To my Precious Daughter on her 8th Birthday

My sweet Alivia:

You make my heart melt. I just cannot believe the kindness and loving spirit that God has given you. You bring a sense of peace and calm to our family and handle your younger brothers with grace (most of the time!) You easily share your things, and often can read what others need without being asked. You are a wonderful Mother's helper.

You have amazing perseverance. You try so hard in school and put forth your best effort and stay on task. Your teacher, Mrs. Williams, sends me emails about what a joy you are to teach at ACS. Being diagnosed with dyslexia has not dampened your positive attitude and you have handled going to therapy three times a week with grace. You never complain about the extra work.

Here is an e-mail I got from Mrs. Williams just a few weeks ago:
You will be happy to know that Alivia scored a 100 on her history test and a 92 on her math test!  I also want to let you know how impressed I am with the paragraphs she has been writing.  The effort she gives is amazing!  I am so proud of your sweet little girl!

Thanks for sharing her with me,

Dana

You love listening to audio books and would spend hours in your room working on your rainbow loom listening to audio books. Right now you love the "Magic Tree House" series. You struggle most with Math, but have an amazing ability to memorize and understand text that is read to you. Your cursive handwriting is beautiful. Your reading has come so far and you are on grade level, if not above right now. Spelling will always be a challenge, but I look at your Dad, and see how he struggles with spelling and how little it has gotten in his way. There will always be spell check!

I am so proud of you. Your quiet, gentle spirit blesses others around you. I am blessed to be your mother and am so glad we get to spend special time together during the week while we homeschool. I will forever be grateful for that shared experience.

I love you sweet girl,
Mommy

I just love this picture 

Your sweet smile and beautiful eyes light up the room!

She got a birthday haircut with this adorable silver hairpiece. It was so cute! Sadly it only stayed in about 2 days. 

Alivia's BFF

Alivia has a best friend! Her name is Anna Kinslow and she is in second grade with Alivia at Austin Classical School. I would not be happier about her friendship with Anna. I prayed for about a year that Alivia would meet a special friend. Anna's mom just happens to be the Head of School at ACS and we dream about them being lifelong friends and going away to college together and being roommates. I pray this will be true! The Risingers love the Kinslows which makes their friendship even more fun because it gives us an excuse to see the entire family more.

Anna and Alivia are both the oldest girls in a family with several siblings. They are both sweet, kind, conscientious, rule followers! The cutest thing they do is write letters back and forth in the mail. It is precious. I had a BFF named Anna growing up so it is fun to talk about my best friend while Alivia talks about hers. She just bought a BFF bracelet to give to Anna.

They had a sleepover for Alivia's birthday at our house and we tried to do some special things. . .

They painted nails and toenails

We all walked over to the Domain for dinner at CPK

Gave each other matching glitter tattoos with "Diva" on them

Alivia's Birthday

Alivia wanted to take Avery and Paige with her to the American Girl Doll Store in Dallas for her birthday. We have done it twice before but Alivia just loves it. We stay in the Westin Galleria while we are there and the girls just have a blast being together and dreaming about all the AG loot in the store. We shopped for about 3 hours and Alivia never did seem to tire of looking at everything. It was a special overnight for her (and me!). Thank you Mimi for giving us such a special treat.

We stopped at IHOP (Alivia's choice) on our way there for lunch

This birthday crown is so sweet - Alivia and Mimi made it together and Mimi carefully brought it all the way from Austin

Cake pops!

AND a root beer float - she was in heaven

Me and the birthday girl - with her Bitty Baby and Saige

Precious cousins

Matching PJ set!

A Terrible Fall

We were leaving church. I stopped to talked with a good friend (shout out to you, MM!) Matt continued on to the car with the three boys while Alivia stayed with me. About 5 minutes later, Alivia and I headed to the car only to find John crying, Matt sitting in the front seat of the car looking stunned and holding a screaming Matthew. Will was also in the back of the mini van wimpering as well.

