Miracles

Guest Post by Mommy:
As I type, a Budget truck full of all our "junk" (seriously why do we have so much stuff and how come I can't manage to get rid of ANY OF IT???), sits in our snowy driveway. The house is a war zone and no..all of it is not packed. The bathroom is seriously impossible to pack and so is your own bedroom. Specifically if you are putting most of it in storage and are trying to determine what will do well in storage, what you need for the time being, and what you'll miss if you don't have it. Anyway, I really wanted to do a guest post to talk about miracles. We have had several minor miracles in just the last two days.

First, I reserved our Budget truck online. I selected a pick up point in Murray and had it all figured out. I got confirmation email on Friday an don Monday Pete and his dad headed to pick it up. (Small side note, Pete's mom hung out with my two girls from 8:30 to 5:30 on Monday. THANK YOU! I got so much done and couldn't have without her help!) I got a call from Pete that the Murray place doesn't exist. It was shut down. Luckily, I had printed out our confirmation for Pete and he was able to call Budget. They hadn't been at that location for months. They didn't have us down anywhere in their computer. I know what you are thinking. How is this a miracle? Well because of such a huge error, they are giving us an extra day with truck. Again you might think...so what? Well I don't know if you've been outside today, but there is a nice winter storm taking over the I-15 corridor. We would have been forced to travel in this weather. Not anymore! Miracle #1

Second, due to time constraints at work Pete wasn't able to head down to our storage unit and load up on Monday. So his dad came over on Tuesday morning and they went to the unit and loaded everything up and cleared it out. Took the lock and all. They pulled out of there at about 9:30 a.m. By 12:30 p.m., the section of storage units directly in front of ours went up in flames. Total losses. Four firetrucks, news crews, and other miscellaneous vehicles made it impossible to get in and out of there even if we had wanted to. I don't think that our unit would have had any damage even if our stuff was still inside, but we wouldn't have been able to get to it to even pack it up! Miracle #2.

Isn't that incredible? Now there are lots of other reasons for me to be stressed, but it's nice to note those small things!

And of course we had another Romney miracle in that we had another impromptu gathering! Rachel had bought the three girls matching outfits and thought that they would grow out of them before they were all together again. Not so. Of course infants are not known for their posing abilities...

They liked to form touching chains.

And they have three big sisters....again somehow we could not get them to pose! Imagine that.

And three little maids are we..."milk" maids that is. Whitley is cheating and giving Rosey a bottle!

Many Many Romney Gatherings

And oh so much fun! I'm going to back up a little bit here and finally post about some pre Christmas (and a post Christmas) get togethers with my favorite cousins! This adds up to a long and photoful post!

Now way back on the 13th, we got together at Aunt Rachel's house and watched The Muppet Christmas Carol projected on a sheet in her front room. Us kids really didn't care about the movie even though it is sometimes very funny! The best part for us was eating the yummy waffles and probably starting a new tradition!



Then on the 23rd we had the official Romney Gathering. All my cousins were there. Uncle Adam and Aunt Whitley came from California. We ate yummy Mexican food and opened presents and listened to Aunt Margaret play a cello duet with a harpist. I started singing even before the sing along officially started! (Uncle Troy was the official photographer so he has most of the photos!)

And of course we gathered at Aunt Rachel's and Uncle Troy's on Christmas Eve.

But there was an impromptu gathering on Saturday after Christmas. Uncle Adam came over with Laine and Smith and Oma and Apa came. The best part this time was the grown ups getting into Wii bowling! Now Mommy promised Uncle Adam no photos of him, but you need to see my Oma bowl!


Here is Cara enjoying her Christmas present.

I am showing Lainey my awesome dollhouse!


My next post will be from St. George! We move in just two or three days! (Depends on how long it takes us to pack up. Heehee.)

Merry Christmas to All!

Many Christmas happies being sent your way!

Here is me discovering Santa's presents. Mommy and Daddy seem to be coaching me on the appropriate level of enthusiasm I should be showing.

Oma and Apa came over to share in the joy. Oma was also helping me show how excited I should be!

We got all kinds of loot including a book of our first year of blogging. Mommy almost cried!

Cara enjoyed the wrapping paper most of all! Definitely her favorite part. Although I think she did like the book I gave her.
If you notice in this photo, I am actually climbing on top of my house while Daddy plays our new Wii game. I enjoy sitting on it, it's my own little perch.

Seasonal fun

As a general announcement, we are only about 10 days away from moving to St. George. Mommy is very excited seeing as how it is acting a lot more like January around here. Below freezing temperatures and then smoggy inversion type weather. YUCK. Also it's not just her. It turns out I don't like the cold either. I don't want to wear warm clothing such as mittens and hats. Even if I'm so cold I can't move my hands. I DON'T want to put that stuff on. Oh and snow in my face....FORGET IT. I don't go outside if it's snowing.

We went and enjoyed the Zoo Lights with Aunt Rachel, Uncle Troy, and my awesome cousins Stomper and Bitty. Baby Bundle was there too but she and Cara can hang out. I FROZE. But I wouldn't put on my mittens until it was too late. Luckily Mommy discovered that I'll wear her old ear warmer. i cried all the way home because I was all pins and needles from being frozen. Mommy just can't seem to anticipate how COLD it gets when that sun goes down and you're up by Emigration Canyon. Even after we undressed Cara, we discovered her feet were cold.




