Amazing

The kids have been begging Mike to audition for The Amazing Race. Well, they wanted both of us, but when I convinced them I am terrible at directions, I can't lift anything with my wrists, there is no way I could choke down something disgusting and I don't drink beer . . . they realized I wasn't a good choice. We were joking that Mike needed to get a nonmember to run the race with him, then he could do any beer drinking challenges. I was teasing that we could do an Xtranormal video and sign them up. Mike didn't like that idea. He thought we should ask Nate first. Anyway, it looks like Mike had a ton of fun at work making the video. I told Mike to make sure he wasn't a perfectionist on this thing - he tends to get that way, but the videos were due today. My favorite thing is Mike was wearing his I love robots shirt, but recorded much of the video with the webcam, so his shirt is backwards! Haha! At least he promised not to be a perfectionist, so he sent it in anyway. The kids think he is so cool!

While Mike was busy making videos, I took the Young Womens to the Festival of Trees. A couple of their houses had sold, which was pretty cool. Maysen, Stockton and Jorja's houses had all sold as well. Pretty exciting. I can't wait to go with my family!

Precious Preston

Jorja has a hard time being brave enough to speak Chinese in class. Before she left for school, I challenged her to say a sentence in Chinese to her teacher. If she did, I would give her a quarter. Bribery, I know. Anyway, Preston overheard this conversation and wanted to know why he never got quarters or dollars. So I start wining . . . no one ever gives me dollars . . . I do jobs like the laundry and cleaning the bathrooms and no one gives me dollars. Preston looks up at me and says, "One day they will." I started setting up the Dominion game (which Preston won even though I was positive I was going to win . . . how did he win? By buying estates! We each had 6 provinces, but he had been buying estates randomly . . . and it won him the game.)

Anyway, I could hear Preston fiddling around with change. I thought he was getting into the treasure chest, where Mike and I have coins. I thought, "How sweet. He is going to bring me a quarter." A few minutes later, Preston said he had a surprise for me and wanted me to close my eyes. When he said OPEN! He was holding a $5 bill. He said, "This is for you." He got the money from his bank. He had pried the bill out of his car bank and was giving me his birthday money. I couldn't believe it. I told him that was the nicest thing, but I still wanted him to have his birthday money. He looked down and said, "But I was giving it to you." Wow. I love that boy. (Don't worry, I didn't take his money.)

Now to my embarrassing story of the day. I bought a turkey breast at the store the other day. I wanted to cook it for dinner tonight. Mike has always done the turkeys, but I thought I would give it a shot. I got everything ready and put it in the oven for three hours. Awhile later I decided to make rolls. I melted the butter/sugar concoction on the stove to put in the flour mixture. When I had the rolls ready to rise, I went to get Mike at work. Maysen was babysitting and I let her know I had the stove on. I have never left home before with the stove on, but I was pretty sure everything would be fine. When Mike walked in, he noticed the burner was on the stove. Apparently instead of turning off the burner when I melted the butter, I turned off the stove. Good one Steph. I am sick to my stomach about it though. Not just because I messed up dinner (again), but of what could have happened. I am so lucky no one got burned while I was gone. Especially Jorja. I know she microwaved something. She always climbs up on the stove when she does that. SO THANKFUL she didn't put her little hand on the burner! Man, some days I wonder why I even try.

Delivered

I had such a hard time sleeping last night. I kept imagining all the things that could go wrong. Luckily, nothing did. Mike, Maysen and I took 14 gingerbread houses to the Festival of Trees in the morning. Stockton didn't want to go, so he took the bus . . . and didn't throw up! I had a lot of fun with this project, but I am glad it is finished. Maysen did this gingerbread house for her value project for Good Works. Actually, I did the gingerbread houses for my Good Works value project as well. Believe me, we spent way more than ten hours on this project! It was a fun one though!

Maysen

Preston . . . his was not donated . . . we get to eat it!

Family gingerbread picture minus Mike. He is still in incredible pain from his tooth. At least I talked him into taking one of us before we gave them away. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball for our picture next year.

Stockton, Maysen, Jorja, Steph, Preston

Man

We had tithing settlement today. Preston was embarrassing.

