Where to begin?

We have been busy!  Mommy spent most of last week up on Cedar Mountain with a bunch of Young Women braving the rain and cold.  (Actually it was really only ridiculously cold the last night she was up there!)  She was gone for three whole sleeps.  We missed her very much but had fun playing with Grandma and getting schnazzy new Merida undies.  It feels almost impossible to catch up the blog.

Aunt Rachel has been putting Mommy and me to shame!  Although really we have been mostly business as usual.  I do swim lessons and gymnastics.  Mommy teaches at the gym.  Daddy works.  Cara learns how to pee on the potty.  Oh wait....we weren't quite business as usual.  Mommy got so sick before she went to Girls Camp.  She had a killer sore throat for 3 days that had her in tears.  Even the good medicine didn't work.  And then it was a moderate to mild sore throat and a congested nose and a dry hacking cough.  None of it has fully resolved and we are coming up on the two week mark.  I think we will just be glad that she was the only one to get it fully....although Grandpa and Uncle Eric ended up slammed with it too.

Oh yes and we HAVE to mention how Mommy was the only one who needed the first aid kit at camp. She describes it as running because she's late, trying desperately not to lose her footing on a gravel slope, "Supermaning" down the hill, cheese grating her arm, horror and embarrassment, afraid someone saw, relief no one saw, and then totally bummed that no one could even laugh at her because they didn't see!!!

However, now that she's home we've also been back to hanging out and being silly!

Aren't we fabulous?!

Jumpin' Jacks...it's the place to be...until you have a potty accident!
We also have great video of us going down the slides if you're interested!

Dancing in a summer rainstorm!
It should be on every bucket list!

Oh and Daddy is ward clerk which in our church means he has to sit up on the stand and count how many people come to sacrament meeting.  He does this with his phone and so Mommy (apparently in an irreverent mood) started sending him silly pics of us.  Aren't they silly?

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Big Girls

Quick note from Mommy:

My little girls are turning into big girls so fast.  I can't quite believe it.  Just this last weekend, Cara went from no concept of how to pee on the potty to almost entirely potty trained.  (Yesterday was kind of a bad day but since everyone in our house has some kind of CRUD, I'll let it slide.)  Siena started out the summer in Level 1 swim lessons and I never dreamed she'd advance past Level 2...well on Monday she starts LEVEL 3!  And not only that but she's become a real fish who loves to swim in water over her head.  Just yesterday she began doing back flips in my parents spa.  True back flips.  Twirling her little arms to help her roll backwards.  I was blown away!  And just yesterday the girl grasped the concept of pumping while swinging. Now she's an animal!

Cara (who will be three at the end of month) and Siena play and fight together but with real words and conversations and rules to games.  It's kind of pleasant.  Siena has chores which she completes and Cara has started helping!

Oh yeah and they learned my trick of claiming things are "broken" or "closed" when I don't want to do them and try and use it on me.  "No sorry Mom the vacuum is broken, you can't vacuum."  "Target is closed we can't go."

But they still love to climb into my bed in the morning and snuggle up.  We can spend a half an hour in bed giggling with each other.  So sweet.

Happy FOURTH of July!

I hope you guys had fun Fourth of July.  We celebrated with all Mommy's sibling except Eric because he went with Grandma and Grandpa up north.  We missed them, but still had fun.  We improvised a little barbecue and played Kinect on the XBox and swam a little bit.  The weather was not being very nice though.  It was so windy when Mommy and Daddy tried to ease me into fireworks that we couldn't keep anything lit!

I love doing Track and Field on the Kinect

We had to do it inside because of the wind!

Iphone not so great for night time pics!

I ended up really enjoying the fireworks this year and didn't even hide in the back of the car!  Big steps for me!  We might have to do even more fireworks for the 24th because I enjoyed them so much!  And while we were swimming, I was practicing swimming to the bottom and touching the gecko design on the surface of the pool!  I'm growing up so fast!  Cara also spontaneously started peeing in the potty the day before and had NO accidents all day on the 4th!  (She had a big accident today at the gym but she finally shows total interest!!!)

We snuck into our friends the Petersen's backyard to watch the fireworks.  Very cool.  Perfect spot.  St. George did a nice job this year! In that very poor quality photo you can see their dog Hallie giving me big kisses.

Ahhh summer....

I know why this is Mommy's favorite time of year.  All we do is PLAY!!  On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to catch Grandpa on a day when it was too hot to climb (or he probably couldn't get a partner!) and he offered to go to Zion with us.  He picked his favorite swimming hole to show us!  We loved it and were a little bit bummed that we didn't have the place to ourselves but what do you do?  It's summer in Zion.

We hiked just a small ways in and then got to play in the stream.  I was very excited to find out what a pollywog was until I saw how many of them there were and Grandpa tried to get me to hold one.  Pollywogs are baby frogs and they were everywhere and gross and slimy.  Cara was brave enough to hold one but I wouldn't even TOUCH it.  Blegh.  I screamed when Mommy was trying to insist.

