Brayden & Sienna's New TIN Boots!

For Christmas, we received some yummy popcorn in tins. Now that the popcorn is gone, we've given the tins to the kids to play with. I thought maybe they'd use them to put little things in...never did I suspect that they'd turn them into boots!

Even though Brayden's feet were way too big to fit comfortably in the tins, he still managed to walk around pretty easily.
Sienna wasn't able to walk quite as well in them.

She was slippin' and slidin' on the hardwood floor...

She ended up almost doing the splits!

Before she crashed to the floor.

After that, they decided to share the boots, making it even easier to walk around the house. Unfortunately, it wasn't any less noisy!

My Favorite Time of Day

My favorite time of day is actually right after the kids wake up from their naps! This wasn't always the case. But, over the last few weeks, they have been taking their afternoon snack into the office and watching a tv show together (they get two 20 minute shows a day). They snuggle together on the office chair or the CARS sofa. Both of them are usually a little cranky after their naps and this is the best way to keep them happy until they snap out of their nap "daze". Here are a few pictures from last week:

Big Boy Beds, Legos, Dolls & MORE!

Brayden's New Queen Bed!
When Sienna was born 19 months ago, we lost our guest room. When Brayden turned 3, we decided he was old enough to sleep in a queen size bed that could double as a guest bed. We ordered the bed in October and after 2 1/2 months of waiting, it was finally ready for pick-up on Saturday! Brayden had an easy transition from his crib to his toddler bed back in July, so I was hoping that he'd do just as well going from a toddler bed to a queen bed. Well, as luck would have it, he did! Brayden hasn't gotten out of his bed even one time (we have a video monitor and can watch his every move) and he continued to do just as well after getting his new queen bed. He took his first nap in it on Saturday and has been sleeping in it ever since!

Legos
One of the best things about being a parent of 2 (for me, anyways!) is when the kids play together...nicely. The other day I was in the kitchen and I got a bit worried because it was awfully quiet in the house (usually this is not a good sign!). I wandered down the hall and found the 2 of them building a Lego castle in the office. Not only was I impressed with the castle, but it made me so happy to see them sharing and working together to build something.

Mickey Mouse
Over the last several months, I've seen Brayden's imagination come alive...he is constantly amazing me at the imaginary games/activities that he comes up with. Not only does he create imaginary games, but he loves to build things with Lego's, train tracks, blocks, etc. The other day Brayden made Mickey Mouse ears with his train tracks. As soon as I asked Brayden if I could take his picture with his Mickey Mouse ears, little miss Sienna ran right over so she could get in the picture, too. She's always wanting to be like her big brother!

Peek-A-Boo
Sienna decided to have a little fun at the dinner table the other night. Even though we tell her over and over not to play with her placemat (a few times her plate full of food has ended up on the floor), I couldn't help but laugh when she started to play peek-a-boo with it. It was so funny to see her face smashed up against the placemat! By the time I got the camera, she wasn't smashing her face quite as much, but you get the idea.

She was cracking herself up!

Music
Both of the kids still love to play the keyboard they got from Christmas! And, once again the "sit-n-spin" comes in handy as a chair!

She even likes to dance to her own music!

Sienna's No-Name Doll!
We have yet to name the doll that Sienna got for Christmas, but that doesn't mean she doesn't play with her. She loves to feed her and rock her in the bassinet! And, of course she loves to push her around in the stroller. I'm not sure why, but seeing her play with a baby doll makes me so sad...she's growing up too fast!

Sienna loves to kiss the baby's hands...

And face!

Before she can put the hat on the baby, she has to see if it fits on her head first.

Random Christmas Pictures

While going through our Christmas pictures, I quickly realized that we didn't really do anything all that exciting for Christmas. Because of the crazy snow storms in Portland, and then the depressing rain in Bend, we weren't able to get out and do anything fun with the kids. Hopefully next year we'll be able to do all of the fun activities that I had planned for this year.

Christmas Morning
Brayden was finally old enough to be excited about Santa bringing presents for him and Sienna on Christmas morning. While Chris was upstairs getting Sienna, Brayden headed down to see what Santa brought him! The kids had a lot of fun investigating all of the fun stuff that Santa left.

Brayden got a fun word puzzle.

Sienna got Clippos (which are TOTALLY disappointing).

And they got a front loader and a dump truck!

Bend

The day after Christmas, we loaded up the car and headed for Bend. Because of road conditions, we headed through The Dalles, which usually has less traffic. Except for all of the people stopping to put on chains (and then driving 2 miles an hour) between Troutdale and The Dalles, the trip went fairly smoothly. It took us a total of 5 1/2 hours, and we only stopped one time in The Dalles to go through the McDonald's drive through. The kids were absolutely amazing! Brayden never sleeps in the car and Sienna only took a 35 minute nap, but neither one of them got cranky while being strapped in the car for so long. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did!

Upon arriving in Bend, Sienna cuddled up on the chair with Uncle Scott and read books. Note: if I had been the one to take this picture, I would have fixed her hair first...I don't even think she could see the book! haha!

After arriving at my parents house at 4:30pm, we decided to wait to have Christmas #2 the next morning when the kids were nice and rested (& us, too!). I'm sure this is the last year Brayden will let us get away with that! The next morning, while we were waiting to open presents, Brayden wanted to color with Grandpa. Of course, that meant that he wanted Grandpa to color...he was still a bit too tired to do any coloring himself.

Chris and the kids with my parent's 9 foot Christmas tree!

Santa left the kids stocking stuffers at my parents house! Sienna had fun taking everything out of her stocking...if only her arms were as long as the stocking!