Dead Teeth

By the end of the day, Mike was in intense pain because of his tooth. He had a root canal done on one side of his mouth a few weeks ago. The dentist told him he needed two, but Mike was hoping to space everything out. Once the side that was really hurting was fixed, the side that was only hurting a little bit started hurting a ton. We filled a prescription for lortab, but today that was barely taking the edge off. His appointment isn't until December 7. It is going to be a long week and a half.

Airport Run

Early this morning I woke up to take my dad to the airport. He is headed to Israel! I didn't sleep well, I was nervous that I would oversleep and my dad would miss his plane. I owe him many, many airport runs.

Miah came over and played with Jorja today. Jorja loved that. I was busy and didn't pay them much attention, so I hope all went well.

Maysen and Stockton had a doctor appointment today. Maysen got two shots and Stockton got three. They were thrilled. I told the doctor that I still have Stockton ride in a booster seat, and he was wanting to get out. I actually expected her to tell me it was okay. Nope. She wants him to be three inches taller, then he can. He didn't like hearing that.

Stockton is in the 7% for weight and the 8% for height. Maysen is in the 3% for weight and the 1% for height. Maysen made a comment that Stockton is the shortest but the smartest. True. I am very grateful for the doctor we found. My friend Becky recommended her to me. She is really good. We all felt really comfortable with her. Now, I just need to find a doctor for me . . . especially since my medicine ran out about a month ago . . . .

Turkey Day

The kids have been dying to decorate the tree. So, after making several pies, cider and cranberry sauce, we finally gave in. The tree fits perfect in our new house. It was always a little small in our other ones. It sure looks nice with the lights on. The sad thing was, some of our personalized ornaments smeared. Mike thought it must have happened in the move, but I think it was because we stored the ornaments in the attic.

Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Stockton

Stockton

Preston

Once the tree was decorated, Mike helped me make a side dish of beans that I had never made before. This was very nice because Mike hates beans. The second they were finished, we were out the door to Mike's house. Well, the house he grew up in. We haven't been there since we moved out in February or March. Mike's sisters and brother were there with their families. We had the best time. It was perfect. Aimee, our niece, made the turkey. Delicious.

The kids had a great time with their cousins. Everyone was so happy. I wish I was not so tired, then I would be able to remember and document more. Too bad. Stockton went home with his cousins and Jorja has a promise that Miah will visit tomorrow. I hope it isn't too long until we all are able to get together again.

Cupcake

People wonder why they call it a cupcake. Well, a long time ago, people made the first cake to celebrate Keith Haddit's first birthday. Servants ran around frantically trying to make a new treat in 30 minutes. They just threw things into pans and hoped they got lucky. One servant did. He was tossing stuff into pots so fast now even he knew what he put in. So watch out when you eat cake, you never know that's in there.

So the servants brought out Keith's double decker extra excess chocolate to the death birthday cake. When they set it on the table, baby Keith smashed his cup deep into it. The world was over. His mom grabbed a plate and tried to shake the cake out of the cup.

When it fell out, everyone stared at it. A mini cake! Keith grabbed it and gobbled it up. His face was filled with crumbs. Everybody was still staring. Then Keith took his cup and killed the cake. It was disgusting. The first cake was a disaster, but it sacrificed its success for the success of the first cupcake.

---Stockton

Gingerbread Village

Finished! My big project of gingerbread houses with the Young Women was tonight. It was great. The girls had a blast. I had three new girls this week. What a fun way to start the Young Women program. As I was taking them home one of them shouted, "I love Young Women's already!" Awesome.

The girls were so creative with their houses. Especially Amanda. You can't see her house really good in the picture, but she made a sled out of wafers. I'll have to get a better picture later. I also loved all the different snow forts built out of sugar cubes. Severine had her gingerbread men hiding behind the fort. Looks pretty cool.

Gingerbread Village

Maysen also worked a long time on her gingerbread house. Hers is pretty fancy. I think she really likes it. She has lights inside. It looks really cool when the room is a little dark.

Maysen

Maysen's Mansion

Now the last thing I need to figure out for this Festival of Trees project is how to transport the houses. I'm not sure how to pull that off. My Monday is packed, especially with diving. I was hoping Mike could help me during his lunch break, but apparently Cyber Monday is a big deal where he works . . . he's not allowed to leave the building.

