Turning 30, Parties, and Others

Blowing out my candles with help from Gracie

I thought I'd do a quick update on what we've been doing this week. Not much happened, but we did manage to keep busy. The first part of the week went pretty smooth. Then on Wednesday I woke up at 6:45 to get Sarah ready for school. I was feeling kind of dizzy and when I stood up everything around me was spinning. I tried to focus on the door, but it kept moving out of my frame of vision. It was the weirdest thing I had ever experienced. I managed to make it down the hall and into Sarah's room. She asked if she could stay asleep and have me drive her to school. I was all for this considering how dizzy I was. I walked to the couch and laid down. The kids got up about a half hour later and I got up, trying to help Sarah get ready. I barely made it to the hall before I almost tipped over. I went in the bedroom and told Kenny he had to get her ready because I wasn't going to be able to. He got her ready for school and drove her, with all of the other kids, to school.

When Kenny got back he asked me what I needed and I asked him to call the doctor. I wanted to make sure everything was OK with me and the baby. They asked me to come in immediately. Kenny took me in and then waited in the car with the little kids (it was just easier that way.) They took some blood, took my vitals, and did some tests on me. The doctor had me try to follow her finger. Sounds simple I know, but I just couldn't do it. Anyway, it turns out I had a migraine. I've never had a migraine before so I didn't know what it was. The doctor thinks it was caused by stress (4 small kids, an unemployed husband, and being 26 weeks pregnant, I don't know what I would have to be stressed about.) They gave me some medicine and told me to go home and rest. I did just that. The medicine stopped the spinning so I was able to sleep.

The next day just happened to be my 30th birthday. I was feeling a little better, but still not great. I spent most of the day in bed and Kenny was nice enough to watch the kids for me. He also bought 6 raspberry filled donuts and had the kids decorate them for me. When Sarah got home from school we broke out the donuts, blew out the candles (3, my candles are in decades now) and then we each ate the donut we decorated. Kenny told me he thought I'd seen enough cake in the last little while and he thought I'd like donuts better. He was right and so thoughtful. We all enjoyed the donuts and then Sarah went to a birthday party. It wasn't much of a birthday, but considering how I felt, it was good.

Donuts decorated by the famiy.

Top: Ben's, Kenny's, Sarah's

Bottom: Gracie, Hannah's, and mine

We had 2 parties for the kids after my birthday. Sarah's best friend Carina had a birthday party and Sarah was able to spend the night. It was her first sleepover and she did very well. She only called me once to tell me she was a little nervous. After that, Carina's mom said she sat upstairs for a little while and then went and played. She had a lot of fun and didn't come home the next day until around noon. Meanwhile, Ben had a church party on Friday. He got to go to Leo's pizza place with his primary class as a treat for them being good for 10 Sunday's. I took him and then hung out to help for the hour and a half of the party. He had a lot of fun with his church friends playing on the toys and eating pizza. It was a fun time for both kids.

The rest of the week was pretty boring. We were going to go to Boise for Kenny's Aunt Janet's surprise birthday party, but we made the tough choice to save our money and not go. Instead we stayed home and did nothing. Kenny got sick late on Saturday night and threw up once and then had a very bad headache (I wonder if his could be stress too.) He was still sick on Sunday morning so I told him to go back to sleep and I took the kids to church. I was very proud of myself, taking 4 little kids and my big pregnant self to all of church all by myself. Everything went smooth until halfway through nursery when they brought me Hannah whose dress had fallen in the toilet while she was trying to go potty. I had to rush her home to change her dress and I found Kenny just waking up with a headache. I went back to church and the rest of the day went smooth.

So, that was our week. I guess it was a little busier than than I originally thought. It's currently spring break so we have Sarah home for almost a week. It's nice to have her home. I'm looking forward to summer break when she's around more often. Hopefully I'll be feeling better and we can do more things.

Glasses For Sarah Kate

The day she got her glasses.

