Phil and Lynda Skinner
Phil and Lynda – May
22
Phil – January 15
Lynda – March 2
Hannah – June 26
Michaela – April 27
Spring/Summer 2007
We are now a family of five. Michaela Sharon was born on April 27th. She had us worried that she would be born out
of the hospital, but we all made it there.
The girls are thrilled with her and cannot give her enough loving. Michaela has fit into our lives very nicely,
to a point of there are times we don't even know she
is around. That will change and we will
have three energetic girls running around.
Hannah has completed her first book in Cubbies and got the
award for it. She asked for a couple
weeks when she got to go back but she is now in VBS with our church for seven
days, the last being the closing night.
She turned four on the 26th and is acting more and more like a little
girl. She was thrilled that she was
getting cake and ice cream for her "party". We are celebrating with all her cousins,
aunts, uncles and Granmy and Granpy
the weekend of the 30th.
Danielle is trying to keep up with Hannah, but not be too
far away from the "baby". She
has quite the vocabulary and is very determined to get her way. She is in the two and three year old Sunday School class as our church has merged some classes
together. She has become the little
mother in nursery on Sunday nights with her being one of the oldest.
Phil is busy with work as they change his work schedule
monthly. There were times they would get 40 hours and now he is up to 50 or
more a week. He is also been involved in a couple of musical groups at church
and then getting out to our property to mow.
I, on the other hand, have been enjoying the time off with the
girls. I am back on the schedule for
July.
Other than a trip to Mom and Dad's for the family get
together, I believe we are going to enjoy our summer at home. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer in
what ever you do.
Lynda
Fall/Winter 2006
The
Skinners
We are
moving into fall with all the leaves falling.
Hannah and Danielle like to pick them to admire them or at least that is
what Danielle is told to do. Danielle
has celebrated her first birthday in October.
She was able to do that with Phil's side of the family. At the time we were out in WA celebrating
Phil's grandfather's 90th birthday. It was nice to get out there and see him
and say our last good byes. He passed
away a couple of weeks later. We spent a
week out there sight seeing and enjoying Phil's extended family. Hannah learned to get over her fear of dogs
and Danielle had to learn that you do not pull a dog's tail.
Hannah
is in Cubbies this fall. Between Grandma
J's class on Sunday and Cubbies on Wednesday she looks forward to the
week. I am able to help out in Cubbies
when I am not working. It is so much fun
to be in that age level class as they are just so curious and not afraid to
show it.
Danielle
is walking now. She did not follow the
same steps as
Hannah
so she surprised us when she just got up and started walking. She is trying to keep up with us in the house
and gets upset some times when she gets to a room and we are leaving it.
Phil
has and will have opportunity to use his college training in helping a pastor
out in a local area church a couple times a month until the end of the
year. The pastor has health issues and
is unable to do it. Phil has to do the
whole morning service so it is a little tiring.
It is a small church and they only meet on Sunday morning.
As far
as I know there is not much going on. I
have been back to the eye doctor and she found improvement from last time. I am still
doing exercises for my
eyes. I will probably do those for some
time now as she is wanting me to get to a point where
my eyes are not tired at the end of the day.
With
plans for the holidays just a round the corner, I wish
everyone a good Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
Thank
you, Autumn for keeping us up-to-date with each other
and
Kyle, for getting this on the web site.
Lynda
Spring/Summer 2006
As the weather
warmed up so do the urges to get outside.
Hannah loves the parks and would love to be there every day if
possible. It is nice at work that they
have a yard to go out and play in, they also have two
swing sets to use. We have a state park
just up the road from us that is nice to go walking in.
With Hannah
changing almost daily in what she can understand from us and how she can carry
on a conversation with us, we see that she is growing up quickly. She will be three at the end of this month,
which will mean that she will be in a new Sunday School
class at Church. We have met the
teacher; Hannah is not too impressed and will be visiting it to get use to the
atmosphere. She will also be in her
first VBS this year. Our church runs them for 7 weeks on Wednesday nights so
that the teens can do the majority of the work.
She has likes to teach Danielle new things that she knows, like songs
and stories. Her favorite is anything we
can play in the car. There are times
nothing plays, but the girls. They seem to enjoy each other as they ride. She is fulfilling her big sister role.
Danielle is
eight months old this month, where the time went, we are not sure. Danielle has finally learned to roll over;
her sister was helping her get the toys. With that, she will be crawling and making
nothing safe soon. She has broken in her
two teeth on the bottom which opens up eating for her. Danielle tells us when she has had enough and
when she wants to be picked up and entertained.
We think that she will take care of her own with Hannah when she gets a
little bit bigger.
Phil is
starting to work on our property. We all
made it out there to see that the grass needs to be cut with all the rain we
were getting. The help is on it way for
that. Along with his full-time job,
plus overtime some weeks, he is still a deacon, and involved musically in our
church. He will be teaching a couple of
times this summer.
I am still
employed by the same couple. Their jobs
are still intact so that leaves me with a job.
In April, I had eye surgery that got me off work for a week. I could have had numerous side affects, but
the red eyes was all I experienced. I think due to some serious praying of
many. Once the girls got use to them,
it was not a problem. We felt the
surgery was successful, with me doing some exercises to strengthen the
muscles. I will go back in three months
to get my eyes measured again. I am just
amazed the results I did get and what they can do. I am trying to get my classes finished up for
my bachelor's degree by taking CLEP tests.
They are cheaper than taking a class plus less work. The down side of it is I have to do all the
studying on my own during the day. I am
excited to get this done and get my degree in my hand.
