Dan's Favorite Book

Dan got a book from my Aunt Diana for Christmas this year and it has quickly become his very favorite book. It a rather large book for him, but that doesn't stop him. He carries it everywhere with him. The last page plays this music that he loves and he'll spend forever opening and closing that page just to hear the music. So, I wanted to thank Aunt Diana for the wonderful gift. It has brought little Dan a lot of joy the past few months.

Going back and forth on his favorite page.

He's even got Adam liking it, much to his disappointment sometimes. (We're still working on sharing with Daniel.)

Everyone Loves Adam's Giggles

I was folding laundry in my room and heard a bunch of noise in the family room. I came out to see the kids doing what they could to make Adam giggle. Another great moment to be a mom.

Trying On Clothes

It's getting to the end of the winter season and with that comes worn out clothes. In late February we finally gave in to the need our children had for new long pants. Gracie had outgrown most of her pants and Sarah needed some that didn't have holes in the knees. With this giving in came a trip to one of our favorite stores to buy clothes, Target. My kids LOVE to try on new clothes and every time they do they feel they have to do a little dance. I don't know if it's because they feel so awesome in new clothes or if it's just simply because they love to dance. Whatever the reason is, the always do it and I think it's so cute. I happened to have the small camera in my purse for this trip so I took some video of them dancing.

Gracie's New Clothes Dance

Ben just had to get in on the action.

Hannah's included singing.

Also, Gracie was having a blast doing flips on the hanger things. It was probably not the smartest thing to let her do, but she didn't break them and she was every good at it.

At first she was hanging like this and she'd bring her legs up in the air. She was too fast for me and I didn't get a picture of it. Later she turned around and did this:

Here she is walking her legs up and. . .

They're up. How fun to be little again!

Helping Hannah

It had snowed a significant amount the morning of February 25th and because of this I felt the driveway needed scrapped. Kenny was working in the office and the 4 youngest kids were playing well together so I decided they'd be okay if I went out quickly and cleared the driveway. While I was outside Gracie and Dan went downstairs to play together and Hannah played her ABC game on the computer. Adam was left to roam the living room with Hannah. Apparently, after a few minutes of roaming, Adam decided he was done being abandoned and started to cry. Hannah, being the great big sister that she is, decided to help him out. Kenny came out of the office to see how the kids were doing and this is what he found:

It was one of those moments where being a parent is so great. Hannah had picked up Adam (no small feet because he weighs more than half what she weighs) to make him feel better. I love being a parent to my kids. I am constantly in awe at how wonderful they are and at how much they love each other. It's moments like this that make it all worth it.

Our News Girl

On February 24th the local news came to Rimrock Elementary to do a news clip on Sarah's class. Her amazingly wonderful and eventful teacher Mr. Guymon (can you tell I'm very pleased with her teacher this year) has decided to teach the kids about the news. He built a news desk that sits in the room and the kids write and record their own news each week. This all started much smaller with the newspaper. Mr. Guymon takes out a weekly add in the local newspaper asking the public a trivia question. Anyone is allowed to respond to the question through Mr. Guymon's e-mail and then the following week he sends those who responded an answer taped from the class. From here he decided to take the weekly newsletter he send home to parents and allow the students to turn it into a news show. We, as parents, get a copy of it via e-mail every week and I've loved watching the kids and their creativity.

So, back to our news girl. The local news found out about Mr. Guymon's news class and wanted to do a story on it. Now remember, we live in Eastern Idaho and to be frank, the news here is HORRIBLE most of the time, but it was still cool for them to come to Sarah's class. They chose names out of a hat for the four kids who would be interviewed for the show. All four names were drawn and none of them were Sarah's. However, the last girl drawn didn't want to be interviewed so she opted to draw another name. She drew Tyler's name (he also happens to be our neighbor boy) and because he was one of three doing the news cast for that day, he didn't get to be interviewed. He drew a name out of the hat and Sarah was the name drawn. Yeah!!! She was very excited.

When she got home from school I asked her how the news was that day. She said she got to be interviewed and that she would be on TV that night at 5:00 and 5:30. We set the DVR to record the news and everyone sat around and watched as her story came on. It's very cute! Probably more so for me because I know all the kids in the class, but cute none the less. There are some funny things about it that you may notice though. First, if you count the number of interviews you'll notice that there are only 3 kids shown. I said earlier that 4 names were drawn out of the hat, but I guess the news, for whatever reason, only aired 3. Luckily Sarah was aired, but a girl named Cara did not make the cut. This brings me to my number 2. If you notice while Sarah is talking they have her name as Cara. Ooops! Not the best job on the part of the news, but news shows make mistakes often and lets not forget, we do live in Eastern Idaho, need I say more.