For quite some time we've noticed Sarah Kate squinting to see things and we've known we needed to get her into the eye doctor. When we went to her school for her birthday we noticed her get out of her chair and walk up to the board in order to see what was on it. It was at that point that I made the decision to stop putting off the eye doctor and just make the call. I found a local children's optometrist and made an appointment. We were all set to go on Thursday the 12th, until Sarah threw up at school on the 11th and spent all of the 12th with the flu. The poor kid. I rescheduled her appointment for the next Thursday.

I sent her to school that morning for about an hour, got the other kids ready, and then we picked Sarah up and headed to the doctor. She was a little nervous. She kept asking if it would hurt and what it would be like. I assured her that everything would be fine and it might actually be kind of fun. She did very well at the doctors and did everything she was asked, everything except see 20/20. Apparently she has REALLY bad eyes. They're almost as bad as mine. I had no idea they were so bad. It made me feel just awful. I guess the good thing is she never knew what she was missing out on. The doctor discovered that she is nearsighted and that she definitely needed glasses. We got her prescription and tried a number of different places looking for the perfect glasses.

Kenny helped her the most when it came to finding the perfect glasses. I entertained the little kids. She decided on a pair at Lens Crafters, and the were able to get them ready in an hour. We decided to wait to take her back to school until her glasses were ready. We ordered them and then took the kids to lunch. It was a rare treat that everyone enjoyed. After an hour we took her back and got her glasses.

It's hard having your child in glasses. I think she is so beautiful and so perfect and I feel bad that the glasses hide that beauty a little. Also having had glasses since 5th grade, I'm completely aware of what a pain they are and I feel bad that she has to have them. On the bright side she can definitely see better. She was fun to watch the first day because she kept lifting them up and telling us all the things she could see better with her glasses. I'm glad she can see now and that she likes them so much.

Sarah has done a great job taking care of and wearing her glasses. I was worried about getting her to keep them on, but I guess when they make that big of a difference it's not a huge struggle to get kids to wear them. She is always super careful with them and has done a good job of keeping them out of reach of her little sisters. We are so proud of how well she's done with them. It's too bad she has to have them, but that's OK I guess.

Sarah has sensitive eyes and the sunlight hurts them so we got her the lens that change to sunglasses in the sunlight. This has been a huge help to her and she thinks it's really cool. Luckily all her friends and family have been very supportive and the transition to glasses has been a smooth one. We think she's cute, Sarah thinks she cute, what do you think?

Hannah Elizabeth Newbry

Hannah is now three and I can't believe it. In some ways she seems old for her age, in other ways (like her speech) she seems young. Mostly she just seems like Hannah. Hannah was born in West Valley, Utah on March 16, 2006. She was born at 12:57 and weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces. She has always been our small child being in the 50-60% instead of the 90%, but she is slowly catching up and is now in the 70-80% for height. When Hannah was a baby we called her our little orangutan. She had a dark complexion, big eyes, and the cutest little go everywhere dark hair that made her look just like an orangutan. She has outgrown the orangutan look and has turned out looking a lot like her big sister Sarah.

At birth

6 Weeks Old

Her Birth Announcement Picture

July 2006
4 Months Old

Hannah has always been in catch up mode. She wants so bad to do the big things her siblings do. She started crawling at 5 months old and did an army crawl for the longest time. She really just wanted to be able to move, she didn't care how. She didn't walk early, but she could get wherever she wanted by crawling and she was an excellent climber at an early age. She has always tagged along with her siblings and done a good job at it. Ben and Sarah have done a good job including her and it has been so much fun watching them all play.

8 Months Old

9 Months Old

Hannah's speech has not come as easily. We recently learned that Hannah had excessive fluid in her ear that made it hard for her to hear and she also had enlarged tonsils that made it almost impossible for her to make certain sounds. After having tubes put in her ears and having her tonsils out in January, we have seen some improvement in her speech. She still has a long ways to go, but we are confident she will catch up and be talking our ear off (and we'll understand it all) in no time.

Hannah's 1st Birthday

July 2007

Almost 1 1/2

Hannah is our little princess. She LOVES dress-up clothes and will change her dress a few times each day. There are many days I don't even dress her in the morning because I know it will only be a few minutes before she has change into one of her dress-up dresses. She loves to sing and dance around in her dresses and somewhere along the way she's gotten some rhythm.

