Smithsonians

Almost Twelve

2012-01-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

Stockton had his birthday party today. I can't believe he is almost 12! His birthday actually is on Saturday, but Stockton really wanted his party at Airborne. (A trampoline arena) When I looked into their birthday party packages I noticed it was A LOT cheaper to have the party on a weekday. So that is what we did. Anyway, Stockton had a great time. He has wanted to play dodge ball here and was able to spend quite a bit of time doing that. Isaac, Logan, Jordan, Will, Ben, Adam, Josh, Darby and Noah were able to come. Stockton's other friend Josh cracked his knee cap two days ago, so he wasn't able to be here. I am glad the party is over with and we can just celebrate as a family on his actual birthday. I put way too many pictures on this post. I guess that is what happens when I actually remember to bring my camera card!

Stockton

Jorja loved climbing up this ladder to ring the bell. Mike took these pictures from the party room. It was really cool because they had windows that overlooked all three areas of the arena.

Jorja

Stockton - LOVE this boy!

They had a 'high dive' pit. It was probably about three meters. Preston wanted to jump, but was a little scared. I picked him up and dropped him in (with his permission).

Preston

Stockton off the high dive

Jorja - high dive

Maysen after the high dive

Preston

The chocolatiest cake he could get from Cold Stone. Delicious.

Mike

Isaac, Logan, Stockton, Mike

Stockton

Preston

Stockton

Preston got some chocolate ice cream on his nose. The boys thought that was really funny. Big mistake! Preston was in heaven with the attention and soon had chocolate ice cream all over his face. I wonder if he will be the class clown when he is in grade school. Ugh!

Preston

Preston with Darby, Stockton and Isaac

Now that's mischievous!

The final product.

Luckily Mike got Preston out of that situation before he could make a real mess! Anyway, today turned out to be a success because Stockton had a wonderful time.

A-L-I-B-I

2012-01-25T23:26:00.000-08:00

Stockton WON his school spelling bee! Talk about nerve-wracking! The bee lasted for about two hours. I am so upset that I remembered to bring my awesome camera, but when Mike went to take a picture he realized there was no camera card in there. Maysen said, "That sounds familiar." Haha. She's right. I always forget the camera card for important events. Stockton had the best facial expressions, I wish I could post a collage of them. At least I had my cell phone, but dang it!

Mike did get this awesome picture below. I love it! Stockton was in shock after it was over. The emotions he went through were crazy! His eyes were all watery and he said, "It feels like I'm going to cry." Stockton loves spelling bees, so to be able to win today was just awesome. I will recap below why his emotions were on a roller coaster ride.

Stephanie and Stockton

The beginning of the bee. Things were fine and dandy for Stockton. His words were: bristle, audience, pristine, syringe, systematic, facade and reminiscent.

When there were about eight students left, they had run out of words. The words they had given the students to practice that is. When they go off the list is when things get scary! Then it's anyone's game. I like to tell Stockton that spelling bees are 33% knowledge, 33% preparation and 34% luck. Stockton's word at this point was orthodontist.

After that round, there were only four students left. This is when things got crazy! In an effort to hurry things along, they decided to give the students crazy words. Stockton's word was exonerate. He spelled it with two n's. Oh man! I was in the very back but was able to mouth the words, "It's okay." He mouthed back, "I know." Still very disappointing. EXCEPT that this round, all four kids spelled their words wrong, so all four kids were back in the contest.

Stockton's next word was virulent. He spelled it wrong. He was out. Everyone spelled their words wrong. He was back in. His next word was perquisite. This one he spelled perfectly! Except he didn't put the last e on there! I couldn't believe it! He is out! Everyone spelled their words wrong. He is back in. The next round boy #1 spelled his word correctly. Pressure! Stockton's word was dromedary. He spelled it wrong. Oh no, he lost. Dang it! Especially frustrating because he knew how to spell the other words. Girl #1 spelled her word wrong. Boy #3 spelled his word wrong. In order for boy #1 to win, he has to spell another word. The spelling bee can't end on a misspelled word. Boy #1 spells the word wrong! The other three are back in!

At this point, the judges decide to go to words that are "really hard" instead of "crazy hard". Stockton's word was acquaintance. When they said this word, he had a huge giant grin on his face. It was so cute! At the end of this round, boy #3 spelled his word wrong, so now there is only three.

Stockton was so lucky in this round! His word was mosaic! He breezed through that word. The other two spelled their words wrong. One word to go! If he spells this word wrong, the other two are back in. His word was alibi. The judges barely got the word out of their mouth before Stockton really loud and really fast said, "A-L-I-B-I". The judge said, "Are you sure? Do you want to think about it?" Stockton said, "No! A-L-I-B-I". Meanwhile I can't even look at him because I was sure he spelled it wrong! I was so sad for him! Haha. What a speller I am! Stockton said that as soon as he heard the word alibi, he instantly thought, "I just won the spelling bee!" Then he made sure he didn't make a silly mistake. I thought it was funny that all those things went through his head, because he sure answered instantaneously!

When they announced that he was right and had won, everyone started cheering for him. He walked around in a daze. It was amazing. You could tell a lot of kids were rooting for him. I think his awesome facial expressions had a lot to do with it. He would put his hands in his hair and stick it up with this completely nervous expression on his face. Man, I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera card!

That poor kid thought he lost, then he is back in, then he lost, then he is back in, then he lost, then he is back in, then he really lost, then he is back in, then he might win, then he won! I am so glad it ended up this way. What a crazy, crazy spelling bee!

Stockton getting his trophy from the principal

Jorja, Stockton, Stephanie

This is sure to be a day that Stockton will never ever forget.

Quick Trip

2012-01-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

Mike is in New Mexico. He flew down so my brother Mike could put a crown on him. After all of Mike's dental work, we are over our deductible. Mike is awesome enough to help us out. Actually this trip he is just getting a mold for the crown. Mike will need to come back in three weeks to get it on. Hopefully I'll be able to come with him. I can't wait to see where Skye, Larkin and Blake live!

I don't know what my problem is lately. I can't seem to remember anything. I forgot to tell Mike (my brother) Mike's (my husband) flight information. This morning I saw a text from Mike (my brother) asking when the flight was coming in. It had arrived ten minutes before. Whoops. Sorry Mikes. I'll try to get my act together.

Last Words

2012-01-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

When Cassie and I were going through my dad's garage, we came across a journal entry of some of my mom's last words, written down by my dad. I love them!

Wakes up . . . "Oh, Darn"

"What?"

"I keep waking up."

____________________

After prayers

"You prayed that dopey would be made happy."

"I did not."

"Twice"

_____________________

Gave Phil a hug and a kiss

"Kathy wants a hug."

"If I'd known Kathy was here I wouldn't have kissed Phil."

____________________

To Kris as she was leaving.

"Thanks for watching me sleep."

____________________

Kim leaving to go collect money at a dance.

"I'll tell you what. Kim, you go dancing, and I'll collect the money."

____________________

Friday 9:30 pm

"Don't let my house turn into a trash pit. I'm serious! I'll be very angry."

____________________

To Margaret: "Oh, here's Margaret. Now we're going to cry."

____________________

This last conversation took place the day before my mom died. (While Margaret, Kim, and Ron were in the room, as Margaret was leaving.)

"Stay, I want to tell you people something. One thing I regret that I didn't do. I wish I had paid more attention to the scriptures. I should have been more serious in building my testimony. I wish I had more time."

"You've got to get my boys off of sports more, and more in the scriptures and church."

"I love all of you in this room. Margaret represents my roommates, Kim represents my work."

Then Ron said, "And I represent the family."

"Yes" she said.

"I just want you all to know how much I love you, with a very special love."

Long silence, and then, "I don't know what's gotten into me . . . . The end!! (pause) Contrasting views by responsible authorities will be accepted."

To Margaret, "You can go now."

Cricket

2012-01-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

Poor, poor Jorja's frog Cricket died today. Cricket was one of her barking tree frogs. She had this frog for almost a year. She loved it. It was weird because he was totally fine last night. Jorja checks on them several times a day. This morning he was starting to look sick. We took him out of the big cage and into a little one, but he just got worse. Once frogs get sick, they die pretty quickly. Jumper got sick a few days ago but seems to be doing better. We moved him away from Cricket because we have read that frog diseases are very contagious (to other frogs). I don't know if he got what Jumper had, but we were kind of wondering if it was Red Leg disease. The only other thing that was different was Mike turned on the fogger and forgot about it. I don't think that would have done anything bad to the frog . . . especially since it was fogging in distilled water. Anyway Jorja is so sad. She hugged me and cried. Then she said, "At least he's with Hopper now."

Non-Ticketed Escort

2012-01-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

That is what I was today. (Actually I can't remember if that was the exact title, because I lost my ticket!) Anyway, early this morning Mike and I took Cassie and Mallory to the airport. Mike dropped us off and went to wait in the car waiting area. I was going to help Cassie until security. When we were checking in, the attendant asked to see my drivers license. I told her I wasn't travelling today. She said that she could give me a non-travelling ticket so I could help Cassie to her gate. WHAT? I was stunned. She said something like, "Yeah, I didn't know you could do this until I had three kids. If you were loitering, they could fine me eleven thousand dollars, but I know she needs your help." I'm not sure if I got the exact wording right because I was still shocked that they would let me go to the gate without a ticket. I was so happy! Also, I was thinking of the many, many, many times I would have loved to have my dad help me to the gate. Not just because I love him, but because I really needed him. Travelling with four small children was so hard. To think he could have helped me to the gate! Now I find out!

