Gaskin Girls

Lilly's 6th birthday party!

2011-08-27T19:45:00.001-04:00

Don't ask me how it's been 6 years since I became a mama. It's gone by way too fast if you ask me!!
Lilly wanted to have a pirate party, so that's what we did!

Here are the invitations:

Here is her cake:

And here is the swashbuckling crew:

Each crewmember hid the birthday treasure they brought for Captain Lilly, then marked on the treasure map where the treasure was hidden.

We also played a game of "Walk the plank!" The pirates took turns walking off the plank (dresser) into the water (lovesac). It was a huge hit. We could have played it the whole time, and the pirates would have been happy! :)

Then it was time for cake!

Party favors:

It says: "Yo ho ho and a bottle of ... BUBBLES! Thanks for coming to my party!
-Captain Lilly"

All around a success!! Happy Birthday to our wonderful, beautiful Lilly!!!

Last day of summer.

2011-08-20T21:20:00.001-04:00

To end our summer with a bang, we decided to visit one of the coolest parks ever! It was the first time visiting this park in the 3 years we've lived here, which is a shame.

We sure had a blast and will most definitely visit again soon!

Lilly on OPRAH today! (March 1st)

2011-03-01T10:51:00.000-05:00

Oprah is having another "World's Most Talented Kids" episode today and Lilly will be on it! We didn't go out for the shooting this time, but they'll give and update on her and show some recent pictures. Check it out if you can!

Here's a link to Oprah's website where you can view the promo for today's episode, as well as find your local listing. :)

http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Willow-Smith-and-Oprahs-All-Time-Smartest-Most-Talented-Kids

Here's a picture of Lilly in Chicago from her original OPRAH filming.

"WHY is Lilly on Oprah?" you ask? Click here and here to find out.

Where does the time go?

2011-02-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

This seems like yesterday...a tiny, perfect little baby!

And today...a very independent and silly almost-two-year-old!

Lilly's 5th Birthday

2010-09-04T14:47:00.000-04:00

We can't believe Lilly is 5 years old! She is such a fun, cute, good girl. Here are some highlights of her special day!

It was Lilly's 3rd day of Kindergarten when she turned 5. It was so fun to have her birthday land on a school day. We were able to bring some birthday treats into her class. It was fun for her to get some extra special treatment on her extra special day!

She got to wear a birthday crown!

She shared some treats with her class.

We thought it would be fun for her to "read" a book to her class. She chose her latest favorite Good Thing You're Not An Octopus! Her class LOVED it! She got to read it sitting on the special rocking chair at the carpet.

We think you'll enjoy it too:

After school, it was time to open presents!

Can you tell she's excited?

Then it was time to make her cake. Lilly is such a good helper. And turning 5 marked the magic day where she's officially big and able to do EVERYTHING herself. (I don't know why she couldn't do things when she was four. Just one of those things that clicked in her own mind.)

She was very specific and wanted a Mickey and Minnie Mouse cake with a heart and rainbow sprinkles. So that's what she got!

The cake didn't turn out the way I planned. I just pictured it much more professional looking even though I've never taken a class or anything. I had to free-hand the Mickey and Minnie heads, which turned out pretty well, but I used the store-bought black frosting for the outline and I don't like how the lines are so thick. Oh well. I had a great idea to fill in the black ears with Oreo cookie crust crumbs. That part did work out well. (And it decreased the amount of gross black frosting.) When I finished, Lilly was thrilled! And Maggie kept saying things like, "Wow, Mom! That's beautiful!" so I guess it turned out alright. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR LILLY GIRL! WE LOVE YOU!

First days of school!

2010-09-04T11:11:00.000-04:00

This last week was a big week at our house! Both Lilly and Maggie started school! They were VERY excited! Maggie started preschool and Lilly started Kindergarten.

Maggie started a couple days before Lilly, so her pictures are first.

Isn't her bear bookbag so cute? :)

SOOO excited!

Such a big girl!

Maggie gets to ride the bus to and from her preschool. She was a little nervous about it during the days before school, but once it came down to it she just said, "Bye, Mom!" and didn't even look back!

And now the KINDERGARTEN GIRL!!

All ready to go to school!

Is she excited or what?

Showing off the new backpack!

Outside her new "Garden" school! (That's what she used to call kindergarten.)

Outside her classroom.

She found her name and hung up her backpack. All ready to start!

Who knows?

2010-07-28T22:05:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't been blogging much lately. Obviously. And I haven't been reading other people's blogs much lately either. Sorry for the lack of comments as well. I'm still debating whether or not blogging is more hassle than it's worth. Life is SUPER crazy with three kids. (For those of you who thought the transition from zero to one or one to two was harder than two to three, well...um...not for me.) I just feel like there's too much to do! Too bad thinking about blogging doesn't actually mean there's automatically a new blog post, eh?

But, Lilly is starting Kindergarten this fall. (That's a whole story in and of itself.) And Maggie is starting preschool. (Also a story in and of itself.) So, theoretically, I'll have more time on my hands, right?

K'NEX toys

2010-06-09T17:01:00.001-04:00

We received some free K'NEX toys in the mail in exchange for an honest review on our blog,
so here it goes...

I was super impressed when the package came in the mail. This huge box was free?! Sure was!

When I opened the package, I fell in love with the age appropriate toys they chose to send my girls. (Note: Olivia is only 1 year old, and the toys are for ages 2-5.) Aren't those seriously the most adorable packages you've ever seen?

I'll review the city sets on this post, then the Ernie, Elmo, and Cookie Monster sets later.

The city sets were a Police Station and a Sesame Street housing block.
The girls found the miniature character pieces the most fun.

I had to put together the city sets myself, as it was a little too hard for the girls to figure out. However, they haven't had any experience with these kind of toys, so the whole concept of matching their blocks to the picture was quite foreign to them. They can make up their own designs without much difficulty, however.

Lilly did create stairs on her own. They were a big hit. (I did have to help her figure out how to make them stand up by adding a support piece. Again, just a new concept for her.)

Lilly liked putting the pieces together in her own way. Look how tall she made her tower!

So proud of her creation!

The girls played with their K'NEX toys all morning one day, which says a lot for these toys. Their morning toys are usually their favorites. The only meltdowns we had were when it was a bit tricky getting the pieces apart. Otherwise, Lilly and Maggie can play independently with them.

Overall, I was mostly impressed with the city sets. The biggest complaint I had was the pieces were pretty hard to get apart. Both Lilly and Maggie had trouble with that most of the time. Also, the suggested design in the instruction booklet was lacking balance for the finished product. The Police Station set tended to fall over rather easily. However, these are absolutely adorable! I enjoyed how the sets included details like trees and fire hydrants. The instruction booklets also had learning activities for the kids (i.e. sorting the pieces by color and talking about more and less), which impressed me, especially as a former math teacher. :) I am glad to have these toys in my home.

Maggie's 3rd Birthday!

2010-05-08T18:54:00.006-04:00

We celebrated Maggie's birthday this past week. How did she get to be three years old so quickly? She is especially excited to be a "big girl." We love you, Maggie!

In the morning with all the presents!

Lilly is SUCH a good helper! ;)

This was the best smile we could get out of her. She absolutely

LOVES her new tutu, she's just not fond of getting her picture taken.

Thanks, Aunt Heidi, Uncle Mike, and Luke!

She's been wanting an Ariel birthday for months, but I thought a butterfly birthday was cuter (I know, I'm a horrible mom.) I compromised with making an Ariel cake on her birthday day, then having a butterfly birthday party with friends.

I had high ambitions to make a super awesome cut out cake of Ariel's head with piped frosting for her hair and face, but 4:00 rolled around and all I had done was bake the cake (from a cake mix, no less)! I got a great idea (a revelation, actually) to grab the 3D animation DVD card that we got from the Disney Movie Club, wrap it in plastic wrap, then slap it on top of the cake. She was elated! (Isn't it obvious from this pic?) And it only took about 90 seconds. Easiest cake E-V-E-R!

(I tried to post more videos, but blogger is taking FOREVER, so maybe I'll try again later...sorry!)

She had a butterfly birthday party, which turned out SO CUTE

(thanks to my mom's awesome ideas)!

Here are all the kiddos on the couch as we read

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

Getting ready for butterfly cookies. (I decided cake and ice cream isn't very dining-room-carpet-friendly, especially with a bunch of 2-4 year olds! Ha!)

Olivia's 1st Birthday

2010-04-09T15:02:00.006-04:00

Olivia is one year old. I still can't believe it. Time flies, for sure.
Here are some pics of her special day!

Getting ready for the big party. (We had some AMAZING helpers at our house. They're really good at "priming" every single balloon, if you know what I mean.)

The traditional balloon number. This time it was on the ceiling!
The cake.
The cute birthday girl with all the booty.
Olivia was really good at ripping the wrapping paper, but she
wasn't really interested in the actual presents.
She kept trying to squirm off the couch. She thought it was really funny.
Not quite sure what to do with that pile of sugar.
A little distressed about the whole situation.

After I forced some in her mouth, she realized it WASN'T poison,
and decided to eat some after all. She didn't eat much, though.
(I blame that on the fact that the cake was a yellow cake, not chocolate.)
Opening some presents!

