The Art of Homemaking: Cute Babies

They are not chubby. They won't take binkies or bottles. They have nervous dispositions and they take 6 months to acclimate to nursery.

But they sure are cute.

Here they all are at 6 months.

Sarah

Henry

Erica

James

My other kids besides Henry

How long can you stare at this face?

James loves when his diaper is off for one reason. He can pull his toes into his mouth.

You know you've been making a lot of jam when the canning rings are used as baby toys.

"I have your freckles, Mom." Yup you have freckles just like I did when I was a little girl. "No Mom, I took your freckles."

She may have take more than my freckles. Here's a picture of me at 3. Pretty safe to say she's my kid.

Every day is mother's day with this little girl. She draws pictures of the two of us all the time.

I love how strong our hand holding is.

Sarah not only loves Little House on the Prairie (books and TV series) but she looks like the darn cutest little pioneer girl ever. Our primary had a pioneer theme activity full of candle dipping, butter making, and other pioneer activities. The kids got to dress up and share ancestor stories too.

We borrowed this complete outfit from my friend Kirsta and Sarah looks so darn cute, I almost wish we lived back then. Sarah wore the dress the entire day

Sarah's last day of school May 26. I can't believe I'm going to have a 3rd grader in the fall.

Here she is at the beginning of the year to compare.


May 26th was also our anniversary. 11 years baby. Henry made us these cards.

"Dear Mom and Dad. I hope you have a great anniversary. From Henry" "I love you guys"

Mom Me Dad

We did have a great anniversary although an abbreviated one. Justin had to work and James is a pill so we just had time to go out to dinner to Ruby River but I was totally okay with that. Our waiter gave us fee dessert!

I just love hanging out with him and living life together. He's my best friend.

Saturday we went to the Dye family cabin in Scofield. While the other kids were playing with cousins, Justin and I went for a drive to get James to sleep. We drove up Clear Creek canyon which I though I had been before but realized I had not when we came upon the town of Clear Creek. It is the cutest little town and feels a little like going back in time.

These houses are so small and close together and look nothing like Utah homes.

We continued up the canyon until we came to some snow and a fallen log. Justin drove us through the snow...

But there was no going over this fallen tree so we headed back down.  Justin grabbed some snowballs to throw at the kids when we got back.

At church today Sarah played the piano in sacrament meeting with Mai Jensen and Sophia Hickman. The three of them played I Love to See the Temple. They did such a great job! Even if they hadn't done their best (which they did) everyone just thought it was the cutest thing to have 3 little girls play the musical number. I was so proud of them! Sarah thought it was so fun and didn't get nervous.

And even more Henry

Henry continued to have a big week. Here's his annual birthday interview since I forgot to post it last time.  He didn't surprise me too much on any of his answers except that he wants to be a policeman.

And we took his 6 year pictures.

He's such a goofball.

Friday was his last day of kindergarten. I think I made myself pretty clear last year how I feel about graduations so I'll spare you. I only rolled my eyes a little at the parents bringing in balloon bouquets. (But I nearly laughed out-loud at the couple bringing in balloons, flowers, cupcakes and a plastic bowling set into the auditorium. I wish I made a sign that said "Congratulations on completing the easiest year of your life.")

Henry's class did a winter-themed dance. And he danced you guys. He held nothing back. I was so surprised and impressed. 

And then we came home and had ice cream before lunch. He's so excited for first grade because he wants to eat lunch at school.

Henry Turns 6 (and Mother's Day)

Henry's birthday spanned three days even though we didn't really plan it that way. Since his birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, I wanted to make sure he didn't feel cheated.

The Friday before was his kindergarten's class Mother's Day picnic. He wrote me this book all about me.

Here is my favorite page

On Saturday he chose to go to a BYU baseball game and he got to bring one friend so he brought Myer. They were both so excited and slightly obnoxious on the way over. It makes me glad we don't have twin six-year-old boys.

Myer got bored about 30 minutes into the game but Henry held strong until the 7th inning. I for sure thought he would last until the end but then he abruptly asked when we were going home.

We got cougar tails of course and Cosmo came by and said hi.

He's teasing the kids for taking his tail.

Erica was scared of him but called him "cougar tail" for the rest of the game. "Where's cougar tail? Oh I see him over there."

After the game, I finished a batch of jam then we ate Henry's choice of boxed macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets for dinner.

Then we went to Mapleton park with the family. Henry finally decided on sugar cookie bars. Or is it a cookie cake? Or a cakie? He had some crazy ideas the last couple of weeks. He had to come up with two ideas, one for the park the day before then one for his actual birthday. For a while there he was insistent on having a large circle layer cake with a smaller circle layer on top of that and then a bunch of cupcakes on top of that. No way bud. Then he wanted sugar cookies then I kindly nudged him toward the idea of a great big sugar cookie. He wanted it green with blue sprinkles so I came up with this 6 idea.

