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.

Calianne got to be "Champion of the Week" in her class.  Mariah helped her find pictures for her poster and Calianne put it together herself.  It was pretty fun.  We think she is a great champion!

On Monday of this week, for Halloween, we carved Jack o' Lanterns!  Savannah even popped in to get something she needed so we got her in some of the pictures!  Everyone put a little of their personalities in their pumpkin.

On Tuesday, for our church youth group activity, we met at 4:00 and went up Payson Canyon to do the ropes course at Maple Dell.  It's a beautiful spot especially with all the leaves orange and yellow.  Unfortunately, it was a cold snap of a day and when the sun went down, it got even colder!  We all survived, though, and had hot chocolate and doughnuts and Sarah, Megan, and Mariah all got to go on the zip line.  It was pretty fun!

On Wednesday, it was crazy hair day at Cali and Cheyenne's school!  They had great fun with that!  After school they had a bit of a Halloween party for piano lessons and they all got to play for each other and get treats.  Mariah and Chey and Cali all enjoyed that.  Sarah worked at Funfinity that afternoon and Bethany had jazz.

On Thursday, Ben had a Halloween party at Joy School where he dressed as Optimus Prime!  After school, I drove to Spanish Fork for a haircut while a friend drove Cali and Chey to their Up With Kids Halloween party where they dressed as Fred and George from Harry Potter!  On my way back from my haircut, I picked up Cali and Chey from their activity, Kevin and Mariah went to basketball practice, and I got home in time to drive Meg to Spanish Fork for tennis!  We had a bit of time for dinner before I drove back to pick up Megan from tennis and drive her to her friend, Alyssa's house, where they went to shoot Zombie's with paintball guns in Provo.  When I got back home, Cali and Chey and I went to basketball practice and Kevin and Mariah went to another basketball practice!  Thank goodness Sarah was home to watch Bethany and Benjamin!  I am super grateful that all days are not that busy!

Ben and I went for a walk before the day got crazy.

Friday was Halloween!!!!  The day was so beautiful it was hard to believe that we were supposed to pretend creepiness.  Ben and I went to two Halloween parades.  First we went to Bethany's school and saw all the kids parade by in their costumes and then we went to Cali and Chey's school and saw all those kids parade by in their costumes.  What a lot of happy kids!

That's Beth in her self-made vampire costume!

That evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's house first as is our tradition and then came back to go to every house in our neighborhood which is in our ward.  I love seeing all the people I know while we trick or treat!  It's definitely a perk of our close-knit neighborhood.  Sarah worked at Funfinity and got to give out treats to all the trick or treaters on Main Street.  Megan and Mariah took turns giving out treats at our door.  Savannah showed up later that evening to escape the trick or treaters at the dorms since she didn't have money to buy her own treats to give out and she kind of wanted to get to bed before 1am and knew it wasn't going to happen at the dorms that night.  I think all our kids ended up having a fun night.

On Saturday, Sarah, Megan, and Savannah all came and helped me at Cheyenne and Cali's basketball practice!  Kevin and Mariah were at their own practice, so they couldn't come.  It was so fun to have the older girls together and helping their little sisters!  I wished my whole team had come, but it was still fun.  They can be so silly together!

Kevin also took the twins and Mariah to the church for another practice that day just the four of them.  Kevin bought a high-tech basketball that measures how many dribbles you do in a minute and how long it takes you between catching the ball and shooting the ball.  He is pretty excited about it and they've all had fun trying it out.

It's been a busy, full week.  I love my family and all the good, good things in our lives.  God makes our lives good.