OCTOBER~OMAHA AND OHIO

What beautiful places Omaha and Ohio are...worthy of our October blog.  And it takes a lot to be worthy of October, as it is one of my favorite months of the year.

A small sampling of Josh the Preservationist's Omaha buildings, and Nathan and Mason on their walking trail. Also, one of the things I love about Omaha is their respect for their connection to Mormon Pioneers.  They have a block-long monument to the pioneers that is truly a destination visit. Also, the beautiful Winter Quarters Temple and visitors' Center.

Thomas was called to serve in Cleveland, Ohio, Spanish speaking, and I was a little bemused by that. I had no idea people in Cleveland spoke Spanish.  Cleveland is an interesting and very beautiful place, and his mission also included Kirtland and other Church History sites.  Daniel, although called to serve in Kentucky, spent a good part of his mission in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I think he loved it there and it was one of his favorite assignments.

I know our Octobers are not as colorful as Colorado's, Nebraska's, Washington's or Virginia's, but I love them anyway.  We have had cooling, drizzling rain, even hail, and warm sunshine and flowers this month.  I have always had such a good feeling about autumn time.  I never have considered it a dying time but a time of harvest and of planting.  The seeds that fall from the trees and flowers in the fall, secrete themselves into the earth and wait there, gathering strength and nourishment, ready to come forth in the spring.  Autumn is a time of fertility and life, not death and decay.

I'm thankful for the Autumn time

For the leaves of red and gold,

For apples, pumpkins and nice warm fires

When the days are growing cold.

I know that Heavenly Father

Really loves us, one and all;

And that is why He gives to us

All the wondrous days of fall.

Arizona's varied autumn weather: rain, hail, sunshine and flowers.

Omaha's October Red, from Josh.

Virginia's colorful palette from Dallin.

We also have a colorful group of birthdays in October.

Shannyn turned 14 on the 9th.

Mary's birthday was the 11th.

Rylie turned 18 on the 15th.

Joel's birthday was the 19th.

~OUR OCTOBER~

This has been yet another amazing month...without some of the heartbreak of the last couple of months.  Mostly joyful experiences, including, of course, General Conference, visits to and from kids, high school homecoming, a returned missionary, a new Eagle Scout, and setting apart for our new calling, for which we have already begun to work, set apart or not.  It's good to finally be official!

For those of you who knew her, this is Adina's house!!  Someone bought it, I guess and tore it down to make way for who knows what! This is the sight that greeted us the first of October.

Our dishwasher needed to be replaced, so here is our new one.  I've learned to not like stainless steel very much, but since all our other appliances are stainless, we had to go with it for the dishwasher too.

One of the best things about October...General Conference.  Henry loved joining in the sustaining of the General authorities.  As always, I felt rejuvenated after hearing our leaders teach and testify.

Our new Apostles.

All the Twelve Apostles.

On Saturday, after Conference, Hyrum wanted to earn some money, so he helped Dad water the garden.  If they'd only known what would happen the next day, they might have found another job to do.

That's right, rain!  It was wonderful.

We celebrated Mary's birthday a couple of days early because she and her family were going to be gone on the 11th.  They were going out of town to celebrate Columbus Day.  Jenn was sick, so Thomas took her place at the party.

Rylie made Homecoming posters, letting her school know what activities were happening for the 100 year celebration of Homecoming.  It's nice to have a big table to make posters on.  She got help from me, Isabel, Polly and Emma Hancock.

Rebecca and her family also went to Mesa for Columbus Day (I think they were all trying to get away from having to participate in the fair).  They and Mary and Tyson and Esther and Shad all ran into each other at Jesters, a clean comedy club.  

On the 10th and 11th, we were assigned to visit the Silver City stake conference.  What a great experience that was! The president of the stake is Justin Porter, one of my old Sunday School and Institute students and a good friend of Jeremy, Rachel and Esther.  His wife, Kristi Richins is a cousin to Tyson, so you know she's great too.  They were so warm and friendly and welcoming, as was the whole stake.  It was a very comfortable way to begin our speaking assignments.  Kristi and the counselors'  wives provided a Mexican dinner spread after the meeting on Sunday.  Dad is talking, here to President Passey of the Arizona Tucson mission. And here is the whole group, eating dinner.  President and Sister Porter on the left, Grant Welker, his counselor and Sister Welker, (a Kartchner) on Dad's right.  Then President Passey, and President and Sister Wertz, the other counselor.

