November

I LOVE this picture. Just look at Seth and Jenna. They adore each other! We are eating applesauce that Grandma MacKay made for us. It was delicious! =o]

I did an enlightening scripture study project involving President Monson's talks from General Conference. I read each talk that he has given since becoming the prophet, and then marked the scriptures he referenced in my own set. I discovered that he used the same scriptures repeatedly, and that this scripture in Isaiah, verse 18, was his most quoted scripture. What a powerful testimony of the Atonement from our current prophet!

The wind blows a lot here. Poor Hermione was uprooted! She is on a bit of a slope, so we packed her back in and then made this brace for her. I hope she will make it!

Poor Samwise is also a concern! But so far so good...

The kids enjoyed their Halloween candy, but luckily they ran out of "good kinds" pretty quickly and stopped earning MacKay Bucks to get extra treats within a few days. 

Here is my diligent efforts at No-Sweets November. I ate the pumpkin bread around the chocolate chips! The kids were happy to eat my leftovers. =o]

We had such an awesome experience doing family sealings at the temple this month with our college siblings! The Plan of Happiness is real.

So many miracles and so much joy that night!

Then everyone came over and watched the BYU game that Kent had recorded and Melissa and Karl actually spent the night because it lasted so late into the night. The kids were so surprised and excited to see them in the morning!

One of Natalie's friends got baptized, and we got to take our neighbors to see it. I'm so glad we got to experience it together!

There was a lot happening politically with the church this month because of a clarification made to the handbook. I posted this quote from our morning devotional book on fb as a reminder to all of us that LOVE is the answer to every question. It looks different in every answer for sure, but it is still the best response. It makes me sad that so many people are hurt and confused and offended. 

It snowed. It was shocking. We went to the library and it was FREEZING getting in and out of the car and the kids finally understood why I am not excited about living in the snow!

I tried two different recipes of pumpkin bread at the same time. One had sugar and oil, and the other had honey and butter. It was a fun experiment! But I will probably never use either of those recipes again lol!

The kids shoveled our walk. Even though it wasn't really needed, I appreciated the gesture. 

Then they made this adorable snowman!

And of course they named him Olaf! =o]

They came in all cold from playing in the snow to get to eat some warm pumpkin bread right out of the oven. I felt like a good mom lol!

On Veteran's Day my mom posted this picture of my Grandad. It made me want to work on the book for him so much! I hope we get to finish it. It is going to take a miracle, but I am going to keep trying!

The field behind our house is getting a house put in! It is just a spec home, but still, someday it will be neighbors! =o]

The dirt piles kept growing throughout the day, and the kids got more and more excited!

The truck driver was pretty brazen in my opinion! 

The kids have been having SO MUCH FUN playing in the dirt as they have put in the basement over the past few weeks. Too bad they will back fill the hole before the real snows come because those would be killer sledding hills!! 

Natalie and I got to go to a Mom and Me American Girl Book Club. It was fun!

Natalie still really does love her Samantha doll and the books she got for Christmas last year, so it was a great present! She had fun talking with all the other girls about their dolls too. I'm so glad that she got to fit in like she did. 

We had to get new light fixtures because Natalie climbed up on the counter and bonked one with her head and it broke off and shattered everywhere! Luckily no one was hurt, but unfortunately the builder no longer carries that kind so we couldn't just get a replacement. Kent and I went out on a super fun date running errands and this was one of them. I think we found the perfect set! This picture doesn't do them justice.

We had a Saturday dress rehearsal of our Primary Program. Our family was asked to help sing one of the songs so we all went. 

It has been the sweetest thing in the world to teach the song to Seth. It was He Sent His Son. You guys, he knew every word! Moms use the term "melt my heart" and I definitely had that experience hearing his little voice timidly join in with our family and see his shy smile when I encouraged him. They all did great! But he was my favorite.

Since I wasn't eating sugar I felt up to trying some new foods to spice up my life lol! We tried multi colored carrots. Like seriously there were everything from white to dark purple in the bag. Super fun!

We felt like grown up homeowners because we had to winterize our sprinkler system. We borrowed a compressor from our kind backyard neighbors and went for it! It was super fun!!

I have made a goal to do family history work once a month, and then do the temple work to accompany it once a month. But what is actually happening is that I get sucked into the screen!! I just get so caught up in the lives of these people, my family members, that I can't stop! Like this girl, Sarah Tidswell. In BOTH of the records that exist of her marriage the recorder wrote her name as Mary first, and then crossed it out and wrote Sarah over top. ...???? .... what the heck? No wonder we can't find her parents! What if her given name is actually Mary? It is just so interesting to try and find out everything about them. I think about them and dream about them and search for them, sometimes in unconventional ways. I hope I am doing a good work. I know I will meet them someday and they will tell me their stories. 

I am on a mission to find these 12 people who are missing from our family tree.

Something that I remember about going to school at BYU is that sometimes I would come out of class or open the blinds of my dorm window and literally drop my jaw because the sky was on fire. God is a painter. 

One of the things I did to celebrate Thanksgiving was to make a list of 1,000 gifts I have been blessed with. It was such an amazing experience! I totally could have kept going. Sometimes I would sit down and literally couldn't write fast enough as 20 minutes passed in a blink. It was so overwhelming to see it all in writing. I am so grateful I did it!

Do you see that Jenna goat on the other side of the hole? Yeah. Someone is going to die here before they finish.

Caleb and Kent got on a lego kick. It was super cute seeing them work together. 

I found this onion sprouting in the bag on the counter. Nature is amazing. 

When I saw this the first, thing I thought of was that we no longer have a baby in our house. 

The temple. There is no better place on earth to be. 

And what makes it the best? People you love inside with you! This is a terrible picture, but is the only one I have of me and Carly outside the Payson Temple after we got to be inside together with our husbands. It was a beautiful night! I love this girl and I am so proud of her! 

And here she is with her forever family! Saying that I am happy for them doesn't even begin to describe... well just look at their faces. It was a perfect way to start the Thanksgiving celebration!