Sarah The Kate

I still haven't gotten the scanner to work so this is the first picture of Sarah Kate I have. It was taken at my sister-in-laws wedding when Sarah was almost 19 months old. Do her sisters look like her?

Where do I start with describing Sarah Kate? Sarah Kate was born on March 5th 2002 in Logan, Utah. She was 10 days early and weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Since that day she has grown up to be a beautifully fun girl. Being our first Sarah Kate was quite the adventure. There's nothing like the excitement, nervousness, and anticipation of your first child. Sarah Kate didn't disappoint.

Thanksgiving 2004

2 1/2 years old

Grandpa Holderness' 80th Birthday Party.
Sarah's 3rd birthday (that's why she got to wear the boa.)

Sarah is probably our most outgoing and friendly child. She loves to be around people and she can make friends wherever we go. This has been a challenge for me some time because I'm a very shy, reserved person (most of the time), but it's been good for me. I remember a time in the Pentagon Mall in Washington DC when Sarah Kate was maybe 1. We were down in the food court having lunch when we notice Sarah Kate was waving to and keeping someones attention on the top floor (3 floors up). When we looked up we noticed it was a group of young males, smiling and playing with our daughter from so high up. She could always pull people in, get and keep their attention, even from a young age.

May 2006

4 years old

Sarah is also a people pleaser. She tries so hard to do what's right that sometimes it can get her into trouble. At school last month the class using rubber bands in their art project. Apparently the kids were flipping them all over the classroom. Mrs. Ramos had told all the kids to stop flipping the rubber bands around and then she sat down at her desk. When she wasn't looking the kids started flipping the rubber bands again. Sarah Kate took it upon herself to tell Mrs. Ramos what the kids were doing. Then for some reason, according to Sarah, all the kids were very mad at her. They called her a tattle tail, and didn't want to talk to her. She was so confused because she was only trying to do what was right by telling Mrs. Ramos what was happening. She didn't understand why the others were mad at her, they were the ones doing the wrong thing. It was kind of funny and sweet to see her innocence. She's just so determined to do what is right that sometimes she doesn't stop to think before she acts. We're working on the brown nosing.

One of my favorite pictures of Sarah Kate
December 2006 (4 1/2 years old)

Sarah Kate would have to be the chicken of the family. She wants so much to be brave, but she just really isn't. She used to gage what she could or would do depending of if Ben could/would do something. On some things I think she's give up this idea because Ben now does stuff she's not brave enough to do. At the playground last summer Ben and Kenny were climbing on the top of the monkey bars. Sarah Kate really wanted to do it to. Kenny has a philosophy that if the kids can't do something on their own then they shouldn't be doing it. He, or I, of course, are there in case they fall or decided they can't do something on their own, but we like time to feel confident in what they're doing. Sarah climbed on top of the monkey bars and was straddling them looking down at Kenny and said, "I don't know why ANYONE would ever want to do this." She wants to be brave, but instead is super cautions. As a baby it was frustrating at times (it still is even though now she's a big kid) but we've never had to worry about her wandering off, falling in a hole or a swimming pool, or anything else. She just extremely careful and caution in everything she tries to do or she won't do it.

Getting her Green Belt in Karate

Feburary 2007 (Almost 5 years old)

We like to call Sarah Kate our science girl and she loves the nickname. She loves rocks, flowers, animals, almost anything science. She's funny because when we take her to Toys r Us she gets more excited over the science isle than the doll, barbies, or any other toys. She's a collector. She loves to collect rocks, and seashells, and feathers, and anything else she can find. She is also very interested in how everything works. Since she first learned to talk one of her favorite words has always been why. She wants to now why something happens or how something works. She's definitely going to keep me on my toes, which is good.

Just before kindergarten 2007
5 1/2 years old

Other than that, Sarah Kate is, well Sarah Kate. She loves school, her friends, and her siblings. She's a wonderful big sister who loves to help me, most of the time. She's getting to the age where she's wanting some more one on one time with Mom and Dad and she's starting to have less in common with her sisters. She still loves to play with Ben and I feel very fortunate that my kids get along so well and love each other so much. She still shares a room with Ben because neither one of them want to split up. I think we'll let them stay together for a few more years, as long as they want to.

Sarah Kate and Ben

December 2007 (5 1/2 Years Old)

Sarah's an excellent student in school. She's excelled so much this year and is now reading well into the 2nd grade level. She started her accelerated math work at school (basically that's math at your own pace) and she was the first one in her class to hit the 50 point mark even though she started months behind some of the other kids. She loves to learn and is picking up on things so quickly. It's been so much fun watching her learn and grow this year.

Summer 2008
6 1/2 years old

I feel so fortunate to have Sarah in my life. She is such a delight and such an amazing child. She seems so perfect in so many ways that I'm constantly in awe at my luck in being her mom. I can't wait to see what kind of person she's going to become, but at the same time I don't mind waiting. She's already growing up way to fast.