On Monday, Columbus Day, Thomas and his family took a field trip to the desert, then came to our house to swim.  It wasn't even heated, but was very pleasant, though a little cool...definitely not cold. It's amazing how much heat the cover retains.

On Wednesday, Esther and her kids paid us a visit for their Fall break.

And we got to enjoy the musical talents of their family.  The only time Isabel will sing for us, too, is when Harrison is here.  I love hearing him play.  It adds a bit of class to our home.

While Esther was here, the girls got a big reunion meeting together to discuss plans for our crazy, funny, Harry Potter reunion.  It was a serious meeting, too...we had agendas!

Then we all made magic wands...so creative and magical.  You'll want to be there, just to get one of these.

Marlie made the fanciest one!

They also took advantage of their visit to get a trim for Marlie.

Rebecca took Soren, Henry, Jared and Brody outside to exercise...to keep them busy.

The last evening of their visit, we played Qbitz and ate Mexican food.  It was so much fun, but I had to finally admit that I am Qbitz challenged.

The girls did some Walmart time.

We were so much more aware of homecoming activities this week because of Rylie's involvement.  Also we had three kids in high school, all participating with tons of school spirit.  Here are Polly, representing the Junior class, Rylie, representing the Senior class, and Isabel in her "hand"made shirt, representing the Sophomore class, all for the annual "powderpuff" football game.  Guess who won.

I know you guessed.  Polly made two touchdowns leading the Juniors to victory!

Homecoming was especially exciting as we had two kids involved in the royalty event.  Rylie was nominated as queen, along with three other senior girls (so she was sure she wouldn't get chosen because there was a couple nominated that might inspire "boyfriend/girlfriend" votes, and she thought maybe kids would think she already had enough with being student body president. ) 

Rylie and one of the boy nominees in the homecoming parade. 

 Also, Isabel in the parade as an "O" in Sophomore.

Since Rylie was in charge, she asked Henry and her niece Brea Bingham to be the crown bearers. There's no way we could stay home and miss the festivities with our two kids participating, but we knew I couldn't climb the bleachers, so we parked outside the fence and when it was time to announce the winners, we walked to the fence and watched through binoculars.  It was thrilling to hear Henry's name announced, and a relief to see him walk right out, carrying the crown with no hesitation or shyness.  And then it was even more thrilling to hear Rylie's name announced as Safford High School's Homecoming Queen.  If anyone deserved it, she did.  She has been tireless in her efforts to make sure homecoming was special to everyone, and tireless in her efforts to boost school spirit all year long, fostering Bulldog pride in all the classes.

Queen Rylie Nora

The royal court.

The Queen and king.  His name is Chanse Rios

Rylie and the darling crown bearers.

The next night, the 18th, President and Sister Herrington came to our house to set us apart as members of the presidency of the Gila Valley Temple.  

When we were gathering, some of the kids helped us feel reverent by singing "Gethsemane."

We received wonderful blessings at the hands of President Herrington.  We were both blessed that we would be able, physically, to perform our callings, and our family was blessed through Dad.  I was blessed with the opportunity to have spiritual experiences in the Temple.  These wonderful people have always been special to us, from the very first time we became acquainted with them.  I served with President Herrington as Stake YW president and under him as Stake RS president, so we've had a lot of experience working together.  He and Dad became very good friends at girls' camp year after year, both being the first and second men to receive the Liahona Award.

On the 19th, we were invited to attend a Temple workers' dinner at the home of President and Sister Layton.  What a lovely home!  Before that started, we met at the Temple house where President and Sister Herrington are currently living.  I know that I am very annoying when I want to take pictures of everyone, so I just took a picture of one of the paintings on their wall :-}  Maybe someday I'll copy it.

On Monday, I met at the temple with  Sisters Herrington and Layton to discuss greeting cards for the Temple.  One of my assignments will be to make Christmas cards, Thank you cards, and all-occasion cards of each season, featuring the Temple.  So, keep your eyes open.  I took this one with my phone just as I was turning into the temple for my meeting.

October 21, 2015...Back to the Future Day.  We actually watched it even though it is my least favorite  Back to the Future.  It's still fun to see what 1987 thought 2015 might look like.

On the 22nd, we went to Isabel's fall concert, where she got to sing a little solo.  She is in Taste of Sound as a Sophomore... quite an honor for a girl.  

