Easter Princess

Caitlin in her Cinderella Easter dress. She LOVED it!!

In this one she cracked herself up with her silly poses.

Summer Hair Cut

Okay, these are horrible iphone pictures, but it was all I had with me at the time. Caitlin's hair has gotten so long and I loved being able to curl it and do things with it, but it was a hassle. Brushing the tangles out had gotten to be a nightmare!! One day, she said she wanted short hair like her friends Greta and Anna at school, so the next time Rusty had a haircut, we took Caitlin along. It is so much easier to fix now!!

Pinboards

This weekend I finished the pinboards for Caitlin's room. I LOVE how they turned out. I got the idea for these in a Pottery Barn catalog. If I had bought them from Pottery Barn, they would have cost over $200 to do what I wanted. I did them myself and it cost around $45. Not too bad!!

Big Girl Room

We recently moved Caitlin upstairs into a big girl bedroom. We painted the room and got her a twin bed. It is a princess room that hopefully she won't outgrow for a while.

This is her pink princess bed - bedding from Target. Eventually, there will be a custom headboard. The bedskirt is pink tulle and I think I will do the headboard to match that.

This is her dress-up area. The dresses hang on the shelf and the toy box holds the rest of her dress-up stuff.

These are on top of the shelf. A canvas of Caitlin as a baby and a picture of my dad holding her when she was little.

I love these fabulous nesting hat boxes that I got from The Land of Nod.

Rusty repainted all of Caitlin's dressers and we were able to reuse these. FYI - these were Rusty's furniture growing up. How's that for lasting furniture? Eventually above these, I will have several pinboards for Caitlin to hang her artwork and pictures.

Her closet - I tried to get lost of storage places for toys. I love the hanging shelves and matching storage boxes from The Land of Nod.

Caitlin playing on the pink shag rug I just got at Target today. :)

This corner eventually will be a reading corner. While putting together her bookcase I bought, I realized that two of the legs were cracked. So soon there will a bookcase in the corner and then Caitlin can sit on these floor pillows and read her books. Pillows from The Land of Nod. Do you see a pattern?

I love these frilly curtains from The Land of Nod. Yes it's my favorite new website!

The other dresser Rusty painted. It's being used a bedside table. Over it is a framed picture and poem called Three Dresses that talks about the three special white dresses in her life - blessing, baptism and wedding.

Gymnastics-2nd class

Caitlin loved class again. She is improving in all of the moves. She loved this floor length trampoline.



On the balance beam-

Doing her scissor kick-

With her teacher - Miss Lee

Gymnastics

We signed Caitlin up for a free trial gymnastics class. She loves to jump and flip so we thought she might like it. We weren't sure about her attention span and need to be the center of attention, so the trial class was good. She did SO well! She listened to the teacher (who happens to also teach 1st graders), did what she was told and had a blast!! She got to jump on trampolines, walk the beams, turn flips and jump around. I loved how the class was organized and run and she loved doing it. So we are definitely signing her up permanently!

My Snow Angel

Angels

Yesterday at church, Caitlin was having a hard day and didn't want to go to primary. I let her stay with me as I went to classes. In Relief Society (all women's class), the lesson was on Angels and the teacher asked in what ways Angels could influence our lives. Several people called out answers and then Caitlin said in her little voice, "And they can come in dreams." Every one was shocked that she not only was listening but answered the question. She was a little embarassed that everyone looked at her, but it was so cute!

Caitlin's Progress Report

Last week when I picked Caitlin up from school, she had a progress report in her cubby. It explained that it was normal for each kid to have areas where they needed improvement and other areas where they excelled. They got a + for strong development, a check for appropriate development and a - for weak development. So I was excited to see what the teacher thought of Caitlin. Thankfully, she did not have any - marks, all were appropriate or above. The things she excelled at were all of the creative arts (music, art, dramatic play) - this one didn't surprise me. She loves to sing and is pretty good at tempos and staying on pitch. She also excelled in her early literacy, specifically her writing, listening to stories and understanding plots, and verbal and expressive communication (yes, she's a talker).

And then I like this comment about her gross motor skills, "Caitlin sometimes runs or bumps into things because she misjudged distance." That's my girl! Sorry, she's clumsy because of me!!

The only thing negative in her report was this comment, "Caitlin usually listens during circle time because she enjoys books and music. However, she sometimes finds it difficult to listen during other activities and directions. Instructions or rules have to be repeated several times." This was not a surprise to me either. In the morning, I will send her to her room to get something or to go brush her teeth and before she does what I ask, she's sidetracked and playing her room. I think she honestly means to do what I ask, she just loses focus very easily. If anyone has any advice for this, PLEASE let me know!

Caitlin is Powerful

For the past few weeks, we've been ready scripture stories to Caitlin each night. I bought the books from the church that have pictures and the stories on a kid's level. Caitlin has really started to pick up on the stories and answer questions at church, even though she gets some of the people and stories mixed up. She really is paying attention. Last night, as we started to read she said, "Mom these stories are making me powerful." She likes how she can answer questions in primary, but I just thought to myself how true that is!!