Olivia Updates

2010-03-06T20:49:00.003-05:00

Olivia is growing up so fast! Her birthday is almost here! (Only 2 more weeks!) Here are some videos of her latest accomplishments, specially for Aunt Heidi.

Olivia walking (with help)

Olivia standing by herself!

Olivia waving

Olivia blinks to tell us when she's all done. Pretty funny.

Welcome Home!!!?

2010-01-08T13:45:00.007-05:00

James has been in sunny, warm, gorgeous, tropical Hawaii alllllll week (for an academic conference, not just pleasure...or so the story goes) and we've missed him a LOT. We just want to give him a nice, (not as) warm (as Hawaii) welcome home!

Dear Daddy,

We hope you've had fun in Hawaii without us! We've been having fun too! We've been wishing you were home all week, but more and more the longer you're gone and the less sleep Mommy has...Can't wait to see you!

Love,
Lilly, Maggie, and Olivia

p.s.

You've been missing out on this...

(We built our little wagons that Grandpa sent us!)

And this...

(Maggie got a haircut... and still doesn't know it. HA!)

(Olivia being cute!)

And a WHOLE LOT of this...

(This is since Wednesday morning.)(BTW, it's snowed about an inch since I took these pictures this morning, and we're to expect 4-6 more inches in the next 24 hours. Yikes!)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T20:28:00.015-05:00

Hope you all had a great Christmas! We sure did. This year has been really fun, since it's the first time the girls have really understood the whole concept of Santa, and they got really excited as we counted down the days until he arrived! As promised (to Aunt Heidi), here is a boat load of pictures and video. Hope it isn't too much.

We got our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The girls were pretty excited about it...

...except Olivia. She though it was so boring, she fell asleep.
(But don't you just love her little bear outfit?)Maggie thought it looked like fun to be a tree...
Lilly was a great supervisor as we set it up.
She took all the credit for the hard work.
We open one present on the 12th day before Christmas.
The girls got the new Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas book this year.
They liked it so much, they would read it first thing in the morning.

Here we are at our church Christmas party. Santa came, and this is the first year that Lilly and Maggie were brave enough to go see him, but neither sat on his lap. I tried to prep them for the big, "What do you want for Christmas?" question. Lilly kept saying things like, "Presents." Yeah, but what do you want in the present? "A present." Okay. What kind of present? "A green one." After several fruitless efforts, we finally decided that "A candy cane" was an acceptable response. And, sure enough, Santa came prepared with a candy cane for each munchkin. Way to go, big guy.

A little nervous, but still being brave. She went up there, but sat on Mommy's lap instead of Santa's.

That wasn't so bad. AND I got candy to boot.

Olivia's pictures tell her story, so I'll just let them do the talking...
To get ready for Christmas, we did a few fun things. A good friend inspired me to make gingerbread houses with the girls. They thought it was the greatest thing in the whole world. (How could it NOT be, when mom hands you huge amounts of candy and encourages you to decorate a sugar coated house you get to eat later?!)

We received Christmas packages in the mail almost daily. The number of presents under the tree just kept going and going....

Here is Lilly telling Grandma on the phone about each and every one of them.
We also have a tradition of opening a present on Christmas Eve.
Usually everyone gets new pajamas.

Olivia got to open two presents: PJs and a Jumperoo!
(We got it when Lilly was a baby, and it was still at Grandma's house.
A big THANKS to Uncle Brady for packaging it up and shipping it to us!)
She's a natural.

We got spoiled this year. Here's the tree on Christmas morning. All the red presents on the left are from Santa. The rest are from family and friends.

(Don't worry. One of my projects for 2010 is to make matching stockings for everyone.
Lilly's is the only stocking that will make it in the lineup.)
James surprised me with an iPod nano, as well as the exercise machines pictured above.
All I have to say is, "Yay for craigslist!"
The girls got lots and lots of doll house accessories. Maggie was especially excited about them. After opening the twin babies, she noticed they were the same size as the Buzz Lightyear keychain she got in her stocking and, therefore, MUST be in the same family. She carried them everywhere, and we had to keep reminding her that there were more presents to open, to which she would reply, "Oh! Yeah..."Olivia surprised us all when she decided she wanted to stand up! She's growing up way too fast!
Like I said before, we all got spoiled. I mean, HOLY COW! JUST LOOK AT ALL THAT STUFF!

More than a 'Top Ten' list

2009-12-10T23:12:00.002-05:00

My awesome husband and awesome brothers-in-law put this list together for Thanksgiving. I'm still laughing...

So Bryce, Mike, and I are so glad we married into the Knight family. We are especially thankful for the Knight women in our lives. While musing upon our gratitude for this particular blessing during this Thanksgiving season, we discovered a few commonalities between these special Knight women… :)

You might be married to a Knight if…

1. You own more than one of the following red items: couch, curtains, walls, doors, dishes…

2. Your wife knows where the nearest five Target locations are and the fastest routes to them, between them, during rush hour, on Saturdays at 1pm…

3. Your wife sends you to Walmart when she is compelled to purchase items there because they are currently out of stock at the nearest five Targets.

4. Your wife calls her sisters to notify them of Target sales locally and to see if the same sale is going on in their end of the US, and asks them to purchase things on sale there and ship them to her (even though this may actually end up costing more (not including time)… that’s not the point, the point is, “I got such a good deal on it!”).

5. Your wife has recently composed a sonnet, blog, or ode to Target. http://randlereruns.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-may-have-mentioned-it-before-but-i.html

6. Your wife can't manage to write a blog without including (have I mentioned I LOVE Target?!).

7. As a last tribute to Target related humor… “We believe that Target is the only place to shop; we believe in all that Target has released on clearance, all that is now on clearance, and we believe Target will yet release on clearance many great and important things pertaining to my house decor; Perdition, thy name be Wal Mart, Amen.”

8. Everything is SOooooo cute! especially baby clothes from Gymboree or amazing deals from a craft store.

9. Your wife buys things she already has because they’ve gone more on sale and she can now return them to get an additional 25 cents off (notice this one may happen multiple times for the same item, for example, if it continues to decrease in price over a one year period).

10. …if you’ve ever heard your wife say, “Oh my Heck!” when frustrated.

11. Your wife secretly wants to name your next kid Bono or Edge (maybe just as a middle name) (and in the case of Natalie – Bowser).

12. Waking your wife up from a nap necessitates wearing a facemask, cup, defensive attack dog training gloves and steel-toed boots. Not to mention an up-to-date last will and testament.

13. If you happen to have strawberries in your fridge, regardless of the season, price of the strawberries, or quality.

14. If the only thing colder than your wife's hands are her feet, and the only thing colder than your wife's feet is liquid nitrogen or perhaps the dark side of the moon.

15. If you have an entire cupboard set apart for chocolate chips; alternately, your food storage might consist primarily of chocolate chips.

16. If you've received the evil eye for teasing…

17. "Yous guys" come up now and then.

18. If 'Quest Voice' means something to you (a special tone of voice reserved for the damned).

19. There is only one word for how food tastes when it is good: "Tasty"

20. Your mother-in-law often uses the phrase, "Give me peace!" in a her best Minnie mouse voice.

21. Your wife purses her lips and has a very serious stare while fixing her hair or applying makeup in the mirror.

22. You’re the luckiest guy on earth.

We realize that we haven’t even considered all the shoe-related indicators, but the list was already getting pretty long, so we’ve decided to reserve shoe-humor for later.

Living Room: Before and After

2009-11-18T21:17:00.007-05:00

We got a call from a British TV show last week, asking if they could feature Lilly's YouTube video on one of their episodes. Of course we agreed. We never say no to those kind of things. The next day they asked if they could come to our house and do an interview to add to the video. Of course we agreed. We never say no to those kind of things either.

Then I started freaking out.

"My house is so UGLY!" I thought. "I can't have a TV station come and FILM in my ugly living room!" So I batted my eyes...like this...*bat, bat, bat* and I puckered up my lips...like this...*pucker, pucker, pucker* (okay, okay, enough Sebastian jokes...) and I smiled a cute (and somewhat cunning) smile to James and told him that I loved him SOOOO much...and asked him if I could paint the living room before they come film the interview. That was on Thursday. The interview was the following Wednesday (today). I realize that's almost a full week to complete the project, but having 3 kids throws a whole lot more dimensions to the project. Trust me.

Being the WONDERFUL husband that he is, he obliged to let me paint the living room. (He claims he got the better end of the deal, considering he had to do minimal painting. I completely agree with him.) So, he went to school on Saturday with the living room looking like this.

Please pardon the mess, and especially the orphan-looking children watching Hercules. I had just started taking down wall decorations and curtains and stuff when I thought that I had better take some pictures or I would have to do another "House Fixes" blog post without any "before" pictures. And, yes, my kids watched a whole lot more than just Hercules.

Unfortunately he did not come home from school with the living room completely transformed. But I worked at it as much as I could and I did make a lot of progress relatively quickly. (Remember, I have 3 kids!) To make a long story short(er), here are some pictures of the living room when the camera man showed up this morning.

