Easter Fun

Saturday was beautiful outside.  It really felt like Spring and I could not think of a better day to have some Easter fun.  We went to a friend's house for a little Easter Egg hunt.  The girls had a great time hunting for eggs and playing with there friends.  Natalia remembered all about Easter egg hunting and it did not take Sienna long to figure out how great it was.  Some of the eggs had band aids in them.  I thought this was a little funny, but Natalia has cherished those band aids, so apparently other people know what kids like better than I do. 

I was really fun watching the kids and they all had a great time.  After the first Easter party we came home for naps and after naps we headed down to Hector's parents for another Easter party.  The girls were really excited.  They love playing with Eli and we all know they love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We did more egg hunting.  Both my girls really had the spirit of sharing.  At one point Sienna was chasing Eli around trying to put an egg in his basket for him.  Natalia did a good job of helping the two little ones find more eggs after she had enough in her basket.  I love that they want to share. 

All three kids were thrilled with their eggs and they had fun showing them off for us.  We came back inside and they had fun opening them and seeing all the goodies inside.  Thankfully they were still in the spirit of sharing so us adults got to eat some good candy too.   We stayed late at the Grandparents playing games and being silly.  The girls slept for awhile and then we came home and put them back to bed.  It was a perfect day before Easter and fun to share with friends and family.

Big Girl Bed

I love sleeping babies.  We have pushed much change at Sienna these past couple of weeks.  We started potty training less than two weeks ago and then last weekend we moved her into her big girl bed.  I was worried that she would struggle with the new bed.  Mostly I worried that she would get up and wake everyone else up in the process, but she has done great.  She was so excited about her bed as we were moving furniture around.  I wanted to clean the bed and put sheets on before she tried it out, but she could hardly contain herself.  She is so excited that she has a pillow now too.  Every night when I put her to bed she makes sure to show me that she has a pillow.  She likes to have me sit on her bed with her to read stories.  It looks so little compared to Natalia's twin bed, but Sienna just loves it and she looks so cute sleeping in it.  She does like that she can get up by herself and we have been getting up a little earlier in the morning but that is mostly because she is excited to go potty as soon as she gets up in the morning.  She barges into my room saying, "Potty, potty, potty."

 

I had to snap a picture of Natalia too.  I just love my kids and they look sooo cute when they sleep.  Natalia always sleeps with her hands behind her head.  I think it is funny, but I guess it is comfy for her.

More Cakes

I finished my second cake decorating class.  This class focused on flowers.  I have yet to really have a need for flower cakes, but I am sure I will sometime in the future and it was fun to learn different flowers.  This is the cake I made on the last day of class.  I will be taking a break from cake classes for awhile.  It has been fun, but I need a break from our teacher; she is not my favorite and with the new baby coming it just is not going to happen.  I am still up for making cakes though. I made my first cake for someone other than my family this weekend.  My friend wanted a Ninja Turtle cake for her daughter's birthday.  It was so much fun making it and I think it turned out cute. 

I promised the girls they could watch me and Natalia really wanted to decorate too.  So I gave them each a cupcake to do.  This is Natalia's creation and Sienna just ate hers.

Adventures in Potty Training

I decided to potty train Sienna this week.  Potty training is always an adventure regardless of how well a child does.  It was hard to predict how Sienna would take to it.  My plan was to give her a week.  If I did not feel that things were going well, then I would slap back on the diaper and not think of it again for a few months after I have settled into life with three children.

Honestly, I did not want to potty train Sienna yet, but she has been showing interest for a few months now and I knew I was running out of time before the new baby comes.  So Monday, I just went for it.  Found out on day one that Sienna is a dribbler.  Basically she just pees a little bit all day long.  I had some training underpants with extra padding and I put clean ones on each time she got wet, but since it was such a little amount it did not bother her at all and Monday was a total waste of a potty training day.  Tuesday we put on regular undies and she finally realized what happens when one does not pee on the potty without a diaper.  No big messes, since she is dribbler, but lots of trips to the potty.  Needless to say, the many hours spent hanging out in the bathroom resulted in Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as accident free days!  Yeah, good job Sienna!  She even got sit on the couches again.

I am clearly doing something wrong, as just like her big sister used to be, Sienna is afraid to do the number 2 business in the potty.  Ugh...she holds it for days, then is cranky because her tummy hurts...and oops, we have an accident.  We will continue to see how that goes.  I have high hopes.  She has had some success in that department. 

