More Practice

I've been making more cakes lately. It is a lot of fun but I definitely have a lot of practicing to do. It is exciting though because these are the first two cakes that I am getting paid for. My friend offered to be my first client for her son's 1st birthday party. I don't think they're worth paying for yet but she insisted. I have another cake to make this weekend for a birthday at Matt's work. I'm having fun and learning as I go.

This is a dinosaur cake for Owen. I hope he likes it.

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This cake is for his cousin. She is turning 1 too.

This is what Sienna did while I was decorating the cakes. She was so good for me this morning. She made a HUGE mess but we were having fun. After all, I was making a mess too.

She ate string cheese, black beans, a banana, a few animal cookies, and a chocolate chip cookie. Yes, in addition to baking 2 cakes and a pan of cupcakes, I also made chocolate chip cookies. Matt and I didn't want cake so I made cookies!! They are the best. This isn't the best time to get interested in baking. We'll see how it is catching up to me at my doctor appointment tomorrow.

This was after her bath. Sienna loves climbing on this. She had fun with her puppy while I cleaned up the kitchen.

This is a random picture from a couple days ago but I love her new Pj's from a friend. We'll save them for Utah in a couple weeks because it isn't really long sleeve weather here.

She is leaning in to give Matt a kiss.

Sienna

Sienna and I are having a girls' day out today. I have a relief society fiesta tonight but I am going to take her with me so Matt can work late and help his team meet their monthly goals. I think Sienna will have fun playing with the other kids.

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I am also very happy with Sienna right now because we went to lunch this afternoon with some friends. I wasn't quite up to going to lunch today, especially because my friend really wanted Babes. Don't get me wrong, I love Babes, it is just so greasy (the only menu options are fried chicken or chicken fried steak), plus it is kind of expensive for lunch. We decided to go anyway because I haven't seen this friend in quite awhile. I was also hesitant to go because eating out with Sienna is not always the most enjoyable experience. She is usually happy but won't stay still. She stands up in the high chair and wants to be held the entire time. Pretty much, if I was going to spend over 10$ for lunch, I wanted to enjoy it, not wrestle my 1 year old the whole time (not to mention my friend's 1 year old and almost 3 year old). Okay, so we went to lunch and Sienna was an angel! She really was so well behaved and even ate a lot of food for me. She didn't try to get out of her high chair once. She ate all of her raisins, some mashed potatoes, her fruit snacks, a couple of her cookies, and even some chicken fried steak. Our waitress came up to us and commented on what a sweet girl Sienna was. It was so wonderful. She didn't even leave a big mess on the floor like usual either. I thought I was dreaming, she did so well. I felt bad though because both of my friend's daughters were not as happy. Oh well, that's the gamble of going out to eat with kids. I just got lucky and won the lottery this afternoon. We'll see if my good luck lasts through tonight.

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To make things even better, Sienna's great mood continued when we got home. This is her dancing in her new birthday dress from Aunt Allie and Uncle Bryan. She has turned into such a character. I wish I had video of her dancing for you.

After playing for a few minutes, she grabbed her blanket (bank - ee) and cuddled up to it saying, "nigh nigh." She has recently found a love for blankets. Not any specific one, which is nice because I think she has 50+ blankets. We haven't even used most of them.

I'm not going to argue with her asking to go to bed. I said, "Sienna, where's your puppy?" She sleeps with her puppy for every nap and at night time. She was so excited to get her "daw" and go "nigh nigh." She fussed a couple times when I actually put her in her crib but was asleep within a minute.

OUCH

Sienna and I were playing outside the other day with some friends and we had a fall. It was so sad. Sienna was walking through the garage and I wanted her to step down onto the driveway by herself. She made it over the first little ledge but tripped on the second. She fell face forwardand caught herself with her nose. I felt horrible because I was so close and still couldn't catch her. We went inside to put some neosporin on it and within minutes she was out chasing bubbles again.

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What a trooper. Sorry sweetheart.

Crazy Day

We didn't do very much for Easter but it was a great weekend. Today is going to be a crazy day and I am just hoping that I can get everything done that we have planned. We have some guys coming this morning to fix our back door (it leaks during storms), then we have Sienna's 1 year old doctor appointment, then we have to head into Fort Worth to pick up our plates for the van. I also have to make it to Costco and then to the mall to get some birthday gifts for friends and family. My biggest worry is getting everything with the van taken care of. I got pulled over Friday because I didn't have the sticker I needed but the cop let me go because I had all the paper work and inspection ready and was on my way to get it done. Unfortunately, being Good Friday, the DMV was closed. I am so nervous I am going to get a ticket today because our temporary plate expired on Friday. Wish me luck.

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Enjoying being outside. It was such a beautiful weekend.

Party With Grandpa Dan

Happy Birthday Sienna! I know we have celebrated earlier this week but today is the actual anniversary of the birth of our beautiful daughter, Sienna. This has honestly been the best and most rewarding year of my life. I can't imagine life without her.

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Sienna was so lucky to have Grandpa Dan come and see her on her special day. He was in the area for work and it just so happened to be on her birthday. He got in late last night and Sienna had such a great time with him. It was too bad that he had to leave this morning after just one night of playing. Sienna was so sad when he was leaving and kept walking up to him with her arms out for him to pick her up. It was so cute.
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Of course, grandma sent presents even though she couldn't come herself.

