Wordle

After seeing Catrina's Wordle, I just had to see what my wordle looked like! The bigger the word, the more often it is used on the blog. Apparently I talk about Brayden, Sienna and Chris the most...whew! Thanks for the fun idea, Catrina!

Christmas Cookies!

While we were cooped up in the house, we made our first batch of cut-out cookies! Brayden was super excited to help me make the cookie dough...he even knows how to run the big mixer!
Of course, the kids were even more excited to play with the cookie dough!

They helped roll out the dough.

They used the cookie cutters.

Brayden even helped Chris put the cookies on the cookie sheet.

Sienna had fun making cookies, too!

Brayden's 1st cut-out cookies!

Sienna's 1st cut-out cookies!

The next day we decorated the cookies.

Sienna even tried to decorate herself!

Of course, the kids couldn't decorate cookies without eating one!

Our First Snowman!

Right before the snow started melting, the snow was finally wet enough to make a snowman! Chris and Brayden had fun making a HUGE snowman, while Sienna just struggled to stay on her feet!
Brayden and Sienna checking out the snowman...where's the snowman's head?

Brayden and Chris making the snowman's head.

Sienna decided to take a break from the snow and sit on the porch.

Chris moved the snowman to the otherside of the house so we could see him through our windows!

Brayden put the finishing touches on the snowman while Chris started throwing snowballs!

Brayden had fun trying to catch Chris' snowballs!

Merry Christmas!

Sienna still isn't so sure about Santa Claus!

Before Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit (& before I was able to fix Sienna's hair!), Brayden and Sienna decided to do a little dancing!

Random Snow Day(s) Craziness!

Between colds & snow storms, we've been stuck at home for almost 4 straight weeks. Needless to say, everyone in our house is tired of being stuck at home....not to mention bored! Unfortunately, there isn't much to do except take pictures of the crazy kids!

TIME OUT!!!
Sienna has really been testing us lately...she'll do something she knows she is not supposed to do, while looking directly at us and grinning. Needless to say, she has been spending a fair amount of time on timeout the last couple of weeks. Her 2 favorite items to climb on are the coffee table... And the chair. Ok, so she's not doing anything wrong in the chair...yet!

Here she goes! You can see just how excited she gets when she's about to do something she knows she isn't supposed to!

Sienna would have fallen flat on her face, but luckily for her, I was able to catch her before she hit the floor...she went right over the arm of the chair! She has also walked right off the coffee table and landed on her face. The girl has no fear!

Usually she climbs on the chair so that she can reach the light switch...just like Brayden used to do when he was this age. What is it with kids and light switches???

Stacking Books
Over the last 6 months, Brayden & Sienna have made pile after pile of books and toys. Brayden has always been the instigator...until now! Now when Brayden is too busy to play with her, she starts making piles all by herself.

The Toothbrush
Somewhere around 18 months, Brayden started to let us brush his teeth. At 18 1/2 months, Sienna still hates having her teeth brushed. When I actually manage to get the toothbrush in her mouth, the toothbrush rarely comes in contact with her teeth! She uses her tongue to push the toothbrush out, making it impossible to brush her teeth. Yesterday morning, after breakfast, Sienna was having so much fun trying to get away from the toothbrush that she started giggling and gave Chris the perfect opportunity to brush all of her teeth! Mission accomplished!

The Headset
Brayden loves Chris' headset that he uses for work. One time when Grandma Boley called, he ran upstairs to grab his "radio" so he could talk to her. Brayden walked all over the house talking to Grandma Boley on his "radio" (Chris had to follow him with the actual phone). It was so funny!

Reading
Since being stuck at home, Brayden has been reading a lot of stories to Sienna. I think it is so cute how they sit on the couch together and read. If only they would get along so well all of the time!

Eggnog
A couple of days ago Chris brought home Pumpkin Eggnog (I feel so fortunate to live so close to a store...Chris has gone to the store (& starbucks) almost every morning since the snow and ice hit!). The kids had some for lunch and she loved it so much that even after the eggnog was gone, she wouldn't let us have the cup!

"Give me my eggnog!!!!"

Santa's Hat
Last year I bought Brayden a Santa Hat, which he refused to wear! Luckily it still fits and he's had a lot of fun wearing it this year...

It shouldn't be any big surprise that since Brayden likes to wear it, Sienna wants her fair share of turns wearing it, too!

We have ICE, too!!!

After a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of ice covered all of our beautiful fluffy snow, our outside playing options were pretty slim! Of course, the kids still begged to go outside. We tried and tried to talk Sienna into staying inside the nice warm house with me, but she wanted to go wherever Brayden went. As it turns out, Brayden loves Sienna just as much as she loves him...he started crying when we were trying to talk Sienna into staying inside! He was so upset at just the thought of not getting to play with Sienna outside! So we all got bundled up and headed out to play on the ice! Brrrr!

Sledding
Since we aren't all that prepared for snow, we don't have any sleds! At least with all of the ice covering everything, we didn't need one. Sienna had fun sliding down our driveway on her bottom...it was too cute! Brayden had taken one step onto the ice and fell down so he was refusing to play in the snow/ice and was stuck up on the porch while Sienna had all the fun. Poor guy!

A little bit later Chris and I were throwing sheets of ice down the driveway in an attempt to find some snow for Brayden to play in. It must have looked like fun because Brayden (while still standing on the front porch) leaned over as far as he could and started finding his own chunks of ice to throw!

Eventually he asked us to carry him over to the driveway so he could throw more ice with Chris.

Since none of us have boots, and Chris and I don't have waterproof gloves, my fingers and toes started getting numb. So, I decided to take Sienna inside while the boys continuted throwing ice chunks for another 15 minutes or so. Who knew that throwing ice could be so entertaining for a 3 year old and a 35 year old! haha!

Here is what all of our plants/shrubs look like in our yard (at least the ones protected by the house from snow). It's a good thing we wanted to replace all of the plants in the front of our house because I'm not sure how well they are going to survive these weather conditions.

Saturday Night Snow

Brayden really wanted to go out in the snow on Saturday night. Since Chris is so nice (& we knew that the ice was coming), he actually agreed to bundle the kids up to head outside again. Of course, I felt guilty staying in the nice warm house, so that meant I had to go outside again, too. The snow on Saturday was not good for snowballs or snowmen...it was just too dry and powdery. But, it was fun for Brayden to run around in!

On a side note, I have to point out that Chris is wearing Brayden's new hat in this next picture!!! It is a size 4/5 TODDLER and it is big on Brayden, but it was on sale at Gap for 11 bucks, so I just couldn't pass it up! I figured that Brayden could probably wear the hat for another 2-3 years, but, after seeing Chris wear it, now I think that Brayden could probably wear this hat for the rest of his life! haha!

Brayden made his very own snow angel Saturday night!