I could not imagine what had happened!

Matt relayed to me that as he was walking to the car holding Matthew, Will ran in front of him causing Matt to trip and fall on the pavement. Matt fell on top of John and was unable to prevent Matthew's head from crashing into the pavement. Matt also hurt his elbow quite a bit. We were so thankful that everyone had multiple layers of clothing on or else it could have been so much worse.

Matthew's head looked really bad. It was terribly swollen. He refused to let me put any ice on it. He cried for a long time which is unusual for him. The bruise and cut lasted for a long time. He may even have a permanent scar and divot in his forehead from it. Poor baby! Matt felt so badly - Will did too.

Will's 6th Birthday Party

We had planned to take the entire Taylor clan out to the Bertram ranch for the day and possibly overnight to celebrate Will's birthday (at his request). But the weather got REALLY cold the weekend of our plans. So Matt and I gathered everyone at Chuck E Cheese for a birthday celebration. I was sort of dreading it, but it was really fun. Having a very small group was so nice. We got some booths at the front where it was a little quieter and less chaotic. All the kids had a great time playing video games and redeeming tickets. Happy Birthday Will!

This was Mimi and Grandpa's Christmas card pic! I thought it was adorable.

Baby Matthew LOVED the rides and all the noise

Dear Will on your 6th Birthday

Dear Will:
You turned 6 years old a few weeks ago! It's funny because I often think you are already older than 6 because of your advanced sense of humor and vocabulary.

This year you have grown so much - physically and emotionally. Your first year of "real school" at Austin Classical has gone without a hitch. You have taken to phonograms, mathematics, reading and spelling very easily. You struggle a bit with coloring and handwriting. Mrs. Strickland has had me working with you on your fine motor skills.

I often have to force you to slow down and really look at the details - you want to rush to finish up for free time or just to see what Sister is up to.

The only negative feedback I have gotten from your teacher is that you can lead others into silly behavior. You have natural leadership qualities that can be used for good. . . or bad.

You are a natural salesman. Outgoing. Smart. You have helped Alivia sell her Girl Scout cookies and I pray that you will be able to start a business in a few years to really learn how sales and business works.

God has gifted you with a heart for Him at a young age. You love listening to the Bible and hearing history stories from The Mystery of History. I pray that Daddy and I will continue to foster an amazement and awe for God and that it will continue to grow. I pray that God will bring you to Him soon.

You sometimes struggle when you are not the center of attention. You crave attention from Daddy and Mommy and it is hard to share us. You have loved your one on one time with Grandpa at the Bertram ranch - it seems to soothe your soul to be outside one on one with someone that you love. We are working on your bad habit of screaming our names over and over again to get our attention. Your voice can get pretty loud.

You adore your brother John and he loves you, too. You are great playmates and I look forward to your friendship continue to grow as you get older. I hope Matthew will join in the mix as well as he gets older.

I have absolutely loved homeschooling you this year - I feel like I know you so much better and cherish our times together.

Will, I love you so much and am thankful God has brought you to me to raise.

Love,
Mommy

Austin Classical Semester Program

To wrap up the first semester (ever!) of Austin Classical School, the kids performed a program highlighting all that they had learned this semester. It was heart-warming to watch and included: memorization of Exodus 20:1-12 (10 commandments), time lines, books of the Old Testament, the Lord's Prayer in Latin, sentence diagramming from Shurley Grammar and catechisms. What I have loved about this year has been the fact that Alivia and Will see one another throughout the day (at gym, lunch and recess) and know one another's friends. The entire school only has 13 students! There are 10 families. We are blessed to be there and look forward to many more years to come.

The entire school!

Our fearless Head of School, Dusty Kinslow - she is great

Time line starting with Adam and Eve. Each child memorized a paragraph about their poster board.

Alivia, Bailey Mezger and Anna Kinslow

Will with his poster

John cannot WAIT to join his older brother and sister at ACS

Alivia's best friend, Anna Kinslow