This is what happened when I asked Mariah to go play with Ben for a minute so he'd be happy.  Twenty minutes later, Ben is happy, but in a completely different room, and Mariah is just finishing her MASTERPIECE!  Which just proves that blocks get cooler the older you get.

There was no school on Monday so we had no basketball games.  We had no basketball games on Tuesday either!  Wow!  What a slow week!  Instead on Monday, I got to go to the airport and pick up my niece who had flown home to California for the weekend and bring her back to BYU.  It was a lot of fun to enjoy the quiet on the way there and enjoy talking to her on the way back.

On Wednesday we resumed our craziness with a gusto.  We had five music lessons and a basketball game.  Megan also reffed for two hours.  Savannah would have had to work, but she was sick.  Poor girl has had a rather miserable week.

On Thursday we had three basketball games.  I even drove out to Spanish Fork for Sarah's school game.  I couldn't stay the whole time and Mariah, Chey, and Cali came with me, but it was great fun.  Sarah thinks I only like games where she wins.  She's wrong, though, I just like to watch her play and play she does -- the entire game!  It's so fun.  I also got to play that night at the church and that was even more fun!

On Friday Kevin had a game and made a three-point shot right at the buzzer.  Cool, right?

On Saturday Mariah had another game with Dad as coach.  We all went to watch since it was just at the high school.  It was great fun.  They played really well.

I took pictures at ball games this week, but they all turned out dark and blurry.  I need a better camera for basketball season!

Last night, Beth woke up with a tummyache.  Then she threw up three times.  Poor child.  She has kept down some apple juice, so I'm hoping she's starting to feel better.

I started to potty train Ben this week.  I made it five hours before I put him back in a diaper.  I know, I'm a wimp.  Still, he pooped three times in those five hours!  And not one was in the potty!  So I figure I can wait.  What's the rush anyway, right?

Golly everyone, I didn't take any pictures this week!  Shall I show you more pictures from California instead?  Nah, I won't.  It would give you the wrong impression since we are FREEZING here with snow, inversion, and temperatures repeatedly below zero.  We might just all freeze in place.

We had a busy week, but it was all basketball.  That may be the only reason we didn't freeze in place!  Sarah played on Monday and Thursday and had practices all the other days.  Mariah played Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday and had practice on Friday.  Megan had games on Tuesday and Thursday and a late practice on Monday.  Cheyenne and Calianne had a game Thursday.  I played Thursday night.  Kevin played Friday night.

We are basketball maniacs!!!

Let's see, other than that, Bethany had preschool and dance class and had a friend over almost every day because she is just social like that.  Benjamin has had a cough and goes from being cheery and fine to being lethargic and grumpy.  I'll be glad when cold season is over (both kinds of cold season!).  Ben's new favorite show is Team Umizoomi which he calls "Zoomie Zoomie."  At least it's educational.  He watches them over and over.  His second favorite, fortunately, since it avoids contention, is Bethany's current favorite, Scooby Doo, which Ben calls "Doobie Doobie."  That one is not so educational.  Unless, of course, you count Fred's excellent trap making.

Bethany and Ben are both into playing with the couch cushions lately, as well. They're used as beds, houses, castles, or simply as crash piles for jumping.  I put the couch cushions back on at least once a day and sometimes twice.  Unless I don't.  In which case, the girls deal with it differently and it gives a good insight into their personalities.  If Sarah wants to sit on the couch, she puts all the cushions back on -- all 14.  She's so good to all of us!  If Megan wants to sit on the couch, she puts on the three she needs and settles in.  Savannah just settles in on the spring frame -- who needs cushions?  So funny.  Of course, if Chey and Cali came into the room, they make their own game with the cushions (yay!  the cushions are off!) and if Mariah comes into the room when it looks like that, she just leaves entirely and finds a different room.  Ah, the couch as the center of the home!

Savannah worked five days this week.  That's what kept her from freezing into place.  She's such a hard-worker!

Kevin is busy with his clients as well as working with the owners of Ado Recovery to get their business off the ground. He also is coaching two teams and has practices and/or games every day.  He definitely doesn't have time to freeze into place.

We hope the rest of you are keeping warm.  Meanwhile, we will continue to play basketball and dream of July.

OH!  It is so cold here!!!!  But, we are carrying on nonetheless.

I taught preschool this week.  It went well and I like doing it.  It does take up a big chunk of my week with prep and carry out combined, though, of course.  Beth is doing great and can do so much already with sounds and letters.  I am happy!  Because of sickness, though, I only had Beth and one other little girlfriend on the second day of preschool.  It must be winter.  Ugh!

Mariah and I had basketball games on Monday and Wednesday.  We won both.  The second game we so outmatched the other team that I had to ask my team to stop stealing the ball and to not do any fast breaks.  I made the changes too late in the game, though.  We won by quite a bit.  A kid behind me in the stands said, "This is boring!" as we made our 10th steal and fast-break layup in a row.  Oops! Who'd have thought last year when I lost every game that I would ever have this as a problem?  Too funny!  We are too good!  I will try to be nicer to the other teams in the future.

Sarah had a home game on Monday, as well.  I couldn't go because of Mariah's game.  Kevin said it was a tough game.  Sometimes the guards on Sarah's team forget how to pass in to the post (where Sarah is) so they stay outside and try their hand at three-pointers that often result in turnovers to the other team.  Sarah works hard, though, and helps her team on defense and rebounding and she could even get them more points if they would just. pass. the. ball!

