An official teenager! And boy does she know it! I miss my sweet little sunshine girl now that she's all grown up... but I also dearly adore the young lady she is turning into and can hardly imagine all the good she will extend out into the world. Since the moment she entered our family, she's brought nothing but laughs and joy to each of us and I don't know where I'd be without her! An excerpt from her journal:
Anna- this year you have grown so incredibly much. You might be the smallest in your friend group, but you have the biggest personality and heart of any kid I know. And everyone around you sees it. You are funny, energetic, disciplined, kind, so so friendly and full of adventure. You make every day more fun and always put a smile on my face. Middle school makes you happy. You never dread going to school because you enjoy your teachers and your friends. You say “thank you” at the end of each class to each teacher and you have won awards for student of the month due to your polite and determined nature at school. You stand up for others and always speak your mind. You never bend to peer pressure and you are the life of every party. You are trying out to be a member of WEB (where all students belong) and you keep very busy with your reading classes after school twice a week, tennis with your buddy Afton, and two days of dance classes. Your favorite genres are jazz and hip hop and you are an amazing little dancer, though you do not have any desire to be on the competitive team as it took the fun out of the activity last year when you participated. After dance or tennis, you come home to a bedtime routine which includes a decent amount of skin care, a 10 minute ab workout, scripture study and tomorrow’s to-do list to fill out. You never skip your bedtime routine and it’s very cute. Favorite shows include: Gilmore Girls, Alexa and Kate, and Friends. Favorite food Is Hawaiian haystacks, sausage tortellini soup, crumble cookies, and mangos. You love to make smoothies and special drinks and you’ll spend lots of energy on fancy combinations of syrups and creamers and sodas and flavored waters— to then put in a special cup for sipping. This is very important to you. Love that you are very dedicated to your school work and scripture study. When you are asked to give a lesson, you prepare a LOT to make sure it goes well. You love YW and all the girls and leaders in our ward. You have an after school job of helping Sophie Judd once a week with her alphabet and writing her name. You love kids and babies and pets and you could spend an entire day playing with your dog, Coco and your cats- Louie and Tammy. They mean the world to you, but especially Coco. She is truly your best friend. At school, you have two PE classes and you love your teacher- Mr. Holmes. You work very hard to keep up, though school is challenging for you. You never give up and you ask a lot of questions and have the very best attitude of any girl ever!
If there ever was an extrovert, you are that personality to a t. You LOVE being with people at all times and in all things and all places. You are never burnt out and always up for an adventure. Your social battery is always charged and you are awesome at coming up with things to do and ways to have fun with your friends. Your besties at school this year are: Scarlett Sawyer, Afton Simpson, Silver Weddle, Megan Fellars, and Annalise Thompson. The fabulous four expanded to the super six with the move ins of Megan and Annalise. The six of you go to high school football games, volleyball games, basketball games, movies, trampoline parks, malls, swimming, beach, sports parks, etc., etc. Always up to something and you love every minute.
This year you traveled to NYC and saw Lion King, Hamilton and Six on Broadway. You went to girls camp and visited Yosemite and Redwoods National Parks- went river rafting and hiking through the northern California forests. We spent Christmas in Seattle with the Stevens family and had an amazing few days living it up Stevens style. You skied over ski break at Brianhead, and enjoyed a Caribbean cruise with Grammy, Papa and the Dave Stevens fam- which was so fun because you had Penny to hang with every day. We went to Pismo Beach with the Paces, San Elijoh Beach camping with all our friends, and Lake Arrowhead with the Sawyers. It’s been a fun filled year and here we are rounding the corner, over half way done with 7th grade and middle school! You are growing up before our eyes. So proud of the person that you are and so grateful for all the joy you bring into our lives. You make everything awesome and I am so incredibly grateful to be your mom. You teach me to be lighthearted, to laugh at my mistakes, to pause and notice the little things and to take care of the people in my life. You set an awesome example of all these things. We love you Anna Paige Marston! Happy 13th Birthday!
