While the cat is gone, the mice will play!

Dad went up to Suzuki Institute in SLC for TEN WHOLE DAYS during June. This meant we were left only with Mom...so actually that might mean that the cat stayed home and the head mouse left. We still managed to stay busy and squeeze in some more fun things so that we wouldn't just think about how much we missed Dad.

We of course played at city pool while eating Mom's favorite fruit, white nectarines!

We hung out at Grandma's quite a bit.

Oh look...more city pool!

We also dyed our hair! Once we went swimming, it faded fairly quickly, but it was fun!

Mom even got in on the action. Actually....her hair is even still kind of a tinge of pink. Her dye kept spreading when she would brush it after showering!

City pool...again. We are die hards.

I got to go to a birthday party too.

On the summer solstice, we started the day at the lake with my Mom's uncle Nick and aunt Emily. It was so fun. (Grandma and Grandpa were there too!)

We ended that day by staying out until the sun went down. This was at 8:30 at night!

Iva got her first big girl braids!

We paid dearly for our lake fun though with the WORST case of swimmers itch we have ever gotten. Cara's legs still have spots. They don't itch anymore thankfully, but they are taking forever to fade.

We slept in Mom and Dad's bed a lot.

Mom generally just hung in there with us.

We rode the carousel which ended up scaring Iva which surprised us all.

Mom let us give her a makeover too.

Oh and we went back to city pool!

 ]

We also pulled out Cara's first tooth (thanks to the help of Aunt Angie!) and my SEVENTH tooth right before Dad came back home.

We were glad when he came home, but I think we survived it pretty well. Everyone was on good behavior and Mom even took us to see Finding Dory which we loved. And just like that...it's JULY! Hopefully we make this month count too!

Sam at EIGHT MONTHS!

Guest post by Mom:
I know that all Moms feel this way, but I truly CANNOT BELIEVE it has been eight months already. I swear Sam is still a little baby. And let's be honest, he's never been a "little" baby. He's always had some chunk, but not nearly as much as Iva so I feel like he's small. He's probably very middle of the road, but boy, does he have rolls.

In the last month, Sam has finally gotten more vocal. He's added "muma" to his "dada" babbling. I think he actually meant to ask for me when he first said "muma" so I might call it a first word experience. He has also started waving and moving his little hands. He does that little "open and close" hand and it looks like he's waving. I actually have my suspicions that he's trying to sign milk because I have started signing milk, eat, and more whenever I can for him. He does seem to do that little open and close hand when he really wants your attention too. If he wants you to pick him up, his hands start moving.

He's really got the hang of sitting but is constantly falling over because he's lunging forward to grab things. He wants to be mobile so badly. He can pretty much roll and kind of slide wherever he wants to go, but no actual crawling or even army crawling. He is never where I left him in the room. He loves wires so I have to be careful. I want him to crawl, but I don't. I'm not ready for a completely mobile baby. Ha! I think he will be my latest crawler, but I'm really in NO hurry.

Food wise, he has yet to turn down something. He's starting eating really well when I try baby food with him and just go the hang of smashing cheerios into his mouth. He tends to shove fistfuls instead of one at a time (he must have learned it from me) and since he has no teeth it proves problematic. He seems to LOVE the veggies and kind of tolerate fruits. Not my kid at all. Haha! He hasn't eaten a very small amount of eggs and quite a bit of peanut butter which was kind of freeing to be told that they recommend NOT waiting until 12 months now. No allergic reactions but we weren't really expecting any.

He is a pretty chill baby. He doesn't make lots of noise unless he's upset which isn't super often. He's pretty dang quiet even when he's smiling. Occasionally, he will give the little daycare at the gym trouble or even grandma but he's pretty easy to fix either with food or a nap. He's generally hangry  (Hungry + angry) if he's upset.

I love that right now he hangs off me like a monkey. He holds you back now when you hold him. Everyone remarks at what a cuddly baby he is. Generally anyone can hold him, but when I get him back he will hug me around the neck and dig his fingers into my hair and squeeze. You can tell he just wants to love on me. It's adorable. He also cuddles really well with daddy so it's nice. Oh our Sam the Man, Sammo, Sammy, Sam Sam and bubba. THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF OUR FAMILY.

He gets really sweaty! Just like his Dad!

He's never been a binky baby, but lately he's really enjoyed chewing on them. It's kind of funny.

The Wedding

Aunt Becca got married to Uncle Steve on June 11th and it was AWESOME. The place where they had their reception was this awesome house called "The Roost" and it had a swimming hole that we were allowed to use. So the night before the wedding, we had a little party. It was a little bit of a bummer because neither Aunt Becca or Uncle Steve could be there, but we still had a glorious time.

There was this big cliff jump and it looked a lot higher when you stand up on the top. I watched Uncle Eric go.

Then Mom counted down from ten and I jumped with NO HESITATION when she hit one. Everyone was so surprised!

Mom and Dad got up to the top and got scared. So we all counted down for them. Mom thought dad was going to jump with her, but he faked her out!

And they both had to jump alone!

There was this cool rock that you could climb up on and it had water spraying out of it.

Double Grandpa even got in and swam with us!

Here was the waterslide on the other side!

Even though the swimming was great, I think that Iva loved this little swing the most.

Snuggles from Grandpa.

The actual day of the wedding was so pretty, but there thunderstorms that kind of messed with us! Mom and Dad got to be at the temple with them which was so neat because all of Mom's siblings were in the temple together.

We loved being at the party with Aunt Becca in her beautiful wedding dress.

Honestly, it took a lot of work for Mom to keep us off this swing. We just loved it so much.

Notice Iva in the background bawling because it wasn't her turn!

We also swam AFTER the party was over. It was terrific and we are so happy that Steve is part of our family now. YAY FOR WEDDINGS!

SUMMER!!! SUMMER!!! SUMMER!!!

It's my Mom's FAVORITE time of year! We play and play and play. Except this year, she is also working working working. She is teaching 16 hours a week during the summer. We still get lots of play time in though! (That includes some 5:15 am classes which is when she snapped this picture!)

Mom loves this picture of Cara. If we eat at Costco, this is what Cara wants. Hahaha! She doesn't eat hot dogs and she wore a jacket because Costco has cold places!

City Pool! We love St. George City Pool.

Iva is even getting good at laying out at the pool! 

This leads to a lot of afternoons where Iva is passed out cold despite Mom's best efforts to keep her awake.

Sam also naps really well at City Pool!

I am getting to be a pretty good helper. Iva loves to use her puddle jumper in the big pool. She will follow me anywhere.

She is such a fantastic swimmer without it though and LOVES to hang out in baby pool and practice swimming.

The little girl in the picture with her (I know these are terrible photos) is who really got Iva to swim underwater. Her name is Brinley and she is always at the pool too! We are regulars together.

Mom took this awesome picture of us headed into the gym one evening. She called us her entourage. We all had top knots in our hair (except Mom) and Sam put his hand up so it looks like he matches us! We go everywhere together it feels like.

Mom happened to teach a class at 5:15 am on National Donut Day so she ran to Harmon's and surprised us with breakfast donuts!

And somehow this is the only photo on our computer of this event, but Mom and Dad took me to do Slide the City when it was in town. It was super fun. We only got to go down once and Mom went with her sisters, but it was great and we have these awesome tubes now!