Best Friends

Stockton had another Academic Decathlon competition today. It lasted all day long. All day. He sent us a text saying most events were going okay, but he nailed his speech. He ended up getting a gold medal for his speech. Nicely done! Jorja spent several hours at school learning stage combat techniques. She loved that! Carter sent her a picture of his sweater with the Jorja face pin she gave him. That girl makes me laugh.

Carter's sweater, Jorja's face

Bubs texted me this morning and asked if they could have Brett's kids over today. Marie had talked about the main thing she wanted to do when she was here was to see Ella's house. I drove the four kids down and left them there. They were so happy when I left. Bubs and Ange have a great playroom with a ton of fun stuff to do. Mike and I went shopping for Stockton's birthday. We ended up deciding to get him more bowling stuff, but we needed him there to pick it out. Stockton didn't get home before the shop closed, so we will have to do that sometime next week. I went back and got the kids around 5:00. They were so happy. Ange wanted to get a picture before we left. We gathered all the kids but couldn't find Mina. She was asleep on Ella's bed. She wasn't feeling well. NO!!!!! Mina was the only one who didn't get sick. She came home and slept until bed time and then slept some more. She came up late at night saying her stomach hurt. I got her a bowl just in case. As soon as she had the bowl in her hands she threw up. It was so sad. Although then immediately she said, "I feel better now."

Lincoln, Amelia, Abby & Grace, Eve, Marie, Ella, Mina

Here is a picture of Eve. She is super funny. One thing to know about her is she is terrified of Stockton. She always has been. It is really weird because every other little kid loves him. I mean L-O-V-E-S him! He is so great with kids. The second Stockton comes in a room Eve will run away, or look down and pretend she doesn't see him. It is kind of funny.

Eve

Well, that all changed today. Out of the blue Eve decided Stockton was her best friend. She hung around him constantly. She played with him. Yay! On the last day before her mom comes home she finally decided Stockton was worth interacting with. It was a good decision because Stockton played with the little kids for over an hour. They were having so much fun. I got a few videos, but none of my pictures turned out. They were all blurry from someone always moving.

Eve and Stockton

 Stockton walked around for awhile like this.

Stockton playing with Eve, Grace and Anne

Eve & Stockton

 Mike wrapping Stockton's birthday present under a blanket. Preston helping.

Marie and Eve in the background. Stockton trying to make Mike's super sly attempts invalid.

 Eve and Jeff

Jorja went to see a movie with Hailey and Areesha. They saw The Death Cure. It is the second Maze Runner movie. Jorja has never seen the first movie or read the books, so she had no idea what was going on. She had a great time anyway though. I picked up the girls at the movie theater and dropped Areesha off at home. I then dropped Jorja and Hailey off at the mall. Jorja brought her gift card Papa had given her for her birthday.

Areesha, Hailey, Jorja

 Jorja bought this dress.

 Jorja, Hailey, Areesha and a super weird poster

 Jorja and Hailey ~ I love this picture!

Eve fell asleep on the way home from Bubs, so she had no desire to sleep tonight. Mike went and slept in the guest room and I slept with Eve in our room. I put a show on for her for awhile and the ended up going to sleep okay once it was over. She loves the LEGO Elves show for some reason.

I was kissing the boys on their cheek while they were sleeping before I went to bed. I thought, "This is the last time I'll see Stockton when he's 17." Then it dawned on me that this is the last time I'll see him while he is officially a child! That made me so sad! I hugged him for a long time while he was sleeping. It's hard to watch your babies grow up. Better than the alternative though.