The toliet, a flyswatter and the big trashcan!

"What?!?" That's probably what you are thinking as you read the title to this entry. Well, if you are wondering what these three things have in common--other than being some of the nastiest, dirtiest, grossest things around your house--it just so happens that these are also three things that I have found my daughter putting her MOUTH on in the last few days!!! Yes, that's what I said! Ellie had the flyswatter IN HER MOUTH yesterday evening. Why?? God only knows! Then earlier that day, she had been touching the toilet seat (while sitting and NOT peeing again) and proceeded to put her contaminated thumb IN HER MOUTH. And the day earlier, as Caleb was chunking some trash into our disgusting, big trash can outside, Ellie decided to see what it would taste like, and put HER MOUTH on the rim of it!! Yuck, yuck, yuck!! I'm surprised the girl is not in the hospital with a terrible case of the runs by today. But, what are you gonna do?!?

In other news, Adelyn started cereal yesterday and she did GREAT! Caleb was the photographer of the event, and he got some cute shots.





Last week, our big event was "Salon Night" with Aunt Tracy. She made one of Caleb's dreams come true....and gave him a MOHAWK! He thought it was so cool!


Aunt Tracy, the stylist and hero!


And we also enjoyed being with our family in Ft. Worth this past weekend for my nephew's birthday party! Guess what the theme was??



Finally, today I just took some pictures of my big, beautiful girl....almost 5 months!

Forts, vacation and other random thoughts....

First, I would like to thank God for the miracle He gave me today at the grocery store. Who in their right mind goes to HEB on a Monday at 5:00pm, with THREE crazy kids?!? Well, we did! And it was only because after being gone for a week on vacation, we literally only had ketchup, sour cream and salsa in our refrigerator. But God was so gracious to us! As I pushed one cart with Ellie and Adelyn in it, Caleb pushed the other cart with all of our groceries...and and hour and a half later, we emerged VICTORIOUS! So, props to you God!

In other news, we had an amazing time in New Mexico. We traveled there with my sisters and parents to see my extended family in Las Cruces. They are awesome, godly people, that are so loving and gracious to us. It was such a blessing to see them. And such a blessing to carry on some of our traditions that we had growing up, like going to the mountains in Cloudcroft (where I REALLY want to live some day!) and to White Sands--every kid's dream! Some of my favorite pictures from the trip...


We were all so happy to be together and enjoying God's beautiful creation!


Aunt Lisa and the kids enjoying the cool mountain spring!


He is so freakin' cute!


Such a pretty girl!


My beautiful, silly sisters, finding themselves a hairy, mountain man! :)


All of us enjoying White Sands....well, not ALL of us! :)


Caleb and I riding down the dunes together....so much fun!

And I must dedicate a small part of this post to our pre-vacation fort! It was one of the best forts we've ever had here at the Skow Hacienda...and we've had many! It was complete with two rooms, air conditioning, and much laughter.




And finally, Ellie has begun the long journey of womanhood....well, not really. But she did get her toes painted for the first time last week, and fortunately and unfortunately, she LOVED it! Now the lifetime of 'primping' begins!

My little angel...

Summer Fun

The last couple weeks have been filled with all sorts of fun. We've been playing with friends, going to the $1 movies, doing swimming lessons, visiting the library and hanging out with Lisa and Tracy (my sweet sisters). One of the main events was Caleb's "Junior Book Club meeting." I started doing a book club back in February, and ever since then, Caleb has been asking us when he can have a book club. I thought it was a cute request, but since we've dealing with a crazy newborn baby for the last several months, I hadn't had the courage/time to put much thought or planning into that request. Finally, we decided to let him host one. We let him pretty much run the whole show, which he LOVED. He decided which scholarly friends he wanted to invite, and then set the agenda. He wanted everyone to bring their bibles, and "read them together." (even though he, and most of the attendees can't even read yet!) But I will say it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Most of his friends were able to come, and they all dutifully showed up with a bible. We made some little cookies, and then they went back to have their 'meeting'. We eavesdropped on them a little bit, and it seemed like it went well. It lasted for about 5 minutes or so, but they had some pretty deep spiritual conversation. :) The most important thing was that they all had fun, and I was glad that Caleb wanted to share part of his faith with his friends. It was a great start to what will hopefully be a life full of biblestudies, small groups and gatherings of Christian friends.


