Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve this year!  We spent the day getting ready for Christmas and celebrating that Daddy unexpectedly got the day off of work.  Sienna and I went over to the Esslinger's in the morning, made some penguins with the boys, and painted our Christmas nails with Andi.  Sienna choose gold so you can't see it very well, but I promise they were up to her sparkly standards.

As soon as we got home Daddy took us to the movies to see this silly gem:

 Later that night we had to make sure that we had some delicious cookies for Santa...

...and we may have snacked on a bunch of delicious candy and sweets, that we helped our friend Amanda make a few days before, as we waited for the cookies to be done.

All of the prep work was done, so there was nothing left to do but snuggle into our pajamas and wait for Christmas to come!

Snow Day!

Our first snow day was in the beginning of December, and Sienna loved it!  I wish that I recorded her reaction to waking up to her world being covered in snow.  She was so excited that she didn't even question me when I told her she had to put on her snow pants, which she doesn't super love because they aren't fancy or pink. :)  She sure looks cute in them though.

Nick making the first snow angel of the season

Our little snow bunny!

Our sad attempt at a snowman.  

We did our best, but fresh powdery snow doesn't pack well.  Sienna loved it though and I guess that's what matters anyway.

Admiring our work

It was so fun experiencing something new with our silly girl.  I'm sure that the snow will get old as the winter rolls on, but on this day we loved it!

Giving Thanks...

We had a great Thanksgiving this year!  The Esslinger's were great hosts with lots of fun for the kids and LOTS of delicious food for everyone.  

While the grown ups finished up all the cooking the kids got to decorate snowflake decorations that we sent to Grandma and Grandpa in Florida. 

 

Nick started going gluten free a couple months ago so we had the extra challenge to make a great meal that he could eat too.  I made gluten free stuffing, rolls, gravy and even a pie from scratch!  I was really proud and Nick was very appreciative that he was able to have a "normal" Thanksgiving.  Brian deep fried the turkey and Andi and Mama Alice out did themselves with all of the sides and desserts.  It was delicious.

 After dinner we skyped family and made a gingerbread village!

It was such a fun day and we were so happy that we were able to spend time with our family and see the ones we are far away from.

Boise Holiday Parade

The day after Sienna's party was the Boise Holiday Parade and if you know Nick at all you know this is a must go to event!  We found a spot early right in front of the Capitol building and Sienna even got a bell to jingle from some parade volunteers before it started. 

Hanging with mommy and dad before the parade!

It was a chilly morning, but it was fun to see the horses, floats and cool cars.  Nick was disappointed though because they only had one marching band.  Nick's motto regarding parades is that if there isn't a band it's not a parade so this parade barely squeaked by. :)  

Sienna loved the candy and I loved all the little kids disgusted squeals when a horse peed right in front of us.  I think that we may try it again next year and hope for more marching bands for Daddy.

Birthday Girl

Sienna had a birthday!

On her actual birthday I put balloons all over her room to wake up to, she got to open up her presents from Mama Hudson, one present from us and we went to McDonald's for dinner.  Unfortunately, Nick had to work on her birthday so we saved the big celebration for a couple of days later.  She loves her new toys from Mama Hudson especially Princess Luna from My Little Pony.

 

 Birthday shirt from mom and dad!

On the day of her party we went over to the Esslinger's house for pizza, cake and presents!  We love having the Esslingers close to us and we were also excited that Dave, Janie, Mama Alice and Papa Terry could be there to celebrate with us too!

  

Miss Sienna was significantly spoiled with lots of new games to play, a Cinderella barbie, and a special jewelry box filled with treasures.  She was so happy and mom is so happy that we have fun new things to play together.

 

She requested a pink cake with pink sprinkles...what may baby wants my baby gets. :)

Sienna had a great birthday and we are so grateful for everyone that came to celebrate with us and thought of my silly baby on her special day.

Adventure is out there!

Nick gets really bored on his days off, so when he has the whole weekend off we try and get out off the house and explore.  Nick had the idea to head up to the Boise Depot on Friday, and it was such a good idea!  It had a beautiful view of downtown Boise, gardens, awesome water features and Big Mike.  Big Mike is the huge train engine in the pictures.  The actual Depot wasn't open that day but we had a lot of fun walking around and enjoying the view.

After we finished at the Depot we went down to Julia Davis park, which is similar to William Land Park in Sacramento.  There is a pond with ducks, geese that walk around everywhere, a rose garden, the zoo and like three museums (Art, Natural History and Black History).  It's pretty cool, but we were going for free so we ran after geese, played in the park, said hello President Lincoln, and walk around the little Lewis and Clark trail that they had.

 

 During my search to find activities for the weekend I came across a free event on Saturday at the mall called Reindeer Games. They had a bunch of fun things for kids including crafts, games, face painting and Santa!  Sienna enjoyed the crafts and loved that she won her very own stuffed reindeer in one of the games, which she named Snowy.  She was very excited for Santa until it actually came time to talk to him and then she wanted to keep her distance.  She did better with Mrs. Claus and the snow princess but still insisted on me holding her.  She also got a light up snowflake wand which has already become a new favorite toy.

It was a great weekend!  I love that we have been able to find so many fun things for our family to do in our new home.  We are looking forward to our next exploring adventure.

This is Halloween!