Anyway, enough about me. At least I was able to help Cassie. I helped her get through security and walked with her to the end of the terminal. I had Cassie sit while I took Mallory on a little walk. We walked up to the candy nut guy and got Cassie a treat for the trip. That was quite mean of me because there is no way Mallory would be getting that treat! I think she enjoyed the walk. I didn't mean to go so far and left my shoes with Cassie. I ended up walking through most of the airport in bare feet. Mallory didn't mind, so that is all that matters. Once we got back, they were starting to board. I watched until Mallory and Cassie boarded and then hurried as fast as I could to poor Mike! He had been waiting for an hour and a half! If only I had known it would have been that long we could have been better prepared. I wish he had a blanket so he could have slept better. Instead he was so cold. He didn't even have a coat. In the car waiting area, there are signs that you need to turn off your car, so the heater wasn't even on. Mike is so great. He wasn't upset about me. He understood what had happened and wasn't angry a bit. That is because he is just awesome.

Once we arrived home, we were able to hang out with Bubs and Ange for a little while. Lincoln is so funny. He was awake before we left. He said, "I need to get up at 6:00." I told him that today was Saturday so he could sleep longer. He said, "When I was 5 I got up at 7. Now that I am 6 I get up at 6." As if that was so obvious. It was pretty funny. It was also funny yesterday when I picked him up from Kindergarten. He was talking a mile a minute. Then all of a sudden he said, "Stephanie, we need to be quiet now. Okay? We need to be quiet." Haha! I loved it! I also loved listening to him and Preston talk as they were going to bed. Once I opened up the door. Lincoln was sitting up and I had been listening to him chat for a few minutes. When he saw me he said, "Stephanie, Preston is keeping me up. He won't stop talking." I laughed about that. He is so cute, especially because he is so serious when he says it!

I did get to see them again this afternoon. Ange had left their coat and they had left their black toothbrush bag . . . that also had glasses in it. They were only here for a few minutes. When Ella came in I cried, "Ella! I missed you so much! I haven't seen you forever!" She gave me a huge hug. It was cute. Love it. Now I'm going to bed.

Farewell Dinner

2012-01-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

The kids were out of school today - thank goodness! We had a busy, busy day! I even forgot to send them to their piano lessons. In my defense, the lessons are usually at my house, they are usually on Wednesday, and the kids didn't have school today! They weren't too disappointed.

Stockton had a sleep over party at Isaac's cabin. That place is amazing. Maysen had young women/young men iceskating activity. Luckily my advisers were able to attend that one for me. I spent my time at home soaking up every last second of Cassie and Mallory. We had dinner for them tonight. Cassie made pot roast and I made rolls. Bubs & Ange, Sam, my dad, Cathy, Max, Michelle (Ian's wife) and Hailey came. Oh, we also watched Bubs and Ange's kids while they went to the temple to see Ange's brother sealed to his wife.

Anyway, we had a full house and it was great. Bubs & Ange slept over. After everyone else had left, we spent the time separating old family photos we had found in my dad's garage. We were trying to figure out who should get each picture. It took awhile, but I'm glad we were able to figure out something. I'll need to get a box for Brett, Mike and Matt so I can save some things for them. They have almost nothing from their childhood, so this is a real treasure. I think John said that he didn't even know what he looked like when he was little. Sad. Maybe I just imagined that because I haven't kept my whits completely about me lately.

After Cassie finished packing she went to bed. She was kind of nervous of her long flight home tomorrow. Bubs, Ange, Mike and I stayed up and played Settlers Trails and Rails. I had a major come from behind victory. It was awesome. I hope we can have more game nights like this. Maybe their kids can sleep over from time to time. Would be fun. Mike and I ended up getting to bed at three in the morning. I need to get up at six so I can take Cassie and Mallory to the airport. I'm predicting I will be tired tomorrow!

Mallory trying to interact with Pads

Mallory with her Grandpa

She really enjoyed trying to pick at something on Dad's face

Ouch!

Abbs loved trying to kiss Hailey

Cassie was giving Mallory a bath. Sam poked her head in to say goodbye. Mallory did not want her to leave. She was devastated. Sam picked her up out of the bathtub and held her. Sam shirt was drenched, but Mallory was in heaven. When Sam finally put her down her heart about broke. Can't wait until she can see Sam at her wedding! Whenever that is!

Mallory & Sam

Cassie, Mallory, Abbs

Mallory and Abigail

Jeep

2012-01-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

The snow has all melted, so we thought it would be a good idea to let Mallory play in the jeep. Jorja was nice enough to agree to drive her around. Mallory loved it. She is so stinking cute! I couldn't decide on my favorite, so I chose a ton. On a side note, the deer are no longer my friend. There was way too much deer poop in the backyard. Luckily Mallory was able to spend her time IN the jeep. Hopefully they won't come back here again.

Jorja & Mallory

Mallory & Cassie

I had parent teacher conference with Maysen today. She is doing great. Stockton also is doing very well in his math class.

For dinner we had fajitas. They were delicious! I love food!

Searching

2012-01-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

Cassie and Mallory came back today. They leave early Saturday morning. :( Cassie got her hair cut and it looks super cute. I should get a picture with Ange and Cassie on Friday. Both have recently cut their hair, and they both look great!

Cassie and I went over to my dad's house tonight. We spent a few hours going through his garage. Cassie wants to organize it so bad! The problem was we didn't have any heavy lifters with us. We did go through and get a lot of pictures. Although the one thing Cassie really wanted we couldn't find. We were looking for John's Book of Remembrance. Hope we run across it somehow, but it's not looking good.

By the time we got home, my fingers were so cold! I shivered half the night. I am so blessed that I have such a comfortable/warm bed!

School Bee

2012-01-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

Stockton had his classroom spelling bee. He won - thank goodness. (It would have been really heartbreaking for him to lose when he won every practice spelling bee they had!) The school spelling bee will be next Wednesday. Hope he does well . . . we're not really sure what to expect.

Peaceful

2012-01-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

The kids didn't have school today. I decided I didn't want to get out of bed. It was awesome. Once I wake up, if I try to go back to sleep, my back usually ends up hurting me for the rest of the day. Today I decided to read a book. Sam gave me a book for Christmas and today was the perfect day to read it. I opened the blinds on the sliding glass doors in my room, cuddled up with my heated mattress pad on and watched it snow outside. It was great. I don't remember the last time I was able to completely relax. I stayed in bed until Bubs and his family came over this afternoon. That was a welcomed treat. Today has been an extremely peaceful day.

Forgetful

2012-01-15T19:47:00.000-08:00

How did I turn into such a flake? I am so forgetful lately. This past week, I forgot to go to my visiting teaching interview. Even after getting a text the night before. I scheduled my interview so I could do it right after I dropped Josh off at school. (I carpooled this week.) Instead of going to my interview, I had the genius idea of going to the store to look for a new calendar because I keep forgetting things! Aaah.

That wasn't nearly as bad as what happened today. A few days ago, Brother Krutzer called and asked me to say the opening prayer in sacrament meeting. I wasn't excited about it, but I agreed to take my turn. This morning, I completely forgot. Not only that, I forgot when I was in sacrament meeting. Even after my name was in the bulletin. Even after they announced my name! After the song, I just sat there until someone on the stand got up and said the prayer. It didn't even dawn on me until the middle of the meeting that I was the one that was scheduled to say the prayer. I was so embarrassed! What is happening to me!

Shopping With Mallory

2012-01-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

Mallory was driving the cart when we went shopping today. She loved it! A few times she was so happy she would bounce up and down and bang her head into the back of the car thing. Pretty funny.

Mallory

Stephanie and Mallory

Mallory's Back!

2012-01-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

Cassie and Mallory came back from Idaho today! Yay! Cassie met Aunt Jackie at McDonalds before heading down. My dad came over for a bit. His top lip is swollen. He said a few days ago his bottom lip was swollen, and another day his chin. He has no idea what is going on. Maybe today it was just because it is Friday the 13th.

Jackie & Mallory

Grandpa Millburn & Mallory

Woof-Woof

2012-01-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Preston got a new friend today and he is so excited! Preston was given a dog pillow pet by his grandpa when he turned four. He uses him as a pillow every night and has named him Woofer. Today, we saw a mini-dog pillow pet that was 75% off! I couldn't pass that up. Preston loves him and named him Woof-Woof. Preston has a favorite stuffed animal. A dog named Shiver. I dread the day when Shiver gets ruined or lost. Anyway, Preston was so excited to sleep on Woofer and have Shiver sleep on Woof-Woof. How cool to have something so simple make you so happy.

Preston on Woofer, Shiver on Woof-Woof

Pretending he is asleep . . . adorable.

Missing Georgia

2012-01-11T20:33:00.001-08:00

When Mike was finishing our basement in our Georgia house, he put a little "dog house" under the stairs. You had to crawl through one closet to get to it. It was really small, but the kids had a great time with it. Today Preston was talking about how much he missed our house in Georgia . . . especially the dog house/hidden room. He said, "Maybe Dad can make a hidden room here." I asked him how he would do that. Preston said, "With a drill . . . and nails to hold up the wall." If only it were that easy.

Preston also talked about how he wished there was a door at our house we could walk through to get to our computer room in Georgia, and then another door to get back. Again, if only it were that easy. He also told me that Stockton wishes we could have our house in Georgia with our backyard here, but he liked our front and back yard in Georgia. It's hard for a little boy to move. It's hard for a girl in her 30s to move. Too bad we couldn't take our house with us, but we are loving our life here!

Rachel

2012-01-10T20:44:00.001-08:00

I talked to Rachel today. Hopefully we can come visit her in Japan this summer. We'll see. Too bad the hotels are all booked up on the weekends! Maybe we will come next summer. And by we I mean Maysen and I . . . and maybe Mike.

Jorja's in Love

2012-01-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

Jorja is in love with her frog Pads. Mike took these pictures of her a few days ago. I just realized they were here.

