Thanksgiving Week

I know, it's wierd to start off a post about Thanksgiving with a picture of our Christmas tree, but I don't have any photos from Thanksgiving week - we had THAT much fun! :) It was a bit of a rough start with us not leaving until Monday night around six when the plan had been to leave first thing Monday morning, but such is life with a farmer who has to help haul cows. We finally arrived and started our week off right with a trip to the Manti Temple with my sister and her husband. It was awesome! We have not been to the temple together in a very, very long time and it was extra special because it was the first time for my sister and her husband have been back since they were married there. Then the crazy pie making began! We made 18 pies this year! Thanks to everyone for pitching in, though so it wasn't a mammoth task for just one person. We had so many yummy ones to choose from, it was awesome! I think the favorites this year were the returning champion blueberry, the raspberry sour cream and the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

We were able to squeeze in a little shooting with the pie-making and then we enjoyed a nice, relaxed Thanksgiving with family and food. Friday we skipped the Black Friday shopping to go paintballing, which was a blast! I got the best injury for the entire time on the first round. I got hit in the finger, which bled right away and hurt like the dickens for a while. At the bottom is a picture of what is still there after nearly a week. That night my sister, mom and I went out to get much-needed haircuts and do some shopping. And the last day us gals went out for brunch at IHOP and saw The Help at the cheap theatre. That night the guys went and saw Contagion. It was an awesome week, let me tell you!

While we were in Utah Amy finally cut her first tooth - Yay!! And now we are back to reality with cooking, cleaning, and schedules. Sam loves being back in preschool. Amy has decided to wake up in the middle of the night again, so we will be working on retraining her to sleep through the night. I am enjoying playing volleyball three mornings a week with ladies in my ward since running outside is no longer ideal. And Robert is just biding his time until his big trip to Texas to hunt deer (all expenses paid!)

So that's about it for now. Hope you all are detoxing from all the family, food, and fun ok. We are having a bit of a time adjusting - Amy to not being held every minute of the day and Sam to not having constant playmates. It may be a good thing for him, though; I caught him admiring something he had made out of playdough saying "Ohh, it's so cute!" in a high, girly voice :)

(Oh yeah, and how do you like our Christmas tree? It leaves very little living space in the living room, but it is worth it for the lovely sight and smell all month long!)

What We've Been Up To

Probably my favorite outfit on Amy right now - go flower power!! This poor gal has been really fussy lately because she is getting some teeth! Don't know exactly how many are coming in yet, but her bottom gums in the front are pretty swollen so I'm thinking maybe the two bottom? We will have to let you know when they come through - hopefully soon!

This is my latest project - accomplished in just one day believe it or not! It is a sleeper sack for Amy to wear at night to keep her nice and cozy even when she throws off the blankets. The first is always the hardest and the worst, but I am proud of myself for doing it and plan to make more now that I have figured it out.

Brother and sister

And tonight our library had Little Critter come visit. Sam saw all the posters when we came for storytime and kept asking all day if we were going to see him and so right after some friends we babysat left we hurried over. Of course we finally get there and Sam is too scared to go near him - silly goose! There was also a silent auction where I won a super cute bag and a pillowcase/book combo that is a cute girly pillowcase for Amy and a Little Critter book for Sam. I would call it a good night!

Big Girl

Amy hit the big 6 month checkpoint which means another doctor appointment to get the latest stats on our little gal. She measured 27 inches long, which is the 89th percentile. Head was 43.5 cms (not given a percentile on that one) and she weighed 17 pounds 9.5 ounces, putting her in the 77th percentile for weight. So all around she is doing very well and mainly grew longer instead of heavier.

She is eating baby food and cereal twice a day now. She loves oatmeal and mixed grain and doesn't really seem to have a preference on the baby food yet. She is still quite the mommy's girl, but that isn't always a bad thing. We just discovered that she can sit up on her own and she is doing fabulous now that we give her the opportunity to practice. She loves playing in the saucer and has been rolling for a little while and is just starting to figure out how to use rolling to get herself from one place to another. She still adores her big brother and he mainly still likes her. When she isn't sick she will usually sleep through the night, depending on when she goes to bed and when she last ate. And lastly, she is an extremely happy, smiley baby when she first wakes up!!

