This weekend

This past weekend, we spent a great deal of time at home. Drew has been sick with a fever and now a cold, so we have been laying low around the homefront. Plus with the 'big' snowstorm that arrived, it was best that we stuck around home.



Andrew is pictured with a net on his head. The net is actually used in a game that the Lechelts got for Cailin for her birthday. You use the nets to catch butterflies, but Drew had it on his head and we thought he looked like the lunch lady and he thought it was pretty fun.

Cailin loves to play with the kittys. She spends the most time with Ripley, mainly because she doesn't run away. For those of you that know Ripley, you'd be suprised to know that she is very good with both kids. In this picture, Cailin is being very thoughtful and trying to cover up Ripley with the blankie. She also leans over and kisses her too. Ripley tolorates it pretty well until Cailin starts to scream. Then she's outta there.

Andrew is feeling better, after a trip to the doctor complete with lab tests, and the result of 'it's just a virus'. We ventured out to watch Daddy use his snowblower to get rid of all the snow. Drew and Cailin liked to watch. We're looking forward to spring when we can play outside. Everyone is a bit stir-crazy being inside all the time!

Birthday......continued

Cailin had a few birthday parties. Seems we ended up spreading it out to capture opportunities with everyone in the family. These photos are a combination of a trip to Pine Island to visit Grandparents and Great-Grandparents (as well as celebrating a birthday party)

and a party at home on the big day with the Lechelts and Teri here to help celebrate to the final party (other than the daycare party, but we don't have pictures of that...sorry) where we spent it with Uncle, Oma and Uncle Chris.

Everyone had a great time and Cailin's favorite part was the cake of course. Although she certainly enjoyed opening up presents. She got pretty good at ripping off the paper by the last party, that's for sure. As always, Drew just watched his big sister in awe with a half smile most of the time.

Birthday Party #1

Cailin recently turned 2, yes only 2. She thinks she's about 15, but she is only 2. She had her first of 5 birthday parties on Saturday February 3rd along with the Kern Winter Party. This year, the crowd was unusually small due to the bone-chilling temperatures. I think the high that day was 10 below zero. (And for those of you outside of Minnesota, it really does get that cold here) Mommy worked hard on making Cailin a Care Bear cake this year. Cailin thought that was pretty cool. She had a great day, visiting with family, playing with everyone, opening presents and of course, having 'cake!' as she yells. And a big "THANK YOU" to the Lechelts for providing the photos for us. We very conveniently left our camera sitting on the shelf at home.

Such a big boy

Andrew has really changed a lot over the last few weeks. He is sitting now independently (he's been trying for months to accomplish that on his own) and he is standing all the time. We think he'll skip the crawling stage and go right to walking (even though we know we'll have to make sure he learns to crawl at some point for developmental reasons...). We figure he watches his big sister run around and wants to keep up with her. He really thinks she's pretty ok (in the understated words of Uncle John) and loves, loves to be around her. He also is chatting pretty much non-stop. Mostly just baby jibberish, but we think he's also trying to keep up with squirty so he's trying hard. He does have a long way to go to keep up with that chatterbox!

Baby hat

Cailin was recently playing in Drew's room when she found the hat he was given at birth at the hospital. She thought it was really cool to try on. It was pretty small and tight, but that didn't stop her from trying and wearing it around the house. We were explaining to her that it was Drew's hat. She then decided it would be fun to see Drew in the hat. Well, but the pictures above, you can see the result. Fits like a glove, like a really tight, too small kinda glove.

Drew's First Superbowl

Mike was very proud to be spending his first superbowl with his son, Drew. Our friends, Trey and Shannon were kind enough to make the journey to our place (so we didn't have to venture out in the cold) and even brought Chili (very good!) and Cheese dip and Chips (also very good).



Trey was wearing this hat and put it on Drew's head. Drew didn't seem to mind. But we got to chatting and the hat slowly drooped over his face and then we started to realize that Drew was complaining an awful lot, only to find the hat completely covering his face. Poor guy. If his parents only paid any attention to him!
:)

Bears, Bears, Bears

And I don't mean the Chicago Bears. Squirty and her Care Bears. She got this shopping cart for Christmas from her Aunties. She loves tooling around the house pushing her shopping cart with every bear (and her bird and monkey too) in the cart. Needless to say the cart is awfully full.

Cailin is talking pretty much non-stop now. She will repeat just about anything you say. She's awfully busy. She also likes to sit on her blow up chair and dig into the fridge to see what kind of trouble she can get in to.

Drew is just starting to crawl. He made his first moves last night. I wouldn't say he likes being on his belly, but hopefully he'll realize that moving around is pretty ok. In this picture, Squirty likes playing in her crib (with her bears obviously) and she didn't want to get out on this particular day. Drew wanted to hang out with big sis, so he joined her in the crib. It's hard to get a good shot of him. He sees the lights flash and blink and he is temporarily mesmorized by the camera. So we get this 'dear in headlights' look frequently.