sweet skylar

skylar is such a good little lady! shes just easy. for example, i needed to mow our lawn so i decided to do it while baby b was napping this morning. i blocked off the driveway and gave skylar a box of sidewalk chalk. she played happily and entertained herself outside for 1 whole hour. not many 3 year olds would do that. she only interrupted me 3 times. once to show me what she'd drawn. (7 circles, but according to her, they were 1. the letter O, 2. a zero, 3. a circle, 4. a pillow, 5. a cloud, 6. a ring, 7. a lady.) the second time was to ask me why i tipped up the lawn mower when i turned around. and third, to give me a boquet of dandelions she'd picked for me. what a sweet girl. i love that she can enterain herself by playing with rocks, sticks, in her sandbox, coloring, etc. its awesome. love you skylie girl!!

carnival

i took the girls to a carnival down the street. it was hosted by a daycare so it was perfect for these little ones! everything was catered to the children, sans the lines. skylar was such a patient girl. she waited for 3 rounds to get onto the swings.

she also got a butterfly painted on her arm.

jumped in a bounce house with a bunch of other kids.

and played a ton of games for silly little toys. remember those lips with the whistle built in? i remember them making me light-headed. her daddy said "be careful, you may pass out!" a valid concern.

both girls got balloon art. skylar got a princess wand and baby b got a rattle.

our friends stephani, matt and bailey were there but unfortunately we didnt get a pic with sky and bailey. next time!

who is 3 years old and starting pre-school? not my baby!! can't be!! well it sure is. skylar is officially BIG (she pronounces it beeeg and we love that). here she is heading off to her 1st day of school. she will attend the pre-school where i went and also where my mom tought for a really long time! its fun that we have that history with the school. big girl skylar has 2 friends in her class already and im sure she will know everyone's name pretty soon. she's super excited to go to school! she will do tuesdays and thursdays... just for 2.5 hours each day. hmmm. what will momma do?!?!

15 reasons i love our cabin

1. occasionally i get to sleep in.

2. instead of watching tv at night, i read or just visit with my husband.

3. we can have a fire in our wood-burning stove that heats the whole place.

4. i let my kids stay in their pjs all day bc no one sees them except russ and me.

5. we can go out on the boat and fish in a flash.

6. there are tons of nature trails of varying lenths and levels.

7. the lending library has new free options all the time.

8. outdoor concerts and movies with popcorn are so fun for the entire family.

9. buzzing around in our golf cart is an adventure in itself.

10. seeing all the deer, owls, turkeys, turtles, etc.

11. the outlet mall is close if i feel like shopping.

12. i only feel it neccessary to dust/vaccum about every 4th trip. its a cabin, who cares?

13. playing on the beach is fun even when it isnt hot outside.

14. during naptime, i usually just sit on the deck, or take a nap myself. at home, im cleaning or doing laundry.

15. its only 45 minutes, door to door.



we have so much fun at our cabin! here's the highlight from this weekend. russ and i were laughing so hard! im so glad i brought the video camera and was able to capture this.

days of summer

the girls and i went wide open yesterday! we were non-stop from 6am to 10pm. well, i was anyway! ;-) we started the day with a visit to the church. i had a meeting to attend and the girls went to the daycare. they always have so much fun there! skylar got to play play-doh and go out side on the playground since it was such a nice day. after that, we headed to the bank for some business stuff. skylar pushed b around in the stroller while i met with a banker. it was awesome! she's getting so big! i love that she can entertain b for me. since she was such a good girl, she got a blue sucker. we took a short walk down to a local restaurant for a nice patio lunch. unfortunately the service was poor, but oh well, i enjoyed the time with my girls. we headed home for naps and thankfully, both girls passed out for about 1.5 hours. when they woke up, we decided to head to the local pool for an evening swim. it was so nice to be there without the crowd and to not have to worry about sunscreen! they have a fantastic baby/toddler area where skylar plays independantly. after about 2 hours of play, we headed home to see daddy and to make dinner. after dinner, sky and i ran out the door to go see kung fu panda! our local town center shows an outdoor movie now and then. i decided to spoil her and go to coldstone creamery first. she picked out chocolate ice cream and had m&m's folded in. (she gets that from me, for sure!) she sat on my lap throughout the entire movie, eating her ice cream and having blast. we didnt get home until 10.00 and she swore she STILL wasnt tired. (YEAH RIGHT!) it was a fun day! unfortunately i didnt take any pictures all day long, but i cant leave a blog photoless, so here are a few just for good measure.

bianca, the glass eating machine

babies put everything in their mouths, everything! i thought my floors were pretty clean until bianca started crawling. now she finds all the little things that i've missed and insists on eating them. a shelf in our tv room broke, and a piece of artwork went crashing down. there was glass everywhere! i picked up all the pieces i could see, and vacuumed twice, of course thinking i got it all up. the next day, i left the girls downstairs and ran up to get miss b's swimsuit so we could go meet some friends at the local pool. when i came back down, she had that look on her face that said, "ive got something in my mouth, and I'm going to swallow it!" of course i ran over to her and did the mouth sweep. her mouth was bleeding from a gash way back on her gums but there was nothing to be found. i assumed she swallowed a piece of glass, and i was right. i took her right to the hospital, where they did a series of x-rays. the 2mm x 6mm pointy piece of glass was in my baby's stomach. ;-( they decided it was best to go in and retrieve it before it got into her intestines. we were sent off to GI. bianca was the star of the GI unit! all the nurses, drs and anesthesia team had to stop in our room and see the cute little glass swallowing baby. she got a ton of attention, and everyone was so nice and helpful. dr. udderson was the best. after another series of x-rays they went in after it. unfortunately between the x-rays and the endoscopy, the glass moved to her intestine. dr. udderson suggested that we switch hospitals, to be where a pediatric surgeon is on staff, just in case the glass would injure her internally and they'd have to do surgery. i packed my little hospital gown wearing baby into the car and drove 5 miles down the road to a new hospital. her little hospital crib was so sad, but the functions were pretty cool... i just hated that she was in it. luckily, the next 12 hours of observation were pretty uneventful. in the morning, we went home. of course, after being home no more than 20 minutes, she decided to pass the piece of glass. digging for that was tons of fun!! (ewwwwww.) we are just relieved that its out of our baby and seemed to pass without any internal injuries. oh the joys of parenthood. ;-)

later that day, i remembered that russ told me we had very little coffee, so i HAD to go to the store. do you think kids are a bit resilient? look at that grin!

thought process

skylar baffled me at dinner the other night. i love how you can almost see the little wheels turning in her head as shes figuring something out. the conversation went something like this...

S: "mom, do roosters fly?"
M: "no."
S: "do chickens fly?"
M: "yes, chickens can fly."
S: "so, chickens fly with wings?"
M: "yep."
S: "did we eat those chicken wings for lunch yesterday?"
M: "yes!! skylar you are so smart!"
S: "mom, did we put them back for the chicken or did we eat the wings all gone?"
M: "you ate them all gone."

isn't that funny? she is such a little smartie!

side note: i know i haven't blogged in a long time! my stepchildren have been here and ive been way too busy to be bloggin! unfortunately, i was too busy to take many pictures either. booo. we had a ton of fun, i just dont have many photos to prove it. i will see what i can come up with later today.