It is an adventure.  I am already looking forward to the day when she does it all by her self and I no longer have to accompany her to the bathroom.  However, it is all worth it when I see the look on her face as she pees in the potty.  It is one of pure joy, pride and a little surprised.  I love it. 

Sienna is very excited about her big girl undies.  She loves to pick them out and she thinks they are so pretty.  She is also very excited about the little candy she gets each time she pees on the potty.  Natalia loves to "help"  Sienna potty train.  She mostly wants Sienna to watch her go pee so that she can have a treat too.  Sienna loves that she gets a treat when she goes on the potty.  Maybe she already has me out smarted and that is why the child just pees a little at a time every half hour.  Darn, my kids are already smarter than me.

Happy Birthday Sienna

Sienna is Two and we had so much fun celebrating her birthday.  We told her all week that Grandma and Grandpa were coming over on her birthday so as soon as she woke up in the morning she started taking her clothes off so she could get ready for Grandma and Grandpa.  We came down stairs and she got to see her present from us.  We got her a scooter and hid it under a blanket.  I put a candy necklace with it and that is all she could focus on at first.  Natalia finally convinced her to check under the blanket.  She was so happy about the scooter.  I knew that she would love it.  She scooted around the house all morning. 

We had a brunch with family, but I knew the girls would be hungry before brunch time so I picked up some fun sugar cereal and they thought it was awesome birthday cereal. 

We had a little brunch party in the morning with Grandma and Grandpa, Anthrea, Andy and Eli.  It was fun having them over.  We enjoyed good food, watched Sienna open her presents and then watched everyone play with the new gifts. 

Sienna got some new fun balls and we had fun watching the three kids attempt to catch the balls. 

The weather was nice enough to go outside and since Sienna got a bunch of fun outside toys, we headed outside and the kids, old and young, had a great time.  Sienna did some more scooting and we all played with the balls and walked to the little park for slides.

By time we headed inside for cake Sienna was tired and ready for a nap, so we could not get any smiling pictures, but she did really enjoy her cake...and her nap that proceeded the cake. 

After naps we headed to an indoor water park with some friends.  Sienna loved our pool all summer long and this place was a good deal and about the only place to swim in the Winter so I thought we would give it a try for her birthday.  It had been several months Sienna played in the pool and she really did not enjoy it the first half hour we were there.  I felt really bad, it being her birthday and all.  She just wanted to be held and she acted all scared and then all of the sudden she remembered that she likes the pool and had a great time after that.  Natalia loved it too and she has gotten so brave in the water.  And yes, I sported a swimsuit at eight months pregnant!  Hector even braved the big water slides.

After the water park we headed to Costco for dinner.  Fancy...but Costco hot dogs (or hot-hots as she calls them) are about Sienna's favorite thing in the world to eat and it was her birthday, so that is what we had.  We got home right at bedtime.  The kids were pooped...so were mom and dad.  We put munchkins down to sleep and decided that we had a successful birthday.  Sienna was happy.  She told everyone all day long that she was "two".  She loved the birthday song.  She loved opening gifts and most of all she loved being the special girl all day long. 

 

I must add that Natalia did great.  Sometimes siblings have a hard time at birthdays because they feel left out.  Natalia and I talked about it being Sienna's special day and that we should just try to make her feel happy.  We should not be sad when we do not get gifts or attention.  Natalia did awesome!  I was so proud of her.  She let Sienna have all the attention.  She asked Sienna before she played with her gifts and she was more than happy to let it be Sienna's special day.  She did remind us all on several occasions that she would be having a birthday soon too. 

 

I loved celebrating Sienna.  It was fun to make the day special for her.  She is a fantastic little lady and we are so happy that she enjoyed her day!

Sienna, Sienna, Sienna

Sienna turned two and we had so much fun celebrating her birthday.  Sienna is really into purses so I decided that I would make her a purse cake.  It has some imperfections, but I was mostly happy with the outcome and she of course loved it.  It also did not hurt that is was super yummy.  I had fun making it and actually finished at a decent time this year.  I love making my kids' birthdays special for them.  I enjoyed spending extra time thinking about Sienna and about the wonderful blessing she is in our lives. 

