Sweet Sisters

Guest post by Mommy:

This moment just had to be written down for later on in my two girls' lives when they are fighting like...well like my sister, Angie, and I. :)

On Wednesday, I went to pick up the girls up from my Mom's after I had worked half a day and then grabbed a quick hour at the gym. I walked downstairs to see both girls cuddled up next to Aunt Angie, nuzzling each other with their heads. Angie told me that she had been sitting with Cara in her lap when Siena got up and walked on the couch to sit right down next to them. She then hugged Cara and said "I love you, Cara." She kept going and said "You have such pretty skin. You have pretty eyes. You have pretty hair." After that, Cara and Siena took turns kissing each other and bonking their heads right up against each other. Cara even sucked on Siena's hand for awhile. This is especially cute because Cara has mastered the pucker up kiss. (Finally! No more coming at us with a wide open mouth!) She sometimes makes a fish face she is so intent on it.

Oh they already fight and rip toys out of each other's hands and call for Mommy but that also just means they are learning how to play together. Angie and I were watching them swim today and were thinking about how much fun WE had playing together. Angie and I are the same distance in age as my two sweethearts. There are LOTS of fights ahead but gosh darn it, Angie and I had a lot of secrets and games and stories that were just between the two of us.

Sorry that this picture quality is kind of terrible, but yesterday they were having a tea party and Siena kept coming and getting carrots from me, "one for me and one for Cara". They actually ate them too!

Siena is THREE!

Cara Post:
Guess what? My big sister turned three years old today! I can hardly believe it. She is so grown up. I can't wait to be just like her. Mommy wants to make a list of what makes Siena so cool now that she is THREE YEARS OLD! So let's see....
She still loves to do sign language. Her favorite thing to say is that He/She/It is so silly and then make the sign for silly.
Siena uses the word "Yes" not "Yeah, yup, uh huh", for the most part it is "Yes".
A funny phrase she picked up from Daddy, "He suuure did."
We call Aunt Becca, "Aunt Kecca" but Mommy keeps trying to get Siena to say Becca and now it's turning in to "Aunt BuKecca"
She learned how to ride a tricycle!
Much to my joy, she doesn't hardly eat anything unless it's black cereal (known to the rest of the world as chocolate cereal.) I get to eat her leftovers after I eat my own meal.
She is very specific about the sign for drink versus water. Didn't used to be. Now she is. Also she prefers Diet "Cote" (Mommy hangs her head in embarrassment)
Her favorite book is "The Cat in the Hat" and was thrilled that it's now a PBS show.
Her favorite color appears to be purple
There is no way to pin down a favorite movie. She goes in spurts.

For a while it seemed her favorite song was still "The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly" but she really likes to sing the ABC's to herself now.
Siena is really quite polite. She will tell you not just no but "No Thanks"
She also picked up the phrase "Oh my gosh"

Mommy has her trained so she still doesn't realize that she can get out of bed by herself. (Of course this is a blessing and a curse.)

Siena is very much a Daddy's girl.

Oh and the pretend world has very much sprung into existence for Siena.

She loves to dig in the dirt.

She is getting braver every day. She now goes down slides much higher than Mommy thought she ever would.

She is also not quite as shy as she used to be.

She knows her left from right and can get it correct with her shoes about 75% of the time.

They are working on having her dress herself but all she is really good at is her shoes! :)

Potty training seems to be almost complete. The occasional accident but she gets to wear her big girls most every day! (She is so lucky. She has Tinker Bell undies and Buzz Lightyear undies and Incredibles undies...)

Anyway it's photo time! This picture is actually of an early birthday present Mommy brought home. It's a little table that was like one she had as a girl.

And this picture is to show off what a great big sister she is. She's trying to hold my hand and was asking Mommy to take our picture.

We had her party yesterday with all the grandparents. We got to eat chocolate cake and now I have a bunch more toys to play with. I mean Siena has a bunch more toys to play with. (My favorite was her Furr Real Lamb from Grandma Great.)

Siena seemed a lot more confident about the cake before the candles were lit and nine adults started singing "Happy Birthday" at her. She made Mommy help her blow out the candles.

Here is my fashionista big sister showing off some of her new duds. Apparently, she is still not quite 3T size. Everything needs to go through the wash first. (Mommy said she realized Siena still fit the dress she wore at her birthday party last year!)

Oma and Apa were so awesome and drove down and back up the same day to be a part of the celebration plus Grandma and Grandpa were there and Grandma Great Sharon and Uncle Eric was representing for all the aunts and uncles...except for Uncle Marty on his mission, his friend who is girl and is "not" waiting for him, Hailey, was there to represent him. Thank you guys for all the cool toys and pretty clothes that will undoubtedly be mine some day!

Now it's here...now it's not!