I can't imagine life without our sweet little Amy. Hope you enjoy some new pictures. This bottom one is one day she fell asleep while I was holding her and I just couldn't bring myself to go put her in a bed (she sleeps on my bed if she falls asleep after Sam goes down for a nap), so I snuggled her on the couch next to me while I worked on a project and just watched her sleep. Love moments like these!

First Quilt and Other Tidbits

 My first ever quilt is posted above. Took me ten months to complete it, but I had a few minor distractions like having a baby, so I hope my friend will forgive me being 3 months late with her baby's gift. But at least it is in time for winter, right? I chose most of the colors before knowing the gender of the baby, so that is why it isn't super girly or super boyish. I think it turned out pretty cute, though. And if you don't look too close at the stitching, it looks great! :) Next time will be better, guaranteed! Thanks to my friend, my sister, and my mother-in-law for helping me with this major project - I couldn't have done it without you guys!

 

And here is a picture of Sam ready to go trunk-or-treating - I know, kinda late. But we had Robert's mom here to visit for the last week so I didn't get a chance to post this. I love how decked out he looks and the big scrape under his eye where Daddy dropped a light on him adds just the right touch to get that "beaten cowboy" look :)
Another project that I finished up was a little decorating in the kids' room. Sam has had his name on the wall for a while and I have been meaning to do Amy's and some cute kiddy graphics. Thanks to Robert's mom, we got it hammered out. Sam LOVES his tractor and rocketship (don't they look awesome?!) and I love the way Amy's flower and butterfly turned out!

Amy's New Blanket

I just wanted to share pictures of Amy's newest blanket because it turned out so dang cute! No, I did not make this myself. A few weeks back our RS had an activity where you were supposed to come up with a service to auction off and when you got there, you were given pretend money based on things that applied to you such as you read your scriptures or you had started your Christmas shopping, etc. My service was a birthday cake, hence one of the three I did this week.

That night I bought some babysitting from one person and a custom flannel baby blanket from someone else. I finally called and told her I would love baby blue and black, but any girly assortment of patterns and colors would be fine. And this is what I picked up today. I just love it!! You rarely see this color combo in girls clothes, but it is my favorite! And, it is nice and big to keep her warm all winter long - yay!!

Cake #3 and Pumpkins

So here is my third and final cake for the week. I didn't take a picture of cake #2 because it was a simple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and no decorations, so nothing to really show. This one turned out fairly cute. It is the now fabulously famous Almost Too Much Chocolate Cake with black and pink decor on top (birthday girl's favorite colors)

I used buttercream to attach the curly things and dusted the loops of the bow with pearl dust to add a little sparkle. We took it with us to dinner at T.G.I. Fridays where we enjoyed some time with other adults while Sam played with a friend. I also have to add that this is the first cake I have been paid to do, which is exciting! Onward and upward!

And here are our three pumpkins sitting on the porch. We didn't get around to carving pumpkin #4 because of the dinner last night, but Sam and I found some of the battery operated candles at the local variety store and so we set out the pumpkins. I thought they looked pretty good and very Halloweenish! The big pumpkins we purchased from our neighbor, but since they were close to the last of the pumpkins and wouldn't stand up, we got them for $1 each instead of $3 each - gotta love a good deal!

Gearing Up for Halloween

Well, we are getting ready for Halloween here in Rigby, Idaho as I am sure most of you are, too. Today was our first opportunity to wear costumes to the Halloween storytime. My camera started wiggin' out afterwards, so I only have a few pictures. Above is Sam as a cowboy with his friend, Josh, who is a pirate along with his sister, brother and mommy - very cute!

And here's little Amy before we left for storytime in her borrowed ladybug costume. I love that it is stuffed with filling and the leggings are a thick cotton, so she actually stays pretty warm.

And this is Sam yesterday when he came home from preschool. He was so excited to tell me all about picking out his pumpkin and his bat ears he made and about singing the songs about the witch and the spider (no, I have no idea what songs he is talking about - one of the bummer things about preschool). We carved pumpkins last night with Daddy, but we have one more to find a face for and then we can take pictures to post.

