Dear Caleb, thank you for sending the picture of the train. The closest thing I’ve seen to a train here is the subway train that helps people travel to different parts of the city. It’s fairly short, maybe only six cars long, but because it goes underground, it can skip all the roads and traffic jams. It’s almost like if you were a bird and you could fly straight over all the buildings and didn’t even have to ever wait at a red light, only instead of going over, you just go under the buildings and roads through long, dark tunnels, until you suddenly come to a brightly lit station where people can get on or off.

Dear Ansel, I saw the pictures of you and your family at the butterfly biosphere and it looked so fun. I bet it was nice to go somewhere warm with green plants since you have had so much snow. I especially liked the picture of you gently holding your hand by Caleb’s so the butterfly would go to his finger and he could have a turn holding that big, beautiful butterfly. Isn’t it amazing all the beautiful creations that Jesus made for us in the world? I sometimes wish I could go everywhere and see them all, but I think that might be impossible. It’s okay though, because we are so blessed to be able to see so many right from by our own homes.

Dear Rachel, your mom has shared some pictures of your coloring and drawings, and I love how you can make the colors stay in the places you want them to be so the pictures are nice and clear. It takes patience and paying close attention to the details and design to do that. It’s like how careful your mom is when she makes a beautiful cake, and both of you make people smile when you share your talents with them.

Dear Miah, are you still building Legos with your mom? It’s so neat to have fun together with your mom that way. I bet you are good at building other things too. Your mom used to make some cool marble tunnels out of toilet paper rolls and tape. Maybe that is hard for you to try right now, because Richy and Lewis might be too small to be careful with things like marbles, but maybe someday when they are older you can show them some neat things like that. I bet you do show them lots of cool tricks right now though and I bet you are learning a lot at school!

Dear Phoebe, you make some of the best hamster mazes I’ve ever seen! Any hamster would be so happy to play in them. I also like the pictures you have been drawing lately. They are very imaginative, and I like to think about the stories of them. I hope you always enjoy drawing and creating things because it helps us to understand and appreciate the amazing things in this world that Heavenly Father has given us. Are you still making prosthetics for your stuffed animals? Isn’t it great that people can help animals in that way?

Dear Zoe, tell your mom to take some pictures of things your family is doing. With a big family it can be hard to remember to take pictures. What do you like best about ballet? When is your next performance? I always enjoyed moving my body to the rhythm and being on the stage for people to enjoy the music and the story of the dance.

Dear Bridgette, Do you still enjoy your science class? I enjoy science but a lot of the time I didn’t really like my science teachers. It was still worth learning about though. Are you tired of shoveling snow yet? Do you ever shovel other people’s sidewalks to earn money?

Dear Iraquois, how are you? Are your feet working the way they should? I’m so excited for you that you got the braces off and can be in ballet now. It’s been a long road to where you are now, and you’ve been very courageous.

Dear Lakota, I heard you are still riding horses. I always wanted to do that when I was younger, but it wasn’t a thing I knew how to access, so I never did it. I did get to try riding a friend’s pony once. I got on and promptly slipped off the saddle and landed on my backside on a thistle. (Haha! I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was so embarrassing.) I’m glad you get to ride. Do you ever get any time with cows also? While I never rode horses, I delivered newspapers when I was 12-15 years old so I could earn money to do some fun things. I bought a lot of books (surprise) and I also learned how to sew so I could custom make some of my own clothes and add my own design details to them. Also, I rode my bike A LOT.

Dear Christian, and Hannah, and Coco, I know that you would not want me to forget any of you in this. What adventures have each of you been having lately? Have you been making snowmen or is the snow too deep for that right now? What do the dogs think of all that snow?

Have a fun St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!