Random Post Thursday!

Ready for Summer!
In every store that I went to, there were teeny tiny swimming suits saying "buy me, buy me"! I'm sure that no one will be surprised to hear that I just had to buy one...there is nothing cuter than a baby girl swimming suit! However, it was quite the dilemma trying to decide which size to buy. How am I supposed to know how much she'll grow between now and summer??? After debating with myself for what seemed like forever (I'm sure the the kids thought it seemed like forever, too!), I finally decided to go with the 18-24 month suit (it was returnable if I kept the tags on). This morning I finally decided to see just how big it was. Well, it is a good thing I didn't go any smaller because the swimming suit actually fits her pretty good now! At least the suit is stretchy...I'm praying that it will fit her all summer long. I couldn't resist taking her picture in the suit...she just looked too cute!





























Playing at the table!
Sienna can stand for a short period of time and play at Brayden's old table. She is also starting to pull herself up onto her knees and occasionally to her feet...and then of course she falls over since she doesn't have any concept of balance yet. Needless to say, she has bonked her head quite a few times lately. In fact, she has hit her head so many times that it doesn't even phase her anymore.


















Sienna's Push-ups
Sienna's started a workout regimen which includes lots of crazy push-ups!













Brayden's Art Easel
Brayden's favorite things to do at home are draw, play with play-doh, & do puzzles. He can even do a 24 piece CARS jigsaw puzzle all by himself!

VIDEO: Sienna's Crawling

For those of you who don't get to see Sienna very often, I thought I'd post a short video (22 seconds) of Sienna crawling so that you check out her new skills! Enjoy!

Boys will be boys!

Have I ever mentioned how much Brayden loves to jump? With the exception of his new favorite TV show, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it is his favorite thing to do! In the beginning we were absolutely opposed to him jumping off of any of the furniture in the house. After all, that is why we go to Gymboree! However, he was so determined to jump off of all of the furniture that we finally allowed him to jump off of one piece of furniture...the leather chair. Last night I finally remembered to take some pictures to share...enjoy!

Happy 7 Month Birthday, Sienna!

Can it really be? 7 months sounds so much older than 6 months! Sienna is still such a happy baby and is always full of smiles. Over the last week or two she has started to cuddle a little bit more which I absolutely love...Brayden was never a cuddler, either!

Sienna weighs 17.8 pounds and she now loves her fruits and vegetables and isn't quite as fond of the oatmeal that she used to gobble up. Maybe she won't be as picky of an eater, after all. Sienna still only has the 2 teeth that came in at 4 1/2 months...she has to be the slowest teether ever! Luckily it looks like the top 4 teeth will be making an appearance any day (or night!). I am amazed at how different two siblings can be...Brayden had 8 teeth by the time he was this age.

It's official, Sienna's crawling! She surprised us at 5 1/2 months when she started doing the "army crawl" and over the last few weeks she started putting one hand and one knee forward. She must have been practicing a lot this week because last night, out of nowhere, she started crawling across the room!!!
Sienna loves to smile BIG for the camera!
Sienna had her first encounter with the sippy cup yesterday. She wasn't very successful at sucking the water out of the spout, but she sure was excited about chewing on it!

Christmas 2007

Can it really be 2008 already? The last 6 months have gone by in the blink of an eye! For the first time in what seems like forever, we spent Christmas with my family in Bend. We were there for 7 wonderful snow filled days! Well, my family probably didn't think it was so "wonderful" because apparently we still had the stomach bug and we managed to share it with all of them. What a Christmas to remember!

Lots and Lots of Toys!!!
Let me just start by saying that our house has been taken over by TOYS! Apparently we need to buy a bigger house so the toys can have their own room. After taking 2 very large boxes of toys out to the garage, our living room is still overflowing with toys!

Brayden got a t-ball set and after only a couple of practice swings he quickly became a pro! I still can't believe that Grandma & Grandpa Macnab let him hit the ball in the house!




Brayden also got a pretty cool 4 Wheeler for Christmas. Unfortunately it had to stay in Bend because there was absolutely no room for it in the MDX!







One of Brayden's favorite toys was an art easel. He loved to draw with the chalk and markers!
Brayden and Sienna had fun playing with their Christmas presents on Christmas morning.




Opening Christmas Presents
After having to practically force Brayden to open his birthday presents 2 months ago (I think I ended up opening most of them), I was pretty sure that he wasn't going to open that many of his Christmas presents. I couldn't have been more wrong! Not only did Brayden open his own presents, but at Grandma and Grandpa Boley's house he also opened all of my presents, Daddy's presents AND Sienna's presents!!!

One of Brayden's favorite presents was a garbage truck! He is obsessed with the trucks that come and get our garbage. As soon as he hears them driving by the house we have to run to the front door so he can watch them pick up the garbage!

Even Sienna did a pretty good job of opening her own presents!

She actually managed to tear off some wrapping paper to chew on...whoops!




Looks like Sienna's going to love books just like her brother!







The Christmas Tree
I really, really wanted to get a good picture of the kids together under the tree this year. Unfortunately Brayden had a different idea...for some some reason Brayden will NOT smile for the camera anymore. He used to love having his picture taken and would actually throw a temper tantrum if I DIDN'T take his picture!




While Sienna was smiling pretty for the camera...











Brayden was busy playing with Grandma and Grandpa's choo choo train!




