Miriam's 13th Birthday

 This cute girl turned 13! It is funny how for some birthdays, you can't believe that it is possible that this kid could be that old. I feel like this is the case most of the time for me. This was not actually the case for Miriam turning 13. She looks and acts so much older than she is, that for at least half of the year when she was twelve, I kept catching myself thinking she was 13. So it felt like I was finally right in thinking she was 13. 

Miriam is so great. I don't know how I got so lucky to have so many great kids. She is kind to, patient with, and forgiving of me. I can honestly say she is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She is funny, hard working, super smart, organized, and just so sweet. I feel like some people only get to see certain sides of Miriam, and I feel honored to see who she is at home. She is truly the best of the best. I love how she is always up for hanging out as a family and doing something fun. 

Miriam has been getting tons of babysitting jobs. She ends up babysitting for someone once and then before you know it, she has a regular income from them. The kids all love her. She is so responsible with her money too. She puts almost all of her babysitting money into her 529 account to save for college, except tithing of course. Miriam has served in two class presidencies so far, and even though she doesn't have great friends in the ward, she looks out for people and really tries to fulfill her callings. 

Miriam loves to read romantasy books. She particularly likes an author by the name of Melanie Celliar who writes fairy tale retellings. Miriam is always reading if she can get away with it. :) This year (8th grade) Miriam has been doing a ton of choir. She is in Chamber and Acapella, not to mention MCO, which is a lot of choirs. She does so well at it! She is a great little singer and has really helped me learn how to sing alto, which is so nice of her. I am not great, but way better than I used to be. Recently, she told me that she would stay home with Darcy so I could go to ward choir with the rest of the family because according to her "I am in 3 other choirs, you can have this one." It was so nice of her! A new experience we have had because she is in Acapella is that there are a group of kids that want her attention and time, all of the time! I have never really had boys text my girls before. She still won't admit to any crushes, but she is at least learning to be friends with boys. Sometimes there is too much. One friend (a girl) texted her 15,000 times in the month of November! 15,000!! I don't know how that is even physically possible, but that is what the phone record shows. Thankfully Miriam is good about not responding all of the time, and not ditching our family when friends want to do things. I know that is a hard balance to maintain. 

 

What's a skill you'd love to learn? I would love to learn how to bake sourdough bread because Nick Mena gave us some, and it was delicious!

What's a hobby you'd like to start? Journaling every day, I was going really good there for a minute but now I've kind of stagnated.

What's your favorite way to spend a free afternoon? My favorite way to spend a free afternoon is hanging out with the people who I love, playing games, reading books, just a really quiet nice fun afternoon.

What kind of music or movies do you enjoy? I like Taylor Swift and other artists as well. I like cute rom-coms, but I also have started liking heavier stuff, I still really really like rom-coms though.

What's a book, movie, or TV show that you'd recommend to others? I would recommend all of Melanie Cellier's books to people because they are really cute and they always get married in the end. None of this wishy-washy we are going to start dating stuff.

What's a unique talent you have? One unique talent I have is playing the clarinet, it's really fun and soothing, even if it does hurt my thumbs.

What's a place you'd like to travel to? I'd love to travel to Thailand or Japan, in fact, I'm planning on going there for my 16th birthday trip.

What's your favorite app on your phone? Libby and Apple Music, hands down the two most useful and entertaining apps on my phone. Also the only entertaining apps on my phone.

What's your favorite type of sandwich? I love a really good lunch meat sandwich, they are the best on hikes and literally everywhere else.

What's your favorite type of ice cream? It's still chocolate ganache. No matter how many times you ask me it's still going to be chocolate ganache.

What's the coolest thing you've ever done? Maybe swum with dolphins? It was really cool, it didn't actually happen this year, but I think it still counts.

What's a goal you have for this year? I want to exercise more, which will be easy because I am doing swim team. 

What's a piece of advice you've received that you value? A lady came to our school and gave a fun speech, one of the things that stuck with me was that if you say affirmations before a test you do better on it.

What's something you're passionate about? My baby little succulents. I love them to bits. I am their plant mom who sprays them twice a day and stares at them way too much.

What's a current event you're following? Politics, Mrs. Eskeets, my US History teacher, keeps us up to date and current with what's happening, and it's crazy.

