Silly Sayings from the Skains Girls!

It's been awhile since I have written down some of the things the girls have been saying and doing and they are full of funny ones that I don't want to forget. So here are some good ones!

Aubrey:
On Thanksgiving our friend whose house we were at, asked Aubrey if she had a booster seat like her daughters at home. Aubrey's response: "I don't have a home". Oh dear. This happened not only once but twice. While we were buying some new bedroom furniture the sales lady was coloring with the girls while we were filling out paper work. The lady asked Aubrey if she had crayons at her house and again her response was "I don't have a home". Poor girl! Does she really think she doesn't have a home. Makes me sad!

Since we have lived in the hotel every time anyone opens the closet door that is in the entry Aubrey yells "Oh no, there's a bear in the closet." Every now and then there happens to also be a monster in there.

Everytime we go to the new house to check on it, Aubrey takes her purse and baby and set's up her "office" in the office. She says "I gotta do my work". She has business cards, and all sorts of random papers in her purse that she has collected and insists on carrying them all around. So funny. Also, several times we have found different babies or barbies in time out already in the new house. Our realtor got a really big kick out of this!

Adalyn:
Adalyn is in love with this Dora backpack that she got for her birthday. Every time we leave she asks for me to help her put it on but she says "put this on my front". Obviously she means her back, but it cracks me up!

Right after Adalyn was potty trained she started wanting to have some privacy while she was going to the bathroom. She used to say to me "get out of here". I quickly put a stop to that and asked her to instead to say "privacy please". So now, when she decides she wants to be alone on the potty in her super cute little voice she says "privacy please mommy". I love it!

Jeff has taught Adalyn the cutest thing ever! He always asks her "how much does daddy love you", and she stretches her arms out so wide and says "dis much". Then he asks her "how much do you love Daddy" and again in her super cute voice she replies "With all my haawt". It is precious!

Anytime we ask the girls what we should name the baby, or if they like a certain name Adalyn's instant response is "Abigail!". She really wants us to name her baby sister Abigail for some reason.



On another note, we are two days away from moving in the house and I couldn't be more ecstatic. It's been a rough few weeks here, and I have been feeling down on myself as a mother. Especially when I hear comments from my girls about not having a home or wanting to go to our "old home in Cawifornia". I know they are resilient and life will be its new normal soon. Us three girls have been butting heads quite a lot lately, and they hardly have gotten to do anything fun. No crafts going on here, hardly any teaching from me and our discipline routine is all out of whack. I know we all have to have grace with each other but I hope these girls know I love them more than they will ever know and forgive me for all of my recent not so good mommy moments! Now on to getting settled and getting us all ready for #3's arrival in only a short 8 weeks. Yikes!

7 Fabulous Years of Marraige

We have had some great and romantic anniversary celebrations in the past. And we have had some not so romantic anniversaries as well. I would have to put #7 in the "not so romantic" category most definitely. Although our circumstances didn't allow for much romance, I am still blessed with a Godly man who loves me way more than I deserve and have had a wonderful 7 years with him and raising our family. I couldn't feel more blessed with this life God has given me and I am beyond grateful to have such a wonderful man to share it with.

Our anniversary was on Monday and it was our first anniversary that we didn't have an official date night. Jeff came "home" with a beautiful bouquet of roses and sunflowers, and we put the girls down early, ordered Carrabas to go and rented a movie, Letters to Juliet. We crammed into our little room, set up 2 coffee tables and "enjoyed" a sort of quiet dinner (between the girls interruptions)and watched our movie. We laughed a bunch at ourselves and our situation and it was definitely an anniversary that we will never forget. We really had a big laugh when our movie stopped working half way through, so we didn't even get to watch the whole movie! Maybe we will squeeze a date night in once we are settled and before baby. Jeff did buy me a beautiful copper vase that I know will look perfect in our house if we ever get to move in. He is so cute, every year he buys me the traditional anniversary gift. Year 7 is copper. Love his creativity!

Here we are on our "date night"! Haha.


My beautiful bouquet.


And guess what else we did on our anniversary? We bought a house! We techinally closed the day after, but all the documents are dated on Nov. 22. So we are homeowners again. Now if we could only move in. We were supposed to move in on Monday, but it looks like it won't happen til Thursday, December 2nd. Ouch!

Here are the girls on their new stairs. This is what they are excited about most in their new house. Everytime we talk about our new house Adalyn says "I have stairs in my new house". It will provide lots of entertainment, I'm sure.

