And just like that school's back in session....

I can't believe another school year has come!! This year Mom is the PTA president at Panorama. This means we were at the school A LOT even before it started. 

Cara is in second grade this year and gets to be in Mrs. Anderson's class.

I am in FOURTH grade! (Practically the top of the school. Just one more year!) And I am in Mrs. Nisson's class.

Iva was a little bummed that the big girls were back to school.

The first day was a success! We both loved it and were excited to start learning again.

A Baptism!

Note from Mom: Life is so much more busy for me. I work a lot now and my kids have more demanding schedules. I am going to do my best though to catch up on this blog!!

Back to Siena:

Pictures of me learning how to do a handstand in the Preslars' yard can only mean one thing! We went BACK up to SLC the very next weekend after Dad's reunion.

Sam and Iva and their cute white butts took baths....

But the REAL reason we were in SLC was so that Cara could be BAPTIZED as a member of our church. She was extra lucky because she got to do it the same day as our cousin Emma AND Rosey. Which is the whole reason we were doing it in SLC in the first place!

All dressed in white thanks to Grandma Deb!

Sam did not appreciate Mom's attempt at sibling photos in order of age...

Emma was also all dressed in white. She and Romney wanted their picture taken too.

We have so many memories and photos on the Preslar Porch. It's a happy place.

Getting to the church turned out to be mildly stressful. The Preslars don't have a font in their building so we have to go to one within their stake. We got there with only like 15 minutes to spare, but Rosey and her family were nowhere to be seen! All the guests were arriving and we took our traditional photos and the building coordinators were breathing down our necks because apparently there was another baptism scheduled only AN HOUR after ours. We had three baptisms to do! Why did they only give us an HOUR in the first place?!

The Seattle Romneys did come blowing in eventually and we managed to snap one photo of the girls before the services began!

The cousins all sang When I am Baptized just before the ordinances.

The locker room was a very small bathroom. It was quite close quarters. But look at all those smiling faces. They said the water was very warm like a hot tub.

Aunt Rachel did a cute job of decorating a little space with pictures of the three girls as they grew up.

Sam was slightly more cooperative AFTER the baptism with taking a few photos. We didn't manage to get a single photo of the whole group because it was THREE families worth of friends and family. Too many people plus the added stress of the other baptism group arriving and like just taking over.

However, Mom LOVES this photo of our family.

Aunt Becca and Grandma drove up that morning to make it to the baptism and Double Grandma quickly drove down the mountain to get there.

We took the party back to Apa's house for some yummy food. Apa wasn't actually there due to an opportunity to go on a sailing trip and unfortunate timing. It actually took us awhile to get to Apa's because Rosey's little brother, Park, went missing. We had to search the church and the parking lot and the neighborhood. He was eventually found at a park clear down the street!!!!

These cute cousins were so happy to share the day.

All the baptizers and baptizees

SIBLINGS!

Iva and Park wanted in on the photo. Ha!

It was a beautiful and sunny and awesome day. We loved it and I'm so happy Cara was baptized like I was.

20th Reunion and an Anniversary!

Not long after returning from California, our little family found ourselves trekking up to Salt Lake City for Dad's 20th high school reunion. 

Mom got herself a little morning date with Sam and Iva at the gym which was delightful and I think they all enjoyed being silly. 

This lizard kept trying to lick Sam and Iva!

That night she got a date with Daddy at his high school reunion which just happened to be held at the Living Planet Aquarium. While everyone was meeting and greeting each other all over again, Mom had the whole aquarium to herself. She went through all the exhibits (except the play area which she missed!) and literally no one else was in a single one! She took a ridiculous amount of selfies, but she had a really great time!

She did actually take a selfie with Dad. And she did meet and hang out with his high school buddies, but she secretly still thinks the best part was the aquarium all to herself.

Except the incident with the whistling ducks. They were not in their pond and kind of freaked her out and trapped her on a bench for a moment:

The next morning was Dad and Mom's 12th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated by making sure they were not alone in bed.

I think they like each other still. They sure take a lot of close selfies if not.

Cara

From Mom:

Cara at eight is a glorious thing. She's an excellent reader. She's still my first to bed, first to rise. She sucks her thumb if she's tired or really zoned out. She loves clothes way more than Siena does. My mom calls her my little fashionista.

Exhibit one is when she pulled out the dress I gave her:

Cara cares so much about other people. Case in point, I just had parent teacher conferences for her (in November and her birthday is the last day in July but that's okay) and her teacher told me that Cara wants all her friends to be happy. In fact, one day Cara was near tears and told her teacher that "she just wants Chloe to be happy, but Chloe's not happy and I don't know what to do". Which leads me to her best friend at age eight. It happens to be Miss Chloe. Cara adores her and is always talking about her. If I was a better parent, I would actually have Chloe over for play dates, but I'm not home long enough! Thankfully, Chloe's mom is better at that than me and she makes it happen over at Chloe's house.

Cara got her very own set of scriptures for her birthday and she has taken great care of them. I don't think she was QUITE as excited about this present, but she still felt special.

Cara is still quick to cry if I express the slightest displeasure and I'm pretty sure she would be happy to never practice piano or cello again, but she does them with only a little prompting. She plays dolls and rides her bike and is just awesome. I'm sure there are a million other things I should say, but there are no words.