We were kind of sad this year that our tradition of carving pumpkins with the Ricks family came to an end due to our move, so we decided not to carve them at all.  Instead, and much to Sienna's delight, we painted our pumpkins this year.  Nick requested a minion so I did my best to oblige.  Please excuse my silly daughter's St. Patrick's day shirt and mismatched skirt...in October...sometimes that's just how we roll around here.

 

Our finished products:

 We also went to our ward's trunk or treat and had a great time meeting more new people as well as collecting as much candy as possible.  We tried our hand at a new chili recipe and ended up bringing it from a can instead.  I was also glad that it hadn't got too cold yet.  

Sienna made a seriously cute Tinkerbell!

Halloween family pictures.  The one of Nick and Sienna was taken on actual Halloween.

On Halloween we went trick or treating with Andi and her boys.  Sienna loved it so much and the biggest problem we had was that her bucket got too heavy for her!

When too much candy is your biggest problem I'd say it's been a successful night.

Pumpkin Patch!

This morning we went to Linder Farm's pumpkin patch!  We had so much fun and my only complaint was that there weren't any shovels or anything in the corn pit, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all.  We played in the corn pit, pet the animals at the petting zoo (including the cutest little runt of a piglet), rode tractor carts and took a hayride to find the perfect pumpkin.  The best part was that all of it was included in admission!  The only thing we paid extra for was our pumpkin and of course a pony ride!

Sienna told Nick that it was the best day ever!  We all had such a fun morning and we ended it with Sienna picking out our family pumpkin.  Nick and I originally imagined something bigger but there was something awesome about our family pumpkin being the one that Sienna thought was perfect. 

Exploring

We are finally starting to settle into a rhythm here and are really liking it so far.  Sienna and I have a weekly date together to the library down the street for a music and movement class and when Daddy isn't working we like to drive around and explore our new home.  

A couple of days ago Nick wanted to take us to walk around the Boise temple grounds. He picked the perfect day to do it too.  The gardeners were there and were taking out all the flowers in preparation for the winter and they were nice enough to let us take some home with us.  Sienna loves flowers and especially picking and smelling them so it was pretty much a dream come true for her!  The main guy even found two four leaf clovers for us...it really was our lucky day.

One of my favorite parts was that there are doors all over the temple with no knobs.  It was really cool.

 After we went to the temple we went exploring down to the river and threw rocks.  Another favorite pass time of Sienna.

It was such a good day exploring and finding some cool new places in our new city.

Zoo Boise

This morning we took advantage of the fact that Daddy had the day off and Thursday is family day at Zoo Boise so it's a little cheaper.  It was a really fun Zoo!  There are a wide variety of animals, fun things for kids to do and lots of educational opportunities.  My favorite was the cutest little baby monkey and Sienna's favorite was the giraffes.

Having fun with Mommy on the giraffe slide, spying on the prairie dogs and riding the Savannah Monitor. 

 Fun with Daddy: feeding the goats, checking out the animals and getting photo bombed by a dinosaur!

(Sienna talked about feeding the goats for days before we came and then she chickened out when we got there.  Nick was happy to feed them in her behalf.) 

Just plain having fun!

Family Picture 

(There is supposed to be a lion in this picture behind us...I don't know what happened...)

We had fun and I'm looking forward to going again when it's a little cooler and the dinosaurs aren't there.  Sienna did not like them at all!

Spirit of Boise

We made it safely to Idaho!  We are so grateful for everyone's help in the move, especially my sister and her boyfriend taking the trek up there with us.  We've done some fun things since we got here like dinner out, checking out the nearby library, seeing Daddy's work and hanging out with the Esslingers!  We also went to the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic!  It's an annual event in Boise and we figured that it would be a great way to have some family fun in our new city.  

We got there early because we heard that it get's pretty crazy (so true!).   We staked out a spot and had corn dogs and curly fries for dinner.

 She ate that whole thing!

 Hanging with daddy

 Longest curly fry EVER. :)

 Watching the balloons get inflated!

 Waiting for them to glow with mom.

 Family.

It was a really cool event and Sienna loved counting down and watching the hot air balloons glow.  The next morning you could actually watch a ton of them take off but it was too early for us after our late night.  We will definitely have to go again next year!

Doesn't Happen Often

This weekend all of my siblings were in town!  It seems the older we get the further spread out we become, so we like to go all out when we are all together in one place at the same time.  We started by going to Fairy-tale town on Friday morning while we waited for Sam and Bubba to make their way to Sacramento.  I loved that for the most part the cousins didn't really miss a beat with each other and were quick friends.

After a quick nap for Sienna we headed of to Bounce U in Roseville.   It took Sienna awhile to fully wake up and put her brave face on, but by the end of the afternoon she was going down slides by herself and having a great time

We ended Friday with pizza at the Bacchus house and cupcakes to celebrate Charles's upcoming birthday.  

On Saturday after lunch we headed to Elk Grove for some swimming.  I was so proud of Sienna!  She let me put floaties on her for the first time and jumped off the side over and over and even tried swimming a little bit.  We missed Daddy, but have big plans to show off her new skills when we get to Idaho next week!

 

After swimming we went to the Gibson house for a fiesta themed dinner and even tried, for Grandma, to get a picture of all of the grandkids together...this is as good as it gets...sorry Grandma. :)

 

We even took a picture of the six of us.  My picture was photobombed by Chad's foot, but Andi's picture was the best with her youngest poking up a little behind Katie...he had just gotten hurt right before we took the picture.

 

We finished the night with the kids roasting marshmallows for smores and the grown ups enjoying brownies and ice cream.  It was such a fun weekend and went by much too fast!