It's been a minute

 I've been doing most of my record keeping on instagram/chatbooks and writing in a paper journal, but thought it might be good to update here as well. I might resurrect this format. Who knows.

Eliana will be 15 in 2 days. She is an amazing kid, and a fantastic teenager. She still likes to hang out with me, which I am grateful for. We have been enjoying watching the Great British Baking show and working out to Chloe Ting's videos together. She recently played Mrs. Bucket  in Willy Wonka, Jr. She auditioned for the next session because Liz and Lilly are doing it, and got the role of Willy Wonka. She is so diligent. She has straight A's in school, is a great babysitter when I am work, and is a great friend.

Will is 12. He rode with the Pine View mountain bike team this past season, and totally rocked it, despite asthma. He also loves dirtbiking, riding his scooter and playing his cello. He is in book 3 for suzuki. He is great at building things, and has been working for our HandyFlags business making the flags and getting them ready to ship. He also has been enjoying exploring the river wilderness behind our new home. He and I share a love of chocolate cinnamon bears, and adventuring outdoors. He loves that he is close enough to ride his bike to cousin Asher's house and friend Keiff's house. 

Lizzie will be 10 in a couple of weeks, believe it or not. She played her first season with Rage FC (soccer team) and has improved a ton. She's made a lot of great friends on the team as well. She got a role as a narrator in Willy Wonka. She loves singing, drawing and reading. She and I love to read Harry Potter together. We're on book 7 right now. She's had a hard time with the move because she had so many friends within walking distance in our old neighborhood. She hasn't had many opportunities to get to know people in our new neighborhood yet. 

Lilly is 6 years old and crazy smart! She will be an oompa loompa in Willy Wonka (I can't wait to see her dressed up). She and I love to read together, put together puzzles and play Uno and Phase 10. She likes to dance and do gymnastics. She stopped going to gymnastics during the pandemic, but has a bar and a beam she plays on here. She has loved learning Chinese this year at school. She knows how to swim and ride a bike without training wheels and has her first wiggly tooth. All proof she is growing up. 

What's in a name?

I just wanted to record Lilly's names for all of us, since she's starting to say everyone's names properly now.

Eliana= NahNah
Will= WihWih
Lizzy= IzzIzz
Liam= LeeMee
Lincoln= Linkick
Lauren= LaLa
Grammy Lisa= Gammy
Grandpa John= Bampa

She is talking so much lately. For a long time, if someone would ask her how she was doing, she would answer with her age ( "one" or "one and half"). She now can differentiate more often between "How are you?" and "How old are you?"

She absolutely loves the "Imperial March" from Star Wars and sings it all the time (on hikes, in sacrament meeting, at the grocery store), and often wants me to sing with her ("sing 'Bad Guy' song wis me, Mama!")

She loves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and for some reason refers to the show as "Tuh," even though she calls the character "Dan-null." She can say "tiger" as well (ti-guh). She asks to watch "Tuh" or "Watch a moo-zie" when she needs some down time.

One of her first sentences was "Stop bugging me, IzzIzz!"

She also loves to tell knock-knock jokes.  For a while, she told the exact same one every time: knock knock...Who's there? Manna...Manna who?  Too-ee!

Now she tells different ones, though they don't make any more sense.  She thinks they are hilarious, of course.

This is Halloween

Between preschool parties, school parties, friend parties, family parties, neighborhood parties, and the symphony Halloween spectacular, by the time October is over I'm exhausted!  We sure had fun, though.  On actual Halloween, we visited my parents, had dinner in the circle with neighborhood friends, the kids trick-or-treated for a bit, then decided to watch Hotel Transylvania 2 at a neighbors house (they set up a huge "screen" and a projector in their backyard). Lizzy fell asleep during the symphony performance.  We roused her enough to get her to walk to the hallway, but when we stopped to visit with my mom, she fell asleep again...on the stairs!

Color Me Rad

Lizzy and I had so much fun running the Color Me Rad 5K on Saturday.  We ran with Kim, her friend Jess, and our friends Jill, Maylie, Auralee and Trevor. Liz was a trooper.  She made it to the finish line, and was proud of her accomplishment.  I only had to give her a piggie-back ride for a little bit:)

She had fun getting messy, but wanted to go straight home to take a bath!

I Wanna Watch It BEAST!!!!!!!

When Lauren was little (we're talking close to two years old), she was OBSESSED with the movie "Beauty and the Beast." She wanted to watch it OVER and OVER again.  If we tried to suggest another activity (or movie), she'd shriek, "I wanna watch it BEAST!!" until we caved.  So when we learned that Tuacahn was presenting the musical version of Beauty and the Beast, we knew we had to go.  My kids have never seen the movie, but they loved the production.  The candlestick, Lumiere, was their favorite character, and "Be Our Guest," (complete with fireworks) was hands down their favorite number.  

First Day of School

A new school year is already upon us.  This year Eliana is in Fourth Grade. Her teachers are Ms. Meacham and Huang Lao Shi.  Will is in Second Grade.  His teachers are Ms. Benware and Yen Lao Shi.  Liz is doing another year of preschool, this time with Ms. Keri.

Lilly is One!

I know I've written this before, but MAN, time sure does fly.  I can't believe our sweet Lillian is already one.  She pulls herself up to stand, scoots along things, and stands by herself (if she isn't paying attention.  If she is paying attention, she sits right down as soon as I let go).  She loves swimming, animals of all kinds (she calls them all dogs), and being in the thick of the action.  She says: Mama, Dada, dog, no, hello, wassa (what's that), topit (stop it).  She signs: light, dirty, clean, all done, milk, sleepy, dad, hurt, more, food, dog.  She has 10 teeth, and two more molars trying to break through.  She has made the switch to whole milk (my first kid to be able to tolerate cow's milk!!), and eats three meals and a couple of snacks per day.  She still takes two naps, and she still wakes up at about 5:00 am to drink some milk, then goes right back to sleep.

She's such a happy kid, and an absolute joy to have in the family.  We all love her to infinity and beyond.