It's been a busy week, but fun!  I had to change Megan's tennis time since track has started.  She and her friend already paid for 5 weeks, so it wasn't like we could just quit.  Still, it has been hard for Megan to be in three sports at once and for me to have to drive to the Spanish Fork tennis courts for not just two classes twice a week, but three classes twice a week.  Grrr.  I do not like craziness.  Thank goodness for carpooling!  It worked out just fine, actually.  Beth and Ben even had a nice time when we had to wait for Chey and Cali during one of their classes.  We went across the bridge and threw rocks in the stream and just generally had a good time enjoying the warm weather!

Savannah worked Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday this week and had her last ACT prep class Saturday morning.  She is going to be very happy to have her Saturday mornings back!  She feels like she learned a lot, though, so that is good!

Sarah enjoyed tennis this week as well as rereading Harry Potter.  She also had her first driving lesson with Dad this week and she drove us to and from church today!  She is doing great.  She and Savannah and Mariah also went to a thrift store/food kitchen in Spanish Fork on Tuesday to help out as their church activity.  They really enjoyed that.

Megan had track practice everyday after school, basketball practice on Tuesday and Friday, and tennis on Monday and Thursday.  Crazy right?  She seemed to enjoy all of it, though.  She is a pretty sporty girl.  On Wednesday she had her violin lesson, too.  I guess it's better than being bored!

Mariah had basketball on Tuesday and Friday.  She also has choir before school on Tuesdays and student council before school on Fridays.  She and I had the great "fun" of going to Maturation together at the school on Friday.  Regardless of the subject matter, it was great fun to be with Mariah at school anyway!

Cheyenne had tennis Tuesday and Wednesday and piano lessons before school on Thursday.  She has a sore throat today that is making her very sad.

Calianne also had tennis on Tuesday and Wednesday and piano lessons before school on Thursday.  We watched Wild Hearts Can't be Broken on Saturday night and Cali went to bed in tears.  Even if she didn't die, she could have, and so she should not have tried to dive a horse while she was blind!  It was too scary for tender-hearted Calianne!

Bethany had ballet on Tuesday and preschool on Wednesday and Friday.  On Thursday she and Ben got to go to Grandma's house again.  Grandma has been sick the last couple of weeks and they have missed her fiercely!  They were so excited to go to her house again.  When I came to get them, they had fallen asleep in her lap while reading books.  It was so sweet!

Benjamin got mad at me this week and said, "Mom Skinner!"  It was so funny.  He has bitten Bethany a few times this week.  It is a new thing.  I think it surprised him how much it hurt Beth and how much trouble he got in.  Hopefully he can control himself.  I know he wants to.  Whenever he brings Beth to tears, he turns to me in desperation and says, "I said sorry, Mommy!  I said sorry!" -- even before he actually does say sorry.  We'll get it all figured out eventually I am sure.

On Saturday, Kevin's March leagues finished up.  Both of his teams had two games a piece!  Megan had games at noon and 2.  Mariah's team had games at 3 and 5.  Kevin was there almost all day!  Poor guy.  Actually, I think he had a pretty good time.  He really enjoys coaching his girls.  Megan and Mariah both had fun, too.  They have both really learned a lot from playing in this league where the competition is significantly more fierce.  It's fun to see them improve so much!

On Saturday night, we tried a new way to curl hair that Megan had found on the internet.  It involved twisting the long hair up into a headband.  Bethany asked if she looked like a princess.  We said, "Yes!  An Indian princess!"  She was delighted and insisted that she needed a feather.  She was Tiger Lily for the rest of the night.  She does make a lovely Indian princess. . .

Look what I made!!  Yes, that is a St. Patrick's Day apple pie.  I used green food coloring in my canned apple pie filling.  Aren't I just so clever?  I'm still just so pleased with myself, as you can see.  It was really yummy to eat, too!  Even Calianne liked it.  !!!  Success in the kitchen!

This week Sarah, Megan, Cheyenne, and Calianne had tennis on Monday and Tuesday since the courts would be closed the rest of the week.  They really like these groups and have been having lots of fun with them.