We went to Mesa the next day to meet with my siblings and distribute Grandpa's coin collection. We ate lunch with Joel, Stephanie and Levi at PFChangs.  The scarf around the horse is for Breast Cancer awareness.

Then we met at the office where my cousin, Dilworth, helped us sort out Grandpa's coin collection to distribute among my siblings.  We each brought a backpack full of coins home. Thanks for the backpacks, Joel.

While we were there, at the office, Levi tore the fingernail off his finger when he was lifting something at work.  Fortunately, Karen was there, and they called Erika, who came over, so he was well looked after. He is seeing a specialist who recommended surgery, but said he could wait it out and it would probably heal on its own in about 6 weeks.  That's the option Levi wants.

On Saturday, Dad went to Soren's and Brody's soccer games.

And stopped by to watch Crew practice baseball in the same ballpark.

That afternoon, we met Erika, Reygan and Ellie to watch Hayden's play, The Haunted.  Super scary.  Lots of ghosts, monsters, mystery and bloody death.  At least Hayden was one of the last ones to die!

The next day was Docker's Eagle Court of Honor.  There were 15 Eagles in that ward.  I kid you not.  15!  We are so proud of him.  

On Wednesday night, I went to Snow White to watch four of our kids perform.  Brianna was the wicked Queen's servant, Lindsay was Snow White's best friend, Primrose the skunk, Hyrum was a guard and part of the black forest, and Thomas was Mark Time.  He counted off the hours, days and years with funny quips.

Then we went to Mesa, yet again!  I am actually getting tired of not really living anywhere.  We had to go to meet with my brothers and sisters to divide G&G's stuff.  We had lunch with Esther and her kids, who gave us the good news that El Charro was finally open.

The next morning was the big day.  I was so anxious about it because I was afraid there would be contention and hard feelings.  But it went very well and there were just good, generous, loving feelings as we chose the things we would either keep or give to our kids. I got stuff for all of you, but not the stuff you wanted, I'm sorry.  I didn't do as well as my brothers and sisters.  They seemed to know just what to go for when it was their turn and I didn't.  I'm so sorry.  I apologize for not doing better.

Then we ate at El Charro once again.  This time with Joel and Stephanie and boys.  It was so crowded!

HALLOWEEN

We had stake conference at 1:00 on the 31st to accommodate Halloween.  I mean.  I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but I love to see my kids all dressed up.  I look forward to that.

As they get older, they don't want to dress up so much any more.  But I still like to take a picture of their Halloween visit.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE FAMILY

~NATHAN AND SHAUNA~

Bethany posted this picture of her and Palmer as they were leaving the Grand Canyon State.  Arizona misses them.

Nathan had conferences and presentations in Mexico this month.

I think this is where he was making his presentation.

I'm glad he got to see a little of Mexico's culture and life.

This is one of Josh's rescued buildings.  Isn't it beautiful?  It is the Burlington train station in Omaha.

Nathan and Shauna and their family celebrated Back to the Future day with the movie and "reconstituted" pizza.

Nathan was at an Oracle conference where his company, House of Brick, was praised as being the leading company in the field and "cutting edge."  I screen shot this from a video.

Josh is ready for Halloween.  He is the Great Gatsby, I think.

From Hannah.

~JOEL AND STEPHANIE~

The Biggs Boys at Docker's Priesthood ordination when he became a Priest.

This is the Chateau de Vie in Chandler, where Levi got to go in his capacity with Take 1 Events.  He was very impressed...so am I.

I love it that Stetson and Lindsay are starting to take their engagement pictures.  And I especially love it that she says the top one is her favorite because it perfectly portrays how she feels about him.

At the mass Eagle court of honor.

I couldn't get all the boys in the picture

I left the comment from Clothes Cabin about his Eagle project so you can see how much they appreciated the work he did.

Their neighborhood is having a Christmas decoration event early because it was being covered by a news station.  This balloon is part of it.

Levi and a group date, making haunted houses.

~DANIEL AND CONNIE~

Shannyn's amazing birthday "Connie Cake."

Waiting at the airport for their missionary to come home.  His flight had been delayed.  I'm sure Jordyn, Julian and Victor had to be thinking, "another brother?"

The welcoming committee.

Welcoming home their very own "Wisconsin Cheesehead."

