The Hoden Family Blog: Happy 10th Birthday Mya!

Dear Miss Mya Pat,

Happy Birthday a week and a half late! This last week or so has been a bit crazy around here so that’s why I’m late with your post. You had a great birthday. Started it with gymnastics from 9-1. When I went to pick you up, you said you loved it and everyone was saying Happy Birthday to you all day! I told you that’s what it would be like if you had your birthday in the school year! At 3:00, we picked up Katie, Kalissa, Lilllian and Kaylee and we went to the country club pool for a couple hours. After swimming, we went to our house and ate Happy Joe’s taco pizza, you did slime, jumped on the trampoline, ate cake and we took them home. It was a fun day!

The bigger news this week…even bigger than your birthday according to you, was that we got a puppy! Jasper Lu Hoden joined our family on Friday July 20th, and you were by far the most excited person in our family! You picked this puppy and so far…8 days in, you picked really well😊 Before we got him, we called him teal puppy (teal is your favorite color) because that’s what color his collar was at Rose’s place. He really was an awesome dog when we went to pick a puppy and he’s doing awesome with us!

Now, let’s talk about you! Right now you are in gymnastics 4 mornings a week for 4 hours each day. I always think it’s too long, but you don’t complain at all! You’re competing level 4, but working on other skills as well. You are on a break from soccer right now, but will start up in mid-August and you’ll be on the U11/U12 team. I’m not sure how much you’ll play this fall because of gymnastics competitions, but it will be good to get back on the field! You are also getting pretty good at swimming this summer. You can do 3 out of 4 strokes and love to race people in the pool. You also went to Camp DuNord with Olivia, Grace, Grady and Amanda this summer for a week on your own! You did great...loved every minute of it and only missed us a few minutes each night when you went to sleep. I'm so proud of you for going that far away from home and doing so well! It helps that Olivia is your best friend..you two are amazing together. Amanda said you were together non-stop for a week straight and there was never a problem.

You are sleeping downstairs these days in our unfinished guest room. Your room upstairs was too bright and you were waking up way too early. You have lots and lots of ideas of how you want your room to look. You love looking for beds, desks, rugs, etc. online. We’ll try to get that room finished this fall. When you grow up, you want to be an interior designer and I can totally see it coming true! You have even looked up where to go to school for this. Right now it looks like Iowa State has the best program. I'd be okay if you went to Iowa State!

You are excited about being in 5^th grade! Your teacher is Mrs. Sanchez, who wasn’t your first choice, but you have some friends in your class that you’re happy about. I think you’ll try volleyball this winter instead of basketball which will be fun! You are 50 inches tall and about 55 pounds of muscle. You wear size 7/8 clothes, size 13/1 shoes, your hair is super long, you started the summer only wanting to wear one piece swim suits and have switched now to only wanting two piece.

We were at the lake this past week and you loved being on the jet ski and tubing. We tried water skiing and you got up, but didn’t last too long. You did not enjoy skiing, but daddy and I are really hoping you give it another try because it can be so much fun! We stopped in Decorah on the way home and you and Olivia ran the Elvelopet 5k for the first time! You ran it in 28 minutes which is just awesome! We sure love being your parents Mya. We love watching you do things you love!

Love you so much My-My!

Mom

July 18th, 2008