No Alice

For some reason my kids really wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland. They all said they haven't seen it.  We wanted to watch the cartoon version, not the Johnny Depp version.  We had no luck.  Netflix didn't have it.  Amazon Prime didn't have it.  It is definitely not a movie we would want to buy.  So, we did the next best thing.  We watched Studio C.  A lot of them.  The kids loved it.

I finally got my videos turned into Jaime.  She is putting a slideshow together for the ward Christmas party.  She wanted the parents to video their kids saying the part she handed out and then she put them together to tell the Christmas story.  Jorja and Preston were both asked to do this.  Jorja had to say, "On the other side of the planet."  Preston had to say, "And he said unto them Behold the virgin that thou seeth is the mother of the son of God after the manner of the flesh and it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the spirit and after she had been carried away in the spirit for the space of the time.  The angel speaking to me saying look, and I looked and beheld the virgin again bearing in her arms a child and the angel said unto me behold the Lamb of God yea even the son of the eternal father."  Haha!  That's crazy!  We had no desire to help him memorize that!  Also, I typed it just as it was texted to me, run on sentences and all.  Anyway, we found the scripture in 2 Nephi (although later I noticed it was in the text message, so we didn't need to search for it.) and we videoed Preston reading the passage.  Luckily Jaime said it worked perfectly!

We also decorated our tree today.  I'll come back here and post pictures later, if I can find them.

Dive Clinic

I took Stockton and Josh to a dive clinic at BYU today.  I was just going to drop them off and Josh's mom was picking them up, but then I decided to stay.  I love watching Stockton dive.  When he dove at the U I would watch him all the time.  It was too far to come back and I didn't have anyone to carpool with.  It is great that he can carpool with Josh, but I just don't get to watch him like I used to. Stockton and Josh spent most of the time working on the 3 meter.  They did a little 1 meter and finished up with a fun dive on the 5 meter.  I was hoping they would get to do the harnesses, but they only worked with one group on those. Stockton said he was fine not doing that.  I took a few pictures, but they didn't turn out really well so I'm not even going to bother putting them on here.

Cooking with Bubs

Bubs came over today to teach me how to make stock from the left over turkey.  I wrote down everything, so I hope I can remember it.  The house smelled so good!  I made turkey velvet soup for dinner.  One of my favorite memories.  Turkey velvet soup after sledding all day at the cabin.  Love it.  Even though I hadn't been sledding all day it was still delicious.

I have been feeling guilty that I didn't postpone Preston's baptism.  In Georgia I tried everything to be able to get family at my children's baptisms.  Both of Preston's grandpa's are going to be out of town. My dad left for Israel today.  I decided I would talk to Preston about it and if he wanted to change it I would, even though I had already told everyone about it.  Preston made a sad face when he realized his grandpas wouldn't be there.  I asked if he wanted to get baptized in January.  He thought about it and said, "I want to get baptized now." Okay.  That takes the guilt off of me.  Later I was talking to the Primary President about it.  She said, "Preston has had to watch everyone get baptized this entire year.  Then he missed the November date by a few days.  He is more than ready."  That is true.  Preston has a big primary class and it had to be hard waiting this long, especially when they talk about it a lot for his age.  I'm glad he's so excited to get baptized.  He is such a sweet little boy.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and I managed not to take a single picture. Grrrrr!  I bet my kids are happy about that though.  I got up around 4:30 and made a banana pie before I headed off to exercise.  Today was the last day of my Body by Banks class.  Once I was home I hurried and made rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.  We were trying to have dinner at 11:00.  Matt and Sam were heading to Idaho and wanted to be on the road by 2:00.  We didn't make it by 11.  My dad sent Matt and Sam up here with the turkey.  He stayed behind to finish a few things. He ended up burning the stuffing and had smoke everywhere that he had to deal with.  Mike whipped out a package of Stove Top and had more stuffing made by the time my dad was here.  Dinner was delicious and the turkey was so good!  Everyone was gone by about 4:00.  We spent the rest of the day being lazy, and it was great.