Then he decorated it with his ninja turtles and cars. Not my best work from a technical standpoint but he was super happy with it and it tasted great so that's all that matters.

It was super cold that evening so we didn't stay too long at the park. And it was windy so we sang while Justin lit the candles and I think only a couple were lit when he blew them out.

Sunday morning he was up at 7. All of his presents were ready on the table but he had to wait until everyone was up. I went back to sleep after James woke at 7 (it was mother's day after all) and Erica slept until 9:30 so I did too. He was so patient!

He got a BYU hat, rootbeer, Cheetos, pudding, books, watch, milky way, basketball cards, and the hotwheels track with a loop he's been asking for.

Sarah made him a few of these car tracks that he can lay out on the floor for his cars. So sweet and creative of her.

He and Justin meticulously put his new basketball cards in his binder. He got a Gordon Hayward card and was so excited about it.

James snuggled on the couch with Moose.

Then we went to church. During the second hour, the primary president brought him to me and he was crying because his stomach hurt. I discovered he ate 7 fruit roll ups after breakfast. Justin took him and James home.

After the rest of us came home, we took a mother's day picture.

My first mother's day with 4 kids!

Sarah gave me this flower and a book about me. This is my favorite page.

And they all gave me this card. Not gonna lie; it made me choke up.


Then Henry fell asleep in his room. I woke him up for his birthday dinner of French dip, Jell-O, carrots, and homemade lemonade (Henry and I decided together what we'd have) but he was still so tired and went up to bed after only a couple of bites. He woke at 9pm and asked if we saved him any of his birthday pie. The sweet little guy thought we ate his birthday pie without him! I told him we'd save it for the next day and he slept the rest of the night until 6:30 Monday morning. He said he didn't feel sick, just tired.

Monday morning he went straight for his basketball cards and wouldn't even put it away to eat breakfast.

Monday afterschool he fell asleep again! But after dinner we sang happy birthday and finally ate pie.

What Henry is like at 6

1. He finally likes to read. It helps that he's getting pretty good at it too.
2. He is so good about wearing his hearing aid. Sometimes he doesn't want to wear it and tells us he hates it because he's not symmetrical. It breaks my heart. I think having hearing loss and a hearing aid is a big thing for a little boy to deal with. I've learned to just listen and not push him to wear it. Usually he'll wear it the next day.
3. He loves video games (too much) but we don't have any. He's asked a couple of times if we can get some but I tell him no and I tell him why. He's accepted it.
4. He's a good student. He's never had a "think time" at school and does his homework and reading without too much prodding. I think he's such a good kid in class because he gets all his stinkerness out at home before he goes.
5. He always includes Erica. They are good buddies. He teases her a lot and it gets really old but if I can get him to do something on his own for awhile, he will be nice to her again.
6. He lets me hold him and cuddle him and give him hugs.
7. If he gets put in time out, it's usually for playing too rough in the house and he won't knock it off. Or he's teasing Erica.  Or he won't pick up his stuff.
8. He's super interested in what foods are good for him. "Is chicken healthy? What does it have in it?" "Does bread have sugar?"
9. He calls James "Jamesy" or "Jamies" and he's sooo good at calming him down. "Work your magic, Henry"
10. He loves to go bike riding with Sarah and they come up with some pretty elaborate games and creative forts.
11. He loves everything his dad loves and maybe more so.
12. I really love listening to him when he's not talking about Pokémon. I took him to the store, just him, and I was reminded how much I love hanging out with just him. It doesn't happen very often.

His favorites according to me
Show-Wild Kratts
Dinner-Spaghetti and meatballs or macaroni and cheese
Color- Green and orange (tie)
Toy- Cars and Legos
Snack- Apples, cheetos and crackers
Breakfast- Pancakes with nothing on them and he just picks them up and eats them. No fork.
Dessert- Any but he doesn't eat a lot at a time
School- Recess and math
Song- Anything by One Republic, and songs that are "awesome" meaning lots of drums and guitar. He does not like girl singers except for Adele.

Henry's birthday is always a little more emotional for me than my other kids because of the drama of his birth and first week of life. All those memories and emotions come flooding back. But it doesn't make me sad anymore, just more grateful to have him. And I hope he didn't mind sharing his day with me. I really wanted mother's day to take a backseat to his day. But all my kids' birthdays feel a little like a mother's day anyway since it's the day I became their mom!