This week we had two recitals and a concert. First was the concert. Savannah has been in the 7th grade choir this semester and just loving it. Here is her in her cool choir t-shirt and her even cooler homemade earrings (they match the neon-green lettering of her shirt):



That's her in the middle doing her "solo" of three people:

And here she is on the piano helping with "The Rythm of the Rain!":

It was great fun and I think it's neat she finally gets to be in a choir since she has always found joy in singing!

Later that same night, the twins had a recital for their Let's Play Music class. Here they are playing "Do-Re-Mi" on the bells:

Here they are with the rest of the class, getting ready to sing:

They loved being in their own recital! What beautiful girls!

The other recital was a piano recital on Saturday night. I forgot the camera, but Sarah and Savannah both played two pieces and they did really well! Afterward, we all went out to eat at Sizzler. It was a fun evening for us!

We also got our garden planted this week (complete with watering system -- the secret to success!) We've planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, green beans, watermelon, and cantalope. I think it might really be summer!!!!! Yippee!

Week of May 4 to May 10

Well, the new rage at the Skinner house is Webkinz! The amazing thing is that from Savannah all the way down through the twins -- they all like to play and want their own Webkinz from the store. These little stuffed animals are available at the store with a code that allows you to sign on in the website and create a home for your pet and play games with your pet and dress your pet, etc. etc. Apparently, it's great fun and of course, you can't have too many. On Friday night, Kevin took me out so I could pick out my mother's day gifts and we passed a display of said toys. When I showed them to Kevin he said, "Should I buy one for each of them?" I said, "If you do, they will think you are the best dad in the whole world!" So he did and they did. He is a softie. He says it was for Mother's day since they will all be mothers some day. That's one nice guy, huh?

Calianne was playing Webkinz the other day and she came running into the kitchen and yelled, "MOM! GUESS WHAT! GUESS WHAT! I GOT AN 80 ON WEBKINZ!" Then she ran in and said, "SARAH! SARAH! GUESS WHAT! GUESS WHAT! I GOT AN 80 ON WEBKINZ!" Finally, she ran to Savannah (we were all within about 15 feet of each other) and said, "GUESS WHAT! GUESS WHAT!" Savannah decided to wager a guess, "You got 80 on Webkinz?" "YES!" Calianne gushed. Then she ran back toward the computer and we heard her say, "She is a good guesser!" Funny, huh?

I can't show you any pictures this week since the camera is still broken, but I can describe Bethany to you. She is crawling everywhere now, including up the stairs, but not down. When she wants me to pick her up, she does this thing where she shows me how distressed she is by crying and squeezing her eyes shut. The funny part is when she opens her eyes to see if I am watching and if I am, she squeezes her eyes shut again with more crying. Such drama!

Last week, when we were on our way back from St. George, we stopped in Beaver to see the gravesite of Daniel Tyler, an ancestor of Kevin's. As we walked through the cemetary, Cheyenne had her hand in mine and she was talking about when people die and then God will bring them back to life. She said, "God just needs to put the batteries back in. Right, Mom?" That sounds pretty close to me.

If I had the camera, I would have taken pictures at Sarah's Hershey Track Meet which was this week. She ran the 800 and the 200. She has been running all the way around Brookside (about .7 mile) for two months so that she could do well. It was so exciting to see her work hard at something and want to do well. She ran it in her best time ever. She didn't place, but her dad and I see a winner in all her hard work and her personal victory.

Savannah had her last track meet this past Friday in the form of District finals. The meet was all day long. Savannah ran the mile in 6:35 and then ran the final leg of the medley which is 800 meters. It was fun to watch her. I think she had fun, too.

So today was Mother's Day and it's been nice. I love the cards the most. Mariah's card says she loves me and thanks for lunch and dinner and sometimes breakfast and then tells me of the card, "You better take care of this safely." It is a very pretty card. I think she worked very hard on it!

Megan wrote on her card, "Hope I can do any thing to help since you always help me. Love, Megan." After I read it she said, "I was going to put that I'd even help with dishes, but then I decided not to because I really hate doing the dishes!" You gotta love that unconditional promise, huh? Funny!

Savannah and Sarah wrote me very nice things, too and, of course, my Kevin B. who I love very much.

