The Riley Tree

There was a special spirit at Primary Children's hospital the moment I walked in the front door. An overwhelming feeling that the veil was very thin throughout this miraculous place. We saw an ity-bitty little girl in a gown pushing her IV stand as if it was no big deal, a baby being pushed in a crib down the hall, parents holding their baby going for a walk. I'm telling you I was on the verge of tears the entire hour we were there.

Brittany and I had the privileged of going with Grandmas White to set up a tree on the 3rd floor of the hospital. The tree is filled with toys, coloring books, puzzles...all kinds of things to brighten a child's day. Grandmas has been doing this tree for years. She started doing this tree when a young neighbor boy passed away. This is how the Riley tree came about.

We completed the tree and with much thanks from the nurses we headed down the hall to leave. One of the nurses decided to go get a boy who was recovering. She said he had a rough morning and hoped this would help him smile. We stopped and watched the boy come from his room. Sadness filled my heart as I saw this maybe 7 year old boy. His head was swollen, shaved and had large zig-zagged stitches from ear to ear. His eyes were glassy and red. Down the hall and around the corner he went. As soon as he saw the tree he just lit up. He crouched to his knees and started to pick out his present.

I can't really put into words how I felt. My heart ached. This year, can we all please take the time to give of our time, talents or monetary means to help someone in need. We are unable to put on the Bloggers Give Back Project this year, so I'm looking for another way to help someone in need. Do you know of anyone? This season is just not the same for me unless I find a way to brighten someones life.

Keep the spirit of giving and love bright this Christmas season. Love you all!!

..........

XOXOXO     

my world is...

this picture is me and steele to a tee.

look at his little bashful smile.

his coyly shrugged shoulders combined

with his "mom's going to tickle me again" smirk.

i can say my whole heart loves steele.

every mischievous bit of him.

me...

 always wanting to squeeze his guts out and then kiss him to death.

asking him for loves way too often and he almost always replies "ok".

in love with steele's personality right now.

makes my heart melt into million pieces by the things he says.

he talk well beyond his age.

serious smarty pants on our hands,

but i'll refrain from bragging.

he also has become quite the photographer. 

i let him take pictures with my old camera now that i have a new one.

he's gotten pretty good. 

i can't help but laugh at the pictures he gets.

pretty good right?

love my steele wheeley. 

just wanted to make sure he got some love here too. 

i'm one lucky mommy!

  

pear pear, month by month five

this is my perry girl.

who do you think she looks like?

i think she has both of us in her.

i've never been a good judge 

of who my kids look like. 

they just look like them.

i love her eyes. 

steele's eyes were very blue too but 

are now a grayish blue with a brown center.

i hope her's stay this way.

she is such a sweet baby and

i'm trying to soak up every second of her.

i love the way she pulls me toward her

and gnaws on my face. i think of it

as her way of giving me loves.

she enjoys chewing on her binki 

more than she does sucking on it.

she is always biting down on 

everything and drools all over the place. 

i don't think she's teething yet but

 she sure has discovered her mouth.

anything within her reach is in her mouth! 

she is so talkative. 

every morning she wakes up so happy 

and just chatters util i come get her.

she is still sleeping about ten hours a night. 

can i just say how much i dislike the time change.

sure wish kids got the memo! 

i'm trying to start regular naps.

it is so hard because she still likes to 

take mini naps all day long.

and i love to hold her when she sleeps.

she is just so precious. 

i forgot to document her stats at four months.

now i've forgotten exactly what she was.

i can remember;

height 95%

weight 13lbs 14 oz

she rolled over for the fist time a few days ago. 

she did it over and over again. 

today i tried to get her to do it and she wouldn't.

funny girl. i love everything about her precious spirit. 

she really is such a special little thing.

love you pear pear!

sundance get-away

our little get-away was to the overton's cabin up in sundance.
beautiful views of stuart falls, vibrant leaves, great food and awesome people.
loved the time with family, extra sleep and heated games of bs and scum.
my family always knows how to have a good time.
till next time skousen fam!

