Thanksgiving

Wait. Before I do Thanksgiving. I should at LEAST mention Dad's birthday. He had a birthday. Right smack in the middle of Joseph and the same day he picked to have a recital with his growing cello studio. It was a VERY busy Friday. But Mom made sure he had some fun. He happens to share a birthday with his boss and so Mom and his wife decorated the office with a BUNCH of balloons. They let us help!

We love listening to his cello students. Sam especially!

Okay. Now. Thanksgiving. It was a Romney year which meant we headed up north on Wednesday afternoon. We were supposed to leave later that night, but it was going to be the only evening Dad's friend who lives in Missouri was going to have free so we rearranged it all and left early. 

If only we could have left just a half an hour earlier like we planned! The drive up was great! Until about Nephi and then this happened. Can you SEE that black line?! It was crazy.

There was lightning and thunder and snow. Never really rain. It seemed immediately to go to slushy snow.

The traffic was pretty slow going starting in about Lehi. It was slightly miserable. (Add in the fact that Dad REALLY had to pee and it was almost comical.) But we eventually made it. We dropped Dad off at a restaurant and we headed to the Preslars.

The whole Romney family was able to be there for Thanksgiving. That's a first. We think. We weren't quite sure. Aunt Rachel did a BEAUTIFUL job on the turkey.

These were our appetizers. I think Mommy ate non stop.

Buddies

The outnumbered boys! 

Girl cousins rule!

We valiantly attempted a family photo. Sam was sleeping and our youngest girls seem to make it quite hard to actually find a good one where we were all smiling!

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We of course went to the zoo SEVERAL times since we were up in SLC for such a long time. We had to dress warm, but not too warm it turned out! The sun was shining and made it pleasant!

We originally thought that the Preslars were going to be leaving to go to their annual Christmas Tree Hunt, but in a miraculous turn of events they got their weekends mixed up and they got to stay! Mommy (tricked?) talked Aunt Rachel and the girls into coming to City Creek on Black Friday to meet Santa look at a few stores and then be present for the lighting of Temple Square. We also spent time looking at the candy windows at Macy's!

Look another zoo trip! This time the men joined us too!

It was kind of a colder trip and Iva insisted on taking a photo with every statue, but still very much fun. Hogle Zoo has a new male orangutan and he's HUGE. We loved getting to watch him.

There was another storm predicted to come through on Sunday so we packed up and headed home Saturday night. It was a smart decision as the storm looked awful to drive in when we checked the news the next day.

We actually spent that Sunday playing hooky from church and staying in our pajamas watching Christmas movies and decorating the house. It was so awesome.

Jacob! Jacob and Sons!

How could this have NOT made it on the blog yet? I know. Because we have so many things to blog about and our computer had almost entirely bit the dust. Thanks to an early Christmas present to Mom and Dad, we have our new computer and lots more blog updates should be happening! Hurray!

Anyway! Way back in August, Mom saw a Facebook post from a friend that her daughter was going to be trying out for a children's choir to perform in a high school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Mom knew immediately that I would want to be in on that. Luckily there were no restrictions on which elementary school you were from and so she had me audition! (We MIGHT have posted about that earlier...) It was so great. All the kids who auditioned were invited to be part of the choir. We met twice a week for an hour through most of September and October. Grandma and Aunt Becca were extremely helpful in getting me to rehearsals because it coincided with both parents teaching!

I was so excited. As luck would have it, Cara actually got to be in the production as well. They wanted just a few baby sheep and she was the perfect size for it! She learned a very simple dance and was pretty dang cute.

The beginning of November was pretty much all about the play for us girls. We had rehearsal every night and then we had performances for a week straight!

We performed two matinees for some elementary school classes, and then there were FIVE night time performances. It was so great. We had someone we knew in the audience at almost every performance. Joseph is our favorite musical anyway!

I learned so much from being in the choir. I became a better singer and learned how they set plays up.

Iva joined in on watching the play two different nights. She loves Joseph too!
Sam did NOT go into see the play. 

Our Preslar cousins even joined us for one of our nights. We were so happy to have them come visit even if it was REALLY quick.

Lexi made it one night too!

We were really sad when the play ended but we got the BEST news. We get to do an encore presentation of the play. We have TWO more showings in January. One last hurrah!

It was truly such a great experience. Mom hopes it is the first play of many for us!

