We started this week by celebrating Sarah's 16th birthday . . . and we just kept celebrating all week!  On Sunday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's and had a lovely dinner and cake and sixteen candles. . . Sarah's cousins Kayla, Anna, and Erin came over from BYU to help celebrate, too.  It was super!

Sixteen candles make a lovely light . . .

Kevin had to leave on Tuesday for training in Santa Fe and was gone the rest of the week.  Because of that, we gave her a big present on Monday.  She and her sisters also did the high school dance for us.  Meg didn't know it, but why let that get in the way of a good time?  They are such fun girls!

So, yes.  Kevin left us on Tuesday, but guess who came for a visit?


My mom came to visit us this week!!  Yay!  It was so fun!  She arrived on Monday and stayed until Friday.  I put up a quilt while she was here and so we worked on that some while we visited.  She helped out with the kids and some of the driving and we watched some of our favorite shows.  Mostly we just talked!  It was so great to have her!

We put Ben's train table under the quilt frame to save space.  The little ones thought it was great fun!

Wednesday was Sarah's actual birthday.  She was pretty busy with tennis practice and their last tennis dinner that night. I did have flowers sent to school, though.

Isn't she lovely?

Thursday Megan had a tennis meet and she won!  She played Tuesday, as well.  They didn't win that match, but they had some great rallies!  It was fun to watch her this week!  She is getting pretty darn good!

This was Ben during the tennis match.  He can, apparently, find dirt anywhere.

Since Sarah was busy on Wednesday, Grandma took her out to dinner Thursday night.  I got to go, too!  We had lotsa lotsa pizza at Brick Oven!  Afterwards they sang to Sarah and brought her a big piece of chocolate pie!

Grandma Elton and Sarah

Friday morning Grandma had to head back home! *sob* That afternoon, Mariah had another cross country meet where she placed 4th overall and  2nd for her team.  SJHS won again!

Mariah  also had a  soccer game on Saturday.  It was the first game of their tournament and they won 4-0! They'll play in the championship game on Wednesday.

Saturday evening was the Women's Broadcast at the church. Our stake RS provided a dinner for us ladies, as well.  I went and had a great time!  Savannah was at work and Sarah was at Allyson's (and Kevin, if you will remember, was out of town) so Megan took all the younger ones to Reams and then off to the park for a picnic.  Isn't she fun?  She is a great party maker.  I was so happy that everyone was so happy while I was gone!

But I am glad to be with my kids and so glad to have Kevin come home again TONIGHT!

Savannah went to her first formal dance on Saturday!  Homecoming 2013.

Isn't she beautiful?

Megan and I did her hair.  We thought we did a  pretty awesome job!  The hibiscus are from our neighbor's bush across  the street.  :)

This is Sarah saying, "What?!  She's  taller than me!" Due to her heels . . . 

This  is Mariah, Megan, and Sarah watching picture-taking from the doorway.  They said, "Aw.  Our Savannah is growing up!"

Then we made them get in the picture.

Gavin and  Savannah.  Homecoming 2013.

They left around 4:30 and met their group at the Provo Courthouse for pictures.  Then they all went to Gloria's Italy where apparently there was an accordianist (is that a word?).  He knew a  lot of Disney songs and as most of the group were in the high school choir, they all joined in and sang for the two and a half hours they were at the restaurant!  He finished with a waltz and they all danced around  the restaurant (that's something else they teach them in choir . . .)  Afterwards they went to the dance and from there to the nicklecade in Orem where Savannah beat her date at basketball,  skeeball, and air hockey.  She did lose at the race car games. She said they had  a great time! 

On Tuesday of this week the YW went to the temple for baptisms.  Sarah and Megan had tennis, but Savannah and Mariah and I had a great time!

Thursday was Sarah's last home match and last match of regular season play.  Now only the tournament is left!  How'd  they do? They won!  Again!  I went and watched.  They did great!

Sarah and Allyson.

