Year 12 - Year End Review

Oh, my favorite little bear1. You’ve hit the last year before teenagerdom, and I forever love having this front-row seat. You continue to amuse and amaze me, and I can’t believe these are your last Top 10 lists as a nonteenager.

Top 10 Favorite Things:

1. Lego 

2. Aggravating your dear sister (she’s still got a few inches and 20+ lbs on you, but you still whip up on her)

3. The Lord of the Rings (it took a few times of you trying to read through the Hobbit and the first LOTR book <”Why does Tolkien take 8 paragraphs to describe a tree?”>, but now you’re a huge fan)

4. Youth group - after 6 years of wanting to be old enough, the time has come

5. Your mom. Both the person as well as saying that phrase no fewer than 483 times a day.

6. Fairness

7. Playing Fall Guys and Rocket League on the Switch

8. Doing outdoorsy stuff with Dad

9. Cool trucks

10. Carbs (pizza, pasta, sushi, cake, donuts, biscuits - you’re an equal-opportunity carb appreciator)

Top 10 Least Favorite Things:

1. Beans, tomatoes, most soups (you graciously tolerate my <amazingly delicious> chicken soup), saucy foods, cooked fruit

2. Dogs

3. Bees/wasps/yellow jackets 

4. Talking to people you don’t know well

5. Saving money

6. Reading out loud

7. Meanness

8. Cleaning up all the Legos in your room (you often have your floor covered in Legos; 5 or 6 years ago, I told you you needed to clean your room. You told me that you like your Legos on your floor because it keeps the robbers and demons out of your room. It’s hard to argue with that kind of logic …)

9. Not having a phone

10. Lotion - which is a bummer since you have super dry skin

Top 10 Things You’re Good At:

1. Lego, specifically designing swords and Star Wars-y vehicles

2. Math and science

3. Drawing - it’s been cool to see you develop your own style of drawing

4. Following the rules

5. Mowing the lawn

6. Making people laugh, though we often talk about quality vs. quantity in terms of jokes

7. Asking deep questions; your curiosity is wonderful

8. Burping the alphabet - this happens to take the #1 spot on list of the Top 10 Things Your Mom Doesn’t Like

9. Directions - you’re really observant when we’re in the car

10. Ice skating

Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At:

1. Keeping your Lego creations together. It fascinates my brain how you can spend hours putting together a giant and intricate set … and then, some amount of time later (a few days to a few months), you break it apart so you can build something different and/or better. 

2. Being excited about trying new foods

3. Keeping your plate in front of you when you eat - it’s usually off to the side from where you’re sitting at the table, which means you’re usually twisting your body so that it’s in front of your plate

4. Speaking German

5. Not getting injured; it seems like you’re always covered in bruises and scratches

6. Enjoying playing a game you’re losing in

7. Pole vaulting

8. Tying balloons

9. Doing math without doodling

10. Snapping your fingers

What a year of growth you’ve had. You’ve grown physically for sure - you’re up to 5’2” (the height Natalie was 18 months ago) and you don’t show any signs of slowing down. You’ve grown emotionally, which, for your age, sometimes means that your emotions are all over the place. You’ve grown spiritually as you continue to ask deep and hard questions. You’ve grown smarter, and you’ve become quite a writer this year. You continue to ask deep questions about God, and I pray those never stop.

The preteen emotions have definitely arrived. You’ve seen Natalie over these past few years to know just what a wild effect hormones can have on a person, so they didn’t completely catch you by surprise. But it’s still pretty jarring to feel normal one second, completely devastated the next, and end up completely furious - with nothing specific to trigger those emotions. We’re doing a lot of talking and I’m trying to get you to do a lot of laughing. Ridiculous emotions deserve to be laughed at from time to time. 

You and Dad went on a camping trip recently. You had the best time, and I’m so glad I didn’t hear many of the details before you guys left. Hearing about the trails and the cliffs and other drop-offs definitely raised my blood pressure a bit. But the grin on your face as you told me all about it reassured me that this was just what you and Dad needed. I’m so thankful you two had this time together. 

