Christmas Eve

We are at the cabin! How fun to spend Christmas here. We figured that since we were in between houses, we would have our entire Christmas here. We left Utah this morning and went straight to Aunt Jackie's house for a yummy dinner. It was so fun to see my family. I love my family. They are so fun to be around and every one of them is just amazing. I was telling the kids about Jacoby on the way up, and he was there....all the way from Arizona (with Tyler and Missy). Matt and Tami were there from Pennsylvania. Rob and Stacie from Michigan. Jordyn from Arizona and all the people from Idaho. My cousin, Katie, got engaged today, so that was really exciting. It pays to sit by Grandma & Grandpa...you get to hear all the good news first.

We left dinner and went up to the cabin (after opening Christmas pajamas at Grandma's). The roads were perfect the entire way. Thank goodness. Steve told us to get his 4-wheeler to help bring our stuff up the cabin. The snow machines are down in Idaho Falls. Mike walked to Steve's cabin and brought the 4-wheeler down. But it couldn't make it up the hill. There is a TON of snow! I love it! But we had to walk up the hill. The kids did great and didn't complain. Once we got up there I found out Stockton didn't wear his coat. He just had his blanket. As much as I love Grandma's blankets, I don't think they can replace a coat.

The kids are all snug in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Mike and I have been taking several trips down the mountain. The last trip I said, "We don't need anything else....that is it." Then we realized we left the stockings in the car. Mike was nice enough to make the last trip without me while I blog. Yes, I am blogging at the cabin. Mike has this cool box to get the Internet. Much cooler than the box I tried to get in the summer. This one actually works! It works so well that the Internet is faster here then at Mike's house. Should we let the kids know?

Well, off to get Christmas ready! I love this time of year!

Santa Disaster

Santa came to Mike's work today. They invited all the families for a little party. Milk, cookies and pictures with Santa were promised. After spending the day packing and doing laundry, I rounded up the kids and we headed down there. We arrived about fifteen minutes early and got a pretty good spot in line. After awhile, a lady came and told everyone to go into a different room. I didn't want to lose our spot in line, but we did what we were told. After waiting in another room for quite awhile, they moved everyone back in the hallway. All of the sudden a line was there and we were not in it. We couldn't tell where exactly we were suppose to go, so we went and stood back in our original spot. Probably made a lot of people mad, but I was so ready to leave at this point I really didn't care. Come to find out, the reason we were waiting so long is because all the executives were busy having their picture taken with Santa. I'm not kidding. Annoying.

Anyway we did get a cute picture of Preston on Santa's lap, which I am way too tired to scan in now. I really wanted a picture with all the kids, but Maysen and Stockton didn't want to smile. Apparently they are too cool to humor their mom anymore. I told them it isn't a good idea to tick off their mom right before Christmas. Oh well. We didn't get that picture anyway. Mike couldn't find it. Maybe the lack of smiles and the red eyes refused to print on the photo paper. I'll never know.

Pizza at Grandma's

My dad called today and wanted to know when he could give the kids their Christmas presents. At the last minute, we decided to meet at Grandma's after diving. My dad brought Max to watch the kids dive. They loved having someone come and watch them. Stockton was able to do back flips without any incidents. Jorja even did a back dive off the 1 meter for the first time. The only problem was I forgot towels. That didn't go over too well.

After diving, we went straight to Grandma's. Bubs and Ange came as well. We had pizza and opened presents. My kids all got jammies from Grandma. They loved that! They also opened their cousin presents. Jorja and Stockton got games and Preston got a Webkinz dog from Mallory that he loves. He named him Rocket and has been hugging him non-stop. Maysen got a cute temple block from Larkin. The kids also got games and toys from my dad and Cathy. Mike was excited about his Get Smart DVD and I got a cool shot glass from Japan from Brett! He also gave me these great figurines that will be fun to set up in our new house.

After we got home, Jorja was excited to see a package from Mrs. Trombino. Her first second grade class wrote her Christmas letters. It was so cute. I'm glad she is missed and remembered.

