100 Temples

Conference was great again. At the end of conference they announced 17 new temples. President Nelson has now announced 100 temples. WOW! Davis was excited because they announced a temple in Birmingham, United Kingdom. That is where he served his mission. Nathan served his mission in Orlando, even though he was called to Paris... covid.... Anyway, it was another great conference. In between the sessions five of the kids went on a walk. Gillian took a nap. They took Bear dog on an adventure. Mike and I met them after awhile. I brought Bear back home and the kids took the 4-wheelers up to Big Rock. Man did they get muddy! Sounds like they had a blast though.

Hannah, Jorja, Nathan, Davis, Bear, Sydney 

Nathan, Jorja, Hannah

Davis, Jorja, Hannah, Sydney, Nathan

Sydney, Jorja, Hannah, Davis

Mike gave Bear dog a bath and it wore him out

I'm not good at the stacking toys, so I was proud of this one.

Davis, Nathan and Gillian left after dinner. Jorja had to submit an essay by 10:00, so she finished that before they left. Then she forgot her eye therapy folder, so I met up with her by Alpine Market and handed it to her through our windows. The funny thing about this trip is no one knew each other before they came. They just knew Jorja, except Nathan. Jorja met him here. They all got along really well. I'm glad Jorja can collect friends and bring people together. Jorja knows Davis from ambassadors. Davis and Nathan are friends from growing up. Jorja knows Hannah from skiing class, Sydney from swing dancing class and she met Gillian last week. Gillian also knew Davis.

Stockton called me tonight and we talked for a long time trying to figure out schedules. Looks like he is planning on taking physics online during the summer. He has 2 computer science classes and 2 math classes. He is also taking an honors introductory course that is required to graduate with honors and is taking his physics lab. He has all of his classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday with his 2 recitation classes and his physics lab on Tuesday, Thursday. I guess one day will be dedicated to classes and the other to homework. Hope he loves this next semester. He has been doing great in this one. He works so hard though! I sent Stockton this picture while we were taking. Mike and Preston were busy programing something for a wand station they are making. I think they are trying to do some dueling station. Haha.

Preston & Mike

RIP Davis

Today was a great day. We started out with crepes that the kids made. Davis has the recipe memorized. I found our recipe and showed it to Davis. It was almost exactly the same. Delicious breakfast. We then listened to conference and had a laugh at the poor young boy who was praying if he should go on a mission or not. Man, did his question get answered! The first two talks, one by the prophet. Bam! Bam! It was really cool because I thought Jorja and her friends would want to watch conference by themselves, but they watched it up here with us. Then the boys started asking everyone what their favorite part was. It was awesome to listen to them talk about it. 

We played Nertz during the break and Jorja destroyed everyone, with her bad eyes. Also, this made me laugh. I was talking to Sydney about where she grew up. I can't remember the town, but it is a small town outside Pocatello. She went to a K-12 school. I think she said there were 17 people in her graduating class. There might have been 21. They didn't have many choice of classes, she took a lot of auto repair classes and worked in the greenhouse a lot. She took AP World History and was the only one in the class. Just her and the teacher. Hahaha. CRAZY!

Sydney, Nathan, Davis, Jorja, Hannah, Gillian

Sydney, Hannah, Gillian, Jorja

Nathan & Jorja

Jorja & Hannah

Sydney & Jorja

Jorja & Gillian

Apparently Jorja got 1 on 1 pictures with everyone except Davis. Rip Davis. Haha The kids went down to the beach and had a campfire and roasted marshmallows. They ended the night watching The Lego Movie 2. Awesome conference day.

Good-bye Gavin

We watched the last two sessions of conference today. I just love conference. I love watching it with my family. I love that my family loves it. It's such a great weekend. After the first session we played Ghost Detective. Stockton was the ghost. I was able to figure out how he was killed. I was proud of myself.

Stockton went and watched the second session of conference with Gavin. Gavin is doing home mtc. I don't think Stockton will see him again before he leaves. Gavin was originally called to Japan. He has been reassigned to North Dakota, I think. I'm glad they were able to spend some time together.

