Exciting News

For weeks now we have been asking Dane if he wants a brother or sister to which he responds... "brudder?" "Titter?" "brudder?" and he keeps repeating.

A couple of days ago I asked him. Dane, what is your sisters name? and he quickly said "wawa!" I said, "your sister's name is Lara?" (his aunt with down's syndrome) and he started giggling and said "yeah!". Then I said, Dane, what is your brother's name? and he thought about it and then said "Doo Doo!"

Well, we finally had our appointment yesterday to find out what we are having and looks like our next kid is going to be named "Doo Doo".

That's right, another BOY! We couldn't be more excited for Dane to have a little bro so close in age. In a little over a year I imagine my house is going to be a big wrestling ring so I better start padding all of my furniture!

It will be interesting to see what this little guy looks like.

Merry Christmas!

Well, it looks like this year we are not going to get a Christmas card out. We could blame it on me being lazy, HEAVY (looking)- with child, not being able to take ONE picture where we all look decent, or just having run out of time. Whatever the reason-

We want to wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From the "BOTTOM" of our hearts!

Love, The Skinner Family

This last week at our place

Dane has been doing lots of swimming... in the bath tub of course . This last week has been so rainy and cold.

We did Christmas a little early since Dane still doesn't really get it and we were so excited to give him his new bike. Next year we will have to follow the rules and wait til Christmas Day.

We saw Santa at the ward Christmas party. I think I got this same exact picture last year.

Dane jumped to Ryan as soon as Ryan got close enough and then as they walked away Ry said Dane turned to Santa and through all the tears and in the poutiest voice said "bye, bye" to Santa.
and...I figured out a way to make Dane keep his pants and diaper on. He always comes up to me or Ryan to make sure we are watching and then pulls his pants down and yells "hi!". So weird! All it takes is a onesie buttoned over his pants and... voila... no more naked little boys running around the house or accidents to clean up.

"It-sy Bit-sy Spi-der"

A couple nights ago I started tickling Dane's toes and he of course thought it was sooo funny so I told him to tickle Mommy's toes. He started tickling my toes (while saying in a high-pitched voice "tiggle, tiggle, tiggle"). To humor him I started giggling and he kept doing it because he thought it was so funny. I then told him to go and tickle Daddy's toes.

He went over to Ryan and started tickling his feet (while again saying "tiggle, tiggle, tiggle") and then looked down. He hurriedly pulled his hands back and said "ooh, pider!" (translation= Spider). I am NOT into feet but I admit Ryan has nice feet for a guy (not much hair, trimmed toenails, and no fungus). Anyways, poor kid thought the hair on Ryan's feet were spiders! then he said "cared!" ("scared") as he pulled his fists up close to his chest. He looks at me and asks "Nice?" (Whenever he is scared of something- ex: Santa, and ant, dog- i tell him "it's okay, he's nice").

Ryan and I died laughing! I guess the small (yet manly) patch of hair that Ryan has on his feet and toes made it look more like a "pider" than hair.

"Look Mom, I Passed the Test!"

I found out I was pregnant when I was in Idaho visting my parents back in September. I wanted to tell my mom a funny way so I knew it had to include my sister with Down's Syndrome, Lara. I wanted Lara to take the pregnancy test to my mom and just hand it to her and say "mom, I think I'm pregnant" but Lara can never follow directions. She always has to ruin our plans by changing things up and saying whatever she wants which totally ruins the moment. For example: back in high school if someone would call and we didn't want to talk to them (after looking at caller ID) we would tell her not to answer it. She would answer... then we would tell her that we weren't there- and she would tell the person on the phone "um. she says she's not here". That is Lara for you.



Anyways, I outsmarted her (may have been a first). I called her up to the family room and said "hey Lara, wanna take a test?" she agreed and was actually excited to "take it". I looked at the pregnancy test like I was reading a question and asked her..."Who is Uncle Jesse's wife on Full House?" Without hesitation she started jumping up and down and said "ooh, I know this one! Rebecca Donaldson!" I looked back at the pregnancy test like I was still reading it and I said "Oh my gosh Lara, you won! you passed the test!!" She was so proud of herself so I told her to go show my mom that she passed the test.



