Friends

The days are kind of running into each other.  This has been a long spring break for me, and a short one for the kids.  I'm sure Maysen and Stockton are going to feel like they got ripped off on this break.

Jorja went to see Zootopia with her friends.  I picked them up.  I took them to Chick-Fil-A afterwords.  I sat in a different booth so I wouldn't embarrass them.  Once I dropped all of the girls off I dropped off Jorja at Jazzie's house.  They haven't seen each other for a long time.  Jorja was so excited to see Jazzie again.  Funny that all of Jorja's friend activities happened today.

Grandma Honey's 77

We watched Anne today.  She loved the fact that the kids were home from school today.  She was a bit scared of Stockton when he had his bandage on, but she warmed up to him.  She kept telling me, "Stockton's sick".  Yep, he sure is.

We had a picnic at Grandma Honey's grave to celebrate her 77th birthday.  Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Lisa & Nathan came.  Sherry and Xander were there as well.  It was a lot of fun and just nice to be together.  I hate the fact that when the mom dies the family practically disintegrates.  Sharen would hate that this has happened to her family. We weren't here for long, but it was great to do something!

Smith family with Preston in the tree

 Preston

We brought simple flowers that are laying on the grave.  Lisa brought beautiful tulips.  Sherry brought flowers that were cut from bulbs she got from Wynona, Sharen's mom.  That was pretty cool.

Xander, Sherry, Mike, Jorja, Stockton, Steph, Maysen, Lisa

Poor Stockton looks like someone has been playing with his face on a silly app, or he looks like he is wearing a fat suit.  It will be nice when the swelling has gone down, and it will probably feel a lot better too!

Stockton

Recovering

Stockton had a long day.  He doesn't feel very well.  He fell asleep for a couple of hours and was annoyed with that.  I took Maysen to her vet class today.  She isn't up to driving yet.  Stockton joked about seeing all of his friends at the beach on Instagram while he has his face covered in ice packs.  Not the best Spring break, but it had to be done sometime.

Stockton's Wisdom Teeth

It was Stockton's turn to get his wisdom teeth out today.  His seemed to go faster than Maysen's.  They had to drill, but not as much.  I should have asked if they had to drill on every tooth like they did Maysen's. Stockton liked the fact that his was easier to get out.  He kept telling me in the recovery room that he was 'conscious'.  He also liked the anesthesia.  I am glad they were out for these procedures.  Maysen went to her vet class today.  She is still really sore.  Mike took her to class and my dad picked her up.

Stockton & Maysen

Stockton laid in my bed most of the day.  He didn't want to fall asleep because Maysen slept most of the day after her surgery, then had a hard time sleeping at night.  Jorja and Preston kept him entertained by watching a lot of Brain Games with him.  Max came over for awhile. While he was here the kids watched Sharknado.  That is quite the 'movie'.

I had my scouts today.  I was pretty annoyed.  I only have three scouts. I asked all three of the mom's if they would be here during Spring break.  Secretly I was hoping one of them would say no and then I would have an excuse to cancel scouts.  I didn't really want to do it knowing Stockton would be getting his wisdom teeth out today.  All three said they would be here.  I talked to Luke's mom last Monday.  He is turning 9 soon.  I showed her exactly what we needed to do before he turned 9 to get his bear.  One of the things was to have a 'campfire program'.  They boys planned this last week.  Mike spent Saturday getting our backyard ready so we could have a campfire.  I texted all of the mom's yesterday about our plans.  A few hours before scouts was supposed to start Brady's mom texted me and said they were going to the zoo because it was Spring break.  What?  That is totally fine, but I specifically asked if we could do scouts on Spring break.  I was pretty frustrated about that, but it was mostly Luke that needed to pass this off.  Scouts starts.  Judy is here and Eli is here.  About ten minutes later I text Ashley to find out if Luke is coming.  They are driving to California.  What?  Why?  Why couldn't you let me know this?  At a minimum, why couldn't they let me know when I sent the reminder text yesterday?  I wouldn't be as annoyed about this except I specifically asked each of them if they would be here on this date.  I had to have Stockton fend for himself during this time.  Plus, we are not supposed to have scouts with only one boy.  I went and got Preston and he hung out with us so Eli could pass this off.  Grrrrrr.  I did text the mom's with pictures of all the different things we passed off today and asked them to do it as a family.  I don't want to have another scout campfire again.

