Memorial Day

Every Memorial Day the Skousen's get together and go to the Mesa Cemetery. The graves of loved ones are visited, cleaned & left with some silk flowers, courtesy of Grandma Mary. We have done this every year since we moved back to AZ in 1986. We all meet at the cemetery at 7am (okay, so some of us arrive a little later than that :-) ) and then head out to breakfast afterwards. The past 5 years have been even more meaningful because my Grandpa Skousen is buried there. It's one thing to visit relatives that I have no memory of whatsoever but I have soooo many great memories of my Grandpa and it makes me sad every time we are there that my girls never got the opportunity to know and love him. It makes me appreciate my relationship with the rest of my grandparents even more.

It used to be a tradition to go to Bob's big boy (Now known as JB's) for breakfast. Grandma Skousen would make reservations in advance and would pay for everyone. As the years progressed, the food got nastier and Grandma's pocket book got smaller we decided to move the breakfast festivities over to Max & Marilyn Arnett's house (my aunt & uncle) and have a home cooked breakfast. I'm so glad the we are still caring on this wonderful family tradition after 20 plus years.

After a nice nap we decided to go swim it up at Carson Pool. Gina, Jackson and their kids and Uncle Max and his kids all came. Everyone had such a fun time. A special thanks goes out to auntie Mara who brought the much coveted drinks from QT and played like crazy with the girls in the pool :-)

(The Wrights, Skousen's & Mason's @ my great grandma Huffaker's grave)

(Grandpa Skousen's grave)

(Most of the Skousen's, in front of Grandpa's grave)

(Breakfast at Max & Marilyn's)

(Enjoying all the excitement)

(Jacey having a blast on the slide at Carson)

(Yummy french fries)

(Boy what a long day)

Lot's of catching up

Holy cow these weeks have flown by. So much has been going on and I'm just now finding the time to catch up with my blogging. I had so much I wanted to post (for my book) but didn't quite know how I wanted to do it. I finally just decided to do a separate post for each event. So, the end result is a lot of posts :-)

Last night some of the Young Women from church spent the night at our house. We were supposed to stay up all night and read the Book of Mormon. It was a very great attempt but not a whole lot was accomplished :-) We had fun reading, snacking, reading and more snacking. To my surprise all of the girls fell asleep by 11:00 pm. What's wrong with this picture???? I slept on the couch which unfortunately didn't provide me with much sleep but that was okay because I wasn't expecting to get any anyway. When they woke up the first thing the girls wanted to do was go jump in the pool. Better them than me :-)

Thanks for a fun night girls!!!

From left to right:

Jana Ellsworth, Kylee Ambri, Mua, Brenna Hastings, Shana Stailey & Julia McLaws)

My two little fishies

Boy am I glad that it is swimming season again. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me sane :-) Jacey had forgotten a lot of what she learned last year but luckily she picked it back up pretty quickly. Keely loves the water as much as her big sister. We aren't doing swim lessons for Keely though because of her ear infections.

Jacey loves taking this kick board and kicking herself around the entire pool. Her favorite thing to do is jump in with it :-)

(Let me go Daddy, let me go!!)

Pictures of Jacey during her swim lessons. She just loves taking lessons from Sarah!!

Jacey loves jumping off the diving board

3 year and 9 month checkups

Today was Jacey's 3 year checkup and Keely's 9 month checkup. It's the first time both girls had appointments together. It was so cute. They pricked Keely's finger to get a blood sample and she didn't even cry, she just sat there looking at it. After the nurse put a band aid on it she sucked it so hard that her finger started bleeding again. Jacey was so worried about her little sister, that is until she started getting poked and prodded herself. She got her hemoglobin tested and when she saw the needle coming she started saying "No Mommy, no shots. Please Mommy, No!!!" All she saw was the needle going into her arm it didn't matter that it wasn't really a shot :-) She was so cute. The nurse told her she wasn't able to put a band aid on that area but gave her a cotton ball to rub it with. Jacey kept rubbing her arm with that darn cotton ball for most of the day. She thought her "owie" would magically disappear if she rubbed it :-)

All about Jacey:

Weight: 38lbs (94th percentile)

Height: 41.8 in (100th percentile)

BMI: 38%

My little firecracker is so dang full of it but at the same time so darn cute. She constantly comes up to me and says "Mommy, you my best friend". It's the cutest thing ever!!!!! Every night before she goes to bed she demands a kiss, a hug and then makes sure to tell me I'm her best friend. She still sings the song "Tomorrow" from Annie but it has now progressed to singing it everywhere and anywhere. The grocery store, the doctor's office, the bathroom :-) All at the top of her lungs of course. I can't wait until she starts singing the entire song and not just the same lines over and over again and at a lower decibel.

