HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY to my MAN!

Last week was Ryan's birthday (Jan 17th) and my friend, Sara, was so nice to watch Dane while I took Ry out on the town. It was nice getting out for an evening with no kid and no school talk. Dinner was yummy too! A couple of days later we had a combined birthday (for Ryan and Rhett) get together with yummy dessert. Man these boys are getting old :)

1-10

The other day Dane and I were walking down our stairs and then he started counting with each step. I had NO clue he knew how to count. Now he counts everything...

This is his version:
(he skips one and starts with 2)
do
we
bow
bie
tik
weben
(no 8- i still need to convince him that there is an 8 in between 7 and 9)
nine
den!

Christmas Recap...

This Christmas was fun and a little different. We stayed put and Ryan's mom, dad, and little brother came out to stay with us. We had some yummy food, played games every night and I even attempted to make my first Lemon meringue pie with fresh lemons I picked over at Ryan's school. My mom and all of her sisters are amazing cooks and that includes pies. I called her for her recipe and was surprised that it turned out almost as good as hers. I don't have many pictures from the Christmas break so I posted the most recent picture of Dane that I have.

This picture was taken at an outdoor mall by our house that has a little play area in the middle. Dane kept going in and out of this tunnel and then when I did not see him come out for a while I looked inside and found him just relaxing. This whole relaxing thing does not happen much.
ALSO..

Here you go Kaymee!- finally a pregnancy picture.
Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks. Less than 20 to go!! I am already in talks with my Dr. about induction. I don't want another big baby like Dane was.
Showing off the bump

Day at the Phoeniz Wildlife Zoo

We went to the Phoenix Wildlife Zoo during Christmas break and it was AWESOME! I wasn't quite sure if Dane would enjoy being at the zoo but he LOVED it! He loved all of the animals and especially loved the petting zoo. We taped Dane while he was in the petting zoo area and are so glad that we did. I thought he was be too chicken to go near the animals but he got right in there and tried even picking up one of the pygmy goats. We condensed the video that we got to show family but it is still pretty long. Enjoy Gma's and Gpa's!

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.

Dane's New Hobby

Yesterday I was pretty sick with either food poisoning or the 24 hour bug so I stayed in my room ALL DAY! Ryan was so great. He got Dane up, fed him, got him ready and took him to church. He then put him down for his nap, fed him lunch, ran to get me some gatorade, and played with Dane all day. I am soooo lucky to have a husband that sensitive to my needs and a GREAT DADDY. Anyway, this morning I came out of my room and this is how I found Dane, all by himself at the computer. Ryan taught him how to play a Teletubby game yesterday afternoon and Dane actually just sits their and plays with constant giggling at the funny sounds that the teletubbies make when he pushes the button.
Look at the look on his face. He is so excited!
There goes the funny noises and bubble machine again...
Finally he noticed me and the flashing camera. Because I was sick, he barely saw me at all yesterday but as you can tell, he could care less that I was back "home". He has something better to play with now.

One Busy Week of Finals...

So this week has been kind of crazy with birthday parties, play dates, finals, and just normal life. But...FINALLY!...Ryan is done with the semester. What does that mean??? Well, it means only 2 semesters left of actually school/book work.

My friend's little boy had his first birthday and it was cowboy theme. Dane does not have any cowboy clothing so I just put him in some jeans and a plaid top then strapped on one of Ryan's old belt buckles. It looked so cute on him but kept falling off so he only was a cowboy for the first 10 minutes of the party. The rest of the party he was just a FLAT OUT MANIAC trying to get his hands on the balloons.

Friday Ryan finished up with finals and then it was off to the pool for some Arizona sunshine (the week before Thanksgiving). We haven't been to the pool in a long time so I wanted to see if Dane remembered how to put his head under and blow bubbles. He remembered but he did it in an inch of water.

I just wanted to show off this glistening spit string dangling from his chin. Yummy!!
Enjoying time with Dad. Dane loves being wrapped in towels after swimming or taking a bath and just cuddling with us.

I put my sunglass on Dane and since he kept trying to rip them off of his face I told him to fold his arms. He foldded his arms and then ended up forgetting about the sunglasses being on.

