The Miskin Family

Even though Tanner turned 8 in February, it worked out that hiss baptism would be in April. It worked out great because it was the Saturday before Easter.

Tanner’s baptism was at 11am, and tanner was very excited. We had prepared him well, and he was excited to finally be baptized. We had a lot of family in town to witness it and it was very special to have everyone there. The baptism service started with a talk and a musical number, as well as all the kids being baptized were introduced. After the kids were separated by ward for the baptism. Tanner’s friends Milo and Kiera were being baptized as well! Trent was able to baptize him, with both his grand fathers at the witnesses. Trent was also able to confirm him, with both grandfathers as well as his uncles Ben, Josh, and Steven in the circle. Although the pictures do not show it, ( Tanner is self conscious about his newly frown in front teeth) he was extremely happy and glowing all day.

After the baptism we returned home and had a luncheon/party for Tanner. He received a new set of Scriptures (with his name), a neat “8″ gift set from his aunt Elise, a ctr ring from his aunt Kristana, and his own hymn book from his Grandma Miskin. We has fun eating and visiting with family. It was such a special day for Tanner and I am so glad for the choice he made to be baptized. I am grateful for all that celebrated with us and supported him.

For two weeks in March the three older kids took swim lessons through the Lehi Legacy Center. They all loved it, even though some complained that it was every day (but they were all happy once they were there). Nadia would not get in  water the first day, but eventually was convinced and ended up loving them in the end. I enjoyed every minute of it. Sasha stayed entertained by eating fish crackers and watching everyone. This left me to reading or playing games on my tablet. It was like a 30 minute vacation every day!

Tanner and Natalya can swim, so it was a nice refresher for them before summer, and it helped Nadia become more comfortable in the water.

During the month of February, Tanner and Natalya’s school did a Jazz reading program. They tracker their reading minutes every night for the whole month, and then in the end someone would win a bike (I wasn’t sure if they drew names or what). Natalya didn’t read longer than usual, but Tanner went gung ho. He read at least an hour and a half every night, usually more, but I never recorded more than 90 minutes on his chart for fear of him looking a bit ridiculous.

So, come March I asked the kids every day who won the bike, but Tanner said they had not announced it yet. It was well into March and I decided that Tanner must have just missed the announcement. So, one Monday when I went to do my usual shift of helping at the school, I ran into Tanner’s old Kindergarten teacher. She asked, “are you so excited?”. I had no idea what she meant. She then told me that Tanner had won the bike!  I didn’t believe her at first, but then while I was at the school the school called me to let me know, and asked if I could come pick the bike up. Luckily I was already there so it worked out great! I went to tell Tanner I was taking the bike home and it was pandemonium in his class. His teacher ran up and told me how excited they all were about it! Even she seemed super excited.

When I went to the office to collect the bike, I told the secretary how excited we were, and asked how he had won. She said in years past they would put your name in  a drawing for every 20 minutes read, and then draw a name out for the bike. So, if you read more, your name was entered more. But, that caused a problem because they didn’t know if they needed to buy a girl bike or a boy bike. So, this year they decided there would be two winners, one from kindergarten through 2nd grade, and then another 3rd through 6th and it would be whoever read the most minutes. So, Tanner had actually read the most minutes out of all the kids k-2nd grade! We were so proud of him, and he was super excited to have a new bike.

And for good measure, some more cute pictures of Nadia (and Sasha and Trent)

Our special leap year boy had a REAL birthday this year. I wanted to make it super special for him, but sometimes it doesn’t always come out as special as I would hope. We started the celebration the day before, when I checked Tanner out of school for a special lunch with just us two. He chose Wienersnitzle where he ate two full sized chili dogs (and went through about 100 napkins). After we went to the store where he picked out some treats and snacks for his birthday party and we also designed his birthday cake!

In the morning he woke up to birthday decorations spread through the downstairs (blue and white, with a basketball motif) and he requested waffles for breakfast, so waffles he got! We also let him open a few presents which included a Kings Jimmer jersey (from Grandma and Grandpa Fulkerson), and two Jimmer DVDs (Amazing and The Making of Jimmer). He was then off to school. After lunch we headed over to the school we brought doughnuts for his class to celebrate his birthday. When he came home we had tied his dinner chair with a big bouquet of balloons. For dinner Tanner chose to go out to Hibachi house and get orange chicken. Trent met us there and we had a nice family dinner. But then the trouble started.

