KATIE BEGINS WITH K

Update on our Katie Girl:

She is 4 years old now and  as spunky, mischievous and beautiful as ever!

She has been attending a preschool close to our house and loves it-her speech has come a long way in the past few months and she is learning how to express herself better.

She is really good at giving compliments to others, the definite ARTIST of our house and loves to do anything crafty-especially making gifts for other people. She can now do a handstand against the wall without any help. She loves to cut things out and is a big helper when it comes to cutting out my coupons:) A very big help around the house, Katie is always willing to sort laundry, clean the bathroom, or do dishes with mom or dad. 

She is one to learn by experimenting unfortunately... and has learned that it isn't good to sneak up stairs under hear bed and eat a whole bag of milk chocolate chips. Mom and dad will find out when Liv brings some to us and she is no where to be heard or found...plus later she will have a horrible tummy ache and will end up throwing up the chocolate chips in the toilet!

 She also found out the hard way that using mommy and daddy's food to make a "potion" isn't a good idea either. After the third time of mom catching her doing it, mom made her and her accomplice brother-eat the whole bowl of "potion" (consisting of raw oats, oranges, bananas, cooked shredded chicken, and peanut butter). They ate it, but she got car sick on the way to a gymnastics show and she barfed it before we went into the gym. (don't worry after she barfed, she felt much better and was running, skipping, and jumping again:) Not much keeps her down for long, although I bet her and brother will think twice before making potions again!

She loves to party and with any good party comes confetti right! Katie can often be found filling up a big mixing bowl with cut up news paper to throw up in the air with her siblings. Christmas is one of her favorite times to party and she especially loves to sing the song "U Better Watch Out!" If her siblings are acting up-she will remind them who is watching:) She is working on saying prayer when it is her turn-all by herself and recently helped her unicorn stuffed animal say the prayer by telling it what to say in its ear and then repeating it in a "unicorn" voice:) Things got off to a good start until she ran out of things to say... then she helped the unicorn break into song. It wasn't just any song, it was "the song" U BETTER WATCH OUT! We are learning right:)

We also had to have a talk with her about what is OK to say to people and what is probably better not to say to people-especially people we don't know....we were out grocery shopping the other day and Katie felt it was important to go up to a lady and tell her that her hair looked pretty crazy! Luckily the woman was a good sport. she also informed our pediatrician when we went in for a check up that his hair also looked ... "weird" on top. (he is going bald:) I guess she is being honest right?

Katie is very brave, probably the bravest of our children thus far. She is usually the first to try something and if she gets hurt, doesn't usually cry for very long. While we were at the doc. for check ups, we got flu shots. She was the first to go and as I explained that she was about to get a shot in the leg, she slowly and knowingly nodded her head as she said, "ok mom". Then the shot...her reaction: a body shudder and "That hurt mom!" that was it, she was excited about the pink band aid and she got down. 

She often uses the phrase: "you broke my heart" to tell someone when they have hurt hear feelings. We aren't sure where she learned the expression from. She also remembers and uses a lesson we taught one night for family home evening about making peoples hearts rise or sink when we say nice or mean things. It makes me happy to know that she understands that we can influence how others feel and to be careful with the things we say. 

She loves it when her dad calls her "princess" for that is what she truly is:) 

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 First day of Puddle Jumpers Preschool with her Dora Backpack-can you tell she put her shoes on all by herself:)

 We are very pleased with the preschool we decided to enroll Katie in-each class day they move through a series of 5 rooms that each have their own theme and activity that they do in them. She knows the letter K, X, and O, all of her colors, and most of her shapes. She LOVES to do anything artsy or crafty-coloring, painting, gluing, cutting.

 For her 4th birthday party this year she chose a princess tea party with her aunts, cousin Maddie, and her special guest-great grandma Lee! We had such a fun time and Katie was a beautiful princess! She got a belle dress as a surprise before the party and mommy did her nails and makeup so she would be ready for her guests. Maddie wore her snow white dress as well. 

 Mommy served some of Katie's favorite foods at the tea party: grapes, chocolate covered strawberries, brownies, energy balls, chocolate covered bananas, and pink lemonade-and decorated the table in her favorite color: pink!

 We were so happy to have Grandma Lee and Grandpa Dick come spend the day with us and join in the fun. Katie has a special love for her great grandma.

 Katie is quite adventurous and daring-she saw this tractor at the pumpkin patch we went to and climbed up on it to take a ride!

