Ben's Braces...AGAIN.

Well, let's hope this is the last time.  Although when we were at Mason's he noticed one of his top teeth has started to turn.  I was FURIOUS!  That little turd has not been wearing his top retainer!  I asked him if her wanted another full set of braces and he said no but he will have to get them if he doesn't get serious about this.  Shayne wears hers faithfully every night and her teeth are perfect.  I hope and pray that Sophie is wearing hers.  Josh needs to be more vigilant about wearing his too.  I paid WAAYYYYY to much for them to just go, "oh well."

Anyway, Ben got his bottom braces off on November 28th.  This is his 4th set of braces.  Ben's mouth was so jacked up when we first started this journey. Let me give you a little history on Ben.  When he was young he had about 5 fillings.  Horrible, I know.  But, when he was about 5 he decided to pick them all out.  It was about the time that Shayne had her braces and the orthodontist gave her one of those cool mirrors that you put in your mouth so you can see all your teeth.  Well, he used it and thought that all the silver shiny things were dirt.  So, out them came.  It must have hurt.  I don't know how it couldn't.  But, when he was done he happily came and showed me what he had done.  This was also the time that Mason had just finished dental school and moved back home to open his dentistry.  Mason was able to get some good practice on Ben and they became fast friends since they spent so much time together at the office.  Ben had an extra baby tooth when he was little that had to be removed when he was about 2.  Then when he was 8 we found an extra permanent tooth!  Really?!  So Mason had to remove it too.  Mason is a saint! Here is my blog about it...https://pennybs2cents.blogspot.com/2012/08/braces-kid-3.html and then his first set of braces are here...https://pennybs2cents.blogspot.com/2012/08/so-starts-next-2-years-of-his-life.html  That was in August of 2012. 
This is his first x-ray and it shows how badly he is in need of braces.  Clearly this is not for cosmetic reasons.  

Well, since then he has had  2 sets of braces, and Bottoms only.  This last adventure was because his permanent retainer on the bottom broke.  It seems that his teeth have a memory of where they were and they want to go back to that position.  Hench the top tooth starting to move.  So they tried to straighten his bottom ones out with a new retainer that he was supposed to wear all the time but it didn't' work.  So here we went again with braces.  But, luckily he only had them on for about 6 months.  They ended up putting a thicker wire on this time in hopes to keep it where it is supposed to be.  So his very last x-ray look like this...HUGE difference.  Next adventure, getting rid of those ginormous wisdom teeth!

As we left the Orthodontist appointment they gave Ben a jar full of candy that he hasn't been able to eat in years and balloons.  They gave me a copy of all of his before and after picture's.  It was interesting to see not only how he has grown, but the progression of his smile.   

 Here are the picture's in order.   #1 Before braces.

 After, they look pretty good.  Especially from where he was.

 #3 second set after more adult teeth came in and crowded them all up again. 

 #4 After a year.  We thought we were completely done.  They were PERFECT!

 #5  Broken bottom retainer and shifting teeth.  Had to get bottoms back on.

 #6 Done!  Hopefully forever.  You can see that the top tooth just right of his middle tooth has turned a little.  That is the exact spot where his extra permanent tooth was and where all this trouble started!!!  The most interesting part was to see how much longer his neck was from only 6 months earlier.  It's no wonder his church pants were floods.

 This is Charissa Thurston.  We just love her.  She is such a fun person and Ben likes going to the ortho because of it.  She and I have kids all the same age.  Her daughter Tatum, who went to school with Sophie, is getting married soon.  Picture time!

 My all-time favorite sign. 

Now I have threatened his very life if he doesn't he doesn't wear his retainer.  It is about 10:30pm as I write this and I just stopped and went to check on Josh to see if he had put his retainer in before he went to bed.  Guess what?  HE CAN'T FIND IT!!!  What the crap!  So, now he is grounded until his room is clean and the retainer is found.  What is the deal with these boys!!!   I just can't with them right now.  Hahaha!

