Fall

Austin had a wonderful Orchestra Concert, she did a great job

Gideon loved playing in the corn at the fall festival

Malachi thought it was awesome too!

Gideon thought the hay was lots of fun too

Why is there hay stuck to my foot?

Betsy playing with her little brothers in the hay

Austin straightened her hair!

Color Run!  or walk, if your Samuel.  I guess he got tired at the end

Go Caleb!

Make sidewalk chalk art, is one of Caleb's favorite things to do

Caleb wrote "I should love one another"

Spiderman is doing the limbo

Having fun video chatting with Daddy!

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Samuel liked showing off all his ninja moves

Malachi is a cute little olaf

This is Caleb's art project he made for his school, it shows him going trick or treating!  He worked hard on this, and did awesome!

First snow!

uh oh, Joseph caught me taking pictures

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Gideon makes an adorable Gorilla

Gideon kept asking for more and more blankets

Austin and her friend Kaitlynn on her last day before she moved

Betsy helping Gideon skate!  He was a great skater

Gideon loves doughnuts so much, he has to have one for each hand, and one in his mouth

Gideon thought it was so funny, to come and sit on my head!

This is one of the cakes Betsy made for her presentation on baking at school

My little Samuel is 11 years old!

Chalk art at the doughnut shop!  AAAARRRGG

My little Caleb chef, helping to bake pies for Thanksgiving

Samuel had to run off all that Jello he ate for Thanksgiving

Gideon liked Thanksgiving dinner

Austin left a random note for us to find after she used all the wrapping paper

As usual things have been busy around here.  I loved attending General Conference and Chaplain Conference in Utah, and felt spiritually renewed and able to press forward.  I returned home, grateful to my parents for taking good care of my home and children.  They had to leave early the next morning to go back home to close on their home they were selling.  The little boys welcomed me home by waking me up at all hours of the night and being clinging to me, since they were upset that I had left them for a few days.  Gideon and Malachi also had lots of pooping accidents or playing in the toilet.  I got to jump right back into the chaos of things!  But my sweet little boys, gave me lots of hugs, cuddles, kisses, and smiles to make up for there not so fun things.  I can't remember if I mentioned it or not in my last post, but I broke my right ring finger on August 12th.  I was standing on a bucket to reach something on top of the fridge, and the bucket tipped and I fell backwards.   I managed to catch myself but hit my finger on the corner of the counter on my way down.  I was so mad, because I hate it when I hurt myself, it makes things so much harder to do.  Travis and I spent the evening in the ER, getting it x-rayed and splinted.  It was our date night!  Malachi asked me if I learned my lesson.  I told him I did, and that I would never climb on a bucket to reach for things again.  I'm always telling the kids not to do that, so I guess I need to be better at listening to myself.  Anyway It was very painful to do anything with my right hand for a while, and changing diapers was one of my most difficult tasks, that usually ended with me in tears.  But, It slowly started healing, but unfortunately after four weeks, my bone had not healed correctly, and the fracture left a tiny piece of bone sticking out of my joint like a thorn.  I went to occupational therapy for my finger for the next three weeks, which was painful, but I was able to gain most of the mobility back in my finger.  Now 3 1/2 months later I still can't make a closed fist, and can't grab or grip things properly with my right hand, and there is still some pain and stiffness as well, but I can do most things without any trouble, and my piano playing seems to be going fine again as well.  We've had lots of adventures as usual at our house.  It got really cold around Halloween and we even had snow on Halloween.  It was so different from last year, when it was almost 80 degrees when we went trick or treating.  We went to two trunk or treats and went trick or treating.  At the branch trunk or treat we had a chili cook off, and I won the best chili award, and got a gift certificate to Cracker Barrel for $25.  The kids loved trick or treating but it was really cold, so they only lasted about an hour, so they didn't get as much candy as they usually do, but I was okay with that.  I started a solo spouse potluck dinner group that meets at the church each friday to have dinner together while husbands are gone.  That has been fun, and I have enjoyed it!  I have also gone to my self reliance finance class every Thursday night, and also a resiliency class on Friday nights (it's for 6 weeks).  I have really enjoyed these classes, and the spirit I have felt there.  I took Austin to a naturopath in Kansas City on October 24th, to have a bio meridian test done.  It is the same thing that help me overcome all of my headache and stomach problems about 6 years ago.  We found some supplements and vitamins that should help her to start feel better.  We found that she is also supposed to avoid dairy, gluten, rice, and soy.  She isn't doing very good at that, but has been getting a little better with the vitamins and supplements.  The boys love fall, and going to the parks and playing in the leaves, they have so much fun!  We've had some pretty warm weather the last week or two, and they have loved playing outside a lot.  We just had Thanksgiving which was nice.  We went to the church to have our Thanksgiving feast with about 30 other people.  We made five different pies, rolls, green bean casserole, jello, wassail, zucchini stuffing.  There was a lot of food there, and it was really good.  We had fun, and Austin and Joseph even got into a little whip cream war with another teenage boy.  Gideon and Malachi have been driving me nuts lately with all of their mess making and fighting with each other.  But, they are both very sweet and cute as well, so I can never stay mad at them for long.  November has been a good month full of Thanksgiving, I have been able to find many things I am grateful for each day, and even though every day is hard, I feel very blessed.