Random Post Friday!

Once again I've been a slacker and haven't posted any pictures for a whole week! I've been taking a lot of random pictures this week, but none of them were so exciting that I felt compelled to sit in front of the computer to post them. ;) It is a wonder that I survived sitting at a computer all day for over 8 years before I became a stay-at-home mom!

The Mohawk
After sudsing up Sienna's hair, Chris decided to have a little fun with it. Her hair is the perfect length for a mohawk! I'm not so sure that it's her best look...but, it was pretty funny! I just found a picture of Brayden sporting a mohawk at 11 months...he didn't have quite as much hair, though! Check it out here.
Both Brayden and Sienna love to take baths and always have fun splashing water everywhere. Sienna loves the bath so much that she actually becomes hysterical when it is time to get out!
Drawing
Lately we've been letting Sienna draw with crayons and chalk on the easel. She loves it so much that we can't let Brayden use the easel while she is eating or she'll refuse to eat just so she can get out and draw, too. Reading
Brayden and Sienna have been reading a lot of books together. Of course, as soon as Sienna tries to actually touch the book, Brayden starts yelling at her and pushes her away. Brothers!!! ;)Music Class
I tried to snap a few pictures of the kids at music class this week but everyone was moving so fast that none of them really turned out. Here are a couple of Brayden and Sienna "playing drums" with paint brushes!

Walks, Walks, & More Walks
Lately I've been taking the kids on walks when they wake up from their naps in the afternoon. I'm not sure why, but I get really bored waiting for Chris to get home. Getting out for for a nice walk re-energizes me and by the time we get back, Chris is usually home. Amazingly enough we even managed to motivate ourselves to take a walk last weekend!
Hanging out with Daddy
The kids are always all over Chris as soon as he walks in the door from work. They miss him so much when he's gone!
"I said FREEZE!"
If you have ever seen the movie The Incredibles, you might just recognize that line. A few weeks ago Brayden started building guns with his Lego's and yelling "I said FREEZE!". I was in complete shock and had no idea where he had learned that from. As it turns out, he learned it from the movie The Incredibles. I had never even thought twice about letting him watch Disney movies in the car (that is his reward if he is a good listener when we are out every morning). Now I'm having second thoughts!
Drawing
Brayden is still having fun drawing in his new books. He's been drawing so much that one pen has already ran out of ink...good thing we bought 2 books and have 2 pens! I am constantly amazed at how long he'll sit at the table. Just this morning he sat at the table for over an hour before I told him that we had to go run errands. Even after an hour he STILL didn't want to stop drawing!
Brayden is getting better and better at tracing the lines!
And he loves drawing circles in the book, too!

Kruger's Farm

This morning the kids and I headed out bright and early to Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island to pick blueberries! I can't remember the last time that I picked my own berries. I'm pretty sure that I did at least once as a kid! We didn't really go for the berries, though...we went to play and have fun with our friends! Actually, we crashed Catrina's playgroup. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't our first time! ha! Thanks for inviting us, Catrina!!!! I'm not sure what is going on with the boys, but they are W-I-L-D these days! Holy cow! As soon as they saw each other in the parking lot, they started running all over the place and being all crazy.
On the way to the blueberry bushes the boys held hands. Awwwww...how cute!
Between Catrina's pictures and my pictures, I just couldn't decide which pictures to post, so I'm posting them all! Here are the boys holding hands again...
They are SO excited to get to that tractor!!!
After our short visit with the tractor, we ran across a rooster! The boys were actually more interested in the rooster than the tractor...crazy!

As soon as we got to the blueberry bushes, Brayden started picking blueberries. I was in shock! I had told Brayden that we were going to pick blueberries, but I guess I didn't realize that he actually knew what that meant! haha! Brayden was even telling me which bushes to pick the berries from! He picked blueberries all by himself for quite awhile (I was chatting, as usual) before he decided that it would be more fun to play with Wyatt.

Eventually Brayden and Wyatt had fun picking berries together. Who knows what they were laughing at!

And then they found the wagon and the blueberries were history!

On the way out we saw some stinky pigs taking a snooze!
Brayden had so much fun that I had to strip him from the waist down before I let him get into the car!!! For those of you who don't think that his clothes look that muddy and are wondering why I made him take off his jeans, socks & shoes and ride home in just a diaper....well, then you just don't know me as well as you think you do! I really was proud of myself today...I let him play in the dirt and I only yelled at him when he started throwing mud into the air! Needless to say I washed his clothes the moment we walked in the door. However, I'm contemplating throwing away the shoes...that seems much easier than cleaning them. haha! JUST KIDDING! Maybe tomorrow I'll have enough energy to tackle the shoes!
What a fun morning! I can't wait to take the kids berry picking again next year. That's right...Sienna was there today, but she was unlucky enough to be glued to my back in the ergo carrier for the entire 2 hours! Fortunately for me she didn't protest at all...in fact, I don't think that she made a single peep!

Random Post Thursday!

