The Skousens

Short-Lived

2012-02-02T10:48:00.001-08:00

Need I say anything more? In the family room of all places.

(no, it wasn't Sam - I just wanted him there so you can get a feel for how large this hole is)

Completion Feels Wonderful

2012-02-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

The family room just as you enter it from the stairs. The tile in the corner is for the pellet stove which will be our secondary heat source.
And a quick gander at the rest of the family room with the wiring for surround sound
The craft room all ready to go
Under the stairs area (where Sam wants his new room to be ;)
Craft room looking on the mechanical room and the hallway leading to the two bedrooms and bathroom
Bigger bedroom
Sorry this one is kind of blurry. Two hall linen closets, bathroom and other (much smaller) bedroom.
Shelves in one of the linen closets (the other one has them, too)
And the bathroom with the granite countertop with undermount sink. I had to special order the drawer pulls, but other than that everything is done! It began to feel like it would never be finished, but here we are three weeks later with the size of our house doubled! Robert just has to weld some escape ladders for the other two windows and then we can have our final inspection, but I am planning on getting started on cleaning and moving stuff downstairs today!

Not Yet

2012-01-30T19:26:00.001-08:00

Sorry, no pictures today because of course they did not finish and I am too frustrated with this whole process to take pictures of what is done, so hopefully tomorrow. The carpet guy was irritated that there were people there working while he was, so he decided to leave and come back tomorrow when everyone else is done (which they won't be - don't ask me why). Then when walking through tonight they didn't get the same doorknobs as upstairs - or ceiling lights - or bathroom lights. I guess they didn't really think we meant it when we said we wanted everything exactly like it is upstairs - I guess "close" is good enough? And of course it is our fault and it would be really mean of us to make them get the right ones because they already threw the boxes away so they wouldn't be able to take the wrong ones back. I know this is fabulous that we are doing our basement, but as of right now I am frustrated and mad and want all these stupid, crazy, don't-do-their-job-quite-right guys out of my house!! (Did I mention that Amy is teething again and Sam has been running around crazy?) Thanks. I've vented and now I am going to bed so that everything will look better in the morning and hopefully I make it through another day of "we're almost done" - wish me luck!

So Close!!

2012-01-28T18:17:00.001-08:00

Here are all the rooms with their final paint colors
My absolute favorite!! I love how this turned out and am really happy with the choice I made to do an accent wall in red instead of robin's egg blue on all the walls. Don't you just love how all the colors pop?

And one last look at that awesome wall to get the full effect of how much color there is and what you see when you walk into the room. We get granite and carpet first thing Monday morning and then it's just putting on the finishing touches! Monday is our finish day, but I suspect it will trickle into Tuesday as well.

Basement Progression Part 2

2012-01-27T08:47:00.001-08:00

So, not enough has been happening each day to justify taking a picture and posting, but here we are as of this morning (no, it is not going to be finished today - not surprising) First up is the bathroom. We are supposed to be getting the granite countertop installed today!
The shelves that we did in both bedroom closets.
One of the two small linen closets in the hallway with the shelves in
The tile in my beautiful craft room! I finally decided on a paint color - amazing isn't it? I decided to do something that would appeal to more people but that would still be fun and something I would like. I chose a deep red color as an accent wall and the rest of the walls will be the same tan as the rest of the house. The accent wall will be the one you can see on the right with the three outlet boxes, so it will be the first wall you see when you walk into the room.
The tile in the corner of the family room where the pellet stove will eventually be.
And last, but not least, my new cabinets for the laundry room! I am SO excited for these! The carpenter said it was the largest upper cabinet he had ever built! These are going to provide a TON more storage space that is much-needed! No more crap on top of the washer and dryer that fall off whenever I'm doing laundry - hooray!!

Finally Some Snow!!

2012-01-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

First here is a picture of Sam's piggy bank all painted. He was so excited for this project and has asked many times for extra things he can do to earn money and then runs to put it in his piggy bank. (and please don't mind the dust on the table; you wouldn't believe me if I told you I had dusted just yesterday but it's true - such is life with construction)
And FINALLY we have gotten enough snow to post about! I can't believe it is nearly the end of January and we are finally getting some snow to play in!
I am also really glad we got this little bit of snow so Sam can use the sled we got him for his birthday (yeah, we knew it was a gamble with the way things have been with precipitation this year, but it was half off)Daddy was quite the trooper and brought out the wheelbarrow to pile up enough snow to make a little hill the kiddo could sled down. He loves it!!

Using his snow shovel from last Christmas to help make the pile bigger.

Sammy Turns 4

2012-01-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

Our big guy turned 4 yesterday - I can hardly believe he is four already! Here he is sporting his very own Captain America costume to go along with the shield he got for Christmas from his best buddy Josh (and Josh's mommy). Josh has a costume just like this his mom made for Halloween a year or two ago and every time Sam goes over he asks to wear it. So now they both have costumes and shields and can play superheroes all day long.
I think he likes it, what about you?
Opening his piggy bank. After reading about Little Critter saving his money in his piggy bank, Sam has repeatedly asked for a red piggy bank of his own. This one fits the bill because you can paint it yourself - a fun project to keep him busy this last week of basement construction.
Lion King!
Angry birds bean bag toss game. At $3 how could I resist?
I think Daddy likes Sam's new Thor helmet as much as Sam does

Awesome Captain America and Red Skull cars from Uncle Mitch.
Sam was very excited about getting his very own flashlight
A new puzzle because most of our other ones are missing pieces we have played with them so much!

Sam and Josh knew just what to do when Sam's "big" present came out!
Peeking at the "big" present
Blowing out the candles on his shield cake

The cake - Devilishly Good Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and mint chocolate chip ice cream

And the three superhero capes I made for his birthday with help from Robert's mom (she cut the symbols with her Cricut for me out of iron-on vinyl.
I can't tell you how frustrating these capes ended up being. First I bought WAY too much fabric and then I realized I bought the pattern that was boys sizes instead of little boys. So then I tried to shrink it down myself without really measuring and it just wasn't working. Then I sort of messed up the vinyl on the Spiderman cape. But knowing how much he loves and will continue to love playing with these capes makes all the work, frustration, and headaches worth it!

A Few Random Pictures

2012-01-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

The other morning I grabbed the camera because my kiddos were just sleeping so peacefully I wanted to capture the moment. It's funny how kids work - if we have somewhere to go (like going to play basketball) in the morning they sleep in; but if we don't have to get up and going quite as early (like Saturday for example) they get up nice and early - kinda tempting to just go back to bed on the days they will sleep, but I know exercise is important, too. :)
Yeah, don't ask me how Amy got in to this position, because I have no idea!
A few pictures of my happy girl Amy trying out her new sleeper sack I made for her. The owl one didn't work for very long because she is so tall, so I made this one super long and it still didn't last that long because her neck got too big. That girl! She has to wear 12 month pants now because any smaller are capri's on her (she is not quite 9 months old, if you were wondering)

Another funny sleeping position picture of Amy. Now that she can roll proficiently, we find her in all sorts of places in the morning!
And yeah, I know this one is upside down, but I thought it turned out pretty cute. It's yet another sleeper sack I made for someone having a baby boy.

Basement Progression

2012-01-22T14:25:00.001-08:00

So we are two weeks in to the basement construction and there is finally great visual progress to show! We got held up first by the electrician, then because of that our inspections didn't pass and there was a holiday on Monday, so we had to wait until Tuesday before we could move forward. But since getting over that first major hurdle, things have been going great. This top picture is from the first week when they finished up the framing, put in the shower/tub insert, and did all the electrical wiring.
Hooray! We have light in the stairway!! Now I can hang my nice picture and put the vinyl on the wall.
The family room ready to be sheetrocked
Sheetrock and tape going up. This is looking from the craft room to the smaller bedroom, small hallway closet and a little bit of the bathroom (with the orange floor)
And the other small hall closet and bigger bedroom on the other side.
Half of the craft room sheetrocked
I was unable to get a good picture of how awesome and bright our stair lights are, but at least you can see where they are in this picture. They are motion activated (although we have yet to figure out how to use it) and I think they are LED, so they are a really nice, bright light to help you when going up/down the stairs at night - soo glad we did this!
The family room with sheetrock, tape, and texture
And the other side with the door leading in to the craft room. We weren't planning on doing a door there, but after further consideration, I insisted we put something there to keep kids not only out of my craft room, but also out of that half of the house since it won't be used right away. We had really wanted to do a pocket door to save on space, but that wall is load bearing. We considered building it out and putting the pocket door in a wall right next to it, but with the door on the under the stairs area, it didn't quite fit - bummer. But to avoid doors hitting/blocking each other, the door gets to swing out into the family room, but at least we have our door to keep little feet out!
Craft room textured. Gotta love the funky little light in the box of ducting, but with a craft room you have to do light wherever you can get it. There was a ton of ducting and heating and whatever else running in the ceiling in this room, so the lighting is crazy, but I think it will be sufficient.
The under-the-stairs area a.k.a. Robert's man cave
Bigger bedroom looking from the corner to the door and closet. We went with the same closet doors as in the bedrooms upstairs. And look at the trim and tile waiting to be put in next!! Tile is going in the bathroom (same as upstairs) and a different tile in my craft room and then a small square of tile in the corner of the family room where we will eventually put a pellet stove.
Hallway with the two small closets and bathroom. One last door to be hung and then all but the exterior door for the mechanical room are in!
And a quick glance at the smaller bedroom with its texture all done. This week will have tons more progress, so hopefully I will remember to get down there each night to take pictures. Monday and Tuesday they should be putting in trim and then priming and painting. Wednesday is tile and bathroom stuff. Thursday comes carpet and finishing touches are on Friday. So barring any more complications/delays the whole thing should be complete THIS Friday!!! We are so excited!

Second Quilt

2012-01-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

Here's my second quilt!! And done in a quarter of the time it took me to complete my first quilt. Although there are still many mistakes and not-quite-straight lines, I really like how it turned out and I really hope my little nephew enjoys it! :)

And one little tidbit of news from us: we are getting started on finishing the basement this week after our company leaves - I am SOO excited!! The guy doing it says it will take him two weeks from start to finish, so that is perfect timing to throw an awesome party for Sam's birthday that can double as a sort of housewarming/come-see-our-finished-basement party!!

Some Random Pics

2011-12-31T12:29:00.000-08:00

Sam showing off his new hat

I know she is almost out of the picture, but the look on her face is so cute!

Sammy and Amy playing patty cake. No matter how I try, whenever I take pictures of Amy, the only look I can get is this one that is part scared, part curious. She really does have other expressions, they are just difficult to capture :)

And the reason why I ran and grabbed my camera. She was sitting by herself in the living room being quiet and I went to check on her, she was laying completely folded in half with her head on the floor. But when I came back, she had decided she wanted to try eating her socks. Still cute.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

Look!! It's FINALLY done! My family wall is finally complete. Remember when I first came up with the idea when we were in the old house, nearly two years ago? Then this spring my sister and I finally put up the vinyl "Families Are Forever" our friends cut for us for Christmas a year before? Well now we have nice frames and the pictures to fill them AND they are up on the wall. I am sooo excited!! All that I have left for this wall is two black shelves to go on either side of the family picture to put my Willow Tree figurines and the molds of Kaylie's hand and foot and we are DONE! I am also really, really excited we finally got a rack of hooks for the laundry room so we can hang up our coats and leave the front coat closet for guests!

Our new table and chairs set and ready for our company for Christmas Eve dinner. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up and they were only able to join us after dinner for a few gifts, a Christmas movie and book and some good chatting. We decided to buy this table and chairs with the giftcard Robert's work gave us because we were going to have five extra people for Christmas Eve and the week after New Years we are having Robert's cousin and her family stay with us for a few days. They are bringing seven extra people, so we felt it was worth the investment. While the table is not in use, it will be in my craft room downstairs.

Sammy and Amy on Christmas Eve in their new jammies (I made the pants for Sam) and with their gifts from Uncle Mitch and clan.

All ready for Christmas morning. If you look at the stockings, you will notice Robert's mom was able to get Amy's stocking done for this year - I was so excited to have them all!!

Sam with his big, huge tractor. Daddy spoils him like crazy! This thing is so big and heavy Sam can barely carry it :) I have to put this story in somewhere so we will always remember: we got Sam a Stomp Rocket. It is basically a hose hooked to a stand and you put the (hard) foam-tipped rocket on the stan and stomp on the pouch on the other end of the hose, making the rocket fly with air power. Of course it only took Robert milliseconds to figure out to hold the stand to make the rockets fly down the hall into the bathroom. This was working great until he decided it would be funny to start hitting mommy with the rockets (ok, so maybe I encouraged this a little to see Sam laugh) As is usual, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Unfortunately it was my turn to get hurt. The rocket hit me directly in the eye. Poor Sam was so sad to see me hurt so bad, but I am ok and we are now supervising the stomp rocket very closely to make sure no one else gets hurt. Not so funny when it happened (it hurt like crazy - I didn't see it coming) but now we can all laugh about it!

Amy with some of her toys.

Sam got a monster bowling set. The bowling pins are monsters. We thought he would like this because he loved bowling when we went with Jake and Stacey a while back. And this is where I stopped taking pictures so we could just enjoy the morning.

The kiddos in their Christmas Sunday outfits. Amy got a new dress, Mommy got a new shirt and boots and Daddy and Sam got matching red ties. We enjoyed a nice relaxed morning with Cinnabon cinnamon rolls (I got the recipe from a friend) for breakfast. Went and enjoyed church and took a poinsettia to Kaylie's headstone. Then we just kinda chilled the rest of the day watching a few of our new movies and enjoying being together. We hope you all had a wonderful and memorable Christmas with your families as well.

