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".