Family Photos

These pictures were taken just a few days before Ryan left on his mission. We were really lucky to get an appointment with this photographer. She was really sweet and awesome to work with--even though McCoy absolutely hated almost the whole entire thing. We're really glad we got some last minute family photos of what family looks like before the two years are completed for Ryan. It will be interesting to see what our family looks like and the size it's grown to when he returns.

 (They were so pooped and done taking pictures by the end. The only thing that could settle McCoy down was Baby Einstein on the wonder iPhone.)

All because of these two amazing parents. 

the end. 

Missionary of the Family

My family only had one boy born into it. Ryan. For my family this opportunity will only come once. He will now be called Elder Skousen for two years and his time has already started. He left on July 6th, 2011 and will be coming home to see McCoy at the age of 3 1/2. Crazy to think about it that way but it really put it into perspective for me. This is a huge sacrifice for a young man to go on a mission at such a young age. These two years of any man's life, are usually the most important and valuable years. My younger brother has decided to dedicate those two special years to our Heavenly Father. He will be serving in the Forte Lauderdale, Florida mission, Spanish speaking. I can't believe this time has already come. We'll miss him but I am especially proud of him and what's he out there teaching about and his sacrifice he's made because of his love for the gospel and his Savior. WE LOVE YOU RYAN and GOOD LUCK!! 

 Dropping him off at the MTC. 

 Ryan only got to see a few weeks of Perry's life. He'll be back when she 2 years old. 

Happy Birthday Trev!

Over the weekend, we had the chance to celebrate Trevor's big 26th birthday. We went to Seven Peaks with the whole family! 

 Ruby reading her books:) 

 McCoy was already tuckered out even before we left for the water park. Jill and he were watching a movie and he was out for the count in no time. He was up before we got all the way to the park and he was heading straight for the pools before we could even get all the way out of the car. He loved being outside and with so much water everywhere he turned. 

 Last night we gave haircuts. We're at the point with McCoy's hair that he needs a hair cut every time Trev needs a haircut. It's actually pretty nice. I get the trimmer and scissors out one time and get both my boys done. I'm getting good at giving pretty sharp hair cuts now. 

 McCoy loves cereal. He can eat it all by himself now, even with milk. He's good with his spoon and gobbles every bite up. This is him finishing up the last drop. I love when he eats out of these "soup" bowls because they have perfect and convenient little handles for this very task. 

  I love when he eats out of these "soup" bowls because they have perfect and convenient little handles for drinking milk out of the bowl. 

We've been doing quite a few things with the Hobson family lately. McCoy and Ruby get along better than any other kids I know. They love each other and we love hanging out with Kara and Craig so it's the perfect combination. 

My parents gave us this perfect little twin bed from Jill's old room and McCoy loves it! In fact, here's pictures of McCoy when he fell asleep for the night on the bed. Trev said he was throwing some pretty big fits and he wouldn't calm down so he gave him his binki and blanket, put him on the bed and walked away. He calmed down and Trev came back in after 2 minutes and he was fast asleep. We're really thinking about moving him to this for good. He really enjoys sleeping on it, playing on it and jumping on it (which is his favorite part.)

We had a flash back to a story that Traci told us about Trevor's childhood when we saw this picture. Trevor has a picture of when he was this age in the bathtub and McCoy looks exactly like him! The only difference was that Trevor was fully clothed and not supposed to be in the bathtub. Traci says that she gave him a bath and put pj's on him. Two minutes later, he was back in the bath tub still with his pj's on. She was frustrated but still decided to take a picture. She got him out and put pj's on him for the second time. Two minutes later, he was back in there. She even has a picture of him in the bath for the second time with the second pare of pj's on. Sounds like something McCoy would do. (We'll see if we can scan those pictures on here sometime to show you just how much they look alike.) 