 We are so lucky to have family come and visit us often in our new house and have room for them to stay as long as they would like-we love them all and enjoy the time spent and memories made with them. Parker is also one of Katie's favorite people-can you guess why?:) He plays barbies with her. This made my heart melt. She had so much fun that night with him and he was such a good sport. What a good dad you will make one day Parker! Katie definitely loves her dolls and barbies-she is a good mom to them.

 Katie came with a love for animals like her mommy. She enjoys playing with them and taking care of them. When we watched a parrot for a week-Katie was Zoey's biggest fan. She would sing to him, talk to him, and let him sit on her head:) She is eating one of our yummy fruit smoothies. 

Katie was a Nome for Halloween and she rocked it! We even found a boy Nome for her to pose with at one of the houses we went to. She is serious about anything that involves candy and raced to each house. She also is a sneaky one...I heard one of the boys handing out candy say: "That Nome, she knows what she is doing, she just reached right in and took a handful of candy!" We had to have a little talk with her about saving candy for other kids after that:) Her favorite candy: M&Ms and pretty much anything chocolate. She isn't a fan of fruity, or chewy candy-especially sour things-she says they are too "spicy". 

As time ticks away, my baby grows bigger every day!

Time and I don't always get along-it doesn't ask my permission to pass so quickly, and with it, take away my babies and  replace them with  2, 4, and  6 year olds! How rude:) So to say the least, the months have flown by since my last post and we have been busy at our house! Time for an update on what we have been up to:

Update on Our Olivia Anne:

she is soon to be 2 years old in just a few short months-22 months old

Recently added a few new words to her vocabulary: 

Suey=Cereal

Bucky=Bunny

Ah mama Ah mama whereshe whereshe=Where is mom, Where is mom, Where is she:) 

Things she loves: 

*going out-she loves to go for rides, go outside, go shopping or visiting. When she sees that mom or dad is getting ready to leave the house, she b-lines for her shoes and is right next to us! 

*She loves shoes-when she sees shoes in stores, in her closet, in her siblings closets, or in mommy's closet, even shoes sitting by the door from a visitor-she can't resist putting them on. She loves to be girly and dress up-sometimes in layers of clothes because she wants to wear it all! She also loves necklaces and it surprises me that she will keep them on all day!

*Olivia loves gummy fruit snacks( she calls them yummies instead of gummies), cheerios, LARABARS (a health bar mommy uses for snacks), brown sugar oatmeal

*Like her sister, she LOVES to bust a move when there is music and she can keep a beat to a song at one and a half years old:)

*She loves to take showers with mommy-cuddles, plays paddy cake, and sings while we stand in the warm water

*She loves to help with the laundry and dish washer-puts the clothes in the washer for mommy and puts the dish washing tab in the dish washer, closes it, and knows how to push the on button.

*She loves to brush her teeth

*Ring Around the Rosy is her favorite game

Facts about Olivia: 

*She was the fastest in crawling, walking, and climbing stairs out of all our kids and we often here the comment: "she is too little to be walking!" from on lookers

*She is by far our best "healthy" eater and will usually try new things-she loves hummus, salsa, cottage cheese, bananas, oatmeal, and smoothies. She will often try cooked veggies that we make and chilies or soups we have for dinner. One thing she will not eat...BREAD. I can't figure that one out-since the rest of us could live on sandwiches.

*She is also our best sleeper and goes to sleep by herself in her crib. We learned with tavin, the best way to help a child learn to sleep well and on their own is to put them in their crib and say goodnight-that is it:)

*She is our most independent child at this age-wants to feed and dress herself-wipe herself off after eating, brush her own teeth and wash her own hands. She now slides a chair over to get snacks from the pantry

*She is now on the growth charts for the first time at 15% it only took till almost 2 years of age!

*When she tries to climb down from our bed, her round tummy often gets stuck on the bed frame that goes around our bed and she hangs in the air:) 

*She thinks markers are like lipstick and draws on her face/lips with them if she gets a hold of one. THANK GOODNESS for crayola washable markers!

*She is good at sharing with others and often offers food or toys to those around her

She can say sorry and gives kisses

*I thinks she is very well adjusted because she has two other siblings to watch and learn from as well as lots of family that are constantly around to love her.

*She has been a joy to watch grow-I have loved being her mommy and am so grateful for her little spirit that touches my heart in ways that no one else can. She has made some tough times more bare able. I can't wait to see what the future holds with this baby of mine! 

Eating Raspberries at a pick your own patch we went to this summer! YES, she loved them:)

Eating whip cream off the top of some crock pot apple cider we made for a family party, yummmm!

