Gingerbread Factory

Mike had to take the motorhome in today for some repairs they had to order parts for.  Because he would be going late to work he decided to work from home today.  Yay!  It was nice not to have travel time to deal with because I needed any spare second he had to get ready for the gingerbread tonight.  This is one of my favorite nights out of the entire year.  I'm glad my family loves it as much as I do.  Tage told me she skipped her choir performance so she could come.  The hardest part about doing this is finding a time around Christmas where everyone is available!  Today was the only day that worked.  Maysen, Stockton, Jorja and I had to skip our youth activities for today.  Family time is worth it though.  Steve and Shannon brought a lot of pizza and Lisa and Nathan brought pies.  Perfect.

Weston

 Jacob

 Michael

 Tage

 Lisa

 Brandon

 Preston

 Maysen

 Stockton

 Miah

 Nova & Nathan ~ Nova LOVED playing with the sink!

 Mike

 Stephanie

 Mike's house.  He labeled it.

 Jorja

I told my kids that I would make them each a gingerbread house, but if they wanted a different flavor, they would need to make it themselves. Last year I made chocolate chip, sugar cookie, snicker doodle, chocolate chocolate chip....it just takes a lot of time.  I was making 25 houses tonight, so I didn't want to deal with that!  Jorja made a red velvet house.  She helped Preston make a blue house.  Maysen made a sugar cookie house.  Too bad I broke one of the edges by not being careful (Gingerbread is a lot harder.  I forgot I needed to be gentle with these!)  Anyway, I made Maysen another sugar cookie house and Mike took the one with the broken piece.  I also kind of burnt one gingerbread house.  Whoops!  It looked fine, but I'm not sure how it would taste.  Stockton volunteered to have that one.  So nice!

Jorja's house

 Michael's cathedral

 Jonah (Michael's friend)

 Shannon

 Maysen

 Erica & Melissa

 Shannon

Tage brought a foreign exchange student from France.  His name is Gaspard.  He had never heard of decorating gingerbread houses before. I had to laugh at his technique!

Gaspard

 Maysen

 Stockton

 Maysen

 Aimee (and Sherry)

Mike LOVED the fact that a ton of people crowded in the piano room to watch TV.  He had just hung one up as a test.  When people were done with their houses they ended up watching Studio C.  I guess we will end up keeping the TV there.

Melissa, Jorja, Stockton, Gaspard, Tage, Michael, Jonah, Miah, Erica

 Mess of houses

I make everyone get their picture taken with their house.  I tell them that is the cost of admission.  I love seeing how different everyone's creations are.  Same candy choice, but so different!  I wish I had their creativity!

Maysen

 Stockton

 Aimee and Nova

 Aimee

 How awesome is that sled?

 Lisa

 Shannon

 Jacob

 Brandon

 Erica

 Melissa

 Melissa made a minion house.  Super fun!

 Weston

 Derek

 Nathan (I'm not sure whose house he swiped)

 Jacob, Steve, Weston, Shannon, Brandon, Erica

 Derek, Nova, Melissa

 With Nathan's photobomb

 Just a little obsessed with Nova

 Aimee, Nova, Nathan, Lisa, Michael, Jonah

 Miah

 Jonah

 Michael

 Gaspard & Tage

 Gaspard, Tage, Xander, Miah

 Gaspard, Tage, Sherry, Xander, Miah

 Tage

 I love the hot tub!

 Xander always likes to make a 'house of horror'.

 I will need to remember to look for candy at Halloween for him.

 Gaspard

 French flag

 Jorja

 Preston wanted pictures from every angle

 Maysen, Preston, Stockton, Mike, and Jorja

 With a timer.  Maysen, Preston, Stockton, Mike

Stephanie, Jorja

 Stephanie ~ I usually don't get much time to decorate

 Mike

 I like his snow fort and log pile

 Preston's back for more!

 He wanted to make sure I got a picture of his fireplace.

Tic Tacs and pretzels in a Tic Tac box.

What a fun, long, exhausting, happy day!

Zeke

I went to lunch with Becky and Jacqui for our birthdays.  It was really fun.  We talked a little about Young Women, but not too much.  (They are the other two who are in the YW presidency with me.)  Maysen got her first Game It prize in the mail today.  It is a watch.  She also played Game It with a lizard on her head.  I think she should get extra points for that!

