NOVEMBER

FALL CONTINUES - November continued to be really beautiful.  There were quite a few rainy days which wasn't great because we really needed to rake our leaves, but the sunsets and sunrises were amazing!

When all the leaves finally fell off the trees you could actually see our house again.  I took pictures to see what it actually looks like when you can see through the trees.

MERIDIAN TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE - The open house ran from Oct 21st - Nov 11th.  Our ward had made a goal to give everyone in our ward boundaries an open house invitation.  They had divided out the ward into areas and then divided the houses in that area amongst the members in that area so we got to know our neighbors a little bit better.  Jed and I were assigned 10 houses to take invitations to.  The goal was to not just stick it in their door, but to have a conversation with them for a few minutes too.  We had the invitations sitting on our counter for quite a few weeks.  Neither of us were really too excited about it.  Once November hit I started feeling a little bit guilty about it though.  There was only a week left of the temple open house and I hadn't given one invitation to anyone.  I knew if I waited for Jed it wouldn't happen because he was busy and also he felt like it was a really awkward way to get to know your neighbors.  Which I agreed with.  But either way I kept thinking that if I truly believed that temples were the house of the Lord and the holiest places on earth then I needed to get over my fears and tell people about it.  I was home one afternoon while the pest control person was here and I had a scripture pop into my head.  I'm not even sure where it is in the scriptures but it talks about fearing man more than God.  So when the pest control lady left I gave her an invitation and we actually had a 5 minute discussion about the temple.  So I decided that I just needed to go out that afternoon and deliver the invitations.  So I loaded up my list in the car and drove around and delivered them.  I took Kasen with me to show him that knocking on doors wasn't too scary - fake it till you make it right?!  I was pretty relieved when the first two people weren't home if I'm being honest.  But then on the 3rd house the husband and wife were home and I had a really nice 15-20 min conversation with them.  They had been to a temple open house before in Denver and had talked about going to Meridian but didn't think you could go unless you had an appointment.  The husband is a spine doctor in the area and they were very friendly and nice.  The next house the guy was cordial but not very interested even though he took the invitation.  There were only two other houses that people were home at of the 10.  One guy wasn't very friendly but as we were walking back to my car he came back out and asked me more questions about the temple which was cool.  The last house was an elderly lady who was very sweet.  This sounds silly, but I was so proud of myself as I drove home.  I had such a good feeling and was so happy.  Missionary work is a lot less scary when you have a name tag on!  Jed couldn't believe that I had gone and done it. I tell this to my kids all the time that sometimes the scariest thing of all is just making the first move or taking the first step or speaking the first word.  Turns out I needed to take my own advice and hopefully Kasen learned something too.  Hopefully at least one of the neighbors made it to the open house, but if no one went it was definitely a good experience for me.

KINSLEY - On November 6th Kinsley pulled out her first tooth!  She was really brave and pulled it out all by herself.  So it begins...

Kinsley is always really excited for Christmas to come not only for Christmas but also because the closer Christmas gets the closer her birthday gets.  I had bought some advent chocolates and put them on the top shelf of the pantry and one morning I was awakened by Kinsley whispering in my ear to wake up because it was very important.  She was sitting next to me with the advent box asking if it was time to eat Day 1. This was on November 20th. :)  She also made a Christmas list in November with pretty much every item in the Walmart toy catalog.  As she was writing I walked by and said that was a might long list.  She must have realized she was looking a little greedy so on the back she wrote I am a Child of God and drew the Book of Mormon and put it on my pillow with that side facing up to redeem herself!

14TH ANNIVERSARY - November 8th we celebrated our 14th anniversary.  Jed brought me some beautiful roses home.  He also sent me this text that morning because he had gone in to work really early.  It was so sweet.  We didn't get to celebrate in any special way because Kasen had basketball and Ava had temple practice.  We need to do a better job at scheduling fun - otherwise commitments and obligations just take over your life.  I need to do better at making memories meaningful because Jed is not a celebratory person but who doesn't love a little extra effort on birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc.  I love Jed so much and he is such a great husband and one thing I want to do better at this next year of our marriage is to have more fun together. 

DALLIN 18 MONTHS - HOORAY!!! This boy hit a big milestone this month turning 1 1/2! Even though he is crazy we love this boy so much.  At his checkup he was 26 lb 6 oz and 33.75 inches tall.  Heaviest and tallest of all the kids so far at this age.  He loves riding his horse around the house, standing up on the upside down bench he turns over, swimming in the bathtub, teasing, and being around his siblings.  I didn't take a picture of him in nursery, but the 2nd picture is him dressed up and ready to go that morning at breakfast.

Dallin really likes sitting at his little table and at the big table for dinner.  He is a pretty good little eater.  He loves it when Kinsley eats with him as long as she doesn't touch his food.  He is not a good food sharer.

Dallin is a pretty rough and tumble little boy.  He loves wrestling and tackling.  He never stops still.  He loves messing around with his dad and his brother, but he is not afraid to try to tackle any of us girls either.

Dallin is doing better in his 1 yr old class.  They put him on the potty the other day without asking me and it kinda' made me mad, but now they ask and haven't done it very often.  One day the teacher in his class came to get me and said he was on the potty.  I peaked my head around the corner and this is what I saw.  I died laughing.  He still would rather just play by himself, but every so often I'll catch him watching other kids and then inching closer to play with them.

