Halloween Week

For Halloween I have been planning on Dane being a little boxer. My sister let him borrow a cute little muscle outfit that her son wore last year. Well an hour before trunk or treat Dane decides he wants to be a pirate (and being the 2 year old that he is.. will not back down). So I sent Ryan to walmart and gathered stuff from around the house and this is what we came up with.

Dane the pirate, I mean "Captain Hook"

I took Dane to Walgreens to get a flu shot. I had to bribe him first...so I let him pick out something that he wanted as we waited for our name to be called. He picked out the little slasher knife thing from the movie "Scream". He thought is was AWESOME! He kept hitting people that walked by and kept saying "Rrrr! Me Parties- I have a hook!" So the whole pirate thing stemmed from our little trip to Walgreens.

TRUNK-OR-TREAT

MIDWESTERN PARTY

Dane and his Cowboy buddy Lincoln

HALLOWEEN NIGHT
Dane and Jason (the pie-wit and inja)

The hay ride

My brother-in-law took the little boys on the hay ride through their neighborhood.

Quick Trip

A couple of weeks ago we decided to drive to Vegas spur of the moment. We loaded the kids in the car and left an hour before their bedtime in hopes they would fall asleep for the whole ride. Johnny went along with the plan and Dane watched Lion King.. on repeat.. We spent the night in Vegas with my brother and his family and then left for my parents place in Southern Utah the next morning. It was fun to see them and a nice break from the Arizona heat:)

We stopped to show Dane the Hoover Dam on the way to Vegas.

Dane with my brother's kids in Vegas:)

Hmmm. Where did my Diet Coke go???

My dad waited for us to get to their place so Dane could watch him light this big tree pile on fire.

Dane got to play with the neighbors sheep. He even got on one and rode it.

My cute Tub-a-lub!

Look Who's 5 Months Old Today!

Johnny Boy is 5 months old today! Man is time flying:)

Visitors

Two weeks ago we were lucky enough to have Ryan's parents and his sister and her husband come to town and visit us. We enjoyed hanging out, swimming, eating out, and had fun walking around Westgate.

Johnny enjoyed being in his bjorn. You can tell he also enjoyed sucking on the top of it. The thing was drenched within minutes. Everytime I would pull it down to look at him I would just see his tongue going crazy.


This is Ryan's sister Kim and her husband Ryan.

These are Ryan's parents with the boys at Desert Ridge.

This is our closest thing to a family picture since Johnny came along.

*A cute story*
Right before Ryan's parents left Ryan's dad gave Dane a big inflateable blue ball.

Last night Ryan and Dane were in his room playing catch and Dane looks at the ball and says to Ryan: "Grandpa give this blue ball to me when I was a baby.....Grandpa likes me:) "

Thanks for a fun weekend. We sure had fun.

We've Got Ourselves a Little Fish!

It took me a while to post this but Dane has been swimming without floaties for a couple of weeks now. He decided one day that he didn't need them anymore. We were shocked when he took off swimming to Ryan. These videos were shot before his 2 1/2 year mark. Notice he doesn't quite know what to do with his arms yet:)

We're Alive!

As always...HAPPY AS CAN BE!
Took a trip to the Firestation. Dane LOVED the huge truck and all the firemen, until one put on all of his gear and got most of the kids crying because they were scared:)

We even got to climb up and sit in the firetruck. Does he not look so giddy or what?

We've had a couple of picnics at the park. Dane was so excited to eat his popcorn at the park:)

We've spent a LOT of time at the pool, poor Johnny- it's been so hot but the water has been too cold for him to get into so he just watches...and sweats;)

But he has no complaints!

The kiddos watching a show in my bed while I get ready

Dane being a lion. Everyday he is a lion and growls at me, at the baby, and everyone else he knows...or doesn't know.

He put the blanket on himself and pretended that he was a lion since the tassles look like a lion's mane.

Uh.... still hasn't come close to mastering this!!

.

Dane has decided that napping isn't his thing anymore. It is driving me crazy! He will stay in his room for 3 hours and will just play and play but as soon as I've given up- he falls asleep! And in the most UNCOMFORTABLE positions.

He also thinks he can just walk out of his room at night and come hang out with us. It has been a battle, but...

-one that I am definately WINNING:) !
That's right! I tied his door to the closet door!

It only took a couple of night of me tying his door shut for him to learn. He now likes to sleep with the door open and knows NOT to get one foot out of bed or it's back to tying the door shut. What a good learner;)

Funny Dane!

Dane brought me a bandaid and handed it to me and says "I need a bandaid for my allergies Mom"



I secretly watched Dane get the cereal down from the counter and he put his head in the cereal box and quietly asked "What's wrong? you hungry?"



I asked Dane to get the mustard out of the fridge and as he handed it to me he quizzed himself.. "cook it ? No. Eat it? No. Bite it? No. Drink it? NO!"



"I'm so lucky." Why are you so lucky? "I'm so lucky my house" :)



Dane has some alphabet cards with pictures of objects starting with their letters. He brought one to Ryan and said " Look Dad, Iguana" Ryan looked at the card and said "yeah, "I" for..."waiting for him to say iguana again but Dane followed it up with "got!" He thought Ryan was trying to have him say "I for-got". :)



I was holding Johnny the other day as he was crying Dane came and sat by me and then gently pet Johnny on the head and said "Johnny like a baby goat"-funny thing is , he really does sound like a goat when he cries.



We got rid of Dane's pacifier a couple of weeks ago. I had him throw it in the garbage bc he was too old for it. Everytime he asked for it I told him it was at the dump. Twice now he has come up to me and told me " Johnny go in the garbage- go to the dump!"

I was listening to my ipod the other day and asked Dane if he wanted to listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and he said "No, I want Green Day!" so I skipped to the next song and asked if he wanted to listen to Pink and he said "No, I want Red!"

This last week for FHE we talked to Dane about Jesus and how he made everything. I explained that he made the Earth, the flowers, the fish, dogs,.... and then he cut me off and said "and McDonalds?". I then taught him the phrase "I am a child of God" A minute later I asked him what he was and he said "I'm a God"- He forgot some words in there:)

4 Years and Counting!

Yesterday Ryan and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. I am so glad that I found him. I could not ask for a better husband or father for my children.

Ryan surprised me one night while we were having dinner. Right after dinner he suprised me with this setup where he played the guitar and sang to me. He HATES country music but one of my favorite songs is "Memories of Us" by Keith Urban. He bought the CD and taught himself that song on the guitar (he is very very good on the guitar). That song also played for our "first dance". This picture was taken right after he proposed!

Mr. and Mrs. Skinner

Can you say "Obsessed"??

With a face this handsome...

... you just wanna do this...

...and some of this....

Anyone wanna jump on this train???

Can you believe how different these boys look? I know what you are thinking but Ryan is the father of both of these boys;)