Jorja and Pads

I spent my day doing laundry. While I was folding the clothes, I noticed we had deer in our backyard. There were about five or six. I'm so glad they didn't fall in the swimming pool. I would have no idea what procedure to follow.

Stockton did an inward flip for the first time today. I was really proud of him. That is something I will never, ever try.

Quick Trip

2012-01-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I had every intention on not playing games . . . . but just as I was about to go to bed, Pace came over and the game playing was about to begin! The only problem was, Mike had gone to play games at a friends house and took all the Dominion games! I ended up teaching Mike and Pace how to play Settlers. That is a game everyone should know anyway. John liked it. I wonder if it is because he won his first game. Anyway, Mike came home and was able to play. I was good and went to sleep. John and Pace were able to get in one last game of Dominion.

This afternoon we took John to the airport. He is now back in Ohio. Boo! Once we dropped John off we went straight to Idaho. Cassie is going to stay with 'Momma Jones' for a few days. I dropped her off and 'Momma Jones' will bring her back on Friday. Ange was so nice and drove up with us. We made pretty good time and dropped Cassie and Mallory off a little before five. Ange and I then went to visit Grandma & Grandpa Parry. We were only able to stay for about an hour. Even though the visit was super quick, I really enjoyed it. Ange said several times how it was really hard to leave. Everyone loves Grandma & Grandpa.

I was very thankful Ange wanted to come along. It was nice to have someone to talk to, and it kept me awake. After dropping Ange off at her house, I got home at 10:50. Now I'm looking forward to sleep!

Blueberries

2012-01-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

Turns out Mallory likes blueberries. She likes to eat them frozen too. Abby taught her that. Mallory could not get enough of them. We had a going away waffle party for John. Boy did Abby & Mallory LOVE the blueberries! I don't have pictures of Abby because I swiped Cassie's camera card again. The waffles were delicious. I had five. Oh boy, I need to climb back on the wagon.

Mallory

After waffles we stopped by my mom's grave. It was packed! They were having four funerals. The caskets were being pulled out of the hearse as we drove by. It was draped with an American flag. Bubs was able to walk straight to my mom's grave - even with it covered in snow. He went to the second tree, took six steps west then nine steps north. Quite clever.

John & Mallory

Cassie, Mallory, John

Dad, Steph, Bubs, John & Mallory, Cassie

I'm crouching so my head wouldn't be out of the picture frame.

Mallory

John, Bubs and my dad went to the BYU basketball game this afternoon. I drove John up and we got a quick picture in front of their first apartment.

Cassie, Mallory, John

Cassie then went with me to the pet shop. Two of Jorja's frogs died. One last night and one this morning. We had a seven day warranty, so I went to get new frogs. Hopefully these ones will last. Jorja is worried.

After the pet shop, we got Mallory's handprints done. Mallory was a pro at the beginning, then she got mad! That's okay. She's over it now and Cassie will love the handprints forever!

Stephanie, Mallory, Sherry

Pace is on his way over here to play games with John. I think I will go to sleep instead. I better hurry because once a game is started I know I will want to play!

Camera Card

2012-01-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

When I sat down to do my blog today I noticed Cassie's camera card was in my computer. I loved this first picture of John & Mallory. I decided I would post it . . . . then I decided I would post about twenty more. We sure have been having a great time with them. The only thing I wish could have been different about this trip is I wish Matt & John would have been able to stay here together. They would have had a great time. Matt would have loved playing Dominion non-stop as well!

John & Mallory

Mallory

John & Mallory

John, Cassie, Mallory

Cassie & Mallory

Mallory

Matt, Mike, John, Steph, Bubs . . . how we spent our time

Dad . . . . how he spent his time at the cabin

Bubs & Mallory

Mallory & Larkin

Blake & Mallory

Larkin & Blake, Skye & Mallory

Mallory LOVES the piano

Matt, John, Bubs, Mike

Matt, John, Steph, Bubs, Mike

Back: Blake, Christen, Stockton, Maysen

Cassie, Sam, Jorja, Mike, Lincoln, Ange

Front: Skye, Mike, Larkin, Mallory, John

Preston, Matt, Abby, Steph, Bubs, Ella

Super front: Dad/Grandpa

Cassie, John, Mallory

Sam & Matt

Blake & Mallory

Blake, Stephanie, Mallory

Mallory

This has been such a fun couple of weeks! John, Cassie, Pace and I played Ticket to Ride. I lost, but not as bad as the loss this afternoon. I was winning by half a board and got too cocky. I tried to fill three new destinations, but couldn't get three lousy black cards. I lost 26 points and John ended up winning by two. Cassie went to bed and then John, Pace, Mike and I played a couple games of Dominion. So fun! We went to bed at 2:30. I hope these late nights don't catch up to me!

Funniest Thing Ever!

2012-01-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

Jorja was eating a scone. She had WAY too much powdered sugar on it. Mallory came over and tipped Jorja's plate. She got a surprise! So funny!

Mallory

Bubs the Teacher

2012-01-04T23:47:00.000-08:00

Cassie wanted to watch Bubs teach today. I have honestly never thought about that . . . never crossed my mind. I told Cassie that she would have to take the lead because I will feel way too awkward. We stopped at the attendance desk, and the lady didn't want to let us come back. She said we would need to talk to an administrator. Cassie, as cheerfully as possible, said, "Okay, that would be awesome." The administrator let us in and Cassie and I ended up staying for Bubs' entire Spanish 1 Class. It was really fun.

Mr. Bubs

Mike put a divider in Jorja's frog tank today. We have her frog, Cricket, on one side and the newer/smaller frogs on the other. Jorja is in heaven.

Jorja and Mallory

John, Pace, Mike and I played Dominion again. This time we stopped at 12:30. I was so tired I didn't think I would even make it up the stairs. At least I won one of the games. It was worth it.

Bubs the Ref

2012-01-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

John, Cassie, Mallory and I went to see Bubs ref a sophomore basketball game today. It was so fun and I had a great time taking pictures. I have never really paid attention to refs before, looks like they get quite a workout!

Bubs did a great job. John was very complimentary about him. He was really pumped about a 'no call' that Bubs did. John was talking about how 95% of the refs would have called it, but the right call was the no call. I guess one of the coaches didn't agree. He called a time out so he could discuss it with Bubs. I took pictures. It was awesome.

Bubs

John & Mallory

Bubs

'No call' discussion

Now I will add a whole bunch of pictures of Mallory, because she is just that cute.

Mallory

Mallory & John

To end the day, we had another Dominion marathon. John's friend Pace has been coming over to play every night. It has been so much fun. Although one day I will have to find some time to sleep. I'm getting pretty tired. It has been worth it though.

School

2012-01-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

Matt is gone. We sent him off super early this morning. Well, we still hadn't gone to bed. I think I got to bed around 3:30, but I woke up at 7 to get the kids to school. I can't believe they have school already!

Jorja is a very happy Porge. She got three new frogs today. She earned one from me for speaking Chinese every day to her teacher in December. Well, three sentences a day. She did a great job, I am very proud of her. I got her a red-eye tree frog that she named Pads. She also bought two other frogs with her money that Grandma & Grandpa Parry gave her. She named them Wall-e and Eva. We are still playing around with the names. I'm not sure what she will finally settle on. Maysen told her she should name one Waldo because it always hides in the leaves and is hard to find. Jorja also likes Jumper. When she brought the frogs home and we were transferring them to our cage, Wall-e went crazy! It was so funny!

Tonight John & Cassie went out with their friends. It worked out perfect. They put Mallory down for bed and were able to have a grown-up meal. Mallory didn't make a peep. Easiest babysitting job ever! I worked on posting our cabin trip on the blog. I was trying so hard to get it all up so I could be in bed before they got home. I was so tired, but I knew if they started playing Dominion I would want to play. So, long story short . . . . I was up until 2.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

We started off with church bright and early in the morning. I am happy with all of my kids new primary/sunday school teachers. It's going to be a great year. John started off the year trying not to throw up. Poor John. He didn't want to eat yesterday or today when we had a ton of food. Glad that wasn't me!

We had everyone come over for dinner. Mike made delicious fajitas. We also tried to get pictures with everyone. I put a ton of them on there, but they are basically the same thing over and over. We had all the grandkids except Marie and Mina. Hopefully when Matt and Sam get married we can get family pictures with everyone!

Speaking of Matt, he is gone. Sam slept over so she could take him to the airport in the morning. He had to leave at 3. John, Pace, Matt and I all stayed up playing games until it was time for him to go. Matt was stressing out because he couldn't find his hoody he got in Iraq. He said that he would rather lose anything other than the hoody. He found it on his laptop. Haha! He would have left his laptop if his hoody wasn't on it! We will miss you Matt! Can't wait to come to your wedding!

Ella, Mallory, Jorja, Blake, Maysen, Preston

Stockton, Lincoln, Abby, Larkin, Skye

Jorja & Abby up top

Ella, Mallory, Grandpa, Blake, Maysen

Preston, Stockton, Lincoln, Larkin, Skye

With Bubs

John, Bubs, Mike

Mallory kept thinking Mike was her dad . . . until he would pick her up. Funny, funny, funny!

Mallory realizing Mike is not John

Matt, John, Stephanie, Bubs, Mike

With Dad

Mike, John, Matt, Stephanie, Bubs

Dad

Topish: Blake, Christen, Stockton, Maysen,

Cassie, Sam, Mike, Ange, Lincoln

Bottomish: Skye, Mike & Larkin, Mallory & John,

Matt & Preston & Jorja, Steph & Abbs, Bubs & Ella

Dad/Grandpa

Blake, Christen, Skye, Mike, Larkin

Christen & Mike

Cassie, Mallory, John

Sam & Matt

Blake & Mallory

Blake, Stephanie, Mallory

I love this year already!