Family Pictures: Round 2

Before we headed out to Texas, we squeezed in a photoshoot redo at our absolute favorite park in San Diego. We had them done in Del Mar and it was perfect because we have SO many memories as a family right in that spot. The girls and I spent many mornings there playing and the perfectly quaint park overlooking the ocean, we had 2 birthday parties 2 years in a row there, we spend 2 of our 4th of July's there, if you have ever come to visit us I'm sure we took you there and the list goes on and on. I'm so glad we were able to get these done before we left. Here are a few of our favorites!San Diego...we already miss you...sigh.

And Then on to Hotel Life...

Hotel life (really a one bedroom suite) for 2 weeks with two toddlers(not to mention being 30 weeks prego, but who's counting right) is...well...interesting, definitely interesting. It's actually better than I imagined it would be. We have only been here for a week and we have another week ahead of us before we move into the house. There are some stressful parts about it, but there are some great perks as well. I don't have to wash and fold towels, or change sheets. A definite perk! There are three washers and dryers so I can actually fit all of our laundry in all three and laundry is cleaned and dryed in an hour and a half. Pretty amazing perk! But then we have the tight quarters, and those tight quarters are to blame for the CONSTANT fighting between our lovely 2 and 3 year old. And it really is constant. Luckily they have a sofa bed, so Jeff and I move the girls out to the sofa bed at night, so at least we are not all crammed into one room. It's been so great though, to have friends that live here who have kept the girls and I busy and out of the hotel as much as possible. It has definitely made this transition much easier. I often call the hotel "home" when talking to the girls. For example: "We left that at home", or "We are on our way back home", and Aubrey always corrects me and says "Hotel mommy". So funny, she just wants to remind us all that this is just temporary. They are still a little confused and Adalyn still says her home is in "Cawifornia", but pretty soon it will all be a distant memory and they will be settled and loving life here in Kingwood. So here is a glimpse into our life in a hotel!

Good thing mommy packed lots of toys and fun things to occupy these girls.





The elevator is an exciting part of a day. We take turns on who pushes the buttons, so that has helped with SOME of the fighting!



We have mixed up the seating arrangements! Never knew it would be so exciting to sit on laundry baskets.


Like I mentioned before, we are so blessed with wonderful friends here already that have helped us with this transition. On Sunday the McClure's had us over and Sherry even made turkey cookies for all the kids to decorate. It really helps the girls to get out and be around other kids and not just each other!

First stop...The Tarasiewicz's!

During this move Jeff and I have really felt blessed by some amazing friendships that we have. You always know who your friends really are when you are in need! Russ and Melissa Tarasiewicz are friends of ours that we met at our church in The Woodlands not long before we moved to San Diego. They have a three year old, Anna, who is just a few weeks older than Aubrey. The second Melissa knew we were moving back to Houston she offered their home to us to stay as long as we needed. So we took them up on that and stayed with them for our first 4 days here. It really made the tranisition much easier, especially on the girls. They had a blast playing with Anna and playing with all of her toys. And Melissa couldn't have made us feel more welcome. The girls had their own room, as did Jeff and I which always makes life easier. She cooked dinner for us and gave us tons of advice on our house as she used to be a designer. We just felt very blessed by her and Russ both and really enjoyed staying with them. Thanks friends, for making this really difficult tranisition that much easier.

All the girls. They had so much fun with Anna and haven't stopped talking about her since we left.



Sunday after church we went to Pot Belly's for lunch at Market Street, which Jeff and I have missed SO much! We love that place. So afterwards we had to go see the Christmas Tree in the middle of Market Street and take some pictures of course.




We are now staying in a one bedroom suite (come on,don't be jealous), until we can move into our house which could be up to three weeks. I will soon update on all the fun that this has entailed!

My Little Fashionista

*Disclaimer...these pics where taken before we moved and I meant to blog this awhile ago! :)


If you where to ever run into us at the mall, the grocery store, target, or just about anywhere, this is what my little girl would look like. Before we go anywhere she has to get her purse (that is full with a bunch of little things like pens and business cards, silly girl), put these lenseless sunglasses on, and of course who would forget Baby Rhea. I always try to talk her into leaving the glasses in the car, but she is pretty insistent. In fact yesterday when we pulled up to our old church in The Woodlands, Jeff looked in the back seat at her and said "uh oh". There she sat wearing her glasses. Luckily that time we did talk her into leaving them in the car. This purse is alway with her. While we were staying with my parents, before we headed to Texas, she would dump her purse out on my parents table and tell us she had to do her work. She would scribble on all her business cards and papers she has collected over the last few weeks. She cracks me up! I had to snap a few pictures to remember this cute girl's adorable personality. I love her!

Too Many Goodbyes.

