Sarah's Birthday

My big 10 year old.  Wow, that 10 years has sure gone by quickly.

Sarah Kate turned 10 on March 5th this year.  She was so excited to finally be in the double digits.  I for one sometimes wish she's slow down a little.  Because she had a party with friends on the 2nd we decided to just have a small party at home and open presents on her birthday.  She's so hard to shop for, always has been, but hopefully this year she got a few things she enjoyed.

Sarah enjoying looking at her new cookbook.  I see some cooking in our future.

Opening her new purse/bag.

Showing off her book about the Book of Mormon book.

After presents it was time for cake.  I'll admit, I was not real excited about making another cake, knowing I still had Hannah's cake to make in a few weeks, and so I was very relieved when Sarah told me cupcakes would be great for her birthday.  I made the cupcakes and we let the kids each decorate their own.  Cake is so much fun, especially when you get to make a mess out of it.

Adam playing with his cupcake.

Dan diving into his cupcake.

Messy faced Hannah and the other girls after cupcakes.

Dan and Adam making a mess.

Happy birthday to my amazing Sarah Kate.  I'm so fortunate to have her in my life and to have her as my daughter.  She's getting so big so fast, not as fast as she would like, but fast.  She's an amazing big sister who does so well with her younger brothers and sisters.  She such a great help to me and is so willing to babysit and do extra things when I need her to.  She's not perfect by any means, but I'd never trade her for anything.  She's the perfect big sister and such an amazing kids.  She inspires me to be better and to try harder in all that I do.  I only hope I can be the mom she deserves.  I love you Kiddo.

Cinnamon Sugar Is Not Good On The Eye

After church on Sunday, March 4th, Ben and Sarah decided they wanted to sneak the remainder of the cinnamon sugar.  They snuck it downstairs during their reading time and took turns shaking it on their hands and licking it off.  It probably seemed like such a good idea and something mom would never find out about until Ben's eye started itching.  Without washing his hands he rubbed his left eye with his dirty cinnamon sugared hand and got some of that yummy stuff in his eye.  Not wanting to get in trouble for sneaking the cinnamon sugar downstairs he chose not to tell me about it for about an hour and a half.  By then it was hurting pretty bad.  I tried to flush it out, but it still hurt.  A few hours later Kenny tried to flush it out, but his still continued to bother him.  Finally before bed, his eye was so red that I decided to take him to InstaCare.  Turns out he had some sugar in his eye that we were unable to get out and it had scratched his eye, obviously making it hurt.  The doctor flushed his eye out really well, something Ben was not a fan of, and gave him eye drops and a patch to allow the cuts to heal.  He had to wear the patch for the rest of the night and have eye drops for a week to prevent infection.  Not a huge deal, but I think, I hope, he learned a lesson.  :)

Ben and his fancy eye patch.

On a side note, while waiting at InstaCare I heard a familiar voice and turned around to see my 3 year old niece running over to us.  It turns out my 1 1/2 year old nephew Cooper had had a bad fall off the patio steps and had a nasty goose egg.  April and JJ and their 5 kids were just leaving InstaCare while we were waiting to go in.  Kind of a funny place to run into family (funny only because both boys were fine.)

Playing With Daddy's Toys

After Ben's baptism we were fortunate enough to have Grandma and Grandpa Newbry spend the night with us.  They had heard that Ben got some Star Wars guys for his birthday and when Kenny asked if they would bring his old Star Wars toys down they were all to happy to free up some space in their attic.  We spent a few hours visiting and watching the kids play with toys their dad had played with.  I'm sure it meant more to Kenny, but the kids enjoyed playing with his toys and now we have them all around the house.  Grandma and Grandpa spent the night and went to sacrament with us in the morning before they had to head back home.  The were able to stay for a few minutes after sacrament to watch Gracie give her talk in primary, which she really liked, and then they had to head home.  It was fun to have them in our house and to visit with them.

Playing with Daddy's Star Wars toys.

Trying to figure out how it works.

The girls really enjoyed the Ewok village.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed watching the kids play,

Ben's Baptism

Ben, all ready to be baptized a member of the church.

We had the honor and blessing of baptizing another one of our kids this year.  Ben was baptized on March 3 with both sets of grandparents in attendance.  There were 9 kids in our session being baptized, including Ben's friend Jacob, and Ben was number 8.  It was a long wait, but the kids did pretty good and we loved being able to be there to watch him.  Baptisms are always such a beautiful thing and when it's your own kid and you see the excitement in their face, well, there's not many things cooler in the world than that.  Ben was very excited to get baptized and very willing to listen and absorb all that he was experiencing.

