To stay close to on track.....

Mommy is having me do a little "Back Blog" in effort to stay on track. And when I say stay on track, I mean my Mommy has OCD about the blog and is very determined to do 100 posts a year...which is basically twice a week allowing for 4 weeks with just one post. That's kind of why some posts are epic because she doesn't want too many and to divide them up or anything. Anyway, because it's the last day of June she just checked and she's only done 48 posts so far.. so while we won't do two posts today we'll be closer to on track than before. (See I told you...OCD!)

A couple Mondays ago, just after we saw all our family at Double Grandpa's house, we go to play with the cousins again but this time at Veyo Pool. Veyo is where I showed interest for the first time in actually swimming to any degree last year and it proved to help me with my courage again. I saw Mommy's cousin Adalee in the water (she feels more like MY cousin) and I went right to her even though it looked like it was over my head. This is unheard of from me and Mommy was very proud although she claims Adalee could get me to walk across hot coals...I love her. Anyway I also started playing on my own in the water where I could touch and jumping off the side in to the water without anybody to help me. Apparently puzzle pieces have just clicked because I am a swimming maniac now. I go to the gym pool and I love to jump off the side and go in the deep end of the kiddie pool (I can still touch just barely). I'm jumping off Grandma and Grandpa's rock water fall (although that's too deep and I make someone catch me.) I also figured out how the water noodles and little floatie rings work and I love to float and kick kick kick. It's really changed the pool for Mommy and me and I just can't get enough. It's so great.

So here are some photos from our family adventures at Veyo Pool. We got to see Sophie and Savannah and Isaac again with Uncle Nick and Aunt Emily, and Mommy's cousin Sloan and her kiddos Jett, Bodie, and Josie.

The Things I Love

Mommy has mentioned how she has been putting off a blog about how awesome us kiddos are for awhile. She can't believe how much we've grown up. Cara is just a month away from being TWO! However today she has relented and is letting us list what we love about each other right now (and also what Mommy and Daddy love about us.)

Things I love about Cara:
-That girl can talk now...and sometimes it's non stop
-But her voice can still be described as little and perfect for an animated movie or something
-Her screams not so much...guess I don't really love that about her. She always wins because Mommy doesn't want to hear it
-She's still signing and loves Signing Time
-15 minutes in the sun and she's a shade darker
-Very cuddly still and snuggles in to your side
-Wants to wear dresses just like me
-Loves to share her food with the grown up holding her
-Sings abc's and "I am a Child of God" (including part of the second verse) randomly throughout the day
-Started saying prayers recently
-"Spooky Old Tree" is her favorite book right now (and I love it too!)
-Big eater. Loves "Chick Nugs" of course that always makes me look bad because I eat like a bird

-Love the movie How to Train Your Dragon



Things I love about Siena (Cara here):
-Shares her food with me..sometimes even before Mommy asks her too.
-Tells me stories at night before going to bed
-Sings all the words to three verses of "I Am a Child of God"
-Learned how to jump in the big part of Grandma's jacuzzi.
-Started really swimming on her own in water that is just up to her chin-she's actually really good at putting her head under water and holding her breath. She just needs to figure out the mechanics of swimming.
-TALKS ALL THE TIME and about fun pretend things with elaborate stories
-Loves to help Mommy and Daddy in the kitchen even if it's with putting the dishes away
-Right now she's earning money to go see Ariel on stage and she pretty much mentions it 15 times a day (I'm going to see Ariel on stage and she'll sing and she'll have two microphones and she'll sing and ask me to come up on stage and give me the other microphone.)
-She's really started working on dressing her self and going to the potty all by herself
-Loves the movie Despicable Me

-And that girl is all about skirts or dresses...it's a major battle for Mommy to get her in to shorts

Uh..the zoo of course!

Mommy Disclaimer: Sorry. There are a LOT of pictures. I have trouble picking just one or two. And this is my virtual scrapbook so you all kind of have to suffer through my lack of decision making skills. (You'll notice I am now cheating and using mosaics a lot to get away with lots of pics.)

First we need to post some pictures from our freezing cold trip to the zoo over Memorial Day weekend. It's been almost a month...I think it's time.



In that wonderful collage are images of our first bird show of the year, riding the train AND the carousel, and lots of silly fun.

And now on to this week's trip to the zoo. And I'm not kidding either. Mommy and Daddy decided that we should all go up north this weekend while Daddy ran in the Ragnar Relay Series...The Wasatch Back edition. That meant Daddy did lots of running despite being quite sick for the last week and we did lots of playing. Mommy took us to the zoo twice and also took us to the mall where she bought very cute things for us. I think she meant to go there for her...it's easier and more fun to shop for us I guess!

Anyway, this awesome zoo collage has bird show moments (we went twice!) and our pink tongues from cotton candy and the howler monkeys that honestly started howling so loud I ran out of their building and wouldn't go back in the next day.



We of course spent time with Aunt Rachel and Romney and Chase and Emma and Uncle Troy and...oh wait that's it. Here we are in new swimsuits (it was barely warm enough for us to feel like it was summer up there.) We enjoyed playing in their backyard, eating yummy food from the grill and walking to get frozen yogurt which then necessitated a bath for all the giriles. It was a GREAT evening.



