Sarah applied for a new (another?) job this week at the little daycare/preschool on Main Street which she might be able to use for her new internship.  She continues to tell us that she is "so done with school!" but also continues to go, for which we are grateful.  I did order her graduation robes so we are getting close!  I also continue to pester her about applying for scholarships as is my motherly duty.

Megan ran an 800 in 2:42 at her meet on Friday which was her best time last year and she's already hit it this year!  She worked at Funfinity with Sarah on Saturday and continues to work hard and do great at school.  She loves her seminary teacher and had such a great lesson this week that she floated around the house all day and told us all how much she loved us.  It was pretty awesome!

Mariah ran a mile in 5:48 at the meet on Friday.  Wow!  She continues to work out with the basketball team on B days at school.  She is sick this weekend which isn't surprising since we've had a bug going through the family, and she pushes herself really hard!  She is working with a shooting coach that Kevin found for her and goes to the gym everyday after all her other practices to get some shots in.  She is enjoying it.  She also had a choir concert on Wednesday where she looked and sounded beautiful!

I got to go on a field trip with Cali and Cheyenne this week!  We went to the Clark Planetarium and it was really fun!  We learned constellations and the phases of the moon and all about space stations and shuttles and traveling to Mars!!  Cali and Chey also had their last two Bantam games for March league today.  They won both!  They (and their dad) were very pleased!  They were also both awarded their Faith in God awards for primary in sacrament meeting today.  They worked hard to make sure they could get it done.

 

 

 

Bethany is getting ready for a talent show at school next week.  She's going to play piano even though her teacher is out recovering from having a baby.  Beth continues to play with her friends everyday and be sweet and talkative.  We love her!

Benjamin has started putting words together in his reading MUCH better!  He even likes to label his drawings now with words he sounds out.  AND he can count to 100.  Looks like Kindergarten is doing its job well!

We have been talking about the last week of Jesus's life this week.  On Saturday, we colored eggs!  We needed to do it early in the morning before everyone went different ways and Dad made us a big breakfast.  It was tons of fun!

 

Today, on Sunday, we all wore our matching skirts that Sarah made for us for Christmas.  We even found Ben a matching green sweater!  We had a great Sacrament meeting that included a farewell talk from Faith Atkinson who leaves on her mission this month and songs from the primary and the ward choir.  I also got called as Relief Society President!  Tonight we'll go to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's for Easter dinner.  We're so grateful that we know of the love of Christ and can celebrate on this holiest of days!

Happy Easter!  The tomb is empty!  He is risen!

Cultural Celebration Link

Here is the link for the full production of the Provo City Center Temple Cultural Celebration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifBc7uI3iUE&feature=youtu.be

Yay!

These three beauties got to participate in the Cultural Celebration on Saturday preceding the dedication of the new Provo City Center Temple today!  The theme of the production was "Beauty from the Ashes."  So the show talked about how the pioneers built the tabernacle in the 1800s and how much the community loved it and how it was used for stake conferences, graduations, speakers, and musical performances and then five years ago it burned down almost entirely except for the outer brick walls.  Then the community was devastated, but the prophet revealed God's hand by announcing it would be restored as a temple and, of course, this is what God does with our lives everyday.  It's really an amazingly beautiful symbol.  In between all the story of the tabernacle, the youth from separate stakes performed dances to the theme of each story.  Our kids represented all the youth who left from this area to fight for their country in different wars.  It was beautiful and our youth did a great job!  You can watch their dance at this link here!

Or, you can watch the whole production complete with videos on facebook.  Sarah shared the facebook link.  I will try to share it to my timeline, as well.

So, that was the highlight of the week, and since we had three youth participating, we got six tickets!  So, we got to bring the whole family!

We were sitting up pretty high!

This was our stake in action.

So that was the big event of the week!  Sarah, Megan, and Mariah spent all day Saturday at the Marriot Center.

None of the kids had school on Friday, though, so that was nice timing and gave them a Saturday-like day.  Sarah's friend, Hunter, wanted to go hike the Y, so Sarah invited Cali and Chey and their friend, Elizabella, and Benjamin managed to finagle an invite as well.  They had a great time though I'm told they took many breaks!

Beth stayed home from the hike because she was playing with friends.  On Saturday she had one of those glorious days when all the little girls in the neighborhood come to play.  Then they can properly bathe, dress, and style all the Barbies in the house.  What a party!

Megan and Mariah had track practices again during the week and also had their first meet!  (Of which they were absolutely terrified, I guess because it was their first of the season!)  Mariah ran the 800 and the mile.  Megan ran the mile and ran in the 4x400.  They both did great and are feeling less terrified of their next meet.  (I hope.  Sincerely.  They really have been working hard.  Their "recovery runs" are 4-6 miles.  They are in incredible shape.)

We mustn't forget that St. Patrick's Day was this week!  All the elementary schoolers at my house dutifully dressed in green!

It was an incredibly lucky day because Cali and Cheyenne got to hold a boa constrictor at school . . . and they are still alive!

It was also lucky because Bethany ordered a St. Patrick's day book from the school book order that came with a matching green necklace . . . and it came before St. Patrick's Day!  (psst--she likes the necklace more than the book!)