That fills you
in on our lives. I hope that everyone is
able to enjoy their summer. Thank you Autumn and Kyle for keeping us all in touch.
Lynda
Fall/Winter 2005
Happy
Holidays,
We are
now a family of four. Danielle Elysabeth was born on
Hannah
is almost 2 1/2 years old and loves to entertain us. She knows when she needs to put the smile on
and when she needs to do a little bit of whining. Coloring is her favorite past time right now,
although I am getting her interested in painting and play-do. If we would allow her to she would do exactly
what we do. She is always busy doing something if it is playing with
her toys or reading
books.
On
October 13th we closed on a little over an acre of land. We plan to move our home on to it in the
spring. We were hoping for this fall,
but with all that needs to be done and with the later closing date we decided
for spring. All that I can say is that
was a very stressful month as we waited for Danielle and the closing of our
land. God was teaching us endurance
through all of it.
Phil
has been switched from nights to days and back to nights. He is right now on
days and hopefully to stay. They have
been changing personal around and cutting dead weight so he just keeps on
moving around. Phil works better on days
and we feel that we can actually see him when he is working days.
With my
job, I have been off since the 21 of September by forced vacation time. I will be returning in the next month, it has
been so nice to have this time with my girls.
I am hoping that I do not see much change in my job as we all wait for
the outcome of Northwest’s bankruptcy. We are just trusting
the Lord for the outcome.
As Phil
is practicing for the Cantata that our church is going to have in the next
month, we are preparing for Christmas. I
hope that everyone has a good holiday with family and friends.
With
love,
Lynda
Spring/Summer 2005
Hi, everyone,
As I read over the last update
on us I realize that we have a couple of changes in our family. One of
the most exciting news is that Hannah is walking and not a human terror.
She is all girl by walk, expressions and
actions. We are just amazed how much she has grown up in just the last
couple of months. Having such a joy of a child we thought we would add
another one to our family in the fall.
The other change we have had
is that Phil has changed jobs. The one he had at the end of the year
was not what he expected and this one just kind of fell at his feet. He
is back to working in the automotive industry as a quality controller-inspector.
This job has good benefits and after a year of employment, some incentives to
get more education. Something no other job has offered.
As far as I go, the Evening
Bible Study ended for me in March, but I am still doing Cubbies. Although
I only work about 14 days a month, my job along with family keeps me busy and
going all the time.
What a difference a day makes when you have a toddler around. We are loving all of it though. It is especially nice
when the weather is good enough to get out, it wears everyone down. The
family I work for has a nice yard with a couple of play sets.
That
about sums it up for us. I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love, Lynda
As the weather gets colder, we are sad to
see the cool summer days go. We all loved being outside on those days,
especially Hannah when the neighbor boys are out. We would take walks in the
park and she could see all the animals that ran around there. Hannah celebrated
her first birthday with just her two sets of grandparents. It was enough for
all of us and Hannah did not know that most have a big party for their first
birthday. She learned to crawl around her first birthday and has been showing
progress ever since. She is a speed demon so she can keep up with the kids I
take care of. Hannah has been working on walking the furniture and with us. She
is starting to talk using words we understand or figure out when she is playing
with it - "Juice" and "Uh-Oh" being her favorite. Phil has
been working the
I keep myself busy with work, leading a
ladies evening Bible Study, working in our church's cubbies and taking care of
my family and household. We have given up teaching our Sunday School as it was getting to be too much. I have been very
fortunate to be able to take the children I watch to church with me, since I
have been working more on Sundays. I am still working on their parents, small
steps at first.
That ties it up for us. Waiting
to hear from all of you. Thank you Autumn, for
all your time into keeping us all connected.
Love, Lynda
Spring/Summer
2004
The
Skinner News.
I have been asked many
times, "Is she walking, yet?" No Hannah is not
walking yet, but as Mom remembered (by my baby book) she is following
after her mother in this case. Hannah is growing so quickly and changing so
much that we are glad for pictures to keep as memories. She is getting into
what she wants by rolling or doing an army crawl. I have heard numerous times
that the first one is not anxious to get up and go because they get what they
want one way or another (Mom's carrying service). She will be eleven months on
the 26 of May so her first birthday is just around the corner,
it is hard to believe that a year has passed. Hannah loves to be outside, if
she gets fussy in the evening we just have to take her outside and she is
happy. We are so glad for a happy baby, I know I am bragging, but I think it is
my turn to do it.
I am now working full-time
again, back to the scheduling that I was doing before Hannah was born. It is a
little bit different going back to work to take care of four children instead
of two. Good thing it started part-time and then went to full-time just during
the day to what I am doing now. Hannah goes along with me if Phil cannot be
home with her. We do all get out, with some planning and extra time. I get some
comment, as you can image, seeing one adult with four children, two being
babies. With the warmer weather, I am hoping to get out to some parks in the
area. All the children love to be outside and it does make for a good way to
get long naps.
Phil's job at ILT ended last
month with them closing the doors. He was able to secure another job before it
completely ended. Before he lost the job and after he secured the other, he was
working 18 hours a day at least three days a week doing both jobs. We did not
see him much especially with my schedule. With this new job he is working the
night shift. That means he is home during the day when Hannah is awake. He does
take her some times while I am at work so that they can have their special time
together. With me back to working crazy hours and him with the night job we are
very selective on how we spend our time together.
Well, that will do it on our
end. I look forward to all of your letters to catch up.
Love, Lynda