New Year's Eve Day

For New Year's Day, we decided to do something fun with the kids.  Aunt Becky was still in town too!  So, we went to the very small, but very nice, Austin Zoo.  We hadn't been there in awhile and we thought that it would be a great way to bring in the New Year!  The first thing we did when we got there was ride the zoo train.  I love to see the looks on Sienna and Colton's faces when they get to do something they absolutely love!  It's just priceless.  After riding the train, we took our time walking around to look at all of the animals.  There was even a petting zoo section where Colton and Sienna got to feed some farm animals.  It turned out to be a perfect start to the New Year.

Standing next to the giant rooster.  My grandpa would have loved this (he loved roosters!)

When is that train coming?

There it is!

Let's get this thing moving!

Go choo choo!

One happy little girl!

Taking it all in...

Time to feed a goat!

More animals...

Such a sweet little boy!

And a sweet little girl!  How did we get so lucky!

What Sienna would look like if she was a duck.

Now Colton's turn!

Christmas 2011

We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas with our family this year!  Those who were able to, came together to make this Christmas a truly memorable one!  We couldn't have done it without MaMo, PawPaw, Becky, Grandma, and Grandpa.  We feel so blessed to have such special people in our lives!  I am going to let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Colton went straight to the train table and played for about an hour before even attempting to open more presents!

Sienna with one of her many barbie toys she got from Santa!

Finally, Colton realizes there is more stuff under the tree!

Presents from Daddy!  Can't go wrong with Star Wars!

Sharing a sweet hug with PawPaw!

Showing MaMo his new train!

Aunt Becky helps with the always challenging task of taking toys out of the box while Sienna supervises.

Cool puppy guitar.

The face of an angel!

All dressed up for Christmas Day!

You want me to what?

Trying to take a family picture.

But Sienna kept wanting to make funny faces.

Ok, this one is not so bad.

Now let's all be silly.

Sienna with her barbie a perfect christmas set.  It was the first toy on her wish list.

A sweet hug with Grandma.

Grandma and Grandpa got to bring Cohen with them to visit!

Two cute cousins.

Oh-oh, looks like trouble!

Christmas Program

Hurray for another cute school program!  Sienna and Colton were so excited about their school's Christmas program!  I think they felt like old pro's since they had already performed at their Thanksgiving program.  So, once again, all of the parents filed in to watch their little stars shine!  Camera's out, film rolling, and action!

Cute little rag dolls.

Colton gets to be a little soldier boy.

Dancing away.

Robots dance as Colton sits so still!

The group performs together!

Proud Daddy!

Teacher Christmas Craft Gifts

Since I have become a stay at home mom, I have really gotten into crafting on a budget!  So for Christmas this year, I sort of put a lot of different ideas together to come up with these cute little gifts for Sienna and Colton's amazing teachers!  I made the bookmarks by simply using some ribbon and flower embellishments - both bought at Hobby Lobby.  I then found some really cute journals at Michael's and just added the teacher's initial to the front cover.  The little buckets came from Target and then I just added a pen and some candy and the gifts were ready to go.  Actually, I added the candy in after I took the photos.  I think they came out really cute and it was just a small token of gratitude for all of the work these teachers do for my little ones!

Sienna insisted on posing with one of the gifts!

Sittin' on Santa's Lap!

So this year, we decided to start preparing Colton for Santa nice and early, in hopes that he wouldn't get scared like he did last year.  We talked about Santa endlessly and read lots and lots of Christmas books.  After saturating Colton with Santa this and Santa that, he began to say that he would sit on Santa's lap!  However, at Sienna's ballet performance, he ended up clinging to Daddy and eventually could only be coaxed into giving Santa a high five.  So, for our official visit with Santa, I finally settled on good old-fashioned bribery.  If Colton would sit on Santa's lap, then we would give him a candy cane.  I'm sure in his mind he was thinking, "A candy cane you say....well in that case, I suppose I can sit on his lap for a short while."  So, when our turn came up, he hunkered down and allowed us to sit him on Santa's lap.  I'm not going to say he was happy about it, but he did it without crying or reaching out for us.  He didn't exactly smile, but when Santa asked him if he wanted a choo choo train for Christmas, he said, "yes!"  Of course, our big girl Sienna was an old pro at sitting on Santa's lap and she sweetly recited her Christmas wish list to him.  This went on for about 10 minutes and Santa listened very intently to every word.  I'm going to say both of these kiddos made the nice list this year!

Looks like Sienna's coming out of a story book!

Colton too!

Very serious!

Sienna begins discussing her wish list with Santa!

Sienna still going over her wish list!

Sweet girl!

Colton is wondering, "Are we done now?"

Enjoying their candy canes!