Here are a few more highlights from these past 12 months:

• You got the DJ to RickRoll our friend’s wedding reception. It was hysterical.

• You went to Ninja camp and Junior Park Ranger camp this summer

• You built no fewer than 693 original Lego creations

• You held a giant snake at school

• You finally got old enough to join our church’s youth group

• You got to drive a Corvette simulator 

Keep doing what you’re doing, sweet boy. Keep seeking the Lord. Keep loving your friends and family well. Keep asking the tough questions. Keep doing what’s right even if you’re doing it on your own. Keep your sensitive heart. Keep your eyes on Him as He leads you. 

(And also, keep aggravating your sister. It’s good for her.)

Hugs and smooches,

Mom & Dad

1 You’ll always be my favorite bear, but your description as ‘little’ likely won’t last for many more years. But let’s be for real - even if you end up at 6’5”, I’ll still call you little. Cuz I can. 

Year Fourteen - Year End Review

Oh my sweet Peach, how can you possibly be 14? It just doesn’t seem possible. I know, I know - I’m like a broken record and say that every year (How can you already be THREE? or Whoa, you’re SEVEN today!) but it’s just hard to believe that this you-existing-thing-and-us-being-parents thing has been going strong for 14 years (well, 14 years plus nine months plus six days plus fifteen hours and 42 minutes … but who’s counting).

Speaking of counting (excellent segue, self), here are your Top 10 Lists …

Top 10 Things You Love

1. YouTube, specifically Moriah Elizabeth and Studio C
2. Hanging out with your friends
3. Your youth group at church
4. Sushi
5. Singing
6. Drawing (pencils and colored pencils are your long-time jam but digital art has become your new jam) 
7. Your family (I love that you still like spending time with us)
8. Ice cream
9. Listening to music
10. Reading (specifically Keeper of the Lost Cities series)

Top 10 Things You Don’t Love

1. Emptying the dishwasher (... the dishwasher that’s full of clean dishes … but you don’t mind washing dirty dishes … I’m gonna need you to explain that one to me)
2. Being corrected
3. Taking naps
4. Seeing people get hurt
5. When you don’t completely and fully master a new topic within 23.7 seconds
6. Clothes shopping (Hey, clothing manufacturers - believe it or not but some of us really want entire shirts. And hey, Target and Old Navy - it’s super annoying that your sizing appears to be arbitrary. Fitting into a size 2 in one style, a size 8 in another one, and a kids’ 14/16 in another style is absurd. Get it together.)
7. Babysitting (you’ve never actually done it - but you’ve never done it because little kids aren’t your jam)
8. Lukewarm showers
9. Cra-Z-Art anything (*cough*art snob*cough*)
10. When people are mean to their siblings

Top 10 Things You’re Good At

1. Performing on stage
2. Trying any food at least once
3. Drawing (your talent is astounding)
4. Making macaroni and cheese
5. Writing (you have quite a knack for stringing together some real purty, good-sounding words on them thar papers you write)
6. Sarcasm and dry wit. They make your texting game s-t-r-o-n-g.
7. Speaking to adults
8. Organizing your schoolwork/homework for the week. It’s not the easiest thing to be in two different tutorials but you manage it beautifully.
9. Making cards for people
10. Ripstiking 

Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At

1. Speaking slowly
2. Not squealing when you’re around your friends
3. Creating the perfect Baked Alaska
4. Remaining calm when you hear that someone has to go to the bathroom but there’s not a bathroom within the immediate vicinity (just to give your blood pressure a workout while we’re running errands, I’ll announce that I have to go to the bathroom. Your brow gets all furrowed, you slouch your shoulders, and you mutter how mean I am. It’s adorable.)
5. Asking for help with math homework (complaining about and squawking about you needing help is apparently more fun than simply asking me to help you)
6. Bowling a perfect 300
7. Piloting a hot air balloon
8. Being tall (my guess is this’ll change in 2023)
9. Speaking fluent Italian
10. Running an IRONMAN

We’re only a year into the teenage season, but so far I give it two resounding thumbs up. It’s a blast. I love you and your falling-apart-teenage-brain so very much. You’re bold in your faith and wildly responsible with your schoolwork. You know when you’ve hit your Socialization Threshold™ and quietly remove yourself to decompress. You’re impossibly funny, incredibly artistic, and tremendously smart. Even in the throes of the Teenage Angst and Emotions and Feelings and Tears™, you’re a delight.  

