Hello beach, I cannot wait to have the sand between my toes....

Welp, we have arrived in California and I am awake at 6:30. Kids and Frank are asleep...but I am awake. UGH. I slept like crap last night, but then again I have slept crappy for 2 weeks now. Since the surgery I have been ordered to sleep elevated at a 45* angle. That sucks. My back, neck and well whole body really are stiff and sore when I get out of bed. I was taking vicodin before bed, and stopped that a few days ago. I may have to take it again since I think I got an hour or two of solid sleep without waking up last night.

We are staying at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas in Newport Beach Cali for a week. The resort is a Marriott timeshare that we traded our Marriott timeshare for. Resort is beautiful from what I have seen driving around and I cannot wait to explore today. We have a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit with a living room, dining area and fully stocked kitchen as well. Since we do not have a beach house in CA, this is the next best thing. Staying in hotels with young children is THE worst, but staying in villas with separate sleeping spaces is awesome. Kids go to sleep in the bedroom, and we can hang out in the living room. Frank's mom and dad are flying in today for the week, and I cannot even begin to tell you how excited Devin is to see Pop Pop and Mom Mom. He as been talking about seeing them for days now and was so very upset yesterday when I told him that they were flying in tomorrow, not today. He wanted them to be at the resort when we arrived. We took off from Vegas at 1 pm and arrived here at 5 pm with two potty stops for the kids along the way. Four hours on Memorial day Friday at the beach outside of LA was a amazing. We only hit stop and go traffic for about 3 or so miles right before the turnoff to head south to the beach cities. Kids did great in the car and watched two movies and each took a nap.

Plans today are simple. Hang out. Since we arrived at 5 last night, dropped all the luggage in the villa, went to dinner and was back by 7 it was time to wind down. Devin and Frank went to see the koi while I bathed Riley and put all the clothes away. The pools are heated so today will be a pool day with the kids until Mom and Dad arrive around lunch time. Frank is going to be super daddy with the pool since I cannot go in it, here is to hoping the temp is at least 80* for him. :) We do have ocean views from our villa. Our location is along the PCH but across the street from the beach. The beach where the kids can play is just down the way, but I am thinking we will not be in the water too much. The water will be freezing and the air temp averages 69-73 all week so I think it will be sand castles and such instead of wave playing.

Devin's birthday (which is next week) and we are going to get him a Tag hand held game system. I wanted to get him it early so he would have it for the long car ride, but Frank wanted to wait. Boo, but that is fine. He will be super excited to have it and will be an expert by our next plane ride in September when we head to FL. Devin received a Tag reader for Christmas and he spent a while reading books and playing the games with that. I love educational stuff and it was awesome to hear the reader thing ask questions and him talk back it it and do as directed. I did buy him a new Scooby Doo book for this ride and completely forgot to get it out to give it to him. Oh well, he can have it for something else in the future. Riley has a Tag Jr and she loves to hear it read the books to hear. The only negative with these is that their storage space on the reader is only a few books. The readers capacity is only 5 books, so if you own more than that, you need to take turns uploading and deleting them off the reader. Tag really needs to expand the memory on them. 

Funny thing, coming from the desert my skin is always dry and hair poker straight. I woke up this morning with clammy skin and super wavy hair. I love humidity! Oh how I miss having volume in my hair and moisture in my skin just from the air, not the vitamin E body butter I slather on me everyday. Now I just need the salt air in my face for a few hours and my toes in the sand. I cannot wait to play with my camera too. Taking pictures is  so much more fun when you have beautiful scenery. Its 7:15 and everyone is still asleep. Boo......

Hello Sunshine my old friend......

A lot has happened since I was last able to get on. Let's start from the beginning. I have gotten lots of concern and questions about FB posts so here goes, last Friday I had surgery. Don't worry, it was a planned, elective surgery. I had a breast reduction and lift done and am recovering like a champ. I will tell you that it was the worst pain I have ever been in my entire life. Worst than tearing my knee any of the three times I did, worst than drug free child birth with a sunny side up kid, worst than umm anything. That said, that horrible pain only lasted the first 24 hours. After that, with the help of vicodin and napping, I was alright. I stopped taking the pain killers Monday during the day because I needed to function since Frank was at work. Now 9 days out, I am no longer in pain at all and not even uncomfortable unless I move my arms or chest muscles too fast. I still cannot lift anything more than a few pounds and no gym for another 2 to 4 weeks but the girls look good :) Thank you for all the concerned emails and texts.

Meghan (our helper) arrived Monday. She was scheduled to come in late Sunday but her flight out of Philly was delayed and she missed her connection in LA. She stayed overnight there and flew in to Vegas on the 6 am flight Monday morning. She has been a huge help since and the kids adore her. We will be going to Newport Beach, CA next Friday for a weeks vacation and Meghan is going to stay behind and house/dog sit for us. She will be staying at the Skinner house until June 9th when she then has to move to DC to work the internship she was awarded at Georgetown.

Kids are doing awesome. Devin finished with swimming lessons last Wednesday and he had a ball. It would be silly to sign him up again since it is summer out here soon and the pools will be opening up outside to go in. He only has 3 weeks left of school, and sadly one of those weeks he will be missing since we will be on vacation. I am going to have to think of lots to do this summer or I think I may go out of my mind.

