Iva is one...finally!

Guest post by Mom:

No really. In some ways, Iva has felt like she has been one for MONTHS. In other ways, the year flew by in a blink and she should only be maybe nine months.

I can still remember how she smelled in that first week and how it felt to cuddle in her teeny tiny body. She wasn't even 12 hours old in that picture. She is of course much more fun now, but you can't help but miss the tiny sleepy baby.

And now she looks like this...

And she loves hats. Or scarves. Or towels. Whatever she can drape over her head or her neck or shoulders. It's adorable. And in fact this hat, sings, and she LOVES it. Her older cousin, Lexi, HATED it.

She thinks she is so big now. It helps a lot that she doesn't just walk. She RUNS and CLIMBS. (My poor girl has no hair visible in any of her pictures. I promise she does have a skiff of hair. It's mostly in the back, but it's blonde so she comes off as almost bic clean bald in photos!)

She likes babies. Fake or real. She has taken to walking around holding stuffed animals and giving them big loves.

And look, she has started pushing Cara around in the stroller instead. She loves to push anything around. Particularly her high chair or Grandma's scooter that she has for her broken foot.

She is constantly pulling things out of drawers or cabinets or shelves. It's kind of exhausting and she LOVES to throw food on the floor, but will only feed herself. Heaven help you if you try and get the food in her mouth.

But man is she FUN to be around. She gives the best hugs to everyone not just me. She gives pats and kind of kisses. It's so sweet. She leans out of our arms to give hugs and reaches for her sisters just for the purpose of giving them love. I think she has a knack for realizing someone wants a hug from her. I know that sounds silly, but she gave the sweetest hugs and pats to her cousin who really takes it seriously when she scorns him.

She went through this phase about two weeks ago where she YELLED for everything. We actually really pushed her signing because she would shriek to get food or drinks. It has really helped having her sign "eat" and "drink". She also knows how to sign "doggie" and even tries to say it. It's of course more like "da dee". It was of course too cute for words when she kept doing it at the Preslar guinea pigs. Speaking of speaking, she doesn't speak regularly but I know she can say "Momma" and "Daddy" and now "doggy", but she normally prefers to grunt. She has just barely started babbling to herself and around the house. I love those adorable nonsensical self conversations. In the last week, I think a light bulb went on in her mind about signs. She started doing "more" and loves to dance and try and sign with the beginning of the Signing Time movies.

She has two teeth and that's been it for two months or more. She can do a LOT with those two teeth though and there is almost no food that she can't bite.

Editor's note: We went for Iva's one year check up and she is 22 lbs and 29 inches. The 70% for weight and the 45% for height.

Reflections

Our school participates in the Reflections contest and I have entered both years. This year I wanted to do dance choreography instead of drawing a picture. We filmed my dance with Aunt Rachel when they were down. I'm proud of myself and we found out yesterday that I won at my school level and get to go on to district! Yay!

Here is the dance in its full glory:

Let's drive north into a storm!

You thought Halloween was enough? Heaven's no! We went to bed Halloween night and then woke up BEFORE the SUN to drive up to SLC. Chase was getting the priesthood which is a big deal in our church so we knew we couldn't miss it.

And let's be honest. It had been far too long since Mom had been to Hogle Zoo. So we did a quick one nighter with the Preslars. Mom ended up not feeling the greatest so she seemed to only take 20 pictures. Sorry. Wow she actually only took THREE.

And that also probably had to with the fact that we never sat still as kids. We were running everywhere and playing with cousins even with the frigid 46 degree weather on Sunday. We are so glad we went though. It filled our tanks just enough to make it to Thanksgiving.

And it is always amazing to see the support that one young man has. There was a huge group of people who all came to support Chase and help him make good decisions. Love it.

Halloween

Man. Mommy must be getting old. It's taking her FOREVER to get our posts up. We are having to post date lots of things. ;)

Halloween was a Friday this year which made things nice. Cara had a preschool party in the morning which Mom caught the very end of because she had to teach Power.

