Jeff's 1st Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving!  Mike and I started the day bright and early with our last exercise class.  It has been a lot of fun having Mike do this with me.  He hasn't liked it much though.  This was our third class this week. Todays was an hour and fifteen minutes long.  The classes are HARD! We survived, but were so tired when we got home.  We still had a lot to do for Thanksgiving.  Yikes!

Dinner was at our house at 3:00.  My dad was cooking the turkey (and lots of other things).  He told me he would be there at 2:30.  I called him at 3:45 to see if everything was okay.  He was on his way here. Later he told us that he fell on the way to the car.  I don't know how long he was laying there before he was able to get up.  I'm glad nothing serious happened.  Brother Mortenson, in our ward, fell down his stairs on Saturday and needed emergency brain surgery.  He died this morning.

Anyway, on to happier things.  Thanksgiving!  The food was delicious. I made cranberry sauce (actually Mike made that), rolls and a lot of pies for my contribution.  I made a chocolate dairy free pie for Anne.  I got some coconut whipped cream for her too.  She ate all of the whipped cream off of the pie, but didn't touch the pie.  I told Sam next year we should just give her a plate of whipped cream.

We had the adults at the giant table Mike has been making.  That worked great.  We set up a table my dad gave me in the piano room for the kids.  They ate dinner while watching various Thanksgiving cartoons.  My dad brought me my grandma's table from when he was little.  It folds up pretty small.  He has had it in his garage for years, so it is a little beat up.  I'm excited to have it though.  I want to list the people that were here this year.  My dad, Bubs and his family, Matt and his family, Sam's mom, Sam's sister with her husband and five kids.

Today was also Jeff's first birthday.  Anne and Millie helped him open the presents.  All three of the kids seemed to like that arrangement.

Anne & Jeff

 Jeff

Sam brought a cute little cake for Jeff.  It was adorable.  She let Jeff pick at it with his hands.  He was timid at first and kept looking at his mom like, "I can't believe you are letting me get away with this!"  Soon he was banging into the cake with both hands.  I think he liked it!

Jeff's first birthday cake

 Jeff

I wish this last picture wasn't blurry.  It was so funny to see Jeff sitting there with his legs kind of crossed.  "Yep.  I owned that cake!"

We Facetimed Maysen before we went to bed.  She seemed happy.  She spent her Thanksgiving writing and drawing.  She said she wasn't hungry most of the day and finally warmed up some pizza for dinner. Maysen's perfect Thanksgiving.  No people and no food.  Strange little girl.

Haircuts

I have been anxious for the boys to get haircuts.  Stockton told me that he wanted to wait until Thanksgiving break so he would have it for a few days before he went back to school.  Stockton can't stand people saying things like, "You got a haircut?"  I don't know why.  It's weird. Anyway, the number one thing I wanted to get done today was get the boys haircuts.  Around lunchtime I took the boys down to a new haircut place by Little Caesars.  The lady said their credit card machine wasn't working.  I had only brought a credit card.  I gave her my name and she said she would call.  We went and picked up pizza.  After we came home and ate I decided to go back with my check book.  I brought my debit card just in case.  That was lucky because they don't take checks either.  I left the boys there while I went to Harmon's and got some cash.  Preston was done when I got back and looked so adorable. Stockton finished soon after, although you can't even tell he had a haircut at all.  I let Stockton tell the lady what he wanted done. Apparently nothing.  I wanted Stockton's haircut to look like Preston's. Oh well.

Anne's 3rd Birthday

Stockton, Jorja and Preston all had diving today.  Stockton and his friends just messed around today.  Their coach even left at the beginning of practice, which is why they messed around.  They brought up a mat onto the five meter and were sliding off of it.  It's nice to have silly practices like that every once in awhile.

Preston had a super busy day.  He went to piano straight from school. Mike picked him up from piano and took him and Jorja to diving. Mike then took Stockton home.  Jorja and Preston had a great practice.  I got a short video of Jorja doing a dive off of the three meter. It's super quick because I didn't start it fast enough.  Jorja was over rotating on her three meter dives.  Her coach asked her to look at her hands while she was going in the water.  I couldn't believe the difference it made.

Jorja, Preston and I went straight to Anne's house from diving.  Mike and Stockton met us there.  My dad and Cathy were there along with Sam's best friend, Candace, and her kids.  We watched Anne open presents and had cake.  Anne was so excited about her presents this year.  Last year she was not.  Anne was happy about everything.  It was adorable.

