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! ;)

November 2009

I'm not sure how it happened, but November is almost over! We haven't done anything too exciting...just a few random pictures to share.

Brayden spends "quiet time" in the office every afternoon, most of which is spent on his HEAD!

Brayden and Sienna are still BEST FRIENDS! They do absolutely EVERYTHING together. He's even been trying to convince me that Sienna doesn't need a nap so they can have "quiet time" together in the office!

I couldn't resist taking this picture of Sienna...her hair and sunglasses are just too funny. After seeing the picture, she reminds me of Michelle Tanner from Full House (the Olsen Twins)!!!

Brayden did have a bit of an accident a few weeks ago. He loves to ask Chris to wrap him up like a "burrito". Chris rolls him up in a big blanket and he usually just lays around trying to get out. For some reason, he ended up on his feet, walking around on the hardwood floor. All of a sudden there was a huge thump and Brayden landed face first on the hardwood floor, with no arms to break his fall. He has never screamed so loud in his life. After we got him calmed down and his nose to stop bleeding, we saw that his lip was HUGE! We moved him to the couch so that we could put ice on his lip and he immediately closed his eyes and became unresponsive! I finally started talking very firmly (almost yelling) to get him to snap out of it. At this point I was pretty scared because he has NEVER acted this way, and he's had 2 other semi-serious facial accidents. A couple of hours later Brayden was starting to act more like himself, so I wasn't as scared to put him to bed. He slept through the night and when he woke up, his lip was much better. In fact, by lunch time, he could eat and drink fairly normally. NO MORE BURRITOS FOR BRAYDEN! ;) An hour after the accident:

(click to enlarge)

48 hours after the accident (click to enlarge):

Chris and the kids made a bat jack-o-lantern the weekend after Halloween. Maybe next year we'll actually find time to make ours BEFORE Halloween!

While Chris and the kids were playing with pumpkins, I was out with Chris' mom (Jeri), sister-in-law (Kari), and Kari's sister. We went to the Woodburn Company Stores "Shopping Extravaganza". After a day of lunch, mimosas and shopping, we headed to Spirit Mountain Casino where I won $100!!! I was beyond excited because I NEVER win anything, which is exactly why I never gamble! What a fabulous day!