My girly girl

Sienna LOVES getting her nails painted.  We had a "girls day" the other day and she went crazy picking out the perfect polish for her toes and her fingernails. Of course she had to pull out every shade of pink and then picked between the pinks. She a little diva and just loved staring (and pulling faces) at herself in the mirror of the caboodle.  Yes, don't be jealous, that is the real thing (the caboodle, that is--Thank you, Melissa!). Oh, and Sienna is OBSESSED with braids (I think that's because of our cute nanny Ashley!). Lately, it's the only hairdo she wants--piggy tails with braids.  Pretty cute if you ask me, just not much diversity these days! 

So I was chastised tonight by my sister-in-law Debi for not updating my blog or facebook with pics of the kids. She's said she's not sure they're even alive, so here's the proof.  Here are some photos from Christmas at my parents.  Since my in-laws are on their mission, we ended up just staying at my parents for a few days.  It was nice hot running back and forth, but we missed the Jeff Hanson family and all the Dixon clan! 

 This is my little guy 99% of the time.  He's such a happy baby. I'm so lucky. I love that he gives his smiles so freely.  He smiles and makes you feel like you're the only one for him.   LOVE this kid.

 Uncle Rob & Luke just chillin'

 As you can tell, we are still trying to figure out how to get our 3-year-old sit still and actually look at the camera for just one family photo. Soooo frustrating! 

LOVE my kiddos in these cute stripey jammies.

 Sienna lost her favorite puppy Coconut .  By the way, Coconut is a dalmation puppy who she named coconut because of all the "coconuts" he had all over him.  She now gets that they are "polka dots", but the name has stuck!  Anyway, she lost him so she started asking Santa for a puppy for Christmas. I was always grateful when she would clarify that it was not a "real puppy, just a pretend one".  Well, we found Coconut, so I thought we didn't need another puppy.  A few days before Christmas, suddenly she was asking for a puppy again. I was pretty certain (100% certain) that Santa was all done with Sienna's Christmas presents and she may not get a puppy.  Fortunately for Sienna, she has an amazing Grandma who saved the day and hooked the girl up with a pretty cool puppy.  He comes in this cute purse/doctor's bag. You push his paw and he coughs and sneezes and his nose turns bright red, so you get to pull out the "telescope" (stethoscope), a tissue to wipe his nose (which makes the light/nose turn off). He also  nibbles on a bone, sucks from a bottles, gives a sigh of relief when you give him a shot, you can write prescriptions, etc... He is super soft and super cute. Can you tell Sienna is in love?  Oh, and she named him Sonny, after the dog I had growing up.  Oh wait, I've been calling it a "him". She told me she needed to name it a girl name like "Sunny".  Little does she know "Sonny" was a boy!  Oh well!

 Too bad this girl isn't spoiled. She's got three single aunt/uncles and she and Luke are the only Grandkids in Utah, so she gets spoiled rotten.  Check out all her loot! 

It's funny, for being such a non-cuddly baby, this little girl has turned into such a little cuddle bug.  She loves giving hugs and snuggling!

Oh, one more thing I don't want to forget. On Christmas Eve Sienna finally started to get really excited about Santa, so she could not go to sleep quickly enough. She typically she wants us to lay with her and bargains for just "4 more minutes" and "1 more story" or "I'm thirsty" (like all kids do, just trying to delay the inevitable).  Not this night.  Dan tucked her in and she promptly said, "Can you please get out of my room now, so Santa will come?"  Then I went to kiss her goodnight and she said the same thing to me.  This is the first year Sienna has really understood or been excited about Santa, so I had forgotten to set out cookies for Santa, etc... So when I tucked her in, I asked her if I should set out some treats for Santa. She got all excited and said yes, and that I should set out some cookies and milk for Santa. And then she followed it up with "and some ham."  Ham? I was laughing so hard and said, "Ham? We should leave Santa some ham?" And she said, "ya, in case the reindeer get hungry, too."  So, apparently, reindeer just love ham.  After all these years, how could I not have known this?

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas (long overdue!)