Christmas Mayhem

2011-12-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

So we have been busy just keeping up with all the holiday things that go on during this time of year. Mainly shopping and projects. One that has been in the works for over a year is this advent calendar. I purchased all the materials last year and began planning out how I wanted to make it. Then Christmas passed and I lost motivation, so everything went into a box that was left alone until this week. I really like how it came out and I am planning to add little cards to each slot of something the kids (and us adults, too I guess) can do each day as their gift to Christ. It is an idea I heard at our RS activity this month and I really liked how it helps to remember Christ each day leading up to Christmas, not just on Christmas Eve or during FHE.

After finishing it, I think it needs just a bit more, so I may add some vinyl numbers on the pouches, but we will have to see. All in all, I am glad to have it done and to have one more thing checked off my "To Do" list. I also made a play dress for Lilly, but don't have a picture of her in it yet, so stay tuned for that because I think it turned out super cute!!

Sam being silly with his grapes the other day.

It being Christmastime means loads of goodies! We did sugar cookies with the Potters at their house and then they came to ours to decorate gingerbread houses (Sam and I had done the gingerbread ourselves a week or so before) and the kids and mommies had lots of fun! Now that it is the week of Christmas we have been baking like crazy each day to have plenty of cookies and candies to do plates for friends and neighbors and just wait for the big day to come. Today they had Santa come visit at the library and you can see a picture of Sam on his lap on my facebook page. He wasn't quite as excited about it this year as he was last year, but oh well.

Projects and Sickness

2011-12-11T12:01:00.001-08:00

This week started off with Daddy leaving for his big hunting trix to Texas. Of course while he was gone we all got sick and have been fighting it the rest of the week. We had fun this week getting the bulk of the Christmas shopping done. We also took some time to make some gingerbread and will be decorating houses with our friends later this week. The picture above is of the Lethal Peppermint Chocolate cake I did for my niece for her birthday which is today! Happy birthday, Natalie! She had asked for this flavor of cake and for it to be a nativity cake. Umm, no idea how I would do that, so we cheated and bought a nativity set to put on top of the cake and to be the birthday girl's present as well. It's the best I could come up with in two days and being sick, so hopefully she likes it.

Sam and Amy are both doing well. This little gal eats like a horse, it can be tough to keep up sometimes! She has really taken a liking to this little item a friend of mine told me about a while ago. It is a mesh pouch that you can put things in for the baby to chew on and get the taste of without actually eating the thing like bananas or strawberries. Sam loves hearing "his" Christmas songs from preschool on the radio.

And a few of the projects I have undertaken this week were a girl's dress for a friend (picture to come when it is completely finished) and replacing the zipper on Sam's winter coat. I was so mad he broke the zipper completely off this awesome coat that I found for only $10 and I really didn't want to go out and find another one, probably at full price. So I went to JoAnn's and used a coupon so if it didn't work, I only spent $1.85 trying to fix it. At first it looked like it might be tricky, but it worked quite nicely and now I don't have to buy him a new one! This week we will finish off the last few items of Christmas shopping and I will start working on a quilt for my nephew for Christmas (hopefully I can get it finished in time!) and Captain America PJ pants for Sam.

Thanksgiving Week

2011-11-30T13:49:00.001-08:00

I know, it's wierd to start off a post about Thanksgiving with a picture of our Christmas tree, but I don't have any photos from Thanksgiving week - we had THAT much fun! :) It was a bit of a rough start with us not leaving until Monday night around six when the plan had been to leave first thing Monday morning, but such is life with a farmer who has to help haul cows. We finally arrived and started our week off right with a trip to the Manti Temple with my sister and her husband. It was awesome! We have not been to the temple together in a very, very long time and it was extra special because it was the first time for my sister and her husband have been back since they were married there. Then the crazy pie making began! We made 18 pies this year! Thanks to everyone for pitching in, though so it wasn't a mammoth task for just one person. We had so many yummy ones to choose from, it was awesome! I think the favorites this year were the returning champion blueberry, the raspberry sour cream and the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

We were able to squeeze in a little shooting with the pie-making and then we enjoyed a nice, relaxed Thanksgiving with family and food. Friday we skipped the Black Friday shopping to go paintballing, which was a blast! I got the best injury for the entire time on the first round. I got hit in the finger, which bled right away and hurt like the dickens for a while. At the bottom is a picture of what is still there after nearly a week. That night my sister, mom and I went out to get much-needed haircuts and do some shopping. And the last day us gals went out for brunch at IHOP and saw The Help at the cheap theatre. That night the guys went and saw Contagion. It was an awesome week, let me tell you!

While we were in Utah Amy finally cut her first tooth - Yay!! And now we are back to reality with cooking, cleaning, and schedules. Sam loves being back in preschool. Amy has decided to wake up in the middle of the night again, so we will be working on retraining her to sleep through the night. I am enjoying playing volleyball three mornings a week with ladies in my ward since running outside is no longer ideal. And Robert is just biding his time until his big trip to Texas to hunt deer (all expenses paid!)

So that's about it for now. Hope you all are detoxing from all the family, food, and fun ok. We are having a bit of a time adjusting - Amy to not being held every minute of the day and Sam to not having constant playmates. It may be a good thing for him, though; I caught him admiring something he had made out of playdough saying "Ohh, it's so cute!" in a high, girly voice :)

(Oh yeah, and how do you like our Christmas tree? It leaves very little living space in the living room, but it is worth it for the lovely sight and smell all month long!)

What We've Been Up To

2011-11-17T19:49:00.001-08:00

Probably my favorite outfit on Amy right now - go flower power!! This poor gal has been really fussy lately because she is getting some teeth! Don't know exactly how many are coming in yet, but her bottom gums in the front are pretty swollen so I'm thinking maybe the two bottom? We will have to let you know when they come through - hopefully soon!

This is my latest project - accomplished in just one day believe it or not! It is a sleeper sack for Amy to wear at night to keep her nice and cozy even when she throws off the blankets. The first is always the hardest and the worst, but I am proud of myself for doing it and plan to make more now that I have figured it out.

Brother and sister

And tonight our library had Little Critter come visit. Sam saw all the posters when we came for storytime and kept asking all day if we were going to see him and so right after some friends we babysat left we hurried over. Of course we finally get there and Sam is too scared to go near him - silly goose! There was also a silent auction where I won a super cute bag and a pillowcase/book combo that is a cute girly pillowcase for Amy and a Little Critter book for Sam. I would call it a good night!

Big Girl

2011-11-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

Amy hit the big 6 month checkpoint which means another doctor appointment to get the latest stats on our little gal. She measured 27 inches long, which is the 89th percentile. Head was 43.5 cms (not given a percentile on that one) and she weighed 17 pounds 9.5 ounces, putting her in the 77th percentile for weight. So all around she is doing very well and mainly grew longer instead of heavier.

She is eating baby food and cereal twice a day now. She loves oatmeal and mixed grain and doesn't really seem to have a preference on the baby food yet. She is still quite the mommy's girl, but that isn't always a bad thing. We just discovered that she can sit up on her own and she is doing fabulous now that we give her the opportunity to practice. She loves playing in the saucer and has been rolling for a little while and is just starting to figure out how to use rolling to get herself from one place to another. She still adores her big brother and he mainly still likes her. When she isn't sick she will usually sleep through the night, depending on when she goes to bed and when she last ate. And lastly, she is an extremely happy, smiley baby when she first wakes up!!

I can't imagine life without our sweet little Amy. Hope you enjoy some new pictures. This bottom one is one day she fell asleep while I was holding her and I just couldn't bring myself to go put her in a bed (she sleeps on my bed if she falls asleep after Sam goes down for a nap), so I snuggled her on the couch next to me while I worked on a project and just watched her sleep. Love moments like these!

First Quilt and Other Tidbits

2011-11-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

My first ever quilt is posted above. Took me ten months to complete it, but I had a few minor distractions like having a baby, so I hope my friend will forgive me being 3 months late with her baby's gift. But at least it is in time for winter, right? I chose most of the colors before knowing the gender of the baby, so that is why it isn't super girly or super boyish. I think it turned out pretty cute, though. And if you don't look too close at the stitching, it looks great! :) Next time will be better, guaranteed! Thanks to my friend, my sister, and my mother-in-law for helping me with this major project - I couldn't have done it without you guys!

And here is a picture of Sam ready to go trunk-or-treating - I know, kinda late. But we had Robert's mom here to visit for the last week so I didn't get a chance to post this. I love how decked out he looks and the big scrape under his eye where Daddy dropped a light on him adds just the right touch to get that "beaten cowboy" look :)
Another project that I finished up was a little decorating in the kids' room. Sam has had his name on the wall for a while and I have been meaning to do Amy's and some cute kiddy graphics. Thanks to Robert's mom, we got it hammered out. Sam LOVES his tractor and rocketship (don't they look awesome?!) and I love the way Amy's flower and butterfly turned out!

Amy's New Blanket

2011-10-28T18:18:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to share pictures of Amy's newest blanket because it turned out so dang cute! No, I did not make this myself. A few weeks back our RS had an activity where you were supposed to come up with a service to auction off and when you got there, you were given pretend money based on things that applied to you such as you read your scriptures or you had started your Christmas shopping, etc. My service was a birthday cake, hence one of the three I did this week.

That night I bought some babysitting from one person and a custom flannel baby blanket from someone else. I finally called and told her I would love baby blue and black, but any girly assortment of patterns and colors would be fine. And this is what I picked up today. I just love it!! You rarely see this color combo in girls clothes, but it is my favorite! And, it is nice and big to keep her warm all winter long - yay!!

Cake #3 and Pumpkins

2011-10-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

So here is my third and final cake for the week. I didn't take a picture of cake #2 because it was a simple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and no decorations, so nothing to really show. This one turned out fairly cute. It is the now fabulously famous Almost Too Much Chocolate Cake with black and pink decor on top (birthday girl's favorite colors)

I used buttercream to attach the curly things and dusted the loops of the bow with pearl dust to add a little sparkle. We took it with us to dinner at T.G.I. Fridays where we enjoyed some time with other adults while Sam played with a friend. I also have to add that this is the first cake I have been paid to do, which is exciting! Onward and upward!

And here are our three pumpkins sitting on the porch. We didn't get around to carving pumpkin #4 because of the dinner last night, but Sam and I found some of the battery operated candles at the local variety store and so we set out the pumpkins. I thought they looked pretty good and very Halloweenish! The big pumpkins we purchased from our neighbor, but since they were close to the last of the pumpkins and wouldn't stand up, we got them for $1 each instead of $3 each - gotta love a good deal!

Gearing Up for Halloween

2011-10-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well, we are getting ready for Halloween here in Rigby, Idaho as I am sure most of you are, too. Today was our first opportunity to wear costumes to the Halloween storytime. My camera started wiggin' out afterwards, so I only have a few pictures. Above is Sam as a cowboy with his friend, Josh, who is a pirate along with his sister, brother and mommy - very cute!

And here's little Amy before we left for storytime in her borrowed ladybug costume. I love that it is stuffed with filling and the leggings are a thick cotton, so she actually stays pretty warm.

And this is Sam yesterday when he came home from preschool. He was so excited to tell me all about picking out his pumpkin and his bat ears he made and about singing the songs about the witch and the spider (no, I have no idea what songs he is talking about - one of the bummer things about preschool). We carved pumpkins last night with Daddy, but we have one more to find a face for and then we can take pictures to post.

Today I am working on cake #3 in three days, for Robert's friend's girlfriend. It is the Almost Too Much Chocolate cake with a bow and a few of the curly things in black and pink to dress it up a little - should be fun!

Tomorrow Sam gets to dress up again for his preschool Halloween party, which he has been so excited for ever since they told him about it LAST WEEK (thank you ever so much preschool teachers) and while he's at school I get to go take the test to get an Idaho driver's license (I know, such a procrastinator) since my Utah one has finally expired.

We missed our ward's trunk-or-treat (that's what I get for missing church for 3 weeks in a row - don't know anything) so we are hoping to maybe try out the Boo at the Zoo this year and maybe even hit a corn maze before the season is done.

Truck Cake

2011-10-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is the picture that I found that was my inspiration. I know it doesn't look exactly the same but it's the general idea, right?

Well, here it is - the truck cake! It didn't turn out quite how I had in mind, but my cakes rarely ever do. Thankfully the person I did this cake for only requested a chocolate truck cake and left the rest up to me, so less stress.

Overall I think it turned out pretty cute, though and I hope the little boy will just be so excited that he got a truck cake for his 4th birthday that all the imperfections will be overlooked. I tried a homemade devil's food cake (which was very yummy and super moist, which is partly why I had so many issues) and put a layer of homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting in the middle with canned vanilla icing on the outside to get the red color (another major part of my issues)

Little Debbie chocolate covered donuts and M&M's make up the wheels. Crushed chocolate graham cookies, pretzels, and M&M's make up the "trash" in the back and a white chocolate bar for the windows and front grill of the truck complete it.

I would definitely like to try this one again and do many things different so that it comes out better, but overall it's still a fun cake and I think the family will be pleasantly surprised.

My First 5K

2011-10-22T19:07:00.001-07:00

So tonight I ran my first 5K. We did really well for it being our first. Our time was somewhere around 44 minutes or so which wasn't really fast, but all that matters is that we finished and we weren't the last ones.
On the left is Bec and on the right is Julie. Julie is the friend I have been training with in the mornings doing the Couch to 5K program. We were both really proud to have reached this point where we can run for 30 or 40 minutes without stopping. Neither one of us thought we were the running type and we still may not be, but we have learned that we can push through and finish.

Go mommies!!

Where in the World are the Skousens?

