Lucy 2.5

Lucy-darling. We love you so. At age 2.5 you are either delightful sunshine or stormy temper. However, at 2.5, it's all wonderful. The highs and the lows. Maybe it's because you're the littlest one and we've done 2.5 before, but even your tantrums or big feelings don't get us down. We just smile and wait for your cheerful face to reappear as soon as you work through whatever is troubling you. Now, sometimes you don't finish eating dinner because you're too upset about not having the purple plate - and sometimes you feel so angry that you scrunch your face and want to pinch someone - but most of the time you're just the most cheerful little person we know. We love this age with you and are treasuring each moment. (Except that you want to potty train, we are NOT ready for that.) 

This picture session is a good example. Lucy was the happiest she's probably ever been, but then we had to wait in the car for almost an hour because our photographer was late. Lucy then proceeded to scream throughout the entire photo session. She did NOT like the photographer. She did NOT like posing for a picture. But she did like when David bounced a bouncy-ball and caught it and you can see that grin peeking through. 

I feel like making some comment about Lucy's head tilt (the way she looks at you when she's trying to focus on you), or maybe some glib remark about how we didn't put her in a hat for the photo session and the prettiest dress we could find didn't have sleeves so we just went with it, but I don't really know what to say other than these photos are sweet and I love them. 

The past six months has been wonderful with this little girl. I just went through pictures to post here and each one makes me smile, laugh, or swell with love for her. She was SO excited to celebrate with her little half-cake, and I made the mistake of letting her hold it in the car all the way to West Jordan where we were going to be spending the day. Thankfully she didn't open it and eat it before we got there, but the frosting was a little worse for the wear because of it. Totally worth it for the joy she had at holding her half-birthday-bundt-cake. (Also, Caleb still calls it a bump-cake and I'm hoping Lucy will pick up on that.) 

Here are some things about Lucy that we absolutely love and/or want to remember: 

-She is starting to talk a lot, but she's at the exact stage where her vocabulary is booming and I can't understand most of what she's saying. But she's usually patient and after a bit I'm able to figure out what she wants. This is such a fun age. 

-She skip/hop/runs when she's excited and it's the most darling thing ever. 

-She's active and determined to do what she wants - and then when she does she's so proud of herself.

-She thinks she's a big kid and basically wants to do everything the big kids do. 

-She's the best little tagalong on all of our homeschool adventures. 

-Halloween with our little monkey. 

-Okay, two of the biggest things that mark Lucy at this age: 

1- She loves getting into my keys/wallet and pulling out all of my credit cards. It's really a problem but I like my wallet the way it is so I'm hoping that this is just a stage and I don't have to change. Unfortunately, I'm currently missing my driver's license, so that's not great. 

2- She loves babies. Like LOVES babies. She talks about them all the time and tucks them in at night under their blankets. She's the sweetest little nurturer to them. 

She doesn't need glasses, but we tried on a pair at a recent eye appointment for me and she looks so so darling. It almost makes me excited for her to get her glasses that she surely will eventually get. A note: her eyesight is developing as much as we could even hope for and I'm constantly amazed at how well she can see and navigate. 

I love this girl and I'm so glad to be her mom. I can't wait to celebrate Christmas with her this year, I just know she's going to love it. (There is a present under the tree with her name on it and she knows it is hers and she carries it around talking about when she's going to open it on "my birthday". It's darling.) 

Christmas School

December is such a fun month for homeschool, we like to change things up a little bit and do some Christmas-themed things. This year I didn't use a specific themed curriculum like I have in the past - but we added in some fun projects like writing a Christmas story with illustrations, painting the Nativity story on canvases, making snow-slime, playing in the snow, and a handful of other special things.

One of the kids favorites was making nativities out of different items. Pictured below is a Nativity made out of rocks (left) and a nativity made out of chocolate chip pancakes (right).

Not pictured is Lydia's "Christmas School". Each day she would gather a few snacks and call the kids to "school" in her closet where they would sit with a stuffed animal on their lap while she taught them. It was darling and they all loved it. They are such great siblings. 

We also were able to squeeze in a handful of fun field trips! (This year has been SO full of field trips, in part, I think we are making up for lost time last year during Covid. Whatever it is, it's been fabulous because I love having that piece of our homeschool.) 

Christkindlemarkt (German Christmas Market) 

The kids saved up money so they could buy something at this market, which is both good for financial skill foundational learning and is also hard because things are expensive and there were tears. It all worked out though and Lydia came home with a hand-blown glass ornament and Austin came home with a bag of candied popcorn. There were Christmas stories and people dressed up and gnomes who would come serenade you with music. And we can't forget the fresh donuts. 

Christmas Around the World @ BYU

Brooke arranged for us to be able to get tickets to a daytime performance of Christmas Around the World with the BYU Folk Dancing Team. It was a fun production and neat to learn about some different traditions and to see some fun dancing. We adapted the Scandinavian tradition of lighting four candles in advent (faith, hope, love, peace)

In a stroke of genuis, we told the kids that they could race to see who could get home, eat lunch, and clean their house the quickest. And that the winners would win, and everyone could eat a special snack and play some games. It worked like a charm and Brooke and I ended up with clean rooms and the kids played outside the rest of the afternoon after eating peppermint granola bars and drinking apple cider. 

