Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the month of January.

Isabella's friend, Maddie, came over to play one morning. The girls set up an elaborate tea party for the Care Bears and "Baby Jesus" (Maddie's babydoll who is in the cradle to the right). Around the holidays, Maddie's family drove past a Nativity scene and after hearing about Baby Jesus, Maddie decided to rename one of her dolls! (Note: Maddie's "Baby Jesus" is a girl)

Who has the biggest belly? When I was pregnant with Sienna, I took pictures like this every week as I got further along in my pregnancy. Isabella stood like this with me in one of the pictures, so we're recreating that scene. In this picture I was a little over 31 weeks pregnant.
Sienna received this dumptruck for her second birthday to use in the sandbox. We brought it in for the winter and it serves many purposes! Here "Baby Oprah" and "Baby Guiness" are going for a ride! Isabella named the first baby Oprah since I watched Oprah every once in a while when she was younger. Baby Guiness is named after one of our former neighbor's black labs (Guiness and Dublin).
Sienna rarely sleeps during rest time now, but she fell asleep listening to Isabella's portable CD player one day. Due to the risk of strangulation, we have taken this out of her bed, but she seemed to like it!!
Here's another great use for the dumptruck-taking friends for a ride! My friend, Katrina's, son, Aaron, got a ride the other day!
The ever-growing belly! Here I am almost 34 weeks pregnant. Yikes!! Sienna chatted on the phone with Grandma while she surveyed the snowy scene outside. What a big girl!

Waterbugs

Until fairly recently, both girls have been pretty timid in the water. For about a year we have been going to the family swim at our local Y to get the girls comfortable in the water before they take swimming lessons. Since I wore my maternity bathing suit a few weeks ago and it wasn't a pretty sight, Mike has been taking the girls swimming most weekends. He doesn't feel comfortable having them both in the water when he's by himself, so he usually alternates taking each of the girls. Isabella is getting much more confident swimming by herself with only a bubble belt around her waist. Over the past couple of weeks, she has moved from three bubbles attached to the belt down to just one! This past weekend, we took both of the girls swimming, but I spotted from the edge of the pool. I can see why Mike doesn't want to take both girls by himself!!! Sienna has gotten to be quite the daredevil!! She got right in the water and asked Mike to get her the floating bar (it's like a barbell). She didn't want him to hold onto her either. Sienna took off with the barbell and then even swam with just the bubbles around her! According to Mike, this was a first! We're glad that the girls are gaining confidence, but it makes for a nerve wracking time when they swim in opposite directions.
Isabella has never liked getting water in her eyes, so we bought her some goggles a while ago. This was the first time that she wore them the whole time she was swimming. She liked to put her face in the water and report what she could see below the surface.

Ready for a swim!!

Sienna is ready to take off with the barbell.

Goggle girl!!

"I do it myself!"

Swimmers in action!

A Special Night

Mike is out of town for a 36 hour business trip to New Orleans, so the girls and I enjoyed a special night. We decided to have a picnic dinner in the family room in front of the fire. Since the girls both like pancakes, we made plain, blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes. I've never seen them scarf down their dinner so quickly!! We've never finished an entire batch of pancakes in one meal, but both girls kept asking for more. As Isabella was trying to cut her pancakes with the side of her fork, I asked her to be careful so she wouldn't drop pancakes or syrup on the carpet. She said, "Don't be so worryful!"


The girls read some bedtime stories together in Sienna's bed.

Mindy's Weekend Visit

One of my oldest and closest friends, Mindy, came to visit from Wisconsin for the long weekend. Despite having major travel delays on the way here and on the way home, we had a great visit! We were able to catch up and hang out for three days. In addition to all of the chatting, we also squeezed in manicures, two dinners out and a movie (27 Dresses-which was really cute).

Isabella and Sienna thought it was funny that they could squeeze themselves into Mindy's pajama bottoms.

Mindy and Sienna

Mindy and Isabella

Mindy brought the girls personalized plates and mugs which are really cute!

Isabella actually took this picture. She's getting to be quite the photographer! It's centered and everything!

Then she had to take a couple self-portraits.

Sienna wanted to try, too. Can you say, extreme close-up?!? Yikes!!

Welcome to the world, Gabriel Kenneth!

My cousin, Kevin, and his wife, Tami, welcomed Gabriel Kenneth into the world today! At 9 lbs, 14 oz, he puts Isabella (3 lbs, 11 1/2 oz) and Sienna (6 lbs, 1 oz) to shame!!! We can't wait to meet him this summer, hopefully!

