Happy First Birthday Rowan!

Our little Rowan James Skinner turned 1 year old today! Even though Dad wasn't able to be here, we wanted to make him some cupcakes and open the present from Kennedy and myself. Kennedy chose one of those phones that ring and you drag behind you with a cord. I'm sure most of us played with one when we were kids. I decided to top Oddies "Redneck Ballpit" with the "Ghetto Ballpit". It's a childs inflatable pool filled with 300 balls. Rowan absolutely loves it but I am really starting to regret it... balls may start dissapear when no ones looking, but you didn't hear that from me.

I decided that cupcakes would be the better choice for the day so here they are.



It took Rowan a minute to figure out that the cupcake is good...



But only a minute...



And this is the outcome...



More ended up on the chair....



And the tray than in his mouth!



He hit the shower to be hosed down after that.

I've decided that Rowan has good hair kinda like Brad Pitt. You can pretty much do anything with it and it looks good.



Now here is Kennedy's first birthday cake. She wasn't too impressed.



She did it pretty gracefully compared to Rowan. He has no problem getting dirty...

Gosh... those two look at lot alike at this age.... we'll have to see how this progresses.

Check back tomorrow for a little tribute to his first year.

The Week in Review

Tooth #3 came out this week. As you can see here, she was playing around with it trying to get it to come out and she completely twisted it all around. Then she said it hurt too bad to turn it back so she was left like this for a day.



Early the next morning though she had played around with it a bit more and out it came. She was so excited for the tooth fairy to come. She decided to leave her tooth on the counter so it would be easier for the fairy..... and it was. She left her some sugar free gum, 2 dollar bills and 8 quarters.... the tooth fairy must have been on hard times that day. It didn't matter though... Kennedy was thrilled. Now we've got one more on the bottom that's about to come out too. She can't wait.



One thing I've done for Kennedy to keep her from being so bored this summer is buy her a pedicure and nail kit for little princesses. Then I let her pick out some of the $0.99 nail polishes for kids that dry quick, and then I picked out a black one for Rowan as you can see below. It took a bit of trickery to control him long enough to get it on but I think he looks rockin! Kennedy just wanted pink with some star stickers on top. I'm also trying to use this to make her quit bitting her nails. One can hope...





Rowan really likes those Gerber pasta bites but they cost like $1.50 for 1 so I am finding other ways to feed him. Bertolli started making mini pastas like the bowties and the penne so I loaded up on those and we'll start figuring out some healthy pasta recipes for him. I really don't have to worry too much because this boy will eat whatever you stick in his mouth... just like his dad.



Besides that, Kennedy got to have her first sleepover this week. Wednesday night we invited her friend McKayla over for the night. We ordered pizza, had juice and popsicles and watched movies. I was expecting the worst from how Kennedy is when she sleeps over with Taryn and Tristen but she did really good... good enough that we will do it again soon.

We also (finally) found a regular babysitter. Her name is Riley and she is 14 years old but she has 5 younger siblings so I trusted her with the job. I brought her over yesterday and showed her around the house and let her know what she needed to do for the kids and then I went and ran some needed errands. When I got home everything was great. She is a very sweet girl and I'm glad that I can use her 2 or 3 days a week for a few hours to get out and get things done and maybe have a bit of time for myself.

Now that the sprinklers are fixed this has been a pretty good week after all. Rowans birthday is tomorrow so I am going to make him some cupcakes and we will have a little party and I will give him my gift. When Dad get's home he can do his special time with him and then we will still be coming down to do the family party on the 12th. We'll figure out how to handle that soon. Check back tomorrow for the birthday post!

The Sprinkler Problem RESOLVED!!!!

That's right! I fixed it. You may have been wondering why there were just a bunch of pictures up of our sprinkler system. Well, I came home one afternoon and noticed that one zone of the backyard was soaked... I mean it was practically a pool leaking down into the rest of the yard. I freaked out and called Lucas in the middle of the day (the time he sleeps now cause he's on nights this trip), and he was so out of it he just told me to turn off the water and we'd figure it out later. Well three days later I figured it out... with a good bit of assistance from Jeremy! I owe you one buddy. He told me to check on thing on the valve and I unscrewed it and did but noticed that it wasn't screwed on very tight in the first place. I cleared out all the dirt and tightened it back on and viola!... all is working! Now I have to run the sprinklers like crazy to make up for the days we missed. Let's just hope the grass still comes in... it's pretty covered in weeds at the moment but if we all pray like you've never prayed before for the seed to start growing... there may be hope yet. Get to it everyone!

The sprinkler situation

I went and turned on the water in the basement and nothing came on. I manually set the zone to turn on in the box and it did but it never tripped the on/off lever. I turned on the lever and then turned it off and the water still wouldn't go off, so I finally shut off the water in the basement.

Our Honeymoon... and it was only 2 years late!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who helped take care of our kids while we finally got to take our honeymoon. That includes Little Grandma, Oddie, Shayla, Josie, Jewls, Grandpa Craig, Corde, Jeremy, Max, Bridger and Ang, Miles, Taryn and Tristen. We really needed that time to get away and we really appreciate it! It ended up being a great vacation... our only regret is that we didn't stay a few days longer. Maybe in another few years.... mark your calendars!

This is Lucas driving us to Rapid City where we would take off on Allegiant Air. If you ever need to fly cheap to Vegas, this looks like a good option... until you start adding in all the fees, like $15 to check just 1 bag. Then there's the $10 per person fee to choose your seat. Then there's about another $75 in misc fees that you don't find until the end. Oh, and when you think of a no-frills airline you generally think Southwest. Well, these guys top them. You pay for drinks and snacks ($5-$10) and don't even think of asking for a pillow or blanket. They don't even offer those.... but you can buy a souvenir one for $15. No thanks!




