The Last Week of School!

It finally came. The last week of school. I was kind of sad, but mom kept bouncing up and down over the idea that it was summer so it was hard not to be excited too.

On Monday, it was cold and rainy. However, the school had scheduled the fire trucks to come and spray us down and let us play so we just ran with it. I was one of the brave ones who played in the water quite extensively!

On Tuesday, I was given the Panorama Achiever Medal. I had to do eight things that were above and beyond my normal school work. Only 39 students in the school did it!

On Wednesday, my wonderful teacher, Mrs. Seegmiller, had us walk the Red Carpet in her class room. I got the "Role Model Award". 

Then Thursday was the big day. The last day of school. My final day in first grade. I wore all black to mourn the loss. I wish I could stay in Mrs. Seegmiller's class forever!

Despite the fact that it was still kind of cool and rainy, we had our end of the year water fight in our neighborhood!

AND we decided it was just warm enough to go celebrate the opening of the St. George City Pool. This might have been our third or FOURTH year in a row going on opening day!

Now hopefully our summer weather will show up next week and we can all get sunburnt and bleached hair and exhausted from all the swimming!

Camping in Moab

The weekend that Cara graduated from preschool was supposed to be this awesome multi family camping trip to Moab, but the weather during May has been HORRIBLY uncooperative. It has been rainy and cloudy and cool EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND. Except the weekend of the 70.3 Ironman. Then it was 90 degrees. Anyway, at the last minute Dad decided to go on the campout anyway and planned to just sleep in the back of Mozzy. To his surprise, I was very disappointed that I wasn't getting to go so he let me join up!

We headed out after work on Friday. Just him and me. And our camping gear. We were prepared for rain, but we also brought a tent just in case. We were planning on meeting his friends, Braden, Steph and their daughter Emery, and Greg, just outside of Goblin Valley State Park.

The weekend did NOT disappoint. It was great! We slept in Mozzy the first night and looked at the stars. It was a little cool in the morning, but no rain and there was sunshine!

We went on this awesome hike in a slot canyon. It was a little long for my taste, but according to Dad, I did really well. It took us about 5 hours and involved some strategic maneuvering past water holes.

I may have been carried sometimes...this is Steph. She was awesome. She let me talk her ear off.

And when I said strategic maneuvering around water...I meant for me. Dad just ended up getting in. 

He even carried Braden who was carrying Emery through the last puddle. 

There was an awesome fairy house at our camp so I built one too!

Saturday night, Dad and I actually set up the tent and the other group packed up and left so we were truly all alone. I slept really hard once we hit the sack. I was tired. The next day he took me into Goblin Valley and let me check out all the neat rock formations. This was my favorite part!

 We may have stopped at Denny's on our way home, but it was well earned. I can't wait to go back even though it was quite a drive.

Mom entertained Iva and Cara back at home. Apparently they just hung around, but had fun anyway!

Cara Finally Graduates Preschool

She's been going to Miss Traci's for TWO AND A HALF YEARS and the era is finally over. Cara has been tearful about this. She cried when she realized she only had four days left in preschool. I mean really cried...for almost an hour. However, as the day of graduation drew near she seemed to really perk up and get excited about it. She can't wait to go to Panorama for kindergarten, but her heart still has a tender spot for her preschool.

I was prepared for her to be sad Friday morning as we got ready for the program, but she was positively beaming. She couldn't wait to go!

Iva insisted on a picture!

We got there really early and she was beaming!

We took silly pictures!

The program was darling and we will include a video at the bottom!

She got her diploma from Miss Traci!

And then she ran straight into my arms and it took me a minute to realize that she was bawling! I had no idea. I asked her if she was sad and she said no, but we finally determined her heart was too full of feelings and it made her cry which of course made me cry.

We took pictures with each of her awesome teachers. Here is Miss Wren!

Miss Dani and Miss Taylor

Miss Carli

and Miss Marie!

And of course the big one....Miss Traci. Cara was still kind of recovering from her tears.

Cara learned so much in preschool and I'm really grateful she got a bonus year when I decided to make her the oldest since she has a very late July birthday.

Here are some video highlights!

Adventures in St. George

Mom is anxiously awaiting summer vacation. She has had to fill her time with other things while waiting for school to be out or for homework to be done. It's killing her. She'd like to just go play. In Disneyland. But that's not ACTUALLY an option right now. So instead we have had other adventures!

We of course went for a Sunday hike in Snow Canyon with Grandpa. It ended up providing us with some nice photos of our little crew!

She actually asked Cara what we should do one day and then surprised me by driving us to the Wildlife Museum. We love the dead animal museum and we hardly ever go! Mom loves this picture of the three of us.

Look! A bear!

Iva asked for her picture and tried to say cheese. She looks a little stiff. She loved petting the "meow".

For Mother's Day, Mom got to have a movie night with the two big girls and leave the crazy toddler at home. We ate lots of Milk Duds...before the movie even started!