I realize that the "before" pics show a messy room and the "after" pics show a clean room. However, I hope they also show how much better my living room looks! I can't believe how much of a difference a little paint can make. Seriously. If you want to do something cheap that will totally transform your blah-looking house...PAINT! For about $25 you can totally make your house a happy place to be! (BTW, I recommend Lowe's Valspar paint. Like it more than Home Depot's Behr.)

(Funny) Side story...I also added a new TV stand to the decor. I got it at Target. (I LOVE Target!) I went to get it down from the shelf and it was a LOT heavier than I expected. But I managed to get it into the cart and everything, all by myself. (You should be impressed.) When I took it out to the car, I was going to do an easy "slide" it out of the cart and into the car, as I couldn't actually heft it. Well, luckily no one was in the parking lot to see me totally tip the entire shopping cart over as the box came crashing onto the car seat! And, by the way, shopping carts are a lot harder to stand upright once they've fallen. Avoid tipping a shopping cart at all costs.

I love my new TV stand. It matches the rest of my living room furniture, and it looks great. Plus, the TV used to be on what is supposed to be a coffee table, so now I can use my coffee table as a coffee table. I think that's one of the things that makes my living room feel like a "real" living room now, not just a "we're-students-so-we-use-what-furniture-we-can-find" kind of living room.

Did I mention I really like my living room? Maybe I'll sleep there tonight.

Oh yeah...the interview went great.

Lilly's "mini-me" haircut

2009-11-13T09:28:00.004-05:00

Lilly's hair has gotten really long, and it's to the point that it's bothersome for everyone who has anything to do with her hair. (Especially me, since I insist on doing the girls' hair everyday. It's just something I do as a mom.) So we decided to give her a haircut so it's a little less tangle-able. I gave her a style that's similar to my haircut, she just doesn't have the long bangs. I'd never given a haircut like this before, so I just copied what my hairdresser usually does to my hair. I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Nowhere close to Julie's expertise (she's my ROCKIN' hairdresser), but, hey, I did it myself after all!

Back view with all the layers.

Front view. (It's hard to get her to smile and not look silly. I think it's a kid thing.)

Side view.

Not the best picture of the actual haircut, but I couldn't resist this one.
Isn't she just SO PRETTY?!

Giant Bubbles!

2009-11-08T22:13:00.008-05:00

So we went to my (James's) folks house in PA a few months ago and we had tons of fun making mega huge and ginormous bubbles! This is my Dad making the first bubble. (Click on a picture to see it full size.)
Olivia could easily fit inside one of these bubbles!

Uncle Thomas has an admirer.
Pop!

Autumn Bargains and Halloween!

2009-11-01T21:39:00.013-05:00

Before we get started with festive pictures, here are some "AFTER" pictures of the projects I mentioned in the last post.

I couldn't find any hooks for the back door area that I liked that were a reasonable price, so I decided to make some myself. Wood blocks: $1 each from Michaels. Hooks: $2 from Target. ( I LOVE Target!)

And remember that Nappy Bag I made way back when? Here it is hanging on said hooks. Isn't it cute? I think it is, even though I've never had anyone tell me it's cute.

New sink & cabinet: $75 from Home Depot.
Faucet: $34 from Home Depot.
Towel holder: about $3 on clearance at Target. (I LOVE Target clearance!)
Mirror: $10 at Walmart. (I sent James to Walmart because I refuse to shop there.)
Baseboards: super expensive, no matter where you get them from. Avoid replacing moulding/baseboards if you can!!

And I like the picture I found at the Dollar Spot at Target for above the toilet.
(Have I mentioned that I LOVE Target?!)

Now to the festive part of the month...

Back in Utah we have a fun Pumpkin Patch to go to every year for Halloween. We have yet to find one here that's not very expensive. This place is on the way to James' work and looked really cute. Well, it turned out to be super cute, and they even had games and a spooky maze. The girls opted out of the scary maze, though.

What a big girl!

"It's bumpy, Mommy!"

"This. Is. Awesome."

Yes, pumpkins were 35 cents a pound. I miss the 7 cents a pound in Utah. Ohio is expensive.

Here we are carving our pumpkins. Our ward's Trunk-or-Treat was that night, but the girls were too sick to go, as you can probably tell from the pictures. So we had fun carving pumpkins at home instead.

Here are the finished products.

Sorry this one is a little blurry.

And finally the big day! Lilly's costume was Jessie from Toy Story 2, Maggie was Minnie Mouse (a very cute one, I might add), and Olivia was Tigger. James was Clark Kent and Nikki was a witch. (Nikki is a witch the other 364 days of the year too, but Halloween is really the only time she can get away with dressing as one.)
Funny side note about the picture above: We wanted a little baby pumpkin for Olivia, so we had to buy one of the sugar pumpkins. Well, we went outside on Halloween to light the candles, and Olivia's pumpkin was gone. Only the top stem from her carved Jack-O-Lantern was sitting on the step. James looked all over the yard, but couldn't find it. We think the neighborhood groundhog or deer ate it! Hahahahahaha!

After Trick-or-Treating with all the loot.

"What?!?! You put me in this silly costume and I STILL froze my tail off, and I can't eat any of this candy?!?! Some Holiday!"

Hope you all had a happier Halloween than Olivia did!

New stuff

2009-10-18T20:27:00.014-04:00

Here's an update on stuff we've been doing lately, since it's been way too long since I've posted last.

We did some updates on our house. We have a half bath on the main floor that was absolutely hideous. Here's the sink that used to be there:

This picture doesn't show the plastic (yes, PLASTIC!) sink that used to sit on that lovey cabinet. We put it out on the curb for the trash man to pick up and someone thought it was worth taking. Yikes! They must have been desperate!

We also painted the walls red (they were white) and replaced the floor in the bathroom and back door area. Here's a before pic of the floor, an after pic of the paint:

Um, as I'm looking through our recent pictures, I didn't take an "after" shot of the bathroom. I'd do it right now, but I lost the cord that hooks up the camera to the computer and the only SD card reader is on James' broken laptop, so I'll have to post those later. Sorry! (But more reason to check back later!)

Our yard was also looking pretty shabby and pathetic. (It still does, actually, but that's next year's project.) Since our front yard is very sloped and the grass is patchy, there would be a lot of dirt washed out whenever it rained. So I bought grass seed (on clearance at Target -- YAY for Target!) and patched most of it. It required several hours of weeding, loosening the dirt, spreading new topsoil, and finally planting the seed. Not to mention faithfully watering several times a day so the soil stayed moist while the seed germinated. After about a week, I can't tell you how much excitement filled my whole body when I saw those tiny shoots of grass blades coming through the topsoil! Amazing!

In kid news, Olivia turned 6 months, which means she started eating solid foods! She did a great job, and she absolutely LOVES it! I started with the rice cereal, then added some carrots the next day, then peas several days after that. With Lilly and Maggie I gave them fruits before veggies, and they haven't touched a vegetable for 99% of their lives. So with Olivia I decided to start with veggies so she'll actually eat them consistently throughout her toddler years. Third time's (hopefully!) the charm! Here she is in all her glory:

"Mom, what IS this hard plastic seat?! It's NOT comfortable!"

Apparently the plain rice cereal was a little too bland...

...and the high chair was a little too hard.

But she really liked the concept of eating, and especially when it's while Mom is holding her.

The carrots were much tastier, and the seat isn't so bad once you get used to it.

(Next day)

And, finally, I decided that I needed some recent photos of the girls since they're growing up so fast and the Target portrait studio is lame. So here are some I took in our neighbor's backyard with my 5 megapixel camera. I haven't touched them up at all, so they're not super awesome, but better than Target, I'll tell you what!

Personality pic:

Pretty Maggie

Personality pic:

Here's a cute pic of both sisters:

Olivia!

Personality pic:

I'm so glad I took these pictures when I did. Olivia got her first tooth a week ago, and her second tooth two days later! I think it's kind of sad when they get teeth because it's like they're not really a baby anymore. (Plus the whole teething experience isn't much fun.)

Hope life is treating you all well!

Happy 4th Birthday Lilly!

2009-09-03T21:39:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was a great day. Lilly turned 4 (WOW!!), and we did lots of fun stuff.

While James went to class this morning, we girls walked around some beautiful places on campus. Here we are by a really pretty pond.

Isn't it lovely?

Lilly's excited to be 4 years old. Can you tell?

The pond was right by the Cleveland Museum of Art, so we went in to take a look and saw some awesome stuff. Definitely the best art museum I've ever been to.

There was an entire gallery of armor and stuff, dating back to the 1200s!! This particular sword is called a "two handed sword" because it take two hands to use it. I was pretty skeptical that ANYONE could use it, until I read the info and found out it only weighs 8 1/2 pounds and is perfectly balanced to optimize its ease of use. Very cool!

Then we went home and partied all day long. Here's Lilly with her loot.

Here are some videos of her special day. Sorry they're kind of long, but I wanted to be sure to include them so you could *almost* feel like you were here with us. :)

These shoes are the ultimate coolest shoes EVER MADE! Thanks, Aunt Heidi! :)

Be sure to notice the balloon "4" on the door in the background. My dad did that for us when we were kids, and it's so cute that we've made it a tradition!

