Easter Waterfall

Happy Easter! Preston and Mike made crepes this morning. Preston is stinking adorable. The kids had small Easter baskets and a present from us. The present wasn't well received. We expected that. I have been thinking and thinking about a way to get the cell phones out of the kids rooms at night. The problem is they listen to certain music and audible books on their phones. Jorja used to listen to the Friend every night, but I don't think she does that anymore. Mike came up with a brilliant idea to use Alexia. Mike and Christen gave us Alexia for Christmas. We have had fun playing with her, but knew we weren't using her to her full potential. The idea of having Alexia as an alarm and playing their music was much more appealing then having them continue to use their cell phones. The Alexia Mike and Christen gave us we put in the boys' room. We found an Alexia for a great price to put in Jorja's room. She changed her name to Echo. Preston was surprisingly sad about this. He has been sleeping up in the guest room lately. He listens to video game music at night. Mike found a way for him to continue to listen to video game music, so he is happy again. Half of the time Stockton leaves his phone by his computer, so it is no big deal for him. Jorja on the other hand is a different story, also the reason for this change. I told her that if Maysen had been as social as she was this policy would have happened a long time ago. I don't want to have her friends texting her after I send her to bed. Especially since some of her friends have not been the nicest to her lately. I don't want to worry that my child is getting mean things thrown at them when they should be safe at home. Plus, I read a study somewhere that said kids who sleep with cell phones in their rooms don't sleep as well because subconsciously they are listening for texts, worried they are missing something. I could see that being the case with Jorja. Mike and I got a charging dock for the kids to put their phones in before they go to bed. Hopefully this will be great, even though Jorja will resent it.

After church Mike, Preston and I went on a hike to Mike's favorite place - the Bell Canyon Waterfall. He spent a lot of time here while he was growing up. Stockton and Jorja didn't come. They both had a lot of homework to do. Stockton has been working hours and hours on homework. He has eight pages left of a giant review sheet due on Tuesday. Stockton gave me a compelling argument to stay. Jorja didn't do a great job on her argument. She has an essay due tonight. I hate how teachers can have things due after school. I wanted Jorja to lay out her case like Stockton did, but she didn't understand what I was asking and basically said she would have a horrible attitude if I made her go. Hmmmm. That argument sounds familiar. Maysen used that one a time or two. Jorja started crying and said that her church lesson was on friendship and that made her sad. I let her stay with Stockton and she ended up getting 30 out of 30 on a Utah Compose essay. That's not an easy thing to do. She wrote about kudzu. I asked her if she remembered kudzu from Georgia. She did not. Anyways, at least she did well and we had a great time with Preston.

Preston needed to go on a three mile hike for scouts. They did this on Thursday. They changed the date of scouts and I didn't realize it. Preston's piano teacher had asked if he could move his piano lessons to Thursday that week. If I had known about scouts I wouldn't have done that. We had a great time with Preston, so it worked out just fine. Preston loved taking pictures, so some of these are from him. I tried not to double any pictures, but it got a little confusing taking them from different phones.

Stephanie

 Preston

 Mike & Preston ~ Preston really wanted to find this rock he remembered climbing with Stockton

 Stephanie ~ didn't want to climb that rock

It was a long way up but we made it to the waterfall. We told Preston we could turn back early because we had gone more than three miles, but he wanted to stick it out. It is so pretty up there! We also saw Dan's signs he helped put up last fall. It makes it a lot easier to find the waterfall, especially the last turn. I missed the turn when I went with Maysen. Mike didn't like the signs because he liked the waterfall feeling more like a secret. Later he said that at least with the signs his kids and grandkids can find the waterfall after he is gone.

Mike took Preston to stand next to the waterfall. I felt like I was close enough. Plus I was able to get a few cute pictures of them.

Preston & Mike

 Preston

 Preston

 Preston & Mike

 Stephanie, Preston, Mike

 Stephanie & Preston

Preston was supposed to make trail mix and bring his first aid kit he made in scouts. We sent these pictures to his scout leader.

Preston

Mike loves to drink from the water and to stick his head in the stream. Like father, like son.

Preston

 Mike & Preston

 Preston

Mike and Preston got ahead of me on the way down. I always think down is going to be easier, but my knees hate going down! Preston and Mike were waiting for me on this rock. They wanted to scare me, but I knew they would be here. I know my boys.