Snow Internet

There is a ton of snow up here right now. That is great. The only problem is the Internet barely works. I'm guessing because of the snow, but I don't really know if that is why. It's really not a big deal, but it has put a kink into a few plans. I had planned on getting Maysen caught up on Science over the break . . . and on getting Jorja more familiar with Chinese. Yesterday, Maysen and I spent several hours getting one lesson done that should have only taken thirty minutes. It gets frustrating. At least this didn't happen when I was in the middle of homeschool. Hopefully it will be back to normal in two weeks. Until then we will enjoy the snow!

Christmas Pageant

I really need to start taking pictures again. This blog is getting pretty boring. I miss my little camera. Mike's camera is great, but it is gigantic....so I don't like taking it around everywhere.

We had the Christmas pageant today with Mike's family. It was at Brent and Kim's house. We haven't been there since they moved in several years ago. Man that place is nice. Too bad I don't have pictures to prove it. The pageant went really well this year. Jorja was a black sheep and Preston was an adorable cow. Maysen was some wise man/sheep/angel thing. She said she was "very mature".

The one thing I am NOT going to blog about is Stockton hitting his head on the diving board while doing a back flip. I'm NOT going to try to get a picture while he's asleep to post on the blog. I'm NOT going to say he didn't need stitches and just has a bruise where he grazed the board. I'm NOT even going to write how he didn't cry at all and claimed it didn't hurt. One thing I will write about is we had diving today and Stockton loves it. He loved it at the beginning of the lesson and loved it at the end.

My First Name is Mom

Today started on a sad note. Maysen has been working on a story for a long time. She has spent many hours on this. Today it wouldn’t open. The file is corrupted. Mike tried to get it back with no luck. 47 pages down the drain. Maysen was not happy.

Today we also found out our drywall guy is now in jail. We will be changing our locks tomorrow.

Stockton and Jorja had fun at Bryce & Becky’s house. Isaac is Stockton’s age and Luke is Jorja’s age. Bryce & Becky had an open house for everyone on our street. It was really nice.

Preston took forever to get to bed tonight. Finally I took him in our bed and cuddled with him. He said, “Sometimes dad calls you Steph.” I said, “I know, but I love it when you call me Mommy.” He said, “Mom is your first name. Stephanie is your middle name. I like Steph better than Stephanie. My middle name is Hirschi, but you call me Preston.” Man that boy is cute . . . I just wish he would go to bed! And go potty in the toilet.

On a side note, I dominated in Ticket to Ride. Mike, Scoop, Glen & Erica (Cori’s kids) played. Granted three of them never played before, but still domination was completed.

One more side note, Cori found Jorja's swim skirt we had been missing for almost a month. Now if someone would find my camera . . .

Brazelli

Mike and I finished stripping out the wallpaper in our downstairs bathroom. Mike bought a steamer to help us with this project. While we were working on it, Mike kept saying, "Best $49 I ever spent." The steamer did make a big difference.

Today we went to Steve & Shannon's house to make Brazelli's. Yummy. I even was able to con a bag from Shannon. I'm going to take them to Bryce & Becky's cookie party tomorrow.

Mike has left with Steve, Spencer and Erica to see Tron. I need to get the kids to bed, but they are so cute playing battlebots with the Knex's. We are leaving as soon as Maysen & Brandon's Stratigo game is over. Maysen won Mike earlier and was quite proud of that.

Christmas Break!

Jorja finished her first week of Chinese! She survived! Friday and Monday were pretty stressful for her, but the rest of the week wasn't so bad. Maybe it had something to do with all the Christmas parties . . . . who knows? Today Maysen, Stockton and I salted the top half of the driveway for science. They are also excited for a break. So am I.

Water Bill

Last week Myrna, our real estate agent, told us that our water was turned off in our house in Georgia. Weird, we were current with our payments. Today we got a water bill that was more than double what we paid when we lived there! Mike will have some calling tomorrow. Great.

