Happy Father's Day!

So I am posting this really late on Father's Day because it's been a very busy day, but I just wanted to wish my cute hubby a very HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! You are the best dad and husband in the world. We love you, honey!


I am also so very grateful for the two other incredible dad's in our lives, Grandpa Harry (my dad) and Grandpa Kevin (Dan's dad). You are both such great examples to us and we are so grateful for your continuous love and support that you always give to us. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! WE LOVE YOU BOTH!





Gavin is talking a lot. He heard Lindsay and Zane telling Dan "Happy Father's Day, Daddy" so he had to join in. So he kept telling Dan all day. Then we went to visit both of our dad's and he kept telling both of them "Happy Father's Day, Papa." It just melted our hearts. So when we got home tonight we video taped him and here it is. (Sorry about just the head shots at the end. Gavin wanted to see himself in the screen and we don't have an eye piece for me to look through, so I couldn't see what I was recording!)

So, Long, Farewell!

This is a Skousen tradition. We always sing "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music when one of us gets married. We always change the words to reflect the couple getting married. It's been really fun to do through the years. Of course, with Amy on her mission, we had to use the cardboard cutout. I think it worked out just fine! (Pause the music at the bottom of our blog before you watch the video)

Bennifer's wedding!

So my little sister, Jennifer, got married last week to Ben (hence the name Bennifer) on June 5th. Jenny and Ben are so cute and I'm so happy for them. The wedding turned out beautiful. They were married at our church by Bishop Fred Holley. Then we had a yummy dinner. The reception was held in my parent's backyard, which was so stressful trying to get it all ready but it turned out so nice. The day before, we had a huge rain storm and even the morning of, it was rainy and windy. But it all cleared up and the evening could not have been nicer. Ben has 2 kids from his previous marriage, Noah (9) and Molly (7), so we get to have 2 more grandkids in the family. Lindsay is very excited to have another girl cousin. The only sad part about this all is that Ben lives in Arizona, so Jenny and Carter moved to Arizona this past week. But they live near MANY family and friends that have moved there in the past few years. So she will have many people to call and hang out with. Congrats Bennifer! We miss you!

Amy, just chillin' on the swing

Our pretty Lindsay

I told Gavin to say cheese and this is what I got!

Hey there, handsome Zane!

We have added 5 more people to the fam since March: Missy and Chad's baby, Andrew, Jeff, Ben, Noah and Molly!

Molly is in the black dress and all the other girls are Jenny and Ben's nieces

So this is my devil child, Gavin, who shoved the display table over just seconds before this picture was taken. After he pushed it over, he ran over and climbed into the bark, then proceeded to pluck a flower out the flower pot next to him. Tonya caught a great picture of his mischievous look!

I LOVE this picture! This is Jenny's baby, Carter, and he's a little devil child too. He had a little accident, so he had no pants for some of the reception.

Swimming

Lindsay and Zane just finished their two week swimming lessons at the Lehi Legacy Center. Lindsay got to be in the same class as her best friend, Lydia, and loved it. She was never afraid to try anything and passed Level 1. I decided to do the Mom and Tot class with Zane, even though he's almost 4. He'd never had swimming lessons before and is afraid of the water getting in his ears and eyes in the bathtub. So I decided to do this class with him to make him a little more comforatable. It worked. He complained a few times about floating on his back and getting water in his ears, but his teacher said he is VERY ready for the Preschool class. He will now hold his breath and put his whole face in the water. It's been fun to see them get braver and braver each day. Zane would ask me everyday after class "are you proud of me mom?" How cute is that?

Lindsay's done with soccer

Lindsay played soccer this year for the first time. Dan got to be her coach. I was pretty impressed with how aggressive she was. The first game made me laugh, because after 5 minutes of playing in the game, she came running to me and said, "I'm so tired. Can I play on the playground now?" But she got better with each game. Good job Linds! We love you!

Good times, NOT!

