Cleaned up for 2010

And finally, to round out the posts from 2010, our Christmas portraits! The kid can clean up!

Art

One of Siena's favorite games is to pretend that she has a brother. His name is normally Derek, but one day at school last month she insisted on including "her brother" in her family portrait. That day his name was Ottola.

Many faces of a princess.

Princesses on Ice!

Once the tonsil nightmare was over mom and I took Siena to Disney Princesses on Ice. It was a beautiful and fun show and Siena could not have been more excited. All the little girls wore their princess dresses and beamed. Siena stared in amazement, jumped, squealed and danced. It was worth every penny!

Snow & Tonsils

As busy as December was, January was very quiet. I had my tonsils out mid-month and the next 3 weeks were all about recovery. Hans did a great job of finding fun stuff for Siena to do. Including her first snowman! Since she was big enough to make a snowman our snow has been too high or too dry. This snow was perfect. Siena named him Frosty and cried when he melted.

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas a week early in Richmond with my family. Big surprise, Siena's was filled with princess goodies! She was thrilled all around--especially because she got lots of quality time with cousins Austin & Hunter!

Christmas Eve we left cookies out for Santa and apples, oranges and carrots for the reindeer. It paid off! Santa came!!

Then Beckmas at our house. What a great holiday season!!

Holiday Party

We all had a great time at the NGA Holiday party. Siena even got to go fishing for gingerbread men and learned to balance a plate on a stick!

Can't have too many Santas!

For various reasons, Siena visited 3 different Santas this year. I guess she had to make sure he knew what she wanted!! She asked for a camera and he delivered.

Cinderella!

My mom and our friend Mary came with us to see Cinderella, Siena's first big play! Afterward she was able to get everyone's autograph and show all the characters her sparkly shoes! She loved talking to the actors and schmoozing with royalty! (Sadly she was shy when we met Cinderella herself, but had loosened up for the stepsisters, above.)

Happy Grinchmas!

At Christmastime, Brian & Sarah treated us to Grinch on Ice at National Harbor. The whole Grinch story was told by giant ice sculptures. It was 9 degrees inside so we all got giant blue coats to put over our own. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

We also visited the Awakening sculpture that was moved there from DC a few years ago. Big fun!

Four in Florida!

We had a wonderful trip to Florida for Thanksgiving and Siena's actual birthday. She was spoiled with a family party and ice cream cake!

We visited the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota with Pop where Siena tried and tried to pet a ray to no avail, but did get to climb in a fish net and search for fossils!!

We also got to go several boat rides and fishing trips now that Pop had an awesome boat!

Siena's Bouncy Birthday Party!

We had Siena's bday party a little early since we'll be in Florida for her actual day. We rented a bounce house and invited 15 of her closest buddies to come bounce. It was an insane, yet very fun day!

Here she is watching them inflate the bounce house.

In her words, "It's beautiful!"

We had an amazing 65 degree day too! Bodes well for Siena's 4th year!!

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Princess Siena

Princess Siena has made many appearances Halloween weekend. First for the school parade (above), for our birthday/Halloween party Saturday night and trick-or-treating tonight.

She really enjoyed trick-or-treating. We went again with our more skilled next-door-neighbors. At every door she'd yell, "Mom, they have candy!!!"

Fall!

October brought 3 visits to pumpkin patches!

Siena even rode her 1st pony!
and fed her 1st cow(s)!

Waning days of summer

A final visit to Assateague (aka The Big Beach) for the year. Siena had more fun playing with the bait than actually fishing.