A Fun Craft

We had fun making these sun catchers, or window art and I thought they turned out super cute, so I wanted to share our idea. I bought little plastic plates, and used math manipulative's that we already had (which all was purchased on amazon. I don't know what I would do without amazon). Then I painted rubber cement on small part of their plates and they laid down the beads. I didn't have much rubber cement left, so then I had to revert to using a hot glue gun. Although I was in charge of that part, two out of the three burned themselves on either the gun or the glue. Lesson learned, try something other than hot glue while working on crafts with little ones! To finish them off I glued suction cups to the back (another amazon purchase) to hang on the window. I had to help Adalyn finish her's after she burned herself. But all in all it was fun, and they make  pretty decorations in our playroom!

 

 The finished products!

Sweet Avery

I love two year olds! They are so fun. All of the things they are constantly learning, the new vocabulary and the funny things they say, yet there is still a little baby left. Avery is just a fun girl. She is full of two year old tantrums on a very regular basis, but she is also full of hugs and full of cute new words all the time. Now that she is almost two and a half she go to go on her first Daddy Daughter Date. This girl was so excited! She has watched her big sisters go countless times, so it was finally her turn. She kept saying "I go Daddy date. Yay!". They went out for a pizza (her favorite thing) and frozen yogurt afterwards. They even stopped and played outside on the swings when they got home. She was thrilled and was smiling ear to ear when she got home!

Another new change for this cute two year old, is she is a big girl now and has learned to use the potty! She was super quick in picking it up and by the end of day two she knew exactly what she was doing. She had two accidents the whole time, and now tells me when she needs to go. So proud of her! Here she is with her completed sticker chart!

This is just a cute picture of my girl. I recently bought these popsicle molds and use them all the time. We all love them, and it has helped immensely getting good foods in this little picky one of mine. I usually just blend up bananas, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, and maybe another frozen fruit like pineapple, sometimes spinach leaves, a little bit of almond milk and then pour it into these molds. They are a hit!

Happy Fathers Day

Fathers Day was definitely enjoyed by all this year. Having an incredible man in my life, who loves his family so much and does such an outstanding job taking care of his family, makes it pretty easy to celebrate! We are all so blessed by him and we had a wonderful day celebrating him and letting him know how much he is loved!

With all four of his kiddos after church.

 Love this picture!

Every year for Fathers Day I make Jeff a photo book. This year the girls were involved and helped me a lot, and they could hardly wait for Daddy to look at it!

After this we headed to the pool for the afternoon.

Then to dinner, and to finish the night we had frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf, YUM!

We had a great family day celebrating the man I love! Happy Fathers Day Jeffrey!

Playing Catch Up... again!

Once upon a time, at least one kid ago but more like two, I was able to blog so many great things that we were up too, cute things the girls were saying, all sorts of firsts etc. etc. Well now things are a lot different and there is very little mommy time left anymore, so all of the exciting things that are happening here in the Skains's household no longer get their very own post. Every month or so I realize all the things that have happened and have not been documented and that's when I have one big catch all blog post. So here is my catch up post!

We have been trucking along with our school work. But we haven't done many fun crafts lately, so after the girls kept asking to paint we decided to make these pretty flower pictures.


 

 This girl could paint all day. She loves it!

 The flowers were made of rolled up construction paper.

 The finished product. Pretty cute!

 That same day, they weren't done painting, so in honor of booking our vacation we decided to make a beach scene. Avery's attention checked out before she could finish!

 
Avery has had this baby for a while now, and actually very rarely plays with her. The other day though, she was holding her and I asked her what her baby's name was. She looked at me for a second, then said "Lalalala". Haha! I responded "her name is Baby Lala?". Avery said "Yes!". So there you have it, Avery named her first baby. And now she plays with her often and sleeps with her. All because she has a name now!

This little guy loves his jumperoo these days! He just jumps and jumps and laughs and laughs. It's so cute and it's a good thing he loves it so because he is kind of there a lot.

These two... my oldest and my baby. My oldest has her first loose tooth, sniff sniff. How can this be? And my baby has his first two teeth. So we have some loose teeth, and some new teeth!

 A couple of weeks ago, I decided we needed some kind of pool in our back yard that the big girls could play in a lot this summer. I knew it would be difficult for me to take everyone to the neighborhood pool alone. So I told Jeff I think we needed a bigger pool, he agreed and then we ended up with a really big pool. I mean with a filter and chlorine and all! It's no inground pool, but it's the next best thing for us at least.  It has been so great and finally the big girls have learned to swim. Avery is loving it too, and I have a feeling she will be swimming in no time, definitely before she is four (no offense Aubrey and Adalyn). They are able to go everyday now, and it's been perfect for the big girls and I to use while the little two nap. So far so good! Just wondering why we didn't do this sooner.

Oh this girl and her goggles (upside down goggles mind you) crack me up!

My sweet little guy turned eight months old! He is just so darn sweet, and I just love him to pieces. He is a little babbler these days, always talking, blowing raspberries and trying his best to be heard above his three big sisters. He still loves to eat and has loved every fruit and veggie that I have made him. He is rolling around to everywhere he needs to get. Still no crawling and I'm perfectly okay with that. He is finally learning to sit up a little bit, but it doesn't last long before he falls over. He is just a happy guy and he most definitely has me wrapped around his finger!

And that's a wrap! I know I'm forgetting a few things, so I may have to add on later.

Our Weekend Visitors

Last weekend our very dear friends, friends we originally met in San Diego and now live in the DFW area, came and spent the weekend with us. It's hard for me to even put into words what this weekend meant to us honestly. I knew that the weekend would be just what our family needed. This family walks in step with the Lord daily, and Christ's love seriously just shines through them. I felt like we had a free weekend of marraige counseling, and family counseling and we were so challenged spirirtually. It was a blast to be with them. They are hysterical first of all, but the fact that our conversations with them where almost always Christ centered says so much about their character. They are about to adopt a sweet boy named Titus from Uganda, and then in the fall they will be moving to Uganda as missionaries for six months. We talked a lot about the work, the mission that God has for both of our families. The mission that is WAY bigger than anything I could imagine, but I know God is at work in our family, in our hearts and He has something for us, some way to use us to further His kingdom. I don't what, I don't know when, and I surely don't know how, but I do know our purpose on this earth as believers and followers of Him, is kingdom work. Jeff and I talked a lot after they left about our families mission, and I love these kinds of conversations with my husband. I'm excited to see what's in store for us, but I know He has a lot of work to do in us first. So right now, we are seeking Him, reading His word and waiting. I know God placed the Suther Family in our lives for a reason almost six years ago, and he has blessed that relationship tremendously. I'm thankful for them and their so very sweet family! God is using this family in a might way! Here are some pictures of our fun together.

On a side note...an hour before they showed up on friday Adalyn threw up everywhere, but fortunately she was fine be Saturday, but then Aubrey was sick with fever on Saturday. Poor Aubrey was miserable so she wasn't around much and in zero pictures. Sad!

We got a new little pool in our backyard that I think will be perfect for us. It's just too difficult for me to take everyone to the neighborhood pool alone, so this has been great. Jeff and I can even get in! The kids swam a ton while they were visiting.

 I know Jeff doesn't like me ever talking about potential marraiges, but if I could choose (which I know I can't but, but I CAN pray haha!) I would choose these cute boys for two of my girls. Adalyn and Levi do look pretty cute there don't they. Jeff is going to kill me for that!

 A little practice before they have a new one as well!

 Adalyn loved Kyle. She gave him great big hugs while he was here, and if you know her at all, she doesn't do that to many people.

 Love this girl!