Abigail Wilson
Abbie is very social and enjoying her friends very much right now. But she is experiencing some frustrations. Some of her friends are starting to be much too interested in boys. So, the remainder, those who are "holding strong" have formed a BBB club--Best friends Before Boys. But even within that group there is some cattiness and meanness. That's how it is with girls that age. She stays good and nice, but is frustrated when things don't work out as she'd like. We had this BBB group over the other day when they had school off for President's Day. I thought it would be such a fun day. But, in the end, she was sad and frustrated because one girl was "annoying" (she wanted to do "catwalk" (modeling) while all the other girls wanted to play sports) and another girls was mean to everyone. I guess that's how it goes. she said it was fun anyway. They had a picnic lunch on the island in the pond, they played volleyball and soccer, they shot bows and arrows, and then after it all I took them to get ice cream.

She's beautiful. She's taking much more interest in dressing herself and doing her hair. She doesn't wear makeup yet, though she's begun to show some interest. She always wants to go out and do things--not too much staying home. The other day Zeke had something he needed to go to on a Saturday afternoon and Ella needed some shoes and pants, so I took the two girls shopping while Zeke was busy. Abbie was thrilled. She bought herself some boots and I got her a few shirts. She needed them. Everyone else has hand-me-downs, but she and Stone don't so they usually have the fewest clothes.

Shes not interested in going out with boys, but they do notice her. The other day a boy named Romeo, of all things, gave her a rose at school. She says she doesn't like him, and I believe her, but she seemed quite flattered all the same.

 She's enjoying Mutual and Young Women's. She's the secretary in the class and does a great job staying organized. They needed the Beehives to make invitations to New Beginnings awhile back and she insisted on doing them all herself. We came up with the idea of little tea light candles with a paper flame that gave the information. They were cute.

She is busy with Percussion Group, Band (playing the flute), her egg delivery route, soccer (coming soon), school, Church, Personal Progress, and whatever else she can dream up. She enjoys being busy and feels that something in life is a little off if she doesn't have something she's supposed to be doing.

It's so much fun to watch her grow up. She's beautiful. February 28, 2012. Twelve years old. Sixth grade

Abbie always gets the highest scores in her keyboarding class. She was excited about her score on this particular exercise.
Abbie's percussion group performed at this program.
Being an almost-teenager brings its struggles. Abbie, who is 99.99% perfect, sometimes--just sometimes--struggles with being a little snotty, as reflected in these notes. One night, shortly after Christmas, just after Gregg had put the little boys' new bunk bed together, Abbie, lying on the bottom bunk, pushed up on the top bunk with her feet and broke one of the boards in the bottom bunk. She wrote a note of apology to Gregg. And Gregg added the last line of the note to give her a hard time. He he.
What a sweetheart.
Pretty Abbie creation
For Christmas Brock drew my name for a make gift. I asked Abbie to help him with it. It was super cute. Each beautiful gift that Abbie helped Brock make was accompanied by a sweet note and the whole thing was introduced by a song Abbie made up and taught Brock especially for the occasion. She's amazing.
One day this winter when I was cutting everyone's hair, Abbie began expressing a desire to have her hair cut. Now, her hair is down to her bottom. It's super long. I love long hair and was okay with a good solid trim since it was looking pretty scragly, as long as we kept it long. But she was talking about cutting it quite a bit. I was more than hesitant. I told her we'd just trim it and see what we thought. So, since I thought she was wanting quite a bit off, I trimmed quite a bit--maybe five or six inches. She freaked out. She was half-excited and half-panicked. Gregg, seeing her emotion and wanting to capitalize on it, said, "wow. You look like a boy now." (Her hair was still almost to her bum.) We went out for ice cream that night and while we were there, Gregg said, "Hey, Abbie, that guy over there is wondering why that girl looks so much like a boy." Ha ha. Her hair is healthy and beautiful now and we have no intentions of cutting it shorter.
Gregg challenged Abbie to finish the Book of Mormon by her birthday. She put it off early on so she really had to work hard to make it by her birthday--sometimes reading up to 6 chapters a day. But she made it! Here's a note I found from her when she was in the midst of her heavy reading.

November 20, 2011. Twelve years old. Sixth grade.

