We had such a busy week!  Monday was Bethany's dance recital!  She looked adorable!  She's been taking jazz once a week and it was fun to watch the dance they've been working on.  While we watched the other classes, I asked her if she would like to take ballet instead.  She said, "Can I take both?  I want all the pretty costumes!"  Now we see the big draw!  Anyway, she was adorable and it was super fun.

On Tuesday night lots of things happened.   Sarah had to work, Mariah went caroling with the church youth, Calianne and Cheyenne had their last Mapleton basketball game, and Megan had her orchestra concert.  I was yelling MERCY!  Miraculously, it all worked out. Oh, and did I mention that Kevin and Mariah had a late-night basketball practice, too?  So, I went to Cali and Chey's basketball game and coached.  They had a great time playing in this league and I'm glad I could do it with them.  It was a lot of fun!

We went directly from the game to Meg's orchestra concert.  I missed the first two orchestras but only missed one of Megan's orchestra's songs.  Yay!  I traded places with Kevin who had brought Beth and Ben to the concert.  Kevin took Ben and the twins home and I got to enjoy the delightful strains of Megan's music!  Grandma and Grandpa were there, too.  Megan sat second chair in the second violins.  She is doing really well in orchestra and I love to listen to her play!

The rest of the week was not quite so crazy.  At least for everyone else.  I was working on a project that I needed to get done before they got out for Christmas break on Friday, so I was busy every second!  I did get done though.  Hurrah!

Friday Kevin and I went out for his birthday and Christmas.  We went to the temple with his mom and Jim and then out to eat.  It was really peaceful and nice.

Thursday was Megan's last class day of driver's ed!  Kevin and I were really glad to not have to get up early anymore!  Megan's real stress relief came Saturday, though.  She took her final driving test (the one that counts for your license) and she passed!!  Yay, Meg!  What great rejoicings were heard!

You see Savannah in this picture.  She showed up Saturday, too!  She had finals all week and got her last one done on Friday.  She and her friends from her hall had a last movie night Friday night before they all went home for the holidays.  We are happy to have her back for a while!

Saturday we also had a visit from Kevin's dad and Maria!  (And I forgot to take a picture!  Nuts!)  They brought Christmas gifts and the kids loved opening them and we all loved visiting together!  They couldn't stay long as they were on their way to California to be with Maria's family but we were so glad they stopped by!

We were also busy Saturday because Kevin and I had to prepare talks.  We spoke in church on Sunday!  Both of us were assigned ten minute talks to speak in between the choir's Christmas numbers.  I sang in the choir, too.  I also taught the lesson for Beehives in the third hour.  It was also Kevin's birthday.  MERCY!  It all worked out, though, once again.  I think I am getting a lot of Mercy from on High to help me in my life.  I definitely am! 

Kevin's mom did most of the work for his birthday celebration!  Kevin also did a two-hour training for bishops Sunday morning.  So, it was nice to stop after all the service and have a nice meal and family time.  We celebrated Meg's birthday, too, since her SIXTEENTH birthday was the next day.  It was a very nice night.  Afterwards, we all went back to our house, got in our pajamas, and watched the Forgotten Carols, which we love to do every year.

Mariah made Kevin an apron in her sewing class!

They let me be part of the celebration, too, since we'll be gone on my birthday.

We got to see Savannah on Friday of this week.  She came home to do laundry since she knew she wouldn't have time to hang around on Sunday after dinner.  Finals start on Monday!  Sarah and I got to see her on Saturday, too, as she met us at the Cougareat for lunch after Sarah's ACT.  She seems super happy in spite of her looming tests.  She was going to spend the rest of the day at the math lab for reviews.  No wonder she was happy to take some time off to be with her family!

Sarah did take her first official ACT on Saturday at BYU.  She doesn't think she did super well but she has a better feel for it now and she knows what else to do before she takes it again in March!  I think she is great for getting ready for college!  She also had tennis this week and worked at Funfinity and turned in a research paper on Ida Tarbell.  She's a busy kid!  She came home from work last night and went straight to bed at 9:30.

Megan survived her second week of driver's ed!  Which, in addition to all the 6am classes, included her first driving-on-the-roads-with-the-instructor session and the car maintenance and parking lot observance assignments.  She also had a couple of tests this week in other classes and turned in a research paper on Annie Oakley.  She also is a very busy kid!  She did get to go to a white elephant party Friday night, though.

Mariah finished games in her Mapleton league this Thursday night with a 1-point win!  Yay!  They've had a fun time.  She also had a Bantam game Monday night where they won in overtime thanks to an assist from Mariah to the big man under the basket on a fast break.  It was pretty exciting I am told.  In addition, she had at least three 6am practices.  Crazy, right?  She is super good at coming home from school and working on her homework right away.  This is a good thing, because then if she has extra time she can keep reading Harry Potter.

