Preston's Braces are OFF!

Preston got his braces off today! Woohoo! Always good to be done with that part of your life. Not fun getting them off though. I remember how bad that hurt. I was tempted to stop the orthodontist and ask if I could just keep them on. Glad it is over and his teeth look great!

Preston ~ before

Preston & Dr. Watson ~ during

Preston ~ after

One of my favorite pictures of Jorja is the picture I took of her in the car after she got her braces off. It is still the icon on my phone for her. I asked Preston to let me take a picture of him with his braces off. This is the result.

Preston and his new smile

Jorja sent a picture back showing him how it should be done. Haha

I ordered Jorja a Chinese CTR ring with Joshua 1:9 on it. Just the reference, not the entire verse. Joshua 1:9 is what she picked for her missionary plaque scripture. "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Jorja's home MTC ~ Sister Gale, Elder McRoberts

Elder Darlington, Sister Smith

Stockton found out today that he is not allowed to compete in the Goldwater scholarship because he already needed to be doing a research project. He texted me, "You've been recommended as someone who should apply for this.... Oh wait, you don't fit the requirements." That is disappointing, but at least he found out at this stage and not after he jumped through a ton of hoops. Anyway, here is a picture of Stockton and Alyssa riding their bikes in the dark in the rain. I'm pretty sure they were coming back from their Calculus 3 class. They signed up for an online Monday night class, only to find out it has now been switched to an in-person class at the library. Lame! But they are good sports, which is why they are riding bicycles.

Stockton & Alyssa

Preston had to make a how-to video for his Chinese class. There are a lot of videos on my phone of the process, but I'll just show this short clip of the end. Haha. Love that boy!

Dalia with the Girls

I took the girls to lunch at Dalia Crepes. Such a fun place! Jorja and I shared our crepes. She got a sweet and I got a savory. Perfect way to do it!

Maysen

Jorja

Jorja

Maysen & Jorja

Jorja went to Logan to hang out with her friends. Hannah and Emily are going on their missions the same time as Jorja. Here are a lot of pictures. Lots from today, but I think some of these are from her ambassador retreat last week.

Hannah, Jorja, Emily

Emily, Jorja, Hannah

Jorja & Hannah

Jorja, Emily, Hannah

Jorja & Emily

Jorja's ambassador friends

Hannah, Jorja, Emily

Jorja, Emily, Hannah

This one definitely looks like the ambassador retreat. You can see Stockton's friend Bridger in the white shirt.

Back to the Blog

Welp, I am behind on my blog by A LOT. A lot, a lot, a lot. Hopefully I can piece together half way decent posts, but I got to start somewhere. Jorja went up to Logan to say good-bye to people. She was able to stop by Stockton and Alyssa's apartment and see where they live. I'm glad she was able to do that before she left.

Jorja, Stockton, Alyssa

While Jorja was in Logan she sent me messages asking me to look for this card that was with some of her mission papers. It looks like her mission will be ending February 12th. I forgot about that card. Stockton had one that said his mission would end on February 5th, and his mission did end on this exact day. It will be interesting to see if this works out the same for Jorja.

Alexa, Jorja & Reagan

Maya and Jorja went and got icecream together

Preston passed his drivers test today! He sent these pictures to our family group chat. Haha. I love him!

Stockton found out that his science class involves going on quests. Haha. That will be interesting. He also found out that his and Alyssa's calculus 3 class that was supposed to be online has been changed to in person. It is a super late night class, so that is quite disappointing. I'm totally annoyed about that. How can they change a class AFTER everyone has signed up? What if you worked your entire schedule around that class? Well, it is what it is and I suppose they will manage. School starts back up for them today.

Lost Classes

So Stockton called me today to ask for help with Alyssa's schedule. I was not much help. All of Alyssa's classes were dropped and she just found out about it today. Her parents didn't get the tuition in before the drop deadline. Understandable with all the wedding hoopla. There is just a notice on a page and no real reminder so it is easy to miss. We miss it so many times when we would need to get the housing money in. Luckily all three kids have had a full tuition scholarship, so we never had any dropped classes. Alyssa was able to get all of her classes back but two. She is on the waitlist for those. Fingers crossed all goes well.

I missed this picture yesterday. Whoops.

Jorja, Ella, Giselle, Caleb, ???, Ella

Jorja's FSY kids LOVED her

It's Raining

Jorja came home from retreat today. I sure love having her home and I'm going to miss her when she is in Hong Kong. I love all the adventures she is having and will continue to have. That girl sure reaches for the stars. I love watching everything she accomplishes. Also, I saw this meme about acceptance and I loved it.

Emily, Jorja, Hannah

75 Years Old

Today was my mom's birthday. She would have been 75 years old. Crazy. I can't even imagine. I worked today, but my dad and I went to lunch at Zao's. I had book club tonight at Becky Johnson's house. That was a fun way to end the day. It looks like Jorja has been having a lot of fun at her ambassador retreat. She won't be here next year along with a few other people that are going on missions. When the ambassadors have their classes, Jorja and these future missionaries get to hang out. I think she has really enjoyed that.

Jorja & Maya

Hannah, Jorja, Emily