Sienna's latest

Sienna's favorite activity right now is coloring. Her favorite expression is "I color. I color" and will repeat it over and over again until you get out the crayons. We even had to bring up her little table and chairs so she had a safe place to color. (instead of the floor like the pictures below) Once the first tile got colored on we put a stop on that.

Hard at work

She loves to lay down and color. Too bad she's only allowed to color on the table now.

Little Miss Independent decided she wanted to carry our leftovers home. As we were gathering up all of our bags to leave the restaurant, she grabs the shopping bag with the food that's as big as she is. She carried the bag all the way through the restaurant (only falling once), through the Galleria, through Creative Kid Stuff and would have kept going to the car but I insisted on carrying her. She still held onto the bag while in my arms.

About halfway through she figured out it was much easier to drag it.

Here's a short video of Sienna shopping with her bag. Sorry it's sideways. I don't have any software to turn it.

Indecision

Where do kids pick up the things they say? I love it. Listen to this one.



If you didn't understand here's what she said.
S: Chair!!
M: Sienna, what do you want for a snack later?
S: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Gogar
M: Yogurt?
S: Yeah

Anytime you ask her a question like that she'll say ummmmm and think for awhile. A lot of times ummmm is her only answer. So funny.

Happy Birthday Ariana!

Amazing how fast 1 year goes. I remembering a year ago running over my lunch break to go visit my new niece. I was so excited. And now she's already one! Last Sunday, Cari & Greg threw her a small party. In typical 1 year old fashion, the birthday girl was so excited for her party she woke up early that day and had to take an early nap, missing the first part of her party. We celebrated anyways.

Sienna, Nana, & Grandpa waiting for Ariana to wake up.

The Birthday Girl!!

She had more interest in the bows than the actual presents and unwrapping.

Mmmm frosting.

Yeah, it's pretty good stuff.

Love this one. She did a good job chowing on her cake and then fell into a food coma.

Spring Break

This year was a spring break for the books. 80s. In March. In Minnesota. Unheard of!! (literally, we set a lot of records!) March to me usually means days that are still too cold and way too much snow when you are yearning to feel some warm sun on your face. This weekend we got a taste of summer. It was so wonderful. We spent every extra minute in the day outside. I have no idea how long it will last but I'm happy to even get a small taste. Sienna spent a lot of time playing with her cozy coup car, getting reacquainted with the neighbor kids, and chasing after Conner outside. Justin even got to start putting up our deck!

Since I had Friday off, Sienna and I met Nana for lunch where we got to sit outside.

Saturday we met up with friends at a park. Spill and fill kept this toddler busy busy.

And there was a moment. They all held hands with hardly any prompting. Mallory in the lead with all the little ones trying to keep up. BFFs in the making?

Such cuties

Picture Updates

What did we do before our phones had cameras on them? So great since I seem to never have my actual camera on me at the right moments. Here's some highlights from the past couple weeks.

Ariana showing how she can use her walk behind toy. And one handed no less. She's going to be going on her own in no time. Big birthday coming up too!!

Sienna loving her new baby stroller. An actual baby doll has yet to ride in it, but puppy, the remote, coasters, and random other toys have all had their turn.

Big brute thinking that since she has a shopping cart at home to push, she can do the same at the store. She was able to push both of these carts. I was amazed. Glad Menards has big aisles. 

Had a few sips of Mom's Shamrock Shake. 

She's a fan already. How can you not be? 

Still loves to read her books. 

Great Conversations

Everyday on the way home from daycare, Sienna and I have the same conversation. It is one of my favorite moments of the day and it always makes me laugh.

Me: How was your day today?
Sienna: Good!
M: What did you do?
S: Addie!!! (Maddie)
M: You played with Maddie?
S: Yeah! Buh bye.
M: You said good bye to Maddie.
S: Yeah. Puppy, puppy.
M: Puppy's in your chair. What else did you do?
S: UKER!!! (Luker)
M: You played with Luker?
S: YEAH!! BUH BYE!  (voice gets louder with every comment)
M: Yes, you said good bye to Luke.
S: YEAH!!!!! (laughs) GO! GOOO!!
M: I'm going. What else:
S: I-YAI!!! (Eli)
M: You played with Eli?
S: YEAAHHH!! BUH BYE!
M: Whose your favorite?
S: (thinks for a moment) BIITTTAAAA!!!!

And then we are home. I love the randomness of it and how she knows all of her friends. Sometimes we get a few others in there too but those 3 are always mentioned. Today she even fit in Owen and Gabbie before we made it home.

Cross it off the list!

Justin has been on a handyman kick lately. Thanks to pinterest (again), I saw this idea where you go around every room of the house and write down all the things you want to fix. Since our house is pretty new we don't have many items to fix. Instead it turned into a long list of projects for each room, some decorating and cleaning too. The list seems to have motivated both of us. Love checking stuff off! 

This weekend Justin put a back splash up in our basement bathroom. It's very pretty blue glass tiles. Looks great in the room and really finishes it off. 

He also started a much bigger project in our kitchen. This is how it used to look.

And this is how it looks right now. (Ignore my messy table) 

Definitely a work in progress! Every time I explained the project, people were having a hard time picturing it, so here it is.  First, he tore out the 2 windows and the sliding glass door. Then he put up drywall where the windows used to be. Once it's complete the drywall will be painted and the trim will go back up around the door frame. It really changes the look of both rooms by separating them more yet opens up the house. Hopefully it'll be done in a couple weeks!

Ulfers Girls

We had a play date with my roommate from college, Rachel, and her 2 girls Ellerie and Adelyn. Ellerie is 3.5 and Adelyn is about a week younger than Sienna! Fun to see all their similarities and differences being so close in age. It's hard to get a good picture of 3 little ones running around, so here's the best we could do.

Crayon sharing/stealing

Such concentration on their coloring.

Crafting

Thanks to Pinterest (my new addiction) I figured out what to do with all my old photo Christmas cards! It was a super easy craft project, plus I had another excuse to use my new Cricut. I hole punched all of the cards, made a cover for each year, and then put them together with a binder ring. Now I can display them every year!

I discovered that I had photo cards dating all the way back to 2004. It was pretty fun to look through all the old ones. I also had all the cards we sent out for every year except 2007. So if anyone has that year and doesn't want it, I'd love a copy!

Winter Weekend Days

The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer but it's still not quite there yet. Here's how we've been spending our winter weekends.

We play with our kitty and make her pretty.

We call Nana, Grandpa, Papa, Bita, and anyone else we can name.

We practice say cheese.

We get kisses and tickles from our puppy.

We have to run and see every picture Mama takes.

We try to pose with Daddy without success. 

(Not sure who is harder to get a good picture of)