Bridger is TEN!! :)

    Bridger turned TEN!! Our first baby is double digits, and he likes to point out that he is now a "pre-teen." ha ha. We both had an emotional couple days before his birthday, he kept telling me he wanted to stay nine and he was so sad he has to get older. I feel the same way about all our kids! It's so hard, but I know it's how it needs to be and that it is also a good thing. I just can't believe I gave birth to my first baby ten years ago. I showed him his birth story on my blog and we looked at pictures and I told him how I felt when I held him the first time. I love to do this with all the kids on their birthdays, I want them to know how much we love them and how special they are. 

    Bridger has matured so much in the last year. He is FULL of questions and deep conversation and every night during our cuddle time he loves to talk about anything and everything that has been on his mind. It usually gets pretty intense. He wants to know about everything, and I love that about him. I get frustrated sometimes, because he's so full of questions and comments and facts and wants to talk all the time, but it's just because I get overwhelmed and tired trying to keep everyone happy and taken care of. I love to see him learning and having that drive to learn and that he wants to talk to me about it. One of our recent conversations was him asking about how molecules are alive and it went pretty deep from there, ha ha. He does excellent work on his school, even though he tends to take awhile to get his work done because he gets distracted. But I have no complaints about the quality of his work, he is very perfectionistic and really pays attention to the little details. For example, his handwriting. One page of handwriting can take him like an hour because he, literally, does it as perfect as he can. The same goes for all of his subjects, and I really appreciate that. He has almost finished Level 4 in his Language Arts (which is equivalent to upper 4th/beginning 5th grade), he is learning to research better for the papers he writes, he learned all of his multiplication tables this last year, learned long division much better, and also started writing better papers. He also has been doing a coding class and has been learning to code on Scratch and Roblox, he has built some really cool "worlds" and I am very impressed. Beckham and him have also been taking Spanish online with a teacher in Guatemala and he has been learning so much! He loves to read non-fiction (think fact books etc.), but he does enjoy Tuttle Twins (which teaches about government and finance), he loves to read true stories that are inspirational about people, and he also enjoys a good mystery or the occasional fantasy. He made some goals (all on his own!) in the last couple months and is set on keeping them, one of those goals is to read five verses of scripture every night and he gets really upset if he runs out of time to study, I have been so impressed with his dedication to reading the scriptures and if he doesn't understand I help him go through the verses and break them down, this has led to some really good, spiritual conversations. He also has a very strict moral code and is not afraid to point out what it wrong or right very bluntly, ha ha, he lets me know whenever he saw something inappropriate. He is very considerate in his actions, always wiping the toilet down and putting the lid down after he uses it. He likes to be clean and washes his hands often, he also loves a VERY hot, long shower. If he sees garbage or anything besides a toy on the floor he always picks it up and throws it away or cleans it up, he notices the tiniest things! lolol. I think it's because he's worried someone could step on a little piece of wood or metal and get a sliver, or Roz might eat something he saw or things like that. He has folded his own laundry for years, he does such a great job and his drawers are always very organized and neat, I don't touch them. 

    Lately, he has loved flying his new drone, learning about investing, coding, and he always loves building LEGO's. He got a couple of expert sets for Christmas and his birthday and he finished both pretty quick. He loves to go outside and play soccer with his brothers and Dad. He also loves to play (and fight) with all of his siblings, they will get on the floor and build huge Hot Wheels City tracks, play with LEGO's, and Bakugan's. He did Jiu-Jitsu last semester and did really well, and this semester he is doing tumbling and also enjoying it and doing great. 

    He is amazing with little ones, especially babies. He LOVES to get on the floor and play with Roz. He lets her climb all over him and when she touches him he will pretend like she shoved him and fall dramatically to the floor and it makes her laugh, it's adorable. He also loves to dance with her to smooth jazz and when she gets upset he will immediately help by trying to make her laugh or finding her a toy. He has a very soft, sweet heart. When I wasn't feeling well a few weeks ago (we all got sick), I was laying on the couch and he was so concerned and wanted to take care of me. He is so sweet.  

    He isn't very picky about his food, his tastes have actually expanded a lot since he was little. He will eat a little bit of avocado in Mexican meals, he loves to eat salads whenever the adults have one and he uses Olive Garden dressing. He also loves raw cabbage with Olive Garden dressing on it. We eat 80% vegan 20% vegetarian and he eats basically everything I make without complaining. The only things he doesn't really like are sweet potatoes and squash, because of the texture. He is very mindful about his eating and if he is full he is done (unless it's pizza! lol), the same goes for desserts, he will just be done and I think that's awesome that he recognizes that. 

    I love his laugh, I love his personality, I love his sweet side and I love his rough and tumble side, I love his thoughtful side, I love his curious and very intelligent side, I love all of him. I also really love his laugh and his sense of humor, we laugh at the same things and it's so fun. 

He's always making Roz laugh. :)

At Staheli Farms in St. George.

Grandma made little gardens with the boys and Bridger took some close ups of his. :)

Their first lemonade stand was successful!

Jumping into the river at Sheep's Bridge!

At a museum in SLC.

Washington County Fair.

He drew his first corvette using a tutorial on YouTube!

So handsome.

He still loves collecting bread tags. He's got a huge stash.

The night before we moved out of our Spanish Fork house.

Learning how to rebuild a VW engine with Grandpa, haha.

Hiking in Zion.

This is the longest his hair has EVER been.

He made me this heart. He's sweet to me. :)

22 Questions With Bridger:

1. What is your favorite toy? My new drone. 
2. What is your favorite part about school? Typing, because it's the easiest.
3. Who is your favorite scripture hero? Alma the Younger, I like his story.
4. What is your favorite food? Chicken nuggets.
5. What is your favorite dessert? Carrot cake.
6. What is your favorite vegetable? Carrots.
7. What is your favorite fruit? Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples, and tomatoes.
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Electrical engineer or a mechanical engineer. 
9. What is your favorite snack? Cookies.
10. What is your favorite book? The Book of Why's, and National Geographic fact books and things like that.
11. What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast? Smoothie, sausage with maple syrup sometimes, bagels.
12. What is your favorite holiday? I have more than one. I like Christmas and Easter because they are about Jesus. I love the presents from Christmas. 
13. What does Mommy always say to you? You call me a little cutie.
14. What does Daddy always say to you? You need to focus and do your school. 
15. What is your favorite TV show? Sonic Boom.
16. Who is your best friend? Brigham & Lincoln.
17. What are you really good at? Super Mario Bros, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, coding.
18. If you could have a wish, what would it be? To have the power to create anything I wanted, even things that aren't possible. Such as a machine that could go to any place you wanted and you could be anything you wanted, even something you create in your head. 
19. What is your favorite primary song? The Books in the Book of Mormon song.
20. What vegetable do you hate the most? Sweet Potato and all kinds of squash.
21. Best memory from this year? New Years Eve, staying up until 12 o'clock.
22. Something you accomplished? Jiu Jitsu.