Boise, Idaho

We skipped our sacrament meeting today and just went to our classes. We had time to rest for about twenty minutes before we headed to Erica's mission farewell. She will be serving in the Boise, Idaho mission. She has tried for three years to serve a mission and kept getting denied. This became the hardest trial she has faced. Hopefully this mission will be everything she is hoping for. That girl has major perseverance.

I had made a gingerbread house for Michael. He can't come to our family party on Thursday because he is flying home that day. I wanted him to have one, so I got everything ready for him. Then I forgot it. We had taken two cars, so Mike took the kids to the Smiths while I took the HEYBOYS mobile home. I managed to make it back in time, so that was good.

Erica & Maysen

 Preston, Jorja, Erica, Maysen, Stockton

 Cousins! ~ Weston, Michael, Preston, Jorja, Erica, Maysen, Stockton

 With Melissa

 Preston, Weston, Michael, Jorja, Erica, Jacob, Maysen, Stockton

Melissa, Nova

Derek, Melissa, Scoop, Weston, Michael, Jorja, Stockton 

We had my family over for the gingerbread party today. I love these parties, but they are sure exhausting. I'm glad everyone seems to love it too.

 Amy & Stockton

 Jeff

 Abby

 Amelia, Anne's hand, Jeff, Matt & Greg, Lincoln, Preston, Max's back, Grandpa's back, Ella

 Grandpa, Ella, Ange, Amelia, Anne, Amy & Sam, Preston's head

 Ella

 I loved the feet coming out of the chimney

 Amelia, Anne

 Amelia's house

 Anne

 Amelia

 Maysen

 Max's house

 Max

 Bubs

 Bubs & Angela

 Maysen

 Lincoln

 Bubs, Amelia & Angela, Lincoln, Ella, Abigail

My dad brought over the Christmas presents for the kids. The little kids got a stuffed animal. The older kids got BYU Jerusalem t-shirts. I love mine. Now we can all be matching!

Jorja

 Preston (and Bubs)

 Dad

 Dad & Max

 Sam, Greg, Jeff, Matt, Anne

 Preston's house ~ I loved his snowman garland

Jorja had her Christmas dance yesterday. Typically the day after the dance there is a mad dash to ask someone for the next dance. The next date dance isn't until February. That makes the dance almost two months away. Several people got asked last week before the dance. That is so crazy. I'm glad Jorja didn't ask that early. On Friday I asked her if she was going to want to ask anyone on Sunday. She was not. She was adamant about that. I tried talking to her and saying we would need to buy a poster and whatever else she needed if she wanted to ask anyone. Nope. Did not want to do that and did NOT want to talk about it. When we were at Erica's she was talking to her cousins about who she should ask. She had a couple of different people she thought would be fun. Michael was looking at their Instagram accounts and giving his opinion. She didn't make up her mind, or at least let us know what she was thinking. Once we got home, I started getting ready for the gingerbread party. I had lots of frosting to make. Jorja asked if I would make pink frosting. She decided to ask someone tonight. She didn't have a poster, but luckily Madison had one. Jorja decided to ask Conner and became stressed very quickly. She decided to give her gingerbread house to him and seemed panicked to get it there quickly. I was confused because she had plenty of time to do this earlier, why did she not do it then if she wanted to ask tonight. She did not want to talk about it, she just wanted to get it done. Madison was here and helped her. This house is definitely not Jorja's best work, but it got the job done.

Jorja asking Conner to Sweethearts

 Madison & Jorja

Stockton took Jorja and Madison to Conner's house so they could ask him. They dropped it off and Jorja anxiously waited to see if he would post anything on Snapchat. She waited and she waited and she waited. Madison and Jorja came back and got things ready so Madison could ask Collin. Too bad I didn't take a picture of that! She gave him one of Jorja's stuffed monkeys and said something like - No more monkeying around, I'd go bananas if I didn't go to Sweethearts with you. She had her name written on a banana. The problem was they didn't know where Collin lived. Jorja's friend Sydney knew where he lived, so they took them over. They put everything on the porch, but no one ever came to the door. Finally Jorja called him. Turns out they were at the wrong house. They were one street off, so they packed everything up and set it up with him knowing they were coming. That was kind of awkward. While Jorja was doing all this, she was freaking out because Conner hadn't ever posted anything. Finally she asked me if I could drive by and see if the gingerbread house was still there. I took Maysen with me. Jorja was texting me over and over. Things like IM SO NERVOUS. Well, we drove by his house and the gingerbread house was still on his porch. I think it was there for over an hour and a half. Jorja told us to knock, be sneaky please, I'm nervous, ????????. I took Maysen back and she walked by the house to make double sure it was in this time. It was. Soon I started getting more texts from Jorja. He's typing but he didn't post anything so I'm rly scared, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhhh, Aghhhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhhh, I'm scared, I'm embarrassed, What if he got asked, Cnavskdvsodbdk, He posted Yayayayay, Crisis averted. Hahaha. Those all came in while I was driving home.

 Conner's post

Jorja was in a much better mood when we got home. I'm not sure what we were doing, but I think I was dominating Jorja. Oh, I remember, Mike had Jorja put her arms in weird on her shirt and then got her completely stuck. I was trying to get a picture, but she got her sweatshirt off before I could. I then made her pay for my lack of picture.

Jorja & Stephanie