#SheriTurns30

Guest post by Mommy:

And so it happens. I have officially moved on from my twenties. I've had a lot of fun working up to this  birthday. I started a fun 30 day countdown that was moderately successful. I tried to do one extra kind thing and one extra crazy thing a day. I wasn't perfect and sometimes it was cheating on my "diet" that counted as my crazy thing, but I really did have fun. I tried to do some naughty things that can't quite be posted and some just downright silly things. It's been grand. Mostly it allowed me to focus on being nice and still being fun.

I proved that I could still do a somersault, cartwheel, and headstand. I can still also do a front flip on the trampoline. I'm quite proud considering my baby is only 5 months old! I also pranked several of my neighbors, creating an orange tree and saran wrapping their trucks, and such. Young at heart right?

It's really been so much fun. I think maybe talking about turning 30 for a whole month has made today just perfect. No sadness. I'm ready to move on to thirty.  I think the key for that though is that I am really happy with my life. I'm exactly where I thought I'd be. I may not have made it to doctor or physician assistant, but I love being a fitness instructor and think I might even look into doing the whole personal trainer thing. I love being married and I more importantly love being married to Peter. I have now had the privilege of owning annual passes to Disneyland twice..I mean what more does a girl need? I plan on spending today in Zion with family, hiking Angel's Landing and I am hoping for a fantastic day.

Holy Crow, she's five months old!

Guest post by Mommy:

Seriously? Where is the time going? My tiny baby is going away! Of course, if you looked at just her thighs, she hasn't been tiny for a long time.

I have no idea how big Iva is. Haven't weighed her since her four month. She's a chunky baby though. I can't really put on any type of baby jeans on her. They have to be stretchy leggings or they ain't going up!

She has rolled over back to front and front to back. She doesn't do it very often and prefers to just kind of roll side to side. She's gotten really into grabbing her toes and doing the yoga pose "Happy Baby". I love it. Of course, at the moment she is SCREAMING at me because I'm not talking right to her.

She loves attention. You don't always have to hold her, but darn it you better look her in the face and play and talk with her. She coos and gurgles, no real sounds yet and she's starting to laugh at things you do not just tickling. She loves for you to "boo" in her face.

It feels like she's still eating all the time. We even tried a little rice cereal. I think I made the mistake of having it be too cold. She's pretty temp sensitive and we've been fighting her taking an occasional bottle. I finally clued in that it needs to be the perfect temp, almost too hot for her to like it. She acts crazy interested in any food you are putting in your mouth. She will always pull a face and tongue it right back out if you try and give her a taste. She sucked on a french fry for awhile and even held it in her own hand! (I know, probably shouldn't have let THAT be her first food!)

She fits into 3-6 m clothes and drools constantly. Seriously, her shirt is always soaked and if you hold her your shoulder will be a swimming pool. She's kind of given up on binkis. It's weird. One day she just stopped taking them. Every now and then if she's really tired you might spoof her into taking it, but I hardly carry or worry about them for the last week or so.

Oh and how can I forget? She's sitting up. She's does super well when she is on your lap but she can even hold it together on the ground. She's of course still pretty tippy at any sort of stimuli or excitement, but I'd call her 80% there. The other thing I notice about her is that she loves looking at her mobile or the toys above her playmat. She grabs for them and babbles to them. I might have just forgotten, but I feel like my other girls didn't love those as much.

We of course love her. Sometimes I think to myself "well if I didn't have Iva..." but it's a fleeting thought of freedom when she's been incredibly cranky. As it is when you add any body to your family, you start to wonder how in the world you did it without them!

Camping with Grandpa!!

For what must be the third or fourth year, we went camping with Grandpa! Uncle Nick and his kids, Sophia, Savannah, and Isaac got to come again since it was there spring break.  As it always is with spring, the weather was iffy, but we had a great time! In fact, we went with just Grandpa. No Daddy and no mommy!

Siena and the Science Fair

Good grief, kindergarten has made me busy! I love to do school projects, but I'm thinking we might need to do a special post about Cara next. I've had so many to myself!

I talked my mom into helping me do the science fair. She found a simple project thanks to a friend and we went with it. It was called "Gummy Bear Science". We ate a lot of gummy bears because they were around! I took second place out of four kindergartners. Not bad! I had to answer questions from judges and everything.

Soccer for Siena

Mom signed me up for the city soccer league this year! I get to be with other kindergartners from my school and so far I love it. I have my own shin guards and an awesome shirt. I have never played before and we were kinda bummed that Aunt Becca JUST moved to Las Vegas so she couldn't be my coach! But I'm still having lots of fun.

My first soccer game I was a little timid and would do this funny cha cha anytime I thought about kicking the ball. I think we lost but I was hooked on soccer!

We have had several games since then and I have gotten lots better.  I'm pretty aggressive and I even have several goals!

My face after my first goal!

Here is my cheering section! (Sometimes the whole gang including Grandpa and Uncle Eric come!)

Spring Break Part 2

On a whim that involved a big scare from Double Grandma, Mommy decided to take us for a girls trip to SLC! Double Grandma had a heart attack the week before and so Mommy thought it was necessary to pop in and check on her up in Midway. (There was still SNOW on the ground in places up those Wasatch Moutains!)

Of course we stayed with Aunt Rachel and had to play at the zoo. We actually played at the zoo every day we were there which meant three trips. That's a little embarrassing, but we begged!

I don't want a picture....

Unless I'm holding Iva!

We had Grandma test her recovery by holding 15 lb Iva!

Double Grandpa and I were being silly at the restaurant!

Playing outside!

Lessons from the famous Marilyn!

Play time with Oma and the Preslars!

Cara's "Tower of Terror"

Romney was very helpful for putting us to bed!

Look at what Aunt Rachel made for Iva!

Our sneaky trip the zoo on Sunday yielded excellent results. This female gorilla was posing with us for pictures!

And then we got to watch the elephant, Christie, PAINT!!!

AND THEN we saw her baby, Zuri, doing tricks. Mom just missed her in a full handstand!

It was a fun trip up to SLC, but we sure missed our Daddy.