In addition to a soccer game on Saturday morning, Mariah also ran in another cross country  meet on Friday afternoon.  She finished second for her team and fifth overall.  Pretty awesome!  She is one  fast girl!

Mariah is the new fish hobbyist in our house, too, I should let you  know!  Our long-lived goldfish finally gave up his Earthly life.  Mariah has started over with a new tank and three guppies.  We bought them on Saturday.  Guppies have live young.  One is pregnant.  Mariah is super excited!

Cheyenne and Calianne continue to love gymnastics on Wednesdays.  They both love the vault.  Who knew?  This  Wednesday they also had piano lessons and the practice for the primary program which was this  Sunday and  turned out great, by the way.  They both memorized  their parts and sang beautifully.  I love the primary program!

Beth did really great in the primary program, too!  She said that what she loves best about God's earth is pink flowers.  She wishes she could plant a million of them!  She is currently singing primary songs in her bed while she is supposed to be going to sleep!  She is really liking kindergarten.  We have a walking group made up of all her friends in the neighborhood.  Each of us moms has a different day to be the chaperone.  I think seeing her friends everyday is still the best part for her!  This  week was C is for Cowgirl.  She also learned that a cowgirl needs her horse and her hat!

Ben's  new  favorite show is Disney's  Peter Pan.  He laughs  and  laughs when they all  get to call Captain Hook a codfish.  He is still nuts for cars and trucks.  We went to see the building site for the new junior high and Ben said, "Look at all those beautiful tractors!"  He is pretty fun and  keeps us all on our toes.

I started tennis lessons this week!  My friend, Ivory, and I are in a four-person group taking lessons from the same guy who was teaching my kids this past summer.  Why should the kids get all the fun, right?  It was really great fun!  Maybe I'll even get good!  That would really be fun!

It was B is for Butterfly week in kindergarten!  I for one have never seen a cuter butterfly!  (Except maybe for when my other kids did butterfly week in kindergarten!)  Bethany told me that she learned the circle of butterfly:  first they are a bug, then they turn into a raccoon, and then they become a butterfly!  Truly an amazing transformation.

We had a lot of rain this week.  Meg's first tennis meet was cancelled due to rain.  :(  Sad!  Also her Friday practice!  Mariah ran in the rain during her cross country meet this week.  She got soaked -- and so did I.  But we didn't care!  Also, Sarah came home in the rain Friday.  She loved it.

Savannah didn't feel well for most of this week and wasn't able to attend cross country practices.  She even missed some school.  She did go to the meet Saturday morning at BYU and still had a really decent run!  She worked twice.  During the week she attended activities for National Honor Society and FBLA and on Saturday went shopping for dresses for Homecoming with a bunch of girlfriends.  Fun times!

Sarah had two meets this week and she and Allyson won both! Again!  They are playing 2nd JV now.  I watched them on Monday.  They stepped up to Varsity to play against a very small school from Carbon County.  It wasn't much of a match for them since their opponents were clearly beginners.  On Thursday, though, they played someone right at their level and just barely won 9-7 (in JV they play to 8, but have to win by 2).  I wished I could have seen that one!  Sarah said it was great fun.

Cheyenne and Calianne started gymnastics this week!  It's the same program that Savannah and Sarah and Megan did when they were little!  The woman in charge even remembered me.  It was like I never left.  I think I even brought the twins in their carseats when I was bringing Megan . . . It's possible!  Chey and Cali had a really good time!  I think it will be a really good thing for them.

Mariah played soccer on Wednesday and Saturday and although she didn't play in the rain, the field was WET and muddy and splashy.  They called the game on Saturday early because they were winning 10 to 0.  Yikes!  Yes, her team sure knows how to play.  Mariah scored a goal at the Wednesday night game.  She is having a great time.

On Saturday we had a neighborhood block party!  It was great fun.  We had two bounce houses, a cake walk, a fishing pond, a bean bag toss, face painting, photo shop with props, balloon animals, henna tatoos, a raffle, cooking contests, cotton candy, and more!  We all had a great time!

