Sarah and Cali got their hair cut this week! They went together on Monday which was a holiday so they had no school. They spent the rest of the week wishing they hadn't cut so much off! The rest of us think they look adorable.

Cali had two basketball games this week and did great in them. She also got a babysitting job for someone in our ward and made new little friends.

Sarah found an elementary school where she could volunteer and we went to Grandma's house together for a movie when they turned our power off for several hours on Thursday.

Benjamin had a basketball game this week and scouts and karate and school. He made forts on Saturday. Outside with Sterling and an inside "base camp" with Kyler.

Savannah had classes and work. She also got past her writer's block and did some more writing. She treated us to Iron Man 3 on Saturday night.

Cheyenne had a basketball game on Friday. She did great although she wishes she could have played more. She also got a job in our neighborhood working with our neighbor's dog.

Bethany got to spend Saturday with her friend, Josie, who moved away about two years ago, and her friend, Lili, who was having a birthday party. Fun times! This week she played some basketball games and did karate and had drama club.

Mariah had a Friday basketball game. She did great and got to play a bit more, but if she had played even more, we could have won the game! (In my expert opinion). She also worked a whole lot and went to Mr. Springville with Calianne on Saturday night.

Today we all went to our old ward to see the homecoming talk of our friend, Daniel Henstra. He did super! It made us miss our Megan, even more (is that possible?)! It is a happy thing when missionaries come home!

We made it through another week!

Savannah made it through her Tuesday and Thursday of school. She made it through a bout of sickness and low energy, too. It was a tough week, but she is feeling better! We watched The Avengers on Saturday night and are on schedule for our "marathon."

Sarah settled in for her second week of classes at UVU. She just needs to find an elementary school that will let her get her volunteer hours and find a guitar that is not so heavy and she will be all set! She already has enough UVU swag to look completely adorable wherever she goes!

Mariah is the best player on her basketball team! And she is getting fewer and fewer minutes every game. We are all learning what to do when life doesn't go the way we think it should and to still find ways to enjoy it. She had games on Tuesday and Friday and worked all the other days and had early-morning practice everyday. She is one busy kid! She also went to MORP on Saturday with a boy named Justin. They took pictures at the res, went bowling, had lasagna at a friend's house, went to the dance, and played One Night Werewolf. She said it was a great time.

Cheyenne played games on Tuesday and Saturday, too. She is playing great, too, but she is a freshman on a sophomore team so doesn't get much playing time either. It has started to really bother her this week and has decided that the only solution is for us to move to Idaho. I'm not sure how this will help, but she is convinced.

Calianne played games on Monday and Wednesday and played almost the entire game both times. She had great fun. Her classes have changed for the new semester and she doesn't have as many friends in her classes as before. This will take some time to get used to, but she doesn't think we ought to move to Idaho because of it.

Bethany had games on Monday and Wednesday and on Wednesday something new happened when we won! That was pretty exciting since Monday she spent an hour crying after our loss. (When is basketball season over again?) She started practices for the school play on Thursday and she is really going to like that. She is one of the talking trees in the Wizard of Oz!

Benjamin had games on Monday and Wednesday, too. He is playing pretty good! He is not convinced he likes the game, tho. There's a lot of pressure. I can't argue with that. He does like his jersey, though. I think he thinks he looks pretty cool in it. I can't argue with that, either.

Savannah and Sarah started school this week!

Sarah started on Monday, decided all her classes were too easy, toyed with the idea of adding Accounting because that would definitely solve that problem, but the times didn't work so she added guitar instead and it is her favorite class! She also got another class substituted with credits from BYUI so she was able to drop it. She could probably drop her math classes, too but she is feeling it may be more work to get them their paperwork than to actually just take the classes. Ha!

Savannah started on Tuesday because she arranged her schedule for only Tuesday and Thursday classes. She is very busy on those days! But then she can work the other days of the week. That makes her busy on those days, too. She has a finance class and is hoping that it will be easier now that she's taken accounting. One can hope! She also has two English classes in two different buildings at two different times but with the same teacher. She's not sure how that happened. Ha ha.

Mariah had games on Tuesday and Friday and she worked for Springville Rec Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. She has managed to arrange her life so that she is in a gym more often than anywhere else and she loves it! She has started refereeing basketball games for the first time in her life while at work. That's another skill to add to her list!

