Nora Kate is 7.5

 Today, Valentine's Day, is Nora Kate's half birthday. She says Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday and I think that is partly due to all the pink and partially due to the fact that it's her 1/2 birthday.  She's halfway to 8, and it seems that there has been a lot of growing up done over the last six months.  She just seems and acts older and more mature most of the time.  She's also continued to get taller and she's nearing being the same height as Carter (although he doesn't like to talk about that!). She's still got the very best laugh in the world that just bubbles out of her. When she gets tickled she can't help but throw her head back and let the laughter bubble out.  I love it.  Carter and Clayton are especially good at getting her laughing at some nonsensical thing.  

Speaking of her brothers, Nora Kate, being the only girl, has special relationships with all her brothers.  Lately it seems that she and Dawson get along the best with the least amount of conflict, however, she and Carter have this special way they play together especially when it's just the two of time. It's very silly and make-believe based, but they both are always on the same page. However, these two that are so close in age can have their fair share of disagreements lately, but they seem to be over them before I even figure out what the dispute is about.  I've always said that NK and Carter are as thick as theives together-they protect the other one, that's for sure.  Nora Kate and Clayton do well together too,  especially when he will play exactly what she wants him to which a lot of the time he's so thrilled to be included that he will follow along.  

Nora Kate also plays great with her friends. This has been a disappointing year in that we really haven't gotten to have any friends from school over to play thanks to Covid, but she still loves seeing her friends at school on the two mornings she goes each week.  Thankfully NK has made two friends on our street who are her age and who she has gotten to play with a ton during all this covid quarantine time, so that has been wonderful for her!

Nora Kate continues to be a free spirit in many ways that she acts.  She is also so used to playing with brothers that when she witnessed some girl drama (yes, already at 7.5-crazy), she said she thought it was a waste of playtime...hah! And promptly went to play with her brothers and leave the other girls to argue on their own. 

Nora Kate continues to enjoy our homeschool/blended school. Of course, it is really all she has ever known, but I think it's perfect for her.  I have been amazed at how much her reading skills have continued to take off over the last six months.  She's become a really great and avid reader!  Some of her favorite books to read on her own right now are Owl Diaries Books, Horrible Harry Books, Jigsaw Jones Books.  The kids and I have continued to read through the 9 books of the Little House on the Prairie series this year.  We just this past week finished book 4 (On the Banks of Plum Creek), so we are down to 5 left in the series. She has really enjoyed this and learning all about Laura Ingalls' life growing up. I loved these books as a kid, so it's fun re-experiencing them again with the kids.  Back to school, Nora Kate does well in all her subjects.  She loves the hands on parts of science especially when we have an experiment to do. She enjoys English Language Arts as long as she doesn't have to do a lot of writing (then it's not her fav). She does really well at math, although she has had to learn to force herself to sit still and work on her practice problems since she can't stand all the 2nd grade math problems that require her to solve the problems three different ways (drawing disks is probably her least favorite thing ever-hah).  Social studies is not her favorite, but lately we have been in a lesson about National Symbols and a lot of them tie to Washington, DC so she has been more interested in that since she remembers all the monuments, White House, etc from our visit. So that's been fun for her.  She usually says her favorite subject is Science when asked lately. 

Nora Kate continues to amaze me with her athleticism lately.  She excelled in soccer this year, and it was SO fun to watch her competitive spirit come out and see her play so hard! She has been doing great in gymnastics this year too.  She has mastered many things.  They have a book they work through and she has gotten a lot of 4's (complete mastery) on various skills in the book.  She looks forward to gymnastics each Monday, and I love it.  I can tell that between soccer and gymnastics she has gotten stronger.  She cartwheels everywhere.

