No school on Monday because of President's Day so we went hiking!  We have had crazy warm weather for February but I did choose a hike that people often do in the winter--the hot springs in Spanish Fork Canyon!  We've done it as a family before, but it was ten years ago!  Kevin and I carried the twins in backpacks that time and it was September.  This time Kevin had to work and even though the warm weather left the area free of large piles of snow, the path itself had several areas where old snow had been packed down by multitudes of hikers.  This equals ICE.  It was a beautiful hike but slippery and a bit dangerous.  That didn't stop us!!  (Even though it maybe should have!)  We all slipped except for Megan--lucky girl!  It's four miles round trip and everybody did a great job.  Nobody pooped out or complained.  I'm glad we did it!  Afterwards we stopped for curly fries and that made it all worth it.

Savannah had Monday off from school, too, but she went shopping with Grandma for her birthday, instead, and got a couple more missionary-type dresses!  She looks great in them.  She and her friends went to watch an acapella contest on campus Friday night and then stayed up late playing games to celebrate one of their hall-mate's birthday.  Saturday she played Dungeons and Dragons with some friends.  During the week I'm thinking she went to classes and did homework and went to work!

Sarah went to tennis twice and worked twice.  Friday night she went with some friends to the last high school basketball game of the season and had a terrific time.  She's been busy with school assignments in her spare minutes!

Megan has been making a bridge for extra-credit with her grandpa.  She went out today with her dad to see if she could conquer the art of driving a stick-shift.  Friday night she went roller skating with a group of friends for a guy's birthday party.  She had tons of fun.  Track started officially this week and she's been going to practices after school except for Wednesday when she performed in Festival with the orchestra.

Mariah had rehearsals all week.  She also had basketball games and practices.  Saturday was her last bantam game for the regular season.  They fought hard against a very talented team but they didn't win.  Their coach was proud of them, nonetheless!

Cali and Cheyenne have been sewing new lunch bags for themselves today with minimal help from mom.  I am impressed.  They went to a friend's house Friday night for a late night and had a great time.

Bethany's school had a Chinese New Year party on Wednesday night.  We got to watch Bethany do the dragon dance and then she got to do a few other activities.  It was fun.  I think Kevin's favorite part was listening to the native speaker speak in Mandarin about Chinese New Year traditions!

Benjamin had a cough and a runny nose all week.  I kept him out of primary last Sunday because of it and then I kept him home from Joy School because of it, too!  On top of that, it was the week I decided to limit his time on the tv and the ipad!  What to do?  The poor kid.  He's done well, in spite of it.  On Friday he even went "camping" in the front yard.  This week, we'll make sure he can play with friends again!

We celebrated Savannah's birthday on Sunday of last week.  Nineteen!  She received mostly clothes and was a good sport about getting things in which she was in need instead of fun stuff.  Her actual birthday was Friday, but Kevin was out of town.  So, she invited her sisters over to her dorm to have pizza and movie night.  I love that she wanted her sisters with her on her birthday!  She is a great gal and we all love her so much!

New dress!  Does it look like a good mission dress?

She got all the candles in one blow!

Sarah had tennis twice this week.  We also found a used tennis-ball-thrower for her to buy.  She hasn't had a chance to use it, but we're all excited.  She also worked a few days this week.  She is so cheerful and always entertains us with stories of the things she finds funny in her life.  She and Megan and Mariah played in a church basketball game on Saturday and were much too good for their competition, but they were gentle and supportive so everybody had fun! 

Megan had an orchestra concert last week.  I forgot to post about it I think because of all the hub-bub about the dance.  It was a great concert, though.  They performed as a full symphony with winds and percussion and the whole deal.  I couldn't see her really but the music was excellent.  Because of the concert last week, they have a month free of early-morning rehearsals.  That's nice, too!  She's getting very good on her violin.

Mariah had play rehearsal and basketball practice and a couple of games.  Her bantam game was Monday night so that was nice since it was before Kevin went out of town.  They even won!  Go Springville!  She stays really on top of her work in school, getting it done the minute she walks in the door, and studying for all her tests.  Her hard work pays off in really high grades!  She likes having a large safety margin!

Cheyenne and Calianne made cute heart wreaths for craft club and got lots of candy for Valentine's Day!  They had a special rehearsal on Thursday for Up With Kids just for the two of them. Apparently they'll have their own songs and dances, too.  I can't wait to see it!  They had one game of basketball this week and piano lessons, too!