Assembled

Mike helped me assemble 9 gingerbread houses today. Okay, I helped him. Luckily Mike is on call this week, so he was able to help a ton. Maysen worked for a couple hours decorating her house. I took Stockton to diving and loved it. He looks so happy there. At the end of practice he is exhausted! That's about it for today . . . I'm exhausted.

More Gingerbread

I was able to get all the gingerbread houses cut out before church. Yay! I am making nine houses for the Young Women to decorate on Tuesday. Hopefully Mike will help me put them together tomorrow. We had a girl turn 12 today. We will have one turn 12 tomorrow and another one on Friday. Fun, fun, fun!

Gingerbread Factory

We started up Gingerbread Factory again. Maysen helped me make and cut the dough. Amazing how long that takes, but gingerbread houses are cool. Mike made yummy bread. Bubs timed it just right and came over right before the bread was able to come out of the oven. He took a loaf home with him. He said Ange is hurting right now. That stinks. I was hoping this one was going to be relatively easy. Anyway, feel better Ange!

Stockton worked on his science project a lot today. He will just need to do his poster board tomorrow. He wanted to see if he could control what number he would get when he rolled the dice. He rolled the dice 600 times normal and 600 times with a robot machine he made with Mike. He also rolled it 600 times where he tried to 'mind control' the dice. (Come on 6,6,6,6,6,6) He lost that data though.

VIP

Jorja was the VIP this week. I was able to go to her class and talk about her. Jorja left me a gigantic pile of stuff she wanted to bring. I filled a laundry basket and left the other things at home. We brought: Jorja's frog blanket from Grandma Parry, Sticky (her frog from Grandpa Millburn), Padz (her first webkinz), Padz (her new red eye tree frog), Cricket (her barking tree frog), her scrapbook, and her frog box she made with her dad . . . filled with frogs. I left home her ipod and roller skates. We also brought apple cider we made from our trees out back and doughnut holes - those we bought.

Jorja has been excited about this for weeks and weeks. She loved showing off her frogs, but was disappointed that I wouldn't let her pass them around. Although Padz did jump on Jazzie's hair.

In other news, Stockton had six teeth pulled today. They were all baby teeth. Stockton said it was worth it to miss school.

Shopping With Ella

Ella wanted me to take her to the grocery store. It was pretty funny. Ange, Lincoln and I went to the store awhile ago and Ella was disappointed that she didn't come. Ella kept asking when I would take her to the store, so we picked today as the date. While I was at the store, Preston called. I talked to him for a bit, then he wanted to talk to Ella. I don't know what he said, but Ella was so funny. She would say, "I can't because I'm the mom and I have all these babies to take care of." I was cracking up! It was so funny. (I know her babies to take care of are her carebears.) Anyway, I had a wonderful time with Ella. Ange had surgery yesterday, but looks great. She said she is doing so much better this time than the last time. (Her first surgery was her foot, this time it is her other foot.) Hope Ange's recovery is better this time as well!

Rachel

I talked to Rachel today for awhile. It was great. Can't wait to visit them in Japan. I'm just waiting on Matt to pick a wedding date. Come on Matt! Let us know! (Matt never reads my blog, so that will do no good.) But Rachel does, so HI RACHEL!

Still Preston

I love how when I take Preston visiting teaching, or to my presidency meetings, he will sit quietly for a couple of hours. He usually plays on my phone or the ipad. Sometimes he has paper to draw on. Everyone comments on how they can't believe he will sit still that long. He's awesome. Today we were at Sister Peck's house for an hour and a half. Sister Brockbank was coming over to curl Sister Peck's mom's hair. We were able to visit with Sister Brockbank while she did this. It worked out great. Preston just sat on my lap and was a perfect angel. I am so blessed.

Root Canal #1

This weekend, Mike's jeep started making horrible noises. Mike thinks the transmission is going out. Mike had an appointment in the morning for a root canal. After we got all the kids to school, I took Mike to his appointment. We assumed it would be a long one. I had presidency meeting at 9, so we agreed that I would stay until 10 and then pick him up. At 9:15 I get a text saying that he is done. What? I didn't expect it to be that fast. He had to wait at the dentist office for an hour before I could get there. Sorry about that. Mike said they were so fast because his tooth was so dead. Ouch. The only problem is now they are booked for several weeks, so Mike won't be able to get a crown on for awhile. It will be sometime after Thanksgiving. Not being able to chew well will probably put a damper on the holiday.