Lilly wanted a Toy Story 2 birthday party, and requested a cake that looked like Jessie's hat. I was impressed she thought of it completely on her own.

The cake was super delicious (if I do say so myself). Luckily Lilly wanted a chocolate cake, so we made our family's favorite chocolate cake recipe. Here it is. You should definitely try it. So moist and tasty.

Wacky Cocoa Cake
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Mix. Then add:

2 c. water
3/4 c. oil
2 Tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat on medium speed 3 minutes. Pour into greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. (I used two 9-inch cake pans and cooked it for 30 minutes.)

I never do this...but...

2009-08-27T20:56:00.001-04:00

Let's face it: I'm desperate. James' birthday is coming up and I am really having a hard time thinking of what to give him. Whenever I think of anything, it always ends up being something that I want which I can kind of mask to look like something he might want. (Hehe.) So, I've decided to get him something I know he will want: a Wii! He has done everything --including drool-- over the Wii whenever we go to a friend's house who happens to have one. He's like a little kid who wants to have one SOOOOOO badly, he'll do basically anything for it. (Kinda like the Jerry Seinfeld "Halloween" stand-up about kids wanting candy.) Anyway, to the desperation part of this. I can get a Wii for free. Don't believe me? Look here. Yes, that's my real brother-in-law. Who is married to my real sister. Which means it's NOT my-cousin's-best-friend's-fiancee's-roommate's-neighbor-from-when-she-was-6-years-old. I realize he got a PlayStation3, but he ALSO got a Wii. For free. FREE!

So here's the scoop. In order for me to get my free Wii, I need 6 people to click on this link, create an account, and sign up for an offer. I have never received spammy stuff for doing this, so you won't either. Plus, if you sign up, you can be on your own way to getting a free Wii or PS3 (or something else really cool) too. There are some offers that are completely free (I've personally done the free credit report) and some that aren't free, but a great deal. (I personally did the Children's Book of the Month Club and got steals of deals for hardcover books! There are also things like Netflix and such.) Be sure to use that particular link so I'll get credit for referring you. Oh, and if you do the free trial offers, make sure to cancel within the allotted time frame so it really is free. :)

Last but not least, PLEASE DON'T FEEL OBLIGATED TO DO THIS!! I just figured that I might average around 6 readers on my blog, and maybe I'll get lucky! ;)

p.s. THANK YOU!!! I really appreciate it! (And so ~~does~~ will James!)

Does anybody know what time it is?

2009-08-25T00:06:00.005-04:00

We have been doing some home improvement projects lately. Painting, mostly. Well, I guess only painting. Um...yeah. Right. Anyway, I can't tell you how much of a difference it's made. When we bought our house almost a year ago, all of our walls were white. Just plain, ugly white. Except for the master bedroom, which is a lovely 90's peach. (YIKES!!) So, over the past couple weeks we made the dining room a light aqua-ish blue, and the office a wonderful dark brown. I'm actually starting to LIKE my house now! Yay! Here are some pics.

Dining Room: I don't have any "BEFORE" pics, so you'll just have to imagine it as white. Sorry. But here are the "AFTER" pics.

Office: BEFORE
(Don't you just L-O-V-E the rose border?)

Office: AFTER
(I obviously still need to do some touch-up painting around the edges. It peeled pretty bad when I removed the masking tape. Doh! And I really want to get different curtains too, but the ones I like are kind of on the more expensive end of the spectrum.)

Two rooms down, 3 more (plus a hallway) to go!

Olivia's Blessing

2009-07-24T20:42:00.004-04:00

Olivia Kate Gaskin was blessed by her daddy on Sunday, June 7, 2009 in Kirtland, Ohio. (Sorry this is such a late post!) Here are some pics of the fabulous day!

Olivia was SUCH a good baby! (Thank goodness!)

Here's a picture of her outfit.

I've made it a tradition to make each girl a special blessing dress. Here's Olivia's. The crocheted blanket it's on was made by my mom. (We've used it for each baby's blessing.)

Here is a closeup of the dress, headband (I made the flower to coordinate), shoes (each of the girls have worn these shoes during their blessing), and bracelet (I make a special bracelet for each girl for their blessing).

So cute!

I just loved this picture!

Another favorite.

I ended up getting a migraine that afternoon. I usually take 800 mg of ibuprofen and go rught to sleep until its gone, but since I'm nursing, I couldn't take the medication, and James' family was visiting so I didn't want to be a party pooper by going to bed. So I downed a Dr. Pepper as quickly as possible, and it really helped! (Even though Olivia apparently thought I was CRAZY!!!)

Fancy Nancy Party!!!

2009-06-22T20:50:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago James went to his parents' house in PA to hang out with his little brother. He spent the night there, so we Gaskin Girls decided to P-A-R-T-Y while Daddy was gone. Since it was an all-girl party, we decided to go all out and do a Fancy Nancy party, based on the book Fancy Nancy, which is a new favorite at our house. (It's also a must have if you have girls. AND a must-have-read to understand all the Fancy Nancy references in this post.)

Even though we have lots of cute girl clothes already, we needed to get even fancier with some accessories! Here we are in all our fanciness. (Note: All of the jewelry was inherited from Nikki's grandma or great-grandma. They actually WORE it back in the day! Cool, huh?! Very fancy!)

We had a picnic dinner with Cheese Pizzas from the King's Crown (a.k.a. cheese quesadillas) and fancy juice drinks (a.k.a. Capri Suns). Definitely the fanciest dinner we had that night. :)

And we played a new favorite game and ate yummy peanut butter rice krispy treats until certain party-goers got a little too tired. (We won't name any names, but you could probably guess which 2-year-old lost it first.)

Here's a video of the girls explaining the party.

Surprise to Nikki!

2009-06-07T21:53:00.006-04:00

I had my birthday a couple weeks ago, and for one of my presents, James surprised me with a horseback riding trip! It was SOOO much FUN! I took an equestrian class in college, so I had some experience with horses, and being able to relive it was exciting for me. In my class we did everything from grooming, to saddling, to cleaning up messes, and they let us do it ALL (except the saddling part) at the stables we went to. Super fun, and definitely an experience to remember!

I got to ride Belle, a beautiful white horse. It made me feel like I was in The Princess Bride or something, and made my birthday that much more special!

James got to ride Dante. It was James' first time riding a horse, so it was perhaps a little more adventurous than he expected, but he did an awesome job and had fun!

Grooming Belle.

We got to ride for an hour, which was a perfect amount of time. We started out by walking and warming up the horses, then worked into a trot. I really wanted to canter because it was my favorite thing we did in my class, but it had been a while since I had done it, and our guide didn't really want us to, so we just stuck to trotting. In my class we even got to do barrel racing, which is SO MUCH FUN!! (I realize that makes me sound like a total redneck, but I promise it's awesome.)

What a cute couple! (And the horses look cute together too!)

After the horses, James took the girls to the beach while Mommy got some shopping in.

Then we finished off the night with a SUPER yummy dinner: artichokes and shishkabobs with strawberry lemonade.

And for dessert: mint chocolate chip ice cream in an oreo crust with crushed mint oreos & fudge sauce on top. It doesn't get much better than that!
It was a fabulous day! Thanks to James for making it so special!

New 'Do

2009-05-27T19:23:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I gave Lilly a haircut. No, this wasn't because I was trying to fix a "Lilly's Hair vs. Lilly's Lack Of Haircutting Skills" (LUCKILY!!). She just really needed a haircut. I think the last time I cut her hair was when she was 1 year old, and generally people get their hair cut a little more often than once every 2 1/2 years. Yes, I'm a fabulous mother, I know.

Before

After
(No, I didn't lighten her hair. C'mon, what mother is that ambitious? It just dried.)

I've heard of many different strategies for cutting kids' hair. Some even involve giving them a lollipop, but what kid wants to lick a hairy sucker? Yuck. Our strategy? Stick in a Signing Time DVD and you've got a wiggle-free zombie-like kid for 30 minutes. And isn't that what we all want? Hey, at least my smile in this picture is more genuine than forced.

The DVD even sufficiently distracts the sibling so she won't pay too much attention and get ideas for using those scissors.

The results: A mess that I don't really mind...

...and a cute kid!

Welcome Home, Brady!

2009-05-25T21:34:00.001-04:00

My brother Brady is AWESOME! He just finished serving as a missionary for our church in the Taiwan, Taipei mission. I was able to go out to Utah to see him come home. (I actually arrived at the airport a few hours before he did.) It was SO exciting to see him for the first time in two years. A lot happened while he was gone, (i.e. Lilly on Rachael Ray and Oprah, Maggie & Olivia being born, etc.) but we were so glad he chose to serve the Lord. I just love how Brady left as a 19-year-old teenage boy and came back a man. Way to go, Brady!

Here we are at the airport waiting for him to come down the escalator from the terminals. It seemed like we waited for hours (but it was probably only about 20 minutes.) So many people from his flight had already arrived and told us they were on the same flight as the missionaries. So where were they? It turned out all the missionaries were getting primped up in the bathroom. Nice.
Here he is coming down the escalator. Doesn't he look so great?!