2011-10-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be MIA for so stinkin' long! I didn't realize how long it had been, but let me explain my absence. First of all, Robert has started digging potatoes, so once again we are without a husband/father which makes for really long days where we just try to make it to the end each time with everyone and their sanity in tact.
Then there was last week. My friend and I had planned to do our canning together and made a trip to Idaho Falls to get peaches, pears and corn on the cob. The plan was to buy the produce and then start two days later. But we would save a bundle if we bought peaches that were ready to be canned that day. So we ran home, quickly threw everything together and jumped in. We were able to finish the four boxes of peaches and one box of pears before the stomach flu hit both mommies and some of the kiddies. After giving ourselves one day to be sick, we went at it some more to finish the last three boxes of pears and dive in to fifteen dozen ears of corn to be shucked, blanched, cut off the cob and frozen. It was insane, let me tell you! But now we have our year's supply of each and probably about half of our canning/preserving done.
Then it was my birthday yesterday. It was pretty good as far as my birthday is concerned. Even though it was on Conference Sunday, I didn't have to prepare and teach a lesson or get the kids dressed up and wrestle with them at church. And Robert got to be home with me instead of digging potatoes. We had Papa Murphey's for dinner (since Robert can make that) and I decided I wanted cake for my birthday instead of pie, so I tried an orange cake with cream cheese icing (SO good!) and Super Fudge Brownie Ice Cream (yes, I realize these two don't really go together, but it is the only time Robert will allow me to buy ice cream now that we have an ice cream maker and I wanted to go all out). Sorry, no pictures, though because the batteries on the camera are dead (convienently).
Sam is as active as ever and is just loving preschool and we have started feeding Amy rice cereal!!
This week may or may not be more laid back, we shall see. I picked plums and peaches from the trees at our old place to make jelly and jam and probably should be taken care of this week, so that is probably going to be in the works along with all the housework that got neglected last week. But it will be worth all the work for a weekend of play with my sisters at Candace's bridal shower! Amy and I will be going down for the day while my brother-in-law watches Sam. Party on!!

The Strider Video

2011-09-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

As promised, I have made a video of Sam riding his new Strider bike. He LOVES this thing and the other day I had him try his friend's pedal bike without training wheels and he can do it!! After just two weeks with the strider and he could move to a pedal bike - so worth the money!! But since it is the end of the summer, he can keep riding his Strider and then next summer we will see if he is big enough to ride the green bike from my parents and if not then we will get him a smaller pedal bike. You've gotta love the big wipe out at the end of the video! After I gave him a hug, he told me he wanted to do another movie, but not say "bye", because that makes him fall down :) Enjoy!

Zoo Adventures

2011-09-15T11:53:00.001-07:00

My friend and I have been meaning to take the kids to the Idaho Falls Zoo for a while and finally got around to it this week. It was kinda small, but it was a beautiful day and not very many people were there so we had a great time walking around seeing the different animals they had. Amy was a little grouchy and I spent most of the time wrestling with her and trying to push the empty double stroller with one hand, hence the lack of pictures of the kids.

Black swans

Cranes - we were able to watch the employees feed these massive birds. They like to take the fish and swallow it and spit it back out over and over and over again. Sam was quite afraid that these birds were going to eat us, too.

Giant turtles

A leemer. He came right up to the glass where Lily was standing and put his hand out by hers, it was so cute! We all loved the different monkeys they had.

They had a few peacocks just running around the place, which was kind of neat. None of them had the full plume of feathers, though. We were also able to watch the penguins be fed (no picture, though)

We waited for a few minutes for our friends to meet us, so we grabbed a picture of each kiddo ready for the zoo.

Miss Amy. Still isn't real good at sitting up, even if she is strapped in.

State Fair

2011-09-10T13:04:00.001-07:00

So we were able to get Daddy to sneek away from work for a few hours to get our fill of the Eastern Idaho State Fair on Friday afternoon. It actually turned out quite well because there weren't a ton of people. Sam was a little grouchy at times and it was a little on the hot side, but we managed to still have a great time letting Sam go on a ride or two, check out the petting zoo and of course get our fill of fair food. Our usuals include the Prime Steer hamburger, Tiger Ear scones, and Reed's Dairy ice cream. To try something new, we decided to get a strawberry funnel cake. Oh my gosh!!! I just about died and went to heaven - seriously! It was a great day and I am really glad we were able to go together as a family and just enjoy some time together walking around checking things out.

Getting to ride the Nemo boat ride all by himself.

Brushing the cow but still (quite understandably) terrified

Llama

Sam loved the bunnies the best, mainly because they weren't trying to smell or lick him and they were in a cage

Sam was terrified of the goats getting so close to him, but as always Daddy is there to protect him and ended up being the one to feed the animals

Going on the kiddie ferris wheel

First Day of Preschool

2011-09-07T15:53:00.001-07:00

Amy ready to send big brother off to school

Sam showing us his MarioKart Wii backpack he picked out for school this year. I wasn't going to buy him a backpack because he already had a Buzz Lightyear one, but as luck would have it on the flight home from our trip to Arizona two or three weeks before school started the main zipper ripped clean off.

Sam was SOOO excited about going to school. He said he had a great time on his first day playing with playdough, playing outside on the castle, coloring a picture of a cowboy and singing "Old McDonald". Here's to two days a week preschool!!

Kids Pictures

2011-09-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

My incredibly talented friend came over a few weeks ago to take some pictures of the kids - mainly Amy. She did such an awesome job capturing her sweet personality - hope you enjoy pictures of our little angel. The blue rose clip and the brown and pink headband were made by Robert's sister, Lisa and I am determined to figure out how to make these one day when I have some time to myself to work with the hot glue gun.

First Milestone!!

2011-09-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Amy reached her first major milestone today - she rolled over!!! She may have done this earlier in the week, but I wasn't completely sure if she had started on her back or not and I didn't see her do it. But tonight I had run to get the camera to take pictures of Sam's face (below) and on my way back in to the kitchen she was lying on the blanket on her back. When I came back to her after taking two pictures of Sam, she had rolled over onto her tummy! This has taken her a while because she HATES being on the floor and Sam is usually pretty rough with her, making me even less inclined to put her down. But hey, she did it and she is learning to enjoy floor time slowly but surely.

And here is Sam licking the beater from our cookies we made for dessert tonight to help pass the time until bedtime since Daddy had to go back to work. The evenings are always tough when Daddy isn't home. Hope everyone enjoyed their "day of rest" and pictures to come soon of Sam on his new Strider bike!

Newest Family Photos

2011-09-02T14:04:00.001-07:00

Here are the family pictures we had done at the beginning of July with my family at the vacation house we rented in Swan Valley. Gorgeous area, let me tell you! First, a picture of Robert and me - it's been five years!

Ok, don't know why these are small, but this one is of my mom and most of my sisters - we are missing the youngest girl.

I had to post this picture of Camilla because when it was her turn for individual pictures, she would NOT smile for the photographer (who is my good friend BTW) but then as she was leaving the picture spot with her family, she totally lit up when who showed up? Yes, ME! It melted my heart that she would give such sweet smiles for her Auntie Christine :)

The Whatcott clan

Me and Sam playin around

My sweet boy

Mommy and Amy - don't you just love the soft purple flowers in the background?

Total personality picture

My handsome boys

Not quite sure what to do with a screaming baby. As sad as it is that she is screaming, I also think it is so cute!

Daddy's little girl, or is it little girl's Daddy? Probably both!

Best Cake Yet!!

2011-09-01T07:40:00.001-07:00

Story is below, but here is the cake that I found to base my cake off of.

A close-up of the palm trees made from gumpaste/fondant blend.

So this cake has a story, are you ready? My little niece Lucy has been planning what she wanted for her birthday cake for a while. Since her sisters' birthdays back in June (her birthday is the end of August). The plan was to do a waterfall cake. This sounded quite daunting to me, but once I started looking at other people's ideas, I found one I wanted to base mine off of. But then my sister's family had to move back to Washington at the beginning of August. So then we were thinking that maybe I could come over a day or two beforehand and still do the cake. But as things got closer, it wasn't looking like it would be able to happen for many reasons, but the biggest being I just wasn't sure if I could do the 10-12 hour trip with two kids alone. But then we had it! Daddy (who is here finishing his last semester of his MBA) was going home to visit the weekend after her birthday, so we plotted a surprise birthday cake to arrive with him!

I honestly cannot believe how well this cake turned out. I love the vibrant colors that match Lucy's outgoing personality and it is the first time that I have had an image in my head for a cake that has actually come out on the cake the same. Oftentimes I am sorely disappointed in what the cake actually looks like, but this is one I can honestly say I am proud of! I definitely need to work on my writing skills, but other than that it turned out great and it was so fun to play around with the colors and learn how to make palm trees and hibiscus (hawaiian) flowers! Happy Birthday to Lu-Lu - I really hope you love your cake sweet girl and I wish I could be there to deliver it to you and give you a big hug with it!

(P.S. Not only is this a pretty-looking cake, but it was a really yummy cake, too. Homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing/filling per the birthday girl's request)

Pictures of the Week

2011-08-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

I know, all our pictures of Amy are of her sleeping. But she is such a beautiful sleeper and once she gets up my hands are so full with two kids that I don't usually think to bring out the camera.

This is Amy's preferred sleeping position - arms raised above her head

Daddy has been working many, many hours with grain harvest and it has been taking its toll on all of us. Lately Amy has refused to be put down anywhere. Even if I am sitting right next to her on the floor she isn't happy. So when she was crying yet again about being left out during breakfast I decided to try putting her in the highchair which was still out because I had watched my friend's kids the other night.

What a great idea! She LOVES being able to sit up with us during meals and I have both hands free to eat and help Sam with his food. As you can see in this picture, we take extra precautions and stuff towels on either side of her to help her stay sitting up, but at least she can do it and she is happy.

Sam wanted his picture taken, too with his "Sammy cup" Grandma got for him when we went to Bear World during one of her visits. (He STILL asks to go on the train every time we pass Bear World)

Sleeping on our bed. Amy loves to sleep on our bed and though she sleeps better and longer when here, I am trying my best to resist the urge so that she will learn to sleep in her crib.

Don't ask me how this is comfortable, but he's asleep so it can't be too awkward :)

Amy fell asleep while having some floor time today. She was actually kind of happy (which is a huge relief) because she was able to turn from flat on her back to her side. Not too long before she will be able to turn completely over! My little baby is getting so big!

Amy's First Video

2011-08-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know why it took me so long to take a video of Amy, but here she is laughing the best I have heard yet. This is quite an accomplishment for me to get laughs out of her - usually she only laughs for Daddy or big brother.

Our Week of Travel

2011-08-17T16:14:00.001-07:00

Pictures are in reverse order again and since I only got pictures during Sea World, enjoy snippets of the story in between pictures. We flew from Idaho Falls to Mesa Monday night. This was SOOO nice to not spend 14 hours driving. I think I might kiss whoever came up with the idea! ;) Then we stopped off for dinner with my friend Renee and her husband Nick, who we haven't seen in a long time and it was so good to catch up.

Then we got up relatively early Tuesday morning and headed out for San Diego. The drive over went pretty well with the kids, considering we had been traveling the day before. We did family pictures with the Skousens at a beautiful college campus that I now cannot remember the name of, but it was beautiful. Then we enjoyed swimming at the hotel.

The next morning (Wednesday) we set out to spend our day at Sea World. It was fun to get to see several of the shows including the whales, sea lions and dolphins. Sam had a wonderful time seeing all the animals. Amy, however, had a really difficult day. Which made for a rough day for Mommy as well. Looking back, we realize that maybe the double stroller wasn't as helpful as first thought and that maybe a baby backpack/carrier would have been more beneficial .... but oh well. It will make for a great story years down the road.

Thursday was the wedding at the San Diego Temple. It was gorgeous!! I am extremely grateful to Shanna and Kurtis for watching ALL the kids so all the adults could go in for the sealing and be there to support Jake and Stacey. After the sealing everyone waited two hours for the bride and groom to come out. By the time it was our family's turn for pictures, the kids had had it. I am really looking forward to seeing the picture of all the kids from Jake's side with the bride and groom: Sam is standing out in front wailing, Stacey is holding Amy who is screaming, and Caiden is running out of the picture towards his Daddy. After the luncheon we all headed back to Hyder.

Friday was spent not really doing a whole lot. Just enjoying each other's company, snoozing and gearing up for the reception the next day. I was finally able to go bunny bashing with the guys, which was so much fun and I am glad I didn't miss out.

Saturday was a day of disasters but ended up ok. First the strawberries for the filling hadn't completely defrosted. Then the filling wouldn't thicken up properly. We had made the icing ahead of time and had thought we had done the math right and that a one and a half gallon tub would be enough for the 31 dozen cupcakes. It wasn't. So we had to run to the store and buy more ingredients to make double what we originally had made. We were also running into problems with the icing getting too hot and not keeping the shape. It finally did all come together and even if the cupcakes weren't perfect, they looked great. But needing to get the food for Sunday's dinner we were to plan, we left the reception during what we thought would be a good time. Turns out we missed the cutting of the cake, the dancing and the throwing of the garter and flowers. Oh well. After all the cleanup we still had a 2 hour drive home. Thankfully the kids fell asleep and didn't scream the whole way home.

Sunday we went to church where we doubled the number of attendees. Then spent the afternoon prepping food for an army. We did a mini Thanksgiving meal of turkey breast, rolls, corn, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, watermelon and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was a great last meal together. Then Monday afternoon we drove back to take our two hour flight back home to Idaho. Sam loved the plane both ways, although he started having a meltdown during the last half an hour of our flight and fell asleep ten minutes before landing. Ugh! Amy did pretty well on both flights, but after each she spent some time spitting up and being fussy, so I think it took its toll on her.

