Moulton November

Greetings!

I was outside in my t-shirt painting something and it's the end of November. Al Gore must've been right. The planet is frying! Shame shame shame! haha! We've had a busy couple of months and I've been remiss to write. Just a few highlights. We loved having Scott home briefly in August for our family get together. We 4-wheeled the first day.

The next day, most everyone went golfing. Oh, and Sally and Sam came up from Vegas to join us which was fun! I stayed home and mastered the art of grilling ribs! Oh my! I even passed the test with Jess' dad. He didn't believe I could do it. I showed him! Oh my! But they literally take forever so I've informed the fam, they get them once a year. Twice if they twist my arm! After the little ones went to bed, we watched, Hunger Games. which some had not seen! Fun flick! 

The next morning, the golfers took off for Heber where they golfed at one of the most beautiful, scenic courses around. They even saw deer and other wild animals checking out their mad golf skills. The rest of us met up with them later that morning at Deer Creek for a day of boating and riding wave runners, courtesy of Nic's folks. Jess' niece, Naomi and her husband, Tommy, came up to join us this day. 

Sunday was a favorite day because all the kids came to church with us. It was nice to take up a whole row for a change. We loved having everyone together.

In Sept, we celebrated Marianne and Nic's bday with Marianne's cherry pie, of course. Cottrell's came to town with Brent and Eileen for a BYU football game and we met up at Brick Oven for some delish pizza! Thanks again for dinner! So fun to finally meet Eileen! She's even cuter in person! Brent's buttons were popping! 

October was gorgeous with the colors on the mountains behind us. Jess and I went with Bryce, Amy (Bryce's new friend) and her daughter, Avery, to the pumpkin patch. We took a hayride and ate fresh apple cider donuts and drank fresh cider too. Oh yum! Fun times! Afterward, we came back home, met up with Packer's and ate Navajo tacos, per/Bryce's request! Bryce wanted to build a bonfire in the back so we roasted marshmallows and ate s'mores to our heart's content! (Did anyone notice how often we are eating? Maybe that's the problem!!!)

November brought Jess' bday and Nic's departure to his beloved Texas. He has a new job and left on Jess' bday but we met the night before for dinner and of course, Jess' apple pie. What's up with these people and their pies??????? Doesn't anyone like cake anymore? 

All their stuff got packed up, thanks to a moving company, and then Marianne moved home right before Tgiving. Nic flew home and we had a lovely Tgiving with Van Natter's again this year.We all really noticed the absence of Grammy and hope she's feeling better. It was a great day. How could it not be with 8 pies for 12 adults. Never too much pie! Marianne just flew to Texas to join Nic tho' they will be home for Cmas. They're hoping to find a home soon. 

Scott ending up driving to Omaha when his best friend's dad and brother were involved in a plane crash near Fresno. So sad but we're glad he could be of some comfort to his friend. 

Bryce is doing well in school and even got an A- in accounting: not a fun class, he says. He and Amy continue to date.

I don't think we've shared the newest member of the family. This is Sebastian, Scott's bulldog. Check out the Nebraska logo! Go Huskers! He's an old man who likes to lay around and only gets excited at the prospect of string cheese. Sebastian that is, not Scott. 

Sad to have mom miss her trip to Utah but we're glad she's on the mend. 

Hope everyone is ready for the Christmas season. We decorated last weekend and the days are quickly disappearing so I hope we don't run out of time! 

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Jess and Annette

November from Mark and Linda

Hi everyone,
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Looking back, November was an interesting month...full of highs and lows.

Here's a recap:

Lows:
I hurt my back on Halloween night and was in bad shape for a week.

I went from the jubilant high of attending the rally for Paul Ryan to feeling the anguish of Romney's loss the next day. On my birthday! Being home alone was horrible. Still dealing with it.

Mom went to the hospital with diverticulitis. So awful to watch her suffer.....

Highs:
Toni surprised me for my 60th birthday! When i opened the door at 8 on Sunday evening i couldn't have been more shocked. I bawled! She had all sorts of things planned for the next day:
manicures
lunch at Miss Spensers Tea Room way out in the country
the Paul Ryan rally
take out from PF Changs- eating it in our jammies in front of the TV
lots of talking
breakfast on my bday morning at Panera...hot chocolate of course and a pastry

 Mom treated me to lunch at Mimi's for my birthday:

Mark came home with flowers. For my birthday present: He forgave my debt!!! I bawled.

