Santa was here! and so was some virus......

Christmas morning was fun this year. For the first time Devin understood that there were presents from different people under the tree-Mommy and Daddy, Santa, Grammy, Mom Mom and Pop Pop, Kelly, Dana and Aunt Lauren and Uncle Don Ferry. I wrapped all the presents from Santa in kid specific paper. Devin had Spider man and Riley had Santa adorned paper. This allowed for Devin to pick out presents for himself and some to give to Riley without any confusion. Gifts from other people were in different paper and were labeled. He can read Mom, Daddy, Riley and Devin so he was able to give out the gifts to everyone.

Riley woke up first around 7 am and wanted to come downstairs as she normally does after she wakes up. I came downstairs and turned on the tree and some lights and got the cameras ready. We went in and woke up Devin and I told him I think Santa was here. After he registered that it was sunny out he sat up immediately and asked if Santa came, and if he brought gifts for him and Riley. His first reaction when peeping down stairs through the banister was,(whispering) "Wow, that is a lot of presents, look at all those cool presents." We had a table and chair set by the front door covered by a sheet and he walked by and looked at it. Then looked at the presents and couldn't resist in lifting the sheet. Then he walked over to the tree and just stood there in awe for a second and then saw the Spider man paper. The fun then began and it took about an hour and a half to open gifts. It was not a free for all so to speak since we wanted him and Riley to take turns, but since she saw her dolly stroller first she really wasn't interested in gifts. She would open a gift here and there, but then she spotted the dolly pack and play and she played the rest of the morning.

Frank gave me a lot of things but my most favorite present is a pair of Tory Burch flats I have been asking for forever! I cannot wait until I leave the house and get to wear them somewhere. Anywhere. I think he was most excited with his new Persol sunglasses or maybe the center stage tickets to Jersey Boys? Boys are tough because there was no major excitement. Just a bigger smile with certain stuff. I do know he hates one of the sweaters I got him from Ralph Lauren. He told me it is too "stuffy" when I think it is very "Chesapeake" so that item I may have to return.  Overall it was a great morning. I would have loved to have gone with the rest of my family (minus Dana and Troy) to Baker/Sullivan/Viguers brunch at Cousin Debbie's house Christmas morning. I miss being able to see the family and do the once in a while family get togethers with them. Skinner family Christmas is not until next week so that would have been great too since Devin and Riley would have kids to play with. Devin still talks about how "cool" his cousin Jonathan is. Funny how younger kids idolize older ones. Jonathan was 5 in June so that whole 2 years is big enough to make him the coolest kid ever!

Frank started to feel sick Christmas morning and through the day got progressively worse. I was starting to feel under the weather by dinner time and by 10 at night we were both laid out. Some serious stomach virus attacked us and were were up all night sick. Yesterday was bad since that is when the stomach sickness was accompanied by body aches and pains. Kids thankfully never got sick and I am feeling much better today. Some 24 hr thing really did knock us on our asses.

My all time favorite diaper bag company-Petunia PIckle Bottom chose me (and 6 others)!

OK. So I am SO excited. Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags are to die for. I first learned about them when Devin was a few months old and I tripped across one at a boutique here in Vegas. HELLO gorgeous bags! I am a frugal gal, but there are a few things you do pay money for in my mind. Those are shoes, bags and jewelry.  These bags are euro chic and just to die for. They have brocade, velvet patterned material (Cake), men's diaper bags and now glazed ones that can be wiped down. I have had three of these over the last 2 years and still have my Teaberry Roll back pack and my Parisian Pansy Cross town clutch. I love that people compliment me on my bag and are shocked when I tell them its a diaper bag.

The gorgeous bag they are giving away

Living in Vegas I see the bags everywhere. I never would have noticed them before being a mom, but now that I am-I see them everywhere and appreciate the beauty no matter the pattern or style. My girlfriend Tina has one of their Cake collection bags (Society Satchel to be exact) which is so amazing. I cannot afford that one ($325-$350ish) so I just ogle hers when we are out. Petunia runs sales every few months to let us other gals buy their bags at lower prices being on discontinued patterns or bags with minor flaws. I have bought a second bag and never found the flaw.

