Addie is SIX!

We now have a six year old! She has to use two hands now to show her age and she's pretty excited about that fact. Actually her words were exactly "I've waited my whole life for this day!". 

All About Addie Year Six
(According to Addie)

Favorite Foods: Pizza
Favorite Shows: Hatchimals
Favorite Songs: Be What I Believe. 
Favorite Movies: Frozen 2
Favorite Toy: Hatchimal Toys
Favorite Books: Bird Guide Book
She Can: Read, ride her bike (with training wheels), and make her own sandwiches.
She Weighs: 38 lbs
She Stands: 45 in
She Loves: Hatchimals, Pokemon, Nintendo Switch, Catching Bugs, Friends and School.
She Dislikes: The Dentist, Anything Spooky, and Sleeping by herself.

* Link to all other 'All About Addie' at the bottom 

Since today is a school day we went back and forth on trying to decide when would be the best time for her to open her gifts. We weren't sure how early Danny would be at school himself but it worked out in Addie's favor because we were all able to celebrate her a little in the morning before anyone had to leave the house. I told Addie that we would save her biggest present for after school and she was both anxious and excited to wait half a day for that time to come. She was really happy to be able to open up all her other presents in the morning though. She's been in a Hatchimals toy phase for awhile now and most of her presents were Hatchimals related. 

When the time came for her to leave for school she couldn't wait to see her teachers and friends and wanted to share with everyone that today is her birthday. I couldn't wait to pick her up because we had a final surprise for her. Danny had cleared some time in his schedule to make it so that he could be done with school at the time that Addie was done and I really appreciated him for that. I took the boys with me to go pick up Addie while Danny left school to run home and pick up her present that had been hidden in the garage. We both met up at the church parking lot and Addie was really confused because she couldn't figure out what we would be doing there. It actually took Danny a couple minutes longer to meet up so we just hung out around the car until he did. Danny showed up with her gift and we were able to surprise her with a new bike. She's been wanting one for a long time and Danny and I really slacked on that this last year. About a year ago close to her fifth birthday I found a purple bike while driving on my way home being sold at a yard sale. The guy gave it to me for about ten bucks and it sat in our backyard for a year waiting for us to replace the back tire. We never got around to it and knowing us we would have gone longer forgetting about it. Whoops. So we thought it would be faster to just get Addie the bike she deserved. She really liked getting a brand new bike and the fact that she gets to decorate her own helmet made it even better. We met at the church because it would give us enough room for her to ride her new gift as well for the boys to tag along on their little bikes and scooters. We did that for awhile until hunger set in. While she was at school earlier today I had gone and picked up some pizzas from Papa Murphey's so we headed home and made our dinner with the promise that if the kids all ate good we could take the bike out again for a walk around the block. 

We should probably go on more walks around our new neighborhood because the kids all love it and it's good exercise that Danny and I wouldn't be able to get otherwise because of our busy schedules these days. 

After our walk we sang Happy Birthday and ate pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which was Addie's request. Her birthday party is in a couple days and that's when we'll make her a cake or dessert of her choosing. After seeing her blow out her candles both of her brothers really really wanted to do it too. Addie said it was okay so we lit a candle for Hudson to blow followed by one for Grant to blow. Addie really is a good sister and seeing smiles on all of their faces is always a favorite thing for me. Today our six year old had a great birthday and she sure felt loved. Now she's counting down to her upcoming party and went to sleep easily tonight.

Past Birthday Links:

All About Addie Year Five
All About Addie Year Four
All About Addie Year Three
All About Addie Year Two
All About Addie Year One

Sixth Birthday letter to Addie Rae

Dear Addie,

You finally can use two hands to show how many years old you are and you think that's the coolest thing ever. I guess I now have to use two hands too to show how many years I've now been a mom. :) It's crazy how much you've grown this past year. I find myself thinking all the time about how grownup you seem these days. You're not our little preschooler anymore and instead you're really becoming into your own which is really cool to see. You love arts and crafts and your favorite day of the week is Friday because that is art day at school. You love making new friends and you're no longer shy about making new friends wherever we go. You always gravitate towards kids a little older than you and by the time we have to leave whatever place we're at it seems like you know everything there is to know about that kid you just met and were playing with. You're a little talker for sure and can chat and chat all day long. You love to make people laugh and you try really hard to choose the right. You're becoming a lot more patient with your little brothers and you're definitely excited to hopefully gain a sister in March. We've found out that you're a great secret keeper which is awesome for us at this time (my pregnancy) but also will put me on high alert when you use this skill during your future teenage years. :) 

Addie I love you and your kind heart. I love that you are trying really hard to get through your personal trial of anxiety and I believe that you'll overcome it. You have a great support system and I'm your biggest fan and will do whatever is best for you. I love you and the fact that you're one of my very best friends.

