Jacob turned 4!!

April 18th was a long awaited day! Jacob is officially four years old. He really enjoys his new bike and the Peter Pan movie he got.

Four things that I love about Jacob:
1. His smile and sensitivity. Jacob has a gorgeous smile, it really turns heads. Combine it with one of his incredible hugs and you have a winning combination. Jacob has a fine line between his emotions and is able to express his feelings accurately. If he is happy, you know it, if not, you know that too and he doesn't mind talking about it.
2. His love for his siblings, especially for the ones younger than him. He is always watching out for them.
3. His love for music and art. Jacob is a great singer- he might not always know the words or even the tune but that doesn't keep him from trying. Out of all my kids, Jacob is the one that is constantly getting into the crayons, paint, markers, glue, glitter...... This can be quite scary at times but I do love that he loves to create.
4. His ability to try until he succeeds. Jacob is a very strong headed child. When he wants something he is going to figure out a way to get it. Often this causes power struggles between himself and others (especially me) but it also shows his character. He is a leader and a winner. He doesn't give up or give in and I think that is a wonderful quality.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYBUB! (as Grace calls him)

(I can't imagine that I didn't take any pictures but I seriously cannot find them. I lost a memory stick for my camera awhile ago. I hope that they weren't on it. I'll keep looking and post pictures later if I find them.) -Okay I found them and when I did I realized that I had forgotten that we celebrated Jake's Birthday at my Mom's house. He was so funny, all he wanted to do for his birthday was make a cake with his Grandma, a cow cake to be exact. Well my mother and I were not sure what exactly he meant by a cow cake so we talked him into a lizard cake. He seemed to be perfectly happy with that. I think that he just wanted to spend some one on one time with his Grandma!

The Summer in a Nutshell

May was full of Tee-ball games, pre-school graduations, a trip to Conner's class zoo, and camping. Yes, keeping up with the kids schedule is a lot of work all in itself. Swimming lessons and lunch at the park started in June. In between the swimming lessons session we went to the valley TWICE! Scott has had to travel a ton- way more than I bargained for. Thankfully, since it was summer time, I was able to go with him to the valley (he usually flies out of Sky Harbor on Monday and back in on Thursdays) and stay with my parents. The kids love going to Grandma & Grandpa's house and actually the low key "mini vacations" (all we did while we were there was swim) helped me start to feel better. Grace also celebrated her second birthday on June 27th. She enjoyed being princess for the day- truthfully she is our princess everyday, just ask her brothers. They'll tell you that she's our, "pretty, pretty princess!" July came so quickly- sometimes I really wish that I could turn back the clock- we had Scott's brother, Curtis, & his family come and stay with us over the fourth, went to the valley TWO more times, (once for another "mini vacation" and once to take care of some family business that I will post about later) went to Greer for the Johnson family vacation, and then finished the month at Curt & Jeannine's for the Skousen family get together. Can you just say exhausting!! And now it's August. Do you think that things will slow down once school starts? My guess is no, things are just going to get crazier. School starts, soccer starts, Grace needs to be potty trained, and we are starting to build our NEW HOUSE!!! Yep, it's official, I have become a General Contractor in order to save us some money. So with all of the added blessings/stresses, I have determined that the only way to make all of this work is to rely on my Father in Heaven and just take one day at a time.

(I hope that these pictures will help all of you that are so far away feel just a little bit closer.)

Conner and his paper mache vulture

Ethan (or Efee as Grace calls him) learning to eat

Jacob at his pre-school program

Tate at his pre-school graduation

Conner & Tate Tee-ball May 2007

The boys with their cousins - Camping over Memorial Day

Grace, Jacob, Tate, & Ethan enjoying free lunch at the park!

Grace's 2nd Birthday

The Fourth of July

My Dad teaching the kids to play the piano during one of our visits

The Kids at my family vacation in Greer (Grace, Haylee & Tate, Ryan & Ethan)

Long Time, No See

I know that it has been a long time since anyone has seen a post from me. Of course there is always a story behind everything. To keep it brief, I'll just say that I have suffered from major postpartum depression or maybe just depression in general. (My fifth has almost done me in) That combined with a myriad of other overwhelming challenges had left me unable to cope with all of life's daily excitement. I decided that since crawling in a hole was really not an option, I needed to remove some of the "extras" for a time. Unfortunately, blogging and a few other very enjoyable but not completely necessary things were neglected. I am happy to say that things are starting to look up:) so I will try to ease my way back into blogging. Wish me luck as I start this journey again. (I will try to do an entry for each of the months that I missed- We did have some exciting things happen too that you might want to know about!)

