It's a .....

Well, I had my first ultrasound yesterday (Surprise! to those of you who didn't know. We haven't been spreading the word too far), and we've definitely got another girl! I am so excited! I really wanted Siena to have a little sister who was close in age, but I didn't dare get my hope up, so I was planning for the worst (a boy)- JUST KIDDING!
Anyway, we are thrilled to be having another girl. The official due date is March 23, My mom and Danny's birthday, so that is exciting!
The funniest part of the ultrasound was the faces she kept pulling. She kept staring straight at the camera, making pig faces (I'm not sure how to explain it, but I swear she looked JUST like a little piggy. It kinda freaked me out and I might have even screamed a tiny bit.... And she would give the "one eye" and then she put her hands together in front of her, like she was trying to yank the umbilical cord. A few minutes later, she was opening and closing her mouth really fast like she was gnawing something (better not be the umbilical cord). I can tell, this girl's already got a TON of personality! The image above is a 3-D image of the face. Below, she's giving us the "one eye". A little creepy, but just in time for Halloween, I guess. Hopefully she turns out to be a little cuter when she comes out!










I swear she is smiling in this one above! I love it!

Fondue Fun

A few people from my grad cohort got together a couple weeks ago for a lovely fondue party. We had both cheese and chocolate fondue, and had a lovely time!

First Hair cut

Siena got her first hair cut on Sunday morning. I can't believe how much more grown up she looks now!

Farm Country

S loast week we got a couple days off work for Fall Break andThad got the whole week off school, but they loaded him up with assignments, so it wasn't really a week off. We took Siena to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point because she is such an aniumal lover. We had a fun time feeding the goats, checking out the birds, she rode a pony, went for a hayride and we even watched them milk a cow! Siena was in hog heaven ;)

Elena's visit

My friend Elena from Moldova came to visit us in Provo this past weekend for General Conference. We had a great time together. She is currently living in Chicago and made arrangements to take the train back (33 hours). The train was supposed to come through Provo to pick her up at 4 am this morning. We left at 3:30, and when there was still no train after 4:30, we called Amtrak to see what was up. He informed us that the train was running about an hour late, and that since Provo was an unmanned station, they would only allow her 2 carry-on bags rather than the 5 bags she was told (which is allowed at a real station). She had 5 bags, but we decided to wait it out anyway. Only after another hour of waiting at that insane hour in the morning and having a deaf homeless guy keep approaching us, asking what time it was, where we were going, and asking for money, and my insatiable hunger (I have to eat within an hour or so of being awake at ALL times), and Elena's mother nature call, and realizing they probably weren't going to let her on with her 5 bags anyway, we finally gave up and came home. I was almost late for work. It's always hard for me to get out of bed, but this morning after such little sleep, my body felt like the weight of an elephant and I just didn't have the strength to get out of bed. I barely made it on time for my early meeting this morning!
Anyway, Elena is a great photographer and took some photos of us, so enjoy!
Oh, and Siena's favorite new thing is to put something over her head or face and walk around. She thinks it's hilarious when she bumps into things because she can't see where she's going. Pretty funny!

Dressing up

When Siena goes to the babysitter's, she LOVES playing with the daughter's dress-up jewelry. She also loves shoes. I can't believe she's starting so young! The boy in the picture is her first kiss. She likes to give him random kisses when he is sitting on the floor playing. He thinks it is hilarious! (He is 4 yrs old and loves her!)

Camping

This is one of the few times we have gone camping in our married life (Thad's not huge on sleeping on the hard floor, etc), and we had a blast, with the Jones and Horn families. The food was excellent, company great and we played fun games. Only downside: Siena screamed (not cried, mind you, but a full-out scream) until 4 am. Dang, that girl is stubborn! And it turns out that lately, she doesn't like to sleep anywhere but her own crib at night. Besides that, great time!