Here are a few pictures of our other fun activities....


One of our evening walks, with "just the girls". Ellie loves being a 'big sisser' :)


Getting ready to run some errands...yes, in a princess dress and upside-down sunglasses! :)


Caleb has loved his swimming lessons...even though he didn't really learn anything
from his 12 yr old teacher, he still had fun in the water!

Why, God?

I don't really know how to rate myself on the scale of spiritual maturity. I used to think I was, comparatively, pretty 'mature' in my faith...at least for my age. But it seems like the older I get, the more and more I realize how 'immature' in my faith I really am. I grew up with an incredible pastor, and several really great spiritual mentors. They taught me so much, and guided me through a lot of the tough issues of Christianity. I have then been able to use some of this knowledge to explain to others and even help answer some of those harder questions, like "why do bad things happen to good people?" But the bottom line is, this world sucks sometimes. There are tragedies happening everyday, everywhere. And people are suffering--in the Congo, and in Bryan/College Station. And so many times my response, is "Why God?!" I know He is a perfect God, and His Grace and Love are perfect too. It's not that I doubt Him, I just don't understand His permissible will. And my heart just breaks when I see and hear about people having to live through their real-life nightmares. Anwyway, my mind and soul have been a little heavy lately, I just needed to get that out.....

Now I would just like to ask this: Do you see a pattern here?






This is my life!! HELP!! Speaking of issues with God, why did He give me the easy, quiet baby first, and save the crazy, high maintenance one for last?!? (I do blame some of this on my best friend, who I think prayed for me to have higher maintenance children the 2nd and 3rd time around....jealousy issues :) It feels like crying is just a hobby for Adelyn--because she seems to do it ALL the time, just for fun! Wow.

To be fair, every once in awhile, she does look like this..


Either way, she is so stinkin' cute and I love her. (and for those who have known me for a long time...notice how this chic is wearing hair bows/flowers in 4 out of 5 pictures!!! Who knew I would turn out like this? :)

No time for reflections...just cute pictures!

So, my computer/internet at home is dying and I am having MAJOR withdrawals!! I had to come up to Dawson's office finally to post this entry. I don't have a lot of time, so I can't share any of our funny, yet heart warming stories :), but I do want to share some cute recent pictures really quick.


This is Batgirl and Sir Caleb at their cousin, Sawyer's, birthday party! So cute!


Ellie thoroughly enjoyed Sawyer's birthday cake! :)


I love our family!! This was everyone chillin' at Sawyer's fun birthday party.


Caleb finished tee-ball. He loved it! We were so proud of him! (Notice the big boy haircut! Gone is the cute, whiteboy fro--and all those curls! It broke my heart!)

We went to Galveston with our extended family last weekend. It was soo much fun, even in spite of the jelly fish stings that Dawson and Ellie encountered (as well as Aunt Leah and Uncle Clint):) Good times!


The Galveston Gangstas--they are so cool!


How Adelyn spent most of her time at the beach....so peaceful :)


Daddy and his beach beauty


Officer Caleb and Officer Ellie at the "big rig" at the library



Adelyn is getting so big so fast....and so girlie! :)


So long for now.....hoping to get back on-line soon!!

What kind of job is this?