Shots

I dropped of Hadley-Kate and Lauren's gingerbread houses.  I gave them a frosting bag and a big filled with candy.  Lauren was standing outside when I got there.  She looked a little confused as I walked up to her.  All of a sudden it dawned on her why I was there.  She said, "Was the gingerbread houses yesterday?"  I told her they were and that I tried to call her.  Her phone had broken and she had forgotten.  She looked so disappointed.  I wish I had been able to get ahold of her.  I feel bad she missed it.  She said it felt like a Friday and she forgot completely.  It did feel like a Friday.  The kids didn't have school today and they are so happy about it.  I took them to get the flu mist, but Jorja also had a shot she needed to get.  She wasn't happy about it, but she didn't scream and cry and she didn't need anyone to hold her down.  That is a first!

Gingerbread with the Beehives

I did it!  With Mike's help of course.  I have 16 houses ready to be decorated.  I love this activity, but it sure takes a lot of work!

The houses

 The candy

I had planned to take Stockton to diving today and Mike was going to pick him up.  We didn't want him to miss today because he was already going to miss on Thanksgiving.  Turns out that diving for the entire week was cancelled.  The pool was closed for a swim meet today, so the coach wanted them to meet at Airborne for trampoline practice. Stockton was so excited!  The only problem was, now Mike couldn't take him home.  Josh didn't go because they had left for Thanksgiving. That left me.  I took a book and read while I watched the practice.  It was just past 6:00 when I realized I couldn't see Stockton.  The place is huge and I looked through it twice before I found him in the dodgeball area.  He didn't want to leave.  Finally I made him.  I was pretty stressed.  We got home about 6:45 and the girls were coming at 7:00. Luckily I got almost everything ready during the day.  Also I was lucky that Mike came home and cleaned the rest of the kitchen for me.

Stockton on 'The Wall' before practice

The girls had a great time.  Everyone showed up except two.  Hadley-Kate ended up having family come that she wasn't expecting.  Lauren didn't come either.  I called and texted her a couple of times, but didn't get any answer.  The twins each brought a friend.  I had a little panic attack.  I ended up giving them the leaders houses to decorate.  When I realized Hadley-Kate and Lauren weren't coming the leaders (Kristen and Kari) were able to decorate those.  I have two other houses that are made but not put together.  Mike and I got them assembled before bed so we could drop them off to Hadley-Kate and Lauren tomorrow.

Majena, Olivia, Olivia, Annabell, Cora's hair

 Friend, Sephora, Friend, Senora, Lacey

 Jorja and Carson are at the counter

 Olivia, Olivia and Annabelle

 Annabelle, Cora, Carson

 Lacey

 Senora

 Sephora's friend

 Jorja

 Sephora

 Sephora's back yard

 Annabelle

 Ebony

 Carson

 Majena

 Olivia (Olivia)

 Olivia

 Cora

 Cora, Olivia, Majena

Olivia

 Sephora's friend

 Sephora's friend & Sephora

 Senora's friend, Sephora & Senora

 My attempt to get a picture of my beehives

 Jorja, Senora, Sephora, Carson, Annabelle, Ebony, Cora, Lacey

Olivia, Olivia, Majena

 Senora, Sephora, Carson, Annabelle, Ebony

Jorja, Olivia, Olivia, Majena

 Carson, Annabelle, Ebony, Cora, Lacey

Olivia, Olivia, Majena

I love both of my beehive leaders.  I didn't get a picture of Kari, but I did of Kristen.  Kristen is amazing.  We like to joke that she is the pied piper of the beehives.  Every single one of them adore her.  She is super awesome.  She teaches at Salt Lake Community College and has spent years studying dolphins.  She lived in Hawaii for 6 years.  She has been to cool places like New Zealand and Iceland.  She often gets asked to travel to give presentations.  She has given each of the beehives their own nickname.  With fourteen beehives she manages to make each of them feel unique and special.  I love working with her!  So lucky!

Kristen

The beehives left my house on quite the sugar high.  I am completely exhausted, but so happy to be able to say that today was a success!

Police Station

Preston went on a field trip with his scouts to the police station.  He thought it was so cool!  He told me that Judy (one of his leaders) got beeped at the medal detector because she has a metal leg.  I think she just has screws in her knees.  He loved seeing the jail.  He came home happy and thought he was pretty hot stuff.  His den leader sent me this picture.

Griffin, Braxton, Preston, Aiden

Mike and I were able to glue all the houses together.  We had sixteen.  I made twelve on Friday, but realized I forgot to make one for Olivia. Her birthday is on Wednesday, but I was hoping she can come early.  I did get ahold of her mom and she won't be able to come because she will be out of town.  I also needed a new house for Lacey who just moved in.  I made the houses this morning, and they were dry enough to put together tonight.  I usually like to wait 24 hours, just to be safe.  I was exhausted by the time I went to bed, but I'm really excited for tomorrow!