I think waiting so long and seeing so many people who weren't Brady come down the escalator gave my mom some anxiety. (My brother-in-law Mike said he thought my mom would wet her pants.) But the moment finally arrived. I just love this picture, especially the look on my Dad's face. Now that's love.
Seeing Lilly and Maggie again. (Brady had only met Maggie once before.)
Love you, Brady! It's great to have you back!
Thanks for being the best brother EVER! :)

Month Long Vacation

2009-05-24T21:22:00.012-04:00

We were able to take a trip to Utah last month. It was soooo much FUN!! We were there for 3 fabulous weeks. Um, I did take my camera, but I didn't get many pictures because there were always at least 3 cameras out at all times, so I just figured I'd rely on everyone else taking pictures. (I knew I would regret that.) So here are some of my few pictures.

Reading with Grandpa.

Playing at the playground.

You can't NOT do the All-The-Cousins-In-The-Tub thing. :)

Celebrating Derek's and Maggie's birthdays. (They're 5 weeks apart.) Maggie got a Mickey Mouse umbrella and a Buzz Lightyear.

I did a whole bunch of shopping, headband-making, and sewing. Here I am cutting out the fabric to my new Nappy Bag. A HUGE thanks to my sister, Nancy, for not only helping me become a hip mom by doing these things with me, but also mostly taking care of my 3 kids while I invaded her house and made huge disasters.

We sure had a blast. Lilly and Maggie can't stop talking about Grandma's and Grandpa's house. They are ALWAYS wanting to go back, but no matter how hard I try, I can't convince them that it's more than just a short car-ride away. I keep telling Lilly that we have to fly on an airplane to get there, so almost every morning she wakes up and says, "We're going to fly on an airplane to Grandma's house today." I tell her that we can't do it today because we need some money to fly on the airplane. So, she confidently tells me that all we need to do is go get some money at the store. If only it were that easy.... For some reason whenever I go to the store, I leave with less money than when I came out. Maybe she'll have to teach me a few tricks so we can get some more money and fly on an airplane back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, because we all definitely want to go back again soon!

Olivia's Birth Announcement

2009-05-20T21:06:00.003-04:00

Oprah, take 2

2009-05-17T18:06:00.002-04:00

Last year Lilly was on OPRAH!! It was soooooo cool! (Click HERE if you want to refresh your memory.) They did a show about the world's most talented kids. Well, about a month ago, we were contacted again by Oprah's people because they're doing another "World's Most Talented Kids" episode and they wanted to possibly do a follow-up on Lilly's map ability. They're going to air the show TOMORROW (May 18th -- Nikki's birthday) so catch it if you can! I don't guarantee that Lilly will be a part of the show (Harpo Studios didn't give us any promises), but it will be cool nonetheless.

Happy 2nd Birthday Maggie!

2009-05-05T19:51:00.007-04:00

Maggie is 2 years old!! We can't believe she is so grown up! She is so adorable, and she just melts your heart. There is no resisting falling in love with her! Here are some pictures of her on her special day!

She did an EXCELLENT job of blowing out the candles. A little while later, however, I discovered a few singed eyelashes! Haha!

Mom forgot to get out the Happy Birthday hats beforehand, so we put them on in the middle of the celebration. Apparently they weren't as exciting as we anticipated!

Olivia was a good sport and didn't mind the hats so much!

Eating the cupcakes made everything all better.

Aunt Heidi sent a special birthday card that had a CD with Sesame Street songs. The girls just LOVE it and can't get enough! Thanks Aunt Heidi! :)

It's (almost) time

2009-04-07T20:24:00.004-04:00

April is a big month for our family. It all starts tomorrow. My mom is flying out to Ohio to see Olivia (and the rest of us, by default)! Lilly and Maggie have been talking about it FOR-EV-ER! I am super-duper excited to have her here! It's always a nice relaxing thing to know that mom is nearby. :) Hopefully we'll get some sewing done on Olivia's blessing dress amongst all the excitement and talking that'll definitely happen!

The excitement continues next week when all of us Gaskin Girls fly back to Utah. At least 3-4 times a day, Lilly says, "Mom, I get to fly on an airplane with Grandma and Maggie!" My reply always resembles something to the effect of, "YEEEEES, Lilly! It will be SO fun!" The purpose of our trip is because my Super Mega Awesome Brother BRADY is coming home from his mission!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We are SOOOO excited to finally see him after 2 years! We know a lot has happened in those two years, but looking back it seems like it's flown by. We have a picture of Uncle Brady in our home, so the girls know what he looks like, but it will be so nice to finally be able to spend time with him! Lilly was only 20 months old when he left, and Maggie was born 2 days AFTER he went into the MTC, and I just KNOW that Olivia is dying to meet him! PLUS, Lilly had her whole geography stardom while he was gone (and it's because of Uncle Brady going to Taiwan that we were even ABLE to go on Rachael Ray, 20/20, and Oprah). We can't be more excited! Only a few more days left! It's almost here!

Some Brady and Lilly time a little before the 2 years of absence. (I just LOVE this photo!)

The first (and only) time Brady has seen Maggie. (She was 4 weeks old.) We just "happened" to be at the Provo Temple at the same time! ;)

Awesome Grandparents

2009-04-07T13:56:00.003-04:00

So I just have to brag about my awesome Grammie and Grandpa. My Grammie makes a special blanket for each one of her great-grandchildren. This is the one she made for Olivia. Isn't it just SOOOO cute?! And my Grandpa is the one who did all the "snips" to make the ragged part of the blanket. It doesn't get much cooler than that! Thanks Grammie and Grandpa! You're the best!

Olivia at 9 days old! (a better photo session)

2009-03-29T13:09:00.002-04:00

Photos, photos, photos!

2009-03-28T19:28:00.005-04:00

Life is a little crazier with 3 kids than I expected, so I was pretty slow getting these up. I apologize for promising the fam some pictures earlier. Enjoy!

A visit to the hospital!Presents for Olivia! (A special THANKS to the Ellsworths for helping out with Lilly & Maggie while we were at the hospital! Lilly & Maggie made these special notes while staying at their house. Aren't they soooo cute?!)
Proud Daddy!
Ready to go home! (Grandma & the Aunties always buy a special "coming home from the hospital" outfit!)

Helpful sisters!
"I love my baby sister!"

Some of my favorites from Olivia's first photo session. (I know my camera isn't the greatest and I greatly lack in photography talent, but at least you can see what she looks like.)

All 3 Girls!

2009-03-21T11:43:00.005-04:00

So I thought I was excited to have the baby, but I don't think it's near the excitement of Lilly and Maggie. Here are some pics of all three of our angels! Oh, and we officially named her Olivia Kate. She is so sweet, I can't even tell you!

Spring Baby!

2009-03-20T08:21:00.008-04:00

She's here! 8.8 and 20.5 (that's pounds and inches, not inches and pounds). She was born at 7:02am. We think she looks more like Maggie than Lilly, but her mouth is bigger than Maggie's. She's not as hairy as either of them were. Nikki thinks she has blue eyes. We haven't fixed on a name yet, but we were thinking either Olivia Kate or Lydia Jane.

Baby #3

Maggie

Lilly

James

More Pictures!

3rd time's the charm!

2009-03-19T18:38:00.004-04:00

I started having a lot of contractions again today, but this time they started in the morning instead of 5:00 p.m., like they have been doing the past couple weeks. They got closer and closer around 2:45, and then about 5-7 minutes apart soon after. So, about 90 minutes later we decide to call the doctor, pack the girls and take them to the FABULOUS Ellsworths, and head to the hospital AGAIN! After getting checked, I am STILL only dilated to a 2! (Are you KIDDING me?!?!) It has been 2 weeks and NO CHANGE at ALL. But the doctor said that since I'm so close to my due date, and a little episode where the baby's heart rate dropped for a few seconds (but nothing too scary), he won't send me home! WAHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We're here to stay! It's about time, is all I have to say.

The Labor & Delivery part of the hospital is SUPER busy at the moment (and has been since last night, apparently) so they won't start the pitocin until things quiet down for the staff, or things really start to progress on their own. Therefore, we might be in for a longer haul than we did for Lilly and Maggie. (Labor for each of them was less than 4 hours.)

On a side note, I really hate the monitors they hook you up to. Well, I take that back. I love the baby's heart monitor. It's really comforting to just hear that heartbeat plug away. But the contraction monitor is not very great. After talking to the nurse, it apparently doesn't really tell them anything and they don't really go by what it tells them. So, what good is it, really? Whatever, I guess. Oh, and when they move the bed so you can "sit up," why do they always stop it in the spot where it's most likely to make half of your body fall asleep in under 2 minutes? I mean, REALLY! Who is actually comfortable in that position?

I know I don't look fabulous in this picture, but it was the best of the 3 we took. Do you ever look at pics when you're 9 months pregnant and say, "Did I REALLY look like that? Yikes!"

Just hanging in there!

2009-03-18T23:43:00.003-04:00

I've been anticipating the coming of this little girl for over 2 weeks! I've already gone to the hospital twice, and been sent home both times, so I'm kind of at the point where I don't want to get my hopes up anymore. I have contractions all the time at night (they were 10 minutes apart for about 3 hours tonight) but then they always slow down when I go to bed. Hopefully she'll come soon!

