1 month old!

So now that I'm a month old, it's my turn to blog. That's right. Today is my one month birthday! Yeah! Mommy keeps telling me that I'm not allowed to get bigger, but since I nurse ALL the time (as any healthy baby should) that's not looking like it's gonna happen. Mom guesses I weigh about 9 lbs. She says that because two days ago using the Mommy gets on scale by herself and then again with me in her arms method, the scale said I was 9.5 lbs, but this morning using this same method once with Mommy and once with Daddy I was only 8.5 lbs. So she's taking the difference. Either way, I'm getting a double chin. So cute.

Other big developmental milestones, let's see I do pretty well with my head. I don't have real control yet, but sometimes I can hang in there for a good minute or two. But the best one is that I started smiling. Not often. But not just gas. A couple ladies at church yesterday told me at different times that I was pretty so I smiled for them and they were so surprised. Just like my sister, I know when you're saying good things about me and when you're saying bad ones. Plus Mommy can always manage to get a big grin at least once a day.

Here Mommy tried to recreate one of her favorite photos of Siena when she was the same age as me. Sadly, Mommy doesn't know where her two big teddy bears are. Fingers crossed they're in storage. So we made do with what we had. She tried two separate photo shoots today...it exhausted me.

Zoo Addicts

Seriously. We might need some help. How many other 4 week olds do you know who have been there 5 or 6 times...Mommy lost count. We love it though. I like the reptile house and the elephants the best. Cara likes being outside. And Mommy likes that it is a good place to walk around in the sun with two kids. This morning we went to the members only early entrance time and Daddy came with us!! I got to pet a desert tortoise. I made Daddy touch it first and then I chased it all over the grass and Daddy had to pry me away. Oh and we also got to see the tiger cubs running around their exhibit. It rocks to go in the morning!



So some of you might have noticed that for having a new baby, I seem to not post many pictures of Cara. Well our next post I promise to let Cara do the whole thing and maybe not even mention me! In the meantime, cute photos!

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

That's right! Our Uncle Marty is going on a mission for our church and he just got his call! Uncle Marty will be laboring in the Missouri St. Louis mission. Yeah! One of his best friends is serving there right now. Plus, he knows to some degree what foods he'll be eating. I'm sure he'll get a few surprises though. He leaves November 18th. That's just a little less than 3 months from now. That's also our Daddy's birthday. We are so excited for him, but can't believe that he'll be gone for two years. Congratulations, Marty. We love you.

Funny story regarding Uncle Marty's mission call. Our families were all set thinking that his call would come last Wednesday (okay more like hoping because Uncle Marty leaves today for an 8 day trip to Costa Rica), but alas it came and went without that big white envelope. Bummer. We were all holding our breath too. Well on Monday, our Mommy goes skipping out to get the mail here at our house. Remember, we're in Salt Lake City, Uncle Marty is in St. George. As Mommy comes back towards the house, she starts flipping through the mail. She notices a big white envelope. Her thoughts run as such: What's this? Funny, the return address says " The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". Eh, it's probably for Oma and Apa since they are on assignment for the church and happen to be back in the States for the next two weeks. Hey, there's one of those funny yellow stickers on the front that the post office uses for forwarding mail. Wouldn't it be weird if this was Marty's ca----HOLY CRAP! IT SAYS ELDER MARTIN GORDON LARSEN ON IT. At this point, Mommy runs yelling into the house at Daddy. "I HAVE MARTY'S MISSION CALL!" Yes, in a weird quirk of fate, Uncle Marty's call came to our house. For some reason, the forwarding sticker had Mommy's name on it. Her maiden name. Why Elder Martin Larsen looked like Sheri Larsen, we'll never know. Several rounds of phone calls later to Grandma, Uncle Marty, Aunt Angie (you get the picture) and it was decided. Lucky for us, Uncle Marty was impatient and didn't want to have to wait the possible two days it would take by snail mail to hear where he was going. So on Monday at 4:15pm the whole St. George family skyped (video phone call via the internet) us and we opened the envelope and Mommy got to tell Uncle Marty where he would be spending the next two years. It was exciting, but we felt bad that we had all the maps and information on his mission president and that he couldn't read it. So we jumped in the car and took it straight to the post office. Uncle Marty got his mission call (a second time!) today in the mail.

