Clark Howard would be proud....

Scott and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this weekend with a night in Virginia Beach. It was so strange to travel without children in the car. We missed them...but it was nice. But I have to share about how cheap we are...I mean that in the best way. We just love to save money.
When we arrived at the hotel, it was too early to check in, so we planned to go to eat and enjoy the beach. While we were in the lobby, the concierge approached us with coupons and va beach guides and told us about a special that they were doing at the hotel. If we sat through their 90 minute time share presentation, we would receive a three night stay in one of their resorts in VA Beach plus $50 to use this weekend at a list of over 100 different places at the beach. And since we hadn't eaten lunch yet, they paid for our lunch at the restaurant on the beach across from the hotel. Yeah, I know, it was our anniversary and we sat through a time share presentation and used coupons for our meal, but it was worth it. Now we have another vacation to look forward to with the boys. But the most ironic thing was the fact that 5 years ago we were also sitting in on a time share presentation in Orlando to get free tickets to the parks. We really like to get free things!


On the beach!


We rented a surrey and were worn out after a couple hours of biking!

It has been a wonderful 5 years! I am married to an amazing man. He is my best friend and it is so awesome how God designed us to be made for each other. I feel so blessed to get to spend the rest of my life with him!

Smiling!

These pictures will require almost no explanation....





....the cuteness speaks for itself!

What I have dreamed of....

I have always wanted to live in a house with a front porch and rockers. I think it has such a quaint and homey feel to it....I think about sitting on my porch and rocking while saying hello to neighbors and enjoying nature. When choosing our house, price was our main guide, so I couldn't specifically look for a porch. But you can imagine that I was thrilled that the house we bought has one. Our birthday gift this year from my parents was a set of rockers. I know that it is wrong to overly focus on material things...my point being that we can't let our happiness come from stuff. But I have to say that I LOVE OUR ROCKERS. Everytime I pass the front windows, I catch a glimpse of a rocker and I smile. I spent the morning yesterday with Danny working in the front yard. I kept going out away from the house and looking back just so I could take in the big picture. It is exactly as I had imagined. And made even better with the red door(I love those too) and dark shutters on a white house. Now I need to find two little rockers for the boys....any suggestions of where I could find two small rockers?(keep in mind that I am fairly cheap and won't spend too much money on them) I am willing to buy any color and then paint them, but white would be nice.
Here is Danny enjoying our gift...

We love balls....

....is the understatement of the year.
Anyone who knows Danny is aware that he has a deep fondness for anything concerning sports. Whether it's his batting tee, the basketballs in the garage, Scott's Sports Illustrated, or just his many many toys that are balls, he is hooked. We have a future athlete. Not sure what sport yet, but we will definitely be playing something when we get older.
He has been a master at the bat and ball on a tee for sometime, but trying to make contact with a moving ball is hard for most kids his age. Heck, even t-ball age kids have trouble with it, hence the need for a tee in the game. So, when we got out the ball and bat tonight and realized that our child could hit it, we just HAD to record it. Please excuse the annoying laugh(that would be me) and the play time with Pollack(just a part of the fun of having a dog) and check out the batting practice. Not a solid hit everytime, but I think he is doing pretty well for a 22 1/2 month old. And in case you are wondering where Josh is....he was napping. In his bed, not the shoebox for those of you who know what that is and noticed it sitting awfully close to the batter's mound. So here is our ball player in action....

I see London, I see France....I see Danny's big boy pants

FYI: If you are anti-potty talk, then I would recommend that you stop reading right now. Nothing bad, it just seems like bathroom talk is very frequent at the Gaskills' house as Danny has shown an increased interest in what goes on in the bathroom.
So, this development led us to begin introducing potty training to him and it is has been interesting. We are trying out the big boy underwear while we play outside and then pull ups while we play inside(for obvious reasons!) Yesterday was our first run and I guess you could say it was successful. Danny played all afternoon and then came running to me REALLY upset when he had gone tinkle all over his clothes(they say a few days of this and they will want ask to go the potty(who is they, you ask?...I guess the potty experts) I think the only reason he will even think about sitting on the potty(despite his interest in what occurs in it) is the fact that I give him M&Ms when he attempts it. What we will do for chocolate.....
So, this morning was a folding clothes morning for mommy, so we had to stay inside to play. I put on Danny's pull up and clothes and then went about my folding. Danny found his recently opened bag of big boy underwear and brought me a pair. We thought it would be funny to wear our underwear on our head. I figured if he is interested in wearing it, does it matter on what part of the body? I guess this could cause some confusion later, but for the time being we laughed about it. And we took a picture!

Even funnier is the fact that Danny saw this blog as I was uploading it and ran and got the underwear again. "Mommy..head...wear" What a silly boy!

...a bunch of gypsies in hotlanta

We were nomads this week....living out of a trunk. But it was wonderful! We saw family, we celebrated birthdays and babies, and we enjoyed the summer fun! Enjoy these favorite pictures and check out the rest at gaskills.smugmug.com


Stopping at Crackel Barrel for dinner with the Rousseaus....it took us 14 hours to travel!


Pretending to sleep!


We went to a puppet show at the library!


Hey Aunt Mere....aren't I cute?


Right before I kissed Allie....uhoh! It was great to see friends.

coming soon...

I am so excited to get home tomorrow and load our pictures from this trip to Atlanta. We have had an amazing time seeing family and friends, celebrating Jada's(niece) soon arrival(due in August), partying for Arden's(another niece) birthday, and enjoying the HOTlanta summer. Check back soon to see pictures and hear our adventures.
I do want to take this moment to comment on the movie Scott and I saw on our date night here. Nana had Danny and Grandmommy had Josh, so we went out for a dinner and a movie. YEAH! We ate at one of our favorite restaurants...EATS...on Ponce. Then we headed to the theater to catch a late showing of Narnia. We are huge Clive Staples Lewis fans and the Narnia series is dear to our hearts. We recently reread the entire series to prepare for the movie(we try to read them every couple of years). I look forward with anticipation to the days when Danny and Josh will snuggle up with Mommy and Daddy and read these books together. So, you can guess that we were thrilled to know the movies were being made and couldn't wait to see Prince Caspian. Upon leaving the theater, Scott and I seem to have the same response. We enjoyed it, but were a little disappointed. It is so hard to connect with a book on so many levels and then watch as the screenplay writers create scenes that never happened. And when so much of the Christian symbolism seems lost in the translation, it can be a let down. I give it high ratings for the special effects and the beauty of the scenery, but the story was not true to the book in many parts. I would guess that Mr. Lewis is rolling in his grave at the thought of creating random scenes and adding a love story that was not in his original plan. Why? Why, I ask, do movie makers feel the need to change something wonderful? The scenes that used original text seem to flow so well, but dialogue in the made of stuff seemed so contrived. I hate to be so critical, but I feel like the first movie was able to stay consistent with the book, so I had similar expectations for this movie.
Definitely worth watching in the theater if you liked the first movie, but if you love the books, prepare to be a little disappointed. I wonder if they will continue with the series and will they also butcher the Dawn Treader. I like that book the best, so I sure hope not!