Nora Kate loves to randomly tell us she loves us-and I love that about her.  She also randomly loves to tell us that we are the best Mommy and Daddy ever.  Sweet girl.  She is so wonderful and brings the perfectly needed amount of girlyness to our family.  Things I want to remember about our curly haired, bubble, blue eyed, happy, sweet, kind, athletic, cartwheel doing, book reading, girl at this age: loves Legos (especially "girl Legos"), has gotten into the big American Girl Books more lately (currently Felicity), loves her trampoline, she and Carter put on trampoline shows that are full on routines for me, would jump on the trampoline 24/7 if I let her, loves baking shows and making her own baking shows (I put them privately on youtube to share with family and friends but we made them into real little shows with intro and music and she thinks this is the best thing ever), loves to bake, loves the show Nailed It, loves to ride her bike, loves to roller skate in the garage (this is a very recent thing), enjoys gardening and even asked to join the gardening club at school and thoroughly enjoys that club, loves her reading nook, is very social and knows what seems like every single kid in every single grade name at school, begged along with Carter to play spring soccer (usually we just do fall) so we said ok so will be getting to play soccer this spring, loves boots, prefers summer clothes and dresses to winter clothes (who doesn't?!), would wear her Chaco sandals year-round if I let her, likes to keep her toenails and fingernails polished, two favorite hair styles are "the normal way" and side pony tail, got a scooter for Christmas but refuses to take it outside so that it can continue being and indoor use scooter-regularly scooters from her room to kitchen for meals-hah, loves to do sweet little unnoticed things for her brothers, a Daddy's girl, loves her dog Duke and he loves her right back, she likes to sleep on a silk pillow case and wear a sleeping mask (and she packs these things when we travel), loves the pool, beach, and sunshine, wanted to join and did join the following clubs at school: Book Buddies, Gardening Club, Makerspace, and Music Club, she loves making art-especially if it is out of some cardboard or item that I have attempted to throw away, she loves to help me in the kitchen, and, my most favorite of all, she frequently just gives me hugs unsolicited and out of the blue, for no reason.

I think I've made this post longer than I intended for a half birthday post, but it seems she's grown and changed so much in the last 6 months that there was just a lot I want to write (type) so I can remember it all.  We love this sweet, bursting with personality, bubble, giggly girl so much! Happy half birthday NK!

Cheering on the Vols back in October

Ready for gymnastics!

With her soccer trophy!

Her team won the championship!

Girl Legos!

And a baking show lego set to beat it all!

One of the baking shows we made was how to make these cute turkey cookies!

She sleeps with her Lovie at night.

Nora Kate with the Wellie Wisher she wanted for Christmas.

Receiving her soccer trophy...she just looks like such a big girl in this picture to me that I had to add it to the post.

She used to be a reluctant hiker-it wasn't her favorite, but she's really come around to enjoy hiking more now.  Here she is on a fall hike.

Here is a perfect picture I accidentally captured her throwing her head back and letting her laughter bubble out! She was so ticked about something when we were decorating gingerbread houses.

She's become a good little runner too! 

Here she is with her medal after a 2 mile race on New Year's Day

My beach girl and her dog.

Dancing with Duke

(note the purple streak of hair chalk in Nk's hair...she loves hair chalk at this age, school doesn't care, so we frequently have streaks of color)

My girl....loves the beach just like me.

Loves having her hair french braided...but we can only french braid it when it's wet with the curls.

Loves visiting the Botanical Gardens.  This picture was in the fall.

One of her sweet friends from school came to cheer her on at one of her soccer games and even wore her team colors to support!

She was Wonder Woman for Halloween.

She got her first hole in one on Halloween morning when we went to play a round of mini golf.

Roller skating in the garage on these cold February days.

January 2021

Hard to believe that the first month of the year has already come and gone. As I mentioned in our December post, we let the kids stay up late and ring in the new year at midnight on New Year's Eve...well we were all a little tired the next day, but that didn't stop us for running the race I had registered us for. This was the first race that ALL six of us ran in! So Clayton's first race and first medal. He was very excited to say the least. He would run at a slow pace then suddenly speed up really fast and yell SUPER SPEED! I registered Dawson, Carter, and myself for the 4 mile, and John, Clayton, and Nora Kate for the 2 mile.  The weather was absolutely beautiful on New Year's Day for the race. Sunny and warm! Everyone had a blast! It was a great way to spend New Years Day...even if we were tired from the night before.

Dawson after his 4 mile race!

John after his 2 mile race!

Nora Kate after her 2 mile race!

After my 4 mile!

Our family before the race. We were careful to social distance so we didn't want to hand anyone the phone to take our picture so it's at an awkward angle because it's propped in a bush! hah

The next day we loaded up the bikes and went to the Tennessee state line to ride the top portion of Rails to Trails that I have been wanting to check out. We logged a little over 5 miles, saw horses, goats, a donkey, and beautiful land with mountains in the distance and a creek.

The kids are great at riding this wide trail!

I still cannot believe we did this, but we added a reptile to our family this month. The kids have been wanting a lizard for sometime now. They knew exactly what they wanted...and I knew exactly what I didn't want. (I didn't want it to have to eat live bugs or have to have a heat light.) They found something that fit both of those requirements. They had some money they had been given for Christmas, so they decided to all chip in an purchase a Crested Gecko. They are enjoying learning all about lizards. In the picture above it's eating. The first time they put the food (it's similar to a smoothie mix) in his terrarium he was interested and licked some of the mixing spoon as you can see in the picture below.