You’ve had several art commissions this year. You drew a portrait of my friend and her family for her 40th birthday. She loved it and asked you to draw another picture of her and her family. She turned the second picture into both her Christmas card and her return address stickers. You were so honored. And you ended up doing several more commissions after that! 

So your braces. You still have them on (but only for a few more weeks). At your orthodontist appointment late last summer, you got rubber bands. Dr. Shawn said you had to wear them all the time - that you should only take them out when you eat. And that if you wore them like you should, you’ll get your braces off around Halloween. Well, when a doctor tells you to do something, you do it 110%. And when we went to your next appointment, Dr. Shawn was all, “Um, did you wear these 25 hours a day?!” Cuz you wore them so much that you gave yourself an overbite (THAT outcome certainly wasn’t listed in the orthodontic brochure we got two years ago). Which meant that you had to wear your braces for another three months to undo the damage you did by being a model patient. Yeahhh. THAT was a fun car ride home.

Your youth group started doing a Student-Led Wednesday, where instead of the grownups leading the games and music and giving the message, the students do it. And Levi, the youth pastor, asked you to give the message for the first SLW. You handled this assignment with such maturity (with a dash of OH MY GOSH WHAT DID I AGREE TO DO? I CAN’T DO THIS. I’M ONLY 13. I DIDN’T GO TO SEMINARY thrown in for good measure). You spoke on 1 Peter 2:9 and described what it meant to be chosen. You talked about how we can be bold in our faith because the Lord has called us. You practiced it in front of me a few times, and I cried each time. I recorded you that Wednesday and just barely kept it together. I’m floored with your composure, your boldness, the clarity and simplicity with which you can explain a deep topic. I’m in awe of how the Lord is shaping your faith and deepening your walk with Him. I’m humbled that He gave you to us. 

I can’t wait to see what this year brings. My guess is that it’ll include approximately 5,592 sketches sketched, 92,167 songs sung, 306,928 text message zingers sent, and 476 books read. And probably a few doses of OH MY GOSH I CAN’T DO THIS I CAN’T DO ANYTHING I’M GONNA FAIL SCHOOL LIFE IS SO UNFAIR AND MY LIFE IS THE HARDEST EVERRRRRRRRRRRR.

And we can’t wait for all of it cuz we’re the luckiest parents everrrrrrrrrrr.

Hugs and smooches,
Mom & Dad

Year Eleven - Year End Review

My sweet boy,

ELEVEN! You now require three hands to show your age (or two hands and a foot, but let’s keep toes out of this celebration), and your poor mom just needs a minute to come to terms with this. I keep joking with you that because you were so good at being 10, we’re gonna keep you 10 one more year (Pep said the same thing to KK and me every year), but you weren’t a fan of that plan. But even if I could keep you 10 another year, I wouldn’t. I love watching you grow up. And I love documenting your favorite (and not-so-favorite things) …

Top 10 Favorite Things:

1. Legos

2. Reading, especially Keeper of the Lost Cities and Harry Potter

3. Natalie (mainly wrestling with, jumping on, sitting on, and teasing)

4. Your friends

5. Saturday errands with Daddy

6. School (on Mondays; your feelings about Tuesday through Friday school are a little iffy)

7. Trucks

8. Dude Perfect, Veratasium, Smarter Every Day on YouTube

9. Older (ie: good) country music, specifically George Strait, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, and Charlie Daniels

10. Carbs and sweets - pizza, sushi, fried rice, pasta, bread, ice cream, pie, cake  

Top 10 Least Favorite Things:

1. Bugs and dogs (7+ years strong)

2. Chaos

3. Unkindness

4. Not knowing a surprise but other people do

5. Your retainer

6. Writing summaries for your English class

7. Anything (tests, games, chores, etc) that’s timed

8. Saucy foods, spicy foods, soup, casseroles, chili, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, blueberries, cauliflower, cooked fruit  