The End

2011-12-31T21:29:00.000-08:00

Once again I failed with the picture taking. Not one picture. On the bright side, our family read our scriptures every day this year! Yes, we are quite proud. We will have to think of a fun reward.

Tonight we had Steve & Shannon and their kids, John & Cassie, and Sam & Matt. Mallory slept through all the festivities. I think her parents were quite happy about that. We spent the evening playing games (surprise!) and eating (surprise again!) I had a great time. I think the best moment of the night was when Sam talked to Erica and Maysen about reviewing youth books before they are published. Both Erica and Maysen beamed when they were asked. What a way to start the year.

Video Games Live

2011-12-30T21:23:00.000-08:00

Cabin trip is over. I am glad we were able to get good sledding at the beginning of the week. It is still slushy here!

My family spent some time cleaning the living room. They were cute cleaning the windows and vacuuming. They worked really hard. We were able to see Grandma for about five minutes. I was also able to see David Parry really quick. Seems like it has been years since I have seen him!

We were in quite a rush to get home. Mike and Stockton had tickets to see Video Games Live, Bonus Round. It was a concert with the Utah Symphony where they play video game music. There was also a choir and opera singers. Also laser lights and giant movie screens of video games. They loved it. Mike texted me at intermission and said: Best. Concert. Ever. Stockton is already asking about going to it again. Hopefully they come back next year.

Slush

2011-12-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

My dad, Max, Bubs, Lincoln, Ella, Mike, Christen, Skye, Larkin and Blake all went home today. The bad thing is they went home, the good thing was Mike and I don't need to sleep on the couch tonight. (Although I would rather sleep on the couch and have them stay.) Today was really warm. Not a good thing. The snow melted and turned into slush. The bottom of the hill was about two inches of slush. No sledding was done today. We still had a great time. We stayed inside and played games. Stockton is a huge ping pong fan. Many games of Dominion were played. Matt added the stats of every Dominion game played at the cabin. Turns out I only won one. At least that was on my birthday.

Jorja had been wanting to play Trek to Zion the entire trip. I promised her I would play with her today. It was bedtime before I got a chance. I let the kids stay up late and Jorja, Maysen, John, Cassie and I all played. (John won by one point! I couldn't believe it!) Anyway, while we were playing Mike, Sam and Matt were cleaning. Sam did an amazing job cleaning out the fireplace. I have never seen one so clean before. Matt was quite the helper. Haha. It was funny.

Sam & Matt

Sam making the fireplace VERY clean.

We finished the cabin with a few more games of Dominion between Mike John, Matt and I. I love playing games with my brothers. LOVE IT. This has been one pretty great week!

Football

2011-12-28T21:04:00.000-08:00

Today was the best day! Lots and lots of sledding. Lots and lots of games. Lots and lots of family around. Mallory and Blake loved being around each other. Too bad Mina and Abby weren't there.

Maysen and Mike made a cool jump in front of the cabin. The best was when you went off it, you would land nice and soft. I was hoping walking up the hill would counteract my eating of sweets this week, but I don't think it was able to put a dent in it. Maybe if I would have played football with my brothers . . . Mike, Mike, Bubs, John, Matt & Sam played football for at least three hours! They were all exhausted when they finished. I watched for a little bit and was going to ask if I could join, then I saw Sam get tackled and hurt her leg pretty bad. I quickly decided against it. Sam stayed out there and played hard! When the snow was finally settled, Sam had a giant bruise on her knee and one of her fingers was completely swollen. John also really hurt his elbow. He couldn't bend it all the way, plus there was a bump that was in an odd place . . . . hope he is okay. They seemed to love playing though. It has been a long time since they were able to play together. Wish Brett could have joined in on the fun!

Below is an odd picture. I took it because these girls were walking in a line following Jorja around. It was so cute! Jorja was in heaven.

Mallory, Skye, Larkin, Jorja

Skye, Larkin, Jorja

Mallory

Blake

Larkin & Jorja

Today is My Birthday!

2011-12-27T20:43:00.000-08:00

I used to hate having my birthday so close to Christmas. Now it is not so bad. Mike always has the day off, I always get to be with my family and I usually get to be at the cabin. Pretty awesome.

We spent the entire day sledding, of course. It was awesome, of course. Mike and the kids gave me a cool silicone baking mold to make gingerbread houses. You can use it for gingerbread, shortbread and chocolate. Mike made me a chocolate cabin for my birthday! How cool is that? Absolutely perfect! Cassie also got a cake for me, vanilla with chocolate frosting . . . . yummy.

Birthday Cabin

Dad & Max

Preston

Mallory, John & Jorja

Mallory, John & Lincoln

Cassie

Stephanie

Stephanie & Preston

Cassie & Mallory, Stephanie & Preston

Stephanie & Preston

The best present I received was Mike (Millburn) and his family were able to make it to the cabin tonight! Yay! Poor Larkin & Blake with their allergies. I'm glad I don't have those, and I'm glad I don't have to be a mom of a child with allergies. That would be rough!

Stockton, Preston, Skye, Larkin

With Jorja & Ella

Mallory meeting Blake for the first time. (with Christen)

Blake

Mallory

Preston, Jorja, Steph, Stockton, Maysen

With Mike

Today was a perfect, perfect day! (We missed you so much Brett & Rachel!)

Twins

2011-12-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

We got to see the babies today! Cassie, Sam and I made a quick stop at Tammi's house. We heard the twins would be there for one more day. Ollie was awake when we arrived, Drew woke up after a bit. They are so cute! I got to hold Ollie for awhile. They are only four months (I think) and they can already roll over! Crazy. They look like newborns, but can do things newborns can't . . . like holding up their heads. They were great . . . and Jessie looks super skinny by the way. Doesn't seem quite fair.

This afternoon we went to the cabin! I love it here! We didn't have snow machines to help us up the hill, but this super nice guy named Pat helped us up. He had this amazing looking 4-wheeler. I want one of those! Don't think that will happen, but it would be cool.

The rest of the day was spent sledding and playing games. I did managed to cut y thumb when I was slicing tomatoes. Boo! At least the taco haystacks were delicious!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

Last night Mike and Maysen helped me sneak over a stocking for Mallory. I wasn't positive this would get done in time. I finished it yesterday! This was the first time I actually sewed the back on. Usually I give it to my cousin Debie and she does it for me. (She has helped me on many, many stockings. I am so grateful!) I really wanted to learn how to do it myself this time. Anyway, I was pretty excited about it. The funny thing is I have been working on stockings for Lincoln and Ella for years now. I did get them finished, but I didn't get the back sewed on. Ange was really great about it. When I told her I really wanted to surprise John & Cassie with a stocking for Mallory, she said that it was okay to make Mallory's first. Hopefully I will have stockings for all of Bubs' kids by next Christmas. One can always dream.

Mallory's stocking

This afternoon we went up to see Grandma & Grandpa Parry. I wish I had my camera out when we got there. All of my kids were hugging grandma like crazy. It was great. Although later that day Preston charged grandma and grandpa out of nowhere. That was kind of scary. Sorry about that.

Mallory & John

Mallory & Cassie

Grandma, Mallory & Cassie

Mallory looked so stinkin' cute in these zebra jammies. Santa left her a zebra in her stocking. Who knew Santa was that coordinated?

Mallory

My kids have all loved playing tic-tac-toe with grandma. I'm not sure what Preston was playing here. He added dice and levels. It was all very strange. Grandma just let him jabber away. It was adorable.

Grandma & Preston

When I'm Bigger You Can Buy Me a Saw

2011-12-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! We are declaring this Christmas a success. Santa brought all the kids sleds. Preston had a tool box by his sled. He loved it. He carried his tool box around today helping Mike. It was so cute. My favorite was when he told Mike, "When I'm bigger you can buy me a saw." Haha. That made me laugh. I love that boy!

Preston

Mike had been working a long time on Jorja's present. He made a giant frog tank to hang on her wall. She loves it! It is now on her wall, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Jorja & Preston

Mike, Jorja, Preston

Maysen, Jorja, Mike

They can fill the pond with water from a funnel at the top.

Jorja & Cricket

Preston & Patch

Stockton got a basketball hoop. He was pretty excited about it. We played Horse and Tornado. I was terrible, so I didn't get much of a workout. Mike and Stockton were breathing hard. Looks like this is going to be a lot of fun.

Stockton

Looks like we didn't get any pictures of Maysen, but she got an art desk that is now in her room. Also, Santa brought Maysen and me Wicked tickets! I'm so excited! Santa also brought Jorja and me Lion King tickets! We will need to go to New Mexico to see it, but luckily there are some people we really want to see in New Mexico! That won't be until October though. Jorja was pretty excited she will get to see the play since last time she sat through the entire thing in complete pain and wasn't even able to open her eyes. Hopefully this time she won't cut her eye hours before the show begins! Silly Porge.

Santa also brought Matt Cornucopia. After opening presents, Matt went up to visit Sam. He called me a few hours later. Someone else had given him Cornucopia. Luckily he was able to trade it for Prosperity. Dominion at the cabin is going to be great!

This evening we went to my dad's house for dinner. We talked to Brett, Rachel & Marie on Skype. It is their Christmas too! I can't wait to go visit them. Hopefully Matt & Sam will set a wedding date so we can get on with our planning! While we were talking, Mike went to the airport to pick up Mallory! I finally got to hold her. She is so cute and tiny! This is going to be a fun few weeks. Oh, John and Cassie came too.

Christmas Eve!

