Picnic at the Beach

Our family enjoyed a fun night and picnic dinner at the beach last week. It was a gorgeous night and it was just nice to spend time as a family at our favorite park!

Just taking it all in!



Chasing each other.


Swinging at sunset time.

Praying for Ava

Ava is a sweet sweet little baby girl who is only 5 weeks old. I have never met this little girl, but she is in need of a miracle that only our Sovereign God can perform. I just heard about this family on Wednesday. Her parents names are Trisha and Aron and they go to our church. As of last Sunday, just a week ago, this baby girl was home with her mommy and daddy and they were well on their way to figuring out life as a family of three. Tuesday morning her breathing became labored so they took her to the ER. Later that day she was put in the NICU with a heart condition. I don't really have the details of what's wrong with her heart, but she is in need of open heart surgery but her oxygen levels are too low for her to survive. So they were hoping that in the next couple of weeks that she would get stronger, her oxygen levels would go up and she could get the surgery. Then a couple of days later they found out that she has bleeding on her brain now, and if she survives she will have mental complications for the rest of her life. It seems that each day they are getting more and more devastating news. Now they don't even know if she will make it through the week. Now remember, this has all happened in a couple of days. A week ago they were home, all was fine and now they don't know if their precious new baby will make it longer than a few days. My heart is so broken for them. I knew of this family from a friend, but this morning our pastor shared this story with our church. I haven't been able to get them off my mind all day and I feel like I have been in a constant state of prayer, praying for a miracle all day. On Tuesday I am going to take them a warm, home cooked meal up to the hospital since it's so difficult for them to leave their child's side, but again I haven't met them. I am realy nervous just because I have NO idea what you say to a family facing this. So I am asking for all of you reading to please please pray for a miracle for this sweet sweet girl who hasn't even had a chance to fight, pray for this mommy and daddy as they are trying to make it moment by moment with the awful pain and chance of loosing their only daughter, and to also pray for me as I meet them and deliver them a meal. For me to have the right words to say and that God would use me in anyway He needs. Thanks friends and prayer warriors! As I hear more I will post an update.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Between all of the birthday celebrating I haven't been able to post many things about what's been happening here in the Skains house. So many funny things have been said and done so I wanted to make sure to document some of these things to look back at and laugh one day!

* Adalyn has been working hard on singing her ABC's and loves to sing them. This is how her version goes: "A B C, A B C, A B C". Repeated over and over again. Big sister Aubrey doesn't quite agree that's how they go so everytime Adalyn starts Aubrey corrects her with the correct version. Gotta love the bossy big sister!

* My craftiness often sends me to JoAnn's, the fabric store. We make quite a few trips there. Sometimes it seems like once a week. To the girls I call it the fabric store, it's just easier than calling it JoAnn's for some reason. Aubrey likes to repeat things, a lot! So the other day while at JoAnn's she kept saying over and over "We at the fabric store mommy?". However it doesn't come out fabric, it comes out faggit. So the whole way through she continued to say "we at the faggit store mommy". Oh my! Then when Jeff got home she told him "we go to faggit store". Jeff couldn't contain his laughter, of course, so she repeated it over and over and over until Jeff finally got a hold of himself and taught her how to say it the correct way. Wow!

* Here is Aubrey with her cinderella wand. Instead of calling it a wand she calls it her Boppity Boo!


* Adalyn is still convinced that there is a baby in her tummy. And at the most random times she will just say "I want girl baby mommy".

* On Saturday night the girls and I were going to meet my parents for dinner. As we were about to leave I called to the girls to come get their shoes on so we could go. They both ran in my room looking like this.

Covered in stickers. They decided to decorate themselves and each other in princess and cars stickers. Adalyn had about 5 in her hair.


* Adalyn loves reading books, it is probably her favorite thing to do. However she doesn't want anyone to read to her she wants to "read" to herself. This is now what EVERY book says as she reads it... "Dis her mommy. Dat her mommy. Dis her mommy. Dat her mommy". This is said over and over again in her loudest voice!

* And last but certainly not least (this is my favorite)! A couple of weeks ago we were heading out to my aunt and uncles house for the day. I had been rushing around that morning trying to get out of the house on time, but we managed to leave a few minutes late. Once we got in the car Jeff decides that he needs new sunglasses. Really? So on our way there we stopped at Sport Authority. I get a bit anxious when I am running late. I can't help it, I actually blame it on my dad! So he goes in to get his sunglasses and seems to take FOREVER! Aubrey asked me where Daddy went and I told her (not my proudest moment) that Daddy is taking his sweet time. And then I repeat it a few more times after she asks me again. Now fast forward to Jeff returning to the car. Adalyn starts saying in the back seat "sweet time" a couple of times. I tryed to ignore it and not laugh. Then Jeff says, "it sounds like she is saying sweet time?". This is when Aubrey decides to throw mommy under the bus! Aubrey says "Daddy takin his sweet time". Busted! Luckily Daddy has a sense of humor.