Sarah was pretty upset over the whole wrong name thing. She asked me, "what happens if when I meet people now they think my name is Cara because of the news." That one definitely made me laugh to myself. I'm sure there will be tons of people from now on that will forever remember that news cast and when the meet you in the future will remember the news cast and call you Cara. I just love the way little kids think sometimes. I assured her that no one is going to think that her name is Cara and if they in fact do, she can just correct them. I also had to point out that of the two girls, Cara is the one to feel bad about. She didn't even get to be shown on the broadcast. All she got was her name. When Sarah realized this she was much more accepting of the name mistake.

So, I hope you enjoy the news clip. I think she looks really cute. I know she's my daughter and so I'm going to be bias, but I really do think she did a good job. I think she looks good on TV and I'm definitely proud to call her my daughter.

6 Months Old

Adam turned 6 months old on February 19th. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. You would think that having 5 kids before him I'd be used to how fast they grow, but I'm not. It's so sad in a way, but I am very excited to see the little boy he's going to become. He's already such fun to have in our house. He LOVES to watch the other kids and is very fond of any attention he gets from anyone. He's not sitting up yet, he likes to arch his back and this prevents him from actually sitting. He's getting rather close to crawling. He get's up on all fours and rocks back and forth. He also likes to get on his hands and tippy toes. It's very entertaining to watch. He gets wherever he wants to go by rolling and rocking forward. He seems early to do these things, but my guess is he wants to be where everyone else is.

Adam getting ready to crawl

Adam is probably my happiest baby. He loves to giggle and is always smiling. He's very pleasant and I must say, he's a perfect baby #6. He got sick a few weeks ago and has yet to get back to sleeping through the night, but he only gets up once and it's only for about 10 minutes so I can handle that. We like to call him "Captain Fatso Kicky Pants" because he's such a big, fat baby and he loves to kick. The kids tell me that we don't call people fat, but I've assured them that it's a term of endearment and it's OK when they're babies. :)

Adam's half birthday got kind of swallowed up by Ben's birthday. We normally have a half birthday party, but we were really busy and didn't have one for Adam. That's something we still need to have. I'm looking forward to the day when Adam and Dan are running around the house like crazy little boys. I try to keep that in mind when I think of how fast he's growing up.

A Boy And A Box

All you need to make a little boy happy is a box. Why spend money on expensive baby seats when you can just use a box? They're fun for sitting and enjoying watching your siblings, getting pushed throughout the house, and just chilling.

Adam enjoying a ride in his box.

That's Not What Optimus Prime Looks Like

The Cake! (Enough said)

I found an Optimus Prime cake and I thought it'd work for Ben's birthday. He's not really into Transformers anymore, but I was desperate for a cake and I decided to go with it anyway. When I got it home I realized how crazy I was. It had a lot of detail and detail is just not something I care to do at the moment. Life still feels really busy and adding anything makes me super stressed. I decided to go with the cake anyway and just make it the best I could. Apparently the best I could was not good.

When Ben saw it the first words out of his mouth were, "That's not what Optimus Prime looks like." He was right of course, but I did do the best I could. I feel bad, but only a little. It looked close enough to Optimus Prime that I think anyone could get the idea and at the end of the day we were just going to eat it anyway. It still tastes the same no matter how it looks, right!

Ben blowing out his candles and other stuff.

(I didn't take the time to edit the video so if you get bored before the minute is up go ahead and turn it off.)

Ben did tell me it was OK that it didn't turn out to look like Optimus Prime and that he thought it was great anyway. I have such a sweet boy and even though he was disappointed he was understanding and nice about it. That's hard for a 7 year old and I'm very blessed that he's my boy. We sang to Ben, he blew out the candles, and then we all ate cake and ice cream. At the end of the day he was pleased (enough) and I learned to never do another Optimus Prime cake. :)

Ben getting ready to eat Optimus' head.

Dan enjoying some cake. I did a really bad job taking pictures and that's all I have. I'll have to do better next year.

Marbles and Grandparents

Ben with his gift from Grandma and Grandpa Gass

My parents came up on Saturday the 19th to see the birthday boy. It's always fun when Grandma and Grandpa come, but birthdays are the best. They brought him a great marble set that has seen lots of use in the month that we've had it. Ben loves to build things and this is another thing for him to build. We enjoyed visiting with them and then they took us to McDonald's for lunch. Marbles, Grandparents, and McDonald's! Can life get any better?

Making a marble track with Grandpa

Hannah and Grandpa had fun playing pretend baseball with Ben's new bat and mitt. Hannah was an amazing hitter.

Who knew Cinderella could play baseball!?!

