Sunday, January 26, 2014


Sometimes the girls all get interested in something all at once.  And then they're so cute!  I have to take their picture!  This was a new game Mariah discovered on her Kindle Fire.  She's been saving her money for probably 6 months and finally had enough to buy her own!  Pretty nice of her to share it, right?  Also, here is my proof that technology is not always isolating!  It brings kids together quite often here at our house.

On Monday this week, the girls had no school because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  To celebrate, the younger kids went to Grandma's house (yay Grandma and Grandpa!) and I put the older kids to work repainting the TV room.  Am I a cool mom or what?  That's just what every teen wants to do on their day off!  Actually, they had a pretty great time for the first 2 hours or so.  They were good sports and it would have taken me FOREVER without them.  We painted, then stuck wrinkled-up tissue paper on the wet paint and then painted on top.  The effect is rather beautiful.  It does take a little while, though.  Our TV room is no longer bright blue!  It is now quite an elegant grey.





I have a whole master plan to remake that room and I will post pictures when it is all done!

Lucky Savannah!  When we were done painting the TV room, work called and asked her to come in and . . . quess what?  . . . help with the repainting of the shop!  Things got a little more crazy at work than they did at home!  This picture was taken after she had already washed up a bit!


The rest of the week was pretty normal.  Meg had basketball games on Wednesday and Thursday.  I got to watch her on Wednesday and she played great!  Mariah had games on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday.  I didn't get to watch any of her games but Kevin tells me (and I have no doubt!) that she played great!  They won all three games.  Saturday was a big win for them since this team had beat them before and were high in the rankings.  They felt really good about that game!  Cheyenne and Calianne had a game Thursday and Chey made her first in-game basket!  Cali didn't make any that game but has before!  It was great fun.

Sarah had tennis twice this week.  We even played basketball for our YW/YM activity Tuesday night.  Sarah (and Sidney and Daniel, also in the car) didn't want to play basketball so they drove around the neighborhood for awhile on their way back from tennis before they showed up at the activity!  Sarah now claims to hate basketball.  She likes to watch her sisters, though!

On Saturday, I found a great deal on a leather couch with recliners (part of the master plan!) and dragged Kevin and Sarah and Megan (and Ben and Beth though they were willing participators) up to West Jordan to evaluate, load, and transport the sectional back to our house.  We made it back barely in time to grab Mariah and the twins and go to the BYU Women's basketball game that we had promised we would go to!  Our first this season!  We got them situated at the game and then Kevin, Sarah, Savannah, and I walked over to the dorms, which was just a stone's throw away, to watch our nieces open their mission call.  That was a treat!

Anna and Erin Gazdik are twins in their freshman year at BYU.  Their mom grew up in Japan and their mom and dad both served missions in Japan.  They both decided independently that they wanted to put in their papers and serve the Lord on a mission once their freshman year was done.  They both really wanted to go to Japan.  They got their envelopes with their call in them this week but they waited until Saturday when their mom and dad and family could drive up from California to be there for the big event!  Anna got called to the Fukuoka, Japan mission and Erin to the Tokyo South, Japan mission.  There were many tears.  I'm getting choked up just typing about it.  We're all so happy for them and for their desires to do good!



So then we went back to the basketball game.  BYU is such a cool place!


Bethany, Cali, and Chey doing the chicken dance out on the floor!
So!  Things are going well here!  We are so thankful for all these great kids and the joy of being involved in their lives.  What a great life!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

We received a few flower clips (maybe more than a few!) for Christmas and this week Bethany decided to wear them all at once!  If one is pretty, then ten is even prettier, right??  Well, on Bethany, this is quite true.

I got to be Mommy helper this week in kindergarten.  It was great fun.  What a sweet thing to help the kindergarteners and to be in the classroom where Mrs. Hylton talks to everyone with such kindness and love!

On Tuesday of this week we had New Beginnings for Young Women.  Savannah received her Personal Progress medallion!  Yay, Savannah!  That's a lot of hard work and she bore a beautiful testimony of the young women program and the leaders she has had and how they have all helped her to grow.  She has grown into a beautiful young woman inside and out.
Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik were there!

Three of her Young Women Presidents were there!

Kevin and I happen to have four beautiful young women!!  What a great support they are to one another.

We love her so much!
So, Tuesday was a big night.  Mariah received two ribbons, as well.  Megan introduced one of the values and when the Laurels sang "Walk Tall," Sarah accompanied them on the piano.  It was a pretty awesome night.  My girls are all so awesome!

In other news, Megan continues to have basketball practice every day after school for two hours and it is her favorite part of the day.  She played in games Monday and Thursday and played most of the game.  Mariah played in games Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and always plays great.  She loves the game!  Cheyenne and Calianne played on Thursday.  They did a lot of great things and are big strengths on my team.  It was fun!  There is a lot of basketball going on at our house!

Sarah is playing tennis twice a week and driving there and back (I love that part!)  She did some scorekeeping this week and read a lot of books.  She invited some friends over to play games Saturday night spur of the moment, and only the boys showed up!  It was great fun since we have girls and to spare over here and they all loved it -- all the way down to Bethany!

