The Skinner Family Digest: March 2011

A quick random preview of pictures:

our little princess....fingers in her mouth pretty much constantly!

Seriously, I have no clue where this kid gets his curls! His hair is crazy, and he looks like a hobo orphan kid sometimes, but George won't let me cut it until Brady's 2nd birthday. I'm counting down.

"All Done"

Since Kylee has started sitting in the Bumbo, it's now Brady's chair of choice now. Nevermind the fact that his chubby little legs are almost stuck every time he gets out!

Yes, it seem like virtually every post starts out with "so I haven't blogged in a while". So I'll just skip that part. And this time I hve PICTURES! :) Here's an update:

*Koda's been such a great wrestler. He really loves it. So far, he's had 2 tournaments (4 actually, but we've had to sit out of 2 of them because of illness). Of the 6 matches, he's won 2, and only been pinned once! Not bad for his rookie year :) One of his wins, he beat the other kid 12-0!!! And then his very next match was the on where he was pinned...and he became bit more humble again!

Brady feeding the giraffe :)

*We went to Phoenix over Spring Break for 9 days, and we LOVED it! Unfortunately, Koda was in Kodiak for spring break, so it was just George and I with the 2 little ones. We stayed at our friend's Jared and Mogan's house with their two little guys (the oldest is 2.5, and the youngest is 10 days older than Kylee, so Brady had a built in buddy for a week!). We had a blast hanging out with them (we hadn't seen them since they left Alaska 2 years ago!!), and spent a lot of time visiting George's brother, Alvin, and his family. Also, we got our first peek at my parent's new house in Surprise! They closed on it in October, and this was the first time we were down to see it! We alo went to the World Zoo in Surprise, and the hilite was when Brady got to feed the giraffes. I think the hilite for the adults was probably the tortises doing the deed. I never knew that tortises made noise! :) Seriously, I think EVERYONE at the zoo had to notice them! It was downright hilarious. We also made it to a sping training baseball game- Colorado Rockies vs. Anaheim Angels. And I got a game ball! I didn't catch it, but it bounced back onto the field, and George said I just looked cute, so the field guy tossed it up to me :) Brady loved the game too, and his hilite was probably getting an italian ice in the mini helmet! Seriously, that kid is obsessed with ice, slushies, snow cones, popsicles...pretty much anything with ice and virtually no nutrition. In all, I think we just enjoyed being in warm weather. It'll be a hard choice (assuming I get accepted to both) between USU (military med school) in Bethesda, MD, or Univ. of Arizona in Phoenix or Tuscon in a couple years. We just really love Arizona!

Proof that George and Jared really DO change diapers!

*When we got back from Phoenix, my brother, Eric, and his family were in Anchorage (from Ohio!). We got to spend a few days with them before they had to head back home, and it was great to see our nephew, Cole, again, and meet our only neice (on my side!), Sage who turned 1 when she was here! We had a little birthday party for her at Scott and Heather's house. In the works was also a big family picture, which my mom and I had been planning for some time. With 7 kids all 6 and under, we knew that it wouldn't be the easiest thing to get them all to be "ok" with pictures and stand or sit in the same place! But, it went better than expected, as you can see below! :)

The twins

Sage and Cole

The boys showing off their "muscles"

The whole family!

Pretty much Cole's biggest smile you can get on camera!

*Also, since getting back from Phoenix, we've had nothing but sickness here! First was a flareup for me of a bacterial eye infection, which required a trip to the doctor and prescription eye drops. The going joke is that I must have gotten some kind of animal poop in my eye at the zoo since it was so windy! Then Brady was "sick". It didn't really get him down, but he was coughing and had the NASTIEST snotty nose that required a kleenex every 10.4 seconds. Koda, too, had a bit of a cough. Then I started feeling it, and I went as long as I could before going back to the doctor, finding out that I had a bad case of bacterial laryngitis. I'm almost never sick to the point of almost bedrest, but this knocked me on my butt! And the cherry on top was when Koda woke up last Thursday complaining his ear hurt. I checked it with the otoscope, and sure enough, his right eardrum was cloudy, bulging, and bright red. We spent the whole next day (Thursday) waiting for it to burst and drain for some relief. We went into his pediatrician about an hour after it burst and she gave us some ear drops. It must be one heck of an ear infection, because that hasn't cleared it up in the last few days, so now we're on to an oral antibiotic. Here's to hoping that the "sick season" is officially over in this house!

*THE BED!!! Yes, George finished the boy's bunk bed he's been working on for the past 2 months! He built it from scratch, and it looks AMAZING! After fnding out that it wouldn't go up the stairs, we figured out the only way to get it into the boy's room was taking out their window and doing it that way. Mind you their room is on the 2nd floor. An the bed is made of solid oak. So.....George rented a forklift yesterday and drove it home! Once we got the large unit in the room, we put it together, and it's awesome! The boys love it, and George and I were joking that if we ever lived in a really small place, we could sleep 6 people in it! (Once he builds the trundle for underneath!). They're only twins, but the rails on the top bunk make it feel pretty spacious (plus, you can't fall off!). And I'm loving all the storage in the bed. The steps are drawers, and I unloaded all of Brady and Koda's clothes from the large and small dressers we had and STILL had one drawer left to fill! I'm in heaven! Some pictures....both of the bed, and HOW it got into their room!