Annual Staheli Farm Visit

This year we were able to attend the NICU reunion at Staheli Farm with Aunt Angie. Gratefully, we have never actually used the NICU for the babies in our family, but hey, our aunt is one of the big stars so we had to be there. Plus we kept an eye an Lexi while her mom flew in on the helicopter! How cool is that?! We got to see inside Aunt Angie's helicopter after they landed!

We always love the small maze for the kids off the pirate ship!

Colt and Carter actually ARE graduates of the NICU so they were there too. We managed to get ONE picture of all the grandkids together. No...we couldn't get them all looking and smiling.

And Mom took many, many photos of us at the pumpkin patch. This year we left the costumes at home, but she still took photo after photo!

Last year, Iva was still a pumpkin in Mom's belly. This year she just loved touching them!

I carried my own pumpkin from the patch and it was whopping 14 lbs! It was crazy hot so we actually didn't stay and play in the corn maze this year, but it was still a successful trip!

Iva at 11 months

And just like that another month is gone! We had a whirlwind of activity over the last few weeks and it almost escaped our Mom that Iva was 11 months old.

Iva at 11 months old is a lot like Iva at 10 months old. But faster and more dangerous. She's getting so good at walking that she has started running and amazes people everywhere with her skills. She never crawls anymore. Not if she can help it.

She started doing her first signs in the last week and of course it is "eat". Boy, does that girl love to eat. If you have ANYTHING  in your hand, drink or food, she wants it and she will cackle at you until you give it to her. That is, of course, why her first sign is eat because we don't love the cackle. It's very clear that she is asking for whatever you have. Drinks are especially dangerous. She wants them desperately and at all times. She is notorious for taking huge long gulps and then letting 90% of it spill right back out of her mouth because it doesn't work the same as nursing.

She still sleeps with Mom. If she had her way, she would probably nurse all night long. She's down to only two times during the day, but she just wants to suckle her night away. Mom doesn't mind too much because she knows before long Iva will be seven and much to large to sleep comfortably with. She likes all food, but especially enjoys being given a banana or cheese stick. She's quite the chewer for only having her two bottom front teeth.

She is still such a cheery baby. She goes with the flow really well. She is very curious and adventurous and tries desperately to eat the trash and play in toilet water, but handles the rejection pretty well.

Mommy's Favorite Moments

I know we already did a Disneyland post, but I wanted to share my favorite things from our trip. There is always something that makes it amazing. So here are my favorite moments and pictures.

First of all, Siena is amazing. She walks and runs all over Disneyland with her own two feet just like her parents. What's truly incredible is that it's kind of double the distances if you think about how short her legs are! And she NEVER complains or begs to ride. She also made me tear up at the Halloween party by switching seats for her sister without being asked because she saw that Cara needed to sit by me.

The girls rode Space Mountain twice this time (once with each parent) which is amazing because it is switched to Ghost Galaxy and has a scary element added. In this picture, Siena has covered her eye with her eye patch and was closing the other one. She also told herself stories in her head like she was a pirate protecting her crew onboard a ship in a storm to help get her through the ride. Cara was just terrified.

This is how Iva liked to spend her time when she waited off of rides. She pushed her own stroller around!

She also used her sneaky defense mechanism of cuddling with strangers whenever she would get scared. It's kind of hilarious. She just leans into you farther and snuggles down if she is scared, no matter who you are!

One of the best things about this trip occurred Friday night. We got a hotel close to Disney for just one night so we could change into costumes and not travel far that night after it was over. They gave us a complimentary upgrade to a two bedroom suite. (We badly needed that the LAST time we stayed there when we squeezed into a tiny room with Angie and Eric!) We were all so elated that we just played in the room for two hours. The girls even had sword fights. Each bed was a boat. Iva even played the whole time. She giggled and ran around like a crazy person!

This also made me smile. Cara got to use our amazing Sally costume from two years ago with Siena, but we jazzed it up for the beginning of the party. Sally really rocks those ears!

Iva had a lot of my favorite moments. She and I spent one morning running around California Adventure kind of alone. She was adorable and sweet and look at all these great pictures I got!

When I showed her the water, she recoiled for half a second and then just put both hands in and almost laid her whole body against it. You could tell she loved the feeling of it pouring over her arms.

AMAZING PHOTO!

And this perfect shot I finally got on Astro Orbiters! The castle in that background!

On her actual birthday, Siena requested to ride Goofy's Sky School as her very first ride. That paid off! She got to be "The Aviator of the Day" which gave us a fast pass for that ride all day. She loved it. They also let her ride four times in a row because there was no one else over there.