Riley is finally talking more. She says what she needs and wants and she and Devin talk to each other in little conversations (when they don't want to kill each other) up in the playroom and outside. She is fully potty trained so no more need to wear pull ups out of the house. Potty training so early was tough since she was not talking yet all the time. Now she tells me when she needs to go and I am not freaking out that she may wet her car seat anymore. She stays dry during her naps too, but I do put a pull up on her at night. She sometimes wakes up dry, but mostly wet. She cries around 5 am but falls back to sleep. I am guessing that is when she goes? Who knows, but I am thankful to not have to buy box after box of diapers anymore.

All those that have been to Vegas or live out here know how stinkin hot it gets. We have a covered patio, but this Friday got an outdoor fan installed. BRILLIANT I tell ya! Today is about 85 and b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l and underneath the patio cover and the fan blowing is just a hair shy of pure awesomeness. Maybe if I had a fruity drink in my hand and a yummy appetizer I would be 100% there ;).  We had another weird cold front last week, but from here on out I am thinking we will see nothing below 90. I am OK with that, and I definitely am excited for pool weather (once I can swim again.) Sun is great for the soul and a lil vitamin D for the skin is just what the doctor ordered. Don't worry, we all wear sunscreen daily and limit exposure...

Today we went to Bonnie Springs in Red Rock Canyon National park. It is only about a 7-10 minute drive from our house and it is tucked away in the mountains. On the way, we ran into some wild burros. There was about 6-7 of them along the road. Two came to say hi to us, two were totally doing IT in front of our car and a few others were walking around. Originally Bonnie Springs was an old western town that is now vacant and haunted. It was on Ghost Adventures and I will tell you that it was super cool to watch that episode. Next to the "town" there is a petting zoo, duck pond, small restaurant and horse stables. Today we went to take the kids for a ride on the ponys and feed the ducks and crap. I do not know what kids obsession is with ducks and birds, but this is heaven for them since ducks are everywhere and peacocks and other birds walk around free. Although they have a petting zoo we decided to skip it this time. Kids rode on ponys and we checked out the bull, horses, bison and peacocks then left. It was much dirtier than it has been in times past and I for one was not really into staying any longer.

I found a great Spelling activity/math, is summer coming?

The weather in Las Vegas has been completely crazy this spring. Cold to warm to hot to cold. Windy, nice then 60 mile per hour winds again....It has been so unpredictable. Just as I think we can get ready to go swimming in the pool, it gets cold again. Yesterday and today has not gone above 75 when Thursday and Friday of last week were both 97*. So odd. It even rained last night and today for a little while. The kids love it since it is not blistering hot as do I, but the winds were so bad (especially last night) with gust up to 65 mph! I took the kids to the park yesterday for an hour and a man flying a kite even had a hard time since it was a little too windy for him. Tomorrow should be in the 80's then progressively warmer after that.

I bought Devin an awesome new learning kit. He has gotten really good at sounding words out letter by letter and putting them together. We work daily on spelling and sounding out letters while he writes his words. For Easter I went to Homegoods/TJMaxx to find a table runner and of course (had) to look in the children's section. I found kits for 3/4 word spelling, mathematics and addition or subtraction only. The kits are self storing which is always a plus when it comes to putting kids things away. Devin is great at subtracting/adding numbers one by one and by two up to ten so I bought the mathematics kit which has addition and subtraction. I also got the 3/4 letter word kit. I meant for the word kit to be in his Easter basket, but he saw it in the car when I came home and asked what it was. BOO, so I gave it to him then. I thankfully was able to side track him so he did not see the mathematics one. I want to save that one for our 3.5 hr car trip to Cali in 2 weeks. He LOVES the word puzzles. He and Riley put them together and he reads the words to Riley and shows her letter by letter. I love anything that makes them think and is not just a plastic toy. Do not get me wrong, we definitely have a million of those and they role play and are creative with them but educational toys are awesome to have. Especially when both kids can use them. The quality is great and they are super thick. The fronts are super glossy and the puzzles are self correcting so they will not fit unless they are in the correct place/word.  Amazon has these for $9-$12 a kit and I got them for $4.99 each. Total steal! I would say order/buy them if you have a kid that loves to learn and is too old for simple flash cards. I may go back and see if there are any different ones that I missed out on.

Riley is getting much better at speaking. She really is quiet when she and Devin are together since Devin never stops talking. She talks much more when she and I are one on one. She now "sings" her ABC's and Wheels on the Bus as well as Itsy Bitsy Spider. It is amazing how confident they get day by day from 18 months to 2.5 years old. I know in the few months to come that she will fully be out of the little baby phase and full on little girlie phase. She has finally gotten the whole poopy on the potty thing. She is getting better with timing and no longer asks to go to the potty 8-9 times before she actually does her business. Now it is go time when she announces to me she has to go. I thought I may go a little insane when she was asking to go over and over again and not actually pooing. I love how proud she gets of herself though. She claps and says, "Yay, guck yay."