Gavin & Stockton

We ate when Stockton got home and then he headed back to college. He texted us this picture and said, "My roommate has his scriptures open??" Stockton's roommate has been excited to leave the church. He likes to tell Stockton all the commandment breaking things he does. They still get along okay though. Stockton enjoys him. Anyway, about an hour later Stockton texted, "Never mind he's letting our roommates rip pages out to roll joints." That's just terrible. Especially after the awesome weekend we had listening to conference, Stockton comes back to that. Just kind of a kick to the heart. Stockton spends most of his time over at 'the bungalow' with his friends from his mission. He said he just feels so good when he is there. Probably because the spirit is there. I'm glad he at least as a place he can escape to.

Wingspan

Today was really fun. Stockton was here and it was awesome. We made waffles this morning. My dad's waffles, which are the best. It was a feast and it was delicious! We watched the three sessions of conference today. The evening session was the best. In between sessions we played Wingspan. It was Maysen and Stockton's first time. We ended up adding four extra rounds to it just for fun. It ended up taking hours and hours. We played it between sessions or the hours and hours might have been annoying if they weren't broken up. It was pretty fun. It is so nice having Stockton home!

Stephanie & Mike (stolen from Stockton's blog)

The only picture I took today. Whoops.

CHINA

We had such a great day today. Conference was amazing. We were able to do the Hosanna Shout with President Nelson. The talks were amazing, the day was beautiful and new temples were announced. The last one was a temple in China! WHAT??? It's a temple with restrictions, but STILL! Wow! They also announced a temple in Dubai. It sounded like Dubai asked if they could have a temple. That is amazing. Conference went by so fast this time. I'll have to re-listen to it again. I wish my memory could hold things longer.

Jorja and I took Bear on a walk. We went to the church, but there were too many dogs there! Jorja was running with Bear when he randomly decided to run around a light pole. His leash got stuck and we had to call Mike to help. I pulled and pulled and couldn't get it to budge. Right before Mike got there I was able to get Bear unstuck, but the leash was destroyed. Having a dog is fun.

stuck

 Jorja & Bear

We've been playing games every night as a family. It has been so fun. Today we played Colt Express. Yesterday we played Stop Thief. Maysen LOVED this game when she was little. It is super old. Mike found a site awhile ago called Restoration Games. It takes games from the 60s - 90s and updates them. Stop Thief was one of those games! Mike was so excited. He wanted to give it to Maysen for Christmas, but they were all out. Well.... they started selling it again and Mike jumped at the chance. They did a great job and the kids have loved it. Especially Preston. After we finished playing he started making a Stop Thief board in Minecraft. Hahaha

Too Fast

New Young Woman Theme

This weekend went by too fast. We listened to the last two sessions of conference. Uchtdorf was my favorite. I mean, he started by talking about The Hobbit. How could that talk be anything less than amazing? "God knows that you are not perfect, that you will fail at times. God loves you no less when you struggle than when you triumph." I love that.

Maysen left back to Utah State a few hours before we were able to leave. I was anxious to have her get through the canyon before dark. We got home around 11:00. The kids were able to sleep on the way. Preston slept in the back and listened to his book on audible. We weren't able to get his new book he needed, but we did find it on audible, so we called it good. Jorja slept in the bottom bunk. It was a quick trip. We didn't get everything done that we hoped we would. (Didn't help that the hardware store closed at 4:00 on Saturday.) But it was nice and peaceful to be at Parrydise. I love it there.

Birthday Conference

We celebrated Maysen's birthday and listened to three sessions of General Conference. Maysen's birthday is next week. Mike and I are planning on going up to see her, but Jorja and Preston won't be there. We only brought up one present for her. Nothing too wonderful. Drawing gloves. At least Jorja and Preston were able to watch her unwrap one present.

Maysen ~ She loves her Fairly Odd Parents shirt. It has wings on the back. I love her.

Conference was great as always. I love listening to Holland. It was cool to hear all the new changes. The new Young Women's theme. Announcing the temples in the Women's session. Pretty cool. Conference is the best.

Posters

Conference is over and I am sad. Maysen is back at school. We figured out her schedule for fall between the two sessions. Hopefully it will be an easier semester than this one. This one has been so hard! One month left Maysen! You got this!

1st session

 2nd session

Mike and Jorja worked on her campaign posters during conference. They turned out amazing! I love them! She gets three posters. She has six different pictures for front and back. They are perfect.

These next few weeks will be stressful for her! Campaign season is crazy! She loves being in student government though. I hope she will get this experience again.

