October Wrap Up

Here are a few October wrap up items:

My parents went to Yellowstone last month and they brought home little stuffed animals for the kids and gave each kid their stuffed animal during one of their Thursday visits. 

It was Haderlie weekend and the kids had a really great time. The weather was beautiful. The kids had a fire pit building contest to see who could build the best fire pit. We also had a fun time playing with the magna tiles. 

We finished the weekend by taking the whole crew to church, which happened to be the primary program, so all of our kids got to go up and sing. 

As Jenna was trying to leave, the kids made it very clear that they could not go until they had a "cousin crew takedown hug."

The kids saved up their family economy money so that we could go to the movie theater to see the new Paw Patrol movie. Shantel helped the kids even do a color coating to match the different pups. We had a really fun time at the movie together. We saved enough for the movie, plus two full buckets of popcorn. 

We invited Shantel's mom to come and she could not make it, but sent $5 dollars for each kids to pick a treat. They were so excited and so they all picked a delicious treat. Austin - Slushie with ice cream; Caleb - Skittles; Lucy - Ice Cream cone; Lydia - Shake. 

Shantel and I traded over going to the temple this month. She went one night and then I went the next night. We went to the newly dedicated Saratoga Springs temple. My work week ended up being really busy and I was really stressed about getting things done. On Thursday I was really thinking I needed to just stay late and work instead of going to the temple. But I could feel the importance of making that sacrifice and felt the Holy Ghost tell me to go and let everything else work itself out. I went and really enjoyed the session and felt uplifted and strengthened. A couple days later, Shantel decided to go up to her parents on a Friday and stay the night and I ended up working late on that Friday night and then working on Saturday morning and was able to get the things done that I needed. It might not feel like a blessing (not being able to go up Friday night to Morgan and instead working), however, I really feel like it was. The kids and Shantel were doing fun things and were fine doing those without me and I was able to attend the temple and get my work done. I was really grateful to be able to do that. 

The kids eating nacho soup using their favorite tiny bowls to eat the soup (tiny bowls and tiny spoons). That is such a great family tradition. 

I had a conference for CCH, which is the company that makes the audit software we use, in Orlando. It was a great trip and we had some really great speakers. One of the favorites was Daymond John from Shark Tank (Shantel and I love watching Shark Tank together). There was also a speaker, Ben Nemtin, who was really interesting and I enjoyed him talking about his bucket list. I want to try and do better and be better at really doing the things in life that will be fulfilling. 

Also, the resort was incredible and I was so sad that Shantel was not there with me. She could have enjoyed the pool area while I was in the conference. We did get to go to the New York section of Universal studios one night and that was really fun. Overall, it was a good trip.