Sleepover with the Parks Boys!

Tom's company has an annual Christmas party and this lucky lady got to spend the evening with two adorable little boys. I will have to admit that I was glad Darren was home that evening because, although they were all very good, 4 kids 4 and under is a lot of work!

Brynn loves her Charlie Paul!

Legos kept the big kids entertained for much of the evening. Notice Brynn's face in this photo...Henry just got done knocking over her chimney on their house...again.

This is how they spent the rest of their evening. Good thing Darren is such a good sport :)

Finally, they all spent the night in Brynn's room. After reading books, singing songs, and putting all Henry's animals to bed I gave the three a little talk about how late it was and that I wanted them to go right to sleep so no talking, no getting out of bed, no turning the lights on... Well, 1 out of the 3 listened (I'll let you guess which one). At precisely 10:17 P.M., or so Brynn's talking alarm clock told me through the monitor I set up so I could spy on them, and then again at 10:17 P.M., and then again at 10:17 P.M. (yes, it was pushed three times in a row) I realized I better go in a put the smack down. As soon as I opened the door Henry tattles, "Cara push the button." and as soon as that was out of his mouth Cara tattled, "Henry talking." Luckily I was able to tuck the two of them in again (Brynn was pretending to sleep to assure she didn't get tattled on) and they did, eventually, fall asleep. Henry slept great at our house and Cara was only up one time that night. So, all in all, it was a successful sleepover!

I couldn't talk Kate into letting Charlie have a sleepover with us so as soon as their party was over they came to get him. Apparently Tommy had too much fun that night as he was cashed out even before he left our house.

The next morning Tom, Key, and Charlie picked up bagels, coffee, and hot cocoa then came to our house and we all had breakfast together.

Charlie must have been tuckered out by his busy night at Auntie Jennie's house because we didn't even see the whites of his eyes when they were here for breakfast.

Stuck

It was all fun and games until she realized she really was stuck!

HOLIDAZZLE!

When we found out in early November that Lynn was going to be closed on the 9th we decided that would be the day we would go to the Holidazzle. Of course, it was the only day of the season until late January that the temperature was in the single digits. It was SO cold, but we still had fun. Brynn and I spent the time before the parade under our big blanket trying to keep warm. Once the parade started the cold didn't bother us...as much :)

As long as Cara is in the right mood she is so much fun to take out and about. She absolutely loved the parade and was sad when it ended. Surprisingly the cold didn't bother her one bit.

After the parade we headed across the street to Chipotle for a delicious burrito and some chips and guac. Mmmm! I usually don't tell Brynn if we have something fun to do in the afternoon because if she knows before nap time she's too excited to actually fall asleep. She was one tuckered out little lady by the end of this night after a day of cookie baking, gingerbread house decorating, and parade action. On days like this I sure wish Lynn would take more personal days so I would have an excuse to stay home with my two favorite ladies!

Cookies, Gingerbread House, and Book Nook

Lynn always takes a personal day in early December to get all her Christmas shopping done. The last few years I've used this day to bake Christmas cookies with the girls. To make it a little easier on myself and to assure the dough had plenty of time to cool I made the dough the night before so we could get started right away the following morning. Brynn was up bright and early the following morning ready to bake. I was barely able to hold her off until after breakfast. Cara spent almost the entire time perfecting her roll, Brynn, on the other hand, preferred cutting the cookies out.

Good thing I waited until the girls napped to wash the floors!

Grandma Debbie made a quick appearance that same day to have the girls decorate a gingerbread house. Brynn, of course, followed the rules and put her candy on the house and Cara...was on sugar high.



After the cookie baking and gingerbread house decorating Cara did what she does best...found herself a little nook to read in. It just so happened to be the basket that was holding our Christmas books.

Monkey see, monkey do! Good thing he doesn't copy everything that Cara does!

Brynn and I decided it would be much easier if we frosted while Cara was napping. I have no doubt that we were right!

My favorite finished product!

Cinderella

My cousin Kristen scored some great tickets for Disney on Ice in which she asked us at least 8 months in advance if we wanted to join them. So, I ordered up a ticket for Brynn and one for myself. Prior to taking Brynn to Disney on Ice (to be featured in a later post) Kristen lent her daughter Ella's book full of princess stories to us...Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Mermaid...to get her familiar with them so she could enjoy them in the skating show. Little did I know at the time that Cara would end up falling in LOVE with this book, especially Cinderella. So much so that we were unable to return the book to Ella due to the wear (and tear) it received. I felt awful that Brynn and I got to go to the show because Cara would have adored it, but we can look forward to taking her to a future show.

The great thing about the Cinderella book is that it has a CD to go with it. Although we read the story to her AT LEAST one time per day, she is also very content listening to it in Brynn's room. This is her typical Saturday morning routine listening to the princess stories while I shower.

Oh Christmas Tree

Darren and I decided after work on a Friday night we would pick out our Christmas tree. Because it was after work we knew we would need to be quick as it gets dark so quickly. I was quite hesitant going after work because Darren has a very hard time making a decision...even when it comes to picking out a Christmas tree so we decided to let the girls pick out our tree this year. It didn't take long for Cara to find a tree and insist that it was the one we were to take home. Once she has something on her mind little can talk her out of it. So, here they are with Cara's perfect tree. It really was a pretty tree...just a little smaller than we are used to.

Notice we are out on December 2 with jeans and no snow picking out a tree? I just can't stop mentioning it! What an odd winter we are having!

Brynn was so excited to help Darren drag it back to the truck.

Cara got to help Darren drive to the pay shed-boy did she think she was pretty cool!

They even left with a candy cane to top the night off.

Darren put the lights on after the girls went to bed that night and the following morning while he was at class the girls and I put the decorations on. That will probably be the last time we decorate without him. We are down several tree decorations due to quite a few mishaps by little hands!

First Snowfall

The girls were so excited when we had our first snowfall on November 11th. It was just over an inch but they made the best of it. Unfortunately, that is the most snow we've gotten this whole season. It didn't even last 24 hours before it melted :(