Dressed up and looking oh so pretty with her hair bow, necklace, and snow white that she got for Christmas

 Trying on shoes and clothes she found lying around the house!

Parker's (My Cousin) boots when he was visiting at our house!

 Playing in the corn box at a pumpkin picking patch we went to around Halloween

 Olivia was the cutest Minnie mouse for Halloween!

She loved the idea of getting candy at each house-her favorite candy: M&Ms! She kept up with the rest of the kids and brought in LOTS of candy!

First Day Of Kindergarten..."MOM IT WAS AWESOME"

Tavin started Kindergarten on Friday and he was so ready for it! When we went to meet his teacher the week before, she gave us a special note to open the night before the first day of school. It was special confetti that you sprinkled under your pillow and over your bed so that you would sleep well and have good dreams about school for the next day. He was all about sprinkling the magic confetti EVERYWHERE-he even woke up with it in his hair. Katie thought it was awesome too and got to put some under her pillow-she said it was magic fairy dust.

 His Aunt Chrissy and his cousins Madison and Brendon have not started school yet so they got up bright and early to come over and see him off on his first day. They brought him special chocolate cereal-which we don't have at our house-and a new first day outfit. He looked so handsome.

 Grandma and Grandpa also came to walk him to school-it is just down the street from our house. He was happy to have them there. Can you tell he is excited!

 First day of school lucky kiss from Grandma

 Superheroes back pack

 East Lake Elementary School-here comes Tavin!

 Him and his very proud parents

 His teacher-Ms. Sperry-She is new this year and seems to have a lot of good ideas/very organized. I have great hopes for her and think she will be a perfect teacher for Tavin. Chrissy mentioned she looks like she is straight out of High School-but I am glad to get someone who is excited and energetic about teaching.

 Waiting -lining up for class

Getting a last kiss goodbye and an "I love you Tavin Boy!" from mom. I know he will do great-I have no worries whatsoever. It is mommy who was sad to see him go-just because it means he is growing older-time is passing-time that I will never relive again. I was happy he still thought it was cool for me to give him a kiss though-he even blew me one right before he went inside. It helped my heart to be OK:) When I picked him up-I don't think he stopped talking from the minute he got to me until we walked in the door at home. He was so very excited to tell me that his school has it's own library! And that he made a book in class. He also told me they do this cool thing where his teacher says 1, 2, 3-eyes on me! And then he and his classmates get to say: 1,2,3 eyes on you! :) And of course he made a friend with the girl that sits next to him. He said he liked her because she made monkey sounds with him when they were taping a picture of a monkey on the books they made in class! And so it begins-the long road of education-I don't think he really knows what he has gotten himself into;) One day I will have to remind him that he wanted to go to school and loved being there-but until that day comes-I will enjoy watching him jump for joy when he gets to go.

Arts and Crafts...What We Do to Stay Out of the Heat

 As I mentioned before, there have been quite a few days that the weather has been super hot! In the 100's. On days we aren't swimming, going to the library, playing at Mcdonalds play place, or doing some other indoor activity around town, we do artsy stuff!:) I love that my kids like to create and I had to share some of the things they thought up, made, and given me as gifts. These are some of the best gifts a mother could ask for! Above is a love bracelet that Tavin created for me. He cut the paper, measured it to my wrist, drew the hearts and then taped it to me. He was very proud of it and super happy that I wore it the whole day-even to the store:) I loved it!

 Katie loves her cousin Madison-they have to stick together with all the boys in our family-Olivia will be joining their girls club quite soon-and one thing they do when they are together is make pretty pictures-or in this case-"mixed media" collages and art:) Madison asked if they could use some of my scraps from my scrapbooking paper-they must have been busy creating for at least an hour. These are the final pieces that now hang for all to see on my fridge. Katies is on the left and Madison's on the right. As you can see, Katie even had Maddi help her take some crayons to the page to add color and style:)

 Both my kids have hit the stage where they make little Alien-like people representing their family and friends. Tavin drew the above picture of me and him watching a movie together. The Black figures are us in the movie we are watching-we are superheros that protect the world-Tavin is the bigger one and he is fighting the bad guy...I am his mighty side kick-he explained all this to me after giving me the picture. I love that he drew me in my favorite color and him in his. He apologized for my arms being a little funny looking but I assured him that it was perfect-I even posed in the same position to show him it was indeed "quite normal" :)

