Evelyn had a busy busy month with all sorts of not only her own birthday festivities, but also those of many friends! She has really been enjoying the company of a few cute school friends and also the girls in her new ward. I'm thrilled that she enjoys going to Young Women's and looks up to the girls very much. This month was Young Women's in Excellence and Evelyn chose to create a poster for Individual Worth with all of the pictures and a write up about her experience working on a musical production. So proud of her!! Evelyn decided she wanted to decorate for Christmas early and so she came up with a fun project of glueing popsicle sticks together and then spray painting them gold. We hung them in her room and they look marvelous! She is such a talent. Evelyn and her friend Reha had an idea to put together a Christmas photo shoot earlier in the month. They bought the ingredients they would need: hot cocoa, glitter, warm clothing. They went out and set up their tripod and then created a very cute little photo shoot. Ha! Almost professional. This was all while I was out shopping at Target. Evelyn continues to spend most of her time doing school work and practicing music. She very often needs Blake's help with math as I am not as good at explaining things. Blake is 50 % of the time patient and 50% of the time feeling she needs to work harder and not lean on his expertise. It is interesting but we are getting through it. Ah.... middle school math. This month Evelyn stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house for her birthday. She enjoyed getting her nails done, shopping and going to the movies. She was spoiled for sure and she loved every minute!
Dane has had a busy month. Tournaments and the close of soccer season has kept every weekend full. As previously noted, his favorite pastime after soccer games is most certainly playing with his best buddy Braxton. Poor Dane has had a sore throat off and on throughout the month and it's made practicing and exercising hard. We are in the process of evaluating which soccer club to join and so his schedule has been filled with try outs and pre try outs from various clubs. I've been so proud of his courage to try new things and hard things! It's not easy to join in with a new team and give it your all over and over again. Dane has really matured and grown up tremendously this year. He is responsible and more optimistic. He is loving school, loving his teacher and very dependable with his homework. He has many friends and especially enjoys a few boys from our class as well as our neighbor -Luke. We love having Luke over to play.. he's a good match for both the boys as he falls in between the two in age. I loved getting out the Christmas decorations this year with the kids. Dane in particular was very interested in our box of sentimental ornaments that we had saved over the years. He wanted a tree of his own to keep all of his ornaments on and to make more. He has been busy crafting with my mom all month to make his tree full and nice. He is such a great kid. This month Dane has read the first book of Harry Potter and we are currently almost half way through the second. We listen to it on the way to and from soccer and picking up Evelyn. He is LOVING Harry Potter and that is one of the biggest factors that influenced our decision to go to Universal Studios with Grammy and Papa for our Christmas gift this year. More on that to come. So grateful for Dane and the wonderful kid that he is!
We had our teacher conferences this month and Grant's teacher had nothing but positive and praise for this handsome little guy of mine. Although he needs a little work on his penmanship and writing skills, his over all school performance was great and Mrs. Rameriz said she valued what a leader and great kid Grant was in her classroom. Every single day Grant comes home with a character counts award which is essentially a ticket one receives when they are caught doing good. He comes home with one EVERY DAY. He is always on the lookout for kids who need a friend or problems in general, and he has the skills and the confidence to go over and fix them. I'm so proud of this little guy. His teacher sent me this picture of him the other day reading with a partner. So glad that his reading skills have grown so much this year! phew! One quick funny story about Grant. At SeaWorld last month, as previously noted, Grant went on Manta ( a SUPER scary roller coaster) for the first time. He was so nervous and so worried. I asked if he'd like to say a prayer and he said yes. So we did. Then he felt better for a while... but after a minute asked in agony-- MOM! I think I need a blessing! I'm just too scared! Can you give me a blessing? It was so cute and sweet. Love the faith of a child.
Anna is the sweetest little girl on earth. She performed in her Thanksgiving show with an audience of Mom, Dad and big sister. She did such a cute little job. Knew every word of the songs and sang her little heart out. Anna is getting to the age that she can really join anywhere and do anything the big kids are doing. If we are listening to Harry Potter or a book that is too advanced, she talks to herself quietly. If we are watching a show that is too advanced for a five year old (which we almost always do) she talks to herself quietly. No matter what is happening around her, Anna creates her own fun and never in a million years would she try to sabotage the fun of our family. She is so wonderful and the sunshine of my life. This month Ev and I went to Beauty and the Beast across the street the performing arts center (yay!) Anna wanted to come.... I wasn't sure she could sit for such a long performance.... but she did. It was so great. And then later in the month when I wanted to see my friend's choir perform and Evelyn bailed on me, Anna was my little date once again. I don't know what I did to deserve such a sweet little girl, but she is a joy. And her reading is coming along- slowly but surely! She is enjoying school more and more and rarely putting up a fight in the morning. Always making us laugh... she is one of a kind.
