Kiersten is now 12 years old. Before the Covid quarantines started shutting things down, her basketball team won 1st place in their league for her age group. We were so proud of her and Ben as coach. She played with a great group of girls. She has also done her best to keep up with her fencing via Zoom. Unfortunately, her Fencing Club has not been able to meet in person still, but she is determined to stick with it. We definitely need to get her new equipment and uniform as soon as they start back up, as she has grown like crazy! She is a whole shoe size up from me now, but that does not stop her from trying to steal my shoes from time to time. She was pleased in November when her uncle borrowed her basketball shoes in order to shoot hoops with Ben. Kiersten has started rescuing my old clothing from the Goodwill pile, and transforming them into super cute outfits. A few items, I've kind of wanted things back, but I do realize they don't quite look the same on me, haha. Now that it's gotten colder, my coats and jackets keep going mysteriously missing every morning. There is one in particular that I think she has just completely taken at this point. Kiersten graduated 6th grade with straight As and halfway through 7th grade, she is continuing that streak. She loves reading and watching Anime. She has started to enjoy painting, and has been doing a lot of landscapes lately. I think we may run out of places to put them all. My favorite is a small scene with a flower she gave my as a birthday gift. Kiersten is the nicest person you will ever meet. She strives to make everyone happy and comfortable, and is a great friend. She told me that her friends recently decided she is the Mom of the group. She feels people's feelings along with them, which can be good and bad, but her empathy is just off the charts, and I really admire that about her. I love listening to her jokes. She loves a good belly laugh. When we were in Branson before Christmas, we saw a magician, and she quite enjoyed that. I think her favorite part was knowing how he did a couple of the more simple tricks. She has also taken up baking and crocheting this year, and it's fun to have those hobbies that we can enjoy together. Kiersten's goal for 2021 is to get healthier and stronger. She would like to be an astronomer or a fashion designer when she's older. The person she admires is Dad because he is successful due to how hard he works, and he cares about doing a good job for people. Kiersten is weighing in at 109lbs and has hit new heights of 5'5". She is anxiously awaiting her opportunity to outgrow Kara in the next few years.
Kiersten's favorite things:
Evie has had a pretty good year as well. She also played basketball for coach Daddy, and I believe her team was 3rd place for the season. She tried out Lacrosse this fall and loved it. We will definitely be putting her in that again soon. She finished up her final year with the Girl Scouts, and sold lots of cookies. She finished 4th grade like a champ and started 5th grade with a bang. She is a little sad about some of the typical 5th grade activities that won't be happening this year, but she keeps her head up and finds joy anyway. She loves her teacher, and was happy to go back to in person learning in October. She doesn't love that the kids are separated into small groups they have to stick with though. She wants a chance to talk to all her buddies again. Evie was able to get a little swimming in at the beginning of the year, and was looking forward to summer swim team. We've really got our fingers crossed for it to work out this summer. She turned 10 in July and is a proud tween. She loves being a big kid and getting a little more independence when I'll let her have it. Evie joined the Jr Mustangs cheer squad and has had so much fun with that. She particularly loves tumbling, and has gotten great at 1 handed cartwheels. She is also continuing to take ballet and tap. She didn't take hip hop this fall, but definitely hopes to get back into that next year. The class sizes were very limited because of Covid, so we couldn't get her in for this year. Evie is such a positive light in our family and knows just how to make us smile. She can get a bit sassy, but does her best to also be kind. She is very smart and keeps me on my toes for sure. Her memory puts the rest of us to shame. Evie has been very into reading and doing squishy makeovers this year. We ended up with lots of creative looking squishies. She is a great story teller, and that has translated well to writing for her. She tries very hard to keep her teachers entertained. At the beginning of the school year, her CCL class was learning about simple machines. They were assigned to draw an idea for a machine, and Evie misunderstood. She ended up planning and creating and testing a very elaborate launching machine with some help from Ben, before she realized that all she needed to do was write down an idea and draw a picture. Her teacher was impressed, and gave her extra credit for her efforts. She learned so much from doing all that, so I guess that's a silver lining to the confusion that was remote school. Evie's goal for this coming year is to exercise more. She wants to get strong like Daddy. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up, but doesn't yet feel comfortable deciding what type of doctor she will be. The person she most admires is her Aunt Katie because she is living her best life, and Evie says she'd like to have a life just like that. As of today, her weight is 86.4lbs, and she is 4'11" tall. She was so sure she'd be over 5" finally, but as she too, is in the same shoe size as me now, I think she'll be getting there soon enough.
Evie's current favorite things are:
As for old Mom and Dad, we just did our thing. Ben has been working from home since March, and has taken over the craft room. As much a I'd like that room back, I do enjoy him being home, and it's better than when he was trying to work upstairs and I couldn't vacuum or do the dishes! We had a fun Spring Break trip to Cancun in March before the Covid shutdowns for his Mom's birthday. We all had lots of fun, and didn't want to come home. We unfortunately had Covid right after we got back, but didn't find out right away as we didn't qualify for testing at the time. We got through it okay, but Ben's asthma got really out of control, which was a bit frightening for a week or 2. He finally was given the antibody test to confirm that Covid was what we'd had. I still am not back to smelling and tasting as normal after 9 months! But it's getting better and I'm glad about that. My exchange surgery was delayed on account of Covid, which was hard, as those expanders hurt so much. But in July I finally got them out, and my body has felt so much better ever since. Ben ended up having surgery the day after me for a hernia, so we were a hot mess over the 4th of July, but it was worth it for us both to feel better. We decided to stay with his Dad in Idaho for several weeks, since Ben was working remotely anyway. It was so needed, and the girls loved fishing, riding horses, playing with the dogs, cliff diving, and seeing a few family members. We were really able to recharge and reset, and I really appreciate Kerry letting us stay for 3 weeks! I also took the girls camping for the first time ever. My sister and her girls camped with us, and it was such a lovely time. I can't believe it seemed like such a daunting, unpleasant undertaking to me, because it was so great! I didn't even have any trouble sleeping on the ground. Maybe we'll camp again sometime. Ben stayed at his Dad's to work, but did help us set up the tent and prepare the fire pit. Our November cruise was obviously canceled, but we were lucky enough to be able to take a couple's trip to Aruba instead. We took every precaution, and felt like we couldn't have been safer with all of the precautions that are being taken there. We were pretty nervous to travel and unsure if the trip would even happen, but I really don't regret it. We were more socially distant there and on the flights, than we've been able to be here at home. My mom was kind enough to come watch the kids for us, and that went off without a hitch as well. Kara and Kiersten both started in person school while we were gone, which had me nervous, but it couldn't have gone more smoothly. They are getting pretty self sufficient, it turns out. Like I said before, there are lots of things I'd have changed this year if I could, but we really were blessed, and we did our best as a family. There were some disappointments, but also lots of treasured memories, laughing, and fun!
