Junior Prom...

Derrek and Alec had Junior Prom last night (I think I already blogged about how they asked the girls). The funny thing is that the girls never replied, "yes", but they were heavily involved in the colors of the boys vests and ties so that they would match the girls without the girls giving away what their dresses looked like. They wanted to keep it a secret. We went to pick up the Tuxedos and you would think the boys were the girls! They were saying things like "oh, that is a great color", "that is so SICK!" and when trying them on, said things like "I feel rich" and "this is Saawhheeet!". It was pretty funny. The boys were so excited to go pick out flowers for the girls and had opinions about how they wanted them to look. This is not normal for them to care so much (Alec especially!).

The left around 7:30 am to pick everyone up for the "day date" part of Prom. They decided to go sledding up Cedar Canyon. Derrek said that it was hard snow (ice) and that sledding was fun, but a girl jarred herself pretty good (she slept all the way home). They treated the girls to McDonalds, and Derrek and Alec spent $6 each for them and their dates...big spenders! They gave the girls enough time to get ready and left again around 6 pm. My parents played host and as you see below went all out! They dressed in their waiter outfits and used the good china. They first took the kid's pictures downstairs, and then they had made steaks and potatoes and veggies and poured the Martinelli's. They all really enjoyed the whole experience overlooking the city at my parent's house. I am happy that my boys were able to have that experience with their grandparents. What a great memory.

They went to the dance for awhile and then went back to Nana's house to watch a movie and have dessert (Ashton made the dessert, but it didn't set in time for them to have it before the dance).

The boys ended the evening and walked in the door right at curfew (Midnight) and Alec was basically sleep walking and went straight to bed and Derrek filled me in on the detail (well, as detail as boys get!).

Today they wore the tuxedos to church (swapping out the black shirts for their white shirts), and they looked REALLY handsome! They walked a little taller too. It's amazing how dressing really nice makes you act different. Derrek said that his date (Kaley) wore her dress to church and it was a little girl's birthday and she loves "Belle" and it made the girl's day seeing "Belle". Kaley was even nice enough to play the part for the little girl. Now the little girl is going to forever think that Belle is Mormon! Why not?!?

Today, though, both Calvin and Alec are mad at Scott and me. They just found out that we gave Derrek the choice to stay here for his Senior year and live with his best friend's family. They feel they want to stay and don't understand why "Derrek gets to have everything!" (that's Calvin's biggest complaint because he feels he needs a cell phone because that is the only way to stay in contact with his friends and that he is mature and old enough and the list of reasons why go on and on!). I swear you can't prepare enough as a mom for things like this. All during Sacrament meeting I played psychologist trying to help Calvin and Alec understand why Derrek gets this opportunity and they don't. UGH! I am pretty sure we will be having this conversation for a very long time. Does anyone have any suggestions on how Calvin can stay in contact with his friends without a cell phone? I suggested e-mailing, but he said that no one uses e-mail anymore (which is sort of true because my kids really don't check theirs anymore). Anyway, any suggestions would be great. I am out of ideas! I am not sure I want to open the door of Facebook. That makes me more nervous than a cell phone or an iTouch (which is his other argument). Alec is just mad at the whole situation. He is vocal sometimes, but then shuts down and that's when he is mean to everyone. It's just been hard for everyone, especially as time only takes us closer to moving.

No slowing down!

I can't believe that January is already 1/2 over! This week has been a little crazy because Scott started school at Dixie State College. He is taking 20 credit hours, but thankfully was able to test out of one class (he made an A-) and now he ONLY has 17 credit hours. He was also trying to finish his on-line class, and had that final on Thursday! He made an A in that class, also. Monday is a holiday, and so he is glad to be able to have a day to catch up on reading and regroup for the next week.

Derrek went to Dixie High School's Preference Dance with a girl from another ward (Shaylee Johnson) that he texts ALL the time. She's a vivacious and cute girl and Derrek really likes being around her...we just have to make sure there are other girls in between interactions! He's good, though, and very much a gentleman (which is why I think she is head over heals for him). I don't have any pictures, yet, but he said they (there were four couples in the group) went up to Pine Valley and hung out at a cabin up there and then came back and got ready for the dance. They went to Pizza Factory for dinner and that made Derrek happy. Then they went to the dance for a little while (it's not cool to go for the whole thing, I guess), and then to one of the girl's houses to watch a movie.