Our Limo Adventure

Brad came up Saturday night and informed us that he was in the middle of buying a Limousine from some guy up in Ogden.  ????   Yeah, that's what we thought.  But he told us that it was a Tuacahn thing and we understood.  They're crazy.  He told us that he was going to chop the top off of it and build a float on top.  Yep.  That's Brad.  Always has his creative juices flowing.  So once he got a hold of the guy, Joel and I took him up there.  Ogden itself is sketchy but this limo was in a storage facility that was in the middle of nowhere.  It was scary.  We were Brad's back up if anything were to go down.  Hahaha.  I could probably do more damage than either Brad or Joel.  But the guy turned out to be really nice and bent over backwards to help Brad out.  He was fixing it up as we drove in.  He said that it drove nice but needed a new steering column and that he had bought one and it was in the back seat.  Sure enough, I opened the back doors and there it was laying on the ground.  The interior of this 1980's beast was Blue Plush.  The exterior was WHITE!  Oh man it was posh.  So, Brad did all the paper work and then we were off.  We got back on the freeway and the limo died 1 mile down the road.  ONE MILE!  It was hilarious!   The guy had to jump start it once while we were there and the gas tank said that it had a 1/4 of a tank, which Brad assumed he could get to Lehi on.  He was wrong.  Brad called the guy and he ran to the gas station, got 5 gallons of gas and then came out to save us.  After he put it in, it started right up.  Then he said to follow him to Auto Zone and he'd buy a new battery.  So we did.   Brad never has another problem with it.  It was crazy! 

 When we got home the kids went wild!  They were so excited.  Brad took Ben, Josh Emily and George back to St. George in it.  Shayne said that Brad look just like a limo driver with that mustache.

We pulled off on Exit 13 so we could get our kids and Brad wouldn't have to drive that thing through all of our neighborhoods.  Not that the kids didn't want him too, it was just faster that way so we could all get home.  This will definitely be a memory that the kids will never forget!

Abby's Farewell - Have fun in Baton Rouge!

First and foremost, we knew that grandpa was there in spirit because when we pulled up Brad was able to get the very first parking spot!  He couldn't have gotten closer without a handicapped sticker.  Abby gave a great talk that you can read on her mission blog: 18monthsofpreachin

 Afterward we had a great luncheon and this is the cake Jan made.  It's so darling!

 Brad, Ashley and the kids came up the night before for the farewell.  So we were only missing Gpa, Gma and the Texas Sheltons.  That's pretty good. 

Abby goes into the Provo MTC in Wednesday November 29th.  She will be incredible!

We tried to get a good picture with her but couldn't.  Joel kept on yelling at Ben to hurry up and get over here and we couldn't find David.

Then once Ben actually showed up, JoEllen and Corey had to photo bomb us and Melissa's finger got in the way.  Sounds about right.  It's us. 

Good Luck Abby!  We are so excited for you!  What an adventure you are going to have!

Miles Baptism

Andy posted these great picture's for us of Miles Baptism since we all couldn't be there.  It looks like the had a wonderful time. 

 

 While my parents were there they did a lot of fun things.  Like go see the movie Coco.  It's the new Disney movie that is about learning and respecting your ancestors that have come before you.  It helps kids know that they are who they are because of them.  An article int he news paper said that, "it will turn the hearts of the children to their fathers."  I'm excited to see it.  Everyone says it's incredible.  Andy Hunsaker said it was the best movie of the year.

 

They also went to a tree lighting.

 They have had a great time visiting the Texas Shelton's.  We are glad that they could go. 

 

Jenna's first temple trip!

The next morning, instead of going to the Black Friday sales we went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple.  It was great.  Joel and Juanelle took the little kids to the baptistry and Kyle, JoEllen and I went with Abby to do initiatory.  Abby hadn't done it since she did her own.  It was wonderful.  We got right in and were done the same time as the kids.  The youth in Sophie's area accepted the challenge that Elder Anderson gave to find their ancestors and do their work.  The Fort Lauderdale Temple stayed open through the night to allow them to come do it.  They called it their White Friday instead of Black Friday which is what the day after Thanksgiving is usually called.

 

Here is the video that they did about it.  It is amazing.  Please watch it.

LDS Temple White Friday 2017 South Florida #Temple Challenge

Grandpa and Grandma went with Andy and Sarah to the Dallas Texas Temple too.

Visiting the temple and helping those who have passed on is one of our family's favorite pastimes.