The Noriega Family

Saturday we went to our ward Halloween party.  The girls had tons of fun...so did Hector and I.  Natalia kept asking, all day long, if it was time to put on her costume yet.  Natalia was a cute tiger and Sienna was a lady bug.  I was surprised at how many people asked Natalia if she was Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.  Natalia would always answer, "no, I am not Tigger, I am a tiger."  We enjoyed some chili at the ward chili cook off.  Hector was asked to be one of the judges.  This meant he had to taste every single dish there.  (Let's face it, this is Hector's dream job...you can clearly see why he enjoyed the evening.)  After chili we headed out side for the trunk or treating.  Natalia remembered doing this last year so she was an old pro and Sienna picked up on what was going real fast as soon as she realized people were putting candy in her bag.  She refused to release her bag for the rest of the evening...and it was the source of a few tears the next morning.  After collecting more candy than my kids need we headed back inside for games. 

We had some friends over last night and they helped us carve pumpkins.  Pumpkin carving is one of those traditions that if fun for the parents.  Natalia gets into it, but she still does not get to do her own knife work.  She did try to convince us that she was big enough this year, but she lost that debate.  Needless to say, she was still good at getting the pumpkin guts out.  We had fun and Natalia and Sienna were very proud of our finished products.  Since it is so rainy outside, they are all still sitting on the kitchen table.  Every time Sienna sees them she says, "pumpum."

Sienna wanted to sit on the potty the other day.  She has shown some interest, but she did not do much once she got on there.  I do not think she is ready yet...I know I am not.  But she is our silly girl. 

She went to the doctor a little while ago for her 18 month check up.  She is doing really well and is very healthy.  She is in the 93rd percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight.  She is starting to talk so much more.  When she is in the right mood she knows and uses many words.  She likes to mimic what we say and she loves to make funny noises.  If she hears a noise outside, she puts her finger to her mouth and shushes everyone.  She no longer sits in her booster chair.  She still needs it, but she wants to sit like everyone else...so she does.  She has become a little moody lately.  One day she will only drink from a sippy cup and then the next day she is repulsed by sippy cups and will only drink from a regular cup.  It is funny.  She has also learned about tantrums.  It is hard to not laugh at her sometimes when she decides to throw a tantrum.  She gets mad and throws herself down on the floor and then slowly puts her head back and then proceeds to cry.  If I ask to wipe her nose while she in the middle of the tantrum she will sit up and stop crying so I can wipe it and then she goes back to the tantrum when she is all wiped up. 

 

Other silly things:  Sienna loves shoes.  She is obsessed with them.  She puts on every ones shoes and thinks she is so funny.  She loves to walk around the house in shoes and she takes them off then on, then off, then on.  She loves socks but refuses to sleep with them on her feet. 

 

She loves to brush her teeth.  Anytime I am in the bathroom she hops up on her stool and points to the toothbrushes and says, "teesh, teesh."  She gets the biggest smile on her face when I get her toothbrush for her.  She probably brushes her teeth a good five to six times a day (Uncle Tyler will be proud). 

 

She is still a good little eater and sleeper and these things make mommy so happy.  She loves to give hugs and kisses to us at bed time...this also makes us very happy. 

 

Both girls hate to have the sun in their eyes when we are driving in the van.  They are so funny about covering their faces.  This is how they rode in the van the other day.  Should we tell them that sunglasses or maybe a hat would work better?

Since we received pumpkins at our day at the farm, we decided we better decorate them.  The girls and I had fun making silly pumpkins Saturday morning while Hector was at soccer.  The girls loved the eyes and hair.  They did the rest of the faces themselves.  They were so proud of their work and could not wait to show their daddy. 

Hector took the day off Friday and we went to a pumpkin patch with the girls.  To say that we had fun is an understatement.  We went with our friends who also have two little girls.  Both girls had a blast.  When Natalia woke up the next morning she told me that she dreamt about the tractor.  We got to go on a hay ride pulled by a tractor and Natalia just loved it.  There were all kinds of things to look at while we rode.  We stayed for almost four hours at the pumpkin patch and never ran out of things to do.  There we tons of slides that both girls really liked.   I must say, I found them quite enjoyable myself.  There were all kinds of farm animals to look at and fun activities to try.  Sienna attempted to brave the rope swing, but would just throw the rope and stay on the platform.  She thought that was great fun.  There was a fun Corn Field walk.  At first I thought it would just be a really easy corn maze, but it was filled with fun activities that both adult and kid found fun.  We really did have so much fun and we were so glad that Hector could take the day off so that we could go during the week. 

The bus was part of the corn field walk.  Natalia still loves buses, so she was excited to go.  Then when she realized it was dark and somewhat scary inside, she got nervous, but I convinced her to go through.  The walls feel like they are moving and it was really hard to keep balance.  She decided it was fun and went a second time. 

We ate free apples and cider.  Both girls...and parents...loved the cider, it was soooo good.  Sienna really loved her apple and would not release it for the life of her.  We left well after nap time and after only a  couple of minutes in the car Sienna was out.  We got to pick pumpkins on the way out and Sienna just loved hers.  She held it all afternoon. 

A couple of weeks ago my volleyball girls did a Car Wash to raise money for a Dig Pink event we do.  Hector was working on that Saturday and the girls and I were bored so I decided to take the girls to the car wash.  They thought it was the best Saturday activity I could have come up with for them.  Natalia bossed the high school girls around and did not break for a moment from washing cars.  Sienna even got into it at the end.  She kept trying to wash the wrong cars.  We stayed for about an hour and half.  Natalia did not want to leave; she kept saying, "but I have more cars to wash mom...I cannot leave yet."  Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so I had no pictures of them washing cars, but then the other day our neighbor was out washing her car and the girls got so excited.  Our neighbor is great and the girls really like her so she let them help and this time I got pictures.  I love how little kids think that some of the more simple things in life are so much fun.  I just love my girls. 

 

Natalia has gone to two birthday parties in the last couple of weeks and the first one Sienna and I got to come too.  We had tons of fun at the Wizard of Oz party!  My girls are not familiar with the story, but that did not matter to them.  Let loved the games and the party hats.  Sienna would have eaten cupcakes all morning had I let her.  Sienna just loves my friend Sarah.  If Sarah is around then I become a second class citizen.  Sienna wanted to have Sarah carry her and play with her the whole time. 

 

 

 

Natalia still marches to the beat of her own drum and I love it.  She does things the way that she likes.  She will join the crowd when it is something that she wants to do, but she does her own thing too.  The picture above is where all the other kids ate their cupcakes and the picture below is the spot Natalia picked to eat her cupcake.

I love watching my kids play with other kids.  They are so cute.  This is Owen in the picture with my girls.  He and Sienna have a love affair with each other.  They both just light up when they see each other.  It is so funny.