Work, Work, Work!!!

All the kids ever want to do is work, work, work! If only they could make "real" money, then Chris wouldn't have to work so hard!

One would think that Sienna would be bothered by the hair that is constantly hanging in her face. She hates having her hair touched, and unless we are leaving the house, I don't try to touch her hair. I guess she's going to be a tom boy like me! Although, she is pretty adament that she does NOT want anyone to cut her hair...although, I'm not sure if it is because she likes her long hair, or if she just doesn't want anyone touching her hair. ;)
Brayden and Sienna LOVE to work on their cash registers (we had to buy them an extra one for Christmas so they'd stop fighting over the McDonald's register). They are sitting on comfy chairs that I made out of the couch cushions...

Sick Kiddos

This week the kids have been sick, sick, sick! Wednesday night we took Brayden to the doctor because he was just laying around, crying. I knew he had a high fever, but when the nurse took his temperature and said it was 104, I was shocked! The doctor wasn't sure if he had the flu or not...we just had to keep an eye on him and bring him in if he got worse, or if he still had his fever after 3 days. Luckily his fever finally broke on Thursday! Unfortunately, that is also the day that Sienna woke up sick. UGH!

The kids have been laying around and watching tv all week. Brayden refuses to watch anything but Backyardigans and Sienna will only watch Dora...needless to say, I've OD'ed on cartoons, which I didn't even like when I was a kid!!!

Sienna's 1st Playdate...WITHOUT Brayden!

While Brayden and Wyatt were at preschool on Tuesday, Catrina and I got the girls together for their first "girls only" playdate!!! Sienna and Avery played together in Avery's room for all of 15 minutes before they came out to find us...they just weren't sure what to do without their big brothers around to entertain them!!! Even though the girls hung out with us for the majority of the morning, it was still one of the most relaxing playdates I have ever had and I can't wait to do it again!

Christmas Cookies!

Where does the time go? For some reason, our blog, which was once at the top of my priority list, is now at the bottom. Maybe I'll get back on track now that the holidays are over. Here are a few pictures of the kids making cookies before Christmas. I bought them their own little rolling pins, thinking they'd have lots of fun rolling out their own dough. Unfortunately the cut-out cookie dough was too hard for them... So, I rolled the dough out on my amazing roulpat (if you don't have one, you NEED one) and then let the kids use their rolling pins on the dough.

This year, they were both old enough to use the cookie cutters by themselves!

Since I only have one roulpat, the kids had to take turns. Brayden was super excited when he finally got his turn!

We didn't have time to frost all of the cookies, so each time the kids were given a cookie, they also got a dab of frosting (& sprinkles) to decorate their cookie with. It actually worked out great because it spread out the cookie decorating fun and gave them more incentive to eat a good dinner!

Cookies, Christmas Trees, Race Tracks & More!

Four days after Thanksgiving, I had surgery so my parents came to take care of the kids for a week. The Civil War game was on while they were here, so we all sported our orange to support OSU! Unfortunately we weren't able to pull off the win, but it was still a good game. My mom brought fun Christmas Tree cookies for the kids to bake...gotta love pre-made cookies!
While my parents were here, my Dad fixed the hinges on the toy box that he made for Brayden's 1st birthday. Now it can double as a bench, as it was intended. Of course, the kids think it is such a fun spot to sit now. :)

While I laid on the couch trying to recover from my surgery, Chris got all of our Christmas decorations out. The kids were super excited to get the Christmas Tree Advent Calendar out again.

Chris and the kids also got our Christmas Tree out of the box and built it together. I don't know why people are so excited about getting "real" Christmas Trees...we spent just over $100 for our tree about 7 or 8 years ago and it still looks like it did the day we bought it. Plus, we don't have to get all bundled up and go out into the freezing cold rain to find the perfect tree. Oh, and it also makes WAY less mess...no pine needles to vacuum up every day. And, no tree to water!

Once the tree was decorated, Brayden and Chris put the tree skirt around the tree. We bought new "shatterproof" ornaments and lights at Costco this year and we were still looking for a new tree skirt and tree topper. I'm not sure why I ever bought a blue tree skirt...we've NEVER had blue ornaments!

The kids have special personalized ornaments that we bought for them last year (the pictures are at the bottom of the post) and they put those on the tree last.

