The Buguhboo Chronicles

A couple months ago I asked Sky what she wanted to be for Halloween.  Her answer, “A bag of Jelly Beans”.  WOW, ok, how do I do that?  It was a great idea and while I was happy she was being so creative, I was scared with the thought of how hard it would be to make.

Well, the week of Halloween came around, and I realize I have not made the costume yet….Great Mom right?  Rob and I work hard, but finally got the costume done.  I thought it looked Ghetto and was worried she would end up going as something else because it looked so bad.  The costume was simply a clear trash bag with holes cut for her arms and legs, filled with small balloons and tied with a ribbon around her neck.

I decided to get some different colored sharpies and write Jelly Beans on the outside of the bag….Now it looked good!!!   We were so happy with how it came out!  We went trick-or-treating on Thursday at a strip mall and everyone commented on how cute the costume was!  Saturday was a festival at the gym and she actually won the costume contest for most original!!!  Sky is so proud of her ribbon!

Saturday night was trick-or-treating at our old neighborhood and we all had a great time!  Sky got a ton of candy and Rob and I both got to reunite with some old friends!  Here are a couple of pics of our bag of jelly beans having a great 4th Halloween!

I have been sooooooo bad at updating this blog, I apologize!  Sky keeps me so busy, and when I am not busy with her, I forget all about this thing!  So anyway, I will try to update you now.

SO, Sky had her 3rd birthday (time is really flying!!!) at Chuck-E-Cheese and she had a great time!  It was a princess party and everything was wonderful.  All the family got together and some of her friends came and partied with her.  Sky got lots of great presents and she plays with them pretty much every day.  Somehow, I do not have any pictures, I will have to get copies from everyone else.  Once I get them, I will post…I promise!

Rob and I got to take a little vacation while Grammie watched Skyler for a week!  Lisa and Chris let us use their timeshare in New Orleans so Rob and I took the train in and had an amazing week!  It’s funny, a lot of the things we did were actually family friendly, we should have brought Sky.  Of course then we would not have been able to go to Bourbon St…maybe next time Sky.  We went to the aquarium, zoo, and even the insectarium.  I was surprised that the insectarium had a kitchen that actually made food out of bugs!  Even more surprizing was the fact that Rob actually tried some stuff!!!!  He even went back for seconds on the cricket chocolate chip cookies.  Here are some pics of our trip.

Thats all for now, I will try update more in a couple days and add more pics of Sky.  Love you all!

I know I promised pictures and I am so sorry it has taken me almost 2 months…but here they are! Just for you Grandma!

As most of you know by now, my dad had open heart surgery almost a month ago so Sky and I went to Houston to help out.  We were there the weekend before his surgery and just got back in town yesterday morning. During our helping times, we all decided to take a trip to South Dakota to visit my grandparents.  So, Skyler, Mom, Dad, and I all piled into the car and drove to Dallas to drop off Kiwi.  On the way we decided we desperately needed a rental car that was much bigger then the impala.  Hoping to get an SUV, it of course did not happen.  Dad had to sit in the back seat due to the surgery and in order to give him room, the passenger up front had to basically have their knees in the dash….this part was miserable! After 2 days, we finally make it to Sioux Falls and had a great visit with family.  I have been gone from Austin for a month now, so I can officially say, even though we had a good trip, I am happy to be home!  I will post pictures from the trip soon….I need to try and clean the house a little bit (Rob is not the best housekeeper).

After Skyler’s dance recital on Saturday, the whole family took her to our favorite place in the whole world. Chuck-E-Cheese!!!!  We were celebrating not only her wonderful dance performance, but the fact that she is completely potty trained!  I officially never have to buy diapers or pull ups for Skyler again!  She has gone over 3 weeks with no accidents both day and night!  She loves being a big girl and getting to wear her panties to bed.  We are so proud of her.

Last week, Sky and I took a mini vacation with Budda and Grammie.  We went to Corpus a few days and stayed on Padre Island.  It was a nice break from reality and we had a great time.  Skyler loved the beach until we walked into the water and some seaweed washed up and got on her feet. After that, she just screamed and cried when we went near the seaweed. Of course, in order to get to the water you had to walk through the seaweed! Grammie, Sky, and I fed the seagulls on the seawall. It was very cool, they would literally eat the bread out of our fingers! Sky was has not scared at all until one bit her finger. We also got some letterboxing done while we were there.  We went searching for 7 boxes and found all but one.  This was Mom’s first time boxing and she had a great time (at least she told me she did).  We got to see parts of the city we otherwise would have missed so it was a great adventure! 

Check out some of the pics from the trip!

Sky had a big weekend!  Both sets of grandparents came into town to watch her in her first ever dance recital!  Her dance school has a few 2-3 year old classes and they all performed at a nursing home.  They were all adorable and some danced while others just stood there!  Sky of course was wonderful.