I realize now in retrospect, that we don't have a great close up shot of the front yard of our house...but I think that's because of the tree that this post is about. The tree was one of the parts of the house that Daddy loved the most. Our house faces south and it was nice and big and provided a lot of shade. Right after we bought the house, Daddy and Mommy were outside talking about how they needed to trim the tree away from the house when our awesome next door neighbor leaned over the fence with dark words. He said "I hate to to be the one to tell you this, but you're going to have to take the tree down. There used to be a lot of these willows around and this is one of the last because they get a disease and start dripping sap that stinks everywhere and it essentially is dying." Oh no! Well we went through most of the summer with no "sap" in sight. Mommy was hoping we had a few more years in the tree.

Boy, were we wrong.

Starting in August, our front walk started to get little speckles of this sap like substance. It wasn't overly sticky and certainly not stinky so we thought we could handle it. Yeah. Until our front walk way was SWIMMING in it and Mommy started to feel like she could smell it clear out at the end of the circle. Daddy made a phone call to a tree removal company, they came over on Tuesday and did an estimate. Mommy liked what she heard. Mommy went to run some errands on Wednesday, they were pulling in to start removal, she came home later and it was GONE. Stump and all. The neighbors congregated outside the house that night and just talked about how sudden it was and how the tree had probably been there for 12 years but that it needed to go. So this is what our house looks like now.

Mommy and Daddy hear that fall is the best time to plant so hopefully we'll be replacing it soon but they'll be doing some research into what kind of trees can get the "Slime" as the tree guys called it. (Pretty accurate too!)

And this post is supposed to be about the tree but we couldn't resist posting a picture of Cara during her 12 hour stomach bug. Isn't she so sweet?

A Final Nod to California

And here it is...our third and final post about our delicious weekend in California. We've saved the best for last.

COUSIN TIME!!! I got to play with my cousin Lainey and I was in heaven. She and I both love princesses and she is the luckiest duck to have princess dresses for dress up! Upon arriving at their house (Mommy must add that it is a BEAUTIFUL home that made her feel like she was in a Mexican get away), the two of us disappeared upstairs to her room only to return periodically in my Cinderella dress and her Tiana outfit. I even wore pretty glass slippers. So perfect. We happened to visit them on Mexican Independence Day and made the mistake of taking a little venture down to downtown LA to a little square that was hosting a big Fiesta. We did make out with lots of yummy gum samples.

But mostly it was good food, good weather, and LOTS of play time. I even went to church without Mommy and Daddy so that I could play with Lainey some more and slept in her room with her.

On Saturday, we went from normal clothes, to princess dresses, to normal clothes, to underwear:

To naked (Mommy loves my cushy tushy compared to Lainey is muscley little body)

Cara and Rosey seemed to enjoy each other as well. Cara did a lot of poking Rosey in the face but overall I think they will be great friends. Of course it's a little bit like Aunt Rachel says about Cara and Emma. They are each other's negatives. Cara is a nice deep brown while Rosey is creamy white.

Lainey and I were both distraught at the news that our play time had ended but Mommy and Aunt Whitley managed to catch a few pictures of us being all smiles.

I forgot to mention that Smith's best buddy turned out to be Daddy. He got him addicted to a plant/zombie computer game thingy that is addicting and can all be traced back to Aunt Rachel!

Mommy and Daddy promise that we can go back now that they figured out it's only a 6 hour drive from Uncle Adam's. And I'll hold them to it. I miss Lainey all ready.

Disney Day 2

Highlights from our second day in Disneyland:
-Um first and foremost I got to meet TINKER BELL, SILVER MIST, CINDERELLA, MULAN, AND TIANA. All before probably 10:00 a.m. Mommy and Daddy once again arrived shortly before the park opened (blessedly it was an hour earlier this time.) and made a beeline for Tinker Bell's house. We hardly waited at all. In fact, Cara and I were a little bit sleepy still so it felt kind of like a dream. Then we rode the rocket ships right there at the front of TomorrowLand which neither Mommy or Daddy ever remember doing but Cara could do them with us so it was a go. (Funny enough, those go very high and yet somehow we never bothered to do the tamer version in Fantasyland...you know, Dumbo.) And then they went straight to the Princess line which was only about 20 minutes. I loved it. I was awestruck by Cinderella and just gave her a big hug.
-I then rode the Go Coaster three times in a row. And this time I didn't cower in to Mommy or Daddy. I sat up and held my hand in the air...for like two seconds then I grabbed Mommy/Daddy's hand whoever was riding with me.
-I got to meet Max...Goofy's son. I love his movie.
-We fast passed Haunted Mansion and Cara and I survived. It's was probably easier since I kept pointing at the "Sandy Claws" things since it was redone as Nightmare Before Christmas.
-Mommy and Daddy both got to ride Space Mountain despite the 85 minute wait time in Stand By. (Seriously the stroller pass on that ride is almost a joke..you go in the exit and like walk right on!) It had also reopened with a scary fire man chasing you through the dark.
-Eating a Mickey Mouse ice cream on a stick and a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich.

