Kaylee's Handprints

So....Jorja was sick again. She missed the entire day of school. She probably would have tried to get the last classes, but she was supposed to go on a field trip for PLT anyway. She also missed the Valentine party in student government. Ever since Jorja had mono last year, whenever she gets sick, she gets really sick and has a hard time shaking it. Still, nothing has compared to the awful days when she first had mono.

Mike had work off. He gets every other Friday off, except during crunch time ~ Black Friday and Christmas season. It was perfect timing because Sherry came down from Highland to do Kaylee's handprints. Super nice of her to do that! She had the day off of school today and spent it doing us a favor. It was awesome. I have a lot of pictures of Kaylee getting her handprints, but none of her footprints. Weird. Also, I couldn't help but put every picture with Amy watching in the background. Haha

Mike wandering, Sam holding Kaylee, Matt watching, Sherry creating

 Kaylee

 Taking the oxygen sensor off to get Kaylee's footprints

 Matt, Kaylee, Sherry

 Amy's watching

 She's concerned

 And adorable

 Matt & Kaylee

 Kaylee

Poor little girl. You will love the handprints when you are older though. If you notice all the Enfamil in the background, it is because Matt and Sam are stockpiling it. This is the only thing Kaylee will eat and it has been discontinued. Matt searched every store from Provo to Layton yesterday getting as much as he can. Sam has a lot of writer friends around the country. Some of them are sending her some. Bad timing for this. Hopefully by the time they go through it all her little body will be able to tolerate something else.

Mike and I went to lunch at Sizzler after the handprints were done. That was nice, fun and relaxing. We tried to convince Jorja to go with us, but she wasn't hungry. She hasn't been hungry for a long time. Jorja had her ACT camp today. She picked Drew up at school and they got to Provo for the 3:00 check-in. Evan and Gabby were also there. She said it was a lot more fun that she thought it would be, which was great. Evan and Drew were in one group. Gabby and Jorja were in another. She is hoping that she will be in a group with someone she knows tomorrow since it is all day. Fingers crossed for that one!

Aubrey, Gabby, Drew, Evan

 Ben

Once she got back she picked up Ben and they stopped by Crumbl. Jorja had a coupon for free cookies. Then they went to Smiths before Jorja came home. Hopefully she isn't sick tomorrow! Also, Mike finally finished the Sweethearts video. It is awesome. Here is the link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYgVkgdzzA 

Jorja Gets Her Ears Pierced

Yesterday Sherry gave me the handprints she made for Amy and Blakely. I dropped off Amy's today.

Jorja has wanted to get her ears pierced for a long time. She has been so scared. I brought her last August to get it done. She lasted almost five seconds before she started panicking and needed to leave. I wasn't sure if she was going to go through with it this time, but I told her if she wanted to wear earrings to sweethearts she would need to get them pierced today. We drove down to Salt Lake to a piercing studio. I trusted them more than somewhere in the mall. The wait was LONG. We filled out the paperwork, gave them our phone number, then left to find somewhere to wait. Jorja did not want to wait in the studio. I wasn't familiar with the area, so we ended up just walking around a Smith's. I was about 50/50 on whether she would go through with this. I don't care if she has her ears pierced at all, I just know she really wanted to get it done.

Jorja waiting to get her ears pierced.

A guy named Frank pierced her ears. He was good at calming her down. Although after he pierced the first one he told her she couldn't take her earrings out for six months. Jorja was mad. She said if she went through all this she wanted to wear her earrings to sweethearts. I have no idea how to get the studs off, they don't have a real back. I'm worried if she tries she won't be able to get them back on. Well, if Jorja would have not walked out of the studio back in August she could wear her own earrings to sweethearts and prom.

Jorja & Frank

 Frank & Jorja

1st ear ~ he had to get Jorja to slow down her breathing, but she did it.

The needle he pierced her ear with stays in her ear. Interesting.

 One down, one to go.

Jorja did not like this at all. She survived though. She said the second ear hurt a lot. Not sure if it was because she knew more of what to expect. I'm glad she didn't walk out after only one ear was done though. I did like this place though. Frank changed his gloves constantly. I liked that.

Frank & Jorja

2nd ear

Success! Jorja & Frank

 There it is. I think she picked out good studs though, especially since she needs to wear them for six months.

