Five.Seven Years Old

 5.7 Years Old

Here is the list of favorites from Mother's Day 

My favorite food is: Cherries
My favorite sport is: ballet
The best show on TV is: Bluey
The coolest person in the world is: Ellie (Macie's big sister)
My best subject in school is: alphabet
I’m really awesome at: running
If I could change my name, it would be: Cherry Pie
My favorite color is: Violet
When I grow up I want to be: Soccer Player
My parents are too strict about: we have to eat mushrooms
My favorite song is: Taylor Shift
My favorite book is: Too Big Tutu
When we stop for a treat, I get this: Diary Queen
4 words that describe me are: happy, silly, cuddly, joyful 
When I was little, I used to: playing with princess
My favorite scripture story is: Tree of Life Story
My favorite primary/church song is: I love to See the Temple
My favorite game is: Dragon wood
My favorite season is: Fall
The best snack ever is: Cherries
My favorite superhero is: Cat Girl
The food that makes me want to barf is: mushrooms 
The car I would love to drive when I turn 16 is: a cyber truck 
My best friends are: Macie, Nora, Addy, Ellie
The cutest girl/boy I know is: Brian 
The most memorable day this year was: Swimming at the Stayton with friends
If I had one wish it would be: Eating Cherries everyday
The best thing that has happened to me this year is: I get to see Grandma a lot
One thing I want to learn to do this year is: do soccer
The thing that scares me the most is: snakes in our room
One thing I need to work on is: chart wheels 
If I could go anywhere it would be: California
The most important lesson I’ve learned this year is: reading
If I could meet one person from history it would be: Grandma Peggy

Five.Six Years Old

 5.6 Years Old

• Spring break started our month. You were excited to have the kids home from school to play with you. We had dinner at the cousins house, played with friends, and turned on the water under the trampoline because the weather was so nice. But as soon as the weather turned, thats when we headed for the beach. Our first stop was Astoria. I made sure that each hotel had a pool. When we got there, they were apologetic because instead of having one big room for us, they gave us two rooms that connected. It was the best. You all loved the breakfast, and watching TV in bed. We spent the morning walking along the boardwalk and visiting the column. The airplanes were a huge hit. The sun came out a bit so we just hung out on the grassy hill, re-flying those planes. YWe made our way to Fort Stevens, which was still cool, but most of it was roped off, so not 90's cool. We made our way down to Seaside that afternoon. Our hotel was right on the main street. We walked to the different shops (book store, toys store, and of course the candy store). We ended at the arcade area. We ordered in clam chowder and fish and chips (though not that good). More pool, more TV, more relaxing. The next day was rainy. We went down to the beach part and was walking along when the rain dumped. We found out quickly that you and Dad did not have good rain coats. You were soaked. Being inside helped, but once we got back to the car, you changed your pants. We found a small aquamarine where we feed sea lions and did the touch and feel tide pools. We ate at Mo's, which we all loved their calm chowder. We didn't know what quite to do because it was raining and we couldn't check into our place for a bit more. By the time we made it to Ecola State park, the rain had stop, but the wind picked up. We found a rocky beach with a ton of sea foam and just hung out for a bit. I had all these beaches that I wanted to see and the weather worked out just enough for us to see them. We stopped at Cannon Beach, Hug Point (all of our favorite), and Arcadia (which I want to go back to). We ended at Rockaway for the night. The place had a pool and there were other kids your age there, so that was nice. We finished watching Hamilton to get ready for the play tomorrow. The next morning, Maggie and I took a walk along the beach while Dad took the rest of you back to the pool. We ended with ice cream at Tillamook. It really was a great trip.
• Millie got baptized this month so Grandma and Grandpa Matthews flew in for the weekend. Friday was a busy day with Grandma and I watching Maggie compete in Battle of the Books. You stayed back with Dad and Grandpa and played around the house. We colored Easter eggs and watched the movie Wild Robot with them. Sunday was Millie's baptism. We saw all the cousins at the church, but only the Grandparents came over for dinner afterwards. On Monday, we took Grandma and Papa to see the cover bridge park.
• The big news is that you finished your reading lesson book!!! You have worked on it for the last 1 1/2 years so it feels so good to be done with it. We always let the older kids pick out a book when they finished and you picked out Land of Fake Believe.
•  Easter came. We had such a wonderful Easter brunch and program with our ward. I never have felt such a Christ center Easter before. The different organizations each took a room to decorate for a day of the week. We had families walk from room to room. The last room, the resurrection room done by the YW reminded me of the celestial room in the temple. For actually Easter, we went over on Saturday for an egg hunt and dinner at the Prices and then did our own at our house on Sunday. You got Land of Fake Believe as your book this year, so now we have the whole collection.

Five.Five Years Old

 5.5 Years Old

Five.Four Years

 5.4 Years

Dear JoJo,

My favorite memory of you this year is when we get to watercolor paint together. I love having all this special time with just you while the kids are at school. 

I am so proud of you for all the hard work that you have put into your reading lessons. THere were some days that it has been tiring to do, but you have pushed through it. When the lessons got hard, you never gave up. You would just repeat the lesson until you got good at it.

A favorite part of your personality is how much you love other people. You make dad and I feel so special with all your cuddles. Grandma loves how you run up to her each time with a hug. Even the older sisters at church (like Romana) appreciate it when you say hi and wave to them. 