What a fun week!

No school on Monday of this week because of Labor Day.  The four youngest all spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's the night before, so Kevin and I and the four oldest decided to hike the Y!

It was a beautiful day and we had nice cloud cover!

Megan is up there with Rebekah and Mariah!

Afterwards, we all got hot dogs at JDawgs next to campus.  It was a pretty great adventure!

The next day it was back to school!  Bethany also got to start ballet again.  She loves being in her ballet clothes and dancing and being with her friends.  I'm not sure in exactly what order, but she does have a lot of reasons for loving it!  She is not always thrilled with the idea of kindergarten.  In the mornings she says, "Nah. I don't think I'll go to kindergarten today!"  She is not really believing me that she doesn't have a choice.  By the time lunch rolls around, though, she has always been happy to go, so I am happy too!  She always enjoys it, too.

Ben seems happy enough to hang out with me when Beth has to leave.  That may partly be due to his buddy Mason.  This week we had a cloud burst that did not include lightning and thunder, so the boys had great fun playing in the rain and yes, even laying down in the gutters!  Crazy boys!

Sarah had tennis matches on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  I watched on Tuesday.  It was their first loss!  Sad day!  Sarah still had tons of fun, though, cheerful girl!  On Thursday their match had to be moved to indoor tennis courts due to the rain and it took a very long time since there were only four courts.  So . . . Sarah and Allyson did not play until 8pm!  They won, though (and got all their homework done while they waited!) so all was well!  Also, Kevin got to watch and that was fun for him!

Megan found out on Tuesday that she made the junior high varsity tennis team!  Yay, Meg!  This in spite of her repeated allegations that she is a "horrible tennis player!" -- which continued all week after each practice.  Dear Meg.  She still finds school dull and torturous.  However, she does make us beautiful drawings now and then in the afternoons.

Wednesday heralded the return of piano lessons.  Cheyenne and Mariah were happy about this.  Sarah and Calianne not so much!  Mariah played another soccer game on Wednesday night.  She is now in the uppermost league and plays on a full-size field for a full-time game.  Her team spreads out and passes to each other and they actually look like the real deal!  Mariah is having great fun.  She also had her first cross country meet on Friday after school.  Due to some negligence on the part of her well-meaning but imperfect parents, we got her to the meet late and missed her race. Yikes!!!  Fortunately, they let her race with the boys!  Kevin said she did great.  She finished in the middle of the pack and if she had raced with the girls, would have been in the top five.  They all better watch out when we get her there on time!



Friday was a great day for Savannah.  She ran her best time ever for the 5K 23:59!  She felt great about it.  She is running JV right now and coming in first for her team!  While she was gone at the meet we had a surprise at our front door:

There was a string tied to the door knob.

The string led to these balloons flying above our house.

Oh the squeals and screaming that this new development brought to our house full of girls!  The clues to who had asked her to Homecoming were inside the balloons, of course, so we had to wait until she got home from her meet to share all the excitement with her!  The lucky guy turned out to be her friend Gavin who she has had great times with in choir.  The dance on Sep 21st will be great fun!  Savannah (and all the girls in this house) are very excited!

Cheyenne and Calianne have been enjoying fourth grade so far.  They've been very diligent about playing with their bunnies everyday and I have loved having a place to send my not-eaten produce.  :) C&C had a birthday party to go to Friday night and the friend whose birthday it was told them that she really wished she had a lunch bag like theirs!  Well, cool!  I can make that -- and a water bottle holder to match -- and it won't cost me a thing.  Plus, it was fun for me to make and for Cali and Chey to give!

I'm so proud.  Can you tell?

Saturday Mariah had another soccer game in the morning.  Kevin and Meg and Sarah and Allyson played doubles against each other in tennis.  Sarah and Allyson won.  That was right before the sky turned black and it rained and rained!  Kevin watched the BYU game that night and Cheyenne and Calianne talked Megan into playing "Hotel Mafia" with them which included Hannah and Mariah and Bethany and Melanie and the entire house turned into a hotel.  It was just like old times around here!