At two years old Sienna is a bundle of joy.  She has a radiant smile and an adorable giggle.  Don't be fooled by her cute pictures, she can also through one of the biggest stink eye looks I have ever seen.  When she is upset, she usually calms down pretty quickly and is back to her happy self. 

 

Sienna is talking so much now and we all have fun listening to the new things that she says.  We still crack up every time she is done with something when she repeatedly states, "I'm dumb, I'm dumb!"  We all know she is trying to say, I am done, but it is just soooo funny. 

 

Sienna has really good manners.  I would like to take some of the credit as her teacher, but I think most of it comes naturally to her.  She always says, "thank you" and "please".  She insists on using a napkin at all meal times.  She will not let anyone eat without a prayer first and she says thanks when a meal is over.  If I ever bump into something or say "ouch", Sienna is right there with a concerned look in her eyes, "you O-tay?" (you okay).  If she sees someone else misbehaving she says, "uh-oh, not good."  She feels bad for Natalia if she ever gets put in a time out and she wants to join her so that Natalia will not be sad. (this unfortunately has disastrous results as Natalia is never in a good mood while in time out and does not appreciate Sienna's good intentions).  It is the thought that counts though.

 

A magic Mommy kiss can heal any boo boo on Sienna.  Anytime Sienna is hurt she comes to me with the saddest expression and say, "kiss, kiss, kiss."  Then like magic, after the kiss, a big smile comes across her face and she says, thank you, as if nothing had ever happened.  It works every time.

 

Sienna has also really gotten into music.  Her favorite song is the Itsy Bitsy spider.  She loves any songs with hand motions that accompany it. 

 

She finally found the love for books.  It took her a little longer to love books than it took Natalia, but now that she has discovered the joy of books she is attacking her new passion with fervent energy.  It makes me so happy to see her love books and I can finally read both my girls a story at the same time without Sienna interrupting or grabbing the pages.

 

Sienna loves her blankets and usually wants to carry them around during the day.  She only gets them at home but she does like to read books with her blankets around her.  She loves to have two of everything.  She wants two blankets, two bows in her hair, two ponytails, two stories before bed, etc.  If I start doing her hair all is hear is, "two, two, two please." 

 

She loves to pick her own clothes and socks to wear.  Sometimes this causes some scuffles as she does not always have the fashion opinions that I do.  She loves her pink shoes.  They are very cute, so I do not mind that she wants to wear them everyday, but she is rather obsessed with them.

 

There are so many things we love about Sienna.  I could go on and on.  She is just two, it will be fun to see how much she grows up this year.   

Eli's Birthday

Last weekend we went to cousin Eli's birthday party.  It was tons of fun.  He turned 2.  My girls just love their cousin.  I am amazed at how much they both talk about him.   It is like they instinctively have this understanding about family and about how important they are.  It was fun to celebrate with the little man.  He is so cute and we all just adore him.  It was fun watching him open presents and be excited about everything.  Andy made a pinata.  Andy thought he made an easy one, but he clearly underestimated his pinata making skills.  I think teenagers would have had trouble breaking that thing.  That is not to say that Eli and Natalia did not have fun trying their best to bust it (Sienna...not so interested).  It was loads of fun watching them.  Eli loved it... and that was the best part.  Sienna finally realized it was fun once the candy escaped.  Happy Birthday Eli, we sure do love you. 

Grandma and Grandpa and Random Pictures

My girls love their grandparents so much.  Natalia thanks Heavenly Father for them in most of her prayers and Sienna talks about Papa all the time.  (Papa is a gender neutral grandparent term for her).  Natalia talks about the Grandparents that live far away and the ones that are close by.  It is fun that she understands she has four grandparents and she loves them all.  It is so nice to be close to Hector's family and I love how excited the girls are to go to their Grandparent's house.  They love it.  These are some pictures we took at their house the other day. 

 

My girls are really playing together so much now and we all love it.  They need a referee much of the time, but they truly are happy to create their own little world.  Sienna follows Natalia and will pretty much do whatever Natalia tells her to do.  The other day Natalia got them both scarfs and she taught Sienna how to ribbon dance (rhythmic gymnastics...from the Olympics).  Sienna was hilarious.  The girl loves to dance but she still has yet to learn rhythm.  Natalia has actually learned some moves.  Watch out Olympics 2024.