Cienna - 4 Years... Kaylee - 1 Year, 7 Months

Mommy's amazing 3 week vacation started off the month including a trip to the mountains with Joe that happened to be the best snow day of the year so far!  Later that week we set off to Northern California for Christmas time with family and friends.  It started by getting a chance to spend time with GG, Auntie Sheryl, and Uncle Jerry.  Then later that day, finally getting friends along with families together at Courtney's, which was so astonishing to see all the kids playing together!  Christmas morning was spent at the Marty's, with food flowing all day and much fun and relaxing with everybody happy and healthy!  The next day we got to spend another Christmas with all the McFarlands and Natals!  We were able to help out preparing Nana's and Poppa's for their return and also find time to meet up with the Payne's.  After a smooth road trip home their was still more vacation time to be had.  First came New Year's spent in Big Bear with Uncle Joe and Dana, thanks again to Dana!  We brought Cienna's new Quad (Thanks Grandpa and Grammy!) to pass some of the time along with trips to the park and plenty of game play!  Later that week the girls got spoiled once again with more Christmas cheer at the Snow's.  Continuing to make the most of our time together we had plenty of trips to the park, went to the Pretend City, made Persimmon Bread (using Persimmons from Poppa and Nana's and aprons made specially by Grammy), Story time at the Library, play dates with friends, and moving forward with household projects, and Mommy got to attend Jamaica's Baby shower.  Eventually Mommy and Daddy had to go back to work and school started up again but even so the month ended with extreme joy when Cole Erick McFarland was born very healthy on January 17th!

The whole month was full of Christmas cheer (and continues to be) with Cienna perfecting the lyrics to all the Christmas Carols!  She is really starting to ride her new bike with confidence and is insisting that she is turning 4 against our better judgement.  We are overcome by her sense of style and clothing choices (which tend to be very coordinated most of the time).  We have to take a second breath quite often when we look and realize that she is no longer our baby!  She has really gotten the hang of knowing the date and counting the days down till her Birthday.  Amazing how math is everywhere!

Kaylee on the other hand is our baby and yet is breaking into being a toddler way to fast.  She is full on jumping, and running like she means it!  She is talking in multiple word sentences and listens pretty darn good as well.  She has started potty training herself and has gone poo poo in the potty about 50% of the time while she is home (saving some diapers with her MULTIPLE POOPS a day!)  She finally has 12 teeth and has had her 2nd appt. at the dentist to check on her chipped tooth.  She is great at throwing (sometimes not a good trait) and loves figuring out how things work.  Enjoy her multitude of facial expressions which shows her expressive personality!

Thanks to Nana and Poppa the girls now share their very own bounce house which we have already broken in quite a few times and will definitely be bringing out for Cienna's Birthday Party on Sat.  The relationship between the girls is amazing to watch as they grow.  Watching Cienna's emotions go from watching out for and helping her sister, and yet at the next minute just wanting to uses her as a play toy, then at all times needing to do/have everything that she does/have, is endearing.  At the same time we see Kaylee striving to be able to do things and have the same freedom that Cienna does, is just watching the admiration grow!  It's also awesome to see a similar sibling relationship grow with Porter who has been great through the holidays as he was moved from place to place and ending the month getting fixed and of course not skipping a beat with or without a cone on his head... he's a Labrador puppy!

We got new phones and finally (last week) a new camera so enjoy many photos from many sources by clicking the link below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/w5CVjX95MPy9TJN28