Padz

We left Wyoming about 6:30 in the morning. The roads were bad, but not the worst we have ever been through. We made it home just after 9. I dropped Maysen and Sam off and went straight to church. Stockton was having his Priesthood Preview. I snuck in the back just as Mike was getting up to give his talk. He did a great job. He talked about Preston's baby rules (which made Stockton smile) and how when you get the priesthood the baby rules don't apply anymore. Baby rules by the way are things like: If I see it it's mine, if I want it it's mine, if you have it it's mine, if it's yours it's mine . . . . Anyway, I was glad I was able to make it, even though I just came in my travelling clothes.

While I was gone, Mike took Jorja to American Fork and got her a red-eyed tree frog. She named him Padz. She has been working really hard to earn enough money for him. I think Mike helped her out A LOT by giving her jobs we would have normally had her do for no money, or paying her more than normal. Anyway, she really wanted this frog because she is the VIP next week and gets to bring a pet in on Friday. Along with Cricket, she wanted to bring this one. Plus, she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger.

Jorja & Padz

Stockton had some reading he needed to do for school. He does not like the book he is reading and wonders how it ever got published. (He is reading The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles.) Anyway, Jorja and Preston were having a great time playing the piano in the room Stockton was trying to read in. I talked him into reading in our bed with the heated mattress on. He looked so cozy I just had to take a picture.

Stockton

That is about all for today. It was fun to take Maysen on a quick get-away. Maysen really enjoyed it . . . but it is so good to be home!

Little America

So last night we ran out of gas. I had been looking for gas for almost an hour. Garmin even steered me wrong twice! We ended up running out of gas two miles from a gas station. So, we started walking. All three of us. Man those big trucks boom by fast! Sam was able to flag down a random stranger who agreed to drive us to the gas station. I bought a can to put the gas in ($14!) and then the guy took us back to our car. Very thankful he helped us out, and extremely thankful he wasn't crazy! Sam and I were laughing when we were back in our van because the guy says to us, "Don't you know it is dangerous walking out here in the dark?". Of course we knew it was dangerous. Did he think we planned to run out of gas? We were also very blessed. When we drove our car to the gas station to fill up, the same station we had just left . . . it was closed! If we had walked we would have been out of luck. As bad as running out of gas was, it couldn't have worked out better . . .

Anyway we made it to Sam's house about 11:30. Sam came with Maysen & I on our road trip. Her parents live in Cheyenne. We woke up to yummy waffles this morning. Maysen and I then drove around Cheyenne looking at street names and school names and how the buildings are laid out. Next we drove to Laraime. We wanted to go to a museum there. It wasn't exactly what Maysen was looking for. We then went to the geological mesuem. That was perfect. It was exactly what she was hoping for - she loved it.

We met Sam at McDonalds around 2 and were on the road soon after. Things went pretty well but it was very windy! We were making good time. I was wide awake when we got to the Little America hotels. It wasn't windy or snowy. There was one problem....there was a flashing sign that said the road was closed in 35 miles! We are only two hours home, but are stuck here. We ended up getting a room. It is quite nice, but $109 that I didn't want to spend. I think Little America has the road closed on purpose when the weather is questionable.....

Anyway, it doesn't look like Sam will make it to her 7:00 meeting and I might not make it to Stockton's Priesthood Preview tomorrow morning.

How Much Do I Love Maysen?

Enough to drive all the way to Cheyenne Wyoming for her. She wants to research the setting for one of her stories.

My Baby is FIVE!

First of all, we had pet deer this morning. Jorja looked in the backyard and saw deer there! Mike has always wanted pet deer. Too bad we noticed three minutes after he left for work. There were actually four deer in our back yard. Luckily they were able to get out without falling in the swimming pool or freaking out. Too bad I couldn't figure out the settings on the camera fast enough to get good pictures.

Oh Deer

We let Preston open his presents this morning. He was excited! It worked out great, then he was able to play with them all day long. I asked Preston if he wanted to go to lunch. He did not. He just wanted a Slurpee. Perfect. I can do that.