Bethany got lots of candy for her Valentine's Day party at school, too.  She had ballet and jazz this week and is learning a new song on the piano about bubble gum.  She had a special treat as her dad got to come to school and help in her Chinese class before he left on his trip!

Benjamin had a Valentine's Day party at Joy School, too.  Since he only needed five valentines, I helped him make little airplanes out of candy.  It was fun.  He was excited to give them to his friends! Friday night when all his sisters went to Savannah's dorm, he and I went to Burger King together, instead.  He liked wearing the crown.

Kevin left Wednesday morning for an IITAP conference in Arizona:  International Institue for Trauma and Addiction Professionals.  (I had to look that up!)  He presented there on the new assessment he has made and will be available through IITAP on assessing levels of pornography addiction.  He got back late Saturday night.  We are proud of the progress he is making in helping in this very important cause, but we are also glad that this was a short trip!  We miss him when he's gone!

I had a chance to attend a conference this week, too as there was a conference for Science Fiction/Fantasy writers in Provo this weekend.  I took the chance to sneak away Friday and attended the conference for the day!  Grandma and Sarah made it possible by taking over my duties for awhile. I really loved it.  Then when I got home, the kids had decorated my bedroom door with hearts for Valentine's Day!  Wasn't that so sweet?  They're the best!

It's been another busy week in the Skinner household!

Last Sunday, when Savannah came home for dinner and laundry as she usually does, she also announced that she'd decided that she'd like to go on mission!  Even though it is still months away, (she wants to work throughout the summer and leave in September), she seems to be very certain of it.  What an adventure that will be for all of us, won't it!

Sarah got invited to the Sweetheart Dance this week.  Since the dance was on Saturday, she wasn't sure if she could get off work or if she'd have time to find a dress.  She managed to do both, and once she found her dress, she became excited about it!  Oh, what a dress can do.  A local shop rents dresses so we didn't even pay a fortune for it although it looks like it would have for sure!  She went with a boy who recently moved back here from California and they had known each other before.  They had a lot of fun and she looked gorgeous!

 

Megan stressed a bit about the dance all week long.  She went with a guy she met in Driver's Ed so they've already done a lot of parking together.  (Ha!  Ha!  I think I might be the only one who finds this funny and only because I know she'd be horrified to find out what that meant back in my day. Hee, hee.)  Actually, they've texted each other multitudinously since that fateful day in Driver's Ed and have become pretty good friends, so her stress wasn't too bad.  They ended up having a lot of fun and she looked gorgeous.  She did decide, though, that no matter how cute the shoes are nor how perfectly they match the dress, four-inch heels are not for her!

 

 

Mariah had a full week of play rehearsals and basketball games.  On Saturday her bantam team played two games with only an hour between the games.  She was pretty tired after that, but, oh, she loved it!

 

Cheyenne and Calianne received their parts for the play they're doing for Up With Kids and they've received some pretty big parts so they will be there most of the afternoon on Thursdays from now on.  They are really excited!

 

Bethany wanted to go to the dance with Megan and Sarah.  "It's no fair!" she said.  "Can't I go?  I can just pretend to be sixteen!"  I'm sure she would be a beautiful date, she's just a bit short yet!

 

Benjamin continues to have more energy than our little house with so many people in it can handle at times!  Currently he is wrestling with his giant stuffed tiger.  We are all truly grateful the tiger is not one of us.

 

We have had crazy warm weather this week!  I took off my sweatshirt.  I drove with my windows down!  This has never, ever happened in February in Utah.  We are all loving it, except for maybe the chickens who are getting a little more attention from Ben and the neighborhood kids than they are used to.

 

 

Benjamin and I had Joy School at our house this week.  We learned about the joy of interest and curiosity.  We got to make jello and play with balloons and learn that C is for curiosity (and cookie!)  He is spending a large portion of his day on the iPad so we are going to have to start limiting that.  I love his super-tight hugs.

Bethany had a little bit of a cold this week, so it was harder for her to get through school and her dance classes.  She was feeling better by the end of the week and had her friends Macie and Siena over Friday all the way until dinner time and on Saturday she had Auretta and Josie and Morgan here.  They had a great time.