Maysen

 Maysen and Zeke

Brazellis

They are delicious.  Tonight we went over to Steve and Shannon's to make them.  They have Grandma Honey's brazelli iron that she got from Switzerland.  Mike brought his iron.  I got him a similar one for his birthday a few years back.  It was nice and relaxing tonight.  We ended the night by playing Mafia.  The mafia won.  Boo!  Mike and Stockton were both mafia.  Mike didn't want to kill Preston, for a second I thought he was going to vote Stockton out and lose the game. Stockton would have been so mad!

Recital

I took my last group of girls to Kneaders today.  This is what we did for the Young Women birthdays this year.  I loved this birthday idea, but it proved to be a little more complicated than we anticipated. There were four girls that were never able to go.  Becky bought them a little hummingbird cake there and I dropped them off later today.

Maysen, Stockton and Preston had a recital today.  Maysen sang two songs and the boys played the piano.  They even played a duet and I loved it!  We brought Max because my dad had a wedding to go to.  My kids went first at the recital because we had to leave right away.  The recital started at 11:00.  Stockton had a diving competition at the UofU. Warm ups started at 11:00.  Yikes!

Preston & Stockton

We made it, but Stockton wasn't able to warm up at all.  He was nervous about his reverse 1 1/2, but was able to pull it off.

Reverse 1 1/2

Inward 1 1/2

Becky invited the Young Women presidency and their husbands to dinner.  I was asked to bring a dessert.  I made a chocolate peppermint bundt cake.  It kind of stuck to the pan so it didn't look pretty, but it was delicious.  Once I put the crushed candy canes on top you couldn't notice the dent as much. Anyway, we had such a great time!  At the end of the night we played Telestrations.  It is a mix of pictionary and telephone.  We laughed and laughed.  This was my favorite.

Started with snowplow and ended with satan sacrificing a person.  Oh man, we laughed and laughed.  I was so tired when we got home, but it was a lot of fun!

Game It

Our neighbor has started an on-line competitive shopping app.  It is called Game It.  It is pretty fun and very frustrating.  You can win prizes by answering trivia questions, although it seems like it is a mix between trivia and hot potato.  I have only won 2 prizes.  Stockton has won 3 and Mike has won 2, I think.  Maysen has won the most with 5.  Two of the prizes Stockton won were Game It points.  I am the first one in my family to receive a prize in the mail.  I won these shoes.  I got them by answering baseball trivia of all things!  No idea how I pulled that one off.

Stephanie's new shoes

I also won lip stick.  Apparently I am only capable of winning girly prizes.  Bryce came up to Mike at the Christmas party and asked if he was 'Three Headed Monkey'.  Mike laughed and said, "No, that's Stockton."  Bryce thought that was hilarious.  I guess once Stockton started playing Game It they got 50 complaints that there was no way this was a real person and he had to be cheating.  Bryce looked up the address of threeheadedmonkey and saw it was our house.  He assumed it was Mike.  He said, "I can't wait to tell my brother that he is getting beaten by a 14 year old boy!"  Bryce's brother is a doctor and super smart.  Stockton is not a doctor, but is super smart and has quick reflexes.  Too bad he still has a hard time winning prizes.  It is funny that so many people complained about him when at the time all he had one was Game It gift cards.  He did win a baby scooter the other day and was dancing around at diving singing, "I won a baby scooter!" Stockton doesn't care what he wins, he just wants to win!  Stockton does not have luck on his side.  He always complains how he can never win luck games.  Bryce added a point decay feature.  It takes points away from the leader.  Stockton is not a fan.  We have been having fun playing, hopefully we can continue to win prizes here and there.  I have a feeling that once a lot of people start playing it is going to be practically impossible to win.  Still is a fun thing to do together though.

Mike, Maysen and I went to Alta to watch Dancing with the Hawks.  My nephew Michael was competing.  Different kids were picked from different areas and asked to dance with a ballroom person.  Michael was picked from the drama, choir area.  He was amazing!  So much fun to watch!  He was the only one to receive a 10 and he received two of them.  He and his partner won the competition.  So much fun!  I'm glad we were able to see him.  After the show, Mike and I wanted to use our coupons at Johanna's Kitchen.  The website said it was open until 10:00, but when we got there they had a sign saying they are only open for breakfast and lunch.  Boo!  We ended up going to Sconecutters.