Megan and Dad had a basketball game on Tuesday.  They won by quite a bit as well.  I got to see that game.  Megan played great!

On Wednesday, Megan had her first violin lesson in about a year.  She has just been practicing on her own and playing with the school orchestra, too, of course.  We are trying a new private teacher.  The jury is still out, but we will let you know how it works out for us.  She will be doing recitals every six weeks, so we will know soon!

Also on Wednesday, Meg had her second chance at refereeing.  She reffed two of the little boys' teams.  She had a good time and is looking forward to having money in her wallet!

On Wednesday night, Sarah had a choir concert.  She looked amazing and did amazing!  I love choir concerts.

I couldn't see as much of her as I'd like!

Isn't she beautiful?

 On Thursday, Megan and Dad had another basketball game and Cheyenne and Calianne had a basketball game.  Almost all of us went to see Chey and Cali!  It was so cute!  They are working hard and learning a lot.  I think they are having a really good time, too.

That night, the group of ladies who I used to play basketball with at the church got together to play again.  Yes.  I got to play basketball!!  It was so much fun.

On Friday there was no school!!!!  Sarah still had basketball practice in the morning, so Meg, Chey, Cali, and I went to the indoor tennis courts and tried out Meg's new racquet.  I played Megan.  I didn't do too bad, I thought!

Later that day, Meg made us all snickerdoodle cupcakes from her new cupcake book.  Oooooh, they were good!

On Saturday, we went to go see the BYU women's basketball team play Pepperdine.  The twins opted to stay at a friend's house to play, and Savannah had work.  But for the rest of us, it was great fun!

It's never too crowded at a women's game!

We had great seats!

Ben thought so too!

It's been a fun week!  We are trying to stay warm and hope that you are succeeding better than we!  We are sending warm thoughts your way . . .

This week I went to California.  :)

I invited Kevin to go with me and he consented to come along!  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik asked if they could PLEASE have the eight kids over for an extended four-day, three-night stay at their house.  We said, "Sure!  That sounds great!"  (Okay, it may not have happened exactly like that, but it was pretty close!)

We dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's on Monday morning and drove off through the snowflakes, headed south.  Approximately six hours later we were in Las Vegas at my parents' home to have a delicious dinner shared with my siblings and their spouses who live in Las Vegas.  It was so fun to see all of them and visit for a few hours before they needed to get home to get their little ones to bed.  It was so great!  Kevin and I settled for staying up until Utah's New Year at 11pm.  It's a good thing we made it that late because we got some text messages from home wishing me a Happy Birthday!

The next morning we drove the rest of the way to California and checked in at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages in Newport Beach.  Can I just tell you?  This place was beautiful!  It was just exactly like a place taken out of time complete with quiet and seclusion and spectacular surroundings.  It was heaven!

This was our bedroom!  Check out the view!

This is the other side of the window where we stepped onto our incredible patio!

This is also the view from our patio looking the other direction.

We went down to the beach after getting things settled in our room.  We walked around the tide pools for a little while and played with the sea anemones, then we wrote our names in the sand.  After the sun went down we walked over to the restaurant on the beach which could only be reached by walking on the sand and had a lovely birthday dinner while listening to old time big band music under the Christmas lights of the restaurant.  Wow!  To be in such a place!

Kevin taking pictures at the tide pools.

The next day dawned incredibly clear!  It was beautiful!  Our neighbors came out to show us the dolphins leaping in the sea.  Catalina island looked so close that it looked like you could just swim right over.  Kevin and I went for an early morning jog along the beach which extends two miles north of the cottages and a mile south.  We only passed about two other joggers.  We felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves!

We did leave for a little while.  We went to find some harbor shops along the sea where we could find some little gifts to bring home and where we had some fish and chips eating outdoors in the wonderful sunshine!  When we got back to our paradise, we went back down to the beach, this time to fly our kite.  The wind was perfect.  But then, you know by now, everything about this vacation was perfect!

That night we drove out to visit Mike and Sanae and their family in Rancho Palos Verdes, which is just a mouthful, don't you think?  It was great fun to see them and see their house with its beautiful views.  We had to make our visit short, though, because our parking lot closed at 10pm.  (You walked across the highway and across the bluffs to get to the cottages.  When we checked in, they issued us keys and flashlights.  Flashlights!  How awesome is that??)

The next morning we took one final walk.  It was a fabulous way to celebrate forty years of life.

We spent all of that day driving home.  As we neared home, we started to get updates from the kids about their basketball games.  Grandma and Grandpa took Mariah to her game on Wednesday, and then on Thursday went to Sarah's game, Megan's game, and the twins' game.  They did so great stepping in for us while we were gone!

By all accounts, the kids and the grandparents had a fun four days, too.  They stayed up for New Year's, went to Chuck a Rama, watched movies, played games and had a good time together.  Grandma said my kids were so good!  They really are.  I'm lucky to have them and truth be told, I'm not at all sad to come back home to be with them again.

. . . . even though we left 67 degree weather, and Springville has been favoring us with the single digits-- BRRRRR!

One final note, on Sunday Grandma Mary and cousin Jordan stopped by on their way back from a visit to St. George.  It was so fun to see them!  And guess what?  It was Christmas again!

It was a great week!