Skyler has been on this kick about birthdays for a while now.  I think it started before my birthday even. Well, everything we see now Sky wants it for her birthday.  She just simply says “You can get me that for my birthday” or “I want that for my birthday”.  I decided to start a list (see below) of what Skyler has asked for us to get her for her birthday.  We originally thought we were going to get her a bike but she FREAKED out when we put her on one in Academy to see how she fit it.  She wanted nothing to do with it although she still wants a big girl bike…go figure. My next idea is her big girl bed, we will see when it gets closer.  So anyway, here is her list.

School bus, train, bike, kite, Curious George, a mommy dress and panties, an octopus, bumble bee, big girl cup, newspaper, cell phone that works, a glass, a green shirt, another kite, and the final one….the best of them all… a princess in a monkey dress.

The princess in a monkey dress is actually a funny story (I know, I know,  it is funny even without the story).  I asked her if she wanted a princess party for her birthday and she got all excited! She said “Yes, and a princess can come and she will wear a monkey dress just like mine, and I will say ‘I have one of those at home’ and she will be happy, and then we will laugh and it will be funny.” Yes, all of that came out of her mouth at one time!! Can you believe she is only 2??????  So, I guess I will have to find a princess in a monkey dress matching hers (Sue, you better get sewing!)

I just found this article and thought I would share.  It really sums up Texas and will maybe convince some people to visit more often (you know who you are)! Check it out  http://www.humboldt.edu/~travel/2003/moss.html

We have a new hobby!  I found an article in the newspaper a couple months ago that talked about letterboxing. We had never heard of it before but it sounded interesting.  In case you do not know, letterboxing is where you go and search for hidden boxes.  These boxes are hidden all over the world and each one contains a one of a kind stamp along with a log book.  As a letterboxer, you have your own stamp and logbook that you take with you.  When a box is found, the finder places their stamp in the logbook and signs it with the date and sometimes a little note about their trip.  They then place the box’s stamp in their own book.  While you are searching for the boxes and replacing them, you are not supposed to get “caught” as these are secret in a way.  If someone that does not know about letterboxing finds one, it could be thrown out or ruined. This can be hard as many of the boxes are placed in the middle of busy places.  This sounded intriguing to me and I figured it got us out of the house, we would go ahead and try it.

Needless to say, we got hooked.  We have a trial name (what we sign the logbooks as) of the Yarrrrrgers.  This came from Sky’s fascination with pirates and pirate jokes! So Rob carved us a great stamp that we use as a family and we are having a great time.  Sky calls it treasure hunting and has a great time getting the stamps! We decided we are going to plant some of our own boxes and Rob has had a great time carving new stamps.  I just made my first stamp all by myself today and I am very proud of it!  It is actually a stamp of my tattoo, for those that do not know it is 5 dolphins jumping and forming a circle.  Now I just need to figure out where to plant my new box!

Today started off horrible… I woke up with a migraine and Rob was exhausted after a long and busy night at work.  Finally the headache went away after a nice, long, hot shower and our day finally really began around 12 pm!  We went and got the parts for Rob’s truck so he and Dave can work on it this weekend (lets cross our fingers and hope it works this time).  We then went to the ATT store to set up my new phone.  Rob got me the LG INCITE for my birthday and so far, I love it.  There are a few things I have to get used to, but I think it is a good phone for me.

After the errands were done, we began a new “quest” we are doing as a family.  I read an article in the paper this weekend about a hobby called Letterboxing.  It is a world wide thing and very interesting!  People hide boxes in various places and you are supposed to go find them.  Inside the boxes is a book and a unique stamp.  Each person has a stamp and they stamp and date the book in the box and use the stamp from the box to make their own book of letterbox stamps.  You then must re-hide the box in the same spot and do all of this without being noticed by a passerby.  This is very difficult to do sometimes as some of the boxes are right in the open and difficult to do without being noticed!

As I said before, we started this today.  Rob made a stamp for us to use and I have to say, he did a great job.  He made a large Y and incorporated all of our initials into it.  It is really cool!  So, on we went….treasure hunting is how Sky now referrs to it!  We managed to find 4 boxes on our first day!  There are over 200 in Austin alone, so we have our work cut out for us!  I have to say, it is very cool to be finding things that are secret to most people and sneaking around to get this hunt completed!

I will post pictures tomorrow when I get the camera hooked up and we may have more stamps in our collection!

Hope all is well!!!

Grammie, Budda, Mommy, and Sky were all riding in the car when Sky decided to throw a joke into the mix. This is Rob’s favorite joke…As Sky puts it “So a pirate walks into a bar with a ships wheel in his pants. The pirate says Arrrg it’s driving me nuts” Daddy is so proud!