A long and wonderful weekend!

Happy late Independence Day! We had a great weekend here at the Skinner house. Josh took off Friday so we had a 4 day weekend.

Thursday and Friday were spent at home trimming bushes and playing in the yard. It was hot but Anna's pool provided relief. Thursday evening we went to the ISCA house to celebrate the holiday. Good food, friends, and conversation! The house has totally changed and looks great. Anna enjoyed playing in her old stomping grounds. After the kids were in bed, josh burned the bush trimmings and that was our "fireworks" for the night. We did see some in our neighborhood and even had some parachutes land in our yard:)

Saturday we went out and about. We made it to Homegoods in Rogers and found a rug for the house :). Afterwards we ate at On the Border and had an excellent dinner!! The kids did great until we went back to Homegoods after dinner. Josh did great entertaining them while I went to pay for the rug.

Sunday Josh watched the kids so I could do more errands, and then we all went to Home Depot together. It was a nice trip and we got a few necessities for some home projects. 

 

AND...I finished Anna's valance (finally) for her room.  Here is a look:

 

 

We really had a great weekend and enjoyed our down time.  It was a blessing from the Lord. 

Busy May

May has been pretty busy for us! With graduation parties, end of year parties, students moving out and in, and a busy baby, we've not had many dull moments.  Here are some pictures to let you know what we've been up to:

Anna loves getting into cupboards and drawers...

Tie-Dye Party!

Sweet Philly graduated!

N & P's graduation party

Birthday lunch with Sandy

Anna warmed up to Sandy quickly!!

Birthday date with Josh!

May is not over, but its been a great month so far.  I had a great birthday & Josh surprised me by taking me out to a nice dinner while one of our friends watched Anna.  It was a nice night!!

Josh has been traveling a good bit, so we have really enjoyed weekends at home to connect as a family.  We are so thankful for his job, even if it does require some extra travel. 

The rest of May will be just as fun, as my aunt comes to visit this week and Josh's family visits next weekend. I'm looking forward to it! 

Easter Weekend Highlights

We had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Here were the highlights:

- We remembered the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He went through a terrible death to pay for our sins and  rose again to give us new life.  It is sweet and humbling to remember the sacrifice He made for us. 

- Some friends unexpectedly came to church with us, along with one of the girls in our house.  We were like a big family going into church together, a nice change for us!

- Our friends stayed for lunch [we invited them for lunch at the last minute once we knew they were coming to church with us].

- Anna went for two walks with daddy (she missed a nap and this helps give her down time and fresh air) and played at the nursery at church.

 Here are some Easter pics I took of Anna the week before Easter, along with a picture at an event on campus hosted by the African Student Organization.  I only captured 1 smile, but I still love all of her expressions.  I'm bringing some prints to y'all in Michigan :)

We dressed in our African garb!

Two Bunnies! (they were both born in year of rabbit:) )

We had special visitors for lunch!

Day Trip to the Museum

Last week was spring break for the students here, and so we took advantage of the time off by taking a trip north-- 30 miles north.  It had rained all week, and I think all of us were ready to get out of the house.  We decided to visit the new art museum has opened here and it is AMAZING!  I'm so glad we got to see it.  It was really packed and we had to ride a shuttle because the parking lots were full.  I guess everyone else had our same idea! Here are some pics:

Eating lunch downtown - before the rain came.

The walls were all glass!

The museum is built around a lake fed by a natural spring.

The girls did great keeping Anna entertained!

We had a great time, and I highly recommend the museum. It's totally free and has some impressive pieces. I was also impressed by their nursing room.  They let me have a locked room all to myself with couches and a bathroom so I could feed Anna.  It was so convenient.

Beware of nudity in some sculptures and paintings!

I'm looking forward to going back on a sunny day!

Spring Cleaning & 9 months

 Anna turned 9 months Saturday.  We had a work day here at our house, which means the residents all came together to do some projects around the houses.  It was a beautiful day and we made good progress! The yard looks great at both houses, and I hear that the boy's house fridge underwent a massive cleaning.  In our own house, we did the fridge, cleaned windows, the porch, and cleaned out the basement.  Josh even made some money from recycling some electronics that haven't been working for a couple of years.  It was a VERY productive morning! 

Anna really enjoyed being outside! We enjoyed her company too!

We had her doc appt yesterday and she is still in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight.  I was comforted by this, knowing she is getting the nutrition she needs!

Here are some of her favorite activities:
- reading & eating books
- eating cheerios
- being around babies
- being outside
- playing with magnets on the fridge
- looking at the mirror
- chasing or being chased by dad while crawling

She is still taking two naps, wearing size 3 diapers, and eating lots of food.  This week she started eating chunks of food.  She has eaten banana chunks and sweet potato chunks.  She is really getting the hang of chewing her food, even though she still has no teeth. 

Josh and I have enjoyed watching this girl be on the move.  She loves crawling and exploring.  She will sometimes open a drawer in her room and just pull all the clothes out.  It's pretty cute, even if I do have to clean it up! 

She even tries to crawl in her sleep:

The pictures were taken by Josh during his nightly mission to check on Anna before we go to sleep.  You never know what you will find when you go in to check on her! I'll leave you with a sweet picture from Saturday.  It's such a blessing to have good friends near by who can stop and hang out on a pretty day!

