Happy Memorial Day

To complete our Memorial Day weekend, we began with a parade this morning. Kelsey was decked out in red, white and blue, complete with her flag. She was saying all morning "we going to a parade." She was very entertained during the parade and would say "more coming" after each thing would pass us. Next up was the park. We met Grandma and Grandpa and Stacey and the boys for some play time and a picnic. Kelsey liked going down the slide with Connor, Jacob and Grandma. She also liked walking on the equipment with Grandpa and having Jacob look up at her through the tunnel slide. We made our way home for the afternoon and after a great nap, played outside with Kelsey's golf set, tee ball set, wagon and bike. It was such a great day! The weather was absolutely gorgeous. In fact, I can officially report I have my first sunburn of the season. I never think I am getting as much sun as I really am and then BAM, I am fried! I guess it is a sign that summer is here, which is a great thing!

Kelsey Funnies

Here are a few recent funny things that Kelsey has said to us.

Mommy: What do you want for breakfast?
Kelsey: A cheeseburger

Daddy: Kelsey, let's get your dress on.
Kelsey: A church, Daddy. I be quiet(kiet). Shhhhhh

(At the baseball game)
Kelsey: A home, Mommy?
Mommy: Pretty soon
Kelsey: Two minutes?

When she asks for things lately, such as "I color, Mommy?" and I respond by saying "Should I get the colors out?", she always says "K". It is cute because it is never yes, but instead just "k".

When picking up her colors or looking at books, every color is always green (or in Kelsey words "geen")

She likes to put the toilet seat on and then make a sound like she is going to the bathroom. Then, she has to pull off toilet paper and drop it in the toilet.

When we were in church today, Stacey took Lucas out for a minute. Kelsey says" oh no, where Stacey go?" Then when Stacey returned she said "Stacey back."

Whenever I give her a kiss and say I love you, she likes to respond by saying bye.

If Matt is in the basement or outside and Kelsey doesn't see him, she will say "Daddy baseball game?"

When we are driving home and get close to our house, she must recognize where we are by looking out our window because she will say" we're home."

So far, so good

The beginning of our Memorial Day has been great! To kick things off, I went to see Sex and City 2 with my neighbor and Stacey. It was a pretty good movie. The three of us saw the first one together, so it was neat we got to do the same fot the second one. Saturday morning we did not have swimming lessons because of it being Memorial Day weekend, so we were able to get up and just play for a bit. Mattey had his first round of playoffs for baseball in the afternoon, so we made our way to the game. Matt's whole family was able to join us as well. They ended up winning the game 17-1 and move on to the final four in Red Wing this weekend.

On our way to the game

Hanging out with Kelsey's friend, Ava


Saturday was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy the weather by having a cookout at Matt and Stacey's after the game. We played baseball, the boys did the slip n' slide, Kelsey went on the swingset, and we all soaked up a litte sun.

Today we got up and went to church, followed by breakfast with Matt's family. When Kelsey wakes up from her nap, we plan to maybe go for a bike ride depending on how hot it gets and have a graduation party after that. It is such a good feeling to know we have tomorrow off! I will post more this week about how we spent our Memorial Day! Enjoy your day off :)

Time with the Boys

We got to watch Nolan, Connor and Lucas the other night because Jacob had his preschool evaluation. Kelsey was very excited the boys were coming over. She is in love with Lucas. She seriously adores him. She always want to hug and kiss him, and is usually pretty gentle with him. When we laid Lucas on the floor, she had to lay right down next to him.

Later we had a little dance party, and Kelsey picked Connor for her dance partner. Connor is so good with her. She just wanted to jump around and hold his hands. You could tell Connor was a little embarrassed, but just stood there and let her do her thing. What a good cousin!

Little Miss Helper

Following our exciting Friday night of baseball, the rest of our weekend was very relaxing. We began with swimming lessons on Saturday morning. Every week her class seems to shrink. This week there were only two girls. It is kind of nice because there is tons of room for Kelsey to splash around. We only have one more class left! We filled the rest of our day with household chores and errands, including getting groceries. Kelsey likes to help put things in the cart. She sometimes likes to grab random items off the shelf, so we have to be on the ball. Once we got home, she helped up put the groceries away. She even tried to hand us the eggs....thankfully Matt has quick reflexes and saved the eggs from smashing on the floor :) She sure does like to help and do whatever we are doing. To end the evening we went to Matt's parents for dinner. It was so relaxing and I loved every minute of it!
Kelsey has been really into helping us water the flowers. She has her own watering can and has caught on to what to do. However, her can is so little that she is constantly filling it back up. I am not sure what gets more water, the flowers or Kelsey. Either way, she has a blast doing it. Today after church she once again grabbed her watering can and got to work. What a good little helper :)

Big 9 Champs!