 This picture is Katie's interpretation of our family and she informed me we are sitting in church:) Hers take on a jelly fish-like look. Guess which one I am....yep the red one:) I am not sure what is up with my tummy though....she has been obsessed with telling me that I am pregnant with her little brother-so maybe that is me pregnant. ( p.s. I am not pregnant:)

 Close up of Katie's collage so you can all see the details

I had to take a picture of this one because I think it is so sweet. Madison knows that Katie loves princesses so she created this poster to give to Katie to put over her bed in her room:) Katie loves it just as much as she loves Madison and shows everyone who comes over. Katie even prays that Madison will come play when it is her turn to say prayer at night. We sometimes do cheers right before we put them to bed and her's usually has something to do with loving Madison! I hope they stay the best of friends as they grow up.

In The Dog Days Of Summer

 Scout Hollow Falls: On the Fourth of July My sister Krisha and her cute family came with our family on a hike in the mountains of Utah. The boys seem to like hiking more this year and Katie only had a few break downs on the way up:) She was devastated when I told her she would have to go potty in the bushes cause there were no bathrooms. She only agreed to do it when I told her it would make the flowers happy! Krisha and I are determined to make hikers out of our families yet-we love it so they need to love it too:)

 I carried in our hiking pack-she took a little nap on the way down-this is her enjoying a little snack at the top. I loved listening to all the cooing and jabbering she did as we walked along. She has always loved being outside.

 The hikers that made it to the top:) Katie was playing in the dirt as usual and smudged it all over her face

 Cool little bridges along the hike-the kids liked this part

 Tavin, Katie, and Cousins took up a new hobby of finding, befriending, collecting, and returning Rollie Pollies this summer:) This is Katie's-she brought it in to show me and was mesmerized by it's ability to curl up in a ball when she touched it-acting like it was dead-and then undoing itself a little later-when he thought the coast was clear! Ahhh the wonders of the earth. I think he was lucky that he made it out of our  house alive-I kept having to remind her to hold it carefully in her hand or she would squish it.

 Olivia became a big fan of the swing this summer-whenever we go to the parks by our house-she points in their direction and insists on getting in to be pushed. She giggles the whole time! Daniel can really get her laughing.

 One night while I was at work, Daniel sent me this text....he informed me that the him and the kids were camping and roasting marshmallows.....in our play room:) They slept in the tent that night and ate smores they cooked over our stove. What a fun Daddy they have. We hope to take them camping for real before the weather changes again.

Since it has been so hot in Utah this summer-usually in the 100's,  we have enjoyed lots of ice cream. Livy thinks it is pretty yummy:) 

Tip Towing Through The Tulips : Our Journey

A year ago this month....I agreed to join my sister Krisha on a journey to get healthy once again. As a mother-still not finished having kids, it's seemingly an ongoing process. Get fit and healthy, get pregnant, get sick, give up being healthy, have a kid, and start all over. At times, it is depressing and yes, very very hard. A mountain that takes time to climb. But each time I take on the challenge to get back to being healthy, I learn something new! For my first two children, I lived a couple hours away from my family and faced the task alone....but this last time around-I got the privilege of having all of my sisters, and especially Krisha, by my side.

Krisha and I haven't always been the best of friends, in fact, when we were younger, I was the one she picked on most. But as time has gone by, and we grew up-she is one of my most favorite people in the world. I have always seen Krisha as someone equal to a hard challenge-and what most people don't see-is although she is tough on the outside, she is so good on the inside. What I didn't know-is that she didn't know she can do ANYTHING she set her mind to-and that was one of the most rewarding parts of this challenge-seeing her succeed and realize she is capable....we are all capable of doing hard things and becoming who we want to be.

My AH HA MOMENT: I learned this time around that our mind and how we think about ourselves and the world around us-hugely limits what we can accomplish. Negative talk or thinking keeps us from becoming.    All through this process, we shut down the voice that told us we couldn't and showed it that we can! And with the help from each other-and from our sister Kimberly (who has been on the healthy band wagon a lot longer than we have)-when we didn't think we could-we told each other we can. Expand the bounds of your mind, expand the possibilities of your life. We are capable of so much more!

We started with just walking, then jogging a mile, then three, then five, then six and seven, then eight, and finally ten. TEN MILES-yes that is what I said. Each time we completed one of these goals, we thought we were at the end of our capabilities-and then we turned around and blew it away the next day.

