Millie turns 9!

 How in the world?? Wasn’t she just a cute little toddler? (Also had to double check that was not a picture of Hazel below! Beside the hair color they look a lot a like to me!)

But no, Millie is 9 years old. Love this beautiful girl.

Her birthday was not the most exciting day - we were still quarantining after our brush with COVID and it was a school day. But luckily she is easy to please and we can have more birthday fun another day.

I was all ready to run out for some donuts for breakfast but she asked for cinnamon rolls instead. Why are canned cinnamon rolls the best?? It is one of our family’s favorite treats.

Millie asked if this year she could shop for her own birthday gift with us, and she got to go out with Tyler and pick out a fun LEGO bracelet kit. Pretty much Millie in a box! But that meant she didn’t even have anything to open (at least from us) that day. Thankfully she had visits from both sets of grandparents and some cousins too and was showered with love. She wanted McDonald’s for lunch and her favorite meal for dinner - fiesta ranch chicken and rice. It rained in the afternoon which she was super excited about and we topped it off with a movie night!

Some things about Millie at 9 years old:

- She is a total bookworm. She earned her own Kindle by reading 50 chapter books this summer, and then read 50 more to earn a LEGO set. I’m very thankful she has her own Kindle so we can keep up with her reading easier! She loves The Babysitters Club right now.

- Millie also loves LEGOs, as evidenced above. She builds a set and then takes it apart and builds it again, her own way.

- She enjoyed taking tennis lessons this fall and is rocking swim team still! She works so hard at swimming and is getting really good. 

- Millie also loves running and comes home from school with reports of who beat her and who she beat that day. 

- Her favorite subjects in school are science and reading/writing. She is good at math but doesn’t like it very much.

- Millie loves music and is constantly asking to listen to something. She loves that I have to buy music for High Fitness so now we have a library of songs she loves that we can access anytime. I love to hear her sing!

We just love Millie Mae and are so grateful she is ours!

False start

 We’re having an interesting start to the new year. I wasn’t feeling well for a couple of days and it turns out that I have COVID! So instead of joining the fun with my family leading up to Sarah’s wedding, we are at home. Thankfully it has been mild.

I asked the kids if they wanted to come up with some goals for the new year, and Millie took the liberty of setting a goal she thought would be good for each of us! I really like mine.

Yesterday was my birthday. As an adult, the most exciting part of a birthday is the food. Unfortunately, I have the telltale COVID symptom - loss of taste and smell! So I am excited to have a redo whenever that comes back. Our families each stopped by with some gifts and now I am all set in the workout clothing department. It was so sweet. Cheers to 32!

2020 in review

 This will go down as a very weird year, one in which I did very little blogging! But I’m glad to be caught up and hopeful that this next year I can be more consistent about it. For now, here’s 2020 in review.

January: Millie turned 8 and was baptized at the end of the month!

February: I spent a lot of time painting the bathrooms and bathroom cabinets, Millie performed some numbers from “Seussical: The Musical” with her grade, and Max hosted his class pet for a weekend.

March: Started with field day at school for the kids, turned out to be their last days at school for the whole year! Everything shut down due to COVID-19 during spring break and we began virtual school and work. Very strange month, we were bummed we didn’t make it to the rodeo. Max turned 6 and we took some pictures in the bluebonnets.

April: Max lost his first tooth in a gruesome bike accident, Tyler and Poppy built a shed in the backyard, and Harvey learned to ride a bike. We enjoyed some gorgeous weather, which was very appreciated as we were wanting to spend so much time outside!

May: Tyler had a birthday and Hazel turned 1 right after! We had a fun day at the beach with Heidi and James’s crew and things started opening up enough for Max to finally have his birthday date with Gigi and Poppy.

June: We were thrilled to reach the end of the virtual school experience! The Juergens crew came into town for a fun reunion, which included boating on Poppy’s new boat on Lake Conroe. 

July: More boating and lots of swimming with cousins on both sides (since the Westons officially moved to the neighborhood). 

August: Tyler and I celebrated 11 years of marriage, more boating, and an Andersen family reunion. We got ready for school and preschool to start.

September: Last boating of the summer. Millie started 3rd grade, Max started 1st grade, and Harvey started preschool! Millie and Max also started taking tennis lessons and I got certified to teach High Fitness.

October: We took family pictures, participated in a virtual primary program, and had lots of Halloween fun!

November: Harvey turned 4, Hazel got really good at riding the scooter, and we enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving break.

December: Lots of Christmas fun with lots of family in town!

Bring it on, 2021!