My Medallion

We had our Evening in Excellence tonight.  The Miamaids were in charge, so it was really nice for me!  I also earned my Young Womens' Medallion.  I started this back when Maysen turned 12 and we lived in Georgia.  I finally finished!  Now I can start again and do it with Jorja. Here is a picture with me and the other girls that earned their medallions today also.

Riley, Stephanie, Emily, Paige

These are the girls that earned their medallions this year.  It seems Melissa should be there too, maybe it has been a year since she earned hers.  Ashley was in a horrific accident that almost took her life a few days before she was supposed to receive hers.  That was back in February.  She looks so great now!  I am so thankful she was protected. As bad as her accident was, it could have been worse!  (She hit her head on a deck while riding a snowmobile.  Hit the gas instead of the break.)

Ashley, Riley, Stephanie, Emily, Paige, Severine

All these girls were my beehives at one time except Emily.  I was called into Young Womens one month after she turned 14.  I adore these girls, and the girls I get to work with now.  A new girl just moved into our ward today.  We will also get a new beehive on Wednesday.  That makes 14.  Wow!  It sure isn't Georgia out here!

Stockton's First High School Diving Meet

I had my exercise class this morning, took a quick shower and made it to our planning meeting with all the youth.  We planned all the combined activities for the entire year.  Usually we do this in January, but it was really nice to do it now.  Hopefully I'll be able to pull off the Amazing Race this year, because that is what I got signed up for.  So many people were disappointed that I backed out of it last year.  I just need to not try to do everything myself.  Also, this time I am scheduled to do it before my vacation instead of right after!  Our service activity is going to be a talent show at the nursing home.  That ended up being scheduled while I'm in New York with my dad.  Oh well.

Stockton had his first dive meet for high school today.  It was in Herriman.  Our entire family went.  It was so fun watching him!  He placed first for Alta.  Haha.  He was the only diver for Alta.  He placed seventh overall.  In order to qualify for state you need to compete in three (I think) meets and land a dive from each category.  Stockton landed all of his dives.  Even his dreaded twist dive that he hates.  Now that he has that done he can work on upping his degree of difficulty.

Stockton's first competition dive for high school.

Too bad I had the camera and only got a lame picture.

 Mike took over.  This one is much better!

We rushed home from the dive meet so Stockton could change.  I totally forgot to have him bring clothes!  He threw some clothes on and then we headed down to Matt and Sam's for Anne's birthday party!  I can't believe she is one already!  We ate pizza, had cake, gave Anne a present then Mike, Maysen and I left the rest of the kids and went to Alta.  My dad brought the three younger kids home when they were ready to leave.

Jorja & Anne

 Maysen, Jorja, Anne

Mike, Maysen and I went to see Alta's musical.  My nephew Michael is in it.  The musical was How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying.  I had never seen this and knew nothing about it.  I was shocked and disturbed by the musical.  I found it disgusting.  The words, the premise - just about everything.  I was bothered that this is what the high schoolers were given to preform.  Michael is a senior and loves everything about drama.  Especially musicals.  He has to end with this one?  I wanted to leave so bad, but didn't.  I mostly didn't leave because Michael's big part was at the end of the show.  I wanted to support him. Nathan told me that Alta put on the play for the elementary school, like they do every year.  They were supposed to do it twice, but after the first time the school called up and cancelled.  I am so thankful I only brought Maysen.  It was bad enough she had to sit through it, but I can't imagine bringing Preston to that!  Michael did a great job with what he was given.  I love watching him on stage.  I just wish I could have loved the production he was in.

Lost Homework

I dropped Maysen and Stockton at school early so I could take Jorja and Preston to the dentist.  Jorja has one more baby tooth in.  When that comes out and her new one comes in she will most likely need braces.  Boo!  Doesn't surprise me though, if Stockton needed braces I don't think the other kids have any hope.  Only a few weeks more and Stockton gets his braces off!  Yay!

When I got home I noticed a message from Maysen.  She had left her psychology homework on her scanner and was wondering if I could bring it to her.  I looked, but couldn't find it.  We decided that I would pick her up at lunch and take her home so she could look.  Maysen couldn't find her homework either.  Luckily her psychology class is at the end of the day.  She printed up another copy so she could do it during 3D animation.  Later I got a text from her saying that he homework was in her folder all along.  She was very frustrated about that.