Mike & Preston

One of my favorite pictures. I love watching these two together. Preston is so much like Mike. This is right after Preston fell. He did great the entire way, and fell here. Mike asked him if he wanted a piggy back ride to the car, but Preston wanted to walk the entire way. He has grown up! It wasn't too long ago when he wouldn't be able to stop crying over a fall like that.

Mike & Preston

We made it to our car right as the sun was setting. This was the first time Mike has gone on this hike where he hasn't left from his house. It was weird to him, and a bit sad. He is happy that there is still a way to get up to the waterfall though. That would have been really sad if all access had been cut off. My feet are tired. I kept thinking on the hike, "I hope tomorrow isn't leg day." Well, I have now checked. Tomorrow is leg day. Oh boy....

Gregory's Home!

Matt and Sam were able to bring Gregory home today! Matt called and I hurried over with the kids. Mike wasn't able to come because we were feeding the missionaries in an hour and hadn't started dinner. That's okay, I'm sure he'll see him soon.

Stephanie & Gregory

 Gregory

 Gregory & Stockton

 Jorja & Gregory

 Gregory

 Preston & Gregory

My brothers and I were texting back and forth today. Mike sent pictures of his new house, I think I'll save those for another day. John texted a picture of his family having dinner with Brett's family. I think they are at Brett's house, but I'm not positive. How fun to see each other so often. I bet both families are going to miss this when Brett moves.

Cassie, John & Collin, Brandon, Marie, Mallory, Mina, Brett

Grace, Eve, Trevor

Rachel must be taking the picture. Preston went shopping with me today. He is going to make crepes with Mike tomorrow. He wanted to pick out everything. Dinner with the missionaries was delicious. Mike made tacos. We have two sister missionaries. Sister Enderle and Sister Shimizu. Sister Shimizu asked Stockton if he was a diver. Stockton looked down at his shirt to see if he was wearing a diving shirt. Nope. He said yes and asked her how she knew. She had gone to the BYU dive camp a few years ago and recognized Stockton. That's a crazy good memory!

Triangles

I worked most the day on ironing triangles for a blanket I'm making. I can't believe how long that takes? Maybe because I'm using the iron my parents bought me when I went away to college for the first time. That was almost twenty-five years ago. They probably make more powerful irons now. Maybe I should look into that if I want to make Grandma Parry blankets on a regular basis!

Jorja went with Hailey and Allison to Create, which is a delicious dessert place. They came back here when they were finished and played around in the motorhome. I have no idea what they were doing. Hopefully something worthwhile.

Windy!

Jorja had her softball pictures today. Too bad it was incredibly windy! I dropped her off early and then Mike and I came when the game actually started. We sat on a blanket on the first base side. The dirt was blowing into the spot we usually sit at. Jorja played against her friend Areesha. She was on Jorja's softball team the first time Jorja ever played. It was cute hearing Areesha cheering for her. Jorja  got to bat first. She scored both times she was up. Jorja was happy about that. Her coaches are keeping track of who scores the most runs during the season. Whoever scores the most wins a $25 gift card.

Jorja on second

The girl at the end of the batting order had never played before. This is her first season and she rarely comes to practice. She was last because she showed up after the game had already started. She was wearing super short shorts and looked freezing! Anyways, she was on second and Jorja was on first. The coaches would yell at her to run, she would. Then she would freak out and run back, causing Jorja to be out of place. Luckily Jorja never got out because of it. That would have annoyed her! Especially with the contest on the line!

No Clothes

I went to the temple today. I have been trying to go to the temple once a week this year. Mike, Preston and I were playing a game this morning. We hurried to finish, get Preston out the door and then I hurried out as well. I got my session card for 9:30 and was shown to a locker room. It wasn't until I was in the locker room that I realized I had left my temple clothes at home. Whoops! I asked a nice older lady if they rented clothes. She laughed and said, "I was wondering if you just had really big pockets." They don't rent clothes, but they do have some people can borrow. She took me down in the elevator to the laundry. I was able to get everything I needed down there. Crazy, I have been going so often - how could I have forgotten? The person helping me through the veil was Leigh Gunnell. That was cool. I can't remember seeing him since my mom died. I'm sure he was at my brother's weddings though. He was my stake president when I was growing up and was a counselor to my dad in the bishopric when my dad was Bishop.