9. Losing teeth

10. Gooey, gross things, especially paper mache

Top 10 Things You’re Good At:

1. Building practically anything out of Lego

2. Math; your brain is very mathy (making fun of my made-up words is also something you’re good at)

3. Ripstiking

4. Ice skating

5. Following the rules

6. Bankrupting your family in Monopoly

7. Praying; you continue to have such heartfelt prayers

8. Being a snazzy dresser

9. Encouragement

10. Making people laugh (but don’t forget that I’m always gonna be funnier)

Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At:

1. Forming sock-balls with your socks in your drawer

2. Having joy in your heart when you lose a game

3. Driving a stick shift

4. Getting something wrong (you want to be good at everything right away)

5. Leaving your Lego creations alone (you tweak and re-tweak a hundred times)

6. Trying new things 

7. Organic chemistry

8. Putting periods at the end of your sentences. Like, it’s a big thing around here. I hear it drives your English teacher crazy.

9. Knowing when to stop teasing Natalie

10. Open heart surgery (This was your addition to the list) 

This was a huge year for you! In January, you discovered your love of reading after Natalie suggested you read the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Up until then, you’d read for school but you were never excited about it. It was something you tolerated but never loved (or even liked). Enter the KOTLC series. You read the first book and you never looked back. In the past 10 months, you’ve read through the whole KOTLC series - minus the latest one which came out yesterday ( some of those books are as thick as a dictionary) and about 20 other books. 

You also entered a Lego contest at the Nashville library in February. During this process, I realized that while you’re an extremely talented builder, you do not like to have restrictions on your build. I saw you stress out as you were trying to come up with the perfect idea. I saw you come up with ideas that sounded cool (castle; football game; monsters) but they weren’t things that you naturally enjoy building (cars; trucks; speeders; weapons). I saw you approach the contest as a chore instead of something fun. And just when I was about to suggest that you just skip the contest, you scrapped all of your ideas and created the Master Sword from Zelda. It was big and creative and detailed (you hid a dagger in the sword’s hilt - even though the judges would never see it, you added it because it was cool). And lo and behold, you won 2nd Place in the 3rd-4th grade division. And you also won Crowd Favorite. You were so excited - and I loved that you were successful doing something you love to do.

You lost a few ounces this year when you got your braces off. You did not like the process of getting them off but you do love getting to bite into apples again. And you do not like wearing your retainer, but you are glad that you only have to wear them until you lose a few more teeth. And let’s not talk about how you do have to have another set of braces put on in a few years.

One of the sweetest moments from your 10th year was your decision to get baptized. It’s been something you’ve wanted to do for a long time. You were going to get baptized over a year ago when our church had planned a BBQ and Baptism at a local lake. Not long after we arrived, the weather lost its everloving mind and every single one of us at the picnic was baptized by the deluge of sideways rain. The next opportunity came when Daddy was out of town, and there was no way you were going to do this without him. Your turn finally came in May, and it was amazing. Daddy was there when you accepted Christ, so it seemed fitting that he was the one who got to baptize you. Watching him pray over you and speak about your character and heart filled my own heart to overflowing. 

That’s a common theme with you. These past 11 years have filled my heart to overflowing on many occasions. You’re a natural protector and helper; you have a sensitive heart and a rascally gleam in your eye. You’re funny and smart, shy (around strangers) and loud (around your buddies), you’re funny and inquisitive. You’re a deep thinker and cute as a dang button. Watching you grow in stature and grow in your faith is the wildest, most precious ride. The Lord was so kind to give you to us. 

And Natalie would think you’d be so kind if you sat on her a bit less.

Hugs and smooches,

Mommy & Daddy

Year Thirteen - Year End Review

Sweet girl,

You loved turning 10 because you were double-digits. Then at 11, you were all, “I’m a tween now!” And last year, it was “I’m officially a preteen!”. And now here we are. Great googly-moogly, you’re a teenager.  