What's a skill you've always wanted to learn but haven't yet? Managing time, I am still a really bad procrastinator.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? Pausing time and being able to move in the paused time. I would have to not age and be able to unfreeze things/people that I want to.

What's the most interesting thing you've read or seen lately? Pirates of the Caribbean, I watched it for the first time recently and it is really really funny and interesting.

If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be and why? George Washington because he could help fix the country and the mess our government is creating.

What's one thing on your bucket list that you really want to do? Eat Indian chocolate. I don't know why but I've always really wanted to do that. I don't think they are even particularly known for making chocolate, I don't know? 

What animal do you think best represents your personality? A house cat, sometimes soft and cuddly and nice, sometimes hissing and scratching and biting.

Who would play you in a movie about your life? Me? If it's a movie about me, I would have me play in it.

If you could invent a holiday, what would you celebrate? The day the printing press was invented. I love whoever invented it because now we have books.

If you could have any fictional character as a best friend, who would it be? I would want probably Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. I love that dragon, and I want to fly.

On Miriam's birthday we had yummy foods and fun presents while we celebrated this darling girl. The Brocks came over for a while, which was fun! Miriam was so surprised at the Echo pop and all of the blue technology (ear buds, back up battery, echo for her room). It was pretty cute! 

Happy Birthday my wonderful Miriam! I feel lucky everyday that I get to be your mom! You are truly amazing. Love you more than I can say! 

July 2024

With a whirlwind June, July started a little slower. Eating pancakes outside for breakfast, working on our yard, noticing our plants. The little cactus I bought from Sam’s Club started growing like crazy. Or rather is was growing crazily. A lot of height and not very wide.

We also jumped back into Summer swim. Darcy didn’t take lessons, and that and the carpool we had going kinda made my whole summer. There was so much less time required from me at the rec center. All I had to do was to take my older girls at the start of Piranhas and take the younger kids home at the end of Jr. Piranhas. Claire ended up playing with my girls a lot which they loved. It was a fantastic set up. 

Another fantastic set up is eating outside in the summer. The shade sails make it lovely during the day, and the summer evenings are just gorgeous. 

Miriam and I went birthday dress shopping for her. She is adorable and hilarious. She really wanted me to to get her this opulent cruise gown for her birthday dress, which wasn’t going to happen for a lot of reasons (it didn’t fit, it wasn’t modest, she didn’t have anywhere to wear it, etc). But we settled on a cute blue sundress for her. Miriam exudes enthusiasm and excitement. She is so complementary too. Although last night (now 6 months after July) she told me that I was cute, pretty, and hot. That was a little weird. :)

Playing outside the rec center while Jr. Piranhas wrapped up for the day.

Darcy quotes: 

I love Mama more tighter than any red! (I don’t know what that means, but it’s really cute. 

Just acting out reading lesson with her. She is so happy for a little bit of silliness. 

"That's not interesting." After John told me that she used the bathroom. 

"Can we get more kitchen?" Uh...our kitchen is big enough. :)

"Wow, ow, God wants to forgive me. He likes to forgive people that have sinned. Jesus likes to forgive me." All sang with a tune. 

We went up to Marc and Miriam’s house for a fun dinner and game time. My older girls stayed over for a sleepover for Anna’s birthday. I did some birthday photos for Holland there. The next day was July 4th, and we went to Kayla’s for a pool party. 

Afterwards, we headed to John’s uncle’s house. They do a big 4th of July bash every year. And it is BIG.  Someone told us that they spend over 10k on this one firework show. It was substantial. It was like 20 to 30 minutes of big aerial fireworks. Plus there were sparklers, big and small for everyone. And the food. There was full potluck for all of their family and friends. It felt kinda crazy. This is the same family whose daughter teaches Holland violin. She and they are very nice. 

Guess who loved the cotton candy machine? 

Answer: all of the kids ever.

We loved the huge sparklers. 

The constant aerials with never ending ground fireworks made for quite the show. We were just missing a loud speaker with patriotic music. 

The ground fireworks debris afterwards. 

There are just so many happy memories from the summer. Like the Pang girls coming over for a movie night. I am glad that my girls have such nice friends. 

We went to our niece’s wedding at the Bountiful Temple. It was the same temple and room as our wedding! It was sweet to be there again. We took photos outside, and it was a struggle to not try to help the photographer. 

