Norah recently.

Norah is in 5^th grade! It's wild that she will be in middle school next year. Norah is doing very well with school this year. She is switching to five different teachers and they are doing a great job of preparing for the future with teaching how to manage planners, studying, tests, responsibility, etc. We recently had conferences and are so thankful for our beautiful, smart, kind girl- her teacher had many wonderful things to say about Norah! School also recently did the “growth and development” presentation and invited the moms to come- she's really growing up!

Norah enjoyed a great summer. This was the first summer she didn't do softball and wanted to do some other things instead. She finished and passed her last level of swimming lessons- which included diving for bricks in the deep end, treading for ten minutes, and practicing saving someone! Norah was old enough to help at the library at the children's desk for the summer reading program and did a great job and loved it. She did VBS for the last time with a few friends at a local church. She did summer piano lessons in June/July, Outdoor Connections where they did different things like bike riding and fishing, and flag with a fun performance at the end. Norah did a few shorter term activities too that were just for a few days, like soccer camp, nature camp, golf camp, and volleyball camp. A couple fun summer activities were visiting the Sioux County Youth Fair, hosting our annual 4^th of July fireworks party, and picking strawberries at Getting's Gardens. We went to Des Moines a couple times and enjoyed parks, Living History Farms, Groen's pool, zoo, Science Center, and family staycation fun. We hosted 19 tenters in our backyard when Ragbrai started in our town this year. An unfortunate summer happening was getting hit by a huge derecho and suffering a lot of yard/house damage, but thankfully we were all okay and able to get it fixed up. We also got to take a trip to Rapid City to visit Gigi and Taylor, and we got to stop at the Badlands National Park on the way to use Norah's free 4^th grade pass- so neat!

Norah did volleyball this fall and enjoyed it! She is in Sunday School and piano lessons (we had to find a new teacher because Ms. Heidi stopped teaching, but we thankfully found a great one from church!). She is in a jazz and lyrical dance class with Ellory this year- fun they can go together! She is doing band (clarinet) and choir at school and is handling both well. I think she likes band better than choir. Norah is great at helping all the younger kids each week at our life group. She is loving art club, a once a week extra art hour after school just for 5^th graders that she had to apply for and got accepted, yay!

We celebrated Norah turning 11 this fall! We were able to celebrate with both sides of the family and she had a few friends over for some treats and crafts (beads and canvas painting) and was pink themed. She chose to celebrate her family party at home because it was right after Kley's ACL/meniscus surgery, so we carved pumpkins, ate pizza, painted, opened presents, and watched Annie. We have enjoyed fall favorite activities like Fields of Fun, Scarecrow Farm, and Morning on the Green. Norah is wearing size 5 shoe and is teetering on the edge of children and adult size clothing. She is mostly wearing an XL in girls clothes, but is starting to branch into the small adult size sometimes. She dressed up as a princess for Halloween. At her 11 year wellness check, Norah was 4'10” (65%) and got two shots. Her teeth are falling out fast- top left 1^st bicuspid on 6/5/25, bottom left 2^nd bicuspid on 9/29/25, bottom right 2^nd bicuspid 10/31/25, and top right 1^st bicuspid on 11/20/25. We got to go to Des Moines in the fall too to celebrate Aunt Kayla's birthday and to cheer her on in her half marathon, she did amazing! Norah gained a new cousin, Stuart Herald, on 10/17/25 at 8 lbs. 10 oz and 22 in. We are looking forward to meeting him at Thanksgiving!

Norah loves to listen to music, write stories, and read. She loves to make crafts, especially beads, build lego cities, play with figurines, play school, and is getting more into things like painting her nails and curling her hair. We love you so much, Norah! You are a joy and we love being your parents!