A new skill learned...

How could I forget to mention in our last post about my new skill at the park? I can climb UP the slides now! That's right. In between our first park post of the year and our second park post of the year, I learned how to do it. I just followed another little girl right up. Of course, Cara is still too little but she sure seems more daring than I ever was the park. And what would a momentous moment like this one be without photographic evidence? (We got to play at the park again today just to celebrate. Plus it was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day. Sorry to Aunt Becca and Uncle Marty who are both in the dreary midwest.)



Mommy also had fun with the camera at our new favorite part of the park, the huge and forever long stairs up the rather steep hillside to what I refer to as "the city." (Mommy always laughs because I guess it's really a little suburban subdivision with no retailers anywhere.)




It is funny to note that in our Iphoto album entitled "January 2011" it starts with pictures of us playing in two inches of snow in our backyard, bundled up, and cold and ends so far with pictures of us in the sun at the park without coats on. (Does anyone else almost find it embarrassing how many photos you can take in a month? My Mommy averages at least 3 photos a day...do the math, we have over 90 photos for almost every month. And that doesn't include the big holidays which get separate folders.)

Silly things

We had another FUN Saturday with Mommy and Daddy. They took us to the park again and we had another picnic and walked up lots of stairs and explored a rock bed. And then we went on a walk up to the mall which is one of my favorite stores to visit because it has the little ice cream truck for me to play in. We wore Cara out! (I think she actually is a little bit sick because she slept a lot and had a fever last night.) She fell asleep sitting up and wouldn't lay back or forward until she kind of fell. We were giggling the whole walk home because of it.



Then later we got to play in Grandma and Grandpa's jacuzzi. Mommy let me be silly and take pictures underwater. Notice that I keep my eyes WIDE open and yet I still ask for goggles so that I can see underwater.



I never look directly at the camera and smile (okay maybe not never but rarely) and look what I was willing to do underwater. Mommy says that I am a goofball.


And of course Cara's favorite thing in the whole world, reading. With anybody. She grabbed this book and insisted Uncle Eric read it to her. Notice Uncle Eric's crazy curly hair (How awesome is that!) and if you look carefully you can see his crutch in the background. Uncle Eric did a number on his ankle during church basketball. His whole life is playing basketball and now he has a bad sprain. We'll see how long it actually keeps him off the court. :)

300!

First Guest Post of the Year: From Mommy

And it's also the 300th post of this blog! That seems a little unbelievable. But in truth the blog has been up and running for over 3 years and that's also really unbelievable for me. I've been a MOM for three years plus. I'm getting the hang of things right? Oh wait just today I raised my voice at my two adoring daughters because they were pushing my legs and standing very close to me so that they could feel safe while at the bank and it was annoying me. Sigh. Maybe when I've been a mom for five years? (Probably not seeing as how I have been a wife for a little over five years and I still screw up there and do something lame....)

Anyhoo..that wasn't what I was originally going to make this post about but I just realized that it did deserve a little introspection. Three years...and I'm just barely starting to want to make dinner instead of eating out or ordering in. Three years and I've really started to sound like a mom...my mom. My days "off" from work are spent doing laundry, "cleaning" the house, grocery shopping and helping small children with just about everything and stressing about bills and the future. I go to my parents house without my children and I still suddenly stand at attention because I hear a phantom cry. I rarely sleep 8 hours straight and if I did I'm sure I'd still wake up a little tired because my body has a little bit of a sleep debt going on. But I wouldn't trade a single moment of these three years for regular 8 hours of sleep. I love cuddling my sweet girls. And I really lucked out because they are both very cuddly and like to sleep tucked in to my side. Siena's becoming so independent that some days I can't believe what it feels like she figured out on her own. And Cara has new things to say every day! She's growing up too and I love it and can't stand how much I can love them both. Somedays are better at others at remembering to savor their smell and silly things they say and their tiny little bodies and I'm doing my best and I guess that's what matters in that regard.

Speaking of how much my children are growing up, Siena is a Sunbeam now in Primary. I about split with pride for her on that first Sunday and I never even got to see her go in the primary room (dang nursery calling and my obsessive need to beat any kiddo to the room.) However, she came bursting in to my classroom at the end of church telling me "my heart grows and it makes me happy" and something about the scriptures and what I can only assume is a snake that they use at singing time. I almost burst in to tears. She paid attention and she LOVED sharing time. (I also learned that Sunday that she kisses her "boyfriend" Matthew against his will some days and not against his will other days...oh heaven help me.) This last week was her second time going and she came home singing a song I didn't recognize but my mom did as the new song from the Friend and she knew the chorus. I again almost cried. I guess we need to start holding regular family home evening because she also was sad that we had forgot her scripture marking pencil.

And don't get me started about her non spiritual growth. She's showing a real desire to do things herself, like getting dressed and buckling her car seat. Neither of which she can do entirely on her own but it's fun to watch her try.

Cara will be getting her own post here in a couple weeks because she'll hit the big 18 month mark and is rapidly changing every day in to a big girl. I was 4 months away from having another baby when Siena was her age. It's strange to think of actually ENJOYING a two year old. Or brief moments of a two year old. Not that I didn't enjoy Siena but it's different.

Here are the two munchkins enjoying reading stories to themselves before bed...


And enjoying the much warmer January weather at the park. We had so much fun that day. All four of us went and had a picnic and both girls were big enough to run around with Mommy and Daddy. It was great! I think crawling up the slide is a genetic gift for little boys...girls have to work harder or at least my girls do.



And then they "got down" at the local Smashburger. Apparently the music was really speaking to them. You can't really see Cara grooving until the end but she was in to it. And Siena was doing a dance from the Just Dance Kids Wii game. It's the one for the happy birthday song. We thought she was doing Michael Jackson which she also loves but she corrected us. You can see the camera shake as I just sit and giggle and giggle.