This is us on our NO-FRILLS Airplane. I'm surprised we're smiling instead of flipping off the crew.



This is Lucas in our luxurious suite. He should be smiling here because this was the best. It is actually the basic room at the Palazzo but it's nicer than any place I've ever stayed. We payed $179 a night but it was worth it. The bed in the room was like sleeping on a cloud. If we could've smuggled that out we would have tried our best. There were two large flat panel LCD tvs, one in the living room area with the sectional and then one in front of the bed. Then we also had a smaller one in the bathroom... the bathroom with double sinks, separate shower and tub and vanity area for me. I would bet it was at close to as big as Rowans room.... very nice. I was supposed to take some pictures so if we ever got to build our dream house I would include that bathroom. Guess we'll just have to go back and remember to take pictures the next time.



This is the happy couple outside the hotel in front of the fountain. A nice couple asked if we could take a pic of them and then they would do the same for us. As you can see... I'm always a little bit more excited about things than Lucas. We were actually waiting for Aunt Linda to come pick us up to head over to the Bellagio to see the water show.



Me in front of the Bellagio. Once again... to excited for words. We never actually ended up getting to see the water show because of some mechanical problem. That sucked.



This was a beautiful Lexus that I just had to have a picture of. I told Lucas if we won big that he was going to have to get me one again. Maybe not that fancy, but pretty close. If anyone wants to know what I want for Christmas.... you could all chip in.... I'd prefer it in white though. Thanks in advance.



This was inside the French bakery that was the only thing we found to grab something to go. Here are some of their fancy pastries. Lucas ordered some apple fritter thing and I ordered a small sweet pastry and then we ordered a smoothie... a $9 smoothie. I think we paid around $20 for that little snack we had. That's Vegas I guess.... they not only take your money at the tables and the slots... they now take it with every little thing you do.



More pastries.... I didn't buy one because we would've had to mortgage the house to afford one.



And I thought making my Banana Bread and Chocolate Chip Cookies were hard.



The happy couple at the pool. I was so proud of myself for putting on a bathing suit and going out in the water. I have been very conscious of my weight but I figured it didn't matter what I looked like... I was in Vegas.



And you know what??? I saw alot of people out at that pool that probably had the same philosophy as me. Good on them!



Dad lounging by the pool. I think he was talking to Chelsea about baby Madden.



And what do you know... here he is again on the phone. I should just get one surgically attached because it really never parts his side.



Lucas insisted on taking this picture of me. It was right before we went to Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian which is the sister hotel of the Palazzo. Lucas let me buy a few new dresses for the vacation and this is the one that ironed easiest. I was happy to get fancy if only for a few hours.



Well, I gotta say my husband is pretty great. He has fulfilled one of my many wishes in life. I have always wanted to see Phantom ever since I heard the Broadway soundtrack. I just fell in love with the music. I guess you could say from an early age my mother thought that I would love the theater.... my sister would say it's because I'm so dramatic. Anyways, she has taken me to the traveling shows of Cats, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia, The Secret Garden and a few others. The only one I said that I was desperate to see was Phantom. Well, turned out that was the one she didn't take me to... and to top it off she came home and said she hated it. I thought she deserved a pie full of laxatives for doing that to me... but I promised myself I'd see it someday.... and it was more amazing than I ever could have imagined. Unfortunately they cut the show down to 90 minutes for the Vegas theater but it was still spectacular. If you love the theater, I highly recommend it. Lucas said it was okay but about 20 mins too long. I'm just happy that he took me. 1 wish down, only 50 to go. The Lexus would put it at 49.



The next day we decided to go to the Adventure Dome at the Circus Circus to ride the roller coasters. That was really fun but it's quick to make you feel old because you can't handle those things like you could when you were 15. We ended up getting Kennedy a spray painted T-Shirt with SpongeBob on it and her name below it. We were able to convince her when we got home that he had made it for her. She was a little more than jealous on that. I also had the chance to have my wedding ring resized for my chubby little fingers cause it hasn't fit me for the past year and I have felt naked without it.

Little ol' Steph wanted to visit a real nightclub in Vegas in the hopes of meeting Justin Timberlake. I know... it was a Wednesday and my chances were pretty slim, but I was gonna give it a go. Dear Sweet Ashley and one of her friends were able to get us into the Beatles Revolution Lounge at the Mirage as VIPS. Unfortunately, the VIP badge only went so far. You got free drinks but no where to sit. The seating areas were reserved for the people who had either paid massive amounts of money or actually were a VIP celebrity. I talked to one bouncer who said that Criss Angel the Magician was going to be in that night, so I waited... and waited... and waited. He never came. I was totally bummed out so Lucas and I decided to call it a night at 5 A.M. I have to say it was still really fun cause I got to feel like a 20-something again.







That's where Criss would have been sitting.


The next morning we had to pack up and leave after only a few hours of sleep but we survived. Got to Salt Lake City and drove my mothers pickup home so we could work on the yard. That drive was pretty tough since we took off about 8:30 P.M. and arrived at Ang's house when the sun was coming up at 5. Lucas was great and took care of the kids while I slept.

All in all it was a fun trip. Still doesn't compare to Sydney but the flight is a bit more tolerable. We'll see when that one fits back in...

Thanks again everyone for letting us do this!