2011-12-23T23:36:00.000-08:00

Our kids have rarely had Christmas on the actual day. Actually only twice. The first one was when Grandma Honey died. That came quickly and we couldn't plan ahead, so we ended up celebrating Christmas in Utah. The second time was last year. We had Christmas up at the cabin. It's funny because the kids were so excited to move to Utah, but their major concern was, "Does this mean we will only have one Christmas?" They absolutely loved celebrating it early. Mike loves it too. So, this year we decided to surprise them and celebrate one day early. We didn't tell them until right before they went to bed. Maysen was so happy! They all were, but Maysen had a gigantic smile. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone!

Preston, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen

Shoes

2011-12-22T21:47:00.001-08:00

Stockton now has new shoes.

This is the Place

2011-12-21T19:36:00.000-08:00

We had a family party up at the This is the Place park-thing. Mike's dad had rented out one of the buildings. We had a huge dinner. I ate a lot . . I had to make up for my kids not eating anything. After dinner we wandered around the little village. They had crafts for the kids, a puppet show, a live nativity, train rides and Santa. They had more, but that is what I remembered off the top of my head. I went a little ahead of Mike for the live nativity. I stepped in there and immediately sent a text to Mike telling him to stay away! He didn't get my text and felt the effects as soon as he walked in. We were out of there fast! I couldn't believe how calm baby Jesus was. He was so still it was hard to tell that they were real people. Although, Sherry & Nathan and their families went later. That was not the case for them. The baby was screaming! I guess we got it at the perfect time.

I got a few pictures of the boys with Santa on my cell phone. Once again I forgot my camera. One day I will learn how to get the pictures off my cell phone . . . but that day is not today. The boys wanted to take the train back to our house-thing. The girls and I decided to walk. We got there at least 20 minutes before the boys. The boys had a great time and were happy they waited, so it was a win-win.

It was really cold tonight. The snow was beautiful as we walked along the village, but I didn't realized both of the girls wore crocs. They were cold. Stockton had holes in the bottom of his shoes, so he was cold too. It is hard to take the Georgia out of the kids I guess. I'll need to be more vigilant. I remembered to bring gloves for everyone, although Maysen was the only one who would wear them.

Scoop and Cori gave each of the kids a gift bag. Inside was an art set, journals and socks. Sherry immediately started playing a song that said, "Nothing says Christmas like socks." It was funny. We had a great time tonight, and we are really thankful for our warm house!

Racquetball

2011-12-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

Matt, Bryan Leatherwood and I played racquetball this morning. I was terrible, but they let me play anyway. We played at the apartment complex where Mike & Christen lived when they were first married. They have been gone from there for about 7 years, but we still keep using their court. The box where you put your keys in it was broken, so we had to leave our wallets on the bench outside. Matt said he was going to complain and not come here anymore. Haha! I thought that was so funny.

Pageant

2011-12-19T18:07:00.000-08:00

We had the Christmas Pageant today. I was upset with myself for not bringing our camera. All of my kids participated, which was nice. Preston didn't want to, but at the last second he crawled in among the sheep. He was wearing a dog hat, so we called that good. Jorja was an angel, Stockton was a shepherd . . . with tape on his eyebrows for some weird reason. Maysen was a sheep/donkey/angel/king. I think she was that last year as well. Erica was Mary and Conner was Joseph. Erica rode in on Taylor who was a donkey. He was pretty funny. It was really sweet and we had a good time.

Matt came today! He got here a little before midnight. I think he is pretty excited to see Sam tomorrow. It will be so much fun to have him here this week!

Stockton's Heaven

2011-12-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

This morning we went to my dad's ward to hear him speak about his trip to Israel. We just snuck in and out so we could finish up at our ward. It was the last Sunday the kids will have with their teachers. Stockton has had Mike as a teacher and has loved it. I wonder if they will move Mike up with the boys . . . Stockton would love that.

Speaking of Stockton, he was in heaven today. Eating brownies while laying in front of a fire. Besides the fact that he is out of school for two weeks. Life doesn't get any better.

Stockton

We got a neighbor gift from a family on our street. They gave us a roll of wrapping paper with tape. Haha! It was great! Talk about a practical gift. We loved it.

Max's House

2011-12-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

When I woke up this morning, I noticed one of our gingerbread houses hadn't been touched. It took me a bit to figure out what happened. Stockton didn't want to decorate a house. He had already done one this year, and for him one is enough. I sent home Sherry with a house for Connor to decorate. I thought this was Stockton's because Tage had brought a friend. Come to realize, I should have sent home two houses with Lisa. One for Taylor and one for Aimee. Anyway, we had one extra house this morning. I called up my dad and asked if he would like to bring Max up to decorate. They came this afternoon. Preston and Jorja also added to their houses while Max was here.

Max's house

I spent the rest of the day cleaning up and working on a Christmas surprise that I am really excited about. I don't know if I will be able to pull it off. I can see me making the deadline, but I can also see me falling short. I will be so disappointed if I can't do it! It would be sad to put so much effort into something and not be able to get it done on time. We'll see what this next week will bring! I love Christmas!

Gingerbread Festival . . . Again

2011-12-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

I forgot to take pictures during our gingerbread land festival. I grabbed the camera and snatched a few at the end. Brandon's was awesome. He had a great yard with pathways and snowball fights. Michael had Santa's sleigh up on the roof. Tage had this cool metallic looking roof. I bought two bottles of spray (red & silver) that you can put on cupcakes. Preston loved it. That is what he spent most of his time doing. Xander loved it too, but turned his gingerbread marshmallows into a carnage scene outside his house. Sherry would say, "Let's do some happy things now." Xander is six. It was pretty funny and not what I was expecting the red spray to be used for. Why don't I think ahead?

Lisa arrived first and was a huge help getting the last minute details done. When I saw her scrubbing our sink I said, "You are just like your mom." Totally what Sharen would have done. It is a compliment, I wish I was more like them. Steve & Shannon brought pizza. That was a great help because I don't think I could have put one more thing on my 'to do' list. Jacob got sick while they were here and had to leave early. That must be depressing. Not only to get sick, but to be sick when there is a ton of free candy up for grabs. Hope he feels better soon.

Brandon

Tage

Michael & Millie (Tage's friend)

Derek & Melissa

Tage

Tage's house

Miah

Michael

After decorating we were able to watch The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It turned out to be a perfect day. As we were leaving Miah said to me, "Can we do this every year?" How sweet. Hopefully we can. Maybe by next year I will forget how much work it is to put it together. Or maybe I'll remember and start my baking earlier. Either way I am glad we were able to do this and I am glad the preparation is done!

You'll Never Know

2011-12-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

We did it! We were able to put together sixteen gingerbread houses today! Tomorrow the fun begins with decorating. I spent almost every waking second getting these houses together. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to pull it off that I woke up at three in the morning. Not on purpose. I laid in bed until four and then decided I might as well get cracking. We finished up around midnight.

Mike and I did take a break this evening to listen to my friend Heather sing. She was AMAZING! I love listening to her. Heather was in town to sing at the Draper Christmas Festival. She sang all the songs she wrote as well as a few favorites she has. She sang a Frank Sinatra song that was so beautiful. The song was called You'll Never Know. Her voice was incredible. Plus, it was so cool to say hi for a few minutes before she heads back to Georgia. Coolest thing about this hobby Heather has . . . besides I get to listen to her sing whenever I want . . . is she comes to Utah! Love it!

Slow Going

2011-12-14T20:13:00.001-08:00

I have no idea if the gingerbread factory will be able to meet its deadline. I'm really worried about that. I did get to the doctors today. I have been out of my medicine for several months. I am very grateful to have it again.

Viewing

2011-12-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

Maysen and I went to Kaitlyn's mom's viewing today. (Kaitlyn is 15 years old.) I guess things like this make me a little more sensitive. Maybe even a little annoyed of what I have had to deal with in my life. I feel so bad for Kaitlyn. It is hard knowing the worst is yet to come.

Busy

2011-12-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days when I was busy all day, but there is absolutely nothing to write about. Who cares that I did laundry, made gingerbread dough, went to my presidency meeting and diving? I did almost forget to get the boys from middle school and take them to their elementary school. That would have been bad. Luckily it dawned on me just in time. I was able to pull up right as they walked up to the parking lot. I also found out Stockton received an A in his math class. I assumed he did, but I was glad to find out for sure.

Christmas Goodies

2011-12-11T21:17:00.000-08:00

We were able to deliver all the plates of goodies we had planned for. I was excited about this because I was sure this project would last until Christmas! Now I am returning to the gingerbread factory. We decided to use the left over candy to make gingerbread houses with some cousins on Mike's side of the family. One thing led to another and . . . . now I need to make 16 gingerbread houses by Friday. It will be busy, but I'm excited about it.

We watched the finale of the Amazing Race. We were happy with it. It was cool seeing Atlanta and recognizing so many of the landmarks. That being said, if someone stopped me on the street and asked me, "What former residence was known as The Dump?" I would have no idea. Also, The Swan as the most recognizable landmark? I don't think so. The map challenge at Turner Field was super cool though. Cindy was amazing with that. Love that show!

Brownie Cake

2011-12-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

I spent all day today in the kitchen. It was fun, but by about four I was exhausted. Mike said I was having a sugar crash from all the dough I was snitching. I've started making these brownies that Stockton loves. It is hard to get enough for the neighbors because he snitches it so fast. Actually he always asks, I just have a hard time not letting him snitch.

I talked to most of my brothers today. Brett is the only one I didn't talk to. He isn't going to the cabin which is what we talked about. It is going to be so fun! John & Matt are heading up on Christmas. They will stay one night at my grandma's house. Matt was funny, he kept saying, "Grandma has to meet Sam. She has to. She at least has to meet the person I'm going to marry." I talked to Grandpa last night. He seemed excited to have them stay the night. They will get to meet Sam and Mallory. How cool is that? We are hoping to come up on Christmas as well, but we are waiting to find out Bubs & Ange's plans. Bubs is waiting for his basketball schedule to be posted, Ange is not sure how she will feel. (Ange's feet are not ship shape yet, her pain medicine also makes her sick . . . not fun to be at the cabin feeling that way.) Anyway, I am so excited to go to the cabin this year! I just wish Brett and his family were able to come. At least we will get to see them in July! Thanks Matt!

