Week of April 20 - April 26

When we got back from spring break last weekend, we came home to a basement whose remodeling was almost complete! Grandpa Gazdik has been helping us with our basement and he took advantage of our absense to get a whole lot done. We sure appreciate all his hard work for us! He handed the reins over to us this week to get the painting done. Kevin and I have been painting and painting! I painted the bathroom (three different colors) and its shelves and Kevin painted the hallway all the way up the stairs and into the coatroom. Kevin also painted all the new ceilings. I did the new hallway doors and the coatroom shelves. Crazy, huh? We didn't even use a Saturday. We just used the bits and pieces of time we had throughout the week. This week we need to get the floors done (we will stain the concrete) before we hand the reins back over to Jim.




Megan had her Hershey Track Meet this week. That's when all the elementary schools in Springville come together for a day and compete in about eight different track events. Each grade goes on a separate day. Megan does not like to run much, so for her three events she choose only one running event (the 100 meter) and did two field events (softball throw and long jump). Here is her after running the 100 meter:

Isn't she cute? Whew! That wore her out! She ran hard, though and I had great fun cheering loudly at the finish line! GO MEGAN! The rest of the day she got to just hang out with her friends and cheer for the other kids.

Cheyenne got stomach flu for a full day this week. Poor girl! Calianne had it for just an evening, too, but no one else has had it so far. Let's hope it stays that way!

Kevin went to a pornography conference this weekend promoted by the church. He had a booth and got to share his book and CDs that he has created. It was a full day for him but a productive one!

Week of April 13 to April 19

We had a busy week here in our family! Last week I noticed as I watched Sarah, Megan, and Mariah (my elementary school children) out the window as they headed for school, that they were skipping. "How fun!" I thought. Later that day Mariah came home very excited to tell me about a horse of hers that she had made up and how wonderful it was. It took me a little while to put the two together. I decided I needed to document this creative outburst from my children. Here is the result:

We only had two days of school last week, so when Kevin got home from work Tuesday night, we got in the car and drove down to Las Vegas. We arrived a little before midnight -- Las Vegas time!

Our first day there, my sister Amy took a day off teaching school and brought her children over to play. It was tons of fun. That night we ate tacos and played Acquire (at least Sarah, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa did). Grandma got to rock Bethany asleep.

On Thursday, we drove out to see my friend Kim and her new baby. Ahhh. She has five boys and this last one was a baby girl! Probably my staying at her house with my seven girls this summer helped out. Of course! When we left her house, we drove out to Red Rock Canyon. I would show you pictures, but I left my camera at Kim's house while I was there. This is very typical of me, but it was very gut-wrenching anyway! My mom lent me her camera. When I get those pictures, perhaps I will post them. We went on a very fun hike. The desert was greener than I ever remember seeing it and we got to see a trickling seasonal waterfall. It was very beautiful in among the rocks and the trees. Grandpa, Savannah, Sarah, Megan, and Mariah, even hiked back behind the waterfall to check out the cave and check for a secret dragon lair. (If there was one, they're not letting on!) Afterward, Grandma and Grandpa drove back for my purse. (Nice, huh?) Then Diane came over and the adults went out for Chinese food. Yum!

On Friday, we took our family to the park in the morning and then all the families in Las Vegas met that evening at a park for a picnic and visiting. It was great fun to see Dave, and Pete and Monica and family, and Amy's family again, and Diane and Jason. Beth spent lots of time with Dave:

And with Grandpa:

The cousins had a great time. Here are just a few of them playing under the lights. Didn't you know those are really balance beams and not horseshoe pits?

The twins told me they wanted to move to Las Vegas so they can play with their cousins all the time! They really had fun with Kayla from Amy's family, and Piper from Pete's family.

On Saturday, we got packed up and then went out to old Henderson for a parade! Wasn't that nice of them to organize a parade for us while we were there? I thought so. Mandy and Kayla marched with their dance class:

And Amy had her band march for us!

HI AMY!!!

It was a great trip and the weather was even nice for the last two days! We will definitely have to do that again some time!