11 Birthdays

Jorja and I went to book club today at the library. We read 11 Birthdays. We finished it yesterday. Book club was pretty fun. The girls got to paint a pot, eat cupcakes and have party treats. My friend since elementary school was there. Melissa Cutler. That made it extra fun for me. Jorja and I also finished Dragon Rider yesterday. That book was long!

The Relief Society presidency called last week and set up an appointment to visit me today. I called them this morning and left a message saying, "It is really snowy up here, you will only make it with a 4-wheel drive. Don't feel bad about canceling." They tried to make it up the hill in a mini-van, but got stuck right below the curve. We spent the next hour getting them unstuck. They never made it to the house. I felt bad for them, but they were really nice about it. Brother Gray came over and helped them get out of the driveway. I told them not to worry, their intentions were noted.

Super Slow

I'm here at our new house, wishing we could move in already. Oh well, we will have plenty of time here, so I don't need to rush it. Mike keeps saying, "We just need to have walls and floors. Walls and floors." We were hoping to be in by Christmas, but that is not going to happen. Mike's dad sent over a drywall guy to help. He owes Mike's dad money. That's great because we own two houses right now, so we don't have a lot of extra. The only problem is he is SUPER SLOW. I mean super, super slow. It's hard to imagine how slow he is. I guess it doesn't really matter, as long as it gets done and gets done well. We are staying at Mike's dad's house and it is only four minutes away, so it's not too bad. It will just be nice to have our own stuff again and be in a place that is ours. Granted it is not a mega awesome house like our house in Georgia was, but I think we are really going to like it here.

Great Day for Diving!

Today was a great, great day for diving! Too bad Mike had to work late and I didn't bring the video camera. Jorja did a dive off of the diving board! She has been so scared to do this. She has no problem diving off of the side, but she was too scared to do it from the green platform and really too scared to do it from the 1 meter board. But today she conquered her fear! I was watching her and was completely shocked when I saw her dive off the green platform! I cheered so loud! I was so proud of her. Then she did it off the 1 meter board! AMAZING! While I was being amazed at Jorja's bravery, I watched Stockton do his FIRST backflip! AWESOME! He was so happy! He did several backflips off the 1 meter board. He said, "My life will never be the same again." I wish Mike could have seen it. Such pure joy.

Preston meanwhile talked the entire time about finding a warp pipe that could take him to our old house in Georgia. Don't worry, he would still be a part of the family, he just wants to make sure the house is okay.

Jorja also brought home her first spelling words from her new school. One list is super easy. Words like ear and deer. The other list is in Chinese. The only word that looks easy is up, the rest I'm going to put on the super hard scale. Good luck Jorja!

People Bug Me

When we were putting Maysen and Stockton to bed, Maysen was laughing and said, "Stockton wanted to talk about how people bug him." I asked him who was bugging him. People from church? People in Georgia? People in his family? Stockton just grinned and laughed. I said, "Sometimes people bug me too, but then I send them to bed."

John and Cassie blessed Mallory today. Wish we could have been there for them. I'm so glad my dad was able to go. I hope they had a wonderful day.

Diving - Second Place

Stockton had his first diving competition today. The girls had no desire to compete. His competition was up in Park City. It was really fun. Stockton placed second with a score of 112.35 on his six dives. The boy who took first was really good. He had been diving since January. Stockton scored the most points on his back dive. He did really good on that one and it had the highest degree of difficulty of all his dives. Stockton thought that was weird because, "that dive is so easy!"

I just got sunk on the pirates game. I was $600 away from winning. Oh well. Mike and Maysen have to finish and I get to blog and go to bed. Works out nicely for me. Maysen will probably win. She has a ton of money, and she has been winning every game lately.