I got a new calling: Primary Presidency Counselor. This was my last day with my sweet little CTR 4 class:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Grandma Cottrell would be proud of me: She always said that when i got married i couldn't boil water. And now i am cooking for 20 people and it all tasted great.

Highlights included:
Claire and Calvin here
Eileen's mom Yolanda here
Mom able to come after getting out of the hospital
lots of crockpotted food which really helped!: potatoes, sweet potatoes, all the veggies, ham etc

We took the kids to see Santa

Julie announced that they are having baby #3 next June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I FINALLYYYYYY got my etsy shop up and running. I am just starting out with 7 Bible flannel board stories. This has been hanging over my head all year...so YAY!!!!  Here's the link for my store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LindyJDesign

All of my patterns are free to the family. Just email me and tell me if you would like any:
Linda@Cottinjohn.com

This is our November...over and out.

Christmas Card Addresses

We're going to try to get the addresses posted for the kids who have moved since last Christmas.



Emily & Jacob Stephenson
5839 E. Dakota Ave
Fresno CA 93727 

Jacob & Amanda Baker

988 N. 1750 W.

Pleasant Grove, UT

84062

Kelli & Emmanuel Castro

115 W. Fordice Rd.

Lebanon, IN

46052

Holly Baker

117 High St.

Vermillion, SD

57069

Scott Moulton

15500 Cutten Road

Apt 1203

Houston, TX 77070

Colin Baker

9051 S 1075 W

B301

West Jordan, UT

84088

ABC Family & Hallmark Christmas Movies

Thinking ahead - if you like to plan for some fun Christmas movies ABC Family has their 25 days of Christmas listed here:
25 Days of Christmas- ABC Family

Hallmark Channel has already started theirs. So for some sappy Christmas fun:
Hallmark Channel Christmas movies

I'm kind of partial to the Mrs. Miracle movies. Cheesy yet sweet!

Here are the Hallmark Channel's 12 Original Movies of Christmas
Hallmark's 12 Original Movies of Christmas

Stephensons Sept-Oct

In September Jacob started back on a "wards" rotation at the hospital which is a very hard rotation. He gets every other weekend off so for his 6 week rotation he had 6 days off total. A couple days a week he had evening call where he didn't get home until 9-12 PM, just depending on the day. Occasionally he'd get done around 5 but most days 7 is average. He was very sleep deprived! We hoped when he started wards at the VA it would be easier but that hasn't been true. It's been less stressful but the hours have generally been as bad and he's got evening call more often. This residency business is no joke.

In September we had to turn Addie's crib into a toddler bed because she kept climbing out. She's been capable of doing it for a year or more but never did it until now, which I guess is a blessing. Since then her sleep has been a rollercoaster. It took her awhile to get used to her new surroundings, then she started sleeping well again. Then suddenly at the beginning of October started waking up multiple times a night, or waking up for the day at 5:00 AM! I was dying. This week we finally just cut out the nap, even though she happily takes a 2-3 hour one, because I couldn't keep getting up with her that much at night (sometimes 5 times a night!) It seems to be better now that she doesn't nap, but sometimes she still wakes up. At this point I'm just doing the best I can to get us back to a schedule.

Now that she isn't napping it's really hard to find time to work on our business, which thankfully is still doing really well. What a crazy few months it's been for us, but we are so happy with the way things have worked out for us. I've been working on a 1st grade morning work book for months and it's still not done.

I've been having some problems with a back spasm for about a year that I finally went to Urgentcare for. The pain meds helped a lot and it's been a few weeks since I've had any problems. Crossing my fingers it's better now. Addie and I both got a stomach bug that wiped us out for a week.

We went up to the Sequoias and Kings Canyon one Sunday. It's about 45 minutes from our house. The yearly pass was only $10 more than a day pass so we have the annual pass now. Jacob already went back up with Addie once (when I was sick.) I'm sure we'll be back more. Though I must admit that Addie isn't all that impressed with the giant trees. 