And I have to mention how terrified the dog is of me. I spend a lot of time yelling and then throwing out this Mistress of Pee and destruction (she's a puppy still and I know but it drives me crazy...). So the other night I went to see if Siena had snuck in with her Daddy to shower and found Gabby eating goldfish crackers out of the bag right next to the shower. I kind of growled her name and she was so bent on getting away from me that she crept in to the shower with Pete almost as if to say "I can't believe this is the better option!" She ended up getting shampooed and then traumatized as I blow dried her because it was almost bed time and she sleeps in the garage in her kennel!

Our friends came!

On Wednesday this week, Mommy and Daddy kept talking about my first friend and how I would get to play with him again. And I didn't really understand but as it turns out my first friend is Jonathan and I love playing with him. His Mommy and Daddy knew my Mommy and Daddy when we were both just being born. In fact there are two other posts on this blog about him. Actually only one has pictures but that's okay. It was still so much fun to play with him when he drove from California to here! Luckily his Grandma and Grandpa live near me so we might get to keep seeing each other every now and then. (Our parents seem to talk a lot about something called "arranged marriages") You see because Jonathan also has two little brothers and James and Cara seem to go together nicely. Aside from the fact that they spent a lot of time caught in fights. I blame Cara.

We jumped on the tramp and played dress ups with them and ate yummy Buzz and Woody Noodles with them. I had a bunch of non princess dress ups but I was lucky and Jonathan picked out a prince outfit. (Mommy got the giggles when she saw him though...something about how we didn't have a "prince" outfit) We were not very good at posing for posterity pictures but Mommy got a few.

The fairy known as James

Playing with play dough unbeknownst to Mommy. (Turns out it's nice having a tall kid around!)

Me and my prince

The playroom where the grown ups tried to hide us in. The mess hadn't even really got started yet when Mommy snapped this picture.


and I am mostly uploading this video so Jonathan can see us playing together. You'll notice the love/hate relationship James and Cara had!

Life Flight Helicopter!

I really meant to post this on 1/11/11 but I just didn't get it done. I will blame Daddy. He has been working so hard and having late nights that it means he hogs the computer. We're all glad he finally got this evening off so I could blog.

Anyway, on 1/11/11 we went to the hospital to watch the new Life Flight helicopter land. It's a pretty big deal down here. Up until now we've only had a "fixed wing" life flight which basically means an airplane. They couldn't go on scene and really help unless Las Vegas sent theirs. But everybody finally raised enough money and they could get a helicopter! This was especially neat because Aunt Angie has just spent the last six months training and become part of the NICU Life Flight. That means she deals with babies and shouldn't have to do any on scene scary stuff but she still got to train as if she would. So Aunt Angie was part of the festivities and got to be announced on a red carpet and everything. We are so proud of her. She even hooked us up with these awesome commemorative pins. (As you can tell from the picture, Cara is fascinated by hers!)


The plan was for the helicopter to land at 1:11:11 on 1/11/11. I think they probably did it but I had to bury my head in to my Mom's chest as she turned around while it landed. We were right at the front and the wind from the helicopter would have knocked me over. I did not like the helicopter much once it landed. The rotors stayed on for awhile and made too much noise for me. Mommy thought I might like to get in but I kept repeatedly begging to just go inside and NOT go in the helicopter. Cara didn't like it much either but she at least posed for a picture with Mommy!

Good times...

What have we been up to you ask? Well pretty much Cara and I have been orphaned because of this.....

Mom and Dad got it LAST year for Christmas but Grandma and Grandpa's house got a new Wii downstairs and all Mommy and Daddy do is play Mario with Aunt Becca and Uncle Eric and Aunt Angie even. For hours! They get really loud and sometimes say not nice things to each other and other times they laugh until they cry which I don't understand yet. But I'm going to guess it was fun since that's all they do. I think Mommy's really enjoyed having Aunt Becca home. She even had a sleep over with Aunt Angie and Aunt Becca at Grandma's house on Friday. Without us! But all that fun had to come to an end. Aunt Becca went back to college in Iowa. We dropped her off at the airport today. We put on our Reiver (A River Pirate if you are curious) shirts to show her we love her and that we will miss her. We had to do individual good bye shots because Cara just wants to play on stairs.




And then we went back to our house and played on the new toy Daddy set up for us! Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to donate it when they redid their backyard. WE LOVE THE TRAMP. Okay so Cara is a little unsure but I LOVE IT. So much fun.

Please ignore Mommy in the next photo and focus on my delight.

Snow Day!!

I meant to post this yesterday but we were having such a great day that I never got around to it. That's right. Our first post of 2011 is about SNOW!! Mommy calls this a "dirty" word but she always comes and wakes me up to show me that it's snowing. That's probably because she loves me and knows that I will spring out of bed and beg for clothes immediately.

Anyway, yesterday, Monday morning, most of St. George was startled to wake up to snow. And I mean most of St. George was "startled" because I don't think anybody had a clue that we were going to get at least 2 inches of white fluffy stuff and I think it all fell after 2 am but was done by like 6 am or something. Good thing school didn't start until today...they would have cancelled it anyway!

Of course, it being St. George most of it was melted by about 3 pm and only the northern shady sides of people's yards had any snow left. That's why Mommy promptly let us go out and run around in it after coming home from the gym. And of course we had to improvise snow clothing because well I think Mommy is in denial and doesn't keep good snow clothes in the house. (Mommy side note: Actually I think it just sucks to try and put small children in good snow clothes! They can't move...and please tell me how you get their little fingers in a good pair of gloves...it's like a joke!)

But the best part? EATING IT!