Heartbreaking

2011-12-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Here is Stockton's after shot of his haircut. Love that boy!

Stockton ~ after

This has been a long, hard day. Many memories and feelings were brought to the surface. The mom of a girl in Maysen's Miamaid class died this morning. It was quite a shock. She was sick, but this was a surprise. We were over at her house last night for the Relief Society program. My heart is breaking for Katie. She is a little older than Matt was when my mom died. That is way too young to deal with something like this. I don't like it at all.

Hair Cuts

2011-12-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

I took all four kids to get hair cuts today. I made them take before/after pictures. (They were thrilled.) I didn't get Stockton's after picture, so I will post that tomorrow.

Maysen ~ before

Preston ~ before

Love that mischievous boy!

Jorja ~ before

Maysen ~ after

Preston ~ after

We may or may have not gotten a frosty on the way home. You decide.

Jorja ~ after

Jorja just wanted a trim. She loves her hair long!

Jorja wrote all over her balloon. I thought it was pretty funny so I took some pictures. I think it says something like 'frog says hello'. I can't remember.

I had every intention of posting the kids before picture right next to their after picture, but I forgot. When I realized I posted the before pictures all together I didn't have the energy to fix it. Apparently I am extremely forgetful. I set up visiting teaching appointments yesterday. I set them up for Friday, but Sister Brockbank called this afternoon wondering where we were. I told her we were coming on Friday. At the Relief Society dinner tonight, Sister Longhurst asked me if I got lost. I was confused until she mentioned I missed the appointment. I told her I thought I set it up for Friday. She said not to worry about it because she was already visited. I asked her who visited her and she said Sister Peck. Sister Peck is my companion. I guess if three people thought I set up the appointments for today I must have done that. I did spend the entire day baking treats to take to my now nonexistent appointments tomorrow. How embarrassing.

Mike got a crown on his tooth today. It took about two hours to put it on. He has been hurting a lot. We didn't expect that. Hopefully this is his last day in pain. It has been quite a miserable few months for him . . tooth wise.

Root Canal! Yay!

2011-12-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Mike had his second root canal today. I have never looked so forward to a dentist appointment . . . especially for someone else. He has been in incredible pain for weeks. I can't remember the last time he was able to sleep through the night. Mike's mouth is sore today, but it is a different kind of pain and hopefully will go away. He needs to go back tomorrow for a crown. He still hasn't had a crown put on his last root canal, but the dentist said he needed to get a crown on this one quick.

Home from Israel

2011-12-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I picked my dad up from Israel. He was asked to go as a tour guide, so he was able to go for free. He went there 21 years ago with my mom. I remember we stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Parry while they were gone . . . and I'm pretty sure Mike turned 1 while they were there. Anyway, my dad had the best time. When I asked him if he had fun he said, "Fun doesn't even begin to describe it." Pretty cool. Preston and I met him in the baggage claim area. Preston wanted to surprise him, so we were hiding behind something. When I pointed to my dad, Preston ran out to give him a hug. But he went to the wrong grandpa! Haha! Preston stopped short and was all confused. My dad was wearing a jacket he didn't recognize, so it took him a bit to find him. Preston was excited for him to come home. He has asked me many times, "When is grandpa going to play with me again?" My dad watches Preston every Wednesday for me while I volunteer in Jorja's class. Preston LOVES it! Anyway, when the other people waiting for their luggage found out I was Ron's daughter they would say things like, "Your dad is amazing." "Best tour guide ever." "He was wonderful." Sounds like he will get another free trip to Israel in the future. Also, for those curious . . . my dad broke his camera on this trip. If you are keeping score, the last three tours he has done he has either lost or broken a camera. Nice to keep traditions.

As soon as all the kids were home from school we went to pick up Mike from work. We stopped at the store and picked out a balloon and a poinsettia. We then took them to Grandma Honey's grave. She died six years ago today. Really wish that didn't happen. I wish both grandma's could be here with their grandchildren (and me). I love watching new grandmas excited about their adorable grandbabies. At the same time it is kind of sad because I realize my children never got to be adored like that. I just keep telling myself they were handpicked. My mom sent me the very best . . . that is why they are so amazing.

Preston, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton

Maysen and I served dinner at a homeless shelter with the youth in our ward tonight. The girls had prepared the dinner and did a fantastic job. When we walked into this giant warehouse like building we saw the entire thing covered with beds. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect that. The girls had a really good time. Many of them commented on the ages of the children. They asked if they went to school. I think it blew their minds that normal people have giant trials at such a young age.

Almost Date

2011-12-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Matt has an almost date! Matt has an almost date! I was thrilled to get an e-mail from my brother Matt letting me know his maybe dates for his wedding. He and Sam are thinking about getting married somewhere between July 2 - July 6. Awesome!

Little Things

2011-12-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

We had a special session of Stake Conference today. We were able to listen to one of the 70s speak, but I can't remember his name. It was great though. Although Mike had to take Preston to the bathroom during one of the talks . . . and then Preston accidentally sprayed him. Been there.

Our Stake President talked about how during the atonement, Christ not only suffered for our sins, but for all the pain we would feel during our time on this earth. Pain that we didn't choose, or pain that others cause us. He talked about how his oldest son and daughter-in-law died thirteen years ago leaving behind a three year old and a one year old. (He has been raising them.) It was really interesting to listen to him speak, I agree with him completely but I can't explain exactly what I think about it . . . too complicated.

I liked what the random 70 guy talked about. He was a really good speaker. He talked about how if you put $65 away every month in a bank account from the time you are 25 years old, with 5% interest when you are 65 you should have a million dollars. (Or something like that.) If you wait to start saving until you are 45, in order to have a million dollars by the time you are 65 you will need to save over $300 a month. It is still possible, but it will take about six times the money.

When your kids are little, if you do the little things like family prayer, scripture study, family dinner, family home evening, and personal meetings with the kids, it all goes into an account. You can start teaching your kids later, but it will probably be six times as hard.

Anyway, I'm sure I messed up a ton of the bank thought . . . especially the numbers, but I really like that idea. I like being reminded that the little things really do matter.

Festival of Trees

2011-12-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today I went with my family to the Festival of Trees. Granted, I seem to like it the best . . . but they were good sports. It was pretty cool to see the houses they had decorated. I have to say that the Gingerbread Village was our favorite. Besides the Sweet Shop.

Maysen's house

Stockton's house

Jorja's house

Here are a few random houses I took pictures of. I don't know why I didn't take more pictures. There was a gingerbread house of the Capitol in Washington D.C., the Madagascar one was pretty cool, but my favorite was Rapunzel. That one was awesome! I loved the purple licorice for the top of the tree. Wish I had a picture of all those, but I don't so these will have to do.

Arthur's Christmas

2011-12-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

Stockton went to a movie with friends today. I find that weird. I can't believe he is old enough to do that. Logan's mom dropped them off. I didn't realize they would be at the theater by themselves. I'm not sure how I feel about this growing up thing.

Super Sad Porgie Porge

2011-12-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

I did not want to write this post today, but here we go. As I was driving in our garage after picking Stockton up from dodgeball, Jorja opened the door and was screaming. Mike was right behind her holding her shoulders. One look at her face and I immediately knew one of her frogs had died. I was hoping beyond hope that it wasn't Padz. It was. We are not sure what happened. We think the water bowl might have been tipped, or maybe he wasn't eating his crickets, since there were still a few in his cage. I'm not sure but Jorja is devastated. She kept saying things like, "I'm not a good frog owner." Although mostly it was just a painful cry of, "Padz!" We had Jorja sleep in the guest room so she wouldn't bother the other kids. I laid with her until she fell asleep. I hope she does okay in the morning.

I have been wanting her to speak more Chinese to her teacher. I told Jorja that if she speaks three sentences a day to Ms. Wu, I will get her another tree frog. (Jorja bought this one with her own money and worked so hard for it! Plus the red-eyed tree frog is her favorite frog.) I know it is only two weeks and a day for a really cool present, but Jorja will have to be really brave to talk to Ms. Wu. This is something she struggles with in English. I'm hoping this will help her get over her shyness with Ms. Wu. I'm also kind of wondering if Jorja shouldn't handle her frogs as much as she does. She is very careful and always washes her hands (without soap) before she handles them. Especially Padz. She was very careful with him. Still, it was a lot of handling, but how do you tell a Porge not to play with her frogs. I wish I knew the right answer.

Amazing

2011-11-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-29T20:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

We had tithing settlement today. Preston was embarrassing.

Dead Teeth

2011-11-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-25T21:01:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-23T20:43:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-22T23:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-11-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-08T19:36:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

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

Lincoln's Present

2011-11-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

Holy gingerbread! I woke up at 6 today and started working on Maysen's house. I worked until 2:00. That is when I finally baked the last piece of her house. Mike and Maysen put it together. It is quite big. It took a lot of time, but it is kind of neat to see a different design than we had tried before. That being said, I had no idea how long it would take! Ange had warned me that she tries to break it up into three days. I am so glad we are doing these now. When it comes time to make these for the beehives, I'll know what I'm doing . . . at least a little bit.

Bubs and Ange stayed here all day. The kids played while we worked on getting the houses ready. I don't have any pictures of the houses, but we did get a few of the kids playing in the snow. I'll get pictures of the houses tomorrow. We are having a family dinner here, so we will decorate them then.

