Marvelly turned SIXTEEN years old yesterday. Sixteen. I can scarcely comprehend how she is that old. I've said this before and I'll say it again and again....time goes by fast. It feels like her toddler days weren't so long ago, and yet here we are, with but a few teenage years left to go. I'm so blessed that I have had a front row seat to her life these last sixteen years. What an honor and privilege it has been watching her grow up.
She came downstairs this morning and the first thing she said to me was, "Sydaleigh is right, my new haircut makes me look older. I look pretty. Before my haircut, I walked through the halls at school and felt like a frumpy freshman, but now I feel pretty and look like a sophomore."
Oh my girl, you are ALWAYS pretty! But I'm so glad she had a moment where she could look at herself and see her beauty. This is not easy for teenage girls (or women in general as we are so critical of ourselves!). But Marvelly was able to look in the mirror and see her beauty reflecting back at her and that made my mommy heart so happy.
To celebrate Marvelly's big 1-6 this year we had a party at K & J's Co-op Farm in Prince Frederick where Marvelly got to love on mini highland cows! I can not stress how much Marvelly loves cows. Her obsession for cows began over the summer when we took our half-way cross country trip, and during our daily long drives out west, she'd excitedly yell, "COW!" every time she saw cows in the fields by the road. This turned into a "thing" and soon Isaak and Sydaleigh began to excitedly shout out "COWS" when they saw them too. Marvelly thought it was so funny and we had a ball "cow hunting" to pass the time in the car! When we went to a shop in South Dakota Isaak bought her a little cow stuffed animal, which she name "Moo Cow" and sleeps with every night. Hence, the beginning of her cow obsession and why we celebrated her party at a farm!
Such cute baby highland cows!
The girls even got to bottle feed them. Marvelly didn't actually love bottle feeding the white cow because she said he was being "an aggressive drinker."
This one goat was crazy, jumping all over Sally, Eden, and Sydaleigh's backs!
Sydaleigh was in heaven too. She kept saying how much she hopes to own her own farm when she's older.
Mimi was not too sure about this big goat, Gary. He was going around trying to head butt and ram people, thinking he was the man! (thankfully the owners removed his horns!)
This tiny goat was so cute! Kristin even stayed for a while with Conner to let him check out the animals.
(Marvelly, Lucy "Fern", Lauren, Alex, Sally, Alivia, Eden, Leo, Steven, John Henry, Mimi, Sydaleigh and Troy
Marvelly has made some sweet friends this year since returning to public school.
Talking about all the things with Alivia, Sally, Eden and Alex.
I showed Marvelly a few pinterest cow cakes before her birthday and asked her to pick one out that she wanted me to make, and of course she picked the biggest, hardest one! It didn't turn out exactly as the picture, but I think it turned out good! Me and Syd worked together on this one and Marvelly helped make the shaggy fondant hair around his face. She loved it! That top layer alone fed everyone at the party without even having to cut into the bottom cake. Marvelly suggested we just keep the bottom cake and use it on her actual birthday, which is what we did!
A week later on her actual birthday....
On February 24th, the night before her birthday, Marvelly and Sydaleigh went to see the "Alice by Heart" musical at Northern HS, followed by a late night pit stop at McDonalds to hang with friends from the show. Sally was there as she was singing in the pit and her and Marvelly got to hang for a bit along with Sydaleigh and all the other kids. When Marvelly got in the car on the way to the school, she asked Sydaleigh if she could listen to "Sofia the First" music on Spotify. It's one of her favorite things right now to listen to when riding with Syd, which Sydaleigh lovingly obliges for her little sister :) After getting home late, we sat in the living room and chatted for a bit before Marvi went upstairs to bed. Noticing it was just after midnight, officially making it February 25th, me and Syd quietly stolled up the stairs, went into Marvelly's room where she layed in her bed still awake, and sang to her "Happy Birthday", as she was officially SIXTEEN.
...we started the morning by making pancakes for Marvelly in bed, which she refused to wake up for, despite our best efforts to sing her awake and put Bailey on her. After church we sat on the couch and reminicised reading my blog, reading posts from when the girls were little. We read and LAUGHED so hard about who they were as babies and toddlers and talked about all the surprising ways they are the same as teenagers and things that have changed through the years. Surprisingly, only minor things have changed (such as Marvelly no longer loves bananas and mac n cheese, which are now two of her most hated foods! Whereas Sydaleigh's favorites are still grilled cheese and mac n cheese!) But many qualities of the girls personalities from when they were toddlers are still the same today. Kinda cool how we are born with certain personality traits that stay with us our entire lives.
Syd hard at work transforming the remains of Marvelly's "cow" cake into a regular layered cake. It turned out beautiful and you wouldn't even know it used to look like a cow.
