Check out this Six Pack

I've been a bit of a cyber hermit for the last couple of months, but I've finally made my way back to blogging. So, I'm hoping to slowly update my blog bit by bit, and I will start with my sweet boy's birthday!

Jonah hit the big 6 on November 9th. It was a great day for him...I was able to volunteer in his class that morning and bring cupcakes for everybody. Plus, he got to buy school lunch (a rarity for him) and they had hot dogs on the menu. What more could a boy ask for? That night we headed to Mr. Gatti's for some pizza and games. Lucky for Jonah, he hit the jackpot on the one the games and ended up with a ton of tickets! After a little persuasion, I convinced him that it would be more fun to have the ice cream cone popper guns than 100+ suckers.

That Friday we had a friend birthday party at our house. On the agenda: Pin the tail on Dr. Deufensmurtz (from Phineas and Ferb), a treasure hunt, dance party, and the limbo. The weather was perfect for an outside party (thank goodness) so we just played all afternoon.
We also had pizza and cupcakes of course. The biggest hit of the party was actually the huge piles of leaves that we had in the backyard. We could hardly keep the kids out of them. Overall it was great fun and Jonah had a fabulous time.

Here's where I'm going to record some of Jonah's great triumphs of the school year so far, so be warned there is bragging ahead. My boy is a smarty pants. Seriously, I knew that he was smart going into kindergarten, considering he'd been reading since he was four. But I didn't realize how advanced of a reader he was for his age. We went into a parent teacher conference in September and his reading level was 2.99 and his math was 2.65. He finished the inital reading computer program faster than any kindergartener ever at his school, and then whizzed through the next level program in another month (some kids don't even make it through that program through the whole year). So now he does math with a second grade class, and would do reading there as well but the schedules don't work so he goes with the first graders. His new thing is to write stories, and he'll come home with these creative "books" that he's written and I am amazed with some of the stuff he comes up with. He is also a great helper with some of the other kids in his class and loves going to school. And just so he doesn't sound quite so nerdy, I've got to note that P.E. and recess are his very favorite parts of school.
Another great achievement was that he won the PAW Award at his school. They regularly give this award to outstanding students, but Jonah was the very first kid of all the kindergarteners to receive it. He was so shocked when they called his name (he gave us a reenactment that afternoon, and commented that he really liked it when everyone clapped for him). We were pretty proud of our boy that day.

Other fun things about Jonah:

• best big brother to Lincoln
• good friends with Kate
• refuses to watch Star Wars because he's afraid it's "scary"
• loves to laugh and tell jokes
• stays very focused on things he's interested in (like baseball practice)
• won't let me spike his hair in the least...has to look "like a missionary"
• has some killer dance moves
• has memorized the first 9 Articles of Faith, working on number 10

So that's our Jonah boy. He is still 100% a six year old though, happy to play and run and climb and play video games and help mom as best he can. He bore his testimony for the first time in sacrament meeting in December (a very brave thing for a boy who is often quite shy). He's my sweet boy who I will always love with all my heart and I couldn't be prouder of him.
Happy birthday, Jonah. I love you!