Jorja in her adorable frog hat

Lincoln and Jorja have the same birthday. I gave Lincoln his present yesterday. I said, "It's kind of weird, and I hope you will share it with your sisters." He opened it and was so excited. It was nutella. I even heard him screaming, "Nutella is the best present ever!" Haha. Kids are awesome. He was so proud of his nutella. He kept asking Ella if she wanted some. Anyway, in the pictures below, you can see the nutella smeared over his face.

Devious Lincoln

Innocent Lincoln

Winter Coat Model Lincoln

Pretty Purple Ella

Abbers

Ella, Jorja, Preston

Forgetful

2011-11-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

Maysen had school today. Stockton and Jorja did not. Well, Stockton had math class, then he was home the rest of the day. I remember when I was taking Maysen and Stockton to school I thought, "Okay, I'm all done until Stockton's doctor appointment this afternoon." I guess that is the last time I thought about the doctor appointment until the doctor office called me at 3:30. I was so embarrassed! How can I be so forgetful? I ended up rescheduling Stockton's appointment for the day after Thanksgiving . . . Maysen has an appointment that day anyway.

We started gingerbread central today. Bubs and Ange came over. We were up until midnight baking gingerbread. It took a lot longer than I anticipated. We were hoping to decorate them tomorrow, but it looks like we might have to push that back. I bet the kids are going to be disappointed! They are also going to be tired. Lincoln and Preston kept talking and didn't get to sleep until 11:30. Ella and Jorja were the same. Maysen stayed up late to play a game with Mike and Bubs. Stockton was the only one who is able to sleep through chaos. That is a great talent to have.

On an exciting note, it started snowing today! It is so beautiful. I love it. Especially since I have new tires. Mike and Spencer brought in a lot of logs and got the sprinklers turned off this afternoon - so we were ready! Yay snow!

Wicked Smart

2011-11-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

That is how Stockton was described by his teacher at his parent teacher conference today. He is doing really well . . . except he needs to remember to turn in his work. He does it, just doesn't turn it in. I can't wrap my head around that one. Why would you do the work and not turn it in? I remember going to gifted meetings years ago and hearing that the gifted students do this all the time. I thought that was weird. Hopefully Stockton will overcome that little quirk. That was the only thing his teacher suggested he work on. That and reading comprehension. I guess he is only testing 'above average' on that one . . everything else is 'well above average'.

Stockton and Maysen went to play dodgeball with our stake today. Stockton had a great time. He loves dodgeball. Maysen had an okay time, but isn't that interested in going again. They are having dodgeball every Thursday. Pretty great for Stockton . . . except next Thursday is Preston's birthday, so I'm not going to let him go.

Mike went to the dentist today. They said he needed cavities filled, crowns replaced and two root canals. Yikes. Too bad we don't live in New Mexico . . . then my brother Mike could help us out. That is if he does root canals. Do you do them Mike? Or if we still lived in Georgia - Paul could do the root canals. Then I would know they were needed and were being done right. Speaking of Paul, his wife Heather's album Make It Last is now available! I am so excited, I just need to figure out how to download things. Hopefully I'll get it by this weekend. Her CD comes out later this month. For the two people who read my blog, you should go check it out. Her voice is perfection. If I was smart enough I would put a link right here. If Mike wasn't in tooth agony I would have him teach me . . . or you can google search Heather Shepherd. Mike and I met her when we were fifteen years old. Mike use to BEG HER to sing in history class. I can't blame him, she does sing like an angel.

Jorja's Conference

2011-11-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

I had parent-teacher conference for Jorja today. Her teachers are Ms. Wu and Mrs. Redd. They kept saying over and over how smart Jorja is. They also said she is starting to come out of her shell and talk to the other students, but they still want her to participate more. Ms. Wu said that when she asks Jorja a question, she always knows the answer, but she won't speak to her often. I think it is because she is worried she might be saying something incorrectly in Chinese. (She is only allowed to speak Chinese to Ms. Wu.) It was really cool, after talking to the teachers for awhile Jorja came to the table. Ms. Wu said something to Jorja and she left. When she was gone Ms. Wu told me that she asked Jorja to bring her red folder. Sure enough, Jorja came back with what she needed. Ms. Wu would ask Jorja questions and Jorja would answer them no problem. She also read a Chinese passage to Ms. Wu. Later Ms. Wu told me that she hasn't been able to get Jorja to read out loud to her before. Mike and I are going to have to come up with an incentive plan to help her with that.

Maysen and I went to her school today to listen about graduation requirements - gasp. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. Mike had scouts with Stockton, so Jorja was babysitting for about thirty minutes. She tried to cook popcorn in the microwave. She didn't use the bag, she used regular popcorn kernels. There was popcorn everywhere in the microwave! Oh little Porgie Porge. I love that you are so independent, but sometimes it would be nice if you would just watch tv for a bit.

Hello Winter!

2011-11-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

It's snowing! How nice of winter to wait until November, because yesterday was fabulous! Today I spent most of the day baking. We had our Young Women Evening in Excellence tonight. I was in charge of dessert. I made brownies and cookies. Simple and yummy.

Mike took the van to work today to get snow tires on them. I'm excited for these tires after dealing with our tires from last year! Hopefully Sharon and her family won't have to dig us out this year! Also, I'm excited not to be sliding off the road. Anyway, because Mike had the van I used his jeep today. The only problem with that is his garage door opener isn't working....the one that goes in the car. I had my opener in my pocket, so I would open my side, get out, run and push the opener that is attached to the wall, get back in the jeep and park it. Not a big deal, but it was cold and snowing! It wasn't until just now that I realized I could have just parked on my side. Why didn't I do that? I guess I just like doing things the hard way. At least that is what my dad would tell me when I was little.

Stockton and Jorja took their Halloween candy to a dentist office today. They were buying back candy for $1.00 a pound. Stockton kept about three pieces and sold the rest. He earned $5. Jorja earned $2 and Maysen earned $1. Preston only picked about five pieces to sell, so I just gave him a quarter. The dentist office is taking the candy and sending it to soldiers. I was surprised at how much candy they had collected. They had boxes and boxes by the time we got there. I guess they don't care if soldiers have rotten teeth! I was talking to my dad about Stockton selling his candy. He mentioned how Matt and John would think Stockton was crazy. They would NEVER consider doing that. They love candy!

Take Candy From Strangers Day

2011-10-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to take pictures today! Well.....Jorja and Preston dressed up as frogs. Stockton wore his copter cap and was a helicopter. Maysen made quite a cool costume. She was Capletta from Mario's Super Star Saga. I have no idea how to spell that, but I am quite impressed I remembered where it was from.

Anyway, Preston kept calling today 'take candy from strangers day'. He was so cute trick-or-treating. He would march right up to the houses (sometimes in the houses), say 'trick-or-treat' and 'thank-you....happy Halloween'. That boy is not shy at all. We only went down two streets, but it was enough. One house had awesome cotton candy. The house two doors down from us had a whole bunch of chairs for people to sit on. They were cooking scones, serving cider and handing out full size candy bars. Makes our tootsie rolls look pretty pathetic.

Stockton's friends were the first ones to come to our house. They asked Stockton if he wanted to go trick-or-treating with them. He was gone for a LONG time and came back with a ton of candy.

Maysen had a lot of math homework today. A LOT. Her teacher said that she knew it was Halloween and she didn't care. I find that quite annoying. I don't think they need to not give any homework, but hours of homework for one class on Halloween? She should be able to enjoy these last few Halloweens she has as a kid. Anyway, that is my opinion. She worked with Mike for a long time on her math. They didn't finish....more to do in the morning.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

We brought our pumpkins to Steve & Shannon's house. We bought two regular size pumpkins. Steve & Shannon grow their own pumpkins and had 6 or 7 giant ones. At least we let the kids carve them this year . . . last year I did not want to even try. It seems weird that a year ago we didn't have a real place to live. I guess it's so weird because it feels like we have been in this house forever . . . well, not forever - but a long time. Then again, it also feels like we just got here.

Diving Again

2011-10-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Mike and I took Stockton up to a diving competition in Park City. Stockton hasn't been diving for a couple of months, but his diving coach sent us the information anyway. Stockton wanted to go. Both of his diving coaches were there. Also Aiden was there. Stockton and Aiden started diving at the same time. They dove together at the U during the entire school year. It was pretty cool. Stockton did great for not diving in such a long time. He had seven dives. Three off the three meter and four off the one meter. He took 2nd place. I think there were three boys in his division. Aiden is a year younger than Stockton, so he is in a different division. Anyway, it was great to be back at the pool. Stockton will dive one day a week at the U. He would do two, but they moved scouts to Wednesday. I would be tempted to have him miss it, but they put Mike in as one of the assistants. I don't really want Mike to be there without Stockton.....

Stockton also was invited to a Halloween party at Isaac's house. He had a great time. They played lots of games. When they were playing Sardines, only one boy could find Stockton. I guess all the other boys gave up because after a long time they noticed that everyone was outside trying to eat a donut off of a string. He was quite proud of himself for his excellent hiding place.

Chili and Chocolate

2011-10-28T23:25:00.001-07:00

Stockton was excited about today. Maysen had middle school, but the elementary school had the day off. That meant Stockton went to math, then got to go home. He thought that was pretty cool. He went to school, took a math test, then went home. Nice day for him. Stockton also had friends come to the door and ask him to play. This was the first time that has happened since we moved from Georgia. Stockton was out with Isaac, Jordan and Logan for quite awhile. Stockton had a very good day.

Jorja was excited about today. She got to go to the aquarium with my dad. He called me last night and said that they had Max unexpectedly. He was going to need to take Max with him on Jorja's special day. I wasn't about to let that happen. I asked him if we could watch Max here while he took Jorja to the aquarium. It worked out great. Preston had a great time playing with Max. When it was time for him to leave, I asked Preston if he had fun with Max. He said no. When I asked why, he said, "I thought Max was going to sleep over."

