It was an AWESOME year....

Guest post by Mommy:

As I sit to write my typical year end round out, two things come to mind.  First, this is our blog's 600th post!  Holy cow!  I have NEVER kept a great journal before.  This whole internet thing works for me.  Plus it's a scrapbook at the same time!

The second thing that comes to mind is just how BLESSED my little family is.  My thoughts are with friends and family that have not had a great year.  I have people in my life that were happy to see 2013 kicked out the door.  I send them all the prayers and good energy that I can so that 2014 brings them more joy than heartache.

January brought for us more of the same with the exception of a preschool opening at our gym that allowed Cara to start going two days a week and Siena to get a full week of preschool when we combined the two.  I went to Disneyland with friends for a day and then we kicked off our last Disney vacation with our annual passes.

February brought the finish of Disneyland and a trip from the Preslars and Oma.  We also made it back up to Salt Lake to play in the snow!

March had us full of family love.  We celebrated Becca's wedding to Phil and TWIN BOYS being born to Marty and Hailey.  Plus Easter up in SLC and our first "spring break" as preschoolers.

April gave me a birthday treat of a final trip to Disneyland with my two friends who were moving away. Siena went on a backpacking trip without Mom or Dad...just Grandpa! And the Preslars visited AGAIN.

In May I surprised the family by announcing that we were 3 months pregnant with our next baby!  Pete completed his first Half Ironman, the 70.3 which is not HALF of anything!  We were so proud.  Siena graduated from preschool and the girls started swim lessons!

June gave us lots of sun and swimming and swimmers itch!  The Preslars visited for an unprecedented THIRD visit in the same year. Actually it might have been their fourth because technically they rang in the new year with us!  Siena and Cara became CHAMPION swimmers. It was amazing.

July was once again FILLED with sunshine and trips to pools and water.  We found out that we were adding our third GIRL to our clan and had a great family reunion with the Larsens in Zion.  The girls did a darling cheer camp. And we had Romney come stay with us without her family for four nights.  It was great.  We took her home to SLC and said goodbye to our favorite sea lion, Big Guy at the Hogle Zoo, who suddenly passed away.  Oh and of course Cara turned 4!

August started with us in San Diego.  We left on Cara's birthday and played at Sea World and San Diego Zoo plus the beach and Grandma and Grandpa Quaife's house.  I was good and didn't suddenly add Disneyland in.  I also travelled to Texas for my cousins wedding with just my mom and sisters.  Dad took the girls camping for our annual visit to Lava Point in Zion. Cara started her first full year of preschool and the biggest news was Siena starting KINDERGARTEN!

September had us traveling to Salt Lake City twice once for Romney's baptism and the second time for Pete's childhood friend's wedding.  Pete competed in another triathlon, my belly got bigger, and Siena turned SIX.  Her birthday actually happened while the girls and I were in Lake Powell with my parents.  So fun.  I hadn't been to Powell in ten years.

October brought an even bigger belly for me plus Siena's first ever "friend party" for her birthday.  We did our typical October things of going to the Staheli Farm and making Halloween cookies.  Pete and I managed to getaway together as a couple for two nights in Vegas as a kind of "baby moon."

November was a great month because little Iva Tilly made her entrance in to our family.  Daddy had a birthday in there too plus Pete took the big girls up to Salt Lake to play with their cousins who had come from Seattle.  Iva even made it to Zion when she was almost three weeks old for the annual post Thanksgiving hike!

December saw major snow in St. George and record setting cold.  We played at the new Children's Museum and loved it.  We hung out with family A LOT and Iva made her first trip up to Salt Lake City to meet her Oma and Apa and cousins.  Cara had a great Christmas program.  Christmas was a happy event with Santa bringing us new annual passes to Disneyland.

As 2014 begins, I want to express my gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ.  I feel His love and blessings and pray for another happy year for my family.

New Year's Eve and the week up to it!

