"Enna's Pretties"

A couple of months ago Sienna noticed that my toes were painted and that I had a flower on them. She got very excited and started pointing at her toes and saying "Enna's pretties". I didn't think that Sienna would be able to sit for very long, but she surprised me, and when we were done we only had one smeared toe.


Yesterday morning she decided she wanted her "Pretties" done again, so I got out the nail polish. When I started drying them with my hair dryer she insisted that she be the one to dry her "Pretties".

What do you think? Not bad for someone who isn't a professional? Oh, and yesterday she decided that she wanted a yellow heart on her "pretties" too. If you look close you can see it.

Look who turned 2

My baby girl is no longer a baby. This last week she turned two years old! I can't believe it has been two years since we brought her home.



We celebrated her birthday with two parties. First we had a party with our friends and Sienna's birth family. We chose the hottest day in May during the hottest part of the day to have her party. Luckily our friend Crystal let us borrow her backyard and a kiddie pool to stay cool.



We were glad Sienna's birth mom and birth family could make it to the party. Sienna preferred to spend time with us rather than splash in the pool.



Sienna played with her friends Katerina and Allisandro in the shade.



She shared hugs with her friend Araia.



She opened presents . . .



ate lunch and then had cake. Thanks Leilani for making such a beautiful and delicious cake!



Sienna was ready to sing Happy Birthday. She has been watching the video of Kapri and Hayden's birthday for a month now so when everyone starting singing she joined right in.



Time to blow out the candles.



Mmmmm that cake was good!



Then this past Monday, on Memorial Day we were able to celebrate Sienna's birthday again with family. It was actually Grandma Judy's birthday but they shared a party together.

Sienna was so excited to open more presents.

After a very good lunch we sang happy birthday and opened presents.

We swam in the pool for awhile, but most of that is on video and will have to be added later.



Sienna showed Uncle Jerry and Aunt Kim that she is 2 years old.

Sienna was so happy playing with Cousins and all her Aunts and Uncles. Thank you for spoiling her with love and presents!

Visiting Cousins

Sienna and I were able to visit Joyce, Caleb, Dallin and Blake in Utah last week. We had so much fun visiting with them and I loved watching Sienna play with her cousins. She followed her cousins around and did everything they did.



Joyce and her family live on a ranch south of Provo, with lots of land, horses, goats and the mountains surrounding them.



Caleb, Dallin and Sienna played in the yard, jumped on the trampoline, and climbed trees. I didn't get a picture of Sienna on the trampoline, but she loved it. She said "One more" to her cousins after they played "Ring a Ring a Rosies" on the trampoline.



One of the days we went up to Thanksgiving point to see the animals and to see the Tulips. There was a Tulip Festival earlier that month and we felt lucky to have caught the last of the Tulips. They were beautiful.



One of my favorite things to photograph besides children is flowers. These tulips were everywhere in Utah.







Sienna loved feeding the cow and riding the horse.



On another day we had fun at the park,



and enjoyed feeding the ducks. I can't tell you how hard it was to get a picture of Sienna feeding the ducks. Who ever heard of ducks that don't want to be fed. These ducks swam away every time we tried to feed them.



Caleb and Dallin had soccer games this week so we went to cheer them on. They did wonderful.



Meet the future soccer players. I think Blake is planning on being a goalie.



I hope Sienna learns to stay on her feet while she plays.



Thanks Joyce for showing us a great time. We had so much fun and Sienna can't stop talking about her cousins Cabub, Dalwin, and baby Blake.

Birth Mother's Day

Today as we celebrate Mother's Day I can't help but be grateful to the woman who so selflessly helped me become a mother. It is not widely known, except maybe in the adoption world, that the Saturday before Mother's Day is Birth Mother's Day. I found this video clip on another blog and I thought I would share it.



Steve and I have been blessed to have an open adoption with Sienna's birth mom. We send e-mails and visit with her. We know at first many people did not understand our reason for keeping the adoption open, but we love this woman who carried her baby for nine months and knew that she was going to place her with our family. We feel so blessed that she came into our lives, and anyone who knows Sienna knows how blessed we are to have Sienna.

So today as I am feeling blessed to be celebrating Mother's Day, I also want to recognize our sweet birth mom as well.

Amen !!!

Sienna has recently learned how to pray with us at meal time. She is so enthusiastic that it is hard not to laugh.

Happy Easter!

Sunday morning we were invited to our friend's house for an Easter egg hunt.



"Can I go yet mom? I see an egg."



Sienna was ready to go. She went from egg to egg and only became more excited when she realized there was candy inside. Then she became more interested in eating the candy than finding her eggs.



Here is everyone who participated in the egg hunt.


Later, after Sienna's nap we had our own hunt in the backyard. My family always hid our Easter baskets and when we woke up Easter morning we all went to find our basket. Since Steve worked, I waited for him so he could participate in the fun. He was confused by my excitement, and it was then that we realized we had different Easter basket traditions. Lucky for me he went along with my tradition and enjoyed Sienna's excitement.



"Where's basket?"



"An egg mom."



She finally found the basket in the tree.



We enjoyed spending time as a family and with our friends. We hope your Easter was just as enjoyable as ours was.

Sunday Walk

After a great breakfast and a Sunday nap we got the itch to go for a walk. We had heard about a nice hike up in the hills around our home. The Santa Rosa Plateau has some seasonal pools that are beautiful.



We saw many beautiful parts of nature, including trees, flowers and cacti. We will definitely need to come back when the wild flowers are in season. We could only imagine how beautiful that is.

Sienna enjoyed stomping on her shadow as she and Daddy walked the trail.



It was almost impossible keeping her on the trail and the Boardwalk. There were so many cool bugs, rocks and flowers she was dying to pick up.


We found a fun tree on the way out that she just could not pass up. Our little girl is a tomboy.

Look at her climb. She was making us nervous.

We had to keep Sienna from getting to close to these pretty flowers.



California Poppies are Beautiful. The State Flower FYI.

No she is not dancing she is busy shooing away buggies and pointing to the moon. She is quick to tell us every new word she knows and won't let us leave until she has pointed out everything she wants to see. We were finally able to leave after she said good bye to the buggies, good bye to the trees, good bye to the water, good bye to the spider and good bye to the flowers.