But now we are home and Robert is starting grain harvest, which means late nights for a while so me and the kids are just kind of taking it easy not really doing much. We really enjoyed our time in Arizona and will not be taking 80 degree heat for granted anymore! :) Thanks to everyone who made our trip possible!

The whale show was freaking awesome!!

The only picture I got of Jake and Stacey the whole week.

Waiting for the whale show

Going down the big hill. In front is Shanna and Emma. Then Lisa and Kurtis. The Adam and Kayla. In back are Jake and Robert.

Most of the adults going on the Atlantis ride.

We're Back

2011-08-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have returned from the land of heat beyond belief but are still recuperating (ok, so mostly it's just Mommy). Posts will be coming soon about our week of play with the Skousen clan!

Death by Chocolate

2011-08-05T13:33:00.001-07:00

So today I entered the county fair's Death by Chocolate contest. I chose to make my Almost Too Much Chocolate cake with a few new twists and see how it went. When I dropped the cake off I wasn't too optimistic about a real contest because there was only one other entry in the entire adult division (there were three categories and then the adult and jr divisions). But when I came back for the awards part there were quite a few entries and I began to doubt because the others looked pretty darn good. To my delight (and as no surprise to Robert) I won first prize in the adult division and overall winner!! That earned me a total of $60 (it didn't cost anything to enter). Now I just need to decide how I am going to spend the money - probably on more cake decorating stuff :)

And an updated picture of my super happy little girl. She is three months old today!! She smiles more than ever now and laughs occasionally. Last night she slept for 10 hours - it was amazing! She fell asleep around 9 and I woke her up to feed her at 10 so I could go to bed, but she went right back to sleep until 8 this morning. I just hope this sleeping through the night is going to become habit because I love getting to sleep again! This week has been nice and busy with family dinner on Sunday, girl time for pedicures, dinner and frozen yogurt on Monday, swimming lessons everyday (which are now done thank goodness), helping the Potters pack up and get ready to move, the cake contest, and getting ready to fly to Arizona on Monday for Jake and Stacey's wedding in San Diego. Whew! So we will be MIA for a while, but loads of pictures of the special day, the 300 cupcakes I'm making, and Sea World will be coming soon thereafter!

Doing Just Fine

2011-07-29T10:05:00.001-07:00

Well, here we are again catching everyone up on the goings-on of the Skousen clan. At times it feels difficult, but I know that is part of life and we just keep rolling with the punches. This week has been fun with Sam doing swimming lessons each morning and then hitting the free lunch in the park on the way home and all of us crashing for a nap when we get home. These two pictures from one morning when both kids had joined me in bed show how silly and cute Sam can be and how serious Amy usually is.

We were able to get the Potter clan together on Tueday night to go see Cars 2 at the drive-in - loved it! And last night Robert and I enjoyed a dinner with two other couples in our ward while Sam stayed home with a babysitter. Our ward is trying to help people get to know each other by putting four couples in a group and each couple gets a chance to host dinner at their home and after four months they change up the groups. It went alright for the first time around. I am excited to get to know other people in our ward and have a monthly date to spend time with my hubby and other adults.

My friend and I have started a running program called Couch Potato to 5K and it has been going pretty well. I have NEVER been a runner but decided to give it a try anyway. I don't particularly like running still, but it feels great to get outside and exercise with a friend and amazingly I hae been able to keep up with the program, but we will have to see if it lasts. The picture above is how I found Amy one day after I let her sit on the couch for a minute - she fell asleep sitting up. I love the cute little finger creeping over the edge of the blanket :) Robert's boss at work left, so he is facing a promotion which is a good and a bad thing. Good in that we are looking at a significant raise, but bad because he anticipates it to be quite difficult through the end of the year and it is already proving to be true! But once he is able to get good people in the important positions he feels that things will be better than ever and he is excited to help facilitate these changes in the company.

Amy's Blessing

2011-07-22T15:18:00.001-07:00

Here I am finally getting around to putting up pictures from Amy's blessing. It was a great day. We had family from both sides in attendance.

We forgot about pictures until after church and everyone was hot and tired (we didn't have our window AC unit in yet) but oh well.

So serious! The headband was made for Amy by Aunt Lisa and the dress (which barely fit thank goodness!) was made by Robert's mom from the fabric left over from her wedding dress (which she also made). All three daughters and all granddaughters except Kaylie have been blessed in this dress.

Sammy and Daddy

Amy during church.

Pioneer Celebration

2011-07-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight my friend and I braved the crowds and took the five kids to our stake Pioneer Celebration where we enjoyed a picnic dinner, two wagon rides, horse rides and petting/milking a cow. The kids had a blast and it was fun to get out and do something different.

Sam and Josh on their mini horses. Didn't get a picture of the cow because my camera died, but this was the highlight for the kiddos.

Amy's Stories

2011-07-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Amy's first story happened last week. I had decided to take Sam to the free lunch at the park in Rigby to see how it was compared to Rexburg's. As I was slowing down and moving over to make a right turn, a guy was trimming his lawn. A few rocks hit the car and just as I was about to turn, BAM!! The window next to Amy shattered into a million pieces. I slammed the car into park before we were really even stopped (poor car) and ran around to her side and just started yelling and shaking and anything else you can imagine a panicked mother would do if her 2 month old baby was covered in glass. Thankfully the guy was really nice about the whole thing. He calmly pulled Amy out and gave her to me to check over and hold while he cleaned up all the glass from the car and carseat. His renter's insurance covered the damage and his agent was able to find us a glass place that could fix the window first thing the next morning. It was really scary at the moment, but now I realize it really wasn't that bad. I'm glad she was ok and that the people had insurance that would pay for the damage because it really was an accident and the guy felt horrible. One we definitely won't forget!

Amy's other story for today happened today when we were eating lunch at the park. Smiles have become more abundant lately, although she seems to light up most when Daddy is holding her. While Sam was eating, I was trying to get some smiles since she was awake and Sam hopped over to my lap and started mimicking what I was doing (he does this all the time, saying what I am saying to her in the same tone of voice -too cute!) and suddenly Amy looks right at him and not only smiles, but starts to laugh! Seriously! Kind of a giggle/chuckle - it was so adorable!!! Of course neither Sam nor I could get her to really do it again like she had the first time, but it was priceless to see her light up and respond so much to her big brother. These pictures are from her napping today and are only a sampling of the random positions I find her in while sleeping. Amy is such a blessing to our family, I can't imagine life without her!

Splash Park

2011-07-15T19:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday my friend and I decided it was about time we took the kids to the Rexburg splash park. I told Sam he could go if he laid down to rest for a few minutes and promised I would come lie down with him after I fed Amy real quick. 10 minutes later I came in to find him like this.

Amy ready to go swimming for the first time. She didn't really swim, I just kind of dipped her feet in the water, but she seemed to like it ok. This swimming suit is the one I wore when I was a baby and my family went to Lake Powell in Utah, so it was fun to put it on Amy.

I was trying my darndest to capture her pretty smiles that have become more abundant lately. I think I will try when Daddy is home because she always smiles lots for him. A Daddy's girl already!

Riding on the carousel before going to the splash park.

Johnny and his beautiful blue eyes.

Lilly wasn't really in the mood for pictures

It was the perfect day to go to the splash park with it being comfortably warm with a slight breeze.

The kiddos all done with swimming, but had lots of fun. Sam and Josh will be doing swimming lessons together in about a week - it will be cute to watch!

Other Stuff

2011-07-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

In other news, Robert's family came up the weekend of the fourth for the Smith reunion/picnic and for Amy's blessing. I know, I am lame that I don't have any pictures of my baby's blessing, but I will get copies from those who do and post them later. It was great to have so much family there for Amy's blessing. She wore the dress Robert's mom made for her daughters from the fabric left over from her wedding dress. It was beautiful and just barely fit, thank goodness! She wore sweet little fabric shoes Robert's aunt Janice made for Lisa's baby girl Holly and a ribbon rose headband made for her by Aunt Lisa.

Lisa also made the hairbow board in the top picture using the same fabric from Amy's crib sheet set and a few extra ribbon rose headbands to match up-and-coming outfits - I'm soo excited! Now I just need to get Robert to hang the board up for me and we are quite set. So now we get to have a slight breather before we fly down to Arizona for Jake's wedding in the San Diego Temple. The kids and Robert have their outfits for the wedding, so that just leaves me to find something between now and then. Jake and Stacey are also thinking about doing a fake cake and serving the strawberry filled cream cheese icing cupcakes that seem to have become my trademark item, so I may be in for some monstrous baking and decorating since they are planning for 500 people!!! We shall see. I am also starting to plot the cakes for my older sister's birthday (right before we leave) and another niece's birthday as well at the end of August. It's going to be an awesome, busy month!

Whatcott Reunion 2011

2011-07-11T17:18:00.001-07:00

As is usual for me, my posts are in reverse order, so bear with me. My family's reunion was up Swan Valley this year and I think a great time was had by all. We will never forget Robert skipping across the water five times, the Idaho Falls fireworks, Mom's 50th birthday party, swimming and the waterslide at Heise, getting rained on during our picnic lunch and watching the Lord of the Rings extended versions on Mom's new Bluray player. Thanks to everyone for making it happen! This top picture is Amy in her crib for the first time the night we got home. She and Sam are doing pretty well with the adjustment - let's just hope it continues that way!

Sam woke up at 7 on Sunday morning, but was obviously not quite ready to get up just yet.

My boys snoozing away on Sunday. Of course I couldn't sleep (partially due to lack of space on the bed) and everyone else slept until 9:30 - grrr!

And one last picture of Amy in her cute little jeans I found for the family pictures we did at the reunion. We decided to do white shirts and jeans and so I searched high and low until I found these puppies that I paid way too much for - but they sure are cute!! Now scroll on down to see how our week went!

Boating Day 2

2011-07-11T16:47:00.001-07:00

Couldn't keep him awake at the end he was so wiped out

Ben and Matt riding the biscuit hard

Karalie and Camilla enjoyed just riding on the boat with towels for blankets

Robert, Sam and Camilla

Ignore me in these, but my nieces are so beautiful I couldn't not post them - Me and Natalie

Me and Karalie

Opa with Karalie and Camilla

Sam had a blast pushing Robert off the floating dock over and over again

Me and 'Milla's kissy faces

Matt wakeboarding

Karalie did NOT like the cold water when she jumped in with her daddy!

Natalie excited to be out on the boat again

The crowd in the front of the boat

Lucy driving the boat with Opa

Some Random Pics

2011-07-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ben and Corinne just chillin'

Thomas having a great time with the rug

Amy all stretched out

Sam sleeping on the very edge of the bed despite Mommy's warnings of falling off the bed again (he fell off twice the first night we were there, but amazingly didn't fall off again)

The amazing 300 piece puzzle Corinne put together one afternoon while everyone was napping. (she might have had a smidgeon of help from Daniel, me and April at various times, but she is the one who stuck it out until it was complete so she gets the credit)

Heise + Mom's Birthday

2011-07-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

We got to celebrate my Mom's birthday during the reunion, which was awesome!! The cake did NOT turn out how I wanted it to at all, but it is the thought that counts and I figure there are alot more disasters to be had before I get great cakes every time. Corinne did the cake again and we had a yummy devil's food with buttermilk and white chocolate frosting. I did pastel green, blue and pink flowers, but forgot about them in the back window of the car and so the colors faded out, so that is why it is so bland. I can certainly tell you I won't be forgetting about that again anytime soon!

For my mom's birthday we went to Heise to enjoy the water in a different way. Here are the loads of pictures we got from the fun day we had there with the pool, waterslide and warm spring pool. Above is my mom going down the water slide - I think she had fun!

Natalie

Robert with Sam

Matt

Amy snoozing away. She did great just chillin while we swam.

Enjoying the warm pool and shade that came with it.

Mom and Dad

Opa with the girls

Ben, Corinne and Caleb

April and Thomas - he honestly fell asleep while swimming, it was too funny!

Opa and Lucy

Daniel

Ben and Karalie

April

Ben and Camilla

Boating Day 1

2011-07-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

We were all wiped out from boating

Isn't she a beautiful sleeper?

Ben with the kids

Daniel and Matt with Lucy I think

Robert with Sam and Camilla

The first day out we took everyone including the babies which made for a full boat, but we found a floating dock where we could drop off a few while we took the others out on the death biscuit (seriously, that is what it is called!) Robert and I even got to go out on it together - the last time being nearly five years ago right before our wedding.

Corinne and Caleb

Fireworks

2011-07-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

We didn't do a whole lot for the Fourth of July besides the usual trip to Idaho Falls to watch the amazing fireworks. With both my and Robert's families joining us, we decided to scope out a new spot so we could have everyone sit together. We ended up finding an awesome spot just across the freeway from where the fireworks are shot off. We usually just squeeze in between the crowds of people somewhere on the grass, but this spot was great despite its lack of greenery. We just laid out some sleeping bags and set up a few camping chairs, enjoyed Subway for dinner and had a great time.

Little Kurt .......... who isn't so little anymore

The gang hanging out waiting for the action to start

April and patriotic Thomas

Amy in her patriotic outfit. She did really well with the fireworks and wasn't scared at all.

Girls Night 2010

2011-07-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

The reunion started off with a girls night out to Coldstone where we enjoyed talking and just being silly together and wouldn't be complete without a midnight trip to Walmart!

Oooh la la!

Silly faces over yummy Coldstone treats!

Mom and Corinne

Candace and April

Took this picture right before I left and had to post it - she was folding her arms in her sleep!

Napping

2011-06-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

After a very long afternoon my baby girl finally fell asleep on my stomach while I was reading my book and miraculously went back to sleep after I transferred her to the bed. Gotta love 'em!