I just love my water boy! He could live in the water if we let him. In fact, today, we were at the park trying to get some of his wiggles out and what does he end up doing? Playing in the puddles on the sidewalk. Check out these videos. (Links Below) 

Splashing

Drinking Fountain

Summer Fun

We've been doing a lot of kiddie swimming this summer. It's too expensive to go to a lot of the water parks so we've been creating our own fun at our houses. Ruby and McCoy still love playing together. Here's a video of her and him playing at my parent's house. (Link Below) 

Swimming party

McCoy and Ruby

We also went for a bike ride with Connor and Gabe up to Bridalveil falls on the 4th of July. We started at our house and went all the way up there. It was quite the bike ride for me since I don't work out as often as I should. It was even a tough ride for McCoy too. ha. He fell asleep on the ride up and we had to make some contraption to keep his head from bobbling around. Poor guy. But he did stay asleep for about 1 hour of the ride. He was so cute. Here's some pictures. Thanks for the fun day Trev, Gabe and Connor! 

 Here's how we kept his head up. We tied Trevor's shirt around his head with diapers on both sides to keep his head from getting banged up when we were riding. Then we strapped his back-pack straps to the baby seat to keep his head from falling forward. I'm telling you, it worked really well. Kind of funny looking and sounds mean but he stayed asleep. 

 Kisses Daddy, kisses. 

When McCoy is asleep, his lips almost always get pursed out like he puckering for a kiss. Trev said he makes it a habit of kissing them no matter what because he says McCoy is waiting for a kiss from Daddy.

McCoy has been making some trips to the school with Daddy. He's taking his very last class at UVU and then he'll be officially graduated. NO more school...YEAH!! Trevor said McCoy loves the big open spaces and being able to play and run outside. McCoy still loves to growl at everything that resembles a lion. He's getting pretty good about it too. Trev took this picture of McCoy on top of the Wolverine at UVU. He said that McCoy growled the whole time he was on it. He even had this mini water bottle to play with. He was in heaven. 

That cheesy smile is just about the cutest thing in the whole world! He couldn't get any cuter! 

Singing In the Rain

This past week we had quite the random rain storm. It was sunny most of the day and at about 7:30, it started to down-poor rain. Trevor thought it would be fun to let McCoy experience this beautiful storm for himself. We geared up with flip flops and a towel. McCoy had the funnest time out there and he loved every second. Here's some videos and pictures of the fun adventure we had on the spur-of-the-moment event. It's kind of  a long video but I couldn't help it. Enjoy. 

(Link Below) 

Singing In the Rain

This picture McCoy looks like he's not enjoying himself. It was kind of cold but nothing stops this kid from having a good time. I like how you can even see the rain drops falling in the sky--you may have to click on it so it gets larger to see what I'm talking about. 

 Look at the splashes he's making. Here's a video to show a little more of the puddles he was splashing in. Enjoy.

 (Link Below)

Splish Splash

 Trevor and McCoy had a blast together. I love seeing them play together and I love seeing how much Trevor loves McCoy. 

McCoy is officially a toddler, all 18 months worth. He's growing up so fast. He's entering the tantrum stage and he's really good at it. Some days are really hard since he still can't completely express himself. He's getting more and more talkative but still struggles saying actual words. Although the "cars," "ball," "mama," "dada," "binki," etc. do make us happy that he's talking, he still can't express his feelings and I think he gets frustrated because he can understand us and listens to us but can't talk back (I guess when I put it that way, I can't really complain:)) He has learned that pulling my finger or Trevor's finger does get us to go where he wants us to but the tantrums keep coming. 

We finally discovered that he has allergies and the doctor said we could give him half an allergy pill every day. It's actually been working and he's been much happier. Still some fits here and there but a lot better. 

Although there are the hard days, I can't imagine my life without McCoy and I love getting to share special moments with him everyday. Here's some videos of him enjoying my shoes. He's getting much better at walking in them and he continues to be fascinated. (Link Below) 

Mommy's Shoes

Today McCoy got a hold of a roll of quarters we had around the house for our wonderful quarter-operating washer and dryers. We started counting as we were putting them back in the paper roll after McCoy had dumped them all out onto the floor. He was actually loving it. He was entertained for at least 15 minutes. Then I got out his little piggy bank that we use to put our spare change in and let him play around with that. He wasn't trying to eat it, thank goodness, but he was learning slowly how to put it back into the piggy bank's little slot on back. So adorable...it's moments like these that I hope I never forget. Enjoy! (Link Below) 

Piggy Bank