Top 10 Things You Love

1. Reading (specifically the Keeper of the Lost Cities series)
2. Singing
3. Performing on stage
4. Drawing 
5. Moriah Elizabeth YouTube videos 
6. Your friends
7. Your family
8. Your youth group at church
9. Spaghetti, sushi, and ice cream  
10. Leanna Crawford songs

Top 10 Things You Don’t Love

1. When someone gets hurt  
2. Not being included in adult conversations (pretty sure this has made its appearance on every Top 10 Things You Do Don’t Love list)
3. Going somewhere without a book and/or notebook 
4. Sports that involve a ball (you’re happier when you do stuff like swimming or wall climbing)  
5. Watching engineering videos on YouTube with Daddy (but that would absolutely be on his list of Top 10 Things He Loves)
6. Being corrected (you’re in good company, sweet face) 
7. Math (but check out #7 of the next list)
8. How ridiculous clothes are for girls your age (the crop tops and “Follow Your Heart” messaging make us both roll our eyes)  
9. When Charlie knows something you don’t  
10. Bugs

Top 10 Things You’re Good At

1. Songwriting and storywriting (you’re in two different writing classes this year and they’ve both improved your ability to spin a yarn)
2. Singing 
3. Being responsible - you’re incredibly self-motivated for a 13-year-old
4. Trying any food at least once 
5. Being funny and/or sarcastic (this continues to be a work in progress, as it’s tricky to learn which situations call for humor and/or sarcasm and which situations most assuredly do not) 
6. Decluttering (you’re fairly heartless when it comes to throwing things away; on more than one occasion, I’ve had to rescue something from the trash that I had given you from when I was little) 
7. Math
8. Making cards for people 
9. Engaging with adults (you’ve loved adult conversation since the moment you learned to talk) 
10. Ripstik-ing  

Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At

1. Remaining calm, cool, and collected when you know adults are talking about something that you don’t know about 
2. Being OK with not mastering a subject within the first five minutes of attempting it 
3. Pitching a no-hitter in a MLB game
4. Having the strength of a four-year-old (I liked wrestling with you a lot more when you were little and four; it’s less fun now that you’re all strong and stuff) 
5. Being tall (just you wait, my love - your time’s coming …) 
6. Swallowing pills (you may be taking chewable pills until you're an adult …) 
7. Ice carving
8. Writing certain letters correctly (you don’t do the downstroke on a lowercase ‘d’ or  ‘p’ and it makes your mother cringe)    
9. Doing chores with a smile on your face and joy in your heart
10. Swordsmithing

You had two drama performances this year. In the spring, you were a toilet (yes, a toilet) in a remake of Beauty and the Beast. And a few weeks ago, you were a lizard in a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. One of my favorite things about watching you on stage is that you go all in with every role you have, regardless of how major or minor the part is. I mean, who would ever want to be a toilet? My kid, that’s who. You saw the potential in that part to make it a really funny character - and you absolutely did. And you (along with the rest of your class) were asked to create a backstory for your character in the retelling of Alice in Wonderland. And you thought the lizard should be a southern lizard (I mean, obviously, right?), complete with a southern drawl.

You got your first phone this summer (and you may or may not have had the same laughing-crying reaction as you did when we bought Frozen on DVD when you were but a wee thing). This phone lets you do exactly what you need to do - call, text, take pictures, and listen to the radio - and practically nothing else. And that’s the point. This phone is actually more of a convenience for Dad and me than it was a necessity for a 12-year-old. We like being able to get in touch with you at all times and we like you to have the same access to us. But my favorite part of you having a phone? Your sense of humor. Your texting game is s-t-r-o-n-g and your ability to showcase your humor in a text message is impeccable.

And we know you’d like a phone that took better pictures or a phone with internet access so you could listen to Spotify. And that’ll happen eventually (your first smartphone would be a great college graduation gift!) but for right now, we can’t see any reason to give you access to a device that could easily make harder an already hard season of growth and development.

You transitioned to secondary classes in our homeschool group this year. Which means way more homework and responsibility - and Dad and I are so proud of you for how you’ve handled this new responsibility. You’ve had a few bumps along the way but this has given you practice in the important art of recovering well.

