A Typical Day at the Kristoff's

I feel like I share mostly our "extra" activities, so I thought I should show you a typical day at the Kristoff house!

Skylar tends to stay in her pajamas unless we are going somewhere. I like to put clothes on her, but Matt doesn't see the point...and since he usually gets the girls up and ready in the morning and I sleep in I don't complain! ;)

Sami goes to school Monday-Thursday mornings, and when she gets home its play...play...PLAY! =) You will almost always find her pretending and dressed up in a costume of some sort or another. Here she was a skunk. This particular skunk was at the beach on a rainy day (she is holding an umbrella) with her human baby sister. She almost always includes Skylar in her imaginary world, but of course Skylar is oblivious that she is included! (As portrayed by the fact that she is trying to take back her blanket!)

On a typical day at our house you will also find toys throughout the living room, dining room, and playroom! This picture was taken in the dining room. Since we do not have dining room furniture that tends to be the center of where most activities take place. I'm not sure what Sam would do if we ever did put a table and chairs in there! =)

Some people might look at being a stay at home mom a "boring life"...but how many of them can say they have a skunk in their dining room? ;)

She's On the Move!

Skylar has been moving around for awhile now, but just recently she has really perfected her army crawl. It is amazing to me just how quickly she can get her little self going when she puts her mind to it! Her favorite things to go after are:
-Mommy's Blackberry
-Sami's toys
-Anything so small that the vacuum didn't get it, but of course she notices it!


I just love how expressive her eyes are! At such a young age you can tell she is excited and proud of herself! Look at me go!!!!!!!!!

A Day in the Snow

As most of you know Matt has been laid off this winter. This is a totally new experience for us, but we are living through it! Thankfully we had savings to live with, and I was already an avid couponer and living frugally wasn't new to us!

With all of the negative that has gone along with this experience there has been so much positive! Sami LOVES that her Daddy is home to take her to school, and pick her up! She is so happy to tell him all about her day!

On this particular day Sami was home from school for a "snow day"...what better to do on a snow day than play in the snow?

We recently found out that he has moved up on the book to #1...so he will be getting called back to work any day now! Financially we will be SO grateful because after 3 months we need him to go back. But we have gotten used to him being home...so we will have some adjusting to do...but we are grateful for all the time we have shared with him!

Locks of Love

Sami has been asking to get her haircut for awhile now. I've been putting it off for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I like long hair...its fun to braid it...put it up...use different clips, etc. However, one day I came to the realization that it is Sami's hair, and if she wants it short then it should be short!



With all of her natural curl its hard to know exactly how long her hair really is. So we decided to straighten it the night before the cut! It was so long and beautiful it made me a little bummed that she was getting it cut, but again...it is her hair! =) Plus the long straight hair made her look a little older than I was prepared for! ;)

Having it straight helped Erica (she cuts both of our hair) determine just how much she was cutting off and more importantly get a straight cut! =)

Erica told her she could donate her hair to http://www.locksoflove.org/ and she was MORE than willing! She thought it was SO neat!!!! She was able to donate 10 inches of hair!

So this is the final result...pretty cute if you ask me! ;)

Seriously??? She's 6 months old?

Our little Skylar is 6 months old! Where oh where has the time gone???

I took Sky to her 6 month check up with Dr. Brewer 2 weeks ago. She is 16 lbs and 24 1/2 inches long.

This checkup was slightly overwhelming to me. I think in my head I thought I would hear "Ok she weighs this...is she doing this and this...now she can eat this..." But that isn't exactly how it went.

Skylar has eczema which we keep up with pretty well with lotion, perfume and dye free detergents, etc. However with the winter weather it seems to have gotten worse. During this visit she was even broken out on her scalp!!!! :/ She is such a WONDERFUL baby though she never complains! So we were given a new lotion to try (which thankfully she had a full size sample) and she will be rechecking her skin in 2 weeks to see if there is any marked improvement.

When Dr. Brewer looked in Skylar's ears she noticed that both were infected!!!! I felt SO terrible! She hasn't had a fever or really fussed! She had one night that she cried, but it was New Year's Eve and we all stayed up late...so we assumed she was exhausted. Guess we were wrong! I know that ear infections are super common, but its hard to hear that your child has been sick for awhile and you didn't even notice.

