In our neck of the woods....

In our neck of the woods, there's plenty of......

dancing. Irish dancing, to be exact. Friday night we enjoyed Cassidy's big dance recital. It was AMAZING. Cassidy's brothers were especially excited to be in attendance. Woo hoo! But the dancing was outstanding:

One of the many things I love about Cassidy---she is INVOLVED! She loves to do so many things. Currently, she

--plays soccer

--takes piano lessons

--participates in Service Club at school

--is in the school play (it's this week!)

--is learning Irish Dance

--loves activity days

--and still manages to help around the house and keep up on all her school work.

Also in our neck of the woods, there are plenty of..

chickens. We lost one (sniff sniff) but got two more and all of these seem to be thriving. The chickens are very social and love to hang out with us. Rich is thrilled to have poultry in his living room (those of you that know him can attest to his animal-loving spirit). They are so interesting to watch and so far have been great pets.

What else is going on in our neck of the woods you ask?

--a new job

--yard work that needs to be done

--dinner that has to be made every night

--homework, homework, homework

--merit badges

--too many trips to Walmart

--guilty pleasures mainly in the form of stalking Pinterest

--a yearning for summer

--sports practice

--piano practice

--guitar practice

--lots of dishwashing (no dishwasher yet)

--a to-do list a million items long

--a 3 year old who has to do everything by himself

--and gratitude for it all.

A TEENy Birthday

I love this kid  teen so much. He is smart, funny, fun to be with, and works magic on the basketball court. He is a hard worker, a good brother, a great son. Love him. I hope he knows how I feel about him. (If you see him you might put in a good word for me).

On the day  he turned 13, we celebrated by......

---not asking him to be in too many pictures (even though I really, really wanted to photo-document each second of the day)

--going to NIKE HEAVEN aka the Nike Outlet store where he was nicely outfitted

--going to Wendy's for lunch

--lots of hoop time and screen time

--Dad's FAMOUS grilled chicken for dinner

--jello cake for dessert (with Skittles)

Happy Bday, Benjamin. You are our 3 from downtown, our buzzer beater, our half-court shot, our...(HAVE I SUFFICIENTLY EMBARASSED YOU YET?  IF NOT, I COULD KEEP GOING....)

March=Birthday Dinner @ Olive Garden

You might remember that our family has a happy tradition of celebrating our two March birthdays at the Olive Garden in Provo. We always reserve a room with a large table in it and we almost all order the same thing: the very low-fat, very delectable fettucini alfredo. It's just what we do, and we love it. Grandma's bday is tomorrow, and Ben's is Saturday (he'll be 13, can you stand it?)

There are always presents (and 14 trips to the bathroom because the little boys get bored and evidently the bathroom at OG is a very exciting place to visit. I take comfort in the fact that maybe, just maybe, I work-off some of that delicious fettucini by running my boys back and forth to the bathroom. Yeah, probably not.)

And there are always pictures (one thing is for certain--Sam looks more like Garrett everyday, and they both look just like their dad only with more hair. Love you, Rich.)

We were especially happy to have Grandma Casey there. (I'm thinking the fettucini didn't agree with Garrett, or else he's having a minor stroke or something in this picture. Seriously.)

The favorite gifts? A Kevin Durrant shirt and....

tickets to Monday night's Jazz game.

HAPPY (EARLY) BIRTHDAY BEN AND PORTIA.

WE LOVE YOU!

(and we love the Andes mints at OG!)

Amazing Weekend

What an amazing weekend! Rich and I shared a proud parent moment Saturday morning as we divided and conquered to watch Cassidy give an AMAZING piano performance in her piano festival while Ben played basketball in the championship game and WON! It was truly unbelievable---his team was 12-0 for the season and it was so much fun to watch Ben improve his skills and WIN so many games. Cassidy amazed us all as she performed her two memorized pieces with lightning speed in front of the judges. So so proud of their hard work and dedication!

Alas, we have this great piano performance picture but (since the camera was with me) no great basketball pictures. Just picture it in your mind....

AND

WE GOT BABY CHICKS!

This is Penelope. She is 5 days old. She lives with her sisters.....Spiderman, Cougar, Kevin, and Gossie. (We let each of the kids and myself name one chick. Can you guess who named each one?) We think they are the cutest things ever. Our cats want to eat them. They make the sweetest peeping sounds. They currently live in a rubbermaid box in my bedroom. Let's hope a coop gets built soon.....

I HEART BABY CHICKS!!

(Hmm. I wonder if I'll feel the same way when they are full grown chickens?)

Basketball

Another FANTASTIC basketball season come and gone for Garrett. Here, the highlights:

Garrett learned so many skills this year. Like how to dribble,

how to chase the ball,

what to do if someone gets in your face,

how to pass (and how to hog the ball), 

 how to fake a shot (with a smile for the camera),

and how to make the shot.

But mostly, he learned to have fun with a ball and a team. Love you, Garr (rhymes with bear, not car).

Free to good home....

Meet some friends....

JEEPS

BELLA

Please, please---If you or anyone you know is looking for a new best friend of the feline kind, please contact me. We are searching earnestly for loving homes for the above cats. Their owner sadly must relinquish them due to medical complications. Both cats are litter-trained, well-behaved, and fixed. They are extremely personable and friendly, and are looking for a new lap to call home. They both get along well with other dogs and cats (and birds!).  They do not need to be placed together but could be. They have no health problems and I know they will bring lots of love and joy to some great family out there. 

skiing+kings=SKINGS

We headed up to Brighton for a beautiful day of skiing and falling and skiing again. 

It was a first for all of us except Rich, pro that he is (show off). 

Getting geared up took half the day, but soon we were all encased in oh-so-comfortable ski boots and 17 layers of clothing. (I promised the children wealth untold if no one had to use the bathroom. Evidently that wasn"t enough.)

Skiing is hard! I'm so not good at it! The first few moments with our skiis on brought tears and frustration, but it didn't take long for us to get the hang of it. (Frankly, I could have been happy just riding the chair lift all day, but they kind of frown on that sort of thing at the resort.)

With each trip down the hill we improved, and soon ski patrol was available to help the other skiiers, not just us skings (that's my new name for "skiing kings").

Cass was a natural. 

Ben was amazing.

Garrett was fearless.

I was slow.

We really had such a great time. It was hard and scary and new but we did it, despite some challenges. The kids want to know when our next ski trip is. Rich wants to know how we're going to pay for it. I want to know if I will ever get better? 

Happy SKINGS!