Our Year in Review

As it always seems at the end, this year has been a big year. Let's take a look back:

In January, (well technically December 31st) we moved back to St. George and in with Grandma and Grandpa and Daddy ran a half marathon.

In February, we got a taste of spring for some of the month and did a lot of hanging out with Uncle Eric.


In March, we tried to make up for no zoo in St. George but all these animals were stuffed and we continued to run amuck in Grandma's house.

In April, we bought our own house, made a trip to the REAL zoo (with cousins!), had Cara's first Easter, and got a new bike trailer!

In May, we had more trips to the zoo, summer splash time (that's why we love St. George), Mommy got a new job, and we got DOG!


In June, Daddy tried to do a major bike trip (injuries to a teammate cut it short), Mommy went to Disney World, we got play with Mary at our house, and Mommy cut her hair!

In July, we went to Lagoon, the zoo, the lake and the pool. Mommy ran in a 5k (shocking) and Uncle Eric's dog Roxi came to live with us for a bit. Oh and of course...Cara turned ONE!

In August, Mommy and Daddy had their FIVE YEAR anniversary, I got a hair cut (just a small one), we tried out camping, and Daddy ran in the Hood to Coast Relay with his buddies.

In September, we spent time in Midway (Daddy ran another 10K) and in SLC, we went Disneyland and got to spend time with our cousins there (so much fun!), and I turned THREE!


In October, we had lots of Halloween fun.

In November, Daddy had a birthday, we enjoyed a long trip up to SLC, and we enjoyed the 50th Anniversary/Thanksgiving Party that culminated in another failed attempt at Angel's Landing.

and finally...
In December, we thoroughly enjoyed the holiday season with a quick trip up north and lots and lots of Christmas movies and music...and family!

Awesome photos from the holidays

Yup just basically straight photos of stuff that didn't make it on any of the holiday posts.

(We hadn't mentioned the Vegas Bowl for various reasons but it was still kind of fun I think.)











(I know! I can't believe Mommy let me post this picture either!)

Our Christmas Fun

Guest post by Mommy: (Sorry, it's gonna be wordy.)

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. Santa brought Siena exactly what she wanted, a Princess Dress. He brought a whole make believe box! I did video Siena discovering her Santa present but it's awfully slow paced, the girls fight over a shoe and I sound REALLY tired as I try and get her to open the box and realize just what was inside. (She refused to put down her Snow White DVD.) Cara really loved Siena's present too and didn't even notice her Legos until after we pointed it out to distract her from Siena's present. We then had to put them each in a dress up. (Luckily the fairy outfit was small enough that it looked like Cara was wearing a princess dress too.) Only after that could we prod them in to looking in to their stockings. I think all the gifts were well received but by far the make believe box is the hit. Well along with Grandma and Grandpa's Mermaid barbies. (Siena drug it around with her everywhere after opening it at their house.) Cara kept interrupting Pete and demanding that we read her the books that got opened immediately.




I got the jacket I had been hoping for and I think Pete liked all his presents.

By noon on Christmas, our little family had opened up all the presents, cleaned up the wrapping paper, eaten a large breakfast, cleaned up the breakfast, watched A Muppet Christmas Carol and Snow White, played our new dancing game and showered and gotten dressed. We then accomplished almost nothing after that. :)

Gabby had even shredded her ball!

We took the girls on a brief walk to the park (the mayhem of the morning caught up to Cara immediately.)

And we got to talk to Uncle Marty on his mission. He called and talked to us for about 20 minutes and Siena even answered the phone and told him what she got for Christmas. You can tell we miss him but we wouldn't change where he is. We're so proud of him. After that we headed to my parents house for a sit down meal with my Grandma and opened up a few more presents. Pete got some letter blocks because he keeps messing with my Mom's decoration and spelling snotty things. We once again just hung out and enjoyed a little Mario and the new Michael Jackson dancing game. You feel like you rock it and can dance like Michael. I recommend not recording yourself dancing and watching it because you might feel like you hit those moves but you don't.

Today we enjoyed the post Christmas Program at church and attempted to get some pictures in front of our tree all dressed up. Guess what? Two small girls after 9 am church are just too hard to get to cooperate. I even bribed them with candy canes. I'm really kind of sad too because they look beautiful in their dresses and they just WOULD NOT pose for me. Maybe I'll try again later. Plus our camera is great for rough and tumble shots but it doesn't turn out the best for formal settings. Plus we kept getting a reflection off of the books used to place the camera. Oh well. You get the idea.






And now as we start to close this holiday season I want to note a few of my favorite parts of this year. First about Cara.
She knew who Santa was and could say "Santa". She also could say "Grinch" and would ask for it. But my favorite was that she would want to watch Rudolph and she would point to the DVD and say "Radoldoldol" (you know when you kind of roll and flip your tongue forward) and she did it every time she would say Rudolph.

And then Siena was so funny. We watched the Tim Allen's "The Santa Clause" a thousand time because it was my favorite and then Siena latched on to it but she would call the little boy "Charming" most of the time. Also this year she finally wanted to sit on Santa's lap and was willing to tell him that she wanted a princess dress. I could also use the "Santa's watching you" trick this year! And on Christmas Eve while we were in my parents back yard, we got to show Siena Rudolph's nose and she wigged and was so excited. Siena also started requesting to watch Christmas movies back in like August because she could see through the clear bin in the garage and look at the movies!

It was a great Christmas.

Our Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas Eve in our new house was spent mostly at Grandma's but that was okay. We had a lot of fun...Mommy took so many photos! This year Grandpa had to work at 5 pm so we ate our traditional Papa John's pizza at 4:30 with him and then kind of just hung out. The grown ups (if you can call Uncle Eric and Aunt Becca grown up) played Mario on the Wii and a party game called Things.




Then we got to go outside and swim. This is where Mommy really got silly with the camera.







And then we got our new pajamas!