Happy Birthday Beautiful Allison

Allison got to celebrate her birthday with Dad on the computer and Ammon and Allison came and joined us here at the house.

She got lots of fun gifts when she thought she was getting nothing cuz her mom is so tricky.

She enjoyed getting a jewelry box and lots of jewelry to put in it.

After dinner we had a yummy cake.

With lots of wonderful people around to celebrate Allison Mylinda Stone.

Allison is such a joy to have in our family. She is a wonderful sister and a fabulous helper to her Mama. I don't know how I'de get through the day without her. She is a very good independant worker which is really a blessing for a homeschooler and her teacher. She is very friendly and loves to get to know poeple and make them happy wherever she goes. We love her and are so thankful to have such a wonderful and beautiful person in our family.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving in Farmington was really wonderful this year. I'm going to let the pictures tell the story.
Pre-Feast Fun

Daniel being his cute self

Brittany holding her little cousin Ella

Michael

Hans with cousin Ammston

Catherine

Aunnika

Allison with cousin Katry

A whole heap of family

The Feast Preperation

Yes there really were 29 pies!!

Enjoying the Feast

Post-Feast Fun

The kids created a rock band for our viewing and listening entertainment

A big game of jump rope (sort of)

Hans with cousin Ammston

Super cute Daniel

Another cousin heap

November 23, 2008

Hello there from Stuttgart. Just wanted to share a few photos from a France trip. This is a typical pottery store in Soufflemheim, France - just over the border from Germany.

It was one of the more expensive places but had some very nice hand made and hand painted pottery.

Across the Street was this good looking window full of pastries. I will add a couple more shots of these below. Included in them are a couple of renditions of the local pottery paterns in chocolate - stop drooling on the keyboard!

Soufflemheim was not to be outdone by the story book town of Wissembourg below. It is the sight of a town frought border changes. It was built in the 11th to 13th century as a fortress surrounding a Monestary type facility for church clerics and bishops. It changed hands several times and has an amazing history. These two shots are from the little river that runs through town. Germans still work the grape vineyards on the hills above town now so you have German wine made from French grapes.

These pictures show some of the old timber homes and the huge cathedral style church in the background

I think they would make a nice picture book entry. Even though it looks nice and sunny in the pictures it was a balmy 25 degress with 20mph winds - just perfectttttt riiiight?

As we went on through town we ran across this beautiful house below. It was the best looking one we saw but very typical of most of the structures there.

Well, I will share some more pictures over time. This is my first attempt at posting to this blog thing as Myna has been posting my comments for me. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will share more pictures from Lauscha Germany and a glass blowing factory along with scenes from Innsbruk, Austria next Sunday.

May the Lord continue to bless you and please know that one of the blessing I value most is the wonderful circle of family and friends that I enjoy! Mike

All is well, all is well.

I realize these are a little late but they were on my phone (I forgot my camera) and I am not the most brilliant with my phone but slowly getting better. so anyway, here are my cute kids at the ward Fall Fest.
Aunnika was a silly clown. The silly is the real her, the clown is the costume.

Hans was a super cute cowboy Woodey

Michael was a crazy soccer player. The mohawk was very fun for him. He hasn't let me cut the top of his hair for several months. He wants to be able to make it stick up or slick back and here he demonstrates that it does that just fine.

Brittany is Pippy Longstocking (obviously) The hair was so fun, she wore it to school that way on Halloween and was quite a hit. No literally! She hit lots of people with those way long, sticken out brades.

Catherine is our USA cheerleader. We love the USA. Still, even now, even after and during all the new garbage and developments, we love our country.

Now this little Pooh bear was so cute and cuddly. Oh, Daniel is such a lovable little guy!

Princess Allison. This is a fitting costume for her. She is such a princess and wonderful good help to me. It's a blessing to have her home with me all day.

This is not Halloween. Michael at his soccer party receiving his gift from his coach. Love the team.

Well I think this was the most “normal” week we’ve had in a very long time. The only extra thing that I can think of was when Ammon and Allison came on Tuesday to help work on the kitchen. We got the base cabinets permanently installed, the shelves in the pantry (and everything on them) and some sheet rock up on a very messed up wall. That is the progress report for the kitchen this week. Otherwise, we had school, dance, basketball, piano, some homework and tests and pretty much the usual. It was pretty cold and even snowed this week so we were indoors a lot. That made for a fairly crazy time but we mostly got the messes cleaned up.
Mike got to spend last weekend with friends in Germany where we used to live and reports having had a very good time. He was also trying to pick of a few things for me that we were unable to get while we lived there and met with success on that as well. He has been very busy at work and even staying late etc to fill time. He is doing some substitute teaching for the early morning seminary class this next week so went and got to know some of them and how things work there a couple days as well.
We are really doing well and are so thankful for the extra blessings of the Lord at this tough time of being apart. I really do see the Lord blessing us in so many varied ways right now with blessings big and small. I’m so so so looking forward to Thanksgiving with family. It looks like the weather will be good so we’re planning on a good week in Utah!
May god bless you all. Know that we are thankful for each of you and the blessing you are in our lives.
M&M Stone family