Cali and Chey and I had two Mapleton basketball games this week and we won both of them!  How fun for us!  They also had at least one early morning basketball practice.  They also had piano lessons and Up With Kids (which is the theatre group they are in).  They got to be angels in our ward's nativity scene on Saturday and they went to a couple of practices for that, too.  Since the ward Christmas party last night, they have been busy making snowflakes with which to decorate our house!  It's pretty fun!

Bethany had dance class and piano with me and she sang at the ward Christmas party.  She likes to play with all our nativities and with her friends.

Benjamin had his last week of Joy School this year and ended with a Christmas program!  He got to be a shepherd and sing us some Christmas songs.  He also made me a treat, which I ate all of and it made him very angry because he wanted it!  Oops.  Still, he is pretty adorable--especially when he is singing songs!

Saturday night was our ward Christmas party.  The YW dressed as Shepherds and followed our drummer and sang "The Little Drummer Boy."  The primary did a nativity and sang us some songs and we all joined in on some.  It was all pretty fun!  Not to mention lots of food and lots of people!  I can't believe I've been to 15 Christmas parties in this ward now -- except for what Kevin claims to be the best one which I missed because it was just a week after Mariah was born!  Still, these people in my neighborhood, who I go to church with, really do feel a lot like family.  It's a really cool thing.

Merry Christmas!

Mariah earned her Young Women Medallion last Sunday!!  Isn't she cool?  She had a goal to finish by her 14th birthday and that she did.  We are so proud of her consistent work and her desire to do this good thing!

We also decorated the Christmas tree last Sunday.  I managed to talk my family into an artificial tree this year!  Some kids were very sad but I think it looks nice.  They might get won over yet!  Savannah was home for Sunday dinner so she was there, too!

Ben had Joy School this week.  He even sang songs for some people in the care center and made some ornaments.  He had a great day with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday walking all around the mall and looking at toys and waving to Santa!

Bethany enjoyed going back to school and seeing her friends and even reading with me, but she was not so thrilled about homework!  She's doing well on the piano learning Jingle Bells and loves her dance class.  She and Ben helped Kevin put up the lights on Saturday.

Cali and Chey had three basketball practices this week and two games.  As their coach, I think they are playing great!  They are getting to be strong dribblers.  They just need to shoot more!  They are really enjoying it and that is the important part.  They talked me into going to the dollar store on Saturday so everyone could buy Christmas presents for each other.  Everyone is so excited for Christmas!

Mariah had lots of basketball this week, too, going to three practices and three games.  She and Kevin had their first Bantam game on Saturday and I went to watch.  They didn't win but they fought hard! Mariah had six steals and ain't nobody can get that ball from her!  She also finished the jacket she's been working on for her sewing class.  It turned out super cute!

Megan started driver's ed this week!  Hurrah!  The dread is over and we're getting it done!  She has to be at school by 6am and she stayed after school until 6pm Wed-Fri to drive on the driving course. Add to that the extra reading, worksheets, and studying and she hasn't had a minute to spare all week long!  She was happy when Saturday came!  She has three tests and an essay to write next week.  On the bright side, she is driving well and we know she will conquer this skill.

Sarah had tennis and work at Funfinity.  I went in Saturday night to the toy store where she works to buy some things (ho, ho, ho) and saw her cheerful interaction with the customers.  She's so cute! She's also busy studying for the ACT and getting her homework done and cheering us all up with her stories and games here at home.

Savannah's been busy as her semester will draw to a close next week!  She called us on Tuesday because she and the other girls on her hall were decorating for Christmas and she wanted to know the closest place to buy wrapping paper!  Ah, college days!

It was the week of Thanksgiving!  We had school on Monday and Tuesday.  Ben even had Joy School on Tuesday where he learned all about pilgrims and turkeys!  Bethany's first grade had an Indian Pow Wow all day Tuesday where they made drums and decorated their Indian vests, played Indian games and danced Indian dances.  How fun!

Tuesday after school, Savannah met us from BYU and we all got in the car and drove down to Las Vegas to spend the holiday with my family!  We stayed at my sister, Amy's house.  My sister, Maggie, and her family stayed at my mom and dad's and my sister, Diane, and her family stayed with the other side of her family.  My brother Dave even came down for Thanksgiving Day from St. George.  There were a lot of us, but then, we love being together!

The cousins did a show for us after dinner!

Cousins got talent!

All us Eltons (sans Pete)!