This week was the week of Cheyenne and Calianne's birthday!  We also finished our first full week of school and started kindergarten (more on that later)!  For the first two days of school this week, because it was the week of Cheyenne and Calianne's birthday, as soon as they got home from school we were off on a rabbit hunt.  That's right!  Chey and Cali wanted rabbits for their birthday and Kevin and I decided that maybe that would be okay.

On Monday we drove to three different houses to look at their bunnies.  On Tuesday we drove back to the second house because we decided we liked their bunnies the very best!  We came home with them that day.

Allow me to introduce you to Skittles (Calianne's rabbit) and Buttercup (Chey's rabbit).  Aren't they adorable?  I mean seriously!  Beth and Ben and I completed the quest for a rabbit hutch last week so it was all ready when we got home with the new inhabitants on Tuesday.  I've rarely seen Chey smile so big for a picture!  She loves that rabbit so much!  Cali has been a little scared of all the rabbits we've seen.  She has been a little scared of Skittles, too, but is doing much, much better.  This is a good thing for both of them.

Every day after the rabbit hunt officially ended, we've had a backyard full of neighbor kids who are also thrilled that we have new rabbits.  It took me less than 24 hours to add a padlock to our new hutch -- for protection!  Those rabbits are definitely a hit!

Wednesday was the BIG DAY when our twins turned nine years old!  Unbelievable.  Since we had cake last week for Grandma Gazdik's party and we would have it again for their friend party on Friday, I made cinnamon rolls instead.  We had hamburgers, chips, and soda in the backyard for dinner.  Grandma took them to buy new clothes Tuesday night so they had new duds to wear to school and I made them C-shaped pancakes for breakfast.  It was a fun day.

Thursday we took a break in order to focus on Bethany.  It was her first day of school.  Oh my goodness!  My little princess started kindergarten.  It is the beginning of the end.  It really is.  I know from experience.  But I also know from experience that I still love her just as much and she will be mine no matter what phase of life she is in!  :)

We went for a walk in the morning to soak up our together time before school started in the afternoon!

The official backpack picture!

Her mom loves her so much!

With friend, Auretta!

Getting right to work on her first assignment!

She had a fantastic time!  They sang songs, wrote in their books, and learned lots of new things.  She went again on Friday.  Cali and Chey love picking her up!  It's going to be a great thing.  I'm excited for her!

Meanwhile, I get more time with this guy . . .

Hopefully, that will be a good thing, too!!

Friday we had Cali and Chey's birthday party.  They wanted a late night so we had seven little girls over between 6 and 10.  We had wiener boats for dinner, the girls played games outside, we had a pinata and cake and icecream, opened presents, and watched a movie -- some of them even in their pjs.  It was pretty fun!  Their sisters even did the decorating for them!

In other news . . .

Savannah worked twice this week, started homework in all her classes, had a cross country meet, and played in her first Dungeons and Dragons game.  Her Saturday cross country meet was the one where they jump over hay bales for two miles with just about every team in the state.  She finished in 15:12! 

Sarah played tennis everyday and had two meets.  She and Allyson won both times 8 - 1 and 8 - 4.  They are rocking the court.  She also rocked her first Chemistry test on the elements with a score of 98%.  She likes to flirt with a boy named Lamoni in her clothing class.  Cool name, right?

Megan tried out for the junior high tennis team this week.  She pretty much wants to play first varsity.  That would be great fun.  She tried out yet another violin teacher this week -- this one actually a fiddle teacher -- and she liked her!  Things might be looking up in the string department.  She can also now count to ten in Chinese!

Mariah started junior high cross country this week.  She had practice everyday after school.  She is a stellar runner and she has been pushing herself hard.  She is worn out after a hard week!  She did most of the decorating for the twins birthday party.  She also played basketball on Friday and Saturday.  The girl needs a day off!  Yay for Labor Day!