First Day of Second Grade - Again

Jorja started her new school today. Third one this year. She is a trouper. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Meier. She teaches Jorja in the morning. Mrs. Chung is Jorja's teacher in the afternoon. Jorja is in a Chinese Immersion class. When she is with Mrs. Chung, she only hears Chinese. The rest of the class has been doing this since first grade. Today was a little overwhelming for Jorja. She told Mike, "They didn't teach us at all, they just talk to us in Chinese." I guess I didn't explain the program right to Jorja. They aren't teaching her Chinese in the traditional way, they are teaching other subjects in Chinese. Mike told her that this is actually the best way to learn a new language. I feel for her. It has got to be intimidating, but I think she could really thrive in this program. Jorja is also learning more than she realizes. She showed us how to write a few words in Chinese. For example, Monday. We asked her how she learned that, she told us it was on the calendar. Mike then downloaded Chinese flashcards on her ipod. We looked up the words and she was right. Once we were able to figure out the pattern she really liked it. Hopefully looking at Chinese as a secret code will be fun for her.

Jorja ~ First day in Mrs. Meier/Chung's class

After school, we took Jorja to Cold Stone. She liked that a lot, but wasn't a fan of the cotton-candy/eggnog mixture she picked out. I have to agree with her on that one.

Sick First Day

Today was Jorja's first day at her new school. But she was sick. She never missed a day last year, but this year it's a whole new ballgame. This Utah dryness has been tough for the kids to adjust to. Hopefully she will be better tomorrow. Poor little Porja.

Smurf Birds

When I was in the boy's room putting away laundry, I heard birds. They were pretty loud. I was confused as to why they were so loud and why there were so many this time of the year. I even looked out the window to see if I could find them. I couldn't. Later, I was in the room with Stockton working on homeschool. I heard the birds again and said, "Those birds are pretty." Stockton busted up laughing. I guess the birds were from the Smurf game on the ipad. Glad I could make Stockton happy.

"Before I Was in the Family"

Every once in awhile, Preston will say something like, "Before I was in the family I liked this cereal." That always gives me a chuckle. I guess he gets it from us saying, "That happened before you were in the family." He also told me, "Remember when you couldn't pick me up?" What? That stopped me in my tracks. I bent down and asked him, "Do you remember that? What do you remember?" He said, "You couldn't pick me up, so that guy would." I asked what that guy would do and he said, "Give me to you." Unbelievable. Preston was not even one when I had my surgery. Many different people use to hand Preston to me so I could feed him. 'That guy' could have been my dad, Brett, Mike (my brother), or Jerome.

After this sweet conversation, Preston had the freak-out of all freak-outs. We were at the store and he saw a Toy Story bowl. He really wanted it. I told him he couldn't have it. He 'snuck' it into the cart. I told him, "I see the bowl in the cart and you still can't have it." He cried, "But I really, really want it." I was at the self check-out line and he saw me put the bowl on top of the register. Man did he scream! I tried not to laugh too hard at him, but it was really funny. I guess I should have been embarrassed, but it was hilarious. To me. I'm sure not to anyone else, but he was just ridiculous that it was so funny. I wish Mike could have seen it, although he probably would have been embarrassed.

Everything's Better with Butter

We had waffles for dinner. Besides the regular syrup, I put hershey's syrup and whipped cream on the table. I thought Stockton would like that. The only requirements to leave the table today was to eat half of the bacon. Stockton put a ton of butter on his bacon. Gross! He said, "Mom says everything is better with butter." Then he proceeded to add chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. I know real parents would have put a stop to that, but Mike and I just couldn't react out of pure disgustingness. He did eat half the bacon though. Seriously gross.

Surprise!

Preston was being spotlighted in Primary at church today. He worked on his paper during the week and had it all ready in the red folder. I was a little slow getting him to primary. We ran into the Webelo leader, so we were busy figuring out things for Stockton. When I got Preston to primary, they were in the middle of saying the prayer. We waited outside the door. When the prayer was over, I handed the red folder to Preston and said, "Go quickly to your seat." It was so quiet when Preston walked in. He marched up the middle isle, raised the red folder and yelled, "Surprise!" Oh man! So much for being inconspicuous.

