Lulu is 14!

 Dear Lulu,

You are 14! That's kind of crazy. Time just keeps ticking on! You're now almost as tall as me! Your hair is quite wavy and it's so thick! We're learning how to help it look wavy and not poofy. It's taking some trail and error. But I love your thick golden hair. It's so pretty.

For your birthday you wanted to go out to Chick Fil A and take the family ice skating. And that's just what we did! We ended up doing it the day before your birthday since it was supposed to snow on your actual birthday. We had a good time!

On your birthday the next day you got to open presents, have very little school work, and then eat your favorite potato chowder for dinner. You loved that.

We also watched a movie with the boys since it was so cold and snowy and everyone was done with their stuff! We decided to watch an oldie but goodie called Cool Runnings. I think everyone enjoyed it with their popcorn. You didn't want cake for your birthday, you wanted cronuts. So we made some homemade one and they were very yummy!

And here you are the day after your birthday out to eat with Gramma and Grandpa. You had some yummy chicken and ice cream:

Lulu, at 14 you are into listening to music on your own Alexa, reading, emailing your friends, watching dog Instagram stories with me, and playing your flute and piano. You've gotten pretty good at both instruments this year! You still like to help cook meals, go on walks, and usually go with your brothers on our Friday Field Trips. You like spending time with us, your family, so that is awesome. You would love to help plan a new trip for us, but we just can't plan anything right now! Things are still too weird with the pandemic. 

Your favorite foods are chowder, candy, fish tacos, pancakes with peanut butter, oranges, Tapatio, and mashed potatoes. You don't like regulars sandwiches, hot dogs, or chicken nuggets. You are probably still our least picky eater so I appreciate that. When you don't like something you make a big show of it, but I am happy that those times are few in number!

You did well with PE this past semester. You improved on the testing for push ups and relay. And you ran the mile in 8 minutes, which is way faster than I can do it! That was without training, so I think that you could be a pretty good runner if you want to practice. You're considering trying Cross Country next year. If you do, Dad said he'd get you a phone to call us when practices are over. That may be what clinches the deal. You still like swimming and tennis and skiing too! It makes me happy to see you enjoying exercise. Keep it up!

You have done really well with grades this year too. Your math teacher lets you retake quizzes until you get them where you want, which for us in an A. I think that is such a smart idea. It means that you understand the concepts, whether it takes 1 try or 5 tries. The important thing is to learn it and build on it. Other teachers let you turn in late work that may have been forgotten, as long as you make the initiative. And then on top of that you've just been rocking history and band. We are proud of you for trying so hard and making it to the high honor roll every semester. You're so smart! Managing 10 classes is not an easy job and you're getting better and better at it!

One of your favorite things right now is watching tv. You like movies and cartoons that stream on Disney Plus, but your favorite thing to watch is what the boys call "teenager drama." They are series with real actors and they are mostly teenagers. You think they are hilarious. You usually watch those alone in the back room, or sometimes the boys will watch them with you. If you're not in your room on the weekends then I know exactly where you are. You have been good about only watching on the weekends too. It's one of the reasons that you're grades are so high!

I love that you still want to snuggle up with me at night when the boys are in bed, or when we're watching a movie. You still love girl time with me too. I love seeing your good balance between family life and friend life. You have it figured out! You love to laugh with your friends. I am glad that you have good friends at school and in our ward. That makes every difference. Keep being kind and funny and a good example to them.

You are a good example to your brothers too. You never complain about scripture time, piano practice time, and rarely about chore time. They see your faith in the family prayers you say and the responses to our family studies. You are valiant faithful young woman and it's a joy to watch you mature. 

I sure love you,

Mom

Life Lately

 January Edition:

Making a baby rattle with a friend in her shop, for one of our mutual friends:

A beautiful sunrise:

You guys found my canvases and I let you each have one and paint whatever you wanted. They turned out pretty great! 

Lulu:

A:

Hammer:

TJ:

I got to watch Aunt Laura's play Secret Garden with Gramm and Grandpa and Nana and Scott. It was so good:

Getting out of the house on a walk one day when the clouds were super low on the mountains: 

We stopped at the playground, 

and then without warning it started to snow a lot! We hurried home. It was an adventure:

TJ didn't have a hood, so I tried to cover his head and it made a hilarious picture:

When we got home I let you have hot chocolate, which always makes everyone happy:

A little pie face game time:

And TJ made his first Sunday meal of 2020 (his goal is to make 12 of them in the year.) Barbecued tuna and mashed potatoes. And look at all those fruits and veggies. Yummy!:

Another walk, and this one we enjoyed the view of the pretty sunset and the lake shining in the background:

Beautiful job January!

Love you all,

Mom

January's Friday Field Trips

 Hi!

Since you guys still have home school on Fridays, I decided to make sure we went somewhere together every Friday. It gets us out of the house, we have bonding memory-making time, sometimes we invite friends and it is fun to socialize with them, we learn things, and it motivates you to get your home schooling done that day! All good things, right? 

We have a list of places to go for our Friday Field Trips and each week we choose somewhere fun to go after lunch. Her are the places that we went in January:

1. The Frozen Farmington Pond

I had never walked on a frozen pond before! I thought it sounded cool after our friends told us that they went over Christmas break. So off we went to check it out. The sun came out making it a beautiful day. The ice was very thick, people were ice fishing on it, but the melting sun made the top of it pretty slippery!

We enjoyed watching the ducks walk across the ice too:

A found a cool piece of ice and didn't want to give it up:

See the shore back there? We walked all the way across:

It was a lot of fun. You guys loved it, except when we tried to get back out of the ice onto the shore and it's an incline. That was hard. But you guys would all go back any time! 

2. The Rush:

We had some passes for the Rush to do one activity, so I took the boys over to do glow in the dark mini golf. It was pretty cool inside:

Then A wanted to spend a little of his money to do some games. He loved it and loved the prizes that he won with his tickets he earned

It looked like a fun place, with go karts and a foam pit and bowling- mini golf just gave us a taste of the place. If we get more free passes maybe we'll have to check out some other activities. Except for Hammer, he might not ever go back because the noise level gave him a terrible headache. 

3. Natural History Museum:

This week we met some friends who also have the PBS kids reading pass at the museum by the U. The 3 boys got in for free, which was pretty sweet. Lulu was happy to come along and we enjoyed the museum a lot. 

TJ, you loved this exhibit with fish and gators:

4. Aerospace Museum:

We learned a lot at this museum, even though we've already been a few times! I love that it is free. A loved all of it, especially the gift shop. TJ loved reading about the missiles and seeing the early planes. Hammer liked the dog chain exhibit which shows how many Utahns have died in the armed forces. I like the Vietnam POW jail exhibit. It was too realistic for TJ in that area! We left with a greater appreciation for the people who protect us.

Part of the Vietnam War POW recreation:

Cold War Missile Control Center (this was cool cuz we have seen some real ones on a trip last year and here is more real missile center pieces right in our backyard)

A missile droid:

Lots of planes:

This has been a really fun things for us to do each week. It gives us something to look forward to in the cold dark winter, especially since we have no trips planned for the whole year yet. I love exploring things around home. What a cool places we live in!

Love,

Mom