Track started for Megan this week.  She missed Monday and Tuesday because of tennis, but went on Wednesday and Thursday and then ran on her own on Friday!  She is really excited about track.  It will be fun to see her race.

On Wednesday, Sarah's choir concert was a series of talent performances from small groups in the choir.  Sarah didn't want to sing solo or duet or any other small group, so she opted for a piano solo.  She played Jessica's Theme from Man from Snowy River and she did awesome!  We were all so proud of her.  I was especially proud of her because their teacher while at first making participation mandatory, later changed it to optional, and Sarah still decided she wanted to be a part of it.  That's a scary thing, but afterwards feels so good!  Sarah is smart like that.

On Thursday, they had a clinic to get vaccinations at a local school.  So I took the opportunity to take Mariah who will be starting Junior High next year and needs shots, and Bethany who will be starting kindergarten next year (yes!  My little Bethany!) and also needs shots.  We got them all done and then I got Bethany registered for kindergarten since that was the same day.  Beth was very excited to get her shots.  She asked, "So does everyone who gets shots get to paint?"  Huh?  This confused me until I figured out that she was looking forward to kindergarten because she heard she gets to paint and she knew she had to get shots to go to kindergarten.  She is so cute!  She was very, very brave and did not cry and I know it hurt!  Of course, she thought she could go to kindergarten the next day.  That is always so hard to explain to your prospective kindergarteners!  Anyway, Mariah and Beth have had matching sore shoulders for the last few days.

No school on Friday!!  Early Friday morning, Sarah and I headed to the DMV to see if we could get her learner's permit.  She passed the test on the second try!  Kevin took her out driving for the first time on Saturday.  We are ready for driver's ed starting April 8th!

Later on Friday, I drove Megan, Mariah, Cheyenne, Calianne, and CC's friend Karlee to the roller skating rink.  They won free tickets from their recent school read-a-thon.  They got to skate for over two hours and I only had to pay $1 each for skate rental.  What a deal!  They were very slow at first and I hear they fell down a LOT, but they got the hang of it.  It's fun to go to the roller rink!

On Saturday morning, Mariah had an 8am basketball game which they won and she played with Megan in Megan's 10am basketball game.  They lost that one but they put up a very good fight and learned a lot about
breaking a press.  I was proud of them.

We've had really nice weather again this week.  Kevin got the trailer and cleared out the branches that had fallen into our yard this winter.  Ben was his eager helper grabbing the extra rake and doing everything he saw his dad do.  It was super cute!  Later, I got the bike trailer put back together and I took Ben on a bike ride.  We had fun together, too!

Bethany probably would have come, but she was playing with her friend, Macie all day!


Saturday evening Sarah and Megan went to the church dance.  Sarah thought it was great.  Megan did not.  She didn't really feel well, though.  And dances are like that sometimes.

I hope you all had a happy St. Pat's Day!

On Monday of this week, Kevin made the switch to his new office.  He will be the clinical director for a office that is opening in Lindon and will be specifically helping the wives of men with pornography addictions.  He was sad to leave his Springville office with his 5 minute commute and lunches at home with his wife and two preschoolers.  It was very nice.  I will miss all that, too!  Hopefully this new business opportunity will turn out to be well worth it!  His new office is very chic, if that counts for anything.  Savannah had to work Monday evening, but the rest of us helped him move things from his old office into his new.  Whenever we're all involved, we make it tons of fun, so we didn't mind.  Plus, we love our dad like crazy!

I taught preschool on Monday and Wednesday mornings this week.  We did "Hey Diddle Diddle!"  It was great fun.  The kids have all finished learning their capitals and are starting on their lowercase.  They are also doing great on their phoneme awareness.  Impressive right?  Even more impressive that I can even use the word phoneme and know what it means!

The twins had tennis on Tuesday and Saturday and Sarah and Megan had tennis on Wednesday and Saturday.  Kevin and I went to the temple on Wednesday night, so Savannah drove them to the courts.  We were so grateful for her help!  What a great skill driving is -- even better than tennis!

On Thursday of this week, Savannah got to watch her bridge break!  Even though she is in Chemistry this year, she was offered extra credit for building a bridge that could withstand at least 200 lbs.  She started working on it a couple of weeks ago with Grandpa Jim.  They spent many an afternoon/evening making it as nice as they could with the balsa wood and glue they had been provided.  Grandpa came to the high school to watch the big moment.  Drum roll please . . . 850 lbs!  Nice job, right?  Yay for extra credit and helpful grandpas!