We headed out to Tooele for the wedding luncheon, but it was a bit of a wait, so we stopped by the newly constructed Tooele Temple. I don't think it was quite ready for the dedication yet. Then we headed to the luncheon that was held in this cute garden area. It was darling. I love a cute green space with flowers, trees, paths, and cafe lights. The luncheon was nice--taco food. The speeches were pretty memorable in an unfortunate way. My sister in law told me that the groom's family didn't help with any of the wedding expenses. Then during the speeches the groom's mom made a joke about how they always thought that the groom was gay and would find a man on his mission, but he found his future wife instead. Haha...uh....no. It was pretty hilarious in a cringy way. Yikes! Well, we wished them the best and headed home. We didn't go back to the reception because it would have been an additional 3 hours of driving. 

Love the swimming carpool. These cute friends played at the park after swim.

This summer was a big one for Eliza. I feel like she turned from a young teen into a legit older teen. She got the results back for her first AP test. She got a 5! I am so proud of her! Then just the next day she got her driver's permit. Oh my goodness, who is this young adult I am pretending to parent. How am I old enough to have a kid learning to drive? Like really, it doesn't feel like that could be true. 

Miriam turned 13 and had her first Teen Tuesday! She loves it! We played games (hand and foot) that first time, but not really since then. She loves loves to watch shows with us, especially K-dramas. Then just a couple of days later, Miriam got her braces off. Wow, if there is one way to age your children it is to get their braces up. 

Loved meeting Erica at a waterpark. 

Best buddies

Future best buddies

First driving lesson! She has a long way to go. I didn't realize how much she didn't know. Like how you need to slow down before a turn. We spent several hours in that church parking lot. 

Fancy girl in my shoes. :) 

  

I love the flowers in my yard. All of the large lilies. Zinnias were new to us this year and so much fun.

We had a fun day. We picked up Miriam's retainers and went to Sip N to get fancy drinks because we had a coupon. Then, we went to the water park with Norma's kids, and there were these puppies for sale. Oh my word, they were cute. They were also super expensive. Guess how many times I had to tell my girls "no" to buying a puppy that day. Answer: More than I would have liked to, by quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, I also thought the dogs were so sweet and cute, but even if I weren't allergic, I don't spend $2,000 on a whim for a cute puppy. I can't believe how expensive they are. 

Daddy daughter date!

One funny part of living where we do is that there are a variety of BYU professors in our ward. One of the couples is a Folk Dance and Folk Music Professors. They do awesome musical numbers in church, and they perform front yard concerts when the weather is nice. It is fun little neighborhood happiness. 

Darcy of course chatted Steven Charles' ear off. 

I can't remember why, but I wrote in my journal that I was quietly fasting for my family. I wrote that it felt very personal between me and the Lord. This feels significant for me because I have a hard time fasting. It is tough, and I am not a sweet person when I fast. I am happy to see some positive experiences along with the bad and proud of myself for still trying. 

One Saturday we went as a family to Thanksgiving Point to the Curiosity Museum. I loved playing shop as a whole family. We also went to a special presentation about skulls and each kiddo did a skull hunt. Never thought I would think a skull hunt was fun!

Another day my heart just melted when I saw Holland and Darcy playing together. Holland told me, "I am going to read my scriptures while I play a game with Darcy." 

We went to a trampoline park with Erica. Darcy was a little young for it, but our other girls had such a ball. Our older girls are so helpful. Miriam should have been paid for how many kids she was helping! We ended up buying a month pass and going up there once a week. It was by Erica's house so it was a bit of a commitment. My only regret, which makes me feel about 12 years old, is that I wish I would have known that Erica was going to invite her friends and cousins to play too. I wasn't going up there for my kids to be a third wheel to the normal playmates. But it was still fun, and I can't blame her for wanting to just invite whoever. 

The next day my older girls went to the temple, and we had to just take it easy. I love when my body signals to me to rest and I listen. It is feeling very true to myself. We had yummy BLTs for dinner with garden tomatoes, which was awesome. 

The flowers in my yard made me so happy. We planted so many flowers and plants and some of them are actually blooming! 

