Dance, dance, dance

This past week on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, we had Dance recitals. There are so many girls that we had to do 2 recitals. I went Tuesday night (without any kids) to help out backstage and with the girls that I help teach. It was pretty stressful. The first 4-5 dances had to dance mostly without their music because the people running the music up in the sound booth were having trouble. But then they figured it out and the show went on. On Wednesday night, Lindsay performed her 2 dances, Tap-"You've Gotta Friend in Me" and Ballet-"I'm a Cloud". She was so good. She was so graceful, smiled and knew almost all the moves. For the finale all the girls did a short dance to "What Time is it?" from High School Musical 2. Thanks Trevor and Josh for watching Zane and Gavin in the hall during the recital.

Lindsay got balloons from Grandma Tracey & Grandpa Kevin and flowers from Granny Annie and Grandpa Harry. She looks beautiful!

Thanks for coming to see Lindsay perform! It meant so much to her!

These are pictures with the girls that I help teach. They were so cute!
"Hound Dog" and "Child's Prayer"


"Desperate For a Dog" and "Boogie Woogie Piggy"


"Zippidy-doo-dah" and "Three Blind Mice"

"Twinkle, Little Star" and "Parakeet in Tap Shoes"


"Six Little Ducks"

Make sure you pause the music at the bottom of our blog before you watch these

Here comes the bride...

On Friday, April 18th, my little sister Heidi was married to her sweety, Jeff, in the Bountiful Temple. The whole day was so nice (minus the wind at the temple). They are such a cute couple and I'm so happy for them. Here's some pictures of their big day. I'm hoping to add some more when they become available.

My cousin, Alex and his wife, Tonya, were their photographers. This is one of their pictures. They do an amazing job. You need to check out Tonya's blog http://www.tonyapetersonblog.com/

The Bountiful Temple

Here they are just coming out of the temple.

Being silly at the reception

Here we are with the Happy couple

Jeff and all the boys/men. I love how Gavin is raising his hand, copying Tonya as she's trying to get their attention to take the picture. Zane is so cute with his hands in his pockets. And yes, all those little boys and babies are all my nephews!

It's a Skousen tradition that me and my siblings (minus the one who is getting married) sing "So Long, Farewell" from the movie Sound of Music to the married couple at the end of the reception, but we change the words to fit the sibling getting married.

My youngest sister, Amy, is on a mission in Texas but she was there in spirit (or, uh, um, cardboard). My sister, Missy, made her dress and badge out of paper and I think she did an awesome job. Dan took a ton of pictures of Amy throughout the whole reception doing various things. This is just one of them. She was even in our "So Long, Farewell" song!

Make sure you pause the music at the bottom of our blog before you watch this

Car Accident

I don't know what it is about me and getting rear ended. I must have a target on the back of me! As of April 16th, I have been rear-ended 4 times! NONE of them are my fault. The first time, I was in high school in a friends truck (3 of us in the truck) and we got hit driving home from Provo. The 2nd time, I was with a friend in my Ford Escort, with my friend, Travis, sister Karen and friend Melissa driving behind us in Travis' car. We were at a stop light and a drunk guy slammed into the back of Travis' car which was then pushed into the back of my car. The 3rd time, I was in downtown Salt Lake dropping off my sister Karen at work. I was headed to my work, when the car in front of me stopped to let a pedestrian cross, so I stopped, then I looked in my rear-view mirror to see this GINORMOUS Station Wagon come barrelling behind me and slammed into the back of me. The 4th time was on April 16th. I was coming home from having my eyebrows waxed (and boy, did they need it). I was stopped at a weird stop sign in American Fork, that merges into State Street. The sun was pretty blinding, being that it was almost 7:00 pm and it was starting to set. I had my head turned to the left, watching the constant flow of traffic go by, waiting to pull out. Suddenly, I was hit from behind. My sun roof cover flew open! I was in shock at first, "did I really just get hit, again?" I pulled over and could see the young teenage boy with his girlfriend in my rear-view mirror with their hands over their mouths in shock as well. We all got out to check out the damage. The front of his mom's little Hyundai Sonata was smashed in and smoking. My solid Dodge Durango had only minimal damage. A little paint scratched on the bumper and the license plate crunched. Thank goodness! The kid thought that I had already gone through the stop sign. I guess the sun was bright and he didn't see me still sitting there. The police were called, a report filed and as of today, our Durango is in the shop getting fixed. Of course, he was at fault and no injuries, except a headache that immediately followed the accident and the front right side of my neck was very sore and tender for the next 3 days. It is feeling a lot better now. I'm glad the kids weren't with me. Lindsay would have wigged out! She is very paranoid about car accident's, just like her mother.