After the temple I stopped by the hospital to see Sam and Gregory. He is still in the NICU, but his IV has moved to the top of his head. That will stop him from pulling it out! He looked cozy wrapped up in the blanket. My kids loved being wrapped up like that. Sam said she is feeling a lot better today. She was worried about Greg, but the doctor came in and checked on him and said he has improved. He's not breathing as fast for as long as he was before. His oxygen level is normal and they want Sam to try nursing him a couple of times to see how he tolerates that. If he does well, they can take his IV out tomorrow.

Gregory

 Gregory with the blanket Matt & Sam made him

I dropped both of the boys off at the University of Utah for diving. I then went to Kendra's house. She lives right across the street from the capitol. It is awesome! Their view out of their front window is the capitol. Anyways, she was giving a few things away, one of them being a Christmas tree with lights. Mike has wanted a Christmas tree that already has the lights attached for awhile now. I stopped by to pick it up. Worse case, we can give it away. Sharon was at Kendra's house. I talked to Sharon for awhile. She called the Regents people for me, looking for what the actual wording of the law is. She is encouraging me to call my representatives about it. I'm a little nervous, but we'll see. She also talked to me about different scholarships. When Matt Parry went to BYU, in order to be considered for the Hinckley scholarship you had to have a 33 on your ACT. My how times have changed! I bet now you need a 36! Matt got a 31 the first time he took the ACT. When he heard 33 was the magic number he studied and took it again. That was worth his time because he got a 35 and was awarded a Hinckley scholarship. Anyways, it was fun to talk with Sharon. We set up a time to go river rafting with my family on the 4th of July. That should be fun. Hopefully we don't knock Sharon into the water this time!

Maysen was able to register for her classes and she got everything she wanted, including the fiction writing class! Yay! A lot of the classes she registered for are only offered in fall, so it was nice to get them. She will have sixteen credits, four psychology classes and one writing class. Neuroscience sounds the hardest to me. She will also be taking Scientific Thinking, Psychological measurement and Behavioral assessment.

Purple Rain

I watched Jeff this afternoon. We stepped outside to take a walk right as I got a text. Jacqui wanted to know if I wanted to go on a walk with her while she walked her dog. I was excited and said yes. I didn't tell her I had Jeff because I didn't want to change her mind. I wish I had a stroller, but we managed. I also visit teach Jacqui and she has been really hard to get ahold of lately, so this worked out great! Jeff liked it as well. He thought Charlie was fun. We walked to the park and pushed Jeff in the swings and then walked home.

Greg is still in the NICU. Matt and Sam have both been able to hold him for a few minutes, but then he gets too excited and starts breathing super fast again. Sam didn't do well today. She had a horrible headache. She doesn't think it was a migraine, but it hit her so hard she couldn't function. I guess it was good she was in the hospital with nurses watching over Gregory. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.

Jorja started her softball season today. We were a little late for her game (not for the game part, but for the be early part) because I exploded cheese sauce all over the kitchen. I felt like I had to clean that up first. Jorja did great and had such a fun time. She got a nice hit over the second baseman and stole home later. Jorja and Raina switch off catching, so that is wonderful. Jorja loves catching, but it is nice to not kill her legs every game. I named this post Purple Rain because I think that is what the team name is, although Jorja keeps trying to convince them to call themselves 'Jorja'.

Jorja at bat

 Jorja catching

Stockton has been working so hard lately. He stayed after school for an hour and a half to work on physics. I forgot to remind him about Young Mens. Jorja's game was during that time. I asked him if he went. He did. They did yard work. I went to bed before Stockton. He was still doing homework when I went to sleep. Maysen was supposed to register today, we thought. She thought her time was at 11:00 at night. I asked her to text me when it was finished. She texted after 11:00 and said it wasn't working and she thinks her time is for 8:00 tomorrow night. There are only four seats left in the fiction writing class. She tried to get into that class for this semester and wasn't able to. We are really hoping she gets into this one because intermediate fiction is only offered every Spring. She will miss out on that class if she can't get into this one. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! AHHHH!