One of our favorite parts though was our impromptu visit to Double Grandma and Grandpa's house in Midway. Daddy's race was finishing in Park City so Mommy decided to surprise them and spend the afternoon up there. Well she was the one in for a surprise. Her three uncles were there with their families and they were having a Father's Day barbecue complete with Dutch Oven Potatoes. Plus there were FIFTEEN new puppies. Two momma dogs who had their babies two weeks apart. We loved cuddling them and playing with them. We also loved playing with cousins. I loved seeing Savannah again after going camping with her. And Cara loved playing with Els. Mommy even played in a piano recital put on by Isaac since she was one of the grand kids!

AND SHE WRITES!

Here it is! Siena's first written letter! She has shown little to no interest in writing actual letters. She has been doing the scribbling on the line and "signing" her signature but no "letters". Her wonderful daycare teacher and now preschool teacher, Miss Rubi, actually got her to write the letter "E". I couldn't be more proud. In fact, I almost cried. I'm still not ready to blog about how big my girls are. That will make me cry. I just stared at Cara playing today and realized that she's not a baby. I HAD a baby when Siena was her same size.

Anyway, here are Siena's letter E's. The first one is all traced E's. The second is one traced E and the rest are her!

Youth Conference Fun

Guest post by Mommy:

It feels like it's been awhile since I've done a guest post and honestly I would love to do this guest post about how my girlies have been changing but that feels so overwhelming. I went to Youth Conference with my ward (my church for those of you unfamiliar with LDS lingo) and came back and Siena looked all stretched out, you know...taller and skinnier. I felt like Cara was talking even more and in more complete sentences! So I think because I am exhausted I will just give a quick shout out to the reason I am exhausted. Our ward youth conference. I am the first counselor in the Young Women Presidency and I have enjoyed my calling but now I LOVE IT. Originally I wasn't going to be able to stay the whole conference and was going to have to bail on Friday night but I changed my mind and stayed for everything and I was not sorry.

Our youth conference was simple. We traveled to Salt Lake City and stayed in the houses of our YW President's aunt and uncles. We played games (LOTS of games), ate food, did a couple quick cope course activities, went on a tour of the Humanitarian Center of the LDS church, hiked Ensign Peak, learned ballroom dancing, and played some more. Oh! And went swimming (duh that was the one activity I was in charge of!) We had so much fun and I love the youth in my ward. We are small in numbers and so nobody was ever excluded and everyone jumped in. I laughed with them and talked about life with them and genuinely grew to LOVE these kids individually. I mean, we played FOUR SQUARE. I think the last time I did that was in 6th grade! I also played soccer in flip flops and scored the WINNING goal. I had a wonderful time and of course I missed my little family but I wouldn't trade this weekend for anything.






So one of my favorite parts of this was that I got to do several things that I hadn't gotten to do before in SLC (despite the fact that I've lived there more than once.) I had never been to the Humanitarian Center or to Ensign Peak. And as a special bonus because our car had a little bit of time, I went inside the State Capitol Building. It was beautiful and engendered respect for the laws of our nation. Such a treat.

A sneak into Zion

Yesterday Grandma invited me to go over to Zion National Park and bring Mommy and Cara along. Grandpa and Uncle Eric were going to Kayak the upper part of the Virgin River and Aunt Becca was going to leave their truck for them so we all went! (Well Daddy didn't but let's just say Daddy is now 4 lbs away from his goal weight and he's not happy about it...no one wants to lose 5 lbs in 2 days the way he did.)

We rode the bus and hiked up Court of the Patriarchs and up to the rock that cries (Weeping Rock) and had lots of fun...perfect for us little girlies. We even got to eat at Oscar's. So much fun.

Fun Conversation

This took place today. I think my Daddy shouldn't use cough medicine anymore.

Mommy misses a phone call from Daddy. Mommy finishes what she's doing and calls him back. It's 3:30 pm.

Daddy: Hello..
Mommy: Hey, what's up?
Daddy: Oh you know workin'.
Mommy: What did you need?
Daddy: Oh, do you know where Gabby is?
Mommy: What do you mean?
Daddy: Well she's not in the backyard.
Mommy: Oh she's not...dang. How did she get out? Are you sure?
Daddy: Yeah. She's not back there.
Mommy: Well I don't know. I've been gone since 8:30 this morning.
Daddy: Hmmm. I don't know where she is.
Mommy: Did I let her outside? I don't remember letting her outside. Maybe she's inside. Did you let her out back?
Daddy: No.
Mommy: Um wait...did you let her out of her kennel even?
Daddy: Didn't you? Wait. Did you?
Mommy: NO! Pete I didn't. And you didn't. SHE'S STILL IN HER KENNEL IN THE GARAGE. She's been there since last night!
Daddy: Oh no! Okay I'll go take care of it.
Mommy: Ack! She could be dead! Or at the very least has peed or pooed in her kennel! Keep me on the phone so I know she's okay.
Daddy: Oh Gabby..hey little girl. We're sorry. Yeah she's fine...and she's dry and it doesn't smell like poop.
Mommy: Oh good. How embarrassing. I feel so bad. Well I'm on my way home. See you both soon.

In Daddy's defense, he hadn't taken the "good" cough medicine since 4 am but he was in quite the cloud until almost during that conversation!