May 2007

Her official 1 year old picture

October 2007

The day we brought Gracie home from the hospital. 1 1/2 years old.

Along with being a princess Hannah is also a little Mommy. She loves dolls and is often caring one around. There are many times I'll walk into the living room and find a doll laying down on Hannah's blanket and pillow sleeping. Hannah tells me the babies sleeping and I need to be quite. She's a good little Mommy, but hasn't learn the art of clothing on dolls. She prefers all her dolls to have no clothes on. I'm sure this will change with time, but for now I think it's kind of cute.

May 2008

Hannah's official 2 year old picture

September 2008

Hannah's first haircut. 2 1/2 years old.

While Hannah is very girly in some aspects of her life she definitely has a tomboy side to her. She's a ruff and tumble kind of kid who loves to wrestle Ben and Daddy. She loves to be thrown through the air and to run screaming through the house. She also loves to be outside riding her bike or playing with chalk. Her favorite outside activity is bubbles (very typical of a 3 year old) and she loves to blow them and chase them. I like to think of her as a well rounded mix. She loves most things girlish and boyish.

Playing dress up on her 3rd birthday.

We are very fortunate to have Hannah in our life. She brings such a joy to our family and I can't image life without her. She is the most loving of the kids, she's always there to give you a hug if your sad or hurt, and she worries the most if someones not with us. She's a very caring little kid who is also a ball of energy. I love my Hannah Banana.

Hannah's Castle Cake

Hannah's Castle Cake

This year for Hannah's birthday cake I decided to do a castle. You may remember it from Sarah's 5th birthday as it's the same cake. I figured Hannah loves princess' so much that she may enjoy a castle cake. Boy was I right. She was so excited when we brought it out. She kept saying 'castle' over and over again. Not only did she like the cake, but she loved the fact that it was her turn to blow out the candles all by herself. She has been wanting to do this since Ben's birthday and it was finally her turn. It took her 3 tries (the candles were kind of spread out), but she didn't care. She loved having us sing to her and blowing out her very own candles.

Blowing out the candles all by herself.

Hannah wanted the center tower as her own to eat. She, of course, didn't eat it all, but it was still fun to pretend. The other kids each had a smaller tower to eat and more face planting was done than actual cake eating. I'm glad they had so much fun eating Hannah's cake, and I'm even more glad that Hannah liked the cake so much. Halfway through the cake eating Hannah remembered her picnic table. Kenny brought it to the dinning room and she and Ben at their cake at the little table.

Hannah diving into her big tower.

Gracie didn't dive head first into her cake this time, but she sure did make a mess.

Ben eating his tower.

What a cutie!

Sarah eating her cake nicely. Is she really getting too old to dive into her cake?

Eating cake with Ben on her new picnic table.

Birthday Dinner at Leo's

Hannah on the bouncy thing in the toys at Leo's

We've been meaning to take the kids to Leo's for one of their birthday's, but we've always been too busy. We decided Hannah was our last shot for awhile so we just went for it. Leo's is kind of like a Chuck-E-Cheese and has a huge indoor playland, an arcade, and some little cars to ride on. They serve pizza and hamburgers and allow the kids to just play and have fun. We've never taken the kids there, but thought a birthday would be a great time to start.

Hannah showing off her balancing act.

Climbing up to the toys.

The kids had a blast playing in the playland and chasing Daddy around. I went up for a little while, but it's just to hard being as pregnant as I am. Instead I enjoyed watching the kids play with Kenny and I enjoyed a little quite time at the table while everyone played. We had pizza that was actually pretty good (much better than Chuck-E-Cheese) and then the kids played some more. Hannah really like the little cars to ride on and because it was her birthday I even put some money in some of them. Her favorite was the motorcycle that she rode over and over again. Everyone had so much fun that I think we may need to go back again sometime.

Ben goofing around.

Gracie playing on the bouncer.

Sarah being cute.

Riding the motorcycle