Turkey Weekend!

We went to Phoenix for Thanksgiving to spend some time with my (Shannon's) side of the family. We ate at my Uncle John's house and then the day after we spent the rest of the time in Sierra Vista where my Grandpa (My dad's dad) lives. It was good to see a lot of extended family that I havn't seen in awhile and a few relatives Jerry and Cohen havn't EVER seen, so it was nice.

This is Skinner Family Fun Day :) The picture was taken at an outdoor mall where we saw Side Line. We started the day out with breakfast at IHOP and then went bowling and then to a movie and then dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Cohen was descent during MOST of the movie but got a little antsy towards the end. His bowling skills are superior, he was so thorough that he chased the ball down the lane with his crazy mom chasin and slippin behind him! Coming out of dinner was interesting, the mall was hosting a rock concert right outside our restaurant...and trying to get Cohen out of there with a stroller was an experience.....I got all these dirty looks like "Who would bring a toddler to a rock concert!!!" And I looked back at them thinking (it's not like the concert was going on when i went IN to the restaurant!!! :) It was classic. It was fun to spend time with the whole fam-dam-ily :)

We then had good ol' Turkey Dinner with Uncle John and Aunt Barb and my cute cousins Kimmy, Katie and Scott!. As well as my Grandpa Skinner. It was delicious. Cohen however fed most of his to their dog.

After all the Turkey Goodness we were off to Sierra Vista, while staying with Gramps out there we went to Tombstone which Jerry had never been so it was kind of a fun thing to do.

We then went to Bisbee which is a town close to the border of Mexico, my grandmother was raised there and my dad spent a lot of his childhood there. It's a sweet hippy town.

A lot of people back in the day were employed in the mines.

This is the house that my Grandma along with the 13 OTHER kids in her family were raised. Can you even believe they fit all those people in there?
Standing on her porch

This is what most of the streets look like there....small, narrow and on wrong move, your off the mountain!

And the rest of our trip was catching up with family. Below are a few of my Grandma's sisters.
My Dad's cousins, aunt and uncle!

We were invited for Menudo....I ate Chili :) I don't eat menudo :).

At Grandpa's house, Beaux's (his dog) bed seemed to be Cohen's favorite place to be!

Gramps!

And finally, we went to my Grandma Skinner's grave. It was weird to be at her house with her not there. I miss her like crazy.

All in all it was a really good 5 days. I love my family.

22 Months

This is my sweet little man who is growing up too fast. We put this suit on him and he went all around the house going "Dad!!! Dad!!!!" with his arms outstretched, like he was hot stuff.

He is talking all sorts of nonsense, I love listening to all his jibber jabber that makes utter sense to him :). When ever I call his name he responds "YEAH!?!?!?" He has broken 4 christmas tree ornaments and a santa decoration as of this point.

Still loves balls more than any toy out there, but his monkey is a close 2nd.

The other night he had a bad dream, woke up screaming I went in there and he said "monkey! monkey!" I gave him his monkey, he then picked up his blanket and handed it to me and put his arms outstretched for me to take him and snuggle with him. He is a sweet heart.

He's definitely gotten very independent, he wants to do everything himself...(i.e.- eating, brushing his teeth etc.) He hates it when I give him a piece of a snack...he wants to hold the whole thing. The other day I broke in half a Nutrigrain bar, (half for him and half for me) you would think the world as he knows it crumbled!!!!!!!

He loves "snacks" mainly gummy snacks, popcorn, crackers, gold fish, that sort of thing, we can't keep him out of the pantry.

He knows how to open all the doors in the house now so we have to be pretty careful.

Nursery has been a challenge...he loved it the first couple weeks, and now he has complete emotional breakdowns when we get there. weird. Once we get him distracted he's okay, but he knows when he goes there that we are trying to leave...and he does NOT like that....so ...anyway, baby steps I guess.

He's obsessed with peoples ears. Loves to pull on them kiss them...whatever. kinda funny. When we are reading stories that's always the body part he points out in the picture.

He roars like a lion when he wants you to tickle or chase him.

And his smile completely lights up the room.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween was so fun this year!!! My mom had Cohen the week prior to Halloween....It was definitely tougher for me than him :) ha ha.. It was nice to have some down time but come Thursday I was ready to have my little guy back. He had a GREAT time with Grandma Skinner she brought him home on Friday and he was so cute! We got right back in the car and went to my sister in laws trunk-or -treat, Cohen didn't QUITE grasp the concept of trick-or- treating there , he just ran around chasing people in costumes and following cars...it was hillarious. He was an ELEPHANT and the most adorable thing on the planet (I'm a little biased) It was funny because the padding in the front and in the back made him waddle. HILLARIOUS!

Then on Saturday morning we went Christmas shopping with my mom (yes, already...CRAZINESS) and we went to lunch...then she took off back to AZ and Cohen and I went home, he took a nap...he woke up...we did a little pumpkin carvin' and we got him dressed up and were off for our real trick or treating!!!

Got pulled over on the way there but I got so so sOOOOOOO lucky...because my sister in law's brother in law is a cop and he totally got me out of it......THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU CLINT!!! YOu and Michelle have a little surprise coming! Anyways....The neighborhood we trick or treated in was a MAD house!!! I've never seen so many people on the same block in my life. Cohen finally grasped the "going to get candy" concept . HE LOVED IT> the only thing he WASNT lovin....was when anyone with a scary mask got real close to him...he got kind of scared. All in all it was a good time :).

Hannah's Soccer Game in Mesa!

We took a little road trip to visit my youngest sister Hannah at college. She plays soccer for Mesa Community and we got to go to her last game of the season. Of course Hannah tore it up and we were oh so proud. Most of my family was able to make it (with the exception of my dad and little sister Dani) so it was fun to catch up with almost everyone :). Here are a few pictures. It was pretty cute at the game, there was like this 4 or 5 year old girl that was trying to teach him how to ride her tricycle and at the end planted a smoocher on him....the people in the stands started cheering. It was so cute and so funny :).
GO AUNT HANNAH!!!