6 yr old Benny Boy

Benny turned 6 this month. I can hardly believe it. He is the baby that marks our move to Illinois. He came house hunting with us when he was just 4 months old and moved when he was 6 months. 

He has turned into such a funny kid. He is constantly surprising us with his older kid lingo. Some of his favorite phrases lately are "Oh biscuits," "You've got to be kidding me," and "oh fine." He often sounds like a teenager.

He is still working on saying his "R's" correctly but has recently noticed it and started correcting himself. He then accentuates the R in his own correction and it's really cute.

He has loved Kindergarten, despite only having a half-day for the first half of the year. We worked really hard together reading and he is getting really good! We are in lesson 70 of 100 of our reading book. He loves books and is really proud when he can read some of the words.

He is a great friend at school. I recently got a postcard from his teacher thanking him for being such a great friend to the new kid in class. He also loves playing with his siblings and making up games.

I'm convinced that he will be an excellent beatboxer when he grows up. He makes noises with his mouth that I can't even figure out how to do.

He still loves being tucked in every night and cuddling. His favorite song right now is either "I am a child of God" or "Nephi's courage." 

He is quite a tease to his little brothers. If one of them is screaming it is usually because Benny took something away from them. Sometimes it is because he's worried they have something they shouldn't. He tries to keep them out of trouble.

He is very compassionate and gets worried about others. His prayers are very sincere and always include many mentions of Jesus. Ex: "help us to have a good day with Jesus, " and "Help us to be more like Jesus." 

When I was putting him to bed last night he was worried about Jack whose blood sugars had been high. We talked about what diabetes is and what happens if Jack doesn't get insulin. He was very concerned and said he didn't want anyone in our family to die..."except Haken." Haken and I both had a good laugh about that. I think deep down he actually loves Haken.

He is an excellent artist and loves drawing animals. He got a sketch pad for Christmas and numbered every page. He has already filled it up halfway with drawings.

When he grows up he wants to be a zookeeper because he loves animals. He loves anything that is on a screen, but he especially likes watching wild Kratts and playing the wild Kratts game online.

On his birthday date, we were asking him questions on the drive to the restaurant. He said "we have too many kids in our family. We should only have 3 ("free") kids." After asking him which ones he would want to keep he said "Gracie and Ruby." Then we pointed out that he would be the only boy and he said "ok then, get rid of Ruby and keep Jack." Apparently, he is ok with everyone but the twins and Haken. We had a good laugh about that.

This boy is constantly surprising us. He is whitty, smart, and determined. But he is also humble, forgiving and sweet. We often joke that he is the forgotten middle child but we really couldn't live without our Benny Boy!

We celebrated by opening presents and eating cupcakes (which Jack made all by himself and then Benny said "I don't like cupcakes." He got a new wiggle car and the "butt books" he likes from mom and dad. From Grandma he got snow boots (used a week before), a remote control car, and a 6 yr old joke book. He said it was "the best day of his life" so I guess that's a win!

January on my phone

Can you believe that we are still running outside in January?! The weather has been so great this year and we are loving it! We only had a few snowfalls and they were really light. Running in the cold isn't so bad if you bundle up and have a running buddy. Absolutely worth it for the beautiful sunrises and good company. 

Since we haven't had a lot of snow, Gracie made one herself.

With the big kids going back to school 4 days a week, Ruby has become my little buddy. Her buddy Palmer that we babysat isn't coming anymore so she has become totally bored of me. She's so good with the twins and finding something to keep them entertained all day. She's also become a very motivated little reader and is determined to pass Benny up on reading lessons so we have started to do one every afternoon. I have confidence that she will be reading before kindergarten even starts.

Lots of vent sitting going on around here! This is the vent they are always scrambling over right next to the sliding door.

 

Ruby prefers the vent in front of the kitchen sink.

For family home evening we made "The Lord's worker" hats to go along with D&C 4. We talked about the qualifications of the Lord's worker and glued the stars onto the hat. Haken was a good sport and made one too. We encouraged all of the kids to memorize D&C 4 with the incentive of a treat. Haken memorized it by the end of the week and got a box of candy. Gracie got 2 verses down and is working on the rest.

Tenny has loved accessorizing. One day he wouldn't take Gracie's glasses off all morning. It made me wonder if he could actually see better with them on. He also had a cold for a few days (as you can tell in the picture with the red shoes) compliments of Gracie. Luckily it never really hit anyone else very bad, just a few sniffles and stuffy noses.

Lots of book reading and blankets going on!

Our friends are still hanging on our garage door as I just don't want to take them down. I've loved having my friends in my house again even if it is just a picture. I can't wait for them to come back to our house for real.

 On the last day of January, we finally got a good enough snowfall for the kids to play in. The twins went outside for the first time in the snow. They had mixed reviews. Tenny loved it and wouldn't stop eating the snow. Chap was apprehensive and curious.