Court of Honor-for Dad

Yesterday evening we went to a Court of Honor to support Courtney's Dad. He is the Scout Master in our ward and works hard to ensure that the young men in our ward have a good scout program. I was so proud of Courtney at the meeting. She sat by her grandma for the half hour presentation and payed attention so well. She watched the boys, clapped for them and even stood for the pledge to the flag. I am so grateful that I can take my little girl (who is becoming quite a young lady) to an event like this and have her behave and enjoy watching her dad.

Great Expectations

Every day Courtney gets up, gets dressed, eats her breakfast and gets her hair combed. Beyond those of most six year olds she is expected to and does several more things:
1. Takes a handful of vitamin supplements. These are about 11 pills that she is able to swallow two at a time in applesauce. She does this not only every morning, but also every afternoon (about 10 pills) and every evening (2 pills).
2. Has her glasses cleaned and then put on. She also has to have them cleaned several times a day.
3. She has a medical ID bracelet that she has to have put on.
4. She has ankle braces that she puts on after her socks and before her shoes.

I was thinking this morning as I helped her eat her pills (we call them "yummies") that she is expected to do quite a bit more in a morning than other six year olds that I know. I am so proud of her for doing these extra things every morning. They are things that we know will help her have the best day possible and we are glad that she lives up to such great expectation.

Really Reasoning

This morning Courtney said 2 funny, and yet very reasonable things to Arron this morning. It is fun to see how smart she is getting and how she is able to apply reasoning to her everyday life.
1. She woke up on her own, put her shoes and coat on (with her pajamas!) and went outside to help Arron mow the lawn. She got her little toy mower and started helping. Arron's mower bumped into hers and she said, "Don't mow me, I'm not grass growing!"
2. She saw the ladder to the attic down and asked Arron what it was. He told her it was to to attack. She asked if she can climb up. He told her no, it's too high-to which she said, "but I climb up to my bed (she has a ladder that goes up to her top bunk) every night." He thought that was a good point, but explained that it was still too high and that she can not climb up this ladder.
So smart, this little girl!

Quite the Hiker

We took Courtney on her first back-packing overnight hike. We hiked to Bassi Falls in El Dorado National Forest. She carried a backpack with her water and snacks. She hiked the one mile in. She loved it. We set up camp and slept overnight. Courtney even had to use the potty in the woods and did it just fine. The next day we hiked the mile out. She did the hike all on her own and had a great time.

We also took Courtney and our family for a day trip to Yosemite. She hiked one mile in and out to Yosemite Falls. That was flat for the most part. Then after lunch we hiked the .8 rigorous hike up to the bridge on the misty trail. She hiked that up and down all by herself. It was really hard, but the idea of pizza and ice cream for dinner kept her going.

I am so proud of her for doing hard things. She is so strong and even when it gets tough, she keeps going. She loves going on hikes with her family.

Lost Tooth

Courtney lost her 2nd front top tooth. Now she has an adorable jack-o-lantern grin!

Creative and Cute

Courtney is so creative! She found gloves I had been using to clean and decided to become a duck. She waddled around the house for almost an hour being a duck. What a cutie!

Kindergarten Promotion

Courtney attended Las Floras Independent Study program this year for Kindergarten. It is a home-school program run by the Elk Grove School District. This last week, they held a promotion ceremony for the 6th Grade students and the Kindergarten students. There were 3 Kindergarten students promoting and 8 6th graders (of which only 3 showed up). It was the sweetest little ceremony. The teachers brought up one student at a time and talked about them. Then they presented them with a candy bar gram that talked all about them and things the teacher liked about them this year (I will try to get a picture of Courtney's and post it-it was really cute!). Then the students and families had snacks.
This is her teacher, Mrs. Clements. Courtney really worked well with her. We appreciated her patients with Courtney and how much she helped the transition from traditional school to home-study go good. We would meet with her every two weeks to turn in the work that we had finished and to get our assignments for the next two weeks. We will miss seeing her regularly. Courtney was able to keep up with the traditional kindergarten class work. Her biggest accomplishment this year was learning how to read. She loves to read and is now asking me how to fingerspell (ASL) everything! We are really proud of all the progress she made this school year.
Congratulations Courtney!