Conference

Here is a picture of Maysen.  Her face isn't as swollen as it was yesterday.  Her poor eye looks hurt, I don't know what happened there. We iced her for most of the day.  She is doing pretty good, considering. Not looking forward to starting all over tomorrow with Stockton.

Maysen

 I asked Maysen to smile, but it hurt her so much!  Boo to me!

Conference was great again.  I love it.  I loved listening to Monson, Uchtdorf, Holland, Kearon and Gong.  I liked a lot of them.  I'm looking forward to listening to them again.  We all got a good laugh when President Monson called the Cheshire Cat the Chinese Cat.  I love that all of my family listens to all of conference, even Preston.  Such a peaceful weekend.  I worked on Cassie's Christmas stocking during conference.  I'm pretty slow, so this is my progress.

After the morning session

 After the afternoon session

Yep.  That face took me two hours.  I'm slow at everything I do.  No worries.  I'll finish one day.

Conference Stockings

I love conference!  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love that my kids enjoy it as well.  At least I think they do, they never complain about watching it . . . and we watch every session.  Jorja had her first softball practice in between the sessions.  She also got her jersey.  I should have taken a picture of that!  Oh well, I'm sure I'll end up taking plenty.  She is on the purple team this year.  Her coach sent an email a few days ago and asked for suggestions for a team name.  Maysen and I tried to convince Jorja that Jellyfish would be an awesome name.  Jorja didn't like it, but finally let me send it anyways.  Her team liked that idea and her coach asked the girls to go home and research different jellyfish to see if there was a cool name they could get out of that.  I love that!  That is so my kids.  Playing softball and ending up researching jellyfish.

Maysen didn't throw up today.  Yay!  She also didn't have as hard of a time swallowing her medicine. Double yay!  The poor girl looks like a chipmunk with her swollen cheeks.  Mike asked her if she still had the gause in her mouth.  Nope.  The cheeks were just that swollen.

I didn't take a picture of Jorja's softball, Maysen's cheeks or Stockton's new haircut.  I did manage to take a picture of my stockings though.  I finished Jeff's stocking during the afternoon session.  I love it!  I think it turned out great.

I started working on Cassie's and got her name on it during the priesthood session.  I'm not too happy with the name.  I like to trace the name with a light board and then stitch it.  It was super hard to see the pattern through the dark brown, then I could barely see my pencil marks.  Hopefully it will look okay once I get other stitching on with it. The name is almost always the part that stresses me out the most, but I usually love it once it's done.

Maysen's Wisdom Teeth

I took Maysen to get her wisdom teeth out this morning.  Today has been a very long day.  All four teeth ended up being impacted and they had to drill all four out.  She is miserable.  I almost started crying when they took me back to see her.  The kids were hoping for a funny video while she was under anesthesia, but she couldn't really talk anyways.  I sent Mike a picture after I got her home and in bed.  She looks so much better here!

Maysen

Maysen slept most of the day, with me coming down to change her icepack every twenty minutes.  She has always had a hard time taking medicine.  We tried using pudding to help her, that didn't work very well.  What finally worked was bread.  When she would take the pill and then a piece of bread, she was able to swallow the pill.  It also got something in her stomach, so I was happy about that.  Towards the end of the day Maysen wanted to come upstairs.  Once she stood up she was really nauseous.  She threw up the rest of the day.  Poor girl.  Plus her throw up was mostly blood.  I'm glad she will never have to do this again!

Maysen

Stockton said, "The worst thing is knowing this will be me in a few days!"  Yep.  Stockton is getting his wisdom teeth out on Monday.  Not fun to know what you will be in for.

I made a mad dash to the store to pick up Maysen's medicine.  I wanted to get some ice-cream too.  I saw this.  Non-Dairy Ben & Jerry's.  How cool is that?  Too bad two of the flavors have nuts that would kill Blake anyway.  (Hopefully not.  Hopefully it would just make him really sick.) Hopefully the fudge brownie one doesn't have eggs, and hopefully they will get more flavors like this.  I'll have to get it to try it out on Anne sometime.  Lots of 'hopefully' with allergies.  I am so glad this has not been my trial.  Poor Larkin, Blake and Anne!

