Nov. 2 - 9

Sunday, Nov. 2nd, James and Naomi stayed home from church today.  Neither of them were feeling very good and Naomi and a mild fever: 100.6.  We've all been struggling with a bit of laryngitis the last few days.  I played the organ in Sacrament meeting.  Ellen bore her testimony.  Her friend Madeline came to church with us.  At dinner Spencer started saying, "Raise hand, like _______" (Raise your hand if you like _______ )  He was so funny!  He came up with all kinds of things for us to like and hardly had any repeats.  Phineas and Ferb was about the only thing he mentioned more than once.  After dinner we played spoons again.  It's been such a nice evening together as a family!

Monday, Nov.3rd, Naomi stayed home from school but was definitely starting to feel better.  No fever!  For Family Home Evening we wrote on our traditional "We Are Thankful For..." paper that covers our pantry door.  It is more full this year than it has ever been! 

Tuesday, Nov. 4th, Spencer and I picked the last of our tomatoes out of our garden.  We also raked up all the pine needles in the front yard.  Two big wheelbarrow's full!  And all of that was from only one tree since James cut one of our pine trees down this summer.  The other one goes next summer!  Hooray!  Ellen and Naomi went to Activity Days.  Then we ate a quick dinner and went to Annie's band concert.  There were two bands and two choirs that performed and we all thought Annie's band was the very best. 

Wednesday, Nov. 5th, Annie went to dance class.  Ellen had her first basketball practice of the season.  She is on the same team as her friend/neighbor Bailee Cook.  Bailee's mom, Lori (aka, the Bishop's Wife) is their coach.  Ellen is excited and nervous for basketball because this year they will play full court games instead of just half court.  Annie, Stephen, and James all went to mutual.  Stephen's group went bowling.  Stephen got 3rd place behind two of the leaders.  Annie's group made decorations for the upcoming Young Women's in Excellence. 

Thursday, Nov. 6th the girls all had piano lessons and I had scouts.  We had a lady from the community come talk to us about alternative forms of communication used especially by kids with Autism.

Friday, Nov.7th, was an early release day from school!  Annie stayed after school to work on an art project.  Ellen hurried off to basketball practice.  Friday night the boys went to the church to set up chairs for Stake Conference.  The girls and I got to go with Sister Dixon and Julia to see the play of "Anne of Green Gables" put on by the Moscow Community Theater.  We really enjoyed it!  Especially since we knew the girl playing Anne!  Her name, for real, is Marilla Hurst.  She used to be in our ward and was one of the kids favorite babysitters before Stephen was old enough to babysit.  She was so good! 

Saturday, Nov. 8th, we got a lot of work done inside and outside the house.  This weekend was our Stake Conference so James went to the Priesthood Leadership meeting at 4.  I made 5 pizzas.  Then James stayed home with our 4 youngest and the Dixon's 4 youngest eating pizza and brownies and watching "the Apple Dumpling Gang."  I took Stephen and Annie and Cecily took her older kids to the Youth/Adult session of conference.  Elder Robert C. Gay of the Seventy was here and of course gave a great talk.  He told a lot of stories that we all enjoyed. 

Sunday, Nov.9th we all went to Stake Conference.  We got to see some actual relatives today!  Joseph and Mary's kids are staying with their Mauery grandparents for the weekend and we got to see them at conference!  Sister Mauery and I arranged ahead of time to sit together so the kids could visit a little before conference started.  We even got to see Simon!  He is so cute!!  He smiled and smiled!  I love him!!!  

Oct. 26 - Nov. 1

Sunday, the 26th, was a pretty relaxing day.  I didn't have to teach Sunbeams because the Stake Relief Society Presidency taught a special class and wanted all the sisters to attend, so the brethren took care of everything.  It was SO nice!  Sunday afternoon was still nice and quiet.  Lots of naps! 

Monday, the 27th was Naomi's last soccer game!  We made it through the whole soccer season!  She played hard but is not planning on playing soccer ever again.  Stephen had taken care of most of dinner while Naomi and I were gone.  Baked potatoes.  After cleaning up dinner, we sang "Once There Was a Snowman" to get FHE started.  Then we watched the Mormon Message video where President Uchtdorf talks about the marshmallow experiment and patience.

 

We played spoons (even Spencer tries to play, and since it is spoons, it works!) and had candy for our treat.  There is a lot of candy in our house already, and more coming in the next few days.  Yikes!

Tuesday, the 28th, Noah woke up with a slight fever, a very sore throat, a cough, and a lot of congestion.  He stayed home from school.  I gave him some ibuprophen and he was pretty comfortable for most of the day, but when it wore off his fever went up to 103.6.  After school Naomi and Ellen played with friends, Annie did homework then practiced dance, Stephen designed on paper then started working on a Viking type of boat he wants to build, Noah hung out on the couch, and Spencer played with cars. 

Wednesday, the 29th, Noah was still home sick.  Annie went to her dance class from 4-6.  Then Annie, Stephen, and James went to mutual that night.  It was a joint activity with all 4 Moscow wards.  They had a chili dinner in a barn just outside of town.  From what I hear there was tons of really good food.

Thursday, the 30th, Noah was starting to feel better but still had to stay home.  He was pretty sad about that because it meant that he missed his class Halloween party.  Mrs. Murphy, the mom of one of Noah's good friends, brought him a plate of all the goodies he missed and a mask to color.  After school the girls had piano lessons then I had scouts that night.  Alida Fern Humphries was born to Sam and Natalie today!

Friday, the 31st.  Happy Halloween!  The kids were out of school for parent teacher conferences.  Ellen and I met with her teacher first.  It was a student-led conference, which meant that Ellen had chosen some things she wanted me to see and she had set a short term and a long term goal for herself and she got to tell me about all of those things.  Ellen's teacher is Mrs. Mock.  Annie had her in 5th grade and we really love her.  Then I met with Naomi's teacher, Mrs. Gillette.  Then with Noah's teacher, Ms. Hughes.  All good reports and nice things to say which is always nice for me!  After conferences we got some work done around the house.  At noon Stephen and I went to the bank to turn in his report card.  Our bank gives kids ages 13-18 one dollar per A on their report card which they can turn in at every quarter.  They are also entered into a drawing for a scholarship.  We've never known about it before, but will do it from now on!  Stephen had 5 A's!  After the bank we went to Winco to pick up 200 donuts for the ward party that night.  I've never had a cart FULL of donuts before, and it was kind of fun!  The afternoon was spent finishing up costumes and carving pumpkins.

Stephen was a stick man.  He used glow-in-the-dark tape on a black hoodie and black pants and looked really awesome in the dark!  Annie was a train engineer.  Ellen wore a poodle skirt and cardigan.  Naomi was a Monkey Fairy Heart Queen.  (She had a crown, but forgot to wear it.)  She put it all together herself and was very happy with it.  Noah was Donald Duck.  And Spencer was a football player.  Halloween night we went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat then came home and trick or treated on our little street.  Whew!

Saturday, Nov. 1st, I got to go mountain biking this morning.  YAY!  It was foggy up at the top of the mountain and was so beautiful!  James and Stephen spent the morning cleaning up their bear bait site.  Our neighbors, the Kleffner's, have season tickets to the UofI football games but couldn't go today so they gave their tickets to us.  Stephen and Noah ended up going and had a great time.  The Vandals lost to Arkansas State though, 44-28.