october in review

calendar quotes:

"i may not agree with what you say, but i will defend to the death your right to say it." -Evelyn Beatrice Hall

the path to happiness-in mortality and in eternity-is really quite simple. "simple" however, doesn't necessarily mean "easy".

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well we started the month out with a wonderful general conference, i am enjoying going back through those talks. the messages i remember most from conference were: the very first talk by Elder Richard G. Scott "to acquire spiritual guidance" about the Holy Ghost...something i am having to work on alot lately. and i also loved Elder David A. Bednar's talk "more diligent and concerned at home" i can always work on our atmosphere at home...and i loved that he said building faith is about being consistent-i don't know if i'm reaching my kids sometimes, but i am consitent in teaching. and i will never forget Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon-very powerful!

i worked 3 days for potato harvest, driving a potato truck...it wasn't too bad-i am horrible at backing up and very slow at a big rig =) i have learned something about myself though, i can work and every job i have had i get compliments on how hard and good of worker i am...but i don't want to work-i love staying home with my family! i am so thankful that i have been able to so far.(i still have my application to substitute in the schools on my counter since august-can't bring myself to fill it out yet!)

my oldest sister had her surprise baby boy-tyden. my koy just loved holding him and has asked numerous times when we will have a baby.
we missed out on picking potatoes with christy this year, but we still made our yearly potato people-my favorite was brookes...
i said, "that is the cutest potato i have ever seen!" and brooke responded, "yeah it has to be cute, it's sirri and sirri is cute!"
we made carmel apples for FHE-they were a hit...

and they helped brooke loose her tooth...

the tooth fairy gave her $5 and she wanted to go to the store to buy some gum. she bought her pack of gum and she returned very excited to me and said, "the store man gave me more money than the tooth fairy"...she got back 4 one dollar bills and some change...what a cheap tooth fairy ;)
we were so happy that the straw maze was open again this year-we went early in the day...

we went through 4 times and had to cheat through this hole all 4 times to get out...

we did go back after 9 when they haunt the maze...it went exactly as i predicted: kelsi-was mad because we had to leave before we found our way out and kaden-didn't like the dark and brooke-left in tears after the chainsaw guy chased us and i learned koy-could run fast. but it makes for some good memories and stories told later!
my brother chad and his wife, heather and their little boy, beckett came up to visit...a long drive from washington and we loved seeing them and are so excited to spend a week with them for swim camp (and so excited that they are going to have another baby).

kaden and i got to go to a very cool show up at the college...the great kaplan (or sometimes mediocre, as he joked when tricks didn't go so well) it was so fun to see kaden in awe at magic tricks and get all his very silly deadpan humor. kaden commented at the end..."i am so glad that he shares his talents with others."

kent started a new project with all his spare time (ha,ha). he is building a much needed new deck and of course it will be fabulous. kent is amazing at designing, working, and making...i'm excited to see the finished project! the kids have enjoyed playing on it at all phases: it's just like a new playground. this night craked me up-they were having races with the cats across the boards...

of course we finished out the month with lots of halloween fun-we had a carnival for pack night, carved pumpkins, went to the rexburg motor sports carnival, the school carnival, and a carnival at the rex...yes, we love lots of halloween fun! they didn't have the carnival at the nursing home this year because of the swine flu. here's 3 of the kids...

kaden's costume was quite the fiasco this year...he wanted to be sora, from the disney game-kingdom hearts. i don't even know where he comes up with his ideas sometimes, he loves being something different and seeing if people know who he is. we looked on line and actually bid on a costume on ebay for $40...alot of money i thought for a halloween costume. well we didn't win the bid and i was floored when i saw what the costume went for, $110-for a kids costume, are you kidding? well we talked about other ideas but he really wanted to be sora, so i made it and it turned out pretty close to the real thing and all for about $20 including the key blade...

it turned out pretty fun to make and i love homemade costumes! and the best part-kaden loved, loved, LOVED it-that makes it totallly worth it!
kelsi surprised me and still dressed up this year-yay! and she wasn't even a football player...

i love when the kids get home from getting all their treats and they dump them all out and sort them all into piles and trade...

at the school carnival we had talked about going to the middle school spook alley, but after the straw maze scare-koy and brooke didn't want to so i told them they could put the $5 into the raffle drawing. koy put all the tickets into the nintendo ds jar, which was the fullest-so i told him you probably won't win. well he won...

he said "i told you i would win mom!" he couldn't be happier-he wanted one for his birthday and i told him he was too young and them he told me he would ask santa for it and i told him that i would tell santa he was too young...what a lucky duck!