Stockton's Jacket

Stockton got a letterman's jacket for his birthday.  Mike picked it up today.  Letterman's jackets are different than they were when Mike got his years and years ago.  Back then they were all the same.  This time Stockton got to personalize everything.  He picked the red, the sleeve colors, the buttons, the cuff and collar.  I think he did a great job!  I was a little worried about the buttons, but they ended up looking really nice.  I can not visualize anything, so I was really happy with how this turned out.  Stockton's school colors are red, black and silver.  Mike also picked up two bars because he has earned his letter twice, but Stockton didn't want to put those on quite yet.

Stockton

Jorja had a group of friends come over.  They like to be loud.  They played games for a long time.  It's nice to see Jorja so happy.

Daxton, Noah, Katlyn, Jorja, Natalie, Jade

Stockton had a take home calculus test today.  He didn't start it until really late for two reasons.  He was studying most of the time and Jorja's friends were really loud.  I hope he does well on this one!  Yikes!

Literally

I watched Anne today.  I had Matt leave her carseat because I needed to take Maysen to school and then pick her up again.  I exercised this morning and then wanted to get a shower in before Anne got here. Jorja was about ready to leave.  I told her, "I'm getting in the shower, don't forget your math paper.  It is on Side Table along with your calculator."  That is literally the last thing I said to her before she left for school.  Well, wouldn't you know it.  She left both of them on the table. Jorja wanted me to bring it to school.  I had no way to do that. Maysen had the car until she got back from vet class.  Jorja was nervous and said she couldn't take the test without her calculator.  As soon as Maysen got home I put the car seat in the car, woke up Anne and headed to the school.  The office called Jorja down.  I handed the things to her and said, "You owe me, I love you but you owe me."

Anne was so happy today.  We watched a bit of Mulan in the morning before I put her for an early nap.  Anne played trains for a long time with Maysen.  Her favorite thing was to put tracks on Maysen's belly.  I put her down for an afternoon nap before I left to diving with Stockton. I talked traded my dad Anne watching days.  We will get her next Wednesday instead of the week after.  The kids will be on spring break and will get to play with Anne all day.  I think everyone will like that.

New Hurdle

I took Stockton to diving today.  He has an AP History thing on Thursday.  Tyce had Stockton work on a different hurdle.  It was fun watching Stockton learn.  It seems so grown up, even though Stockton likes to tease Josh that he is dancing when he does it.  Hopefully he'll start to feel comfortable doing this because I think it will help him a lot!

I 'kind of' watched the BYU game while Stockton was diving.  I watched the animated basket being shot.  We listened to the game on the ride home.  There were only seven minutes left when we got home.  I really thought BYU might pull it off.  Too bad they couldn't quite do it.  What a fun year.  I'm going to miss watching Collingsworth play.  He was fun!

Stockton played ping pong for Young Mens.  Noah Valentine and Stockton came over here and played the first game.  They were close the entire game, but Noah ended up winning.  Noah went to a different house, then Landon and Ian came over.  Stockton won both of them. They all went to another house where Noah Heaton ended up winning the tournament.  Stockton enjoyed this activity!

Our neighbor, Melissa, got her mission call.  Knoxville, Tennessee Spanish speaking.  How exciting!

Skit Practice

I had scouts today.  Judy couldn't come because she is out of town.  We worked on our skit for pack meeting.  I had been dreading this for so long, but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated.  The boys did great.  I will be really glad when the skit is over.  I hate being in charge of things like this.  Definitely out of my comfort zone!

Easter

This is the only picture I took today.  My phone ran out of batteries right after I took it.  Preston and his Easter basket.  He was quite happy.  Maysen even had an Easter basket that was hidden in the guest room.

Preston

We arrived home around 1:30.  Maysen was at church.  I'm glad we were able to see her for most of Easter.  Stockton beat Paper Jam on his 3DS and is quite proud of that.  We didn't do anything fancy.  Mike made homemade noodles for dinner and we played games.  It was fun.