We had dinner at my dad's house. Ribs and scones. YUMMY! There were other things too, but who cares when there are ribs and scones? After dinner, Mike, Maysen, Matt, Elroy and I played pirates. It was a pretty pathetic showing, but I realized I was going to win when the cards were gone. Both Elroy and Matt would have their turn, I thought I had it. I didn't count on Elroy attacking Mike and losing. Mike got 1/2 his loot and won the game by less than $1,000. I tried to convince Elroy out of attacking Mike, but Elroy claimed HE had nothing to lose. I couldn't argue with that logic. Drat.

Wiring

Mike spent the entire day at the new house. He has been working on the wiring, so hopefully we can get the sheetrock up next week. We have to sheetrock one wall upstairs, and two rooms downstairs . . . plus a little patchwork here and there. One of the rooms, Mike wants to turn into a movie room, so he was excited to wire the room exactly how he wants. The other room is the girls room. Mike added lights where Maysen's bed will be and a motion sensor that he thinks she will like. He also put a dimmer switch near Maysen's bed. Hopefully Maysen will like how it turned out.

Mike called me and asked if I would go to the storage unit with him. We need to measure our TV cabinet, and it would be nice to grab some things. When we got there, Mike realized he didn't have the key! He took the key off his ring a few days ago because he couldn't figure out what it was for. Haha.

Mike just got home, it's about 10:30, from the house. He finished both the theater room and the girls room, and worked on this weird thing in the boys room. There is a weird hole in the wall at the top of the ceiling. They had built something around it, but it didn't make any sense. Mike sawed off the wood that was sticking out of the wall so hopefully we can sheetrock that while we're at it.

Mike came home with a package from our loan guy. He sent us two glasses. They look kind of cool, but one of the glasses was broken. Drat.

Chinese Immersion

I got a call from the assistant principal at the school Jorja will be attending when we are at our new house. I had met with her before Thanksgiving. I talked to her about their Chinese Immersion program. The kids have a regular teacher that teaches them all the Language Arts stuff in the morning, then a Chinese teacher that teaches them basically math and Chinese in the afternoon. They don't speak English at all. The kids in this program start in first grade and continue their education like this all through elementary school.

I met with the assistant principal and talked to her about the possibility of getting Jorja into the program. She wasn't sure because Jorja would be entering in a year and a half after the other children have started, and she didn't know if there was any room. We talked about Jorja's academic progress, how she had already reached all of her second grade benchmarks, so I wasn't worried about her not understanding the math, she could concentrate on the Chinese. I wasn't sure if there was room in the program anyway, but I thought I would try to get her in so I wouldn't regret it later.

This morning I was called and told that Jorja got in! I was a bit shocked because I expected a call before Thanksgiving if she got in, so I assumed that she didn't. I asked if I could talk with Mike and Jorja about it and get back with them with our answer. Now we had a decision to make. I had just submitted the SALTA testing forms yesterday. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do SALTA (the gifted program) but I thought I would keep my options open.

I called Renee and talked to her awhile about the advantages and disadvantages of a program like this. I also talked with Becky Johnson. She lives across the street from where our new house is. Her second grader is in the Chinese Immersion program. She had nothing but praise for the program. She says it is Luke's favorite part of the day. She also said that the English teacher is the best teacher in the school. Listening to Becky talk about it made me feel really comfortable about it.

Jorja is okay with it. Maysen was so excited about it. She said, "Jorja, I wish I had something like this when I was your age." In the long run, I think this will be really good, but I think it will be really hard and overwhelming for awhile. Jorja got the last slot they were willing to hand out. A new family moved into our ward last week. They have a second grader and were told they couldn't get into the program. Here's hoping the slot is still available Monday!

Festival of Trees

I have been so excited to go to the Festival of Trees this year. It was something I loved to do when I was growing up, and has been years since I've been able to enjoy it. I took Stockton & Maysen during the day. My dad watched Preston. After school, I went back with Jorja. It was great. There was one tree there that had all these autographed jerseys and basketballs. Michael Jordan, John Stockton, Steve Young . . . a ton of stuff. I bet that tree cost a pretty penny. My favorite this year was the Gingerbread Houses. Probably because we just did ours. There was one house that had a carnival around it. Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, roller coaster ... the works. I wish I had my camera! Talk about an over-achiever.

