Wow, there is something special about this age. Lydia, this past year with you has been just so wonderful. You're funny, responsible, caring, and intelligent. You're the leader of our little pack and we don't know what we would do without you. Our lives are infinitely better for having you in them.
Stats: Lost teeth-
Favorite things:
Color- Brown, because it is the color of some of my favorite things like my favorite types of dogs.
Food- Nacho Soup, because it tastes good. I like the potatoes in it. I hope Mom always makes it.
Book- My Dog Encyclopedia, because it helps me learn about all the breeds of dogs.
Animal- Dogs! Dingos. Dingos are a type of wild dog. They are my favorite type of wild dog. (Not Wild Dogs like African Wild Dogs, just dogs that live in the wild.)
Movie- Togo, it's about the most amazing dog that has ever lived.
Biggest wish for the future: To get an Australian Shephard puppy.
(She's almost convinced her grandma to get a puppy, so that dream may actually come true, sort of.
Color- Brown, because it is the color of some of my favorite things like my favorite types of dogs.
Food- Nacho Soup, because it tastes good. I like the potatoes in it. I hope Mom always makes it.
Book- My Dog Encyclopedia, because it helps me learn about all the breeds of dogs.
Animal- Dogs! Dingos. Dingos are a type of wild dog. They are my favorite type of wild dog. (Not Wild Dogs like African Wild Dogs, just dogs that live in the wild.)
Movie- Togo, it's about the most amazing dog that has ever lived.
Biggest wish for the future: To get an Australian Shephard puppy.
(She's almost convinced her grandma to get a puppy, so that dream may actually come true, sort of.
Some other things to remember about Lydia at this age:
Her first little sister finally arrived and she is SO happy. There is something special about your oldest daughter holding your younger daughter. I love my sisters, and I hope that these two grow up to have a special relationship. My girls - a lucky seven years apart.
She loves Lucy, but truly - she's such a good sister to all three of her siblings. What would we do without her? I honestly don't know. She has a unique relationship with each one of her siblings but the thing that is the common denominator? They all adore her.
She's a great adventurer. Always up for a hike, a field trip, an exploration of any kind. She's funny, kind, and outgoing.
She and her dad made a hammock out of a blanket hanging in her bed. She has spent hours and hours and hours laying in that hammock and reading books at bedtime. Honestly, she just loves reading. Anywhere and everywhere. In the car, with her dad, with her siblings, in a closet, on the grass.
She loves water and swimming.
She's the leader of the cousins #7cousins7andunder
We took a trip to California and other than the fact that David wasn't there it was perfect. She's at such a great age to REALLY enjoy the world around her.
She played on a Lehi Rec Basketball team this year. It was a fun bonding thing with her and David. He took her to the Jazz event to kick off the season, went to all of her games, and even fill-in-coached a few of them. She enjoyed it and learned a lot.
David also took her and Austin to a real Jazz game this year. Yay, basketball.
I just love these pictures from the Primary Program.
Okay, let's talk about the real biggest thing to remember about Lydia at this age. She LOVES dogs. Like, loves dogs. For a long time she has responded to people who asked what she wanted to be when she grew up that she wants to be a pet owner. But it's evolved to an even stronger desire at this point. For her 7th birthday and Christmas, she got a plethora of books about dogs: Care books, breed encyclopedias, unique facts about dogs, etc... She's basically memorized all of them. Whenever we go anywhere she spies dogs with their owners and 90% of the time she can identify what breed they are. If she doesn't know, she asks if we can stop and ask them. Most dog owners are friendly and willing to talk about what breed of dog they own, ha. Our neighbors have two dogs and have occasionally asked Lydia to let the dogs out of their cages during the day while they are gone. But earlier this year they asked if she would watch them for an entire week while they were out of town. Her first pet babysitting gig. She loved every second of it, and probably would have done it for free, but she earned enough to buy this Kids Kindle reader and she was thrilled. Her two favorite things: reading + books.
For Halloween she wanted to be a Red Panda. I think we nailed the costume.