All about Keely:

Weight: 24.1lbs (99th percentile)

Height: 29in (90th percentile) Hmm, I think she's shrinking :-)

Head circ: 18 in (90th percentile)

BMI: 20.2%

Little Miss Keely is so dang cute. Her nick name is still "chunkers". It's sad that she actually comes when we call her by that :-) She is into absolutely everything, of course, and once she gets a hold of something it usually goes straight into her mouth. I'm constantly having to following behind Thad and Jacey picking up all of their messes so that Keely won't eat it. She now has 4 teeth. Two on top and two on bottom. Boy do I hate teething time!!!! She loves to eat Mommy's food and absolutely loves chowing down on bananas. She stands up and holds onto everything and when she gets really brave she'll let go for a few seconds. She's getting braver by the day. She loves to climb as well. I took the girls to the library and while Jacey was playing puzzles, Keely was trying to climb up all of the shelves :-)

(P.S-That's Thad's lovely finger in the pictures. He was trying to take pics with his phone and kept getting in my way)

Jacey & Little "Chunkers"

Sticking her toungue out at Daddy


Ice cream mess

Boy was it ever good!!!

Daddy daughter dates

Thad and Jacey have had quite the bonding time lately. Jacey has absolutely loved it. She absolutely adores her Daddy.

Anyone who knows Thad knows that he is obsessed with all things presidential. He loves the White House, the Secret Service, etc.... Anytime the President comes to town (doesn't matter which one) he HAS to go take pictures of air force one. So, when Obama came to the ASU graduation off Thad and Jacey went. She loved looking at all the airplanes while her Daddy obsessed about everything else :-) That same night Thad had been given tickets to the Diamondbacks game (Dugout seats) so they went to the airport, went to the ballgame and then went back to the airport. Yep, that's Thad for you. She loved the ball game as well and as soon as she came home she got out her baseball and bat and wanted to play :-)

A few days later our ward had their annual Father's and Son's outing. Who cares that Thad doesn't have any sons, he packed up Jacey and away they went. Lucky for Thad, he took JJ (one of the young men in our ward) with them. He came in handy when they got lost and drove around for hours. They ended up pulling over into some other wards camp out, staid the night and then found our ward the next morning. Once they got there they hiked down to the lake and that was enough to almost put Thad into cardiac arrest so they packed up and came home. Jacey was to afraid to hike down by herself so Thad had to carry her which led to his speedy exit home :-) Thad now believes me when I tell him he needs to get back into shape :-)

(At the airport)

(Diamondbacks game)

(Father's and son's outing)

(Jacey and Thad slept in the cab of the truck)

(The lake they hiked down to)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year started on Saturday. Some of the girls in my family got together to go out to lunch. This picture only shows part of the "Mommies". Not pictured where my mom, both grandma's and my cousins wife Storie. My cousins are such a crack up and it was sooo much fun getting together with everyone.

Pictured: Gina, my cousin Sherry, my aunt Diane, my cousin Shawna and myself

On Sunday Thad, the girls and I, my Mom, Dad & Grandma Skousen went over at Gina & Jackson's for dinner. Gina made really yummy chicken enchiladas. Despite Thad's efforts Mother's Day with my family was fun :-)

Below: Gina, Grandma Skousen, Mom & Me

Sugar & Spice and everything nice...

A while back I saw the cutest "tutu" that I had ever seen. I decided that I just had to have it for my girls. I didn't know at the time that it was actually a petiskirt, which explains the layers upon layers of cuteness. I wasn't prepared to pay the $120+ price tag so after much researching I found one that was even cuter for cheaper. The girls would just have to share because they are still not cheap :-)

Now what good is a new petiskirt with out cute pictures in the new skirt??? I had a photo shoot already booked and a tutu I had gotten for Keely a long time ago that she had never worn so everything was perfect. We took the girls to the Mesa temple where Cherri proceeded to take the absolute cutest pictures. I am sooo happy with the way they turned out and the way they captured the absolute sweetness of both my girls. Thanks Cherri :-)

(These are just a few of the many amazing photos)