pets in the microwave

this was from just after christmas - better late than never for posting.


Scene: Vinny and Addie playing with littlest pet shop pets and the new toy microwave.

Vinny: Oh no, the bird got dead.
Addie: Oh no.
Vinny: Oh, he is not dead he just got warmed up.

This seems a little disturbing.

Weekend update...

Just a quick run-down on the weekend (and beyond). I have a few items I don't want to forget!

Frog Days: Vinny took 2nd and won $2. He was sooo excited. Addie tried racing this year as well, but her frog did not leave the starting line - she was not disappointed though.

Shower time: Vinny took a solo shower for the first time tonight. Daddy just sat on the sideline to make sure all the important parts got cleaned:)

Bath time: I gave the girls a bath - another exciting time - Elise pooped in the tub!!! EWWWWW! Guess it is time to sanitize the jets anyway. Luckily Addie didn't even notice and we got them pulled and rinsed off. again... ewwwww!

T-ball: Vinny wrapped up his first season of t-ball last week. Dave was the coach. They had a fun time. I am not too worried about the major leagues knocking down our door yet, but he is getting the basics and had fun!

Pictures and better updates to follow soon!

Spring Trips

We had a pretty busy spring here (mostly a very busy May). The first weekend in May we went to the Wilderness in the Dells with all of my family for our 'Skoyen Christmas' trip. It was a great time! We had a condo and we all had a good time. We had 9 adults and 7 children and all made it through a weekend with no troubles:) The waterparks were awesome for the kids AND adults! One thing I did not do was take pictures. I only took a couple the whole weekend (waterparks and cameras just don't mix all that well). Here is one of my dad and brother 'bonding' at the condo.

The next weekend was mothers day and we spent some time with Dave's family. The week following was Vinny's soccer week. He did a park and rec soccer program. It was a fun intro to soccer and to organized sports in general. he had a really fun time. He is not an overly competitive kid as of yet, but really enjoyed himself.


The weekend after that was one I had been working for since January. I ran a half marathon in Green Bay. It was great! I really enjoyed the run and after about 9 miles I remember thinking to myself 'I am really doing this! and I am going to make it!!' Was a great time. All of us went over to Green Bay to spend a couple days. My race was Sunday morning, so we headed out on Saturday afternoon and made it over there to get settled in, get my race stuff and the kids had time to play in the hotel pool/waterpark. My brother, Dave, came over to run the full marathon. It was great to start out the race with him. We went our own pace after a couple miles, but both had good days and we all got to watch him run through Lambeau!
So, after recovering from the race we headed back to our hotel and brother Dave left for home. We all headed over to Bay Beach. What an awesome place!! It was our first trip there, but we will for sure try to make it back!! The kids had such a blast. We got some dinner and went back to the hotel and hit the pool again. I took advantage of the hottub - very nice!! We all went to bed pretty early so we could get some fun in on Monday before we had to hit the road again. Monday we went to the Railroad Museum. Another great spot that I would recommend to those traveling with children in Green Bay. Got to go on a train ride and walk through a lot of old trains. Then it was time to hit the road again and head for home via my parents to pick up the pooch (she got to vacation at their house for the weekend!).

That is my summation of the May trips, since it is now July - my memory is sketchy:)

Recent Pics

A few early summer pics from a morning photo shoot on the
porch:)

long time....

Wow! it has been a long time!! Guess we have been keeping busy here. Elise is always into something so computer time while she is awake is pretty minimal, so I don't get much past the things I 'have' to get done when I get time to sit down with the computer. Bills do have to come before blogs, I guess!!
So, since my last entry we have a 5 year old! Vinny had his birthday on June 1. We had a family party for him and he got to play with his cousins. The kids love when we have ALL the cousins over.
We have been spending time in the sprinkler, at the splash park and have made a trip to the local pool. The kids love water. Vinny is signed up for swimming lessons later in the summer and I hope to find some for Addie this summer or fall also.
Vinny is in Kindergarten readiness this week and next. He is loving it!! Monday was his first day, he was a little nervous when we first got there and I think he was holding back a tear when he walked in the room, but when I picked him up he was so excited about all the things they did. He even sang some of a song he learned that day! That is big for him, he usually keeps all things done at school under wraps:) This morning they got to go on a bus ride (he thought it was fun - good since he will be riding the bus starting this fall).
So, on a note from my end. I am heading back to work starting on Monday! yikes! That will change things around here. I found an in-home daycare that we like for the kids. They checked it out last friday and all the kids did well. Next week will be a goofy schedule since Vinny will have summer school and it will be my first week at work. Dave will be taking some mornings off and I guess we will play it by ear.
Photos and more interesting postings to come soon, I hope!! :)

4 yr old friendships...