I forgot to mention the lizards name. After much conversation, debate, and careful consideration the kids decided to name the Crested Gecko Rolo.

Clayton has talked on and off for a year about getting his very own fish.

He decided he wanted to spend some Christmas money to get his own fish to live in his room.

He picked a beautiful Betta fish...and named it Stingray.

He's so proud of his fish.

Our wonderful neighbors gave the kids gifts for Christmas. Dawson got this awesome (yet difficult!) 500 piece National Park puzzle...they were pretty excited to complete it!

Dawson and Carter got a joint gift for Christmas of this GIANT Pirate ship Lego set. It was for ages 16 and up it was so hard! They, of course, built it in no time! It's a really neat set!

Basketball season is in full swing now.

Coincidentally both boys are playing for the Lakers-just different age groups.

We spend A LOT of time (in masks and after temperature checks) at the Rec Center watching them play! They're doing great, and I love watching and cheering for them (even if I do have to cheer/yell twice as loud in my mask).  The way the ages are divided Carter is one of the older ones on his team this year (it's a 7-8 year old team, and he's 8), and Dawson is one of the younger ones on his team this year (it's an 11-12 year old team, and he's 11).They're both doing great and playing hard! Both have scored several points for their teams. One thing that always makes me the most proud of them is that they are good team players, they're happy to pass the ball when they don't have a good shot.

What craziness...it rarely snows here, but one Monday in January we were thrilled to wake up to the surprise of snow falling! All this snow fell between 7am and 11 or noon. It kept snowing on and off all day but the morning was the best to enjoy it.  The joy of waking up to snow was made even better by the fact that it was a homeschool day, so we took advantage of the rarity of snow and didn't start work on our homeschool until a couple of hours later than normal.

We even had enough to sled and managed to find a small hill....hills and snow...two rarities in Alabama.

We even had enough snow for the kids to build this snow family.

The worst part of our January was the great fall! One Saturday morning we didn't have a basketball early (uncommon!) so we decided to make a big breakfast and have a leisurly morning.  With sausage, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and eggs on his plate Clayton sat along side his siblings on his stool at the island just like he does every breakfast as he ate his big breakfast and told us an elaborate story about how he was going to be a King Cobra Snake when he grows up. Then suddenly he slipped off his chair and fell hitting the back of his head HARD! Blood started gushing. We all ran to grab our shoes and coats and quickly drove Clayton to the ER. Of course when we got there only 1 parent could go in the hospital with him (thanks, Covid). So John dropped us off and I went in with Clayton, It bled so much and I know it had to hurt so bad, but Clayton from the minute we walked in the door of the ER loved being the center of attention. He even complimented a nurse on her shoes. Hah! Well, thankfully the hospital was pretty empty and we didn't even have to sit in the waiting room since they took us straight back.  Clayton ended up with 5 staples.  Our poor little boy!  They gave him this stuffed animal bear at the ER that a local church group makes and he promptly named it Boo Boo Bear.  He was such a trooper with his staples and was so careful for the 10 days he had to have them in his head. 

Duke has continued to grow. At 9 months now, he's 33 pounds. Carter and Nora Kate were showing me on this particular day that he's almost as tall as them when he stands like a person-hah!  Duke is so wonderful with the kids and everyone. I am so glad that we were finally persuaded to adopt a pup!

On one Fun Friday when we had managed to complete our schoolwork early we headed to the Cook Museum.  It's always a lot of fun!

Another Friday we went to see a movie. This was our first time at the theater since before Covid. Thankfully for us, it was just our family and one other family of 2 in the theater so we almost had a private showing.  It was nice to be out and do something we used to do before covid even if it does look different now (ie wearing masks). Also, I just love how everyone looked for the selfie but Clayton struck a pose! They all love this theater because it has automatic recliner seats. So they're constantly adjusting their seats with the buttons. Such fun for kids!

One Saturday when we were sitting at the 2nd basketball game of the day and it was about 3pm, John leaned over to me and said that it was snowing in Gatlinburg and that we should forgo the rest of our weekend plans in Alabama and go home after bball, pack and go to Tennessee to hike in the snow (something we have been wanting to do for a while). Although I'm usually a person who likes to pack and plan in advance, this sounded too goo to pass up. So we returned home from 2 basketball wins, quickly packed and drove the 4 hours to Nana and Grandad's house to drop off the kids and Duke. Then John and I drove on to Gatlinburg. It was late when we got in, but knowing we set our own schedule for the next day made it nice. We got up the next morning, put on lots of layers and hot hands and headed to the trail. 