He continued to just hang out with the sunglasses on which I thought was so funny since they take up more than half of his cute little face.

Halloween '08

Right before Halloween, our ward had a Super Saturday which is pretty much just a big craft day for Relief Society. Here are the little crafts that I made..
This is my very first Halloween decoration!! I am so proud of myself bc I feel like I am that much less of a ba-humbug.
My friend was also teaching a class on how to make little girl hair bows and clips so I thought I would learn how just in case one day I have a girl.
Here is Dane in his Monster shirt that my sister gave him.

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat and they had a little set-up for pictures. Here is our little dinosaur.

One girl brought her dog dressed as a cow. I think Dane had more fun harrassing the dog all night than he did getting candy just handed to him everytime he turned around. Poor dog, I mean cow.

Our complex also had a Halloween party that we stopped by. Dane would not leave these kids alone. He would go up to them and just stare at them and their soda pop. I could totally tell that the kids felt uncomfortable because Dane was invading their space. It was so funny.
Midwestern had the annual Halloween party and Dane had a lot of fun with his buddy Presten the turlte. They were so funny to watch. They think eachother are so funny.

We had a great Halloween for the most part. Dane had NO candy bc he wasn't eating his food earlier in the day. The day after Halloween he threw up all over me. There is nothing more stressful than having a sick kid, especially when they throw up everything!! Last Thanksgiving Dane wound up in the hospital because he was throwing up so much and completely dehydrated so everytime he throws up I just panic. I hope this is just a coinsidence and not a tradition he decides to keep up every year at this time.

Not only was I stressed about having Dane sick but I was also asked to speak at Stake Conference. It is fitting that I was asked to speak the week of Halloween since I am TERRIFIED of speaking in public. Saturday night I thought I was getting what Dane had because I felt nauseas but I think it was mainly my nerves. I am so grateful that Ryan was able to stay at home with Dane so that I could go get my talk over with and not have the stress of leaving Dane with a friend or babysitter. I felt so bad, as I was leaving the house, Ryan got puked on.

I am so glad to have the weekend over and Dane actually keeping some fluid and a little bit a food down. I am just praying that Ryan and I don't catch it. With finals approaching, that is the last thing we need.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Book Worm

Dane loves reading! Every minute of every hour of every day he is handing us books and saying "reee" "reee" If we don't do it right away, he will keep repeating it louder and louder until we give in. Every time Ryan walks in the door, Dane is right there waiting for him and makes him go straight in his room to either play basketball or read him a book. Sometime I don't even realize Ryan is home until I go in Dane's room to see what he is up to. Here is what I found when I went into DAne's room today...


After dinner, Dane kept pointing to one of Ryan's medical books saying "reee" "reee!" Ryan just ignored him figuring he would be happy with any book but Dane wanted that one! He kept yelling "Reee!!" louder and louder so finally Ryan sat down with Dane and read the book. Here Ryan is reading his First Aid USMLE book (a book to help him study for the boards). He would point out pictures and explain what they were. Dane would find a cell and yell "ball!" or he would find some other images that looked like it could be a monster or something and he would roar. Ryan was so funny, he showed him what his lungs would like if he smoked, taught him about lupus and what it looks like, and showed him a picture of some hands of a person with gout- i think Dane growled at that one too bc it was scary looking). It was a pretty funny evening.

Finally Back From Our Big Vacation...!!!

Ok, so we didn't really go on a vacation...I just haven't felt like blogging lately because I have NOTHING to blog about.

Last night we went to a restaurant/sports bar to watch the BYU game. Here are just a couple of pictures from the evening.

What do you do when you have one hand full of crayons and the other hand full of sugar packets???? Improvize. (going in for the kill)
Okay now that my mouth is on the cracker, how do I pick this thing up??? After making out with the cracker and the table I finally helped him out and picked up the cracker for him. You can't even imagine the puddle of slobber he left behind.
This kid loves to dip food. He kept dipping that same french fry and sucking the ketchup off before redipping.
Watching the game in his lucky game shirt.


This picture is from a couple of nights ago. He looks like he is in pain but really he is just scared of the vaccuum. He was walking by the vacuum and picked a fight but the vacuum won. This might have to be his new time out spot so I know that at least he will stay there as long as I want him to.