So after I blogged, blogged stalked and went to bed last night, I was awakened at 2:30 am by Zane crying running down the hall towards my room. Him running and crying only meant one thing - he's going to throw up. And he did in the toilet, but then he said, "mommy, I'm sorry I threw up on my floor." I told him it was ok (poor guy), and went to check. Sure enough, it was all over the floor by his bed. So I cleaned that up the best I could in the dark (Lindsay was still asleep in there). I changed him into new jammies, put an old sheet over half of my bed, lay old towels in a path on the floor on the way from my bed to the bathroom and got him a bowl. Zane has never really thrown up before so he doesn't quite know what to do. About a minute after I'd put everything down, he threw up again all over the towels on the floor. Good thing I'd made a path. He was crying so loudly that he woke up Lindsay. So I made room for her at the bottom of my bed. She said she was too scared to sleep in her room all by herself. Well, he threw up again about half an hour later, but then slept for 4 hours. Then at 8:00 and again at 8:30 he threw up. This is definately one of those times you could use a second pair of hands. It's now after 3:00 pm and he hasn't thrown up since this morning, but he just woke up from a nap and he has a fever. What the heck! So I won't be making it to the temple tonight for my almost sister-in-laws temple endowment session. Sorry Brie! But what do ya do? I don't know if my kids will ever stay healthy for more than 2 weeks. Zane also missed the last day of his swimming lessons. Thanks Mindy for taking Lindsay. You're a lifesaver!

The Old North State

Dan is out of town, once again, this time in North Carolina. This is why I have more time to blog and blog stalk! The kids are in bed, it's quiet in the house and I have laundry on my bed that I don't want to put away. I don't mind him going out of town every now and then. I think sometimes we need a little break (and I don't mean a separation) just to appreciate each other a little more and make us grow stronger. After about the 3rd day of him being gone, I get Dan-sick, instead of home-sick. I love you honey! Be safe and hurry home!

Bye~Bye Binky!

I am happy to announce that Gavin has been off the Binky for 2 weeks now! HOORAY!!! He turns 2 in August, and has had his binky the longest out of our 3 kids. Lindsay was done with hers at 11 months. It was by accident. Dan and I went to Disneyland with our friends Hayley and Justin and we left our little Lindsay home with both of our parents (each having her for 2 days). I had put the binky in the diaper bag in a baggy but nobody remembered it was in there and she was such a good baby that they never needed to give it to her. So when we got back and I realized she'd hadn't had it for 4 days, I chucked it!
Zane was 15 months old when we got rid of his and it was mostly by force. Once again we were in Disneyland, but he and Lindsay were with us. Towards the end of the trip I noticed that his one and ONLY binky had been bitten through and there was a little bit of food inside the nipple! GAG! I wanted to hurl! So we had no choice but to throw it away and I was not about to buy another one. The next day we left to drive back to Utah and that was the worst. He screamed for about an hour and a half in the car. I thought I was going to lose my mind, but eventually he fell asleep and that was the end of it.
So, Dan and I have been trying to slowly get Gavin off of the binky for about 4 months. In February we decided to only let him have it in his crib (naptime and bedtime). There were many times he'd fight us on it, trying to bite on the binky so we couldn't get it out. Then when we went to St. George in March, he got really sick with Croup and the binky was all he wanted ALL day long. So back to square one. Slowly we got back to just having it in the crib. Then 2 weeks ago I was feeling motivated and he wasn't sick for a brief moment in time, so I cut the top off! I was so scared to do it (I know, I'm pathetic) but it was his only binky. At naptime, I laid him down and he said "Plaaa!" which is what he calls it. He started calling it that because whenever we'd tell him to spit it out into his crib we'd say, "spit out your bkiny, PLAAAA!" Kinda funny! So he had asked for it, I handed it to him, he put it in his mouth, tied to suck on it and pulled it out with a confused look. He looked at it and then handed it to me. I said, "uh, oh, your Plaaaa is broken." Then he wanted it back, but then took it back out and handed it to me again. I said, "should we throw it away?" He said "NO!" I gave it back and walked out, shutting the door. He cried for about 20 minutes, so I got him out and had him lay on my bed but he never went to sleep so he never had a nap that day. That night at bedtime, he asked for it again but I told him it was all gone. He cried for an hour that night! That was the hardest part, but I knew I had to be strong and not get him out. Well, that was it. He's asked for it a couple of times since, but I just tell him it's broken and all gone. He's fine with that answer. YEA!!!!