The weather FINALLY got warmer this week.  I don't even have energy to holler -- just let out a sigh and be grateful that spring really might come again!  So, I fixed Beth's and Ben's bikes and we took to the sidewalks!  Beth is trying to learn to ride a two-wheeler so I held onto her waist while she rode up and down the street all the while yelling, "I'm doing it!!  I'm riding a bike!!"  Yes, little miss, you are not quite there, yet, but hopefully you will be soon!  :)

On Tuesday Mariah had her district-wide science fair to attend.  She had to stay there for a couple of hours with about one hundred and fifty 5th and 6th graders.  There they were judged again by four separate judges.  No parents allowed!  Mariah says it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.  She got to sit next to her classmates who also earned the privilege of attending and they had fun talking between judges.  In the end, she wasn't one of those chosen to move to the next level, but I think it was a fun experience for her, nonetheless.  I think she did great!

Tuesday was also the first day of tennis for the twins.  We signed them up for some group lessons at the indoor courts in Spanish Fork.  It just happened to be right across the street from the science fair!  I got to watch the last bit of their workout and that coach had them playing better in his hour with them than we had after a whole summer of work!  I am a happy mom!


Wednesday was Sarah and Megan's first day of their tennis group.  We also talked a couple of their friends into taking the class with them.  They had a great time and had really positive things to say about their coach and what they had learned.  Awesome!  Their friends and their friends' parents were happy, too.

Thursday was Megan's last basketball game with the Springville city rec team that Kevin has been coaching.   Unfortunately, Kevin couldn't be there!  He needed to attend a recertification class in Salt Lake City in order to keep his Therapy Supervisor license.  So, I coached instead.  I was very nervous.  I did not want to lose for him!  Anyway, they did win 23-21!  It was very scary but it ended up alright.  There was also a bit of a surprise at the end as the city rec superviosr came up to the team and told them that their team had been chosen for the sportsmanship award that season.  Yay team!  They all got t-shirts and magnets and an invitation to a party with the Utah Jazz.  That was about when Kevin came rushing in after his drive back from Salt Lake.  He got to tell the team how great they were and be in the pictures!  It was fun.

Friday afterschool, the twins performed in the Brookside 1st to 3rd grade choir.  They all sang GREAT!  The twins seemed to have a bit more fun hitting each other "accidentally" while doing hand movements than actually singing . . . but, they were still really cute!  It was fun to watch them and I'm glad they did it!

Friday night I got to play in the women's regional church basketball tournament.  We put a team together for our stake.  That was our first game -- and we lost.  :(  So, we won't play anymore.  It was pretty fun but I am not that good so I did not play much.  I like playing better without scoreboards and without refs when we are all just playing for fun and no one cares if I mess up or don't score -- oh, and when there are no subs sitting out.  :)

Saturday morning Megan had her first Bantam club basketball team.  Kevin wanted her to have a chance to play on a club team so her put one together of her age group for the March season.  They did not even have a chance to have a practice before their first game Saturday morning, but they won -- and won by a lot!  Go team!

Savannah also had her ACT prep class Saturday morning.  She piled up all her books this week for a visual representation of how much work she does for school.  It was pretty impressive!  We are glad that she works so hard and accomplishes so much!

Then, the twins had tennis again and then Sarah and Megan had tennis again and then we drove everyone (except Sarah and Megan who were still at tennis) up to Orem for a Piano Soiree where the students of our piano teacher played their pieces while the rest of us ate ice cream.  Fun, right? 

Kevin got Savannah from BYU on his way.  Mariah went first because after she was done, Dad needed to drive her to her club basketball game at 2 o'clock.  They lost.  :(  Busy day, though, right?

Also, during this week I went to the fabric store.  Beth was at preschool so it was just Benjamin and me.  He was a pretty good sport, though, and found ways to keep himself entertained -- like climbing onto the fabric racks and saying, "Hey Mom!  Whatcha doin?" in order to get my attention.  He was so funny.

