THE Zebra Party!

 So it's been a week now since Sienna's Zebra Party and I think we have finally recovered from too much fun:) Sienna had so much fun celebrating with all of her friends and family. With a pony and bounce house, I know Sienna knew she was pretty important. At one point, I got a little worried that she thought she was keeping the pony but she said good bye to "Princess" easily... Here is a couple pics of the bash. I felt like I barely got any pictures...

I love this picture! Grammy and Scarlett sharing a good laugh.

The cousins on the New Trampoline (The girls are on this everyday!)

Scarlett does not understand why she can't ride the new bike

I think I was more into this than the kids:)

Scarlett cooking up some food with her friends

Scarlett would not go near the pony until the very end when it was leaving.

Princess the Pony (hehe)

This girl loves her food....

Hubby and his broken ankle:(

"I do NOT want to take anymore pictures!"

She rode this pony more than I could count and if she wasn't riding it, she was petting it and talking sweetly to it...

The spread

Scarlett trying out Sienna's "Whistling Lips"

A girl can never have too many Cinderella dresses

That being said, I have to say thank you to all my family for letting me boss them around taking on all my "projects" and thank you to all my friends for making Sienna feel like the most important little girl on the planet. God has blessed us with unbelievable friends and family:)

Happy Birthday Sienna

Sienna turns 4 today! I can't believe it has been four years since we became parents for the first time. (tear..) I try to reassure Hubby that I won't be "that" mom blubbering in the hall when she goes to school, goes to her first dance, starts driving... but even as I type I know that 16 years from now I'll be telling people "I can't believe my BABY is 20!" with tears in my eyes. Ok, so a while ago I heard the idea of writing a letter to your child every year on their birthday and since I have this blog I thought this would a great place to save it. So, Sienna this is for you...


 Dear Sienna,
Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I wanted to write you a short note to let you know how special you are. We are so proud of the young girl you are becoming. Here are a few things that I just love about you right now: when we cuddle up to read a book and I have to peer over your big bouncy curls and you have to constantly remind me not to put my fingers over the pictures, how you will tell me you love me for no reason as we are doing something simple like getting out of the car, you are always learning and teaching new things to your sister and us, and of course I love that you think if you cover your face that no one can see you as you sneak out of your bed or past "unsuspecting" friends/family. Along with all the sweet things you do I will always love your laugh, hugs, knock knock jokes, original songs and dances and every little piece of you! Your Dad and I know that great things are going to happen in your life and we are excited to watch you grow into a beautiful woman. I hope today was as special as you are. We love everything you are and everything you will become.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Good Bye October

We have had a blast celebrating Halloween this entire month. It has seemed like Halloween was a two week long holiday around here. Since Sienna has an extensive dress-up wardrobe, the girls were able to wear a different costume to every event:) The girls had a nice entourage for trick-or-treating with Mimi,Pop, Papa, Cookie and of course Jil, Patrick, Baby Kinley and Best Buddy Jackson! Anyways, here are a few of their ensembles.... Sienna was also Pocahontas and a fairy but I'm lucky to get the pictures I have.

Super Helper

Big Baby in a Little Stroller

The Cinderella Sisters

Though she looks like she is taking credit for this, she told us that "she was not touching the pumpkin" and that we could "just surprise her' 

OMG! Who is this tall little girl? This is Fancy Nancy. Sienna loves these books and looks just like her!

What a great end to a great night!

Good times

These past couple weeks have been so great! In my last post I was talking about the chaos that is my girls but right now they are just the cutest little best friends. Scarlett is finally feeling better and is so happy and giggly all the time. Sienna is always wanting to hold her hand, share toys with her and play with her. Don't get me wrong they still manage to get into trouble.. (Tupperware all over kitchen, standing on everything, streaming toilet paper throughout the house....) but I'm glad they are enjoying each other for the moment.

 

The Latest and Greatest of Big S and Little S

Scarlett is into: dancing everywhere, standing on the bathroom stool and brushing her teeth, her belly button, headstands, standing on anything tall, serving everyone tea from Sienna's tea cart.

Sienna is into: having a baby...(no I'm not pregnant) She talks  all the time how "we need to have another baby" and "What should we name our new baby?", singing, party planning, cruising on her scooter, solving mysteries, and inserting herself into adult conversations like she knows what is going on:) Hubby and I will be talking about something funny we saw and she will start laughing and say "Oh yea that was funny" even though she has no idea what we said.

 Big Adventures for Mommy and Daddy

Last weekend, Hubby and I went to our alma mater to see a football game. We had so much fun reminissing about the city we met in:) The amazing Mimi and Pop watched the girls. (Thanks Mom!) Hopefully my little angels didn't pull out all their tricks on them.

This weekend, Super Hubby watched the girls as I went on a mini girls trip. I think the girls had too much fun and are going to be begging for Daddy tomorrow when we go back to our usually routine. I know they were happy to have me home but I had to peel them off of him just to say hi. Other than the stress of discovering the car needed a new battery with hungry girls and groceries in the car, Hubby said they had a blast. Sienna told me "Mom, the car just went click, click, click and we just couldn't get our starter going but it's ok because we ate mini salami in the car and Mimi came!" Hahaha ok:)

Have a great week and thanks for reading!!

