Cali and Cheyenne had their last two games of basketball this week. It was the city rec tournament! They won Monday night by just five points in an exciting game which put them in the championship game Wednesday night! They played a great game, but in the end they lost. It was very hard on Cali and Chey. The league is made up of girls from their high school and they're friends with a lot of them. It's hard to have your friends work against you even when it's within the rules. Still, second place is none too shabby, especially when you only have a seven-player team, and two of them are beginners! Kevin had a great time coaching them.

Last weekend, Maple Mountain High School performed Anastasia. Megan wanted to go and bring all her sisters! Unfortunately, the only night that worked was Monday night and then the twins found out that would be the first game of their tournament. They were bummed! But it did work out for Savannah, Sarah, Megan, and Bethany to go. They had a great time!

This weekend, Benjamin had a chance to go to the movies with his friends! His friend's little sister was having a birthday party, and they had extra tickets to their private showing of The Croods 2. So, they invited the "Browskis!" They had a great time and when they got home they met up on Google Meets for online games.

Bethany had a party of her own on Friday night. She invited girls over from school and they played Werewolf and other games. It was fun to hear their excited chatter. On Saturday, she invited Lily, a childhood friend she hadn't seen for awhile and they had a fun time reminiscing about old times! Earlier in the day, though, she decided to work on her curling iron skills and was joined by Cali! Aren't they lovely?

Savannah is caught up in the excitement of getting herself a bird! She wants a cockatiel and the closest breeder she found was in Montana! This has made her wonder if maybe she'd like to be a cockatiel breeder? Could be fun! She's also thinking of becoming a beekeeper, too. It is fun to see her so excited!

I finished book seven in my series this week. I also got started on taxes Saturday. Fun times! I'm going to start volunteering with a program called Circles that helps people get out of poverty and I attended a couple of trainings this week. I'm learning a lot!

Kevin was the keynote speaker for that conference in the Middle East! They said they were pleased with his address, and he hopes that they are. It's hard to tell when you can't see your audience! That was a lot of pressure off of him when he was done, though. He ran an intensive for women the last three days of this week and that's always emotionally draining. Not to mention the coaching he did for the twins, too! He was glad to have Saturday off to play some tennis and unwind a bit.

 Monday was President's Day! Nobody had school so we used the chance to have a Family activity--married kids attendance required! Ha ha! I want us to have at least one every month. January we had our virtual family campout with Megan in charge. Beth wanted to come up with the idea this month and her choice was an Escape Room! I found one that you could download and do from home. We pretended to be travelers on a space ship that was attacked by space pirates. We were locked in the cargo room and had to find a way to get the computer back online so we could open the doors. If we didn't, then the outside doors would open and blast us into space--dead! Luckily, we managed to work together, complete the puzzles, and escape with 15minutes to spare. We are a pretty amazing group.

Then it snowed. I feel like it snowed every day all day long but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that bad. Still, we had a lot of snow. Ben invited Eden and Max over on Wednesday for sledding. They did sled (Beth joined the group, too) but they also made a pretty epic snow fort, too. They spent two hours out in the snow! Luckily, no one lost any fingers or toes but they did hurt when they came back inside!

Cali and Chey also had snow adventures. They went to the park with their friends to play Ultimate Frisbee while it was snowing. Crazy kids! In the end, they made a snowman instead and they even got one of their friends to stand on top. That is very crazy.

In addition to all the fun snow activities, Calianne worked at Funfinity twice this week, and Chey and Cali both worked basketball games for city rec. They only had one day of tennis and I think that was a nice break. They also had ACT prep with their friends and on Saturday night had an all-girl Valentine's party complete with homemade, heart-shaped pizzas, Valentine mailboxes, and of course, Valentine cards with candy. Cali planned the whole thing and it looked like everyone had a great time!

On Saturday evening, our friend, Brinlee, got married. Yay Brinlee! The twins, Beth, and I helped at the reception. It was fun to see friends! Afterwards, we took Beth's friends, Siena and Macy home with us and they had a late night of fun.