Siena Pie

Here are some pics of my little Siena Pie I took this morning. She has really been working on her signs lately, and has started saying a few words, like mama, dada, nana (banana), ball, me me me!, etc. She is really consistent with signing "please", and we are working on "Thank you" and "all done".
She's also learned how to blow kisses, and I gotta say, this girl is an eater! If anyone is eating, she's gotta have some, and she is not afraid to go up to complete strangers and beg. She'll just go up and say "mmmm!!!" and follow them around until they give her some of whatever they've got. Sometimes she gets even a little more aggressive with mom, and digs her fingers in my mouth to personally inspect what I am eating, and try it for herself. Too funny!

Portland

I can't remember if I already blogged about my trip to Portland with my sister a couple months ago, to visit some of my favorite cousins or not, but I stole these pics off my sister's blog, so I figured I may as well use them.
We were planning on moving to Portland this summer (Vancouver, WA, actually), because that's where Thad got in to law school, then last minute (about 3 weeks ago), we got that call from University of Utah, accepting Thad to law school right here in Utah! We are so proud of him! So a week and a half ago, we moved out of our little home into my mom's place. Which has been awesome, except that she moved on Tuesday to Washington DC for awhile (at least a couple months). Although I should say, Thad had surgery on his ffot (had a bone spur removed) and has been in a cast and on crutches for 3 or 4 weeks now, so moving was a BIG challenge without his help (of course, he was a great supervisor and let everyone know where things should go).
Last week, we closed on the house, so the timing was really perfect for us! I also started working last week, and Thad started his orientation meetings this week, so life has been pretty busy!

Suprise Birthday!

My mom and sis planned a huge surprise birthday for me this year with the coolest theme ever-- "Around the world in 30 years". The best part was that it focused more on the cool international theme and less on the age. I had no idea they were planning this for me!
Everyone wore international clothing and brought an international dish. We had the most amazing buffet dinner. For decorations, there was a huge map with pompoms glued on to every country I have visited, and the name and flags of all these countries printed off, decorating the room, as well as cool souvenirs that we have picked up in various countries over the years. Everyone signed a huge birthday card which turned out to be the back of a map. So cool! The cake had a huge globe on it and said "Around the world in 30 years" around the globe. Thanks Meliss!
Everyone put a lot of work into it. It was the coolest party ever! Thanks everyone who planned/helped out/attended!
Oh, and the next night (my actual birthday), we happened across some of my old Strawberry Shortcake pajamas that we had to dress Siena up in, so I am including a pic of that as well.

Fossil Hunting & Thistle

Yesterday we went for a road trip with our friends, the Horns, through Spanish Fork canyon to do some fossil hunting. Thad found a couple of awesome shells, I found a grasshopper-looking fish thing, and my friend Christie found a perfectly formed (and fossilized) fish along with some plants and other unidentifiable but definitely authentic fossils. Thad even found some mud along the way! What good explorers!
On the way back, we stopped at the ghost town of Thistle. It was destroyed in 1983 when there was a huge mudslide that dammed up the river that flooded the town. The floors of the houses are still under water!

Siena's Many birthday celebrations

The first celebration was a cousin's dinner at Uncle Larry and Aunt Raili's last Sunday (they always have a gathering each fast Sunday of the month to celebrate the birthdays that month). So that's when Siena got to try cake for the first time. Actually, on that one, she was more interested in the strawberries. She grabbed a strawberry in one hand, some frosting in the other, mixed them together and went for it! This girl know what she likes!

These pictures are from Siena's birthday party on Saturday, where a bunch of friends got together and we had a grand time, playing "hot bug" (like hot potato, but with a giant ladybug ball), we had a cake walk, and we played put the spot on the ladybug. My sister Melissa helped me make the ladybug cupcakes (thanks, Meliss!), and we had lots of fruit and ladybugs on a log (with craisins on celery with peanut butter). Siena really liked her ladybug cupcake, once she figured out what it was and what she wass supposed to do with it, but her favorite part was seeing everyone gathered around her as she opened up the presents. She kept waving at everybody and clapping! I'd say that overall, the party was a big hit!