Bye-Bye Braces

Stockton is finished with braces!  He is thrilled.  He went to biology and then I checked him out of school.  He missed advisory, seminary and part of lunch.  That was okay because I took him to get nuggets at Chick-Fil-A after his appointment.  Happy day!

Stockton

Jorja's Concert

Today was a good day, but a long day!  I watched Abby, Millie and Anne most of the day.  Spencer and Ange went hiking.  I can't remember where but it was a long hike!  They went so fast and came back exhausted.  They left around 8 in the morning and got back around 5 in the afternoon.  I also watched Anne because Sam had a meeting scheduled.  It was with Sheri Dew and she wasn't sure how long the meeting would last.  I picked up Anne around 10.  Sam called me in the afternoon to see how things were.  She had just gotten out of her meeting.  She only had one more hour before she had her eight hours for the day.  She was planning on coming and picking up Anne and then driving back to work for the last hour.  That seemed like a lot of extra driving, so we kept Anne a bit longer.  The reason I picked up Anne today is I was also picking my dad up at the airport.  I took Abby, Millie and Anne with me.  I was so thankful that his plane was on time! I don't think it would have been much fun waiting with the three little ones!  The girls did great today, but it was hard.  My life is so easy now! It is easy to forget how time consuming toddlers are.  Good thing they are adorable!  My kids were so happy to see them when they got home.

Jorja had her Christmas violin concert today.  Yesterday she had me e-mail her old violin teacher.  I did, but did not expect her to come.  I should have known she would make it, she is just that awesome!  Jorja was thrilled to see her again!  She loved her so much.  Jorja also loves her new orchestra teacher, Mr. Cox, as well.  She has been very lucky.

Jorja and Mrs. Beninati

I took Jorja early and saved seats for the other kids.  Mike brought them and they made it at the last second.  Mike was texting me as he walked asking where I was sitting.  He tripped and fell and did a barrel roll.  He was able to roll to his feet and keep texting.  My kids thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.  An old lady nearby was laughing so hard and said, "You didn't even stop texting!"  I wish we had that on camera!  I would have loved to seen it!

White Elephant

Today we had a white elephant gift exchange for the youth and their leaders.  This was my gift.

I even signed it.  Too bad Isaac had the same idea, and they opened Isaac's first!  Johny got my gift.  I had hidden a $5 bill in the back, so I told him to make sure his mom helped him find it.

Maysen's first gift was a Hobbit pez set.  I was hoping to get it so bad! Her gift got stolen, but I was planning on stealing it back.  My number was 25.  Number 24 stole it for the 2nd time so I could not steal it again!  Boo Jeanette!  Instead I stole a giant dog from Hadley-Kate. Maysen's next prize that she opened was a magic lamp.  She really liked it.  Awhile later that got stolen from her too!  Maysen stole my dog (2nd steal, could not be stolen again) and I stole back her lamp!  Jorja ended up with a snowman music thing and Stockton got an annoying blower horn.  Thanks Becky!  James got Maysen's lizards, Logan got Jorja's baby toys (which were stolen by Bishop Valentine and then stolen again by Josh Yauney) and Olivia Bruce got Stockton's games. We ended the night with donuts.  Pretty fun!

Looking for Gifts

For Family Home Evening we decided to go to DI.  The kids had a white elephant party coming up, so this seemed like a good place to look for gifts.  Too bad DI closes early on Monday.  That didn't even cross my mind.  We ended up going to the dollar store and the kids had so much fun!  Maysen picked out five lizards that grow when you put them in water.  Stockton chose five mini games that you could play in a car.  Jorja picked baby stuff, like a baby bottle and a sippy cup.  Weird. The kids laughed and laughed as they chose their gifts.  I'm glad they have so much fun together.

