Pump It Up

Back in February, the kids were invited to their friend, Koen's, 4th birthday party at Pump It Up. Chris was sick so he stayed home, but luckily for me, it was still very relaxing because as it turns out, Sienna can do EVERYTHING by herself now! She climbed up the ladder on the big slide all by herself AND she made it though the obstacle course by herself...wohoo!

At first, Sienna wasn't so excited about doing much...she peferred to drive around in the baby cars. Every so often, Brayden would come join her in a race!
Here they are doing the obstacle course together!

I took some video of Brayden and Sienna going down the big slide together, but I haven't gotten them off the camera yet. Here's a shot of Brayden at the bottom of the big slide!

Driving, Cookie Dough & Bikes!!!

Wow, has it really been almost a month since my last post? I have so many pictures from the last couple of months that I just haven't found the time and/or energy to share. Sienna's been giving us a run for our money at night so we've all been pretty exhausted lately. Here are a few pictures from February I thought I'd share. Hopefully this is just one of many posts to come this week!

Before the kids were born, Chris got the x-box steering wheel for me, thinking it'd make it easier for me to play racing games with him. Well, I've never once used it (mostly because Chris tried it out and found that it was actually NOT easier to use), but the kids LOVE playing with it.
In December, I had my 2nd endoscopy and the biopsy results came back positive for eosinophilic esophagitis. This was actually GOOD news for me because I had felt miserable for over a year and I was getting discouraged that no one would ever figure out why! After going through a couple of rounds of allergy testing, they found about 5 items that could be causing the reaction (dairy, corn, eggs, peas & pork). Since I was supposed to go without these 5 items for 3 months, we bought an egg replacer to use in Chris' delicious cookies! Now that we aren't using real eggs, the kids get to lick the cookie dough off the beaters, and they couldn't be happier about it! On a side note, I go in for my 3rd endoscopy in May...hopefully avoiding these 5 foods will give me good biopsy results this time around!

Sienna found a new spot to watch tv...she sits in the upstairs hallway and watches the tv in the living room.

During the few days of nice weather, we broke out the bikes, trikes & big wheels! Unfortunately, Sienna's legs aren't long enough to reach the pedals on anything but the tricycle, but that doesn't stop her from at least trying. I guess this year she'll be getting a bike for her birthday!

Brayden riding his new big wheel that Grandma & Grandpa Boley gave him for Christmas!

Sienna is even starting to pedal for herself on the tricycle!

Sienna attempting to ride Brayden's big wheel...

Sienna attempting to ride her big wheel from Grandma & Grandpa Boley. I can't wait for summer...both kids are now at an age where we can actually enjoy being outside without having to worry about them walking off sidewalks, running in front of a car, etc. Hooray!

Sienna's Fractured Arm

Friday afternoon, Sienna "fell" off of Brayden's bed. At least, that is the story that I got. Sienna did cry after she fell, but she wasn't screaming and her arm appeared fine (I checked it over several times). Grandma & Grandpa Boley even came over to babysit so Chris and I could go out to dinner and she seemed fine while we were gone. This morning, she still didn't seem to be using her arm much and she had also developed a bruise in her armpit. After we took the kids to the dentist, I decided to take her to the doctor, just to make sure she was ok. The doctor decided to x-ray her arm, and low and behold, there was a fracture in her upper arm! Even the x-ray tech seemed surprised! Here she is decked out in her new sling (we still have to take her to an orthopedist this week):
Here is a picture I took of her x-ray. (click the x-ray to get a close-up of the fracture)

I'm guessing that the sling isn't going to last long...

All she wants to do is take it off, and she is supposed to wear it for 2-3 weeks!!!

Work, Work, Work!!!

All the kids ever want to do is work, work, work! If only they could make "real" money, then Chris wouldn't have to work so hard!

One would think that Sienna would be bothered by the hair that is constantly hanging in her face. She hates having her hair touched, and unless we are leaving the house, I don't try to touch her hair. I guess she's going to be a tom boy like me! Although, she is pretty adament that she does NOT want anyone to cut her hair...although, I'm not sure if it is because she likes her long hair, or if she just doesn't want anyone touching her hair. ;)
Brayden and Sienna LOVE to work on their cash registers (we had to buy them an extra one for Christmas so they'd stop fighting over the McDonald's register). They are sitting on comfy chairs that I made out of the couch cushions...

Sick Kiddos

This week the kids have been sick, sick, sick! Wednesday night we took Brayden to the doctor because he was just laying around, crying. I knew he had a high fever, but when the nurse took his temperature and said it was 104, I was shocked! The doctor wasn't sure if he had the flu or not...we just had to keep an eye on him and bring him in if he got worse, or if he still had his fever after 3 days. Luckily his fever finally broke on Thursday! Unfortunately, that is also the day that Sienna woke up sick. UGH!

The kids have been laying around and watching tv all week. Brayden refuses to watch anything but Backyardigans and Sienna will only watch Dora...needless to say, I've OD'ed on cartoons, which I didn't even like when I was a kid!!!

Sienna's 1st Playdate...WITHOUT Brayden!

While Brayden and Wyatt were at preschool on Tuesday, Catrina and I got the girls together for their first "girls only" playdate!!! Sienna and Avery played together in Avery's room for all of 15 minutes before they came out to find us...they just weren't sure what to do without their big brothers around to entertain them!!! Even though the girls hung out with us for the majority of the morning, it was still one of the most relaxing playdates I have ever had and I can't wait to do it again!

Christmas Cookies!

Where does the time go? For some reason, our blog, which was once at the top of my priority list, is now at the bottom. Maybe I'll get back on track now that the holidays are over. Here are a few pictures of the kids making cookies before Christmas. I bought them their own little rolling pins, thinking they'd have lots of fun rolling out their own dough. Unfortunately the cut-out cookie dough was too hard for them... So, I rolled the dough out on my amazing roulpat (if you don't have one, you NEED one) and then let the kids use their rolling pins on the dough.

This year, they were both old enough to use the cookie cutters by themselves!

Since I only have one roulpat, the kids had to take turns. Brayden was super excited when he finally got his turn!

We didn't have time to frost all of the cookies, so each time the kids were given a cookie, they also got a dab of frosting (& sprinkles) to decorate their cookie with. It actually worked out great because it spread out the cookie decorating fun and gave them more incentive to eat a good dinner!

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!