Saturday morning, Beth and Ben had a practice belt test. They worked hard from 9am to 1pm. That karate is serious stuff! The least I could do was take them to McDonald's afterwards. They both had adult-sized meals and gobbled them up. They needed some sustenance!

Savannah also had a party with friends this week! She invited over a bunch of girl friends. They played games and talked. They had fun. I think it was good for all of them.

Kevin had an intensive this week and he said it was really hard. Poor guy. This week he speaks in church today, is the keynote for a conference in the Middle East Tuesday morning, and will do another intensive for work.

I started my next book and got four chapters done. I also put myself on a schedule to train for a 5K! So, I ran three times this week. It almost killed me.

We watched the church's Friend to Friend this afternoon. It inspired Beth to do some more drawing. Here is one of her pictures:

Saturday was Savannah's birthday! She's been working all week on making jewelry for her friends. She missed giving presents to her friends at Christmas and decided that a "hobbit birthday" where she gives presents to her friends instead of receiving presents would be perfect this year! She also made a favorite Chinese treat, pineapple buns or bolo bao. She worked on that during the day Saturday and they turned out great! Her friends came over that evening and they had pizza and pineapple buns and played games. Fun times! We love that Savannah girl and love seeing her do her own thing. We're so glad she came to us 25 years ago and started our family full of love and life!

The twins have been as busy as ever. They've had work and tennis and homework, homework, homework. They had another ACT study group at our house on Saturday. They're not sure how much the study groups are helping because they say their friends are so much smarter than them! I think the more practice they get answering ACT questions, the better they'll do!

Bethany had karate and play practices as usual this week. She also had YW this week! We decorated paper hearts and taped them to the doors of our outgoing bishopric as well as our new bishopric. We should be having more regular YW activities now. I know Bethany will really love that.

Benjamin had karate this week. Cheyenne and Kimball took him to the new Spuds restaurant in town. He sang the potato song for them and they bought him French fries. Ben thought it was Cheyenne's best date idea ever! Ben and Max and Max's mom, Lesa, and I went for a walk Friday. We made Ben and Max climb a tree. They enjoyed it!

Today we had a special dinner for Savannah's birthday and we had Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik over. It's always fun to be together like that. Megan and Ammon stayed around for awhile after and we frosted some heart-shaped sugar cookies for Valentine's day!

Calianne is making a Valentine's box for a girl party later this week. It is dinosaur-themed, of course. Ben enjoyed playing with the dinosaurs she didn't use.

Savannah drove home safely from Nevada on Sunday. She was exhausted, but happy! She came home rejuvenated. She worked Tuesday through Saturday and Friday morning she and I went to a Zumba class at our city rec center. We danced! It was fun!

Cali and Chey have been busy with homework, tennis, work, and piano. Friday night, Kevin and I drove them to a tennis club in Salt Lake City that was having a speed tournament--three matches in three hours. It ended up being more like four hours. They played hard! They lost all their matches but it was great experience for them.

Cheyenne was on that far court. We couldn't see her very well!

Saturday they had a basketball game with no subs. They played hard there, too! They had worked that morning. That evening, they had a big group of friends come over for an ACT study group and finished off the day with a movie. All their days are full, full, full.

Bethany had some play practices after school. She also had karate. Friday when we went up to SLC, she and Ben went to the Francom's and had a great time. On Saturday, she went to her friend, Olivia's house for most of the day and into the night. She is getting tall and doesn't fit under my chin anymore when she gives me hugs! And she gives lots of hugs! She is a sweet girl.

Benjamin had karate and guitar lessons this week. He also asked me to take him to the library! I am always game for that! He has been spending some of his time reading and it is great to see. He still spends much of his afternoons playing with Max.

Kevin worked from home on Friday and it was fun to have him around. He's been having some side pain. The doctor thinks maybe its his gallbladder so he'll have that checked out next week.

I got some more chapters done on my book. I also went walking with my neighbor, Heidi, one day and walking with my friend, Jen, on another. Walking is a fun way to connect with people. So is Zumba with your daughter!