This morning we went to go visit with Dave's cousin and his family that were visiting from California. Their oldest, Ava, is almost 4 (birthday coming up in a little over a week!) and her and Vinny really seemed to hit it off. We have heard about Ava all day.
How big is Ava? This translates to how old is she.
What can we take to her birthday party? Sorry, she lives too far away...
Can we go to California to see her? maybe someday....
Mom, I need paper to make Ava a card. We now have a card ready to be sent to cousin Ava (I just need an address...).
Almost left out one of the first comments that really made me chuckle on the way home from our visit. 'Mom, I need to have a sleepover with Ava'. Yikes!!
The new bonds he makes are so sweet. Can't believe he is almost 5. Wow!

Spring pics

I have been trying to get some decent pictures of the kids for a while now. Addie is my toughest subject. She has really taken a dislike for the camera. Her new thing is when she sees the camera she says 'my eyes, my eyes' and covers her eyes. Apparently the flash on the camera is blinding to her! We were outside the other day and it was a beautiful sunny day - NO flash needed - and she did the same routine. ugh! Vinny is always the goofball. He loves to make crazy faces for the camera. My only hope these days is the long lens and catching them from a distance.

Let them eat cake!

Our little baby does not seem like such a baby anymore! She is getting so big and so fast! The kid loves cake! :) she got to have a lot of birthday cake spread over several days and she liked them all!! We had her birthday party last weekend. She seemed to enjoy herself and ALL her cousins made it! The kids have 11 cousins (very soon to be 12) and they all played very well together. They had a fun day and all slept very well after a busy day.

Baby STEPS!!

Elise is one!! and she is sooo cute these days. I have to think that, but really she is so adorable right now:) She started taking steps on March 4th and was just doing a handful at a time. The past two days she has been getting more and more brave. Today she walked way more than crawled. She has 3 teeth with a 4th that should be popping out very very soon. She is eating anything we put in front of her. Tonight she had half a brat, baked beans, applesauce, half a fish stick and some more birthday cake!
Last week she mastered going up steps. She really had not tried much, but now she is all over them. We have a gate we have had to start putting up or she will go upstairs EVERY time you set her down. Last Thursday she was busy playing in the living room, I went to do something quick and came back and she was nowhere to be found. I found her busy playing in Vinny's room! She is quick. :) She is very good at going up except for when you are with her - then she has to stop and clap. She has not really tried going down yet. I am not ready for that yet!

Catching up

Now to update the more recent events. Last weekend my nephews, Kyle and Tyler, stayed with us. The kids LOVED having their 'big cousins' stay with them. Vinny was instantly like 5 years older. He would strut around like he was in charge. He got to play Golden Tee Golf with them and could really play it this time. They had so much fun. Whether the big boys thought is was that fun, I don't know, but they did get to play around on the snowmobile, so I think that was fun for them. Kyle had a basketball tourney in town and Linda and Craig had a party in Iowa, so it all worked out very well.
On Sunday we took all the kids to the mall. All 5! This took both our vehicles! With all the big carseats in our van and one seat we keep removed we only have room for the driver and one passenger these days. We can pop the other seat in and out, but we still would have been one seat short. It was a little chilly for strapping anyone to the roof rack. Kyle and Tyler looked at some things on their wish list and Kyle made a deal with mom and dad on the cell phone for a new pair of jeans:)
Sunday night after our guests went back home, we were going to get the kids ready for bed and Vinny said he had a tummy ache. He will say this sometimes and usually it means nothing (often it is just time to poop). This one was for real!! Yuck! He threw up a few times had a rough night till about 1am then he slept pretty well. Daddy slept in his room on the floor - yeah daddy!!! He was good to go on Monday and I got to clean up the bed that he threw up in, but I was very glad it was short lived. The girls have not had the same...yet. Elise got a cold and did not sleep all that well this week. Last night was good though, so hope we are getting through it.
Had a little icy snow storm yesterday afternoon. Hoping that is the last one (I doubt that though!).

Carwash anyone??

Well, this posting got started last week, but I will finish it up and move on....

