12? seriously?!?

how are we already at this stage? 

how is Ellie old enough to ask for makeup for her birthday or to be going to young womens? 

How is she old enough to ask to make and decorate her own cake to practice her piping skills? 

its so hard to believe that our baby isn't a little girl anymore.

yesterday she turned 12!

she planned her birthday a while ago. she wanted everything to be blue. all colors of blue. she wanted cinnamon rolls from a local bakery for breakfast and she wanted to make her own cake. so chris swung by first thing before work and brought her a warm cinnamon roll. she had to go to school, but her friends went above and beyond to make her feel special. they got to school early and decorated her locker! when she got off the bus her arms were filled with gift bags and treats. she is a good friend  to others and we're so glad she's found a great group of friends here that have high standards and are good friends too.

when she got home, she opened gifts and then we ate dinner before chris and I had to take off for meetings. she couldn't decide what she wanted to eat while we were planning, so over the past few days we've made cuban sandwiches, chicken tikka masala, and then Alfredo on her actual birthday- all of her favorites (except buffalo wings... we'll have to add that in soon!).

she made a white cake with Nutella frosting. 

check out those roses she piped!

she asked for a desk, 

mascara, 

and a crud load of Takis chips.

and that's why we love her!

a few weeks ago, chris and I noticed that Ellie's grades had dramatically dropped. she's always had mostly A's with some B's and all of the sudden she had all D's and F's (except one A+ in science haha). we decided we would talk to her together to see what was going on and we'd wait until after dinner. well, right before dinner that evening she pulled me into her room and broke down. she was feeling so overwhelmed by her advanced math class. she felt like everyone else understood it so easily and she could hardly keep up. chris and I both understood that feeling cause we both felt that way about math around her age too. we've tried to encourage her in the past to have a tutor or to have jack help her but she's always brushed it off and acted like that was for dummies. as we talked, we discovered that this sense of feeling behind just trickled over into her other classes and she just stopped. she stopped doing homework and she stopped handing in assignments. 

we had a long talk about how its ok to feel that way and that even adults feel that way at times. we made a plan to get her assignments finished and handed in over the next week or two, even though she wouldn't receive full credit. she felt better after we made a plan and figured out a system to help her be more organized. she's brought her grades back up to all B's and an A. 

we are grateful that she went through this at this stage and not later on. hopefully she will be able to remember how she felt so she can keep herself organized and feel in control. she worked hard and was able to feel a sense of accomplishment with each made up assignment that she was able to cross off her list. 

she's our feisty girl, full of life and excitement! she is becoming an amazing young woman and we are so proud of her!

2020 kick off!

2020 has been a busy whirlwind and its only February!

we went on a hike at Flint Ridge the last day of Christmas break because it was almost 40 degrees. it was pretty cold still, but it was good to get out and let the kids run around. 

I had a great idea.... that ended up being a disaster haha! 

I packed up all our books of mormon and our come follow me books. when we got to the top of our hike, I pulled them out to have this spiritually memorable kick off to our new Book of Mormon studies this year! we are in nephite/lamanite lands, reading promises given to us by the prophets of blessings we'll receive from studying the BoM this year... totally awesome, right?

but, nope.

the kids kept whining, there was nowhere dry to sit, it started sprinkling, Charlie kept touching jack, everyone was hungry and kept taking more snacks than the person next to them, and on and on it went... so my great spiritual vision turned into a family-fighting-flop. 

but! 

im counting on Elder Holland's promise that we get credit for trying.

it really was a beautiful hike though

archery season is in full swing with practices at 6:30 am 3times/week and tournaments on a few Saturdays every month. 

jack has been struggling with archery. he practices SO MUCH at home. but for some reason, he just can't seem to find a groove that works for him. he'll have a few great rounds and then inevitably he'll start shooting 7's and even 6's. its weird and frustrating. but honestly, its good to see him struggle. he's always been so capable, physically, that its good fro him to not be amazing at something and have to work hard for it. 

chris and I support it because:

 fry pies

we love the Waynedale tournament in Amish country because they sell THE BEST fry pies in all the land! we have been dreaming of this for a year. the blueberry cream cheese pies are gaaaaah! so good!

after the tournament, which he did so-so at, we went to Heini's Cheese Chalet. they have probably 50 free samples of amish cheese, meats, and fudge

then we needed a real lunch and Ellie ordered a burrito:

yeah, she only ate a quarter of it and had to box the rest of it for later.

speaking of big meals, we had been out running errands in Columbus one day during Christmas break and we decided that we wanted pizza. after discussing our options chris said "man, all these places are pricey. we could all get our own pizzas at Little Caesers for less than what we'd pay at any of them" LIGHT BULB! "actually, lets do that!" 

so he ran in and bought 5 pizzas and a pack of root beers at the gas station next door and we sat in the car and laughed hysterically while we gorged on pizzas! we didn't even finish 4 of them, but it was fun to try! hoping its a memory the kids will have forever.

our cavity-free streak of more than 6 years came to an end. 

poor Owen had to have a cavity filled, but he was a trooper!

we have been having movie marathons. I think we started at thanksgiving. we decided we wanted to watch all the Star Wars movies in chronological order before going to see the new one (which we enjoyed!).

we had so much fun watching a movie before bed, that we decided to do the Harry Potter series during Christmas and New Years. and now we are into the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and loving it! of course, with school and everything else we have to wait until the weekends.

we had a temple trip in January and little Ellie Bellie got to come because she is now in young womens!

we had our first snow day off from school last Friday! best way to wake up on a school day is to find out school's cancelled!

jack was given an air soft gun from some friends whose older son no longer uses it. it took some time and money to fix it and get it working, but after several rounds of babysitting, he earned the parts. he's been having fun! the morning that school was cancelled, he came in to my room first thing while I was still in bed, opened the door to my bedroom porch and started shooting. 

chris and jack made this snowman that is well over 6 foot!

and Ellie rolled this big snowball all by herself

two days later and the snow was pretty much gone, thanks to rain.

we've had a lot of animal activity in the yard! 15 deer and probably 40 turkeys on the hill at the same time.

chris and I went to a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game last Saturday and had a great time together! grateful that we were able to get out for an evening, just the two of us.