Happy Birthday, Susanna: 23 in 2023!

Our Susanna is having another birthday! Here are some pictures of her elementary school years to honor her:

The summer before starting kindergarten wearing some clothes sent to us by Frau Czadek, our Germany friend:

Susanna broke her arm when she was balancing on a barstool that was on top of a couch cushion and fell off. Talmage says that he remembers thinking, "This is not going to go well." Susanna and Talmage made up all kinds of games including pretend to play together. Once, Susanna and Talmage created a "library" in her room and invited me to come and check out a book. It was very cute.

Susanna enjoyed starting school and making new friends there. Her teacher loved her because she was so cooperative. The end of kindergarten play:

Our cute little kitty:

Susanna loved to be included with her big brothers and enjoyed building this snowman with them:

Susanna's 7th birthday party where they made their own pizzas as chefs:

During the trip to Goblin Valley where the tent blew away with Susanna in it:

Bear Lake, 2008:

Her baptism:

This picture was taken just as our new kitchen was being finished as you can see from the missing countertop on the bare cabinet behind Susanna. I love the paperclip necklace she made for herself:

Susanna played soccer for a few seasons. She enjoyed it and scored 3 goals that fall:

At Colonial Days at the SCERA park where they dressed up as immigrants and became citizens:

Her 9th birthday party:

Hedwig, the owl:

Susanna really excelled in school. She was a great reader and was very responsible with her assignments. She was in the Accelerated program at Foothill and enjoyed those classes. Here is her costume for the class opera in Mrs. Judd's class:

Susanna started taking piano lessons when she was halfway through kindergarten and then took lessons from Grandma Hansen starting when she was not quite 7. She was also a diligent piano student. For the duet festival, she was partners with Jake? Parker and they got a 39/40:

Susanna has always been very competitive. Shortly after we became part of the Canyon View 4th Ward, there was a ward activity where they had a serious expression contest. The whole ward participated and then people were eliminated one by one. They threw a handkerchief up in the air and everyone had to laugh until it landed on the ground where they had to look very serious. Susanna was one of the last two, competing with an older woman named Sue Barlow. When she saw how serious Susanna was about winning, Sister Barlow laughed and then Susanna won. Here is a silly faces contest from a family reunion:

Turning 10:

Talmage and Susanna are 20 months apart in age and were good friends as they were growing up. This picture was at Dead Horse Point State Park:

Susanna at her 5th grade dance festival. She had Mrs. Siebach that year and had some good friends in the class who unfortunately lived kind of far away and didn't go to Canyon View with her:

I started teaching Susanna on the violin when she was about 9. It didn't take long for me to realize that things would go a lot better if Susanna had a different teacher. She was also pretty sure that I should NOT practice with her. She was very independent and did a good job practicing on her own: