2 months

That's right. My little sister is already two months old. In some ways, Mommy says that it can't possibly be only two months, but in other ways, she says oh no, it's been TWO months! We had our 2 month and 2 year appointments at the doctors. This of course meant shots, but we'll forgive those nice ladies. Cara is now 10 lbs 5 oz which is in the 43% (not as chubby as I was at her age) and she is somewhere around 22 inches which is nice and short at the 20%. I am now 32.5inches which again is in the short end of the 17% and I weigh 25 lbs even which is in the 28%. I've thinned out! I was in the 50th and above forever!

On Sunday, Daddy gave Cara her name and blessing at church. Of course it was beautiful. What made it most special though was that my Uncle Adam and his family got to be here. They blessed my cousin Rosey later that day in Woodland at her Poppy's house. Rosey and Cara are only 3 days apart. It was the first time that she, Emma, and Rosey all got to be together. Duh, lots of photos ensued. Uncle Troy has most of them on his nifty camera, but here are a few from our camera. It was a bummer that the three oldest granddaughters of the Romneys weren't there because it was nothing but GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!


Oh and also here are the token pictures from in front of the church with Mommy's family. And an attempt at a family of four photo of us! And since Mommy just can't stop with the photos...a four generation picture: Great Grandparents: Lowell and Marilyn Larsen, Grandpa: Gordon Larsen, Mommy: Sheri Larsen Romney, Baby: Cara May

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

It's been a big day. I, Cara, got blessed today and so did my cousin Rosey, but I'll let Siena tell you about that later. Right now I want to tell you about my awesome big sister who turned TWO today. That's right. Mommy has a TWO YEAR OLD. (As Grandpa said, it's nice to finally be able to refer to it as the "terrible twos!")

Two years ago today, Siena looked like this:

A year after that (when Mommy thought Siena looked like a big girl, ha!)

And now she's SO BIG:

Let me tell you all the cool stuff that she can do that I can't.
The obvious:
Hold her own head up ALL THE TIME
Sit up on her own
Walk
RUN
Jump

Not so obvious:
Sing: Popcorn Popping, Ring around the Rosie, Happy Birthday (You can loosely tell these are what she's singing)
Dance
Spin in circles
She knows all of her letters by sight and can do most of the lower case including "r' and "d" which I think is pretty dang impressive. Ironically, she can't sing the alphabet song. She's actually known all her upper case letters since she was about 18 months old
She knows A LOT of sign language.
The words she says has greatly improved too. She's definitely working on saying complete sentences.
She won't tell you when she needs to go potty and she's the first to pee or poo on the floor if Mommy looks away, but she's also going both pee or poo in the potty at least twice a day. (Progress, Mommy, progress)
Color on paper and NOT the table
Just the other day she started trying to put on her own shoes and socks

My big sister ROCKS. Happy Birthday, Siena! Here are some more fun pictures from the birthday part of the day (and yes we had Siena change out of her pretty dress and into a more destructible outfit!)

Another moment from Mommy

I am having another great week in shopping. I'm getting that high from saving. So I've really been trying to limit myself to a weekly budget and only go to the store once a week. It went great for three weeks, but then I let my fridge get down to the bare bones and my pantry also because we went to St. George for a week. I "binged" there and spent too much money at Target on things that I really did need, but still. And then I came back and "needed" to restock. Again way too much money spent at Target. But then I saw the weekly ads for Albertsons. Sigh. More money! But this time I was at least not spending as much as it really should cost. Check out the photo (please disregard my obvious lack of nutritional sense):

Retail Value: $60
Paid at the register: $26
Savings: $34 (more than 50%!!!!!)
Plus I am mailing in a $10 dollar rebate form for Kellogg's. YEAH! So of course, then I was addicted. The thing is this. Right now select Kellogg's cereals are on sale at Albertson's for $2.50, but if you buy 10, Kellogg's gives you an automatic $10 dollar rebate at the register (nothing to mail in) making the actual cost $1.50 each. It's not just cereal, but those are the most expensive items that are part of the deal. Well I went back today and bought 10 more boxes of cereal plus some other things that were on sale. So today's batch (no picture) was:
Retail Value: $63
Paid at the register: $27
Savings: $36 (again more than 50%!!!!)

Sadly, I really shouldn't have spent the money, but now we are stocked with 18 boxes of cereal! And some yummy cookies and chips and soda and yogurt...mmmmmmm

Some more things about St. George

Mommy finally downloaded the pictures from our camera of our time in St. George, and there is just some stuff that HAS to be shared.
This is where Cara slept during her naps. And a picture of her in her cute bikini! The front was almost indecent seeing as how it was really much too big for her little chest.


And the pictures of Mommy wakeboarding. Please keep in mind she did have a baby 7 weeks to the day before this picture was taken.

This is where Daddy did quite a bit of his working. Out on the patio. Kind of nice, don't you think?

Then here is Mommy's favorite video. It's just so awesome. It also showed Grandma and Mommy just what they say during a game of soccer. Mommy had enough time to laugh at me and then slowly pull out the video camera. I kept it up through most of the game. I LOVE soccer and football. If you listen, they are trying to get me to say "Nice" because I started randomly saying that during one of her first games.

Sad to leave

Well we've had a wonderful time here in St. George, but our week is up. Sigh. Mommy was able to get some good video of me cheering that she can't wait to download, but in the mean time here are some picture highlights that Grandpa's nice camera captured!
Aunt Angie has a gift for doing hair.

I had some strange regression regarding my love of the pool but I quickly got over it once my Daddy could come out and play with me!

Cara went to the lake for the first time. Mommy also wakeboarded for the first time in at least a year...we have proof on our camera!