It feels like it has rained EVERY weekend for the last four weeks. (With the exception of the first one in May.) We were supposed to go on a backpacking trip with Grandpa but didn't want to risk the wind and the cold if it rained too much. We opted to go on a longer hike on Saturday. It was awesome. We went up behind Tuachan and got to see camels and lots of flowers. What? Camels. Yes. Camels. Apparently someone keeps camels on Tuachan property. Random.

So that's what we have been up to. Along with school work and gearing up for SUMMER!!! Break out those swim suits and the sunscreen. We can't wait to live in the pool.

Iva is 18 months old...going on 5.

Guest post by Mom:

I think I might have to claim that three children keeps me WAY too busy to blog. However, that's not the truth. It's clearly not made the top of my priority list. I have never been great at documenting my children's milestones anyway, but I really should be better about trying to remember them at their current ages.

So let's start with Iva. She finally hit 18 months. I love having her as a baby, but she's been a toddler for quite sometime now. She went from not really being that verbal to talking up a storm and that seems to be increasing exponentially.

She is 24 lbs and 31 inches tall. That puts her in the 54% and the 31% respectively. That means in the last 9 months she has dropped 21% on her weight! She's still pretty soft and squishy, but that's what happens when you are heavier than you are tall! It's adorable though and it makes for the cuddliest kid ever.

She loves to give hugs and head bonks. She waves to everyone. If Cara, especially, is crying or upset, Iva will drop everything and try and hug her. She even pats Cara's back. Siena must not cry as often, although, Cara and Iva spend more time together. They play a lot during the day and Siena is kind of the bossy older sister.

Iva loves to dance. If she can here music, she will wiggle her hips and move her head. She also sings. She's still wildly obsessed with Signing Time and so she frequently tries to sing those songs.

Recently, she has gotten very into stuffed animals and tries to carry all of them at the same time. She doesn't respond well when she has reached her physical capacity and will cry and scream that she can't carry them. It's frustrating to watch and try and explain why it's not working!

Iva has ten teeth. You would think that would mean they are evenly distributed, but you would be wrong. She has her four front top teeth and a molar each on the top back, but on bottom she has three front teeth (the left side getting the extra tooth) and the left bottom molar has just broken through. I'm sure her matching teeth aren't too far behind but it does make me giggle.

I don't think I can possibly list the words and phrases that Iva knows. She adores Signing Time so she easily can identify something like 25 animals by name and sign. It's a crack up. My favorite phrases of hers lately though have been "Bless you" which is said each and every time someone sneezes and " Pete". She just discovered her dad's name and tries to use it when she wants his attention. Both of those phrases crack me up. I have no idea how she picked up on bless you. We don't sneeze THAT much.

Physically she's getting better control of what and how she climbs on things. She can play on certain playground equipment all by herself and I don't have to hold my breath each and every moment. She loves to kick balls and pretend she's playing soccer.

She's in the process of figuring out a one nap a day system. Iva has never been a long napper. 45 minutes to an hour was her longest nap which meant she's still been taking two naps a day because she needs the rest! However, we were having an ugly couple of weeks where she wasn't going to bed until almost 10 and it was driving the Mom and Dad CRAZY. Luckily, this week she has started recovering from an ear infection and has started to transition to a more reasonable bed time.

Good grief, she's cute. We still are rocking only the mullet on her. Long hair in the back, but nothing on top. Luckily, piggy tails are really starting to work well!

Oh and how could I forget to mention how much she loves to play in water! We have started to spend more time at Summit's (the gym where I work) pool and it has this lovely kiddy pool that has a sectioned off area that is only 18 inches deep. It's perfect! Iva jumps around and plays and tries to float and is getting very brave. She can still fall over and not get back up on her own so I have to keep close tabs, but it's so much fun to watch her get braver!

Cellos, daredevils, and oh yeah...BUNK BEDS!

There has been a really good reason that we have been behind on the blog. We have been busy. And our computer is aged. So it's not fast enough for Mom these days. Don't worry, we've been editing dates on the blog posts so it's going to LOOK like we were on top of things Hurray!

Dad has been so busy. Cara and I were lucky enough to get to go watch and listen to him perform with his cello for the Art in the Garden series at the DiFiore Center here in St. George. In a total bummer, it actually was quite rainy the one weekend he was performing so we ended up in a cramped little room watching dancers very up close and personal. Dad played excellent though.

The dare devil we mentioned is Iva. She's a walking disaster of bruises and death attempts. She climbs on everything and tries to get stuff she can't have. Here she is trying to climb into her crib to get a binki...notice she already has one in her mouth. What a nut.

As far as I am concerned though, the biggest news comes from our bedroom!

Daddy, with a push and a lot of help from Cara's soccer coach, Nate, built a triple bunk bed for our bedroom! We LOVE it. I squealed, Cara begs to go to bed, and Iva couldn't care less. She has slept very minimally on her bed, but we will get there!