January 2022

 Here's some of what happened this month.

Megan with her friend Gigi at her first official YW activity.

Megan and Matthew playing together one morning.

Pillow fight! Matthew even became a big pillow for some of it.

First Sunday at YM.

First Sunday at YW.

Matthew and U after Matthew received the Aaronic Priesthood at church.

Cool designs.

Matthew's class on his 1000 day of school. (No, that's not a typo. The 100th day of 5th grade is the 1000th day of public school.)

Sister snuggles.

Atlas, er, Matthew, with the weight of the world on his back.

Matthew and Megan helped Me put together the Taj Mahal Lego set. We built half one day and half another.

Megan and Matthew with some friends at the park:
Hannah, Lauren, Megan, Jacob, Micah, Colton, Matthew

Megan ran in another running club race.

Big milestone for the Corolla.

Cute cactus cookie Megan got.

Matthew showed us he could fit in his old sleeper by scrunching himself up really little. But it was quite tight and he needed to roll around if he wanted to move.

Matthew had his 11 year old check up this month. He weighed in at 60 pounds (5%) and is 54 inches tall (18%). He got two shots, one in each arm. 

He requested that I send the following to his teacher: Matthew wanted me to let you know that both of his arms will be sore (he got a shot in each arm), so he will need to write with his feet tomorrow.

His teacher thought it was the perfect solution.

Our wall of Christmas cards.

Recent Happenings

Matthew had his 7 year old doctor visit. He weighed in at 40.6 lbs (4%) and is 45.25 inches tall (10%).

Here are Megan's 7 year stats (since I'm not sure I ever put them in): 47.8 lb (40%), 49 inches (70%).

Sarah did a science fair project on the effects of different liquids on nails. Here is one nail from each of the groups after sitting for a couple months in the named liquid. (The control nail wasn't in a liquid.)

Super Matthew!

Game night! We played one month of Pandemic Legacy, Tenzie and Clue (Colonel Mustard committed the crime in the Ballroom with the Conservatory).

Some cute elves showed up in our home so we invited them to stay.

Lovely drawing Megan did.

Megan loves puzzles!

We helped take down the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple. Megan found some leaves in which to play.

Matthew with the temple.

U is getting older all the time!
(We really have no idea why he gets all this Medicare mail, but there are some businesses that are very concerned he has not yet signed up.)

Brave U let Matthew and Megan help cut his hair.

Megan's picture of the moon.

Matthew's picture of the moon.

Matthew's 6 year stats

Matthew had his six year check up last week. He's looking good.

Weight: 36 pounds (2.5%)
Height: 42 inches (4%)

A few interesting things I learned at the doctor's:
Matthew's favorite school subject is math.
A green vegetable he likes to eat is broccoli.

Megan's 6th Birthday

Megan has been SUPER excited about her birthday for a few weeks. 2 weeks before her birthday, she was really sad that nobody at church called her "the birthday girl." You better believe that by the time her birthday actually rolled around, she was so happy! What added to her happiness was that all of her wishes were coming true: Uncle Seth was coming, her birth family was coming to her party, she got to have pizza for dinner and chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. She thought that since all of that was happening, maybe Aunt Allison would even show up, like she had before. (We did let her know that wouldn't be happening.) It was a great weekend for Megan!

Helping make the chocolate cake.

Cakes take so long to bake!

With her presents on her birthday.

With her opened presents. She received an ice cream maker, some pajamas, a Tangled shirt, a marble track, gummy bears and lippy stuff, a book, a couple headband kits, a super soft doll and a pajama party (complete with pizza, popcorn and a movie). What a blessed girl!

Playing with the marble track. It's been very popular this week!

With her birthday cupcake.

With her birthday balloon.

At Megan's pj party a few days later.

What a happy, loving girl! We definitely feel blessed to have her in our home!

Megan had her 6 year check up. She's doing great and developing normally. Here are her stats:
weight: 43.8 lbs (45%)
length:  46.25 inches (70%)

Sarah's 11th birthday!

Sarah had a birthday, shout hooray!

Sarah says she turned 11. That's b in hexadecimal and 1011 in binary. How did she get to be so old??? Since it was her birthday, we thought it proper to celebrate.

Sarah with her gifts. Megan and Matthew were really excited to get her that little birthday balloon.

With Megan and Matthew after opening their gift. Besides the balloon, they gave her hand sanitizer, gel pens, twizzlers and a glow stick.

Sarah with her gifts. She REALLY wanted an American Girl doll and so requested that we combine resources to get it for her. She was super excited to get Lea, the doll of the year. 

Lea got some extra clothes, including some that Grandma O made.

Hi Lea.

Sarah requested strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Make a wish.

Yum!

It has been fun to watch Sarah as she matures. It's nice to have conversations about serious subjects and to see her think deeply about matters of importance. And of course, she's lots of fun to be with.

She had a few fun school projects at the end of the year. One was creating a pop bottle character from a book she'd read. She chose to make Serafina from Serafina and the Black Cloak. It turned out well and I'd hoped to get a picture but Sarah disassembled her before I could snap one. For math, she got to furnish her dream home with dream furnishings. And she certainly had plenty of money--she needed to spend exactly $300,000 including tax. She enjoyed shopping for beds and tvs and all the other items necessary for a home. And her yard was awesome; you'd definitely want to come and play--she had a swingset, a playhouse, a trampoline, an outdoor furniture set and a swimming pool.

11 year old stats:
Weight: 82 pounds (50%)
Height: 57.5 inches (50+%)