Eli's New Toy

Last Saturday afternoon Daddy and Eli went on a man outing to the 4 wheeler store. At one point during their outing I called to ask Brian a question and got an ear full about how great the 4 wheelers are and how much Eli likes them. Brian has been talking about getting one for Eli, I thought we had just been talking until they came home.

Eli LOVES his new ride!



He wants to ride all the time. It doesn't matter that with the heat index it's over 100 degrees. He will ride around until his head is all sweaty and the sweat is stinging his eyes.



He's into posing silly in pictures right now. He's usually throwing up "toddler" signs or some sort of kung fu action pose. He's a riot!




So far he has done great with his 4 wheeler. We have had only one little accident. Daddy let him drive it around back to park it in the back garage and he didn't know how to stop and was stopped by the garage door. That left a good size dent in the garage door, but Eli wasn't hurt. Just scared him. After that Brian has been working on braking with him.




Daddy and Eli driving around.

To paraphrase a line from the movie Tommy Boy , "Fat guy on a little bike."
For those of you who don't know the movie, It's a joke. Brian and I reference it quite often.

It's Fishing Time

The kids finally got the chance to shake the dust off their fishing poles. We went down to Grandma Cindy's lake house to spend some time with the family (Grandma, Hoppy, Uncle Jason, Aunt Angela, cousins Grace and Sophia) and to fish.

Daddy is supervising and helping when ASKED.



Eli had been asking for a while to go fishing, so he was thrilled. He has a really good cast and is probably just a summer away from being able to go on fishing tournaments with Hoppy and Uncle Jason.




Concentration is key when fishing.




What is better after an afternoon of fishing than ice cream?







Tatum enjoyed the ice cream a little more than she enjoyed fishing.

Mom can I have a little drink?

Some of my favorite memories as a kid took place during the summer. I can remember working in the garden with my Mom and Grandma on different occasions and getting a nice cold drink of plastic flavored water from the hose. I can still remember how the water smelt and tasted. It was awesome! So, when we were playing outside one afternoon and Tatum asked for a drink I pulled out the hose. I think she must have liked it too, now when we are outside she wants to drink from the hose. That a girl!




I took these pictures the first time she got to drink from the hose.



It took her a little bit to get her technique down, but she figured it out.




Tatum said, " I like it mom, I do!" "That's great Tatum, can I have a drink too?" Her reply, "NO IT"S MINE MOMMY!"

Pictures

We went and had the kids pictures taken last week. Here are some of the better shots.

I'm going to take Evan back when he is 3 months and his personality is really starting to show. Everyday we see a little more. He is starting to smile at us and will talk a little too. I love the big toothless grins. It never gets old.

Introducing Evan Patrick

Evan Patrick joined our family on February 25th at 3:55 PM. He weighed in at 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 inches long. We named him Evan after Brian's dad and Patrick after my uncle who passed away from cancer in his early thirties.

Labor and delivery went fine. We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 to be induced, around 8:00 I was hooked up and ready to start the process. At 3:50 it was time to push and 5 minutes and 5 pushes later Evan was born. I had a great delivery nurse and support system, Brian and my Mom.

It's hard to tell who he looks like. Everyone has a different opinion. He does look like Eli in some ways and Tatum in some ways too. I think he mostly looks like himself.




Eli and Tatum were excited to come and see Evan, after Eli got over his initial disappointment. When he found out he had a new baby BROTHER he cried because he wanted a baby SISTER.

I still can remember the looks on their faces when they first saw Evan, very sweet and adoring. They were in awe and climbed up on the bed to get a better look.




Eli has gotten over his disappointment and has grown to love little Evan. Eli has such a tender heart and is a good helper with the baby. Eli loves to sing and will sit down and sing to Evan when he is fussy. It works every time, Evan will stop crying and listen to him. That's what is going on in this picture. Eli's favorite song to sing is "Away in a Manger" or another song he makes up.





Eli, Mommy and Evan hanging out.

We are learning to adjust to having 3 kids. So much harder than I had expected. Wow! Eli and Tatum are acting up a little more, which is probably normal with the change. What's interesting is they know when to act up. I can pretty much count on them to start fighting or doing something they know they are not to do once I start to nurse Evan. It is getting better each day and we are having a good time.

It's My Party

We had a big family birthday party for Eli and Tatum on February 16th. I was wanting to get the party in before Evan was born and we made it with 9 days to spare. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, they probably enjoyed playing more than getting gifts. I can't believe Eli is 4 and Tatum is 2. It doesn't seem like it has been that long. It reminds me of the Kenny Chesney song, Don't Blink. "Don't blink, you just might miss your babies growin' like mine did."



This is a good picture of Tatum because she doesn't have her eyes closed. When we take her picture she likes to say cheese and close her eyes real tight. She didn't say cheese here because her thumb was in her mouth. Go figure. At least we can see her big eyes.




Eli in his birthday chair opening presents.




Eli's birthday theme was Star Wars...of course what else could it have been. I had a fun time looking for his R2D2 cake pan. Wilton retired the pan and it has not been made since 1982. The best place to get them now is on Ebay. I found one and bought it for $62.00. Wow! It gets even better. When my Aunt Linda saw the cake she said I have an R2D2 cake pan. I never would have thought my Aunt with two daughters would have a Star Wars cake pan. Oh, well $62 well spent. The things we do for our kids.

PaPa is helping Eli blow out his candles.




Tatum's favorite cartoon is Little Bear so we had a bear party for her. She really enjoyed the party, especially blowing out the candles and everyone singing to her.

Pee Wee Hoops

We recently started PeeWee Hoops. I say we even though it is really Eli's age group, but Tatum not wanting to be left out joins in every week! Eli and Tatum both enjoy running around and learning the basics of the game. An added bonus is our friend and neighbor Christie is on the "team" too. Of course her little brother, baby Tyler comes along which makes Tatum happy.

They are learning the basics of basketball, such as stretching, passing, dribbling and shooting baskets.




Eli is getting warmed up for practice (brown shirt).




Tatum is getting ready too (purple shirt).




Here they are getting in line to run sprints. Eli LOVES this part because he wants to come in first. He comes in first just about every time. He is a good runner! Tatum will run the sprints too. She is not bad either. She doesn't finish first, but she doesn't finish last either. That is pretty good considering she is running with 3 and 4 year olds.



Eli is working on shooting baskets. This station usually entertains him for a while as long as he is able to make his first shot. If he misses a few he gets discouraged and doesn't want to do that anymore.

It's always fun for the kids to participate and fun for us to watch. Next Eli wants to take swim lessons, we were going to look into soccer again. Maybe we will do both, since he talks about swimming a lot. Stay tuned.

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.