Andy at 14

 

Soccer is still a big part of Andy's life. He's on a Surf team. His coach is Coach Ezra--he's loved him. This is from when his team won a St. George tournament this year. It was such a fun, intense tournament and so fun to see them win!

Andy seems to really like his school choir. He's here with his friend Kade Ballam.

We got Andy a new bike this year! He was really excited. He keeps growing and needs a different bike every year, which is quite expensive. 

Another choir concert--this time pictured with Mitt, Lincoln, and Davis.

Andy went to BYU soccer camp with his friend Kyson and loved it.

I love when we get to see this really creative, funny side of Andy. This is when he and Max prepared a presentation on teenage slang for the Messick family reunion in Bear Lake. It was so funny and well done.

Andy's piano journey continues! He says he'd like to quit if we let him, but I don't really believe it. We require him to practice an hour a day. His practicing isn't the most focused or efficient practicing, but he still plays incredibly because he's so dang talented. This is when he participated in a new competition (I think it was called Mountain West?) and got honorable mention.  

Andy got first place in the Encore Keyboard Competition this year, a huge accomplishment! He played his Beethoven Appassionata Sonata (3rd mvt) and Liszt Liebestraum No. 3. I hadn't heard him practicing his Liszt the few days leading up to the competition and asked him about it. He told me, "Yeah, I'm not practicing it." I thought he'd learn his lesson in the competition...and then he went and won first place haha. Typical Andy! The other big accomplishment is that he's playing in Carnegie Hall this week! He won first place in a competition called The Golden Classical competition and gets to play in Carnegie Hall because he won. So exciting! He's also been working on a Debussy called "Gardens in the Rain." He wants to learn a really cute Scriabin Etude next.

Andy enjoyed being on the mountain biking team this year! He got to race on the 9th grade A team.

This is the only race I've ever been allowed to come to. He says he doesn't like the cheering and the extra attention from having more family members there.

A swimming party with his soccer team.

He got to ride Wasatch Crest with Cameron and some friends this year and loved it.

Handsome boy! 

Andy with his friend Grayer. He basically lives at Grayer's house. His other good friends are Isaac Smart, Lincoln Abbott, Kyson, Rhett, Cole Read, Kade Ballam, Cade Meyers. He has a few different friend groups he hangs out with.

Poor guy inherited all our nose problems. He had a turbinate reduction a couple of weeks ago. And he'll have a deviated septum surgery in a few years once he's done growing.

He's turned into a big BYU fan and loves watching BYU football and basketball. And he follows a fair amount of sports teams in general. I'm trying to get better at understanding sports so I have more to talk to him about.

Just a classic Andy picture! Brendan let him have this 49ers jersey, which he loves. Andy won't smile with teeth because he got braces in July. Typical fluff ball hair--all the boys have this same hair style these days. :) 

• Andy has worked so hard in school this year. He really wants to go to BYU so he's worked so hard to get good grades. He has straight A's which has been a big jump for him! He's in an AP Human Geography class. 
• He continues to grow and be tall. He's just shy of 6 feet tall right now. He wears the same size of shoes as Cameron and steals his shoes and clothes, which Cameron is not a fan of. 
• He continues to be a sneaky, devious guy. I find piles of candy wrappers (my piano teaching candy) under his pillow case. I got an email at 11:30 PM one night that told me Andy had just rented "White Chicks." A few issues here--he should have been in bed. Definitely not an approved movie. And definitely did not ask us if he could use our money to rent a movie. 
• Of course, he's still a great kid. It's cool to see him develop his own testimony and grow spiritually. He's involved in his teachers quorum (I think he's first counselor) and enjoys our monthly temple trips. He's also learning a lot in seminary and really pays attention in his church classes too. I'm impressed by how much he knows. 
• He's very into his music and is blasting rap, etc. into his air pods all the time. He can never hear us. It drives me absolutely crazy. He likes Don Toliver, Tame Impala, Giveon, Mac Dimarco. 
• He's very into Stranger Things lately and has been loving watching the new season!
• He still likes to play games on occasion. He'll play "King Domino" with me, but only if we play his way. This is very typical Andy haha. And of course he wins almost every game he plays because he's so dang smart. 
• He loves to play ping pong with Cameron and they play many nights before bed. 
• We love Andy so much and are so grateful he's part of our family. 