Which she did in costume number one. Aren't she and Grandma funny? They taught a whole class dressed that way!

Then in the afternoon it was time for my party!

Apparently Mom missed the mark on photos on Halloween because these pictures are the only ones she has of us individually. I'm the only one who is really in full costume...

Cara is missing half her make up due to eating food...

And Iva would NOT wear her hat!

But here we ALL are for our ward party! Mom put on costume number TWO. (She rocked that Elsa dress!) Daddy was her Olaf and LOOK! We girls are actually in full costume.

Our party was really fun. There were plenty of chances to take silly photos.

And would you believe it, there was another Maleficent?! The only TWO Mommy saw and they live a street away from each other.

Mom made Cara and I go through our first haunted house. We have awesome neighbors, the Lees, who DECKED out their garage. They built a three scene haunted house with scary lights and everything. We did pretty well. Cara basically hid in mom's neck but I LED the way through it and we survived!

Iva mangled many pieces of candy well before we were done trick or treating. That sucker was EVERYWHERE. She even ate the paper. That's how she got it in the first place.

We of course headed to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood to meet up with the cousins. Aren't we all the scariest?

And all the grown ups were even dressed up!

Yant's Flat

This last weekend we went on an adventure with Grandpa. Mommy, Cara, and I loaded up in Grandpa's big truck and headed in between our red cliffs and Pine Valley mountain. Grandpa decided to take us some place where he had never been.

The rock formations were so impressive and had such fun textures. This was in the middle of what was pinion pines and junipers and then suddenly this sand stone!

Girls, Girls, Girls

So sad story. We were supposed to spend our fall break from school in Cabo, but instead a hurricane hit Cabo a month ago and destroyed our best laid plans. Our airlines canceled our flights and we were left scrambling. Luckily, Mom said that everything was refundable, but now we had a four day weekend with no plans.

Obviously, we couldn't let the weekend go to waste. Luckily, our Preslar cousins were supposed to be with us in Cabo and we were able to have the girls come visit! Uncle Troy stayed home with Chase and Daddy drove up to hang out with them and do yard projects. 

That meant we had a house full of girls for three days! It was awesome. We had a Halloween party, played on a water tower, went hiking, ate yummy food, watched movies, played mini golf, bumper boated, and PLAYED PLAYED PLAYED outside. 

Romney got a hole in one on the mini golf course!

Possibly one of the messiest games invented...

Halloween prop fun

We may have enjoyed a little too much ice cream

As evidence by these last two photos, Cara and I were delirious with happiness most of the weekend.

Southern Utah Hiking

Guest post by Mom:

Okay this post is going to be out of sequence a little bit and a post on its own. Mostly because I have gone hiking on multiple days and for multiple reasons and I have a lot of posts to do anyway.

Fall in St. George is gorgeous. The temps are in the mid-80s during the day and drop to the low 60s which allows for just a light chill in the morning. I love it. There are also mostly just clear blue skies that I adore.

I took the girls on a quick hike on the Chuckwalla Paradise trail just to get out and enjoy that SKY!

Iva's a pretty happy hiker.

On Conference Weekend, Pete and I took the girls to the Pine Creek swimming hole. We hadn't been all year which was a shame. We should have brought swim suits because it actually ended up being quite hot, but instead we only stayed a moment and hiked back to the car.

The hole was the fullest I've ever seen it but very muddy.

We hiked around up on the Sugar Loaf with my Dad and my brother's little family.

Then Grandpa took the more advanced hikers (basically not the twins) up to the climbs above the Boulevard. He showed us some pictograms and where he likes to crack climb.

My dad even had my girls go rappelling on Tuesday. It was great.

This was Cara's first time! She did great!

This past weekend, the Preslar women have been hanging out with the Romney women and I swooped us all out the door to hike the Johnson Canyon trail. It was stunning. And crowded. The desert was in bloom and painted a beautiful picture.

We didn't have the backpacker and so we tried Iva on my shoulders. It worked for a little bit.