The only subject I’m teaching you at home is history; everything else is being taught by other teachers. This has been a great experience for you. You’re learning to be accountable to someone other than me and you’re taking ownership of your schedule and organization.

I’ve seen your faith increase this year. I loved seeing you worship so openly and freely on Sundays, and it’s been encouraging to my own faith to see you read your Bible in the mornings. You ask thoughtful questions and I can see the Lord working in your heart in a beautiful way. I pray you’ll always know that you are His masterpiece, that He has an inexhaustible amount of love for you, that He is your Good Father.

I know it’s pretty typical to hear parents bemoan the teenage years. But I refuse to accept that this season has to be bad, has to be trying, has to be rebellious. Could it? Of course. And will there be tough parts? Of course; that’s practically a guarantee being sinners in a fallen world. But I don’t want to walk into these years expecting the worst; that’s not fair to any of us.

I have loved each age more than the previous age. That doesn’t mean that each age or season of growth has been drama-free and struggle-free, but it does mean that I’ve loved watching you turn into such an amazing 13-year-old. And I have no doubt that I’ll love this year more than the last - all the while lamenting that you don’t have the strength of a four-year-old and it’s much harder to pin you down when we wrestle … 

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

Year Ten - Year End Review

My favorite bear,

You, my baby, are two-hands-worth-of-fingers years old. Pretty sure you were two-fingers-worth-of-fingers years old just last Thursday. But maybe my calendar is off. 

Ugh. Time is such a thief. 

Here are your Top 10 Lists for your cute, little double-digit self.

Top 10 Favorite Things:

1. Legos
2. Natalie, including (but not limited to) annoying her, sitting on her, drawing with her, being read to by her, wrestling her 
3. Zelda
4. Star Wars
5. Carby foods - pizza, pasta, cake, cookies, donuts, etc
6. Cool cars, specifically trucks and sports cars. 
7. Music
8. Doing dude-stuff with Dad. Working in the garage, looking at cool cars, watching engineering videos on YouTube, etc
9. Playing with your buddies
10. Secrets of the Seven book series

Top 10 Least Favorite Things:

1. Saving money
2. Being the younger sibling and watching Natalie do fun, older kid stuff
3. Jumpy dogs, big or small (solidarity, kid)
4. Bugs and insects
5. Fighting (fighting with swords and lightsabers is ok, but you definitely don’t like watching people fight with their fists)
6. Being up on stage (again - solidarity, kid)
7. A fairly small but very specific list foods - beans, cooked fruit, mushrooms, onions, veggies that are cooked to the point they’ve lost their texture 
8. Losing a game. Everybody hates to lose but you, like, hate it-hate it
9. Super hot weather (so much solidarity)
10. Timed games

Top 10 Things You’re Good At:

1. Building Lego creations, specifically vehicles. The things you can come up with without using instruction manuals continue to blow my mind year after year.
2. Math
3. Navigation  Reading a book in the car gives you a headache, but you can look out the window and look at the GPS without a problem, so you’ve become very knowledgeable about how to get from Point A to Point B
4. Mowing the lawn
5. Sweating. You’ve been sweating like a man since you were a toddler. The tradition continues.
6. Helping 
7. Praying. Your heart is so tender towards God and towards others.
8. Reading 
9. Knowing the name and backstory of every character in Zelda (but forgetting where you put your water bottle)
10. Following the rules

Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At:

1. Pairing up your socks when you do your laundry. How does it not annoy you that your drawer is full of singleton socks?
2. Working at a slow pace when doing your math. A+ for speed; B- for accuracy.
3. Juggling flaming batons
4. Remaining calm if you’re not in the know about something fun
5. Remembering where you put your water bottle
6. Playing Mozart’s Concerto in D Major No.2 on the flute
7. Sleeping in on the weekends. Once you wake up, you have a hard time going back to sleep. You’re a great sleeper but sleeping in has never really been something you’ve done. But I imagine Sleeping in ‘till 10 may appear on the Top 10 Things You’re Good At list in a few years.
8. Lying. Your lying face is adorable.
9. Staying four years old. I thought Dad and I made ourselves clear when we told you to stop growing up.
10. Being still while watching your bowling ball roll down the lane (since you were a toddler, you jump up and down like a bunny while waiting to see how many pins you knocked down)

You were, are, and continue to be such an amazing kid - I'm so glad that the absolute lunacy of 2020 and 2021 didn't diminish . You were a happy baby (except when we made you go to sleep); you were a cheerful toddler (except when we limited your cheese consumption); you’re a delightful 10-year-old (who loves sleep and has developed cheese portion control). 