At a Primary Activity shortly before turning 12.
Abigail turned 12 on September 5, 2011. We had a swimming party for her at her cousins' house.
With her twelfth birthday Abigail graduated from Primary and began Young Women's. She had been looking forward to that for a long time.
She hadn't been 12 more than 15 minutes before her dad asked her to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting.She did a FABULOUS job. Everyone commented on how well she did. She told a funny quip at the beginning of her talk. She shared how when Gregg had asked her to speak he told her her topic was dating and sexual purity. She said, "I about died. Then he told me the topic was actually Sabbath Day observance." Everyone laughed.
Our Ward planned a Temple Trip for the November after Abbie turned 12. She was really looking forward to it. It was the focus of her thoughts, especially when she needed repentance for little wrongs. Here's a note and a sweet poem she left in my room.
At Young Women in Excellence Abbie presented a babysitting kit she made--the first of her 10-hour projects for Personal Progress.
Abbie loves to play soccer and she really enjoyed her season this year. I love watching her play. She scores lots, she maneuvers the ball expertly around the field, and she's beautiful!
Here are some movie and food tickets Abbie made for the kids as part of an activity she did while she was babysitting one evening. She always does such fun things for them when she babysits!
Abbie really enjoys sixth grade. At Parent/Teacher Conferences at the end of the first quarter her teachers expressed how impressed they are with her. It's the same way at all Abbie's Conferences--the teachers aren't quite able to express how impressed they are. She's smart, helpful, kind, and talented. She's acquired quite a name for herself among the teachers at her school.

For the first quarter of school each teacher picked one of their students to be part of the "Principal's Pack," a group of kids that enjoys special privileges as a reward. Abbie was chosen by her teacher. Here is his note to her, followed by items from her Parent/Teacher Conference.

A genre project for school.
Here are Abbie's awards she received for playing the recorder a couple years ago. (We're just posting them now because we had to take them off the recorder so Zeke could use it.) As the kids receive "belts" (aka, pieces of yarn) for meeting certain objectives, they tie them around their recorder. we have a fantastic music program at our elementary schools. They do a really good job.
Abbie really enjoys her friends. I had one mom come tell me that her daughter (who is also Abbie's age) was with Abbie and since Abbie was going outside to play soccer, a large group of girls was following her to play, too. Then Abbie had to go to the bathroom, so she asked Grace to hold the ball while she went. Grace told her mom that all the girls followed Abbie into the bathroom and left her there holding the ball.

Abbie loves going to birthday parties. Here's one for her friend Hailey King. They went to Wahoo's and then to the girl's house to spend the night. We have a no sleepover rule, so we just picked her up late.
Another birthday party.
Abbie got placed on a Championship-level Team (the second highest level) in Clogging this year. The move meant she can no longer practice at the Meridian studio and now practices at the Nampa studio, which is farther away and requires a carpool. It was quite a compliment. Some other girls from her former team either did not make the cut or had to do extra to prove they could handle the challenge. The director just wanted Abbie, no questions asked. When he called me to tell me, he said that there is always one girl on the team that everyone's eyes go to, and that Abbie's that girl. They were excited to have her and they were excited that she's so good at such a young age.

The class has been harder. She missed one practice and spent a practice or two afterwards frustrated to tears because she felt she was behind. But now she's got it all figured out and it's all good again. I've gone to several of their practices and I'm really impressed with the level of difficulty. They have the potential to be really great! I'm excited to see how the season goes.
It has been a wonderful summer. I have loved having Abigail home with me. She is a delight to have around. She is helpful around the home. She readily notices areas in which she could be of use and quietly steps in to serve. She is particularly helpful with her little brothers. I think Mack sees her as a second mother. Lately she's been going into the little boys' room at night and reading them Book of Mormon stories, taking time to teach them gospel concepts. The other day she was trying to explain the concept of disobedience when they were reading about the Lamanites. Brock brightened and said, "I know about disobedience! Mom says I'm that all the time!"

Perhaps it's just her age, but I think it's her personality, too, that Abbie is a social butterfly. Where most of the other kids really enjoy down time at home in the summer, Abbie is always interested in getting out and/or doing social things. She has a friend across the neighboring field that she has gotten together with several times this summer, Maddie Shaw. When they're here they enjoy playing basketball together in the shed. They love to go to Maddie's house and ride their horses. Their home and property are adjacent to a nature reserve and they have a fort there where they like to hang out. Unfortunately that friend is moving this coming week, which is too bad because they really are a nice fit.