Last week we had some decent weather so I took my van to the carwash on Thursday. It was soo soo needed! Poor thing had not been washed since last fall - yikes! Vinny and Addie were excited to go which was pretty surprising since Addie was not a fan last time. Anyway, we get into the carwash, the soap starts and Addie wants OUT!! 'Get me out!' 'Let me out!' 'Me need out!!' She was NOT happy. We get through the dryer and Vinny starts talking about how it was fun and Addie proceeds to agree. Then for the next two days I hear 'carwash fun', 'we go carwash?!'. So, even though i doubted that she would really enjoy it, we went again on Saturday with the truck. Again, once inside, we heard chants to 'get me out', 'let me out'!! Exiting the carwash was a new tune from her this time, one of 'we not go carwash anymore!'. Now, every time we are headed out someplace we hear 'mom, we not go carwash, we not go carwash, mom'.

Elise has taken to the stairs! She spent a good chunk of time in the basement working on the one-step landing to get her moves down pat. We have a one step landing between the main room and the bedroom. She figured out she could get down from this one-step too! It is not graceful and she goes headfirst, landing on her face/belly. Luckily she only did the down into the main room as the bedroom has a hard floor. She then moved her new found talent to the steps that head to the second floor. She made it up a few steps. So far no major falls! Big brother is a pretty good tattletale to let me know her sneaky moves. He tries to 'help' her back down. i think he does usually end up breaking her fall, so that is sort of helpful. :)

Productions and Random Tidbits

Vinny is very into putting on little shows. Sometimes for us, but often just to entertain himself. He will sit for hours and make up a storyline and pretend with various items. Sometimes it is a couple of his toys and sometimes it may just be random items like a stick and a fork that become good and bad pirates or whatever the characters of the day are. Seems most of the time 'the nice one defeats the evil villain'(his words not mine). This morning it has been a production that involves all of us. He assigns us a role. He has apparently learned that I am not an overly cooperative player and now assigns me to less important roles. The cast list this morning is:
Vinny.....kitty
Beasley..... doggie
Elise ...... mouse
Addie ....... rat
I am the crab. The crab is not part of the real show. It only comes out at the end when all the other fun stuff is done. Again, these are his words.
So, Vinny has been crawling around trying to get his cast members to cooperate. The dog just swiped half the rats toast, so doggie is on a timeout outdoors. The mouse is always a willing participant and LOVES when the big kids will play with her. The show is now in an intermission since Imagination Movers came on - a favorite show here!

The show a few days ago (I actually took a few notes since I didn't have time to post it right away) was very interesting. It was one of Vinny's solo productions that took place at the table. He was playing with his power ranger. It has a body and then all this armor stuff that can either attach onto the main body or create a shell of a second body. So, the main body is red and the shell body is gold. The main body was a boy and the shell golden body was the dad. As the show went on the boy and dad were busy doing their stuff. I wasn't listening to all the specifics then he caught my attention when he started talking about the rest of the family. They lived near a dangerous volcano. All the other people got hurt from the volcano so now it was just the boy and dad. The mom died when she got hurt by a volcano. 'That was a sad day.' (Words from his act). I was not involved in this one at all. He was just busy talking at the table with his toys.

Vacuuming is an interesting time around here as of late. Beasley is terrified of the vacuum and Addie is not a fan either, Vinny has to steal the attachments to use for his sword, and Elise is completely infatuated with the machine! She chases me around. I often have to stop, move her to a different room, go back, turn around and there she is again. I would guess she will eventually develop a fear of it, but so far she loves it, climbs it and likes to get in front of me. Ugh. Not a speedy process!!

Vinny and Addie had Valentine's parties yesterday. Vinny at school and Addie at playgroup. Elise was there too, but she is a bit young to understand any of it. They each got Valentines and treats. Vinny apparently is on a 24 hour sugar high. The kid is nuts. I let him have ONE treat last night and he was running around bouncing off the walls. This morning he started up again. I don't know how he can go so many hours on the little food he eats! If only I could bottle a bit of his energy!!

All the kids here as babies have slept on their bellies with their butts up in the air. Only after they can roll themselves into that position, of course. I have never gotten a picture of any of them doing it till now. I got Elise the other day. It was time for her to get up and she was still sleeping in that position. So cute!!!

Squeaky Clean!