Sarah's Butterfly Cake

Sarah's butterfly cake.

I've been wondering if Sarah is getting a little old for my cakes. Kenny wants me to come up with an age when the kids no longer get a special cake (I think he's getting sick of me making them.) I don't like to think of my kids growing up so quickly so I don't want to think about them not wanting a cake anymore. This year, lucky for me, Sarah still wanted one. She is growing out of the princess and Dora thing so I wanted to make her something a little more grown up. I settled for a butterfly cake and it seemed to be a good choice. She didn't want to see it before it was cake time so I put it on the toaster oven and put a towel over it. When I finally brought it out she said she already knew, but she was happy anyway (I wonder if a sibling helped her figure out what it was!)

Sarah excited to blow out the candles.

Look at all those candles. Are there really 7!

Sarah was very patient as we sang her Happy Birthday (the longer version from her class) and when the time came she blew out the candles. It took her 2 breathes, but she did get them out. Hannah wanted to help, but Sarah was too quick. Poor Hannah was devastated that she didn't get to blow out the candles. Lucky for us her birthday is next and we convinced her that she could blow out her own candles on her birthday.

Sarah blowing out her candles as Hannah tries to help.

Hannah not being happy that the candles are out.

We had a lot of fun eating cake and ice cream (though Mom and Dad were so full from dinner that we didn't have any.) Sarah took the bottom half of the butterfly and Ben took the middle section including face and belly. Hannah and Grace each had their own smaller piece. The kids ate in their silly ways and made more mess than anything. That's the way cake is eaten around our house.

Sarah ready to eat the bottom half of her cake. She's such a goofy girl.


Ben enjoying the middle of the butterfly.

Hannah eating her cake without a fork.This is how Gracie chose to eat her cake.

She's such a goof ball.

Sarah's messy cake face.

When we finished the cake and ice cream it was time to clean everyone up and put them in bed. Another good day was finished and the kids were all happy, healthy, and full.

Happy Birthday Sarah the Kate

Sarah standing with all her birthday presents.

So my baby is getting to be not such a baby anymore. I can't believe Sarah's already 7. Where has the time gone? We had a good day for Sarah's birthday and most importantly Sarah had a good day. We went to her school and took her entire class a treat, read the next post if you want to hear about this, and when she got home she was welcomed by a Happy Birthday door. She told us she didn't want her presents wrapped this year, rather, she wanted us to hide them so she could find them. Kenny went to work creating a treasure hunt that led her around the upstairs looking for presents. A treasure hunt is perfect for Sarah, and it saved on wrapping paper. :)

Lucky for us, Sarah Kate was getting a treasure chest for her birthday so it was the perfect place to begin her treasure hunt. Sarah had a great time reading the clues to where each of her presents were and then going to find them. With a little help from Ben, who was very excited and many times tried to find the gifts before her, she found all of her gifts. We piled them all up in the living room and took pictures of her posing in front of them. Along with her treasure chest she got a telescope, a Littlest Pet Shop toy, roller blades, rocks and butterfly field guide books, and a lil' canary Webkinz. She was very excited and very pleased with what she got. It was so fun to see her face light up over every present.

Looking at her Rocks and Minerals book with Daddy. Sarah is such a science girl.

Sarah looking at the giant windmills through her telescope.

Ben looking through the telescope.

Hannah looking through the telescope with a little help from Daddy.

We spent a little time playing with her toys, looking through her books, and Kenny set up the telescope and the kids looked at the windmills on the hill in front of our house. We tried to register Sunshine, her Webkinz, on the Internet, but their sight wasn't working so we decided to go to dinner instead. Sarah Kate choose to go to Chuck-a-rama. This is a buffet restaurant that all the kids love. It's a favorite place to go when Grandma and Grandpa Gass come to town. The kids ate whatever they wanted, I remember bringing a plate of pickles and croutons back for Ben and Sarah, and then they finished the outing with some ice cream.

Roller blading after dinner in the kitchen with a little help from Ben.

We headed home and let the kids play for awhile before cake and more ice cream. Just before the cake, Sarah tried on her roller blades and wore them around the house. We told her before she can go outside we need to go get her some protective gear. It'll take awhile for her to get good at skating, but I'm sure she'll do it and I'm sure she'll love it. We ate cake and ice cream, another blog, and then sent the kids to bed. It was a great birthday for a great girl.

A Birthday Party at School

Sarah Kate with her teacher Mrs. Ramos standing in the front of the classroom while her classmates sang Happy Birthday to her.

