October 2022

October started out beautifully with our trip to Utah and General Conference as I have shared in the previous post. 

This month I have been embracing the Autumn season and getting creative.

Also this month I have continued to serve in the community.  In September and October I have been able to help with the High Plains Food Bank, The Guyon Sanders homeless shelter, the Refugee Services of Texas (preparing an apartment for a family), and the Salvation Army Angel Tree registration.  I am lucky to have Mindy Smith who has let me know about some of these opportunities and I found RST on the Just Serve web site.  Speaking of Just Serve, I was recently called as a Communications Specialist over Just Serve for my Stake.  I have been learning more about this calling and will enjoy being mentored by my director and the Stake Leadership.  This will definitely be a growing calling for me! 

I have also stayed busy with appointments (insurance, doctors, and vet visits), a new book club, a self reliance class, errands, computer work, yard projects, and shuttling to kids' activities.

School marches on for the kids.  Christian is getting used to the teachers here and making more friends.  This is a paper he wrote about his time on the houseboat this summer.

Sheri's football games and marching band competitions continue.  She has had such a fun time with her friend Kate!

At this competition Bushland qualified to go to regionals, which were held the next weekend.  

They got home from regionals quite late, at 10:30 pm.  The last competition held this month was held in Abilene (they left at 6:00 am and they got home at 2:30 am the next morning)!  It was a very long day!

Soccer also continued this month, but sorry, no pictures.

We LOVE having church at noon, especially after those late Saturday nights!  It also gives us a little more time to try out new hairstyles.

Also, in the month of October Christian had his Primary Program.  We enjoyed hearing his testimony about how his prayers have been answered and also his small group that sang.  His class also sang Gethsemane on the Sunday I spoke in church.  It was so beautiful!

October was the Fall Festival at Christian's Elementary School.  He had a fun time with friends!

Sheri and Sterling were tasked with creating the high school's haunted house as part of their Theatre class.  They enjoyed learning to do masks, makeup, sets for the hallways, and practicing screams.  They were exhausted after the long day at the haunted house! (Sheri also had an early morning temple trip and soccer game this day.)  Our ward had their Trunk or Treat which Matt helped set up for and Christian and I attended.

Halloween was a lot of fun!  We went to Blue Sky hamburgers with the Vests for dinner and then trick or treated with Christian's friends, Kale and Andy in our neighborhood.  I had a great time driving the kids around with Kale's parents, Lisa and Syrus.  The Vests came over for games after trick or treating.

Eve dressed up with her cousins/roommates as Tinkerbell.  Sabey was Wendy and Camille was Captain Hook.  They have a ball together.

Other fun things Eve has done this month include painting pumpkins with her FHE group, going to BYU football games, cooking together, listening to fun music, and laughing/being silly late at night.  She is loving her college experience.

Unfortunately Eve has continued to have some health struggles. This month she had another gastritis attack (which took her to the ER last month), an urticaria/rash all over, and she got an awful cold a week after that.  

On the bright side, her other autoimmune symptoms seem to be improving overall.  She works hard to be a diligent student, keep her outlook positive, and continues to serve and love her roommates.  

One thing that boosted her spirits was her new haircut.  I love it!

Overall it has been a good month!  We are grateful for all the things that make each day fun and sweet!

September 2022

September was great for settling into the routine!  After so much transition in August it was nice to have time to let the dust settle.  Here is what we have been up to.

  

Marching band/football game season has started for Sheri.  She is busy with band most weekends.  She has learned many of the songs along with marching formations quickly.  Her good friend, Kate Vest is also in band with her and they have a lot of fun!

This photo was taken by the school photographer. 

Eve is doing great at BYU!  She even got to see Ivan at a football game.  Eve enjoys going to all the games with her cousins as well as other sporting events.  She also got to attend World of Dance, and Sabey's choral concert.  There are so many fun opportunities at BYU for her!

Soccer has started for Sheri.  She plays on a coed team and does quite well, though she wishes she could be at more games and practices.  She has quite a few conflicts with band.

We were able to hit the lake with our friends, the Pearsons, the Moncivais, and the Bartons.

We are finding new critters.  This is a horny toad we found in our yard.

Tarantula season has begun.  This was on the door at the church one evening.  I also have seen them on my walks and even in my front yard!

Matt's started planting some fruit trees.  We have 2 cherry, 2 apple, 2 nectarine, 2 figs, a 2 plums, and 2 pears.  We hear it's hard to get fruit here due to the wind and storms. Hopefully the Lord will help us. :)

The kids have had some fun events.  They got to have a fall festival stake youth activity.  Here Sterling is in the pie eating contest.

They also had dress up days for Spirit Week.  This day was bikers vs beach theme.  Christian had a camouflage day.

Christian had a great birthday this year!  At school his substitute teacher is a friend (and seminary teacher) of ours.  She surprised him with his favorite candy bar at school and they played lots of fun games during her PE class.

For Christian's Birthday this year he just wanted to have big group of friends over to play.  He loves to make his own invitations.  His theme was Naruto, a Japanese ninja anime series.

The kids played hide and go seek, nerf wars, tag, and many other games.  We had chocolate chip pancakes for dinner and fun snacks.  They had a great time!  I was glad to get to know some moms so that we can have future play dates.  Here the boys are being silly, paying homage to the mini fridge filled with cash that Christian won at school.

Near the end of September we were able to go to Utah.  We were able to get tickets for Saturday morning General Conference and tickets for the BYU game.  It was also a little reunion for Matt with some of his Houston friends from his childhood.

We stayed with Regan Fackrell at their little cabin up Provo Canyon.  It is a lovely spot!  The kids had a great time reconnecting to the Fackrells.

The game on Thursday was so fun!  The energy is awesome at Lavell Edwards Stadium!  Here we are with Jeremy Mustard and Regan.  It was a lot of fun to get to know Jeremy and his wife!

Eve took Sterling to the student section for part of the game and he got a taste of the wild energy they have over there.  He also got to see all the cousins.

It was fun to reconnect with Eve.

Friday we took the high school age kids to BYU for a tour of campus.  Sterling is getting excited to apply.  Then we headed up to Sundance with our friends.  The leaves and other scenery were very beautiful and we remarked on the whole trip how beautiful everything was!

In the evening we went to dinner and then watched a movie at Regan's cabin.

Saturday morning we went to Salt Lake for General Conference.  My kids have never attended in person so this was quite a neat experience!  This photo was taken by the church photographer and we found it online later.

There is definitely a special spirit when the prophet enters the room.  We enjoyed all of the messages and announcements.  Afterwards, we walked around temple square briefly and got to see the tabernacle and the assembly hall.   

Then we loved meeting Ivan for lunch!  It was fun to hear his news and about his recent travels.  We were so glad we could meet up!

Meanwhile, Sheri stayed in Texas because of her school and band commitments.  She had a band competition.  This photo was taken by the school photographer.  I love it!  

She also got to play at the homecoming football game (Friday night) and go to the dance with friends on Saturday night.  I am so glad the kids have made friends quickly.  She had lots of support and stayed busy while we were gone!

Well, we had a LONG drive home Sunday since we didn't stop half way, but it was a very pleasant trip.  We went through beautiful mountains of Colorado and saw lots of cool scenery and even some buffalo!

All in all, it's been a beautiful month!