She was so curious as to what she just opened with grandpa.

It is a lawn mower that sings and makes all sorts of different noises. Unfortunately, it is also one of those toys that "pops" as you push it. Do you remember those from when you were a kid? Anyway, this toy has already been hidden in the other room as it was quickly voted one of the loudest toys EVER. We actually love it but after so long, it needed a timeout.

We went to Mimi's for breakfast before grandpa had to take off. Matt went into work a couple hours late so he could join us. Isn't Sienna's outfit adorable? That was another gift from her grandma and aunties.

Sienna loves balls. While watching the BYU game last night, she kept pointing to the TV and saying, "ball, ball, ball" and clapping. She also says, "oo ball" for football. She loves "oo balls" and has them in the tub with her when she takes a bath.

Getting some reading in before we had to say goodbye. Sienna became very attached to grandpa very quickly.

Oh, I made another cake. What have I gotten myself into? Okay, I chose to make this cake but it wore me out. It is for a friend's Catholic baptism tomorrow and since it was Easter, we made a bunny. It was a lot of fun but it took forever.

Doesn't the candy make it look so cute? We actually like how our cake turned out better than the cake that was on display at Williams & Sanoma.

3 cakes in a week has been a lot of work and a big mess. I think I'll take a few days off but I am really enjoying learning new techniques and getting more practice. I'm always nervous or disappointed with the cake when it is first started but I have been very satisfied with the final products so far. Hopefully, we'll continue to get better.

This is my good friend Lauren. She helped me decorate the bunny today for our friend Dyan. It was a long day and the poor kids were so tired and grumpy, but we really have a great time doing it. As you can see, I just need to stop eating so much cake! I can't believe I am almost 6 months (5 1/2 really). CRAZY!

Our Serious Little Girl

I was so excited to take Sienna for her 1 year pictures because she is so energetic and hyper all of the time. NOT THIS MORNING! In fact, my friend in the ward that took the pictures asked, "is she always so serious? I never see her smile." I was so sad because she is always smiling, laughing, and dancing. Some of the pictures still came out really pretty but I am just so frustrated that she wouldn't smile. Matt is definitely going next time to help get her to smile. I am excited to go back to Becky though, she has a great studio and Sienna just had an off day, I guess. Maybe it was my fault because of the time of day we went. Usually, it would have been the perfect time but she woke up a little earlier than usual and probably needed a nap at that time. Oh well, she is still beautiful.

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Please let me know what ones are your favorite. I am lost on what to do with these pictures.
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I love this picture. I still wish she would smile but I love the dress and flowers.

Cute!

Matt and I call this her "Ella look."

Pretty, Pretty

Grumpy Girl

This pose didn't work out very well. She kept walking away from the stairs.

She sat still after giving her a teddy bear. Why in the world did I forget her puppy or stuffed animals that sing and dance? They would have made her smile and shake her groove thing. Stupid mom.

Matt hates naked baby pictures. I'm actually not a big fan either, but I love her big eyes here.

This had so much potential.

Finally, a SMILE! I am in love with this picture.

I got her doing patty-cake and that got a couple little smiles, but it also got her hands in the air doing the motions.

Iconic Sienna face. We call this her "Cole face." It's one of my favorites. It makes me laugh every time.

I had to include this picture to bother Matt.

I thought this turned out cute.

Happy Birthday to Me! I love her red hair in these pictures.

Early Birthday Party For Sienna

We weren't going to do anything for Sienna's birthday because she's only one...but we had a cake to eat. We had some friends from work come over tonight for cake and ice-cream. It was a lot of fun. Before the party started, Sienna spent a lot of time (literally all day - again!) with Benjamin. These two are so funny and play extremely well together. We are loving every minute with the Davis family.

They are hilarious together. Today they were playing little games and teasing each other. It is funny to see how their minds work. Sienna would push Ben and he would jump out of the way so she'd fall and then they would laugh and chase each other around.

Of course the day before we are getting pictures done, Sienna falls into the corner of the desk and gets a big bruise/scratch down the middle of her forehead.

Maybe they are becoming too good of friends.

Here is a picture of Sienna when I finally decided to get her dressed for the day (at about 4pm). Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Birthday Gramma-Gramma.

Trying to take everything in while the rest of the kids were playing.

Sienna was more interested in attacking the cake then she was blowing out the candle.

" Hmmm, this looks fun?"

She started off slowly, but that didn't last long.

She really didn't eat any of her cake. Instead, she would crumble hand fulls and throw it everywhere. She did however love eating the ice-cream.

She got a quick bath and then we opened presents.

She didn't care to sit still to open her gifts so she took some markers and went to play.

Dancing and showing off her moves for everyone to see.

This was the best. We decided to put all the kids together for a picture before people went home. Ben start crying which triggered Sienna and Kyla (4 months) completely losing it. As for Pierce (3 months) and Preston (2 months), they were just chilling in the corner wondering what was wrong with everyone else.

Handsome boys! Preston (left) and Pierce (right). Pierce is Lauren's baby that has undergone heart surgery but he is doing so well.

This is Jessie. She left before the disasterous picture. Isn't she adorable?