Jorja came back with a new frog and a giant serving of cotton candy ice cream from Cold Stone. She was so excited about this trip with grandpa. It is pretty awesome living in Utah.

Jorja and Preston decided they wanted to rake leaves outside. Of course, before that could be done, the leaves needed to be raked in a pile and played in. They were outside for a couple of hours. They did fill four bags of leaves.....then we ran out of bags.

Jorja - her new frog she got with my dad is in the tree

Beautiful Porgie

Preston

Preston & Jorja

Preston

I love Preston's face!

Preston with his Porge

Jorja attacking her dad

Jorja, Preston & Stephanie

We had our ward Chili and Chocolate party today. I tried to prepare my kids by telling them this was going to be nothing like the Halloween parties in Georgia. The Halloween parties in Georgia are pretty crazy....bouncy houses, cotton candy, trunk-or-treating..... The highlight of this party for the kids was talking in the microphone. The bishop was asking the kids if they had any Halloween jokes. Preston was pretty cute. He walked up to the bishop when there were not any kids around. He waved his hand in the air like he was asking for the microphone. The bishop asked him if he had a joke. He nodded and was handed the microphone. In a voice as clear as a bell he said, "Why did the chicken cross the road? . . . To get to the other side." It was so cute. Later he told me, "I was hoping no one else would say my joke."

Stockton also liked to talk in the microphone. He would say weird things about crackers and make commentary about how Christmas decorations should not be up yet. Anyway, my favorite costume was by Isaac - a boy Stockton's age. He dressed like a hobo with a sign asking for money. He had a cup and I'm wondering how much money he had in there by the end of the night. Also, my chocolate placed third. Not sure how many votes were from my own kids.....

Missed Bus

2011-10-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

I took the boys to an early dentist appointment today. I dropped Maysen off at school on the way. I gave Jorja the garage door opener with specific instructions about when to leave and what door to go out of. I guess Jorja lost track of time while she was playing the piano. She hurried to the bus stop, but was too late. I am not good at remembering my cell phone. She tried calling me, but I had left it home. Once we were done with the dentist, I stopped and let the boys get a donut, then I dropped Stockton off at middle school. He only had ten minutes left of class, so I waited for him. I then took him to his elementary school and Josh to his school. When I finally got home, there was a note taped to the door. It said, "Mom I missed the bus. I've been trying to call you. I've been crying the wole time you have been gone. Please take me to school. --Jorja" Man I was frustrated. I was frustrated with myself for forgetting my phone, and I was frustrated with Jorja for missing the bus. I wish she would have thought about calling her dad. I wonder if she knows his number. Guess I better ask.

Jorja is NINE!

2011-10-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, fun day. Jorja brought frog pops to school for her birthday. She made them and they turned out so cute! She had such a fun, froggie day.

Jorja

Before school, we let her open one present. It was a webkinz. I'm glad she still loves webkinz. She picked the one she wanted for her birthday. She chose a winter fawn. She named her Flake.

Silly picture

After school was piano lessons. Jorja was really excited to show her teacher that she had memorized her entire recital piece. She only needed to have a few lines memorized. While the kids were doing lessons, I made more frog pops. Once Jorja was done with her lesson, she decorated them. She even made a puppy pop for Preston.

Once piano lessons were done, we watched Jorja open presents. She got LOTS and LOTS of frog things. She loved it. One would think she would get a little tired of having so many things that are frog related . . . one would be wrong.

Maysen

Stockton

Mike

Preston

BIG smile!

Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

Preston, Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

We got Jorja a really cute frog hat. She loves it. After presents we went rollerskating. Jorja wore the frog hat and looked absolutely adorable. It was funny because it would kind of glow when the lights were off, so she was really easy to find. Maysen also wore the birthday hats at the rollerskating rink...exactly like you see in the pictures. She thought it was funny that her shadow looked like she had horns.

Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

Maysen with horns

Preston made Jorja a birthday card by himself. I love it!

Stockton, Jorja, Preston

Stockton & Jorja with an orange froggie swim cap

Stockton & Jorja with a Sponge Bob book written in Chinese

Jorja got a card from my dad. It said, "This card is your ticket to go with Grandpa Millburn to the Aquarium to see many weird frogs (and other aquatic lifeforms, pick a prize from the gift shop, and then to go to Cold Stone to get your fill of ice cream." Jorja LOVED that gift! She is so excited. The entire time we were rollerskating she would whisper to me, "I can't wait until Friday!" She asked Maysen how come grandpa didn't give her a birthday gift like this. I told her, "I told him Maysen would like a book. I thought of this idea and suggested it to my dad after Maysen's birthday." Someone, I'm not sure who....it might have been Jorja said, "Maysen got hosed."

Stockton & Jorja reading Grandpa's card

Preston & his puppy pop

What a fun, long day we had. I hope Lincoln had as fun of a birthday as Jorja did! Can't believe my little Porge is nine already. I am so thankful she is in our family. I love spending every day with her. Love you Porgie Porge!

Porgie Loves Frogs

2011-10-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

I made picture frames with the Young Women today. Jorja helped me make an example frame. What cute little froggies I have.

Jorja & Preston

Jorja also helped me make froggie cake pops for her birthday tomorrow. This is what she is bringing to her class. She is quite excited.

Porge and pops

Jorja & Preston

I can't believe my little girls is almost NINE! Slow down time! Slow down!

Pools Closed

2011-10-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Mike officially closed our pool today. The water is lowered, the pipes are emptied and the antifreeze is in. It was sure a fun summer. The first of many!

Infinity

2011-10-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

We had a regional stake conference at the Conference Center today. Our stake was invited to attend live. Mike and I thought this would be a great experience for our kids, they have never been to the Conference Center before. The kids were GREAT during conference. I kept glancing over at Maysen and Stockton, they were really paying attention. I was so pleased. There was a lot of talk about the youth, how they need to know what they believe in.

After conference, I wanted to look around. We went to the visitors center at the temple. There were a lot of people there. We got a few pictures, but no prize winners. My favorite is the kids in front of the statue of Christ. Preston is holding his shirt out because he just drank from the drinking fountain. Water is all over his shirt....

Stockton, Preston, Jorja, Maysen

Preston & Stockton

Maysen & Jorja

Steph, Preston, Jorja, Maysen, Stockton

I would love to come back here to have a good look around. Hopefully when there aren't so many people, and it would be nice to enjoy everything when my kids aren't about out of patience from sitting through a two hour meeting. It was a great day though, and the weather was fantastic! What a nice October!

A quick Preston exchange I want to remember.

Preston: I love you infinity times infinity times infinity times infinity blocked times infinity times infinity times infinity times infinity blocked.

Me (Stephanie): What does blocked mean?

Preston: It means three times squared and one thousand cubed.

Haha! I loved how he thought 'blocked' might do the same thing as squared and cubed. What a clever boy! Not to mention, super sweet. Preston then drew a heart on my paper with lots of infinity signs inside. He told me that was my 'love meter'. How do I stop time with this little boy? He is growing up too fast! I'm not ready!

Squeaky Floor

2011-10-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

In this house, there are a lot of spots on our floors that squeak. The big ones are in the hallway (over Maysen's bed) and our room (over the boy's bed). Maysen mentioned today that when she goes to sleep she hears squeaking sounds over and over. She finds that annoying. I told her it is because after we get the kids to bed, Mike and I jump on the squeaky spots just for fun. Jorja kept saying, "Do you really do that?" Of course we didn't do that . . . but now we do. The first thing I did when I got upstairs was bounce on the squeaky spot. Mike laughed and started bouncing too. I was so amused with myself that I had tears running down my face. I could just imagine Maysen rolling her eyes as she read her book. How easy I am to entertain.

Bed

2011-10-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

I stayed in bed all day. Everyone has taken a turn being sick (except Mike). Well, Jorja had pneumonia, so it wasn't the same thing. Stockton was sick all day yesterday. On his day off of school. Poor boy. We were suppose to go to Idaho to clean the cabin, but I was not fully confident we could get up there without major sickness. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow, with everyone else it has only lasted a day.

I did get to talk to Brett today. That was the highlight of my day. He was heading out to lunch with Rachel for her birthday. Rachel's birthday isn't until tomorrow here . . . but it was her birthday there. Happy early/right on time birthday Rachel!

Health Juice

2011-10-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

Look at these cute little froggies. When I was taking their picture, Jorja said, "It's just like we're getting married. The boy frog is on top of the girl frog, then they hop away." Mike and I about died laughing.

Preston & Jorja

Mike got a new toy in the mail yesterday. He has a juicer and loves it. He wants to make lots and lots of apple juice....surprise. The apple juice is quite good. He also made carrot juice and grape juice. The carrot juice is strong, but quite good when mixed with apple. Preston and Jorja were excited to make 'health juice'. Just like on Webkinz. On Webkinz, when you mix watermelon, carrot and apple in a blender, you get health juice. They tried it, but didn't really like it. I thought the watermelon taste was too strong. Probably if we put less watermelon and more apple it would have been good.

Mike & Jorja making health juice

Jorja

Preston

Tutorial

2011-10-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

One day when Matt was here he was looking for a tape recorder. I didn't know where ours was, or even if we had it anymore. I said, "I don't think my phone has a recorder, I know the newer versions do, but I don't think this one does." Preston overheard me and said, "Yes it does." I asked him how. He took the phone and gave Matt & I a tutorial on how to use it. He had to show me a couple of times before I understood. It was so funny to have a four year old teach Matt & I how to use the iphone. I wish I had a picture of the two of us hunched over listening to Preston's every word. Priceless.