 Jorja makes me laugh

We got back just in time for Jorja to get to work. We are celebrating Christmas tomorrow, so today is Christmas Eve for us. With Jorja at work, it is going to be a simple celebration. I took the kids to Chick-Fil-A to bother Jorja, and because Stockton wanted to go there. We only saw her for a hot second though. Next stop was Fantastic Sams. I had checked the website to see the hours and knew they were open late. Too bad when we got there they were closed. There was a hand made sign on the door. We tried Super Cuts and struck out there too. We did manage to get Mike a Christmas present. The kids wanted to get him the Zelda game for the Switch. I didn't know when we would get Preston a haircut, but Mike scheduled him online at Great Clips and got in. We hurried him down there. His haircut looks great! Once Jorja got back we opened the traditional Christmas jammies. Mike and I picked out Christmas cactus jammies in honor of Stockton going to Arizona next month.

Stockton, Stephanie, Mike, Jorja, Preston, Maysen

 My babies! Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen

The kids have a tradition of sleeping in the same room on Christmas Eve. They also listen to Shrek Twelve Days of Christmas over and over. It is weird. I couldn't find their CD; but never fear, Preston was here to save the day. Preston found the song on Youtube, figured out how to have it play on a loop through a speaker. So, the lucky kids were still able to listen to that weird song all night long. The kids all slept in the boys room. Jorja was on a beanbag and Maysen was on the pull out bed. Last Christmas they will be able to do that.

Preston ~ I love his new haircut

Amy's Handprints

I dropped Jorja off at work and then headed over to pick up Sam. We drove up to Sherry's to get Amy's handprints done. Amy did great!

Stephanie, Amy and Sherry

I got back in time to pick up Jorja from work. She had a change of clothes in the car and I dropped her off at Alta for the volleyball game. She was required to be here as part of her student government class. See, easiest grounding ever. Is she even really grounded? Conner gave her a ride home, but they ended up staying out in the driveway for at least thirty minutes. Mike texted her and asked if Conner wouldn't just want to come in. So, we finally got to meet the boy who has been driving Jorja home from school everyday. I told him that Jorja could take the bus, he didn't need to drive her. He doesn't seem to mind. I'm not sure what to think about him. He seems nice and he has been really kind to Jorja. I'm not sure if they like each other, but I don't feel he is controlling, so that makes me feel better. I did find out that Conner had tried to get Jorja to go home several times from the party a few days ago. REALLY? Jorja just kept talking to other people and brushing him off. Grrrrrr. Jorja said Conner looked really nervous. I didn't notice, but I guess I don't know him at all anyway. Although, now that I think about it, he did look nervous. He had his hands in his pockets and was kind of bouncing on the balls of his feet. When he left and Jorja went downstairs to get ready for bed, Mike looked at me and said, "Well, that was weird. Have you ever seen Jorja look so happy?" It's true. Jorja is happy most of the time, but tonight with Conner she was positively glowing. 

HEYB0YS

Mike took today off of work so he could work on the duck pond. He loves those ducks. He registered Jorja's car yesterday I think, her license plate will be officially HEYB0YS. The 'o' is a zero because the regular o is not used. I hope she doesn't regret that license plate. Although the thought of Mike driving her car with a HEYB0YS license plate makes me laugh. The thought of me driving around with it does not. We also took Jorja's car up to the gate and got her a sticker to enter our neighborhood. Now she won't have to stop at the guard house.

Mike

ducks

I took Shannon down to Sherry's house so she could get Blakely's handprints. We met at my dad's house and drove down there. It was fun chatting with her and getting to know her better.

Shannon, Blakely, Sherry

Tiny Handprints

Early this morning I drove to Sherry's house to pick up Greg's handprints. Sherry was at a hair appointment, but she had left Greg's handprints wrapped in bubble wrap in a box in her front porch. I stopped by Matt and Sam's on the way back to drop it off. I wish I would have had my dad's pillow with me that he left at the cabin. Oh well. I love how this one turned out!

My brothers and I played Beat the Streak in One Day. At one point I was in 3,631st place. I ended the game in 218th place. I was quite proud of myself. If only I had gotten the last 14 right! John and Matt were frustrated because for some reason they weren't able to submit their choices. It takes longer than you think to do this, so that would be annoying. This time I actually checked the lineups to make sure all my choices were playing. The Indians and the As submitted their lineup about five minutes before 5:00. One of my guys wasn't playing and I was able to get someone in fast before the game locked. Anyways, it was pretty fun. I got 43 correct. If I had gotten one more correct I would have been in the top 100 and made it on the leaderboard.

Brad is at the cabin today with some of the youth from his ward. I hope everything works out for them. On Monday Brad texted me this message: "Stephanie - my kids floated the river this weekend and stayed at Steve & Sharon's cabin. We came up and brought them lunch. I drove past the cabin and see that the tree in the front has split and needs to be removed. Is this something we can do as a service for the young men when we go up this Friday?"