First we got a call from Trent’s sister Kristana saying the snow was coming down super hard, and that she didn’t know if she could make it to his party! From there it snowballed (literally) and out of the many family members they were going to come, couldn’t make it. It was very understandable, the storm was terrible and the traffic was equally as bad. In the end Trent’s brother Ben and his family, as well as Kristana were able to make it. Tanner was dissapointed, but they ended after he opened some more presents (books, hex bugs, a circuit kit). When then cut into his NBA basketball cake! Overall Tanner had an awesome day!

That Saturday Tanner had a friend party that was also basketball themed. I did not take one single picture… oops! For the party Trent and I took the kids to the church building to play basketball, and all the kids seemed to have a great time!

I cannot believe my first born is 8! He is such a responsible helpful boy. While he has developed an attitude and sometimes talks back, he is always very quick to say sorry. He is so helpful around the house, and is very responsible with his school work and other responsibilities. While he often gets in trouble at school and church for being silly or talking, he is a really good kid. We think some of his behavior comes from him being super smart. He reads like crazy (usually around 90 minutes a night, sometimes longer), memorizes crazy facts, and he loves to read about facts too, so he knows the most ridiculous things. Tanner loves to play basketball (an understatement), watch basketball, play basketball video games, ride his bike, and play minecraft. He has made some really good friends this year too, which is great for him. We love Tanner and we are all anxiously awaiting his baptism in April.

Near the end of February we actually had some snow that the kids could play in. Yes I said February. This has been the weirdest winter. We had a lot of rain, the temp never hit below 25, and there was no snow to play in! So, when it did happen I had to snap some pictures… and then it melted by the afternoon.

I have said this before, but I LOVE HOLIDAYS! I love the excitement and I love all the fun things you can do. This year I bought the kids mailboxes and we did 14 days of Valentines. This meant starting on the first day of February continuing until Valentines day I gave them a little treat of gift every morning in their mailbox. Aside form a gift or treat I also meant to have activities for us to do, but that really didn’t happen, maybe next year. The kids loved it though, and were so exciting every morning to see what gift they would get.

Then on Valentine’s day I decorated the kitchen with a table cloth and other things, and put out their Valentines gifts. The older girls special gift was roses, Tanner got a balloon, and Sasha got a cute little love bug. I wish I would have took a pictures of the cute table set up before the kids went crazy, but I didn’t. We also had heart shaped egg in a hole.

As with any holiday, I had cute clothes for the kids to wear. I did not get a picture of Tanner, but he ha a Valentines shirt that said   “I’m a lover not a fighter”.

Also, I had a special lunch set up for the girls when Natalya came home from school. This included heart shaped sandwiches and we their tea set.

I was also able to help with Natalya’s class party (which is always fun!). I helped at the heart station, where kids learned all about their heart. The exercised and listened to their heart beats and we also squirted red food coloring out with syringes… and ALL the kids asked if it was real blood. We finished the night off with Trent and I’s traditional Valentines day date to Chuck a Rama!

Tanner played another season of Junior Jazz. He loves basketball. Which is an understatement. Trent was able to be his coach this year too, which was extra fun. Tanner is a pretty good basketball player, and the kids overall were better this year than last year. Tanner thinks a month is too short of a season for basketball, I think he would play all year long if he could! Some of the pictures are blurry, but they were great so I kept them anyway.

Right around Christmas time Nadia and Natalya really started playing real well together. I never had a sister, so it is fun to see the relationship develop between them. I do have to break up fights all too often, but when they spend hours at a time in their room playing barbies, or dress up, or squinkies I can overlook it. Although girls are hard, it makes it worth it to see their friendship develop.

My favorite is when Natalya helps Nadia “get beautiful” or give her fashion tips. In the morning when Nadia gets dressed Natalya will tell her how beautiful she looks. I can’t wait until they start sharing clothes.

On Friday and Saturday nights they will often have “sleepovers” where Nadia will sleep in Natalya’s bed with her. One day they were grumpy, so we told them they had to take a nap, or they wouldn’t get to participate in whatever activity we had planned that evening. This is what we came downstairs to…

A few days after Christmas we headed to Smithfield to celebrate Christmas with Trent’s parents. It seems as though we cannot open the presents soon enough. As always we were spoiled this year, and the kids loved their gifts. The kids especially loved their Harry Potter wands. A friend of my in-laws takes scrap wood and makes wands out of them for kids. They are seriously awesome.

My favorite was my new pizza stone, and Trent loved all his new tools from his Dad.

We only stayed a few days, but we enjoyed every minute we were there. The kids just played and played… and they were so good! They played so well and were actually super well behaved. Trent and I were able to sneak in some alone time too, which included seeing a movie with some of Trent’s siblings.