I hope all is well with all of you. Happy Mother's Day!

Jake's Wedding

Look! Here's a copy of that picture I was telling you about!

Week of April 27 to May 3

Here's our track star! Savannah had a meet at Springville High, behind our house, so of course, we all went to watch. She's been running the mile. She ran it just under 7 minutes. That was on Tuesday. On Friday she had another meet -- her last before the district meet next week. The coaches announced that if she wanted to be in the race where she could earn points for her team, she'd have to run the mile in 6:30 or less. Just give the girl a goal, I guess! She ran it in 6:31 and her coaches said they'd let her in. One more week of track! It's been fun!

This weekend we went to St. George to see Kevin's brother, Jake, get married to his girlfriend Sarah. She looked stunning and the setting was very beautiful, next to a pool with Southern Utah's red cliffs in the back. I wish I could show you a picture, but my camera got dropped on the concrete while we were at aforementioned trackmeet and for some reason, it doesn't work anymore! It is really too bad, because it was an almost complete gathering of Kevin's Dad's side of the family. We saw uncles and aunts and cousins and Grandmas and Grandpas, too! Maybe someone will send us a copy of that picture they took of all of us! That would be grand, indeed.

After the wedding, there was a reception and we got to visit with the family while our girls took the opportunity to swim in the indoor pool next door. We stayed there that night in a super nice three-room condo. What comfort and convenience, eh?

On the way home, we got to stop by my sister, Margaret's house in Cedar City. My brother-in-law, Rick graduated with his bachelor's degree this weekend. Kudos to Rick! So, we got to see my sister and her family, and because of the graduation, we also got to see my mom and dad and my sister Amy's family again. How fun for us!

As for our basement project, I didn't get as far as I'd hoped. It turned out that I taught preschool, so I had less time and I didn't get to the project until Friday. Then I ran into an obstacle in the form of old carpet glue. I will tackle it again this week.

Preschool was letter V. What fun since we could do V is for Violin! We looked at the violin and I played it and we read stories about fiddlers. We made a little pipe-cleaner guy with a paper fiddle. On Thursday we learned about a full orchestra. Then we sidetracked a little and did V is also for Vine and we read Jack and the Beanstalk and then made dandelion curly vines in the backyard. It was fun AND it was my last time teaching this year! Wow! I can sit back and relax for the rest of the month!

I also got to spend some one-on-one time with Sarah this week. We went to my favorite store and got her some clothes for summer. It was good for us to have a whole afternoon together! She is such a terrific girl.

Week of April 20 - April 26

When we got back from spring break last weekend, we came home to a basement whose remodeling was almost complete! Grandpa Gazdik has been helping us with our basement and he took advantage of our absense to get a whole lot done. We sure appreciate all his hard work for us! He handed the reins over to us this week to get the painting done. Kevin and I have been painting and painting! I painted the bathroom (three different colors) and its shelves and Kevin painted the hallway all the way up the stairs and into the coatroom. Kevin also painted all the new ceilings. I did the new hallway doors and the coatroom shelves. Crazy, huh? We didn't even use a Saturday. We just used the bits and pieces of time we had throughout the week. This week we need to get the floors done (we will stain the concrete) before we hand the reins back over to Jim.




Megan had her Hershey Track Meet this week. That's when all the elementary schools in Springville come together for a day and compete in about eight different track events. Each grade goes on a separate day. Megan does not like to run much, so for her three events she choose only one running event (the 100 meter) and did two field events (softball throw and long jump). Here is her after running the 100 meter:

Isn't she cute? Whew! That wore her out! She ran hard, though and I had great fun cheering loudly at the finish line! GO MEGAN! The rest of the day she got to just hang out with her friends and cheer for the other kids.

Cheyenne got stomach flu for a full day this week. Poor girl! Calianne had it for just an evening, too, but no one else has had it so far. Let's hope it stays that way!

Kevin went to a pornography conference this weekend promoted by the church. He had a booth and got to share his book and CDs that he has created. It was a full day for him but a productive one!

