PRIMA BALLERINA!!

I had my friend Jen take some naked tutu pictures of Emily - cause you gotta capture that baby deliciousness! I love how you see her beauty and spunkiness! These are some of my favorites...

Thank you Jen!!

The Skinrood Scoop...

Okay Lisa - I have now joined the longest post club! I won't make fun of you anymore!

Here's the latest:

YEAH!!! Emily's crawling!!! Okay, so I was a little late taking the picture. As soon as I pushed the button she fell flat on her tummy but she really was doing it and since this picture was taken she has totally mastered it! She's a regular ol' crawler these days! She's already trying to walk (I think she hates how crawling hurts her knees - such a princess!) so stay tuned...

This was Emily all ready for church this morning. I couldn't resist taking her picture and she was being so photogenic. I seriously love this girl like you wouldn't believe! She's ALWAYS happy and SO funny. She loves to ham it up big time - I think she's going to be a class clown because she loves it when you laugh at her. If you ask me it just doesn't get any better than this little lady!

Last Monday night we went with some friends to the Thanksgiving Point Animal Farm for Family Night. It was an awesome night - the weather was perfect and a good time was had by all. The kids had a blast running around together checking everything out and the evening was finished appropriately with a visit to the ice cream shop.

Just gettin' a little corn to feed the animals.

The Animal Farm from Emily's seat

My miniature cowboy with Daddy

All the kiddos. David, Emily, Sawyer, Grayson, Jack, and Max. Aren't they a cute bunch?
*Not pictured: little Conli Ramey. She was more interested in the bunny rabbits than getting photographed. We missed you Conli!

All the girlies. Mel, me, Lisa, and Becky

David disappeared and this was where we found him. He LOVES tractors!

Little rascals! Man, I wish I had one of these at home for these two, it would definitely come in handy!!

How does this girl even belong to me?? Well - she does! And I think she's absolutely beautiful but she's definitely got more of her Dad in her cause those blue eyes didn't come from me!

Me and my 'sister-girl' (I don't know why but that's my nickname for Emily). This is my favorite picture with her.

Family picture at the Thanksgiving Point Animal Farm

Happy Birthday David!! Okay, so his birthday isn't actually until the 17th but we decided it would be best to celebrate over the weekend. On Saturday, we had a birthday party with his cousins and his best friend Grayson. They ate pizza, decorated treat bags, decorated cupcakes, and had a Pinata. It was chaotic and fun although it was briefly interrupted with a meltdown half way through. Thankfully, it was short lived and he emerged from his room ready to party! Thank you to Grayson and all you little cousins for coming to celebrate with us. We had so much fun and we love you all!

David and his much loved balloons - I think they were the highlight of the party for him.

Decorating (and mostly eating) cupcakes with frosting and candy

The aftermath of a complete devouring of a cupcake. Yup...that's a yellow sprinkle in his nose!

Taking turns at the pinata.

Candy madness!

Candy filled cousins -Bostyn, Andrew, Benson, and Kara and also his best friend Grayson (to the left of David).

We celebrated tonight with Grandma and Grandpa Ray. We waited until tonight to give him his presents from us and from my parents and then we also had his birthday cake. It was much different from last year - he was so much more aware of what having a birthday means so he was pretty excited. It was a lot of fun to watch him and see how excited he would get when he was opening his presents.

Opening up some new books from Nana and Bumpa

Some new pants from Grandma Skinrood!

His new 'Thomas' back pack for (pre) school! We put all his favorite things in the pockets -Propel, gum, Froot Loops, batteries, and Animal Crackers. He thought it was pretty dang cool!

Happily sporting his new "pack-pack" minus some pants (we're working on this potty training thing)

So excited for the birthday cake!!

Blowing out the candles (yes, he helped decorate his cake!).

Mom and Dad with the birthday boy.

Yummy birthday cake

Finishing off the ice cream

Comic Relief...

I thought I'd share a few of the funny things David has said over the last couple of weeks. There's been so many that I couldn't remember all of them. I had to start writing them down so that I could blog about it because I think it will be so fun for him to read the things he said as a 2 year old when he's an adult. He's got quite the little mind and he keeps me laughing everyday!