Stockton & Preston

Preston

Stockton & Preston

Stockton, Preston, Maysen

Preston & Jorja

I spent the rest of the day playing with Preston, making his cake and getting ready for his 'party' with Erica. Preston was born the day Erica turned 10. Preston really wanted to go to a place that had a big water slide that he could ride. Most of the water slides have height restrictions. That would be sad if everyone in the group could go down except for Preston . . . on his birthday! Shannon found a rec center out in Herriman that had a big water slide with no height restrictions. Plus they have diving boards - 1 meter and 3 meter. Perfect. There were only a couple flaws in our plan. First, they had a high school swim meet today, so the schedule on their website was no longer accurate. Basically they didn't open the diving boards at all. Too bad.

We got there about 45 minutes before the cousins. Preston had a great time. He loved going down the little slides and after awhile he worked up the courage to go down the giant slide. Mike went down first, then Preston, then Maysen. The guy at the top asked if Preston could swim across the pool. He can, it just takes him awhile. Preston LOVED it! As soon as he came down he wanted to go again. Soon I sat on the steps at the bottom and would be able to meet Preston when he came down. I would have him swim to me, but he wouldn't have to swim the entire way. Stockton and Jorja each were able to go down with him. (Preston went down by himself, they were just either ahead or behind him.) Preston was in heaven! Until they had to close the pool because someone pooped in it. GROSS! At least it wasn't our kid.

The pool was closed for about 45 minutes while they cleaned it. The cousins came in the middle of this. We sat at the edge shivering while we waited. Stockton and Preston were at the top of the slide waiting. Finally we decided to go play on the climbing wall until the pool was opened again. As we were walking out, Preston slipped and hit his head on the concrete. He wouldn't let Mike hold him, but I was able to carry him out. He was so sad. After a few minutes, Mike asked me what was wrong with my lip. I told him nothing. That was when we realized Preston was totally bleeding. Mike looked at the back of his head and said, "Steph, you need to see this." I told him I didn't. He said, "Really, you need to see this." I said, "Really I don't." I couldn't even look. Thank goodness Steve and Shannon were there. They have four boys and deal with stitches a lot. Steve said it looked like his head split a little bit, but then the goose egg pushed it out more. We got ice and it stopped bleeding some, so we didn't take him to the emergency room. Poor boy. We knew we couldn't let him get back in the pool. He was so sad. Happy birthday!

Anyway, Shannon, Preston, Jorja and I went home a little early and got things ready for cake and ice cream. Preston had a good time giving Oscar doggy treats. We sang Happy Birthday, gave presents (Preston got a board game and we gave Erica Out of My Mind), ate cake and ice cream and headed home. That is about it. Preston had a mostly good birthday. I can't believe my baby cakes is five. I don't want him to grow up, and yet I love watching him grow. Funny how that it.

Preston giving treats to Oscar

Puppies make this sad boy happy.

Preston's cake

Yummy

I tried to write on Erica's cake.

Not a great job, but the cake was delicious.

Preston & Erica

Happy birthday Preston and Erica! We love both of you!

Iowa

My dad took Preston to the aquarium for his birthday. He picked out a loud frog toy thing. He loves it. He also got cold stone ice cream and was pretty happy about that.

Jorja came home with school pictures (cute) and her IOWA test. She did very well. Her teacher was quite impressed with her scores. I will just list the national percentage because it would be way too boring to go through everything. Reading: 92 Language:89 Math: 99 Total: 97 Great job Porgie Porge!

Make Something

Preston likes to 'help' me when I clean the bathrooms. He decided to go through some drawers and found my old retainer. I told him what it was and said that because I didn't wear it for a long time my teeth are now crooked. Preston is THE WORST when it comes to throwing away anything. Preston immediately says, "We can make something out of it." No we can not. I told him that would be gross. He says, "We can make something out of it for Halloween." Ewww. Preston, some things are just meant to be thrown away.

There is a new high school being built in our school district. The district is taking suggestions as to the name, mascot and colors. They also wanted to know why the choice was submitted.

Maysen suggested Rocky Mountain High School. Mascot: fox Colors: red and yellow. Her reasoning was foxes are fast and clever. They are intelligent and creative and that is why we go to school. Her choice of colors were red and yellow because they make orange and foxes are orange.