When Rebecca and Scott went to WA to visit Allison, they got in touch with Devynne and Brock who joined them.  It was the first time Taylor and Brock had met.  I'm guessing they got along famously because they have so many outdoor-type hobbies in common.  And it was really good for Devynne and Allison to see each other again.

Emma's school field trip.  They dressed for early 1900's and toured Redstone castle, a huge mansion owned by the 6th richest man of that time.

They didn't waste any time before taking Parker fishing on their property.

Happy Halloween!

Analynn's class went out in the field to take notes, make sketches and write poems. I don't remember school being this much fun.

From Shadrach at the MTC.

Atlas holding up the world. Kids are so creative these days:-)

~REBECCA AND SCOTT~

Watching conference...and leftover Conference M&Ms

On Columbus Day weekend, the Evans family went to an ASU game.

Lillian took Sara Konopnicki and her missionary friend to the Temple to do baptisms.

It's a boy!

It's a boy!

Beautiful Baby Boy Bumps!! Beautiful mommies.

Scott is rerouting some of his well water from the house they bought to his own yard and Rebecca is painting the house to get it ready for renters.

And Allison and Taylor are also in the house-fixing business, for their own new house.

Dallin posted these pictures of a pumpkin throwing contestant.  I have seen a pumpkin throwing contest on TV and it's amazing the contraptions these people come up with to throw their pumpkins the farthest.  They take it very seriously and spend a lot of money on their gadgets.

Polly with her winning Junior Powderpuff team.

Polly with King Chanse and Queen Rylie

Dallin in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I remember that Grandpa always wanted to drive in those mountains in the fall to see the colors.  We would go, even if our car wasn't working well...which was a little scary...and Grandma would always yell at him to watch the road, not the scenery!

Also an autumn decorated tennis court.

So even though it's green and warm in AZ, we do have Apple Annie's to make us feel autumny.

I love this water color sketch of Dallin's.  As far as I'm concerned, water colors are the hardest medium to handle.

Lillian is so ready to go!  She reports November 20th.  She is reporting to the MTC in Manilla!  Her parents are taking her to the airport in Phoenix on the 18th and she will fly almost 2 days to the Philippines!  What a wonderful adventure for our sweet girl.

Rebecca's kids don't really dress up for Halloween any more...except for Polly who had a date, but they like treating darling nieces and nephews.

Her date is Stephanie's nephew, Lance Layton's son.  Can you tell what she is?  I was glad to be informed about her character, otherwise I was a little nervous about her date's appearance.  Now it all makes sense.

DeWitt and Lillian look like they're having fun at a Halloween bash even though they're not dressed up.

~JEREMY AND ERIKA~

Reygan had an amazing American History trip with her school this month, visiting Boston, New York and other historical places.  It looks as though she had a wonderful time with her school friends, visiting back East.  She kept pointing out how different things are there from the desert environment she is used to.  I totally get that.  When we visited NC in the summer when I was young, and it would rain (as it often did) my siblings and I would run outside and play in the rain.  My NC aunts, uncles and cousins just stared at us in total amazement and thought how silly we were. 

Jeremy is eating a Pakistani sandwich-type-burrito thing while he and Erika are waiting at the airport to pick up Reygan from her trip.

Tayte, studying for his learner's permit test...he passed!

Hayden (I think that is his toe in the foreground) celebrated Back to the Future Day too.

Erika's very professional re-covering project

Hayden's play program. It was super scary and he was one of the murdered... at the very end of the play.

Honoring Steve Nash at a Suns game.  This is what they opted for instead of El Charro.  Go figure :-}

At their annual movie-on-the-house Halloween.

From Daynen.  The bottom right picture is with Sister Nevin, who is serving in Forteleza too.  She is related to us in so many ways: She is Connie's brother's daughter, Carolyn's sister's granddaughter, and Tyson's distant cousin!

~RACHEL AND TONY~

The twins did FHE.  I love it when I see my stories being used.

At the fair.  I think they are the only local family who patronized the fair this year.  That's probably because they have never felt that they had to enter any of the contests, so they could enjoy it without stress.

Rachel and her girls at the Women's broadcast, with the sister missionaries.

Rylie always wants fresh fruit for her birthday cake.

I had Isabel do some cleaning for me before the Herringtons came and she stabbed a baby scorpion with a plastic fork.  Scorpions, watch out for Isabel!

Rylie and her friend, Momo, the activities vice president, went around to all the elementary schools in town and talked up the homecoming 100th-year festivities.

