We started the week with Valentine’s Day!

Kevin brought me roses and chocolate (What could be better than that, I say, why mess with hundreds of years of wisdom??) He also brought home lots of fun chocolate for the girls – his little Valentines! Bethany and I got invited to a Valentine tea party while the kids were at school. It was so fun with another little girl just Bethany’s age. They made Valentine’s and then got to have a tea party with little cookies and fruit and eat off play plates and drink pink milk from little tea cups. Bethany kept turning to me and saying, “I’m having a tea party!” What a fun mom to think of such a thing and then do it for her little girl. Wow! How lucky I was to come along!

Sarah had a basketball game on Tuesday, Megan had a basketball game on Wednesday, and Mariah and I had our last basketball game on Thursday! :(

Isn’t that a good-looking team? I sure had a fun time coaching them this year. It is such fun to get to know all those little personalities and have them get to know and trust me, too! Mariah had a great time this year, too. In her typical, athletic, determined way, she has gotten great at the game of basketball. She goes outside now that the snow has cleared from the streets and practices dribbling and shoots baskets – a thousand one day last week!!! Practicing seems more like play to her – more so than with any of our other daughters. It really pays off in her games, too. We could always count on Mariah to shoot lots of baskets for our team. Way to go Mariah! I’m sad to see the season end!

The only picture I have on my camera this week happens to be of Benjamin. We had canned green beans for dinner and my children thought they were disgusting! All my children except for Ben, that is. He loved them! He was stuffing handfuls in his mouth and finally abandoned his hands to bury his face in the heavenly stuff!

YUM! It makes you want to go get a can for yourself right now, huh? It was very funny.

We were going to go see the BYU Women’s basketball game on Saturday, but they changed the time on us and we missed it! Aargh! So, we will try again next Saturday and curtail some of the tears that were shed in disappointment. We sure love basketball around here. Sarah even looks for basketball games to watch on TV every night now. Mariah joins her. And you know that their dad was there all along!

Happy Birthday, Savannah!!  Can you believe our little girl turned FIFTEEN????  She is not so little anymore, but she is still beautiful and confident and looks at things differently than anyone else we know.  She is so great!  We love her!

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks back that Savannah had been in charge of our ward’s display at Stake Youth Standard’s Night.  This involved that she go to stake meetings and plan and help execute our ward’s display for the night.  She did fabulous. Drawing on her passion for writing, she wrote a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story for participants to read, make choices, and achieve different outcomes.  They got points based on how well they did and were entered into a raffle to win posters stating the theme.  Cool, huh?  Her dad and I couldn’t have been more pleased and proud with the way she used her talents, made a plan, and carried it out – on time!

As a byproduct of this adventure, she forged an acquaintanceship with the Stake Young Men’s president who I have never met but seems to be quite a character.  He just happened to be in our ward Sunday teaching the YM/YW because of ward conference.  When he found out it was Savannah’s birthday, he made her stand on a chair and have everyone sing to her.  She says she nearly died of mortification!  But I think it was the happy kind of mortification.  (I think this is only really possible when you are a teenager!)  First, though, he told everyone how impressed he’d been with her work on Stake Standard’s Night.  Savannah thinks he hates her.  I think she’s made a friend!

Sunday night was also New Beginnings.  (Isn’t it great to have your birthday on a Sunday??)  Savannah earned her Individual Worth ribbon, Sarah earned her something ribbon, and Megan came home and had me sign off three more things, because next time, she is going to get a ribbon, too, by darn!

Friday was a fun day, too.  I got to go see all the first graders do a reader’s play about the little engine that could.  Two of my favorite first graders were there!!!  Calianne was a clown.

She waved her flag and said, “Wait!  Wait!  Please wait!  We need some help!”  She was adorable, especially when she sang, “Please stop and help us!”  She made the saddest face.  I was ready to cry right then and there!  (I would have loved to get a video for you, but once the play started, Ben was playing with the camera, and if I had taken it away from him he would have screamed and I would have had to leave my awesome seat on the front row!)  Cheyenne did hysterical sad faces too for that song.  She was a bear!

She represented the optimists in the play, saying, “Maybe someone else can help us!”  She knew her part so well, at one point she was the only bear who started speaking, but the others joined in quickly to follow her knowledgeable lead.  I just had the best time watching those kids!  It was so fun!

I also forgot to mention that Cheyenne lost her other front tooth!  Look at that toothless grin!

Calianne is extremely jealous -- she keeps checking for wiggliness but her teeth stay firmly in place.  She tells me that they will NEVER fall out.  It is hard when your twin gets to do something first!

Other news of note:  Megan used her own money and bought herself a little parakeet.

She is hoping that it will want to sing along when she practices her violin . . .

Well, the big news of the week is that my sister, Diane, and her husband Jason came to visit!  They wanted to go to the BYU/UNLV game so they could watch Jimmer Fredette score in person!  (Heh, heh.  I’m going to catch it for that one!)  Anyway, their team may have lost, but look at all that red they got my daughters wearing!  They’ve been trying to corrupt my true-blue, cougar home, they have!   No such thing!  Just because Sarah is the only one who can remember Jimmer’s name . . . (Megan called him Jeffrey and Mariah said they kept cheering for Jim Bridger.  Heh, heh.  Isn’t that funny?)  Anyway, they all had a marvelous time!  I stayed home with the young’uns, Savannah went to a play with a friend, and Kevin attended the gala event with Sarah, Megan, Mariah, and our honored out-of-town guests!

We did other things while they were here, like we went out for Chinese food, and we played Settlers of Catan!

Playing Settlers of Catan has become a very popular activity in our house.  As you can see in this picture, sometimes the girls don’t even wait to get out of their pajamas in the morning before playing another game!  I’m glad they like it so much.  I love our new game-playing table.  I’m thinking it’s our version of an Xbox.  :)

As for the rest of the week, Savannah had early-morning play rehearsal every morning.  I was feeling kind of bad for her until I realized that I was at school every morning of my high school career at 6:15 because of early-morning seminary.  Buck-up kid! 

Sarah, Megan, and Mariah each had a basketball game.  I went to Let’s Play Music class with the twins.  Kevin and I managed to slip away for ward temple night. 

Benjamin can stand alone and laugh at you when you want him to walk toward you. 

Bethany is still transitioning out of her afternoon nap, which results in some very grumpy afternoons, some sleeping-in-late mornings, and some unplanned naps which result in large wet spots in inconvenient places in the house.  ;)

We are looking forward to another week.  Bring it on!