After the cousin show, Emma and Bethany read the lists of thing we had written that we were thankful for and we tried to guess who had written them.  Later that night we even played a rousing game of Matthew Mark Luke and John!  Dad taught us that game from when he was a kid back when we were kids.  That night we played it with all our kids! Grandpa is still the guy to beat!  We had a really fun day!

On Friday, we decided to go visit the Old Mormon Fort which was the first permanent structure in Las Vegas!  It was a beautiful day (every day was!) and it was neat to learn the history of the city. Benjamin especially was captivated by the story of the woman whose husband was shot in a gun fight.  "Tell me that story again, Mom!"

That night we went to see the lights on the cacti at Ethel M chocolate factory.  Pretty!

The next morning we said goodbye to much-loved cousins and family.  It was a great trip!

Saturday was Mariah's birthday!  She is now fourteen-years old!  Holy Cow!  Since we drove all day, Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik took care of all the festivities for us and we had a party that night back in Springville to celebrate our dear Mariah!  Grandma Elton made her a cake that we had Friday night, too!  We are so glad she came to be in our family.  She's been such a pleasure.  :)

Is that cute or what??  Ben has been asking for a tie and I bought him a real one last week.  It's hard to tell who was more pleased putting it on -- Ben or Kevin?  Once he got it all settled, he told his sisters proudly, "Girls don't wear ties."  I love to see him differentiating himself in good ways, and I love to see him emulating his Dad!

I taught Ben's Joy School this week.  Christmas is always a big deal in Joy School and those two days were a lot of work!  But Ben loves Joy School and his friends, so it is all worth it.  Ben has been really interested in drawing pictures suddenly and his ability has burst forth! 

One of the Joy School days the kids were supposed to bring something to share with their friends.  Ben made them each a little man.  Aren't they cute?

Bethany had a good week, too.  I miss that sweet little girl being at school so much.  We received a note home from one of her teachers saying what a good girl Bethany is at school and how kind she is to the other kids.  It was awesome!  We read books together everyday afterschool and again before bed.  She is a little behind in reading for first grade so we are trying to give her as much practice as we can.  I feel like she is doing really well, though, and for the most part, she doesn't seem to mind the extra work.

Cali and Cheyenne had pajama day at school on Friday!  I had them pick out some fleece when it was on sale in the spring because I was going to make them some jackets for the fall.  Plenty of time for that project, right?  Well, it didn't happen and they were wondering if they could make pajama pants out of them, and oh, by the way, Mom, could we get them done before Friday?  So, I had them sew the first steps but when we ran out of time, I finished them up on Thursday.  It's a good thing that pants are so simple because I'm really not that much of an achiever mom!

That night they kept the party going by inviting their friend over for Harry Potter movies and butterbeer!  Fun times!  They also had two basketball games this week.  They love playing!

Mariah had two basketball games this week, too, along with a couple practices for her other team.  Talk about loving to play basketball!  Her birthday is next week (!!!!).  But with all the traveling we'll do next week, Kevin and I got her present and delivered it to her room Saturday while she was at a movie with Megan and Sarah.  She screamed a lot when she got home.  It was tons of fun!

Megan read two books this week for herself and wrote a paper not for herself -- for History.  She is doing great on her school work but is dreading the day Driver's Ed starts (Dec 1st!).  She decided that she wouldn't be quite so miserable, if she had a nice, warm coat to wear on those 5:45am mornings.  Since I am always trying to get her to wear a coat, I was happy to take her coat shopping!  Here is a picture of her in her new coat with the very cool picture she made for her bedroom door in the background.  She made that last week!

Sarah worked this week and started doing tennis twice a week again.  She also wrote a paper for history and is studying for the ACT.  She decided to take her sisters and Alyson to see Mockingjay (a new movie) on Saturday morning.  Wasn't that fun of her?  She has started to really love work and comes home still laughing from the fun she had with her coworkers.

Savannah called Friday night as she was on her way to the testing center to take a calculus exam.  Kevin called her Saturday and she was studying for a Book of Mormon test and still had to do a computer project before the day was through.  We are looking forward to having four days to spend with her next week!

Kevin coached lots of basketball games and took the twins and Mariah to early-morning workouts twice this week.  He even coached one of my basketball games because I needed to be at Young Women's on Tuesday night where I was in charge of our big etiquette dinner.  He is a great support!

We'll start with the youngest this week.  Benjamin had joy school this week and loved it.  He learned about the joy of the body and came home Thursday to ask me, "Mom, what if we didn't have hands?"  He told me all the things we wouldn't be able to do.  We are signed up for state online preschool and we agreed to do at least 15 minutes a day, five days a week.  It is getting harder and harder for me to get him to do it!  On the bright side, he can't watch tv until he gets it done so he is watching a lot less!  We had snow for the first time this week.  Ben was thrilled!  I had to go out in it to get some things done.  I was rushing back to the car, along with a bunch of other people rushing to get out of the ick, when Ben stops to spread his arms wide and exclaim joyfully, "It's snowing!!!"

