Firsts

I just wanted to say congrats to my cute husband for making through his first day of teaching at UVU with a smile. He's teaching 2 classes and today's was a Cross Cultural Communication class which I think he's way excited about. He gets to use one of his favorite books... Anatomy of Peace. If you haven't read it, it's a great read.

Katelyn's First Ever Birthday!

Our sweet baby girl in one! She gets cuter ever day and makes us laugh all the time.

Here's a few fun facts about her:
1. She loves watermelon, mac and cheese, and cheese sticks.
2. She loves to laugh as loud as she can, especially when everyone else is laughing. She usually gets so excited that she tenses her whole body and goes up on her tippy toes.
3. She loves mint chocolate custard (thanks to our trip to Nauvoo). It's my favorite so she was doomed to love ice cream like me.
4. She loves her grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins and waves both arms frantically when she sees them.
5. She loves to read her book about Daniel and lion's den and growl at the lions.
6. Yes, she still growls!
7. She loves to growl while she cuddles into her soft pink blanket.
8. She loves to be outside crawling or walking on the grass, being pushed in the swing, or jumping on the tramp.
9. She's an excellent stair climber and we found her the other day yelling at the top of the stairs. Sneaky girl.
10. She loves playing with kids, watching kids, talking back and forth to kids in nice quiet meetings like Relief Society and playing peek-a-boo with anyone.

These are just a few highlights of what makes us smile every day about our little Katelyn. She's our joy and we just can't be around her and not laugh at the funny things she does. We feel so blessed to have our little angel with us. Here's a little video of some highlights of the past year accompanied by her favorite song.

More fun in Nauvoo

Here's a few more pics of us playing at Pioneer Pastimes in Nauvoo. Katelyn and her cousin Sarah had a great time in the wheelbarrow.
Dave and I tested our strength in the stick pull while my nieces Annie and Sarah were the judges. Yes, he's tougher than me, but he was nice and didn't make me fly over his head too far.















You should have seen Katelyn flip me over her stroller! Who knew she was so tough!












You can't go to Nauvoo without stopping at the Women's Statue Garden behind the Visitors' Center. It was beautiful. Katelyn is almost walking by herself... or I should say running. She loves to walk as fast as she can while she holds our hands.












Dave had a funny idea to sit Katelyn on one of the lights in the garden, which she thought was pretty neat as you can see. She loves to laugh, especially when everyone else is laughing. Oh yeah, and did I mention she still growls? Just this past Sunday, she was growling during church and the sister in front of us turned around and smiling asked if it was Katelyn that was growling. Yes, our little lady sounds like a tiger.

Nauvoo!

We just got back from a wonderful trip with the Hoth family (my family) to Nauvoo, Illinois. It was so fun to be with my family and see all of the early church sites. Here we are at Far West, Missouri that has been dedicated to build a temple. It was so beautiful and peaceful.






Here's the whole group at Carthage Jail. We're standing by a statue of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum who were killed here by an angry mob. We loved learning more about Joseph and his amazing example of faith and love.







Is it possible to go to Nauvoo and not dress up like a pioneer? I don't think so. We had so much fun playing at what they call Pioneer Pastimes. They had pioneer games and toys and obviously dress up clothes. We gained great sympathy for the pioneers because it was the second hottest (including humidity) day in Nauvoo of the year and we were absolutely dying in those long sleeves. We had such a good time though, especially when the band came by on the horse-drawn wagon and we danced and danced.