Ben loves his new set of Magformers and when he's not watching his new favorite show (Paw Patrol), or playing ABCmouse.com on the ipad, he is making new creations.  It is pretty fun!
Kevin and I try to keep up with everybody.  We made it to the temple on Wednesday night and that was great and the girls were so supportive!  We were impressed!  Kevin got to play in a church basketball game Friday night and after that we went out to eat.  He has been working extra hours to get recordings done for work and doing Bishop trainings and things.  That and all his basketball coaching keeps him really busy!

Busy is good.  We are happy!

Monday, January 13, 2014


 We had a four-day school week this week.  Thursday was the end of the term. I am happy to report that we had much less stress this term at its close than last.  That was a relief!  Everyone did really well.  I guess they are more used to their classes now!

Savannah worked a couple of days this week.  Funfinity has been closed for remodeling so the employees have been going in to help with packing and moving and whatnot.  She has enjoyed that, too!  She finished her classes better than she had hoped so she was happy and we are happy with her hard work!

Sarah started tennis with Craig again this week.  Those are the groups that I’ve had the kids do before out at the indoor courts in Spanish Fork.  Sarah is driving herself now!!!  I love it and so do the moms of the two friends she is driving with her to do tennis, as well!  She has picked up a job doing scorekeeping for the city rec basketball games.  It is only once or twice a week.  I think it is great that she can earn some money without taking away from her other activities – like her good grades in her hard classes at school!

Megan had games on Monday and Thursday.  She is sure having fun!  This is good because, as I have mentioned previously, she hates going to school.  In spite of this, she still rocked the house with her straight A's.  I got a picture of her team at the game. . .

She got her new "warm-ups" too!

  They even have her name on them!
Mariah had basketball games on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week.  She won all of them!  Her team played great, and so did she!  (Their coach was pleased!)  She also had a choir concert since her choir class ended on Thursday.  She told me it would be awful.  I wasn't at all surprised that it was quite the opposite!  I love to watch her sing!
 
Cheyenne and Calianne had their first basketball game of the year on Thursday.  They have both improved greatly from last year.  Their coach was pleased, too! (That would be me!)  So, if you've been paying attention, Cali, Chey, Mariah, and Megan all had basketball games Thursday night AND they were all at 5!  We ended up at Megan's game to watch the end of it, so I got a pic of all the ball players!

Friday night Cali and Chey made a tent out of blankets in our TV room.  It stayed all weekend! They had friends over Saturday and played in it all day.  They are great at make-believe!

This is a little town that Chey made out of paper. To the left is the temple!

Bethany went back to ballet on Tuesday and is happy, happy to be back in Kindergarten!  She also played in the tent house all weekend with her big sisters!

Benjamin and I are hanging out at home.  When the temperature is above freezing, we sometimes go for a walk.  About halfway through he will lay down on the ground and say, "We are sooo lost! We're going to die.". This cracks me up since we are never that far from home.  Geez!  Also, he has slipped on the ice a few times and he thinks that is great fun!  He LIKES to slip on ice.  Crazy kid.  Sometimes he does it on purpose for the pure fun of it!  He makes me laugh.


Kevin has been recording lessons for work.  They are keeping him very busy!  He's glad to still have time to coach both teams Mariah is on this year, though!

I am trying to keep up with everybody else!

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Well, it looks like no pictures this week!  I could have, too.  We had a pretty fun week . . .

Tuesday was New Years Eve!!  We were all excited to welcome the Groslands over for our annual night of games and new year countdown which we missed last year!!!!  That would have been a good picture!  The house was full of people of all ages (although Ben did hide in my room all night) and we had a great time.  Sarah and Megan went to the dance for about an hour but then came back to finish the celebrations with the rest of us!

Wednesday was my birthday!  So, Kevin took me out to lunch to CafĂ© Rio and then we went to see a movie:  Saving Mr. Banks.  It was great fun.  We just relaxed for the rest of the day and had left-over pizza for dinner.  We needed to save our strength and gear up mentally because . . .

Thursday was back to school!!  It just felt weird to one day be in vacation and the next be back in the whirl of times to be places and assignments that needed to get done.  In fact, that would have been a good picture Wednesday night as all four of my oldest gathered around the game table doing homework.  (Why do it early when you can do it at the last minute?)  I, for one, was glad to get back to more of a structured life.  Too many vacuous days I'm afraid.  Cheyenne and Calianne and Bethany were all happy to be back to school.  Ben was sad to see them go!  Savannah and Sarah and Mariah were okay.  Megan was in violent dread.  Her basketball practices started again Thursday, though, and that she liked.  In fact, she got her new sweats with her name on it and I could have taken a picture of that, too!

Friday Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik took Kevin and I out to eat for our birthdays.  Afterwards we took them for a tour of Kevin's office.  It was a nice night!

Saturday Savannah worked ALL DAY LONG as they were closing the Orem store and the owner wanted all hands on deck to help box up and move.  I think she had fun, though.  The rest of us all went to Mariah's basketball game at 2:00 that Kevin was coaching.  They did great!  It was fun to watch.  I could have taken a picture there, too!

I will strive to take more pictures next week!  Have a great week!