Davis at Age 6

•  Davis continues to be a huge presence in our home! The highs are very high and the lows are very low. He makes life exciting and we wouldn't have it any other way. He's such a big personality and a big presence. He makes life so fun! Life is big with Davis.
• He makes friends with anyone and everyone. He has no problem talking to adults. I took an uber ride with him yesterday and he chatted with the guy like they were pals about all sorts of things. He thinks singing time in primary is basically a discussion just between him and the music leader. He's a big presence everywhere he goes!
• He recently walked into our ward choir practice and said to the whole big group, "What's up losers!" 
• He is predictably defiant. If I pick a bedtime book I want, he will for sure want a different one. If people try to give him a high five, he rejects basically everyone. 
• He made huge progress academically in kindergarten. He had some delays in preschool, but finished kindergarten so strong! I was asking his teacher about his readiness for 1st grade. She said that he finished kinder with the 2nd highest math scores in the class and the 4th highest reading scores! Davis has made some huge cognitive leaps and is extremely smart. 
• One example of him feeling things hard: We had choir practice at our house today. We heard him sobbing and very upset, so I left practice to see what was going on. The kids were playing yatzee and he was absolutely devastated that he had to take a zero on his yatzhee. :) 
• He's so exuberant, but he has a shy side! He'll be so loud and crazy, but the last two years he's refused to get up and say his primary program part. He says he gets too embarrassed. He was actually supposed to get up and sing a solo this year too, but I knew there was a very slim chance of that happening--and it did not happen. (Even though he has the sweetest singing voice you've ever heard.) 
• He definitely has a big crush on Ivy Pine. He whispered to me last week that she has a crush on him too. I asked him how he knew, and he said it was because she put her library bag by his. :) We actually ran into the Pines in St. George at the Pizza Factory and Davis was so bashful and turned bright red when he saw Ivy. He was so funny the whole dinner. 
• He went through a big K Pop Demon Hunter phase this year and knows every song. His favorite is "Your Idol." He's always blasting music on his Alexa. Usually some kidz bop jams. 
• I think deep down he's worried that he's a bad guy and it breaks my heart! He brings it up sometimes and I've seen him write "Davis is a bad guy" some places. We try to reassure him that everyone makes bad choices sometimes and that doesn't make him a bad guy. He told me today he's worried he's going to get coal for Christmas too haha.  
• He's semi-picky with food, like all of our kids at this age. He loves nuggets. Loves Cafe Rio quesadillas. He eats a lot of snacks because he doesn't eat much at meals. Lots of granola bars. He loves treats and would love to eat them all day long.

I attempted to begin piano with Davis in January. It started okay-ish? But quickly became extremely difficult. He's very talented, but gets very frustrated. "I can't stop itching!" "I don't want to do that again you stupid mom!" "My back hurts and I can't sit up tall like this!" "This piece is too long!" He did play a piece (Monsieur Mouse) in his first recital in May, which was very cute. We've tried every incentive under the sun, but a couple of months ago Cameron basically demanded we pause lessons for a while to protect my sanity. I've been trying to just do something with him once a week so we don't lose all of our progress. I'm currently just trying to teach him "Frosty the Snowman" by ear.

Violet and Davis continue to be the cutest little buddies. He beats up on her at times, but absolutely adores her and they play together most of the time.

Davis says Valentine's Day is his favorite holiday because "it's the day you show love." :) He's a wild guy, but he has a tender heart.

Love finding these selfies on my phone.

Davis, Violet, and Cameron went ice fishing with the Stanleys earlier this year. He loved it until he accidentally stepped in one of the holes.

He loves going to the butterfly museum and is very good at picking up butterflies.

Davis is obsessed with all the Avarells. Especially Addie. He'll go over to play with them and thinks they're his peers. This was at a choir concert--Davis saw Addie and had to sit with her. She's so sweet with him and still babysits for us a lot.

Can't handle how cute he is.

The best Costa Rica pic

Davis loves helping in the kitchen and loves using our kid knives.

I think this is the last picture we have of Davis with Gigi! This was in April and she passed away in May. He loved Gigi so much. I just asked him what he loved about Gigi and he said, "That she's super nice."

Supporters at his kindergarten program

Davis with his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hurst.

Sweetest sleeping pic. He still sleeps with his dino blanket and sucks on a corner of it. He also does this funny "rocking and rolling" thing before he falls asleep where he basically rolls back and forth.

His soccer team in the spring! His current crush is Ivy, pictured 2nd from the left.

Davis earns stickers to work towards prizes.