Week of April 6 to April 12

Well, it was Easter Week! Hopefully, I will be able to once again amaze you with my blogging abilities and you can see our pictures from egg decorating and hunting in a slide show. It was a rainy, dark day on Saturday and Kevin had to work throughout the morning and early afternoon, so we didn't get to do eggs until after dinner and then we had our hunt inside the house! It was very fun. That way we got to hide the older girls' eggs in really hard places -- hence, Megan's classic picture during the hunt.

On Sunday, we gave the girls some nice, simple gifts and then we got dressed for church. Believe it or not, I finally finished the set of dresses for which I bought fabric one year ago! I actually had Megan and Mariah help to sew theirs since theirs were the last ones that needed to get done. While I was working with Megan, she said, "Mom, I thought of the next story I will write for school. I'll call it Sewing." I'm just holding my breath, waiting for the punch line. Sure enough. "It'll go like this: 'My mom thought of a new way to torture me. It's called sewing!" Ha, ha. Nice, huh? That just proves Megan was actually having a grand time. She just likes to wring all the silliness she can out of every circumstance!

They're actually really simple dresses, but the addition of scarves makes them really fun, I think. Here's a pic:

I didn't make Beth's dress, of course. She blends in, though, so it's all good. Sarah is not taller than Savannah. Savannah is just leaning against the piano.

We had a nice Easter/birthday dinner for Grandma on Friday at her house and the girls had an egg hunt then, too. It was great fun. We needed to do that on Friday because they were leaving the next day for Idaho.

Savannah had her first track meet on Friday. She ran the mile and her time was 6:43. Fun, huh? She also ran in the 4x400 relay and the 4x100 relay. If you ask her if she likes track, she will tell you that it is a love/hate relationship. She loves running but hates all the time track takes. She actually has to work at practices. Horror!

Week of March 30 to April 5

Well, Beth did it this week! She figured out how to crawl! Here is a video of her halting progress. (She definitely wouldn't win any races quite yet.) The second half of the video isn't as good at showing her crawling, but you do get to see her beautiful eyes gazing up at us. Ahhhh. :)

April Fool's Day was pretty funny around here. Sarah got really into it -- at least for our family! First, she brought home a citation from one of her teachers (that's like a really serious, "your child has been BAD" note from school). That girl could never hold a straight face! She handed me the paper and stood there trying not to laugh and failed miserably. "Sarah!" I said. "You got a citation?"

"Yep!" she said, laughter escaping before she could get her mouth shut again.

"Are you serious, Sarah, or is this an April Fool's joke?"

"It's an April Fool's joke!" she said and the giggles absolutely consumed her. Then she had to tell me the whole story of how she and her friends finally found a teacher who would give them one just as a joke. Then she said she had another joke planned for me, but was that okay? Would I get mad because she knew that some people didn't like April Fool's jokes. That is so Sarah, to make sure no one is going to get mad! But, uh, how am I supposed to answer that question?

"Er, I guess so. I think I'll be okay," I managed.

"Good!" she said thoroughly pleased and still in a state of high mirth.

She checked on me a couple times that afternoon. "Did you get your April Fool's joke, yet?" she would ask.

Finally, as I was setting the table for dinner, I noticed she was rather following me around. I got out a serving spoon that had a water spot on it, and I decided to use a little water on it to clean it up before I used it. As I turned the faucet on to just a trickle, I noticed that the sprayer to the side of the sink was dribbling water, too. I looked at it in confusion and then looked up into Sarah's mischevious face. Light dawned.

She burst into giggles again and said, "Darn!! You ruined it! You were supposed to turn it on all the way!" -- all this while she is still laughing fit to burst. It makes me laugh even now thinking about it! She is so funny.

I wondered, though, if I would have laughed if I had gotten sprayed full on in the face?? But how could I not? I had given her permission! The funniest part is that I didn't get wet, but during the afternoon while she was waiting for her trap to spring, she got thirsty and turned on the water for a drink . . . and she got all wet!

April Fools!

Aha, ha! Now I have two slideshows!

Week of March 23 to March 29

I'm trying really, really hard to add a slideshow to my sidebar, but so far it is not working! Grrr! Keep checking back, though, maybe I will figure it out! (Cross your fingers!)

Guess what horrible, profane thing is happening today in Springville, Utah?? IT IS SNOWING! Argh! I have had enough! I know that I go through this every year, but really, when you have some days in the 60s, you just start to really believe that you might be done. Not only that but it awakens your memories. You remember summer. After that, you just can't go back, and if the weather goes back, well, you just have a hard time forgiving it.

