Lucas, A Day at Home, Potty Seat, Coaches vs. Cancer

Here are a few more pictures from meeting Lucas:



I had off from school on Monday and spent my time with Kelsey. Matt had to go to school, so it was just the two of us. We played the day away using her kitchen set, having a tea party with her teddy bears, practicing the piano, cuddling during naptime, and of course, watching a little Dora.


Kelsey has been starting to express a few signs that she might be ready for potty training. It seems so early to even think about this yet, but she will often get us a diaper when she is wet and sometimes tell us when she has a stinky. So, we bought her a toilet training seat to see what she would do. After saying Dorie over and over, this is what she did. Let's hope this is not a sign of how potty training will go!


Last night we participated in a very neat event called Coaches vs. Cancer. It really hit home for the Owatonna football coaches this year because one of their wives was diagnosed with breast cancer in November. To raise money to benefit the American Cancer Society, the basketball team wore pink warm-up shirts and the football coaches worked the crowd for donations. By the end of the evening, they had raised $2,000! With my own experience of my mom's cancer, it was a very special night and I was so proud to be part of this community where people are so generous.

Lucas Arthur Ginskey

The Ginskey family welcomed baby boy #4 today. He was 9lbs. 2oz. 21 inches long. We received the news via text message around 3am. We went to meet him tonight and he is a little peanut. Kelsey was interested and kept saying baby. She even got a little jealous when Daddy was holding him and wanted to get right in there to be sure Daddy did not forget about her. I will post more pictures this weekend when I have more time to blog. For now, here is a sneak peak at the little man. Congrats, Ginskeys!

Kelsey likes to....

I thought I would update with some of the latest and greatest that Kelsey is up to. For starters, she is quite the talker. She especially likes to try to mimic what we say. She has gotten really good at saying please, which comes out as "peas". She has not mastered thank you, but often says "a go" for there you go after we do something for her. Another phrase she frequently uses is "a mon" for come on. At dinner time, Kelsey folds her hands to pray with us before we eat. She puts her hands close to her face and crinkles her nose up with a big smile as if she is quite pleased with herself. When the prayer is finished, she does say amen or "a ma" as she says it.
Kelsey is really into the shows Dora, as she refers to as Dorie, and Olivia, which she calls "eye-uh."
Her favorite toys are her kitchen set, books, and laptop. Although she does not know how to play the games on it yet, she does know how to turn it off and on and will often carry it around with her. As for the kitchen set, she likes to hide her dishes in all the cupboard doors that open. She will also sit at her table and pretend to be mixing something up. She really likes it when you do cheers with her, too.
Today we went outside to play in the snow for the first time. I had planned to do this during Christmas break, however it was really cold. Today was the perfect day though! Kelsey kept saying "side" for outside as we were getting her all bundled up. Grandma and Grandpa brought over a sled for her.(side note: I have been looking for a sled since after Christmas for her and there is not one to be found in Owatonna! However, they do have out all their swimsuits...which will not help me as we live in Minnesota and it will not get warm until June!) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for helping us out! I tried to pull Kelsey around, but she kept falling back and would end up laying flat in the sled. Next, we attempted to just sit in the snow and draw in it, pick it up, etc. This entertained her for awhile, but she eventually tired of this, too. I think her favorite part was walking around on the driveway because she could move better than when we were sitting in the snow. She cried a little when we came inside, so I guess that means she enjoyed it. Hopefully we can get out a few more times this winter.

Finally, I thought these pictures were too funny not to post. Matt and I were putting away groceries when Kelsey came walking out of the bathroom...with the entire toilet paper roll following her.

Wedding Bells

Congratulations are in order for Matt's brother Nate and his new fiancee, Diane! They are now engaged! We are SO excited! We are looking forward to all the new year will bring with wedding plans and couldn't be happier for the two of them! Kelsey is also very excited to have a new aunt :) Love you both!