Larkin's Baptism

Larkin was baptized today!  Mike came over early to fill the font.  If we would have thought about it in advance, he could have left the keys with us and not worried about it at all.  I came and relieved him.  I brought Jeff's stocking to work on while I waited.  That font takes awhile to fill!  We made sure it was nice and warm for Larkin.  They had two other baptisms later in the day, so we didn't have to drain it.

The baptism was great.  I was able to lead the music.  My dad gave a talk on baptism and Christen's sister gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.  My dad poured water from the place where Jesus was baptized into the font.  He made a big deal about how Jesus was baptized in yucky water at the lowest point on earth.  I was worried he was doing too good of a job describing that and Larkin wouldn't want to get in the water!  She was brave though.

Larkin was baptized in the same dress Skye was.  Christen was also baptized in this dress.  Christen was the first one baptized in this dress. All of her little sisters and their daughters were baptized in this as well. Christen's mom made this dress.  I wish I had that kind of talent!  It's beautiful and Larkin looked so sweet and pretty in it.

Mike & Larkin

 Mike, Larkin & Christen

 Larkin & Mike

 Stephanie & Mike

 Stephanie & Larkin

I didn't take a picture with my phone of the tables Christen set up.  She, of course, had everything looking spectacular.  She set out muffins, fruit and water along with pictures of Larkin and books for people to sign.  She also had allergy free muffins she made for Larkin and Blake. She wanted them to be able to pick something up off of the table.  I asked her what she did for the sacrament.  They have a special bag for them.  There are some other people with allergies in the ward as well. Once when Blake took his wafer she didn't think it looked right.  Blake took a bite and immediately threw up.  They had gotten Blake's allergy bag mixed up with another.  That poor kid!  Christen said Larkin sits at the allergy table at school.  They have it up high.  She used to be able to pick a friend to eat with her, but now one of her best friends has allergies too.  Blake will be sitting up there next year.  That is one trial I am grateful not to be blessed with!

We went to Skye's soccer game this afternoon.  It was windy!  Skye's team won.  I sat and watched it next to Mike.  My Mike and Jorja played catch.  Preston had my phone and took random pictures and videos.  Larkin and some of her other cousins played in the motorhome during the game.  Stockton was in there too, so I wasn't worried.  They sure love that!  I'm glad!

You can kind of see Mike (in brown) & kind of see Stephanie (in black)

Mike bought pizza for everyone at a nearby restaurant.  We filled our bellies before it was time to head back home.  I would have stayed later, but I'm anxious to get back to Maysen.  I don't want her to spend her entire Easter alone!

Mike, Preston, Stephanie, Jorja, Stockton

 Mike, Preston & Stephanie

Sure miss that brother of mine!  I wish he lived closer, but I'm glad he has found a place he loves.

Building Mike's House

Okay, that was really weird.  I wrote a few paragraphs and all of a sudden the computer erased everything I wrote.  I just watched the cursor erasing it one letter at a time and I couldn't do anything to stop it.  Weird.  Anyways, last night was really cold.  Our furnace isn't working.  Mike didn't want to run the generator because we were kind of close to other cars in the rest area.  That is okay, we were prepared for it, but it was still cold!  We arrived at Mike's house in the afternoon. Skye was watching us through the window.  Blake was really happy to see us!  He loved playing with Stockton!  So fun to be with these guys. Mike took us over to see his new house.  I have been looking forward to this!  I can't wait to come back and invade!  I joked with Mike that he should set up an RV pad with water/sewer/electricity; what a nice campground that would be!

Front of Mike's house

Jorja, Preston, Mike & Mike

 View from Blake & Parker's room (I think)

 View from Larkin's room

 Looking down to the living area

 Preston on the roof outside of Skye's room

 Backyard

Okay, I might have gotten all of the rooms mixed up.  It is kind of hard to tell what I'm looking at from the pictures.  This house will be great for them.  I'm really excited to see it finished!  After touring the house we had dinner at Chick-Fil-A.  Skye, Blake and Larkin rode with us. Blake loved going to the bathroom anytime we were moving.  He thought that was cool!  He called the motorhome a 'limousine'.  Larkin called it a 'homemobile'.  I like that!  Christen's family was at Chick-Fil-A.  We ate and then went to set up for the baptism.  We were hoping to let the kids run around the gym, but there was another family having a family reunion.  We decided to sleep in the church parking lot. Christen and I were the last ones out.  She drove me to the motorhome, just across the parking lot.  We ended up talking for about an hour in the car.  I felt bad because I know she has a ton to do before the baptism, but we never see each other.  It was so great to catch up!

