and a happy new year

with love, the wheelers

ps, be sure to ask dallin about his black eye

dance of the sugar plum fairy

bryan begged and begged to return to see the nutcracker this year.

the girls and i eventually obliged (whilst their brothers politely declined).

and a good night was had by all.

twelfth night

this girl is twelve years old today.

our summer loves life. she has a hard time picking favorites because she just hearts too many things. she is easy to please and quick to give. summer is generous and without guile. born to hand out eggs from her easter basket to all the kids with fewer than her instead of focusing on gathering more eggs. empathic. optimistic. musical. often found wrapped in blankets near warm fires reading five books at a time. 

my guess is that the drama that can accompany these early adolescent years will fly right by summer as she skips her way toward her teens. (side note: i haven't often seen summer skip, but it's the movement i use most often to describe who she is as a person.)

she's practical and rational and responsible and not too fond of heights or speed or cold. summer is a big fan of alt rock and has avocado toast almost every morning for breakfast. if she could be anywhere in the world right now, it would be london.

so here's to our summer girl! never stop never stopping. be the girl you want to be. give the good you want to give. and every now and again, take no prisoners. 

love, mom.

second star to the right

and straight on 'til morning.

the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.

“build a house?" exclaimed john. 

"for the wendy," said curly. 

"for wendy?" john said, aghast. "why, she is only a girl!" 

"that," explained curly, "is why we are her servants.” 

all children, except one, grow up. 

i suppose it's like the ticking crocodile, isn't it? time is chasing after all of us. 

keep adventuring and stay not a grown up.

nonsense. young boys should never be sent to bed. they always wake up a day older, and then before you know it, they're grown.

when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

“proud and insolent youth,” said hook, “prepare to meet thy doom.” 

“dark and sinister man,” peter answered, “have at thee.” 

“you just think lovely wonderful thoughts,” peter explained, “and they lift you up in the air.”

it is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the only thing for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children. 

i taught you to fight and to fly, what more could there be?

soccer season

before we lose ourselves in the hoopla of halloween (a superbowl of sorts for me), i just wanted to close out the report on caleb's first soccer season. 

many thanks to a great coach and good teammates for an excellent first year! caleb continued to be full of surprises (for me, at least), and he scored one or two goals in almost every game. i still can't quite connect all the dots on how that happened as he'd spend half his time on the field daydreaming about minecraft with the other boys and the other half (ish?) getting in there, stealing balls, and taking shots. 

red bacon took no prisoners this year (and they really upped their minecraft game, too).

also, in what should come as a surprise to no one, i'm that mom on the sidelines.

you know the one.

high on a mountain top

yesterday, bryan and i took summer to the temple for the first time to participate in ordinance work for four of her ancestors.

although she had the opportunity to enter young women (and thusly the temple) at the beginning of the year, she decided to kick it old school and wait to leave primary until she turned twelve.

she reports much joy and happiness at the temple (in addition to that there's a lot to take in) and is shedding no tears on account of not participating in the primary program this year.

pumpkin spice everything

we squeezed in this year's pumpkin picking (and apple cider donut eating) festivities on friday after bryan's plane landed in seattle, and he headed straight to meet us at bob's corn right before the sun went down. 

i call the following portraits with pumpkins at sunset in fall, a series.