Lenora turns Eight!

Sweet Lenora is now eight!!! She has been looking forward to this birthday for a long time. 

First up, she was so excited to get her ears pierced. I got to take her the day after her birthday. She wasn't the least bit nervous and didn't even flinch. Lenora's such a tough cookie. She looks beautiful and so grown up! 

Lenora has also been looking forward to this birthday so she could be baptized! More on that in another post, but for now a sneak peak at her beautiful dress! 

To celebrate her special day, we started the day with doughnuts and presents. Lenora wanted cowgirl boots and a pocket knife. I'm not sure two items could more perfectly sum up Lenora and her idea of a good time.  

Lenora wanted to bake her own cake. She made an amazing three layer chocolate cake (with minimal help). She wanted it all white since she was now old enough to be baptized. 

The week before her birthday she got to celebrate with Aunt Gabby and Miles who both have birthdays the first part of January too! 

Now on to all the fun facts about 8-year-old Lenora. First up, Lenora is such a sweet little girl. She is kind and so often willing to give up things she wants if she can make someone else happy. Michael noted that she "serves with dignity." She will go out of her way to quietly help those around her - reading a book to Conrad, taking time to play a game with Orson, etc. When she does these things, it's not for attention or recognition; it's simply out of the goodness of her heart. 

When Lenora was a toddler, she was very shy. But every year more and more of her shyness melts away. She has really come out of her shell this year. She's always excited about life and learning, often to the point where now I need to ask her to quiet down. 

Now that she's not afraid to speak up and speak out, maybe Lenora should consider taking up acting. She has the most expressive face you've ever seen! Her squirrel face is a current favorite since she's missing two teeth... 

But she's full of plenty of other faces as well....

Lenora is so sweet with younger kids. They just adore her and look up to her so much. 

Lenora is our little engineer. She always loves a good puzzle and now can easily do a 500 piece puzzle by herself is just a few days. In fact, she gets a little annoyed when people help her because then there's less puzzle for her to enjoy. She's also always building and designing things. We have a set of Pentominoes, and she can solve them faster than anyone. There's one she's never been able to solve (and I can't help her because I haven't figured it out yet either). But she keeps on trying. One of these days I'm sure she'll get it. I just love how her little mind works!

Another thing Lenora loves to do is cook! In fact, she's set a goal to learn to completely cook four different dinners this year. She's off to a great start. 

We love you so much little Lenora. Thanks for filling our home with kindness, laughter, some loud conversations, silly faces, and delicious food. We're blessed to have you! 

Light the World with Love

Every year leading up to Christmas we mark each day of advent by studying a scripture. Some years we've studied names of Christ, prophecies of His birth, stories of Christ from the Book of Mormon, etc. This tradition is always a wonderful highlight of our Christmas season, but this year was extra special. We focused on the theme, "Light the World with Love." Each day we read a story from Christ's life and focused on how He showed love to others. 

Studying Christ's life from the lense of love was awe inspiring. We had some wonderful discussion about our Savior, His love for us and all His children, and about ways we can love more fully. From each day's reading we wrote wrote a few words of summary. In the end, we had the most beautiful poster that has stayed up long after the other decorations have been returned to their boxes. 

I hope our kids remember this Christmas. I hope they remember their excitement as they thought of ways they could show more love to those around them. 

I hope they remember to always let love be the answer. We live in a world where fault-finding, bullying, hate, and contention are the norm. I hope they'll remember some of our discussions and are the first one to make peace, to refrain from judging someone, to offer a helping hand, and to stand with the sad and lonely. I know they have it in them because we occasionally catch glimpses of their greatness. 

Hazel directed the most incredible nativity with her cousins this year. It was beautifully done. I felt her love for the Lord as she invested her time and energy in to preparing this sweet tribute.  Also, at a recent youth retreat I witnessed Hazel quietly leaving the company of her friends to make sure a young man with Down Syndrome had a partner for an activity. No one made her do it, or asked for someone to partner with this young man. She simply saw a need and filled it. 

Eliza spent lots of time recently making little bracelets for her friends as a way of showing them her love. When one friend had her feeling hurt her older brother, she organized a few of the other girls to create little surprises to give to her at the Christmas party that night. She saw someone mourning, and did her best to comfort them.

Sweet Lenora was so looking forward to playing the angel in the nativity this year. The girls made it a tradition that whichever cousin was baptized that year, gets to be the angel. Since both Lenora and Brooklyn will be baptized next year, they decided Lenora would take this year and Brooklyn next. Lenora showed her love for the gospel by taking the time to memorize word-for-word the scripture spoken by the angel to the shepherds. Being the center of attention isn't an easy thing for her, but she shown as she recited her part! 

Orson frequently takes time to make people feel loved one-by-one. He'll stop what he's playing to comfort a sibling that's feeling sad or pause to give a grandparent a huge hug and smile. When Orson gives you a hug, you can feel his love burst from him in to you! 

Conrad, for all of his rowdy boyness, has a tender, loving heart. He was so respectful as a shepherd kneeling before baby Jesus. Each day was we read a scripture about Christ and began our discussion, Conrad pipped in that we should "listen to Jesus."

As we headed into a new year, we're hoping to spread a little more light, by sharing a little more love. 

Leading up to Christmas

Don't let Haley fool you, we enjoyed a wonderful few weeks leading up to Christmas. 

This was the first year Conrad has been really excited about Santa. I also think it's the first time he remembers sitting on Santa's lap. It was magical for him and Orson too!

As we unpacked the Christmas decorations, Orson found a Santa hat that he adored. He wore that hat all day, everyday (and night) for a solid week. Of course then the other kids wanted to get in on the action too and started wearing Santa hats all the time. (And mustaches leftover from the grils' December book club).

Eliza took it a step further and decided to dress up Mara too. That chicken has the patience of a saint. 

Hazel had a Christmas show for her Irish dance class and sang in a live Nativity for choir. The children's choir she joined this year is incredible! They sing so beautifully, and the nativity they put on was wonderful. 

Eliza had a gymnastics exhibition as well, then Conrad got some ideas from watching her. I think we'll call these future blackmail photos! 

We had some fun evenings seeing lights in town, attending the IMA Christmas party, watching Eliza's friend in The Best/Worst Christmas Pageant Ever, and the ward Christmas party. 

Possibly the highlight of the month was the snow! We had three seperate big storms come through and each dropped between 6-9 inches of snow. One storm hit on Michael's birthday, and it was exactly what he wanted! The kids have been in heaven. 

The week of Christmas we got to spend a full day at Gram and Grandpa's house celebrating Gram's 65th birthday! Eliza decorated her cake with a whole bottle of sprinkles. 

We also had a Polar Express night with cousins. We rode the Front Runner train in our PJs, listened to Grandpa read the book, drank hot cocoa, and just had a blast. Becca even prepared cute little bells for each of the kids like in the book.

It was a wonderfully fun month! More importantly, we had some wonderful experiences as we pondered on the true reason for this Christmas season - our Savior Jesus Christ. More on that to follow, because it deserves a post of its own.