The Skains Family: A Little of This and a Little of That

Life over in the Skains family has been just as crazy and busy as ever. Keeping up with life and a family of 7, and home schooling my big girls has definitely had it's challenges, but it feels as if we have officially settled in to our new normal. Lynlee is 6 months now, and every time my babies get to this 6 month age it seems to settle down a bit and that we have sort of found our groove. Maybe, just maybe I will be able to squeeze in more time to blog again?!?

We had some fun visitors a few weekends ago. Jeff's brother and his family came for a few days and we of course had such a great visit.

A couple of weeks ago, all 5 were looking extra specially cute, plus I have very few pictures these days of all of our kiddos.

This girl... what can I say. She still makes me laugh all the time! She is full of a great big personality but still only really shares it with her family. She is always saying silly things that make Jeff and I laugh. The other night as I was tucking her in she asked me "Have you been 80 yet?". Made me laugh!

She loves doing funny poses, and funny exagerated dance moves. One day I have got to get it on video. The other day, as we were starting school, she came and sat down dressed like this claiming she was a spy!

This very special night, we got to go on a Mommy Adalyn shopping date at the mall. She had been saving her money for a new lego set, so we went out to dinner and then to the lego store. I love getting some one on one time with my children!

This girl loves her Daddy! On this particular night, we had just finished dinner, Jeff had grilled and we were enjoying dinner outside. She just climbed up into her Daddy's lap and asked if he could cuddle! That made his heart melt.

My oldest! This girl is your typical first born for sure. She is the other mommy of the family, but the good thing about that is that she is an amazing helper and she absolutely loves helping and taking care of her little sisters and brother. She is a smart girl, and she is constantly saying and doing things that just take my breath away and make me realize even more that she is growing up way too quickly. The other night she came downstairs, after everyone was supposed to be in bed and I was cleaning the kitchen. She said "Mommy, can I stay up a read for a few more minutes. I spent my whole time looking for the book of Hosea in my Bible and now I want to read some of it." Really? Yes! The other day she decided just to start copying the book of Acts on her own. She even wrote at the top that Luke wrote Acts. Well, I was thinking that Paul wrote Acts, and when I said something about Paul and Acts she very kindly said "No Mommy, Luke wrote Acts." She loves loves reading books and she always tells me her favorite book is her Bible. Just little sweet things that she says that remind me that she is slowly but surely getting it.

On this particular day we were just sitting in the backyard talking. She was trying to think about what kind of pet she wants and how much money she needs to save. Funny thing is this girl is deathly afraid of dogs. So she claims she wants a pet, however she wants a pet that stays in a cage and that she can keep on her dresser. I think it hasn't clicked yet that a pet is a real animal that needs to eat, and pee and poop and be held. But during this discussion I just kept looking at her just mesmerized by her beauty. I'm her mama and I'm completely biased, but I just think she is a beautiful girl!

She has been getting extra brave with Lynlee lately. Just picking her up on her own. I came in Landons room the other day, and she was sitting there holding Lynlee and reading to her and Landon. It was so sweet. Now sometimes she is too brave and sometimes she forgets that I actually Lynlee's mommy, not her. Ha! She likes to take over sometimes.

And here we have my little cutie Avery Brenna. She is my spirited one! She just enjoys doing whatever Avery wants to do, ha! But she has a smile that will melt anyone, and she loves telling me the cutest stories that are usually about me and her going on a date. She loves to talk about her sisters and brother being her "buddies". The other day she told Aubrey and Adalyn, "you guys are my buddies, and my whole family is my buddy. Oh and God, he is my buddy too." Cracked me up! This girl loves to dance and do cart wheels which she completely taught herself to do on her own. She is dying to be a part of school time, so occasionally I will give her something to work on. She is smart!! She blows me away all the time with the things that she knows. She is a good big sister to Landon and Lynlee, but sometimes she likes to pick on her brother and take his favorite and claim they are hers. Oh dear! I love this girl, and I love that I can still hold her. It's going fast so I know that I have to take advantage of this fleeting time! Love my 4 year old!

These girls, they can be just the best of friends, but they sure can turn quickly on each other!

The other day, for our science lesson, we headed outside with our nature notebooks and went on a hunt to find some neat things about Spring. The girls found a caterpillar and decided they wanted to keep it to see if it would turn to a butterfly. They named it and we spent a bunch of time researching what kind of caterpillar it was so we knew what to feed it. Well, two later... and I think we killed it! Oops!

Now this particular day cracked me up and it's hard to see in the picture. They have all been enjoying eating meals outside lately and I'm not complaining! So as I was taking lunch out to them I noticed the blue bucket in the middle of the table. If you look close you can see it's full of yellow "flowers" (really weeds but I let them think they were beautiful), They picked them and put them in a "vase" to make the table pretty. Ha! I Love that they did this!

Here's a better look.

My boy! What can I say... I am way to smitten for this guy. He is just too much and pretty much everything he says and does makes me laugh (except the two year old fits, those don't make me laugh). He just has the sweetest smile! He loves anything to do with trains and is train impression can only put on a smile on your face. He loves making trains out of everything. He even made them out of his cheetos the other day. I love having conversations with him. Most of the time I only understand a few words at a time, but they are great conversations. Yesterday I was out on the trampoline with all four and we were playing duck duck goose. It was his turn, he went two times around the circle "uck, uck...", then he got to me and said really loudly "oose!!". Then he just laid on the trampoline and cracked up laughing. I didn't even get to chase him. We all cracked up laughing at him! He also just got a new hair cut and he looks especially handsome!

Those sun burned cheeks... I melt!

This is not the best picture, but he was just so enthralled with his trains. This boy thing still seems new to me, so all the car, train, airplane, helicopter noises just make me laugh!

He loves the trampoline, especially when Aubrey goes out with him. Its so cute. The other day they were caught up in a conversation!

He sometimes loves his baby sister. But if she tries to reach at him, or pull on his shirt or something he quickly tries to get away.

Papaw just sent him a sweet gift in the mail, his very own t-ball set and he was so very excited! Now we just need to get him a boy bike so he doesn't have to ride the pink one anymore. Although he does love the tinkerbell scooter!