You’re shy around unfamiliar people; you’re a giant goober once you get comfortable. You’re quizzical, sensitive, and a deep thinker. You’re funny, creative, and clever. You’re a protector, an engineer, and a helper. You love one-on-one time. You love knowing things that Dad, Natalie, or I don’t know. 

You’ve always been someone who appreciates cool stuff. When you saw my friend use a hatchet to chop wood for a fire, you became super interested in hatchets. When you found an antique pocket watch at a thrift shop, you wanted to learn about watches. Your current favorite things are cool cars and trucks. You have very strong opinions about what vehicles are cool and what vehicles are not. The shape of the hood matters; how lifted a truck is matters; the color of the vehicle matters; the placement of the headlights and taillights matters a lot.

You and Dad went on a fun excursion a few months ago - you guys went to test drive trucks. Are we in the market for a truck? Nope. Do we need a truck? Irrelevant. What matters is that Dad knew you like trucks and wanted you to ride in a cool one. You went to a local dealership that specializes in high-end vehicles (ie: not the kind of place we would normally shop). According to you guys, the salesman was awesome and loved the idea of you getting to ride in a cool truck. He essentially tossed some keys to Dad and told you two to enjoy the test drive. This wasn’t just any truck, nosiree. It was a 2021 Ram TRX. Which, to me, didn’t mean much. But apparently this truck was a 700hp, $98,000 beast. And you fell in love. Obviously.

You said that riding in this truck was the second best thing you’ve ever done in your life. Visiting Legoland earlier this summer clinched the #1 spot. (Though test driving the truck was free. And Legoland was super not free. So to me, test driving the truck takes the #1 spot.)

Dad and I are in awe that God would bless us with you. You’ve completed our family in the most wonderful way and our lives are richer, fuller, and better because of you. Our lives are also sweatier and filled with random Zelda facts because of you, but that’s neither here nor there.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

PS: after you read this recap, you typed the following. It shall stay in your recap for perpetuity. 

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Year Twelve - Year End Review

Happy 12th birthday, my favorite peach! 

You're officially a tweenager, but because the world is the way it is (crazy and bananas and ridiculous), you're a quarantweenager. Life certainly looks different in the midst of a global pandemic but Top 10 Lists are as certain as the sun rising.

Top 10 Things You Love

1. Singing (your arms are probably tired from carrying all those buckets full of tunes) 
2. Watching TV 
3. Curling up in your bed and reading
4. Studio C, Mark Rober, and Dude Perfect YouTube channels
5. A wide assortment of foods - your current favorites are sushi, spaghetti, soup (specifically tomato and chicken and rice), soft pretzels, and Oreo pie
6. Your friends
7. Your family (cue the angels singing!)
8. Looking at your baby pictures and/or watching videos from when you were little
9. Drawing (something on the Top 10 List of Things Mommy Loves is watching you draw)
10. Ice skating

Top 10 Things You Don’t Love

1. Chores (I mean, is there a kid who loves chores? Maybe. But you’re definitely not one of those kids)
2. Learning something new and hard
3. Having to spend more than three minutes to understand the aforementioned new and hard thing
4. Being corrected
5. Babysitting (I mean, you’ve never babysat before, but since younger kids aren’t your jam, this would most likely be a miserable job for you)
6. When I make any other fish except salmon (in your defense, I have a 0% success rate when making non-salmon fish dishes …)
7. Math (how many years has math been on this list?)
8. Accepting that Charlie is better at certain things than you
9. Decimals (oh, the angst when I explained how decimals are everywhere and you’d better figure out how to tolerate them)
10. Being around people who argue (it even upsets you when you and Charlie argue .. Daddy and I keep telling you that disagreements and arguments are normal and inevitable. People are messy, man)