SNOW
As I mentioned earlier, we got what we considered to be quite a bit of snow while we were in Bend...about 4 inches! hehe! If it would have snowed 4 inches when I was living in Bend I would have been like "what snow???"! However, now that I live in the the valley I think 4 inches is a crazy amount of snow! Although, after going outside in my pajamas to take pictures, I decided that it was much more fun to watch the snow from inside the house!

Brayden had fun helping Grandpa shovel the sidewalk.
Grandpa even taught Brayden how to make a snowball!
And then Grandpa took Brayden for a walk in the snow!

Random Post Wednesday!

On Friday I decided it would be fun to try to give Sienna some fruit! I don't know why I thought that Sienna was going to like it...she doesn't even like the flavor of Tylenol, which Brayden has always loved. Is it possible that she'll be a pickier eater than Brayden? I honestly didn't think it was possible! Here are a few funny pictures of Sienna's first time eating PEARS!






















I think it is so cute when Brayden and Sienna play together! I frequently find Brayden hanging out with Sienna and doing whatever she's doing...which totally cracks her up!



































Normally Brayden hates it when Sienna crawls over to play with whatever he's playing with (it is only ok if it is his idea to share). However, last week he decided it would be ok to let Sienna touch some of his legos. Of course, this was a one time event and hasn't happened since!















I caught Sienna watching Brayden's favorite show "The Backyardigans". It was so funny how she was actually giggling at it!


















Brayden and I left Sienna with Grandma Boley and headed to playgroup to make gingerbread houses. Brayden decorated his all by himself! Unfortunately the decorations were too heavy and kept sliding off...whoops!

Happy 6 Month Birthday, Sienna!

Sienna turned 6 months old on Monday! What a big, happy smile...can you see her 2 teeth?

Today she went to the doctor and they gave her 5 shots...ouch!

Sienna is getting so strong: she can sit by herself, do the army crawl, and she loves to stand and jump (with assistance, of course!). She also loves eating off of a spoon so much that I have to make her lots of oatmeal every day just to get her to eat.





Sienna is still growing like a weed:
Weight: 17 lbs 3.5 oz (75th %)
Height: 27 1/4" (94th %)
Head: 43.2 cm (75th %)

For comparison, here are her 4 month measurements:
Weight: 14 lbs 12.7 oz (75th %)
Height: 25 1/4" (85th %)
Head: 41.7 cm (75th %)

All Aboard!

Several months ago my friend Catrina and I planned a special trip for our kids aboard the Polar Express Train in Hood River. The train sells out so quickly that when we bought our tickets in September, all of the Saturday trains were already sold out! On Sunday December 9th, we woke the kids up from their naps and headed to Hood River for the 5pm Polar Express going straight to the North Pole!

Given the fact that the train is so popular, I had pretty high expectations. Once we boarded the train, I quickly realized that I shouldn't have set my expectations quite so high. First of all, it was dark outside so I'm not sure that Brayden even realized he was on a train! I also thought that the train was going to be decorated. As you will see from the pictures below, there wasn't much in the way of decorations. On a positive note, we did all get hot chocolate & cookies! Well, Chris ate my cookie, but I did get my own hot chocolate. :) The kids wore their pajamas and when we arrived at the North Pole, all of the kids got to sit on Santa's lap. Santa gave all the kids special bells right off of his sleigh! We also sang lots of Christmas carols which was probably Brayden's favorite part. We've been listening to Christmas music in the car since Thanksgiving and he knows enough of the lyrics to sing along to several songs!

The Mt. Hood Railroad Train













Brayden on the Polar Express!
















Daddy with Brayden & Sienna















Brayden & Wyatt getting their cookies













Once we reached the North Pole, the kids were excited to look out the window so they could see Santa! I was just glad they didn't fall out the open windows!


























Brayden was so excited when Santa got on board that he went running down the aisle towards him. Luckily Chris caught him and brought him back where he waited oh so patiently to sit on Santa's lap.













I think Brayden was pretty disappointed that this Santa wasn't his Grandpa! Sienna was pretty interested in the bright red suit!














Sienna, Shelley, Catrina & Avery enjoying the ride home from the North Pole

VIDEOS: Sienna's Doing the Army Crawl!

Sienna has become a pro at the army crawl!

Since perfecting the army crawl, Sienna has decided it was time to try crawling on her knees. She gets pretty frustrated because she hasn't really figured out how to move forward yet. Although, at the rate she's going, she'll probably be crawling on her knees in just a few days!

Look what happens when I leave Chris and Brayden alone! Not only is he playing with the Xbox controller, but he's also wearing the Xbox headset! Like father, like son! hehe!













Brayden's such a pro at holding Sienna that now he can hold her, drink water and watch tv all at the same time!













Sienna thought it was so fun to sit in Brayden's Elmo chair!













This is Sienna's new favorite position for playing...she lays like this all day long!













Unbelievably enough, Sienna is getting pretty close to crawling! Over the weekend she was getting up on her toes and/or knees (not too far off the ground, though). However, this morning we went to play at a friends house and she was doing the army crawl! I couldn't believe it! These pics were taken over the weekend...I'll have to try to get a video of her doing the army crawl...
Sienna has perfect push-up form!









She's up on a knee and ready to go!

VIDEO: Sienna's On the Move!

Sienna has developed her own unique way to move. I wouldn't really call it "crawling", it's more of a "lunge"!