December 2008

We had some great pictures from some holiday events and we thought we would share(by we I mean me!) Mommy and Caroline are done with school! Hooray! Chase has two more days. We had a great neighborhood event and the kids got to ride on a "sleighride" and see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Mommy was in charge of the event, so it wasn't as much fun for her. It was also Allen's birthday this week and we celebrated it at "Santa's Gingerbread Workshop." The kids had a great time and Chase even sat on Santa's lap! For all of you that know about Chase and Santa this was a monumentous event. He has not even gotten close to him since he was a baby and he couldn't run away. Last year if you recall we had pictures of him hiding under the table when Santa arrived. Tonight after bedtime stories he called me back in and asked of there really was a "good" and a "bad list." "There sure is Chase." I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. We will share more Christmas day photos later:)

Chase's Thanksgiving Pow Wow

I decided I would finally upload this before I started uploading Christmas pictures!! Chase's school puts on a fabulous kindergarten Pow Wow each year at Thanksgiving. His tribe was the Sioux. They had a great day learning about Native Americans and participating in authentic activities. Mommy was very proud watching Chase particpate in this very special event.

Halloween, Halloween Trick or Treat!

No more candy please!! Remember when Halloween was just one night? When did it become a "season" of it's own? Hopefully, we have had our last night of tricks and treats until next year! We started the "season" with a fundraising event(see Clone Trooper pictues)which we were all supposed to attend on the 18th. Caroline took a tumble off of our bed that morning and Allen and I ended up with her in the emergency room all day. She is fine, she had 6 stitches and some Dermabond in her ear and she was healed within a week. We only wish the process of getting her stitched up had been so easy! Long story short...the only plastic surgeon available was at our fine inner city hospital "Shands" so after the 12 year old doctor sewed her up we were anxious to get out of there! Chase got to tag along to the event with the Haynes family:) Next up was the school "Book it and Bag It Literacy Character Parade." Star Wars was/is an actual book and Anakin was Chase's character of choice. He had a parade at school anf then we got to trick or treat through the halls that night and enjoy carnival games and activities as well. Caroline LOVED her 1st real trick or treating experience! You should have seen the look on her face when the 1st person put candy in her bag. She did not miss a stop and filled her bag to the top! The little stinker would not actually wear a costume, but she learned to say "trick treat!" One more Halloween party(which we did not bring the camera to), a school party and it was FINALLY the actual night! Caroline was happy to dress as a beautiful ballerina, Chase choose Anakin, Allen got another year out of his Darth Vader suit and we were off for more loot! Once again Caroline figured out real quick that this whole "trick treat" thing was a pretty good deal. Happy Halloween!

Pictures!

Random picture updates:) Enjoy!

Go Noles!

I have been a slacker blogger! I can't believe the last post was in August! So you already know life has been crazy for the Skipper's. Allen and I both said yesterday "I want my old job back!" We love our jobs, but Allen has taken on more responsibilty and is traveling more and with me working part time now our lives as we knew them have been given a shake up. That stay at home mom gig was pretty good:)

As you can tell from the pictures we have also been busy cheering our Seminoles on. The Seminoles came to Jacksonville a couple of weeks ago and we had a big tailgate "DiBiase" stlye. When mom and dad are envolved, you know it's going to be good. I do feel really old since the Wolfe girls have actually both graduated and now my two second cousins, Thomas and Christopher are attending FSU. I am the baby of all of the cousins on that side of the family:)

Kim (Aunt "Berly") and Erik came down for the festivities as well. Chase had a great weekend since he had both of his godparents in town to build forts with. We think he has a crush on Philip's friend Kelly that came up from Orlando. She is the one sitting next to him at the game. Caroline loves her "Meminoles," but Allen and I actually wanted to enjoy the game so we left her with the Alvarado's for the day. No complaining out of her since Haley and Hector actually took all three kids to the zoo.