Calianne and Cheyenne had two basketball games, craft club, piano lessons, and they started early-morning choir (just one day a week) this week!  I guess I should've expected the Friday morning "oh-no! My weekly homework assignment isn't done!" moment.  But, really, they are usually so good about doing their schoolwork without any prompting from me that I don't even think about it anymore.  I'm sure they'll be back on track next week.

Mariah had play rehearsals, basketball practices, piano lessons, young women, and three basketball games and I happen to know she still got all her homework done!  She went to a friend's birthday party Saturday night and they had a great time.

Megan babysat on Saturday and went to one of Mariah's basketball practices on Friday.  It is great to have her around to be in charge when I have to drive children to different places in the afternoons.  On Saturday, I had her practice driving to Provo and back where we bought her a nice dress for the dance next week!  Last Sunday, she used her time to draw this awesome picture:

Sarah worked three times this week and went to tennis twice which she loved.  She has a new child development class and needed to make a poster about herself as a little girl.  It turned out totally cute, but then she's always been adorable!

Savannah came home once during the week so I could help her file her taxes.   She wants her tax return!  Money is tight when you're a college student, as we all well know!

Happy Martin Luther King Day!  Beth surprised us all by reciting this to us at the dinner table.  LOVE that she learned that at school!  Otherwise, we didn't do much during our day off.  Kevin had to work.  Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben all had friends over to play.  Sarah had to work in the afternoon.  Megan and Mariah rested up before they had to go back to school and . . .

Start a new semester!  Which is what most everybody did on Tuesday.  Sarah lost her web design class and her free period and gained child development and photography (fun times!).  Meg lost her graphic design class and gained health (blah!).  Mariah lost sewing and cooking and gained PE for fun and choir.  Life didn't change much for Chey, Cali, and Beth.  Benjamin went back to Joy School and he was glad that it wasn't any different.  Bethany did have ballet that afternoon and Sarah had tennis and Mariah had play rehearsal.  We had a fun service activity for YM/YW and late that night a ring of our doorbell announced that Megan had gotten asked to the Sweetheart Dance in February!

Wednesday was piano lessons for Sarah, Mariah, Cali, and Chey.  Cali and Chey had a great basketball game after that and Bethany had jazz.  Sarah worked.  Mariah had rehearsal for the play.

Thursday Ben had Joy School again.  I went to the gym to walk and type while he was there.  Here's a picture of my cool set-up.

Also on Thursday, Mariah had a basketball game and Cali and Chey had Up With Kids.  That night I recruited Sarah and Megan and Mariah (when she was done with her basketball game) to come play on our ward women's basketball team.  It turned out we were ome of the only ones there, but we had a great time playing against ourselves!

Friday Mariah and Kevin had basketball practice.  Kevin and I went out to eat after that and then over to our friends, the Grosland's, house for some games.

Saturday morning was church YW basketball where we had eight players show up for our team!  (Pretty great for a ward team).  But no team showed up to play against us.  So, we split them up and had them play against each other.  It was really fun.  That evening, Mariah had a Bantam basketball game where she played great and they won!  Kevin hurried over to meet me at the adult session of stake conference which we had the general session of . . .

Today.  Cali and Cheyenne have been learning the "Cups" choreography at school.  Apparently they did a massive performance with everyone in their grade doing the choreography at once.  I bet it was pretty awesome (and loud!).  I had them perform it for me, too, and have included it for your viewing pleasure!

I've done a lot of writing this week.  I got to thinking, wouldn't it be great if I could walk and type at the same time?  I'd keep myself awake and the creative juices flowing and I'd also get my exercise done!  What could be better?  So then I thought, I bet I could do that on a treadmill . . . there's treadmills at the gym . . . if I had a board . . . Voila!  I walked and typed Tues and Thurs while Ben was at Joy School.  Thursday I walked for two hours, went five miles, and typed 2000 words!  Rock and Roll!  I was feeling particularly triumphant.  I am still.

Savannah loves her new writing class and also learned a new jujitsu move that she came home and taught to Cheyenne.  We hope to see more of her today!

Sarah worked some this week.  She also went back to her tennis group once this week and did awesome.  She organized a game night and sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's on Friday night and brought Mariah, Chey, Cali, and Bethany.  They all had a great time!

