Birthday Celebrations

Talk about a difference a year makes! Last year, Mom turned 30. It was a big deal. She did a huge countdown. Aunt Rachel and Uncle Troy came down. We played so hard. She jumped out of a plane. She got huge presents. This year...not so much. It was a more normal birthday celebration. She shared her birthday cake with Grandpa as she usually does. This year it was Uncle Eric who opened the parachute soldier toys and gets to sky dive. That was just fine. It was still a great couple of days.

Isn't it funny that they make the same faces?! 

Lucky enough to have everybody in the same city!

One of the funnest surprises for Mom came from her friend, Sarah, in Wyoming. She crocheted us all Minnie hats! (Okay she did do one Micky for dad!)

We really are kind of getting too big for selfies with Mom's short arms....

Marathons and Talent Shows

Guest post by Mom:

Siena and Cara are great kids. I don't have to worry much about them and they are really obedient. I got REALLY lucky in the kid department. I am so proud of them.

They recently completed a marathon at the gym. They have been running a mile in their Fit Kids class and finally got in 26.2! They earned a free smoothie and certificate!

Siena also signed up to be in her school's talent show at their Spring Carnival. Aunt Becca played "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid and Siena sang. It was awesome. She went very first and was so confident! She and Aunt Becca worked on it for a few weeks. In fact, she thought she needed the words, but you'll notice the wind blows her pages and then she never looks at them again.

Easter in SLC

We got a bonus two days off of school for the weekend of Easter (Friday and Monday) so we decided to "Easter" in SLC! Plus it was the only weekend for awhile where we didn't have a soccer game that would have prevented us from a quick trip.

It was Conference Weekend for church and so we had lots of time to play together. The Preslars were on the tail end of their Spring Break and it was a lovely weekend filled with playing at the house and yummy food made by Aunt Rachel.

We, OF COURSE, took Iva to the zoo. She has really gotten good at her animal signs and we wanted to see her use them. She's signing lions.

The highlight was getting to see the new baby orangutan. He's so adorable!!

I swear we have 100 photos of these tigers.

We managed to dye Easter Eggs, finally, Saturday evening. The moms didn't seem enthused.

On Easter, Aunt Margaret came over with the big girl cousins and Kate brought her new bunny! We loved it.

On to the Easter Egg hunt! Iva seemed to get it this year!

We might have snuck off to the zoo one more time on our way out of town....it was fun. The baby orangutan was napping though. We didn't get to see him. Darn it.

Soccer!

The spring soccer season is upon us! This year we decided to go the with Kicks organization. This put Cara on a team with two girls from the neighborhood and had our friend coaching the team! This was Cara's first soccer game. Unfortunately, she actually had the stomach flu and kind of had a hard time rallying, but she did quite well for being sick. 

I have no good pictures of me playing this year because Mom is my coach! She had no idea what she was in for when she agreed to do it, but it's been great for me!

This is the two of us on the sidelines with me doing a throw in. Thankfully Aunt Angie realized that Mom couldn't get pictures while we were playing and took some for Mom!

Two BIG things

We had two big things happen in the family and they definitely deserve a separate post than grouped in with the end of March.

First thing...Cara is registered for kindergarten! She is so excited. She can't wait for August!

The next big thing...Uncle Eric got his mission call! He's going to serve a two year mission for our church! Everybody (mostly Grandma) was so anxious for his call to come. It was delayed a week and a day. Every time Grandma checked the mail it was filled with tension and drama. We thought it would kill her when it wasn't in the mail on Friday. (This was Aunt Becca's birthday...almost ruined GRANDMA'S own birthday which was on Wednesday!) Grandma went up to Brianhead with her church group and so Eric checked the mail all alone on Saturday and lo and behold it finally showed! I think he was really tempted to just open it up. He was patient and waited until Grandma and Grandpa were off the mountain but it meant he had to have some of his group for a dance he was going to be there when we opened it. It made it look all official because Eric was dressed in a white shirt and tie!