Abbie also got to spend the night with her Abuela one night. Abuela took she and Ella to Hobby Lobby to pick out a craft project (aprons to paint). Then they went to Chili's for dinner before heading out to her house to spend that night. That was exciting for her. They next day we met them at the zoo and then went to Pizza Hut. We had a Lindquist family reunion in Utah where Abbie played with cousins to her heart's content and rapelled down a mountain--an experience in which she was very brave. Some cousins moved into town this summer, which has been fun

and she has had great times swimming in Grandma and Grandpa wilson's pool with them and doing other fun things like riding the Greenbelt. As a family we went to the Discovery Center, did school shopping, did Homeschool during June and July, did two weeks of swimming lessons, played sprinkler soccer, played Wilson Family Water Park with a hose out on the playground, played on slip-n-slides, and generally enjoyd being together. We spent one day at Roaring Springs Water Park and a couple friends of hers from Meridian invited her to the water park a few times during the summer and that was super fun for her. This past weekend we attended the Ward Campout where she and some friends stayed up until 2:30am going on the waterslide in the moonlight and playing together. Social little butterfly.

We spent a week in northern Idaho fishing, biking, playing on wave-runners on the lake, swimming in the lake, watching movies, going to the amusement park and water park, and enjoying being away together. That was a fun week.

It's truly been a fun summer and we're sorry to see it end. But Abbie's already starting to get excited about school. She particularly likes the school shopping part. She's also anxiously looking forward to turning 12 on her birthday and starting Young Women's. She can hardly wait for that. Today the young women reported on their camp experience and she cried throughout the whole thing because she felt the Spirit so much. She is definitely ready. Her dad has challenged her to finish the Book of Mormon before her birthday and she is feverishly working on that. She is a sweet girl, full of the Spirit.

August 14, 2011. Eleven years old.

Abigail is a party-girl--always looking for ways to throw good food and fun into the everyday routine. One Saturday we were all outside working when Abigail began handing out these invitations she had made. This is actually a torn-up version of the invitation. Then she and Ella put together flower-shaped sandwiches and other delicacies for the kids.
All dressed up as Nephites for a Primary Activity.
Abbie's schoolyear was busy right up to the end. Being a highly motivated individual, she found herself participating in several activities that kept her busy and fairly stressed during the last week of school. The first was the "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" Game. Each fifth grade class was resposible to send one boy and one girl to represent them in the game. The students overwhelmingly picked Abbie as the female contender. The game went well; the students won!

She was also one of the finalists chosen to participate in the fifth grade spelling bee the last week of class. We practiced fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade words in preparation for the event. She did quite well; she was one of the later ones to get out. When she misspelled the word that ended her run in the bee, she started to cry a little out of disappointment, despite her best efforts to appear unconcerned. A sweet friend gave her a note to help her feel better.

She ended the year strong, with basically perfect marks on her report card. The "B" on reading stands for "Benchmark" and for some reason, as was explained to me by several teachers, they give everyone who is at or above grade level a "B." Abbie always wants to explain this so know one think she is not advanced in reading. So, the only thing she received that wasn't perfect was an "A-" in art. She was ticked. She said, "What?! We only did one art assignment and the teacher said I did really good on it!" She was frustrated. I think she'll live.

June 5, 2011. Eleven years old. Fifth Grade.
Her class picture.
A book report for class.
Abbie received several awards in music, both for her accomplishments on the recorder and for her participation in the Fifth Grade Percussion Group. The Percussion Group had a concert at the end of the year that was at the exact same time in Kuna as her Clogging recital in Nampa. It was a crazy night!
During the middle of May Abbie competed at Nationals at Lagoon. Her clogging team had fun and the rest of us had fun going to Lagoon and supporting her! Then, at the end of May she had her recital.
It's a season of endings. Her soccer season ended during the month of May. She had a fun season. She plays competitively and is more than good enough to move up to the competitive league. But this league plays on Sundays, including many LDS girls, some of whom are friends with Abs. It has been an interesting topic to discuss with her. She's adament that she will never play on Sunday. She's vocal with her friends who play in bearing her testimony to them. It has been frustrating to be left out of something that she is plenty capable enough to do, but won't because of her values. But she remains strong. I shared her experience with my dad and he sent her this email.
These are certificates Abbie got for completing skills in soccer
We watched General Conference last weekend. All of the kids, including Abbie, love Conference. They watched all the sessions on both days of the Conference! It was wonderful! Abbie helped me make treats--appetizers, desserts, etc.--for everyone Saturday evening and that helped make it a good experience for everyone.

Abbie has a great habit of taking action when she is moved upon by the Spirit. As soon as the last session on Sunday ended, she immediately began making file folder mailboxes for everyone in our family. She made Gregg's and mine first and put sweet notes that she typed out on the computer in them. Those mailboxes have been a blessing in our family this week as I have found some sweet, heartfelt notes from members of the family to each other.