In late October we went down to LA to visit with my college roommates. Emily still lives there and Lori was in town for a wedding. We almost didn't go because I had been sick that week but I started feeling better Saturday morning we decided to just go for it. It was a little bit crazy but worth it. Jacob booked our hotel online and didn't notice that the hotel he chose, which was listed as being in the area we wanted to be in, was actually 30 minutes away from there! Oops!

For Halloween Addie was Little Red Riding Hood, only she refused to wear the hood! So she was basically a little girl in a cute outfit. We tried to go to the kids trick or treating at the mall but by the time Jacob got home from work and we got there they were out of candy. She was not impressed with the whole thing anyway. We went to the pumpkin patch after that and picked out a pumpkin, since we hadn't had time to any other day. She was much more interested in pulling around the little wagons than in actually picking a pumpkin. We practiced trick or treating at home a couple times then went to a few neighbors houses. She hated it. Totally froze when we got to the door and after two houses asked to go home. She much preferred answering the door at home for trick or treaters, though she still hung back quietly. But she was very happy about the whole candy thing. She only had a few pieces but she was bouncing off the walls!

Van Natters - October

Final professional work on the addition ended in early October when Josh did a couple of things the city inspector wanted, like adding a railing on the half wall coming out of the basement. We had kept the one they'd removed and he just reinstalled it temporarily to pass inspection. We will remove it since we can't access the cubby behind the stairs with it in place. 

John is painting the living room. It takes a long time because of his perfectionism. Can't count how many times he's patched and repatched, then primed, painted...then patched again! He has taken several days off so this project can be done before we have company for the holidays. Ian helped him with the painting. Probably one more day for the living room, then the entryway... Curtains have been hung in kitchen and laundry room, so it feels like progress at least!

I can't do any fall/Halloween decorating this year since the main living spaces are still in a mess, but I could decorate the mantel in the new family room. We have no furniture in there and spend exactly ZERO time in there currently, but the mantel is decorated for fall!

We went leaf peeping during the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference. It was lovely listening to conference while out in the beautiful October colors. We drove to Snow Basin and then up toward Monte Cristo (northeast of Huntsville.)

I've been cleaning, tidying, organizing, and generally trying to get the house into usable shape, and ready for company. Trying to get meals in the freezer and preparing for baking yet to come.

Ian bought a truck. We have lots of plans for using it -with stuff to go to the dump, DI, and other stuff to buy. (Like the Expedit I want from Ikea!! They would charge $200 to ship it!!!)

Heidi came up one Saturday to see the addition. While she was here we learned to make origami stars. I had visions of putting them in an apothecary jar for Christmas, but it turns out they are HARD to make look really good! Heidi was MUCH better than me. These are my not-so-great stars. There are maybe 2 that are just right! The white and blue are practice. The music paper ones were supposed to be the real ones... yeah...

 We got our first snow on the 25th. Most of the leaves haven't even all fallen yet. This red maple tree in the backyard usually turns a brilliant red. So far it's not promising that it will - it's just kind of blah.

We had an amazing Sacrament Meeting last week. Instead of having the usual: opening song, opening prayer, announcements, Sacrament, talks, etc., our Bishop got up after the opening prayer and proceeded to teach us about the importance of the Sacrament. How we so often take it for granted because it is just routine. He had a few people (asked in advance) to bear their testimonies about the Sacrament, the choir sang a beautiful arrangement of a Sacrament hymn, then the Bishop taught us some more. Finally at the close of the meeting, we sang the Sacrament hymn, then partook of the Sacrament. It felt like a sacred experience. The Spirit was strong then and throughout the rest of the block. Which was nice since I taught in RS that day. It carried over which helped me teach and touch hearts.

...and so we say Happy Halloween today, goodbye beautiful October and hello November with all its reminders to be grateful. I am grateful for each of you, and your dedication to the family. Love you all, and thanks for your support. 

Roy Liechtenstein-inspired costume

Mom suggested I post pics of the costume here. More are on Facebook, if you're interested, but I might as well preserve them here for . . . posterity? Sure. We'll go with that.