Gregory Ronald

Matt and Sam had their new baby boy today. Gregory Ronald was born at 8:01 am. He weighs 6 pounds 11 ounces and is 19 inches long. His oxygen and blood sugar were low so he had to stay in the NICU hooked up to machines. He couldn't figure out how to breathe, his chest would be super intended. They ended up switching him to a stronger breathing machine. That made them need to put a tube down his mouth to get air bubbles out. I texted Jackie to ask her how common this is. (My aunt Jackie works in the NICU at Idaho Falls.) She said it happens, he should be fine after a couple days on the machine. Still, it will be nice to see him without wires, and for Matt and Sam to be able to hold him.

Gregory & Matt

 Gregory Ronald ~ 6 lbs. 11 oz. 19 inches

 Gregory & Matt

 Stephanie & Gregory

 Gregory

April Snowstorm

Well, we woke up to a lot of snow! It is heavy, wet snow too. Several branches broke off of our tree out front. Just yesterday Mike commented on how beautiful that tree was. I wish I took pictures of what our yard looked like at the end of the day because all the snow was gone. It was warm and felt like spring. So crazy!

Of course we just set up the batting cage, you can kind of see it in this picture.

Hopefully it's okay. Mike went out and tried to knock all of the snow off of it.

 Outside our bedroom door, where all the limbs from the apple tree trimming are stacked.

 Our poor bushes. They did not take this snow well.

Tentacles

Mike and Preston have been working on these tentacles and they are quite proud of them. One of our favorite games is Day of the Tentacle. So fun!

Jorja has been working on a puzzle for a lot of the break. She likes working on it and watching The Office. She has been binge watching that during this Spring break. I worked on the puzzle for a bit with Jorja during an Office break. She actually talked to me! That doesn't happen very often these days. She talks to me, just not about things that matter to her. Anyway, she is really nervous about going back to school. She's worried about friends. She feels sad that Katlyn doesn't like her anymore. 8th grade is hard! One thing she told me really frustrated me. I am always getting after Jorja about wearing makeup. I want her to look like a fourteen year old. At the same time, I want her to feel comfortable in her own skin. Jorja has very pale skin. It was porcelain looking when she was younger. I loved it! The bad thing about her pale skin is she has circles under her eyes. She is always complaining about them and commenting on how people are always asking if she is tired. Anyway, a few months ago Jorja and Katlyn went to the temple before school to do baptisms. Katlyn doesn't wear much makeup. While Jorja was putting on the makeup under her eyes, Katlyn said, "Oh, I see why you need to wear makeup." GRRRR!!!!!!! That is NOT going to help my case about her not wearing a lot of makeup! I wish Jorja and Katlyn could figure things out. They were so close. It's crazy that things ended so abruptly. At the same time, I'm proud of Jorja for not crawling back into her shell. She has gone out of her comfort zone to try and find more friends. That's good, but she is definitely not looking forward to dealing with this again.

Romeo

It was our last lazy weekday. This Spring break has been great. We have been so lazy. We have played a lot of games. I have loved it! Jorja went to the movies today with her friend Natalie. They saw The Boss Baby. She said she liked it better than she expected to. I saw this funny bag that my friend posted. It made me laugh.

I went with my dad to Garth Kunz viewing today. He is married to Susan who is my mom's cousin. We thought it would be good to go to support mom. Susan has the BRAC gene like mom did. (Her mom, Leah, died of ovarian cancer too.) Susan has had colon cancer four times. Her husband got pancreatic cancer once and it did him in. Cancer stinks.

Grandma Honey ~ 78

I took Stockton and Jorja to do baptisms this morning. Mike works in the baptistry every Thursday, but it is a tight schedule to get the kids there before school. Spring break was a perfect opportunity. Mike took the day off as well, so we had a nice relaxing day at home.

It is Mike's mom's birthday today. Sharen would have been 78 years old. We celebrated by having our trees trimmed. Just kidding, although that would have made Sharen really happy. It looks like our red apple tree was cut in half. The guys spent all day doing the apple and pear tree. They are coming back on Monday to do the green apple tree. I think our neighbors are going to be so happy. The tree hung over the fence and would drop apples into their backyard. They didn't like it, even though the apples are delicious. Hopefully this helps the apple tree last for years and years. Now we just need to get rid of these branches.