CHRISTMAS!
More Lydia/Lucy
More with Dad:
She's so creative. She makes things out of cardboard boxes and glue all the time. (This picture is a special bedroom for my special childhood stuffed animal, Bunny Sue.) But she's creative in all of her endeavors.
We love homeschool together. It's not always picture perfect. But it is wonderful. She is inquisitive and she's learning about lots of different things. She often takes a lesson and expands on it herself. She reads a thousand books a week and she really is just an intelligent, kind, human and I'm glad to be able to spend my days experiencing life with her.
She started taking Horseback Riding Lessons this February and March. We were both equally excited about this. She learned about the care of horses as well as the skill of riding and I am so happy about it.
We had to cut our horseback riding lessons short plus basically every other activity that we were a part of due to the rise of the Coronavirus and the associated Covid-19 illness.
Lydia, you are living through a difficult period of history. This time will go down in the history books and I just want you to know that we are doing our best to navigate this time together as a family with grace, love, patience, and courage. Covid-19 called for a complete shutdown of life as we know it. You had to stop going to horseback lessons, gymnastics, visiting your grandparents, and playing with your friends. You have been quarantined to your house for months and even now you're only barely able to start playing with ONE friend again. It's a difficult time to know all the right things to do, and to keep pushing forward with love and courage in the face of many difficult things but you are handling everything remarkably well. You may not remember this time when you grow up, but I will always remember how you took on an even bigger role of entertaining yourself and your brothers. How you were resiliant and optimistic. How you prayed with faith that God would keep us safe from the "virus" and that you would still be allowed to be baptized. When I look at the world, sometimes I get scared, but when I look at you I feel the peace that everything will be okay.
Lydia, you are living through a difficult period of history. This time will go down in the history books and I just want you to know that we are doing our best to navigate this time together as a family with grace, love, patience, and courage. Covid-19 called for a complete shutdown of life as we know it. You had to stop going to horseback lessons, gymnastics, visiting your grandparents, and playing with your friends. You have been quarantined to your house for months and even now you're only barely able to start playing with ONE friend again. It's a difficult time to know all the right things to do, and to keep pushing forward with love and courage in the face of many difficult things but you are handling everything remarkably well. You may not remember this time when you grow up, but I will always remember how you took on an even bigger role of entertaining yourself and your brothers. How you were resiliant and optimistic. How you prayed with faith that God would keep us safe from the "virus" and that you would still be allowed to be baptized. When I look at the world, sometimes I get scared, but when I look at you I feel the peace that everything will be okay.
We've been doing church-at-home. Lydia has been vocal about how she prefers church-at-church better - but we're doing pretty well. Here is one of her sacrament-meeting-talks:
"This plant came from a seed. It started out small, but with good soil and water and air it grew up. Our testimonies are like seeds. We have to plant them and then feed them so they can grow. We have to give them the things that they need and we have to weed them. I know that Jesus is real because I pray and I have read almost the whole Book of Mormon (61%)." Her talk made me cry and was a balm to my I'm-not-sure-about-church-at-home-either heart.
Lydia made a goal when she turned 7 that she wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon in the year before she turned 8. She had been working on reading/listening to the chapters during her wind-down routine at night, but about 10 days before her birthday she was only at 61% done. We talked about it and she insisted that she wanted to finish! I knew that it just wouldn't be possible with her just reading at night, so I decided to pause the rest of our homeschool studies and do a full-fledged Book of Mormon Study. She did one Math Lesson in the morning, then we read the Book of Mormon together for almost 2.5 hours each day. We drew pictures, made lists, highlighted verses, did fun things, and talked about what we were reading. It was a big investment of time, but it was important to Lydia and we achieved her goal! She finished the Book of Mormon the day before her birthday.
Happy Birthday Miss. Lydia. We love you. Even when you are sad, or frustrated, or discouraged - we love you.
Birthday cake: "A great big bone covered in white frosting, with more bones on top of it, plus a dog sitting on top of them all." *whew* #nailedit
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