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.