Mike and I spent most of the day playing Seafall with Preston. He loves playing games with us. He especially loves games with long, complicated rules. Stockton and Jorja, not so much. We stopped by Sharen's grave and went bowling today. Mike's family used to go bowling all the time. I used Sharen's Snoopy ball. We stopped by KFC on the way home. Another one of Sharen's favorites.

Mike, Jorja, Stockton, Preston

Once we were back, we played Seafall again. We have been letting the kids stay up really late this week. It has so far been such a relaxing, fun Spring break.

Jorja's Haircut

I took Jorja to get a haircut today. There was about an hour wait, so we went to eat and got a ruler for me at JoAnns. We got back a little early and they were able to get us in right away, yay!

Jorja's new haircut

I was a little worried we wouldn't get back in time to take the boys to diving, but it worked out great. Stockton and Preston went to the U for diving. For some reason Preston was upset about this. He said he hates diving at the U. That doesn't make any sense to me. He said the pool was colder than at BYU, I'll have to ask Stockton to see if he thought the same thing. I think Preston just doesn't like change. He was with the same coaches, so it wasn't a big change . . . still . . .

We did have horrible traffic getting home. When the boys were in the locker room changing Mike texted me to let me know that I had Jorja's softball bag in the car. Whoops. She had softball practice. We went straight to her practice to drop off the bag. We ended up being thirty minutes late. Luckily she was using Mike's mitt until we got there. I'll have to remember that in the future.

Stockton in Logan

Stockton and I left early this morning to go to Utah State. I wanted to have him take a tour of the campus. I also wanted to do it when Maysen was there so we could get to see her. When I went on the tour with Maysen just over a year ago we met in the Administrations office at the bottom of the TSC. That is where I headed this time. Except they have now built a new Welcome building, so that is where the tour started. Luckily we were early so no harm done. The tour went really well. We had a great guide. Stockton was glad we got him and not the perky blond girl. I think she took longer. The guide also told us they have diving boards at Utah State. We were not aware of this. They don't have any diving classes, and they don't have a diving team, so we just assumed they didn't have any diving. The guide said there is a diving club at Utah State and that they have a 1 and 3 meter, he wasn't sure about the platform. I hope he is right about this. I have no idea if Stockton will pick Utah State, but if he did it would be nice if he could play around in a pool!

I talked to the administration people after the tour. It is now harder to get the scholarship Maysen received. Luckily Stockton has a 33 on his ACT, so it pushes him into the highest category. We just don't know if that is going to be the same index they use next year. Although it went up a lot last year, so hopefully it will stay the same this one. I asked about deferring in order to go on a mission. I was curious if Stockton would need to pick his school before he left in order to receive scholarships. They said that he would accept admittance, accept the scholarship, defer and then he can decide when he gets back. That is good to know. It will be nice to have choices when he gets back rather than pick where he wants to go in two years.

Stockton and I met Maysen in the TSC for lunch. I wish I had gotten a picture of the two of them. It made me laugh when I read the same thing on Maysen's blog. I loved watching the two of them laugh together. I love how my kids get along so well with each other. After lunch we took Maysen to Lowes to pick up samples for her interior design class. She has not enjoyed this class, but at least it takes care of her art credit. She had high hopes for this one, but it hasn't been what she thought it would be. I think it is too subjective for her. She wanted to know how different colors effect moods and things like that. Not this looks good and this does not. She has a hard time picking out which looks good. Most the time she has a different opinion than her teacher. Anyway, it was nice we were able to drive her to a store so she could get samples for her next project. 

Stockton and I had free ice cream coupons from the tour. Free scoop of Aggie ice cream. How can you pass that up? Maysen didn't have time to go with us, so we dropped her off for her abnormal psychology class before we picked up her ice-cream. We ate it on the drive home. Except Stockton fell asleep and his ice-cream started to melt. Don't worry, I was a hero and ate it for him. I'm nice like that.

Spring Break!

Today was our first day of Spring Break! Yay! We aren't going anywhere for a couple of reasons. One, no funds. Two, Mike is involved in a huge project at work that needs to be finished by the end of April. The kids weren't too disappointed that we are staying home. They are quite excited about it. I spent the first day doing laundry. Stockton did a lot of homework. Mostly physics and US History. It would be really hard for him to get all of his work done if we weren't staying home. Jorja went to the mall with Hailey and Preston worked on his computer most of the day. I'm not sure what he was working on, but he was quite happy and busy the entire day.

