Easter and everything in between

It's been over a month since I've posted anything, so here is my attempt to play catch up. I couldn't help including this first picture because it shows off Katelyn's adorable chubby legs. So cute! She's having a good time at our ward Easter party.
This was one of her first times to sit in the grass. She quickly discovered that it's edible.
Easter Sunday was a beautiful day and as we spent some time with friends, we caught Katelyn making friends with the boys. Aren't they all adorable?
This is Katelyn's new Easter bunny that she got in her Easter basket and promptly fell in love with.
Thanks to Dave's artistic eye, we caught this cute shot of her. She's probably watching the other kids. She loves being all of her little friends.
Here's all three of us enjoying Easter together.
These next pictures were taken by our friend Joy. (Here's her photo blog.) She is an amazing photographer and caught some adorable shots of Katelyn. She took a bunch more that you can see if you click here.


We can't help but smile because everything she does is so absolutely adorable to us. She's moving faster now days. We went to Utah for a BYU organizational conference over General Conference weekend and after 10 hours of driving in the car, Katelyn figured out how to crawl. Go figure. I guess she had plenty of time to visualize herself being more mobile and reaching every shoe lace, electrical cord, magazine, CD or DVD that she wanted. Good girl. You did it. She especially loves the fuzzy rug in the bathroom. Ooooo.

And the most wonderful news, Dave is graduating on May 2 from Thunderbird with his MBA! Time flies! Wow. We have had a wonderful time here meeting new friends and Dave is now in the crazy time of finishing projects, studying for finals and trying to breathe. We'll be moving back to Utah in the middle of May to find a job for a year and then hopefully enroll Dave to receive his PhD next year. (Well, work on receiving his PhD... that takes four years!)

Katelyn really enjoys helping here daddy with his homework. As you can see, she's not too excited that he's going to leave her home and go to class.

Pilates!

I love Pilates. If you can get a good program or teacher, it's a great workout! The other day, I was doing Pilates at my place and caught this cute picture of Katelyn trying to be like mommy. Go Katelyn! But let's be honest, she is a whole lot more flexible than both myself and Denise Austin. I've also been going to a Pilates class with some friends recently and just love it. Katelyn comes and joins me sometimes and shows off a little because she can do the moves better than anyone. You know, bend over, touch your toes, that kind of thing. Katelyn goes an extra step and sucks on her toes to get that extra stretch. One of the ladies gets "upset" because Katelyn can do the superman move that she has a hard time doing. The class got a kick out of it and Katelyn loves the extra attention and the slippery gym floor to crawl (scoot) around on.

Superman, crawling, and giggling

What a week! Last Sunday, our little angel (who know acts more like Superman as you'll see in the first video) figured out how to get up on all fours!! She does the rock and sway and then adds a nose dive. It's adorable.

This was one of her best "crawls" yet. Just put something in front of her that she loves to eat and you're good to go. Boy, does she love her flowers from Samoa. Her giggles in this clip are the cutest. She's laughing more and more and we just love it! In fact, she's a little daddy's girl and loves to watch Dave do just about anything, and of course loves to play and laugh with him.

Sahauro Ranch

We went to a really cool park the other day and took some photos. There were some cool buildings, chickens, a few roosters and lots of citrus trees. It was awesome. While we were there we discovered that Katelyn doesn't like tractors, or at least the loud noise that they make. Scary tractors! I had dressed her in a cute little yellow shirt to take the pictures, but unfortunately is was a LONG sleeved shirt and she hates being hot, so as you can see, she's just hanging out in her undershirt. I guess it's time to stop overdressing her. :)

Happy Half Birthday!

Our little sweetheart is 6 months old!! She is quite the character and just loves to talk and roll around. She smiles all the time (well... almost) and melts our hearts every time she growls (yes, growls), giggles, smiles, squeals, rolls over, or manuevers herself around the furniture. (That's entertaining.) Oh yeah, and she LOVES us to watch her do her superman move. She lays on her belly with her arms and legs in the air with full concentration (it's adorable) and then relaxes and looks up at us with a, "Did you see that?? That was good, huh?!" look on her face. We always cheer for her. :)

On Sunday, we found her up on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth! She's progressed to rocking herself forward far enough to do a nose dive. Don't worry, she gets up and does it again without a scratch. She's a good little inchworm. Today, I found her pulling herself up into the diaper bag to get... her favorite toy? I'm not quite sure what she was after. Crazy kid.

She is now the proud owner of two new teeth on her bottom gums! It's adorable, but watch out, she's got a strong bite.

And last but not least, she hates green beans. She got her first taste of them today, and what a reaction. She scrunched up her little nose and even shook her head with a little jerk. Yuck! Well, then I tried to trick her by adding some beans in her rice cereal, but she was too smart for me.

What a doll. Happy half birthday to our sweet little baby that is more beautiful everyday.

Snow and Sew

What a beautiful day! It snowed all morning and afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it pile up. It makes me want to get out on the slopes! I wonder if they have ski's for 5 month old babies. :) This was my view today from my parent's home.

Since I've been in Utah, I've been busy trying to revive my sewing skills. It's been a while, but I had a good time making skirts for my nieces, my sister, Katelyn and myself. There definitely was a learning curve to the whole project and some improvising, but I'm excited to say that they're done! I bought the fabric in Samoa, with the help of my stylish sisters-in-law. Thanks Alicia and Jenny! Who knows... maybe I'll start sewing all our clothes. Dave, what color tie do you want? :) Now I just need to learn how to knit...

We took these photos at Sarah's birthday party. She's 2! We have the two extremes in size in our family, Sarah is very petite and Katelyn is very tall. You can see how she's already up to Sarah's shoulder! I think they'll be great friends.

I'm so excited for Dave to come home this week! He sent some pictures last week to give us a taste of what he's been up to. Here he is climbing up the very steep stairs of the Great Wall of China. I wonder if Rocky could have run up the whole thing during his training. (I know... haha)

From tropical paradise to snowy hills

SLEDDING!
We had a great day today sledding with Shannon and her kids while we're here in Utah and Dave is in China! It was Katelyn's first sledding experience and since she didn't cry, I think she must have liked it. :) We bundled her up in a couple sleepers, a hat, and a little pink snowsuit (thanks to Shannon). I was pretty nervous to take her down the hill the first time, so I decided to dig my feet in the whole time down the hill as well as drag Tom behind us. It worked out just perfectly. Check out the little video.



PLAYING WITH COUSINS
After sledding for a little while, we borrowed little Sarah's (almost 2) sled and pulled Katelyn around in the snow. Mary (4) wanted to pull her and I thought it was adorable. They are all so cute with her. Mary wanted to pull Katelyn up the hill in the sled and I could just imagine it toppling over (that's my paranoid mother side). I decided to carry her instead and just prayed I wouldn't slip. That would have been ironic. :)

And this picture is dedicated to my cute Dave because both Katelyn and I miss him.