Ben and Sarah moved the marble set to the table. The carpet was much to unstable for them and their huge towers kept crashing down. It worked well until. . .

Dan came to join them. He's such a good helper.

Birthday Presents

Ben being a goofball while showing off one of his presents.

A few hours after Ben's friends left we decided to let him open his presents. He wanted us to hide them and play the hot and cold game to find them. I love that my kids enjoy doing fun creative things with their gifts. When he'd find one gift, he'd stop and open it before moving on to the other gift. He got some fun things and seemed to be pleased with his stuff. We got him a few Lego sets (a helicopter and plane) a cup with a note in it saying we'd take him to the store and let him choose some baseball stuff, and a walking/sword fighting stick.

Opening one of his Lego sets.

Showing off his walking stick.

The family enjoying the walking stick.

After the presents we took him to Walmart to choose his baseball stuff. He did not want it at all. For some reason he thought we were going to make him spend his $10 from Grandma and Grandpa Newbry on the baseball stuff. It took us awhile to figure out what the problem was, but after we explained to him that the baseball stuff is a gift from us and he still gets to spend his money from Grandma and Grandpa, he was much happier. He got a Lego set from Grandma and Grandpa's money, a bat, ball, mitt, and t-ball stand from us. I'm excited for warmer weather so we can use his new stuff.

It's Party Time

Ben and his friends getting ready to open presents.

Sierra, Ben, Gavin, Garrin and Ryker

There was no school on Ben's birthday and we thought that'd be a great time for a party. I probably should have looked at the calendar a little closer when I planned the party because it was also President's Day weekend. This meant that his school had a 4 day weekend and so a lot of people were going out of town. We let Ben invite 4 friends to his party and when two couldn't come we let him invite two more. He ended up having 5 friends come which was way better than we thought it'd be.

It was a great crazy few hours of the day, but that's what makes little boy's birthdays fun. The kids arrived and the first thing we did was take them sledding. Well, Kenny took them sledding and I stayed home with the other kids and finished setting up for the party. Kenny said they seemed to have a lot of fun no one got hurt so that's good. When they got home I let them make their own little pizza's and then it was time to open presents. This is always one of the favorite parts of a party and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. After the presents we had a treasure hunt for the kids to find their goodie bags (this was a huge hit and it was really fun to watch the kids) and then we played a few games.

The girls waiting to make their pizza's. When we told Ben he could invite 2 more friends we were surprised to learn he'd invited 2 girls. I guess it payed to be sitting at his table at school. Only one, Sierra, could come and she fit in very well with all those boys.

Gracie and Hannah enjoyed sitting at their own table.

Pizza's are so much better when you make them yourself.

Shooting balloons with 'Nerf' guns is always a favorite at the parties.

The end of the party was another fun part, the cake. I didn't get his cake done so we had cupcakes instead. There were kids at this party that came last year and they were very disappointed that we were not going to be having a cake. When I informed them they could still put their face in a cupcake, they were very pleased. As long and you can shove your face in it, it's good. The party seemed long (it was only 2 hours) but real quick and crazy at the same time. I glad be let him have a party and I think he really enjoyed it.

Ben's very uncreative cupcakes. It says "Happy Birthday Ben" on it and surprisingly enough, he really liked it.

Hannah got the 'H' cupcake and she couldn't have been happier. You see, H is the letter that starts her name, therefore, it's the best letter in the world.

Ben and friends showing off their cake faces.

More cake faces.

After everyone had left we still had the twins here. We really enjoy Gavin and Ryker and over the years have learn to expect Sara, their mom, to be late (I'm sure people say that about me too.) The kids kept busy playing chess while I cleaned up from the party.

Birthday At School

Ben's class on his birthday!

I took Ben's birthday treats to his class on Thursday the 17th. His birthday is actually the 18th, but there was no school that day, so I went in the day before. I had arranged with Mrs. Bodily to come in right after lunch and the kids were excited to see me. A mom on a birthday means treats! Ben got to sit in the front of the class and call on kids to ask him questions about himself. 1st graders are so funny and they ask some of the funniest questions. Some of my favorites: Who's your best friend, who's your second best friend, who's your third best friend, which TV in your house is your favorite, Who's your favorite teacher (this one he said Ms. England, his kindergarten teacher, oops.) and last Who's your fourth best friend? It was fun to watch him sitting up there in charge and loving it. He loves attention and this was perfect for him.

I wanted to take a picture of Ben at school. This was the first picture I took. After this the kids got real interested in the picture.

So by the time I took the second picture there were some more kids who wanted in on the fun. At that point I thought it'd be best to take one of the entire class.