They also run contests through their facebook page every month or so to win a bag. They also post on their facebook page when authorized dealers run giveaways. I enter every time I qualify for what they are giving away. I have been doing this for almost two years now and have never won or made it to the finals. I know my time will come and today is that day. They ran a recipe contest for the month of December to submit your favorite recipe for a chance to win one of their Red Velvet Cake Clutches. They ran the same contest last year and sadly my dutch apple pie did not make the finals. BUT, my saltine toffee bars this year did. I actually included this recipe in the Family cookbook I made in 2008. Love love love this recipe. My mom used to make these when I was a kid and I now make these now that I am a grown up. :)

Saltine Toffee bars

2 sticks of butter

1 c sugar

1.5 sleeves of saltines

1 12 oz bag of choc chips

Preheat oven to 375*. Line a cookie sheet with sides with Reynolds nonstick foil. Lay out crackers side to side, top to bottom to cover whole sheet. Melt butter in a small sauce pan on med low heat. Add sugar and dissolve stirring constantly. Pour over crackers and spread out with spatula. bake in oven on top rack for about 10 min or until light brown. Pour choc chips over top and let melt. Spread out with spatula. cool completely then break apart.

These are always favorites on the cookie plates I make for friends and family every Christmas. So simple yet so yummy. I made a batch for Devin's teachers this week and for the contest. (Frank did not mind that there was a lil extra to take to the office) The lucky staff gets to make all the yummy recipes and then taste test to pick the top one. Talk about a fun day at work. Wish me luck!

Making room for new toys-Christmas is here next week-Tree is up!

So I told Devin last week that he needed to make a pile on the coffee table in the playroom of toys that we can get rid of. He told me that we cannot give them away, that we need to have a yard sale like in Toy Story. He is one smart cookie. He said that he can give a new home to the toys that way. He started to slowly walk through our toy room and was handing me Riley's toys. First her dolly, then her teapot and so on. I reminded him that we are getting rid of his old toys and that Mommy will take care of the baby stuff. He actually did surprisingly well and filled up the coffee table and spilled over to the couch.

I started to take pictures of the stuff today to list on Craigslist and he asked when the yard sale was going to be. I told him I was going to do it online and he said, "Oh cool, will the kids come over and play with me when they pick them up?" I told him most likely Mommys and Daddys will get them as surprises for their kids for Christmas and he proceeded to ask me if I was going to a lady's house this week to get him a surprise.  I listed about 35ish toys and have had numerous emails and people already coming over today to get them.  Devin has helped me wiped them down and separate them into bags with who is buying what. I am proud that he is not putting up a fight, but he does remind me that Christmas is next week and he "Bets he will be getting a toy from Santa, maybe a truck (with huge grin)" Good thing we bought him that truck back in the summer time.

I think this will be a yearly tradition. In November/early December we can have them go through the room and whatever they do not play with we can sell or donate. That will give the kids a feeling of sharing with the unknown and generosity. He is still begging for a cement truck (Cookie (gmom) got it), the Toy Story 3 landfill (Cathy (gmom) got it) and a log truck (Santa). He reminds me about every other day about those three things. I cannot wait to see his face when he actually opens them up.

Tree got decorated Friday night. We bought the tree from a empty lot which is sadly the norm in Las Vegas. They bring trees in from Oregon and we walk around the make shift tree lot. We picked out a 9 ft noble fir and it is beautiful. They (not openly) charged $4 to net the tree to bring it home after we shelled out $110 for our tree. Talk about a crock! I complained to the lady and she said its a corporate thing. I mean come on, it costs a whole 25 cents of net to go around the tree and we are not to tip the guy who tied it to the car! I should really look into the Christmas tree sale business next year. Yeash.  There is no scent to it anymore so I have been burning a balsam candle to get that Christmasy feel in the house. Devin LOVED decorating it and Riley LOVES undecorating it. So far in the past 4 days I have only had to super glue 3 ornaments. Not too bad :)

Holy Crow they are getting big fast!

Riley has been able to take her pants off for some time now. She hates wearing clothes. It does not matter if she is wearing jeans, or the most comfy fleece jammies.....she wants them off. So, she takes them off. Every day. Yes, she can now officially take her shirt off too. Socks were first to figure out when she was a baby, then came pants when she was a little over a year and most recently shirts. She does put her clothes in the hamper like I trained her to do which helps with the mess. She also takes off her diaper which becomes the issue. She is doing well with peeing on the potty when prompted to, but at no means walks to the potty to pee. Since she is not potty trained, and she likes to strip down to her nakey bottom I have to make sure she is not over carpet. I am going to start to potty train her in January sometime I think.

She is also cutting eye teeth WHICH SUCKS BIG BALLS! She has never had teething issues other than a little whiney and nothing some orajel couldnt fix. These teeth on the other hand  are awful. I remember the same thing with Devin. Riley was up last night at 2:33, 3:00, 3:08 then 3:15 until I finally changed her diaper and put orajel in. She slept until 6:30 after that. Her top right is cut through with just the tip and the top right is right there. Her bottom two are coming up as well. I know this must hurt and some tylanol may have to be handy today.