80 Years Old

Today would be Grandma Honey's 80th birthday. Wow! I can't even imagine. We didn't celebrate her birthday this year like we have in the past. Mike did call his dad and talk to him awhile. We talked with the kids about it, but we didn't get KFC and have a picnic by her grave like we usually do. We should have tried to do that though.

Today started General Conference. I love conference so much! It is so peaceful to listen to the leaders of the church. I started working on a stocking for Marie. I texted Rachel my progress after each session.

1st session

 2nd session

 Priesthood session

Maysen was home with us and Jorja had asked for work off. She did work during the priesthood session though. We were missing Stockton, but it was nice to know he was doing the exact thing we were. I bet he loved Uchdorf's talk today. Missionary work and how members can help. My favorite talk was during the priesthood session. I had been praying hard about two things. One was how I should handle Jorja. Am I parenting right? Am I too overprotective? I had a friend tell me that I should let her fall, but I don't feel good about that. I know she is going to fall, but shouldn't I warn her about the edge of the cliff? The talk I loved was "Where Will This Lead" by President Dallin H. Oaks. It was awesome. I loved how it talked about consciously thinking about the result throughout your life. When he told the story about the squirrel playing on the tree with a dog lurking nearby, I felt like that was an answer to my prayer. Students were watching but none of them warned the squirrel about the dog until it was too late. I feel like Mike and I are the students, but we are frantically waving our hands and shouting at the squirrel warning it about the dog. Anyway, I felt like even though Mike and I might not handle everything with Jorja perfectly, we are on the right path. At least we are trying hard. I'm looking forward to conference tomorrow. My favorite weekend of the year.

Conference Breakfast

We decided to do a family breakfast instead of a family dinner this month. My dad came over first so he could get the scones rising. Sam made a French toast casserole that was delicious. When Bubs and Ange came over, I started talking to Abby about cousins. She liked how Amy's name started with an A, just like her name does. We decided to make a graft of the cousin's names. Then we added the parents and my mom and dad. This is what our graft turned out like. M was the clear winner. If we did a graft of last names M would win by a mile.

Amelia's birthday is on Monday, so we celebrated her birthday too. Maysen, Jorja and Lincoln all have October birthdays (of the family that was here.) They all decided Amelia would be the most excited about blowing out the candles. I was excited to find a chocolate vegan cake for Anne. This isn't the vegan cake, but at least Anne had a chocolate cake she could eat.

 Amelia

 Jeff's head, Maysen, Preston, Amelia blowing out candles, Gayle, Greg & Matt, Max's legs, Ange's legs....I think....

We "watched" the first session of conference together. I definitely will need to rewatch that one. I like to watch all of conference again anyway. When Matt and Sam were packing up we couldn't find Anne and Jeff. They were downstairs reading with Stockton and Jorja. I loved that!

Jeff & Stockton, Jorja & Anne

Stockton LOVES babies. I was sad I didn't get a picture of him with Amy, so he came upstairs and posed for me by her carseat. He assured me he had the chance to meet her and already had a conversation with her. I love him!

Amy & Stockton

Jorja wanted to show Stockton her new car. Stockton and Jorja drove with her in the front seat, Mike and I were in the back. Stockton liked the car a bit more after driving it. Surprisingly it has a lot of power. Stockton drove around Pepperwood and then to our church parking lot. He made Jorja drive. It was so funny to hear Stockton try to teach Jorja how to use the clutch. "It's like kissing a boy. You need to move in gently...." He said he was trying to teach her in language she would understand. Hahahahaha. Mike helped Jorja get her new license plate on her car. Seriously. I hope she doesn't regret this license plate. 

Jorja and the front of Maggie

 Now the back

Stockton had his diving friends over for the second session of conference. Gavin, Dani, Noelle, and Connor all came. They stayed for a long time and seemed to love it. Mike took me to the airport before Maysen and Stockton left for Logan. I flew out to New Mexico. It was great to see my brother Mike. I love my family!

Two Hour Church! Two Hour Church!

We were able to watch conference together as a family and I loved it. Who knows how long it will be until that happens again, if ever. My brothers and I were texting through conference, just like football games. I was hoping for two hour church. So was Bubs. John was rooting for four hour church and we voted him off the island. President Nelson wasted no time getting down to business. Two hour church is going to be a reality! Bubs was texting like crazy and making me laugh.... "If the price I had to pay for a 2 hour block was an embarrassing loss to USU, I'll take it." "President Nielsen taking a wrecking ball to old church traditions." "What's next? 7% tithing?" Oh man, I laughed so hard.