I will get busy and try to post more pictures:)

Our Little Princess

It is hard to beleive that Caroline is 19 months already. She is enjoying her time with Nana when mommy is at work. She is quite the little princess. She knows exactly what she wants and she knows exactly how to get it as well. Her absolute favorite things(next to her brother of course) are popsicles. When she wakes up it is "Mama," "Dada," "Chase," "popop"(no...not you Pop Pop!)

She started preschool this week in the "Toddling Turtle" class. You can tell by the pictures that it was very tramatic for her(ha-ha!) I beleive the one with her walking away from us sums it up, she was not sad to tell mommy or nana goodbye. She got a great report from her first day. Unfortunetly, she is now sick and will not be able to go tomorrow:(

Chase continues to enjoy school and was excited that his dad got to drop him off today and one of the "controls" walked him to class. Can you figure out what a "control" is??

Chase's 1st Day

Chase had his 1st day of kindergarten today at Chet's Creek Elementary School! He was very excited and such a big boy. He was ready to say goodbye before we were! The theme at the school this year is Around the World in 180 Days and the kids were greeted with a caribean music...it almost felt like a cruise send off party minus the cocktails:) Even though Chase told me I could not peak in on his classroom, he did allow me to eat lunch with him. He says he likes this school better than his other one because he gets to stay longer. We asked him if he wanted to stay at this school until he was old enough to be a patrol like the 5th graders and he said yes but he "did not want to be a control" because he "did not want to help people." Oh well, I guess we will work on getting through kindergarten and getting "white with a star" on our calendar instead of red or blue...he did have to inform us that not everyone got a star today:) Stay tuned as we blog the adventures of Chase's adventures "Around the World in 180 days!"

Chase..."You're Gonna Miss This"

So bear with me as I get emotional over my little baby going to Kindergarten! Yes, Chase will start "big school" on Monday! Stay tuned for updates on the big 1st day of school!

Our Family Photo Session

I know most of you have seen these from our photo session in Destin, but I wanted to create a slide show so that I could view them all the time as well:) This blog is also my little virtual scrapbook! Hey...who has time to blog and scrapbook?? I don;t even really have time to blog...but it is much more fun than laundry! You wouldn't know that Caroline cried through almost the entire photo session...that is a good photographer for you! They are growing up to fast! It is nice to have these awesome photos to look at when we are having a not so awesome moment around here!

Angelo and Margaret's Wedding

The Skipper's traveled to Columbia, SC this weekend for my cousin Angleo's wedding. We had a great time visiting with the DiBiase crew as well as all of our aunts, uncles, and cousins from Georgetown and Conway. The ride up with Nana, Papa, Caroline, Chase and I was interesting as I got to sit in between the two wee ones. The five hour trip took us about 6 1/2 hours:) Allen somehow managed to be in Charlotte and got to drive BY HIMSELF(only 1 1/2 hours!!)

It was great to get the little ones together. Chase and Tilden are two peas in a pod. Caroline was not too impressed with the "real baby" (Carter) as she tried to remove him from his swing to place her own baby in there! Tilden and Carter are too cute!!

Chase was not able to attend the rehersal ( a lovely 24 hour stomach bug!!) Caroline was quite the party girl. She wanted to dance and be on stage the whole time.

Angelo and Margaret had a beautiful wedding and a fun reception:) Chase until morning and was very disappointed to have to leave at 10:30(what were we thinking!!) Gabriel...when you get married would you find us a babysitter???

We had a great time visiting with all of our family, we do not get to see eachother enough! Congrats Angelo and Margaret! Best wishes for a great life together!

Try out Smilebox.com

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I know these are not new pictures but I was trying out different websites that allow you to do "virtual scrapbooking" free! I did not have any new pictures(sad but true) so I used these again:) The website is Smilebox.com. There is another cool one that is a little more involved called Scrapblog.com, it has a lot of really neat layouts and stuff you can use to personalize. Smilebox is quick and easy as soon as you load your pictures. Try it out!