St. Patrick's Day silly dancing

2009-03-17T21:07:00.007-04:00

I realize that this video has NOTHING to do with St. Patrick's Day except for the fact that the girls are wearing green. (And maybe those Irish jig-looking dance moves toward the end.) But I just HAD to share the video. And what could be better than the theme music for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse? (Nothing, according to Lilly and Maggie.)

Can you tell that when Maggie gets really excited she flaps her hands like a bird? :)

Come ON already!

2009-03-14T21:31:00.002-04:00

Dear Olivia,

Okay, kiddo. I can't express to you how much I want you OUT of my tummy! We've been to the hospital twice now, and neither time were you willing to make your appearance. It's beyond disappointment to be sent home from the hospital once, let alone TWICE!! I am NOT enjoying the squirming and kicking and head-rubbing-against-my-bones feeling that I've had for the past several weeks. I understand that there isn't enough room in there, so why don't you just come out and see all the wonderful stretching room the world has to offer? It's really not that bad, you know. You've got a whole family just WAITING to meet you and love you and take care of you. Your clothes have been washed and folded (and re-folded over a dozen times, thanks to your sister playing throw-the-baby's-clothes-all-over-the-room game) for about a week, not to mention the toys and carseat and bouncer just waiting for you. We're definitely ready for you to make your debut.

Just thought I'd let you know!!

Love,
Mommy

Happy Birthday Grandma Diane!

2009-03-12T19:53:00.004-04:00

Dear Grandma,

We really wish we could come out and visit on your birthday! We are SO excited to have you come to our house in just a few weeks. We are mostly excited about flying on the airplane with you, and we talk about it all the time. We hope you have a very happy birthday! Here's a little song for you!

Love,
Lilly and Maggie

p.s. Mommy has been having contractions a LOT more today than usual. It's probably too late to have baby Olivia share your birthday, but we hope she comes tomorrow!

"Just the two of us" (but not for long...hopefully!)

2009-03-10T21:39:00.007-04:00

There are only 12 days left until my due date (but who's counting?). Lilly and Maggie are REALLY excited for their new baby sister to make her appearance. (But I'm not sure if they're as excited as mommy -- I'm really tired of looking like I swallowed a basketball.) They've made some cute memories together during their final days of only having each other. Soon they'll be able to spoil their new baby sister Olivia! (That's the name they both insist on, so it'll most likely stick!)

Lilly and Maggie were in the mood to be really sweet to each other the other day. They are usually really nice, sweet sisters, but I couldn't help take some pictures and video when they seemed a little moreso.

Lilly wanted to "snuggle" Maggie, and Maggie willingly obliged. Maggie must like Lilly....

...or not! (Just listen to what Lilly says.)

Popping popcorn for a Gaskin Girl movie night.

So exciting!

Yum!

As for baby news...I had an ultrasound today to check the size of the baby and my amniotic fluid level. Well, the baby measures 8 lbs. 2 oz. (HOLY COW!!) and the amniotic fluid level looks normal. (It was low with Maggie, and if it were low again, then I would be induced early.) I am VERY ready to deliver this baby ASAP, so we'll just wait around until the big day comes! I have a regular OB checkup tomorrow, so we'll see what the doctor says about the ultrasound results. Hopefully it will go something like: "Well, everything looks great, and we don't want the baby to get TOO much bigger, so let's induce you NOW!" (It could happen, right? Pleeeeeease?)

A few videos for Uncle Brady

2009-03-01T21:56:00.004-05:00

Halloween in February

2009-03-01T16:49:00.004-05:00

About a month ago I bought a puzzle in the Dollar Spot at Target that had a bunch of shapes on it. There was a rectangle, square, circle, star, diamond, triangle, and an octagon. Each of the pieces had a picture of something that was shaped like it, and, to no surprise of my own, the octagon was a stop sign. Lilly played with this puzzle every day for a few weeks and knew each of the shapes very well. Then it got destroyed, and ended up in the trash. (Did I mention it only cost $1?)

So a couple weeks ago Lilly and I are driving in the car to go to the store. She kept saying, "Look, Mommy, there's a Frankenstein!" I just responded with an, "Oh, that's pretty cool, Lilly!" But after she had said it about 4 or 5 times, I got a little more curious and asked her some questions to try to figure out WHAT she was talking about. When she responded with, "Red means STOP," I realized she was talking about the stop signs we had driven past! Stop-SIGN...Franken-STEIN...I guess I can see how a 3-year-old can get confused! (Or figure out a way to be down-right SILLY!!)

Happy Birthday Aunt Nan!

2009-02-26T18:18:00.003-05:00

We looked and looked for a cool e-card for your birthday, but we couldn't find one! We decided to just make our own video instead! We hope your day has been fabulous and it keeps getting better! We love you, Nan!

"I Am A Child of God"

2009-02-23T15:58:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T22:15:00.004-05:00

Our Valentine's Day wasn't super significant (meaning we didn't go to Disneyland), but we did do some fun things. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the fun Valentine's package! The pictures say it all!

"Aren't these glasses the coolest?"
Enthralled with the Mickey Mouse card from G&G.
Sister kisses!
Sister giggles!

Tasty heart cookies!
Mmmmmmm, good!
It doesn't get much better than this!

In need of a laugh?

2009-02-10T16:32:00.002-05:00

James and I have watched a LOT of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" clips on You Tube lately. It's a nice stress-reliever at the end of the day. Here is our latest favorite, and hope you all enjoy it as much as we did. (I was laughing so hard, we had to pause it twice just so I could calm down.)

Private Time

2009-01-16T13:42:00.002-05:00

Hi all!

I've decided to make our blog private. If you'd like to still view our blog, please email me or leave a comment and let me know. I don't want to leave anyone out!

p.s. If you leave a comment, I won't publish it since it will have your email address. :)

First real snow!

2009-01-13T21:36:00.007-05:00

It finally snowed at our house! We've had snow flurries the past couple months, but nothing super substantial that lasted longer than a few days. But it FINALLY decided to dump a bunch of fluffy white stuff at our house! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, the girls got new snow suits to keep them toasty warm while they played in the winter wonderland! Here are some pics and videos.

Getting ready to go outside! (Maggie's new favorite question is, "Oh-tay?")

Here are the girls in their new snow suits! Aren't they cute?

What a wonderful Daddy to make a snowman with the girls! (Mom took pictures from the kitchen window.)

So proud of their creation!

The final product, up close.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-06T20:10:00.003-05:00

Hi all! I hope you all had a great and very Merry Christmas! Here are some pics of our festive events.

We visited James' parents in western Pennsylvania a few days before Christmas. It was great for the girls to play in the snow. (We didn't have much snow at our house, and we STILL don't!)

Lilly was a bit more excited about being in the cold than Maggie, I'm afraid!
Lilly and Maggie as we set out some snacks for Santa and his reindeer.
Excited about the stockings!
All the loot!
Playing with the favorite present - the toy kitchen! (Mom is REALLY excited for the girls to have their OWN kitchen stuff to play with! :) )
Lilly with her new book from Grammie & Grandpa W.
Maggie with her new Curious George doll from Grammie & Grandpa W.
Maggie wearing Mommy's new hat. (She's obsessed with wearing ANY hat!)
All the presents (unwrapped this time). Note that Maggie is asleep on the couch. I guess Christmas morning really wore her out!

Decorating the Tree!

2008-12-07T19:54:00.005-05:00

Here is a video of the girls' excitement about decorating the tree!

A cute one of Lilly.

Lilly didn't really understand how to put the hooks on branches, so she discovered they hang well on the lights cord. Well, she found one place that worked and stuck to it! Here she is with her "ball" collection!

Maggie got decorated too!

Cute Maggie!

Reading Time with Lilly

2008-12-02T09:30:00.004-05:00

Lilly's latest reading favorite is Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. If you have a copy handy, go ahead and follow along with her. Her accuracy is pretty amazing! Oh, and those voice inflections? Hilarious and completely original!

The latest

2008-11-25T19:51:00.005-05:00

Oh, that heater feels SOOOOO good!

Yay for books!

The girls enjoying Daddy time.

Doesn't that face just say, "I'm trying to read here, Dad."

Maggie decided to not take a nap. I tried to explain that it wasn't a good idea, but she just stared at me like, "You never know what you're talking about, Mom."

We had a hot dog and marshmallow roasting party in our fireplace. Maggie REALLY likes those marshmallows!

Lilly said her lip was hurting and she wanted a bandaid. Apparently she did what I used to do when I was a kid -- bite the upper lip with the bottom teeth. (Yeah, it hurts, but I couldn't sympathize as well as I probably should have since I was laughing so hard!)

Maggie "singing"

2008-11-11T18:53:00.004-05:00

Maggie started nursery at church a few weeks ago, and one of her favorite songs during singing time is "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam."

Halloween 2008

2008-11-02T22:16:00.005-05:00

We sure had a great Halloween! Here are some pics that describe the day:

We started out by carving some Jack-o-lanterns!

Maggie thought it was more fun to play in the neighbor's driveway.