Before we left the house and headed to the church Ben was presented with his new set of scriptures.  He looked so nice in his new church clothes (no white shirt because that's not Ben and we decided that he should be able to wear the clothes he feels comfortable in) and he was so happy and excited to get his own set of real scriptures just like Sarah.  He's done such a good job of taking care of them and bring them to church with him every Sunday since his baptism.  

Ben with is new red scriptures.

Showing off his name.

When we arrived at the church I took the kids to the chapel while Kenny helped Ben get dressed in his white clothes.  This was different for me and I missed being able to be a part of it, but I'm glad Kenny got to be there with Ben.  We took a few pictures in front of the baptismal font before heading into the chapel for the program.

Ben and Dad all dress in white ready for the baptism.

As I said before, the program was long and the wait for Ben's turn was even longer.  Just when I thought the little kids couldn't handle it any longer (1 1/2 hours later) they finally called Ben and the other 2 boys from our ward.  Ben was second to be baptized and they had me watch from the side rather than the front.  I wasn't a huge fan of this because all I got to see was his back, but it didn't take away from the joy and happiness he had after being baptized.  It was a beautiful thing to watch and I'm so grateful to my worthy and willing husband for his ability to baptize our children.  When the baptism was over I asked Ben what he thought of the whole thing.  He told me it was so wonderful that he even forgot to think about Star Wars guys. Now that's a big deal.  :)

After the baptisms came the conformations and then everyone was excused to head home.  It was such a beautiful experience that seemed to take forever to come and then was over way to soon.  I'm so grateful to Ben for his willingness to be baptized and for the example he's setting for his brothers and sisters.  I'm so lucky to have such amazing kids and I truly feel that they are lucky to have each other.

The group in attendance at Ben's baptism.  It's so nice to have family around to support us.

Another picture of Ben with mom and dad.  We sure are lucky parents.

After the baptism we headed back to the house to open presents from both sets of grandparents.  Ben got a couple of baptism pillowcases, a blue tie that matched his shirt perfectly, and a tie pin.  He was very excited and all in all had a wonderful day.  After presents we all headed to Chuck a Rama (Ben's choice) where we met Uncle Ryan for a late lunch.  A wonderful ending to a wonderful, perfect day.

Ben opening his present from Grandma and Grandpa Newbry.

Our, not so little, family after Ben's baptism.

There's a Mystery at the Birthday Party

For Christmas this year Grandma Gass got Sarah the first few books of the Nancy Drew series.  She has fallen if love with them and we've been searching the library for the rest of them ever since.  Because of her new found book love she decided that she wanted to have a mystery birthday party this year.  I totally didn't do it justice, but she enjoyed it and that's all that matters.  

When her friends arrived I had each of them decorate a notebook and they each got their own pen.  What girl detective can do work without a pen and notebook, right!  The girls enjoyed it and it was a nice time filler while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Decorating notebooks.

After notebook decorating we headed straight downstairs for our annual birthday balloon popping.  The girls were a little unsure at first, but I think after they understood what we were doing, they really enjoyed it.  After the balloon pop we went back upstairs for cake.  In keeping with the Nancy Drew theme, I made Sarah a question mark cake.  It was blue, her favorite color, and according to the girls it was delicious.  

The blue question mark cake with way too many candles.  :)

Blowing out all 10 candles.

The girls eating cake and ice cream.  Yum.

After cake came presents.  Everyone LOVES presents.

Sarah and one of her best friends, Sam

Sarah and McKinley

Sarah and Brianne from Basketball

Sarah and Aubrey

Sarah with Katherine and her cousin Veronica

After presents we found a mystery on our hands.  All the girls goody bags with their winnings from the balloon pop and their notebook and pen in them were missing.  There were clues left behind and the girls were able to go on a hunt around the house looking for more clues.  They had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed watching them get so excited with each clue.

Bri reading a clue in the toy room.

McKinley got to read the clue in the laundry room.

Veronica read the last clue in the big kids room.

The girls finally found their bags under the desk.

We finished the evening off by adding a little light to the darkness.  We painted the girls fingernails with glow in the dark fingernail polish just in case they needed a little light on a dark mysterious night.  It was a lot of fun for the girls and Sarah really enjoyed getting to spend some time with most of her friends.