When they were done asking questions I passed out the cookies I'd brought. The kids were very happy and even though they just got back from lunch, they all ate every bite of their cookies. I love going into my kids classrooms and their birthday's are such a fun time to go in the classroom. I hope Ben enjoyed his special day.

Decorating A Door (But Really A Wall)

In early February a girl from our old ward (the part that we split from back in May) e-mailed me and asked if I'd be willing to decorate Mr. Guymon's door for Teacher Appreciation Week. She's the PTO president and apparently she thought I'd do a good job, that or she was desperate. :) When she asked me my first thought was that it would be a lot of fun. I agreed to it, told the kids about it, and then the reality of it all sunk in and I remembered I had to come up with something creative. That's when the stress hit. Authors get writers block, I got creativity block. I had a week to come up with some way to decorate his door and I was only coming up blank. Half way through the week she e-mailed me again and said decorating doors is apparently against fire code. I was secretly hoping this meant we couldn't decorate the doors, but no, it only meant we needed to decorate the wall next to the door. Bummer! So, I stressed a little more. Then 2 nights before decorating time I was laying in bed trying to sleep and an idea hit me like a ton of bricks. It probably wasn't the greatest idea, but it was an idea and that was better than nothing. The next morning I told Kenny about my idea and he told me it sounded good, but he reminded me he thought I was crazy for agreeing to do it in the first place. I know secretly he was glad I agreed to it, I need to be doing more things like this, he just knew I'd drag him into helping me and really, what guy wants to help his wife decorate a teachers door? :)

Ben and Hannah playing with the news prop in Sarah's classroom.

With Kenny's help, we took my initial idea and made it bigger and better (I hope.) I originally thought of having the kids trace their hands and then cutting them out. They were then to write why they like Mr. Guymon on their cutouts. I e-mailed him the next morning and asked if I could come in for a few minutes. On Friday, Feb 11th, I went to the school first thing in the morning and got the cutouts (talk about cutting it close.) The hands were going to be the leaves on a tree and thankfully Kenny is a fairly good artist and was able to draw a great tree for me. That's where my creativity stopped. I couldn't for the life of me come up with something to say. I enlisted Kenny's help and he came up with our very creative saying. I was a little leery about using it, but it seemed to work so well with Mr. Guymon's personality that I decided to go for it.

Kenny make the head of Mr. Guymon.

Kenny agreed to help me put the final project on Mr. Guymon's wall (he's such a good boy for helping me with my crazy projects) and so we gathered all the kids up headed to Rimrock Elementary after school on Friday. It took about 2 hours, but I enjoyed it and I think Kenny did as well. I was quite proud of the final project and never could have done it with Kenny's help. I heard that it was liked by all, including Mr. Guymon, so I'm pleased. I figure if I did a bad job the worst that would happen is they won't ask me to do it again. :)

Adam hanging out at the school waiting patiently for us to get done.

The tree complete with hand cutouts and Mr. Guymon's face.

Mr. Guymon was nice enough to leave is door open for us when he went home. The kids enjoyed playing with the math objects and it made the project go much smoother for Kenny and I.

Kenny putting up the last of the words.

The little boys were getting really bored by the time we were done. Sarah did a good job helping to keep them entertained. She walked them around the school for us and definitely saved us some time and headaches.

The final project.

Let me explain a little. See, Mr. Guymon's quite tall. He's actually the tallest person in the school. That's where the 'Shadiest' comes from. The little boy on the ground (also drawn by Kenny) is saying "Wow, that guy's REALLY tall." HaHa! We thought it was cleaver and it totally goes with Mr. Guymon's sense of humor. The hand cutouts from the students are the appreciation part of the project. So, that's it. They didn't take it down, in fact it's still up and this post is almost a month late, so I'm guessing it was OK. It was fun and I'm glad I/we did it. I hope to be able to do another some time.

Eating Rice

His bib is on and he's ready for cereal.

Adam's growing up and I've decided that at almost 6 months old, it's time I start him on solid foods. This is something I'm not really looking forward to. I've found, for me anyway, it's one of those things that the further down the kid line, the less excited I am about it. Sarah Kate started solids at 4 months old (back then the doctors recommended 4 months, now they recommend waiting until 6 months) and Ben started that early as well. The rest of the kids have been starting later and later. I just don't have time. It takes so much time to spoon feed a baby and I've found I really don't have the time. Imagine that! Anyway, I decided he should probably start the solids, so on Feb. 10 we began the rice cereal. He actually did really well, loved it and gobbled it down. I'll admit, he's my best first time solid food eater. Overall, he's been a great number 6 baby. Heavenly Father must have known I needed a happy, easy baby as my number 6. :)

Yummy!

He liked it. (Can you tell?)