What a difference a day makes

Yesterday the kids were out of school. It seemed like the leaves all fell off our tree over night.  It was a nice warm day so we went out and raked leaves. We had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. 

This morning we woke up to snow.  I am not ready for this yet, but the kids are very excited to see the snow.  They couldn't wait to go out and play.  Joshua loves to be outside.  Aaron went out for a bit, but didn't last too long before he was cold.  I hope winter isn't really here to stay quite yet.

October 2018 General Conference

I love General Conference!  I think they are my two favorite weekends every year.  I love gathering our family together and listening to the Prophet and Apostles. One of the things I love is knowing that no matter where my children are in the world we are hearing the same thing at the very same moment.

I try and make Conference something to look forward to for everyone, even the littles around here.  We have treats to hand out for each Apostle.  We also have coloring activities, BINGO games, and I Spy.  We even set up a tent facing Conference. Each of the younger kids gets to sit in the tent for one session of Conference. The older kids take notes, work on cross stitches, puzzles, quilts, and paintings.  I am grateful that our children like to listen to Conference.  I think they are almost as excited as I am when it is time to listen.

There were some pretty amazing messages shared this Conference. I am so excited for a home based Church supported curriculum starting in January.  12 new temples!! That is the most ever announced in one day.  Julia tells me we will have 200 temples when they are all built.  I loved President Nelson's talk about using the correct name of the Church to show respect and love to the Savior.  Powerful thoughts that I had never really considered.  Wow.  I am so excited to read and study these inspired messages.

Here are pictures from our Conference weekend:

A quick weekend get away together

Ben and Dawn were being sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain temple on September 8th. Neil and I talked about it and decided to make a quick trip down to Utah to be there. We also planned to go to the BYU vs Cal game that night. 

We decided to drive through Yellowstone on Friday and stop to see Karan and Jim for a little bit. We planned to get to Ogden in time to do a temple session there. We haven't ever been to the Ogden temple.  When we got to Karan and Jim's house we found out that Jim had fallen earlier in the week and wasn't feeling very good.  After some talk Karan decided that he should go to the emergency room. He was in a lot of pain and sleeping lots.  We helped her get him there. About the time we got there Karan remembered she was supposed to pick Candice up from work.  We went and got Candice so Karan could stay with Jim.  We stayed at the hospital for a few hours with Karan to make sure things were ok.  Jim didn't actually get released to go home until about 10:00 that night.  We left about 7:00.

We didn't make it to a session at the Ogden temple, but we did stop and see it.  It is a beautiful temple. It was about 10:00 when we got there so we missed the last session by several hours.

It was great to be at the temple with Ben and Dawn for their sealing.  There were several old friends there. I saw Judy Beck, Brother and Sister Norby, and Bishop and Sister Watkins from Tooele.  It was fun to catch up.

After the sealing we did pictures and then went to Olive Garden for lunch. It was fun to spend time with family and friends. Rebecca came to Olive Garden and it was great to see her.

Neil had done initiatory names before the sealing, but the women's side was too busy. We went back after lunch so I could do some names.

In the evening we went to Milagros for dinner before the BYU game.  It was delicious. Thanks, Dad for taking us.

We enjoyed the BYU game even though they couldn't put it together and pull out a win.  I was disappointed in the loud music they played between most plays. It didn't seem to be BYU standard. I was so disappointed that I called BYU on Monday afternoon and complained. It just didn't seem right that I heard inappropriate lyrics at BYU.

We drove home Sunday after Sacrament Meeting. We had a great weekend together. It was great to have time to talk and just be together.

Homecoming 2018

We didn't do too much for Homecoming week around here.  The kids did some dressing up for the school days, but not too much or too extreme.  Emma did wear her pajamas half a day for pajama day. She changed into real clothes at lunch time. I guess it isn't as much fun to wear pajamas to school in high school as it is in elementary school.  MaryAnne wore her pajamas all day. 

The kids did walk in the Homecoming parade after school on Friday.  Dallin walked with the middle school robotics team.  Lydia walked with Westside Elementary. Joshua, MaryAnne, Emma and David skipped out and stayed home.  We took Lydia's friend Ellie with us so she could walk.

Neil and I went to the game against Star Valley. We were ahead but lost in the final few minutes.

Here are some pictures from the parade:

I took a picture of the Cross Country team in Coach Boos old blue truck just because it made me think of Matthew. I don't think he ever actually did a homecoming parade, but I thought he should.

Can you tell Dallin didn't want his picture taken? His friends helped corral him so I could get a picture.