This next weekend, he and Alec are taking girls to Junior Prom. Alec actually wanted to ask a girl, and she is the Junior and he is the Sophomore, but the girl was just happy to be asked, and I seriously am shocked that Alec wanted to. It is so out of character for him, but it was fun to see. Derrek asked the girl he is going with (Kailey) by getting fake rose petals and throwing them all over her room and putting them in weird places and having the letters of his name written on some of them and she had to find them and unscramble the name. Then he topped it all off with silly string everywhere her mom would allow :). Alec asked his (Haley) by getting a t-shirt and with permanent marker writing "Wash this to see who you will go to Prom with? Will you go with...?" and then also in permanent marker he wrote the letters of his name in random places on the shirt. Then with washable markers he wrote alphabet letters everywhere else. She had to wash the shirt and see the letters that were left and unscramble the letters of the name. It was fun to help him with that one. Anyway, the girls haven't replied, but they have already told the boys that they have to go with them to pick out the color of their ties to match the girls' dresses. It will be a fun memory.

Scott and I got to go to Vegas on Friday to see our old friends and have a game night. It was really fun and we can't believe it's been 7 years since we left there, but these friends are great and it feels like we haven't missed any moments with them (just our kids look different!). While we were there, I went into Williams and Sinoma and found these Star Wars pancake molds. So, we tried them out. They also had the Star Wars ships and farm animals. I just had to show how fun they were...

Ashton is giving his first talk in Sacrament meeting today. He was very nervous until he finished preparing his talk and then he calmed down about it. It was a great teaching experience for me. I was able to teach about enlisting the Lord's help and how doing something like this feels like we are pulling a bag of bricks on our own, but isn't it better to have someone's help? We talked about prayer and how that helps us to ask the Lord for help and then he is able to help us pull that bag of bricks and it doesn't seem so heavy anymore. He experienced it first hand and it was a great experience. I think the Lord blesses instantly in teaching moments like that so that our children can experience right away the effects of prayer and start to grow their testimony of the power of it. I love those moments of being a mom.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. We certainly did! The week of Christmas was good. It rained most of the week and so by Christmas the kids were going crazy. I had actually told them they should go have a mud fight or something...just to get them out of the house! The kids were out of school and it is always an adjustment being home all together all day, but they did fairly well. It rained so much here that all the rivers were pushed to their limits. This is the river right by our house and the tunnel is for the walking trail that is right next to it. Needless to say, there was no trail for a few days.

We had our annual wii bowling tournament. Calvin was freaking out because his first round was against Uncle Chad and Grandpa (I think Chad won it last year). He just thought he didn't have a chance, but he gave it his all, and won that round! It ended up being Derrek and Calvin in the finals. They were both bowling over 220 each game, where most of us were glad to get to 150! Derrek ended up beating Calvin. Calvin was bummed, but still a good sport. We had breakfast too with all the Steurer's and I enjoyed that. Dallen (10), Brooke (10), and Olivia (9) made the menu and cooked it all (with help from Uncle Chad with the bacon!). They did an awesome job to feed ALL of us!

We had Christmas Eve over at Kent & Amy's house and had a little program that all of us participated in. Lots of music and singing and food. It was perfect. I am pretty sure that was the first time the boys had ever done the reinactment of the Savior's birth. Derrek played "O Holy Night" on his guitar and Chris accompanied him. It was beautiful.

Derrek and Emma were Joseph and Mary. Dan, Alec, and Calvin were Shephards. Ashton, Dallen and Ben were Wise Men. And last but not least...Brad and Gabbie were Angels. Gabbie doing her part in this picture :).

Scott loved being "Santa" for the ward. Ward members would drop, mostly money, off to Scott and then a few hours later he would sneak out the door and go deliver it to the family they wanted to help. It was amazing to see how many people wanted to help, they even ding-dong ditched us a few times. We are very grateful for their generosity. At first when Scott would go on his little adventures, we'd say "where did dad go?" and by the end of the week, we just knew. We have a wonderful ward.

