Dearest Lydia-love. You are bright, funny, cheerful, humble, kind, and helpful. So many adjectives to describe you and how wonderful you are. I depend on you so much, all the time, and am so grateful for how well you fill your role in this sweet family. We love you so much and are so excited to celebrate this special birthday with you. Happy, Happy Birthday!
Official Stats:
(I haven't really been doing official stats lately, but this feels relevant.)
You still have 11 baby teeth, 8 of which need to be pulled out asap. That's a lot of baby teeth for a 12 year old!
Some things about Lydia:
-She's the best big sister ever. Truly, our whole family depends on her.
-She's so creative, it's mind-boggling. I often listen to her express her ideas and think "I'm just not sure something like that will work out" - but I've learned my lesson and usually just do my best to help support her as she blows me away by creating exactly what she imagined.
-She's got a great sense of humor and makes me laugh every day.
-Twelve years old is a huge deal! She's growing more and more into an young adult and starting to leave her childhood behind. I hope and pray it has been a good childhood and that our relationship will just get stronger and stronger as she gets older.
I had such a hard time picking through pictures of Lydia from the last six months and absolutely added too many to this blog post. It's just so hard because I love every single picture. I love her facial expressions, I love the memories associated with the picture, and I love how beautiful she is. Here are just a few that didn't fit in a "section", then I'll go through and add more details to the rest.
-This girl is the classic oldest-child/oldest-cousin. She's definitely the ring leader and can convince them to pull off the most amazing things. When the Haderlies were here for a week, they decided to make a Frozen play. They practiced all week long and produced an hour long rendition of frozen, complete with musical numbers. It was incredible. Sometimes Lydia laments that she's the oldest and that makes it hard because no one else is as old as she is- or that the younger kids say they want to do her idea but then get distracted and can't stay focused for the length of time she wants. However, they all look up to her and they do some really amazing things together.
November brought thanksgiving and a truly homemade pumpkin pie. Lydia grew the pumpkin from a seed, roasted it herself, made the crust, and made homemade whipped cream. It was the most amazing pumpkin pie I've ever had.
December Festivities: Disney on Ice with Aunt Melissa, Christmas baking, Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with Dad and Aunt Amy, Christkindlemarkt, and Piano Recital
Christmas Prep
I wanted to include this as a separate section because one of the things that I love about Lydia is what a generous, thoughtful, and creative gift-giver she is. She decided that she wanted to make a Christmas gift for each family member and worked incredibly hard to make it happen. Each gift was well thought out, intentional, and so creative. She made David a cardboard Game Holder, Me a Nativity Advent Wreath, Austin a Harry Potter themed Science Kit, Caleb a set of Pokemon cars, and Lucy a giant cardboard wardrobe for her dresses. It was a magical Christmas, no Santa required.
Christmas Overload - but look at these darling pictures.
End of December
We celebrated Chrsitmas at the Walkers in Morgan and spent the end of December in West Jordan with the Peadens. Pictured here are- traditional picture in front of the Peaden Chrsitmas Tree, one of the last family pictures with Grandma Peaden, a tower of Peaden cousins, and an afternoon learning about family search and how to find a family name to take to the temple with Grandpa Peaden.
Temple January
One of the neatst things about turning 12 is being able to do baptisms for the dead inside the temple. It's such a wonderful opportunity and Lydia wanted to go the very first day that she could. Since that first day, we have been to many different temples many, many different times. I have loved serving in the temple with Lydia.
Lydia has been doing a LOT of dog watching lately and she has loved it. She would love to have a dog of her own, but it's not something that we can manage right now (probably ever) - but one thing I can do is support her in taking care of other people's dogs and getting that experience and exposure.
Snow:We went on lots of snow adventures this winter.
Thursday Coop and Friday SPARK Cooperative
Z
Homeschool
Homeschool is a delight with Lydia. Obviously it's not always easy, but I love being able to learn together and spend our days following our own path. As Lydia grows I'm trying to give over more and more control to her in her learning journey and I've been so impressed as she continues to progress in responsibility, effort, and learning.
A few things she has been a part of for homeschool include a neighborhood girl's group, a Thursday Coop, a Friday Coop, a Ski-class, and lots of field trips!
Girls Club & Wrap the World with Quilts
Homeschool Field Trips
SCERA Theater, Clark Planetarium, Lehi Bakery, Ski Bus party, Art Imaginarium, Classic Fun, Family Search to name just a few!
Creating
As I mentioned before, Lydia is incredibly creative and dedicated to her ideas. She creates things out of many different mediums and anything can turn into something wonderful. A few examples include: She made a Transportable Craft Kit out of cardboard and paper so she can craft on the go, she put together the most incredible Family Home Evening lesson with stories, object lessons, and crafts, and she loves baking and making all sorts of wonderful things out of food.
Sue McAllister Peaden
Lydia's grandma passed away in January and it's been a difficult few months for our family. We were very close to Sue and although it's always hard to lose a grandparent, we have felt the loss very keenly. We have been going to visit Sue every Thursday for almost 5 years now (started in 2019). I do not regret a single minute of that time that Lydia was able to spend with her grandmother. They loved each other very much.
Kid Dates
Some highlights were the new Wonka Movie and going to the Ropes Course at Thanksgiving Point.
A few other adventures with Dad. Treats at Sams Club (his favorite store) and a BYU football game.
Wyoming
Our family loves Wyoming, and I feel like Lydia has a special love for this place. She's been able to spend a lot of time up here. She got to come spend the week haying with my dad, Grandpa Walker, and my grandpa, Grandpa Great, in August, just weeks before Grandpa Great died. It was a special time. Now that Grandpa Great has passed, the land belongs to mey dad, Grandpa Walker. Lydia begs me over and over an over to please go and see the kittens (now cats), and spend time on the Ranch. We've tried to get up a couple of times. Our whole family gathered and helped to clean up the backyard and it was a good day of hard work. We miss Grandma and Grandpa Great, but it's exciting to know we still have lots of memories to be made here.
Disneyland
And now for one of the highlights of this year: in the beginning of March our family went to DISNEYLAND! We didn't tell the kids until 2 weeks before we went - but we started prepping for our trip by watching all of the Disney movies we could from Jan-Mar. Lydia particularly enjoyed the Star Wars movies, Pirates of the Caribbean (edited), and some of the older Disney movies. We had such an incredible time at the park. Lydia was the perfect age, she was old enough to enjoy and appreciate everything, but young enough that it was still so magical.
Z
Her favorite things:
Park: California Adventure (both)
Ride: Goofys Sky School
(2nd choice: Radiator Springs Racers, Rise of the Resistance, Big Thunder Mountain, Toy Story Mania)
Food: Tiki Hut Dole Whip & Chocolate Banana
Park: California Adventure (both)
Ride: Goofys Sky School
(2nd choice: Radiator Springs Racers, Rise of the Resistance, Big Thunder Mountain, Toy Story Mania)
Food: Tiki Hut Dole Whip & Chocolate Banana
Happy Birthday Lydia!
We love you so incredibly much and are looking forward to this new stage of life with you. 12 years old is a big deal, and YOU are a big deal. You are adored, admired, and unconditionally loved. We are in this together and we are so grateful for this life with you.
