Six-year-old Tommy

Tommy's birthday was in July, and we now have a six-year-old! For some reason, this birthday was completely comfortable for me. No mom freakouts about "How can you possibly be 6?!" Probably because I had been hearing about his 6th birthday from the day after he turned 5. The topic had to be banned in the house because I simply could not stand it after 3 months. 

Despite my desires to make this boy an awesome Death Star cake, breastfeeding just didn't make it possible. Luckily, he's quite thrilled to get Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies, a trend he set for birthdays when he was 2.

Thora loved the Happy Birthday song and danced happily to it. 

Shad has started building towers to encase surprises, and this time he filled the tower with balloons.

Crashing the tower.

We spent the evening playing balloon volleyball.

Look at all those lovely blurs!

Samson didn't want to be left out, but he didn't want to be ballooned in the face, either.

Sisters like to take pictures, too.

Super excited about his birthday present!

He did get to have a friend birthday party this year! It was somewhat impromptu, but it worked and he loved it. He had 3 friends over for a video game party. Presents, Mario Kart, music, brownies, playing outside, and more Mario Kart. He wanted nothing more.

Samson, Four Months Old

Two months ago, my baby was four months old. Actively playful, proficient roller, and a thumb sucker.

Shad picked him up from the stroller and Samson just snuggled right in and fell asleep.

Thora's Looks

Thora is always a great one for facial expressions. Especially if she's staring you down with disdain. She can be quite the intimidating little creature.

We went to story time at the library, as we do every week, and the guest reader had music for the kids to exercise with. Thora stood her ground.

"Thora, do you want to do the exercises?"

Exercises over, time to read a book. "Hi, little one! Do you want to come sit with the kids?...No?...Okay, I guess I'll just keep reading then."

And this side-glare is so typical of her.

Cherry Creek Reservoir

Tuesday at Cherry Creek Reservoir...

This little guy was my buddy! We stopped at a kid consignment store to see if they had swim trunks (his 3-6 month ones are WAY too big) and a hat. Score! And he looks so studly! Look at that suave little grin!

After Samson and I had our time out on the inner tube, the girls were ready for a turn. They tried to hang their arms out in the water to paddle, but it didn't work very well.

Oh, hey! There's my sister Jen in the background. 

Tommy loved all the feathers laying around and made use of them in his sand castle.

Erik is a man-child. He'll be a freshman this year and is probably one of the most put-together kids I know.

It's no secret with Tom and Katie. They play favorites with these two cousins of theirs. Bode is Tommy's favorite.

Erik is Katie's favorite.

Erik and Thora in the sand.

Um, yeah, that's the face she's been going with for a couple months. It's smiles or glares.

Tommy, Bode and Jen

I should really start remembering to take pictures BEFORE it's time to leave. You'd think my kids hate everything I take them to do...

Oh, and because his belly button was visible...not only does this baby boy have pointy elf ears, but check out that jelly roll belly button!

Homeward Bound!

Just a few remaining things. So the reason for the trip to Colorado was because my sister Jen came down from Washington with her two boys, Erik and Bode. Shad was out of vacation days, having used them for Samson's birth, his grandma's funeral, and currently for RAGBRAI, a 7 day bike trip across Iowa. And as much as I didn't want to go off with 5 kids alone, I didn't want to deprive my kids of the one time a year they get to see these cousins. It was only going to be 3.5 days, but then developed into 6 when I heard word that a former bishop of mine was going to be in town from Texas and that there was going to be a ward reunion. There were two or three days that I just wanted to quit and come home, but I stuck it out.

Becky read bedtime stories almost every night.

Everyone Poops

Thora got her shoes to get ready to go home.

The kids loved playing on the big rocks at our rest stop on the way home.

* * *

I just found this Jumpoline video.

Pie Face Game

Becky has a game called Pie Face. You spin to see how many times you have to turn the crank, and the goal is to not get whipped cream thrown in your face. Or at least, that's the goal the game tells you to have. Katie and Tommy had other ideas, and I'll admit that I wanted to get messy, too.

You get to eat the whipped cream afterwards, right?

Brandon tried not to get creamed, but he failed.

Despite actually wanting to get smashed with whipped cream, the anticipation was awful.

Dancy didn't want to play, but still wanted to eat whipped cream.

Take a Picture of This!

More of Colorado: We went to visit Sharley and Jonah Huntsman! I finally got to meet Elias, two years old. We spent almost the whole day there. 

Thora got a little restless, bu loves taking pictures and seeing her face.

And eating her fingers.

Back at Becky's house... "Can we take silly pictures?"

And little Diva again.

"Mom, I have a big bow tie!"

A month and a half later, I have no idea why half of these pictures are here. But this kid is cute.

We went to see my friend Robyn Bailey! Finally got to get our kids together to play. Robyn has this cool, awesome toilet seat that has a kid seat that pulls down from the lid. Dancy was sooooo excited to use this and wanted me to take a picture of her. Nevermind that we have the same toilet seat at home and she won't use it. This time she was thrilled to sit on a kid seat on big toilet.

And we had nachos for lunch! Or at least, some of us had nachos. Thora may have just eaten the 4 lb Costco tub of sour cream.

Lori wanted to take an emoji picture while we were at Walmart.

Katie loving on her cat cousin, Pirate.