Matt's baseball team swept Albert Lea tonight to become conference champions for the first time since 1988. The first game was closer than the second, but the second game was one out away from a perfect game which made both games exciting. Way to go, Coach! We are so proud of you. Being a coach requires Mattey to put in a lot of time at the ball field. It gets a little crazy at times trying to coordinate schedules, but when something like this happens, it all seems so worth it. The team has worked hard this year and they deserve it. Awesome job, Huskies! Keep up the good work. Who knows, maybe we can repeat last year and head to state! In the words of Kelsey "goooooooo uskies!"

Kelsey's Latest Top Ten

10. Waking up at 5:00am and standing in her crib yelling "Mama" until I go get her and bring her to cuddle with us

9. Counting up to 15 while putting out her fingers while she does it. Now, usuaully the fingers don't coincide with the number she is saying, but she has the right idea! She also likes to touch things like pictures in her books, her dolls, her kitchen food and count them as well.

8. I asked her if she wanted something to drink and she said "juice". I replied "apple juice?" and she says back " Ya, I like apple juice"

7. Singing along to every single word on Team Oomizoomi( and tons of other songs she has picked up on!)

6. Asking for her huskies shirt whenever I say we are going to Daddy's baseball game

5. Sitting on her Dora toilet seat, saying "tinkle, tinkle" or "shhhhhooooo" and then ripping toilet paper and putting it in the toilet. We are still awaiting the magical moment when she actually goes though!

4. Telling me "no help mama" when I try to help with things now. She needs to try it first

3. Repeating everything!

2. Laying on her belly and reading books. We have read some of them so much she has them memorized and reads them to us. Her favorites are What's Up Duck, Big Red Barn, Moo Baa Lalala, Oh No David, The Going to Bed Book, and Five Little Strawberries

1. Playing with her dolls. She will say "oh no, baby crying (which comes out more like "baby kying"). Then she shushs the baby and says "no ky baby" while patting its back. We have a little mama in the making :)

Congratulations, Matt!

It is the season of graduation time and our family got to honor our very own graduate. Matt has been working on getting his master's degree for the past two years through an online program offered through the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Mattey and I spent some time talking about where the two years have gone. It was kind of sudden that he even decided to enter the program. My roommate Liz had started this program and was talking to Matt about it. At the time, I was one year into my masters and we had just had Kelsey. Matt knew he eventually wanted to get his master's degree, but he wasn't sure how he would fit it in with coaching football and baseball, running intermural basketball, teaching full-time, me getting my degree and a brand new baby. However, he took on the task and here we are two years later. His classes were very demanding and required that he be on the computer daily to make posts, do readings, or complete assignments. At times it was very stressful, but he made it work. We are SOOOO proud of you, Mattey! What an amazing accomplishment.


To start the day on Saturday, we were up bright and early to make our way to Menomonie for the 9:30am ceremony. Dave, Vickie, Stacey, and Lucas went, too. When we arrived, it was pretty chaotic. We had to stand in a line that wrapped around the field house just to get in. Once we got in the field house, things went pretty quickly as far as graduations go. The set-up was nice too because there was an open area next to us that we could get up with Kelsey if needed. For getting up early and shaking up her schedule, she did really well. My roommate Liz also walked at the ceremony and she and Matt sat next to each since their last names are close. How ironic since that is how it all started!









When we got back to Owatonna, Matt's family, along with my brother and sister, had a party to celebrate all Matt's hard work. I really do love when our families get together because it is such a fun crew. Everyone gets along really well and all the kids play great together. The weather was perfect and we had a great day to grill out and play yard games. At one point, we had a big game of kickball. It was quite a scene. I spent most of the time laughing at the adults trying to organize everyone and get them to kick the ball and run the bases.



Thank you to everyone who brought food to share. It made my life a lot easier! Thank you for helping get everything set up and cleaned up afterward. Thank you for making it so easy to host everyone and being with us to honor Matt and his accomplishment. We have such amazing families and we always feel so lucky to be part of this group.

