Oh my, Oh my, October

     I must have missed the memo that stated that October is the new December and that every activity known to man would be planned during this month.  I'm scared that the months ahead could be even worse, and it is making me a little blue! Time is such a precious thing, and when there is party after party, I wonder how familiies ever find their together time, and if you know me, I'm all about our family time.  With school starting this year we have gotten out of the habit of going on family outings, and I am sorely missing it all!  Too many pulls from all directions, and I want to go away where no one can reach me for anything.  I am so glad for the council of the prophet and apostles that helps me to prioritize and know when we need to cut back!  There are so many that feel bad that their children cannot be in this or that, but what our children really need is our time.  I have learned that from moving here.  My children are happiest when we have that time together as a family and we make that our priority, not all the hustle and bustle of all the extras.......So, now that I have vented, let me tell you about our busy October...

I wrote this in the middle of it all, and now that it's over, I am breathing a sigh of relief and things are all good... not perfect, but good.

We started off the month right with general conference, and that is probably what got us through.
The 2nd weekend our ward/stake had some major service projects that were planned.  The first was to help the fire victims down in Bastrop which is a town about 20 miles south of us.  It was quite devistating with so many people losing everything, but 2 stakes nearby organized a day of service down there to help people clear their land.  The LDS church that day had over 700 volunteers, which was more than any other group.  It was a pretty cool thing, and even made the news!  These pics do not do it justice, but Grant and Blake said that it was so humbly to see the devistation and how the fire could take one house and then turna dn miss the house next door completely.  Crazy stuff!!  And we thought the fires in Idaho were bad! All that was left of houses were the stone entries, so the boys threw a lot of stone!!

This is what they started with,               and this is what they cleared it to...

This was a fire that stopped right at the property line of this farm which was about 1 mile down the road for us.  3 families in our ward had to be evacuated for this one, all while we were in church one Sunday.

Weekend #3 our ward did a service project at a home for kids waiting for foster care.  We sent the boys off again to do manual labor to help with cleaning up the grounds and do a little painting. Grant was gratious enough to snap at least one picture in the middle of working:). 

The kids all had a few days off of school, why in October I'm not sure, but this as always was a challenge with both of us working, but they managed to have some fun anyway.  During October, our social lives ramped up too and we had Sunday dinner with 3 different families: the Velasquez's, the Townsen'ds and the Holloway's.  They were all amazing families and it was fun to get to know them a little better.  Then between the RS meetings, a continuing ed class, extra pressure with work for Grant, baby showers, Activity days, and scouts, our other days were occopied. 

 Weekend #4 was our ward Halloween carnival.  The kiddos got to play games...

And more games!

Then the best was the pie eating contest!

Grant and Blake did awesome, but realized half way through that that much pie isn't as good as it looks:)! we also met some new friends from our neighborhood there who have some cutey kiddos one of which is a cute little downsyndrome girl that instantly became my friend!! 

 

The next day we had the Paige and Jason's scool carnival, the "Mustang Round-up."

We found some fugatives...

rode a pony...

 

                                                                 ate snowcones...

and played in obstacle courses.

It is football season again and our Broncos are surely not forgotten!  We have our first friends from Hutto (the Mittlestads, who are from Idaho) over for the games we can get on our TV and we go to our friends, the Deaton's, for the games we can't.  The Deaton's Moved here from Idaho too, but that is a story for another time. 

Weekend #5 brought a mountain biking ride for Blake and Grant and a fun pumpkin carving party at our friends the Shirley's.  It was a good way to get in the Halloween mood and was really fun to get together with friends!! We didn't get enough pics of this, but this is Jason and our friends the Harveys carving away.

Meg gave me good instructions for her's:).  She carved one side and I the other.  I don't have a pic of the finished products though:(.

We had a great time with all the craziness, but I think even the kids were ready for a break. 

Stay tuned for "Halloween"!