So, I know I've been a little MIA from the blogging world for the last few months, so I have lots of catching up to do!  I wouldn't even have done this post had I not been able to hijack most of it from my cute sister-in-law.  Thanks, Carolyn! :) We had dinner at The Pie in SLC. Don't worry, my dad ordered us TWO, not just one of these ginormous pizzas.  He's crazy.  I think we took home 3-4 boxes of pizza.

After dinner, we went to This Is The Place Monument in SLC. They have something called a Candlelight Christmas--lots of little houses in the villages, live reindeer, Father Christmas, and a live Nativity.

The whole fam minus Rob and Dan. Carter is doing his 'blue steel' face.

Uncle Brad and the rugrats. He's a great uncle.

Sienna was obsessed with her cousin Carter.  She just followed him around everywhere.   He was such a trooper. He didn't seem to mind. Most of the time, anyway.  Every once in awhile he'd act annoyed and then would ask "where's Sienna?" or he would go find her.  Sienna just loved having cousins around to play with. 

Sienna going for a little "ride"

All the kids just loved the train ride.  Little Kate was making funny baby noises and Sienna was looking around everywhere, asking where the goat was.

Love Sac Love. Tommy and Carter "slept" in the basement with Uncle Brad. Let's be honest, it only lasted a few hours before the kids were up in bed with their mom and dad.

 

 Cute little Kate, or as Sienna likes to call her, Baby Cakes. 

Kate's first ponytail. This is a big moment for any girl!

What happens when things get too quiet around the house.

Fake Christmas Dinner with Jeff & fam, since they weren't with us for the real deal.  Of course I brought Christmas Crackers to carry on some of the English traditions I learned on the mission.

Sienna was in love with all of Kate's gifts and couldn't get enough of this cute little purse.

The whole crew at dinner at La Jolla Grove. Has anyone been to the Riverwoods since they renovated?  Super fun. It's more like the Gateway now. They have some great restaurants as well, including La Jolla Grove. It looks a little fancy schmancy, but the prices are really reasonable, the food is fabulous and the service is great! 

Mom and Dad. Good peeps.

Christmas Eve 2008

Sienna's first Christmas! Can't you see the excitement?

Uncle Brad & the boys Grandpa Hanson playing with the boys. Why spend money buying gifts when kids seem to be happier being pushed around in a box?! Some of the favorite white elephant gifts...We especially liked how the footie jammies had pleats in the back to make for a more fitted look Rob, Brad & Sienna chillin' in their jammies Dan and his "What does Yuletide mean anyway?" undies & his anti-monkey butt powder (and his favorite gift from Debi & Jared--his redskins belt buckle)Not the best picture of them, but I got these huge, rainbow-striped suspendersSienna and her two cousins--Tommy & Carter Carter after making chocolate reindeer cupcakes

December happenings...

These pics are from my work Christmas party. Wait, I probably haven't given a work update yet, have I? A good friend of mine from college, Kim Ryan, is a social worker for a Harmony Home Health & Hospice and she and the other social worker are pretty swamped, so she talked to her boss about hiring a part-time social worker to help out. I started about a month ago and so far it's been great. I work from home, the pay is good, and I schedule my own hours so it's super flexible. Dan's work is flexible too, so he's been able to take her to work for a morning every week, then between Dan's mom, sister-in-law and a couple of close friends the schedule is working out great. Although I hadn't worked in hospice before, I had worked in a skilled nursing facilitiy and also with cancer patients at UCI, so those jobs have really have helped with the learning curve! Our Christmas party was in downtown SLC at the Wells Fargo building, on the 23rd floor. It was really nice. We had Sienna with us and weren't prepared to hike all over temple square in the freezing cold, but we did a drive by. You can see I took a couple of pics of the temple (out of the sunroof!). Neither turned out great, but fun to see some of the lights!

Me & Kim

Sienna in her adorable Christmas dress (one of the FOUR my mom bought to choose from!)

The fam at the Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band Christmas Concert! We missed you Jeff, Carolyn and the boys and Nelly!

Just because she's cute


I went to dinner with some of my close girlfriends a few weeks ago to celebrate Christy's birthday (which was on November 17th). We ate at the Bohemian in Midvale--super tasty! Happy birthday, Christy! Love your guts! (I still can't believe it's been 13 years!)