A Saturday Night of Swimming

The 17th we headed out after a long day indoors to enjoy an evening of swimming at the All Seasons Center in Sioux Center. The weather was a little iffy but we had all been inside all day, just woken up from pretty good naps, and were eager to get out of the house! We had tons of fun! Daddy packed an awesome supper, which we ate illegally next to a sign that said no outside food or drink--hey, your kids gotta eat ;) The water was a little frigid but we all braved it, getting out just once to dry off and warm up and dipping in the hot tub from time to time. We even spent time in the big pool practicing our kicking, floating, and Karys went under water (with the help of daddy of course ;). What a great option to have for a winter evening! The kids had great fun!

Hey, Mom! Look at us!Gracie, I think we are going to get splashed by that group of kids running our way...""Quick! Run for cover!"Cuddling and drying off with our towels b4 eating sandwiches, chips, carrots, strawberries and blueberries....oh and cookies!I am a cozy bear! Snug as a bugKarys loved floating this way and watching her belly float. From time to time she would dip her head back and get her hair wet...so funny to watch!Both of the girls made trips down the slide...here they were checking out if they could make it up it.Cheese! My water baby is getting so big!Most of the time Gracie loves to pose for the camera and take a "cute" picture....However, when she was sitting next to daddy she had to cover her face with her foot!Rob wasn't overly excited about getting back in after we ate ;)But the girls won him over and he was swinging Karys from side to side in no time at all!My turn, Daddy! Swing me next!Then it was off to explore with mommy...we crawled all around the slide, under waterfalls and through tunnels...Then we found the perfect spot to have our tea party...

And one last picture before we packed up for the night...no one was excited to go, but it felt good to get our jammies on and make the trip home to our cozy beds. Swimming also produces a quick bed time and a good nights sleep for all!

Bathroom Banter

Gracie and I were in the bathroom just a little while ago, we both had to go...this is the conversation that followed...

"Mommy, you can go on the little potty while I use this one."
"I don't think I would fit, Gracie, My bum is pretty big for that."
"Yes, it is." (with emphasis) "It is almost as big as daddy's, and it even shakes."

Oh wow...what can you do but laugh at the comments of a three 1/2 year old who means no harm whatsoever! And you know Daddy has no bum at all so at least I am headed in a good direction!

One more pic...

Rob came home at lunch last Friday when we had our GREAT day! And took this pic of Gracie...at first just Karys was in helping him with that laundry but she wanted nothing to do with climbing in there! Gracie jumped right in and smiled for the camera ;)

A GREAT day in A LOT of ways!

We had a GREAT day today! Didn't get dressed til supper time ;) but had a Great time in our jammies, in the kitchen, cooking, singing and eating the day away! When we woke up, both of the girls were in great moods. I had some things I had to get done this am but about 10am we started in on making some monster cookies for my friend Neleigh for her birthday...we didn't get very far before I realized I didn't have enough oatmeal, choc chips, or M&Ms, kind of the key ingredients right? It was going to be another hour before Rob got home for the day so we then set in to project #2--Raisin Bran muffins! Yum! The girls love these and had a great time mixing these up and helping me get the muffin cups filled and ready!
They did a GREAT job sharing, helping each other out with things and taking turns...I said we had a GREAT morning =)...Karys smiling proudly during her turn to stir

"This is SOO chunky, mom. I am going to have to stir this a long time!"

Gracie is GREAT at pouring things in! And it is good for me to let her do things and not be so up tight that she might spill and it might make a mess...I always end up being the one anyway to drip, drop, and spill things along the way =)After the muffins were mixed and in the oven, we still had time to kill so we busted out a cookbook we checked out from the library, "The Princess Cookbook" ;) The girls knew exactly what they wanted =) We had picked up some mini-marshmallows at the store the other day and they were so excited to make the mini-marshmallow smoothies from this cookbook.

I put them in fancy glasses for them to dress them up a little...they loved it! They loved eating all of the marshmallows off the top, even more than they loved the healthy fruit blended smoothie that lie underneath them.

Gracie, mouth full of marshmallows, all smiles for the camera!

Looks pretty good, don't you think? Presentation is everything!

I think Karys liked playing with hers more than she liked actually putting any in her mouth =) She too though was won over by the marshmallows. Come on girls! What about the fruit ;)

Anyway, by the time this was done Daddy still wasn't home. Let me just clarify that this was not his fault. It was still only about 12, he usually works til then and then is home for lunch, but when he called on his way to the store I asked him if he had a pen and paper b/c my three item list might have increased a little ;) so in light of capitalizing on the GREAT moods and how well the girls were getting along, I helped the ladies get set up for the next project of the morning...

Baking and cooking had caused us to dirty a lot of dishes and Gracie noticed this right away. She asked me after the cookies if she could wash the dishes and I had to reassure her a couple of times that we would clean up when we were all finished =) However, we were getting close to getting done now so i helped her fill the sink and chose the dishes for her to wash and put the rest in the dishwasher. Before I knew it, Karys wanted in on the action and was up on the stool right next to Gracie to "rinse" the dishes...otherwise known as to play in the water!

