November

The rest of November went pretty smoothly...compared with its start! 

Julia finally discovered the joy of dress up! She loves wearing this everywhere!! I love it! 

My brother is in the Marshall Islands so we have to ship his Christmas to him really early. We made him snowmen out of white pom poms! It was so fun that we did it for Anth's parents too! 

Anthony got out his guitar one night and helped each of the kids play a little tune!

Peter had a Thanksgiving program that we attended! It was a lot of fun! 

Julia discovered scarfs and couldn't be happier then went I wrap one around her neck!

Matthew fell while we were at play group and hit his elbow on the gym floor. I became worried when it started swelling and he couldn't extend it. I ran him in for an x-ray that he wasn't too thrilled about. He wouldn't let them get a good picture! He fought off me and three nurses! They decided that he was probably okay if he was fighting all of us! 

Just a little side note: all of us except Andrew had a x-ray this year! CRAZY!!!

We spent Thanksgiving with Anthony's family this year. Because there are so many of us (66 total) we split in to small groups and have dinner and then get all together for pie. We had dinner at Ashley and Michelle's house and were joined by  Charles and Nancy and Lynn and Rebecca! It was great to be all together! We had a very small football game until Andrew got in the way of my elbow and got a bloody lip.Oh, the memories! 

 We then headed over for some pie and chatting and that Anthony went to Walmart with his brother to try and get some Black Friday sales. No luck! Maybe next year!

Anth's Appendix Story

Two days after Halloween, Anthony's company had a trick or treat event at their workplace. For the third time ( with not a little grumbling) I got the kids into their costumes and drove over to do one more round of trick or treating. Anthony walked around with us and then started complaining that his stomach hurt. We both just brushed it, blaming the Chili Cook Off that they had participated in earlier. But as the night progressed, the pain got more intense. I have to admit that I was a little perturbed that he would choose that night to get sick. I was thinking all the thoughts that all wives out there think about Men colds and how we don't get sick leave. I blame the THREE days of Halloween I endured, plus the sugar crazed maniacs that also go by the names of my children. By 9:00 he was in a lot of pain and asked for a blessing.I then called some good friends who came right over. They both remarked how bad he looked. I had started repenting of my selfish thoughts by then. We both just thought that it was food poisoning 

 By 11:00 Anthony felt prompted to go to the hospital. I too felt the feeling to go and to go now. I called my wonderful sister who dropped everything and came over to stay with our kids while I ran him in. 

After getting some good meds and getting a CT scan and waiting for 4 hours,  it was discovered that his appendix was infected. 

Being brave for the kids! We try and take pics when stuff like this happens, so that they can see that you don't need to be afraid.  (In reality, I think we were both a little scared!)

  

After talking with the surgeon, I hurried home to update my sister and grab a change of clothes and other things.  This is Anthony right before they took him back for surgery. 

I went up to his room while they did the surgery and slept like a log on the pull-out bed chair thing! I texted all the family (Anth's and mine) to let them know what was happening. I called his parents in Australia and kept them updated as well. Everything went very smoothly and we spent two days in the hospital recovering.  Kind of like a mini vacation for the two of us...okay not really!

This is a week of not shaving. He only made it four days without going back to work. I commissioned his brothers to make sure that he didn't lift anything and to try and make sure he took it easy! 

He was told not to lift anything for 6 weeks. I teased him that he timed it just right because all the bikes need hung in the garage and all the Christmas totes brought down. 

So thankful for all the family and friends that helped us out in our time of need! For all the babysitting so that I could stay by Anthony through the whole ordeal and for all the meals afterwards. 

The rest of our October

The rest of October flew by with Conference and all the fall festivities. 

One of our conference activities was to build marshmallow temples. If you look close you can see the another one point out from under the couch. Magazine collages are always a big hit!

This is how Julia helps clear the table

Anthony borrowed a fog machine from one of his brothers (I think) for a mutual activity. He tried it out in the backyard and gave the neighbors a scare! They thought our yard was on fire! 

Julia sometimes has a hard time going to sleep if she takes a late nap so here she is staying up with  us coloring in one of her coloring books. 

Already for church! 

Julia is gets upset because all the boys have ties and she isn't allowed to wear one too! I'm wearing a scarf so she really feels left out. We found this old pink tie that was one of the boys and let her wear it around. Made her feel all better! 

This is what a typical after church time looks like! Julia sacked out on the couch, catching up on a nap, and me and Suzy getting a quick snooze! 

And this is Matthew's after church routine... sneaking as much out of the cupboards as he can!

Julia must have been really tired this day! She fall asleep at the table! 

The beautiful sunset we enjoyed as we journeyed to a pumpkin patch in Rigby!

Selecting the right pumpkin always takes a lot thought... well okay... 10 minutes! 

Especially when its freezing!!! 

I love the fall because that's when all the big apples come on! I ordered a box of these from our local farmer! They were huge and oh so good! I can hardly wait till next year!

The annual craving of the pumpkins!

I wisened up this year and bought LED tealights from the dollar store to put in our pumpkins! So much better then trying to use ones you have to light! These ones stay on no matter what! 

Matthew and Julia reading together! So cute!

My Halloween crew! 

Peter was a pirate! Urg!!! 

It sure came in handy when pirate day was earlier that week!

We did a ward Halloween costume swap and we got this awesome costume on loan! 

Matthew decided he wanted to be a bat at first and then changed his mind when the actual holiday came!

I think we were going with a butterfly for Julia! I can't really remember! 

She loved her wings and went through two pair before Halloween even came!

Julia let me talk her into wearing this for a few seconds! She thought she was so pretty!

The Straw Maze and October Birthdays

One of the many Monsons traditions that we have is to go the Straw Maze every year. We usually end up picking the nastiest, coldest ever and this year was no exception! It's wasn't really cold just a really windy!

I love my new I-Phone!! It makes it really handy to take photos without having to haul my big camera and HEAVY lens around!

Great Grandma and Julia...she had just recently joined the world of Facebook and used this as her profile! I have one hip Grandma!

The kids had fun jumping off the hay into a big pile of lose hay! 

We then headed back to our place to have birthday cobbler and presents! It was Rachal's 22nd birthday and she surprised us all by turning in her mission papers a few weeks before it. She received her call two days before! One day after her real birthday!

Tabitha also had a birthday! Happy Birthday to all!

Rachal's Mission Call

My amazing sister, Rachal, chose to serve a mission. We all waited on pins and needles for that mysterious white envelope to arrive! The day that it arrived we all gathered together to hear the big reveal! 

She got called to the Arizona Tempe Mission and she was to report on January 30th! We are all so proud of her and so excited that she made this choice to serve a mission. 

Love you Rachal!