The cool part about this trip was that the favorite rides were Goofy's Sky School and Big Thunder Mountain. That's different from our other trips, but it really worked out because they are less popular and you can always sneak in more rides. In fact, the girls and I got a bonus ride in on Big Thunder because as we got off they randomly asked if anybody else wanted to hop on the next train and we took up the offer! What can I say, it's my happy place.

Halloweentime in Disneyland!

Mommy and I kind of don't know how to handle our Disneyland posts. We go a lot especially compared to most families. You would think we have enough photos in that place! Turns out we don't. And there is always something different. So maybe we will try and keep it to what was different about this trip. But that's actually another problem. We had a lot different! It was Halloweentime at Disneyland and it felt like we had never been there before even though we have been probably three other times during Halloweentime. Oh dear.

Iva WALKING around Disneyland was different for sure!

Cara and I got to be transformed into PIRATES as a birthday surprise for me! It was amazing. We got sashes and bandanas and eye patches and make up that we got to keep and necklaces. Oh and pirate names! I was Rose Warloather and Cara was Betty Coalflint! We even got a signed oath from Jack Sparrow.

Disneyland had a special tent where you could conjure a villain! I got to help conjure up Cruella!

We added a lot of people to our "Characters We've Met List"! Too many to show you all the pictures without making this post far too long!

The biggest one was Anna and Elsa! Mommy totally surprised me with this one! She got in special lines and we only had to wait about 20 min. So cool!

AND we got to go to Mickey's Halloween Party!! 14 lbs of candy and lots of characters later it was a huge success for us! Mom and Dad dressed up too!

Mom said give me your best villain face...check out Cara!

Meeting our twins!

Can you believe I got to meet Pocohantas? That's a big first for us!

Of course Cara and my favorite part of Halloweentime is the transformation at Haunted Mansion! It gets taken over by Sandy Claws from Nightmare Before Christmas!  WE LOVE IT! Otherwise, we would rather skip that ride.

It was a great birthday! We can't WAIT to go again!

Siena turns SEVEN

Guest post by Mommy:

I should really sit down and do this in a different mentality, but Siena will be seven before I ever get that chance. Iva is starting to run me a bit ragged. She is EVERYWHERE and into all that is not for her.

Siena at seven is really a wonderful thing. She is responsible and happy and pleasant and helpful and independent and amazing. She is also goofy and prone to being unable to stop her crying. She is straddling that line between little girl who wants to play pretend and a girl who wants to play dress up, but look pretty.

First grade has kind of thrown us into growing up. She seemed to be adjusting with no trouble to going to school all day, but has since shown signs of stress. For a little while, she would get very teary eyed in the morning. She never wanted to stay home, but she always had "butterflies in her stomach" and was nervous. Luckily, she has amazing friends who seemed to swoop in on her as soon as we touched foot on to the school property. As I mentioned earlier, she also can't seem to stop her crying. She says things like "my body can't stop" or "my body is telling me to cry". It's been hard for us both. I'm trying to be understanding, but I find myself really wanting to say "BUCK UP, SON!" Both of these things have lessened in the last week or so. Fingers crossed that we've transitioned!

Siena is very good in school. Her teacher informed me that she probably reads on a fourth grade reading level and is constantly her helper because she's one of the few who can read enough to be helpful! Right now, Siena is the "nurse" in her classroom and she loves helping take sick kids to the office just like Aunt Angie. Hahaha. Her math skills are more on grade level, but she's pretty quick none the less. She does love school. She misses hanging out with us though and I can't blame her! We are pretty fun! 

She recently learned to tie her shoes. We've been a little slow on this one because we live in flip flops and I have no patience apparently. She has started helping clean the bathroom and likes to pick up Iva and try to take care of her. If I was better at getting her to practice, I'm confident she would also be an excellent piano player. As it is, I tend to want to go play at a park rather than sit with her and do it!

She loves to dance and sing to popular songs such as "Shake it Off" and then she likes to make up her own versions of the songs. 

 I love her. I'm so happy to be spending the day with her in Disneyland. (Where else!)

Squeezing in Summer goodness

The calendar says that it's only two days away from fall which is okay because fall in St. George feels a lot like other people's summer time!

Lake time with Grandpa. He's only wearing the wetsuit to get it ready for the race he did.

Fun braids!

We tried to let Iva cry it out...she eventually went to sleep.

Carb loading.

Splash pad fun with cousins.

Kokopelli Tri

Once again our Daddy and Grandpa did the Kokopelli tri. We are professional spectators at this point!

Grandpa finished faster than last year, but he didn't make it on the podium this year! How strange!

Daddy had the worst swim he has ever had and he almost got his personal record anyway! So proud of him!