I was changing David's diaper and he was holding his toy dinosaur. As he looked at it he suddenly said "Should we go to the zoo mom? Should we do that?" I said, "Sure bud, we could do that." He replied, "Okay! Good, because I want to see the Dinosaurs, the Elephants, and the Lobsters!" Man- he's got some high expectations!

Last Sunday at church David was sitting on my lap. I had recently had a break-out on my forehead (yes-I'm 28 and I STILL get zits). In the middle of Sacrament Meeting David looked up at me so sympathetically and caressed my fore head. He whispered, "Do you want me to kiss all your boo-boos Mommy? You just have so many!" Ouch...it was a bittersweet moment!

Jason's cousin Valerie came to visit last weekend and she was asking David about our vacation. She said, "Did you get to go to the beach David?" "I did!" he said. "Did you see the water?" She asked. "Ya, I did. There was food in there," he replied. "Food??" Valerie asked. "Ya, sea food!" he said!! Wow- I have no idea how he came up with that but it was one of the funniest things he's ever said!

Last Saturday night Jason and David had just gotten home from Wal Mart and I was putting David's pajamas on. He was rambling on and on about being at Wal Mart and getting groceries and how he was naughty and how Daddy got upset with him, and on and on. Then out of no where he jumped up and said "Mom! I need a new kitchen!" I said, "No you don't - yours is just fine." "No Mom, it's nasty!" he argued. (Earlier that day we were at Target and I told him we needed to get him new Play Dough. When he disagreed I told him it was because his old Play Dough was nasty!) I said "David, your kitchen is not nasty! It's fine!" Then with determination to change my mind he ran over to his kitchen and as he was quickly shoving the (pretend) faucet handle up and down he said firmly, "No Mom! I need a new one! This one doesn't work!! I just busted up laughing and rolled my eyes! When I asked Jason where this possibly could have come from he told me that he had seen David eyeing the play kitchens at Wal Mart. Apparently a certain little some one thinks he found a prettier penny!

We were eating dinner with our friends Matt and Kelly and their daughter Rachel was playing with David in the living room. Emily was in her walker just rolling around and exploring. All of a sudden I realized that it got considerably quieter. My eyes darted across the room and I noticed David and Rachel playing peacefully...but Emily was gone! All of a sudden I remembered seeing David running back to the living room from the area of his bed room about 30 seconds previous. He's been getting irritated with Emily lately when she's in her walker because she gets in his way. I said, "David! Did you push Emily into your room and shut the door?" Then without any shame he matter of factly stated (without even looking up) "Nope, in the office." What a twit!! Everyone started laughing and Matt ran to the office to rescue Emily. When he opened the door he found Emily just sitting there in her walker with a confused look on her face, just staring up at the door! It was so sad!

David's been doing this cute little thing the last couple of weeks. I absolutely love it every time he says it. I'm usually in the middle of cooking or doing dishes or something and he'll come up and wrap his arms around my leg and say "I love you...some more and more." -Melts my heart every time! He also has been coming up to me several times a day- even if we've only been apart for 2 minutes and he says, "Do you miss me Mommy?" I always say, "I did!" Then he tilts his head to the side and looks at me like I'm so precious!
He's also been quite the little character when it comes to Emily. For some reason he's decided he's the boss of her. He tries to tell me what to do with her- like he'll say I can't give her baby food because she'll choke, and I can't put her in the bath tub because she'll slip, I can't take her out of her crib from her nap because she's still sleepy. He doesn't just tell me either- he insists, and he'll argue with me about it until he starts crying because I'm not doing with her what he thinks is best. It's rather endearing but he better learn who the parents are around here or we've got a long road ahead!

Fun on the road...

We just got back from 7 days of vacation in San Diego and Las Vegas. We had an absolute blast and I seriously didn't want to come home, although now that we're here, it is SO NICE to be back! After being away it just feels so good to be in your own house with your own bed and I think the kids feel the same way. Emily slept through the night last night for the first time since the night before we left! We took off last Thursday for Vegas where we stopped and went to dinner and spent the night with Aunt Kristin. Jason's mom caught a ride down with us so she could spend the week with Kristin and man was it nice to have her help in the backseat with the kids! (Thank you Grandma!) On Friday we continued on to San Diego where we got to hang out with our friends Rob and Christy. On Wednesday we left California and headed back to Vegas where we had dinner and spent the night with Aunt Kristin and Uncle Lafe again. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful getting any pics in Vegas but it was really nice getting to spend time with Kristin and Lafe. They spoiled us rotten and even watched the kids for us yesterday so Jason and I could get in some shopping before heading home. Thank you Kristin and Lafe! We love you!

