One Cool Chick

Her sunglasses are a must have every time we get in the car.

Budding Artist

Cara all of a sudden started drawing people...she is really impressing me with her skills. Brynn (she was gifted with her mother's art ability) just stopped drawing her people like this 6 months ago.

Llama, Llama Red Pajama

The girls and I went to Llama, Llama Red Pajama at the Stage's Theater with our teacher friends on President's Day. It was so much fun! The girls did move a muscle throughout the whole performance. They enjoyed it so much I just ordered tickets to Giggle, Giggle quack in April and Suessical in July. I can't wait!

Miranda and her mom rode up with us. Brynn and Miranda chatted each other's ears off all the way up and back.

After the performance the whole crew went out to lunch together. I sure do miss all my North
Trail friends!

Fun with the Mullenbachs!

Every time my family gets together it is so busy with all the kids we don't have much time to enjoy each other's company. Ang and I decided we needed an overnighter so we could catch up. We headed to Buffalo after naps on Saturday. We had delicious home made pizza by the kids for dinner. Brynn, Cara, and Nolan had so much fun making it. Great idea, Ang!

After dinner Kristen, Graham, Ella, Logan, and baby Nora came over. All the big kids played down stairs with Nolan's toys and the adults spent the evening upstairs (I got to hold baby Nora almost all evening--she so so sweet) drinking a few beverages.

The following morning I came out of the shower to the kids eating breakfast and watching a movie. Pretty big treat for the Asleson girls...I don't think they knew it was possible to eat any where but the table!

No pictures of baby Emry this visit. She was running a high fever and ended up in the ER that night. Poor little lady she just can't catch a break :(

Minnesota winter?

New Year's Eve

Since Darren and I met we have always spent New Year's with Melissa and Jeremy. As our families grew the evenings changed quite a bit, but we all still had a great time. Melissa's brother was able to get leave from Iraq and come home for New Year's so the Eckhoffs, of course, spent the New Year with her family. Turns out it was a good thing. Brynn and I both ended up with the flu. Brynn's started on New Year's Eve eve and my started on New Year's Eve day. Brynn was feeling much better by New Year's Eve day so Darren and the girls spent the evening together. They started their night off with a little bowling then came home and had dinner and drank sparkling cider from champagne glasses.

Judging by Brynn's eyes you would think we really did give her an alcoholic beverage!

Hopefully next year we'll be party animals!

Christmas with the Berlings

We celebrated Christmas with Jen, Pete, and Claire (and Betsy, Jeff, and Mikey) on December 29th. The girls always have so much fun playing together. Claire has some pretty cool toys (LOTS of Barbies and dress up clothes) so the girls are never bored. Betsy made us a delicious dinner then the girls opened gifts from each other.

I can't wait until next year when we can add one more adorable girl in matching jammies to this picture!

Oh, Ollie!

"I just love when the girls leave pillows and a blanket in the laundry basket...it is such a good snuggling place!"

For some reason Brynn and Cara LOVE to play in laundry baskets...and Ollie likes to nap in them. And no, he was not encouraged to go in there. This is how Darren found him one day while the girls were napping. Silly boy!

Holiday Inn

The day after Christmas my mom's brothers and sisters all spend the night at the Holiday Inn in Austin. We've always gone for a few hours but opted to head back to Farmington when the girls were ready for bed. Sleeping any place other than her room has always been a challenge for Cara (let's just say sleeping in general...she's always had a difficult time sleeping). She's still not great, but at least she will sleep for a few hours at a time when she is not in her own bed. I think the girls were more excited to stay in the hotel than they were about Christmas in general.

The highlight was definitely the swimming pool!

Uncle Dylan was such a good sport swimming with all the kids! Thanks, Dylan. It made drinking beer a lot easier for me...and I felt it ALL of the next day too!

Aubrey Mae even came out to stand in the pool. Yes, stand. She wanted nothing to do with the actual swimming part!

Uncle Dylan is sooo much fun!

Nolan brought his little DVD player up to our room so he and the girls could watch a video before bed. However, it was way past bed time after other late nights due to Christmas so it didn't work out as well as we would have hoped...

...so, Nolan headed back to his room and we rented a $7 movie on the tv in our room!

Christmas 2011

Every year I say it, but we had the best Christmas. It is getting so much more fun now that the girls can participate and really enjoy the holiday! Since Darren's parents were already in Arizona and we celebrated with my family on December 17th we were able to ejoy Christmas Eve at home as a family of 4.

We started the morning off baking muffins. The girls each received a miffin mix, gingerbread muffin sheet, and apron from Jenna at daycare when they traded gifts on the 23rd. They both LOVE helping in the kitchen so this was a perfect gift!
Breakfast on Christmas Eve...Wildberry muffins in the shape of gingerbread men and fresh pineapple. I don't, or should I say didn't, buy fresh pineapple on a regular basis before Christmas Eve, but the girls ate almost the enitre pineapple that morning. Apparently they love pineapple!

We spent the morning just hanging out at home then met Dylan, Angie, Nolan, and Emry for church at 11, came home and took naps, had a great dinner which included Von Hanson's steaks (Mmmmm!), and finally opened gifts.

They were more than ready to start the gift opening. So was Ollie...he started opening gifts under our tree (that weren't even for him) well before Christmas!

Their favorite gift by far was the doll house from Darren and me.

Before bed we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for the third year in a row. This was the first year that Cara was able to partcipate.

Then we sprinkled "Grinch Dust" on our steps to make sure the Grinch didn't steal our Christmas.

Finally, we put out carrots, cookies, and beer for Santa and his reindeer.

Christmas morning the girl woke up and played with their gifts from Santa for a bit..well they played with Brynn's gift. Brynn received a Go Go Walking Pup in which she had been talking about for months. Cara received a Bitty Baby high chair that she played with for almost a half hour when we were at the American Doll store. Brynn played with her dog on and off for about an hour that morning and hasn't touched it since. Cara has yet to play with her high chair. Instead of playing with their Santa toys they played with the doll house all morning...and still do. It is hours worth of entertainment for the two of them. It's worth it's weight and so much more in gold!

After spending a relaxing morning at home we headed to Austin to celebrate Christmas with my extended family.

For as long as I can remember Santa has made an appearance every year on Christmas for the Swank family. The girls were in awe that Santa was at Uncle Nate and Aunt Shawn's house. As soon as Brynn saw him she ran up to him and said, "Thank you for my Go Go Walking Pup, Santa!" So sweet!

Cara even sat on his lap, but I didn't get my camera out fast enough :(

It was a super fun two days celebrating Christmas!

Dance :)

Brynn and Cara had their first dance performance of the season on Saturday, December 17th. They both did so well showing off their skills!

I'm not sure it gets much cuter than a two year old in a tutu :)
Cara could not wait for it to be her "curn" to dance and was quite confused and sad when she only was able to perform two dance. I think she thought she would be dancing all day.

Lynn and her husband Todd, or Tom as Cara calls him, even made it to watch the girls dance. They sure do love our girls!

Cara was so excited when she got her flower after she danced.

Of course, the girls danced in two different shows that day. I didn't realize that if I signed them up on two different days of the week one would dance in the 1 O'Clock show and the other would dance in the 4:30 show. Mental note for next year...sign them up for the same day of the week!

Brynn and her BFF, Miranda.

Brynn's the last dancer on the left.

Todd left to get the car while we had a photo shoot so he isn't pictured here...apparently he had his fair share of dance for one year!

Auntie Key and Charlie!

Grandma and Grandpa.