Giant Asiatic Lilies

One Saturday, John and I put mulch all around the flower beds. It really makes the plants pop! It was a fun, dirty project. We loved soaking in our pool afterwards in the toasty water. Perfect end to a hard day's work. Although we both really enjoyed going to Fat Daddy's for pizza and date night later too. We had yummy pizza, buffalo cauliflower, salad, and played games. Also, that day Miriam telling me, "I haven't licked anyone all day!" 

The next day was Ward Conference. I loved hearing testimonies of Jesus and about life after death. We decided it was Canada Shirt day, and also we had to observe National Ice Cream Day. 

The next day I dropped Eliza off at FSY. She went solo this year, which was so impressive. She is the sweetest. We shared a packed lunch in her dorm. I am so lucky to have that girl! 

From Eliza: FSY was so fun! My roommate's name was Amelia, and she was nice. It was actually really fun to go by myself. I liked making friends with everyone at the same time because it makes us all feel closer. I always love the classes and personal study time, and it was amazing. We went for a talk at the MTC. It was so cool! One of the people who gave talks was a guy at the MTC who had been to FSY earlier that summer, which is kind of crazy to think about. Games night was so fun! We had pizza after in mine and Amelia's room, and it was awesome. My counselor Lainee was super nice. For free time one day, we went bowling with some of the guys and that was so much fun! I think I got last place though. This was my last year with the younger group, and it felt like all the guys were younger than me. I was the second-oldest person in our company. It was still really fun to hang out with the boys, though. At the first dance, some of the girls kind of ditched Amelia and I, so we stayed with the boys for the rest of it and it was way more fun. At the morning devotional one day, a counselor sang a song from that year's youth album, Beloved, and it was so pretty! I still have it on my playlist.

 

The day after we dropped off Eliza, we had lots of playdates because we were missing her. I am so glad that Holland is having better friends now. Also I watched Mr. Malcom's list with Miriam. She is so cute and giddy! I love it! 

We have never really celebrated Pioneer Day, but we live in Utah now, so I thought we would try. We dressed up and made a cardboard wagon. We also made peasant bread and homemade ice cream.

The following day I had a sweet moment with Holland. She was having a hard time with chores. She would not listen and was so mad. I said a prayer and went and looked her in the eyes. I said "I love you" and walked away (like I have done so often), but this time she was touched. She came over to me and gave me the biggest hug, crying tears of love instead of anger. She wanted to reconcile instead of stay mad. It felt like a miracle. 

Of course, the next day she had a hard time with her list again. She just isn't self motivated to get her tasks done. I wish I knew what to do to help her learn this. John and I had a big discussion about it. I am grateful to be married to him. 

We finished the RV gate project! As a reward, we reserved a time to play Dice Forge in the middle of the day. It was a mini mid-day date for just us. That night we went to Kayla's and had a delicious reproduction of a California Pizza Kitchen dish. 

The following day, Cherilee and Jess came to dinner. There was fun conversation and laughter. Earlier that day there was such a sweet lesson in RS about prayer. Prayer has led to so many miracles and inspiration in my life. 

The next day we had a swim party and a visit to the Trampolinium (as Darcy calls it). We started the day though with a rest/cuddle/tickle/raspberry snuggle time in our bed. At the swim party we found out that Holland won "most improved" in her age at swim. So proud of her! I am so relieved that Jr. Piranhas has been such a positive experience for her. She loved swimming with her friends. I thought the coaches were super nice. We ended the season with the family fun meet. The relays were ridiculous and hilarious. One of us would swim the length of the pool and then quickly take off the shirt and put it on the next person. Or we would have to swim with a pool noodle as if we were riding it like a horse. They came up with all kinds of silly swim positions. It was a good time, and I am proud of us for participating and doing our best. 

Home grown cucumbers!

I love all of our flowers this year. 

FSY time!

Way too much field bind weed in our grass!

Asiatic lilies!

We noticed that our grass would just not turn green. We took these 'before' photos before applying iron. The iron didn't do much good because we found out that we had grubs. So frustrating!

This grass was brown before too much longer. 

Pioneer Day girls!

New boots for Costa Rica!

The clematis with the lilies is my favorite. 

Last swim day, and they had matching swim suits!

Darcy didn't want to get out of the water. 

Getting ready for South Dakota!