Aunt Becca was on Homecoming Royalty! Isn't she so pretty?

Also this week Aunt Angie and Uncle Christian closed on their house! They're grown ups with a mortgage.

We had so much fun with everyone. We watched a lot of sports, went peepee and poopoo on the potty, spit up on Grandpa, laid out by the pool, and hung out with everybody. IT WAS GREAT. Can't wait until we can do it again!

Soccer and Football Mania

One of the best parts of being at Grandma's house during the fall season is all the STUFF that goes on. I barely have time for naps and decent bed times. Aunt Becca had a soccer game on Tuesday and another one tonight. (Mommy is going to film me cheering because it's priceless!) Uncle Eric had a football game last night and then we'll go to Desert Hills High School's (Aunt Becca's school) Homecoming football game on Friday night. Uncle Marty was part of the first graduating class last year so he'll be one of the few real alumni at the game and then Aunt Becca is also on the Homecoming Royalty and is in the running for Homecoming Queen which they will announce at half time! Fingers crossed!

And of course pictures of us enjoying the fun:
The best part of stadium play: PIZZA

Uncle Eric is #54 (you can only see the 5 as he is running the ball-he's a running back and a defensive linebacker!)

Aunt Becca is #3. She's a team captain and plays defender (AND ROCKS AT IT!)

St. George and Sky Diving

Yeah! We're in St. George! It's 90 degrees and still hot summer weather. Plenty of pool and lake fun. Well there will be. We've been swimming, but not to the lake yet. Cara hung out pool side for her first time while I splashed around and had a lot of fun. But the big news is that on Monday I went with Cara, Mommy, and Grandma to watch Uncle Marty and Grandpa go sky diving. We did a LOT of standing around waiting to see the airplane which is only big enough for two people in the back so they had to jump on separate flights. Mommy could see the moment that each of them left the plane and watch them free fall and then I could see them when the big parachute would unfold. Mommy was jealous. Each time she watched the awesome video of Uncle Marty's experience from the helmet camera it made her want to go more and more! Maybe for her 30th birthday. (This gives her five years to actually get up the guts.)

Run, Daddy, Run!

So as most of you know, our Daddy has taken up running. He finds that he is more inclined to exercise if he has a race to train for. Well today he raced in the Layton Classic 10k. (The shwag from this event was pretty awesome including a long sleeve running shirt made out of bamboo!) YEAH DADDY! He beat his last time by at least 2 minutes if not 3. (His last 10k we never got an official time and for this one the results haven't been posted yet, but according to his gun time we're looking at almost 3 minutes better.) We all went and cheered Daddy on. The Finish line was at this great little park and they were having a little fair so we had plenty to do.





We did confirm that Siena is not a morning person...this was after we got back!

The Spoofer

Great Grandpa Quaife calls binkis "spoofers" because us babies think we're going to get milk, but in fact we don't. Kind of cruel, eh? Well I don't want anything to do with these "spoofers". In fact, I have actually made myself gag so hard I puked all over Mommy when she tried to give me one of those...things. In truth, I have sucked on one probably 5 times and for no more than 5 minutes. Mommy caught me on camera. Amazing since it is so rare. I have to be mostly asleep and sometimes I can be tricked.

And of course Mommy just had to throw in a picture of Siena's hair. Mommy once said out loud that she was glad she had girls because she wouldn't have to deal with cutting their hair when they were small. Later she realized the foolishness of this statement. At most, baby boys need their hair cut once a month...little girls need their hair DONE EVERY DAY! Mommy loves Siena's hair though. Here is a picture of a braid Mommy managed to get into Siena's hair. She did it once before and it gets very loose and messy throughout the day, but for one brief moment...it's beautiful!

End of Summer

Or so they say. Mommy doesn't like to think about Labor Day ushering in the fall season. Her favorite time of year went by too quickly! She wished it away because she wanted Cara to be born! And now the nights are getting a little bit longer and cooler. The days don't get quite as hot. Sigh.

However, we had a very nice Labor Day. We went over to Oma and Apa's new digs. You see, our Oma and Apa get to stay! They had to come home from Europe early and they've decided to stay in Salt Lake. Well see that presents a difficulty in that, we're living in their house. And we're using all the rooms. They're letting us stay a little bit longer and so they're staying in a friend's family home that is currently empty and waiting to be sold. This home is awesome. It's a big house on a huge property. The house itself is straight out of the 1950s. Every inch is carpeted and in seven different colors. There's even a room with red felt walls. It's a billiard room. And it has a huge yard that we ran around in. Ooh and there's a pool, but it's empty. But it is nice and big and deep. Anyway, we all sat out on blankets out on the lawn and ate tomato sandwiches and chips and fruit and corn on the cob. Then Apa told us a few stories from when he was young. Good stuff. Or as I say, "Mmmm. It's good."



I also can't help but throw in this picture of Daddy and his girls. We have the best Daddy in the whole WORLD.

Down Time

Well not much to report. Us girls are just running Mommy ragged. At least I'm letting Mommy get some sleep at night. Not the whole night, but large parts of it. Really it's Siena that's running Mommy ragged. See Mommy got this brilliant idea that now that it has been a whole month since I arrived, Siena really should get potty trained. So Sister has been diaper free all week (except for naps and night time.) She has peed in the potty maybe 5 times (and on the carpet, in the car, Aunt Margaret's floor probably 20 times) and pooed in the potty exactly zero times. Yeah, it's going great. I sit and listen to Mommy say the phrase "You need to pee in the potty" or a variation on that probably 30 times a day. Good luck to you Mommy.

We have been enjoying time with Oma and Apa though! Now that they're back we see them just about everyday. Yeah!