November, Samuel's birthday, Thanksgiving

Joseph eating his cowboy burger from "Seven Brothers"

Girls game night!

Malachi giving me a flower

Malachi wanted to hug the trees to tell them thank you for all that they do for us

Samuel won a basketball at Dave and Busters for his birthday party

Blowing out his candles!

Our Hawaiian Christmas Tree!

November was a busy month, Travis was gone until the day before Thanksgiving, and Gideon was sick with a cold for most of the month too, and I started getting the cold the week of Thanksgiving.  We didn't have a lot of exciting events in November, mostly because I didn't go anywhere fun, since Gideon was coughing so much. I did go to the temple the first weekend in November, and took Joseph with me.  He went to the Polynesian Cultural Center while I did an endowment session, and then we went to Costco.  While we were driving we listened to a John Bythway talk entitled "Peace In Christ" that was really good.  I went to a Girls night out game night, and Austin and Betsy wanted to have a game night, so they invited all the YW over for a game night, and they had a blast!   Samuel had his birthday on the 17th and turned 12.  I took him and his best friend Carson to Dave and Busters for his birthday party.  They had a blast, and I had fun too, since we didn't bring along any little boys.  We had dentist appointments for the younger four boys, and I was happy (although a little surprised) that no one had any cavities!  I've also struggled a lot with trying to get Joseph up for seminary and school, and he has only attended school a couple days out of the whole month, all he wants to do is sleep!  The doctors just think he is depressed and referred us to behavioral health, and we're actually in the process of getting Joseph out of high school, and getting him registered with a GED prep program.  They tested him at an above 12th grade level in Math and Reading, so they don't think it will take him long to get his GED, although there prep classes don't even start up again until January.  Joseph should be out of high school by the end of the week, and then he is going to get a job, study for a driver's test, and study for his GED tests.  He also has upcoming doctor appointments to figure out why he sleeps so much!  We invited a couple of our ministering families over for dinner a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and had a good meal, but was a little crazy with all the little kids.  We ended up inviting one of them over for Thanksgiving dinner and had a good feast.  I figured out I spent 20 hours in the kitchen preparing for our Thanksgiving feast.  Travis made it home the day before Thanksgiving, so he was able to help with the cleaning and entertaining of the kids.  I've started going jogging/walking this month trying to get in better shape, and have really enjoyed it.  There is a loop around our neighborhood about 3 miles, and I listen to an audiobook while I'm out walking/jogging.  I can't jog the whole thing yet, but I hope to be able to soon.  I'm glad Travis is back now, we all missed him.  He had a bunch of little gifts he brought everyone, and it was fun to watch as he passed them all out, the kids loved it!  We did some black Friday shopping (online), and then Travis, the four little boys, and I went and picked out our Hawaiian Christmas Tree!  We loved the Norfolk pine trees they grow here.  We had fun decorating for Christmas, and did do a little Christmas shopping in the stores, while the girls went with their friends shopping and had a good time.