Last Monday was President's Day so the kids didn't have to go to school!  I took Sarah and Megan over to the indoor tennis courts in the morning.  Cheyenne, Beth, and Ben came, too just to run around.  It was pretty fun.  Although, I didn't find the heater button until just before we were leaving so I was froze while Meg and Sarah worked up a sweat!  When we got back, all the girls (except Bethany who stayed with Ben and I) went to see a movie, Rise of the Guardians.  Savannah drove!  I didn't even have to venture forth.  I love that!  They all had a really good time together.

On Tuesday, Megan and Dad had a basketball game.  They won!  Later that evening, all four of my young women went to the church activity which was ballroom dancing with the young men!  They had a great time.  Megan said that her hands were cold when she started but the guy's hands were really warm so they started sweating.  She then told me that because of that, she figured out that the purpose of dancing was to exchange hand sweat.  LOL.  That sounds decidedly unromantic.

On Wednesday, Cali and Cheyenne had a special part in their school program.  The third grade decided to honor the couple that wrote their school song.  That couple lives in our ward, so Cali and Cheyenne were asked to interview them and introduce them to the rest of the third grade.  They did a great job!  We practiced with them at home telling them LOUDER!  or SLOW DOWN!  They didn't really love having us yell at them, but I think it helped them feel more confident.  It was a neat experience for them.

On Thursday, Megan and Dad had another basketball game.  They won again!  Thursday was also Cali and Cheyenne's LAST basketball game!  They are sad.  They thought they wouldn't get to play basketball again for a whole year!  Dad was quick to correct them.  Now that they've played a season of basketball they have to practice!  They sure are the cutest basketball players on the 3rd grade court!

Friday we went to watch Kevin's men's game at the church.  It was very intense.  Two men got ejected.  Kevin got knocked to the ground.  I think maybe I won't go again!  Our team lost but they will still get to play in the regional tournament in a couple of weekends.  Go team!  Don't die!

Saturday we went to the BYU Women's basketball game at the Marriott Center.  It was their last home game!  Savannah couldn't come because she had to work.  We brought everyone else, though!  Beth and Ben were pretty miserable but they were pretty good sports.  Cali and Cheyenne watched more than usual!  Sarah's junior high team met there to watch the game, too, so she sat on the other side of the arena and we waved at each other.  All our kids went down to the floor to do the chicken dance, though!  That was their favorite part!

The game was pretty awesome to watch, too.  BYU lost but Gonzaga was a good team and all the playing was really good!  Afterwards, we took everyone to Brick Oven.  Love, love, love the pizza there!!!!

It was a fun week!

This week was Savannah's birthday!!  Since Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik work at the temple on Wednesday, they had us over for Savannah's birthday dinner on Sunday night.  It was such fun with balloons and presents and even Thor cupcakes!  Grandma and Grandpa sure know how to throw a party!

Seventeen candles this year!  None of us can even believe it!  What a beautiful girl, though.

On Monday Mariah had a basketball game where I coached her and she did great, as usual!  Then, about an hour and a half later, she had another game where Kevin was the coach.  It was their first game of the end-of-season tournament for club basketball.  These games are much faster, but Mariah still does great.  Their team did super well.  At the end of the game, two of their best players had fouled out and they were down by two points when Mariah got fouled on her shot and got to go to the free-throw line.  Guess what?  She sunk both of them!  She tied up the game for her team and sent them into one minute of overtime.  What a star, right??  Unfortunately, the other team managed to score during overtime, and we did not.  Still.  It was an exciting game.  Kevin coached great and Mariah played great.  Their team is done now until . . . March season. Lol!  You knew it couldn't be over for too long, right?

On Tuesday Megan had a basketball game.  She did great!  They've lost to this team before, but beat them by four on Tuesday.  Megan had two outside shots in a row when they were down by five and pulled them into reach.  It was pretty triumphant.  (Ha!  Word from the 80s!)