Top 10 Things You're Good At

1. Performing on stage (I know I’m biased, but you’re pretty captivating to watch)
2. Drawing, especially cartoons 
3. Talking fast (all four of us talk fast - probably too fast)
4. Math (and how many years has math also been on this list?)
5. Keeping your room clean
6. Physical activities like running, rock climbing, and swimming
7. Being responsible (I often say that for an 11-year-old, you make a terrible adult … but, in many cases, you show maturity well past your 11 years)
8. Making beautiful cards for your friends and family
9. Landing a joke (the sarcastic apple didn't have very far to fall from the sarcastic tree)
10. Writing stories (all that book readin’ you insist upon doing has turned you into quite the little storyteller)

Top 10 Things You're Not Good At

1. Not being included in conversations
2. Extending yourself grace when you make mistakes
3. Finishing the Barkley Marathon
4. Answering open-ended questions in school (How am I supposed to know what this author was thinking and feeling? How am I supposed to imagine how it feels to go through a situation that I’ve never experienced?!)
5. Doing things you don’t love without an eye roll and/or a dramatic sigh
6. Performing knee replacement surgery
7. Not getting derailed by a tough day in math
8. Solving a Rubik’s cube with your feet
9. Not whining when it’s time to do chores
10. Juggling 10 flaming bowling pins

2020 was such a mess, amiright? COVID-19 arrived and the world practically turned upside down in March. Our homeschool group switched to virtual classes for the last quarter of the 2019-2020 school year. (Your verdict? Two very enthusiastic thumbs down). You didn’t see your friends face-to-face for months. (Two more thumbs down). You missed your spring drama performance (Thumbs down count is now up to six). Daddy and I got COVID in August - and we assume you and Charlie had it too - and we were isolated for 24 days. (Too many downed thumbs to count).

I’ve said this so many times over the past nine months and I’ll keep saying it (because I also need to be reminded of this myself), there is always something to be thankful for. And as dumpster fiery as 2020 was, there are so many good things that happened, too.

• We’ve had more family time - so more hikes, more bike rides, more game nights, etc
• Daddy’s commute reduced to 60 seconds (75 seconds, if there’s a pileup on the 6th stair) so we see him more each day
• We’ve experienced God’s protection firsthand (Daddy’s job stayed steady; Daddy and I only had bad COVID symptoms overlap for one day; your symptoms were extremely mild - a low-grade fever and a sore throat)
• We've talked to our neighbors more
• Online church certainly isn’t my preference but we’ve had some really great, deep conversations about Jesus because we have the luxury of pausing the sermon if you and Charlie have questions

You starred in Junie B. Jones in December. We never really read those books when you were younger - mainly because I didn’t like how sassy and bossy JBJ is. (As if the books I did suggest you read - Ramona Quimby - didn't have their own brand of sassy and bossy ...) You did an amazing job as JBJ. Your facial expressions, body language, and natural flair for the dramatic all came together on stage. I smile nonstop (or cry - whatever, shut up, nobody asked you) when you perform.

Despite Daddy’s desire to keep you from getting any older, you keep growing up and getting more and more responsible. After dinner, you often clear our plates from the table without being asked, rinse them, and put them in the dishwasher. If you pass trash on the sidewalk, you always pick it up and throw it away. You clean up after yourself. You put things where they belong. 

Daddy and I see all those things (and others). We see you working hard. We see you doing a good job. We see you serving your family. We see you treating your brother kindly. We see you loving people by sharing your talent with them. We see you.

We see our strong, brave, smart, hilarious girl. We see our cautious, adventurous, creative, clever girl. We see our thoughtful, conscientious, expressive, sensitive girl. We see you. We see an amazing girl who God created so carefully and intentionally. 

You matter, my sweet love. You matter simply because of Whose you are. So while all those adjectives I just listed are 100% true, you would matter just the same if you were none of those. Your adjectives don’t make you any more loved, worthy, or important. You’re loved, worthy, and important because you’re His.

And Daddy and I consider it the highest privilege that He gave you to us.

Hugs and smooches,

Mommy & Daddy