Quick Preston story. He was walking out of the kitchen and saw Talon on the rug. He said, "What the? Talon, how did you get here?" Preston then quickly came to the conclusion that Talon warped upstairs. Maysen asked how that was possible. He said, "He was under the table and kept going until he warped upstairs." Maysen tried arguing her position that that was impossible. Preston would not be convinced. He just kept saying, "No, Talon was under the table then he warped upstairs." I love it.

Fifth Time's the Charm

Still no luck finding Jorja's swimsuit. I decided I needed to get her a new one today. I couldn't stand the thought of making her watch another diving lesson. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a swimsuit this time of year. Shop-ko: no, Khols: no, Justice: no, Old Navy: no, Target: winner! Jorja's first jump today was on the high-dive. She had a look of pure joy on her face. Thank goodness!

One funny story that happened today. Scoop came home a few days ago. He was going back to St. George today. Earlier this morning he was checking on something in the storage room. The storage room is one of the rooms that is always locked. Scoop had been gone a couple of hours when I heard mewing. I went on a Talon search and discovered him in the storage room! His little face was looking under the door. Big problem. Scoop isn't coming home until the 16th or so. I tried calling Mike, hoping to let him know....that way if his dad wasn't too far down the road he could come back. I couldn't get ahold of Mike. Maysen and Preston were feeding Talon under the door. About a half hour later, Scoop came back. Were we ever excited to see him! He laughed so hard when he found out Talon was locked in the storage room. Sneaky cat.

Preston is "Optional"

Preston told me today that his name is Puppy. Preston is his optional name.

No Swimsuit

We had diving today. I had the swimsuit all clean and ready and by the door . . . or so I thought. Jorja's swim skirt was missing. We looked everywhere we could think of. I have no idea where it went. I'm certain I made sure it was there when I folded them . . . although last week was pretty crazy, I could be wrong. I have a ton of swimsuits for Jorja, and even two different swim bottoms that match her swim shirt. The problem is, all of them are in storage. So, we finally went to diving - late - and Jorja just had to watch. She was pretty disappointed, and I moved one step farther away from the mom of the year trophy.

Taco Night

There is snow, snow, snow here! We knew there was no way the van would make it up the driveway, so we headed over to the new house after church. Mike went and got the snowplow from Steve. When he came back, Seth Bradley was snowplowing our driveway with his four-wheeler. That was so nice. While he was snowplowing our driveway, Mike pulled up with a giant snowplow. (Although the giant snowplow was for a different driveway, it was pretty funny.) I had no idea Seth was out there. Looks like we are going to have pretty awesome neighbors.

Steve and his family met us at our new house. The kids have been so anxious to show their cousins where they are going to live. They were pretty excited to have them there. After, we all went up to Mike's house . . . Grandma Honey's house . . . Scoop & Cori's house . . . (not quite sure what to call it, but we love it up here!) Anyway, Lisa & her family came up as well. We had tacos and played games. Dominion and Ticket to Ride. I won Ticket to Ride by two points. Yes, I'm awesome.

On a completely unrelated note, one of my implants is bothering me. I hope it is nothing since we now live far away from my plastic surgeon. I know my brothers didn't need to know that, but seriously it is driving me nuts. My brothers can just comfort themselves in knowing that I didn't have a blog when I went through my surgeries. If I did, I'm sure they would have been scared for life with information they would rather never know. That would have been fun.

Gingerbread Lane

Three years ago, when Ange came to Georgia to help take care of me after my surgery, Ange made these awesome gingerbread houses. They were really fun and very delicious. Ange said that if we ever moved to Utah we could make this a tradition. You better believe I was right on top of that one. I reminded Ange of that idea almost as soon as I moved to Utah. We decided that she would make the gingerbread and I would buy the candy. I think I got the better end of that deal.

Bubs and his family came over this morning to make the houses. We were hoping that Mike & Christen could come, but they needed to start their drive back to Arizona. My dad was able to come up too, so that was really fun. The kids did great and it was so cute to see them working with the frosting. Preston was so proud and has told me several times today how much fun it was making gingerbread houses. He even said, "My next gingerbread house is going to be even greater!" I think this is going to be a great tradition.