i heart halloween

i think i like halloween more and more as steele gets older.
dressing up is the best part of halloween and seeing steele light up
when he puts his costume on is just the cutest thing ever!

since the day steele's wolverine costume arrived in the mail he has been ob.sessed.
in fact i ordered the wrong size and couldn't send it back because
he bawled for a half hour straight when i put it back in the package.
if he doesn't mind having a wedgie then why should i. haha. it really is too small.
he even changes his voice when he wears the costume.
he all of a sudden hits puberty and sinks his voice as low as he can.
he'll say"i'm wolverine. i'm dangerous."
then he'll cut the voice and tell you "i not a scary guy though. i'm a nice guy."

you could say i'm a fan of a good costume.
when i was younger me and my best friend kelli would dress up for every holiday!
we were positively awesome in every way.


and then there is brett.
he is not such a fan of dressing up but somehow
every year i ,coax him into an awesome costume with me.
this year i think is one of my favorites.
brett looks totally awesome.
he was SUCH a baby about painting his face!!
he kept saying "i could never be a girl. i hate this. oh i hate this."
wimp.

brett always has fun with it once he gives in.
he kept sneaking into peoples pictures and would just stick his head out.
it was a good laugh but definitely a little creepy.

my little purring perry.
i thought she needed a sweet costume so this little kitty was purrfect :)

we truly have the best family.
i love that everyone gets into the fun of halloween.

the birthday girl.
hallie turned 6 so we had a halloween dress-up party for her.
brittany always knows how to throw a party!
everything looked great!
and her girls were adorable.
strawberry short cake and audrey hepburn.

 a few other fun fall activities we've been up to...

picking our very own pumpkins at the farnworth's.
it was raining and windy which just added to the fun of it.
funny that steele chose the smallest pumpkin he could find.
and can i just say that i love that steele is closing his eyes in this picture.
he used to smile like this all the time but now he only give a stiff half smirk.
my little boy is growing up.

hee haw farms...

steele and bentley have recently become good little buddies. 

they are inseparable, running around everywhere together.

i love that steele is finally to the age where they can play and entertain each other.

today was a beautiful day at the farm. 

a bunch of us from my neighborhood went over. 

carrie, bentley and esther came too. 

and now the whole skousen gang is headed off to a cabin up in sundance for the weekend!
we love little get-a-ways like this, especially when the weather is supposed to be nice.
fingers crossed.

happy halloween everyone.
i encourage all of you to dress up!!

this is us fall 2011

last weekend we jumped at the chance to take
family pictures while the leaves where still beautiful.
my friend nikki is amazing!
go visit her at sweet lilac photography.
she has an unbeatable fall special going on.

i love how our fall pictures turned out.
little perry did so good and steele did too...for the most part.
aren't perry's eyes so blue?! she is such a precious baby.
and look at the smile in the first pic...seriously she is adorable.

steele would not smile in the beginning so we kept bribing him by
saying do you want a REALLY big sucker?
then he would do this weird under-bite smile. haha.
something seemed to click by the end of the shoot.

risky business wearing red lips but i like how it looks in a picture.
brett doesn't like any kind of lipstick. at. all. so it was very brave of me to do so.
i even got a comment from my brother in law saying, "wow, you look like a hooker."
i've been asked were i get my kids outfits, so here is run down of what we're wearing.

steele... vest: thrifted; sweater: jcrew; shirt: target; pants: gap; shoes: children's place
perry... cardigan: gap (from karly); romper: gap thrifted; boots: robeez (from michelle); bow: handmade

brett... sweater: banana republic; jeans: banana republic; shoes: lacoste
emily... scarf: f21.com (this tutorial); shirt: downeast; belt: thrifted; jeans: no boudries; shoes: f21; earings and ring: banana

i can't wait for halloween.
steele's costume has stains all over it already
because he is so obsessed with it!
in fact he is wearing it now.
more to come.