What is summer without strawberries??

We are patiently waiting for our Solar Guard to come in the mail so that we can start our summer of fun in the pool (the Scar Guard with the sunscreen), so I am constantly trying to come up with things to do at home. Fortunately she has found a new passion for drawing, coloring and painting, as demonstrated in a previous post. She has also fostered a love for dance. Since I've signed her up for lessons, she has devoted much of her time to floating & hopping around the living room. She even rented a DVD of a ballet class that she concertedly follows to learn the moves. It's so fun to see her develop hobbies! Tonight we danced and made a batch of freezer jam. HOORAY! I cannot wait make more!!!

One anecdote: This morning Katherine dressed herself in a princess dress, brushed her hair and put on her shoes and told she was getting ready to go see Zach Merrill because she's going to marry him...

Baby Front: This baby is WAY active, kicking all the time. I'm thinking it's going to give Katherine a run for her money... We will find out the gender next Wednesday. Any guesses??

Family Home Evening

We've taken FHE as a time for Katherine to report to Geoff on her scripture memorization. This opportunity prompted her to take over the rest of the lesson, using her scriptures and the pictures in the Friend magazine, to teach about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's moments like this that give you hope you're on the right track...

Grandmothers

Aren't they wonderful??!!

We stopped by my grandmother's house after a good friend's bridal shower on Saturday. Grandmother had hidden little gifts around the room for Katherine to find and then taught her how to sew using a shoelace and a cardboard car. I'm so grateful for a caring, thoughtful woman who took the time to make my daughter's visit fun and meaningful. I love her and all the grandmothers in our lives. Thank you.

Here's a good laugh

The summer of our engagement

 The first year

 Somewhere in the middle

 Our third year

And look at us now... We got old last year! 

(Taken at a good friend's wedding last week)

The Budding Artist

 "Dad as Celery"

 "Mom as a Broccoli Muffin"

 "Baby Brother is Angry"

disclaimer: No, we don't know the gender of the baby yet, but Katherine has been saying it will be a boy!

 She diligently worked on this piece during our entire sacrament meeting today. Not ONCE did I have to ask her to be quiet or sit down or be reverent. It was so nice to actually enjoy the meeting and feel the Spirit!

 Her take home art from Sunbeams today.

I saved post-it note because it was the first time I was able to watch her intentionally draw a stick figure! Call me extremely sentimental, but isn't it cool to watch your child develop new skills and do things for the first time??

Greatest Life on Earth

Ever notice a trend in what interests your kids? She loves books that have repetition, some kind of pattern that she can follow. This video is her trying to read of the great children's book "Going on a Lion Hunt."

 Just want to document that Katherine has allowed herself a new friend, Piper. They have gotten together several times in the past couple of weeks and they play AMAZINGLY well. We, moms, think it's because Piper is clearly as spunky & opinionated as Katherine is. Neither one gets away with being bossy so, it's like, they have called a truce! It's the first time I feel like her mom and I can just sit and talk and not have to be constantly interrupted because we have to referee. It's AWESOME.

Hair standing on end in blow up house

Katherine loves to start singing a song and then go on loop, singing the same part over and over again. In this clip she singing from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, "Oh They Say When You Marry in June." She cracks me up with her dreamy singing and dancing!

Happy Mother's Day

This card Katherine filled out during her Sunbeams class at church is the highlight of my day! Where she came up with some of those answer, I have NO IDEA, but they crack me up! She also sang with all the Primary kids during Sacrament meeting for the first time. Her Primary teacher, Michelle Lewellen, is my friend and had sat with us, so she walked Katherine up to the stand. She held her hands at her side and sang as many words as she could remember to "I Often Go Walking" and then waved. It was awesome and just melted my little heart. It's what Mother's Day is all about!

I love my family so much. We are grateful to our mothers who are still watching over us daily. They are such examples of unconditional love and perseverance! We are so grateful for your support! Thank you to my terrific husband who loves me on good days and bad. Thank you for all you do to take care of our family. I wish we could have spent the day together, but you know that... Love you!

Hot

There are some things you take for granted in life:

• A cool pillow when you lay your head down at night
• Feeling refreshed by the rush of cool air when you open a window
• Knowing what time of day it is because of the degree of natural light in the house
• Playing, running, creative crafting and coloring
• Joy, Patience, Long suffering

So what happens when the air conditioner goes out and your daughter was sick throwing up so you can't leave the house with a good conscience and it's 86 degrees inside?

• Popsicles, popsicles, popsicles
• Sharing a cold foot bath with Katherine while we chew on our ice in the tub at 8:30 at night
• Dragontales marathon, books, trying to move as little as possible
• Turning on all the fans so that you are blown out of the bed
• Opening the window when it's still 89 degrees out hoping for a little breeze but there's not
• Shutting up all the blinds to live like hermits
• Dreaming if there's a way to buy those bamboo sheets I laughed at when I lived in China because they don't absorb your body heat and keep you cool as you sleep
• General melancholy that's interrupted by bouts of laughter and amusement

Moral of this post: Never schedule a repair and leave the house when your husband is asleep...

April Scripture

We've experimented with several ways to teach Katherine the scriptures and it seems that memorizing one verse a month is what works the best. We'll see what happens next month...

Barefoot and Pregnant

Geoff couldn't resist... I was cooking, too. I'm now 14 weeks along. Hooray. It's going quickly.

First Kite Flying

It only took two minutes before the tail ripped, but it was fun!

A night in a life with Spud

Time for dinner. Must it be so hard to get her to eat real food? Lately I've been banning all snacks, especially her favorite fruit snacks and fruit roll ups and seems to be helping.

So instead of coming back to dinner she chose to go to her room. She came out with this new ensemble, completely unphased that she hadn't eaten for several hours.

She's so funny, it's hard to discipline and ensure good habits... but we try.