Watch out! Here comes the Koller girls!

You know in cartoons when dogs and cats get into fights and its just a ball of dust flying with a few random paws sticking out every once in a while? That's how I've been feeling lately with the girls. With Scarlett shrieking her every demand and Sienna negotiating her way through the day, I'm barely able to complete a sentence. I'm sure the girls pediatrician thinks I'm losing it since I kept saying "Can you write that down?" while he was talking to me about Scarlett's latest ear infection. Now where did I put his notes that he wrote down... Ok well as loud and crazy as they are, these girls just amaze me on a regular basis. Scarlett is 15 months now (going on 3) and Sienna is going to be 4 in just a few weeks! EEK!

We have been busy traveling lately. We went to Dallas two weeks in a row to visit family. Unfortunately, it was the best I could do to just get the girls to sit still for a couple pictures. Sorry there isn't any of the family we visited!! It's so sweet to see how much the girls love ALL their family members. Sienna can tell me a story/experience about every person in our family.

"Explorer Pack" AKA fanny pack for the Austin Nature Center:)

Where are Scarlett's clothes? Why is she all wet? Where did she get those glamorous shoes? Welcome to my life:)

Sienna is relaxing and Scarlett is planning some sort of disaster as they watch Cousin Zach's soccer practice.

"Ah! Let's just go already!" (Dallas Arboretum)

Ha! This was Sienna's idea of posing in the pumpkins...

So this picture sums up our world right now... Sienna can't be bothered with family pictures and Scarlett cannot be confined to a quiet lap.

Hey thighs!

I turned around to find her half way up the 'rock wall' at the park. Great!

Sweet Sienna

Sweeeeeet Scarlett

listening to Big Tex at the State Fair.

Elephant ride at the state fair. Also first of three rides that had wet seats that Sienna had to find out the hard way.

I didn't try this but it was only because everyone was walking too fast!

cousins at the fair

Our fair trip ended with lots of rain but the girls thought that was awesome and Sienna loved her new "rain bag"

Happy Lil' Pumpkin

Running out of pumpkin patch enthusiasm...

I love these girls more than words! We are blessed!

Catching up with the crew

So everyday (um yea a lot), I have several blogs that I read. They vary from sewing/crafts, coupons, friends and just random but I rarely ever stop to think about MY blog. I have to be more consistent with this!! Just now I clicked on the link to my old blog and almost cried to see how fast life is flying by... (sniffle) Here is the link I was looking at. Where has the time gone?
 
wordpress blog 2010

Now back to the present! We have been busy busy lately. The girls and I are going to a bible study every Thursday morning. They both go to a preschool/ toddler class. Scarlett is warming up to playing without me but Sienna is LOVING it. She talks all week long about 'school' and the books they read, songs they sing and of course the My Little Ponies they have to play with. I'm so proud of her! I'm sure if you have been around me for more than five minutes, you have heard me talk about our nightly visits from Sienna. Well, (knock on wood) I think she has figured out that her full size bed is much better than three people in our queen. Yay, no more frizzy curls in the face or elbows to the side!! Speaking of growing up, it hit me this week that Scarlett is a toddler. After breaking down sobbing to Hubby about the ever increasing volume and demands coming from Scarlett, I realized that she is not the little baby she was. If Scarlett can tear it, climb it, pour it, push it or eat it, she does. As Sienna says, "She's nuts! Let's call her Acorns!" Here are a few pics of our latest adventures...


We had a little camping playdate with a few friends. That night we attempted to camp out in the backyard but that turned into a living room camp out.

Scarlett's camera face!

The cousins go marching two by two

We just got home from a fun weekend at Lake Whitney! Along with Grammy, Pops, Aunt J, Uncle D and the girls' awesome cousins, we had a blast. We stayed in a house that was surrounded in thick trees and perched on a hill. The little ones had so much fun going on "adventures" around the perimeter of the house with their flashlights, binoculars and magnifying glasses. We made smores (which I think was more exciting for Aunt J and I than for the kids) and played flashlight games. The lake was perfect since it had a soft sand beach and little waves for the kids to play in. We even took out a pontoon boat but the wind was so strong it made it seem like we were in the middle of the ocean. If you ask Sienna about the boat all she'll tell you was that a BIG wave came and washed everything away in the boat! This was just such a neat trip because it was so many "first" for all of us. Scarlett hasn't ever played at the beach and built sand castles. She thought was pretty cool until she ate a huge bite and blamed Hubby for her poor choice. As I sit here and look a the pile of laundry and stuff I have to unpack, I'm wishing we could just go back:)

Oddly enough when we cam home we were greeted with the strong smell of campfire. Wild fires have been popping up all around our city. Everything seems contained surrounding us but there is still a big threat in many areas. Instead of coming home to relax, Hubby was rushing around preparing to work at the shelters the school sets up. He didn't have to go last night but just the anxiety of the unknown was exhausting... With the winds calming down today, I think things will cool off.