Week of April 13 to April 19

We had a busy week here in our family! Last week I noticed as I watched Sarah, Megan, and Mariah (my elementary school children) out the window as they headed for school, that they were skipping. "How fun!" I thought. Later that day Mariah came home very excited to tell me about a horse of hers that she had made up and how wonderful it was. It took me a little while to put the two together. I decided I needed to document this creative outburst from my children. Here is the result:

We only had two days of school last week, so when Kevin got home from work Tuesday night, we got in the car and drove down to Las Vegas. We arrived a little before midnight -- Las Vegas time!

Our first day there, my sister Amy took a day off teaching school and brought her children over to play. It was tons of fun. That night we ate tacos and played Acquire (at least Sarah, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa did). Grandma got to rock Bethany asleep.

On Thursday, we drove out to see my friend Kim and her new baby. Ahhh. She has five boys and this last one was a baby girl! Probably my staying at her house with my seven girls this summer helped out. Of course! When we left her house, we drove out to Red Rock Canyon. I would show you pictures, but I left my camera at Kim's house while I was there. This is very typical of me, but it was very gut-wrenching anyway! My mom lent me her camera. When I get those pictures, perhaps I will post them. We went on a very fun hike. The desert was greener than I ever remember seeing it and we got to see a trickling seasonal waterfall. It was very beautiful in among the rocks and the trees. Grandpa, Savannah, Sarah, Megan, and Mariah, even hiked back behind the waterfall to check out the cave and check for a secret dragon lair. (If there was one, they're not letting on!) Afterward, Grandma and Grandpa drove back for my purse. (Nice, huh?) Then Diane came over and the adults went out for Chinese food. Yum!

On Friday, we took our family to the park in the morning and then all the families in Las Vegas met that evening at a park for a picnic and visiting. It was great fun to see Dave, and Pete and Monica and family, and Amy's family again, and Diane and Jason. Beth spent lots of time with Dave:

And with Grandpa:

The cousins had a great time. Here are just a few of them playing under the lights. Didn't you know those are really balance beams and not horseshoe pits?

The twins told me they wanted to move to Las Vegas so they can play with their cousins all the time! They really had fun with Kayla from Amy's family, and Piper from Pete's family.

On Saturday, we got packed up and then went out to old Henderson for a parade! Wasn't that nice of them to organize a parade for us while we were there? I thought so. Mandy and Kayla marched with their dance class:

And Amy had her band march for us!

HI AMY!!!

It was a great trip and the weather was even nice for the last two days! We will definitely have to do that again some time!

Week of April 6 to April 12

Well, it was Easter Week! Hopefully, I will be able to once again amaze you with my blogging abilities and you can see our pictures from egg decorating and hunting in a slide show. It was a rainy, dark day on Saturday and Kevin had to work throughout the morning and early afternoon, so we didn't get to do eggs until after dinner and then we had our hunt inside the house! It was very fun. That way we got to hide the older girls' eggs in really hard places -- hence, Megan's classic picture during the hunt.

On Sunday, we gave the girls some nice, simple gifts and then we got dressed for church. Believe it or not, I finally finished the set of dresses for which I bought fabric one year ago! I actually had Megan and Mariah help to sew theirs since theirs were the last ones that needed to get done. While I was working with Megan, she said, "Mom, I thought of the next story I will write for school. I'll call it Sewing." I'm just holding my breath, waiting for the punch line. Sure enough. "It'll go like this: 'My mom thought of a new way to torture me. It's called sewing!" Ha, ha. Nice, huh? That just proves Megan was actually having a grand time. She just likes to wring all the silliness she can out of every circumstance!

They're actually really simple dresses, but the addition of scarves makes them really fun, I think. Here's a pic:

I didn't make Beth's dress, of course. She blends in, though, so it's all good. Sarah is not taller than Savannah. Savannah is just leaning against the piano.

We had a nice Easter/birthday dinner for Grandma on Friday at her house and the girls had an egg hunt then, too. It was great fun. We needed to do that on Friday because they were leaving the next day for Idaho.

Savannah had her first track meet on Friday. She ran the mile and her time was 6:43. Fun, huh? She also ran in the 4x400 relay and the 4x100 relay. If you ask her if she likes track, she will tell you that it is a love/hate relationship. She loves running but hates all the time track takes. She actually has to work at practices. Horror!