We started off the month with General Conference. Also, Matt flew to California to interview for a job opportunity. It is very interesting that this opportunity came when it did. More on that in upcoming posts. Conference was such an uplifting conference! We are so grateful for time to gather together to hear the prophet, apostles, and other church leaders!
Much of our routine is the same as September. Christian continues to progress in school. Here are some of his cute pictures.
Cheer. Cross Country, dance, piano, and Soccer continue.
Here Sterling is with a friend from the Cross Country team.
This is his coach and his certificate at the banquet. I am glad he had a good experience with Cross Country.
Here are some other random fun photos from our October.
Here is a random family pile on.
A beautiful October sunset.
Christian catching a toad in the back yard.
Harvesting our garden.
Katie Buskin and I finished our half marathon. We were unable to race in Cincinnati because the race filled up before we were able to register. We just ran it on our own. I don't look pretty here, but don't judge! How would you look after 13.1 miles? Ha! Oh, I also forgot to mention that in September I picked up 4 new piano students. Three are Katie's kids and one is Nalani Watabe, a friend's daughter. So that brings my total to 8, including my kids. My life is busy these days with tending and teaching along with all the regular activities. I feel happy!
Christian and I had the opportunity to go to the pumpkin patch with his class. He had a great time!
Matthew and Sterling got to attend a football game at OSU. That was pretty cool, since there is a lot of Buckeye pride here in Ohio.
Our good friends, the Hoyles brought Sterling and Sheri to the apple orchard and shared some fun pictures! We truly LOVE the Hoyles!
We feel so blessed to have such great friends here in Ohio!
In less exciting, but notable news . . . we had new drainage pipes put in from our sump pump to the front of our property (a considerable distance) to address the water issues that we have been dealing with in the past year. We have also been doing LOTS of painting, home repairs, and yard clean up as we anticipate a possible job switch in the near future.
A fun major highlight in October was Annie's family coming to visit for the weekend. We had such a great time! Here we are at a local nature center.
Then we went on a walk through the park/wooded area. Ohio has great parks!
Here are Sheri and Mary enjoying our rabbits.
We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese.
Sunday after church Matt built us a fire in the back yard. We have loved having a fire pit and have used it a lot with the many tree branches that fall in our yard.
Annie's trip was very quick, but you have to squeeze in time wherever you can find it. During Annie's visit we learned that my Grandma Iola Murray passed on. We quickly arranged flights to Utah for the following weekend.
Going to Utah was a great opportunity to reconnect with the Murrays!
These are Aaron/ Holly Murray's and Cat/Aaron William's babies in their Halloween costumes. Adorable!
My two baby nephews with Adam and Nicolle.
Tom and Judy's family with us (John and Bonnie's).
My closest Murray cousin, Natalie. We look quite a bit alike I think.
Hannah, Me, and Ivan
Ivan and Augustine
Parker, Jordan, Catherine, Me, Ivan, and Augustine.
Paul's twins, Ben and Michael with Cat and Augustine.
Jason and Ivan. Good looking, troublemakers all grown up.
I was very grateful for this opportunity! It was very special to hear the remarks from my dad and his siblings, and hear my sisters perform "O Divine Redeemer." I also felt reverence and gratitude for the legacy that my Grandparents have left. I admire their deep commitment to the gospel! I am looking forward to seeing them again some day. Here is my beautiful Grandma Iola Murray.
Events like this make you cherish your relationships even more! When I returned home we had just a day or two to prepare for Halloween. We wanted to spend time with our sweet friends, the Kleins.
The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins with them and then we had dinner and went trick or treating on Halloween. We feel such love for the Kleins!
Also, Here are a few school Halloween pictures.
As you can see we have a beautiful life. It is filled with excitement, adventure, friends, family, happy times, and the gospel of Jesus Christ to give us peace and keep us grounded through it all. How blessed we feel!