More Pictures and Another Cake

2011-06-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

We have another birthday coming up but with family coming in to town for a reunion, we decided to celebrate today, so here are a couple pics of my latest, but definitely not greatest, cake. The little gal wanted a chocolate cake, so we did a chocolate fudge cake and frosting with fresh chopped raspberries for filling.

I wanted to do a bow again and try some of the funky edged cutters, so I let Karalie pick her favorite color (I know it looks wierd, but it is really red) and went at it. I also tried the quilted look this time, but due to lack of preparation, time and forethought this cake just didn't turn out like I had imagined. But that is how we learn and get better and hopefully I will get another chance to make a fantastic cake for this little lady.

Both kiddos ready for church - such cute kids!

Big brother posing with little sister - I have to post this story somewhere so I won't forget when this happened so here goes: yesterday was a long day. Good, but very long and Mommy was REALLY tired by the end and had little patience. Well, Sam was getting ready for bed and decided to wipe his poopy bum on the carpet instead of with a wet wipe and so frustrated, tired Mommy yelled. Of course he went in running to Daddy and as I was trying to calm down, I hear from the kitchen in a teary voice "Mommy doesn't love me anymore" Isn't that so sad? I think Sam has been having a harder time adjusting to Amy than I have realized because he has relapsed on staying dry both during the day and at night and now this. So I am now resolved to have greater patience for my son and make a greater effort to give him extra time and attention from Mommy.

Amy looked so beautiful in this dress for church today! But the silky fabric sure does make them hard to hold on to!

My angel girl sleeping the day away after an afternoon of shopping. Amy had a blowout so intense that we had to buy her a new outfit (I'm a little rusty at being prepared for such events) but it was fun to have an excuse to buy her a new very pretty sundress.

I had to post a pic of Amy in her rainbow dress after doing the rainbow cake. Robert's mom got this for Amy for Christmas and it is just so adorable!!

The Big Reveal

2011-06-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

I think she liked it, what do you think? :) I think she was just mostly excited that it was HER cake, but I like to think that when she looks back at these pictures years later she will be reminded of the awesome cake her aunt made for her because she is so loved! Happy 3rd birthday, Camilla!

The Rainbow Cake

2011-06-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

My little niece who is turning three this year loves Rainbow Brite, so when I offered to decorate a cake for her, my sister and I decided rainbow should be the theme. So here is a glimpse of the stuff I did on Monday. My sister made the cake and the frosting underneath. She has this awesome book of stuff you can add to cake mixes to jig things up a bit, so this is a three layer strawberry cake with coconut and peacans and strawberry cream cheese icing, I think.

And here are several pictures of the finished product. I know it is busy - super busy. But first off, I had alot of mistakes to cover up. Second of all I had made alot of things to use and lastly, I thought the more I put on the cake the more excited the little gal will be.

Some new things I tried with this cake were the curly Q's. To do these you wrap the fondant/gumpaste strips around dowels and let them dry. It was pretty fun, but I didn't realize that two days wouldn't be enough drying time, so they were a little tough to work with. Something to remember for next time. The other thing I tried was pearl dust. It's difficult to see in the pictures, but basically it adds a shimmer. I did it on the blue fondant and on the rainbows and I think it really added that last little punch.

I sure hope she likes her cake, but most likely she will. Another niece has her birthday next week, but with two family reunions and Amy's blessing coming right up I think we are planning on keeping it a little simpler. My thoughts were to do a square cake and try the quilted look with little pearls and maybe a big bow on top in her favorite color. We'll have to see!

Random Pic's

2011-06-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here's just a few pictures from the last week or so. The local library is doing a summer reading program. Sam and I read for 20 mins a day (or at least try for every day) and today was the first prize day. He was pretty excited about the hat as you can see!

And two sleeping pictures of Amy. She still does alot of this - which Mommy loves! (see how much we use the blanket you made, Andrea? I love it!!)

Finally one with her eyes open. She was so serious this day, but we love the smiles she gives freely. Sam gets so excited when he is playing with her and she smiles at him.

And just a silly picture of Sam - don't really remember why I had the camera out

Home Decorating

2011-06-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a fun day here with the Potter gals since the Daddys were in Utah having a guys weekend. We were able to get some great stuff done here that I have been dying to get around to like putting up the vinyl sayings my MIL cut out for us when she was visiting a while back. The top picture is the saying in the hallway down to the bedrooms.

Next is my family wall which I am SOOO excited about finally getting around to putting together!! This is what you see when you walk in the front door. This vinyl has been waiting for over a year to make its appearance on the wall, but I have been so scared to do it alone and have it get messed up and that is what everyone sees when they come to our home. When Robert gets back we will put up the 11X14 family picture below the saying and then below that will be 5X7's of our children, including Kaylie. I have some vinyl that says "Our Angel in Heaven" to put around Kaylie's picture but I can't decide if I want to put it on the wall or try and get a frame wide enough to have it on the frame. I think I want to go with on the frame because I think the best idea for spacing the kids' pictures is to mark 5 nail spaces and right now we can put the current three kids in the center and then move them over as we add more kiddos to the clan.

Also eventually I would like to have two black shelves on either side of the family picture to put my Willow Tree figurines on one and our molds from Kaylie's hands and feet on the other and then have the top of the piano cleared off.

And finally we have my laundry room. I love the color this adds and the saying has always made me smile because as moms we really do spend alot of time doing the chores like laundry, cooking, and cleaning and this helps me to remember it is a part of life and I need to do my best to enjoy it.

We were also able to do a ton of laminating with my sister's machine and we also worked on the baby quilt I am making for a friend trying to figure out the placement of the pieces within the quilt. Thanks so much to Auntie Corinne and the girls for joining us yesterday - it was a blast ending with personal pizzas and homemade butterscotch ice cream!!

Not Much Happening

2011-06-16T16:35:00.001-07:00

So not much has been going on lately. Just trudging on through one day at a time. Little Amster is doing well, she is six weeks old today. We are now free of the nipple shield and I have figured out that my children's unique isuue is they don't know how to stop eating. I am thinking this is why Sam spit up so much, but it is just a theory. I started limiting Amy to only 10 minutes on each side and things are going swell. She doesn't spit up hardly at all if we stick to the 10 minute rule and she is on a fairly regular schedule of eating every 3 hours with a longer stretch at night of 4 to 6 hours. Sometimes we even get a long stretch during the day, too, which is so nice for when we are trying to run errands! She has her periods of wakefulness, but still sleeps alot and we are starting to see smiles both when she is awake and when she is sleeping - the best part of being a mommy!
Sam still loves his baby sister so much and both of us are adjusting to how to keep him entertained while Mommy takes care of baby Amy. Robert is really excited for this weekend of fishing/other guy stuff with my dad and the other brothers-in-law in the family. I'm going to be making two cakes here shortly. First off I am making the Almost Too Much Chocolate Cake for Robert and Ben on Father's Day and then I am plotting out how to decorate the cake for my niece's birthday. Her mommy is making the cake and I will be decorating it going along the lines of Rainbow Brite. I have the fondant made and colored so far and I think Saturday I will start working on the rainbows and stars. The thing I want to try with this cake is wrapping strips of fondant around dowels to try, making super cute curly Q's. Pictures will come once it all comes together! Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend appreciating our Daddios!

Pictures of Amy

2011-06-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

We got Amy all dolled up on Friday and decided to take a few pictures! This is actually not an outfit, the dress came with little green leggings, but she pooped on them and so we added the cute brown pants and headband - so cute!!

This is during one of her awake times and she was making all sorts of funny faces, but they can be hard to capture with the camera if you aren't ready! Hope you enjoy the faces of Amy!

Gotta love how silly babies look when they get cross-eyed - which is alot!!

She loves to hold her arms out like this when she isn't swaddled - go cheerleader!

Bathy time! She still hates it, but Mommy loves a clean-smelling baby!

My sweet angel sleeping the day away. I had laid her in the boppy on her back and during her snooze she worked her way a quarter turn over to where she was on her side (not rolled over, but moved her upper body from 12 o'clock position to 3 o'clock position) she obviously likes sleeping like her momma!

Out and About

2011-05-29T12:21:00.001-07:00

Since having Amy it feels like we aren't able to go anywhere or do anything beyond the most essential tasks. So when Robert took Sam to work with him yesterday, I dressed up little Amy and we headed out, just us girls (don't you just LOVE this blue and brown outfit?! Too bad I didn't have any socks to match). It was so nice to get around to the little things that I have been dying to do like shopping for fabric for a few projects.
Then we came home and both ate and I had enough time to get things cleaned up before Sam was ready to be picked up. We had an enjoyable afternoon just taking it easy and just got done with our walk when Daddy came home and we decided to go out for dinner (pizza!) and to get flowers for the front of the house. It was a great feeling to get so much done, yet with so little stress. Ah, the things we appreciate! :)

Motherhood

2011-05-27T13:24:00.001-07:00

When I am up in the middle of the night with Amy who just won't go to sleep despite all Mommy's best efforts, it helps to remember sweet moments like these. Seeing my children sleeping so peacefully fills me with gratitude for the opportunity of being a mom and all the cares and worries of how long it takes us to get dressed or the amount that I don't get done all fall away. My family is healthy and happy most of the time and truly that is what matters most.

Oh no!!

2011-05-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

Amy spit up all over me today and now I am dreading that the throwing-up-volumous-amounts-of-fluid spittiness that plagued Sam might be a reoccuring thing with our children. Please cross your fingers for us that we won't have to go through the months of changing outfits six times a day and washing totally saturated cloth diapers (used as burp rags) again!!

Our Week

2011-05-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe another week has gone by already! We've just been treking through each day trying to keep up. We want to thank all of our wonderful family and friends who have helped bring in meals this week. It is amazing how busy, yet unproductive our days are lately :)

We have had a few cool days this week, so it has been fun to be able to put Amy in a few warmer outfits. I love this outfit because it is blue instead of the typical pink or purple. Believe it or not this is a 0-3 month outfit and she just drowned in it! I think it is mainly due to the design of the top, but still.

And lastly, here is a picture of the first little dress Amy has worn yet. It was fairly warm and even though we didn't go to church, I decided to get her dressed a little dressed up for the day. We are really beginning to get in a good routine for feeding, which is a relief for Mommy. Robert is finally done with planting, so we will be seeing more of him now. Sam still has loads of energy we work hard at expending and continues to dote on his baby sister. I am recovering fairly well from the C-section. I did overdo it yesterday when Robert came home early and we decided to transplant all of my plants from the old house after already spending the morning cleaning the office closet and putting our books on the bookshelf. But a day with Daddy's help with the kids and meals has helped tremendously and now I can take it easy again until the rest of the garden needs to go in Memorial Day weekend.

Catch Up

2011-05-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

Once again the pictures are in reverse order from Wednesday up to today. This morning Robert took Sam out to fly his kite some more. We had decided to get Sam a firetruck when we had Amy to give him something new and fun to help keep him entertained. But when Robert took him to Toys R Us to get the large one with all the cool buttons and such, he told Robert he didn't want it. Not wanting to come home empty-handed, they decided on a kite instead. It has been the best idea with how much wind we have here in Rigby. Once Robert helps get the kite up, Sam can fly it for quite a while all by himself and just loves watching it!!

Last night we went over to the Potters to have dinner because it was Oma's last night visiting and the kiddos had a blast playing with Uncle Robert. First was sword-fighting with sticks from a sort of erector set (right, Corinne?) and then it progressed to horsey rides with way too many passengers.

Cute little Caleb! This guy is getting so big! Just in the last week he decided he could start walking and has been really rather steady on his feet. He will be turning one at the end of the month - crazy!!

Ok these next pictures are from our venture to Porter Park in Rexburg yesterday. Julie, Corinne, Oma and I took all the kiddos to play for what turned out to be the best two hours of the day and fun was had by all. It was too cute when all the kids went over to this bench to sit and eat their apples. So we got a nice picture, an eating-your-apple picture and a silly picture.

Natalie and Mommy sharing a hug - two very beautiful girls!!

Here's little Amy chillin' in her carseat at the park in a really cute, girly outfit with coordinating headband/bow. One of the funnest parts of having a little girl is all the accessories that you get to incorporate with the already adorable outfits.

First day we put actual clothes on little Amy instead of just a sleeper. Pink and brown is probably my favorite color combo.

Jake with his fiance' Stacey. We are so excited they finally decided to make it official and get engaged! :) Stacey was so sweet to offer to bring dinner and cake Thursday night so we could celebrate Jake's birthday with him without stressing me out. Turned out to be a great thing because I was wiped out after spending the day at doctor appointments for both me and Amy, a picnic at the park with the Potter girls and running errands.

Sammy was gracious enough to share his beloved "spaceman" (Buzz Lightyear) candle with Jakey for his birthday!

Serious Camilla holding little Amy

Karalie holding Amy

Lucy holding little Amy

Natalie holding Amy. The Potter girls came over Wednesday to spend the afternoon with us. We had so much fun getting to visit with them and Sam loved getting to play outside in the dirt with his best buddies, the girls.

Amy's crib all decked out with the beautiful sheets and crib skirt made for her by Robert's mom. I was so relieved when the set came and the mesh bumper pads matched so well. The box with the quilt and crib stuff came the day before we had little Amy and Corinne and I had so much fun getting the crib all set up even though Amy won't sleep in the crib for a little while yet.

The quilt. Need I say more? It just so gorgeous!!

I thought this picture was so adorable!

Sam is such a great big brother. He continues to dote on Amy and asks all the time (usually at the wrong time) to hold Amy and loves to help with anything we need to do for her, even feeding :) This day while holding Amy, he pointed out that they were both wearing green and matched and was so excited when he made this discovery.