This  week I took the opportunity to "Konmari" some drawers in our house (I can turn that into a verb, don't you think?  Lol!  That's the system of organizing that comes from the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up which we are reading for book club!)  This is Ben's new, improved drawer from under his bed.  I have my doubts about whether this is a sustainable improvement, but here is week 1 of the experiment:

The weather has continued to be nice, so when Bethany came rushing in on Monday asking me if we had any sidewalk chalk, I figured I could easily make that dream come true!

They've also ridden their bikes to the park with their sisters.  The whole world opens up when the weather gets warmer!  Sadly, later this week, they both got pink eye and had to miss a day of school.  It seems to be a part of the cold they've contracted complete with runny nose, cough, and sore throat.  Poor kids!

Cali and Chey both performed in a piano solo festival on Saturday.  They've been working on their songs for a long time.  We think we all have them memorized!  Although, we don't, of course!  Their hard work is all their own and they both received superior ratings.  Way to go girls!

Nervously waiting their turns!

Yay!  Mission accomplished!

Kevin presented at the Utah Coalition Against Pornography Conference on Saturday in Salt Lake City.  They provided dinner for the presenters and their spouses the night before and even comped us a hotel room!  We could get used to that kind of treatment!  I had to get back home on Saturday, but Kevin presented in the afternoon and did fabulous.  The keynote for the event this year was Elder Holland.  2,900 were in attendance.  Kevin has gotten very well-known in this field and does a lot of good stuff!

Kevin's name on the same poster as Elder Holland's!

Sarah, Megan, and Mariah were in charge Friday night since Kevin and I were in Salt Lake.  To celebrate their parent-free night, they finally got the chance to begin watching Fuller House all together.  (They've watched all the episodes of Full House together over the years).  Fun times!

Saturday after Kevin got back from the conference and after the cultural celebration practice and after waiting for Mariah to get back from her appointment with her new shooting coach and finally getting mom and dad to order pizza, Sarah, Megan, and Mariah went out with a group of Sarah's friends to watch Zootopia.  Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben went outside to introduce one of their friends to night games.  Mom and Dad took a deep breath and caught up on an episode of Castle.  Just a night in the life of the Skinner Family . . .

Benjamin was super shy when Matt and Lynsey came to get Quincy this week!  I found about 20 pictures he took of her on my phone!  He and all of us really enjoyed having a baby around again and we were sad to see her go!  Matt and Lynsey gave all the girls a flower clip for their hair from Hawaii and they brought Ben a "warrior" necklace.  Ben was skeptical at first but has since worn it every day.  He's pretty proud of it and about the fact that he got it "for helping take care of a baby!"  :)

I made the grievous mistake a couple of weeks ago of letting Bethany watch the first episode of the kids' TV series, Goosebumps.  It was about a doll that comes to life and turns the little girl who owns her into a doll.  Horrible, I know!  Since then, Beth has not been able to go into any room alone.  She won't go downstairs to change into her clothes.  Sometimes she won't even go into the bathroom.  You can imagine the discomfort that produces in her life!  Poor girl.  She has always been our brave little thing who loves scary shows and creating haunted houses.  I don't know if she is going to get that mojo back ever.  For now, she recruits Ben whenever she needs to go downstairs.  She knows that little brothers are pretty great so that's good!

Cali and Cheyenne along with Beth and Ben have been enjoying the warm weather we've been having and playing a lot more outside.  They've had house on top of the shed, played games with the throne in the front yard, and last night they threw the softball to each other and then tried some tennis in the street.  They went to a birthday party Friday night where the theme was Just Dance.  They love that game and so do all their friends.  They had a great time!  They started March league for basketball with a game yesterday and they won!  Things are looking good!

When the weather gets warm, I remember how much I love where I live!

Mariah and Megan have started track in earnest.  They've had pretty intense practices and can tell that they are getting in shape!  Mariah will continue attending the basketball and seminary classes at the high school until the end of the year because her team will have a spring league.  This week, though, they had the days off and Mariah enjoyed the extra time!  She used a lot of it for cultural celebration practices this week!

Megan took the ACT this week.  All the juniors at the high school took the ACT on Tuesday and the rest of the students had the day off!  What a deal!  Besides feeling picked on, Meg felt like she did pretty well except for the science section.  Bleh.  She also worked at Funfinity and attended all the cultural celebration practices we had this week of which there were three!  One on Tuesday night at the Marriot center and two on Saturday--one in the morning at Provo High and one in the evening at the Marriot center with ALL the youth from the gazillion stakes participating.  It is going to be so incredible!

Sarah also practiced for the cultural celebration, as did Mariah.  Sarah also worked at Funfinity and is working on getting herself a raise.  She found out that BYU Idaho assigned her the Fall-Spring track which means if she decides to attend there, she'll go off to college for 14 weeks starting in September, then come back for 14 weeks, then go off for another 14 weeks starting in April and then come back for another 7 weeks in summer before starting again.  It might be really great since we will get to have her come back so often!

Kevin taught at an Addictions Conference at UVU on Friday and had over 100 therapists in attendance.  They thanked the presenters by paying for dinner at a fancy restaurant that night.  That was fun!