Gymnastics Take 2

So big sister had her second gymnastics class on Thursday. Mommy decided to just put me in the baby bjorn since there was no prayer that I would sit nicely in my car seat. She found it still impossibly hard to help Siena thru the class. Especially since Siena was over excited at being back in the class and wouldn't follow instructions. Apparently, patience is not one of Siena's "gifts". She and Mommy kept doing that arm fight thing. Mommy would grab Siena's arm and try and sit her down while Siena would push Mommy's hands off and twist and turn until she was free. How come all the other kids seemed to get the whole "sit on your carpet square and wait until it's your turn"??? They were all her same age! Oh well. At least Siena is by far the best jumper. Not the best listener, but definitely the best jumper. That still counts right?

Uncle Marty is now Missionary Marty

Guest post by Mommy.

Today was my wonderful husband's birthday, but I'll let my girls description of him stand for now. I'd rather write to you about my little brother. My little brother is not so "little" anymore. Actually, he's been taller than me for quite some time, but today it is even more than that. Today my brother left on his mission to the Missouri St. Louis mission. He entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo at 1:00 p.m this afternoon.

The girls and I were privileged to drive down and eat lunch with my parents, Uncle Eric, and "Missionary Marty" before he went off on his adventure. I'll admit that I expected to cry more, but I managed to only let a few tears spill out as I watched him sitting in the back seat as the car pulled out of the Pizza Factory parking lot. You see, the MTC has changed its rules. There is no big presentation for families to go and sit through. Now, one car enters the MTC with the missionary and whomever inside. You help them with their luggage and hug good bye at the curb. They've found it works out better for everyone. Since my girls and I couldn't possibly fit in the car with my parents, we said our goodbye a little bit earlier. For those of you who read this blog and are not familiar with what I am talking about, the LDS church sends worthy boys out on a 2 year mission when they are 19. You have to request to go, be worthy, and then accept a call ANYWHERE in the world. You don't pick. The Lord assigns you. You are gone for two years with letters written hopefully every week and phone calls on Christmas and Mother's Day being your only contact with family. No visits. It sounds crazy, but for two years these boys (and girls when they are 21 years old) spend 24 hours a day in the service of the Lord. By choice. This is the reason I cried today. As I hugged my brother good bye, I tried to tell him that I was so proud of him and of course as I said the word proud my composure broke. Because I am proud. (I might have forgotten to say I love you, but I sure hope he knows it!) I am proud to be the older sister of a 19 year old who has made choices for his entire teenage years that brought him to this place. He chose to give the Lord two full years of his life. There will be no distractions. He will go out and give of his talents, his love, his knowledge, his hope, and ALL of his time. I think of what most 19 year olds are doing...what I was doing at 19, and I am awed that he has made this decision. He's not alone. There were well over a hundred missionaries entering the MTC today, but I don't care. It's still a big thing. It's still worth telling the world that he's MY brother and he is amazing. No matter what faith you ascribe to, what he has started today is a great and inspiring commitment. As corny as it is, he left us a boy and in two years will come back a man. A man ready to take on the challenge of starting college and picking a career, possibly starting a family and all that that entails. Of course calling him a boy doesn't quite fit. He's more mature than that already, but he will still conquer mountains over the next two years that help him grow faster than if he was here with us.

And so good luck Elder Larsen. We will all be praying for your every day that you are on this path.

I LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is our incredible Daddy's birthday. We are so lucky to have a daddy like him. He is amazing. He works from home so we get to see him lots. His patience is never ending. We can get loud and noisy (mostly crying noisy) and Mommy sometimes just dumps one of us on him upstairs and he, for the most part, smiles and tries to help. Even with a thousand new emails coming at him. Siena and he have a special relationship all their own. She'll be a Daddy's girl. All she wants is Mommy sometimes, but I'll tell you what, her and Daddy just have this thing.

Our Daddy is also amazing because he is trying to take good care of himself so that he'll be around FOREVER. He's such an inspiration. Oh and family is really important to him and he's not afraid to show it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY! WE LOVE YOU!

Lesson Learned...hopefully.

Another guest post from Mommy:

Everyone who has spent even a small amount of time with me knows immediately that I love St. George. And that I do not like snow. No big secret. It's my happy place. Everything feels like it goes right when I come home and visit. Granted, I have never lived outside my parents home when I have lived here, but still. This trip was really no exception. However, it is getting harder. Traveling with children bites. Living in someone else's home for 10 days with small children also not fun. Of course, our lives have really been on hold for over a year now which makes it harder. I am desperately looking forward to the day when I have my things out of storage. Of course it will be a nasty shock to discover I have no nice things, but at least that means my two year old can destroy it and I'm out 15 bucks. But I digress. To return to my original topic, having two children and living out of a suitcase starts to wear on a mom. Throw in never ending nasal congestion and then a delightful case of croup and my enthusiasm for St. George was no longer eeking out my ears.

