Katelyn Rocks 7th Grade

Katelyn got her braces off today, so she gets to go next!  What I remember most about Katelyn from this Spring is all the interesting things she got to do and learn at school.  She had a PE class (for the first time) on A Day, and a Dance class B day, so every day she spent an hour or more doing physical activity!  She got stronger and faster and always had great stories to tell from PE.  She even ran a 9:30 mile, because she had to break 10 minutes to get an A! She also had great stories from her fun science class with only 10 kids, and from her rowdy English class.  And she got farther and farther ahead in Math, spoiler alert, she is in a 9th grade math class this year as an 8th grader!  She loved her Art class, and her history class too. Basically she rocked 7th grade and had a great time!  Even though she was never able to open her locker haha.

When our ward split in February, she was called to be the Beehive Class President, and that has been a good learning and growing experience for her. She has been working on Personal Progress, trying to finish everything before the program changes in January, and she has learned a lot there too.

Here's a few pics of her from Winter/Spring 2019.  

She is in the gray, loving ice skating class again.  It was pretty challenging this time but she learned to do new things!

For Owen's birthday Katelyn was a good sport and dressed up in her Padme costume and helped out with the activities.  

over on the left you can see 5 years of Kate!

For Christmas, Allison gave Katelyn and Whitney tickets to Wicked since they were moving and she couldn't use them! I bought a ticket and went too.  it was a fantastic show!!

Cookies kate made at Young Womens

Playing Harry Potter Headbands with Kurtis and his fiance Lauren for Emma's birthday!

Easter Cuties

With her very detailed and awesome eggs.

Easter bunny day!  We had it early before we went to CA for Jenae's wedding

Jenae's wedding to Connor Dean in the Fresno Temple!

Katelyn got the honor of being a "Junior Bridesmaid" with Natalie and Whitney.  And Katelyn got to bring Jenae her bouquet inside the door of the temple so she could carry it out with her.  So cute and she felt special that Jenae asked her to do it. 

The next day we had a surprise baby shower for Raycelan, and Katelyn won the diaper changing contest with  a 7-second diaper change!  Wow! Losers had to wear a diaper on their heads lol

And we went to Eastman Lake to swim. Katelyn was a good cousin and shared her towel with Jenna :)

Later in April was the Rococo performance; Katelyn had a big loud sassy solo which was fun!

We went to Vernal for a soccer game and saw the Vernal temple.

and Katelyn and Whitney photo bombed each other's pictures lol

Katelyn's junior high dance class did a show. 

It was fun!! Katelyn is on the back row- this was with the high school dancers too

A couple extra pics of Katelyn from Florida- bugs were swarming them when I was trying to take their picture haha

Kate with a statue inside Hogwarts!

Katelyn in the Atlantic Ocean!

And I seriously love this picture of Eric and Katelyn.  She is usually pretty calm but she can be wild and crazy if she wants to be and she knows how to have fun!

I love this picture of Katelyn and Whitney at their great-great grandparents' grave on Memorial Day! Katelyn is such a good big sister.  It was unexpectedly freezing and so she shared her big sweater with Whitney. :)

By another ancestor's grave- and he put an open book on his tombstone!  Katelyn's future dream haha

The last of her pre-teen days!!

Little Maris

Maris is in her 2nd day of kindergarten, and it's so strange to not have her here! So her post comes first in the line-up of 2019 catch-up posts.  

I am feeling very sad about her starting kindergarten!  She is ready and she is the most social of my children so far so she needs the outlet.  I am excited for her and proud of all she has learned to prepare for this.  But I'm sad about what her starting kindergarten represents.  It's the beginning of her being away from me more.  It's the beginning of me only having one child at home all day, for 3 more years, and then I'll have no kids at home on school days! (thank goodness for half-day kindergarten!  That makes this year bearable, and in 3 years I'll still have one more year of half time with Emma.) This day has to come sometime; no mater how many kids I had it would still come.  And it has been challenging of course to always have my little ducklings following me for the last 13 years.  I'm just so afraid of what I will do when they are all in school.  BUT I am so grateful I get 3 more years!  That's what I keep telling myself.  If Maris had been my last this would be it!  

Anyway.  Enough about me, back to Maris.  She has really grown into her big sister role this year.  The first few months that Owen was in 1st grade, Maris really missed him and struggled to learn how to play with Emma.  She still has a hard time dealing with Emma's stubborn 2-year-old moments, but she has learned how to come up with games for the 2 of them to play on her own, instead of relying on Owen for that. She has learned how to nicely get Emma to do something and how to be a sweet and loving big sister.  The second half of the school year was pretty fun for them and I'm so glad she and Emma will still have their mornings together this year!

Here are a few pictures of Maris and Emma fun:

We had aquarium passes, so we went a couple of times just me and the little girls.

We had to come up with things to do during Emma's nap- puzzles were a favorite!  Also Maris worked hard doing her online preschool, so she started learning letter sounds and sight words!

Emma and Maris like to match, so of course I have to buy them matching things!  Also this shows the Paw Patrol obsession which I'm happy to say abated a little over the summer.

 When she was playing with these dice one day i was feeling sentimental about simple pleasures.  So I got this picture of her, messy hair and all. I'm grateful for every time I sat and watched the girls play, or played with them.  And I try not to worry about the times I didn't.

Silly girls bath painting!

drawing in the snow with colored water. This was a preschool activity with her friend Shon, and it was a hit!

 Maris enjoyed ice skating class!

 And she dressed up as Rey for Owen's Star Wars birthday party!  (far right)

 with mom selfie!

 We got to go to Hang Time to use Owen and Emma's Christmas presents

 Evolution of Maris (and the other kids)

 This was a pic of owen's new haircut from the back, but I saw Maris and busted up.  classic "let your child pick out their own clothes" day!

 Maris played indoor soccer with Shooters this spring.  She's not super aggressive, but she definitely improved her foot skills! And had fun!

 Happy Easter!

With her eggs

 We celebrated Easter Bunny Day early because we were going to be in CA for Jenae's wedding.  Here she is in love with her unicorn backpack!

 and happy with her eggs!

 California was so much fun!  The kids all looked adorable for the wedding:

 Maris loves Connor and Jenae!

 It was so fun to see the MacKays after a few months apart!  We are so sad that they moved so far away to Missouri.

And we got to meet adorable Nathan!  Maris is sitting by him in this pic.

 The reception at the Vineyard ended up being a dirt fest haha

 the next day we went up to Eastman Lake and Maris got in the deepest!

 Maris was also sweet to Spencer.

 The kids got to see a couple of temples because of Whitney's soccer games! Mt. Timpanogos

 and Vernal

 There are several huge posts about our Florida trip, but I just wanted to make sure these made it in:

with Dad in Honeydukes

 loving the Ocean

 me and my little beach girl!

 Before and after Florida we had lots of Track time!

And Maris had her dance recital, it was adorable of course.

 She's in the middle.

 And for Memorial Day we explored the Brigham City Cemetery with Grandma!  She has 14 direct ancestors buried there; this is her maternal grandparents' grave. It was really cool.

And that's all for Maris before her 5th birthday!  The last few months of our little sweetheart being little, sniff sniff.