The next day, while I laid on the couch, Chris went out in search of a new tree topper and tree skirt! Here is the finished product! Next year I'd like to add a red garland made out of beads. I'd also like a nicer tree topper as the one that we eventually ended up with was only about $5 and doesn't really match the rest of the tree. I'm always disappointed in how our Christmas Tree looks in pictures...it is so much prettier in person!

Last week, Brayden and Sienna received late birthday presents from one of their friends. Brayden got this super cool race track with super fast 4 wheeler trucks! I should have taken a video because I kept hearing Brayden giggling while watching his cars crash into each other (he likes to have them race in opposite directions....such a boy)!

More Random November Fun

The kids still play with the legos more than any other toy we have...they never run out of ideas of things to build. Here is one of their big lego towers that they built together!
I got an idea from a friend to do a "letter of the week" activity with the kids. Unfortunately, we've been so busy that we haven't had time to make it to the 2nd letter of the alphabet! First the kids used glitter glue to paint their letter A's...

Then they colored the different pictures that start with the letter "A". As you can see, Sienna did NOT want me taking her picture!!!

The more pictures I took, the more upset she got!

Finally it was time for Brayden's favorite part...GLUE!

Sienna eventually let me take a picture of the finished product...sheesh!

I couldn't resist taking this picture of Brayden wearing my hat backwards, sitting around in his underwear!

Once again, the kids are pretending to take naps in the office!

Brayden and Sienna love to make a "rocket" using the couch and blankets. They use their McDonald's cash register as their control panel.

I don't remember the last time they watched the Little Einsteins, but they started patting their legs to fly the rocket...too funny!

Thanksgiving Week in Bend!

This year we headed to Bend for Thanksgiving...we were so disappointed that the only snow we got to see was in the mountains, unless you count the small patches of snow scattered throughout town.

My parents got my old Cabbage Patch kids out of the attic for Sienna to play with. Unfortunately she wasn't as interested in them as we thought she would be...I think she pushed them around in the stroller for all of 5 minutes.
A month before Thanksgiving, I posted pictures of Sienna's new "big girl bed". As you can see, it was not all that different from her crib since we simply replaced the front with a "toddler rail". Since there is a queen size bed in the room where Sienna sleeps at my parents house, we decided to see if she would sleep in it, instead of the pack 'n play. At first Sienna said that she didn't want to, but she eventually decided to give it a try. And, except for losing her "blankie" in it a couple of times, she slept great!

My parents also got my brother's old space legos out of the garage...Brayden, Chris and Grandpa spent most of their time building space shuttles and other various space vehicles.

Thanksgiving Dinner! We actually got the kids to try one bite of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & cranberry sauce!!! Of course, we had to bribe them with a pumpkin bar. ;)

Brayden and Sienna had fun decorating Grandma & Grandpa's window with these fun Mickey Mouse decals...along with tons of tiny hand prints!

Brayden reading a book to Sienna:

Sienna getting ready to "help" Daddy do a puzzle. Her way of helping was to open up another puzzle and mix some of the pieces up...whoops!

Chris getting some "quiet" time on the puzzle while the kids watched tv.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we headed to Wanoga Snow Park with my parents, my Aunt & Uncle and my cousin and his family. It only took 2 hours to get the kids all bundled up. ;)

Sienna and I decided to watch Chris and Brayden go down first...

Brayden had SO MUCH FUN!

Sienna, on the other hand, was scared to go sledding. And, to be honest, I was scared to! The hill was a huge sheet of ice and every time they went down, they caught air and it didn't look too fun landing on the hard ice! Sienna did let me pull her around for a few minutes in one of the sleds before...

deciding to go sledding with Daddy! However, she didn't like it and that was her first and last trip down the hill!

After awhile, Brayden (4) and Canon (3 1/2) decided to go sledding together. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen!

I can't even tell you how many times they sledded down the hill together!

As soon as Brayden got to the bottom of the hill, he couldn't wait to get back to the top and go again!

The last couple of times down the hill, Brayden actually went by himself! I was so proud of him!

I'm pretty sure that the day he went sledding was one of his favorite days, ever!

Brayden and Canon: Canon wiped out on his last time down the hill and ended up with a bloody lip and a scratch on his cheek from the ice. Poor guy!

Grandma & Sienna building with the wedgits.

One of the nights that we were in Bend, the kids were upstairs watching a Veggie Tales movie. They started out sitting so nicely. Then Brayden decided to give Sienna some "brotherly love" and lay on top of her. She eventually made it out from under him and decided to stand a safe distance away from him. ;) Poor Sienna...big brother's are so mean! ;)