Monday I spent most of the day at the church helping with a funeral luncheon.  This particular funeral was high stress partly because an apostle and five general authorities attended, but especially because the chairs needed to be set up all the way into the gym, so we only had about 40 minutes after the family left the funeral and before they came back for the luncheon.  We had a BUNCH of ward members who descended on the gym and transformed it in no time at all!  It was a beautiful thing.  It all went surprisingly well and we knew the Lord's hand was in it.

Tuesday night was New Beginnings!  Mariah had basketball games and couldn't be there and Meg was at work, but Cali and Chey and I all went and had dinner and learned about the YW program and the new girls coming in, and Cali and Chey got their first ribbons for personal progress!  I was so proud of them, especially since they decided last week to get their 10 hour projects done before Tuesday.  Cheyenne needed to finish a skirt she has been sewing and Cali needed to organize for ten hours.  I think she organized everything in the house!  We're all benefitting from that one!  They are great girls.

 

 

Sarah worked more hours this week taking care of her babies.  She's experienced some days where the babies are fussy all day and those days are harder than others!  She went on a date Friday night with a guy who is also going to BYUI and they talked about their favorite school all night.  Sarah loved it!  Whenever she gets a chance, Sarah pulls her sisters into playing some of her favorite games she used to play with her roommates up in Rexburg.

Megan worked this week and went out with Kaden a couple of times.  She taught her first lesson in primary this week and she worked hard on it!  I was so proud of her, not only for the work but also for her ability to laugh at the crazy antics of six-year-olds at church!

Mariah had games on Tuesday and Friday.  We watched her both times!  She is playing the Sophomore games now, too, since she wasn't getting much Varsity play time, and one game just isn't enough to wear her out!  Game days are very long days, though!  She's doing great in her hard classes, too.  She's a great girl.

Friday, before Mariah's basketball games, I spent the day once again at the church once again for a funeral luncheon!  It all turned out lovely again, and of course, we can put out tablecloths and flowers, but without all the food prepared and brought by the people in the ward, these luncheons would not happen!  It's a privilege to see all this service up close--and to get the thanks for it when it's really hundreds of people around me!

Saturday we finally managed to get our family together to take Chey and Cali to the temple for the first time!  We even went during family priority time so we had an appointment and we got to skip the line!  :)  Anyway, Kevin did the baptisms and it was so neat to watch five of our daughters come one by one dressed in white.  Loved it!  Ben and Beth were with Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik and they met us at a Chinese restaurant afterward and we celebrated Chinese New Year.  It was a fun day.

Sarah and I dressed the same last Sunday!  We also got photo-bombed by out favorite little boy!  We can dress alike 'cause we love each other AND 'cause we go to different wards.  She's attending one of the Young Single Adult wards in town.  She even just got called to be one of two sacrament meeting pianists.  What a great opportunity and a great way to serve!  She got lots more hours nannying this week.  She even worked one day for over eight hours!  We love having her around.

Megan worked her job at Funfinity and also got news from the University of Utah that they will provide her with a half-scholarship if she attends there.  That's a nice validation of her hard work in high school!  She hasn't heard from the other two schools to which she's applied yet.  She also started her last semester of high school.  She has TWO free periods and likes her other classes.  Things are looking good!

Mariah had ball games on Tuesday and on Friday.  She played great!  In her Friday game she sank two three-pointers.  It was pretty cool!  Her schedule changed by only one class this semester, but it means she is taking a class from her Cross Country coach who is great, so that is happy!

Cali and Chey had two ball games this week, too.  They are enjoying Springville rec and Bantam.  They also went back to piano lessons and they really enjoy that, too!  New Beginnings is next week so they are cramming to get some projects done.  Chey spent a good part of Saturday working on a skirt she is sewing, and Cali spent most of the day cleaning and organizing their room which had been completely taken apart when the basement flooded two weeks ago when we had major snowmelt combined with rain!  Ugh!  She did a fantastic job, though and the room looks great again! 

Matching socks aren't high on her priority list!

Bethany started piano again and had a basketball game.  She also started a punk-rock band with her friends called, "Pop Girls."  It was awesome for the 45 minutes it lasted.  She went to a birthday party Friday to Hang Time which is a play place full of trampolines.  I am happy to report that she did not break any bones!

Benjamin is very happy that we replaced our broken ipad this week.  He does play on it a lot, but I need it for the educational games for the kids!  Chinese apps, math apps, and Piano Marvel--for piano lessons.  He definitely benefits the most, though.  Anyway, he continues to do Karate twice a week, enjoy school, and play with friends.

I did accounting all week.  This year-end stuff makes me glad I don't have more clients.  :)  It's nice to be busy, though.  We had stake conference this weekend so that was nice.

Kevin is still working on his book and is going to a recording studio once a week to make a corresponding audio book.  He had a Fri-Sat work meeting this weekend so we didn't see him as much as we'd like!  He's a hardworking man, though, and we love him!