Brotherly love. Well, that catches us up for the last few days, hope you enjoy the pictures - sorry there are so many! But these little ones change so much that you have to take almost daily pictures! Plus we love showing off the cute outfits :)

Lessons Learned

2011-05-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest pictures of our little gal. We got her all dolled up for some visitors yesterday and I just couldn't resist a picture of how sweet and content she was in the bouncey seat.

So my last post I mentioned how I had forgotten how many diapers you can go through with a newborn. Our next lesson learned is how essential it is going to be to develop my skills of doing things one-handed. It was quite the funny sight yesterday as I was trying to pour Sam some cereal from a bag while holding little Amy at the same time! We are all continuing to adjust to the new normal fairly well and went for our first family walk last night. It was just down the street since Mommy is still recovering, but it was good to get out and to do something together as a family.

Quick Post

2011-05-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post some cute pictures we took of Sam and Amy this morning. Amy is a champ at breastfeeding now, it is such a relief that it hasn't been a major obstacle! Sam was quite whiney yesterday, which made me worry about his adjusting to the new norm, but has been better today. He loves getting things for me to help with Amy and has asked to hold her several times so I think he is enjoying being a big brother. And to all of those who are skeptical, I know it will most likely be up and down, but I am grateful that at least for now it is up and that Sam can be here with us and I don't have to ship him off to someone else's because I can't handle him. That at this point is what I consider important.

It was so fun today Amy decided to stay up for a little while. Everyone knows babies are really sleepy in the beginning and she has had times when she has opened her eyes, but today was the first time she just sat and stayed awake for a while. Thus all the pictures trying to grasp what a beautiful and content baby she is.

With a little hat on. Don't remember where we got this little hat, but it is adorable, even though it is still quite large for her head. I am learning that there is alot I have forgotten about having a newborn and one of those many things is how many times you change diapers! Yesterday we had an episode where she pooped six times in a row, soiling four diapers, before we had break enough to get her dressed again. And today I would change her poopy diaper and just as I am getting her wrapped back up, another squirt! Quite the change from no diapers at all for nearly a year, let alone so many in one day!

Mother's Day Gift

2011-05-09T12:51:00.001-07:00

So Robert and I have wanted to get a king bed for a while. A queen just isn't big enough for both of us when I am pregnant and since I have been pregnant four times in the five years we have been married, it has been an issue. We had thought about getting a bedroom set a few weeks ago and found one we really liked at Sam's Club, but with buying the house and a new little one on the way, we decided that it should wait.

While I was in the hospital recovering from the C-section, Robert got that very distinct look on his face that usually means he just came up with the perfect gift. He told me he was going to take Sam Friday morning and go get Mommy a Mother's Day gift. What is funny is that even though I knew he had come with what he thought was an awesome idea, I was ok with waiting to see what the surprise was. Turns out Robert was looking at our bank accounts and he simply decided that it was something we could afford and something that would make my life more comfortable and that was all it took for him to make the decision. When he went to Sam's Club to buy the one we had admired he found the set was on sale for 50% off for Mother's Day! He bought the set and then went over to the mattress outlet store and purchased a very nice mattress and boxspring and new sheets. Ben and Corinne went in on the conspiracy to get the entire thing home and completely set up for when I got home from the hospital Saturday afternoon. I could not believe my eyes!! Of course I started bawling (I have been a real boob lately) and the Potters had also taken our old bed downstairs and set it up for when my mom comes to help out and had cleaned the entire house. Something I had meant to do before the C-section, but chose to party instead. It is times like this that I cannot believe what a kind, thoughtful husband I have!! Thankyou sweetheart for once again spoiling me and reminding me how much you love me! I hope all of our mother friends and family out there had a wonderful Mother's Day, I know mine was unforgettable!!

The Story of Amy

2011-05-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so as usual the pictures are in reverse order, but at least we finally got some up for you all to see our newest addition. This is Amy next to my friend, Julie's, little guy John who is six months old. He looks like a monster compared to our "large" baby :) It's just funny because three days ago John looked so small. Oh how our perspectives change!

Here she is this morning. The hospital I delivered at does some very generous things for their maternity patients, including a gift of a soft swaddler with the hospital's logo embroidered on the front.

All dolled up so everyone KNOWS she is a girl. I got tired of people calling her a "him" even with the pink tag on the bassinet :)

Chillin' with Auntie Corinne. Corinne is my oldest sister and just moved to Rigby in January with her family. Her sweet husband offered to take all the kids (six including Sam) all day Friday so Corinne could be with me at the hospital helping me take care of Amy and figure out the juggling act of breastfeeding.

Here's Sam holding his baby sister for the first time. He was so excited to come see us at the hospital.

My two sweet children. The changes have been difficult for Sam, but he has been doing well all things considered and I think spending the day with Mommy and Daddy tomorrow will help things alot. But we want to thank both sets of Potters for taking such good care of Sam and going the extra mile to do things with him to help not miss me as much.

Amy being taken care of by the nurses after delivery. She was born at 7:46am and weighed 8 pounds 8 oz. and is 20 inches long.

Proud Daddy.

First family picture. Robert couldn't get over the fact that they put a sticker on my forehead (to keep track of my temperature during surgery) and kept teasing me about it. The C-section was alot better this time around in my opinion. It helped that we had an awesome anesthesiologist who was very personable and also thoughtful. She took pictures for us and also unstrapped my arm so that I could at least stroke Amy while Robert held her for a little bit. She also pulled the drape down so I could see when they pulled Amy out. With Kaylie, I was only able to see her for a second and kiss her head before they took her away.

Amy has been great since delivery. She had no issues breathing and has only struggled with waking up when time to eat. She latches on and sucks well. Recovery from the C-section for me was a little rough in the beginning, which is the biggest reason why there were no phone calls or pictures for a while. Sorry to everyone who worried because we didn't contact them right away. But we are both home and doing great now.

I told Robert it was honestly present enough to be home with my new baby girl on Mother's Day, but he insisted on getting me something. So Friday he took Sam to go get Mommy a gift and he was so excited about it, it made me wonder but with everything else going on, I didn't have much time to speculate. Plus, I wanted to be surprised. When we got home today, I found my gift waiting in our bedroom. It was the bedroom!! I will leave it at that for now because I have to go get Sam in bed and feeding Amy, but I will post pictures and more explanation of my Mother's Day gift when I get another chance. Happy Mother's Day to all our mothers and friends out there!!

The End is Coming!

2011-05-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't heard yet, the plan is to go ahead with a C-section on Thursday at noon if little Amy Rose doesn't show up on her own. We are all very excited to have her here so soon and will post pictures as soon as possible! Wish us luck!

Trying to Pass the Time

2011-05-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

So the days seem to be getting longer and longer as we wait for our little one to arrive. Today was one of those days. It doesn't help that Daddy has been working long hours, either. So today after doing almost all the usual entertaining activities (digging in the dirt, riding bike outside, reading books, etc) we decided to pick some of the larger rocks from our yard and paint them.

And instead of just letting Sam have at it, I decided to get in on the action as well. (I needed something to occupy my mind as well) It turned out to be quite fun and Sam loved it!

And as is usual with young kids, the paints ended up all mixed together and the rocks were mainly black with hints of color swirled throughout. For those who don't know, if we don't have the baby by Thursday we will most likely be having her via scheduled C-section. Have another dr. appointment tomorrow, so we will update you with the definite plans then.

Easter

2011-05-02T18:04:00.001-07:00

So I forgot to post the few pictures I got from Easter. It was a pretty casual day. The Easter bunny did bring a new bubble wand (or sword) and some candy for Sammy to find, but other than that, it was a regular Sunday for us.

Finding the eggs hidden around the living room

Pretty excited about all the eggs just for him.

One More Cake Class

2011-04-23T17:43:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally did it. I got the last Wilton cake decorating class under my belt just in time for this baby girl to come. This class is called Tall Cakes and it mainly teaches you the proper way to stack, transport and serve larger cakes. I had alot of fun putting together this cake for Easter and of course Sam can't stop asking if he can have his chocolate bunny yet :) Thanks to the Potters for yet again watching Sam for me to make it possible!!

Quick Update

2011-04-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Just thought we would let everyone know our (ok, mainly MY) happy news - this little girl will be here soon! After the ultrasound today I was able to meet with the "good" doctor who actually takes time to talk with you, etc. He said he was a little concerned about doing a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section) with the baby being so big if I go until my due date (they estimate she will be 10 lbs by then). So, if I don't go into labor on my own in the next two weeks, then we will do a scheduled C-section to avoid unnecessary risk. No, it is not my first choice, but YES I am so happy to know that I am so close to the end! These last two or three weeks have been very hard and it gives me much hope to know I am that much closer to the end, even though it is only a week sooner (all of you who have been preggo before know how it is; those who haven't - don't judge until you've been there!)

Angel Day

2011-04-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

Two years ago today I went from the mother of a little girl to the mother of an angel

Robert hates reminding people of the pain we have endured and I can understand that. But I don't feel I can let an anniversary such as this pass without saying anything, either. So I will just post my favorite picture of Kaylie and thank all of our friends and family for their love and support as we have traveled the long road of healing.

Those we have held in our arms for a little while, we hold in our hearts forever

Long Time No Blog

2011-04-16T17:15:00.001-07:00

So I got on one of my kicks today for crafting, but unfortunately one of the side effects is you cannot work with a hot glue gun for four hours without getting burned. I was working on my last hairbow and seriously burned the top few layers of skin off my middle finger - ouch! But scroll down to see that it was worth it :)

First is a wipes case I cutesified up with strawberry fabric, ribbon and some star buttons

Then I decided to pull out outfits from the 0-3 month range and try my best to make bows to go with each outfit, although they will be interchanged as well. My creative mind works best with a goal or something specific in mind, so enjoy pictures of some of the cute outfits waiting for our little gal and my latest attempts at bow fashions.

I think this apple dress is my favorite in the 0-3 month range.

So, sorry it has been forever since I have posted. Obviously baby girl is still gestating, but all is going well. Our twice weekly ultrasounds have kept us busy, but up to date and assured that everything is just fine. Robert has now gone back to the long hours at work, which has been hard for both me and Sam to adjust back to, but we are grateful for all the time he had off during the winter this year.

We had Robert's mom come visit a couple weekends ago and we greatly enjoyed her visit. We picked out fabric for the quilt, sheets and crib skirt for baby girl and were also able to put her new Cricut to use cutting some vinyl sayings I wanted for the house.

Then last weekend my mom and sisters came up from Utah to join in the baby shower fun. I don't have any pictures from the event, but I will post them when I do because it was awesome! Thanks again to Corinne and Julie for putting it together and to those who came to show their love and support for us!

This week we have had Robert's younger brother, Jake staying with us because it is the break between semesters at BYU-Idaho and he has been working for Robert out at the farm. Sam has loved having Uncle Jakey around and has learned that there is a really fun motorcycle game on Jake's laptop and begs to play the minute Jake walks in the door.

Corinne, Julie and I have been trying to do school together once a week for the younger kids and it's been going pretty well. Sam loves hanging his pictures and other projects on the wall for Daddy to see when he gets home. And it has been fun to work together to come up with lessons and activities the kids will enjoy and also learn from each week.

We are down to less than one month until my due date and Mommy is really starting to feel the end-of-the-pregnancy, you-are-so-huge discomforts, so we are hoping this little one decides to come soon (hence the nesting instinct kicking into overdrive this weekend)!!

Updates

2011-03-28T12:09:00.001-07:00

First we will start with Sam. My parents gave us a bike for him quite a while back (I think it was when we were down for Thanksgiving) but he hasn't had a place to ride it and we've been putting off getting training wheels and a helmet because I knew he would bug me continuously when we did. Well, we finally bit the bullet Saturday night and went and found some training wheels and a Buzz Lightyear helmet.

His first episode of riding his bike didn't last too long because of the limited space in the basement, but he loved it and is so excited to be able to go out for a bike ride with Daddy. Although now it may not be a while because we just got snow again this morning. Another major thing is that our blinds finally arrived!! We have really been looking forward to having our privacy in our bedroom and a darker room for Sam so he can sleep better.

And lastly, only six more weeks until baby girl will be here (or maybe a little sooner if she feels like it)!! Had an appointment last week and my blood pressure was high again, so that combined with my history has led the dr's to decide that twice weekly ultrasounds of the baby will be necessary until delivery. It is just a precaution (and my B/P was fine when they rechecked it after the ultrasound) and everything will most likely be just fine, but they want to make sure just in case. The thing they are a little worried about is the blood flow in the umbilical cord could start to slow down or even reverse completely. If one of these ultrasounds shows that beginning to happen, they would deliver the baby via C-section ASAP. If everything continues to go routinely, then our plan is to do VBAC whenever baby girl decides to come. To explain the above picture, I once again found an awesome deal that I was too excited about not to share. I found these two sweaters and jean jacket today for $1!! I simply could not resist such a steal, so the red sweater and jacket are 3-6 months and the white is 0-3 (only because that was the largest they had). As far as names go, we still haven't settled on any, but we have been talking about it more (yay!). As it stands, I like Amy and Robert likes Rose or Mary.

Kaylie's Birthday

2011-03-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do something fun for Kaylie's cake since this will most likely be the last cake I do for a while with the baby coming, so a good friend of mine helped me come up with an idea she had tried for her daughter's second birthday. It is a technique called Colorflow. Basically it is an icing that is fairly runny when you trace/fill in the design and then dries really hard. We thought butterflies would be really pretty and I wanted lots of color, so I did all the girly pastel colors.