Abbie was a blessing to me at Church today. After Sacrament Meeting I took Mack by his nursery class to drop him off. His teacher had not arrived, so I asked Abbie to stay with him, which she was more then happy to do. I taught my Sunday School class, attended Relief Society, and then found out after Church that Mack's teacher had never arrived, so since she couldn't find Gregg or I (we were in the Bishop's office where Gregg was getting set apart for a new calling), she kept Mack with her in Primary for the entire two hours! She said he really wasn't much of a problem! She's amazing.

Abbie's chickens weren't laying well for about a month. It was frustrating. She had to put a few of her customers on hold for awhile. But they're pumping out over a dozen a day again and she delivered seven dozen last Thursday and is scheduled to deliver eight dozen this upcoming Thursday. She has a great little business going!

Abbie's clogging teacher asked her if she'd be a teacher's assistant in Ella's little clogging class. Abbie is thrilled about that. Her clogging teacher is very complimentary of her. The studio wants her to move up to their championship team next year. It's an honor that they feel that way about her. They've really singled her out as a talented clogger. That makes her feel good.

Abbie is absolutely loving soccer this year. She shines on her team, but she's really good about not hogging the ball and even trying to get the other girls involved and succeeding as much as possible.

I'm very lucky to have Abbie. She's an exceptional girl.

April 10, 2011. Eleven years old. 5th grade.

Since Abbie is turning 12 this year, she was invited to the Young Women's New Beginnings. It was a really neat evening and, just as I thought it would, it got her very excited for being in Young Women's. Gregg spoke that evening and did a wonderful job. After the meeting Abbie was full of the Spirit. That Spirit led her to send some sweet emails. The emails and responses follow.
A sampling of school work.
Abbie and Ella and I went to Pocatello and back one Saturday for Abigail's clogging competition. She danced beautifully, although her team didn't get the scores she would have liked on their dances. She definitely did her part, and it was fun to have a day with my girls. On the way Ella made these notes for Abbie.
Abs' ribbon from the competition.
A play Abbie attended with her class at the high school that she really enjoyed.
Look at how she's grown! I love everything about this picture, from her exuberant smile to the painted nails on her chubby little fingers to her fluffy feet. She was dressed up to attend a "princess party" at a friend's house. I can't get enough of this picture.
Abbie's first competition of the year was in Nampa. Her team scored a "1," meaning they qualified for Nationals in May. Here is her ribbon.
February 2011. 11 years old. 5th grade.

This past week Gregg and Abbie and I attended New Beginnings for Young Women. Abbie will turn 12 this year and start the Young Women program, so she was invited. It doesn't seem strange that Abbie will be in Young Women's soon. She is so mature that it seems to me like she should be there already. After New Beginnings, she immediately wanted to know what she could do to get started. I knew she would. The Stake has issued a challenge to the youth to, among other things, read the entire Book of Mormon by May. She decided to take that challenge and has been reading her scriptures feverishly. Today after Church one of the Beehive leaders told Abbie and me that she could go ahead and start on the Personal Progress program if she wanted to. She wants to. She's excited and motivated.

One of the things Abbie finds motivation and spiritual strength in is identifying quotes that are inspirational to her and posting them in her room or making bookmarks out of them. Recently I posted a quote from General Conference that I really liked on the fridge. She asked for a pocket-sized version for herself. Gregg gave the closing remarks at New Beginnings and she asked him to jot down a portion of his message that she liked. Just a few minutes ago she printed out about six spiritual quotes she likes, including a quote taken from her notes she took in Sacrament Meeting today, a quote from Gregg, a message from herself to herself about something she needs to work on, and others. She cut them, posted them on pretty paper and made really cool bookmarks out of them. She has a burning desire to better herself. To progress personally.

 Abigail is like one of those kids you read about in the "Friend" and wonder if they really exist. She has a wonderful ability to recognize things in the home that she could help with and step in and help. So often as Mack or Brock start to get whiny I hear Abbie saying, "Brock/Mack, come here. Do you want to play a game?" She pulls them away, keeps them happy, and the peace in the home is maintained. She is very aware of my moods and needs, stepping in to offer help or encouragement when needed. I marvel at her. She is remarkably non-self-centered.

Having said that, she is unquestionably personally ambitious. She wants to excel at everything she touches. And, honestly, there are few that are her matches in the activities in which she's involved, from school to clogging to soccer. She has a very mature ability to organize her time, talents, and resources to acheive desired ends. She very rarely needs help from Gregg or me, in fact, she often does best when she handles things on her own.

She has recently started her own little business, selling farm fresh eggs to people in our ward. We deliver about 5 dozen a week. She collects, washes, and packages eggs every day, and then we deliver them one or two days a week. She's enjoyed this little business and has done a good job with it. The people we deliver to are so sweet. One of them always leaves her a little treat in the empty returned egg cartons. It's been a fun experience for her.