(Sorry if this is boring, but I wanted to write this down, so I would remember it)
There were several times today that thoughts like "What did I get myself into?" came rumbling through my mind. One of those times was when I realized that it was 3:30pm, and my children and I were all still in our pajamas. Was this a good sign or a bad sign?!? However, as I realized the 4 o'clock hour was approaching, we all quickly got dressed and brushed our teeth so we could make it to "Happy Hour" at Sonic, and then run by the Post Office. But in the midst of getting 'ready' for this exciting excursion, the baby starting crying and screaming. So, I put Adelyn in her carseat and told the other two to 'jump in quick'. I then proceeded to drive my pimp-mobile Mini-van round and round the cul-de-sac, while Caleb and Ellie finished getting dressed and buckled up. Seriously--I drove around and around in circles in our little cul-de-sac, because I had to get the baby to stop screaming and fall asleep, and I couldn't got out on the real street because the other two weren't even buckled yet. Thankfully, all the passengers thought it was cool. Caleb and Ellie thought it was like a carnival ride, and Adelyn quickly quieted down and fell asleep. Again, I thought... my life has gone crazy--I'm not brushing my teeth until almost 4:00pm, and then it's only because I have to interact with the Sonic guy when I pay for my diet Coke. And there I was, driving around like a lunatic in the cul-de-sac (with a neighbor that happens to be a policeman). What kind of life is this??

But, at the end of the day, I was reminded of the answer to my question. Tonight, Ellie had gotten in trouble with her Daddy for playing in her pudding, so she started crying as she walked to her bed. We all followed her into her and Caleb's room for prayers, but then Caleb said he needed to go to the back yard for something, and he wanted me to come with him. He whispered, "I want to get Ellie a flower." When we didn't find one in the back yard, I just told him to grab one from our pathetic flower bed. Then, he walked into their room, hiding it behind his back, and he told Ellie to close her eyes and stick out her hands. Immediately, she stopped crying and her eyes lit up at the idea of a surprise. She quickly obeyed her brother, and then he placed the flower in her hands. I was a little nervous that she might not appreciate his offering, since it wasn't candy or associated with a Disney princess, but when she opened her eyes, she gasped and said, "Oh Bubba, it's bootful". You would've thought he had handed her the keys to Cinderella's castle! She loved it, and he just beamed with pride. I was reminded of how incredibly GREAT my "job" is and how blessed I am to be with my children every day. What a privilege!

Random Reflections and good pictures

This past week has been a week of reflection. So, I've had lots of random thoughts....

1. I love blogging. It's like being in therapy, or having an imaginary friend to talk to at odd hours of the night--which seem like the only hours I have for friends now, or pretending to be a writer/journalist, or just memorializing your family's life.

2. Having friends and maintaining friendships is a hard thing to do as a mother of young children, which is so ironic, because I feel like I need friends in my life now more than ever.

3. Sometimes it is great when you don't have a lot of money, because you can't help but realize how richly blessed you are with more important things--like children, family, and faith.

4. I love being married and being a part of two different extended families (really four 'extended' families). It has exposed me to so many different ways of life, and allows me to be related to a lot of wonderful people.

5. I love nursing my babies, and what a priceless and precious connection it creates with them.

6. Nursing babies is such a hard job, and sometimes it sucks! (no pun intended :)

7. This next week is a HUGELY monumental one in our Skow lives: I register my firstborn--my baby boy--for Kindergarten tomorrow. Then he will be baptized on Wednesday by his Daddy. Then we will dedicate our sweet, little baby Adelyn to the Lord and His ways on Mother's Day. Wow! Big week!!

8. God answered some major prayers for us these past few days. He provided His peace throughout a very emotional, and potentially tense, time for Dawson's family. He also gave strength to those who needed it, and joy during a time a sorrow. Thank you, Father.

9. And Final....I want to become the best version of myself. I think I've decided that I want to stop trying to "be like" other people--like have 'her' legs, or 'her' clean house, or 'her' cute hair, etc. I just want to allow God to change me to become my best self, physically, mentally, and most importantly, spiritually. Now that I've realized this, all that's left is the hard work, discipline and total surrendering to God. Geat--No problem! :)

Now for some random pictures.....

Laying in bed for story time before naps--a daily part of our routine I should remember not to take for granted


My sweet husband, leading a Skow/Leftwich/Paul family sing-a-long, part of celebrating Pawpaw's legacy


Granny and just some of the family that were enjoying the good songs, the great conversation and the healing laughter


Ellie, with one of her cousins (and current heroes) Look how happy she looks, because she's getting attention from one of the 'big girls'!


Caleb's response to "give me your 'handsome face'"