THE INFLUENCE OF POSITIVE THINKING~

Another thing I learned this past year is that our bodies are AMAZING and if we treat them right and feed them the right things, we can do amazing things. They are so amazing that we can abuse them for years and years without seeing the side affects of the abuse. But-eventually it will all catch up to you. We need to respect our bodies and the God that gave them to us-by taking care of them.

Some of my favorite quotes on these subjects:

"The food you eat can either be the most safest and powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison." -Ann Wigmore

" Strength: A river cuts through a rock, not because it is powerful, but because it is persistent."

"Every positive thought propels us in the right direction."

"It is not who you are that holds you back, it is who you think you are not."

"Your mind says you can't....it is lying!"

We are scheduled to run our first 10K this Saturday and plan to finish a Half Marathon by the end of this summer. I also have plans with the help of my sisters, to try very hard with the next pregnancy, whenever that may be-to keep fit during the pregrancy-making my next journey all the more easy.

The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point after Krisha, Kimberly and I ran the 5K-all of us averaging under 10 minute miles-our best times:) And realizing we are ready for more!

My most recent baby joined us for the after race celebration!

Liv helping us out on one of of our other projects this summer-a garden. We love to get our hands dirty! Maybe it is a nurturing female gene/trait-but I find pure joy in creating and taking care of what is around me and my girls prove to have that same love.

We Are Happy Sunny Days Are Hear Again!

"The Earth Laughs In Flowers"

 Summer finally made it's appearance at our house and it was overdo. The first chance we got, we were out and about. Liv's face in this picture represents the happiness we all feel being able to soak up the rays of the sun, smell fresh grass, and pick the colorful flowers. We love to play with side walk chalk and often come away with it all over our clothes!

I LOVE to work outside on our yard and in our garden, I love to pull weeds, and get my hands dirty-it's very therapeutic I guess:) Well lucky for me, since our house was a foreclosure at one point, there is LOTS to be done in our yard. There is something so satisfying about making a once neglected yard-look like an immaculate-well pruned and loved one. While Dan and I work to get things back in shape, the kids often help (especially Katie-I think she has my love for yard work growing inside her) or entertain themselves with games. On this particular day, Dan hooked up the wagon to Tavin's bike and he towed his sisters around and around and around the house. He said he was getting his exercise and making his muscles big:) Liv just loves doing this and often squeals with delight!

Tavin is trying his hand at Baseball this summer and we are all delighted that he LOVES it. He is actually very good at it and we practice outside on sunny days. He can throw the ball straight to you and is awesome at hitting! We are still working on getting the hang of catching-it can be kind of tricky to figure out how to maneuver the mitt. While practicing with Tavin, Dan and I have taken out gloves and bat out of storage and have really enjoyed playing catch and taking turns hitting-Katie and Tavin like to play the outfield and chase the balls we hit. Tuff tries to join in the fun-but we have to bring out a special ball for him-the softballs are too big for his mouth:) We are proud of him and his willingness to try new things. We hope to help him and Katie discover many new talents that they can grow and develop in life.

Oh my miss Katie:) I am sure you are looking at this picture and wondering what the heck it is....well let me tell you: It is Katie's collection of "treasured and special" things she finds outside around the yard while we are working. Each treasure is carefully and lovingly picked and decided upon:)  She chose my black wooden outdoor pot stand to be their home. There is just something about this that describes Katie's personality-and I love it-I love to watch her be so interested in nature and be so eager to conserve the good she finds there.

She is the one you can find, picking "flowers" (dandelions-which at the moment we have a ton of) and putting them in a bucket by our door to give to everyone who comes to visit-and a large amount is given to me-because she loves me:) She doesn't realize that in a few hours, those dandelions will be wilted and shriveled. She is the one you will find, making a big pile of HUGE rocks we found in our flower beds-because she is "saving them" she says from the mud:) She worked so hard to lift every single one of them from the dirt to bring their "safe" new home-all by herself. Every once and a while, she would stop and say: mom this is hard work!:)

And yes, that is a shoe in the mix of all her findings, it happens to be one of her favorite shoes-and I am OK with it being there-cause it makes it easier for me to find when we need it:)

And finally, this picture represents what happens when Summer has not come yet....yes it is a massive rolls of toilet paper made up of 4 rolls of toilet paper that Katie, Tavin, and their two friends, unrolled while mommy and Auntie were exercising one day. They decided to toilet paper their entire room. I didn't want to waste it by throwing it all away, so I had them carefully construct this giant roll while sitting in timeout:) Thank you for Summer-and outside-and the lack of being destructive inside:)

HOORRAYY FOR SUMMER!