It's a pure joy to sit back and watch Abbie go. I always say, and I'm truly not kidding, that I want to be like her when I grow up. I love Abigail.

In school Abbie had to paint a picture based upon the work of a famous painter--in her case, Renoir. Her painting turned out really pretty! She even won an award for it at school.

Birthday invitation.

Super fun movie. A good old-fashioned Disney. The main character reminded me of Abigail, not just because of her super long hair (Abbie's hair goes past her bottom), but because she loved doing everything--painting, sewing, cooking, reading--and so does Abbie!
An "almost slumber party" Abbie was invited to.
This is a note from our friend Michelle Du Bois who spent Christmas Eve with us. Abigail made her a watch for Christmas. Abigail loves to make things.
Abigail made pretty bead bookmarks for all her Primary leaders. This is a note from the Primary president.
From the Primary pianist.
This is Abigail's scripture study/prayer schedule she has set up for herself.
Winter 2010-11. Abbie's 2nd quarter report card.Notice her teacher's very nice remarks.
A sampling of Abbie's schoolwork. Winter 2010-11. 11 years old.
Some pretty artwork by Abigail.
Gregg took Stone, Abbie, and Zeke to this movie. Abbie spent half the movie in tears and Zeke spent half the movie outside in the hall because it was too scary. Not a good judgement call on our part. Stone liked it, though! The movie was in conjunction with an event put on by a local orthodontist. At that event Abigail won an ipod. She thought that was pretty cool.
Note from a girl at school. This is a girl who is competitive and jealous of Abbie. But Abbie handles her by being sweet and this is the result.
Just some scribblings on a piece of paper that I found lying around.
Program from the piano recital Abigail played in. She played a song that I loved to play when I was younger.
Fall 2010. 11 years old. Here are a few pieces of Abigail's schoolwork. She delights in being as on top of things as possible. She has always been the top student in her classes. But she's also sweet, humble, and unaffected. She's very helpful to the teacher. At parent/teacher conferences teachers struggle to express how grateful and impressed they are with Abigail. She really is one of the most impressive and capable individuals I've ever met. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Small note about her report card: the B on reading level stands for "benchmark." The teachers a the school never give higher than this. This was the case for Stone as well as for Abigail, both of whom read far above their grade level.
Abigail's school has a coputerized program called Accelerated Math which allows students to progress at their own rate. Students are able to work on it as quickly as they like, including working on it at home. Abigail, true to form, has worked feverishly on it throughout the year. She keeps progressing to the point that the teacher runs out of objectives for her to work on and she has to wait for him to add things for her. This is one of her printouts.
Abbie gets free personal pan pizzas for meeting reading goals.
Every month Abigail's teacher Mr. Santoro assigns the class a genre project: a creative book report to be completed by the end of the month. Abbie always makes her genre projects ten times more creative than they need to be and gets them done in the first few days of the month.
Here are a few parties Abbie attended during the fall. The first two are for friends from Meridian and the other is a Kuna friend.
Fall 2010. Abbie was one of the narrators in the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. Here is part of her script and the program from that Sunday which features a verse to a song she really loved.
FALL 2010. Abigail played soccer this fall. She was put on to a returning team (a team that had played together previously). The first two practices were fairly uneventful. She knew a few girls, but not well. She wasn't excited or unexcited about the season. It was about the third practice when we were leaving the soccer field and she said, "This team didn't know about me. Now they do." This was just the beginning of a season of impressing everyone who saw her. I enjoyed sitting at her games and quietly listening to the people around me talk about her (without knowing I was her mom). "Wow, that girl's good." "She's going to score on us." Her coaches all suggested she should play competitively. Only problem is that requires more time commitment and probably Sunday play, which of course isn't an option. I think we'll stick to recreation for now. We weren't planning on her playing in the Spring, but she enjoyed it so much that we went ahead and signed her up. She has natural talent. She also has a dad who put her through a training regimen--holding one-on-one practices with her on the front lawn before her season started.

My favorite game: Her team was down by 2. Finally, well into the second half she scored a beautiful goal. Then, she was fouled and scored on a penalty kick. Tied! The game was almost over. She ran down and centered the ball beautifully. Often her centers are wasted, but this time another talented girl on her team, Sammy, was right where she needed to be and kicked it in for the win. Very exciting. In this team picure, she's the one on the top left.

September 2010. Abigail turned eleven on the 5th. Here are few cards she received for her birthday, starting with a sweet one from Ella ("Happy Birthday, Abbie! I hope you have a great day having cake and opening presents. Love, Ella"). Next is a card from Stone.