UTAH FALL

Utah sky on a cold morning

David Batchelor:  In all the fuss about the kids and being excited about their dad's birthday we neglected to post about what a wonderful man he is and how much we love him.  He is trying so hard to do his church callings, be a good husband, spend time with his children, work, study for his orals and keep family centered that we don't always let him know how proud we are of him.  He has brought such happiness to Kristin and fulfilled her dreams.  He always has a positive attitude and tries to help everyone, sometimes at a loss of much study time.  He is a man of God. We are glad he is a part of our family.

Visiting in Murphy.  There are no pictures of him alone.  He is always with family.

This Sunday we went to Scott's ward to see Ava in her Primary program.  It was wonderful.  She knew every song and said her part just right.  Bethany helped all the children in that she is in the presidency.  She was good too.  Ava yawned the whole time.  Hilarious.  Let that child go to bed at night.

Erik and Shanelle's boys have mowed our lawns all summer and I have not taken one picture.  My bad. They have really been a great help.  The little boys picked up apples off the ground for 2 cents a piece.  They were always so excited to earn money too.  We just loved having them here.  We loved having Shanelle too.

I put up some Halloween décor and made bread out of a bucket of flour I had left behind.  The bread was good so we had scones for dinner and cinnamon rolls for dessert.  Boy do I love to watch calories.  I have lost 12 of the 20 pounds I gained on our mission.  How can that be eating that way?

Kristin sent this tie home with me for dad from Italy.  I guess I was supposed to save it for his birthday.  Oops!
You know you have to write directions down for me or I will forget what you told me.

We had ham and beans the next day to see if the beans were any good.  Not bad but not good either.  I guess we will throw 25 pounds away.  I wish I could lose those pounds that easily.  We’ll buy more and store them differently.  We invited Scott over to help eat what I had fixed.  We had to get rid of them somehow.  The kids ate the ham but left the beans.  That’s a pretty good indicator of how they were.  They helped me finish the decorations.  Again, no pictures.  Sorry!

back view

front view

We woke up to snow Friday morning.  Only a dusting but it was 30 degrees.  Dad went out and picked 35 gallons of apples from our 2 trees.

  He had dried about 10 gallons and I don’t know how many the boys picked off the ground that we threw away.  Great crop this year.
Saturday was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints.  I love conference.  It was such a good session and was over before we realized it had been 2 hours.  Amazing!  Every speaker was just for us.  We both took many notes so I am not recapping here.  I always love hearing from our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.  He told us that now is the time to join with the missionaries and do our share in spreading the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  So true.
Scott brought the kids over at 4 so he could surprise Bethany with a birthday date. 
We are so happy to have Bethany in our eternal family. We fell in love with her the first time she walked through our door.  She makes Scott so happy and is such a good mother to those precious children. She loves doing things at home and keeps Scott busy with a "Honey Do" list. She works right along side of him and isn't afraid to try anything.  She is now in the Primary Presidency and loves working with the children.  She is definitely a blessed addition to our family.

 At 4:30 we took them home and George went to Erik's to get Erik and Parker and go to dinner before the priesthood session.  He came back so excited.  It was the first time he had ever gone with a grandson.  It was very special for him.  I wish I had taken a picture.  I've got to be better about that.  I stayed with the kids and played.  It was so fun.  They have way too much energy.  When George got back we put them to bed.  They went so easily.  We then watched "Hugo"  We never watch movies so it was fun.  Of course I didn't take pictures.
Sunday was more conference.  Yahoo!  Erik's family came to watch with us.  They were so good.  Shanelle had copies pages of activities to do while watching conference. They listened to every speaker so diligently.  Gotta love that. 

The conference was as usual just for us.  We learned some information we had never thought of before of the fathers of the stripling warriors.
Between sessions, Scott's family joined us for waffles and whipped cream with berries.  Family tradition.  I love this activity and boy do those kids love sausage.  We do this every conference.

Erik and Scott went in the basement bedroom, (Erik's) to check our concern about some mold that might have creeped in. Dad will tear our wall board out and Scott will be here Tuesday to start putting up new. Hopefully we can fix the carpet without having to get new. Oh well.
Life is great and I love my husband. (I love my wife! She always does the blog, and then i edit it.  So I never get to talk about how incredible she is.)