Bethany had a good week at school.  I help in her classroom on Wednesday mornings for an hour.  I love to see her in her school.  She is quick and obedient and happily completes one thing after another.  Both her friends who transferred into the program with her from our ward were sick on the same day this week.  No problem!  She had made friends with other little girls too.

Cali and Cheyenne had two basketball games this week.  We won one and lost one.  The girls played great and had a good time.  Cali and Chey also had a Veteran's Day patriotric program at their school.  Cheyenne had a part to say and they both sang all the songs about Paul Revere and the Declaraion of Independence and the Bill of Rights and the three branches of government.  What a great way to teach!  I was warmed by their patriotism and ended up having a Veteran's Day that I actually noticed. *sheepish grin*

Mariah and Kevin only had one basketball game during the week but on Saturday they had a tournament and played four games -- all before 1 o'clock!  They came in second in the tournament and apparently played great in spite of some bad sportsmanship from the winning team.  Mariah even made some three-pointers!  After the tournament, they had practice for their other team at 1:30.  She was pretty worn out!  She earned being able to sit curled up on the couch with Harry Potter for the rest of the day.

Megan had another super cold tennis day this week (the indoor courts are being painted!) and her second day of tennis actually got snowed out!  She is dreading her upcoming driver's ed class in December.  Kevin got her to go driving with him last Sunday and he said she did just fine.  She is doing great in all her classes.  Last year she used to freak us all out with her stress, but this year she hasn't -- not even once.  We love it! 

Sarah can be an emotional roller coaster, but since she is usually on high, it's all good.  Yesterday she left for work and didn't want to go (because she had been playing volleyball for the church team) and then she came home late because she was having so much fun at work that she didn't want to leave!  Funny girl.  She really is a very happy person.  After work she even went straight out in the yard to help her dad get out the snow-covered leaves--not easy or fun--unless Sarah is there laughing at stuff.

Savannah showed up Friday night while Kevin and I were out on a date and took all her siblings ('cept Megan who wanted to stay home) to the Cannon Center (the common building for her dorms) where they were showing Monsters University and serving free popcorn.  Wasn't that a fun thing to do? It was fun to see her, however briefly.  I love that she loves her family and wants to share things with them!

I got a cold this week and am losing my voice!  Otherwise, I've been able to keep on top of things and have had an enjoyable week.  God has led me into this wonderful life!

Kevin has felt somewhat better this week.  He finished an assessment this week for bishops to use throughout our region to determine a parishioner's level of pornography addiction and advise them in the corresponding level of help the parishioner may need.  It is neat to see the level of trust they have in him and his expertise!

This is my only picture I took this week!  Mariah and I went to go see Starlight Express on Saturday.  Her friend was in the play at her junior high.  We had great fun watching the roller skating and the costumes and the great acting and singing.  What fun!

Savannah had a better week at BYU.  For church today, she had stake conference in the Marriot Center and got to listen to general authorities.  She said it was great!  For her American Heritage class, she got to do exit polling during Tuesday's election.  I think her favorite part was holding babies for mothers who had come to vote!

Sarah worked four days this week which is more days than she likes to work, but she does enjoy being there with her coworkers, so it's a good thing they keep her laughing.  She is studying daily for the ACT and is trying to keep herself excited about the possibilities of high scores!  She started piano lessons again this week, too!

Megan played tennis twice and fought off a cold.  She had a bit of a crisis trying to decide whether or not to play high school basketball.  As of now, she has decided not to try-out.  She helped Kevin rake leaves on Saturday and took Beth and Ben for long-board rides around the neighborhood.  They loved it.

Mariah had lots of basketball practices this week and her first two Mapleton basketball games, of which they won one and lost one.  She also had piano lessons.  We bought some more fabric for her sewing class.  She's going to sew a jacket and it's going to be super cute.

Cali and Cheyenne had their first Mapleton basketball game, this week, too.  We didn't win but they sure played great.  I was impressed!  They had early morning basketball twice this week and have been doing great getting their homework done right after school.

Bethany is doing great at school and she likes her dance class.  She still loves playing with lots of little girls.  She drives Cali and Chey crazy at night because she likes to talk herself to sleep!

Benjamin had Joy School on Tuesday and Thursday and still loves transformers and legos and trains and jumping on top of people.

Kevin's health has been really bad all week.  We are hoping he feels better this week!  He is doing great things at work.

I'm trying to write everyday for NaNoWriMo and still keep up with the house and all my crazy-great kids.