 

Sarah's babies had their grandma visiting this week, so she didn't have as many hours at work.  She busied herself watching Arrow on Netflix, counting calories with her mom, playing games with her siblings (when they were home!), and finishing her first crocheted headband earwarmers!  Super cute!  I love having her around even if I am boring her to death.  :)

Megan finished her first semester of her senior year this week and is entering the final stretch.  Good thing she met with her counselor and figured out that final semester schedule!  She received an acceptance letter from the University of Utah this week and was pleased, but it may not be her first choice!  She worked this week and had a couple dates with that Kaden boy.  She is a happy soul and we love her.

Mariah also finished her semester this week (as did all the schoolkids, of course!) but first she had basketball games in Vernal on Tuesday--three hours away!  A snowstorm hit while they were playing, and by the time all three games were played, the bus drivers warned that it would be better to stay the night. So, they had an unexpected hotel night and didn't get home until the next day around 2:00--the girls' team, the boys' team, and the cheerleaders all got waylaid in Vernal and missed two days of the last week of the semester.  Teachers were not happy.  Mariah was very happy to get home!  She had a fun weekend, though, going to the movies with one group of friends, and going to watch another friend in a gymnastics meet.  She is a supportive, hard-working girl and we love her!

Cali and Cheyenne had a friend come visit who had moved away and it sparked parties galore!  They had six friends at our house Friday night.  They made cake and hot chocolate and played Mummy! Then on Saturday they all went to the mall for five hours and walked around and bought little things at Claire's and laughed and complained of the service at Pretzelmaker and generally had a great time.  Late that night they had a bantam basketball game.  Meg was out, but the rest of us all went to watch them play a great game of basketball!

Bethany also had a game of basketball this week.  They are all just learning but seem to be having a good time.  Beth made two baskets!  She had a late-night with friends this week and made a tent out of blankets in her room that I still haven't convinced her that she's done with yet!  She snuggles in for hugs from everyone in the family and sings songs happily to herself throughout the day.  Sometimes she even plays with her brother!

Benjamin had his first belt test in Karate this week.  He passed and he's now a yellow-stripe belt!  I watched him do strikes and kicks and even break a board!  He did great!

I did accounting this week and visited some new moms with babies, delivered bread and helped with a funeral luncheon.  I also started "Feel Great in 8!"  I walked five days this week and counted calories and tried to make a few other good changes in my life.  I still feel a bit restless, though.  Kevin tells me I need more sun.  It has been very gloomy all week.  I would move to Hawaii in a heartbeat if I could take everyone and everything I love with me.  I will just need to find a way to enjoy where I am right now!

Kevin has been busy at work with an intensive this week.  Intensives are where people fly in from far away and do therapy pretty much continuously for three days.  Kevin has another therapist who works with him on it and they only take four couples at a time, but it is pretty . . . intense.  This time they had a couple who flew in from Norway!  He is pretty great at what he does.  They said he was worth the flight.  He is also busy getting his book ready for publication and that takes all his "free" time.  He still finds time to coach basketball, though, of course, and wrestle Ben in the front room now and then!  He even made everyone French toast for Sunday breakfast this morning.  What a guy!

 

Back to school this week and piles and piles of snow in the way!  We've had arctic weather all week and three major snowstorms.  We have one car we haven't even tried to dig out and another that we didn't dig out until the end of the week.  School resumed on Tuesday, but the snow was so bad that we were given a 2-hour delay to the start time.  Getting stuck in the snow mortifies me, so I would have stayed in the house all week and doomed my children to the same incarceration, if it hadn't been for the lucky happenstance that we have Grandpa Skinner's Jeep with snow tires!  He sent Kevin home in it to bring Sarah home from Rexburg and we haven't had a chance to bring it back.  It's been a godsend!  That car can go anywhere!  Love that car!  Love that Grandpa!



Kevin up before dawn shoveling and pushing neighbor's cars.

Inside my new favorite car.

I took this picture for Savannah.  The icicles always remind me of her!

Sarah found a job!  She is nannying for newborn twins!  How fun is that?  She worked 16 hours this week and her hours will go up as the mom increases her hours at work.  Sarah is perfectly suited for such work and loves her time with the babies!

Megan got called to be a primary teacher last week!  It's a brand new adventure to have this responsibility and she is feeling good about it.  I think she will do great.  She is co-teaching CTR 5 which is Ben's class!  She also managed to get herself to work at Funfinity through the snow and have some fun with her friends this week, too!

Mariah's driver's license came in the mail this week!  She is a legit driver now!  (If only the snow didn't make it so scary to do so!)  She had basketball games twice this week and played in JV and Varsity games.  We're so happy she gets this opportunity to participate in the basketball program.

 

Cheyenne and Calianne had their first Springville basketball game this week.  The final score was 43-31, which is a high-scoring city-rec game, let me tell you!  They played great.  They also had a bantam game and bantam practice.  With no Springville practices, no tennis, and no piano lessons this week, they were feeling a bit at loose ends about what to do with themselves!

Bethany had her first basketball game EVER this week and she made three baskets!  She loved it!  AND she got three dollars from Grandpa Gazdik!  Fun times!  I enjoyed picking her up from school each day this week and watching her and every other school-age child avoid the shoveled sidewalks and instead walk through snow well past their knees just for the sheer joy of it!  Crazy kids!

