Anna you are such a delight in every way. You have an incredible sense of who you are and how you want to live your life. At age 12, you have a strong group of friends both at school and in our neighborhood. You have your best friend-Kate, but also a wonderful group of girls from school: Silver, Scarlett and Afton- who you spend a lot of time with. You have had quite the year with transitioning into middle school. It’s been rough and that is NOT an understatement. Reading, math and generally keeping up with school work is difficult now that you have 8 various teachers and classes every day to keep track of- but you are growing into SUCH a responsible person; I see you grow more and more every day. And it’s not just in responsible behaviors, though that has been huge; I also have noticed so much growth in your mindset and outlook. When you are overwhelmed, you are able to mostly take it in stride. For a few months, at the beginning of the school year-that was not always the case. But these days as the year has progressed, you are able to take a moment and reframe the difficulty or challenge and then find the good and/or learn from the circumstance at hand. I would say this is one of your greatest strengths… your ability to be flexible and flip the problem on its’ side. Following closely behind this strength is your uncanny ability to connect with others and make any social situation fun. You are 100 percent the life of the party and you are just plain fun to be around. You are a dancer, a singer, a talker, a joker! You love love love to have a good time and never want to miss out. It is uniquely different from the vibe of your older siblings! You love everyone and are kind and good to classmates and church friends who could use extra love and support. You joined Young Women this year and you are the secretary in the class presidency. You love to be a part of the planning and organizing of activities sand also the befriending of others. You sing in choir at church and teach the lessons in YW with eagerness. You prepare on your own and feel ecstatic for each of these opportunities.
At age 12, your favorite TV to watch is YouTube shorts- you enjoy watching funny videos and skin care routines. You also enjoy watching Mariah Elizabeth on YouTube (an artist who creates all sorts of weird things!). You love the movie “Legally Blond” and Alexis and Katie the TV show. You are an incredible dancer, though you’ve taken a step back from formal dance class this year to focus on your schooling and tutoring! But you still spend MANY hours working on Tik Tok dances and various routines with your friends. You also love to sing and harmonize. You love to do nails for friends and for yourself… you even started a nail business this year and have painted many fingernails throughout our neighborhood. You are really good at it and have a studio set up in your room. Along with the nail business, you also like to make jelly soaps… an idea you borrowed from Lush Soaps at the mall. You googled the recipe after becoming a big fan and figured out how to make this on your own. Now you spend afternoons door to door selling your soaps! They are very cool and unique. When you are a fan of something, you almost always try to re-create it at home. You look it up, find the recipe and then beg me to take you to the store for ingredients, insisting you will spend you own money. You are pretty good at getting it right too! One of your most impressive copycats is the pink drink from Starbucks which took you months to nail, but you did it!
Above nails, soaps, skin care, and dance… your absolute favorite thing on earth is your puppy Coco. You begged for a full entire year straight for a dog and all your dreams came true in November of 2023 when Coco became a part of our family. She adores you and spends every moment with you when you are home. The rest of the family is dead to her and she is your devoted and loyal best friend. I believe being a dog owner is everything your little heart always knew it would be and fills you with incredible joy. Of course, Louie, our cat, is also very important to you… but he’s definitely taken a back seat to your relationship with Coco.
This year I’ve been so proud to see you wake up early and make your lunches, create a recipe for home made Mac n cheese, scramble eggs, and even learn how to make a protein packed blueberry crumble! You are a wonderful chef and very keen on learning how to bake and cook. You are a wonderful daughter and always on the lookout for ways to serve everyone in our family (except for Grant who gets on your last nerve.). You give awesome back rubs, clean out all of my drawers and closets (sometimes for money with your friends), feed and care for the pets, clean your room nicely, make dinner when needed and in general take care of our family in many ways. You wake up and listen to ted talks and podcasts. You listen to scriptures and conference talks in your spare time. You are besties with Dane’s new girlfriend and Grant’s crush at school. You love to make people feel special. You really are an incredible person in every way and I just can’t imagine how I was so lucky to get YOU as a daughter. Anna- you are positive, funny, talented, strong, helpful, thoughtful, spiritual, smart, and incredible in every way. I’m so grateful for you and the spirit you bring into our home. Happy 12th birthday Anna!!
