Caroline at 9 years old

 This is our lengthy post about who Caroline is at age 9. It is so we can look back and remember our girl and all the ways she is special to us. 

Caroline at 9 years old is 4' 3 3/4'' tall and weighs 56 pounds. She wears size 8 in pants, shorts and shirts. Her wardrobe consists of T-shirts and shorts. She will only wear a dress if I ask her to for church, which is not very often. 

Caroline had a pretty good year in 3rd grade. She really enjoyed her teacher, Mrs. Rosenlund and this year had an opportunity to make some new friends. We discovered that making new friends can sometimes be hard and that Caroline has a sensitive heart and can sometimes take offense easily to what her classmates might say around her. It has been a great teaching moment for what type of friends we should surround ourselves with. 

Caroline got braces this past year. She started with a palatal expander in September and then after 6-8 weeks moved into upper braces only from November until May. This will be Phase I of her orthodontic life. She'll most likely have Phase II done when she's around 13 years old. 

She continues to play the piano and enjoys it.. sometimes. Practicing a new song is hard but once she nails the song down she does a beautiful job! 

This past summer Caroline did swimming with Normal Parks Sharks. Caroline LOVES to swim! Her favorite stroke was the butterfly and freestyle. Breast stroke was tricky at first and then she really got the hang of it at the end of the season. Back stroke is very tricky because she says you can't see where you are going and she would sometimes start to get off track. Most mornings it was hard to get her out of bed to go to the 7 am practice but once she was in the water she was so happy! Caroline says she does not like to compete so before each meet we would just encourage her to try her hardest. She ended up winning most of her heats and when she finished her 25 yard race she would have the biggest smile on her face. We loved watching her swim!

Caroline has a zoo class this summer as well and we can't wait to hear about all of the fun things she will learn and do at her week long "camp". 

She got to go to church camp overnight this summer! I was worried that she would be nervous being away from her parents and little sister for 4 nights but she was very excited when we dropped her off at East Bay camp. I'm sure that it helped that her big brother Liam was there also. Lucy went to camp during the day so she still go to see most of her family during the week. 

Caroline continues to be an amazing eater! She loves to try new things! Shrimp, spaghetti and meatballs, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, any kind of fruit and of course pizza from Monical's are some of her favorites. She has even started trying to cook and bake with minimal help.

Caroline continues to amaze us with her creativity and imagination. She is always coming up with a game to play with Lucy and her other friends. 

Her best friends are Johanna, Emma and Scarlet. We are so thankful that even with her friend Chaya moving away she is still able to do some FaceTime calls with her once in awhile. Chaya even came back to Illinois in April and she got to spend the night at our house! It was really special. 

Her birthday party this year was at The Children's Museum in town. This was a great idea! We had 8 girls in total and everyone was able to stay together and also explore on their own. After our time in the museum we had cupcakes and Capri Suns at a picnic table across the street. It was perfect. 

She is still a fabulous big sister to Lucy and they get along so well. They do still share a room and while she has been asking for her own room for a solid year now we aren't quite ready to separate them. 

Caroline still has the biggest heart and is very aware of how others around her are feeling. We love that quality about her and look forward to seeing how that will continue to shape her in her life. 

Liam at 12 years old

Liam at 12 years old is 4 ft 9.5 in and 75 lbs. He has gained 3/4 inch in the last two months due to his recent sleeping in and eating more. We are definitely getting into the preteen area of eating, sleeping and some interesting moods. 

This year Liam is in 6th grade and absolutely loves Junior High. We have had minimal issues with him getting assignments done on time. He has transitioned very well into having a locker, having multiple teachers and being responsible for his work and schedule. We have had to help quite a bit with math this year which has been interesting since there is no math book for us parents to refer to. Thank you YouTube and math teachers across the country for your posted videos! We have also had to help him learn how to study for tests, something he has never had to do before. 

Liam started out his year joining the cross country team and it was very fun to watch him improve every single week at each race. He ran JV all year and has decided next year he would like to try to make the varsity team. Cross country really helped him meet new friends and deepen other relationships. He had a PR of 13:40 in 2 miles.

Liam has continued to play the euphonium in band. He also plays in the jazz band. He has really enjoyed jazz band and the music they have been playing. He also was able to do pep band for two basketball games and has memorized most of the music for that and that is what he "warms up" with when practicing at home. 

Liam was able to perform in solo/ensemble contest this winter. He played a piano solo and was in a brass quintet. He received a I in both performances. The quintet are all 6th graders and call themselves "The Brass Monkeys".  They were able to win 'Best of the Day' in their judges room and are lucky to have Mr. Myers, the Grove music teacher, help guide and direct them. 

Liam really enjoys fishing with his best friend, Zach. They always catch and release in the pond behind Zach's house.

Liam still loves baseball as his number one sport. He loves to play with friends and loves to practice with Evan. He loves to talk about it, still has many, many baseball cards and hopes to one day go to Spring Training for the White Sox in Arizona. He enjoys playing shortstop, second base and pitching. 

Liam also tried basketball this winter. He had not played since 2nd grade so the beginning of the season he had a lot to learn but he had a great coach who was patient and really helped him understand how to play the game. His confidence with the sport greatly improved and it was fun to watch him with many of his Jr High friends play in two different leagues. 

For Liam's birthday we took him out to BloNo Pizza with 5 of his friends and watched them all try to figure out how to swing some golf clubs. We were lucky that the weather was in the 40's and the place had heaters so you could stay somewhat warm. The food was good and the kids had fun!

Liam has enjoyed going to youth group at our church this year and he does spend most of his screen time video gaming. He plays Fortnite, Minecraft, Super SmashBros and MLB The Show but has also enjoyed playing Nintendo Switch Sports with his sisters and Just Dance as well. He still enjoys reading but that requires more encouragement from parents to do. Liam tends to enjoy historical fiction more than fantasy but still loves Harry Potter books and movies. 

He has started a few more chores this year with mowing being the main one. He will mow our yard with the option of doing both the front or the back for $10 or both for $20. He typically chooses to just do one. He has recently been hired by our neighbor to mow his yard this year. He gets $20 per mow while Evan does the trimming. Evan will hopefully teach him how to trim soon so he will be completely responsible for the whole yard. 

Liam is a very responsible kid who likes to follow the rules. He is funny and a very social kid. He has lots of different groups of friends in his grade so far. 

We just feel so blessed to get to watch him continue to grow into this wonderful and well rounded kid!