Spoken Word

This morning the Young Women went to Music and the Spoken Word. Maysen, Jorja and I all rode with Jenny Brady.  She knew a different way to get to where we were going.  I hope I can remember it next time I want to go downtown!  I really enjoyed the performance.  It reminded me of my Grandma and Grandpa watching every Sunday for my Aunt Kris.  They loved seeing her sing!  The organist was amazing!  My favorite was after the cameras were off.  The choir sang, "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again".  It was beautiful.  

Preston's Baptism

Today was such an incredibly busy/crazy day.  It was wonderful though.  Mike and I got up pretty early and worked on cleaning and cooking.  Mike also got several pictures hung up that we had been procrastinating doing.  He hung our family tree above the stove and it looks great!  He also got the picture that his mom bought from our wedding hung up behind the couch.  (Our wedding was at an art gallery.  The owner talked (probably guilted) Mike's mom into buying the picture.  When Mike's dad moved from their house, we were given the painting.  I'm so glad because Mike really wanted it!)

Stockton had a dive meet today.  Josh's parents took him because he needed to be there an hour early. I knew we would be stressed getting things done.  Mike and I are the best procrastinators!  We made Preston's programs and his slide show this morning.  I was pulling out pictures for his slide show and started to realize I wouldn't make it to Stockton's meet.  I was so sad.  Jorja asked if she could finish for me. Yay!  I was able to get to the University of Utah right as the meet started.  Jorja and Preston picked out the rest of the pictures and the video turned out great.  Stockton got 6th place this dive meet.  He was happy with that.

As soon as Stockton and I made it back home we hurried and got everything else ready for Preston.  Our neighbor Audrey came with us and was so cute and proud of Preston.  Bubs and Ange and their family came.  Matt, Sam, Anne and Cathy came.  Steve, Erica, Jacob and Weston came.  Lisa, Nathan, Melissa, Derek and Nova came.  Preston's primary teacher, Sister Rich, came.  The Bishop was there and the Ward Mission Leader, Dale Johnson, was there.  Also a lady from the stake primary came and Sister Peters from our ward primary presidency came.  We were thankful for everyone who was able to come support him.  We know that there were a lot of people who wished they could be there, but could not.  Especially Preston's grandpa's.  They were both out of town.

Mike gave a talk on baptism.  He talked to Preston about how important this decision was and how it will bind us together forever as a family.  Mike talked about his mom.  She died 9 years ago today. How cool for Preston to be baptized on this day!  We didn't even choose it. Preston was named after her.  He even picked the song, "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd" for the opening song.  That is Preston's favorite song.  It is also his Grandma Honey's favorite song. He did not know that at all.  Tender mercy.  

The baptismal font in the stake center is in a hallway.  Kind of funny, but it works fine.  My brother Spencer and Mike's brother Steve were the witnesses.  Preston looked so happy.  He was cute when he came out of the water, he kind of made this gasping sound.  He didn't need to, he just likes to be funny.  While Preston and Mike were changing out of their wet clothes, we watched the video of Preston pictures.  I loved it.

I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  I had Preston's blanket that Grandma Parry made him.  It is all ratted and torn.  We talked about his blanket and how it makes him feel safe and loved.  We talked about how the Holy Ghost will be able to help him feel safe and loved.  It will comfort him when he needs to be comforted.  One amazing difference between his blanket and the Holy Ghost is that the more Preston uses the Holy Ghost the stronger it will become.  It would be so cool if that happened to his blanket!  (Preston would always show Grandma Parry his ratted blanket and say, 'Look how much I love it.')  I then read Preston different parts of the talk my dad wrote for Maysen.  We inserted Preston's name and it was wonderful.

We had asked all the cousins to sing, "Families Can Be Together Forever"; but then we forgot to put it on the program.  After Preston received the Holy Ghost and was shaking everyone's hands I whispered to Brother Johnson and asked if we could do it now.  This song has now been sung at each of my children's baptisms.  It is what I want most in the entire world, for my family to be together forever.  Both my family I grew up with and my family now.

The bishop and stake primary lady both talked to him.  We sang, "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ" for the closing hymn.  Jorja said the opening prayer and Stockton said the closing prayer, Maysen led the music.  Everything was perfect.  I am so proud of this little boy!

