You Better Watch Out, You Better...

Eli, Tatum, Mommy, Grandma Cindy, Aunt Angela, Cousin's Grace and baby Sophia went to see Santa Claus this week. We went to Crown Center and had a great afternoon. Santa was in Crayola Village, which had a lot of fun things for the kids to do. They got to play on several slides and tunnels and the Village had other interactive stations for them to try.

After we saw Santa we had lunch at Fritz's. The kids thought that was great. This was the first time we have been. You get to order your lunch on a telephone and a train brings your lunch to the table. Tatum really had fun watching the train and asking, "Where did it go? Here it comes!" We want to go back real soon with Daddy.

After lunch we walked over to Union Station, they have a link so we didn't have to go outside. We went to the Station to ride the Christmas Train they have set up, but it's closed on Monday. We were a little disappointed. We did get to see a huge model train display. Eli, Grace and Tatum chased each other around Union Station. Do you think they were tired after all that?




Eli was not shy about Santa and sat right up on his lap. When Santa asked Eli what he wanted for Christmas, Eli said, "I don't know yet." I found that funny since EVERYTHING he sees on T.V. he tells us that he wants that for Christmas. I don't think he really understand about Santa yet. Come Christmas morning I'm sure he will have figured it out. Tatum wanted nothing to do with Santa. She started to cry and didn't want to sit on his lap. We didn't force her. When I asked her latter why she didn't want to sit on Santa's lap she told me, "I was scared. I wanted my blankie." Her blankie is her comfort item. Maybe next year she will want to talk with Santa.




Eli is having fun sliding down one of the slides in the Village.




Tatum is sliding too. This slide was her favorite and she pretty much did this one the whole time. For some reason she kept going down this one on her tummy. The other slides she went down on her bottom.




Cousin Grace and Tatum stopping for a picture.




Eli and Cousin Grace saying goodbye. It really was a fun day! The kids enjoyed playing with each other and just having fun. We are lucky that they are so close in age and have so much fun together. It's only going to get better and crazier once Sophia is up and walking and the new little Skurdal arrives. How lucky are we!

Yum Yum

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas. This includes baking and making special treats for our friends and teachers. Eli really likes to cook and is a good helper. Any chance he gets he wants to help cook or make something. So, this year we let him make some special treats for his teachers at Mother's Day Out.




Eli and Grandma Billie are making some chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles.




Eli couldn't wait to try one! He was using his pretzel as a spoon to eat the chocolate.




We even got to make some cookies with Grandma Cindy and Cousin Grace. They all had fun using the cookie cutters and adding the perfect amount of sprinkles.




Tatum even got in on the fun. We had to watch her though. She would steal the dough and run off to eat it! She is at the stage where I know she is doing something wrong when she runs away to hide and do it. She knows she shouldn't be doing it, that's what's interesting to me. It's amazing how that sin nature in us is evident in even a 1 year old. I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I will hide and try to get away with it. She will usually run away to eat her boogers, so I guess cookie dough isn't that bad!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. Eli really got into the whole experience and Tatum had fun running around saying, "Thank you" to everyone who gave her candy. I don't think she really knew she was getting candy, which is good. We went to a costume party and mom and dad got to bring out their 70's outfits. We all had a great Hallowwen.




We carved our pumpkins. Eli is drawing out what he wanted his pumpkin to look like so daddy could carve the face.




Eli and Tatum cleaned out the inside of the pumpkins. At first they didn't like doing it, Tatum said, "yucky", but after a while they started to have fun.




Eli and Tatum showing off their carved pumpkins.




We got to trick or treat in style with friends, Christie and baby Tyler. Christie, or her parents, have a Ranger and they took us all around the neighborhood. Sure beats walking. Eli and Tatum both love riding around on the Ranger. When we got home I asked Eli if he had fun he said, "Yes, but I was starting to get cold and the wind was in my face so I closed by eyes (like this) and I was okay."

Johnson Farms Here We Come

We went to a local pumpkin farm this week. Johnson Farms is here in Belton and Eli and Tatum had a blast. The weather was perfect, 65 and sunny with a little breeze. They got to play on the HUGE slides, see some baby chickens and pigs, we also saw some horses and goats. After we visited all the animals we went on a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch were the kids got to pick their own pumpkins.



Tatum driving the play tractor.




Eli saying hello to the new little chicken. He is very gentle with animals and they seem to respond to him. It's fun to watch.




Tatum picked out her own pumpkin. She knew which one she wanted and wouldn't budge. Typical Tatum and every other Skurdal in the family.





Eli is cutting the vine on his pumpkin. He didn't have any trouble finding the one he wanted. Eli is anxious to start carving.







Tatum really enjoyed seeing all the animals. I think she is really starting to understand that the big animals we don't get to see everyday are real, not just pictures in books. She liked the horse. Tatum was very social and polite. She was talking to the horse, "Hi horsey, how are you?" With some of the other animals she would say in her broken toddler talk, "Hi, what's your name? I'm Tatum." She is funny.



They had an area to pose and try to get some cute fall pictures. Tatum found the most pointed pumpkin and tried to sit on the top! She didn't like that and said, "Ouch, that hurts." You can kind of tell by her expression she did not like it much.





Eli is pouting here because Mommy made a mistake and he was mad! He told me, "I'm not going to smile, I'm just going to sit here." He was upset because the farm had made a dragon out of haystacks. I thought we could walk through the dragon since it looked opened. I was wrong and of course it was the end of the world.




The fresh air and sunshine was great and wore us all out. Tatum had a hard time staying awake on the way home, after a while she just gave up.