Davis loves to play games. He learned how to play SkyJo in St. George and loved it. He loves Grandpa Mark too.

Davis learned to ride a bike this past summer! He still doesn't like hills or curbs, but he's definitely improved.

Davis loves his onesie jammies and he and Max have the same Sonic onesie.

I thnk he earned this Dippin' Dots with piano practice. We went to Splash Summit a lot this summer. He loved it.

For months he begged to get a mohawk. Then we finally got him one and he said he hated it haha.

He loves these pokemon jammies he got from Fordie.

Davis and Theo did soccer camp together. I went to Macey's with them and they picked out these big ice cream cones.

Davis loved the beach this summer.

Davis loves scary things, Halloween things, and things related to death. He's always talking about "The Quiet Place" (which he's never seen). And Huggy Wuggy, a creepy character from "Poppy's Playtime." And Five Nights at Freddy's. He wanted to buy his own book at the book fair and searched the whole time for a scary book that he could read himself. 

Another splash summit pic. Davis loves the "hotness" and likes to lay in warm spots. He also loves to sit next to the fire at home or by his space heater in his room first thing in the morning.

Davis recently told Cameron he wanted to be a ninja for a job. Cameron told him that he wasn't sure who would pay him for that. Davis said his dad would. Cameron said he wouldn't need to pay a ninja. Davis said, "Well not you, but my next dad after you die." hahaha 

He likes to try these on in my closet haha

Davis's first grade teacher, Mrs. Lawings. He's had a bit of trouble blurting things out in class. Mrs. Lawings tried moving him to the other side of the room from his friends but she said now he just yells things to his friends across the room lol. She has created an incentive for him--if he gets five stickers each day he gets to play Prodigy, which is his very favorite math game.

Davis with his triplet friends Jack, Ella, and Mia plus Reese too.

Davis has turned into a fantastic reader this year. You can always find him with a book. He loves when we get books from the library. He's always trying to read Diary of Wimpy Kid and other graphic novels the older kids have.

Davis and Fordy continue to be cute buddies.

The cutest little BYU fan! We took him to a football game this year and he loved it.

Davis played his first season of flag football. It took a while to get the hang of what's going on, but he liked it.

All the older kids ended up being busy one night, so Cameron and I took Davis to get peach ice cream and Burgess Orchards and had the best time with him.

friends from Davis's soccer team this fall--Theo and Trey are on his team too.

He continues to make great art. This was what he made for Violet for her birthday. It's a picture of an asteroid coming towards him and Violet.

Flag football team.

Cutest haunted house drawing.

The most passionate 6 year old you will ever meet. He feels things BIG. This was at Fiesta Fun playing a video game. He got soooo into every game it was hilarious. 

Love this handsome kid so much. He is wild, but just the best.

Davis started junior jazz this year and has LOVED it. The first couple of weeks he was playing basketball all the time. He'd go out early in the morning to practice and wear these gardening gloves because it was cold. :)

Trey is Davis's BFF and they play all the time. He literally wants to play with him every day but always wants to go to his house and says our house is so dumb. He and Trey have a tumultuous relationship--he'll get mad at Trey and tell him he hates him and then want to play with him again 5 minutes later.

Davis started karate this past summer with Fordy. He was obsessed with starting karate once he had the idea. He's liked it okay, but mostly complains about going so we're about ready to quit. This was at his belt ceremony when he moved up to a yellow belt. 

He punches and kicks hard. He's used his karate on me and punched me so hard he bruised my pelvis.

I found this in his backpack. He says it's him, Trey, Dane, and Teddy. :)

He got a medal from reflections and he's absolutely thrilled about it.

Cutest Junior Jazz team. He's loved playing with Trey and Theo. I love talking to Lindsey and Joni.

This are his secret books and they really crack me up. I think this is the small secrets book, which I'm allowed to read sometimes. "My secret is Ivy has a crush on me." Not sure what the next one is? "A kangaroo attacked a dog." (some random youtube video we showed him recently) "I've never skied." "I have my own basketball." 

This is his book of big secrets I'm not supposed to read. Hopefully he'll forgive me by the time I print this book and he sees this. "Coco has a big crush on me." "My elf can fly." "Santa did die." (Trey told him Santa used to be real, but now he's dead.) "Santa's reindeer cannot fly." 

Overall such a stinker haha. We went to see Zootopia yesterday and it was just so him to refuse to take a nice picture. This is his attitude overall these days--he takes every opportunity to be defiant. We love every part of him, defiant and all.