Apparently my kids had my phone while we were setting up.  There were 100 pictures on there.  Most of them extremely blurry pictures. Here are a few of the not blurry ones.

Jorja

 Stockton & Jorja

 Jorja

 Preston

 Jorja

 Preston & Stockton

Stockton was pretty sick yesterday.  Just exhausted.  He came home and slept until it was time to leave and then he slept the rest of the way. He felt a little better today, but was not back to 100%.  Poor guy.  He always gets sick when there is a day off.  Almost like his body has worked so hard and just crashes.  At least he made it to the end of the quarter.  Three down, one to go.

Different Opinions

My visiting teachers came over this morning.  They are really nice and I enjoy visiting with them.  Although today we got into an argument.  I was telling them my stresses about the end of the quarter. Somehow that evolved to my children are lazy because they don't have jobs.  Oh man.  I did not take that well.  I told them, well only one of them had this opinion, that my kids have the rest of their life to have a job.  There is only a short time in life to be a kid.  I also was thinking, but didn't say, that I had a job in high school.  I missed a few family trips because of it.  Once I left high school my mom got sick and my family crumbled. I missed the last few years of my happy family, all because of a minimum wage job.  Anyways, I was telling them that I was hoping my kids would get scholarships.  That is when I saw the eye roll.  Oh man. I was so angry.  I said, "What?  Do you have a problem with that?"  She said, "What's wrong with pell grants?  My sisters both worked three jobs during their senior year.  What's wrong with that?"  Well, nothing is wrong with that.  Doesn't mean scholarships is a bad way to go either.  She then told me kids today don't know how to work.  Again, that made me furious.  I told her that Stockton was taking calculus as a 10th grader.  He has all hard classes.  Next year he is taking five AP classes and two concurrent enrollment classes.  Don't tell me he doesn't know how to work hard.  Granted, my kids aren't the best at yard work and stuff, but that doesn't mean they are lazy.  Wow I was mad.  Well, not really mad just extremely annoyed.  Anyway, I really like these two ladies despite this one interaction.  I hope things are not awkward the next time I see them.

I was able to talk to my brother John today.  It is his birthday.  Cassie gave him this Blue Jays string/nail thing.  Look how fun!  I wish we lived closer to them.  Scratch that, I wish they lived closer to us! 

 Side view

Jorja got glasses today.  She has been begging for them for probably a year now.  She wanted to be able to see without her contacts.  Seems like a reasonable request.  I'm just super slow getting things done.  We picked up Jorja's glasses on the way to New Mexico.  We are driving down there to see Larkin get baptized.  Maysen wasn't able to come with us, so she will be home by herself for several days.  She loves being alone.  We didn't get too far today.  Only to Price, but that's better than nothing.

Goofball

Stockton had his French test today.  He needed to get an A on the test to keep his 4.0.  Stockton texted me after his class and said, "I got a 36 on one and a 32 on the other."  I was pretty sure this was out of 40 and high enough to get him an A.  I jokingly texted back, "I hope that is not a percent."  About an hour later Stockton replied, "Yeah it's a percent, I don't know what went wrong."  I was pretty sure he was pranking me because I don't think Stockton could score that low if he tried, especially in French. Luckily he was kidding.  He ended up with a 96% in French and a 96% in Calculus.  Yay!  Although he has a 94% in AP World History and it looks like they might have a quiz tomorrow.  That would be annoying if that was the class that lost his 4.0 for him.  The end of the quarter is always so stressful!

Caucus

This is the last week in the quarter.  The last week is always so stressful. Stockton had a take home calculus test today.  He also has a huge French test tomorrow.  He is on the bubble with French, so he really needs an A.  He has worked so hard.  I'm really proud of him.  Maysen has all As right now in her classes as well.  I hope it stays that way!

