We've Finally Converted... To Desertism!

OUR HOUSE BEFORE...

AND AFTER...

Yes, we finally converted to DESERT LANDSCAPE! Our front yard has been driving us absolutely crazy! The best part of it was chopping down the huge, messy, ugly pine tree! The plants have matured and flowered more since these pictures were taken. We love the change!!!

Bean Juice

We have a video of Demarie when she was Preslyn's age, sitting in the same chair, drinking bean juice too. I've spent all day looking through my files on my computer so I could post it too, but I can't find it anywhere! It makes this video even more funny!

A year flown by.... First grade, here she comes!

Demarie and her teacher, Ms. Keiling on the first day of school!
Demarie and her teacher on the last day of school!

My baby has graduated from kindergarten! Yes, I did get teary on the first day and I got teary on the last! This school year has just flown by! I can't believe how much Demarie has grown during this year. She has loved every minute of Kindergarten and worships her teacher, Ms. Keiling. One of her favorite things to do is play school and she is the teacher and Preslyn is her student (and Preslyn has learned so much from her teacher!). Demarie tells me that she wants to be a teacher someday like Ms Keiling and an artist if she can have two jobs. Demarie has made lots of friends and wonderful memories. Every day, her backpack is full of notes and stapled packets that she has made for her friends to pass out at school. She would even make notes for the kids in the a.m. class as well! She has become a wonderful reader and problem solver. Last week, she asked the librarian where she could find a book about Sacajawea. I am so proud of her and look forward to many more graduations in her future!

Visit from the Randalls

Jordan, Kenzie, Preslyn, Demarie, Tyler, Darren (Broyden was napping)
Preslyn and Kenzie had so much fun together. Preslyn kept calling Kenzie, "Emily," and Kenzie kept calling Preslyn, "That little girl."

Demarie was in heaven playing with Tyler and Darren. She was so sad when they had to leave!


Broyden and Jordan enjoyed beating up on each other!


In May, we were so excited to have Julie and Ben Randall visit us on their way to California. Julie is Aaron's sister and our kids are close in age. Even though they live in Utah, our kids sure love it when we see them. They are moving to Iowa for residency and we are so excited for them, but so sad for us. We're going to miss them so much!

SIX!

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!
DEMARIE IS SIX!!!!

CELEBRATING WITH THE SIS!

BROYDEN WANTS IN ON THE ACTION TOO!SILLY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GARDEN FAIRY!!!

Demarie woke up shaking with excitement to be turning six! She beamed when her classmates at school sang to her and gave her each their own personal birthday wish! She got to share flower pot cupcakes with her Kindergarten class and played at the park with her friends (even though it was so cold outside!). The day was topped with dinner at In-N-Out (her favorite hamburger joint), a garden fairy cake, and opening presents. Somehow she managed to receive three pink Zhu Zhu pets! She also enjoyed her new pink Barbie bike and took her Zhu Zhu pets for a ride! We love you Demarie and hope you have a "star star star star birthday" (to quote one of her friends at school)!

Like all Harris holidays, Easter was dragged out all week long! We started out with an Easter egg hunt at the library during story time with Milin and her cute little boy, Tean. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures and I don't know how to steal pictures off Milin's blog. We were fortunate to have Jake and Milin visit for a few days and they were able to join us at the park where a local church and the City of North Las Vegas put on an egg hunt. A helicopter flew over everyone and dropped Easter eggs out of the sky. There were so many people there that we didn't get any eggs and after the event was all over, there were children bawling and parents frantically yelling and searching through the crowds because they had been separated in the 30-second race of devouring plastic eggs. Needless to say, it is our last time to attend a community Easter egg hunt.
We had a great time decorating Easter eggs later in the week. Demarie had to make sure that Grandma and Grandpa had a colored egg with their name on it as well!

The festivities continued with a visit from Daren and Cathy Moon (my brother) and their family. They arrived Saturday afternoon and we had an Easter egg hunt. The next morning, the Easter Bunny brought even more candy and eggs! Demarie had a blast with her cousins, especially Hallie and Mallory! It was funny to see each age-group react differently to the egg hunt.

DAREN JR.: I'm way to cool for this.
KADEN: Still willing to at least check it out...for the candy's sake
MALLORY/HALLIE/DEMARIE: Aagh! Easter eggs! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Eat! Eat! Eat!
PRESLYN: Oh! What's this? An Easter egg? Uh oh! It broke! Wait a minute...there's...there's candy inside! Look! Candy! I better make sure I open every egg to see what is inside it before I place it in my basket!
BROYDEN: Oblivious:)

Demarie and Hallie got their eggs so fast that we didn't even get a picture of them looking for the eggs outside!

Look what was hiding in my Easter basket

Preslyn enjoying the Easter egg hunt!

Slow and steady wins the race! Preslyn ended up with a lot more candy than everyone else!!!! The Easter bunny hid small packets of Nerds candy and Preslyn found a few. One of the older kids helped Preslyn by opening each box and pouring the Nerds out on the table. When all the other kids realized that Preslyn had more candy than everyone else, they all stood around her begging for her to share. It was obvious by her face that Preslyn was enjoying the power! Without saying anything, she slowly and majestically grabbed one tiny piece of Nerd on the table and gave it to Demarie. I am so proud of her for sharing!!!

And of course, how can you forget Conference? That was definitely the highlight of the Easter Celebration!

Berret's

We had so much fun when Blake and Monica Berrett came to visit with their two kids. We used to live below them in a house in Logan and became great friends. We enjoy their 'almost yearly' visits! Demarie had lots of fun playing with Kyler.

The dinosaur park has some really tall slides. Preslyn climbed all the way to the top and went down several times all by herself! After watching Preslyn do it, Demarie was willing to give it a try!