Also, I don't seem to grasp that having two small children really means that there are some things I really shouldn't attempt unless all the stars align themselves to create a perfect day. One such thing is hiking Angel's Landing in Zion. Put down the phone, you don't need to call Children's Welfare! I would NEVER have taken my two year old and 3 month old to the TOP. However, Scout's Look Out is right before the scary stuff and is a great stopping place for those of us not inclined to get a whisper of death. That is if you can get there. We never made it to Scout's Look Out yesterday. My girls were doing great until Refrigerator Canyon. (It is called that because even in the middle of summer of it's cool.) And they would have continued to do great. Siena was in the Kelty pack on Dad and Cara was tucked into the front pack on me. Aren't we precious?!



However Mother Nature did not cooperate. Slightly after these photos were taken it started to snow. But it wasn't soft snow. It was closer to hail. Little balls of snow. We thought maybe it would lighten up. We kept going. WRONG. We ended up huddled under over hangs in the canyon trying to figure out what we would do.

Siena started crying. Cara started crying. Neither could be consoled and wanted to simultaneously be on Mommy. And let me tell you, small children crying in an echoey canyon attracts attention. At one point, some other hikers on their way down gave us half of their emergency blanket that was covering their 3 month old. Finally, I just grabbed Siena who was no longer content to sit in a pack that allowed her to be pelted with snow continuously and started trying to run down to the car. Daddy zipped up the front pack with Cara in it inside his jacket. (I did dress them warmly, but just not warm enough for a blizzard!) We were quite far up the trail and had gone up some very steep parts of the trail already. I had to carry Siena in my arms the whole way while negotiating now snow and water covered down hills. We were soaked, the girls cried most of the way (even after I nursed Cara in a tucked away little cave like thing). And poor Aunt Becca carried the pack Siena should be riding in all the way down with us.

My legs hurt today. My quads are fried. Surprisingly, my arms are okay. But my poor girls were frozen by the time we jumped in the car. I knew there was a chance of snow. I've learned my lesson. As a mom, I should listen to the weather. For the rest of my family, no issue. But because I have small children it turned into a MAJOR issue. Sigh. It was very beautiful though.

Time with Uncle Marty

There will be a myriad of posts dedicated to Uncle Marty seeing as how he leaves on his mission in 5 days. We've been enjoying our week here in St. George getting know him before we can forget who he is. :) Sorry, Uncle Marty, but hey we are two years old and three months old! Mommy promises to talk about you lots and show us pictures. Anyway, we came down in time for Uncle Marty's birthday. I enjoyed singing happy birthday to him and helped him blow out the candles on his yummy ice cream cake.

And Aunt Angie brought her brand new puppy over to meet the family. Her name is Miley and I LOVE her. So does Cara. I get to hold her and carry her around though.

Uncle Marty thinks this is one of Cara's cutest outfits.

We'll post some more of our fun times here in St. George when Mommy doesn't hear Cara crying pitifully in her crib.

GO DADDY GO!

He did it! He did it! Our Daddy ran a half marathon! And not only did he finish, he was able to walk around after and carry Siena. I couldn't be at the finish line due to some logistical difficulties including my car seat already being at the finish line.

So as of right now the official results aren't in, but according to Daddy's watch, his time was 1:47:31, which he feels really good about. Though he says, "Ask me how good I feel about it again tomorrow, when I actually have to walk around all day again."

Anyway, he told me all about it afterward, but if you want the full story, you'll have to get it from him, because after all this blog is about me and my sister. Here's some photos:

Gymnastics, oh yeah!

So Mommy broke down and did something really exciting. She signed ME up for gymnastics. A friend of hers told her about a class at the Fairmont Recreation Center in Sugar House for kids just my size. Her daughter, my friend Annabelle, was doing the class. We had already missed one and we were going to miss another so Mommy almost didn't sign up because the cost wasn't working out well. I'm so glad she changed her mind. We showed up for my first class and only one other girl was there. She seemed a lot bigger than me and could do more stuff but it was awesome. There are supposed to be 5 kids in the class and we basically got a private lesson! My teacher, Miss Jennifer, had us stretch and jump up and down. Then she took us in to a room that has a wide balance beam that was really close to the ground. She set up an obstacle course and didn't really expect me to be able to jump, but JUMP I DID! I also did an assisted hand stand and all kinds of fun stuff. Then we went back to the warm up room and she set up a different obstacle course. This time I started to learn how to do a somersault. (See above photo!) I think I'm gonna like this sport! I can't wait to go back.