Wow! This was my reply: "Oh my gosh! That would be amazing! We were hoping to get that done while we were there, but found out the lid to the septic tank was missing. That occupied the rest of Mike's time. The septic tank has now been pumped and the lid secured, but the tree is still a mess. I would just cry from happiness if you guys were able to do that. Thank you! Don't feel like you need to finish the entire project, but anything you can do would be appreciated."

Hopefully it's not too big of a job. I thought it was super nice of Brad to ask.

Mona Mae's Handprints

It was really dark when I went to wake up Stockton this morning. I had to laugh at Preston. It was funny trying to take the picture, because I couldn't see anything. I love him.

Preston

I went to my dad's house so he could help me get some ideas for my talk. Well, actually I knew what I wanted to talk about, I just feel better talking with my dad so I don't accidentally say anything untrue. I left with this paper.

I went straight to help the lady in our stake move. I was thinking, "Every time I specifically carve out time to work on my talk I get asked to help with this move. Hopefully Heavenly Father will help me A LOT on my talk, because I think I'm going to need it! I left at lunchtime and went to Becky's house. She had a fancy lunch for a lot of the neighbors. It was delicious. Becky is amazing. She is always doing nice things for other people. I wish I could be more like her, but that sounds like too much work. :)

Stockton and Preston both had diving today. I took Stockton down and worked on my talk while he dove. Stockton talked to me about his theater pantomime he performed today. Stockton and Gavin did a circus routine. Apparently it was awesome. I wish he had been able to record it. They do backflips off a pretend teeterboard. Stockton stands on Gavin's shoulders for a bit. Gavin 'hurts' his leg, so while he is limping, on the last backflip Stockton takes Gavin by the leg and throws him over. So glad they didn't get hurt!

Mike brought Preston down to Provo. Once they got here, I left and went to Sherry's house. She was doing handprints for Sunni's new baby. I met Sunni and Zach there. They brought little Mona Mae. I was excited for Sherry to hear their name. Mike and Sherry have an aunt that they call 'Crazy Aunt Mona'. Crazy in a good way.

Zach, Mona & Sherry

 Sunni, Zach, Mona & Sherry

 I also got to pick up Collin's handprints. Now John and Cassie have a complete set. Yay!

Eight to Eight

I wasn't feeling so well this morning.  I was pretty nervous about that because Cassie and I had a long day ahead of us.  Luckily, by the time we had left my stomach had calmed down.  Cassie and I left around 8:00 this morning and drove to Utah.  We would have liked to have left earlier, but we were waiting for the sun to rise.  The roads were not the best.  Not super horrible, but not wonderful.  After we were on the freeway for awhile it wasn't too bad, but it is about an hour and a half to the freeway.  Sherry met us at my house around 1:00.  Sherry got there a few minutes before we did.  There was so much snow!  I couldn't make it up the driveway.  Poor Sherry was wearing sandals. Sherry met us to do Collin's handprints.  (Collin was with us too, obviously.)  Collin was great on the ride down.  He did not cry at all. He also did not cry when Sherry was pushing on his hands and feet getting them into the clay.  He didn't even look distressed.  Wow! Cassie has some pictures of that on her camera.  If I get them, I will post them later.  I also have pictures I need to get my family member that were taken six months or so ago.  Hopefully Cassie is more on top of things than I am!

I brought some garbage and laundry home.  I unloaded those things and picked up several things we wished we had.  There were a lot of neighbor treats on our porch, so I loaded those up too.  I think we were at my house a total of thirty minutes.  Maybe forty five.  We left for the long ride back.  I stopped at Harmons to pick up more sleds.  They were out.  The Harmons sleds were the best and most durable sleds of this trip.  I wish I had bought more than two!  I also grabbed some gatorade for the ride back.  I was worried I was getting dehydrated.  The gatorade helped a lot.  I sat in the car while Cassie grabbed some things and then we headed to Rod Works.  I wanted to get more wall hanging things for her handprints.  The parking lot was a nightmare!  I had to go around an accident to get out of it.  Plus, Rod Works didn't have the piece we were looking for.  As I was pulling out it dawned on Cassie that we didn't stop at the bank.  We were planning on doing that after handprints, but I went down a different road to get to the correct stores.  Cassie had mentioned several times on the way down how it would be nice to get those checks in the bank.  I was willing to go back, but Cassie didn't want to.  We were both anxious to get back on the road.  I was not looking forward to that last part of the drive at night.