Stockton had diving. It was just dry land up at BYU. He drove himself, so that was really nice for me. When he has school, he can't get up there fast enough without me driving him. Also, he can't park for the first hour. Drylands started an hour later, so no problem there. They are only going to get in the pool once this week, on Wednesday. The rest of the month we will be going to the U on Monday and Wednesday. Preston will just go on Wednesday. I have some credits from classes they cancelled at Christmas time. I asked if I could just use those for Preston. They said yes, so I'm happy about that. It will be nice to have diving a little closer for awhile.

So...Much...Food

We finished watching conference today. I am always sad when conference is over. I just love it. Hopefully I can watch it all again this week. I worked on a cross stitch of Christ I have had for years during conference. My eyes sure aren't as good as they used to be. It is getting harder and harder for me to see the squares.

My family came over after conference. I wish all my brothers were there. We had so much food! My dad made waffles and scones. Mike made omelets and crepes. I made two pans of the peach, croissant things, Sam brought cinnamon rolls and donut holes. W-O-W. I ate so much. I haven't eaten like that in a long time, and I felt kind of sick when I went to bed. Oh well.....

My dad is having eye surgery on one of his eyes tomorrow. If that goes well, he will have surgery on his other eye. Hopefully he won't need to wear contacts after this. My dad has horrible eye site. That would be amazing if it works. It would also give Brett hope - his eye site is like my dad's! Bubs and Matt gave my dad a blessing. They were sneaky about it and I ended up missing it. At least it got done. Gayle came over as well. It was a nice, delicious day.

Collin Conference

I absolutely love General Conference. I love listening to the messages. I love relaxing and working on a project while we listen. I love that my entire family watches all the sessions if they possibly can. Jorja had to miss the first session. She had softball practice. The pitchers and catchers went early. That meant Jorja started at 9:30. I picked her up after the first session. We stopped by Harmon's on the way home and picked up a few more treats.

I finished Collin's stocking during the afternoon session. I am so excited to have it finally done! I was procrastinating doing the cording, but it wasn't so bad once I started. I think the stocking turned out great!

I watched the priesthood session with Mike and Stockton. We were all surprised that it only lasted about an hour. Mike and I went to the store to pick up food for tomorrow's dinner. My dad wanted to do breakfast for dinner. Mike and I are in charge of omelets, crepes and some kind of breakfast casserole. I picked a peach, croissant casserole. While Mike and I were at the store a foreign lady that didn't speak English very well stopped us and asked if we could help her. Of course I said yes. She said that she needed us to pay for her food. I was confused as to what was going on. I had a few dollars in my pocket and tried to give them to her. She said she didn't need money, she needed someone to pay for her food. I wasn't sure what to do. We had just watched conference and I want to help people who are less fortunate. At the same time, Mike and I are super tight on money right now. We have been wondering how we are going to pay our bills this month and talking about needed to take out more on our loan, which we don't want to do. We have several huge bills coming up, so it is quite scary. Anyways, it didn't look like that lady had too many things, I thought it would be about $50, which is a lot of money right now for us, but I agreed. I walked with her to the cash register silently wondering what I was doing and hoping she truly needed the money. In Georgia there are people that do this thing all the time and that is what they do for a living, just get people to pay for their food. I knew this, still I wasn't sure what to do. I was stunned when the bill came to $130. Still, I put in my card and paid for this random lady's food. I felt like sitting down in the middle of the isle and crying. I know people have it worse off than me, but I would much rather pay for one of my brother's grocery bill than someone I don't even know. I wish I knew if she needed it or if I was just scammed. Next time I will say that I can pay for one can of formula, but not for their entire bill. I'm not even sure how it exactly happened. I guess people can tell I'm a sucker from a mile away. I was just so shocked about the entire thing I wasn't sure what to do. I wish I knew it was going to be $130 from the beginning, because I knew we couldn't afford that. Hopefully something will work out. Anytime money has been tight in our marriage, it eventually gets better. The cabin has had more bills than we anticipated so it feels like we have just been holding on for quite awhile. I'm sure it will get better, but we might have to take out some more on our loan. I probably shouldn't have bought a ticket to Virginia. At least I found it for $160 round trip, which is only $30 more than I paid for a random lady's groceries!