(A quick side note: for Science we wrapped up our electricity unit and the girls got to ride in a Tesla. They learned about how the battery is charged and how it is different than a regular car because of the different power source. Then they got to go for a ride! It was a last minute addition to the lesson, but ended up being so fun for them. (Not Christmas School related, ha)

Snow Days

Sometimes the best part of homeschooling is being able to say "Snow Day!" It's cold all winter long, but it's rare enough to get a good dumping of snow that when it happens, it's so fun to be able to enjoy it. One morning we went sledding after finishing our regular homeschool and another morning we bagged school for the whole day and let the kids play in the front yards and build the neatest snow fort. As always, I love having a little sledding hill right in the backyard. It's perfect for some self-guided fun. 

Snow Day 2

I had a meeting at the Church late at night. When I drove to the Stake Center at 8:30 it was warm and not a storm in sight. By 10:30 when I was leaving it was a full-blown blizzard outside. I wasn't sure that I would make it home safely. Thankfully I did - and then I proceeded to decide that we wouldn't go anywhere for the rest of the winter. 

(Lucy found her swimming suit and insisted on wearing it. Ha.) 

Lydia's Piano Recital

Lydia has been doing so well with her Piano Lessons and was excited to have an in-person recital again this year. She learned the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and performed it beautifully for the crowd. Lydia takes lessons from the amazing Stephanie Lewis who told me when we started lessons with her that "I may not make your children turn into concert pianists, but I will help them LOVE to play the piano." That much has been true and I'm so grateful. Lydia's closest friends take lessons from her and so her Christmas recital ended up being extra fun. (Also, can I just say that I love that Lydia can take piano lessons at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and can walk herself to lessons. It makes all the difference!) 

Candlelight Christmas @ This is the Place

The Youngs invited us to go with them to the night-time celebration of Candlelight Christmas, a pioneer-centered Christmas Celebration at This is the Place park. I'm usually a pansy about going places in the cold after dark - but turns out my kids are getting bigger and it was more fun than disaster. We drank wassail and ate gingerbread cookies. We made candles out of beeswax (that we then used for our Scandinavian advent mentioned above, faith, hope, love, peace). We walked around to see all of the different things there were to see, storytelling, carolers, and crafts. We learned the Virginia Reel and danced it together and it was probably our favorite part of the whole night. We loved it so much!

We schooled for the first couple of weeks and are taking the rest of December off of school! Everyone is excited for the break! 

 

Our little beeswax candle advent: Faith, Hope, Love, Peace. 

Grandma Knowles

My Grandma Knowles is a wonderful woman. She's smart, has had an incredible career history (working in the Governor of Idaho's office for years and years), has firm political opinions with empathy and experience to back them up. She sends cards for every birthday with $2 bills inside and wraps her gifts with special bows. She is active in brain and body and especially active in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

When my Grandpa Knowles passed away in September, my Grandma moved in with my Parents in Morgan. It's been such a pleasure to spend so much time with her lately (Boise is just so far away.) I have been able to help her hang her pictures on her wall and organize some of her things and it's just been so nice. Her room feels homey and cozy and I enjoy sitting on her floor and talking to her while she's in her chair. 

I helped her scan in a bunch of photos and thought I'd post a few of them here. #familyhistory

My mom, as a child. I can see a lot of me in this face. She's close to Lydia's age. Can I see Lydia, too?

Some pictures of my Grandma Elvin: (Zuriel Ruth Jette) The first one looks so much like my Grandma Knowles that I can't imagine that it's NOT her. But I'm almost 100% sure that it's Grandma Elvin when she was young. My Grandma Elvin was so regal all the way to her passing. She was often compared to the Queen of England. I feel particularly connected to 

My grandma and her sister Berthene took my Grandmother for this photo session for mothers day one year and it is such a treasure! I immediately decided that I want my mom to take my Grandma for one like this and I want one with my mom. And I think that Wendy and Amy should do one with Sue. 

 I feel particularly connected to my Grandma Elvin lately because when my grandma moved in with my parents she gave her China hutch, complete with all of the china, to me. I mentioned years ago that I loved china plate settings and using them for fancy dinners.  My grandma told me that she would leave it to me, she never forgot and would often remind me that she was keeping it for me. When it finally came time, I made sure that other people knew that if they wanted it - they could have it, but my Grandma insisted that I have it and I adore it! Then, because it is actually SO much china, I asked if I could have the china hutch, too. It's so beautiful and I'm so happy to have it in my living room. 

The story goes that when Grandma and Grandpa Elvin got married they had planned to go to Hawaii on their honeymoon because that is where he had served his mission. When it came down to it, they didn't have enough money for the trip AND furniture for their home. They had to choose and they choose furniture. This hutch has markings on the back saying 1921 - 100 years old! It's neat to have something in my home that was my great-grandmothers, and then belonged to my grandmother for many years. (Truly, as long as I can remember, that hutch and it's matching table set in my grandma's dining room. We played games under the protection of the massive table and I particularly remember eating Thanksgiving Dinner at the table, the china hutch in the background. We couldn't take the table, and that's sad to have them separated, but I'm grateful to have the hutch.) 

A lovely photo of my Grandma and Grandpa Knowles.