Our last Christmas celebration

Last Friday we headed to Pulaski to celebrate Christmas with the Wojkiewicz's (my mom's side.) It has been a few months since we drove that way, so we were curious how Kelsey would do for the five hour car ride. To our pleasant surprise, she was great! We were pretty well prepared though so that she didn't have time to think about wanting to get out of the car seat. The way there on Friday nights is always a little bit tricky because once it gets dark there are not many options to keep her entertained. However, she only had a short time when she cried and it was when we were almost to my dad's. Saturday we spent the day catching up with family. Unfortunately my brother's family was not able to make it because Lauryn got sick. We did get to Skype with them though--gotta love technology! Sunday we were up early to be back on the road because Matt is taking a 3 week interim course and has a pretty big workload with master's right now. Again, Kelsey did great in the car! When we got to Minnesota, we stopped at Nate and Diane's new townhome to have lunch. Once we finally made it home, it was hard to believe it was Sunday afternoon and Monday was just around the corner. Why do weekends have to go so fast?

Slumber Party at Grandma and Grandpa's House

Saturday was our day to celebrate Christmas with Matt's immediate family. To start the day, we had some yummy appetizers and began opening presents. I cannot even begin to tell you how spoiled we all felt! Kelsey received SO many nice gifts. To mention just a few, she got a toy laptop, Little People dollhouse, suitcase with her name on it, Twins t-shirt, Dora doll, a food set, and the list goes on.....We feel so lucky that everyone was so generous. Matt and I also felt like little kids opening all of our presents because Dave and Vickie went all out! After opening a few presents and giving the kids something new to play with, we got the Wii out and played a few games. Next up was church. Mattey stayed home with all the kids since they were all pretty wired and would have been a little bit crazy at mass. Once we got home, we opened more presents and then had a delicious steak dinner. Afterward, we all changed into our sweats because I think our bellies were more than full. The rest of the evening was full of games and lots of laughs. We played Apples to Apples, and I don't think I have ever laughed as much as I did playing it Saturday night. To top it all off, we all spent the night! All the Skala kids slept in their old bedrooms. It felt a little funny to pack up to stay across town, but it was so fun. There is something special about all being able to stay together.

Picture Time!
Our family

The kids and grandkids

Ginskey Family

Nate and Diane

Grandpa, Grandma and the grandchildren

Sunday morning we had breakfast and then got packed up to head home. It was a very Merry Christmas, and I think we may have just started a new tradition for years to come.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010! We hope that you and your family have a wonderful new year filled with many blessings.

To celebrate last night we had friends over to ring in the new year. In the past, we usually have gone to someone else's house. However, we decided to be the hosts this time around. There were 10 adults and 6 kids. The kiddos all played really well together and made it easy for the adults to enjoy themselves as well. We watched some football, played Wii, had a Bunco tournament, and of course, played with the kids. However, little miss Kelsey girl did not want the party to end because she was still awake at midnight to say happy new year. We tried to put her down multiple times but she was not having it. So rather than fight it, we just went with the flow and let her party with us :) Thankfully, she did sleep in this morning!

Since we have just finished a decade of time, I thought I would create a top 10 list of 2000-2009.

10. Mattey and I attended UWEC from 2000-2004 and graduated in 2004.

9. We got engaged June 2004.

8. We traveled to Branson, Vegas, Chicago, Canada, and the Bahamas.

7. We were married in July of 2005.

6. We bought our first home in March of 2006.

5. We both got our first teaching jobs and continue to stay employed with the same districts.

4. Mattey began coaching football and baseball for the Owatonna Huskies.

3. We became an aunt and uncle with the births of Connor, Jacob and Nolan, Lauryn, Miranda and Korinne and Soren, Annika and Leia.

2. Matt and I both obtained our master's degrees. *Matt will graduate in May :)

1. Our miracle, Kelsey Sandra Skala, was born on August 1, 2008. There are so many things I could say about how she has changed our lives, but to sum it up, I will just say thank you dear Lord for sending us such an incredible gift!