Other than that, we've been busy! Our cousin Mary had a birthday party at the park on Monday night. Yummy tostadas and delicious cake plus lots of swings for Siena! And then today Mommy took us to the zoo to see the new tiger cubs. Yes, that's right. The Hogle Zoo is baby making central. Since we've moved to Salt Lake in April, the zoo has had: Golden Lion Tamarin twins (the cute tiny gold monkeys), a black footed kitten, a snow leopard cub, 6 baby meerkats, a baby giraffe, a baby elephant, and 3 siberian tiger cubs. The tiger cubs were actually born back in June and are finally on display. Holy crow, that's a lot of babies. Mommy likes it though. It's fun to think she was pregnant with all these animals and that we got a baby too.

Here's a fun picture from our outing on Sunday. Since there were no regular church meetings, Mommy and Daddy took us on Trax up to Temple Square. It was so much fun. But I absolutely refused to take a nice picture with Cara. I would not sit and hold her. So here are some other pictures that Mommy got!

150 POSTS!

I apologize on behalf of my Mommy. We haven't posted in a week because she was daunted by the thought of her 150th post. It needed to be something worth blogging about and since our days are spent trying to find clothes to wear everyday and trying to recover from having a newborn baby, things to blog about were escaping Mommy. She's in a funk. Her maternity clothes look too big and stretched out and her before clothes look too tight and show off her blobby figure. Very frustrating. She's taken to wearing the same 3 shirts over and over again. Gah! Also why are all toddler foods crumby? And I mean that in the sense that Mommy screams about the need to vacuum the floor everyday.

MOVING ON. There have actually been plenty of things to blog about. Oma and Apa have come in from Belgium to see their new grandbabies! I neglected to tell you about my newest cousin that was born only 3 days after Cara. Rosie was on born on Monday August 3. She lives in California so we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet, but that makes THREE new little girls for Oma and Apa to meet. They got to meet Rosie this weekend but we get to hang out with them all this week! In the picture, you can see that I'm straining to get away from Oma. Don't worry. I quickly warmed up. We just had to sing Popcorn Popping.


And then on Friday, my cousin Romney turned 4. We had a delightful party at her house. There were lots of rambunctious boys there and so I didn't get in the pool. But I actually played with others and by myself and didn't stay on Mom's lap the whole time. PROGRESS!

Finally, in little sister news. I continue to love Cara. I love to hold her and insist on having my picture taken when I do so. We have an interesting series of photos of me learning to be soft.




And in this video, you get a little bit of a sense of my babbling. I talk all the time. Sometimes in phrases you can understand, but mostly in Sienese which actually we probably shouldn't call it that since that's what the residents of Siena, Italy are called, but I like it. Also at the end, I am singing to Cara. Mommy tried to capture me saying "So Sweet" which I do when I kiss Cara, but I don't perform on demand.

Grocery High

Guest post by Mommy:
In homage to my good friend Heidi from high school, I decided to post about incredible savings at the grocery store. She routinely makes me green with envy regarding her dedication to sales and coupons in regards to food. However, today I feel redeemed! I did good!

Pictured above:
7 boxes of cereal
2 boxes of Pop Tarts
2 boxes of Special K cereal bars
1 thing of donut holes (actually left out of photo inadvertently)
8 boxes of Mac N Cheese
6 boxes of different variety crackers
3 blocks of cheese
2 packages of deli meat

Retail value at Albertson's (which we know is slightly higher than say Wal-Mart): $102.55
Price paid at the register: $53.31
In Store Savings: $49.24
As a bonus: $5 dollar coupon for future store visit and a $20 mail in rebate! There was also another $10 rebate but both require an original store receipt. Oh well.
So in conclusion, I bought 31 normally ridiculously priced items for a grand total of $33.31...28.31 if you take out the $5 dollar coupon also. That's about a dollar an item! I feel great about me right now. I wish I could do this well every time I went. But alas, I am not a great coupon shopper.