I think the pictures definitely upgrade what the cake actually looks like, but it was fun to try and I'm not overly worried because this is my time to practice. If it were for someone else, I probably would have melted down at all the imperfections (things always go wrong for me). But it looks pretty and will taste fantastic. That is what matters most with a cake, right?

It is a two layer strawberry cake with each layer filled with strawberry frosting and between the two layers is chopped fresh strawberries and then iced in vanilla frosting. (When I say frosting, I mean the stuff from the can because Robert hates buttercream icing and we were going for taste)

And lastly, we got two beautiful roses to put at Kaylie's headstone after the party - one for each year. We are looking forward to having both sets of Potters over to help us enjoy the evening remembering the day Kaylie joined the family.

Spring May Be Coming

2011-03-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

So we are finally on the mend from the sickies. I have to admit, it was a bit of a rough ride for Mommy and Sammy, but we are through it and feeling much better. Despite not feeling quite up to par we enjoyed a visit from Robert's cousin and her family the first half of the week. They came up to check out BYU-Idaho where their twin daughters will be going to nursing school next January. It was alot of fun getting to know some of the relatives from the Skousen side of the family and we were happy to have them stay with us.
Today was pretty low-key with a morning visit to our good friends, the Potter's, house to make some yummy green rice crispy treats and as we drove to and from the homes, I realized it is really beginning to look and feel like spring is coming!! We have been on two bike rides just in our little neighborhood so far and Sam is excited for when we can get him training wheels and a helmet for his bike from Oma and Opa.
Only eight more weeks until our little girl is to make her appearance!!
Robert has started with the busy spring work this week, but it has been very bearable after having every Saturday off for the last three months. Other than that, not much else going on around here - have a great weekend!!

To Sum Things Up

2011-03-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

I think this picture says it all - poor kid! It has been rough on everyone going through our first real episode of prolonged vomiting/diarrhea with Sam. Hope your week has been better than ours and keeping our fingers crossed that no one else gets sick!

Gotta Love a Bargain!

2011-02-28T12:09:00.001-08:00

So today was one of those days where I had a million errands to run and of course Sam didn't sleep really well last night, but we got up and going not too early nor too late and started our shopping and errands one stop at a time. I wasn't planning on doing any extra shopping, but as it would turn out, I got on the phone with someone and ended up browsing around Target a little bit and found this adorable little dress for $2!! Add that to the stop where I got: five 3 liter sodas for 79 cents each, five loaves of bread for 99 cents each, five cans of chili for 79 cents each and five boxes of Little Debbie snacks for 99 cents each and I came home a happy mommy! I just love when I can not only find a great deal, but work it in to the budget as well. Unfortunately, Sam is now not feeling good, but thanks to today's efforts we can stay home for a few days and just chill. Have a great week!

Just-Moved-In Pictures

2011-02-25T10:54:00.001-08:00

Ok, so people have been begging for pictures of the house, but I am warning you - it is messy because we still aren't done moving in and we just brought the fridge home late last night, so the kitchen is an utter disaster area. Just keep that in mind. First is the master bedroom and bath.

Sam's bathroom. I loved that I finally settled on a shower curtain and that it turned out to match the rugs and Sam's step pretty well. I think eventually if I can find a cute green bathroom soap, toothbrush holder, cup set it would complete it.

Sam's room. The crib isn't set up yet (it will be against the far wall by the heater), but the baby clothes are out and hanging in the closet/stored in the dresser waiting for our little girl's arrival.

The office. We have alot more space now that all my craft/sewing stuff is downstairs in the bonus room. But that is probably a good thing because we probably need to get another bookshelf in the near future.

The hallway from the front room. Those boxes and baskets are mainly jars and food storage that I'm not allowed to carry downstairs, so they are waiting to find a new home. We are hoping to buy some good shelves and a rotating can rack to utilize the space (and organize!) in the cold storage room.

The front room from the front door. Coat closet on the left will be awesome and soon we will get the piano centered on this wall and then up will go my family wall. I have some black vinyl that says "Families Are Forever" and decending down we will have a family picture, then a wedding picture and a current picture of me and Robert, then 5X7 pictures of each of the kiddos. I'm thinking there will be plenty of space on this wall to also put a black shelf on either side for my Willow Tree figurines and Kaylie's hand and foot molds we had done before she passed away.

And to the right of the front door is the front room which has the tv for now until the family room gets finished. Once it is, these will all go downstairs and this will be the visiting teaching/home teaching room with a new living room set that I hope will be something like a couch and two really comfy chairs or a couch and loveseat with a chair. Something to that effect.

Looking on the dining area from the laundry room. See my big, beautiful front window? We got a double curtain rod and have sheer white curtains up for now, but whenever I get around to deciding what color scheme I want to go with, there will be heavy curtains on top to help with privacy and blocking out some of the bright sunlight.

The kitchen with all the wonderful appliances finally put in. Although, very sad thing happened last night and the handles on my fridge got severely dented, along with a good amount of scratches on the sides of the fridge. *Sad* but Robert promised to buy new handles, which made me really happy because he could see how much it bothered me to see my brand new fridge so dinged up already. It's really not the guys' fault and I don't blame them, but it still stings just a little.

My washer and dryer finally in the laundry room so we can wash all the skunk stink out of everything. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to do all the laundry on Friday even though my usual laundry day is Monday, so we have had enough clean clothes this week. And can I just say I love my pantry!! It has been a little tough figuring out how to manage my space with the pantry, kitchen and cold storage, but it will be great now that things are figured out.

And a quick picture of the front of the house. Yes, I cut off the end a little tiny bit, but when it is super bright outside with the snow, you can't really see the picture. I love the green siding and the stone detail - just changes things up a bit from the usual. And for those of you who are wondering, no, we aren't going with the shotgun shell mailbox. :)

So that's it - for now. I will take pictures once we get more fully moved in and I've had a chance to decorate a little. I just love my new stove and my kitchen is so wonderful to be in! Thanks to all of you who helped us move in so fast and also to those who helped watch Sam so we could get things done - we couldn't have done it without all of you!! We are looking forward to meeting our new ward on Sunday, although we are sad to have to go back to 1:00 church again and will dearly miss the Clark ward! Have a great weekend!

News of the Week

2011-02-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

So no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a good picture of Sam's latest injury, so you will just have to imagine it with me. Yesterday I was cleaning the fridge in preparation of our moving and Sam was playing in the living room. As most of you can guess, this resulted in something happening and I will never know what, but Sam came to me crying and bleeding all over the place. He had fallen off something onto something else and cut his bottom lip. The bleeding stopped in no time and he was settled down with a movie until lunchtime. But as I was putting him down for his nap, I noticed that he not only cut his lip, but the gums above two of his top teeth were also cut, the poor kid! I ran him in to the dentist to make sure there wasn't anything we could do and was told to wait it out and see what happens.
Our other news for the week as you might assume has to do with the house. We got an e-mail last night saying we could do the final walk through with the builder this afternoon!! We don't know for sure when we will be closing, we will probably discuss it at the walk through today, but everything is in order at the bank, so hopefully Thursday or Friday. Our fridge doesn't come until next Thursday, so we won't be moving in until next weekend, but we will start bringing things over to make moving day less stressful. I will bring the camera and take more pictures and try to remember the things I forgot last time (like the front of the house and the front room)

Our New Mailbox?

2011-02-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

So one of the many things I am looking forward to with buying a brand new house is we get to choose our own mailbox! After checking out Home Depot, I decided to hop online to see what is available that way (although I don't really care for shopping online because you never really know quite what you are getting, but I'm learning to like it) and found this one-of-a-kind! I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it! I mean, we've all seen the bass fish and little model houses or barns, but a shotgun shell?! I told Robert I had found his dream mailbox and when he came home and saw the picture, he started to go buy the dang thing! I'm not sure how I feel about this for our mailbox. On one hand, yes it would be funny and unique, but on the other hand....I just don't know if that is the first impression I want people to get when they come to our house. What do you all think??

Reassured

2011-02-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

So things with the house have been progressing slowly, but surely. But we have bumped into a few things along the way - mainly the builder being hard to work with and it has been causing me some stress. That with being pregnant (meaning super emotional) and struggling with Sam (again!) got to me Tuesday night and we had a Sam-and-Daddy-leave-Mommy-alone kind of night.
When Robert got home last night, he told me the house was open and we could go walk through if we wanted and why don't we got out for dinner and then go looking at stuff for the house afterwards? After all the hassle I have been through the last week or so, it was so reassuring to walk through what will be MY home soon and to see again the rooms we will be filling and to talk about our plans for the different areas. It really helped me to know that even though all of this is tough right now, very soon it will all be over and it will all be VERY worth it!
I couldn't help but think of how this can relate to our life in some ways. At times it gets tough and we think it just isn't worth all the hassle anymore, but then we go to church, or the temple, or witness an event like a wedding or birth and we are reminded of what is waiting for us at the end and that it will all be worth it. Just some food for thought today, hope you enjoy yours!

FHE Treat

2011-02-08T06:39:00.001-08:00

We all know how kids can get messy, especially if given a yummy treat. But Sam's ultimate devoring and smearing all over of our FHE treat last night just made me laugh and I thought I would share it with you!

And because one picture just isn't enough, here are a couple more. We haven't had alot of picture -worthy events lately and Sam kept asking me to take more and more pictures of him doing different things. Silly kid!

Scroll Down!

2011-02-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, so don't know why, but I just posted a bunch of pictures of the house and the post went before the appliances post, so scroll down to see the pictures of our place!! Thanks!

Appliances

2011-02-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

If you would like to see how completely spoiled I've been (besides getting a new house), check out the appliances we got for the house tonight:

Kenmore 24" dishwasher - Model # 13449

Kenmore french door, bottom freezer fridge - Model # 71609

And my favorite: the Kenmore dual fuel range - Model # 78509

*Note* if you go to the Sears website to look at these, don't judge us by the price listed; we didn't pay the listed price for every item. We also bought a Kenmore over-the-range microwave, but it wasn't anything fancy so I didn't list it, but my kitchen will definitely be a wonderful place for me to hang out now!!!

House Pictures

2011-02-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

These are for those of you who missed the pictures on the listing. First off is the awesome kitchen that will be decked out with the black appliances already posted. I love the planter shelf (need ideas of how to decorate it, though!) that divides the kitchen from the front room while still allowing light from the big front window into the kitchen. The lighting in the kitchen is wonderful and there is a back door to the right with the laundry room behind the camera(wo)man. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the front room or hallway, but will get more soon!

Here's the laundry room which will seem quite spacious compared to my current laundry space (being preggo, I can't open the doors on my washer and dryer around my tummy) and has a wonderful linen closet (which I plan to use as a pantry) you can see to the right with great, deep shelves and a pocket door to save space and keep the noise down. I'm planning to have Robert build me a simple straight shelf across the space above the washer and dryer for laundry and cleaning supplies.

The first bedroom which will become the office because it is a little smaller and this closet will be great for extra storage with the shelves. Both this room and the other bedroom are on the front of the house with the master on the back and the second bathroom upstairs is at the end of the hallway. One thing I really love about this house is it was built for STORAGE! I get a small coat closet by the front door, a good sized closet in the hallway across from this bedroom and then closet organziers in every closet.

Here is the closet in the second bedroom. You can tell the shelves are a bit wider and the closet goes the whole length of the wall so it will be great for the kids! I plan to get a tension rod so Sam will be able to reach all of his clothes easily and get dressed himself now.

Kids bathroom at the end of the hall. The master and this bathroom are very similar with the master counter/sink space being just at little bit wider.

Inside the master looking at the walk-in closet and door to walk in (that is the office you can see across the hallway). I am so excited for the shelf on top that spans the entire right wall and half of the left. There is an outlet up there, so lights are definitely in the future for a romantic feel :) I would like to paint the wall space between the shelf and the ceiling a dramatic color like a dark red, but Robert is opposed. Any suggestions or ideas?

Inside the master bedroom looking at the master bath on the left and the master walk-in closet (with a pocket door) on the right. One thing that is a little wierd about the master is there are two windows, but the one by the bathroom is tall and really skinny and the other is on the opposite wall, opposite corner and is a typical sized window. Kind of funny, but I love the light it lets in the room, too.

The stairs are just inside the hallway and lead down and to the right to the family room. It takes up the entire lenth of the kitchen and front rooms. We are going to get a bid from the builder about possibly finishing just this space before we move in. The plan is to leave space for a pellet stove in the corner just outside the left side of the picture and put the TV and couches facing the far right wall and leaving the space in between as play space for kiddos.

The cold storage room - soo excited for this very rare feature!!

Inside the bonus room looking at the utility room and the under-the-stairs space with the family room on the right of the picture. The cold storage is just out of the picture to the right.

Looking from the bonus room to the two other bedrooms and bathroom. The triple stud near the right of the picture is where there will be a doorway to these other rooms. That's mostly it, folks! I do have to say, it is alot harder than it looks to take good pictures of a house. I would laugh at the pictures posted on listings for homes and wonder why people didn't take better pictures if they wanted to sell their home. Now I know why! Hope you enjoyed getting a peek at our new digs and we will be sure to post more pictures once we move in!