Lara went straight up to my mom still excited and waived the pregnancy test in front of her and said "Look mom, I passed the test!" My mom was really confused and saw that it was a pregnancy test and then realized what was going on. It was soo funny to see her face!



The next day my mom wanted me to make a collage picture frame board thing for Lara's newly decorated room so after I made it I called her up stairs and told her I had a surprise for her and she got all excited and said "another test??!!" I felt like such a disappointment when I didn't have another test for her. Oh well, she still enjoyed her picture board.

Great News for the Skinners

We are excited to announce that...













Dane knows almost all of his colors!!!




He learned them the week before we went to Utah and now is always telling me what color things are without me even asking. He knows red, yellow, blue, green, white, brown, black, and purple! He still calls pink "red" and orange "yellow".

He loves eating oranges and even asks for a "yewow" when he wants me to get him one. He also tries to quiz me sometimes by holding something up and saying "ca yur?" Because I was always holding things up and saying "what color is it?"

He's quite the funny kid, when he is not acting completely out of control.







P.S. I'm pregnant - and almost half way through!

Gifts and Crafts...

Over Thanksgiving I was able to see my parents for about an hour as they were passing through town which I loved! My mom is an amazing cook and quilter. Too bad those skills weren't passed on to any of her daughters (sorry Lynds and Steph, you know its true). When I saw my mom last week she gave me the quilt that she finally made for Dane and it is so dang cute. She also made Dane a one-of-a-kind BYU pillow case which Dane and RYan love. Because of his pillow case, Dane now knows what a cougar is and loves "cougews".
She also made him this light-weight blanket that is hawaiin style.

Over conference one of the missionaries that served his mission under my dad came to the States and brought with him THE CUTEST All Blacks shirt, jacket, and rugby ball from New Zealand. I could not believe all of the stuff he spoiled Dane with. This missionary, Mila Masiasomua, taught me and my school class (back when I was about 10 years old) how to do the haka which is so fitting for the outfits that he brought for my kid. The cute thing is is that my dad also has the polo shirt shown below. He served his mission to New Zealand when he was young and played rugby at BYU so he may have been a little jealous of all of Dane's new clothing.

He also brought this shirt for Dane which is hilarious.

THis week my sister got me some stuff to make a large letter "D" for Dane's room. This is how it turned out. I understand that scrap booky crafts are not very manly but I still think it turned out pretty cute and his walls are still pretty bare. I just need to figure out where I want to hang it.

Thanksgiving Break in Utah

This Thanksgiving break we went home to Utah and had a blast. We ate a ton of really Yummy food, hung out with family and friends, enjoyed the cooler weather, watched some awesome football games;), and just lounged around playing games and talking. I didn't take many pictures on our trip but here are the few that I did take.
Dane actually slept for about 20 minutes on the plane ride to Utah which was great especially since we had an extra seat for him to spread out on!

We went to the mall and Dane Really really wanted to ride the train. We finally got on the train and he ws trying to climb out of the window because he got scared and changed his mind. Here he is yelling for Ryan to come get him but as soon as we started going he thought it was so cool.

During the BYU/Utah football game Dane and his cousin, Ava ate and played great together.

Here is Dane with his Grandma Skinner

And here he is with his cute cousin, Jordan. They were buddies on Thanksgiving Day until Jordan tattled on his sister and Dane for "leaving him out".

Someone snuck into Grandpa's chair

The boys put the car seat in and didn't lock the seat belt so when we turned around dane was like this.. all up in our face. you can tell he his dangling by the seat belt.

He tried to watch Elmo in the car but the seat in front of him was in the way. His face was literally 2 inches from the the seat in front. Occasionally he would rest his forehead on the our seat when his neck would get tired from trying to watch the show.

Once we landed in AZ and got in our car, Dane was out the whole ride home.

As fun as our trip was... it was so nice to get back home and to a normal routine.