First Day of School 2014

Conni started 1st Grade this morning!

So excited to go!

These two pictures show how social she is.  Right here she is introducing kids to each other and trying to help everyone visit and not be nervous.  

With her cousin (who's also one of her best friends) and a cute photobomber in front.

The parents went to the gym for an orientation meeting while the kids got settled in their classrooms.  Its so cool that my sister and I have our kids going to "our" elementary school! 

 Yes, this was while the principal was talking.  :)

After the orientation meeting we got to go to our students classrooms and get teacher-specific information.

Coloring away while her teacher gives the parents information

Our little family

(I may have already cried a couple times this morning.  Shhh)

Random Pictures

We recently had our back up hard drive die - the one where I had backed up years of pictures.  If I think to hard about it I burst into tears again.  But luckily I had picked a few pics over the years to share here.  This blog has saved me!  So sorry for the overload, but its even more important to me to share here.  These are just some fun random pics over the last few months.

So peaceful.  I love how she still cuddles her blanket I made her!

Such cute cheeks!

Being silly shoe shopping

She's already practicing her selfies!

We planted daisies in our front garden earlier this spring.  They are finally big enough to pick and have in a vase inside!  We were super stoked!

Sunday tradition with Aunt Sarah.  Conni loves doing nails during "girls time"

Conni's American Doll dresses just like Conni does!  Red sparkly shoes and everything.

We had guests over and our visit was running kind of late.  Conni knows her bedtime usually starts around 8:00.  She looked at the clock, got herself ready for bed, and set up a bed in the hall so she could still hear us in the front room.  And she completely fell asleep.  My favorite part about this picture?  She even made sure to read stories and scriptures and say her prayers before she fell asleep.  Atta girl!

At the Aquarium.  My two most favorite people!

Crossing the suspended bridge at the Aquarium

We love penguins!

Conni loves sharks lately.  

Being silly at the Planetarium Gift Shop

She got herself all pretty before we went to family dinner.  (You can't see them all, but she put about a dozen little clips in her hair.)  Such style!

Fairy Tea Party

Grandma Bonnie took Conni and her cousin to a Fairy Tea party at the end of summer.  Conni had a blast being with just her grandma and her cousin!  She got to take her doll with her and get all dressed up fancy.  They were gone for hours and she had so much fun!

Visiting a fairy house

getting ready to make a wish and sprinkle fairy dust

This is my favorite picture!

Thanks Grandma for the fun and the special time spent with Conni!  

Conni's 6th Birthday

My sweet Conni girl is 6 years old!  Here's just a few pics from her birthday week.  I was at girls camp for the first part of the week so it was super crazy!  I have more pictures to post later - these are just the ones from my phone.  

Conni received Legos from her grandparents and had a blast putting them together.

This set is Merida from Brave

Dad's here just in case she needs help

The birthday girl!

Conni requested that we decorate the mirror in the bathroom and hang crepe paper streamers from her door way.  So we did!

For her birthday she received a Goldiblox set.  She loves figuring out these engineering sets and building her own!

Conni requested dinner at Chuck E. Cheese.  She loves playing games!  

I love her determined look!

Playing with even more legos after her birthday.  

Some of Conni's favorites right now are the color purple, cats, legos, playing with friends, crafting, and reading.  She is growing like crazy and healthy as ever.  She loves to be independent and still surprises me with what she can do on her own.  She is great at helping with chores around the house.  She loves to ask how our days went and she has a pretty grown up vocabulary.  She loves to ask why and we try to answer as many of her why questions as we can.  We are so grateful that Conni is part of our family!

Family History Fireside

We had the opportunity last night to attend a Family History Fireside last night put together by our Stake Youth Family History Committee.  (Until last night I didn't even know we had such a committee!)  One of my adorable Beehives is on the committee and it was fun to listen to her. 

The fireside was a kick off to get the members of our stake - specifically the youth - excited about doing family history.  We were able to hear some stories of the youth's ancestors and see some inspiring videos from familysearch.org.