Benjamin went to Karate on Tuesday and came home complaining that his ear hurt really badly.  Somehow we made it through the night though he woke up multiple times weeping from pain.  I took him to the doctor first thing in the morning where we discovered that one eardrum had already burst and that the infection was from Strep!  With heavy-duty painkillers and antibiotics, he started feeling better almost right away.  Thursday he stayed home from school but was disinfected enough to return to Karate that afternoon.  It's important to not miss Karate, you know--according to him!  By Friday he was trailing through the deepest snow drifts with the rest of the elementary schoolers of Springville.

The Monday after Christmas, Kevin and I planned a getaway to celebrate both our birthdays.  But before we left, the kids wanted us to take them sledding.  God gave us lots of fluffy snow for Christmas, and Grandpa and Maria gave us a sled, so we had everything we needed!

In the afternoon, Kevin and I drove up to Park City.  We found some trails to hike to enjoy the beauty of the mountains in that ski valley.  We had dinner and sat in the spa and watched a movie!  It was a fun night.  The next day, we drove into Midway and found some fluffier snow so we could try out the snowshoes we had borrowed from our friends.  It was a fun way to be out in the sunshine even when the weather is colder!  And of course, I loved spending time with my man!  Happy Birthday to us!

The rest of the week was a bit of a blur.  The kids were all home from school, but Kevin went back to work.  Sarah organized some games with friends and explored a couple more job options.  Megan worked at Funfinity.  Mariah had basketball practices.  Cali and Chey played with friends and read books and went sledding at least twice more.  Beth played with friends and with her new dolls and with her sisters.  Ben had a Karate party and played Minecraft and watched all the episodes of Troll Hunters and may have completed Ninjago again.

Saturday night was our big New Year's Eve bash that we have every year with the Groslands.  We had a couple of extra friends and with all the grown-up kids we're accumulating, it made for a big group!  We played games and had snacks and then counted down the New Year and toasted it with sparkling apple cider!  Then we took our noisiness outside for a walk around the block.  It was a great night!  Happy 2017!  It's going to be a good one!

We had four more days of school to finish up this week.  Gifts had to be delivered for Relief Society's sub for santa.  Cali and Chey had another day of tennis.  Ben had two more days of Karate. I still had a couple more gifts to obtain and a funeral to oversee the luncheon for on Friday!  Not to mention, two birthdays and Christmas!!

Kevin's birthday was on Wednesday.  Someone donated tickets to the Heber Train's Polar Express Ride to all the first graders and one parent,to be used Wednesday evening.  So, for Kevin's birthday, he got to take his son on the Polar Express!  Pretty fun, right?  They had a great time and went out to eat for burgers afterward, but no worries, I made Kevin his fried chicken the night before and buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.  We love that dad of ours!

The next day was Megan's 18th birthday!!!  How did she get to be that old?  It's like she's all grown up or something!  To celebrate, we headed over to the Brick Oven for pizza and root beer and free chocolate pie.  Oh, and the teen boy making balloon creations, spent extra time at our table!  Afterwards, Meg REALLY wanted to see Christmas lights.  So, we went to Christmas in Color in Provo where the lights are synchronized to music and very incredible.  The pictures don't do it justice.  We went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's after that for a very special cake and finished up by opening presents including a phone headset Meg could plug into her cell phone--from Savannah!  It was a very fun day.

Saturday was Christmas Eve!  Sarah, with varying help from her siblings, made gingerbread men and shortbread cookies on Friday while I was helping at the church.  So, on Saturday, we were able to pile in the van and deliver to our church teachers and friends and thank them for all they bring into our lives!  That night we went to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's for our traditional candlelight dinner, talent show, nativity, and Grandma and Grandpa gift exchange.  It was lovely.

Sunday was Christmas Day!!  The kids woke us up at 7:00am.  Actually, I should say that they woke me up.  Kevin had been up for an hour shoveling already.  Our world turned from wet, black shiny streets to deep white everywhere overnight!  We opened presents and had French toast breakfast and opened more presents.  Then, guess what?  It was time for church!  So we got dressed up and headed over to the chapel through the snow.  Mariah, Cali, Cheyenne, and I sang in the choir and we sang three songs.  There were also two great talks and afterward there were hugs and Merry Christmases from so many of the people we love!  Then back home to work on our turkey dinner and to get the computer set up for . . . OUR TALK WITH SAVANNAH!!  It was just too short!  But it was so great to hear her laugh and see her face and listen to her stories.  We sure love that girl!  Having her face on our screen was the best part of Christmas.  *Sigh* Then we went back to dinner preparations and had a lovely dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik.  After cleanup, we played the game Megan gave us for Christmas, Ticket to Ride, where Kevin beat us all by a gazillion point margin, just like he does in every game!  How does he do that?  Anyway, we love him and we love our family and we had a great time being together all day!  We are so grateful for the gift of God's son and our chance of eternal life and eternal family because of Him.  We hope your Christmas was just as filled with love!