Random Thoughts

I can't decide. Is it, "You talkin' to me?" or "Watcha talkin' about mama?"



As Fat Bastard would say, "Get in my belly."




"Run it's the one eyed monster" contributed by Eli.




This is the way Eli gets his hair cut. He says, "Mom I'm putting the tape on my mouth so the hair won't get in." Pretty ingenious.

Pee-Wee Soccer

Eli started his pee-wee soccer league on Saturday. They are teaching the kids the fundamentals of soccer, with the parents help. Eli thought it was cool that Daddy was his coach. On the way to practice, he kept asking if Daddy was going to be his coach.



Eli got to practice being a goalie.




He worked on passing the ball. Daddy taught him how to kick the ball with the inside of his foot. Eli is working on that in this picture.




The practice didn't hold his attention long. During the passing drill he picked up a dandelion and started plucking the leaves off one by one saying, "She loves me, she loves me, she loves me." We didn't stay for the whole practice, Eli didn't want to participate in the activities once he decided he had enough. He said, "I'm ready to go home and play Star Wars now. I will want to stay next time when I don't have this bad cough." He had been sick, and but was better by Saturday. Has he already learned that being sick can get him out of doing things? If so we are in trouble.

Party Time

Happy Birthday Eli and Tatum. We had a huge birthday party for them on Saturday. It was wild and chaotic, but now that I think about it the best parties usually are. They were surrounded by family that showered them with love and presents.

Eli and Tatum are waiting for the guests to arrive. When Eli saw everyone coming he said, " Oh boy, oh boy everyone I know is here!" He was very excited.



They both received so many gifts. They are very spoiled! This is a picture of them together before the circus of opening presents started. I was trying to keep every thing organized. I knew I was in trouble when I looked up from helping Tatum with some of her presents and saw only pink presents left on the table. I don't know how Eli knew but he managed to open all the presents for him and left the ones for Tatum. I was kind of impressed that he knew which ones were his and I was shocked at how fast he tore threw them. A big change from Christmas. Thank goodness Aunt Angela was keeping track of who gave what, I didn't have a clue.




Eli's birthday theme was Buzz Lightyear, of course. He had Buzz balloons, plates, napkins and a Buzz cake. He really liked the cake, before the party he kept getting the step stool out to look it. I was afraid he was going to put his hand in it or something.




This party was a little more special for Tatum since it was her first. Even though she had no clue what was going on she had fun. She had a special onesie made for her that had a cupcake on it with one candle in the cupcake. We put that on so she could eat her cake and not worry about getting her dress dirty. She also had a cute birthday hat.




When we brought her cake to her and sang she thought that was the best. She was grinning ear to ear and giggling.




It took her a little while to figure out what to do with the cake. Once she got the idea there was no stopping her. She did get a little carried away, she started throwing the cake. She has a good arm; she managed to get some on the wall and the couch.



Forget Campbell's, birthday cake is Mmm Mmm Good.

She's Graduated!

After wearing her STARband helmet for 3.5 months Tatum has graduated! We are very happy with the results. I'm happy to have a "baby" to cuddle with again and smell her sweet head. Her head would get really sweaty and stinky under the helmet. She doesn't seem to notice it is gone, well that is until she bumps her head and realizes that it hurts.

God has really blessed us during this time. He has been amazing. For starters we had a great doctor who recognized the problem early and referred us to a specialist. Other families are not that lucky, because some doctors tend to dismiss plagiocephaly. We were told it is unlikely that insurance will cover the helmet because it is seen as a purely cosmetic procedure. We prayed about this and not only did insurance cover the helmet, but they approved it in 3 days. Anyone who has ever dealt with medical insurance knows that this is pretty uncommon. If insurance didn't pay it would have cost us $3,000. When she was first diagnosed they said she would have to wear the helmet for 4-6 months. Most likely 6 months because her case was pretty bad. Now, 3.5 months later we are done. It has really been a positive experience.



This is a picture when she was first diagnosed in August of 2006.




Another view of her head.



Ta Da the end result. You look marvelous baby!

And She's Off!

Tatum has just mastered the art of climbing stairs. She is very good and fast at climbing them, which brings on some new challenges for us. We have resorted to putting a gate between our living room and the door to the stairs. Every time the gate is down she is making a beeline for the stairs. Her little personality is so cute. If we see her going we will say no Tatum, she will look back at us smile and start crawling at warp speed towards the stairs giggling the whole way. This is the first thing she has challenged us on. Elijah doesn't help the matter any. If he sees her going he encourages her, "Go on Tatum, you can do it." Seriously, I'm not sure if he wants to see her climb the stairs or if he wants to see her get in trouble. My guess is he wants to see someone else get in trouble.





Wow, this is fun. Look at me go.



Concentration is key.

Gratification! Big smile, I did it.

Oh What Fun!

Eli got to get out and play in the snow this weekend. We got about 3 inches of good snow. Good snow being the kind you can sled on and the kind that makes a good snowman. Eli did it all. He enjoyed his first outing this year. For starters he got to play in the backyard with Morgan. "Mommy, I love Morgan, she is my best friend." They sled down the hills in the yard, went down the slide on the swing set to clean it off and then they made a snowman. It was a pretty tall snowman, tallest one in the neighborhood so you know they had some help! After they got tired of the hills in the yard they went up to the community center to sled on their hills. They have some great hills that are always packed when we get good snow.




Eli and Daddy going down a hill in the backyard. Eli was all smiles every time he went down a hill. He loved every part of the day.



Eli and Morgan getting pulled on the sled.




Eli and Morgan by the "perfect" snowman. The snowman did have a carrot nose, but Eli got hungry. I'm not sure what happened to his arm, poor guy.