Mismatch Day for Homecoming.  All the elementary schools participated.

Throwback day.  I'll just let you figure out what decade they each are representing.

Isabel's powderpuff Sophomore team.  They might not have won, but they sure had a lot of spirit.

Rachel and Tony in front of their class' display.

Some of their pictures on the display...even including Esther.

The homecoming parade.

Waiting for the important part to begin.

Rylie and her escort, then with the king, Chanse Rios, then with the other queen candidates.

And with her sister, parents, and Momo.

And with her family...everyone wanted a picture with the queen.

Not only beautiful on the field, but useful too! I'm surprised that guys don't deliberately get hurt with Rylie and Polly to do their first aid.

At the end of Isabel's concert, the director had former choir members join in on the last song.  DeWitt stood right beside Isabel.  That made getting pictures of both of them very convenient.

The twins' 3rd grade teacher took them to Kartchner Caverns, as she has all their 4 siblings, through the years.  They've been lucky to all get such an amazing teacher.

At Apple Annie's.  

Pumpkin patch with some Alder cousins.

Brynlie and Camille tear it up in soccer.

Rachel was in charge of treats. Yumm!

Their Bishop does a Halloween spooky walk every year and Brynlie and Camille and Luke were called upon to be zombies.

~ESTHER AND SHAD~

Miss  Esther's All Stars Preschool did some fun activities this month.

Harrison is in the 3-minute club in Seminary. They have to say all the Scripture mastery in 3 minutes!

At Wicked.  Harrison plays all the songs in the original, not simplified version.  Amazing.  Especially to hear Esther and Marlie and Isabel sing along.

Shad took Esther to dee Garth Brooks!

Halloween at Miss Esther's preschool.

Costume parade.

Movie-on-the-house party...whose house? Whosever it is, Soren and Brody each seem to have a little pig-tailed friend to watch it with.

Fun (?) at a Halloween party.

~THOMAS AND JENN~
They received these flowers from the Ferrins, the original owners of their house.

Columbus Day field trip.  Notice Henry's beautiful hair.

Getting ready for the big game.

Walking with Momo out to the field.  Such a brave little boy!

Loyal fans.

When he was no longer in the spotlight, they figured it was time to cut his hair!

Thomas replaced the ceiling fan in one of the downstairs bedrooms while we were in Mesa.

Crazy hair/hat day at school.

Snow White.  It was a cute, funny version of the story.  I really  enjoyed it.

Thomas and Jenn did a Movie-on-the-house party too.

~MARY AND TYSON~

Esther made Mary a rainbow cake for her birthday!  She's had one every year since she was 3 or 4 years old.

Children's museum. I think they got a POGO pass and made good use of it over the Columbus Day weekend.

Castles and coasters.

Phoenix zoo.

Dino Days, pumpkin patch.

Brianna's choir, pumpkin patch, EAC game with Tyson.

Daddy-Daughter Date, a costume party

Mary's creativity for Lindsay's skunk costume.  She's a skunk in the Snow white play.

A beautiful family picture that Mary took herself!

This one too!

We had four kids in the play, so it made it all the more fun to watch.

After one of our October rain storms, a huge, full, double rainbow.  Their deck is the perfect place to see rainbows.

~MISSIONARIES~

Parker was an ancient prophet.

Our Wisconsin Cheesehead missionary, home at last.

Daynen doing service in Brazil.

Hannah at a baptism in Hawaii.

Shadrach at the MTC.

SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU SMILE

I included this picture of Joel being the crown bearer of Westwood High School's homecoming when he was 4.  Lisa was in charge and asked him to do it.  His partner is Laura Kempton, Kyle's big sister. I know this made you smile...admit it :-)

Maybe not something to smile about, but definitely something to think about.

Read this:

One of my purposes for writing the blog is to remind us of what a wonderful life we are living, right now, in the present.  We don't have to wait until some magical future to enjoy life. "When I get older, when I lose weight, when I get out of school, when I get a better job, better house, better car," whatever.  Now is the time to enjoy the life the Lord has blessed us with..."joy in the journey." And I really believe that happiness is a choice.  So choose to be happy.  Even when you have hard times and blue, sad times and angry, frustrated times, remember that you are basically a happy person having a hard, blue, sad, angry, frustrated time.  You make us happy.  Keep us posted about your November activities.  We love you.