Chris and Jane

We had family dinner today. Chris and Jane are here from California and had time to get together today. All of my family that lives in Utah was able to come, except Maysen. Aunt Gayle came. Jae and his little boy came. Dad and Cathy brought enchiladas. Mike made strawberry short cake. It was really fun. I love Chris and Jane, they are so nice. I did forget to take any pictures of the night until only Matt and Sam were left. This is the one picture from the dinner I got.

Preston, Stockton, Anne

Jeff

Jorja asked if she could do my hair and makeup. I didn't get a picture until the end of the day. ~ Mike and Stephanie

Millburn Family Thanksgiving

I got up early this morning and started cooking. I first made two banana cream pies. I about died inside when I realized I didn't pick up the sweetened condensed milk I needed.  I had caramel sweetened condensed milk. So, I used that. I made two caramel banana cream pies. They ended up being super delicious. I also made rolls and cranberry sauce.

Brother Masters came over today to talk to me about a new calling. He was about to tell me what the new calling was when someone knocked on the door. I interrupted him to answer, I kind of had a feeling about who was there. I was right! It was Audrey!!!!! I haven't seen her since June. She has been living in California. She is home for Thanksgiving! She has grown too. I laughed and gave her a hug. It was so good to see her! I brought her to Jorja's room, then went upstairs to finish my conversation with Brother Masters.

The missionaries sat by us at church today. Then they took Jorja to go teach some lessons with them. Jorja missed her Sunday school class to do this, but I think it was a good experience. When she came back she came into my primary class. She helped me teach my lesson. That was fun to have her in there. She is a natural teacher. She was really, really good.

Sister Hutchinson, Jorja, Sister Argo

 Sister Hutchinson, Sister Argo, Jorja

 I couldn't decide my favorite, so I put them all....

My family came over for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Rachel and her girls were here, my dad and Max, Bubs with his family, and Matt with his family. Rachel texted that Marie had a sore throat, so if anyone was worried to let her know. Sam said that Anne and Jeff had been sick as well. Mike decided he would hide from everyone most of the day. He cannot afford to get sick right before Black Friday. I only took a couple of pictures, but we had a fun time. It was nice to have Rachel and her girls with us. We sure have missed them!

 Eve & Jeff

 Abby & Mina

Flag Day

Our family was assigned to put up flags for Flag Day. I really like how they are doing the flags this year. Instead of asking for volunteers before each day, they assigned the flags for the entire summer. We were assigned the 4th of July, but were able to trade for today. Only the boys were able to help because the girls had to leave to school/conference too early. The boys were assigned our street. Mike and Stockton put in the flags and Preston drove the golf cart. Preston was over the moon about that!

Preston

 Preston & Stockton

 Some of their work

After I dropped Maysen off at her conference, I hurried down to my dad's house so I could give him our crockpot. Mike accidentally broke my dad's crockpot at Lagoon. Our crockpot is very similar, so hopefully he will be okay with that. My dad was excited about books he got from the yard sale awhile ago. He said that John would have gone nuts! He sent me home with a lot of books to borrow. My dad also showed me this book he got from my grandma's house.

There were a couple of things about our ancestors in there, including my great-great-grandfather's death. This had more information than the newspaper article I found awhile ago. Turns out there was a bit of a history between my grandfather and John Bryner.

We aren't sure who made the note at the bottom of this page. Apparently my great-grandma Olive Branch Millburn was the one who really wanted the indoor toilet. Grandpa said his dad was strongly opposed to it. "No one is going to @#$% in my house!" Turns out Grandpa was the first to use the toilet and then became a huge fan. That is what my dad told me anyway.

I spent a little too long at my dad's house and had to hurry and get the boys ready to go to diving. We were late because I needed to stop by the store for sunscreen on the way. I thought we had some...whops. The boys got to dive on the platforms today. Well Stockton did. Preston just stayed on the 1 meter. He finished a little earlier than Stockton but didn't want to jump off the platforms. He said the water was too cold!

Stockton on 7, Preston's head by the edge of the pool

The end of Stockton's dive

Stockton on 7

 I wish I would have snapped this picture a half second later when he was completely straight!

 Preston's dive off 1

 Stockton on 5 ~ he says inwards are so freaky on platforms

Stockton's inwards

These platforms aren't very sturdy. If the wind blows at all the divers can feel the platforms moving. I love watching them on platforms. Platforms are not Stockton's favorite though. His hands start to hurt going into the water from that high. I think he liked them a lot more when he was diving with Josh, Gavin and Gage. They had fun on them!

Almost Twenty-three

We had dinner with Bubs, Matt and their families. My dad didn't come this time because he went to dinner with Cathy's family. We had hamburgers. Bubs brought fudge and Matt brought brownies. I was sad to be doing no sugar right then! It was a pretty peaceful, delicious day. It started snowing when Matt went out to the storage unit to get baby clothes for Gregory. He ended that pretty quickly. He is going to try for a day without snow. One more month and we will have a new cousin! The girls are still ahead of the boys in our family, but not by much. This will make thirteen girls and ten boys. Brett's family pretty much gave it to the girls. Good thing they are adorable!

Gingerbread

I love gingerbread houses.  I love the smell.  I love the candy.  I love seeing what everyone makes.  I love the chaos.  It is so much fun.  We did gingerbread houses for my family today, except Bubs and his family were unable to make it.  Hopefully we can get him later.  Maybe when John and Cassie are here.  Anyway, here is the product from todays fun.

Stephanie

 Mike

 I always love Mike's houses.  I wish I were as creative as him.

 Stockton

 Preston

Preston was so funny.  He built Trump's wall out of sugar cubes.  That is Trump on the top.  He is holding a whip.  The cinnamon Santa's are "Mexican's" climbing over the wall.  One is scaling the wall with a candy cane.  Definitely not politically correct, but it was funny listening to Preston while he was decorating.

Preston's puppy sleigh was really cute.  You can't see it here very well, but I love how he was able to get icing tying all the puppies together.

 Max & Preston

 Jorja

 I wanted one with her smiling.  She doesn't like the elastic

on her braces.  She gets her braces off soon, so she can deal with it!

 Katlyn

Katlyn's parents dropped her off and headed to the hospital.  Katlyn's mom had surgery awhile ago.  One of her staples became infected and she ended up needing surgery tonight.  Katlyn slept over at our house and both Jorja and Katlyn were thrilled with that surprising turn of events.  Katlyn had never had a sleepover before, besides with family. Making lemon aid out of lemons.

Jorja & Katlyn

 Matt

 Sam

 Anne

I put all of Matt's houses on circle plates.  That is because this gingerbread is made without dairy.  I asked Anne when she came in if she wanted a scary gingerbread house or a not-scary gingerbread house.  She said she wanted a not-scary one.  Her little voice is so cute! Sam wanted them to only use dairy free candy.  It worked well until Matt forgot and put kitkats on his house.  He was trying to make it look like his house was boarded up.

Anne, Matt, Sam

 With Jeff

 Dad

My dad made such a cool house,

but the pictures don't do it justice at all!

 Jeff wanted my dad's house

 Cathy

 Max

 Cathy, Max, Dad

Here are my Instagram pictures.  I liked how they turned out, so you get to see these same pictures again.

Matt, Sam, Anne

Max, Dad, Cathy

 Mike, Stephanie, Stockton

Jorja & Katlyn, Preston

I took Jorja and Katlyn to Katlyn's house so she could pick up clothes for tomorrow.  Then I fell exhaustedly into bed.  What a great day!