Stockton suggested Stockton High School. Mascot: dragon Colors: red and blue. Stockton's reasoning was Stockton High School just sounds right. Dragons are cool and red and blue just go together.

Jorja wanted Draper High School. Mascot: poison dart frog (surprise) Colors: dark blue and black. Jorja likes the sound of Draper Dart Frogs and she chose the colors dark blue and black because that is one of the colors of the poison frogs.

Back on the Board

Last night before bed I checked the calendar to see what I needed to do. I had written 'Mike off'. That was a nice surprise. We had forgotten about that. Work gets so crazy around this time of year that each person in Mike's group was able to pick a Monday or Friday to take off. They were assigned/picked their days a few weeks ago. Love it.

This morning as I was about to walk out the door to take Maysen and Stockton to school, Jorja was looking for a toothpick. When I came back, this is what she had done. I love it. Both Maysen and Jorja had a snowman by a fire. Mike was teasing them about it. Ange mentioned that it would be funny if the snowman was roasting a marshmallow. It looks adorable. Great job Porge!

Mike and I spent his day off cleaning our bedroom. We still had boxes and boxes stashed in their from our move that we hadn't been able to get to. We went through every box today. It took all day long. I am so glad that is over and I'm glad we were able to have the time to do it. Our bedroom is awesome now! I love not having the boxes everywhere . . . just reminding me that I haven't moved in all the way yet. We are taking back the house!

Stockton went diving up at the U today. It was nice to be back with Monica. I think it is great to work with Monica and Mike as coaches. Their coaching style is completely different. Mike pushes Stockton to try new skills quickly, Monica focuses on technique. It is a really great mixture. Right now Mike is coaching in Bountiful. I have no desire to drive that far. We are only working with Monica one day a week because Stockton has scouts on the other day. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, but Mike is one of the advisers. I don't want Mike to be there without Stockton.

Anyway, Monica asked Stockton if he would like to go to a diving meet in Oregon. It is an AAU meet, so he would need to register as an AAU diver. No idea what that really means. There is no way he would win right now, but it would be a great experience. We are going to pass on this meet, but are quite excited that he is progressing enough to be offered fun and exciting experiences. Monica really wants him to go to regionals in March. I guess we will prepare for that. I don't know where regionals is, but we might as well get ready just in case we decide to go. I loved watching Stockton today. He looked so happy to be back on the board. He was so tired at the end of class. I thought class would be from 5-7. I guess it really was from 6-8. Monica said she would love Stockton to come from 5-8. Stockton was pretty wiped out by 7:15. He said he needed to work up to 3 hours. Especially when he was only expecting two. We did stop by 7-11 on our way home for a Slurpee and a donut. Stockton loves that tradition.

Finally Decorating

We FINALLY were able to decorate the gingerbread houses today. We get out of church at 4:00 and Bubs arrived shortly after. Once we got the frosting ready, we were able to let the kids have at it. They were so excited! Not to mention very patient with us. My dad made delicious french dip sandwiches. My grandma and Sam came over for dinner as well.

Maysen decorated Mike's house for two reasons. 1. We haven't finished putting the roof on hers yet. 2. She was able to practice and decide what she would like for her gigantic house. Mike and I are going to decorate our house together . . . we didn't get around to doing it today. Maysen, Stockton, Jorja, Lincoln and Ella are all donating their houses to the Festival of Trees. I'm pretty excited about that. It's going to be fun to see them there.

And now, pictures of our chaos below. It was organized chaos, and quite fun as well.

Before

Ella

Lincoln

The Porge

Jorja, Sam, Preston

Stockton McSnitcher

Stockton

Bubs & Ella

Ella

Jorja & Preston

Preston, Maysen, Lincoln

Stockton

Jorja

Abbs

Ella & Bubs

Ella

Bubs & Ella

Lincoln

Lincoln making faces because I'm taking his picture. I love it!

Stockton & his house

Ella

Jorja & her house . . . she really wanted a dog house as well.

Her frog pond in front is quite cute.

Ange & Lincoln

Ange's house

Bubs' house - notice the baseball field in front.

Ange & her house

Bubs & his house

Going home! Lincoln, Abbs & Ella