Here is the snow on the mountains as we were driving to the trailhead.

We hiked Hen Wallow Trail. It claimed to be a 4.2 mile trail to get to the falls, but it actually ended up taking us 5.5 miles to hike in the snow to see the falls. It was SO beautiful though. This is not a very popular trail (I'm not sure why), so it was great we didn't see many other people at all.  We had a picnic lunch of tuna and apples at the falls, then hiked back down.  There were many icy slick spots so it was slow going in a lot of areas, but I would hike in the snow again! I was all so crisp, clean, and beautifully white. 

Above is our selfie in front of the falls (you can only see a portion of the falls in the picture)

The trail was so pretty snowcovered.

Giant ice sickles 

I'm usually not a fan of having a hiking stick, but in the snow especially where it was icy-the hiking stick was necessary.

You can tell this was at a lower elevation-not quiet as much snow..still very pretty!

How peaceful this was.

The falls! We finally reached the falls.

The hike ended up being 5.5 miles but was completely worth the distance.

Clayton has been wanting to bake with me lately.

This particular day we were baking a cake, I turned my back to grab the cake pan and turn around to see this!

Nora Kate got the opportunity to model for Strasburg Children again this year for their Spring Line.

Here she is headed into Lowe Mill for her photo shoot.  She ended up getting to model two gowns for them. A beautiful blue gingham and a sweet white dress. She loved it.

More basektball.

That's Dawson shooting.

This is cropped from a video but you can see Carter shooting and making it in this picture.

The finished cake that he licked the batter of!

Two lakers

Two different teams

Two wins on this particular day

(don't ask about Carter's socks...he wanted to wear them one day for a game, they won and he played awesome...so now they're good luck and he has to wear them to every game....also, they match nothing on his jersey.)

Ten days after his staples were put in his head, I had to take Clayton to the pediatrician to have them removed. He did fair with the removal. He asked the dr if he could bring his staples home! yuck! So here he is at home with his 5 staples in a jar!

We are so glad that the doctor said he was healing well and that he's been tough about it all!

Dawson's basketball team and coach.

Carter's Basketball Team with the coach and assistant coach.

Nora Kate got the exciting opportunity to model for Strasburg Children again this month.  She modeled this darling blue and white gingham dress. Above and below are pictures that Strasburg chose to use in their advertisements, website, and social media outlets of her.

She, of course, loved every minute of being the center of attention and in front of the camera.

showing the back fabric covered buttons on this sweet dress.

She also got to model this simple and elegant white dress for Strasburg.

She was excited to get to wear this floral crown as part of the photo shoot.

Sweet girl loved her photo shoot for Strasburg.

I've been walking Duke an extra mile every night to get him some more focused leash walking training in. I love that our neighborhood has lakes to walk around. This particular night was so clear that the full moon was reflected perfectly on the lake. Picture doesn't do it justice, as I only had my phone with me to take it since I was just out for a walk, but it was so pretty.

Basketball is still in full swing. Here Carter is flying down the court with the ball.

The last Friday of January, we took a Fun Friday outing to the Space and Rocket Center.  We got there when they opened and had the place to ourselves!

Pretending to have zero gravity.

Lolly came down to visit the last weekend of January. She got to watch Dawson and Carter play basketball while she was in town.

Dawson shooting a free throw.

The big boys with Lolly during her visit.

One thing we did this month that was important that I don't think I managed to get a picture of (maybe John did, I'll have to check) is Nora Kate got to attend Bible Adventure Day at church.  Jan 31 our church finally reopened and on this day Nora Kate got to attend Bible Adventure Day which is when the kids of a certain day, go through a very special service/program and receive their own children's study bible. They make it into a big deal to make it very special, which I love! She is pretty proud to have her own Bible.  John attended Bible Adventure Day with Nora Kate while the boys and I went to service (I could tell it's been a little while since we've been to church, a certain 4 year old was pretty squirmy-but we will easily get back in our groove of sitting (mostly) still during church) and are very thankful that they are now offering in person services in addition to virtual.

January was mostly full of gymnastics, basketball, and boy scouts in addition to school...we are very, very thankful to have gotten to continue in these activities along with their "building" days of school.  I honestly thought that by this point in the year everything would be back shut down due to covid, but since it's not we are safely enjoying taking advantage of attending these events and activities.