Aubrey Turns Three!

One more birthday post...I promise! Yes, we are still celebrating birthdays at the Skains house! And somehow, my first born just turned three! That is so crazy to me, but here we are. This birthday was very different than her two past birthdays because Aubrey was so very particular about how she wanted to spend her day. It was so cute to see her all excited! When I asked her what she wanted for breakfast on her birthday she told me Oh's (the cereal) and a cinnamon roll. We had cinnamon rolls the morning of her party so that's why she requested that. Everytime we talked about what we were going to do on her birthday she would say she wanted to go to the park and to Chick-fil-a. Of course we had to please the birthday girl so that's is exactly what we did. And then when asked what she wanted for dinner she was very sure, as if she'd had it planned for months, and would say macaroni and cheese. I of course couldn't just serve a box of macaroni and cheese for dinner, especially since Nana and Papaw were coming over, so Jeff grilled a tri-tip and I made homemade macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and green beans. It was a wonderful day celebrating our sweet three year old.

Aubrey Claire, you bring such joy to this house and you are always making us laugh. You have such a sweet personality and you are growing up to be such a big helper. I love your hugs, your big kisses, and I especially love when you come and tell me you love me out of the blue. You are such a blessing and I love you more than you will ever know!

Enjoying her cinnamon roll to start off her day!



Playing at the park.



And then Chick-fil-a for lunch.




Nana and Papaw came over to celebrate with us that night.




She's so cute when we sing "Happy Birthday" to her!


She's three!


Opening her presents.




The one thing she wanted for her birthday was a new pair of Cinderella shoes because her old pair broke.

Birthday Gifts for our Birthday Girls!

The night of the girls birthday party we gave them their birthday gifts from us and we got so many cute pictures that I had to do another post just for this. We decided this year to get them new tricyles and they loved them. They have had so much fun learning how to ride them and Jeff and I have had a blast teaching them. They are so cute on their new bikes and wearing their new helmets from Granny and Pawpaw.

"Opening" their new tricyles.


Trying it out for the first time.


All ready to ride.



I think they like them!





Jeff's invention to keep the lower back from hurting.



After dinner that night we took the girls and their new trikes up to the highschool right by our house so they could practice riding. They looked so cute and were really getting the hang of it. A little bit more practice and I think they will be good to go.





Jeff had to convince Adalyn to wear the helmet. Here he is trying to reason with a two year old!

Cinderella Birthday Party

The girls Cinderella Party was a complete success. We had a blast preparing for it and even more fun celebrating. We had it at the park in Del Mar which is one of our favorite spots in San Diego. Unfortunately when we pulled up the temperature was 59 degrees and slightly drizzling. Seriously?!? It's August right? The drizzling didn't last long at all, but the temperature didn't get much warmer and the clouds never left. Of course 3 miles inland it was in the 70's and gorgeous. Oh well, that didn't stop it from being a great day.

The girls had a blast playing with their friends, eating lots of cake and cookies, and of course opening their presents. My very talented friend Danielle, made them a fabulous Cinderella cake. It turned out great. She managed to make the cake, bring it to the party, set it up, all while still being mommy to a 3 year old and a 6 month old. Pretty impressive! I also bought them these super cute Cinderella dresses to wear for their party, but unfortunately they were covered up most of the day by their jackets, boo hoo. It was such a fun day and we are so thankful for all of our family and friends that helped us celebrate our sweet girls turning two and three!



The birthday girls. Bundled up and ready for the party to start.

I made these wand sugar cookies. They turned out cute and all the kids loved them. I also had these wands for each child to take home. Little did I realize that they would be turned into swords. Oops, sorry moms!


The gorgeous cake. The other side had a two with Adalyn's name.


Our friends that came to celebrate. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everyone. I even forgot to get one of Nana and Papaw. For the record, they were there.







Presents!





Time to eat the yummy cake!


This is while we were singing to them.



Our family.


Nana and Papaw got the girls a new doll house. After a VERY short rest time (too excited for naps I guess), Jeff put the house together for them. They love it and have been playing with it nonstop!