Devin is a VERY verbal kid. He talks and talks and talks. I think it is his way of getting back at me for always saying, "tell mommy what you want, use your words." Man alive does he use his words, and phrases that make me laugh out loud. I will say something like, "Wow that house's Christmas lights are pretty aren't they?" His response is, "Sure is mom." I mean what 3 year old says that? Or he will ask me to get him a drink of water while he is doing nothing but I am busy. (we have a water cooler so he can do it himself) I will say, "No Devin, get your own drink." He then responded, "I can't mom, my legs are broken." Now I know I have said to him before that he has two legs and that he can do it himself, but to hear him say it in the correct context makes for a comical evening. He is a smart kid and his teachers love him. They gave me his progress report yesterday and he is excelling in all things social and academically. The only category he needs some guidance with is numbers. He apparently can count well forward 1-20, but forgets numbers when going backwards. Do they really expect a 3 year old to count backwards from 20 without guidance?

I think this winter we will actually be able to put ornaments on the bottom third of the tree. Riley was 9 mo last December so we were not able to and the winter before Devin was 18 mo and was tornado like. Now Riley is 21 mo and Devin is just 3.5 so I think we are good to go. I can only imagine how long it will take to decorate since I know Devin is going to insist on helping. I may have to give him a separate task to do while we put the ornaments on. Our desert house does not really have a place to put a tree so we will be trying a different location throughout our family room until we find one that works. Pictures to come.

Back from NJ, Santa Visit-no tears this year!

Ok, now that it has been a month without a computer we are back on top with a new lap top. I am getting used to all the ins and outs since it is SO different than our old one. The kids and I just flew back in from NJ yesterday so we are slowly getting back on PST.

We went to see Santa the week before we left. Now there is this little out door shopping district I have mentioned before. It is called Town Square and has upscale and regular stores, but every holiday season they decorate to look like a page out of the Saturday Evening Post Norman Rockwell lifestyle. They even have life size Norman Rockwell statues from the Post stationed throughout the shops with the story behind the painting. They have a cottage where Santa lives in the middle of the shops and for the past 3 years Santa has been great looking and great with the kid(s). I have learned that you always go mid day, mid week to avoid the lines waiting. We were the only family this year when we went which really worked out. I walked inside and it was a different Santa than the past 3 years and Mrs Clause was there? With some stupid stuffed animal dog on her lap? Since when did it get so GHETTO? Who the F wants Mrs Clause or some dumb dog in their pictures with Santa? At first I did not care, I just wanted to get a picture that both kids were looking forward and not crying. I do not care if they smiled, just no crying. Success, but I then asked if we could nix the dog and they were ok with that, then I asked if we could do just Santa and they got pissy. I was paying $12 for a sheet that contained 1 (5 by 7) picture-I think I have the right to ask to eliminate the "fluff."  Unfortunately, by this point in the game Riley was done and the "best" picture ended up having both the dog and Mrs Clause in it. Boo to that. Next year we will just request Santa alone from the beginning if they bring back the stand ins.

All the Skinner grandkids                                                                       Riley and Devin with Aunt Kelly and Great Grandmom

NJ was a great time. Frank has been traveling back and forth to NJ every other month or so for meetings and this time those meetings ended up falling on the same week as his company's holiday cocktail party. We decided it would be great to take the kids home and attend the party. It was super fun. Who doesn't like to get a cocktail dress on and go to a wedding style event? Cocktail hour followed by sit down dinner and dancing, not to mention open bar :). It was great to see some of our old friends who Frank works with back in NJ. I miss seeing them all on a regular basis. We were able to see our family throughout the weekend as well. Frank flew back Sunday and I flew with the kids Tuesday. They were great on the flight and people sitting around us did not even know that kids were w me until we got up to leave. That is a huge relief because I stress out the whole time hoping that they behave. There was one screaming kid on the plane and I never saw that mother get up with them. To be honest, I do not feel bad for that mother since she never tried to walk them around or distract them with getting up. Some kids just hate to fly, but man alive, get UP and walk around. Riley was on my lap for the last time since she will be 2 in March and we will not be flying before then. Although it sucks to have to pay for her seat after that, I know that she will have a seat and not have to sit with me.

                                                                                                                   a promotional picture taken at Janie and Jack

Other than that, Devin is SUPER excited for Christmas and cannot wait to put out cookies for Santa. We will be making a paper chain today so he can count down the days. I wanted to get together an Advent calender but with traveling to NJ I just never got my act together in time. He is pumped to decorate the tree this week when we get it.

Riley girl is such a doll and it is a good thing because when she wants to be she is a feisty magoon! She is really starting to get interested in talking and she has mastered "NO." She has really cute mannerisms and I am glad that the family was able to see her show some of them this weekend.