Our Summer Vacation

We went to Ft. Walton Beach for a week and stayed at a great place called Waterscape. We couldn't get Chase out of the lazy river!! Everyone had a great time. Chase got to ride a jet ski, although once he realized he was out where the sharks are, he wanted nothing to do with it. Caroline is not as much of a beach baby as Chase is and did not really like her feet being covered with sand, she much prefered to play in the condo and run up and down the halls screeching! Chase really wanted to just move into the condo, but we didn't hit the lotto so we are back to reality this week:)

Check out our family photo session:

Go to......Website: http://www.destinweddingphotographer.com/

Click on..."Clients" and then "order photos" look for....

Event Name: Skipper Family

Password: Lauren

Chase's Preschool Graduation

Chase graduated from Christ Church Preschool last week. It was bittersweet to watch him perform at the graduation. The first program we attended when he was 2 1/2 he literally hid behind the person in front of him and did not utter a word the whole time. For this program he was right up front singing every word and very proud to do so. Next year he goes to Kindergarten at Chet's Creek Elementary! I will be joining him part time as well. I will be "job sharing" a position and work 2 1/2 days a week teaching K, 1/2, and 5 gifted. Nana is counting down the days(and hours, and minutes...) until her retirement and she will be playing with Caroline on those 2 1/2 days. I am sure she will fill her other days as well...she can't seem to sit still so she and Caroline will be a good pair! Chase is VERY excited about summer "bacation." I hope I make it through the summer!!!

Hey Baby Let's Go to Vegas!

Allen and I went to Vegas this past weekend!! It was just us and 6 of our crazy crew...Kim and Erik, Kim and Daniel, and Philip and Lisa. We had a blast. I can't give you all the details because as you know...what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Allen and I did not win big and it is a shame because we came home to a 87 degree house...yes the AC was on the fritz. Is it just me, or do unexpected expenses always come up after vacation?? Anyway...we had a great time hanging out with the gang and pretending that we were young enough to stay out till 2:00am(did I mention that means 5:00am eastern??) It will probably be awhile until I recover! We walked miles and miles and that was mostly indoors! We got to hang out with Toby Keith. Where else but at his bar which is called...I Love this Bar Bar. He showed up and did an impromptu concert which was really cool. Much to our disappointment we did not run into Kenny Chesney, but our up close celebrity sightings include...David Spade, Jason Alexander, Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry, Kelli Pickler, members of Lady Antebellum and Little Big Town, Taylor Swift's band, Keith Urban's guitar player, and members of Miranda Lambert's band. Did I mention that we were in town to see the Acadamy of Country Music Awards?? It was amazing being there. The show was fabulous and for a bunch of country music fans like ourselves it was something we won't forget. Maybe next year they will ask me to be one of those seat fillers who gets to go sit in an artists seat when they get up to go somewhere else?? Who knows??

The Make-up Artist

Caroline has discovered markers and crayons. She has become quite the little make-up artist...poor Bitty Baby!

A day at the zoo...

Big Kids

Where does the time go? Lately both Caroline and Chase have seemed so "big." She is becoming such a "little girl" and not a baby and he is growing into a BOY, not a little boy anymore. Chase is constantly surprising me with his ever expanding vocabulary and his worldly wisdom. He already has that hint of "how can you be so dense mom?" in his voice and he is ONLY five!

Caroline is exploring her new "walking" world and the freedom that comes with her new wheels! A quiet moment when you are unaware of where she is, is never a good thing. It usually means that some form of destruction is going on, typically involving either the pantry or Chase's room. She has delivered the first of many retaliations on her brother by biting him and pulling his hair. As you can imagine these were not well received, but the verdict is still out on whether they were deserved or not:) She can turn the drama on in an instant!

I can promise you...unless they are asleep there is rarely a dull moment!!!

Papa's new pool...

The water finally warmed up enough for us to enjoy our 1st day in Nana and Papa's beautiful new pool:) Chase has already been in the hot tub several times, but Caroline got to try out the real pool and the special ledge Nana and Papa had made for the little ones. She LOVES the water just like her brother. She especially enjoys pouring water over her Papa's head! It was a beautiful Spring day doesn;t it make it worth every penny Papa??