Musical Bedrooms

For a while now, Mike and I have been contemplating what to do with the girls and their bedrooms when (or before, ideally) the baby arrives. Until now, Sienna has been in the "nursery" in a crib and Isabella has been in the room across the hall from us. We have one more room down the hall that has been used as a guest/play/junk storage room. We knew that we wanted to move Sienna out of her crib well before the baby needed it to avoid (or at least minimize) any resentment. We considered a variety of options... Should the girls share a room? Would they ever sleep if they shared a room? Should we loft Isabella's bed and add another twin bed to her room to keep the girls across the hall and still have a guest room? Is 4 1/2 too young to sleep in a top bunk? (Manufacturers suggest that you wait until a child is 6 years old) Should we move Isabella down the hall? Would she be scared being farther away from us since she likes to know that we're close by? Should we move Sienna down the hall? Would the garage door wake them up every morning when Mike left for work since the extra bedroom is above the garage? Do we buy a twin bed for the other bedroom or just have one of the girls sleep in the queen bed that's already there? Do we move both girls down the hall since that room is the biggest? Decisions, decisions... We talked to the girls about sharing a room and they seemed to like that idea. Actually, Isabella liked the idea, but Sienna's standard answer to most questions these days is, "No way!" Then Isabella suggested that she sleep in the playroom and Sienna sleep in her room. This was one of the ideas that we had but we didn't think they'd go for it. Since Isabella came up with the idea, we gave it a shot over the weekend and it was a huge success, thankfully. Sienna seemed to like sleeping in the "big girl" bed although she was awake for a solid hour playing with stuffed animals. Isabella also did great sleeping down the hall. No issues (so far)!! The next morning, Isabella said emphatically, "I know!! Now that I'm sleeping in the play room and Sienna is sleeping in my room, the baby can sleep in the crib in Sienna's room!!!!!" Well, now there's an idea!!!!! Why didn't we think of that?!? As Sienna tries to process these changes, she keeps telling me, "Babies live wif cribs, bid dirls live wif bid beds." (Translation: Babies live with cribs, big girls live with big beds) We decided to have Isabella sleep in the queen bed for now, so she keeps telling us,"I have a fat bed and Sienna has a long bed." At least they are both embracing the new arrangements for now. Today Sienna and I raised the mattress on the crib to get it ready for the new baby (and to keep Sienna from wanting to sleep there again). Now we just have to shift furniture and clothes and try to make each of their rooms their own. Mike is very sensitive to the fact that Sienna will be the middle child, so he doesn't want her to feel like she's always getting Isabella's old stuff. We'll have to work on that... At this point I don't think that she really cares yet.

Sienna is ready for her first night in the big girl bed. We have her convinced (as we did Isabella) that she needs one of us to lift her in and out of bed. (She could easily clmb out if she wanted to, but she hasn't figured that out yet)

Sienna, Isabella and Mama (and her belly!) read stories before bed

Sienna fast asleep

Isabella fast asleep

Now we just have to get Sienna to wear her "undiewears" and use the potty! In addition to, "No way!" Sienna also says, "Don't want to!" As we learned with Isabella, it really wasn't worth pushing her. Once she was ready, she was ready and she rarely had accidents. I think it will still be a little while until Sienna really wants to use the potty.

Holiday Visitors

We had a great visit with my parents and Katy and Nathan for Christmas. As much as I love traveling to Wisconsin for the holidays, it was really nice to stay put this year! We appreciate that everyone else made the trip out to our house!
Since my parents came out a week before Christmas, my mom was able to go to the Holiday Tea at Isabella's school. The children sang several songs and then enjoyed some goodies with their families.

Miss Monica, Isabella and Adam singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/ Happy Holidays".

This is public school, so they try to be inclusive!

(Monica graduated 9 years ahead of me from Tosa East. Small world!!!!)

Isabella and Nana in Isabella's classroom

Mama and Isabella

Bobu and Sienna watching Isabella's ballet class

Uncle Nathan got roped into playing "Pretty Pretty Princess"! Doesn't he make a very pretty princess?
Christmas Eve-the girls sprinkled "reindeer food" (oats and glitter) in the snow, so that Santa and his reindeer would be sure to find our house!

Treats and a note for Santa and his reindeer! We learned from one of our visits with Santa that he likes chocolate milk.

Christmas morning-Isabella tries on her new slippers!

Sienna admires her new slippers, too!
Mike gets the prize for coming up with the most creative/thoughtful gift this year. Since he knows that I like to do puzzles (and so do the girls), he and the girls made a puzzle for me for Christmas. Isabella and Sienna drew pictures on a piece of wood and then Mike cut it into pieces with his jigsaw. Aside from the potential splinters, this was a great idea! I loved it!

The girls were proud of their creation! My assembled puzzle Sienna got a train set from Santa, so Bobu spent a long time setting the tracks up exactly as they were on the box. He's very meticulous!

We checked out a local shrine that puts up hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights each year. It's quite a sight!

Girls with Nana and Bobu in front of lights

Nana, Katy, Isabella, Sienna and I spent a Girls' Day Out at Disney Princesses on Ice. Isabella and I went to a similar show last year, but this was a first for Aunt Katy, Nana and Sienna! Isabella decided to get dressed up so Sienna followed suit.

Ready to head to the show!

Isabella was mad because I asked her not to do a princess wave in front of my face during the picture.

Could Bobu be in the Princesses on Ice show? He seemed to think so!

Ready for the show to start!
Sienna was mesmerized by the show, but it startled her when some sparks went off several times. Here she said, "Sparks do this!" (with an exploding sound)

The princesses and princes

Bobu and girls (and Funshine Bear)

Nana, Bobu and girls

Isabella reading Hop on Pop to Aunt Katy

Getting ready to take Uncle Nathan and Aunt Katy to the airport

In addition to all of the holiday fun, my dad and Nathan helped Mike make some great progress on finishing our basement! They were "rockin' " (as in sheet rock, as my dad said). Yippee!!! It's coming along!