13

My Ada just turned 13.  She is smart, friendly, funny and like all teenagers... moody.  I feel pretty lucky to be her mom.  She is more and more fun as she grows up.  I'm starting to enjoy her more as a friend and not just a daughter.  We got her a drawing tablet for the computer for her birthday.  She's been playing with it for 2 days and I think she likes it.  It's so much better than the one I used to have during college.  Technology sure has come a long way in the last 10 years.  

Because of her being older and because of COVID, I told her months ago that we weren't doing a party.  She said okay, but now she's planning on a couple of friends watching an outdoor movie together.  I'm glad that she can plan, I was a little blindsided that she's planning her own party when I had said no.  But, she's only inviting a couple of friends and she's not doing anything wrong so I'm going to let it slide.  I'm starting my last set of shots in my neck the day that she's planning it, so it's all hers... not my deal at all.

 

General Conference Weekend

Evelyn wanted her friends to come listen too.

I love Conference.  Especially this year it has been very fulfilling.  My conference "keep my hands busy" project was this Grandpappy troll hat for my sister Sharon.  They are dressing up as Frozen characters for Halloween.  I LOVE how the nose and hair turned out.  Okay with the ears.  Disappointed in the eyes, but I'll know better for next time.

I feel like the general message from conference was: You're doing well keep going, focus on Christ, prayer and scriptures, create a Zion society, accept the election outcome peacefully, get rid of racism peacefully.  

We got to spend Women's Conference with my Mom, Sophie and Aubrey.  It was really cute to see Ada and Aubrey hanging out on the couch together.

These guys wanted to make crinkles and spritz cookies for conference. They made them gluten free and Seth had to bathe afterwards because he covered himself and his entire area in powdered sugar.  I mopped twice.... They turned out so yummy and I'm proud of these kids for doing this on their own.  It makes me realize that they've soaked in more than I thought while cooking together.  Ada made two batches of spritz cookies.  One gluten free and one regular.  She was doing so well, but those pesky hormones kicked in and she ended up crying a few times while she cooked.

 

ballet

Because of doing the daycare, I can't be there to watch Evelyn at ballet very often.  I got to go twice last week and I'm really impressed with her progress.  She's still a little more clumsy than the other girls, but she's working hard on getting her pesky skewed feet to do the right thing.  She comes home with sore feet, but it's so worth it.  Her legs and knees have been hurting her less and you can tell that her muscles are much stronger than last year.  She doesn't complain about having to wear a mask to class, but does sometimes complain that the water fountain is off limits and she keeps forgetting to take her water bottle with her.  They had a friend day.  Evelyn very eagerly invited her brothers to come to class with her.  I didn't think that they'd enjoy the ballet, but I took them to the acrobatics class with her.  They loved it and tried everything that the teacher asked them to do.  I was surprised that they could do half of what they did, but not surprised that Sam is not very flexible.  Seth says that he wants to do acrobatics with Evelyn from now on.  I'm not sure if they could be in the same class.  I'll have to find out.

This gem was while they were trying to do handstands into a summersalt.  Evelyn can do it with help. Seth and Sam are still working on the whole handstand thing.

 

Melt my heart again

 

Sam was given a Noble Knight award the week after Evelyn.  I love that my kids are trying so hard at school and that they are noticed because of it.  

Note about Sam.... His teacher is the advanced math and english teacher for the school.  He's already had Sam working on harder things, but Sam was consistently finishing work before the other kids.  His teacher decided that Sam needed a long term project, so he set him up to learn Chinese on his own while everyone was still working.  I love that he's willing and excited for extra projects and I'm so grateful for a good teacher that's willing to give them to him.

Melt my heart

Sam's 6th grade teacher emailed me and said that I needed to log in to Sam's journal and see what he wrote for their prompt on superheroes.  I was really curious for a couple of reasons, but one is that Sam has always hated writing journals.  Once he wrote a page and a half of the word Blah, blah, blah.  But he melted my heart.  He got a few details wrong, but for all those times that you feel overwhelmed or underappreciated you get one like this.

My favorite superhero is my Mom. I think this because she is constantly taking care of me. For example, she works a daycare to earn money, we need this money to get my allergy drops. Last time I got an allergy test I had 75 known allergies. Because of this my doctor recommended them, after taking them for 3-5 years my pollen allergies will go away. The only catch is they cost a lot of money. I love how my Mom is willing to work a daycare so I can have a better life when she has a more difficult life than I do. She also cooks my food, and makes sure I get an education and have clean clothes.

My Mom is very kind. Sure she can get frustrated easily if you keep on doing something when she tells you to stop, but when that isn't happening, she is one of the worlds kindest people. Because of a surgery from her waist down it is always hurting. She also has trouble moving because of the same surgery. Despite this she does everything she can to make us comfortable and she almost always has a positive attitude. 

Ada

 

We just got her 7th grade picture.  I love that they sell the digital ones now.  The best!  This girl LOVES jr high.  She's loving drama class, math class and getting to choose her own outfits every day.  We're already a couple months in to school and she still comes home beaming.

Daily goings on

 

Some days are harder than others, but we move forward and then we have easy days, but whether easy or hard, they are happy days.  This week has been full of daycare and getting ready for the Pizza fundraiser, uniform swap, teacher dinners for student conferences, handing out the personalized masks that the Parent Organization got finished for the staff, and everything that goes along with it.

This little, cute, quirky girl.

Seth has become such a good little reader.  He went from resisting hard last year to being so excited when he car read whole books to himself. 

Noble Knight

 

This little miss was named Noble Knight the first week back in school.  Her teacher said, "It's such a pleasure having Evelyn in my class!  She is always caught up on her work and she is kind and helpful to everyone. "  I'm glad that she's started off the school year on such a good foot.  She is a sweetheart.  They gave her a Brick Oven pizza, so Jer took her over after dance.

Building a shed

 

Jim, Jonathan and Jer are building this amazing shed.  It will be so very well built.  These guys have been working so hard and it's looking so well.

crochet

 

I finished this one for my cousin, Eowyn's baby girl.

Sleep over

 

Evelyn asked if they could have a sleepover with my parents.  They said they could, so the kids had fun getting bed time stories from Uncle Seth, playing games and watching movies with Grandparents.  I slept.