Easter

I have gotten behind and several friends said they were tiring of "Go Marlins!" Here are some pics from Easter weekend. The kids had a great time dying Easter eggs, planting a garden, playing, and hunting for eggs! Chase refused to take any family photos, you will see him hiding in the bushes:) Caroline is now full speed ahead with walking with plenty of bumps and bruises to prove it! It is hard work keeping up with a big brother and his big friends. I think her hair is even longer now, it seems to grow everyday! I will get more recent pic and post soon:)

Go Marlins!

To make me smile!

Having one of those mornings when I want to run away...I must have looked pretty bad or been giving off a bad vibe because when I drove through Starbucks this morning they gave me my coffee on the house. It may also have been because I asked if they could put some Khalua in it?? I took that as a sign that I need to start turning my day around. I went through some pictures and they made me smile...hope I can do the same for someone else! It is really not THAT bad!!! The song is for my benefit..."pour me something tall and strong make it a hurricane before I go insane..." hey is has got to be five o'clock somewhere!!!

FINALLY!! 14 months

March is a big month for the Skipper kids! Although she has taken a few steps here and there today is the first day she really walked without prompting a long way. I was on the computer and I looked up and she had walked form the kitchen to the study and she had a big ole grin on her face. Here is video taken shortly after that first long trip. I also had to share the fit that came shortly after. It was VERY small compared to the ones we have seen latley. I must have been an angel as a child because my mom is always so shocked that her grandkids would ever act this way! Anyway...Yeah Caroline for FINALLY walking:) Now Nana can relax!!!

No Training Wheels!

There was BIG excitement in the Skipper house today! Chase rode his bike wihout training wheels for the first time and was an expert in about 15 minutes. He was VERY excited and looks so grown up riding down the street. Since it was a bike riding day, Caroline also got in the bike seat for the first time and the ride to the park was fun and exciting, but the ride back was not so much...I guess the helmet must mess up her hair or something, she wants NOTHING to do with it:)

Blue Mustang

Caroline and her babies

I couldn't resist posting these...such a "big girl" tending to her babies:)

Now that I'm 5...

Just a funny before I forget...Last night Chase got very worried at bedtime that because he was five that meant he was going to go to a new school today:) He said daddy I'm not ready we haven't gotten to 100 days yet(all of the teachers can appreciate the famous 100th day of school.)He is very excited about being 5:)

Happy Birthday Chase!

As hard as it is to believe that Caroline is 1, it is even harder to believe that Chase will turn 5 tomorrow! He had his birthday party on Saturday at My Gym where he takes gym classes. It was wild and we realized that as big as these boys are getting the number of attendees at future birthdays will have to come down! 12 boys and 3 girls is quite a sight...I still can not believe that Uncle Philip did not make the trip for that one! I think he was still recovering from having to jump in the bouncy house at Caroline's party:) Chase is like his mommy USED to be in that I loved my birthday and talked about it long before it arrived, somehow it is not quite that fun for me anymore! I hope he is not disappointed when he wakes up and he has not grown a few inches like he is expecting:) The party never ends here as we will have a birthday snack at school tomorrow, dinner at Dave and Busters and finally on Wednesday he will be recognized at chapel service at school...after that he will start planning the next one(no I am not joking at all!) Happy birthday Chase!!

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Happy Birthday Caroline! Our beautiful baby girl was one on January 8th! I can't believe it has been a whole year. Caroline LOVED her birthday cake as evidenced by the hot pink and purple frosting all over her face...she was not shy about digging into her cake! She is still moving around on all fours, doesn't really have much use for walking as a means for transportation just yet. She is very busy and manages to get into a lot! You know when she gets real quiet that she is most likely into something(like black paint all over her, her new shoes, and the floor!) She is such a happy baby and continues to bring so much joy into all of our lives(her big brother still has not asked to send her back:)) We couldn't imagine our lives without her...Happy birthday little c!