The worst part of moving is all of the goodbyes. I feel like I have been saying goodbye to people for 3 weeks now, and it is just so emotionally draining. The hardest goodbye, and the most dreaded goodbye is yet to come but I have a feeling that one will take me a long while to recover from. That would be my parents. I have loved getting to raise my girls with their Nana and Papaw down the street, and the fact that it won't be like that again is very sad to me. I got to spend a lot of time with my mom this week, and all week I kept trying to ignore the inevitable and pretend that I don't have to say goodbye to her in just a few short days. I never realized how hard this one would be. These 4 years here have been so wonderful, life changing and unforgetable. I know God has great things for our future and I have to remember to hold tight to His promises.

So here are a few of our goodbyes that we have had these last few weeks in San Diego!

My two wonderful friends, whom I will miss tremendously, Julie and Danielle, threw us a going away party/baby shower. Unfortunately I totally forgot to take picture til right at the end once the gifts had been open and everyone started leaving. So here are the few I got!

The beautiful hostesses and my awesome friend Stacy who has helped us SO much with our move to Kingwood!


The Dad's/Husbands enjoying the Chargers game. I especially love Jeff's bow on his shirt. Such a nice touch to his black shirt.


My mom got to come celebrate with us. My Dad unfortunately had to miss it because he was in DC on business.


Last friday night we got together with my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and their families so we could all say goodbye. This one was tough because we have really grown close with my cousin Lance and his wife Jaime, and their daughter Devyn. Aubrey and Adalyn love Devyn and would play with her everyday if we could. Devyn and Aubrey are only 2 weeks apart so Jaime and I really got close during our first pregnancies together. We are going to miss all of them so much!






The whole fam. minus Seth. And yes, Lance did dress up as DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba since it was almost Halloween. Crazy guy!


And all the 2nd cousins, all girls of course! We have Devyn, Caitlyn, Aubrey, Adalyn and Cami.


Now on to the third goodbye. Another REALLY tough one for me. Saying goodbye to my Papaw. He loves my girls and he loves getting to spend time with them. I know it's killing him to not have them around anymore. But I am so thankful for the time we did have here with him and the relationship he got to build with my girls, his great grand daughters. We are going to miss him a lot!



Today, this is what the girls and I said goodbye to, literally they waved and said "goodbye ocean, goodbye beach". We met my dad for lunch in Carlsbad and walked by this ocean view on our way to eat. I am REALLY going to miss this, A LOT! What makes me really sad is that this has been the girls whole life and they aren't going to remember any of it. Luckily I documented everything right?!?!


So ready or not, here we go! Moving vans pull in on Monday and we head out on Wednesday.

Our Cute Little Bugs On Halloween

Halloween was so fun this year! The girls LOVED wearing their costumes, so I was so happy when a friend threw a little party on friday for all the kiddos and the girls got to wear their costumes more than once. Here are a few pictures from the party.

Posing for mommy before the party started.


Painting Pumpkins.



Most of the kiddos. I don't know why mine decided to squat down, but it's the best we could do.


Aubrey's favorite part. She talked about holding "Buzz Lightyear's" hand all day. Daddy didn't really appreciate it, but I thought it was cute. Plus Owen is such a sweet little guy!



And then it was finally time for Halloween. That morning when we got up before church, I asked the girls if they knew what today was. Aubrey response: "I get to wear my costume today". That evening we went to our church for the annual Hallapalooza, and my parents and my Papaw joined us for the craziness! It gets crazier every year there. There were SO many people! We had so much fun though and both girls really got the hang of playing the games. They were so cute. Jeff was such a good Daddy and helped them with just about every game. After church we went home and let the girls go trick or treating to a few houses down our street. By this time Aubrey was bouncing off the walls and talking a mile a minute. When I opened the van door to get her out at home a lady walked by our drive way and Aubrey yelled out the door to her "Trick or treat lady"! If you know my reserved child you know that this is so not her. It made me laugh so hard! Then we began trick or treating. A few different times as we were walking down the sidewalk Aubrey said to both of us "I havin so much fun!". So cute, and just made us smile. Both girls were really into and figured out you had to say "trick or treat" and "thank you". As soon as Aubrey got her candy in her bag at every house she would turn to Jeff and I and say "just a couple more okay." We eventually had to say "no more" at 8:30, and we headed home to enjoy a couple pieces of candy before a really late bedtime! They had a really good time and have been playing "trick or treat" at home ever since. The next morning when I got Aubrey up she said "I have Halloween again when I move to Texas". Oh that girl and the funny things she says!

All dressed up and ready for the fun!



Playing some games.




The family pictures.




Dancing with Daddy. Our church has some fabulous musicians so once again they had an amazing band playing.