Cheyenne had games on Tuesday and Friday, as well. She loves it! She is also working for Springville Rec. She worked on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. She gets to ref the little kids' games. Pretty fun! She is also finding time to practice piano and is sounding really good. She is pro at keeping us all to a schedule. She gets to bed at 9:30 every night because of her 5:30am practices, so she's like "Family scriptures, family prayer quick! I gotta go to bed!"

Calianne had games on Monday and Thursday. She played almost the entire games both times. Their point guard is out with an injury and Cali has taken her place. It is a lot of pressure but Cali is doing really well with it. She is loving her team! She is also practicing a lot of piano and also sounding really good!

Bethany had games on Monday and Wednesday nights with me as her coach! We had great fun and lost both times by just a little bit. Beth played great. She also had a Bantam game on Saturday. That was after her belt exam for Karate which took all morning. She is now an orange belt and seven steps from black belt!

Benjamin had no basketball games this week because his team had a BYE. (Yay!) He had karate, though, and scouts. He even walked to scouts and then took like an hour to walk home with his friend, Nico. It was a warmish day and the sun was kinda out! Good day. Saturday, he also had a belt exam and goes up to orange belt. I had to watch him and Bethany spar. I didn't want to climb under my chair this time so I must be getting more used to this whole karate thing!

My "little accounting job" turned into "my huge accounting job" this week. I was on a three-hour call with a client and got multiple emails each day and gave every extra minute to financial statements. Ugh. I was ready to throw in the towel! But I think I made good progress and next week might get some minutes to myself again. Maybe?

Kevin had a cool thing at work this week. They organized their own professional two-day conference and invited all their therapists from different states. Kevin gave three presentations and they heard from other therapists doing presentations as well. They are becoming quite a large force!

Monday was New Year's Eve! As is traditional, the Groslands came over and we played games until midnight! At midnight, the kids ran out into the snow in their barefeet and we toasted each other with bubbly apple cider. It was a ton of fun. We look forward to that every year.

Tuesday was New Year's Day and my birthday! Kevin and I went to see Aquaman in the theatre and then out to dinner at the Olive Garden where they gave me free chocolate fudge cheesecake. Yum! Back at home, all the kids sang to me and we had a family night where we all set goals for the year. Cheyenne wanted a family goal where every kid vacuums one day a week! I liked that one. We will see how it goes! We are also going to learn a hymn each month--with parts! (We will see how that one goes too . . . Ha ha!) I am going to take a page out of Kevin's fitness book and try to walk 8000 steps a day this year. I will have one week done today!

Wednesday was back to school and back to a hundred other things. Cali had basketball practice from 3 to 5. Chey had a basketball game at 3:30. Beth had basketball practice from 4:30 to 5:30. Ben had Pack Meeting at 6:00 and Mariah had a game at 7:00. I was in charge of Beth's basketball practice AND Ben's pack meeting (we made clothespin cowboys riding clothespin horses. They were adorable). Kevin coached Ben's basketball team's first game at 6:30 even though Ben wasn't there and still the two of us managed to catch the end of Mariah's basketball game. Phew! Sarah cheered on Chey at her basketball game and picked up Calianne for us and saved us seats at Mariah's game. Savannah was back to work that day. It was a really hard day to end vacation with and I was really, really happy when we could look back at it from the other side!

Thursday was relatively peaceful! Practices and karate all done by dinnertime. Yay! Actually, Mariah and Chey were reffing basketball games that night, I think. It was peaceful for the rest of us.

Friday Chey and Mariah had games in Heber. Sarah said she'd hold down the fort for me, so Kevin left work early and we spent the afternoon/evening in Heber watching games, doing some walking, and having some dinner. They both lost, boo! But we had fun and got some milkshakes for the ride home.

Saturday, Savannah bought us all tickets to go see Spider-Man into the Spiderverse! Somehow, (and it really was quite a feat: Mariah and Chey came straight from work and Beth, Dad, and I left immediately afterward to go to Beth's bantam game) she found two hours where we were all free and we met at the theatre in three cars, but we all made it and had a great time! Thanks, Savannah!

During the week, we were surprised to receive a box from Singapore! Megan sent us each a t-shirt and a letter. We wore them all in the above picture. We love them! Just like we love that Megan girl! It felt like she was there in the theatre with us!