Today I am working on cake #3 in three days, for Robert's friend's girlfriend. It is the Almost Too Much Chocolate cake with a bow and a few of the curly things in black and pink to dress it up a little - should be fun!

Tomorrow Sam gets to dress up again for his preschool Halloween party, which he has been so excited for ever since they told him about it LAST WEEK (thank you ever so much preschool teachers) and while he's at school I get to go take the test to get an Idaho driver's license (I know, such a procrastinator) since my Utah one has finally expired.

We missed our ward's trunk-or-treat (that's what I get for missing church for 3 weeks in a row - don't know anything) so we are hoping to maybe try out the Boo at the Zoo this year and maybe even hit a corn maze before the season is done.

Truck Cake

This is the picture that I found that was my inspiration. I know it doesn't look exactly the same but it's the general idea, right?

Well, here it is - the truck cake! It didn't turn out quite how I had in mind, but my cakes rarely ever do. Thankfully the person I did this cake for only requested a chocolate truck cake and left the rest up to me, so less stress.

Overall I think it turned out pretty cute, though and I hope the little boy will just be so excited that he got a truck cake for his 4th birthday that all the imperfections will be overlooked. I tried a homemade devil's food cake (which was very yummy and super moist, which is partly why I had so many issues) and put a layer of homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting in the middle with canned vanilla icing on the outside to get the red color (another major part of my issues)

Little Debbie chocolate covered donuts and M&M's make up the wheels. Crushed chocolate graham cookies, pretzels, and M&M's make up the "trash" in the back and a white chocolate bar for the windows and front grill of the truck complete it.

I would definitely like to try this one again and do many things different so that it comes out better, but overall it's still a fun cake and I think the family will be pleasantly surprised.

My First 5K

So tonight I ran my first 5K. We did really well for it being our first. Our time was somewhere around 44 minutes or so which wasn't really fast, but all that matters is that we finished and we weren't the last ones.
On the left is Bec and on the right is Julie. Julie is the friend I have been training with in the mornings doing the Couch to 5K program. We were both really proud to have reached this point where we can run for 30 or 40 minutes without stopping. Neither one of us thought we were the running type and we still may not be, but we have learned that we can push through and finish.

Go mommies!!

Where in the World are the Skousens?

Sorry to be MIA for so stinkin' long! I didn't realize how long it had been, but let me explain my absence. First of all, Robert has started digging potatoes, so once again we are without a husband/father which makes for really long days where we just try to make it to the end each time with everyone and their sanity in tact.
Then there was last week. My friend and I had planned to do our canning together and made a trip to Idaho Falls to get peaches, pears and corn on the cob. The plan was to buy the produce and then start two days later. But we would save a bundle if we bought peaches that were ready to be canned that day. So we ran home, quickly threw everything together and jumped in. We were able to finish the four boxes of peaches and one box of pears before the stomach flu hit both mommies and some of the kiddies. After giving ourselves one day to be sick, we went at it some more to finish the last three boxes of pears and dive in to fifteen dozen ears of corn to be shucked, blanched, cut off the cob and frozen. It was insane, let me tell you! But now we have our year's supply of each and probably about half of our canning/preserving done.
Then it was my birthday yesterday. It was pretty good as far as my birthday is concerned. Even though it was on Conference Sunday, I didn't have to prepare and teach a lesson or get the kids dressed up and wrestle with them at church. And Robert got to be home with me instead of digging potatoes. We had Papa Murphey's for dinner (since Robert can make that) and I decided I wanted cake for my birthday instead of pie, so I tried an orange cake with cream cheese icing (SO good!) and Super Fudge Brownie Ice Cream (yes, I realize these two don't really go together, but it is the only time Robert will allow me to buy ice cream now that we have an ice cream maker and I wanted to go all out). Sorry, no pictures, though because the batteries on the camera are dead (convienently).
Sam is as active as ever and is just loving preschool and we have started feeding Amy rice cereal!!
This week may or may not be more laid back, we shall see. I picked plums and peaches from the trees at our old place to make jelly and jam and probably should be taken care of this week, so that is probably going to be in the works along with all the housework that got neglected last week. But it will be worth all the work for a weekend of play with my sisters at Candace's bridal shower! Amy and I will be going down for the day while my brother-in-law watches Sam. Party on!!