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!

Norah's 11th birthday- friend party.

Norah had some friends over for a craft party for her birthday! She wanted a pink/gold theme for this year and we did bead bracelet/key chains and floral paint by number canvases (and they ended up doing a giant team hide and seek game too). We have a friend in town who has a fun business and Norah wanted to use her for her party, so we got a fun balloon arch, cake pops, and cookies from her for the party (thanks Kate's Snacks and Kate's Balloon Creations!).

Happy 11th birthday Norah! So glad you could have fun with friends!

We pray for great friendships for you now and throughout your life! Thankful for some sweet girls from church and school.

We love you Norah- happy birthday!

Norah's 11th birthday- family celebration (and Kley's surgery).

Happy 11th birthday, Norah! You are so loved! For birthdays, we let our girls choose what they want for supper and an activity and it's a fun tradition to celebrate just the five of us. This year, Kley had ACL/meniscus surgery two days before her birthday (pickup basketball injury), so we gave Norah the choice to either wait to go out and do something in a couple weeks when Kley was doing better, or we could do something at home over her birthday weekend. She chose to do something at home and we had fun together! She chose to carve pumpkins, paint by number canvases, Pizza Ranch for supper, open family presents, and watch Annie together. It was a wonderful night and glad we could celebrate one of our favorite girls! Norah, you bring us so much joy and being your parents is a true gift!

Pizza for supper.

Pumpkin carving- they did them almost entirely on their own!

Painting.

Kley right after surgery- we love you Kley and are sorry this happened! Praying for smooth and quick recovery!

Norah's 11th birthday- extended family celebrations.

We had tons of fun celebrating Norah's 11th birthday! We love you so much Norah! We are so thankful for you and you bring our family so much joy. Happy happy birthday!

We were able to celebrate with both sides of the family! It looked a little different than other years, because my brother and his family weren't able to join because they just had a baby (yay for another nephew/cousin!) and because we celebrated with Kley's side on a short weeknight before Kley's ACL/meniscus surgery, but it was still great!

Most of my side was able to come for a weekend to celebrate the fall birthdays in the family. We got to celebrate Kley's birthday too- happy birthday Kley! We all love you so much!

Norah frosted/decorated her own cake! :)

So grateful for family that could come join! 

My parents, sister Kayla, and sister Karlie and her family were able to come! 

It was special that everyone could come here too to also be able to see my grandma. She will be 90 very soon! We love you Gram!

Happy birthday, sweet Norah!

Our friend has a balloon business and Norah really wanted one of her balloon arches for her birthday!

We had the most beautiful fall morning at Fields of Fun with cousins!

My parents weren't there yet because they were watching my brother's kids while they were having sweet baby Stuart!

Norah is such a great oldest cousin!

Lucy is the only one that still wants to ride the train- love it!

Love cousin time on both sides! We got to celebrate Kley, Norah, and cousin Gerrit too for the fall birthdays! Love family time and love you Norah- happy 11th birthday!

On Norah's actual birthday, we got to go out for supper with Papa, Amma, and Great Grandma De Jong. (Unfortunately Kley had to miss because that was just two days after his ACL/meniscus surgery, but I'm glad we could still make it to celebrate Norah!)

Norah recently.

Norah had a great second semester of 4^th grade! It's fun to watch her grow in school, in the things she's learning like reading deeper books and talking about them, learning independence in homework/studying, more advanced math, and in writing reports/papers and learning editing and citing! Norah's year took a turn when her teacher was pregnant with twins, and it was high risk and she ended up leaving halfway through the semester due to pregnancy complications. Norah missed her and had a tough time when she left, but adjusted and finished strong. We are excited for summer to begin and for all the fun that brings.

Norah did winter rec basketball and did great! She didn't know a lot who did it this go around, but proud of her for getting out there, making some new friends, and trying her best. Norah did a great job singing and dancing at her 4^th grade music program in February about making good choices/life wisdom. We took a family trip to Destin, Florida in February and Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Kayla got to join as well. We really loved our time at the beach! We had a great time celebrating Easter with both sides of the family- the best reason to rejoice! Norah continued on with Sunday School, dance, and piano lessons through the rest of the year too. She did spring rec soccer and was on the blue team. Norah is a good soccer player and it was fun to cheer her on! We had a great time at Tulip Festival with family and friends and Norah did Dutch dancing in the parade! She just had her end of the year piano recital and enjoyed playing a song that had some fun triplets in it and sounded fancy! Her end of the year dance recital was a “dancing through the decades” theme and she danced to Imagine by John Lennon and Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. Her dances were neat to watch! Norah participated in field day at school in the frisbee throw, long jump, 50m dash, and 100m dash. She got first place in her heat in the 100- go Norah! Norah did a big project about National Parks at school and had to to a lot of research about her park, which was Big Bend in Texas. She had to research about it, write a report, make a poster, dress like a park ranger, and give a speech about it. She did quite well!

Norah had strep in January, but after that had a super healthy winter and spring- thankful for that! We celebrated Lucy and Ellory turning 8 in February. On April 6, 2025, Norah lost her bottom left first bicuspid premolar. We said goodbye to Great Grandpa Schut on January 29, 2025. We miss him a lot, but look forward to seeing him in Heaven again one day and are very thankful he was a wonderful grandpa. Some of Norah's favorite things to do lately are read books, listen to music, do her American Girl doll's hair in different styles, build lego cities, and play school. We love you so much Norah! Watching you grow is a gift and you bring so much joy to us!