Cassie and I had a great time talking while we were driving.  The roads were great and everything was working perfect.  Until Tremonton. That is when I ran out of gas.  I felt the car pull weird and looked down.  That is the first time I noticed we were on empty.  I managed to make it to the side of the freeway.  I saw we were one mile from an exit and I was willing the car to make it there, but no luck.  I don't know why it didn't cross my mind to get gas.  Especially when I was sitting in the car with Collin while Cassie was in Harmons.  There is a gas station in the parking lot!  I don't like where the gas gauge is on the van.  My left hand covers it and I have to go out of my way to see how much gas I have.  Well.  There was nothing to do but get out and walk.  Cassie and I were laughing so hard. I have only ran out of gas one other time.  That was when I was driving to Wyoming with Sam and Maysen.  Sam flagged down a truck then.  No way was I doing that!  I figured we were just over a mile from a gas station.  This could be my exercise for the day.  Cassie took a picture of me walking away.  I'm the little dot.

I had walked quite away when I noticed a truck backing up.  He had his window down and I walked up to it and said, "Hi, I ran out of gas."  He asked if I would like a ride.  I said, "That depends.  Are you a scary guy?"  He laughed.  I noticed a loaf of Kneaders bread on the front seat and said, "You can't be a scary guy if you have Kneaders bread."  So, I hopped in the car hoping for the best.  I asked the guy his name, but now that I'm typing everything I can't remember it.  We will call him Hero.  Hero took me to the gas station and I bought a gas can and filled it up.  As I was filling up the can I told Hero that my sister-in-law and her baby was in the car.  He said, "Oh @$%&*!  We need to get you out of here!"  I told him I could walk back but he said, "There is no way I'm letting a little thing like you walk back on that busy road.  It will be dark soon."  Okay.  We drove away from the station and Hero said, "I just need to warn you.  I'm going to go through Bear River City to get to the freeway from another direction.  I'm not taking you somewhere else."  I'm glad he mentioned it because I might have gotten a little nervous going through all these back roads with no freeway in site for five minutes.  Hero said that because of cell phones you don't see people walking on the side of the road that much anymore.  What stood out to him was I wasn't talking on a cell phone.  I told him everyone I could call was really far away, so there was no point in making other people worried.  Once Hero and I got back to the van he filled up my tank.  I stood by the corner of the van with his flashlight waiving it back and forth so other cars would see us more easily.  Most of the cars noticed us and got in the other lane.  I thanked Hero and told him that my birthday is tomorrow and he just gave me the best present I could have.  The car started up and Cassie and I headed to the gas station.  I kept telling myself, "Don't forget to stop at the gas station, you do not have a full tank of gas!"  Hero followed us there.  He hopped out of his truck and brought me his Kneaders bread.  I told him he helped us enough.  He said he was a bachelor and it would go to waste.  Wow. Talk about a nice guy. Cassie and I got back on the road one hour later. Yikes.

I was worried that we would have awful roads now that we were even more behind schedule.  We didn't.  The roads were great all the way to the cabin.  They were much better than when we left.  The only thing that was bad was the fog.  As soon as we crossed the Utah/Idaho border fog was everywhere!  It didn't last too long though.  When I was around Swan Valley I drove into a patch of fog that was so thick I couldn't see beyond the hood of my van.  That was scary!  Luckily that didn't last too long.  We arrived back at the cabin at 8:00.  Yay!  Left at eight, back at eight.  Long day, but I'm really happy we were able to get Collin's handprints done.  My dad was here when we got back.  Glad he didn't fall asleep when he was driving up here.  I get nervous when he drives by himself.  I played two Dominion games before bed.  I won them both, I'm pretty sure.  I was completely exhausted when I crawled into bed.  So happy to be back safe and sound!

Eve's Handprints

I took Stockton to diving today.  Mike brought Preston and took Stockton home while I stayed.  I read Steve Young's book and have almost finished it.  I think it is going to be perfect for Damian.  It was also really interesting.  Sherry texted me while I was at diving and asked if I wanted to pick up Eve's handprints or wait until gingerbread houses.  We decided to pick them up on the way.  Preston had a lot of fun playing with Sherry's dogs.  She let Preston have crazy bread.  The crumbs were all over his shirt and legs.  The dogs loved it.  Preston was so happy!

Preston, Bandit and 1/2 of Sherry

Usually Sherry does two sets of handprints just in case one of them has trouble.  This time Sherry gave me both sets.  She said she liked the pink color of one of them better, but she didn't like the corner.  She was worried that in a few years it would start curling up.  I'm sure Rachel won't mind having two.