So, apparently toys and games are not nearly as intriguing to my kids as the bathroom! Especially the master bathroom. I really don't know how many times a day I find them in there playing with various things. The other day they decided the shower stall would be a fun toy to go in and lock each other in. They like to get their hands on shampoo bottles for microphones. The most recent discovery is the sink. Vinny and Addie have discovered that if Vinny helps they can work together to wash Addie's hands or brush her teeth. Needless to say, Addie now washes her hands MANY MANY times a day. She uses ample soap -ugh! I have caught her a few times getting started with no one there to help with the all important part of turning on the water! so she stands with a handful of soap decided what to rub it on! This new bathroom time has helped with brushing her teeth. The girl can't stand to have her teeth brushed. She fights it every step of the way, but is slowly getting a little better from their escapades in the bathroom.

Elise has now put herself into a stand not using anything but her own strength. Friday night she got up all by herself and stood for a few seconds. The picture is not actually of the event itself. It is her playing in the toy kitchen wearing my favorite bunny-butt sleeper.

Saturday we took advantage of the great weather. In the upper 30's/ low 40's and still had snow, so we got a little sledding in. Vinny was all for it. Addie is usually not too keen on it, but after watching Vinny and I go down (wiping out 3 times before getting to the bottom) she wanted Daddy to take her down. About halfway down the hill she changed her mind and tried to bale, but they made it all the way to the road with no wipe-outs. Vinny and I snagged the 'good' sled and made it down in one try on our second trip. He had a couple more trips and we were pretty well wiped out. It is a long walk back up!
By Sunday, much of our hill was melted off from the warm temps, so no good sledding here for a while!

January Photos

Here are just a few photos.

Standing Tall

I have been a little slow on the posts lately. So, I decided to put aside some of the things I really should be doing right now to add a few notes about the past couple weeks.


Our bedtime ritual around here puts Vinny and Addie to bed, then we go downstairs and get Elise ready for bed and she gets a bottle before heading to bed- either in our room or in the shared room with Addie. She keeps getting put back in our room when one or the other of them gets a cold and they start waking each other up from coughing. That is a situation we will need to take care of soon enough. Anyway, after we read books, brush teeth and say prayers Vinny gets in bed and we go tuck Addie in and I go back and tuck Vinny in while Dave heads down to get Elise in her pj's.
Tuesday night Dave came out with Elise in just her diaper to do their walk around as she loves to be in just a diaper! They were practicing some standing and Elise stood on her own for about 15 seconds:) It was so cute. Then she did it again and was gaining some confidence so she was trying to pull her diaper off with one hand while steadying herself at the same time. I am pretty sure she will have tooth number 2 by the end of the day today. It is just trying to poke out. She has had her one toof (as Vinny and Addie call it) for 2 months now:)

Adelaide sat with me the other night and let me brush her hair. This does not happen often and it is good that her hair really doesn't need brushing very often because aside from right after her bath it is usually a battle to try to get her to let me touch it! The other night she seemed to be enjoying it and I was able to try out my french braid skills. I am pretty rusty and I was always a lot better at doing my own than doing for other people. I got one in it was pretty loose, but it was there.

Yesterday after we picked Vinny up at school we had to run some errands. When we got home I unloaded the van, including Vinny and Addie, and went to put the van away. I came in about 90 seconds later. I found Vinny and Addie in the bathroom. Vinny had helped Addie get her coat off, get her potty chair set up, get her pants down and was getting her lined up to go potty. I got in to help with the final part. Vinny just told me that she needed to go potty, so I had to help her since I was the biggest one in here. What a great big brother!! He really likes to look after his little sisters!!

Vinny had a pajama party at school today. They all looked so excited this morning. They got to wear PJ's and slippers and bring a stuffed animal. His was his santa teddy that he sleeps with every night! At near the end of their day they got to snuggle up on sleeping bags, eat popcorn, and watch a Sesame Street video. Vinny let me know that they put butter on the popcorn and wondering if we could have that on ours next time.

I think that sums up my post for today. I will try to add in some photos very soon. I am pretty behind on those.

Toilet drumming... 4 yr old pop singin'....