Here we are almost mid November (well kinda) and I’m so very glad. I’m glad this week is over, I’m glad the pantry is ripped out and almost rebuilt, I’m glad stake conference is over and won’t occur again while Mike is gone (even though it was a very good mtg. It was just stinkin’ hard to keep the kids quiet and relatively still for 2 HOURS!!) and I’m glad Ammon and Allison are living here and doing so much to help me. I’m playing the Polyana game cuz I’ve been bad today and had a bad attitude.
This week has again been really busy and I think I’ve spent every spare moment on the kitchen remodel project. Thursday, Ammon and Allison were here from early till way after dark. Bless them for doing so much on my kitchen. They were back again on Saturday and again we got a fair bit done. It’s been a lot of fun, this crazy remodeling project. But I think I want my kitchen back in order so I can find things and don’t feel like I live in a disaster at all times. It’s interesting to me that when this main room of the house is in such disarray, I feel like the rest of the house might as well go to pot too.
We have had some more normal events as well this week. Michael had a B-ball game on Saturday and while they got beat (to a pulp) he played very well and scored all the points on his team. Our Halloween candy is gone and I’m so thrilled. We are all healthy, Mike is doing well in Germany, the girls all love dance and are doing good with that as far as I can tell.
We had a mouse in the basement that I saw on Friday night so on Saturday we cleaned the storage room extra well and vacuumed and all that and I set some traps. Nothing in the traps yet and no sign of mice anywhere since Friday night so we’re praying it was a rogue and that we really don’t have a mouse problem.
Well I think my brain is fried and so I’m just bouncing around from topic to topic. I am thankful for my friends and family and even the country we live in even if they are so very foolish to have elected a jerk for president. I’m sure the Lords will has been done and we must do all we can to live righteous lives regardless of where the rest of our country and the world are going.
This is a quote from the first presidency message from the Ensign of April 1942. “We again warn our people in America of the constantly increasing threat against our inspired Constitution and our free institutions set up under it. The same political tenets and philosophies that have brought war and terror in other parts of the world are at work amongst us in America. The proponents thereof are seeking to undermine our own form of government and to set up instead one of the forms of dictatorships now flourishing in other lands. These revolutionists are using a technique that is as old as the human race—a fervid but false solicitude for the unfortunate over whom they thus gain mastery and then enslave them.” And there is more to the quote but that was the thought I was having and wanted to share.
So anyway, was that election just this week? Wow it seems so long ago. I don’t think I’m making sense anymore so good night everyone. Love from Colorado.
Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I almost forgot. We also had Daniel’s second birthday this week. It was fun and he was adorable as usual.

Allison made some way fancy pancakes for election day!

Ammon and Allison got to join us to celebrate Daniels Birthday.

The mega demolition of the pantry begins.

Halaluja for November!

This weeks installment is a combined effort with Mike's comments in black and Mylinda's in red. Typing is pretty tough with this dumb brace on my arm so most of it will be in black.
Hello from the Stones and Stein! Hope this week finds you all happy and well. We are enjoying the fun of extreme kitchen make over coupled with the start of basketball season and the end of the soccer season at the Stone house. Ammon and Allison have been graciously working with Myna on the kitchen these past several days and we have some beautiful new cabinets mostly in place. Next on the list is the demise and reconstruction of the pantry and movement of the fridge and a few other items.


Well, some people might like this but I thought the cabinets were hideous so here are the before pictures and in a few weeks I'll post the after. I must say, I'm LOVIN' it so far!

The boys had a great time playing on a trampoline covered with leaves.

Michael's latest clay creation. All the kids decided this was their favorite pass time this week.

Gutting and carving pumpkins is always great fun. Due to a wrist injury, the kids were on their own this year and they did a terrific job.

The family found some time to have some fun this week as well. Amidst the normal fray of school each day, dance lessons, basketball practice and piano there was time to carve pumpkins and attend the ward chili cook off slash harvest party. There was fun had by all as they enjoyed chili and the very torturous "brownie tasting". The kids had some fun with booths and then the looting of cars - I mean trunk or treating of course - of all of their candy. Later in the week there was some amazing pumpkin carving art that the kids did on their own. Myna has tendinitis in her wrist so the kids did their own carving of necessity. I don't know exactly how I injured it but it's making life a bit difficult! I'm just glad I just have a removable brace and not a cast. I can still give baths and change diapers and do dishes etc. etc. Everyone came through the affair with 10 fingers and some very nice pumpkins.

The week culminated with a trick or treating run through the neighborhood courtesy of our backyard neighbors. The kids were so so cute and since most of our neighborhood is older people they were pretty popular and invited in and asked to come back. Then Myna and the kids had a fun chicken soup dinner with them. What a wonderful blessing these neighbors are for us. Michael had a great basketball game on Saturday. He scored more than 60% of the points and was key in preventing the other team from scoring any. And everyone enjoyed a little extra sleep with the time change for the weekend.

All in all it has been another great week of life in the Stone and Stein locations. Mike is very busy solving problems in EUCOM but still unable to compare with the work Myna is maintaining at home. We are very grateful to you all for your faith and prayers. In particular we are grateful to Ammon and Allison for the enormous amount of help in the kitchen and every where else too!

We love all of you and will share more soon. May God bless you. We will be joining all you in praying for the Lord's hand to be manifest in the outcome of the upcoming election as well - although that may well mean that this country face the consequences for the evils of our day. Thank you all for your love and prayers on our behalf as well.

The Stones