Maysen, Mike, Preston, Steph, Jorja, Ron, Ella, Ange, Abbs

Bubs, Lincoln, Stockton

Maysen & Preston

Jorja & Lincoln

Porge

Lincoln

Ella

Stockton

Mike

Lincoln & Ange

My Dad

Ange, Abigail, Lincoln, Ella, Bubs

Maysen, Mike, Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Stephanie

Ella, Grandpa, Lincoln (he thought he was so funny to not look)

Maysen & Abbs, Stockton, Jorja, Preston

Bubs got Lincoln to look up by acting CRAZY!

Lincoln thought that was so funny.

Thanks Ange! My kids had a blast!

Run-Run-Run

Today seemed like a never-ending day. Maybe it is the tryptophan still doing its job. I meant to take the kids to Steve & Shannon's while I waited at the new house for my new washer and dryer. Too bad I was running late, so I had to bring the kids with me. They were great and even though my waiting window was 1-5, the delivery men came at 1:30! Sweet! I dropped off the kids at Steve & Shannon's and went to meet Mike at the carpet store. While we were gone, Steve took the kids sledding. Double sweet. Bubs & Ange met us at the carpet store and after they came with me up to Mike's house to put together gingerbread houses! We are going to put them together tomorrow! So excited about that. While I was gingerbreading, Mike was meeting with a plumber. Lots to do. Now we are at Steve & Shannon's playing games and eating left-over Thanksgiving food. Spencer is in town from California and Lisa's family is over too. Once again, we are loving living in Utah!

Stockton Wins

Happy Thanksgiving! As soon as I woke up today, Stockton greeted me singing, "I win! I win!" For his birthday - way back in January....Mike and I gave him three coupons to get out of eating dinner. He wanted to save one for Thanksgiving. I told him there was no way he could save it that long. I guess I was wrong. He used his coupon today and liked it. Doesn't he understand how delicious Thanksgiving dinner is? Apparently not.

My dad came up early today and started cooking. It was great. I didn't have to worry about cooking and he didn't have to worry about cleaning. That's what you call a win-win. I did make cranberry sauce, banana cream pie and chocolate cream pie - but that was all. My dad set off the smoke detector and the fire department came. They even walked up the entire driveway. We probably should have given them some cookies for their trouble.

People started arriving at our house around 4. It was a little tricky getting up the driveway. Some had to be pushed. Mike drove some cars up since he is an expert. Grandma walked up by herself! Not the entire driveway, but still quite a bit. We didn't know she was here until she walked in the door.

Mike & Christen and their girls came all the way from Arizona. When Preston saw Skye, he walked right up to her and gave her a big hug. So cute! I finally gave Ange back Ella's little brush that I have had in my pocket since Shannon's wedding. Jorja reminded me. Preston grabbed it and broke it thirty seconds before I gave it back. Seriously. I have carried that thing around for a month, and now he breaks it? Sorry about that Ange (and Ella).

The whole group

(Love Ella & Skye holding hands!)

Jae, Todd, Grandma, Mark, Gayle

Brittany, Sadie, Trey, Eric & Colton

Cathy, Max & my Dad

Ange, Abigail & Bubs

Lincoln & Ella

Maysen, Preston, Steph, Stockton, Mike, Jorja

Mike & Christen

Skye & Larkin

Larkin & Skye

Skye

Cousins tackling Uncle Matt

While we were eating, we talked to Brett on Skype. It was great! Marie is so dang cute. Rachel wasn't there. She was shopping Black Friday sales. I didn't know they did Black Friday in Japan. Too bad we didn't get to see John & Cassie. I can't wait to meet Mallory. We missed you guys!

Brett on Skype

I am so thankful for my wonderful family. I am thankful Matt didn't die this weekend, and I'm thankful that I now live in Utah. I am thankful for so many things. I sure do have a wonderful life!