Scary Scary Santa: Year 3

For the past 3 years Santa has been a scary experience for our little scaredy girls. Aubrey's first year was fine and so was Adalyn's, but since then, Santa has remained terrifying. Here we are with him last year (scroll down to see the santa pic), and the year before that. This year we talked him up and made him sound not so scary. We walked by him every time we were at the mall, and we even waved at him a few times in which he waved back. Jeff and I were a bit hopeful that it would be a different story this year, but once again this is what we got.


Oh well. Maybe next year! Or maybe next year Santa will have to hold on to three screaming Skains girls!

Christmas Is Almost Here

And we are full swing into celebrating and preparing for Christmas. I really didn't think I would be able to squeeze it all in, but I think we managed. Picture with Santa...check. Decorating Christmas cookies...check. Christmas lights tour...check. And Christmas crafts...check. So here are our bazillion pictures of the Skains family preparing for Christmas!

I got these little wooden Christmas trees for the girls to paint at Hobby Lobby for $1. Oh how I love hobby lobby and how terribly I missed it. The day we painted them Aubrey had a stomach bug and she wasn't quite herself, so we finished decorating them the next day.






Decorating Christmas cookies is an all time favorite. The girls were in heaven!





Eating the finished product...the best part!



Our Christmas lights tour this year was great. Luckily we ran into a neighbor on the way out of our driveway and they told us about a house down the street that had trains, and all sort of fun stuff for the kids. The girls loved it and Jeff and I of course love watching them get so excited! As we were driving around looking at more houses about every 5 minutes Adalyn would say "I really like elephants". We just kept laughing at her and her randomness!








We have really been trying to teach the girls the real reason we celebrate Christmas and about the birth of Jesus. Every time we pass this house in our neighborhood with a nativity scene Adalyn says "I see baby Jesus and Joseph. What my daddy's name?". It cracks me up everytime. We are so thankful and blessed by the birth of our Savior! Merry Christmas.

She has a name!

I really didn't think baby girl was going to have a name until she was born, but looks like Jeff and I finally agreed on one! We really had a hard time with this one trying to decide if we should stick with A's or not. The last couple of weeks we began narrowing it down and were trying to decide between three, all of which happened to be A's. I guess I am just partial to girl A names. We came up with one we loved but couldn't ever get Jeff to give the official word that we were ready to go with it. Saturday morning he handed me a Christmas present and said he wanted me to open a present early. And this is what he gave me...


Avery Brenna Skains! That's baby girl #3, Avery Brenna, and she is growing quickly and only 5 weeks away from making her debut. Wow, 5 weeks!!!! Not much time left and a ton to do!

Where Oh Where is Adalyn?!?!

Every night before we go to bed we of course go check on the girls, cover them up and give them a few more kisses. The other night as we went to check on them Jeff all of a sudden said "Where's Adalyn?". My response... "What do you mean where is Adalyn?". I looked in her bed and sure enough, no Adalyn. We began frantically looking all over their room, the hall, the bathroom, yelling her name. Guess where I found that girl? All the way under her bed, next to the wall, fast asleep. Sometimes her paci falls back there so we assumed she went to get it and either couldn't get out or just fell asleep. So fast forward to two nights later. Same thing happened except this time she left us a little hint...


This girl has cracked us up several times with the funny things she does in the middle of the night!

It's finally looking like Christmas in the Skains House!

On Sunday night, after a little begging (from me to Jeff), we had our annual Christmas Tree decorating party. A lot later than normal, but it's up and that's all that matters! Growing up this was always a big deal at my house. My mom always made little snacks, we had Christmas music on and we made a big party out of decorating together. So of course I have carried this tradition over to my own family. The girls were so excited all day about our "party" and could hardly wait to start putting ornaments on the tree. Aubrey was really into it and wanted to hang all the ornaments herself. They of course landed all right in the front in the same spot. So funny. Adalyn would try and just say over and over "I can't do it". So she had more fun just watching us. Here are some pictures of getting ready for Christmas at our house!

Getting the ornaments out.


Aubrey hanging up her first ornament.



And Adalyn hanging hers.


Just cute...




We finished! They are so proud of our Christmas tree.



Today we made new ornaments for the tree. They of course had a blast and couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home.

Daddy's Biker Girls!

I know I don't blog often, but I couldn't resist this one! Check out my absolutely adorable biker chicks! Aubrey kept playing with the red bandanna so I decided to tie it on her head. She loved it and kept wanting to look in the mirror. Adalyn seemed a little left out so I found my Texas bandanna and set her up.

Aubrey was so proud of her outfit!


You'd better be careful if you ride up on these tough girls!


Aubrey & Adalyn, I can't possibly express how much I LOVE playing with you two! You are sweet sisters and watching you play together is a blessing beyond measure. You truly melt my heart every day!

Daddy's Sweet Princesses!

We made it!

We are here, moved into our house and life, once again, is good! Now I said we are moved in, but not at all settled. We have 7 1/2 weeks before baby girl will be here, so it is time to bust it and get this house unpacked and as decorated as much as I can before we bring her home. I have been working like crazy and it's coming together quite nicely. I love love love our new house and can't wait for it to look more like our home. At that point I will share pictures. Right now we are living among boxes everywhere!

The girls are more than thrilled to have a home again and to have all their things back. They have been completely entertained as we have unpacked their toys. It was so funny, because with each toy we unpacked it was as if they were receiving a present. They were in heaven! I'm trying to get everyone back to normal and back on a schedule. Adalyn kind of fell off the potty trained wagon so we need to tackle one again. Sticker charts are going back up and life in the Skains house will hopefully be to our new normal soon! Every day at lunch, dinner and bedtime as we are praying both the girls always have to throw in our prayer "thank you for our new house". They really are thankful and happy! Here are some pics of the girls enjoying their new house.

It didn't take long for them to discover all of their books.


It was a very exciting moment when the girls watched the movers carry their doll house in their new house.


And of course the dress up clothes have been thrown all over the house as new outfits are made.



But the favorite and most missed toy by far were the strollers. It was a VERY happy moment when Daddy found them in the garage. This is the one toy Aubrey has continued to ask us about from the moment the moving van pulled away in San Diego.


And...at last... it's time to break out the Christmas crafts. These girls have missed their craft time so we need to catch up. First craft of the season were these adorable Christmas trees.

Trying...

So here are my girls trying to capture the fact that it is Christmas time. Although are house doesn't even come close to looking the part, nor are Jeff and I even remotely ready for Christmas to be here, I still wanted to squeeze a little Christmas in for the girls.
So...Merry Christmas!

Our Thanksgiving Celebration

Just like everything else right now, our Thanksgiving was not our traditional Thanksgiving. But I felt beyond blessed and thankful to be able to spend it with the three people that I love the most in this world. We were once again blessed by some great friends who invited us to spend the day with them since we had no where to go. We went to our friends Jaime and Jason Olson who have two cute little girls, and then Jeff's best friend Lance and his mom where there also. It was a fun day, and the girls had so much fun getting to play with some new toys and making new friends. It will definitely be a Thanksgiving that we will remember always. I am blessed beyond what I deserve and I am so thankful to God who never ever ceases to amaze!

Playing with our new friend Sydney.


Adalyn doing what she loves to do best, reading books to herself.








The whole gang.