In true jealous Bailey fashion, as soon as Isaak got home from work and came downstairs to wish Marvi a happy birthday he jumped on the couch and sat himself square in the middle of them to get all the attention! 
Marvelly picked Plaza Mexico for dinner, her favorite food and favorite Mexican restaurant. Marvelly used to religiously eat the chicken fajitas (for years!) but more recently discovered the "Burrito California", a nearly foot long burrito stuffed with chicken and onions and covered in queso. It's her new favorite dish and she eats the entire thing every time. *She told me this week in the car she is able to eat the entire burrito by "not eating the chips and salsa and drinking lots of water, because drinking water helps me be able to eat more food. If I feel myself getting full, I just drink more water to help push the food down." Oh my girl. Love her.
Marvelly also got a hair cut the day before, once again requesting a slightly shorter do. She is liking the hair length around her chin, and since her last cut it had grown out to shoulder length, a bit too long for her liking, so I scheduled an appointment to get that birthday hair cut! She has some cute curtain bangs and a layered bob!
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The biggest cow squishmallow there ever was!
Enjoying dessert with Mimi and Grandpa Dave (who also turned 60 on the 23rd!)
Three generations of us girls. It's becoming a tradition of sorts to pose like this, all together, on our birthdays. We don't always remember every year, but we've got a few over the years to look back on and see our changes together over time. Love these ladies with all my heart.
-still prefers short hair
-likes wearing her glasses and is not yet ready for contacts
-is *very* particular about said glasses and does not like it when any smudges got on the lenses. She carries her glasses case and wipe with her and meticulously wipes her lenses if anything gets on the glass, insisting she can not see properly.
-love cows, a lot
-HATES moths. This too goes back to our half-way cross country trip in the summer when we slept in a cabin in South Dakota and the girls sleeping are was in the loft. At night, when all the lights were off, moths somehow would get in and fly around near the window up there. It bothered Marvelly (and Sydaleigh SO much!) insisting they could not sleep because of the moths. Hense, she hates moths now.
-went back to public school this year, her 10th grade year, after three years of homeschooling. She started at Northern HS with Sydaleigh!
-she joined the marching band as a percussionist and had such a FUN marching band season, playing at football games and competitions!
-she specifically played percussion in "the pit"
-the marching band shoes were all too big for her and they had to order a special size
-she loves riding to school every morning with Sydaleigh and gets picked up by either me or Sissy after school because she refuses to ride the bus (except on days when Isaak substitutes, and he drives her home)
-current favorite food is spanakopita (the Costco brand) and eats them every day after school in the air fryer. She also likes eating pizza pockets after school if there is no spanakopita.
-her lunch every day consists of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, *baked cheetos (she doesn't like the other kind), applesauce, an orange, and a reeces (one of her favorite candies).
-does not like eating breakfast
-still has digestive issues sometimes so takes fiber gummies to help
-last week she found out she has a deviated septum. I took her to the doctor to get a referral to an ENT, due to her mouth breathing at night, inability to properly smell, and chronic stuffy nose, and the doc immediately noticed she had a deviated septum, which she thinks is responsible for all the issues.
-still wearing braces (AND rubber bands!) but is hoping to get them off soon once her bite is corrected
- a couple weeks ago, after finally wearing her rubberbands every day like she's suppose to, she came to me and said, "I can finally touch my back teeth together again, I think these bands are working!"
-is 4'11'', the same height as Mimi. She is done growing and will not get to 5' like she hoped, but considering she was always bite sized from the beginning, it never surprised me that she'd be short (MUCH to her dismay!)
-wears a size 3 youth shoe (and a size 5 womens *IF we can find it. But since size 5's are hard to find, she primarily wears her size 3 youth shoes still)
-wants to be an author
-does NOT want to stay in Maryland for college and insists on going somewhere in the north and cold, although she did like Liberty University when we toured it with Syd
-watches Fuller House (the new one) and Liv and Maddie every day after school. She recently just rewatched all the Sofia the First seasons.
-loves to read, but only books that really appeal to her. She will not keep reading a book she doesn't like
-does not like romantic books, but prefers sci-fi type books
-best friends are Kayleigh (still homeschools) and Alivia (she just transferred to Northern last week)
-she started volunteering at a horse rescue farm in January and loves it!
-waits up for me to come say goodnight and pray with her before she does to sleep. Usually when I go in her room I find her writing in a notebook.
-keeps her pink baby blanket on her bed
-her clothing of choice this year was shirts with collars
-has the BEST memory for Harry Potter trivia! It is AMAZING how much she knows. She loves for us to quiz her with our Harry Potter trivia cards and delights (and laughs mischievously when she gets all the answers right and no one else does!) We are truly no match for her.
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