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!