Anne

 Anne with her pink cake and pink frosting

Sam is not a fan of pink.  Anne loves it.  So funny.  Now we start Thanksgiving break!  We are all ready for a little relaxation!

Webelos

Today was Preston's first day as a Webelos.  He loves Judy, she did Wolves with me when I was in scouts.  Webelos will also be at Judy's house, which is only a few doors away from us.  Preston is excited that he won't have to walk as far.  I was gone before Preston came home from school and left to scouts.  Stockton had diving today.  It is nice that Preston always remembers scouts, even though I am never home. He does have a better memory than me.

Gingerbread

I love gingerbread houses.  I love the smell.  I love the candy.  I love seeing what everyone makes.  I love the chaos.  It is so much fun.  We did gingerbread houses for my family today, except Bubs and his family were unable to make it.  Hopefully we can get him later.  Maybe when John and Cassie are here.  Anyway, here is the product from todays fun.

Stephanie

 Mike

 I always love Mike's houses.  I wish I were as creative as him.

 Stockton

 Preston

Preston was so funny.  He built Trump's wall out of sugar cubes.  That is Trump on the top.  He is holding a whip.  The cinnamon Santa's are "Mexican's" climbing over the wall.  One is scaling the wall with a candy cane.  Definitely not politically correct, but it was funny listening to Preston while he was decorating.

Preston's puppy sleigh was really cute.  You can't see it here very well, but I love how he was able to get icing tying all the puppies together.

 Max & Preston

 Jorja

 I wanted one with her smiling.  She doesn't like the elastic

on her braces.  She gets her braces off soon, so she can deal with it!

 Katlyn

Katlyn's parents dropped her off and headed to the hospital.  Katlyn's mom had surgery awhile ago.  One of her staples became infected and she ended up needing surgery tonight.  Katlyn slept over at our house and both Jorja and Katlyn were thrilled with that surprising turn of events.  Katlyn had never had a sleepover before, besides with family. Making lemon aid out of lemons.

Jorja & Katlyn

 Matt

 Sam

 Anne

I put all of Matt's houses on circle plates.  That is because this gingerbread is made without dairy.  I asked Anne when she came in if she wanted a scary gingerbread house or a not-scary gingerbread house.  She said she wanted a not-scary one.  Her little voice is so cute! Sam wanted them to only use dairy free candy.  It worked well until Matt forgot and put kitkats on his house.  He was trying to make it look like his house was boarded up.

Anne, Matt, Sam

 With Jeff

 Dad

My dad made such a cool house,

but the pictures don't do it justice at all!

 Jeff wanted my dad's house

 Cathy

 Max

 Cathy, Max, Dad

Here are my Instagram pictures.  I liked how they turned out, so you get to see these same pictures again.

Matt, Sam, Anne

Max, Dad, Cathy

 Mike, Stephanie, Stockton

Jorja & Katlyn, Preston

I took Jorja and Katlyn to Katlyn's house so she could pick up clothes for tomorrow.  Then I fell exhaustedly into bed.  What a great day!

Projects, Games and Plays

Today was fun.  We got the dairy free gingerbread houses put together, so everything is pretty much ready for tomorrow.  I worked on a project during the BYU game that I don't want to put on here yet. Mike, Preston and I played Pandemic.  We are having fun with that.  Stockton and I went to see the Music Man at his high school.  That was long. Still fun to go with Stockton.  That's about it.

Book Club

I was able to go help in Preston's class today.  I am in charge of one of the book club groups.  We are reading The False Prince.  I recommended the book to his teacher.  That and Ordinary Boy.  She was able to get 12 copies of each book.  There are about six kids in my group.  They had to read a third of the book.  It was great!  We only had thirty minutes, but I had the best time!  The kids loved the book and it was so fun to talk with them about it.  I loved listening to their predictions.  I had the best time. I can't wait to go back in two weeks!

I did a book club with Preston last year, but I didn't have access to the book.  Plus, I think the book probably was really boring.  I had set questions to ask the kids, but I had no idea what we were talking about. I loved it this way so much more.  It was such an exciting day!

Tubes

Nothing too exciting happened today.  Just busy.  I took Stockton to diving and Mike took Jorja to the dermatologist.  He asked me to pick up a prescription for her on the way home.  It was so embarrassing. The information Mike gave me to ask for was a new orange tube and a refill of the blue one.  I felt like an idiot asking for a blue and orange tube.  More information would have been appreciated....like a name.... It was kind of funny though.  Yes, I need an orange tube and a blue tube. Good luck!

