Did you know that Helen’s birthday is only two days after Portia’s? That means that if/when I’m not on my A-game, they both get their birthday blog-posts written at the same time.😅

Happy 7th birthday to our sweet Helenator!

Helen is seriously the funnest little girl to be around! She kind of just quietly goes about her life absolutely relishing most everything about it. She loved celebrating her birthday. She loved getting a birthday crown at school. She loved going shopping for the ingredients to her birthday foods. She loves playing with her birthday gifts. She just loves it all!

We love her!

Helen had these cupcakes fully planned in her head long before her birthday. It was super fun to help make her mental masterpiece a reality.

For her birthday, Helen requested a fairy costume and also makeup. She is having a blast getting super fancy (and coercing Bianca into doing it with her) whenever she pleases.

And speaking of fancy, Helen has been loving the unique opportunity she has had recently to be a model for Hope and Henry children’s clothes. She has done 4 photo-shoots for them over the last year and always has a super fun time. Plus, she gets free clothes out of it!

When we went to St. George to visit my brother Tanner and his wife Becca, Helen loved finding anything and everything that could count as a cave. She made sure she spent at least some time in each one she encountered.

Just like Portia, Helen loves being creative and crafty. She’ll make something out of just about anything available.

I found these three raccoons snuggling together in a hat on the floor of Helen’s room. It’s nice to know she’s still her raccoon self at heart.

Some other things that Helen really likes include:

• Melting beads
• Playing outside
• Her umbrella
• Ballet–she’s in lessons and has tons of fun!
• Her best friend, Reagan

We’re so grateful that Helen has been ours for 7 whole years!

Sometimes I kind of let it slip my mind that celebrating the kids’ birthdays means that they’re a whole year older. I feel like this year I’m still half in denial that my kids are really growing up.

We celebrated 9 wonderful years of loving Portia on March 10th! She got lots of loving from her siblings, parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, and classmates! I feel like she was bringing home birthday spoils for the whole week. She loved the attention!

Portia is super fun at this season of her life (just like she was in the others)! She is creative, enthusiastic, opinionated, smart, and willing to work hard. She also really excels in academics, music, comedic timing, and making sure she is heard. We love having her in our family!

For her birthday, Portia got a dinosaur lego set. Here she is rocking her dinosaur to sleep. <3

She made this impressive tower of random things from her and Carter’s bedroom. It was taller than me!

Just having fun being herself!

Right now, Portia’s sport of choice is swimming. She loves going each week and is making great progress!

She is also taking piano lessons. She works very hard at practicing, and is richly rewarded for her efforts by her teacher. The other kids in music lessons are rather envious. But she is making wonderful progress and seems to enjoy it all.

No matter where we are, Portia finds a way to make it extra fun!

Some other things Portia enjoys right now are

• Reading–especially graphic novels
• Every conceivable type of craft
• Picking out clothes for the day
• Playing outside (finally!)

I feel like this post really isn’t enough to give you a good idea of just how terrific Portia is. You’ll just have to come hang out with her sometime!