Happiest of birthdays to Fay on May 7! It is so exciting that she is finally 13 and a true teenager, because she’s been living the life of a teenager this whole school year. She is in Young Womens, goes to middle school, got braces in February, started wearing contacts, and “hangs out” with friends rather than “playing.” All of those are totally teenage things to be doing, so it’s nice that she finally actually has the “teen” in her age. 🙂

Fay these days is more fun than ever! She still rocks her role as oldest sister–leading the kids in fun adventures and helping me with the little ones when stuff gets crazy. She still loves animals, art, and reading. And she is still a beautiful, sweet, loving girl. PLUS, she is really figuring out who she wants to be. She’s developing her own fashion preferences along with elective class preferences–which are totally unique to her. She has lots of fun new hobbies like tumbling and crocheting. And she’s so excited about the future ahead! We adore her!

Fay has made lots of wonderful new friends since being in middle school! I really wanted to meet them all, so earlier this year we had a fun Valentine’s party with them.

They are seriously all such delightful girls! It is a GIANT blessing to me as a mom to know that Fay is surrounded by friends who help her be her best self and who make her life so fun and joyful!

To prepare for the party, Fay made homemade cupcakes which the girls all decorated.

Fay has always loved cooking; but this year she’s gotten even more excited about it since she got to do some cooking in school. She has made dinner for the family a few times and it is always delicious!

Fay’s friend, Emma, has gotten her really excited about crocheting. She has known how to crochet for a couple of years, but Emma has shown her the joy of amigurumi! Fay has been making so many cute little creations and even shares them with friends and family! For her birthday she requested her OWN crocheting supplies so she didn’t have to keep borrowing hooks and yarn.

Also for her birthday, Fay requested a bow and arrow! Honestly, that gift request was a surprise to me, but I feel like it really fits with our adventure-loving Fay. She is a total beginner to archery; but she is making progress and having fun!

Fay has taken art both semesters of 7th grade and keeps loving it! This past week the school had an art show and we got to go see her beautiful work on display with the other art students’ work. This blue-green succulent she did in oil pastels got second place prize in the art show! We’re so proud of her!

One very teenager type thing Fay did before she actually graced the realm of 13 was back in January. She decided that she REALLY wanted to be trendy and have a Stanley cup and a cross-body bag. Aunt Mary–who is any niece’s dream come true–had both of those and told Fay that she would be willing to let Fay earn them by detailing her car. Fay worked hard for over an hour cleaning, vacuuming, and even washing the outside of Mary’s car (in JANUARY!!!!) Here she is, overjoyed with the spoils of her hard work and fortuitously advantageous family connections!

And I just wanted to remember one more time how terrific a helper Fay was for Bianca’s birthday party! She was as helpful as an adult, but as fun as another kid. The perfect combination!

And honestly, that’s kind of just what she is: the perfect combination of a kid and a grown up. We’re so glad she’s ours!

Happy 11th birthday to our best boy on April 21! Carter was so excited for his birthday he wondered if he would ever be able to make it to the actual day. But his special day really did arrive and, if I’m not mistaken, it was even worth the wait!

Carter knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday this year.

• Darth Maul sweatshirt (to go with his Darth Maul t-shirt and Darth Maul hat)
• A Twix Yard Stick
• A trick yo-yo

In spite of the fact that Twix Yard Sticks are mostly a Christmas phenomenon, Carter’s three wishes all came true (big thanks to Josh for making a custom Twix yard stick)! He was a very happy birthday boy. At the end of the day, he sighed and told me that his birthday was just so perfect that he wished it could go on for another 36 hours. Fortunately, even though the birthday could not last, Carter is ours forever!

Anyway, Carter is just as terrific a dude as ever he has been! Here’s a little more about him as he turns 11!

Carter is still a creator! He loves to build things and make things. When we were on spring break at the creative children’s museum thingy in Mesa, he built this whole car on his own. He was excited that there was a lady who was so impressed by his creation that she requested to photograph it. She said her kids would never believe he had made it himself without photographic evidence. So famous! Carter also has a new favorite medium with which to create: 3D printing. He loves finding free plans on Thingiverse and saving up his money to buy his own filament. On the right, you can see how nicely his prints added to my St. Patrick’s Day Decor. He has also enjoyed exchanging prints with friends at school. I think it is cute to see how all the boys have jumped on the 3D printing band-wagon.

Carter is still loving music (and adding 3D printing to his music–see left). He loves his trumpet–much more than he ever like piano, he reports. And he likes to tinker with other instruments too. He can do some fun stuff on the ukulele, had a blast tinkering with Uncle George’s soprano guitar, and even does return sometimes to play the piano for a while.

Carter also still loves his sports; though he’s adjusting his preferences. He has been doing soccer this year, but is less excited about it than he used to be. He gave basketball a shot this past winter but didn’t really love it. His current favorite sport is pickleball (thanks Grandma!!) and he is excited to take lessons in the fall. He also recently picked up pogo-sticking and is really good at it. And, alas, I have no pictures of any of these activities. And, of course, he loves swimming! What kid doesn’t?!

Carter is still a rockstar at school. He continues to enjoy reading and LOVES math, but is also finding that he can enjoy some opinion writing. His current ambitions for his career are that he wants to be a trumpet player in an orchestra as well as a math professor at BYU. You know how some people say stuff like “If there’s no chocolate in heaven, I’m not going.” ? Well Carter has basically stated “If there’s no math in college, I’m not going.” I love it!

Carter also did Battle of the Books at school again this year. It was interesting to see how much less excited all the boys were about reading the books–because the 5th/6th grade books are much longer than the 3rd/4th grade books, Carter reports. But they were still a fun group of boys, and being on the team absolutely resulted in more reading for them than if they had not done it.

Here’s Carter enjoying his favorite kind of book: a graphic novel! I totally see the appeal of graphic novels to kids. There are loads of pictures! But for me, sometimes the pictures feel like more of a distraction from what’s going on in the book than a fun addition.

(I know that has basically nothing to do with Carter; but I had to get it off my chest.)

We are so grateful to have Carter in our family! He really is our best boy!