Field Trip

On April 10th, we went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point with Lindsay and Zane's Preschool for a field trip. We went there last summer and they loved it then, and still love it. Zane thinks that it is the same Museum as the movie "Night at the Museum," so he asked where Larry was and if the Dinosaur in the front foyer (that looks exactly like the one in the movie) was going to come to life. He makes me laugh. Gavin didn't like being in the stroller while the other kids were running around exploring everything, so I let him get out for most of the time and he loved it. I did have to chase him a couple of times. They had a really fun time and if you haven't been there, I recommend going.

Left my heart in San Francisco...

Ok, I really didn't leave my heart there, but my heart belongs to someone that is there right now. Dan is in San Francisco for the week. This time he's there for some technology conference. Hope he comes home more technologically informed. :) Whatever. Really, he's just on vacation with a little bit of work thrown in there. Tonight he went bowling. Good thing he lets me do lots of Girl's Nights to make up for all the times he's out of town. I love you honey!

Didn't move a muscle!

Well, he did it! Last Friday, Zane and I went back to the dentist to have his 5 cavities filled. Dan came home for lunch that day to watch Lindsay and Gavin. It really helped not having the other two kids with us. We made it a special date. He wasn't scared at all (mostly because he had no idea what he was getting himself into) and got right into the chair. He asked to watch Bunnytown on the Disney Channel, which helped so much. It kept him distracted. Because the cavitites weren't very deep, they were able to something called sand abrasion instead of drilling. They didn't have to numb him, thank heavens! So the dentist just took a little sander thing and sanded out his teeth, then filled them. He didn't even move. He just stared at the tv in the ceiling the whole time. At one point, he almost swallowed the cotton pad that was in his mouth. Oh, gaggy! Those of you who know me well, know that I can't stand the feel of cotton balls, wet yarn (sweaters), etc... , so this was making my skin crawl to see it in his mouth, then almost swallow it. But the dentist quickly grabbed it before it went down his throat. The whole thing only took about 25 minutes. He was awesome! I was NOT expecting that at all. They let him choose 2 prizes for being so good. He chose a dental bracelet and a little penguin. Then I had promised him that he could go to Smith's and pick a prize from me. He chose this big stuffed monkey, he named George (go figure!). It cost me $10, more than I was planning on spending, but hey, I didn't care. This kid deserved it! Way to go Buddy! Love you Zaners!

Waiting for the dentist. He's got his earphones in so he can hear the t.v. He brought Pooh Bear for support.

This is how he layed the entire time!

Zane and his new friend, George.

Andrew is home!

Missy and Chad's baby was finally able to come home today (a lot sooner than they anticipated). He's doing so much better and he's so dang cute! They still aren't quite sure what caused the fluid in his lungs but he's home now! YEAH!

Crop 'til we Drop

Twice a year, my mom, my sisters, usually a couple of friends and I go to a hotel on a Friday night and scrapbook until Saturday around 5:00 pm with a bunch of other die hard scrapbookers. It is so fun and sometimes I don't get a lot scrapbooked, but it's fun to get away and chat and laugh and EAT! This weekend was the spring 24 hour crop. I'm pretty far behind on my scrapbooks but yesterday I hit a milestone. I finally finished Lindsay's first year!!!!! It's only taken 5 years! HAHAHA! Oh well. I still enjoy it.

Laurel, Jodi (our scrapbooking consultant) and Mom

Beans and Jenny

Karen and Me

Dentist time!

On Tuesday, we had Dentist appointments. The kids have been asking for months when they get to go back to the dentist because their last appointment went very smoothly. Lindsay and Zane were so brave. I was so proud of them. They both hopped right up into the chair to have their teeth cleaned and x-rayed! Lindsay chose to watch Lilo and Stitch and Zane watched Ratatouille while they did everything. Lindsay had NO cavities which was a relief. Two years ago she had 8 cavitites (yes, 8!) and so we had to have her put to sleep (that sounds like something you do to an animal) for 2 hours while they filled 2 of the teeth that weren't very deep and they capped the other 6. So she has 6 silver teeth that she is very proud to show off. So having no cavities was a big deal to us. She got her picture taken and it's hanging on the wall in the Tuffy Tooth Club! HOWEVER, Zane had 5 cavitites! What the heck? I am so discouraged because we brush their teeth pretty faithfully since the whole Lindsay ordeal 2 years ago AND they take flouride pills everyday. So I get to take Zane back for a "special date" to get his cavities filled on April 4th. I'm so worried he's going to be traumatized and never want to go to the dentist again. Because they aren't very deep, they are going to do a sand abrasion where they just sand out the tooth instead of drill. So they most likely won't have to numb him. I'm praying he doesn't feel much and that is goes smoothly. Gavin wouldn't do much but let them count his teeth. To distract him, the dental assistant let him hold the little thing that sprays water and air onto your teeth. So he sprayed water all over me and the floor. But it kept him happy. Wish us luck for April 4th!