I'm pretty sure I have mentioned how much I LOVE Skylar's pediatrician Dr. Brewer before, but in case you haven't gotten the message...she's great! =) She spends so much time with each family, and always asks you questions about how things are at home with siblings, etc. I am glad that I am so comfortable with her because it made the next few minutes easier.

Matthew and I had been noticing Skylar's right eye tilting in. It wasn't all the time, so we thought maybe she was sleepy or trying to focus. Dr. Brewer noticed the same thing, so she referred her to an opthamologist. We went to Dr. Taglia 2 days later and I was surprisingly calm. I give all that credit to God because I knew He would be taking care of this precious gift he gave us no matter what the doctor had to say. She got her eyes dilated (which might I add she didn't cry or even wince...what a trooper) and had he examined her a few times over the next hour and a half. The outcome? She has a "false lazy eye" (it has a technical term, but I'm not a doctor so I forget what it was!) which basically means it looks like her eye is lazy, but it is NOT!!!! I've been teasing that it is just "sluggish"! =) In reality it is just the way her eyes are shaped and its giving a false appearance. Phew! Thank you God!!!!

We did get some positive news during her well baby check up though! Her labial adhesion seems to be healing with the new medication. We are trying very hard to avoid surgery, so that was great news!!!

So here is some fun stuff she is doing:

She sits REALLY well on her own

She creeps EVERYWHERE because she has found it is faster than crawling. She looks like a little snake! (I'm realizing I don't have any pictures of that...next time ;) )

She loves to play in the excersaucer and jumperoo. She also still enjoys the swing. The other day she scooted over to it and tried to push it from underneath. I took that as a sign that she wanted to get in! Ha!

She continues to sleep through the night, and take 2 naps a day.

She has moved on to stage 2 baby food. She isn't too sure about it yet, but that is fine with us as she gets the bulk of her nutrition from her bottles. She drinks 3 7oz. bottles a day. We are still using Similac Isomil Advance, however the doctor has encouraged me to also use the Target brand as they are the exact same thing!

This post has gotten rather long, so I think I will do another post with more fun pictures of her later! =)

Baking up Christmas

My mom came over the Sunday before Christmas to make cookies with us! She pre-made the dough so all we had to do was the fun part...cut out and decorate! =) It was so much fun!

Can you see all the layers of frosting on this cookie??? Let me tell you...it was YUMMY! =)

Don't they look tasty???

Chicago Trip...Just the Big Girls!

The week before Christmas Sami and I stayed the night at my mom's house so we could go to Chicago the next day. My mom and I have gone to see the windows at Christmastime every year (with the exception of last year because I was too sick to go) since high school. This year we thought it would be fun to include Sami since she is a "big girl" now.

As you know from reading my blog she has been to Chicago before, but this was her first Christmas trip. The train was especially crowded that morning, and she gets a bit nervous in crowds. But after a little while she warmed up and was playing "rock-paper-scissors" with her Nana! =)
As part of our tradition we always eat at The Walnut Room. This lovely restaurant is located on the 6th floor at the State Street Macy's (formally Marshall Field's). This big beautiful tree is decorated differently every year, and we always look forward to seeing it.

Sami was speechless when she saw it! Her big brown eyes just gazing in awe! =)

There was NO WAIT when we got there, so we sat at a table right away! Most years we get a pager and wait 2-3 hours so this was a huge blessing! There are girls dressed up as fairies that go around to each table, and you can make a wish. As you can imagine Sami thought that was pretty awesome!

We hadn't written Santa a letter yet, so we sat down to do that as well. They had a nice little table set up with crayons and paper. She wrote one for herself, and Skylar too! And off it went in the Macy's mailbox.

We only waited 20 minutes to see what I believe to be the real deal Santa! This Santa was so jolly and kind! Sami gave her 3 requests: "Littlest Pet Shops, Molly School Set, and a Bitty Baby robe and slippers for her and her baby" She spoke with Santa a bit more, and then asked him what kind of cookies he would like her to leave out. I thought that was pretty sweet! FYI~Santa says he likes chocolate chip best of all! ;)

My little town girl LOVES the big city! She looked at the windows with amazement! What I was amazed at was the lack of people on the streets! We usually go earlier in the season, so maybe that was the difference. At any rate...we were able to actually look and read each window. SO NICE!!!!

I love this tradition! =)