Preston

 Preston and Mike

 Preston

We had dinner at our house afterwards.  Mike made different kinds of pasta.  We had different sauces and meatballs.  We also had taco stuff. Steve brought over a Chick-Fil-A plate that was quickly devoured. Jorja made red velvet sandwich cookies.  We also whipped up some s'more and root beer cookies.  Preston really wanted a smoothie in a pineapple, so we made one for him.

Preston

 Stephanie and Preston

 That is one well loved blanket!

 I love this boy!

Festival of Trees

My poor Jorja was sick today.  I got a call from her around 11:00 asking me to pick her up from school.  She came home and slept in the guest room for a long time.  I had been planning on taking the kids to Festival of Trees.  Jorja was sad she couldn't go.  (I wonder if Stockton wished he was sick so he could get out of it too?)  She asked me to text her pictures of trees I thought she would like.  I sent her a bunch!

Mario tree

 Ice cream tree

 Pirate tree

 Chinese tree

 Peacock tree

 Well, the peacock picture is for Maysen

 The coolest "tree" ever!

Enchanted Castle

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread temple.  They had three of them this year!  Two Salt Lakes and one Manti.

 M.C. Esher house

The playhouses are always fun to look at, but this year they were incredible!  Here were my two favorites.

Pirate ship

 Steamboat Willie

 with a bench, tree

 and slide

Steamboat Willie was still for sale.  Too bad I left my $9,000 in my other coat at home.

We went to the line to get the traditional scones and sweet rolls, but the line was so long!  We bailed out and headed to Iceburg for milkshakes. Everyone was happy!

Mike and I had a ward Christmas party tonight.  It was really fun.  We sat with the Bradleys, Stakers and Yauneys.  The food was delicious and I ate way too much dessert.  That was because I didn't have Stockton looking out for me knocking the dessert out of my hands.  The video Jaime put together was very cute.  Burke said, "Did anyone else feel intimidated watching Preston read that long passage?"  I laughed and said, "Jaime wanted him to memorize it, I thought this would be more manageable."  Anyway, besides my Porge being sick, today was a great day!

Anne

I spent the day watching Anne.  This was the first time I didn't take her anywhere.  Well, the first time in a long time!  I think the last three months I have needed to go to the bank.  The strange part is I have only needed to go to the bank three times in the last year!  The kids have so much fun with Anne when they come home.  I had to take Stockton to diving, so they watched her while I was gone.  While Anne napped I worked on Brandon's Christmas stocking.  Pretty simple day.

The Holy Ghost

I tried and tried to find the talk my dad wrote for Maysen's baptism about the Holy Ghost.  I finally realized I lost it.  I texted Cathy and asked her if she would ask my dad to give her a few sentences from him that I could say to Preston at his baptism.  My dad told her he didn't have time to write a talk, but he knew where Maysen's talk was.  Yay and yikes!  I hope my dad didn't think I expected him to write a completely new talk.  I just wanted to have him participate in some way.  I'm so glad he knew where this one was.  I'm not going to use the entire thing, but I can pull some things out of there and change Maysen's name to Preston.  This is my dad's talk.  I'm putting it here in case I ever need to find it again!  Plus, I really like it.

The person who wrote this talk is Maysen's Grandpa Millburn.  It was written for her, but maybe you other people could listen, too, while my daughter, Maysen's mother, reads it.

When Jesus appeared to the Nephites He told them about a very special gift He would give them if they would prepare themselves to receive it.  Then he left them.  The next day they gathered at the temple hoping He would come back again.  One by one, the apostles that Jesus chose baptized the people, just like you're going to be baptized, Maysen.  And they prayed for the gift Jesus promised to give them.  Do you know what that gift was?  It says, "And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them." (3 Nephi 19:9)  This is the gift Jesus promised--the gift of the Holy Ghost.

You have received many presents, or gifts, in your life, Maysen, from people who love you very much.  But the best gift you will ever receive is given to you by your Heavenly Father, who loves you very much.

Heavenly Father has given us the two best gifts in the world.  The first one is the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ.  He was given to us to come into the world and show us the way we should live, then to pay for our sins so we could go back and live with Heavenly Father again with our family.

