We have SNOW!!!

When I posted our snow pictures on Thursday, I had mentioned that we were just outside of the snow zone and we hadn't gotten any new snow all week. Well, just as I gave up on getting any new snow at our house, we DID get more snow! It started snowing Thursday night. Then it started snowing sometime this morning and hasn't stopped! Although, we don't really have that much snow considering it has been snowing all day...only about 3-4 inches. The last 2 days we have actually bundled the kids up and headed outside to play in the snow. Too bad it takes 20+ minutes to get 2 toddlers and 2 adults ready for a short romp in the snow!

Friday Snow!
Chris took an early lunch on Friday so we could go play in the snow before lunch. It's a good thing we decided to head outside before lunch because the snow ended up melting a couple of hours later.

Chris and the kids attempted to make a snow man. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough snow on Friday...it was probably only an inch deep.

Sienna tried to pick up some snow...

But with her big, bulky snow pants and jacket, she just couldn't move that well...

And she kept falling down!

Over...

And over again!

Eventually she figured out how to get up all by herself.

Brayden threw snowballs...

Brayden made snowballs...

Brayden shared snowballs!

Brayden shared more snowballs!

Sienna held snowballs!

Saturday Snow!
These pictures were all taken after lunch, but since then we have gotten at least 2 more inches of snow. Almost all of our snow tracks have been covered up in the last 3 hours! Today it was actually snowing when we went out to play. It was pretty miserable because it was also windy today. Sienna did a lot of standing around but Brayden had so much fun running around...and falling off of all of the hidden curbs! Unfortunately the snow was too dry to make snowballs!

Chris introduced Brayden to the "snow angel"! First he showed him how to move his arms...

Then he showed him how to move his legs...

Then Brayden attempted the snow angel by himself!

Pictures, pictures, and MORE pictures!

Our First Snow Storm of the Year!
Most of you already know that we've had our first snowfall of the year...I took this picture Sunday morning. The car you see is Chris driving home from Starbucks! That's right...we aren't going to let a little snow and ice keep us from getting Chris' venti, 7 pump, whole milk, no water chai and my triple, grande, 3 pump, white chocolate mocha! Little did we know this was going to be the last snowfall in Canby this week. With all the "Arctic Blast" talk on the news, I was just a little depressed that Canby was just a little too South of the storm zone! Of course, all of our weekly activities were in the storm zone so we were stuck at home...with no fun white stuff to play in!
Brayden had fun watching the snow fall Sunday morning!

Sienna was pretty excited to see snow, too!

Brayden "Works"!
Brayden loves to go up to Chris' desk in our bedroom and "work". He puts Chris' headset on and types on the keyboard. Brayden always tells us: "I'm working while you are sleeping". Maybe he means he's working where we sleep. Who knows with 3 year olds!

Pirates!
Brayden made this cool pirate ship...all by himself! I was being lazy and laying on the floor with Sienna when Brayden came out from the office to show me his pirate ship. I was very impressed with his creativity!

Train Tracks
The kids have so much fun playing trains together. Not only can Brayden build his own tracks, but Sienna can, too! Here is a track they put together all by themselves. I like how they parked all of the trains in a row! Of course there were several dead ends on their tracks, but I was still impressed with the complex design they started.

Windsocks

A couple of weeks ago the kids made windsocks in their art class. I would have to say this was one of my favorite projects so far! The kids have had lots of fun destroying them since we made them...I think most of the streamers are gone now!

Puzzles!
Lately Sienna has been doing a lot of puzzles. She especially likes Brayden's large floor puzzle. The other day she pulled the puzzle out of the drawer, opened it, pulled out the big floor picture & some puzzle pieces. She then started putting the pieces on top of the matching pictures! She didn't snap the pieces together, but she matched up 3 pictures before she got bored and found something else to play with.