Pray for baby Andrew

So, Missy and Chad's baby will be in the ICU for about 7 days. They did an EKG on him yesterday and noticed his heart had a lot of white spots around it, so they thought he might have an enlarged heart. They sent the EKG up to Primary Chilrdren's Hopsital and they determined that the heart was fine, (thank heavens!) but he has a lot of fluid in his lungs and they aren't sure why. So they have him on oxygen and an anitbiotic (they are treating it like Bronchitis) and are keeping him until next week. Missy is being discharged from the hospital today. I talked to her just a little bit ago and she is doing ok. She sounds tired but is very grateful that things aren't worse for Andrew. We love you guys and we're praying for you!

Missy and Chad's baby is here!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!

My sister Melissa (aka Missy) and Chad had their 4th baby today. Andrew Skousen Wright was born March 25th, 2008 at 5:01 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and is 21 1/2 inches long. Missy and baby are doing good. This makes grandchild #14 for Grandpa Harry and Granny Annie and their 11th grandson (8 in a row)! Congratulations!

Easter 2008

Because Trevor had his mission homecoming on Easter, we spent most of the day at the Doney's. But later we went to Granny Annie's and Grandpa Harry's to dye eggs, eat Ham and funeral potatoes and have an Easter egg hunt.
Dyeing eggs. Notice Gavin's bruise on his cheek. He fell off the couch in St. George and his face hit the coffee table. That kid was havin' it rough!
Dan is wearing that apron so proudly
Zane
Lindsay
The best picture I could get of Gavin. The following pictures are my other attempts to get a good picture of him, but he was so grumpy from being sick that he wouldn't cooperate and he eventually threw out the stuff in his basket and then his basket. It was pretty hilarious!

St. George 2008

This past week we went down to St. George for a little vacation with Dan's family. The weather was perfect (70's). Ma and Pa Doney rented a vacation home in the Sunbrook Golf Course. It was a nice home with 3 bathrooms (sorry Nanna's Cottage in Palmyra, this one wins the prize - Doney family joke). Dan and I got the master bedroom with the 3 kids. The king sized bed was comfy and helped because we had Gavin sleep between us every night and somehow he always ended up horizontally. We got there late Wednesday night. We had hoped the kids would have fallen asleep on the way and then we could quietly take them in the house and then they'd stay asleep all night. WRONG! None of them fell asleep until around 10:00 pm and that is when we were in Cedar City (an hour away from St. George). Then when we got there, they all woke up because they were so excited to see the house and see Dan's family. So we ended up going to bed after midnight.

Thursday, we drove to Snow Canyon and played in the Sand Dunes. Dan's brothers had all sorts of races and pretty much had sand in all their nooks and cranny's. It was pretty funny though. Of course Lindsay and Zane had to join in too. I'm still finding sand in bags, shoes and clothes. Gavin had a cough that had turned into Croup through the night so he was pretty miserable and didn't want to do much. After Snow Canyon, we stopped by the house to get our swimming stuff and headed to the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center (the SHAC). It's an indoor pool with a water slide. It was a lot of fun. That night we went to Applebee's for dinner and Gavin was still not getting better. Later, after giving him a blessing and putting him to bed, we went to check on him and his breathing was sounding really bad, so we decided to take him to the hospital. Lindsay and Zane were asleep, so Ma and Pa stayed with them. We got to the hospital a little after 10:30 pm and they did a little check up on him (temperature, oxygen level, etc...) then we sat in the waiting room for an hour. Gavin was doing a little better because we had taken him outside and the cold air had helped open up his chest a little. Then they put us in a room and said the doctor would be in. Well, I didn't think that meant an hour later! After 45 minutes of sitting in the room with Gavin screaming, then sleeping, then screaming, I went out to find someone. They said we were next to be seen. Well, about 15-20 minutes later, the doctor came in, checked him and said we needed to do some breeathing treaments on him and he would send someone in to do that. That took another 10-15 minutes before they came back. I was so irratated that they weren't being faster considering that this was a baby having a hard time breathing. They did the breathing treatment, which Gavin HATED! He screamed and kicked and fought! Dan and I both had to hold him down. Then a while later they did another one. It was sad to watch my baby being put through this. Then a while after that, some nurse and some nurse guy came him in to give him a shot of a steroid and they apologized that all of this had taken so long. I don't remember exactly the reason (I was so tired I wasn't fully paying attention) but something to the fact that we should have been seen a long time ago and the doctors kinda screwed up on not coming to us sooner. Ya I think so? I thought a pediactric respritory problem would take a higher priority. And I guess it was supposed to be. I would have made a bigger deal about it, but Gavin really was breathing ok while we waited those 2 hours to be seen. Anyways, they gave us a prescription of a steroid to give him for 2 more days that we went and got at Walgreens on the way home and it was 3:00 am by the time we got back to the house. What a LONG night!