From left to right: Maggie, Daddy, Lilly, Mommy

We dressed up in our costumes and ate a yummy Halloween-themed dinner:
Ghost Soup (Cream of Broccoli soup in orange pumpkin bread bowls)
Pumpkin juice (orange soda)
Bat and Ghost shaped tortilla chips
Ghost "Boo" dessert cups

Lilly was Minnie Mouse...

and Maggie was Mickey!

What cuties!

Daddy was Clark Kent, and Mommy was a witch. We didn't get pics of all of us. Sorry!

Girl #3!!

2008-10-29T20:42:00.004-04:00

Okay, okay, we've kept it a secret long enough. We'd like to announce that we are going to have another baby girl! We are all really excited, including James, even though he'll be WAY outnumbered now! (Plus, we can keep our blog title "Gaskin GIRLS.") We had an ultrasound today, and everything looks fantastic! The baby's due date is March 22nd (which happens to be Nikki's sister's birthday and James' mom's birthday), so Maggie and this new one will be about 23 months apart. Here are the first baby pictures.

Profile picture with the head on the right. (The big black spot is the stomach.)
View of the face from straight on. The top of the head is on the right. We thought this was a great Halloween picture since you can see lots of bones! She apparently chose to be a skeleton this year! Ha ha! :)

High Five!

Baby feet pictures don't get much cuter than this!

James' 27th Birthday!

2008-10-28T23:26:00.004-04:00

James had his birthday over a week ago, so I apologize for the delay of posting his pics! He had to work for 7 hours on his birthday at the gym, so he was pretty tired! I took the girls shopping to pick up some last minute gifts and party supplies, and Maggie fell on her face on the sidewalk in front of Circuit City! Well, that cut our shopping trip short, so that put a damper on things. But I think overall James had a great day! He got some awesome T-shirts, lots of cards with checks (he really likes those!), and a cool Halloween pirate ship with a moving vampire and ghost. Awesome!

James and Lilly with presents. (Lilly is kind of disappointed it's not HER birthday...still.)

The girls were really tired, so we put them to bed before we blew out the candles! Just LOOK at that forest fire! :)

Finished Bathroom!

2008-10-28T22:29:00.004-04:00

We are REALLY close to finishing our bathroom! We still need to do a couple minor things like caulk a little and paint a bit. But since you can't really tell that from the pictures, I thought I'd post a blog about it! I realize it's been over a month since we started this project, and I do need to say that we haven't been without a bathroom for that long (luckily!). But I didn't want to put up pics until it was actually decent enough to show off.

I just have to mention that after we installed new flooring, and put in the new cabinet, faucet, and reinstalled the toilet, it was SOOOOOO exciting. We finished around midnight, and I didn't want to go to bed. I just wanted to stand in the doorway and look at it! Plus, I can't describe how wonderful it was to have a functional (and great-looking, I might add) bathroom sink. It's so nice to not have to brush your teeth in the kitchen sink! :)

Here's Lilly helping with the putty. FYI, it turns white once it's dry and ready to sand.

Here's James leveling out the floor before we put new linoleum in.

Cutting linoleum in the living room.

Nikki gluing the linoleum (even though you can't really tell).

We thought the new flooring really made a difference.

And here is the finished product!

Uncle Brady's birthday present for Lilly

2008-10-14T21:23:00.003-04:00

Lilly's birthday just keeps happening! We got a package in the mail from Uncle Brady, who is on his mission in Taiwan. Lilly absolutely LOVED it, not to mention Maggie. Thanks, Uncle Brady! We love you!

Maggie's Pony Tails

2008-10-08T17:01:00.004-04:00

I must admit, one of my favorite things about having little girls is being able to fix their hair. Ever since Lilly was little, I made sure she had a little bow stuck to her head with corn syrup. With Maggie, I liked headbands on her, so I usually tie a ribbon around her hair. But just the other day I discovered that I can fit her hair into 2 pony tails! I just LOVE it! Without fail, each time I look at her, I think that she is just SOOO cute! Am I a biased mother, or do you agree? Just LOOK at those ponies! (And try to ignore the fact that she's eating a glue bottle.)

Lilly's 3rd Birthday Party!!

2008-10-05T20:31:00.009-04:00

Lilly has been 3 years old for over a month now, but without a house to live in, we have had to postpone her birthday party! We did have a mini party down at Aunt Heidi's house in Florida on Lilly's real birthday, but Lilly didn't open ALL her presents there. (To tell the truth, some of her presents were in storage. We figured we'd be moved in by her birthday. Nope.)

We celebrated her birthday exactly one month after the real thing, and we sure had a great time! The whole day had a Mickey Mouse theme because Lilly absolutely LOVES the Mickey Mouse "Glove"house.

The day started off with some Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast! I poured the batter into a a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter to make sure they were shaped correctly. (Thanks for the idea, Nancy!)

We prepared for the real party by hanging MM cutouts from the ceiling fan, gathering a collection of Disney toys, and making MM cookies! Lilly wore her "Birthday Girl" t-shirt. She was so excited that it had cupcakes on it!
Lilly was a little nervous about blowing out the candles.

The cookies sure were yummy!

It was a great day! Happy Birthday to our sweet Lilly girl! We LOVE you!! :)

Moving into our new house!

2008-10-05T19:52:00.008-04:00

We are finally here! It's been a long and stressful haul (over 2 1/2 months of being homeless), but we're now settled into our new house in Ohio. We moved in almost two weeks ago (has it really been that long already?) and we have loved every second of it! (I can't begin to describe how comfortable our mattress is!) Here's a summary of the past few months for our family.

We moved out of Wymount on July 7th, and drove for 3 days to western Pennsylvania to stay at James' parents house out there. We thought we'd be there for about a month while we were waiting for everything to get worked out for buying a house in the Cleveland area. We were already under contract for a certain house, and we took several trips out to the house for the home inspection, etc. During the home inspection, the copper plumbing pipes were missing, so we decided to not buy that house. We looked at several other houses on a different trip to Ohio, and made an offer on the house we're in now, planning on moving in around mid-August.

However, the whole buying process took a LOT longer than we expected. Our closing date kept getting pushed back for reasons such as: the seller took quite a while doing repairs on the house, inspection scheduling was backed up, the loan underwriter requiring certain inspections, the seller going to the hospital the day we were supposed to close, etc., etc., etc.

In the meantime, school started for James at the end of August, so we had to move to Cleveland and stay somewhere. We ended up staying in a stranger's house that had been arranged by James' new boss. Well, that house wasn't very comfortable for our family (James was allergic to something), so we ended up staying with our great and wonderfully nice and generous friends, the Ellsworths. The original plan was to stay with them for about 4-5 days until we closed on our house. Well, because of all the issues that came up, we stayed at their house for a whole month!! We had a blast while we were there, and actually joked around that we would just move into the basement and split rent with them, since our closing date kept changing.

Eventually, we did get everything signed and got all our stuff moved in. Like I said before, we've been here almost two weeks, and we've already started some major overhaul renovations. Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Moving boxes, etc.:

Putting up some Halloween decorations:

"Before" picture of our bathroom (Hideous, I know):
FYI, the cabinet is white with gold flecks and streaks. Does that just scream 1970s to anyone else? Plus, the shower door is a nuisance, and the floor is needing to be leveled out and replaced. Oh, and you can kind of see above the sink the long skinny mirrored cabinet thing with the sliding doors for your toiletries. Sorry, but there is no way I'm putting my toothbrush anywhere NEAR that thing!

My wonderful husband removed the shower door. Here he's scraping off the old caulking. Wow, he sure loves me! :)

Here is a current picture of the bathroom. (New shower curtain; no sink, cabinet, mirror, or flooring.) As much as we'd like to work on it 24/7, James does have schoolwork, and Lilly and Maggie don't find it too fascinating to remove old linoleum. But they DO like banging the walls and stuff with screwdrivers. :{

That's about it! I still haven't taken any pics of the outside of our house, but I'll put those up sometime soon.

Maggie Walking!!!

2008-09-14T16:19:00.005-04:00

Maggie has been really good at standing and walking lately, but she has had to hold onto our hands or something else... until TODAY! Now she can do it all by herself! James helped her stand up and kept her standing by distracting her with some hand games. Then he told her to walk toward him, and she took several steps! Now, just minutes later, she stands and walks all over the room, and refuses any sort of help! Yay, Maggie! You are amazing!!

Watch Lilly on Oprah again!

2008-09-05T09:44:00.002-04:00

Lilly is going to be on the Oprah Winfrey show again today (Friday, September 5). We got word last night that they will re-air the show today, so catch it if you can!

Renting is FANTASTIC!

2008-08-26T22:22:00.003-04:00

Wow, do we have a buying-a-house-drama. We've changed our minds AGAIN on what house we're buying. Yes, we know, we've made 5 different offers on houses. It's come to the point where we don't really have to even read the contract for making an offer, we could actually recite it to you! No, really. Anyway, we've settled on a different house that should be perfect for us. We ended up not getting the last house because the copper plumbing pipes had been stolen between the time we had our offer accepted and the time we made it out to Cleveland. (There's a big problem out here with people stealing the copper pipes of houses and selling it. Yeah, I know, kind of weird.) So we found a different house and we are supposed to close last week. (Catch my drift from the title of this post?)