Legos
Both kids love Legos so much that we had to buy another bucket as well as another Lego mat. I wasn't sure this would solve our problem since they usually want whatever the other one has, even if it is the exact same thing. Luckily my plan worked great! Now they rarely fight...over Legos, anyways! ;)
Tracing
When Grandma & Grandpa Macnab came to watch the kids while Chris and I went away for our 6th anniversary, they brought a cool book with them that you draw on with a dry erase marker. Brayden did so good that we bought him a couple of the books from Costco to have at our house. Last night he traced lots of things and even did a maze all by himself! Here is a picture of the bicycle that he traced. He really did trace the whole thing all by himself...I was in the kitchen the WHOLE time! Well, except for when he told me that he had finished the bicycle and I came in to take his picture. ;) I was very impressed by his tracing skills!Family Gymboree
Today was Sienna's 2nd time at Family Gym. Her first visit was when she was 9 months old and the only things that interested her were the windows and the electrical outlets! Now that we've switched to Family Music, we have 1 month to complete all of Brayden's make-ups. Since we only have a few make-ups, we plan to go to the Family Gym class that just happens to start 5 minutes after Family Music is over! Unfortunately by the end of 2 classes I'm completely exhausted. Family Gym is especially exhausting because Sienna needs constant supervision. There are just too many things she can trip on, fall off of and run into. Unfortunately my flash didn't go off for most of the pictures so some of them are pretty blurry. :(

Sienna spent the first half of class making baskets and moving the balls from one to bucket to the other.
Brayden and Wyatt ran around like wild boys today! They are usually pretty crazy but they were really crazy today! Brayden actually took time out to for a picture!
Sienna carried around a ball wherever she went!
Brayden's favorite thing to do at Gymboree is JUMP!!! (darn flash!!!)
Sienna had fun climbing... Sienna also had fun crawling back and forth through this tunnel.

Brayden decided to join in the fun and chase Sienna!
Sienna caught on quick and decided to head somewhere safe!
Of course, I think that she was safer on the ground!!! Next Sienna decided to crawl through this crazy tunnel...
And proceeded to fall out face first before rolling over onto her back. Luckily she's a tough girl!
Sienna loved rocking but I was a little scared to get too far away to take her picture. It was a long way for her to fall onto a hard floor and I just wasn't willing to risk it for a better shot! ;)
Sienna ended her gym time by jumping on the trampoline!
It is hard for me to believe that Brayden was only a month older than Sienna is when he started Gymboree. WOW! It is so much fun to compare the things that Sienna did today to what Brayden was like when he first started. Brayden was so shy! It took him almost a year before he wouldn't run away when another kid got within 3 feet of him! Sienna on the other hand has no fear of other kids...even when she should be scared. Brayden wouldn't go through a tunnel for the first few months and Sienna went right in today. Brayden tripped over all of the mats for at least the first month or two. I don't think that Sienna tripped more than once. It is too funny how absolutely different siblings can be!

Random Post Monday!

Has it really been a week since I posted new pictures? Last week was so busy that I didn't have a chance to take many pictures. Our fun activities included: Play Boutique on Monday, Gymboree on Tuesday, playdate with a friend on Wednesday, Family Music at Gymboree on Thursday and a 3 1/2 mile walk on Friday!

Gymboree Family Music
Thursday was our first time at the family music class at Gymboree. Catrina and I both wanted to check it out since the girls are getting too old to keep in the backpacks while the boys have all of the fun. The family gym class sounds a bit too overwhelming for me (how am I supposed to keep 2 crazy kids safe who head in completely opposite directions???). So, we decided to check out the music class. Of course I didn't take any pictures but Catrina was nice enough to snap a few of the kids. Here they are at the end of class getting their gymbo music stamps.
After class Brayden and Wyatt decided to sit down and read some books together. I wish they always played so quietly! haha!
New Books & Puzzles
Grandma Boley came over to babysit on Friday night and brought the kids a new puzzle and books! Well, they were new to the kids, but came from a sale they were having at the library. Brayden mastered the puzzle in less than 10 seconds but they both still love reading all of the books. Daddy's Girl
The older Sienna gets, the more apparent it is that she really is gonna be a Daddy's Girl. I tell ya, when Chris is home she is glued to him. If I try to hold her, she just snuggles in closer to Chris. Of course, when Chris isn't home she's all about mommy! So much sometimes that I can't get anything done because she wants to be held so much. I try to be patient and hold her as much as I can because I remember how much I wished Brayden had been a cuddler at this age!
Fun in the Park
On Saturday we met Grandma Boley and our nephew, Brian, at the Fun In The Park festivities in Wilsonville. We had taken the kids last year (Sienna was only 1 1/2 months old!!!) and we thought that Brayden would have even more fun this year. Even though both kids were still a little too young to enjoy most of the games and activities, Brayden did have fun fishing, throwing bean bags, balls and sliding on the big inflatable slides!

Our first stop was the swimming pool filled with fish, turtles and other random sea creatures! I'm pretty sure that Brayden ended up catching a turtle. Both Brayden and Sienna got these cool blow-up footballs with rubber spikes all over them for their prize. Brayden has been playing with them non-stop since we got them. I'll have to take a movie of Brayden "playing catch"! Of course we couldn't walk by the playground without at least one trip down the slide!
Brayden made himself right at home at this cute little table...
Play-Doh
Brayden took a break from Play-Doh for a few months, but all of a sudden it's his new favorite thing to do! He asks to play with Play-Doh morning, noon & night! The best part is that he is actually old enough to play with it himself. He loves rolling it out... And using the shape cutters to make shapes!
Coloring
Yesterday Sienna colored for the first time! I thought she might enjoy coloring with crayons now that she's shown some interest in the aquadoodles and doodle pads. I was right...she had tons of fun scribbling with the crayons. We only had to tell her not to eat the crayons a handful of times. haha!

Unfortunately none of Sienna's "scribbles" were visible in the previous pictures...here is an up close picture of her first masterpiece!
Brayden and I had fun drawing the hearts together but he did all of the coloring!