Wow.  The holidays are busy busy busy.  We stay up late, play at Grandma's, go to restaurants, shop (lots of shopping). Have family parties.  It's CRAZY. But look at little Iva.  She's held up well!

She's the first one of us to like being swaddled!

Meeting Double Grandpa for the first time!

She hangs out at the gym with Mommy!

Actually, Mommy taught her first class the day after Christmas.  She's back at the gym teaching!

Iva and second cousin Haven.  

Double Grandma!!

I love being a big sister.

Finally...NEW YEAR'S EVE!  Mom and Dad decided to have a few families over to play some games and ring in an East Coast New Years!  It grew to six families and then Mommy got surprised by her crazy friend, Sarah!

Mommy was so happy to see her and her kids!

We squeezed EIGHT families into our house.  There were almost 20 kids!

And then Mommy's friend, Iva, who was part of the inspiration in little Iva's name came over too!

Big Iva and Little Iva

Mommy came up with crazy games.  The best one was the ornament kiss!  They had to put an ornament between their mouths and hang it on a string!

The kids enjoyed our Disney Dance Off.

Such a great way to end 2013!  Lots of food and friends and fun.

Merry Christmas!

We hope you have had a very Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas Eve very traditionally with Grandma and Grandpa Larsen.  That means pizza, jacuzzi, and pajamas! This year we even opened up all our presents from them.

Iva didn't seem to like her swimsuit

Until she got in the water!  First time in the pool!

Iva would have stayed in lots longer!

Our new Merida jammies!

The mayhem of present opening!

New jammies for all of us!

We got our own sleeping bags from Grandpa!

Oh and we built our traditional Christmas igloo to sleep in!

All ready for Santa!

We woke up the next morning to this!

Santa left us a string to follow!

It led around the house and into our playroom where he had set up every single one of our Disney toys! He had left us a note and a new game to say that he helped us get new Disneyland passes!

My mom laughed at me because I was almost more excited about the movies he left us!

I was very fun to watch open presents.

Playing our new game..Hedbanz Disney style.

Iva was content to watch us.

And then fall asleep with her little Belle doll from Santa.

It was a great day for all of us.  We felt very loved and blessed.

A Christmas Program followed by Salt Lake City!

Cara had her preschool program on the Friday before Christmas.  I had to go to school but Mom and Dad took pictures and videos so we could see how awesome it was.  Unfortunately, it turned out that Cara was under the weather but she did her best to perform and even managed to smile.  

This was her face as Santa walked in to her class!

Blogger is refusing to upload any video evidence of this performance, but believe me.  It was adorable.

Promptly after the performance finished, Mom and Dad got me from school and we started packing up the car for Iva's first visit to our second hometown.

As mentioned, Cara didn't feel great and so Mom, Iva, and Cara were awake at 6 am.  Cara with a fever and Iva just with the wake ups.  She didn't sleep super awesome at Aunt Rachel's house.

We did take Iva to the zoo for the first time despite the fact that it was a snow storm!

The zoo was great!  Hardly anybody there, but the animals like the cold for the most part!

It was so quiet! Mommy has a picture of us with this otter during July and our faces are red because we are so hot.

Iva didn't actually SEE any of the animals.  She was all snug and warm in her car seat on the stroller.

Oma meeting Iva for the first time!

Christmas Sunday outfits!  We have three generations of dresses from Children's place.  The plaids don't exactly match!

The girls of the house!

And with all that wondrous snow we HAD to go sledding in Oma and Apa's backyard!

Well Iva didn't.  She stayed warm in the solarium...

We finished up sledding and got all snuggled up in jammies to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol with the Preslars per tradition!

The next morning the snow still beckoned so the girls went off the small hill in front of the house.

Iva was being extra cute inside with Mommy.  Giving big smiles!

We went BACK to the zoo with the Preslar kiddos because it was so fun the first time.  It wasn't actively snowing this time, but still nobody else was there!

Th animals would come right up to you!

It was a GREAT trip up north...except for Cara being sick and Iva not sleeping.  :)