Weekend in Chicago...

This past weekend we took a little family trip to Chicago. My childhood (best) friend was in town (from Portland, OR) and although we have kept in touch all these years we have not seen each other since 1998, 10 years! It is so much fun to reminisce with an old friend about all the funny things we did as kids. Erinn and I met in preschool and went through the 4th grade together than her family moved to Texas and a year later my family moved to Michigan! I also got to catch up with her parents and her sister and meet her finance, Dustin (who is great) and I can not wait for their wedding! Here are some pics from the weekend!

Erinn and Me ( i am gonna have to dig out one of our old pics to show you how we've changed over the years, it will be a good laugh for you all, we used to dress a like!) Erinn and Dustin

The Keithley's minus Josh and his wife Kari, hey Dustin you gotta work on your poses to be a true part of this fam:)

myself with the Keithley sisters, Erinn & Sarah

On Sunday after we left the hotel we took Skylar downtown to Navy Pier. Our plan was to go to Shedd Aquarium but after walking around and lunch and all we decided the aquarium might be overstimulation so that will be on another trip!

at the fountain

my cool girl in her glasses!

In front of Navy Pier they have a fountain that the kids can play in and Skylar loved the dancing water(where it shoots up out of the ground). She would get down on her hands and knees and try to get it when it disappeared which would then lead to her being shot in the face with the stream of water when it reappeared! After she got upset a couple of times she started to thin it was very funny! The fountain was a great way to cool off and end our day at Navy Pier!

So when we were in Chicago we decided to go see the Sear's Tower, I must say we were slightly disappointed, it was not at all what we expected! haha...

So as promised here are a few of the pictures from Saturday. As you can see Skylar is at a stage where smiling (& most everything else) is on her terms. It is a slight challenge being her photographer and mother at once...Good thing Grandpa was around to at least get her to look in the direction of the camera. She did pretty good, but as you can see from the last picture when she is done she is done!

My Flower girl

A preview of her 18 month photo shoot!

18 months old with serious attitude!

Last week Friday Skylar had her 18 month old well child check up, it seems crazy that she is a child /toddler and not a baby now. She checked out great! She now weighs 23 lbs. which puts her into the 35% for weight and she is a tall 33 inches, 83% for height! She is constantly on the move running and jumping, talking your ear off. As it says in the toddler books, her favorite word continues to be NO, even when she means YES (we know this because she shakes her head YES as she shouts NO). And when Skylar means NO you will definitely know! At this point she says so many words probably over 100, and any word she does not usually say if you ask her to repeat it she will. She loves animals and can tell you what most animals are and what noise they make. (Last night she pointed to a picture in my dad's office and told me it was an elk, seriously a smart little girl...she doesn't know the noise they make yet, grandpa is teaching her her the say "shoot me" I think he wants a hunting partner) Skylar also knows most all of her fruits. And she is calling her Aunts and Uncles by name ( well at this point she thinks Haley is also called Boo, but I think she just does that to get Hales, otherwise she calls Haley ~HaHa.)
She is also very fascinated with motorcycles, she truly is her fathers daughter! Whenever we are driving around she will spot them like a hawk and yell "Mo-Mor" until I acknowledge the motorcycle then she'll say brroom-brroom! Oh and another thing she is not really into having her picture taken...hmmm wonder why, so instead of a sweet smiling 18 mo old Skylar this is what you get.....

She is an absolute joy to be around. And even though her attitude can conflict with my ideas of what we will be doing, I enjoy all of my time with her, and besides its just a phase right...( i know i know this may last a couple or twenty years).
I am going to try to get her 18 mo pics done this weekend, maybe attitude permitting:)

The Zoo

Last week Skylar and I spent the morning at the zoo with Heidi, Parker, Cari, Tyler, Sammy, Sara, & Aunt Boni. We had a great time! Skylar really loves animals and knows most all of their noises. Every time we would approach a new exhibit she would begin making the animals sounds! Roaring at the lions and tiger, growling at the bears, spitting at the camels, SSSSS at the snakes and lizards, and tweet tweeting at the birds. There were some animals that through us both for a loop so we are looking into those!!

Skylar & Parker

the 3 ~ 2nd cousins

Skylar and I riding the camel, she LOVED it!

Heidi and PArker's turn on the camel

Tyler in the bird cage

she really liked the petting zoo

Start of Summer

Two weekends ago we were able to get downtown to enjoy the annual Rockford Start of Summer celebration! Skylar and I (along with our best babysitter, Kylie Wodarski) went down for the parade Saturday morning which Skylar loved! It would have been a little nicer if the extremely rood man that was with his family next to us did not stand in the road and block our view the whole time, but oh well, Skylar still enjoyed it!

After the parade and lunch we attended the Frog & Turtle races! Kylie and Cole Wodarski were nice enough to catch a frog for Skylar so that she could enter as well! She was amazed by Cole's turtle ad growled at it the whole day! Skylar's frog did not win but she did get a ribbon for participating!

cheering on her frog!

so serious, hoping her froggy wins!

Before and After

This is what the living room looked like before...well after the wall paper was removed and I had partially pained the fireplace, and the shelves had been built, but you get the idea, right?

And this after all the painting was done, we are still having the carpet replace, so I can post pictures after that is completed! We are getting there!

Crazy Hair

Skylar's hair is getting so long, I was just looking at pictures of her from just 7 months ago and it amazed me how long her hair has gotten! She is not ready for a hair cut yet (as she currently rocks out the mullet, and we are waiting for the front to catch up) but as you can see the front is appearing to get longer too, finally!

Pool time fun!

We have been loving the nice weather we have had so far this summer! Skylar is really enjoying all of the summer activities! She really likes to play in her pool (maybe she will convince her Daddy that we should have an in ground pool in a couple of years) and playing in the sprinkler.

 

Popsicles...

... a summer favorite, Skylar loves them! She can't get enough and she doesn't like to share!

....and this is what happens they are gone!

Cousins Party

Fun in the pool, Buster thinks he is one of the kids!

Baby Sammy, Cari & Ryan's youngest

Kailyn, Parker & Skylar

Heidi & Parker

not sure Skylar liked the swing

but tyler LOVED it

Skylar thinks Tyler is very funny

A couple of weekends ago we had all of Chris' cousins (& their kids) over. We were missing a couple (Erik, John, Makenna, Martin, Ali & Aubrie) but we still had a houseful of people! I was all ready for a beautiful day outside -- I even had Chris up early that morning finishing our swing set so the kids all had something to play on! But of course we got a major down pour about 1 hr after everyone arrived! Nonetheless we had a great time, the kids were running around and enjoying each other's company, well the adults tried to talk over their laughter and screeches of excitement! 

It was so nice to be able to get most everyone together: Sara & Jared were home from NY, Heidi & Parker (we missed you Martin) were in from WA, and Grandma & GRandpa drove down from Cadillac. Although the rest of us live around here life gets busy and we don't see each other as much as we would like! So thanks to everyone: Cari, Ryan, Tyler, Sammy, Alisa, Michael, Kailyn, Sara, Jared, Heidi, Parker, Grandma, and Grandpa for coming and spending the day with us! We will have to do it again sometime!