Taylor is hidden next to Claire on the couch - he napped through dinner :)

Last Friday night after going through horrible snow storms, my brother Daniel's family arrived here from Denver.  And my sister Christina arrived from California late Wednesday night.  Add to that, that Jason's family was in town this week and we had an awesome week spent with family.

The previous week can be summed up by us getting ready for family to arrive with homework, Spencer's last two volleyball games, putting on our YW Evening in Excellence and even getting Jasper ready with a haircut.  The two highlights were Jeremy killing the chickens and Jeremy and Spencer and Robyn eating them for dinner - we decided it wasn't worth killing them for meat, tough to chew and not much there.  Next time I think we will just donate them to the petting zoo.  Sunday we went to check out a very pathetic dog park but discovered a wonderful path for photos and long walks.


Jeremy calls this one: "I am dog, hear me roar!"


In fact we liked it so much that we went back the next week and Mimi took photos of our family and Jeremy took photos of ours. 


Christmas cards with these beauties are in the works now!  I was a little worried about how they would turn out as I had to meet them there and got there just as they were ready to go home because it was getting cold and dark but they worked out perfectly.

We played hard all week.  We went to the girls' piano recitals, we caught part of a BYU volleyball game, we made gingerbread turkeys (thanks to Mimi), we went on walks, we visited a cool children's museum where kids literally hung from the rafters, the big kids went to see Mockinjay, got some shakes from JCW's, went to an indoor swimming pool and looked for elves at Thanksgiving Point.  And whenever we were at home we ate way too much, watched lots of movies, made crafts and just played and of course lots of hot tub time with little kiddos.


Spencer said his part of the turkey was to observe and consume.


If you look closely you can see our kids on the platform:


We were in the luxury movie seats.  I don't know if I can ever go back.


Christina made her famous gravy and won over some non-vegetarians.




For black Friday we had all the cousins sleep over and help decorate for Christmas the next day.


And some cousins spent the day relaxing:


Friday night when Jason and Kelly came to pick up their kids we all drove over to Thanksgiving Point (except for Spencer who was working).  We loaded everyone into the back of Jeremy's truck and drove through their lights listening to Christmas music.  We happily froze and it was perfect for little kiddos.

We tried to spend as much time as possible loving on this little girl.



Denver Skeehans left today before church with Christina being able to stay till tomorrow night.  It has been a wonderful week with family that flew by way too fast.  Now off to decorate the tree...

I had 1 photo from the last two weeks.  1!!  Life has been happy and busy and not full of events where I think to whip out my phone.  Jeremy has started lifting consistently again and of course Spencer and he had to put it to the test to see who was stronger.  Luckily Jeremy is around to keep Spencer humble.  Its like when Spencer breaks out the table tennis set we have to call Jeremy up at the end to remind Spencer who truly still is the best.  But it's starting to take some effort!


Allison has had a busy two weeks.  She had her choir concert that we got to go to.  She has the best choir director with concerts being short, simple and to the point.  Then she packed up and went to Disneyland with her theater group.  They left Wednesday night, flew out, played and worked hard, slept a little and came home Sunday morning very tired.  I think she made it through lunch and our home teachers and then was snoring in her bed a few minutes later.  She woke up for tithing settlement and then was asleep again.  The following Monday I got to go to her school for Reality Town (where kids go around using their monthly salary to experience life and bills) and she was a different person.  Amazing what some sleep deprivation does.  She had an amazing time though.  She said all the workshops were hard but she learned a lot.  And that going with a bunch of teenagers and adults with a food budget for eating in the park was a very different experience than going with our family.  She had spent a year earning the money for the trip and it was everything she hoped it would be.

Spencer is almost done with rec volleyball.  This has been a year for him to learn what it is like to try to be cheerful while loosing.  They have lost every single game.  Tough to watch and I am sure tough to play.

Rest of life is full of the busyness that never seems super exciting to post about.  School is cranking along, four more weeks to go, so I had midterms a week ago and this week I register for next semester.  Still really loving it.  I had a moment this week when Robyn called the school because she had forgotten her recorder at home and didn't want to get in trouble during music class.  I was ready just to say "life lesson sweetie" but said I would try our neighbor.  So my neighbor went to our house, got Robyn's recorder for her and took it over.  Talk about neighborly kindness.  Robyn was just in tears about it and gave Brooke a huge hug.

Jeremy has been busy scanning old family photos that he found and kids are enjoying discovering what he was like as a kid.  He ordered solar panels to install and is waiting for a big delivery.  One his ultimate acts of love and service occurred last week when I didn't realize the chickens were out and let Jasper out.  Jasper broke a chicken's back.   We no longer have free range chickens, they are staying in the coop always.  But Jeremy went out with a butcher knife and took care of business for us.  We are thinking of just butchering the remaining 3 chickens.  They are in their 2 year molt which is super long and messy and their egg production goes way down.  Spencer is all for it.  Girls have mixed emotions.

Life of birthday parties, running errands, taking my kids to see Pan and all the other miscellaneous errands and events have filled all the other nooks and crannies.  It makes everyone appreciate a nice lazy Sunday with a trip to the dog park and some apple crisp in the near future.

*Note from Jeremy: Heather forgot to ask for any photos I might have, so I inserted one more for this post and will let Heather use the rest later.

This week seemed to be full of activites and parties.  Jeremy and Spencer came home Sunday night from their man trip - photos to follow.  Within 5 minutes of returning home Spencer broke our dining room chair by sitting on it at an angle.  How can you be so happy to see your kid and want to strangle him all at the same time!?  They had a great time and Jeremy survived Spencer driving 4 hours on the freeway.  They hiked, biked, threw logs and ate and ate and ate.




Monday was Taylor's school carnival.  They had some talented face painters there which our girls took full advantage of.  I spent the morning getting homework done and then worked on Robyn's costume which I finished ten minutes before we left.

Tuesday was our ward Halloween party.  Allison and I went to her theater Disney trip meeting and only got to come back for the last few minutes of the party.  Spencer was there for the first part and then left for work.  That seems to be how our family activities are lately.  A lot of coming and going!

Friday I got to enjoy all the festivities at our school and Robyn got to enjoy them at hers.  She had made 3 packages of chocolate pudding the night before and carried a big bowl to school ready to make and eat gummy worm graveyards.  Allison had cupcakes she bought at Taylor's carnival.
Friday we worked on our pumpkins before Jeremy and I got to go out to dinner to celebrate a birthday with friends.  This year at school I discovered the use of glitter in pumpkin making and we went a little hog wild.


Saturday I decided I might as well dress as Waldo for the day.  When I got in the car to go watch Spencer's volleyball game, he looked at me and said, "You wonder why I don't want you guys to come to my games...".  Very frustrating game to watch but he had fun and could handle the mistakes happening which as a mom is a huge skill for him.  I spent the day running errands with girls and getting Allison all squared away for her Disney trip.  Spencer had to work Halloween night which he was not excited for.  Allison went out with friends but luckily Robyn's cousin Kayla came over and Robyn, Kayla and I got to enjoy the night together while Jeremy and Taylor handed out treats.

The week seemed to fly by with everything going on and we were all excited for the extra hour of sleep today. There is something about the sun being up in the morning that just seems to make everything easier.

And some more man trip photos: