actually laughed at part of the letter (can you guess which part?). I know it wasn't much, but the kids loved it and he seemed to like it so that's good. I knew the kids would be jealous of Mr. Guymon with all those candy bars and so I gave each of the kids 2 mini candy bars. I figure if they get treats on kids birthdays it's only fair that they get treats on Mr. Guymon's birthday.

Sleeping Dan

Dan often sleeps in funny poses. We took a couple of pictures of him in January and I thought I'd share.

Dan loves to sleep with a stuffed animal. This is the monkey Grandma Gass gave him for Christmas. It's been the stuffed animal he's wanted to sleep with lately and we often find it in weird places.

The old legs through the bars sleeping. Looks so uncomfortable.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Gracie's Style

I just love it when Gracie dresses herself. She has an amazing sense of style.

These pants are her very favorite pants in the whole world. She tries to wear them with everything.

Here's a ballet dance move, "just like the princesses do."

I love the hair thing around her arm. All in all it's a great look.

Adam Giggles



Sarah Kate took this video of Adam for me. He kept getting distracted by the camera, but we did get a few giggles from him. I especially like the snort near the beginning.

What A Memory


One night in early January we were having breakfast burritos for dinner. While I was cooking Hannah starting talking about what she wanted for dinner. She said "I want that thing we had that night we lived in our old house. You know that night we heard the train." Surprisingly, I had no idea what she was talking about. She was very patient with me and even though I couldn't figure it out she, very calmly, kept trying to help me. We went to daddy and asked him for help, but he couldn't figure it out either. She described the night so well that I actually think I remembered it, but I had no idea what we had for dinner. After about 15 minutes of talking about it, I finally figured out what she wanted, CORN ON THE COB. Even though it didn't go very well with breakfast burritos, I just had to let her have the corn. She was so happy and had3 pieces of corn. I was amazed with her memory and with her patience with me. She is one special little girl.


YUMMY!!!!!!!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Don't Hit Your Sister In The Face With A Book!


On Wednesday, December 29th I was upstairs cleaning and the little girls were playing down in their room. Hannah came upstairs holding her eye and crying. She told me Gracie threw a book at her and hit her in the eye. After making sure she was okay I went downstairs to discipline Gracie. Hannah came to her sisters defense right away and let me know they were playing a fun game of "throw the books around the room." Apparently while throwing books in their fun game, Gracie accidentally hit Hannah in the eye. Rather than getting Gracie in trouble, we had a nice little talk about how throwing books is not actually a good game to play. Just one of the many battle wounds I'm sure my kids will get over the years.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer


Gracie singing one of her favorite Christmas songs for Grandma.