I don't know what it is about the toilet and babies, but my kids can't get enough of the germ filled bathroom toilet areas (all three have gone through this in our house). Elise is getting into EVERYTHING these days. One of her current favorite ways to entertain herself is to sneak into the bathroom and pull up on the toilet and start drumming. Another is to make her way to the carbon monoxide detector, yank it out of the wall, and proceed to beat it on the tile floor. If she can find a night light, she has figured out how to remove the diffuser thingy and start sucking on it. She gets into everything now, but she is so fun to watch. She crawls (so fast) and pulls herself up on everything.
Vinny and Addie have really started to have fun playing with Elise. When you hear the three of them all laughing, you know they are up to something!! It usually involves Elise being pulled around the room by one or both of her siblings and they are all just rolling in laughter. Vinny has taken to 'watching out for Elise' frequently. This will often result in carrying her around (only dropping her occasionally). They really are pretty careful with her and just like to make her laugh. We try to find safe way for this, but they like to be creative! When we go places they always like to tell people 'this is my baby sister Elise'.
Adelaide is doing wonderfully with the undies. We are working on getting her to use the big potty with a potty ring. We are still bringing her potty chair along when we go places so she can go in the van. This works pretty well, but she thinks it is fun, so she goes potty a lot! :) She has also taken to picking out her own clothes much more than before. It used to just be shoes that were an issue, but now we have a lot of days that we just have to wear a pretty dress!! sometimes the dresses are decked out with boots or whatever shoes she just HAS to have that day!! Not worth a fight, so she can look pretty comical. I don't know that What Not to Wear would approve, but she is only 2!!
Tonight Vinny was walking around singing mims 'This is Why I'm Hot' tonight. So, I was a wee bit disturbed by this, but it sure was funny. He has been doing very well lately. We had preregistration for kindergarten this week. Yikes! my little boy will be going to kindergarten next year. Holy cow!! Time flies! Of course this is not till September, but it is still hard to believe.
So, I don't leave out the furry baby. Beasely had her yearly check-up today. She was her normal scared to death self. She gets just terrified when we go for check-ups. She trembles as soon as we get into the office. I have to hold her for everything they do, she won't take treats from the evil-doers and she had so much dander covering her fur while we are there it looks like she just came in from a blizard. She is a healthy pooch:) She got the whole ball of wax today, all the shots, blood draw and nose kennel cough thing. She is all set for the year.
That ends my update for now. Hope everyone is staying warm! It is stinking cold out!!!

Time to confirm my reservation at the nuthouse!

Adelaide is doing a wonderful job at going potty. I am really not calling it potty training for her, since she pretty much did this solo! She is still wearing a diaper for naps and bedtime, but has been staying dry for most of those too. It is very impressive. One little glitch is that so far she only goes on her potty chair soooo, we have to take the little red potty with us in the van and she goes in the van when we are out and about. I think she thoroughly enjoys this! She goes before and after most places that we visit and thinks it is pretty funny when I open the van door and dump her pee out (after I have checked that the coast is clear - hey, dogs and men go wherever they want, right?).
Since this little revelation of hers she has also discontinued her siesta. She is still in her cage, oh I mean crib, for a couple hours, but is not seeing much in terms of sleep. Ugh! I am hopeful this is just a little phase and she will slip back into her reliable napping pattern. Or, as my title suggests, I may end up pulling my hair out and wind up in an institution!! Just kidding there, but really, I so so enjoy my afternoon nap time. Vinny is up, but he really enjoys his sister free time as well and knows there are little things he can do when his sisters are sleeping. I am counting on a few more years of worry free napping from littlest one around here!

Can a 2 year old have a New Years Resolution??

Apparently Addie decided that the new year meant a new you!! She had been periodically asking to go potty, usually before bedtime, and would go. Then the next morning wanted nothing to do with it again. I was not feeling the need to push her on it yet. She is not 2 1/2 yet, and I just didn't want to force it on her. So, when on New Years Eve she wanted to go potty before bed and did it, I didn't think anything of it. The next morning we asked if she wanted to go potty and wear Dora undies and she said yes. She is now ending her third day of being daytime diaper free. We have still been doing the night diapers- and naptime (I am short of crib mattress pads now that we have 2 cribs). She has only had two accidents both in her booster seat. I guess she thinks eating trumps going potty. Today went very well and it has really been quite amazing to see her just do it on her own. Vinny was not an easy subject to work with:) They all figure it out on their own time and I guess maybe this is Addie's time (I am not holding my breath that we don't lapse a bit here and there!). We have not been on a regular schedule this week, so we were able to stay home all day. We will see how it goes when we have to start leaving the house this coming week, especially since she has only gone in her potty chair and never on a big potty... the idea of having just one in diapers is pretty nice!