Dear Eden,

 

Happy 8th birthday to you! I'm over a month late; sorry about that! It has been a big birthday with your baptism, and I am proud of the girl you have become.

You are growing just fine despite your limited diet. Your favorite foods include cheese pizza and chicken nuggets, strawberries, and shells and cheese. I will say you are slowly trying new things, even if most of it doesn't take. Some of your favorite things to do with food are to mix all of the sauces together (mayo, ketchup, honey mustard, Chick-fil-A sauce), as well as taste all the sodas in the same cup. You lost a few teeth since your last birthday, and although the dentist predicted your gap tooth would disappear with the adult teeth, you are still proudly sporting a gap!

Your interests are still very much the same. You have been a dragon-loving girl for over four years, and I don't see that stopping any time soon. You have all the Dragon Master books; in fact, for your 8th birthday you requested a Dragon Master theme since all Dragon Masters are 8 in the series. You like to read the Wings of Fire graphic novels. You do like to read Dog Man and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, too. You are still quite the budding artist and draw stories all the time. You are quite imaginative. I have you enrolled in an after-school art class as your extracurricular activity for the year.

This year you tested into Gifted and Talented (GT), and you are so proud of yourself. You really love the class and the teacher. I tried to prepare you just in case you didn't place, but I'm glad you get to have this experience. You like to read and do well on your spelling tests, so the biggest struggle we have is just getting you to do your homework. You are in class with your friend Dustin again, but you tell me you play with other friends at recess as well. One of the friends I hear a lot about is a girl named Mia, who also loves dragons. 

I've been blessed with such a sweet, silly girl. Some of the things that you say are absolutely hilarious. For example, you came into my room one morning to show me a star bead you had in your set that had an extra-long bead attached to it. It kind of looked like it was holding a gun, and you said it was a shooting star. Very clever. You like potty language as well much to Joseph's chagrin. To compliment your silly side, you can be super sweet. Yesterday you cleaned your room, hallway, desk, and piano area without me asking. It doesn't happen often, but boy did it make me so happy!

You have had a fun summer. You learned how to swim! Although you aren't confident in the deep end, you went from not really swimming to swimming across the pool in one summer. You also did some kung fu and earned a "pink" belt. Lastly, you got baptized! You chose to do it in Albuquerque with family. It's hard to believe that my baby girl is old enough for baptism and is in third grade. You have a strong bond with your brothers. You are interested in a lot of the things they are, like dinosaurs and lizards. However, there is still a lot of fighting that we are working on, and hopefully it will stop one day, even if it's when you guys are all grown up.

I love my daughter so much! I'm so happy you are in my life and teaching me so much. I hope you continue learning this year and being the sweet and silly girl that you are. 

Love,

Mom

Beginning of 2024

Happy 2024...2 years later! This is mainly a photo dump, but the kids are too cute not to share!

Noah was still falling asleep in the most random but cute spots.

Both these cuties fell asleep on me. Had to savor the moment.

They like to keep each other up yet hate to be alone!

Seeing if they could fit on the bookshelf.

Eden putting on the makeup she got for Christmas.

Working on using a pencil!

He loves to help and be independent.

Elijah moving through the ranks rather quickly!

The amount of Legos Eli currently has is astounding. It's even bigger 2 years later!

And he still asks for more!

Noah is getting into building as well with Magnetiles!

Joseph took an after-school science class.

Learning how water towers work!

Admiring our new snake.

Eden in her element for the Chinese New Year.

The parade at school.

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Caught Elijah's name in the 50-word club at school!

Excited about her Valentine goodies!

Now to end the post with a trip to Sea World!

The brand new Tortoise exhibit!

Dear Eden,

Happy 7th Birthday! These years just keep flying by, but you are still the same Eden. Reading the past letter, I don't think you changed all that much. I'm still going to write you a letter detailing your seventh year of life. Let's get into it.

 

In terms of size, you are perfectly normal. Something I have noticed is how slow your feet grow compared to your brothers. I feel I am constantly have to buy a pair of shoes for one of them but you still fit perfectly in the shoes I got you over a year ago. Maybe you will have small feet like your mom! You finished another year of ballet and after discussing it, you decided to try something else. You were sure you would grow up to be a ballerina until I showed you what grown ballerinas do (and saw their feet). Now you decided you want to be an artist when you grow up.

 

Not just any artist, you specifically want to draw dragons. I don't think you have to wait to do that, you are doing that every day. You are still obsessed with dragons. Your birthday theme for your party was water dragon, you have so many stuffed dragons, your favorite book series is Dragon Masters, and you are reading Wings of Fire. You pretend to be a dragon and want to be a dragon for Halloween (again). This is your dragon era and I love it. If it's not dragons, it's Pokemon. You have so many favorites I can't even begin to write them all. You like dinosaurs too. We went to Build-a-Bear and picked this Raptor complete with claws and teeth. Then you picked out a sparkly outfit for it. The people at Build-a-Bear never seen that before, but I think it encapsulates you perfectly.

You are going to start second grade and I'm excited for you. Last school year you became really good friends with a girl named Dustin. In fact, her birthday party theme was also dragons and her mom said she was influenced by you. It was so cute. You are right where you need to be for school, and you are an excellent reader. I attribute that to reading the Book of Mormon almost every night as a family. I hope you will be in the same class as your friends. I will also look into putting you into after school art classes and hopefully piano!

 

When I was reading your last letter, I had to laugh because your diet didn't change at all! HEB stopped stocking your favorite mac and cheese, so I guess that's off the list, but you do enjoy eating pasta in general. I stopped trying to pack your lunch for school because there was hardly anything I could pack! I hoped you would find something you like in school lunches. That's something we've struggled with. Another struggle is getting you to express yourself through words. You are a talker, but will shut down when you are upset. Instead of using your words you make nasty faces, scream, and hiss and growl at anybody. And it happens pretty much every day. I'm hoping this phase passes by your next birthday!

Three years later you are still a hardcore mama's girl. You ask for cuddles all the time and always want to sit by me wherever we go. Dad and I teach your Primary class and you are glued to me! When you talk, you like to be uniterrupted and will talk for a while. You have big ideas and want anything to be executed exactly how you imagine it. You are upset if I change anything, too! You're just a little stubborn, I guess! You are also a very silly girl. You pick up on the silly antics of your brothers and join in. You don't have the smoothest relationship with your brothers, but you hate being alone and will sleep in the same room with one of them almost every night. I'm very glad you are a part of our family.

I hope I captured seven-year-old Eden well! I hope you continue letting your light shine. I hope you will be kind to others and choose to do the right thing. You will be 8 by your next birthday, so this is the year to prepare and understand what it means to follow Jesus. And I hope you do! We love you so very much, Eden. I'm so happy to have my daughter!

Love,

Mom