Love,

Mom

September Outing - Fruit Picking at Grandma Greats

My kids all have their own unique likes and dislikes but one thing they do agree on is that they all love going to Grandma Great's house. Her place is so welcoming and warm and even Danny and I can spend hours there without feeling like it's time to leave. Plus we all love being with Grandma Great and Danny especially loves when he's asked to take as much fruit as he'd like from her fruit trees. She can't get to all of them and loves sharing them anyway. If we ever move away from Utah this is surely a place that we will miss visiting as often as we do.

Announcing Half of Our Baby News

The cat is out of the bag and we told our families and social media our baby news! Well kind of. We are still keeping the twin fact a surprise so I guess we shared half of our news. 😉

One of the very first people to know was actually Grandma Great (Colleen). She found out only days after Danny and I found out. The crazy thing was that it was because she sensed it. It was August 1st and the whole Ferguson family was at her house. At one point most of us were on her front porch and then I got up to walk into her house and she stood up right behind me. As I reached her door she grabbed my arm and whispered "Gina are you pregnant?". I looked at her but didn't say anything until we walked inside and closed her front door behind us. I then shared our news with her and explained that it was still fresh news for Danny and I and that we had just found out seven days earlier. She was overcome with emotion. First she was both really excited and then really embarrassed because she said that she didn't know what overcame her or why she would even ask in the first place. I assured her it was fine and that it was true but that no one else there knew about it not even our kids so she promised to keep it a secret. I told her there was no need to feel embarrassed but she still felt that way. In the end she chalked it up to it being Grandpa Great (who is in heaven) and that he must have prompted her to ask me haha. I sure love Colleen. She's the best and most caring soul ever. 

Of course Pollyanna has known the full truth for a while. Actually she's always in my top three people of those who find out I'm pregnant soon after I myself find out. She's found out early about all three of my other pregnancies but what makes this one exceptionally exciting is that she is also pregnant. She got her positive three weeks before I got mine so we get to fully experience this pregnancy together. We only briefly experienced that near the end of my pregnancy with Hudson and she was carrying Paisley but there was a big difference in how many weeks apart we were so we weren't exactly experiencing the same things together. 

We told Addie, Hudson and Grant on August 9th that we were adding to the family. I don't think Grant understood and Hudson thought it was cool and right away started saying I was going to have two babies. He was right. Addie was the most excited. She wants a sister so bad. Fingers crossed at least one is a girl for her sake.

We told Danny's family on August 30th that we were expecting a baby. Addie was the one who got to share the news. We weren't even planning on doing it that night but we happened to be at Jill's new house property checking it out and Addie really wanted to tell Georgia that we were having one baby. At that point Danny and I decided we didn't care if they found out that day and we told Addie she could. Addie is surprisingly amazing at keeping the twin part a surprise for now which is awesome. It makes me wonder if she'll still have this skill when she's a teenager and the tables are turned where the secrets will then be kept from Danny and I haha. We told Addie she could go ahead and tell Georgia and when Georgia didn't spread the news like we thought she would we told Addie she could go ahead and tell everyone else that night at dinner with Danny's family. Addie is so excited to become a big sister again that it was pretty cute to watch her share something she's so happy about.

We told my parents and Grandma on September 13th during dinner at our new house. My parents had been wanting to see our new place and asked if we would host them for dinner so I agreed and invited the three of them along with Pollyanna's family. My parents and Grandma had gotten to our house first and thats when I had them open a 'gift' which was a onesie that read "Guess What?". They were pretty excited to find out that they would be getting another grandchild in the coming year. I had purchased the onesie as a twin set for my own announcement and of course only showed them the one onesie instead of both. Pollyanna and her little family know the real truth so when they showed up she asked me privately if she could see the full set. As of right now I'm thinking I might put these onesies on them in the hospital next March. We'll see though. 

I also used the onesie as a way to announce the news to my mom and most of my siblings two days later on September 15th. I had the kids take a picture with it and then sent that to them through text message. Unfortunately since we're in a pandemic there are no large gatherings happening and sometimes messaging is the best way to get news out.

This is the picture I sent them.

We told everyone else through social media today on September 20th that we are completing our family next March. I made a very subtle hint with two periods at the end of my caption and used a hashtag #lastpregnancy

This was my caption:

All were equally as unlikely at the start of the year lol. Excited for our final chapter come spring. (I know I said last one two babies ago but it's for real this time 😂). We can't wait for March 2021.. 

#lastpregnancy #forrealthistime

And the real picture I didn't show social media