Rachel Sighting!

Rachel came into town for a super quick trip.  She came into town for her brother and one of her friends.  She didn't think she would get a chance to see us, but I had Eve's handprints back.  Rachel let me know she could see me today and I drove up to Bountiful to meet her.  I called Ange last night to see if she wanted to come with me.  Ange dropped everything and came with us.  On our way up, Sam randomly called Rachel to ask her a question.  Rachel let her know she was in Bountiful.  Sam dropped everything and came up to see Rachel as well. We all love her so much!  It was a short, chaotic trip, but so nice to visit with her.  I can't wait to find out where Brett and Rachel are going next! I hope it's Utah!  If not Utah, I hope it's New Mexico.  Mostly I'm crossing my fingers for Utah.

Ange, Amelia, Stephanie, Rachel & Anne, Sam & Jeff

Eve playing on the floor

I took Preston to diving today.  Mike took Stockton to the National Honor Society induction meeting tonight.  Last year Stockton came straight from diving.  He did not want to do that again.  Luckily we were able to work around it.

Preston's Bear

Preston received his Bear today for scouts.  He has really liked his Bear leaders, Brother and Sister Breen.  I hope he enjoys Webelos!  Judy Anderson will be his Webelos leader.  She did Bears with me.  Preston's excited to only walk a few houses down the road to scouts.

Stephanie, Preston, Pat Breen

 Mike, Stephanie, Preston, Pat

 Preston pinning his Bear pin on me

 Mike, Stephanie, Preston

The boys put together a carnival for pack meeting.  There were snow cones and games.  I'm also wearing flip flops.  Doesn't feel like November.

Stockton and Jorja went to Where's Waldo at the mall.  The ward does this activity every year.  Usually my kids hate it, but both of them seemed to enjoy it this year.

Supermoon

The moon was supposed to be the closest to us that it has ever been in my lifetime.  It's not supposed to be this close until 2030 something. Mike and I got to see it on our way to exercising.  I took a blurry picture with my phone before it went away.

I ran downstairs to wake Preston up when I realized how low it was. He popped out of bed right away.  By the time we came back upstairs it was already behind some houses.  Luckily we were able to go outside and find it.  Preston would have been so sad to miss it!

Jorja and I had an appointment with her counselor today to plan for high school graduation.  It was about a 45 minute appointment.  I didn't learn too much since I have already been through a lot of the things with Maysen and Stockton.  Actually I was able to let her know that a few things have changed.  For example, the engineering pathway is different.  Stockton is on it.  There were supposed to be four concurrent enrollment classes at the end of that pathway.  Now there is only one.  Frustrating.  The questions I did have she didn't have the answers to.  I had questions about the Chinese program in high school. She didn't know how it was going to work.  It is hard because Jorja's grade is the first grade through the Chinese Immersion program in the district.  They keep changing what their plans are.  Jorja did mention that she isn't enjoying her orchestra as much as last time and her peer tutoring as much as she thought.  Jorja would have to go to pe if she got out of orchestra, so I don't think she is going to do that.  Peer tutoring hasn't been as fun for Jorja as it was for Stockton or Jorja's friends now.  Some of Jorja's friends do peer tutoring during the period that the kids work on social skills.  They get to play games most of the time. Jorja is assigned to help them with their English.  Not speaking, it is English like a regular class.  Jorja doesn't like that at all.  Too bad they can't mix it up a bit.

I took Stockton to diving today and Mike brought Jorja and Preston. They all had a great time.  Jorja and Preston started working on flips. Just doing it underwater.  They had fun with that.  Days that all three of the kids have diving are long.  I am gone for about 5 1/2 hours.  At least I get sewing and reading done.  I don't get as much now as I did a few weeks ago.  I stay in the car for the first hour of Stockton's class and come into the pool area at 4:00.  The parking people have started giving tickets to the divers and their parents.  This is not going to be as fun when it is cold outside!  Well, it's not fun to sit in the car for an hour as it is.....

Church and Games

Today was pretty relaxing.  Stockton and I had choir practice.  Church. Tithing settlement.  Mike, Stockton, Preston and I played Dominion. Stockton won.  Mike, Jorja, Preston and I played Pandemic, we won. It was so nice not to need to go anywhere and to have Preston's giant party over with.  We need more days like this!