Devin is getting awesome and fast at putting puzzles together. He now smokes 24 piece puzzles and is working on 48 piece ones. He can do 48 pc puzzles all alone and (thankfully) sits alone to do them. I remember doing puzzles as a kid and they really are the best thing ever. I am thinking we need to buy some more of them so he has lots to do. Puzzles are one thing that do not get boring since every time you go to put it together you have a different start and order. Riley is past the chunky puzzle phase and it is sad since we have 10 or so Melissa and Doug chunky puzzles. I guess it is time to get rid of those and move on to 12 pc puzzles for her?

little of this, little of that

We only have one computer now. Our PC died about a year or so ago and we never replaced it since Frank has a work lap top in addition to his PC at work. We usually have the lap top at home, but since he is up on site now a days, he takes the lap top daily so I do not have a computer to use. Blogging or emailing is not so fun to do from a phone of the Nook. This only allows me time here and there to get on the computer when Frank gets home and after we put the kids to bed.

The kids are great. They are loving that we can go outside more frequently now that the winds are starting to calm down. April really is an awesome month out here for temperatures, but it also is typically the most windy month of the year. Since the kids (and myself) have such severe seasonal allergies, we have to stay inside when it is super windy out. This weekend was chilly but since it was windy it did not really matter what it was like temperature wise. This week looks perfect, high 80s-sunshine and breeze. We will definitely be taking advantage and hitting up the park and outside play dates.



the three other kids are 5. Devin is so tiny compared to them



Devin is doing very well at swimming lessons. He can now dive down in the shallow end and retrieve dive rings as well as put his face in the water and do forward stroke (instead of doggie paddle.) It is amazing how far he has come in 5 weeks of lessons in a group setting. We have one more session this week and then two more weeks with two sessions in each week and then it is time to retire with this. By then we will have gone to CA for vacation and it will be June so he will be able to swim in friends pools or our community pool with me helping now that Riley is finally big enough for swimmies.

He is getting so great at writing and really is starting to get the hang of the tough letters. "S", "e" and "g" were his hardest ones but as of today he really can do them all well. He loves getting to learn new words and thankfully has not had any interest in learning to spell body parts recently. I was getting a little worried about his continual questioning about male and female body parts there for a bit. I guess it is only natural to want to know why Riley is different and what not...but asking me why his balls are wrinkly? I mean what do you say about that. It is not like I can say, "Ask your father" when it is only 8 am on a Tuesday....or when he asks why the hole on the end of his penis is so small. I still am not 100% sure I can do this whole boy thing...

Riley on the other hand is doing fantastic with potty training as a whole. She rarely has pee accidents and after this weekend finally is being verbal about telling me when she needs to go poops on the potty. She calls it "cuck" I guess from me telling her that her diaper was yucky when she had poopy pants? I have no idea, but she will say "cuck" and we run to the toilet in hopes that she poops there and not in her undies (or anywhere else.) Her being so skinny has created major wardrobe issues especially now that she no longer wears a diaper to hold up her pants/shorts. Forget skirts right now unless they are sized 12-18 months.  I mean I am happy she is skinny and not a fatty-but sadly most toddlers clothes are geared toward fat kids since SO many toddlers/young kids are over weight. Why can't it be like when I was a kid and the norm was skinny kids to average kids?

Tonight was a night from hell with Riley. She would not eat the dinner I made which is fine, but she would not even taste it. Devin ate his and he is SUPER picky when it comes to food. Riley simply refused. She was whiny and crying and wanted me to hold her, so I did but since I was on the computer all she wanted to do was gingerly push a key all sneaky like. I would put her down and she would cry and whine. Kill me. Frank was watching baseball/hockey on TV upstairs while Devin played so I brought her up there and close the gate behind me so I could finish the research I was doing on the computer at the kitchen table. She threw a fit and tried to break down the gate. It seemed like eternity but I am guessing it was only 5 or 6 minutes. She would cry and hyperventilate, gag on spit, scream. It was awful. I finally walked up and told her I would not pick her up if she was crying. She just turned it off and asked for "up up mommy." Instantly she was silent and sucking her thumb. I had to make her bed and she would not let me put her down until I distracted her with helping me put away the clothes and linens. She and Devin were promptly in bed and asleep by 7:10.  Silence really is golden as I sit here with no TV on, no children making noise, no dogs barking....just the sound of the keyboard. LOVE it.

Our mothers helper arrives in two weeks from yesterday. She really isn't a mothers helper since she will be 22 the day after she gets here...but she will definitely be my extra pair of hands. Her room is all set and Devin is already counting down the days until she arrives. He asks me questions every day. "Does Meghan like to play Go Fish?" "Does Meghan like to color Spiderman or Mickey Mouse?" Which brings me to this. Everyday Devin works on his spelling/writing when Riley sleeps. We then play games, do puzzles, play outside and if it is super windy-he gets to watch some TV. Today we played one if his favorite games-Go fish. He is very good at holding up his cards in a fan now and it just melts my heart when he fishes what he asked for and he says, "I fished my wish." I taught him that saying and to be honest I have no idea where or who I learned it from. He does love that card game though and we play it at least 4 out of the 7 days.