Sleepover with our favorite ladies!

Darren left us last weekend to go ice fishing with some buddies so we decided we better have a little girl time with our favorite ladies. Jen and Claire came Friday after school and stayed until after naps on Saturday. We had so much fun!

Claire loved Brynn's dress up clothes and camera.
After we had some squeaky clean kids we FINALLY were able to capture an adorable picture of the three. Nice work, Jen!

Buddies!
Before bed we read some good books. Unfortunately, bed really wasn't Claire's thing. I'm not sure if Jen will be up for another sleepover any time in the near future...Claire sleeps (or should I say doesn't sleep) a lot like Cara when she is not in her own bed.

Saturday morning the girls played a little Ring Around the Rosie before getting ready to go bowling.

Someone's pretty excited to get started :) We began our bowling experience with having each girl pick out their own ball...until we kept finding Cara and Claire walking around with bowling balls every time we turned around. Since we didn't want to lose any toes on our first bowling experience together we decided we would stick with one ball so we knew where it was at all times!

Brynn was very insistent in setting up her ramp and getting her own ball without any help. By the end she was doing really well!

Cara LOVED bowling. It will definitely be on our calendar in the future!

Claire starting out excited about bowling, unfortunately, her lack of sleep caught up with her and after about the 3rd frame she was done. Her mom turned out to be a really good bowler with bumpers and a ramp though. Claire came in the lead!

LOVE these girls!

These ones too!

Thanks, Jen and Claire for spending the night with us. We had so much fun!

Swimming

Cara started swimming lessons two Tuesdays ago. The first day was very unsuccessful. She cried for the first 20 minutes and attempted to get out any time they came close to the edge of the pool. We ended up getting her out and leaving before swimming was even over. I am not sure what put me over the edge more, Cara crying because she was in the pool or Brynn crying because she was outside the pool. Darren was sure the crying was because I was there watching and not in with her. Per his request I was not allowed to come to the next session. According to Darren she loved it! We'll give her a few more weeks of going without me then I want to go watch. Hopefully she'll be okay with me not being in the water with her..and Brynn will be okay with just watching and not being in the pool.

The BIG spoon...

...4 deep!

Bath

Lately the girls have been such good buddies...I LOVE it. Cara is developing such a sweet little presonality and is beginning to love playing with her big sister. Sunday night baths are my favorite. We have plenty of time to just sit and play in the tub. This Sunday we made a typical bath even more fun by adding Dora (yes, Dora) bubbles that Santa brought for Brynn.

Playing Santa.
Sweet sisters!

What sweeties!

Some REALLY old Stats...

I have been meaning to get some stats up from the girls' appoinments for a really long time. For some reason they ended up in our bedroom and I don't blog in our bedroom often (or ever for that matter) so they never made it.

Here are Brynn's 3 year stats taken on 3/13/10:

Weight~ 26.8 lbs (10th %ile)
Height~35.5 inches (14th %ile)
BMI~14.95 (25th %ile)

Cara's 9 month stats taken on 4/01/2010
Weight~17 lbs. 6 oz. (19th %ile)
Height~27.5 inces (40th %ile)
HC~16.5 inches (3rd %ile)

Cara's 12 month stats taken on



Cara's 15 month stats taken on 9/17/2010:
Weight~18 lbs. 14 oz. (3rd %ile)
Height~29 inches (12th %ile)
HC~17.3 inches (6th %ile)

Cara's 18 month stats taken on 12/10/10:
Weight~19 lbs. 10 oz. (2nd %ile)
Height~30 1/4 inches (14th %ile)
HC~17 1/2 inches (5th %ile)

New Year's Eve 2010

We headed down to Rochester on New Year's Eve. Since Darren and I have been together (as long as Melissa and Jeremy have been married) we have been getting together with the Eckhoffs for New Year's. It sure takes on a different look these days. In the past we worried about how much beer we should bring. These days we worry about how tired we are going to be the following day and how we don't want to take care of two small children with hangovers. Apparently, our age and the number of children are wearing on us because none of us made it to midnight. I am pretty sure I was the first to peter out, followed by Melissa, then Darren...sorry Jeremy. I promise next year I'll make it to midnight with bells on!

We had delicious home made pizzas for dinner. It was a big hit amongst everyone.

After dinner Cara and Landon played with his Nuk. Cara thought it was hilarious to take Landon's Nuk out of his mouth, and Landon thought it was even more hilarious to have it happen to him. Needless to say it was as much fun for us to watch as it was for Landon and Cara to play.

Melissa and I figured out how to pour margaritas with babies on our hips. I'd like to say that nothing can stop us, but honestly the thought of Cara keeping me up all night since she wasn't sleeping in her own bed really kept me at bay. HOWEVER, she did fabulous and only made one quick peep and then went back to sleep. THANK YOU, Cara!

After dinner we opened up a few gifts.

Then checked everyone's throats to assure no one had step. According to Dr. Eckhoff and nurse Brynn we were all clear.

Before bed (after we had been there for hours) Cara decided Jeremy wasn't too bad after all.

Before hitting the sack Brynn and Peyton played a little Uno Moo.

Since Landon was in bed when we all opened gifts he got to open his up New Year's Day.

Thanks, Eckhoffs for having us down. It's always a good time to get together...even if we don't make it to midnight!

M.O.A. with Ella!

Brynn and I met Ella and Kristen at the M.O.A. on New Year's Eve day to go on a few rides. Ella has frequented the mall a few others times so was able to show Brynn the ropes on the rides. They had so much fun together. Although Kristen and I had to go on a few rides too, it wasn't that bad :)

Thanks, Kristen and Ella...Mary, Leo, and Logan for meeting us!

Dinner with the Berlings

Since we can't seem to get enough of the Berlings, after heading home from the Children's Museum and taking naps we headed to Cottage Grove for gift opening, dinner, dessert, and some play time.

Cara threw a FIT as I put her in the high chair for dinner. After taking her out and putting her in two separate time outs she finally was able to communicate the fact that she wanted to sit with the big girls. After that she was perfectly content and ate like a champ. Her vocabulary is slowly, but surely coming along.

We, course had to have a photo op with the ladies in their jammies. Still no good. Perhaps another time...

Gotta love these girls!

Date with Claire, Betsy, and Jen

Over Christmas break Cara and I (yep, just the two of us) met Jenny Paul, Claire Bear, and Betsy, Jen's mom, at the Children's Museum. It was so much fun (and so easy-why do we have two kids?) to spend one-on-one time with Cara. She had a great time too!

She did a little playing in the water table, grabbed a quick drink when thirsty (YUCK-but I had to get a picture),

dried her hands several times, but not nearly as often as Claire did,

did a little grocery shopping,

walked up and down this ramp a million times,

turned the lights "opf" and on,

popped the dog out of the house over and over again,

scoped out a good spot to go ice fishing,

didn't manage to catch anything (just like her dad),

climbed up the rope ladder only to...

slide down this slide,

made her mom's claustrophobia rise following her through the ant tunnels,

and finally she got to eat Claire's Cheetos with lunch. Does life get any better than this? What a great morning spent with some of our favorite people!

Disclaimer: Apparently I only take pictures of my own kid doing fun things...sorry Claire! I really need to get better at this!