Your greatest gift is being so positive. You are so positive when doing your chores. You are so positive when plans have to change. You are so positive when playing with your friends. You bring so much light and peace because you can stay happy and cheerful during the day.

If you could see yourself through my eyes, you would know how much you are adored. Being the youngest in the family, all your siblings love you so much and adore you. They go out of their way to share love with you. Both your grandparents just adore you. And Dad and I absolutely love and adore you.

Without you our family would be very quiet, too quiet. You are good at connecting with people. It is easy to fall into our to-do list or audio books. But you love getting people to be more involved with playing a board game or helping with their tasks. 

I like you because you are my buddy. I don’t have that much more time with you, but you have been with me on all my errands and meetings. You make doing the mommy stuff more fun because I have you with me, choosing fun and  loud music to go with it. I hope you stay my buddy always. 

I love you because you are my daughter and the sunshine in our life. I love you more than words can describe. You are the perfect finish to our family. We all needed you for a reason. 

I love you so much,

Mom

Five.Three Years

 5.3 Years

Five.Two Years

 5.2 Years

• Thanksgiving was a hit. In preschool, you had a little feast. You brought in apple sauce cups to share with your friends. During the break, we got to go to Gervais Elementary and play dodgeball with a huge group of friends. Surpise! The Strassers were there. Their cousins know Dusty and were invited. You liked seeing Vella. We ate dinner at Auntie Annie's house. When we walked into her house, she had bowls of peanut butter m&m. They did not last long. You loved this idea that you could eat candy without asking mom. The next day, we braved the cold and cut down a Christmas tree. I told you kids to get your coats on, but none of you listened. So when we arrived at the tree farm and it is 35 degrees outside, I turned around to find you and Millie in just a long sleeve shirt. Thankfully, you had leave a small jacket in the van and Millie used the gloves that I brought for myself. It worked out. We found a tree quickly and headed back to the barn to stand by the fire and watch creepy old animated Christmas movies. The Strassers were able to stop by that night to see our house and play. 
• Random-we went to take Mowgli for a walk and it was so cold that all the spider webs were frozen. It was cool to see all the designs in the bushes and on the mailboxes and fire hydrant. 
• We have been trying to get together with Grandma each week. On weeks that she goes to her doc appointment in Stayton, she stops by here for lunch. We met her at the Gilbert house the other day and played in all the rooms with her. We have stopped by her house for lunch and walked around the park. You love those days and are sad the weeks we have to miss it. 
• Christmas festivities are under way. Fun things that we did this month was visit the Keizer lights, decorated gingerbread houses, visited with Santa at the Ward Christmas brunch, and had Red Ribbon dinner where you got the reusable water balloons to play with in the bath tub.
• You were able to preform in the Nutcracker for dance. This has been something that you have wanted to do for a while. Your class was assigned a doll dancer and an angel. The costume was so beautiful. For the doll dance, they actually forgot to send your class out during the party scene so they had you come on afterwards to do the dance. The angels were so cute. You even had a halo on. Grandma and Papa along with Auntie Annie, joe and Elaine came and watched you the first night. The Leder girls came the next day to watch you.

Five.One Years

 5.1 Years

• Fall is in full swing. We have been raking leaves and jumping in them. We carved pumpkins the other night as a family. You drew a face on a piece of paper and I was impressed that I was able to carve it pretty close to what you wanted. 
• This year, you went as Herimone for Halloween. We had an indoor trunk-o-treat at the church along with a chili dinner. Maggie was such a good big sister and took you around to get all the candy while dad and I passed out our candy. Afterwards, you were running around with Lilly. The Price's came for Halloween night. We had a spaghetti dinner and then went trick-o-treating around the neighborhood. The big kids wanted to go on their own, feeling like they could get to more homes, but you and Jessie were fast, running between houses. When we got home, you kids dumped all your candy out and swapped what you wanted to. Jessie and Sonora got to sleep here that night. In the morning, there was a lot of dress up and putting on plays. You girls came up with a Cinderella play but each of you wanted to play Cinderella. So, you all put on the same play four times so each of you had a time to play Cinderella. 
• The other day, it was so sunny and warm and we were hanging out in the backyard. You noticed that there was a helicopter in the air. It was flying pretty close by our house in a circle. At one point, it really looked like it was going to lad in our back yard. I could hear the school kids and then it dawned on me that they were celebrating Veterans Day. We ran over to the school and sure enough, there was a Black Hawk Army helicopter there. You were able to go inside and we stayed to watch it fly away.
• While the boys were in CA, I took all of you girls to OSU to watch BYU Folk Dance. That was so cool. Grandma joined us. We ate Thai food on the way down. Our favorite dances were The Philippines stacking stick dance and the Ukraine dance at the end. 
• A few more adventures this month-Millie showing us the duck pond near our house and finding the kiwis on the tree there, hiking the middle falls at Silver Falls, going with me to visit our new grandmas for ministering, going to the Gilbert as a family (favorite new room was the create it room), decorating your disguise-a-turkey, spending two different days with Grandma (one for your birthday and the other with Jessie), and going to a gymnastic place with Jessie.
• Fuuny moments this month: at church, Henry wanted to give you a hug when leaving but you rejected him. He ran away crying. You are such a heart breaker. The other moment was when I was outside raking leaves. You ran out to tell me to come inside. The song "A 1000 Years" was playing. You told me, "I don't know why but sometimes this song makes me cry. I just have tears coming out". I laughed and told you that I would love you for 1000 years and more.