A week with Grandma!

The best part about getting a little sister? All the visitors! Grandma came and spent the week with us. And as a bonus Grandpa and Uncle Eric stayed a couple days also. PLUS Aunt Becca had soccer games up on this end of the state so we got to go to Heber and see Great Grandpa's new puppies (born the same day as Cara!) and Lil' Buck the horsey and jump on their tramp.

I'm also a GREAT cheerleader at soccer games. I say "Go Aunt Cecca" and "Runnin" and what even sounded like "Get her". We're sad that we only saw Aunt Becca for a few minutes here and there but she did get to hold little Cara. We can't wait to go down to St. George and watch the Thunder soccer team again. This time it will be at night and not so hot. :)

While Grandma and Uncle Eric were here we went back to the zoo. Mommy LOVES the zoo. When we lived in Monterey, she LOVED the aquarium. Well the day before Cara was born the zoo had a little baby giraffe and also at the beginning of July they had baby meerkats. We got some great pictures of the baby giraffe and the meerkats. And it turns out the baby elephant that they have been expecting for 22 months (Mommy is so glad she is NOT an elephant) was born the day we were at the zoo. Of course, she wasn't out in the open yet, but we can't wait to see her!




Unfortunately, whenever I spend time with Grandma lately I tend to get a fever. This time Mommy thinks it was a preemptive strike so that Grandma wouldn't take me to St. George without her. So Mommy and Daddy's induction into parents of two is in full swing. Two girls crying. Both only want Momma. And then they both puke on her. YEAH! Parenthood is fun. Luckily, Motrin and Tylenol make me feel better even if it's an epic battle every few hours to get me to swallow the medicine. Mommy hopes I start feeling like my old self quickly. Like Daddy said this morning, "I miss my Siena. She's not herself." Good thing Cara and I are cute!

The Zoo and More

Hey everybody! Cara is now 9 days old and still cute. Aunt Angie and Uncle Marty came up and visited us. It was so much fun. Aunt Angie brought me markers that color on windows and we had a lot of fun making the door downstairs pretty! We also went to the zoo with them. It was unusually chilly for August and we went in the morning which worked out so whoever was carrying baby sister wasn't so hot. Aunt Angie was cold though. COLD in August. Storms do weird things. The pictures we have of the zoo aren't too awesome, because the sun was just so bright on us. And if you notice the scowl on my face...I hate that fake elephant, he makes loud noises. I think Aunt Angie has all the good pictures on her camera.

In today news, Cara went to church for the first time today. Mommy was excited to get us all dressed up for church and so she thought that 9 days old was old enough! Bishop Tagge "sent" Mommy home after the second hour. Lucky me! We only have one car and so I got to go home early too! Of course this was another photo op! Aunt Angie painted Cara's toes while she was here. So precious! I love to hold my sister. She's so pretty.



In news about me, I continue to say things that my parents actually understand! I also continue to crack them up everyday.
A few phrases that are priceless and need to be documented:
-"Mmmm, 'smack lips', it's good" said whenever she drinks something yummy (or when she eats the dirt under the swing)
-"Thank you, thank you much" which is always said appropriately. So polite
-"I hungry" not always said when she's hungry, Rolly says this on 101 Dalmations...she's playing pretend
- "See ya later" and she means it. Normally, she's trying to open the garage door as she says it
-"It's pretty" and we have a girl...not too girlie but on her way
-"Ta Da" said with real flair and anytime she thinks she's done something impressive such as put on a hat or color on the window
-"Peter" self explanatory if you know her Daddy's name. She will say this if Daddy said twice didn't get the proper reaction

I'm also really trying to say Cara's name. Sometimes it comes out right other times it sounds more like color. I do however say "sister" and do the sign for girl in ASL. I refuse to do this on camera despite repeated attempts to capture it. I also know the entire alphabet by sight including upper and lower case letters. This too proves elusive to the camera. Test me some time!