However, when we arrived at the swimming hole, I LOVED IT.  There was deep water for Grandpa and Mommy to jump into and then for me to test out my swimming skills.  Oh and we got to hike up a little further to a waterfall that you could use as a slide.  I enjoyed that very much but Mommy lacked some grace going in!

It was an enjoyable 3 hours with Grandpa and I hope we go back!

Uncle Eric....

Guest post by Mommy:

In my family, there is a joke that we have two families...Angie and I came first and suffered so that Marty, Becca, and Eric could enjoy the fruits of it.  :)

But really we have THREE families.  Ang and I have both been full fledged gone from the house for about 5 and 8 years respectively, Marty and Becca are almost there (Marty is completely, Becca is at least engaged) and that leaves Eric by himself for the next three years of high school.  He could have Spring Break vacations with my parents entirely to himself!  (Although since my dad and Marty are almost inseparable and now WORK with one another he probably won't actually get it.)

However, I consider my littlest brother Eric (okay my youngest brother...he's quite a bit bigger than me) my friend.  There are THIRTEEN years difference between him and I.  I was there in the delivery room when he took his first breath, cried his first cry, I even cut his umbilical cord!  I pretended to be his second mom. (It was heaven for a 13 year old girl.)  Funny enough, there are only 10 years difference between him and Siena!  But I have stayed close with him.  He loved Pete almost as soon as I brought Pete around.  Eric was only 7 at the time.  He had played with all my boyfriends and was always bummed to see them go. (Okay maybe not all of them.) We had a secret handshake for several years and he loved to do it!  It often surprises people that I have a strong relationship with a brother who is that much younger than me.  Too many years apart.  It helps of course that we have the three nerds in the middle to help tie us all together, but Eric might be my favorite.  And I can tell that I was out of the house for his more annoying stages and that I really still feel like a second mom because  I'm always trying to take his side, make sure his feelings aren't hurt, you know help him out because he's not tall enough to do the dishes...oh wait...

He is such a great uncle to my girls, too.  That's been the fun part of the age difference.  I don't think he would have gone near little kids in diapers by choice, but because my little girls are HIS nieces, he will call me up and check to make sure we're coming over because he's bored.  Really I'm spoiled rotten because Marty makes a great uncle too.  It's so much fun to watch.

I love to hang out with Eric.  He makes me feel cool.  If he likes something that I show him, it makes it way cooler.  I love those surprise moments when I become aware of what a really good person he is.  Nobody loves to clean their room or do their chores (except Marty) but when it comes down to what matters.  He is a good person and will continue to be an amazing teenager.

Love you, Eric!

Romney Sayings

Sorry for the unexpected blogging hiatus.  We are apparently wiped out from the first half of June and have resumed just normal activities around these parts.  However, Mommy did attend an overnight camping trip with the girls from our stake who will all be sophomores next year and got to do lots of fun stuff...maybe we'll make her do a guest post on it.  Daddy needs to have a little break from work to let her use the computer though.

Mommy has requested that I type up a few of the things Cara and I have been saying around the house that leads to giggles and text messages to other family members.

Siena:
We are sick of swimming.  We go swimming every day!

Cara:
Say sorry to my thumb!  You need to say sorry.  (This was when Mommy was telling her no thumb during church!)

Siena:
Okay Mom.  You go and have a good time and be safe.  Go have fun at your girls camp.

Cara:
To Grandma: Your phone loves me.  (Slight shrug of the shoulders and then proceeds to pick up phone and play with it.)

Siena:
I made my bed like Mary Poppins.  (I love folding the comforter at the foot of the bed!)

Cara:
I have a baby in my belly.  It's growing so big.  (Must have something to do with Aunt Angie's cute belly!)

I think we will all go to bed now and maybe energy will be found to try and finish up these last few days of June...we are still 4 blogs short of our goal of 50 for this year!

Happy Father's Day!

I have the greatest Daddy, the greatest Apa, and the greatest Grandpa!  I also have a whole bunch of pretty awesome uncles.  Really, Cara and I are surrounded by outstanding men. I even have great grandpas out there showing me how to be a better person!

We let Daddy sleep in today and then we gave him our cards and had waffles ready.  (No syrup...oops Mommy!) And then we will go to church and I'll help sing to him!

All About My Dad (as asked to me by Mommy)
Favorite food: Strawberries
Favorite dessert: Cake (original answer was Pizza but then Mommy explained the word dessert!)
Favorite game: Mousetrap
Favorite sport: Football
His job is: WORK and he types
My dad is the best in the family at work.
My favorite memory with my dad is going on Go Coaster with him.
My dad is 20 years olds (Siena responded I don't know to the next three questions so I had to give her options to pick from!)
My dad is 6.5 feet tall
My dad weighs 170 lbs
My dad has black hair
My dad's eyes are brown
My dad likes to wear something for church.
My dad is special to me because he loves me.