I made Maysen a cake during intermission. She wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I'm excited to use her candles for Preston's twelfth birthday. We celebrated Maysen's birthday today. It is actually on Wednesday, but she will be up in Logan and I will be down in Albuquerque. Today worked out just fine.

Maysen had asked for a wallet phone case for her birthday. We gave her one with a new phone inside. She was very happy when I told her that she now has 128 gb (?) memory. Her old phone had 16.

Maysen

I had to take Jorja to work during the second session of conference. She was covering for a girl who got sick and had to go to the hospital. Mike brought her back and she was able to watch the last of the women's session. Really she pretty much slept through all of conference anyway. I did find these random gems on my phone.

Jorja & Preston

I had been wanting Mike to give his lesson he gave in Elders Quorum a few weeks ago to our kids. We did that after conference today. I loved it. He taught them about resiliency. Maybe I should go into detail on that sometime when I'm not so tired and I can think straight. It was a great family home evening and all of my family was there. Perfect. Stockton left after the presentation to go to Gavin's house. I'm glad he has made such good friends.

No More Visiting/Home Teaching!!!

This conference has been crazy! So many changes! I love that my kids never complain about watching every session of conference. Even Preston. It's the best. When President Oaks announced that President Nelson had a few short remarks, Stockton said, "Oh boy! Time to drop a bombshell." Boy was he right! He announced that the home teaching and visiting teaching program are now discontinued. They will be replaced by a 'ministering' program. Right after the announcement Preston said, "April Fools!" Hahaha! That would have been the best April Fools joke ever! It's interesting that there were two talks with ministering in the title during priesthood session. One by Eyring called Inspired Ministering and one by President Nelson called Ministering with the Power and Authority of God. Also, President Nelson ended the conference by announcing seven new temples! One in Richmond, Virginia where John and Cassie are. Another in a major city yet to be determined in Russia. The two temples closest to John and Cassie right now are being remodeled and are closed. Right now their closest temple is 5 hours away. How exciting this news was for them! What an amazing Easter and a fantastic conference. President Nelson sure hit the ground running!

Goodbye High Priests

General Conference weekends are my favorite weekends of the year. I love sitting and listening to the leadership of the church giving us guidance while I sew in my pajamas. The first session was the Solemn Assembly. It was really cool to sustain President Russell M. Nelson as our new prophet. Rachel and her girls were here for the first session. We had a lot of candy for them to enjoy. I think Grace loved the candy the most. Rachel left after the first session. They were spending the day with her brother and celebrating her niece's birthday. The next time we see Rachel she will have Brett with her! Yay!

Jorja and I made a quick shopping trip after the second session. I got her a shirt and then we went to Michael's to pick up a few things for her campaign. I dropped her off at Madison's house after. When I walked in the door Mike and Stockton were laughing and saying how President Nelson got up to say a few remarks. He then merged the High Priests with the Elders Quorum. Boom! Right off the bat. It was pretty awesome. I think we are going to enjoy the ride of President Nelson as our prophet!

Texting During Conference

I love General Conference. I love listening to the speakers with my family. This time my brothers' and dad were also texting throughout conference, just like we do with baseball/football games. Mike texted something funny and I laughed right as the speaker was telling a sad story. I think a kid just died in the story and I started laughing. My kids looked at me like I was crazy. Basically my brother Mike was making fun of my dad. He thought the speaker looked like him. Then he said, "I guess it's not you because both pupils are the same size...but I bet he combs his hair with one of those worn out brushes like you." Anyways, reading my brothers' texts throughout conference was quite funny to me. Then it was weird when Elder Hales died fifteen minutes after the morning session ended. Elder Anderson's talk at the end of conference was great.

My family came over after conference for dinner. I had been making rolls, but messed up a million times. They turned out okay though. My dad brought potatoes with cowboy spuds for the topping. Then he made milkshakes for all who wanted them. It was a fun day.

So...Much...Food

We finished watching conference today. I am always sad when conference is over. I just love it. Hopefully I can watch it all again this week. I worked on a cross stitch of Christ I have had for years during conference. My eyes sure aren't as good as they used to be. It is getting harder and harder for me to see the squares.