Mother's Day Weekend

Happy Mother's Day! We had another great weekend! To start things off, we spent Friday night watching the movie It's Complicated. It seems like we haven't just spent a night at home with no plans for awhile, so it was very relaxing. Plus, the movie was cute and kept us both awake;)
Saturday morning brought swimming lessons again. We missed last week because of the 5k walk. Kelsey does pretty well with the back float now and likes to throw the floating dumbbell and then have to swim to get it. Afterward, Mattey had a baseball game. So, we spent the afternoon at the ball park. However, we dressed more for a fall football game than a spring baseball game. I even had to pull out Kelsey's winter hat and mittens. It was chilly, complete with sleet and snowflakes! Grandma and Grandpa came to root on the Huskies, too.

Sunday I woke up to a beautiful card from Kelsey and a gift certificate for a massage. It was very sweet and thoughtful. Following a cuddle session in bed while we watched cartoons, we made our way to church. Next stop was breakfast with Matt's family. Nate and Diane came down to join us as well.

After breakfast, we did our annual mother's day event of potting our flowers. This year we went to Souba's for our flowers. They had a really good selection. Kelsey liked helping to push the cart with Daddy.

I am very fortunate that Matt's mom is always willing to help me with this because I definitely do not have a green thumb. Stacey always generously allows us to make a mess in her garage with all the potting soil and flowers.

While we worked outside, Kelsey took a nap inside and then cuddled with Grandpa when she woke up.
Due to the cold weather, we are waiting to put them out for a few days. In the past, we have usually done our garden on mother's day as well, but we are waiting until it warms up.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside with the kids and finished by ordering pizza.



We did find a little time to play at home before bath, books, and bed tonight. I thought a lot today about how lucky I am to be a mother and celebrating this day. Both Matt and I have had such amazing role models for mothers and we feel so blessed for that. I only hope I can be as good of a mom to Kelsey as they have/had been to us.
On this mother's day, I want to tell my beautiful Kelsey girl that I am so proud to be her mama. She has brought more joy to my life than I ever knew possible. Both she and Matt are my whole world and being a mother has truly made me feel so incredibly blessed. Kelsey is such an amazing child who is full of life and makes me smile everyday. I love being her mother :)

And We're Back in Business!

YAY! Our new USB cord came today and so far, so good! I was able to add a few new pictures to the blog post about the walk and seeing our college friends. I have been waiting for the cord to come all week and am happy this seems to have solved the problem. I will try to add more pictures tomorrow to update on mother's day and our weekend.

Camera Down

Our camera has decided that it does not want to work correctly. It is not allowing the pictures from the camera to transfer to the computer. We think it is the USB cord and are hoping that will fix the problem. Until then, our posts will be pictureless :(

Walking and Partying

It was another busy weekend for the Skala family! Friday night we spent a romantic night at the grocery store. Afterward, Matt's parents came over to spend some time with Kelsey. She showed them a lot of her new things she can do and was very excited to see them.
Saturday morning, Kelsey, Diane, Stacey and I walked in the 2nd annual From the Heart 5k/Half-marathon. The proceeds from the race go to support a local family who is battling cancer. It was a very windy day, but most of the walk was on a path that was surrounded by trees to block the wind. Growing up with my dad as a runner, I have always had a goal to run a marathon like he does. Seeing how tired I was after the 5k, I realize I have a big challenge ahead. Let's hope someday I can blog about checking the goal off my list. Heck, if I can run the 5k next year rather than walk, I will be making a huge step! Kelsey fell asleep shortly after the race began and slept the whole time. Seriously, this child makes everything so easy :)

After the walk, we came home to finish a ton of house work that I have been putting off. Later that day, Matt and I went to a surprise party for our good friend, Chris. Stacey and Matt watched Kelsey for us. It sounds like they had a lot of fun, complete with a sleepover in the living room until we picked her up. While they played, we enjoyed catching up with college friends. It seems we just don't seem them enough. They are such a fun group to be around and we are so happy we were able to see them all. Sunday we went to lunch to celebrate Nate, Matt G's, and Dave's birthdays.
Afterward, we spent some time at Nate and Diane's house watching the Twins and playing the Wii. By the time we got home Sunday afternoon, Mattey had to quickly finish up a master's project before we all pretty much crashed for the night. Again, it was a fun, family-filled weekend.