Iva the Three Year Old

Guest post by Mom:

It still takes my breath away. Each birthday. Each kid. I thought it might get easier. I was wrong.

Iva at three is even better than Iva at two though. At least I think so. I sure enjoy her now. She's still the most amazing talker. She has been speaking in full sentence for quite some time and she just is so verbose. She grasps advanced topics and tries to tell jokes like her sisters.

She's a bit of a follower. Anything Siena and Cara are doing, she wants to do. If Colt and Carter (the twins!) are doing it, Iva will do it. She's definitely my most spunky child.

On her birthday, she could not be persuaded to open her present. We kind of had to force it on her even though it was another spinny dress which is her ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. We eventually got it on her and she was as pleased as punch.

The daycare at the gym spoiled her with cute little plastic glasses and a candy necklace. Look at her SPUNK!

We also got a crown from Cara's teacher, Mrs. Seegmiller, and I intend to blackmail Iva with this photo some day. I'm sorry. It's graphic and gross, but so so so funny.

We made sure to get her free cupcake at Sweet Tooth Fairy. She hardly ate any, but Mom handled it. HA!

Look at how grown up she is. Fully potty trained, never an accident (until I type this of course), loves to bounce from chair to chair. If you think of the Family Circus cartoons where they show the kids taking a ridiculous path from point A to point B, that's Iva to a T.

She has gotten a little anxious lately which has been a little sad. She will sometimes cry out from the living room with terror because she couldn't see me. She also panics if you seem to be looking behind her and she will RUN to you as if she was being chased.

She likes broccoli and carrots in dip. Any kind of dip. She and Cara dip their apples in ketchup. Gross. I think her favorite food is butter and toast or nutella and toast. It doesn't even have to be toast just bread.

My kids are the worst sleepers. Iva still cries out at night and Pete goes in and sleeps with her for awhile. Sometimes we just pull her into our bed (but more than likely Sam is already there.) We probably just need a king size. It was getting better and then it got worse. I'm sure it has something to do with a growth spurt or something.

I finally got her to the doctor for her 3 year well check. She's pretty average. She weighed 32 lbs and was 36 inches tall. She had on big boots so I think she's probably just 35 inches and only 31 lbs but that's just sixes. Other than if we were going to be doing rides somewhere. Hahaha!

She's such a bright spot and every day I think to myself, everyone should talk to a three year old. They can just make you so happy. (They can also drive you bat eyed CRAZY. She's a walking disaster who is constantly on the verge of killing herself, BUT she's pretty good at listening to me.)

Way back in the beginning of November.....

So to start off November, us girls got to go to a party at Summit. They are revamping their Youth Certification and they kicked it off with a good workout! My mom had to be the emcee so we had to go! It was great. We got to workout with Miss Chanda again. We loved going to her FitKids. 

We also tried a workout with Seth who is going to actually do all the certifications. We loved his "bootcamp!"

Mom got video of us doing Zumba, but blogger is NOTORIOUSLY impossible to post videos on so we will leave it to your imagination!

While we were doing that, Daddy was running in the Vegas Ragnar. It's a really long race. 12 people per team. Dad had to run 3 different legs of the race. He talked his friend, Kyle, into running with him. I think he had fun. His medal that he got was HUGE.

And then there was that first Tuesday of the month...ELECTION DAY. We were voting for the president of the United States. Mom didn't much like her options, but she and Dad made it a point to vote. Sam and Iva tagged along to Mom's polling place. There was a long line which was a good sign. They had to spin on a chair because the littles got bored!

Another momentous occasion, Mom spontaneously wanted to go on a date with Dad. So she did. She left me in charge of Sam, Iva, and Cara. Grandma and Aunt Becca came and checked on us, but for the most part I did a pretty good job. And Mom really liked her date.

Halloween

This finally happened too. It's only the end of November and we are finally talking about this. My mom team taught with her Mom for Group Power. Mickey and Minnie a match made in heaven.

Mom helped out at Cara's Halloween party. Iva liked playing in the teepee.

We finally carved pumpkins. Nothing like last minute!

We trick treated in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood and made sure we get to Santa's House.

Oh my gosh and how could I forget? We went to SLC the weekend before Halloween! Mom had to do a three day training in Heber...isn't she awesome? She was getting another certification.

We got to play with cousins. We even went to Boo at the Zoo...

Can you see the other Jack Skellington?!