I wanted to do something special at school for Sarah's 7th birthday. Her school doesn't allow home baked goodies, only store bought, so I thought maybe donuts would be a fun little birthday treat. While I was finishing up her cake, I sent Kenny to the store to pick up enough donuts for the entire class. He came back about 40 minutes before I was due at the school and said, "Don't be mad, I'll help make them." I should have known better than to send Kenny to the store for something simple like donuts. He brought in a bunch of bags and started pulling stuff out. He had bought little angle food cakes, strawberry filling, edible grass, peeps, and robin eggs for each kid. We got Ben up from his nap to help and we set to making little birds nest for all of the kids. Actually, it was very cute. I'm impressed with his creativity and those birds nests were SOOOOO much cooler than boring donuts.

Our one remaining birds nest that we left on Mrs. Ramos' desk. I meant to take a picture of all 30, but forgot.

It didn't take us long to get them assembled, but I knew I would never be able to take them all to the school by myself. Besides we thought Grace and Hannah might enjoy going (Ben was already told he could go.) So we woke the girls up from their naps and headed to the school. When we arrived the kids were finishing up their math paper. It was so fun to see Sarah in class and see her excitement when we arrived with the treats. Of course everyone was impressed. Especially the adults, the office ladies and Mrs. Ramos were very impressed. Maybe we went a little overboard. Who cares, the kids loved them and Sarah Kate loved them and that really what we were going for.

They took time out of their math to bring Sarah to the front of the class and sing Happy Birthday in their goofy way (Happy Birthday to you, Chaa, Chaa, Chaa. Happy Birthday to you Chaa, Chaa, Chaa. Happy Birthday Dear Sarah Chaa, Chaa, Chaa. Happy Birthday to you Chaa, Chaa, Chaa. Oh La La. MERRY CHRISTMAS!) It was very entertaining and Sarah LOVED it. After the song, Sarah and Ben helped us pass out the nests and the kids ate while finishing up their math. I heard later that the kids had the most fun with the red sauce because they pretended it was blood. I didn't think of that, but I'm not at all surprised a classroom of first graders did.

Sarah finishing her math work while eating her nest.

We let Ben, Hannah, and Gracie sit at the empty table and have a nest while we waited for the kids to finish. When they finished their math they were able to go to the classroom next door and watch a movie with another 1st grade class. We took this opportunity to clean up and talk with Mrs. Ramos a little. It was so nice of her to let us come in and interrupt her class like that for Sarah's birthday. I've been really impressed with Sarah's school and with her teacher. It was so nice for the little kids to be able to come in and it meant a lot to Sarah. We had a lot of fun, but still had stuff to do before Sarah got home from school so we left while the kids were in the other room.

Gracie eating her nest.
Don't worry that's just strawberry filling on her mouth.


Mrs. Ramos with Hannah Beth and the new boy in Sarah's class. Hannah loved to stand in the front of the class and say her ABC's.

Crazy Hair Day

My attempt at Crazy Hair

On Thursday February 26th Sarah's school was having crazy hair day. They were suppose to show their school spirit by doing the craziest hair they could and then the one kid from each class with the craziest hair won a prize. The thought of this made Sarah Kate jump for joy. She talked about it for days and the night before, she made sure I promised to get her up early so we could do her crazy hair.

Now if any of you know me, well, I'm not much of a hair person. In fact I'm really pathetic when it comes to hair. I wish I wasn't, but I guess I just wasn't given that talent. My hairstyles, and my girls for that matter, are very plain which suits us just fine, but when it came to crazy hair day I had to get creative. The only thing I could think of was to put wire in her hair and make it stand up. Great idea, right! Well, great idea for someone who can do hair.

Thursday morning I got Sarah up for school, got the wire out of the garage, and tried to figure out how to make her hair stand up (I really should have tried it the night before.) Luckily for me I'm married to a wire wonderboy who devised a way to make the wire stay and the hair stand up. Originally, I thought I'd have lots of different braids spread out all over, but Sarah only wanted one. She was very determined to have one braid so I changed my plan and we went with just one. After getting the wire in place and braiding the hair up it we discovered that she had too much hair and the weight of it was dragging the wire down. I took it out, braided only some of the hair up the wire, and put the rest into two little braids down her back. It seemed to work much better and she was very happy with it.

The back!

I took her to school and of course, being Sarah Kate, she was terrified she would be the only one with crazy hair. It took awhile, and the sight of others with crazy hair, to convince her that she could indeed get out of the car. Before she left I reminded her that it was OK if she didn't when the prize for her class. She said, "I know Mom. Sometimes it's good to lose so other people can win." Yeah for her, but this is much easier said than done.

She may not have won, but she liked it and that's all that mattered.

When she got home from school she opened the door and the first thing out of her mouth was a very grumpy, "I lost." The poor kid was near tears and I wouldn't be surprised if it ruined her entire day. We calmed her down and had a little talk about loosing and about the girl that won. Apparently she had made her hair into a palm tree with the help of a pop bottle. Very cleaver! We told Sarah this was our first time with crazy hair and that we will do much better next year. That seemed to please her.