Just Another Week

2011-01-31T09:04:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot happened last week, thus the lack of posts. We mainly spent our time getting house stuff going, storytime at the library, school with the Potters, and then my parents came up for a quick visit and we spent a whirlwind weekend having a great time with family (although we were missing Candace, Angela, and the Kimball clan). Friday we did a big dinner and stayed up way too late playing Monopoly Deal and then the guys got up at the crack of dawn to go ice fishing with most of the kiddies, allowing the girls and the younger ones to go shopping. Then we loaded the kids up in the vans and put on movies so that all the adults could tour our new home while we took measurements for appliances and window fixings. We ended the family fun with the classic Papa Murphey's pizza dinner before saying goodbye to Mom, Dad, and the boys. Yesterday was church and I was once again reminded of why nursery is so great. The kids are so sweet and if you are only trying to keep 7 (instead of 14) reverent, it really isn't that bad! :) Then we had Jake and Stacey over for the Smith family traditional Sunday gooey rolls and some more Monopoly Deal. And now we are on to another week which will most likely be full of more fun with the Potters and more stuff for the house. I will try to take some pictures when we go for the inspection so those of you who missed the listing can see what we are looking forward to! Our banker also let us know that we will be closing a few days earlier than planned because of our interest rate lock, so we are hoping to move in the last weekend in February!!

We Bought a House!!!!!!!

2011-01-23T16:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.snakerivermls.com/

The MLS Number is 169469
To see more pictures of the house, click on the camera below the main picture.
Because we have an accepted offer, the house may be taken off the listings very soon, so go check it out quick!!

Sledding with Daddy

2011-01-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

Robert has been around alot more this winter with being home by about 6 every night and having every Saturday off.

Today Sammy and Daddy decided to go sledding in the front yard since there was some new snow on the ground to work with.

Isn't he just the cutest little man? We sure love our little guy!

Here's a little video of Daddy helping Sam sled down the hill :)

Sammy is Three!!

2011-01-22T11:49:00.001-08:00

Here's the birthday boy enjoying his cupcake

Pulling out the airplanes each of the Potter girls made for our fridge - thanks girls!

The first gift Sam opened got him quite excited for the rest - a set of airplanes and helicopters

And a homemade teepee which Sam calls his tunnel. This is going to bring so much entertainment in the months and years to come! Thank you so much to Grandma and Great Grandma!! All of Sam's gifts were thoughtful and will bring many hours of enjoyment - thanks to all who helped us celebrate Sam!!

And the birthday cake. It turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated, but we managed to get it done. The cupcakes were for the kids and the adults enjoyed the yellow cake with chocolate marble and cream cheese icing. Sam's favorite part was his "spaceman" candle, which he lovingly used to stamp blue frosting across the top of the yellow fondant before the party. Sam had a great day and would go around singing "happy bird-day to me" :)

The Nightmare Continues

2011-01-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm admitting it: I've had a rough day (and it's only 2!) Sam gave me his cold, which has left me congested, difficult to sleep and just dragging through each day. But somehow I manage to drag myself out of bed and get me and Sam gone by 9 am to do my visiting teaching. Now don't get me wrong, I love visiting teaching and I love the sisters we see, but it gets really difficult to keep my sanity when Sam fights at every little thing and each visit takes an hour and a half and they are not scheduled quite together. So we get home around 1 and Sam is having a meltdown because he is tired and hungry. I'm not feeling great myself, so I get into some comfy clothes and set about getting lunch, when I notice a big pile of dirt outside the back doors. It has been pretty warm around here lately, but I didn't think we had a big pile of dirt under the snow in that spot, so I open the door to check things out. My worst fears are confirmed when I see the two to three foot long hole that has been dug right next to where the previous hole was - the skunks are back. I try to call Robert and he doesn't pick up, so I sit down and just cry. I am so ready to be done with this house!! Robert called back and helped me calm down by saying that its ok because we'll just buy a new one tonight (we are looking at two houses in our area tonight) and we will be calling the skunk guy, if we can find his number again. Appparently skunks are undesirables, even among the pest control community, and it is difficult to find someone to take care of the problem. So if you were thinking your day has just been horrible, know that someone you know is also thinking the same thing and that someday life really will get better - you just never know when it will be better or when it will be worse! :)

Staying Busy

2011-01-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

Lucy didn't want to be left out of the picture taking

Sam, Natalie and Josh "swimming" on their ocean made from a blue blanket with the flattened moving boxes along the sides for a beach.

We have been spending most of our time this last week welcoming my older sister and her family to the area. It has been great to watch Sam interact with all his cousins and I cannot describe what it is like to have my big sister closeby again. Some of you may remember when Robert and I moved to Kennewick, Washington for a summer while he did his internship for the church farms. Corinne and her family lived in Prosser, which was around 40 mins away, but we didn't let that stop us from being out visiting them just about every weekend and several times during the week. We grew really fond of the Potters that summer and have always talked about living close to them again and so it seemed like a dream come true when they let us know that Ben was going back to school and they might be as close as Idaho Falls! Now they are here and they live right in downtown Rigby and we are so happy to have them, although we are working on sharing them with Ben's brothers and sister who live in the area as well :)
Sam has been battling a cold this week and now that he is finally just about past it, Mommy is feeling under the weather. This week we were called in to speak with the bishopric and even after expressing my concerns (ex: I'm pregnant and will only be getting more so, what I am supposed to do with a newborn in nursery, if I am nursing I will most likely have to leave the other teacher with all the kids at some point during church, etc) I am now called to be a nursery worker - obviously someone in charge has a sense of humor (they also wanted me to remain the visiting teaching coordinator, but I told them when the baby comes it will be time for someone else to have that blessing)

Daddy has been working hard or hardly working, we're not quite sure :) It has been great to have him getting home between 5 and 6 most nights and home every Saturday. So we used our free Saturday to go up to the shop and spend some time working on Robert's sandrail (more details and pictures to come at some point) Later that day we were able to go shopping for Sam's birthday - I can't believe he will be 3 on Friday!! We will be doing just a small party with family and I'm excited to try an idea I saw online for his birthday cake incorporating Toy Story 3. Pictures to come!!

Another Memorable Day

2011-01-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

We have had another one of those days that you just won't forget anytime soon. The day looked promising with the return of our water supply last night after two days of absolutely nothing. But alas, it had more in store than I was betting on. I felt great being able to accomplish many of the things that have been bugging me since getting back from our trip: dishes, laundry, putting away Christmas, reorganizing the "catch all" table and the office, getting the snow tires put on the car and even getting a chance to get some gas station hot chocolate (my favorite!)
The first thing to go awry was the discovery of a ball of black and white fabric in the rubber seal of my washer. Since it was the load of Robert's work clothes, I thought it was just some fabric or lint of some sort. When I grab the thing, it turns out it is a MOUSE!! A dead, wet and very gross little mouse that had made its way in with the laundry somehow. I have to admit, I lost it a little bit. But thankfully it didn't scare Sam, he just thought Mommy was playing a game and being silly, even when he heard me telling the story to Daddy on the phone he simply thought it was an adventure worth repeating over and over again (even though he wasn't in the room for the discovery)
Most would think that in itsself would be memorable enough. But no, we need a little something more to keep this day alive, so Robert comes home from work and when I notice a rag and electrical tape wrapped around a finger he tells me "I don't want to show it to you because I know you will just make me go to the doctor" Great. These are words you don't really want to hear, but now that they have been said, you must trudge on. The result is the above picture, which is only part of the gash. I tell him he really should go, but he decides to take a shower first. I call my nursing sounding board (Corinne!) to confirm that he should at least get it looked at and ask the neighbors to watch Sam for us. I wondered if that was really necessary, but it turned out to be a really good idea. Not because it took all that long, but because after getting numbed up (which anyone who has experienced it knows usually hurts more than the injury itsself) Robert starts turning gray and calmly asks me for a drink of water. He didn't faint, but he definitely made us think he was going to. Now he is all stitched up pretty and got a tetanus shot and I will get to spend the next few days giving drugs and changing the bandages. How was your day?

Christmas

2011-01-03T12:54:00.001-08:00

Here's the front room after Santa visited

And the stuffed stockings

Jolly Old Saint Nick even ate some of the treats we left for him! These were pretty yummy - an Oreo baked inside of a brownie - mmmm!

Sam had a great time Christmas morning opening gifts from friends and Santa and was a little frustrated when he needed help opening a few.

And by far the favorite present of them all was Buzz and Woody figurines. It was a great Christmas for all of us with very thoughtful and practical gifts. We enjoyed getting to be at home together being lazy all morning and then we packed up and left for the warm country of Arizona. There we spent a week enjoying family, food, motorcycle riding, bunny bashing, and paintballing. But as always, the week went by way too fast and we are now home again in good, COLD Idaho anticipating the move of the Washington Potters to Rigby - we are so excited to have them live close again! Hope all of you had a great holidays!

Skunks

2010-12-18T08:07:00.001-08:00

I was hoping for this to be a happy post about how we took out the skunk under our house. But, it's not. We did catch one skunk and a cat in the skunk trap last night, but as it turns out, there is an entire family of skunks under the house. This is a picture of the nice hole they have dug for themselves to get under the house.

This is the one of the little ones we caught in the trap last night. When Robert looked out to check on it, he saw two more coming out from under the house to help it, so he grabbed the shotgun and tried to shoot both of them, but was only successful at getting both of the other two to spray under the house, which seeped up through the walls and floors and such and made the house nearly unbearable last night.

So this morning we disposed of Skunk #1 and we are really, really hoping we are able to get the other two (or more!) skunks to come back out and just catch them in the trap. This is specifically a skunk trap and is small enough that the skunk can't lift up its tail to spray you - thanks to our great neighbors for allowing us to borrow it!!

Stockings Hung with Care

2010-12-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, we are all ready for Christmas up here in Idaho. I just thought I would share a little bit about our stockings.

Robert's mom has made each of us our stocking and spends many hours sewing both crosstitch and on the sewing machine to put these beautiful stockings together. Each of the kids in the family have a full crosstitched stocking and then the grandkids have just a topper.

Every stocking is different in some way, but they all go together as well - I love it! And, I love that I can give these stockings to my children when they grow up and they can have something Grandma made just for them.

And this year I am so happy to have Kaylie's stocking to hang with all the rest. Even though she isn't here with us, Kaylie is a part of our family and doing the simple things like having a stocking just to hang helps us to remember our angel in heaven.

Santa

2010-12-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was storytime and this being the last storytime of the year, we had a special visitor come! Sam and Josh both enjoyed sitting on Santa'a lap and telling him what they wanted this year; Lilly wasn't so thrilled with the whole thing.

As for me, I had a little something to ask Santa for this year as well and I got my present early. You want to know what it is? We were able to have our mid-pregnancy ultrasound today and found out that the next little one to be joining our family will be another little girl!! I am so excited right now. Yes, later I will probably be a little apprehensive, but at this moment I am so excited to have seen my little girl and to know that she is growing and doing well. The due date is May 12, 2011. We are so excited to finally share our news with all of you!! Merry Christmas!!

Week Summary

2010-12-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

This was so cute - on Sunday we made our mini version of Thanksgiving dinner, so we decided to let Sam stay up and enjoy the meal with us. But you all know how you feel after eating all that turkey and other yummy food, right? The poor kid was so wiped out he fell asleep during one of his own movies around 8:00 or 8:30. We put him to bed, but he woke up a while later to sit with me for a little while and then go back to bed.

This week has been filled with fun playdates and yummy Christmas treat making. On Tuesday Josh and Lilly came over to play and we made Muddy Buddies, which they loved because each got their own bag to shake and then to eat.

Then on Wednesday, we got together at the Potter's house to frost and sprinkle sugar cookies. The boys love mounding up the sprinkles and Lilly just enjoys eating all the cookies she can manage to grab.

Thursday we had visiting teachers come over and then played with another friend at his house. This morning I woke up to see three deer out in our backyard grazing to their heart's content. They stayed for a while, sitting just on the other side of the fence and then bounded off.

Then today we went to William's house to decorate gingerbread houses. My friend is so awesome - she actually made gingerbread and put the houses together last night so they would be nice and sturdy for little hands to decorate this morning. Both mommies and kiddies had fun sticking all sorts of candies on the houses and getting them just right.

Working hard to get the candies to stick on the roof

Sam's finished product and the trademark squinty grin. In front of the house we made a snowman, his wife and a snow baby and then Santa's sled out of tootsie rolls. Tomorrow Daddy gets to stay home again, so we are going to get family pictures taken and then spend some quality time cleaning the garage. I can't believe it is only two more weeks until Christmas!!

A Fun Day

2010-12-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

It is finally that time of year again where Daddy can start taking Saturdays off, so we made the most of our first day by going just about everywhere. We enjoyed sleeping in and then having waffles for breakfast and then headed out to Rexburg to visit the motor sports store and the flight museum. These first two pictures are of Sam showing first Opa and then Grandpa some ideas for Christmas gifts this year ;)

We have been wanting to take Sam to the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg for a while, but they are only open from 9 to 5 on Saturdays right now and it has been hard to get up there in time. Unfortunately Sam was having a rough day and didn't really enjoy the museum as much as we thought he would, but being the only patrons there we were given first a guided tour and then were able to hear some of the stories behind the aircraft and the owner of the museum. All of these airplanes still fly and help show the history of flight through WWII and on up. These two red airplanes were some of the more recent. The lighter red was the kind that movie stars would fly themselves around in and the darker one they call the "Toyota of the Skies"

The guides were especially nice to Sam, letting him climb inside several airplanes to look at all the dials and switches and play with the steering sticks and you can see on his face how much he enjoyed the experience!

A model T truck. So awesome to see one of these!! They also had a jet engine that you can see in the far left of the picture. Upstairs they had an amazing collection of army/military/war artifacts from World War I on up to present day. It was amazing to visually see the progression we have made throughout the ages.

Sam wearing the pilot headphones and pretending to fly

After the visit to Rexburg we came home for lunch and naps and then headed back out to Idaho Falls to do some much needed looking around for Christmas gifts. We ended the night off right (in my opinion, but you may need to ask Robert about his) with some fudge-covered Oreos and finally getting to watch Eclipse - and on Blu Ray! It was a great day spent with Daddy and we are really looking forward to having more Saturdays to enjoy!!