Dallin really eats pretty good at school.  He won't touch any meat, but I don't blame him for that.  This month he has acquired a deep deep love for pasta.  He will eat 2 or 3 bowls of pasta at a sitting.  Pasta meals at school are really messy, but they have cute little smocks that they wear.  Dallin's teachers have been giving me a hard time about how long his hair is so one day they put it in a ponytail before I came to pick him up.  It was pretty funny and it is really long!

LEAVES - Finally on November 14th we were able to finish raking the leaves in the front yard.  They were pretty packed down from all the rain but Jed was a genius and had gone to buy a tarp that we pushed them onto.  Then we dragged the tarp over to the horse trailer and loaded them into that and then Jed drove them out to the pasture burn pile.  It didn't take very long with that system.  We couldn't believe how big some of the leaves were - some bigger than the kids' heads.

There was only two piles that were still dry, crunchy leaves so the kids didn't get as many leaf jumping time as they were hoping.  It was also pretty cold, but they still had fun!

I love these little leaf monsters!  They have had to do a lot of work at our new house and most of the time do it with a good attitude and not much complaining.

MERIDAN TEMPLE CULTURAL CELEBRATION & DEDICATION - November 18th was the temple cultural celebration down at the Taco Bell Arena.  There were 16 stakes of youth that participated.  The girls from the Eagle and Star stakes performed a really pretty number called "Jesus Love is like a River".  They were the water of the Treasure Valley.  The practises started on Sept 13th - Ava's birthday and first time to mutual.  They lasted until the middle of November every Wednesday night for mutual and even some Saturdays too.  Ava did get a little bored of all the practises.  They even had some outside to practise with a bigger area.  It seemed like their outdoor practises always landed on freezing cold days too!  They had professional photographers assigned to each stake to capture pictures of their practises and performances.  I found Ava in a few of them!

The big day was pretty exciting.  Ava had to leave at 5am.  They had a dress rehearsal before the big performance.  Jed and I were able to get tickets and it was really cool to go down and watch the entire celebration.  Each stake did amazing numbers.  The storyline was great.  I can't believe how much effort went in to all of it!  I was partial to Ava's dance though.

About halfway through the number Ava ended up right in front of Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Christofferson and the other general authorities.  How awesome!  She really enjoyed watching it back later that night when they got home.  What an amazing experience she will get to remember forever.  Elder Uchtdorf told all the youth that "this is a moment to never be forgotten in your life."  He also said, "The story goes that at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold. You are a much greater treasure than any treasure at any rainbow. You are the future of this community, of this area. You are the treasure of all those who live here: your own families, your own generations who passed before and who will follow, and for those who live in this beautiful area.”  He also encouraged them to always Be Strong, Steadfast, and Immovable - which was the theme of the celebration.

Later that night Dallin got sick with vomiting.  It was the same thing Kinsley had but his only lasted a few days.  It was the worst virus and passed through everyone.  We all threw up and got super sick except Jed.  It was super weird.

THANKSGIVING - For Thanksgiving we headed over to Swan Valley.  All of my siblings flew in to surprise my dad.  He had turned 60 years old earlier this month but had also had surgery on his collarbone so there wasn't too big of a celebration.  This was our way of celebrating him by all being together.  We had such a great time.  Everyone got along and there weren't any problems.  Josh brought his new girlfriend Georgia and her two kids.  It was wonderful to meet them.  They were very pleasant to be around and get to know.  

 

I take a photo every year on my birthday with the kids so I can see how much they've changed and grown in one year.  This year we never got it done so I tried to do one at Thanksgiving.  Katie jumped up on the coach and started shaking her bum at everyone and so these are the best pictures we got.  Dallin seemed deeply disturbed by it. The rest of my kids love Aunt Katie though!

We tried introducing Jaxon to Dallin's favorite song - Baby Shark.  He was confused.  You can see the progression of starting the song, to Dallin recognizing it, to screaming for joy, to trying to convince his cousin that it is awesome.

We had lots of fun playing games and telling stories.  Grandma had bought a giant chess set and a giant checkers set which were a huge hit.  Ava and Kasen are getting to the age where they like playing games with the grown ups too.  We all went down and saw Marilyn and her crew one day.  A group also went out to see the potato cellars and the new feedlot.  

 Kasen took these pictures of Grandpa's cows.  Jed also stopped at the cemetery where the Ericksons are buried.  Kasen noticed that his great-grandpa Erickson was born on Dallin's birthday and died on his birthday.  It was a pretty cool discovery.

Before we all left we tried taking a family picture.  It was early and so most of us just woke up and the kids were all in their pjs!  My family hasn't been all together with in-laws and grandkids for a couple of years so it was very special to be together for Thanksgiving.  I am truly thankful for my parents and siblings and the encouragement and support in helping me grow up and become me.  I'm sure it took a lot of patience and tolerance for my faults and behaviors, but I'm thankful they never have given up on me! The only bad thing about Thanksgiving was that everyone got a stomach bug not unlike to the one we had a few weeks prior and many people were throwing up mostly while in airports traveling home.