Brayden did a great job opening all of his presents this year...as well as a few others! Breakfast is Sienna's favorite meal, and since we opened presents before breakfast, presents were not on the top of her priority list. Luckily for Brayden, that meant that he got to open all of her presents, too. Of course, that just wasn't enough for him...he also opened all of Grandpa's presents! What a present hog!!! I guess I should be thankful that I got to open all of my own presents. :) Brayden & Sienna both got stick horses from Grandma & Grandpa. Since the horses are actually bigger than Sienna, it took her a few minutes to figure it out. Here she is attempting just to hold it.

Of course, Brayden took off galloping while Sienna lost control of her horse!

Once again, the Wedgits at my parents house were quite a hit. This time Sienna was even able to build her own creations! If you have never seen these before, you need to check them out...they are great for all ages!

Grandma & Grandpa Boley bought Brayden this cool keyboard for Christmas. The kids were having so much fun playing with it at home that we had to bring it to Bend with us. It is so much fun that Chris and I have to fight with the kids to get our turn!!!

Chris and the kids love puzzles. Personally, I could do without them...I have zero patience for tedious tasks! Every Christmas/Thanksgiving that we spend with my parents, Chris has to do a puzzle. Here he is just getting started...they ended up finishing this puzzle in ONE day! Ok, so, the kids didn't really help...Chris and Grandpa did all of the hard work, despite the kids!

Now that Sienna is older, she gets to draw with markers. Even though she can't trace any of the lines, she loves to draw all over the pages and then erase them. The best part is that she's old enough that I don't have to supervise her too much!

Sienna and I had fun riding around on her horse together. Galloping around the house while carrying a 25 pound toddler is quite the workout!!!

After a few rides with me, Sienna decided she could do it herself. And you know what? She could! Even though the horse was big, she was a pro rider after just a couple of tries! She rode her horse all over the house...

I'm not sure where the 8 days went that we spent in Bend...it went by so fast! While we were there, Chris saw a movie with my dad and brother, and then later my mom and & I saw a movie together. Chris and I went out to dinner on New Year's Eve (thanks for babysitting, Mom & Dad!!) and had the best dinners EVER at a little place called Staccato At the Firehall. We can't wait to go back the next time we are in town. On New Year's Day, I met a couple of friends from high school for a drink. Other than that, it was 8 days of relaxation...well, as much relaxation you can get with a 1 1/2 and 3 year old! Oh, and did I mention that I had a cold the whole time we were in Bend? The most irritating part is that I came down with it on Christmas Eve, even though I hadn't left the house in almost 2 weeks (except to play in the snow). ARGH! Luckily I didn't pass the cold on to anyone else...what a miracle!

While Chris was packing up the car in Bend, Grandma read book after book after book to the kids!

Home

After a short 4 hour drive home (compared to the trip over), we finally made it back home. We came home over the Santiam Pass, which is my favorite way to go. Unfortunately, chains were still required and that meant more slow traffic...and more crazy people stopping in the middle of the road to put on chains!!! We only had one near accident at the chain-up area at the bottom of the Pass. I'm not sure why, but the traffic heading to Bend decided to take up 3 lanes (1 of which was ours) to put their chains on. They weren't even trying to pull over to the side of the road. That meant that we only had one lane and the traffic on the other side had zero lanes (semi-trucks and cars were seriously just stopped in the 3 lanes putting on chains). So, what's the traffic on the other side to do? Yup, that's right, use our one and only lane to get by all the crazy chains people. And where does that leave us? That's right! With no lanes and a bunch of people slamming on their brakes on solid ice/snow, while going down a hill! I thought for sure we were going to hit the car in front of us, but thanks to our ABS brakes, we stopped just in the nick of time...no accidents! YEA! Thank you, Chris for getting us home safely!!!

Once we were home, Chris unpacked the car (that is quite the task in itself) and then put together the rest of Sienna's Christmas present from Grandma & Grandpa Macnab...a stroller and bassinet for her new baby (who has yet to be named!). Both of the kids love to take her for walks around the house...

And that pretty much sums up the end of our 2008 and beginning of 2009. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2009 brings us...hopefully it will be better than 2008!

Random December Pictures!

After spending 8 days in Bend, I have almost 300 pictures to sort through. Since I'm guessing this is going to take me FOREVER, I thought I'd post some random pictures from December. Enjoy!

Naps
Brayden and Sienna love to take "naps" together on the CARS sofa. Usually Sienna just sits there while Brayden pretends to sleep. However, this last time when I asked her if she was taking a nap, she leaned over, rested her head on Brayden and closed her eyes!
The Grocery Cart
While we were stuck at home with all of the snow, Brayden pushed Sienna around the house on the grocery cart!

Rain Boots!
Even though the snow boots were all sold out during the "Arctic Blast", Chris did manage to find some cute rain boots for the kids to wear in the snow. Unfortunately, we didn't get them until the end of the storm, but at least the kids had dry feet for a couple of days!

Brayden loved his boots so much that he wanted to wear them all over the house...for days!

Sienna wasn't as excited about her boots, at first...probably because they are 2 sizes too big! We put 2 of Brayden's socks on each of her feet when she wore them outside and they worked great. Plus, she gets to wear them for at least another year!

The kids waiting to head out into the snow for the first time with their new rain boots (they love to hold hands...even with mittens on)!

We had huge icicles all over our house during the snow storm, but this was definitely our biggest icicle. We thought it was pretty impressive, until we arrived at my parents house and saw how big their icicles were!