How Full is Your Pot?

My Mom sent this to me. I liked it so much I thought I'd post it. It's just a little reminder how important your prospective is.

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them." "For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house." Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them. SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Happy Easter

We had a nice quiet Easter. The Easter Bunny visited us Friday night so we started Saturday off celebrating. After hunting for eggs and eating more chocolate than we should have we went and picked up our latest food storage order. I have no idea where I'm going to put all of this stuff! Anyway, while we were out we decided to go for a drive. It was nice to spend some time together. Everyone is always so busy, sometimes it's nice to spend an afternoon without an agenda. Sunday was beautiful. I love spring time. Someday I'm going to plant tulips. I just absolutely love it when the flowers & trees bloom. I tried to take the kids Easter pictures by our huge cottonwood tree because it's finally getting its leaves. The only problem is that the kids aren't tall enough so you can't see the leaves anyway. I'm going to have it learn how to use some photo editing software so that I can change this background. It turned out absolutely ugly. I was going to try picture taking again after church but the boys primary teachers had given them chocolate, needless to say their shirts weren't exactly clean anymore and Grace had pulled off the bows on her dress. Oh well, I guess you get what you get- right? After Easter dinner (which consisted of ham, potato casserole, green beans, and homemade rolls) we watched Finding Faith in Christ, the Church sponsored DVD on Christ's ministry. It was very enjoyable and sparked a good conversation between Conner and I. It amazes me the things he is starting to pick up on. Boy, they sure grow up fast. Before I know it Ethan will be Conner's age and I'll be wondering what happened to all my babies! Well all in all it was a good Easter. I even got to talk with my brother, Dave. He's been away from home for a couple months so I haven't gotten to speak with him for a while. He sounded so good. He said that he has gained 40 pounds and his health is returning. I'm so happy for him. I know he can't read this now but when he can I want him to know that we love him and are proud of him. Keep up the good work Davy! Christ's atoning sacrifice was for all of us. ALL OF US!!

So Long, Farewell...

I just wanted to let everyone know that we have officially cancelled Dish Network!! We have been on Dish Pause since February 3rd, that means NO television for the Skousen Family for an entire two months. Yesterday, I turned it off for good. They are sending me boxes for my equipment and everything. One might wonder what we do with all of our spare time now?! I for one never watched T.V. anyway so it wasn't a big deal to me but for Scott- WOW- It's a miracle that he survived. NO MORE SPORTS!! The coolest thing though is that he actually agrees with me on this one despite what he might tell his brothers about having an oppressing wife. I'm glad that we are both on the same page. Another one of the many benefits is that we save almost $70.00 a month now. If we put that money in savings we just might get to go to Lego land after all. The bottom line is that we really haven't missed the added noise. Scott still follows sports on the internet and we even watched Conference via internet. Maybe we can justify the large flat screen computer monitor we've looked at. Most importantly we get to spend time doing other things, things you wouldn't normally do if you were being sucked into the boob tube. (ie: drawing, reading, studying, going for walks, playing games, etc.) Here's an example of something Conner did recently INSTEAD of watching television:)

Spring Break is Here!!

This last week was Spring Break for my kids. We had a fairly quiet week. Monday the weather was gorgeous so we decided to spend some time at the park. Wednesday it snowed! On Thursday we packed up the trailer and headed to Lyman Lake for the weekend with some of our friends, the Lee's. The weather was supposed to warm up but of course it didn't (It even snowed Thursday night) until we were packing up on Saturday (and then I got sunburned)! All in all it was a great time though. Since we were staying at an organized camp ground we could have a fire so we were able to stay warm outside and then we just turned on the heat inside the trailer! Loved that! It's so great to be able to pull a mini house behind your vehicle to the destination of your choice. The kids get to enjoy camping and I get to have a toilet, shower, and heat!! We all win. We love making memories together and hope to use our trailer often. (I didn't take any pictures can you believe that- shame on me!)