I spent the entire day in Gingerbread Land.  I made twelve houses.  My oven worked great.  At the end of the day, while my last gingerbread was in the oven I knelt down and hugged my oven and said, "I love you!"  As soon as I did that the oven turned off.  It had been on for ten hours straight.  I only had five minutes left!  No worries though, I was able to get the last piece cooked.

We watched Bubs and Ange's kids today from 5-10.  Bubs had asked me a couple of weeks ago.  I thought they were going to go to Hunter's play. Instead Bubs reffed some games.  When he came to pick up the kids I asked him why he changed his plans.  He said that he didn't realize the games had started this early and he didn't block out the day so he could go to the play with Ange.  That's disappointing.  He seemed sad about that.  His kids were great though.  Jorja is so good playing with them. She took care of them so I could finish Gingerbread Land.  We got Millie asleep in the guest room and then had five kids "asleep" in Preston's room.  Lincoln was on Stockton's bed.  Jorja blew up an air mattress for her and Abby, Preston was in his bed and on the pull out bed was Ella.  They actually fell asleep only twenty minutes before Bubs came.  We could hear them laughing and giggling, it was cute but I did get annoyed with Preston.  He gets a little obnoxious that late and when he has friends over.  Probably like us when we were little.  Especially Justin.  Haha!  We must have driven our parents crazy!

Lunch

My friend had people over for lunch today.  She asked me to bring a dessert.  I decided to make cranberry bars, but then I also wanted to make carrot cake.  I ended up making both.  They were good, but I was left with a lot of carrot cake!  Bad decision to make that on my part!  It was fun to see so many people at Becky's house today.  A nice change of pace.  Tonight Becky and I went to a training meeting with Elder Becerra, Sister Marriott (2nd counselor in the General Young Womens' Presidency) and Sister Thackeray (on the General Young Womens' Board).    It was an interesting meeting, but it was LONG!  I do enjoy having experiences like this.  So nice to live in Utah!

It's Official

Mike was set apart as an Assistant Stake Clerk responsible for technology.  President Blood set him apart.  He gave Mike a really nice and long blessing.  Mike then worked on the genealogy computers until 9:00.  I ran to the grocery store and then came back and read a book while I waited for Mike.  I hope he likes this calling and doesn't become completely frustrated with the computers.  He still has his calling as 1st counselor in Elders Quorum.  Hopefully he will be able to do both.

Bobcat

Preston earned his Bobcat today.  He has been in scouts for one week. It is nice that this one can be earned so quickly.  They aren't having pack meeting in December, so Preston really wanted to be able to get it at this one.  Preston's den was also in charge of the flag ceremony. They had practiced a little, but Preston was still nervous and not sure what to do.  It turned out just fine and he was adorable.

Judy, Preston, Griffin, Aiden

 Judy, Kanani, Sue

Preston, Griffin, Braxton (all getting their Bobcat)

 Sue, Mike, Stephanie, Preston

Yep, Sue's no fun at all.  Just kidding!  Preston already adores her.  She is the greatest.  She also lives on our street so Preston can just walk to scouts.  So different from when Stockton was this age!

Preston giving me the Bobcat mom's pin

Stephanie & Preston ~ I love this one!  That's my baby! 

I was glad Mike was able to get here in time.  He walked in right as Preston was starting the flag ceremony and managed to get a few pictures.  He was helping Maysen, Stockton and Jorja get the things they needed for the combined activity today.  It was raking leaves, but they were supposed to bring headlamps and gloves.  I forgot to let Mike know that when I took Preston to Joshua's house to give him the webkinz that he left at Preston's party.  Crazy day, but everyone got where they needed to be and it turned out okay.

Crepes

A few days ago I was texting my friend Megan about my trip to France. We started talking about the crepes.  Seth and Megan went to Paris last spring.  When they got back they bought a fancy crepe maker, just like the ones in Paris.  I scored us an invitation to try it out!  Seth and Megan had us over tonight for Family Home Evening and crepes.  I love our crepe maker that Mike got at the DI for fifty cents, but this was awesome!  It was so good!  I liked it every bit as much as our crepes we had in Paris.