Friday, we slept in a little because of the events of the night before, then we packed lunches and headed to Zions National Park. There we hiked to the Emerald Pools. I'm not a hiker (unless it is a paved road, with very small hills, preferably at Disneyland) but I did it and without complaining too. Gavin was still not feeling good and was grumpy some of the time. Zane and Gavin both rode in backpacks which made it a lot easier. Zane said, "I like hiking. It's easy." Ya, because you've been carried the whole way, son! Funny kid. Lindsay hiked all the way up and back, with little complaining. A few times she kept threatening that she was NOT going to take another step. But we made and it was very pretty up there. Afterwards, we ate a picnic lunch and Dan and I headed back to St. George with the kids, while the others stayed to hike some more. We were exhausted and Gavin was too. But he screamed the whole way home (almost an hour and a half) because we didn't bring his binky! I thought I was going to lose my mind!!!!! He FINALLY fell asleep just as we pulled into the golf course neighborhood, of course! That was at about 6:00 pm and he slept until 10:30pm. Then we changed him, fed him, gave him his medicine and he slept until 9:00 the next morning. We got a good night sleep that night!

Saturday, we packed up and did an Easter egg hunt throughout the house. Then on the way home, we stopped by a campground near Hurricaen and did a wienie roast (Doney Easter tradition) and the kids played in a little stream. We also roasted Peeps, which tasted really yummy. We made it home around 6:00 pm all in one piece. It really was a fun trip (minus the Croup) and we enjoyed spending time with Dan's family. Thanks for the memories and thanks for being so patient with us and our 3 kids! (We missed you Sis, Zach, Carter & Austin and Travis!)

Engaged!

I've been meaning to post this for a while now but I kept forgetting to get a picture of these two. Dan's brother Mike is engaged to Brie! They will be married on June 20th in the Logan Temple. We are very excited for them and Lindsay and I are loving having another girl around the Doney house. Congrats Mike and Brie! (They usually don't dress like this. They decided to dress up for Trevor at the airport who came home from his mission last week - it was pretty funny seeing these two walk in like this!)

Welcome Home Trevor!

Dan's little brother, Trevor, came home from his mission in Tonga on Tuesday night. He looks the same except he's a lot tanner. Lindsay remembers him, but Zane doesn't and Gavin wasn't born yet. But Gavin can say "Trevor". It is so good to have you home Trevor!

Trevor is the one in the front.

Hugging Ma Doney

Hugging Pa Doney



Mike and Brie dressed up as a cowboy and cowgirl to be ugly and embarrass Trevor. They brought some fake mustaches so the rest of the boys put them on. Dan and Zane decided to make theirs unibrows. It was pretty funny and yes, Trevor thought it was ugly.

Happy Anniversary and Birthday's!

For our Anniversary we decided to go out to dinner with Karen and Christian and Melissa (aka Beans) and Mike. It was Melissa's birthday on the 12th and Mike's on the 14th, so we decided to celebrate their birthday's and our anniversary together. We went to Tepanyaki to eat and I ate so much that I was going to burst! Then we decided to go to Coldstone afterwards for dessert. I told them all that I was too full for ice cream, but when we got there, I couldn't resist! Then I really couldn't breathe! Oh, but it was so worth it! The food was great and the company was even greater! And none of us had kids with us! Let's do it again soon, VERY soon!