It got me thinking about our family history and the work I've done in the past and all the work I could still do.  Conni is named for our grandma's, my middle name comes from family names, and Dave's name is a fourth generation name - so we have a lot of heritage just in our names alone.  I started thinking about fun ways I could put together info to share with Conni.  She is always asking about mine and Dave's birth order in our families, and which grandparents are our mom and dad - stuff like that.  So the wheels were turning - and I was grateful for the promptings of the spirit.

The closing song at the fireside was "Families Can Be Together Forever".  This song always touches my heart a little.  Well, I didn't know til yesterday either that Conni knows this song.  It was so touching to sit there as our little family of three, with thoughts of our ancestors flowing thru my mind, and sing about our family being together forever.  Talk about the spirit of Elijah!

We were all given a copy of the My Family Booklet from FamilySearch.org to help us get started (or continue) our family history.  I am excited to see what I can come up with and how I can present stuff to Conni.  I'd love to be able to find pictures of the people we are named after to share with her.  I hope to keep the spirit of Elijah alive in our home.  If you are interested in doing your family history work, check out FamilySearch.org! 

Daily Jobs

This weekend while Conni and I were out running errands, our conversation turned towards jobs.  Conni was telling me all the different jobs she wants to have when she grows up.  I commented that it was a lot of jobs.  She said she would do one each day. 

• Doctor
• Nurse
• Karate Teacher
• Kindergarten Teacher
• Parade Float Rider
• A Mom - but this job she would do every day

Grown Up Karate Teacher

Conni has said for a while that when she grows up she wants to be a "fighting teacher".  She had never taken karate or anything, so this kind of came out of the blue.  We decided to enroll her in a community ed karate class this summer to check it out.  Its a five week class, once a week, and its much cheaper than trying to start a regular class. 

After her first class she said she didn't like it.  Her teacher was pretty loud.  Conni had a chance to go one on one with her teacher and practice punching and kicking him.  He would shove her around a little (not hard or anything) to try to get her more riled up.  She did NOT like this at all. She wanted to be done.  But, just cause something is hard doesn't mean we give up. 

The second week, she was nervous again.  She practiced the moves, working very hard to be accurate and follow her teacher.  But, when it came time to put on the gloves to go one on one with the teacher again, Conni was jumping at the chance to be first.  This week after class she said she liked it.

Yesterday was the third class.  She was so excited to go and couldn't wait to get started.  She remembered the moves and worked even harder to improve her technique.  She paid close attention when they were taught a new move, and tried very hard to mirror her teacher exactly.  When her teacher came around she complimented Conni on how well she was doing.  She told her if she keeps it up, she can go with the more advanced kids in the class.  Then of course she got the chance to go one on one with the teacher.  She was flying high after class.

We went straight to the church for my young women's activity after class.  Dave was going to meet us there, so Conni had a few minutes to play.  She disappeared by the chalkboard and surprised me with this awesome drawing:

This is her, all "gron ap" (grown up) teaching a fighting class.  I am so proud of her sticking to karate even though it was hard.  She fought through and now she loves it.  Now I just have to figure out how we add this to the busy school schedule in the fall...

Disneyland Trip

I finally had a chance to finish our book for Disneyland.  We had such a fantastic time when we went the beginning of May.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The crowds were small.  We made some great memories and we are looking forward to going again!

Click here to view this photo book larger

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Kindergarten Program

Conni finished Kindergarten today!  I swear last week was the first week of school.  Conni did an amazing job with her program today.  She has learned so much in just a few short month.  I used to worry since she was the youngest in the class.  But now I know she is a natural learner and truly LOVES to learn.  

Conni's part in the Grouchy Ladybug

Each girl was escorted to the front by one of the boys while their name was read.  

This is Conni's friend Jacob.

Such a cute girl!

Conni and her teacher

Conni and her friends.  

The Grouchy Lady Bug