We have also done the obligatory gingerbread cookie decorating. This is Mommy's plate and our family made of gingerbread! (We are also working on some sugar cookies right now. Mommy has a bit of an over indulgence problem with her sweets!)



Then of course this being the Sunday before Christmas, we got to wear our new pretty dresses that Grandma bought for us. We looked so dang cute. However, I'm cutting molars and didn't want to be in the photos, I wanted to be the cameraman. So here are the bests shots of me in my dress. Mommy kept saying Grandma would want to see me but I just wanted to get in to jammies.

Santa's Little Helper

Cara wore her "elf" costume today. Mommy didn't mean to dress her as an elf. She just remembered that Aunt Whitley had given me some super cute little Christmas booties when I was little and voila! An elf outfit sprung upon us!



On a side note, do you know what Mommy is doing to me right now? She is trying to take away binkies! She read a terrible post on a friend's blog about "open bites" and binkies being like an orthodontic device even if only used at night because like her friend's pediatric dentist pointed out kids only wear head gear at night. And her friend was brave enough to do it and her friend's daughter is like my same age and here we are listening to me cry. Mommy can even hear me through the vents. But I'm still the one left to cry myself hoarse and figure out how to sleep without my binkies. Lucky Cara....she still hates the dang things.

Another first for Cara!

Mommy and Daddy gave Cara rice cereal for the first time on the 7th. She didn't think too much of it, but then again Mommy didn't use breast milk in it like she did for me...poor Cara.


However, the next time Mommy remembered and even heated it up a bit. Things went better. She still didn't LOVE it based on the way most of it ended up on the bib, swing, and Mommy!


Mommy also let me hold Cara in the bath. Very brave. Don't worry though, Daddy was taking the picture and Mommy was just out of frame with arms extended. I never dunked her!

And then I even read her my favorite story!

Laughter is contagious

The first video does not do itself justice. I think that monkey is HILARIOUS. It always gets at least a huge smile out of me. Unfortunately, sister is also my main source of entertainment and I just couldn't take the two of them at the same time. Especially since sister was stealing monkey.


And this second video, Daddy came down the stairs with the camera because he could hear just how silly and giggly I was being with Momma. I was jealous of all the videos of Siena when she was a baby and so here's my chance to make up for it.


(On just a funny side note, these videos were shot last Sunday when we all got ready in a flurry of activity because we were late for church. We got in the car and Mommy was saying that she had a funny suspicion it was stake conference. Mommy's suspicion was correct. We just kept on driving past the empty church building at 9:02 am.)

Christmas is Coming!

We finally got our Christmas tree! It is the most perfect tree. The best part was that Daddy walked on to the Christmas Tree lot all by himself (Mommy, Siena and I were all tucked away in the car) because it was snowing. (It turns out Siena really really hates snow coming down and touching her.) He looked at our tree first and couldn't believe his luck so just to be sure he looked at two others But nope, it was meant to be. Also it was cheaper than we had hoped! So we took it home and decked our halls. Siena put on a few decorations by herself.

I supervised.

Then she got to put the star on top.

See?! PERFECT!

Mommy and Daddy had the Jim Carrey Grinch on in the background and the fire was on and we had yummy eggnog. It was magical.
Here are a couple of our other decorations. Mommy loves Christmas.

4 months!

Can you believe I am 4 months old today?! Mommy keeps thinking I should be smaller. On the other hand, this brand new outfit courtesy of Grandma, is the 3 month size. And it could stand to shrink. The jacket that goes with it is stinkin' cute too. Thank you, Grandma. (A side note, the pants you bought Siena and were worried she would be too tall for, drown her. They fall off her hips and have to be rolled twice!) Back to being 4 months old. Let's list all the neat things that I can do:

-I discovered my thumbs and love to suck on them. I did that just as Mommy bought me two new soothies. How nice of me!

-As per the photo, I can do the "tripod" as Aunt Becca calls it! I really do have great muscle control. The problem is that I prefer to stand. Mommy has to force my legs down to practice sitting.

-I can roll from tummy to back. But I again prefer to smash my face into the carpet and scooch and inch my way forward all while crying.

-I am very smiley still and give the most laughs to my sister Siena. For how smiley I am, you really have to show me something special to get me to giggle.

-My parents are ashamed but I seem to be a big fan of TV, especially football.

-I also have really discovered my voice and will just "sound" all day.

-There is not a chance that I will sleep through the night for you. Mommy doesn't create those kind of babies apparently!

-Oh and Mommy swears my hair is growing. I have peach fuzz now. She thinks it's longer but photographic evidence still says I'm a baldy who will need headbands forever.

Angel's Landing, Take 2

On Thanksgiving, Mommy felt courageous enough (and she tripled checked the forecast) to try hiking us up Angel's Landing again. It went MUCH better. I got to ride in the awesome backpack on Daddy's back and Cara hung out in the Bjorn on Mommy and then Grandpa. I have to say my parents are in good shape. The whole family made it up to Refrigerator Canyon in 25 minutes! No rests! Daddy hiked all the way up to Scout's Look Out with me on his back. Then while I hung out with Aunt Becca, Mommy, and Cara he went out to the top for the very first time. So awesome. I am told I have to be at least 3 possibly even 4 before Mommy will even consider letting me go out there. While we waited for everyone to come back, Aunt Becca and I drew in the sand and jumped around and watched a chipmunk scurry around. It was great fun. We also ate a pre-Thanksgiving meal lunch up there. Let me tell you, Mommy and Daddy earned every calorie of Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you, Grandma for a delicious meal that afternoon.