Tithing, Temples and Baptisms

We had tithing settlement today.  We were the first family to be seen.  I think that's two years in a row.  After tithing settlement, Jorja had an interview with the Bishop for her temple recommend.  She passed!  It will be so fun to take her to the temple with us!  Once Jorja was finished, Preston had his baptismal interview.  He passed too!  I can't believe my baby is going to be baptized soon.

Dog Party

Maysen was pretty worried that she lost Zeke.  She lets him roam around while she sits by him.  She looked away for a few seconds and then could not find him.  She called Jorja on the intercom.  Jorja couldn't find him either.  Mike and I went down to look, after a few minutes Mike found him.  These pictures look totally obvious, but that is because the flash is on.  Zeke was completely camouflaged, especially against this wall!

Little lost Zeke

Preston signed up to read to a dog at the library today.  He is also having his birthday party today.  Yesterday he told Mike, "I'm so excited!  Tomorrow I get to read to a dog!"  Haha!  Preston read the classic, Go Dog, Go! to Tucker.  He gets to read to the dog for 15 minutes, and Preston was pretty speedy.  He picked out another book to read.  He still had quite a bit of time left, so I convinced him to read Go Dog, Go! in Chinese.  The book he brought had both the English words and Chinese characters on each page.  It was so cute to watch him.  He knew many of the words, but he struggled on a lot of the pages.  He read more of that book than he has ever read before! (In Chinese)  What a perfect thing for him.  He definitely doesn't need any help with his reading in English, but to get him to work so hard to read Chinese was great!  Plus, I bet Tucker has never heard Go Dog, Go! in Chinese before!

Preston and Tucker

 Tucker's very interested

As soon as I brought Preston home I started working on his cake.  I knew I was cutting it close, but he was so excited to read to a dog!  How could I resist?  While I was trying to figure out what frosting to get a Smith's worker started talking to me.  He told me that he always buys his frosting from the bakery.  It is about the same price and tastes much better.  I never knew you could just buy frosting.  I had been trying to decide if I should make my own, but I didn't think I would have the energy for it.  The baker at Smith's was so nice.  She even gave me a giant pastry bag.  She told me that she squeezes the frosting on and then smooths it out with another tool that she gave me.  It worked great!

Stephanie

Preston chose a Candyland cake.  I let him design the board himself. We had a Candyland board to look at and an example of another Candyland cake.  Preston thought it was the greatest thing ever and said this was so much better than just buying a cake.  Jorja couldn't look sometimes.  Preston wanted to make up his own path.  He had it split in two and end in two different spots.  Jorja did not like that at all, she could barely watch.  So funny!

Preston decorating his cake

The cake turned out really cute and all of Preston's friends thought it was amazing.  The best part is, all the left over candy I can use for gingerbread houses!  You can never have too much candy for that!

The birthday party was fantastic.  The best part about it was all of Preston's siblings were involved.  They volunteered and made the party wonderful.  Preston wanted to do a Webkinz party.  Mike helped them with gem hunting.  They would cut into the flour to find gems.  He didn't make any of them get the gem out with their face.  They turned the gems into Kinzcash at the end.

Mike's station

Terrible picture, but it is all I got.  Stockton had the kids play Flippin' Frogs.  They earned Kinzcash for each frog they got to stay on the tree.

Stockton's station

Maysen had a trivia station.  I think it is just called Trivia Corner in Webkinz, but I'm not sure.

Maysen's station

Jorja and Jazzie had a game where you could spin the Wheel of Wow. They earned Kinzcash or a chance to play Plachinko.  (I can't remember any of these names, I'm sure I'm butchering them!)  The Plachinko game is kind of like Plinko on Price is Right.  The picture on the screen isn't the Wheel of Wow, looks like I took it at the wrong time.

Jorja & Jazzie's station

Once everyone had played we had an auction.  Preston, Jorja and I had picked up 25 Webkinz at Seagull book.  This was their gift bag, but they got to spend all their Kinzcash on it.  Mike started the auction, but the kids soon took it over and did a fantastic job.

We finally got to cut into the cake!  All of the kids each wanted different things.  Mike cut randomly and did the best to let the kids have what they wanted.  Preston is so happy with it.

Preston and his cake

I am so thankful that my kids all help Preston have a special party.  He loved everything about it.  This is his first birthday party he has ever had!  On a side note, I thought starbursts would be discussing on cake, but they tasted pretty good.  I didn't like the dots though.