Megan had a couple more early-morning orchestra rehearsals.  Friday night she went with some friends to watch a scary movie and she spooked herself out!  She went over to her Mia Maid instructor's house on Saturday and got her first lesson in how to knit!  After that we had a ward basketball game at the church.  The team we were supposed to play against didn't show up, so we threw in some young men who were there and played against each other.  I got to see a lot of really good Megan vs. Mariah plays!  They're both so good--especially in that setting.  ;)

Mariah had three basketball games (four if you count the one at the church!) this week.  The Springville games are completely lacking in competition so Mariah and her coach (Kevin B.) are really struggling to wrest some skill-building out of their time there.  The Bantam game they played on Saturday, though, was really good.  Their team played GREAT and just barely lost in one minute of overtime!  On Friday she got to go to a birthday party and learn how to decorate a cake.  Here's a picture of Beth with Mariah's cake!

Chey and Cali had one game of basketball this week.  They won by thirty points!  Cali and Chey had a great time.  They also have received their scripts for the play they'll be doing in Up With Kids and are excited to get their parts soon!

Bethany had a good time at school and at her two dance classes.  She went to a friend's house who has moved out of the neighborhood to play this week.  While she was gone, three of her friends (and two of Ben's) came over to play anyway!

Ben learned more about the Joy of Order this week and learned about Gunny Bag who "eats left-over toys and keeps them in his tummy."  I've never seen that little guy so excited to clean his room!  His big sisters with whom he shares the room were thrilled.

Ben's Joy School went to the Fire Station on Thursday!  We were talking about the joy of order and goal striving and we went to the fire station to see some adults who have goals that keep us safe!  The kids were pretty excited to see the fire jackets and helmets and to climb into the engine.  Ben liked it, too.  He curled up next to me playing on the ipad while I read my book this week.  It was one of my favorite moments.

Bethany enjoyed being back at school, seeing her teachers and friends again, and speaking Chinese.  She says she'd like to visit China when she's in third grade because then she'll "know all the words."  We shall see about that!  I signed her up for a ballet class at the studio where she's taking jazz so now she dances two times a week and she loves it.  She's really enjoyed being back with her friends in the neighborhood, too.

Cali and Cheyenne went sledding three times this week!  They came home from school, grabbed their hats and gloves, friends and sleds, and were gone until dusk sledding at the softball fields which are just a short walk from our home.  None of my other kids have ever really taken the initiative like that.  I'm glad they've been enjoying the out of doors!  Of course, we did have a problem when they went sledding in their tennis shoes and came home with them sopping wet when we had a basketball game to play in one hour.  Luckily, we have other shoes their size lying around the house from their sisters!  They played in games on Monday and Wednesday and are having great fun with basketball, too!

Mariah played two basketball games this week--one for Springville and the other for Bantam--and had practice for Bantam, too.  She also tried out for the school play this week!  And guess what?  She gets to be one of the townspeople in The Music Man!  Pretty exciting, huh?  I think she will have a great time with this new thing in her life.

Megan spoke in church today.  She put a lot of time in on Saturday working on it, so it's no wonder that she did great!  She has started early-morning orchestra rehearsals which are every other day and doesn't seem to mind the early hours.  I think she enjoys it at a different level than driver's ed.  You think?  She also started indoor track and went to a few workouts there this week!

Sarah went to MORP last night which you may already know is PROM backwards!  She took a fun guy from the basketball team named Mitch and they went with two other couples.  They went out to eat, to the dance, and then ended with games at WalMart and at one of the girl's houses.  Sarah said it was "fantastic!"  Yay!  She had to work Monday through Wednesday this week because of inventory at work, but she had the rest of the week off.

Savannah started her first week of winter semester at BYU this week.  She's taking 2 1/2 less credit hours than last semester and hoping things will be a little less hectic.  She managed to get 20 hours in at work this week so that is a good sign!  We saw her on Thursday night and she could barely walk because of the exercises they had been doing in her new Jujitsu class!  I think she might like that class best of all.

I've been glad to get settled back into home but I have not enjoyed the white stuff outside nearly as much as Cali and Cheyenne!    I taught Joy School and was happy to have a washer and dryer right in my very own home to use whenever I wanted but I did not take down the Christmas decorations.  I like them still.

Kevin coached three basketball games this week and two practices in addition to a crazy amount of client hours at work.  He got his Christmas/Birthday gift as soon as it came out--the new fitbit watch.  He is not sure whether he likes it better than his small fitbit or not.  There are quirks that he likes (and quirks he doesn't like)!  He is still assiduously getting in his 11,000 steps a day.  It's a lot of steps, but he never gives up.  That's my guy.