cooking!

I dislike cooking very much. I never seem to have all the ingredients to a recipe and the food never comes out like it looks like in the picture. I was so excited when a lady at church gave out Amish friendship bread because I can do that and it is DELICIOUS! So I take care of it for 10 days adding little things and mushing it around and then I get all my ingredients ready and start adding them so I can pass the starter out to 4 more people. I forget to divide it all up and make the starters instead I just cook the bread. I am so mad but I do have bread just no starters. So sorry to people who wanted the starters hopefully you will get the starter from someone else and then maybe (hint hint) pass it on to me.
I did find the best thing and it seems so simple and stupid but Ziploc has these microwavable steaming vegetable bags. All you do is put the veggies in, no water required or anything and microwave them for a couple of minutes. You can do fresh or frozen. They taste delicious and you don't even have to mess up any pans. PERFECT. Siena loved it and even asked for more "trees". Maybe I am slow on this but they were good.

what we've been doing!

It has been so cold around here lately. I honestly have been inside most days dreading having to go bundle up the kids and go out. We did go out a couple of times. The kids are learning how to play with eachother nicely. You wouldn't think that would be that hard but somehow it is. Ben loves Siena and follows her around everwhere and tries to do everything she does. Siena gets really upset that he takes her toy or destroys her block tower or her train set up. It's really frustrating for everybody and I hope she can get over the screaming at him part and just learn to play with him. So here are the more fun things we have done lately.

Ben learned to wave and tries to say hi
Ben learned to clap (it is very cute)
(I am still trying to get a cute video of it all...stay tuned!)
Mommy and daddy got to go out this weekend. We actually dropped the kids off at our friends house and dave and I even went our seperate ways. I got a lot of shopping done and Dave watched the awful BYU game. He didn't come home very happy.

We took lots of random pictures. It seems so hard to get the kids to take good pictures together where they are both happy, so one day we spent a good amount of time on Siena's bed jumping and taking pictures. That is the only place where they are constantly happy at the same time. We love jumping on her bed! (that's our header picture)

We started talking to Siena about Christmas and about gifts. We went through the Toys R Us catalog. She thought it was fun and luckily for us she doesn't want much. She was actually really excited to get Ben a little doggie like she has so he will stop taking hers.

We had family night every night. Siena discovered the family night box. Dave had a story and game with her one night and she loved it and as soon as Dave comes home she is ready for the same game and story. She plays it every night. Bingo book of mormon words and Joseph Smith gets the golden plates and then ice cream.

Some funny things that happened:
Talking about Thanksgiving I asked Siena what she was thankful for and she said Pajamas! She is so smart. we love our pajamas!

Sienas 2 Loves!

It is a cold yucky day out so we decided to make chocolate chip cookies. She always gets the beaters eventhough she is terrified of the mixer and leaves the room while I mix it all up. She got all the dough off the beaters and quickly moved on to her favorite toy... the train table with the beater playing too. It was a crane.

Our dog Spunky!

We are not completely crazy. We did NOT get a dog. Siena has turned into a dog. She has had this stuffed animal dog since she was born and was pretty attached to it. It used to bark and then I did some much needed surgery on it so it would be quiet. She still loves the dog and Ben does too. Ben may be getting one for Christmas since they fight over it. Siena loves it so much that she insists that she is Spunky dog. Whenever we call her name she responds that she is spunky dog not Siena. Dave tries to tell her that she is Siena and not a dog. I gave up and just call her Spunky dog. It makes the day easier. She hasn't caught on that dogs eat off the ground and walk on all fours so I am okay with her being a dog. If she starts having dog behavior this may have to stop. So please come on by and see our Spunky dog but please don't bring any dog treats.

Ben update!

I seem to forget about when all the milestones happen but I think Ben is making them just as fast as Siena did. I don't know if them doing these things early is good or bad. I definately don't want him to walk anytime soon. Ben is really fast at crawling and can get into everything before I can get to him. Siena goes and opens the bathroom door and Ben crawls to the bathroom really fast. They think it's so funny to make me go in and get them in the bathroom. From the previous post this occupies a great deal of the day for me... chasing them out of the bathroom.You will notice in the picture we don't even have a doorknob on the door because Siena has locked herself in there too many times and it terrifies her. A couple weeks ago I went to get Ben from his crib and he was standing up in the middle of it not holding on to anything. He has started pulling up on everything and can stand for a couple of seconds by himself. Whenever I put him down he tries to find me and climbs up my leg. He is getting a little clingy. I don't know if it is because he is the second child or what but he is so mellow. Just recently he has found his voice and when he wants a toy he will let you know. He seems to always want the toy Siena has. That doesn't usually end well. Siena is learning how to share toys with him or how to trade toys.

Craziness

I know you think this post is all about the election. I really don't know how I feel about it all eventhough we all knew this is how it was going to turn out. I am writing about the craziness of my kids. We miss nana and papa's attention and we have had too much candy. Siena has been potty trained for a couple of months and rarely has any accidents and doesn't have to be rewarded anymore, but as of halloween she thinks she needs a halloween treat everytime she goes to the bathroom. She is constantly on a sugar high or screaming in her room because i won't give her chocolate. It has been a long day. Ben starts crying if I walk out of sight and tries to follow me wherever I go. Either that or I find him in the bathroom playing with the plunger or the screws on the toilet. SO GROSS. I don't know why he has chosen that place to hang out. I can't wait for this day to be over.

future wedding video

Someday when Siena gets married she is going to regret all these pictures. We have the funniest pictures of her. I don't know why she decided she had to take her pants off in this picture. I guess to see the whole boot. She loves her shoes!

Halloween

We had lots of trick or treating parties. On friday morning we went to the library for storytime and a parade. That night we had pizza with our neighbor and then tried to go trick or treating. We went to probably 20 houses and only 3 people were home. It was so sad. I don't think Siena really got the idea that people were supposed to give her candy. Then later that night we went to the church trunk o treat. We got lots of candy there. It was really fun and there were a lot of people there. Siena had a little piece of candy on the way there and perked right up and was hyper for the whole event. Now she has been asking non stop for halloween treat and has been quite persistent about it. I can't wait till the candy is all gone. Ben was really good and went along for the whole event with his costume on. He didn't really like his hat on and Siena would not keep her wings on but it was a great night and wonderful weather. We didn't even have to wear jackets. Now if I only could have gotten Dave to dress up like captain hook!