My family came over after conference. I wish all my brothers were there. We had so much food! My dad made waffles and scones. Mike made omelets and crepes. I made two pans of the peach, croissant things, Sam brought cinnamon rolls and donut holes. W-O-W. I ate so much. I haven't eaten like that in a long time, and I felt kind of sick when I went to bed. Oh well.....

My dad is having eye surgery on one of his eyes tomorrow. If that goes well, he will have surgery on his other eye. Hopefully he won't need to wear contacts after this. My dad has horrible eye site. That would be amazing if it works. It would also give Brett hope - his eye site is like my dad's! Bubs and Matt gave my dad a blessing. They were sneaky about it and I ended up missing it. At least it got done. Gayle came over as well. It was a nice, delicious day.

Collin Conference

I absolutely love General Conference. I love listening to the messages. I love relaxing and working on a project while we listen. I love that my entire family watches all the sessions if they possibly can. Jorja had to miss the first session. She had softball practice. The pitchers and catchers went early. That meant Jorja started at 9:30. I picked her up after the first session. We stopped by Harmon's on the way home and picked up a few more treats.

I finished Collin's stocking during the afternoon session. I am so excited to have it finally done! I was procrastinating doing the cording, but it wasn't so bad once I started. I think the stocking turned out great!

I watched the priesthood session with Mike and Stockton. We were all surprised that it only lasted about an hour. Mike and I went to the store to pick up food for tomorrow's dinner. My dad wanted to do breakfast for dinner. Mike and I are in charge of omelets, crepes and some kind of breakfast casserole. I picked a peach, croissant casserole. While Mike and I were at the store a foreign lady that didn't speak English very well stopped us and asked if we could help her. Of course I said yes. She said that she needed us to pay for her food. I was confused as to what was going on. I had a few dollars in my pocket and tried to give them to her. She said she didn't need money, she needed someone to pay for her food. I wasn't sure what to do. We had just watched conference and I want to help people who are less fortunate. At the same time, Mike and I are super tight on money right now. We have been wondering how we are going to pay our bills this month and talking about needed to take out more on our loan, which we don't want to do. We have several huge bills coming up, so it is quite scary. Anyways, it didn't look like that lady had too many things, I thought it would be about $50, which is a lot of money right now for us, but I agreed. I walked with her to the cash register silently wondering what I was doing and hoping she truly needed the money. In Georgia there are people that do this thing all the time and that is what they do for a living, just get people to pay for their food. I knew this, still I wasn't sure what to do. I was stunned when the bill came to $130. Still, I put in my card and paid for this random lady's food. I felt like sitting down in the middle of the isle and crying. I know people have it worse off than me, but I would much rather pay for one of my brother's grocery bill than someone I don't even know. I wish I knew if she needed it or if I was just scammed. Next time I will say that I can pay for one can of formula, but not for their entire bill. I'm not even sure how it exactly happened. I guess people can tell I'm a sucker from a mile away. I was just so shocked about the entire thing I wasn't sure what to do. I wish I knew it was going to be $130 from the beginning, because I knew we couldn't afford that. Hopefully something will work out. Anytime money has been tight in our marriage, it eventually gets better. The cabin has had more bills than we anticipated so it feels like we have just been holding on for quite awhile. I'm sure it will get better, but we might have to take out some more on our loan. I probably shouldn't have bought a ticket to Virginia. At least I found it for $160 round trip, which is only $30 more than I paid for a random lady's groceries!

Chris and Jane

We watched conference again today.  I love it.  One of my favorite times of the year.  My dad went to the Sunday afternoon session with his cousins Chris and Jane.  They came over to dinner afterwards.  It was fun to see them.  I hope they had a great time at conference.  I didn't get any pictures of them, but I did manage to get pictures of Anne. Jorja painted all of the girls' fingernails again.  Anne was excited to be included.  She was so cute saying, "I'm getting my fingernails painted." Over and over again.

Anne

 Anne & Jorja

 Anne

There was a giant lightning storm tonight.  Matt walked outside to put things in the car.  It wasn't raining at all, but about five seconds after he walked outside we saw a giant flash and then extremely loud thunder. The flash was in the front and back of our house at the same time.  I looked at Sam and said, "I hope Matt didn't just die."  Luckily he did not.