Yesterday, though, the weather was lovely. Kevin had to work during the day teaching a class for singles, so that evening, after an early dinner, we went over to the track for some family running! We had a great time. Savannah is running on the junior high track team this spring. They've only had about a week and a half of practices and she hasn't decided on her events, yet, but we know that she will do great and the experience will be good for her. Sarah signed up for the 800 (two times around the track) for the grade-school track meet that is held every year. The difference is, Sarah has decided to practice for it. She wants to WIN (or at least do really well!) The pictures in the slideshow are from our evening at the track. It was a beautiful evening wasn't it? It was even full of beautiful kids!

Beth is still not crawling, but she is doing "the log roll" and can get from one side of the room to the other. She only gets frustrated when something is straight in front of her -- then she can't roll to it! She even got herself back into a sitting position from a laying down position this week! Pretty impressive I'd say!

I bought the twins some little plastic clogs and Cheyenne decided to write her name on them since her and Cali's are identical. She is writing her name really well and likes to write it on paper and in the fog on the door and in the snow on the car -- you get the idea. I didn't at all mind that she wrote her name on her shoes. I didn't mind at all that is until I realized that she had written her name on two right shoes. Ahh, the funny thing about having two of everything! Anyway, I did manage to get her name off one of the shoes (hairspray gets out ballpoint pen, if you ever need to know!) and she wrote "Chey" on a left shoe to make a pair with the other right. Marvelous!

Cheyenne has also started to pronounce Calianne's name correctly. Previously, Cheyenne had managed to consolidate all three syllables of Calianne's name into one. I think that is quite a linquistical achievement. The hard 'C' sound was hard to pronounce, too, so Cheyenne referred to Cali as "Tan." Cute, huh? I actually always thought so. Calianne, however, did not. She started yelling at Cheyenne and telling her, "My name is not TAN! It is CALIANNE!!!" It didn't take much of this before Cheyenne was saying, "Okay! Calianne!" And so ended a lovely little period in the twins' lives. Hopefully, we will always remember it, though. (Cheyenne also calls the library, the "strawberry." She knows she's not saying it right, but she has a hard time remembering the right way. I think it's adorable.)

I hope you all have a great week!

Week of March 16 through March 22

The big news for this week is that my friend from a hundred years ago came to visit me! Well, not exactly a hundred years ago, but a lot anyway! Dawn and I became friends in third grade when I first moved to Illinois and we stayed friends through grade school, junior high, and our freshman year of high school (that's seven years!) after which my family and I moved away to Las Vegas. We have kept in touch and she has visited me off and on through the years. She came into town for a convention a few days early so she could spend time with me! It was tons of fun! Here is Dawn and I (a hundred years ago) when we were in junior high:

Aren't we cute? This picture is from my birthday party, hence the lovely bows in my hair. And here is a picture of us this weekend at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon:

We look just the same, right? Of course we do. We had a great time, too. Dawn told me all about her life as a brilliant Chemistry professor at the University of Iowa in Cedar Falls and she got to hang out with me and all these kids! We went to Thanksgiving Point and to Bridal Veil and on Friday night just the two of us went out for Indian food and a movie. What? A girls' night out? How fun for me! I hope it was fun for Dawn, too. I think it was. I think it is so great that she would make the time to come and visit me and keep that connection alive. What a gal!

So, other than that, our stake women's basketball team (of which I am a part) won the regional tournament this weekend! Rockin', huh? I played in the semi-finals game the first night Dawn was here and she took lots of pictures of which I am not going to show you any! It was really fun, though. Savannah and Sarah played on the Young Women's team which competed this weekend, too. They won their first game, but lost the championship game by a close margin. They had fun, too, especially since Kevin got to step in as their coach! He had fun, too!

I also went to parent-teacher conferences on Thursday night and learned that all my children are delightful and doing just fine in school. On Friday morning, Sarah and I and the twins went and helped out the PTA by decorating one of the teacher's doors for Teacher Appreciation Week. It just happened to be Sarah's teacher. Here is a picture of our stunning artistic achievement:

Do you think she'll feel appreciated? I do hope so.

Have a great week!