He opened it and made us all squeal because he couldn't help but see the area before he read it out loud! Mom thought he was going to pass out before he opened it because he looked so nervous!

Uncle Eric will report to the MEXICO CITY MTC on July 1 and he will serve in the Chile Rancagua mission. He is so excited and Grandma is sad that he goes to Mexico to start. She wanted him to go to Provo. That's okay! We can't wait to start writing to you, Uncle Eric!

Last half of March....

Apparently we were REALLY busy in the last half of March and first part of April. Either that or it just happens to be our pattern. We slow down on the blogging front when the weather gets nice.

So lets see...to catch you up...March definitely went out like a lamb..and yet somehow April started cold. It got very warm though. We spent time hiking with Grandma and Grandpa and lots of playing at Sand Hollow again even though the water was still almost too cold to really stand!

We filled up Baymax for the first time. It stung just a little.

It was actually so much fun at the lake that we went TWO days in a row!

We all got to try out Grandpa's new paddleboard that he got for Christmas! Aunt Becca helped teach me how to do it on my own.

That's Mom having some fun!

The ever advancing 16 month old

Guest post by Mom:

So I noticed that I didn't do a 15 month post for Iva. This is probably due to the fact that we skipped that appt at the doctor for her (with his permission!) So I don't really know how tall she is or how much she weighs. I think she is in the vicinity of 23 lbs. Although that might have changed in the last week because she got hit with a little GI bug that kept her appetite down and her diaper changes frequent and painful.

I do, however, need to document what the crazy little tike has been up to. Back in February, she got that HUGE goose egg on her head right before our Disney trip. I like to joke that it knocked something loose in her head because she started to babble all the time. She was kind of quiet before, but man since February she will TELL YOU STORIES. For the most part, there weren't words in there, but it was obvious she knew what she was telling you. Over the last four weeks, that has morphed into words and obvious sentences. She has also radically increased her signing vocabulary.

Here are my favorites:

If there is a chance she can get outside, she will sign "swing" and say it. She loves her new swing in our backyard. She also asks to "jump" on the trampoline. She kind of tries to sign this one.

"Aww done" and the sign.
"Gink" -drink..she has started trying to sign this one.
"I wan it" or "I wanna gink". It's kind of mumbled but it's pretty awesome.
"Uh uh" or "Uh huh" which I love. She doesn't say no or yes very often. She uses these instead.
"Buckle" This one has been new since we got Baymax. She asks to get in the car! She is actually obsessed with buckles. She plays with them on all the high chairs, strollers, car seats, shopping carts, etc.
"Momma" she hardly EVER said this and now she says it ALL the time. Be careful what you wish for!
"Gabby!" basically that means all dogs.
"Bish" and the sign for fish which she kind of does by squeezing her fingers in and out
"Bid" and the sign for bird
"Baby" and she LOVES to sign it
"choos" she signs "Shoes"
"apple" and she signs it
"code" which is actually cold and she signs it which is adorable
"dapper" for diaper
"Pease" with the sign for please
"More" with the sign also

Her favorite thing to watch and actually the only thing she will actually watch is Signing Time. Any volume. She loves them and asks to watch it by pointing up at the TV and waving each index finger and saying "Pease". She perks up at the slightest mention of Alex and Leah. Anytime you turn on the TV she expects Signing Time. It's been so fun because she really knows a lot of signs when she watches the movies. It's pretty impressive. I love it.

She also loves to sing "ashes, ashes" and play Ring around the Rosy specifically on the tramp, but she doesn't want to hold hands and do it. Everyone just spins on their own. She will do the actions along with "The Wheels on the Bus" which was a surprise to me.

Now I don't think I have written down all the words she says, but these were the ones that stuck out to me. It's been so fun.

She's kind of a walking disaster right now. She loves to climb on all chairs and tables. She has smacked her head in the same spot where the huge goose egg was three other times now. It might be permanently discolored. She doesn't sit still. At least less than my other two. She seems to be a bit more of a trouble maker....but she sure is cute...