Picking out Pumpkins

Here are some pictures of us picking out our pumpkins.

First Day of 1st Grade

Here is Katera's first day of school. We decided to enroll her in the spanish immersion program. She has two teachers. One of them, Mrs. Barker speaks only spanish in her class while Mrs. Neral speaks only English. So far she can count to 90 in spanish and is learning a few words. She told me she didn't want to be in the spanish class anymore when Mrs. Barker told them she wasn't going to speak English at all anymore. I think she has since gotten over that.

California

Katera & I went to California to visit my family - without Harland because he had to work. We had a lot of fun. We went to Legoland and went kayaking in the ocean and we can finally see that Katera is actually learning from her swim lessons. She loves diving for rings now. Here are a few pictures of the trip.

Grandma sleeping on the beach.

Some guy sculpted this squid in the sand.

And finally Legoland:

Katera wanted her face painted so badly.

Happy Birthday Harland

Happy Birthday Harland. We are sorry we aren't there to celebrate it with you. When we return from California, we will make it up to you. We hope it was a good one anyway. Here is a special message to you from Katera. She wrote it all by herself...

Update

Ok, so it has been forever since we posted. Life has just been busy and not with anything too in particular. Katera finished kindergarten on June 4th. Wow, I can't believe it. Here is a picture of her first and last day. She looks relatively the same except for the haircut.

Her teacher's name was Mrs. Reese. She really liked her. The other day she even said that she kind of missed kindergarten, even though her favorite subject was recess. Isn't every kid's favorite subject recess??

Well, since school has been out we feel like we have been running a hotel. For the last 3 weeks we have had family staying with us at varying times. I must say I am tired of washing sheets but we can't complain though because we enjoy the company.

Here are pictures of Katera sleeping in a box. We purchased a wet/dry vac for Harland for Father's Day and Katera wanted the box to play in. She cut part of the top of the box to make windows. Next thing we know she put a few blankets in it and tells us she wants to sleep in it. At first she wanted to sleep in the box in the upright position, but then after about 10 minutes she wanted it laying down. She initially fell asleep in it on our bedroom floor, but Harland helped me pick her and the box up and move it to her bed. Since then (4 days) she has slept in her box every night. She tells me it is comfortable because of all the blankets. I told her she would have to put it away since her cousin is coming tonight. She was a little disappointed but she understood. She wants to bring it back out after they leave. Hopefully when she is older she will aspire to live somewhere nicer than a cardboard box.

We had my company summer party on Thursday at the ball park. We got a picnic and a baseball game. It was pretty fun, but our team lost. Here is a picture of their #1 fan.

An Easter Mullet...

Well, Katera and her friend Baylee decided Friday afternoon that they didn't want to have long hair and more. I think we finally got the truth out of them and I think they each cut their own hair. The bag of hair isn't all of Katera's. Some of it is Baylee's too. Their hair color is really close. Baylee's mom got her's fixed Friday night, but we were unable to get Katera's fixed until later as we had my aunt's funeral on Friday night. Harland brought her down to my work and I gathered what I could into a rubberband on the top of her head and put a bow on it. If you were really paying attention to her hair, you could notice the cuts. That was when I told her that she gave herself a mullet. Of course she has no idea what that is. We were finally able to get her hair fixed Saturday morning. As you can see, a good 5 inches was cut off to even it out. She seems to really like her new hair. She had a smile on when she was done curling it. We have told her again for the umpteenth time, "Never cut your hair." As you can tell, she listens really well. She said that she wanted her hair cut. I told her next time to tell me that and we can arrange a hair cut. She then said, "but mom, you weren't home." I guess maybe we need to work on patience and instant gratification...
This is my favorite easter picture of her from this morning. We told her the Easter Bunny didn't have as much money this year. She just had a birthday and doesn't need more toys. She was happy with what the Easter Bunny gave her and even said that he was really good to her this year. Happy Easter everybody.

Happy Birthday Katera

Last night we finally had Katera's birthday party. Her actual birthday was a little over a week ago, but we were unable to have the party around then because of work & school schedules & having to help move Harland's parents out of their house by the 15th. On her actual birthday Harland had to work so I took her to McDonald's for dinner. Yeah, I know McDonald's, but that is what she wanted. I at first was going to attempt to talk her into something else, but then I said, "Hey its her birthday. Let her eat where she wants." So off to McDonald's we went. This is a picture of the small piece of cake I got her at the store so we could sing Happy Birthday on her real birthday. Harland was on speaker phone while we sang and she blew out her candles.

Last night we had her party at the rec. center where Harland works. We had pizza, cake & ice cream and then went swimming. She invited a total of 15 girls, but a few were unable to come. We still somehow ended up with about that many. It was fun, but also kind of hectic. Try keeping track of that many girls in a pool. Luckily we had some help from some friends. Here is a complete picture of the gang.

Temple Open House & 100 Day of School

Harland's sister Julie talked me into this - so here it goes.

I took the day off of work today to spend with Katera since she didn't have school. We ended up going to the Temple Open House. It wasn't very crowded at all. A little cold though. Katera really wanted to "go to the temple," so we decided to go since we don't think we will get the opportunity again before the open house ends. She really wanted to see the sealing room people get married in. Boy there are a lot of house for sale up there. One accross the street is bank owned, 6000 sq. ft and selling for a mere $725,000. I think I will put in an offer...

Katera also celebrated her 100th day in kindergarten on Friday Feb. 20th. She almost didn't get to though because she came down with Influenza A. Since we caught it in the first 48 hours, the doctor was able to prescribe her a medicine that lessens the effects and makes it so it doesn't last as long. For her celebration she was supposed to make some project with 100 of something on it. This is a picture of she and her friend Nicki and their projects. Katera's was a sunflower with 100 sunflower seeds.

This one is pretty funny. I had to include it. It is supposed to be 100 pennies, but the "n" and the "e" were placed above the word. My friend that helps out at the school says it is due to the language barrier. Hey, at least the kid did a project....