To continue our drama story, James started school officially yesterday, but we are still transients. We've been living in western Pennsylvania for about 7 weeks (James' parents have a house there), and then we moved to Cleveland last weekend so James could start school. We're actually staying with some friends who used to live by us in Wymount (the Ellsworths) and it's so nice! Lilly and Maggie have friends to play with and it's really awesome to hang out with friends and to actually know someone! So, a huge thanks to the wonderful Ellsworths!! :) We don't know what we would be doing without them. They are such a wonderful blessing to us!

I know there aren't many pics of the house, but I'll feel more comfortable showing pics of the inside once we've moved in and it's somewhat decorated. We just need to wait until a few more repairs are completed and then we should be able to move in. We SHOULD be there by Halloween. (That's my pessimistic side coming out. Well, more like my "I don't want to get my hopes up again" attitude.)

We hope all of you are doing well!

HOORAY! A HOUSE!!!

2008-07-11T19:13:00.003-04:00

We finally have a house! It's actually the same house we made an offer on before, but we didn't end up pursuing it because the required repairs were too much. However, the price dropped, and it's working out perfectly now! We made another offer and it was accepted! YAY! It was our favorite house of all! Here are the pics. (They're the same as before.)

No news...and no house

2008-06-22T01:01:00.002-04:00

Okay (I think I start every blog entry with "okay") so we're probably NOT going to get that house from our last couple blog entries. The plan as of now is to move out in a couple weeks, pack all our stuff in PODS and have it in storage until we find a house. We're driving to western PA to live in James' parents house for a few weeks (Grannie Annie and the grandkids will have SOOOO much fun!). It will be GREAT to spend some time with James' family since we don't get to visit very often! :) :) While we stay in PA, James and I will drive to Cleveland and go looking for houses in good neighborhoods and get a feel for the town. Then we'll hopefully decide on a house to buy.

Man, this whole buying-a-house-thing is kinda the most stressful thing we've had to deal with...ever. Plus it's lasted a LOOOOOONG time - way too long for my comfort. We'll be very glad when we finally choose a place and have moved in. Oh, and a little word of advice...inherit some big mansion that's in a great neighborhood! :)

Video of House

2008-06-18T14:54:00.003-04:00

So this is mostly for our parents and family members to see. It's a tour of the house we're making an offer on. Don't feel obligated to watch it, because it's 7 minutes long! If you do decide to watch it, it helps give a better idea of the layout of the house.

Another house...AGAIN!

2008-06-17T16:14:00.005-04:00

So we've had to move on from that last house on Keystone Drive. I know, I know, I really liked it too, but it turns out that it needed over $20,000 in repairs, and, frankly, we can't afford that. (I know...surprise, surprise.) So, our realtor has looked at a couple other houses for us, and none of those have worked out, so we're going to get this house. I actually walked through it myself when I visited Cleveland at the end of April. It's in great shape, and we feel good about it! The kitchen is pretty small, but with some rearranging, it should be nice! AND it's definitely bigger than our Wymount kitchen. (Again...surprise, surprise!) Anyway, we're making an offer on it hopefully today and we REEEEEAAAAALLLY hope this works out. If it doesn't, into a cardboard box we go!

Living Room

Dining Room

Bedroom

Cool Hawaii Stuff!

2008-06-10T20:12:00.003-04:00

I realize that I haven't posted any pictures of our Hawaii trip, but they're coming soon. I did want to put up some videos of one of my favorite things that we did. There is this place called the International Market Place in downtown Waikiki. It's basically a bunch of shops where tourists can buy inexpensive souvenirs and stuff. Anyway, at the very last booth we went to, there was this guy who painted the letters of your name with each letter looking like something you'd find in Hawaii. You just have to watch the video to see how cool it was. It is AWESOME! Talk about talent!

Here's Lilly's name:

Maggie Walking! Wow!

2008-06-09T17:45:00.004-04:00

So Maggie just turned 13 months, and it seems all she wants to do is WALK! She can't walk on her own yet, but she will grab both of your hands and walk you all over the place! Well, to our surprise, she pulled herself up on Lilly's little chair, and started pushing it around! It's one of her favorite things to do now, except for when she gets stuck. Way to go, Maggie!

Let's try this house offer thing again!

2008-06-05T17:45:00.004-04:00

Okay, so we found another really cute house that we made an offer on! We made the offer on Monday night, and it was submitted Tuesday morning. So now we're in the process of deciding terms both parties can agree on! It's crazy and exciting! We have less than 5 weeks here, so we really hope it all works out! I actually like this house better than any of the other possibilities we've considered. It has 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths, plus an unfinished basement! Wahoo! It might not seem very big, but to us (who still live in a one bedroom apartment), it seems like a castle!! I just can't really imagine yet how it will be to have a kitchen, PLUS a dining room, PLUS a living room, etc. instead of the Wymount "every room is rolled into one" layout. Okay, okay, enough describing the house, here are the pictures...

Back to square one...

2008-05-23T10:40:00.003-04:00

So the house we made an offer on was bought by someone else. I guess it really helps to be a real estate investor with a lot of cold, hard cash on hand instead of a small family hoping for a mortgage. Oh well. I know that particular house must not have been meant for us, so we're supposed to be somewhere else! The hardest thing about it, though, is that we aren't able to fly back out to Cleveland to look for more houses, so we'll have to buy a house sight-unseen. Luckily we have a FABULOUS real estate agent that will look through the houses for us and take lots of pictures and video. I guess we'll just see what happens! We only have about 6 weeks left! Yikes!

Ohio House

2008-05-06T21:59:00.005-04:00

Here are some pics of the house we're making an offer on! I'm not the best photographer, so the pictures aren't fabulous, but at least you can get an idea on what it's like!

Front of the house. (There's an attached 2-car garage just to the right of the picture.)
The front yard. (The house is set back really far on the lot, as you can see.)

The back yard.
The rest of the back yard.

The kitchen.

Maggie's 1st Birthday!

2008-05-06T18:30:00.008-04:00

Maggie had her 1st birthday on Sunday, May 4th! We threw a party with a fish theme because she loves fish! She had everything from a fish cake and fish decorations to a fish outfit! It was really fun! For presents, she got a bunch of summer clothes (just in time for our Rachael Ray Hawaii trip next week), a Sit 'n Spin, a stuffed frog, and a fun bead tower toy. Everything was fabulous! The day before her birthday we taught her to show one finger when she is asked how old she is. She also learned to point to her head when we ask her where her cranium is! What a cutie! We love Maggie!! Happy Birthday!!!

Maggie wasn't too excited to eat her cake. She preferred a chocolate chip cookie!

Here's the cake. (James actually did most of the frosting, a newly found talent!)

Here's her bead tower toy. You turn it upside down and all the beads flow down through to the bottom, making some whirlygig things turn.
Here's Maggie on her Sit 'n Spin with her new frog toy, "Jean-Bob"

Here's Maggie showing off some of her new clothes from her Aunties and Grandma & Grandpa!
Here is Maggie showing off her newly-learned skills! Yay Maggie!

Cleveland, here we come!

2008-04-24T01:14:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I just realized that many of you few readers may not know where we're moving this summer. James graduates from BYU in just a couple days, so we inevitably have to move out of student housing. After much thinking and several trips out to potential schools, we decided to move to Cleveland, Ohio so James can get his Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University! I'm actually going out to Cleveland next week to look at different houses and hopefully decide on a house to buy. (Purchasing a house is actually WAY cheaper than renting an apartment.) Holy cow! Isn't that what OLD people do?

Lilly on Oprah May 12th

2008-04-23T19:31:00.004-04:00

Okay, so we haven't received an "official" notification from Harpo Studios yet, but on Oprah's website it says:

Plus, Get Ready…
On Monday, May 12, the world's most talented kids. He's barely out of diapers! She's 15 years old and bringing down the house!

Yep, that's definitely Lilly's show! Tune in if you can!! :)

Yay Lilly!!!

Hi to Uncle Brady

2008-04-22T21:34:00.003-04:00

Hi Brady!! I hope you're having fun on your mission! Maggie wanted to say hi and show you how big and smart she is, so we made this video for you. Enjoy!! :)

Lilly on Oprah! (But no air date yet!)

2008-04-15T18:49:00.009-04:00

So a few weeks ago we got a surprise email from Harpo studios wanting Lilly to be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show to show off her map skills! Needless to say, we didn't pass up this chance of a lifetime! Luckily we had several days to get ready to be on national TV (new haircut for Nikki and James and new clothes for all)!! We flew out to Chicago for two days and had an AMAZING trip! (It still doesn't seem like it actually happened to US!) We all had a BLAST! Lilly did FABULOUS on the show! Here are some pics from our adventures, including or limo rides (we traveled everywhere in a limo!) and a quick trip to the aquarium. (We weren't allowed to have our camera backstage or anything, but you can kind of see our adventures in the pics!) Oh, and we still don't know when the show will air, but we'll definitely let you know as soon as we do! :)

2008-03-22T14:26:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday Granny Annie! How does it feel to finally be 29? Lilly and Maggie love their Granny Annie and can't wait to see you again!
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Boo, Nikki, Lilly, & Maggie