Gracie was not thrilled about this at all! She didn't want to share her task and she didn't want to share her stool, but Karys quickly took care of that by making her and I for that matter both laugh. Karys kept leaning way over to reach the dishes, the water, and the counter...I told her to be careful, Gracie told her to get off, and she responded with, "Don't worry guys, I am flexible." Gracie and I just looked at each other and busted up laughing!"Mommy, Karys is SOOO silly!"Maggie-poo and Gracie waiting in the kitchen for lunch to be done...we tried something new today for lunch, Grilled Cheese Veggie Quesidillas--Success for Rob and I =) Success for the girls in that they each freaked out that there were veggies on their cheese, but both managed to eat one or more slices of it...we are making ground in the veggie world!

Karys turn! Picture speaks enough don't you think?

Quiet girls in the other room...not good!

So on Monday I was trying to get some stuff done in the kitchen, you know catching up from the weekend tornado and I thought to myself, "Wow, the girls are playing pretty quietly." Withing seconds Gracie came out and was like, "Hey, Mom."
"Hey, Gracie. What are you guys doing in there?"
"Oh, we are just coloring....on our legs." She said very non-chalantly without thinking anything about it.
"Oh really, you both are doing that?"
"Yup...I did it first and then Karys is doing hers now. See look." She proceeded to show me her leg, she just did one, but when I went in to their room Karys had proceeded to decorate both of her legs. It was one of those moments too where I definitely should have reprimanded them a little more, but I thought it was so funny and got my camera, posed them, and told them to say cheese. After that though we did have a pretty good talk about what it is that we are supposed to write on;) I really wish it was spring, but things like this that happen indoors do make me smile!
The tattoo artists posing with their markers!!!
Look at Karys' face, she totally is like, "What guys, I look GREAT!"

A weekend of visitors!

We had a little bit of a down weekend in the fact that we didn't have any plans or commitments, but it was bust in the fact that my niece Leah came to stay with us on Friday and Saturday nights while her mommy was working and her daddy was fishing. She didn't quite feel 100% but was such a little joy to have around! The girls loved having a playmate and Maggie loved some fresh blood to chase around and lick ;)Leah is the only one who looks excited in this picture, but they all crawled up on the couch Friday night and "got cozy". They were all three pretty tired and just wanted to cuddle together a little bit......after that it was off to the bath. Karys was a tub hog as you can you can see and Gracie kept worrying she would hit her head on the facet. Leah just chilled between them content with whatever toy she was handed......next it was off to the couch again to have Gracie read them some stories. I think she was looking at a book of things to do/crafts, but she was making up some great stories!The next day, Leah didn't sleep much and was up for a while during the night, but she was still smiling from ear to ear half of the day...and no, mom, I didn't have my binki in my mouth the whole time ;) Later on Saturday, Grandma Doreen was able to make it up for the evening and stay the night. The girls were SO excited to see her! They talked her ear off, showed her their doll house all set up, cuddled, and both took turns falling asleep on her lap ;) She was even so kind to bring a cake for mommy's birthday! So after dinner at the Ranch, a seeming tradition when Grandma comes ;), we were able to come home and enjoy a little bedtime snack. Thanks, Grandma!Grandma, Karys, and Gracie singing 'Happy Birthday' to mommy

The whole gang gathered around the cake b4 we cut it. The girls must have been checking out how many different directions they could all look ;)

All in all it was a fun weekend! We got a taste of having three little bodies in the house and both agree we don't know if we are ready to wake up in the night again ;) but have been blessed thus far to have two little ones, one in undies now! and one in pull-ups, but both just getting to be so much fun and so independent! They are both going to be such big helpers! Thanks Leah and Grandma for visiting and come back soon!

Maggie's First Bath

So the only picture that I took on my camera on the day of my birthday were of Maggie getting her first bath. We did head to Sioux Falls that morning, have an amazing brunch at Bracco and then hang out at my fam's for the afternoon opening presents, eating ice cream cake from DQ (YUM!), and watching the Viking's game (Boo!). That night when we got home Maggie got a lot of attention since it was her first day really having to stay home alone for more than an hour. However, I am not sure she liked this part of the attention getting process ;)He tries to pretend that he doesn't like her and that she is "my dog" but when it comes down to it he loves her and does an awesome job helping to take her out and was the first to jump at giving her a bath.Maggie wasn't so sure about it but the girls were excited to witness their first doggie bathThey got their stools and lined up on either side of Rob so they could both have an upclose view of the actionHolding Maggie up to get the full view of the wet dog...she looks SO skinny soaking wet ;) Our little drowned rat...she is still so cute!!!Rob was kind of mean and dumped the water right over her face...
...but look at his face, HE LOVES HER!The girls getting ready to see Maggie run around and shake...she is so little though that she just couldn't get warm after this so I must not lie, I did dry a lot of her hair with the hair dryer ;)