Christmas day was relaxing. We woke up around 7:00, but wanted to wait for Jose and we told him we would be opening presents around 8 or 8:30. So, we waited until 8:30 and started. He wasn't here yet, but he came shortly after that. It worked out perfect because we were able to open cousin gifts and there was a family in our ward that wanted to buy the boys hoodies, and so they opened those. I don't think Ashton has take his off yet! It is nice that the boys don't expect much and so what little we were able to do, they were grateful, and that makes us happy. The dogs were happy too, with their candy cane bones (Shep was a little possessive of both his and Angel's) and their stuffed animals.We had aebleskievers and then went to my mom and dad's so the boys could open their presents. My parents replaced our trampoline mat for the boys. They were so happy. Alec kept saying "can we go home now and put this up?" They have been on it constantly, even in this freezing cold weather (two days ago the high was 30 degrees!). Christmas day, Alec wanted to use his new fishing lures he got from his cousin, Audrey, and so he and Dallen went one afternoon. A little while later, we get a phone call from Dallen (thank goodness someone else was fishing and had a phone!) saying Alec had a hook in his finger and it was pretty bad. So, Scott went and got him and this is what we found...

Scott tried seeing if instacare was open, but it wasn't and we didn't want to pay for the emergency room and so Alec had to be brave and let Scott get it out. There was screaming involved, but it wasn't long and all is well. Good memory, though. I am sure it's not his last...it definitely wasn't his first!

Yesterday we went sledding (or tried to) up Cedar Mountain. There is a park there and it has an amazing hill. We could only stay for a couple hours because we wouldn't have been able to get out (we didn't have chains or anything for the tires and it was starting to ice up again!). It was super powdery and so we had to make our own sledding trails.The boys were making ramps, too. Alec spent most of his time digging out an ice cave, preparing for next weekend's Klondike campout (brrrr!). There were some families there already, but they hadn't gone up as far as the boys wanted to go. Scott and I went down a couple of times and it was really fun. Good thing Scott and I wore layers, because before the last hour we were there, Dallen, Ashton, and Calvin were frozen. Dallen and Ashton had horrible shoes and Ashton kept loosing his in the snow because he didn't tie them tight. Their feet were frozen. Calvin had on jeans and they were soaked through and through. He was frozen. So, I gave Dallen and Ashton my two pairs of really thick socks, wrapped their feet in plastic and then gave Dallen my shoes (we almost wear the same size!). That got them back on their way. I gave Calvin my sweats and Scott gave Calvin his snow pants and boots and we sent him back on his way. So, Scott and I were down to one pair of pants, me with no socks, and both with no shoes! But, the kids were having fun and that is why we were there. After about an hour, it started getting crowded and the cars were piling up and it was looking like we were not going to get out of their if we didn't leave then, so we did. It was a fun trip.

Scott is half way through his first class. It is a month long, and cramming a three credit, online class into a month is a lot of reading and dedication. He has found what works for him best and is really enjoying the challenge. He'll start Dixie State in a couple of weeks and he's hoping it is balanced enough since he's taking 20 credit hours (the max). Then, we will be moving to Mesa, Arizona where he can finish the rest during the summer and then apply for the Fall Mortuary Science program. The boys are not excited that we are moving, but we felt that we needed to make a decision now so that they could have time to process the idea. It is never easy, and especially since we have three that are in high school. Derrek will be a senior next year and knew that he would be taking this the hardest. He has been really good about it, but there are days, as expected, that reality hits and he is really sad. Alec and Calvin keep spatting "we're not moving" and have silly plans of sabatoging the move. Calvin wants to keep in contact with his friends and is determined that the only way to do that is to have a phone so he can text them. Except for the fact that Derrek just barely has been allowed to have a phone and even then, he is really addicted to it (19,000 text last month! That's rediculous!!!). Anyway, we are working on a good senerio. We thought about facebook, but even that scares us. I think I'd rather he had a cell phone. Dallen said he didn't care because his best friend already moved and there was no one else here that he was sad to leave (as far as friends go). Ashton said he's both sad and glad. But, as soon as we thought about Mesa, things just lined up and we knew that is where we needed to go. So, in June, we'll be heading South.