Here we are waiting in line for the rocket ships.

When we walked in to Pixie Hollow, Silver Mist was who greeted us.

Tinker Bell and Tinker Bell's house..need I say more!

And this is Cinderella...isn't she beautiful?

I have seen Mulan before but I wasn't sure who she was but I figured any friend of Cinderella's...(oh and one guess to figure out what my new nervous tick is. Ding Ding Ding..picking my upper lip. If Mommy tells me to stop, I cry and tell her to stop whining.)

And we just ran in to Max on our way to Turtle Talk with Crush. I almost jumped out of the stroller.

And this was what happened while Daddy rode Space Mountain (despite the club scene and live band in TomorrowLand)

This is how we eventually ended up because I sat up all disoriented and tried to sleep sitting straight up.

Good times. It was incredible and I can't wait to go again.

Disneyland Done Right

A three post adventure (just as a warning.)

Well of course this will be a picture filled blog! I was so excited to go to Disneyland. I didn't really know what Mommy and Daddy meant by "Disneyland" but I know now and it's AWESOME.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Great's house really late at night on Wednesday. Much to Mommy and Daddy's chagrin, Cara seemed to have taken a five hour nap and was wide awake and being stinkin' cute for one in the morning, but eventually we all slept. That included Mommy which is very hard for Mommy to do when Disneyland is involved. Actually, we all slept in one big bed! Regardless, we got up three hours before Disneyland would open and so we had to keep Mommy occupied for at least two before she had us all buckled and strapped in to the car and was revving the engine.

Mommy had high hopes that Thursday would be a slower day at Disneyland. (She has the fantasy where she is there with maybe 100 other people..we all laugh at her.) At first, based on the parking lot she wasn't so sure but as the day progressed, we discovered small wait times and space to actually maneuver in while walking! The only thing that had a long wait was our very first ride, Peter Pan. So let it go down in the record books, Cara's first ride at a Disneyland Resort was Peter Pan. We waited almost 25 minutes for that. Also they changed how they do the Princesses that walk around. They don't walk around anymore. They stay in one place up by Toon Town and when we found it there was already a 90 minute wait! There was also a 30 minute wait to see Tinker Bell. Mommy and Daddy kept us moving. I rode the Go Coaster in Toon Town twice in a row (once with Daddy and once with Mommy.) I got to meet Mickey Mouse (and knew who he was), Goofy, and Minnie all before lunch! Mommy even got me on the Madderhorn! That's one of the reasons this post is called Disneyland Done Right. You see, Halloween Time in Disneyland started the next day. That means everyone was waiting to come Friday. True, Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion were closed but we were going to go the next day too so it really worked. Plus, I am not quite three years old yet (on Monday!) and so I was still free, but I was tall enough to go on the Go Coaster and the Madderhorn. So sweet!

Other highlights from the first day in Disneyland:

-Cara slept through Pirates of the Caribbean and I told Mommy later "I saw Pirates and I don't have to do it again" (word for word) I buried my head in to Daddy's shoulder and had him hold his hands over my ear and would peak out when I could tell the scene had changed.

-We visited Flik's Fun Fair and got to put on our swim suits and run around in a little splash pad. Mommy says the good splash pad was closed off but we found two smaller ones that were still very fun.

-Turtle Talk with Crush was very worth it. We laughed a lot. I loved that we could talk with Crush through a microphone.

-Mommy and Daddy both got to ride California Screamin' and I was very upset that I could not ride the roller coaster with them. I had fun on the carousel though.

-And finally the parade right before closing time at Disneyland. I had so much fun watching it and even went out and danced with the characters when they wanted us to. (Mommy is beyond frustrated with blogger and her computer/Iphoto/internet or WHATEVER it is that refuses to allow her to upload videos anymore because this one is extra cute and we have another cute one of Cara too and it's all so IRRITATING.)

I really did think it was cool to meet him.

Sitting on Mickey's couch.

If you look closely, Cara is blowing kisses to Goofy. Mommy kept telling me to blow kisses to all the characters and Cara heard her so she started blowing kisses any time she saw one.

In Cara's defense, she was hungry and Minnie was in a hurry too.

I really enjoyed the "it's A Small World" ride

The wonder of Disney (and Mommy's uncontainable joy at being in the Happiest Place on Earth.)

See what I mean she was smothering.

Our Family as Action Figures

DISNEYLAND HERE WE COME!

We promise many pictures and at least two blog posts when we get back, but we are headed to Cali tonight!

Mommy has been telling me that I get to see where the princesses live and Grandpa told me I get to see pirates. I woke up and cried when we didn't go to Disneyland this morning. Mommy said one more sleep.

The best part? We get to see cousin Lainie and Smith and baby Rosie. We are very excited. So stay tuned and we promise good stories.