Crap I Find

So I don't know if this is a boy thing or what, but Emilyn has never been one to abscond things and hide them in weird places. Ashton on the other hand loves finding the most random crap and putting it in an even more random place for me to find. Here are a few of his treasures I have discovered.



Why yes superman, I do need that casserole dish. Thank you very much.





I left this one for Kyle to find.






Me while giving the kids a bath: "Kyle will you grab the body wash?"
Kyle: "Sure, where is it?"
Me: "In the washing machine of course.".

True story.

Mostly.





Pop some popcorn and grab a Dr. Pepper to drink while watching Spirit. I can somewhat understand his reasoning behind putting this there. Wait a minute, a one-year-old reasoning? Wow, I AM that frazzled tired mom of toddlers!





Don't make fun of me for owning tapes. They are sentimental sermons from Charlie McCall from my time spent at The Hill many moons ago. (Yes, I just said many moons) Kyle insists I need to do some purging. I chose to keep them because I WILL listen to these sermons again. Gosh darn it! As soon as I can find the tape player.
I think I own a tape player.
Maybe.

Hmmm, maybe I do need to purge a little.




The culprit himself. Playing in the tub toy box. I love that little stinker. And I'm thankful he hasn't started hiding food for me to find.

I'm Back!

So I have a confession, the "formatting issues" mentioned in the previous post really were OCD issues. As I am out and about blog-stalking I have seen so many people's REALLY cute blogs. Really how hard could it be? Apparently harder than I can handle. I struggle with having something plain and un-original. The perfectionist in me is throwing a royal tantrum right now. Maybe I'm just not meant to have a cute blog. Maybe people will come here because they enjoy the content of what I write.....ha! Oh well, you're here now, right?

I imagined my homecoming to the blogging world to be somewhat grand. I imagined I would post something amazingly witty as well as insightful and humorous all at the same time. Balloons and party blowers were even considered. The longer I waited to start blogging, the bigger my comeback post was idealized. So I figured I better just bite the bullet and do it. Otherwise it may have gotten out of hand and I would have felt compelled to do a tutorial of some sort or started giving stuff away.

A LOT has happened since my last post. Was that over a year ago?! Good grief! I could expound on all of it but I don't have the time right now, plus I would feel guilty making you read through it all. Maybe some day...in small doses. For now I will condense it into a list:

1) A lot of holidays came and went. We celebrated most of them in some way.
2) We probably took a few little trips to the west side of the state.
3) We added a member to our family! Not a dog you goons, a baby. Aston Lewis to be exact.
4) We won the lottery and bought a condo in Hawaii!

Okay, so only the first 3 are true. I almost had some of you didn't I? Who am I kidding? I know that most of you who read this keep in touch on a somewhat regular basis and you know better. A girl can try can't she?

There it is folks, in an effort to keep my sanity you may be seeing me around here more frequently. But don't get your hopes up.

I'll leave you with this picture of my adorable kids.

Under construction...

All right, I have officially completely messed up the format of my blog...and don't know how to fix it. It was my feeble attempt to make my blog cute like all my friends. I think this is God's way of telling me not to covet other people's things (and maybe to make better use of my time).

I get it. Now, how to get this thing fixed and updated... until that happens consider this page under construction. Please excuse whatever weirdness is going on.

The things we do for our children. Today I drank that completely gross glucose drink for my diabetes testing. If you haven't had the pleasure of doing this, it involves a nasty bottle of what reminds me of the mysterious McDonalds orange drink only doctored up with more sugar and a possible hint of something alcoholic. You have to drink the entire thing in less than 5 minutes and have to do it exactly a half hour before your appointment. Meaning whatever time that may be, you have to drop what you are doing and chug! (Sorry I missed the meeting Linds- now you know why) Bottoms up baby! I didn't throw up- thank goodness. It was a likely possibility considering what I had just consumed. My arm hurts though, apparently my veins were not having one of their better days. The tech had to poke around a bit to get the blood. Youch! I will find out hopefully soon if I passed or if I need to go back for the 3-hour test.

Everything else at the appointment went well. Baby Scottie (yes, we are calling him Scottie Scott) is doing well and amazingly not measuring big like Emilyn was. Sure feels like it though. Apparently I have only gained 7 pounds this pregnancy. I smiled at the Doctor when she told me that but thought in my head, "that's nice of you to say, but I'm pretty sure your scale is messed up honey. I don't pay your to flatter me. Besides that doesn't count the 25 or so pounds I never lost from Emilyn!" Anyhow, the count down is on with only 10 weeks to go! Oh man, I sure have a lot to do. Thinking about it makes me tired. I better get to bed. Hopefully my arm won't be so sore tomorrow.

On the fourth (and final) day of Christmas...

Yes, Christmas lasted four days in our house. Whew! On day 4 we went to Mom and Randy's for immediate family Christmas. It is always the best being with my brothers and sister and their fabulous families!


Mom and Randy


Playing with Uncle Kevin. Consequently Emi's spinning ball top toy ended up being a big hit, even with the over 20 crowd :) Thanks Uncle Jeff!


Amelia reading "Yummy Yucky". Gus and Emilyn sat and listened so well! (Not to mention Grammie)

On the third day of Christmas

my true love did not give to me three french hens, thank goodness. Although it does remind me of that funny Office episode...

Christmas day! Emilyn thankfully slept in a little since we were at Kyle's parents so late. I made a yummy caramel roll, bacon, egg, and juice breakfast. Making breakfast was pure delight. The whole time I kept thinking, "I don't have to hand wash all these dishes!" We spent a leisurely morning in our jammies opening gifts and taking it easy.



We later headed to cousin Nick and Megan's for the big Skaufel get together complete with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and any other relative we could muster up. Emilyn had loads of fun playing with the kids and running around being generally crazy.


Fishing with Gus


Opening presents (yet again)



Grandma in Lyla's chair, man they sure don't make chairs the same as they used to.



An attempt at Grandma with the great-grandkids.


Having fun tickling everyone's feet.


Papa Randy serenading Anna.

On The Second Day of Christmas

So I spent the morning of Christmas Eve putting my kitchen back together. Kevin, Jen, and Jeff came later and we went to lunch to enjoy the traditional greasy Zips burger. We spent Christmas Eve with Kyle's family. Emilyn didn't last long in the Christmas Eve service unfortunately. She isn't the quiet type who likes to sit still (imagine that!). After dinner we opened presents. I wasn't sure how Emilyn would do, but she loved it! She was very methodical about ripping off tiny bits of paper and handing them to whoever was closest to her until the present was unwrapped. Then all she wanted to do was play with the pile of paper she had created.


Opening presents with Grandma.




The fam on Christmas Eve. Hard to imagine that next year both our arms will be full!