Mariah got this t-shirt that kind of sums up our lives:

But this week, we did actually have events other than basketball with which to decorate our lives!  Wednesday was Savannah's actual birthday and as an extra-special treat, Grandma Elton arrived for a visit!  Yay, Grandma!  She helped me make water dumplings for Savannah's birthday dinner.  Then she got to come see my last game coaching Mariah's team.  We won.  In fact, this year, we never lost!  Crazy!  My team won t-shirts that say "Jr. Jazz Champions."  There was much rejoicing.  It was a lot of fun.

They were fun girls and a great team.  I hope they learned something.  They sure had a good time.  That I know!

When we got back to the house, Megan had finished making special cupcakes for Savannah's birthday!

Ben had great fun finishing up the extra chocolate hearts!

The next day, Thursday, was Valentine's day!  Calianne and Cheyenne had their basketball game still and they were tons of fun to watch.  However, Savannah was the star on this day, too, because it was the day of her big choir concert.  This year they performed with Dalynn Bayless who is a Broadway star but now lives in Springville.  The choir sang songs from Broadway interspersed with solos from Broadway sung by Dalynn.  Boy can that man SING!  Savannah was in the last big showstopper which was a medley of songs from Newsies.  Boy can those kids SING!  They did great and Savannah, as always, was so fun to watch because she is so happy and animated.  It was a wonderful night.  Grandma Elton loved it and so did Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik and so did Sarah and Kevin and I!  It was incredible.

On Friday night Kevin and my mom and I went out to eat Mexican food.  Yum!  We came back and all watched a movie (the kids, too!)  It was tons of fun.  Also, Mariah came home with that medal that she earned last week:

We had to say goodbye to Grandma Saturday morning after Kevin made us all a big, yummy breakfast.  Benjamin has already asked me about a hundred times, "Where Grandma go?"  We all miss her, but it was so fun to have her for those four days!  And so fun that she could be here for Savannah's birthday and for her choir concert.  It was a good week.  :)

The streets have finally cleared of snow and wet, and Megan has been able to take her longboard (the one she got for Christmas) out for some cruising!  She's already pretty good at it since she has practiced on her friends' boards.  She looks pretty stylin' with it, don't you think?

Sarah had her last junior high basketball game this week.  They almost won it, even!  They came back from a big deficit at the half to within two points in the third quarter!  They were playing great!  It is always such fun to watch her.  She's had a great time making close friends with everyone on the team.  They will always have great memories to share!  Now Sarah has no idea what to do with her time after school!  She misses all her friends!

Here's some great pictures of her at her game, too!

So, in other basketball news, Mariah had two games on Monday and won both by a LOT.  Megan had games on Tuesday and Thursday and won both.  The twins also had a game on Thursday and they don't keep score so we just all laughed and cheered them on!  They are learning a lot!  Kevin also played Friday night.  The other team didn't have enough players, so they split up and played two twenty minutes half, with no subs for anybody.  That's hard work!  K.B. was worn out!  I played with some women Thursday morning, too.  I loved it.  Basketball is so fun.

Mariah also had the science fair this week in which to participate.  She measured the number of chirps a desert locust (grasshopper of Utah) makes in a minute on different nights to see if it was affected by the temperature.  (Which it is by the way!)  It was nice, because she gathered most of her data in the summer when things were still pretty laid back around here.  The conclusion and poster were easy to put together when science fair time came.  Love that!  So did Mariah!  And apparently, so did the judge.  She got first place.  Poor child!  She really did not want to move on to the next round where she'll have to present in front of even more judges!  Ah well.  If she gets a medal she thinks it might be worth it.  In anycase, we are proud of her.

Calianne and Cheyenne left us this weekend to go live at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little while.  They left Friday afternoon and didn't come back until Saturday evening!  They sure had fun.  I think Grandma and Grandpa had fun, too!

Savannah had a crazy busy week.  Her store's owner went out of town which always means that he takes his own two teen daughters off the schedule.  The result was that instead of working three days, she worked five.  That's awfully hard when you need to get homework done and maybe you'd like a little downtime of your own!  Saturday was especially bad since she had her ACT prep class from 9 to noon, then she had a choir rehearsal for their upcoming concert from noon to 2:30, and then she had to be at work from 3 to 7:20.  Yah.  She was wiped out when she got home.  My poor daughter who needs to recharge with some time alone could not buy an hour of daylight this week!  :(  We are hoping next week will be better!