Mike, Maysen and I went to the caucus tonight.  It took forever!  I felt bad for my friend Melissa from Boston.  This was her first caucus.  She thought it would be like a primary and she could just come in and vote. She had her two little girls with her.  Finally she just left.  I nominated a guy named Elliot to be a state delegate.  I asked him if he wanted me to nominate him.  He said no, but his eyes said yes.  I nominated him anyway.  He did really well when he was talking about his beliefs.  We had six or seven nominees for two positions.  Elliot and a girl named Kristen are our delegates.  They are the two I voted for.  They are both anti-Trump.  That was important to me!  Our group voted for Cruz with 59 votes.  Trump got 22 and Kasich got 10.  I was looking over the shoulder of the people tallying the votes.  At first Trump was ahead.  I caught Nate Wixom's eye.  We both shook our heads and mouthed, "What is happening?" and "I can't believe it!"  Luckily Cruz pulled out ahead.  Mike was also picked to be a county delegate.  As we were driving home Maysen told me she regretted not having me nominate her for a county delegate.  She thought it would be cool to go to her government class and be able to tell Mr. Ochoa that she was a county delegate.  I wasn't sure if she was available the day the delegates have their meeting.  Would have been cool though.  I texted Melissa the results when I got home.  She was relieved.  She texted back that she was happy with anyone but Trump.

Comfy

Preston looked so cute this morning.  It was really dark, so I couldn't get a good picture.  His arm was over his head and his leg was twisted weird.  Comfy?  I usually find him upside down in the morning.  He always makes me smile.  Even when he's asleep.

Preston

I had scouts today.  We worked on a skit for pack meeting.  I am NOT looking forward to that!  I hate things like that.  I don't mind helping, but I hate being in charge.  One of my scouts was obsessed with being a villain in the skit.  I texted the cub master to ask what the theme for the next pack meeting is.  She texted back after scouts that the theme will be kindness.  Well, our skit is definitely not about kindness!

Spencer

We went to the Provo City Center Temple dedication this morning.  We were at the first session and got to see Elder Oaks fill part of the cornerstone.  I had never seen that before.  Mike and I forgot to bring handkerchiefs for everyone.  I felt bad about that.

Spencer is home from Harvard for a bit.  Steve and Shannon had everyone over to celebrate.  I found a ton of pictures and videos on my phone.  Most of them were about rubik's cubes.  Weston is pretty good at them.  I don't know why Jorja sticks her tongue out in pictures.  She is wearing Weston's glasses.

Jorja

Spencer and Jorja talked for awhile in Chinese.  It was awesome!  I love how Jorja's not shy anymore.  Preston could understand what they were saying for the most part.  Really, really fun.  I wish I could hear them like this more often.

We had dinner and played games.  Everyone was there except the missionaries and Lisa and Nathan.  They were pretty sick.  Scoop was even in town.  That was fun to see him.  Cori wasn't there, she was helping a family member back East.  It was so nice to be together.  That is another thing I wish we would do more often.  We looked forward so much to being around family when we moved back, we were especially excited for Sunday dinners.  Once we got back, the family stopped getting together.  It's been quite sad.  I wish my kids would have had to opportunity to really get to know their cousins. I love days like today.

Success!

Stockton had to be at the pool early in the morning.  They were able to warm up for a long time.  We had to wait until around lunch time of his event.  His best dive was his 2 1/2, mostly 7s on that one!

Stockton landed his front 1 1/2 full twist, or as Stockton calls it: 5132D. He didn't get high marks, but he didn't fail this dive.  Considering he hadn't ever successfully finished this dive before we came to Colorado, I think that's amazing.  What guts he has!

Stockton finished in 6th place.  The top 6 qualify for nationals. Nationals are held in California around the end of May.  He won't qualify for nationals in the 1 meter since he isn't competing tomorrow. He could do 3 meter and platform.  I'm not sure what we are going to do.  I guess we'll wait for more information before we decide anything.

Micky, Matt, Chris, Ashley, Tasha, Stockton

Lizzie, Marie

Maysen spent the day volunteering at a pet place.  She seemed to enjoy it and sent me pictures of her with dogs.

 Maysen

Mike, Stockton and I took off shortly after Stockton finished.  Mike drove the entire way and I was able to read in the back for awhile.  That was nice!  We got home around 6:00.  The kid did great without us. They are at a really great age.