Whipper Snippers
A couple of weeks ago we finally took Brayden in to get his hair cut. We decided to try a new place in Wilsonville that someone had told me about, called Whipper Snippers. I was pretty scared considering how his hair was butchered in August. The girl did a great job trimming his hair up, though. Yea! Of course Brayden LOVED flying the fighter jet while getting his haircut. And, you can see Sienna in the background on the big motorcycle!

The "Scary" Vacuum

Up until last week, Brayden had always been scared of the vacuum. We would ask him to help us vacuum and he'd say "it's scary" and run to the couch and hide! Well, Sienna isn't scared of the vacuum which means Brayden isn't scared anymore, either! Now every time we get the vacuum out, they fight over who gets to vacuum!

Daddy's Girl
Sienna is still a daddy's girl, although she does give me plenty of snuggly cuddles, too! The other night she was being especially snuggly with Chris and I couldn't help but take a couple of pictures.

Sienna's Pigtails!

Sienna did it...she finally grew hair long enough for pigtails! :) Yesterday Sienna was sitting quietly on my lap reading books, so I decided to see what would happen if I attempted the pigtails (I think I've been more scared that I just couldn't do it than I was that her hair was too short!). I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself, so I didn't even bother using a comb. Maybe it's just because I'm her mom, but as soon as I turned her around to see her face, I thought she was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen...and I think she looks so much older without all that hair in her face!She must have been relieved that I finally got all that hair out of her face because she immediately started acting like she had just eaten a bag of sugar! I showed her what she looked like in the mirror and I've never seen her smile so big. Her smiles and giggles lasted all night!

Chris gave the kids shoulder rides last night...they both love it so much that when it isn't their turn, Chris has to be holding them in his arms. Talk about a good workout!

The Holiday Express!

Saturday we braved the rain and the wind to go for a ride on the Holiday Express! Unfortunately, the weather couldn't have been much worse...it was extremely cold, windy and pouring down rain! I was so happy when we got to Oaks Park and saw that they had a huge tent for us while we waited in line for our turn on the train.

After being disappointed with the Polar Express last year, I had absolutely no expectations for this train. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the train was, as well as how nicely they had decorated it for Christmas. Even though I preferred the Holiday Express train (not only was it a nicer train, but it was closer & cheaper), there were a few things that I really enjoyed about the Polar Express: we had hot chocolate & cookies, heard a story (The Polar Express), visited the North Pole, and sang Christmas Carols. Of course, that was the never ending train ride (over 2 hours) and this train ride was only 40 minutes. Unfortunately, it was a very long 40 minutes for us...Sienna was a complete nightmare! All she wanted to do was run around the train...if we tried to hold her, she started screaming! UGH!

Chris tried to get a picture of the kids and me while we were waiting inside of the nice dry, tent. Of course, neither of the kids would look at the camera!
Then I tried to get a picture of Chris and the kids, but that turned out even worse. Luckily for us there was a nice man next to us that offered to take our family picture! The kids still wouldn't smile, but at least they were interested enough in the strange man to actually look at the camera!

Every train car had a different layout so we weren't sure which chairs to grab as we walked from car to car. We ended up in the last train car that was nice and spacious, but the chairs weren't exactly set up so you could see out the windows. Of course, the kids didn't mind!

The view from our window as we started our train ride:

Brayden enjoyed looking out the window for most of the 40 minute ride.

Sienna was interested in looking out the window...for about the first 10 minutes!

We even had a visit from Santa Claus! This was by far the biggest Santa that I have ever seen...he was a giant! Some kids sat on his lap, but we decided it wasn't worth getting the kids all worked up...if Sienna was scared to sit on her Grandpa Santa's lap (Grandpa Boley), there was no way she'd sit on this Santa's lap!

Brayden had fun dancing in his chair!

Once Sienna got all crazy, the only way she'd sit still was if she was sitting on Chris' lap...with Brayden! The moment Brayden wanted back in his own chair, she wanted down to run free around the train.

After loading the kids up in the car, I braved the pouring down rain so I could have at least one picture of the train that we rode on. The picture didn't turn out great, but it's better than nothing!