Weekend Events

Our weekend started with Josh staying home from work on Friday because of a virus.  Thankfully he can work from home.

Well, on Friday night, as I was reading to Anna before bed, she started rubbing her eyes profusely.  I thought  to myself "I better put her down quick, this girl is tired".  Well, I started to get her ready for bed and noticed that her right eye was really red and had some bumps under it.  I kinda freaked out and ran to get Josh's thoughts.  Meanwhile, Anna's eye was looking more and more red.  I decided to text our doctor (she is a friend of ours), but didn't hear back.   I was worried because Anna has a history of allergies, and I thought this may be an allergic reaction.  Then her left eye started doing the same thing.  I noticed other red patches on her arms and back and on one ear.  What was happening????

After talking to Josh's mom, who is a nurse and calling our doctor office, we started to calm down.  It seemed like a mosquito or similar bug had bitten Anna in several places.  The spots looked a lot like mosquito bites and would get larger as she scratched.  So, we decided to give her a bath and help her get to bed.  We couldn't give her any anti-itch medicine because of her age...so I just held down her arms in her crib until she was almost asleep.  Thankfully, it worked!! I cancelled our doc appt for that evening (they stay open past 8pm - how wonderful!).  We all got much needed rest that night. 

Saturday and Sunday were much more relaxing.  Anna is really enjoying exploring our house.  She discovered the magnets on the fridge this weekend and had a great time trying to take them off.  Don't worry, we watched her carefully!

Josh and I relaxed for the weekend, since he was sick and I am still fighting a virus I had a couple of weeks ago.  I worked a cross-word puzzle (and did terrible) while Josh played suduko and Anna played.  Last night, we watched Sister Act with the girls in our house and it was HILARIOUS!! I don't think I've ever watched the whole movie! We really enjoyed it, especially since our house mate from Kenya is Catholic.  She said that nunneries are really strict over in Kenya.  Anyways, we had a good laugh and now are planning to watch Sister Act II soon!

Hope ya'll had a good weekend too! I also found a project on Pinterest that I'm looking foward to doing...more about that later!

Chinese New Year and Random Pics...

Here are some pictures from the last month or so.  We took Anna to her first Lunar New Year event on campus, which was hosted by the Chinese student group.  She accidentally wore a tiger hat (it is the year of the dragon...) 

Hi Mom!! I love your camera...

Anna and Wancheng...Wancheng gave her the hat when she came back from China.

Anna got a lot of attention at the New Year celebration.  Even though this sweet lady did not speak English, her smiles and games with Anna were the same as ours :).  It's amazing how babies light up a room!

 Here is Anna after eating avacado, one of her favorite foods!

There is snow on the ground today! But it's too cold to play outside, so Anna I will just admire it from the window!!

December Fun

We've been having some fun in December! The weather has turned colder, family has popped in, and we had a Christmas celebration before school ended.  Here are some pictures!

Christmas Fest is ISCA's annual Christmas party for the community.  There are international performances, food, and family traditions.  It's basically Christmas from around the world.  It's always a great time.   

Lindz, Stephanie, Fang, and Me!

Beautiful Kenyan dress!

Representing Nigeria

 Here are some from family visiting.  My gram and my mom came during the week that Josh was out of town.  We played, shopped, and played some more.  What a blessing family is!

GiGi and Anna before bed

sweet!

watching tv with grandma

At the square looking at the lights!

Do you like her hat??

 It's pretty funny to put hats on Anna.  She doesn't mind if they cover her face, instead she just leaves it wherever it lands.  I always move it for her. 


Here are some pics of Anna playing with Daddy. I think Anna is going to be a lot like Josh.  I just notice little things that remind me of him. 

More from December soon!!! Anna turns 6 months on Christmas Eve :)

Family Fun

We went to Little Rock this past weekend.  It was great to see Josh's brothers and his parents.  The only downside was Anna's growth spurt.  While I'm excited that she is growing, Anna only took about 1 hour worth of a nap on Saturday and needed to eat a lot.  We knew we were in for a rough day.  While the crying did give us a headache the next day, Anna seemed totally fine afterwards.  She apparently is over it now.  It lasted about 3 days and nights.  She's back to normal now, for the most part.  She did great in Little Rock considering her lack of sleep!

Josh missed the memo to wear Nike

Tired, growing baby!

Josh's brother and his family

These last two pictures are just from around the house.  I'm having to strap Anna in her bouncy seat now because she can squirm out.  She really wants to be mobile.  The picture on the right is from Halloween.  We just stayed inside and had a low key night.  Maybe we will trick or treat next year.  

Good news:  I bought a new camera.  I got a GREAT deal on a Nikon Coolpix from Target.  I'm excited because I already know how to use a Coolpix and I have all the gear for it. No more blurry cell phone pictures...or maybe just not as many. 

On another note, I made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup.  It was a hit with Josh and something I'll add to my normal routine of cooking.  Here is the website for the soup recipe. 

I'm also hoping to make this pumpkin smoothie sometime soon.  Click here for the recipe.

photo courtesy of Pioneer Woman (www.thepioneerwoman.com)

We should have a low key weekend.  I'm excited about the Alabama-LSU game on Saturday night.  Should be a great game.  I haven't decided who I'm rooting for yet...