Cooking

I have started cooking more lately and Sienna has been the BEST helper. I saw this recipe on TV the other day and it looked amazing. Sienna helped to stem the mushrooms and helped to coat the veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. She also helped arrange everything on a baking sheet and stir the pasta and sausage.

She was so proud of herself when everything was done! She was also pretty fond of the food. I will say that it looked (and tasted) great! And there was so much left over that Seth and Sienna at it the next day for lunch.

Ahren Seth

Ahren has started trying to get into a crawling position! He can get his thighs about an inch off the ground (and will sometimes rock back and forth).



He has also been finding his thumb a little more often.



Sienna loves to play with him and always cracks him up (she finds it quite funny as well).

Ice Skating

Well, we may be signing Sienna up for ice skating lessons after she watched the US Figure Skating Championships (we enrolled her in swimming after she became obsessed with springboard diving in '08). She loved the dramatic arm movements and jumps. She was also a big fan on the ice dancing routines.

Sienna had some dramatic jumps:











Some great arm movements:







And some sassy end poses:









We had to move the ottoman in front of the TV to prevent Sienna going directly into it as her ice skating moves aren't quite as polished as she thinks they are.

Tiny Dancer

Sienna just loves to dance! She was captivated by dancing on TV and demanded that I take her picture. She came up with some interesting poses, but she just cracks me up!!

"Dance" poses:









Silly faces:

Big Sitter

Ahren has been sitting up all the time. He has started to become irritated when he's not sitting up. Sienna still thinks he needs a little help while sitting so she's never too far away - just in case.

It seems like every time we turn around Ahren has another ear infection. He just got over a double ear infection that he got while on a preventative antibiotic!! Needless to say we have an appointment with an ENT to discuss tubes in February.

Ahren has always been a calm baby (unless he is sick or with Seth) which is why it is so easy to take pictures of him. I'm trying to get as many as I can now since I'm sure it will get harder as he becomes more mobile.

Profile:



So sleepy:



My little man:



Close-up:



He LOVES his feet:

Sienna's favorite hat

Sienna is not a fan of hats, but she found one I had purchased to take on vacation years ago and has claimed it as her own. She always wants me to take her picture.

Sledding

Uncle Dan picked Sienna up to take her sledding with Clay (Ahren was sick so we couldn't take her). Sienna decided she didn't like sledding (Uncle Dan is a bit riskier than mom & dad) and was ready for her nap when she got home. Here she is ready to go:

Christmas Day

We had to wake the kids up to open presents so we could have time to get ready before heading over to my parents' house. Sienna loved helping Ahren open his presents in addition to all of hers. She was SO excited about her Barbie Musketeers presents (they were definitely her favorites).







After opening gifts at home we headed over to my parents' house to open gifts there. By the end Sienna was irritated and just wanted time to play with her presents!











After we had lunch and relaxed for a little while we headed over to Seth's parents' house to open gifts there. Sienna gave up after one gift and made us open the rest!