The second gift is the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Just before He died on the cross for us, Jesus told His apostles that He would ask Heavenly Father to send them this gift.  (John 14:16,26)  He said it would teach them all things; that it would let them know if something was true or not; that it would comfort them when they were sad; that it would help them remember things they had learned; and, it would help them to say the right things to people when it's really important to say the right things. (John 14:26; 16:13)

Jesus said that the Holy Ghost was like wind. (John 3:8) You can't see the wind, but you can feel it on your face and know it's there.  You can see the leaves move, or the flag wave, or the dust pick up--you can see the evidence all around you that the wind is there, but you can't see the wind at all.

The Holy Ghost is like that.  You can feel a warm, comforting feeling inside you that tells you something is true, or what you're going to do is right, and that is Heavenly Father's way of helping you choose the right--helping you make decisions that will bring you back to Him. And it's the Holy Ghost He sends as a gift to us that tells us and shows us what we should do.  (2 Nephi 32:3,5) But we have to keep the commandments, and show by the way we live that we really do want to have this gift to help us.  King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon said the Holy Ghost will never leave you, but it will be you who leaves the Holy Ghost.  (Mosiah 2:36) Jesus has promised us that the Holy Ghost will be your constant companion if you don't do anything that "grieves" Him. (D&C 121:37;46) The word "grieves" means to make him really sad.

It's like this:  If you went to a place where Heavenly Father didn't want you to go, like a place where bad people were, who were swearing and saying bad things and doing bad things, but you didn't know it was going to be like that when you went in, the Holy Ghost wouldn't go in with you.  The Holy Ghost might wait for you outside for awhile, and when you went into that bad place you would know you shouldn't be there, because you would feel wrong in just being there, and you would feel very out of place and uncomfortable.  you might not know why--you might forget that the Holy Ghost won't go with you into those bad places, and you might not realize that the reason you feel uncomfortable is because you don't have this very precious gift with you anymore.  When you feel abandoned, alone, and out of place, then you must leave that place immediately--you have to get out of there.  You don't have to be rude--just say you have to leave--and then go.  If you do, the you'll find the Holy Ghost waiting for you outside, and when He's with you again you will feel so happy you left, and the Holy Ghost will let you know that you made the right decision in leaving.

But what if you stay inside, even though you don't feel right about it. Maybe you don't want to embarrass anyone, or hurt anyone's feelings, so you just stay, even if you know it's wrong to be there. Then when you finally come out, the Holy Ghost won't be waiting for you outside.  And you will feel awful for awhile.  But if you pray to Heavenly Father in Jesus' name, and ask him to forgive you and give you back this precious gift that you lost for awhile, and you promise that you'll not do that again because you miss having this gift, this friend, this companion to be with you; then, if you are sincere and truly repent, He'll allow you to have this gift again.

There are other ways you could lose this gift for awhile.  Maybe if you get really angry at your brother or sister or mother or father or friend you could make the Holy Ghost sad so it leaves.  Maybe if you tell a lie or be mean to someone and hurt their feelings, the Holy Ghost will be "grieved" and will leave you alone for awhile.

Sometimes you might be so used to having the Holy Ghost to be with you that you won't notice you have it until it's gone.  You may not fully appreciate this gift until you lost it for awhile.  That's when you need to be like the Nephites and pray for that which you most desire: to have the Holy Ghost for your companion again.

I could tell you a lot more about the Holy Ghost, but then my talk would be too long and you'd say, "Hurry up, Grandpa, I want to get baptized!"

So that's all I'll say, except to tell you that I wish I could be there to see you get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, and that I love you very much.

I say all this to Maysen, and to whoever else is there, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Share the Gift

We had a fancy dinner today for Young Womens'.  It was at Jeanette's house.  Jeanette lives in Kristi Bell's old house.  Well, where Kristi Bell used to live.  They tore down the house and built a new one.  They finished a few months ago and it is beautiful.  Jeanette had a delicious dinner for us.  Becky had us fill out papers about how we would share the gift.  Talking about sharing the gospel.  Jorja plans on sharing the gift by being kind, Maysen by being an example and I chose to share the gift by teaching my children.  It was a wonderful night.  I love having both my girls in Young Womens' with me!

Jorja, Stephanie, Maysen

Sister Peters

Sister Peters came to our house today and talked with Preston and I. She brought baptismal clothes for Preston to try on and she brought some for Mike.  Preston is getting so excited about his baptism! He can hardly wait!