On the way down to Vegas we stopped at Historic Cove Fort near Fillmore, UT.

Fun at the beach in San Diego!

We went to the pool and hot tub at our hotel a few nights while we were there. This was Emily wearing her little Speedo swimsuit for the first time. Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?! It just doesn't get any better than super chubby legs!

The board walk at Point Loma

On the board walk at Pizza Nova (so yummy!) with Rob, Christy, Hunter, Ethan, and Hannah

David playing in the fountains at Balboa Park

Tid Bits...

David, David, David. Yup...it happened AGAIN. Two nights in a row, in fact. The second night was the night before we were leaving on vacation so I was running around the house frantically trying to get us all packed. I thought David was being so good, you know- keeping himself so entertained. I went in to check on him expecting him to be playing with his cars and instead I found his cars, every puzzle piece, every book, the contents of his dirty clothes basket, all his shoes, every blanket off his bed, every train, ball, stuffed animal.... ...EVERY SINGLE TOY HE OWNS!!!! In the middle of his floor!!! Boy was I happy! It took over a half hour with David's help (if you can call it that) and the help of a friend who had dropped by (just what she wanted to do- thanks Stef!) to clean it up. Oh, and let me remind you- this was the second night in a row that he did this!!! ARRRR!!! Man, it's a good thing he's so cute!

This is just a random picture of Emily. I love it though, and I look at it wishing she could stay little forever!

One day last month David's little cousin Bostyn (my brother Joe's) came over to play for the day. We had just finished making Chocolate Chip Cookies and they had gorged themselves with dough! They decided they needed some milk but they had to have matching cups and they pulled the chairs into the kitchen side by side. I had to take a picture!

A few weeks ago my parents came out to Utah to visit. They had 3 new little Grand Daughters to meet for the first time. Here they are all together. On the left is my brother Joe's baby, Saylor, then Emily, and on the right is my brother James' baby, Ellie. They are all beautiful!

Emily's cousin Ellie had come over to visit. She was still in her car seat and Emily was in her walker. I came back into the room and saw that Emily had wheeled herself over to Ellie and they were having a cute little conversation of goo's and ga's. It was really cute to watch!

Funny story of the day...

Last week Jason's Aunt and Uncle and Grandma came over for dinner. After they left I noticed Grandma had forgotten her cane. I put it in a corner and started to clean up the kitchen. A few minutes went by and I heard David getting into the pantry. I turned around and saw him with Grandma's cane. He was using it to hook things up high and pull them out to the edge of the shelf so he could get them down. I said "Oh no David! You can't play with Great Grandma's cane! She needs it!" (I don't really know why she uses it so I made it up) I said "She has to use it cause her leg hurts, so you can't break it." He looked at me intently, his eyes quickly shot off to the side and then back up at me and he said "...Oh!... ...my leg hurts!"

Horses say mooo...

This weekend we got to ride horses at Coyote Creek, the place where Jason's friend from school, Heather, keeps her two competition horses. It was a really fun family activity and I was surprised at how well it went. We definitely want to go back and do it again soon. At first David was a little timid but he ended up having a lot of fun kicking around in the dirt, looking at all the horses and goats, and chasing the cat. On the way there we asked David what sound a horse makes and he said "MOOOO!" I thought he got it straight while we were there but then on the way home he told us he wanted to go see the cows again. Oh dear!

So, I kid you not, David has MASTERED the art of looking sad lately. I don't know why he does it but it's his latest trick. No matter what he's doing-even if he's loving it, he thinks he has to put on a sad face- especially if I get out the camera. That being said, he actually thought it was really cool to be up on the horse and I was so surprised that he was even willing to get on. I even saw a smirk peaking thru at one point!

I just think his little boy body is the cutest! I love this picture, especially his little Timberland boots!

David spotted this cat soon after we got there and he was so interested in him. For a while he cared more about where the cat was going and what it was doing than anything else. He and Jason decided on the way home that we'll get a kitty someday...ya, we'll see about that.

Once again, I promise he really was happy! He called this the "couch swing"!