January 25th - February 21st

In Our Family This Past Month!
* Made more preparations for moving! Moving company has come out and surveyed/estimated our household and we should be departing Minot in about 4 weeks.
* Seth started and completed his Eagle Scout Project. He had completed another Eagle Project right before we moved to Minot (a Toy Drive for the St. Luke's Children's Hospital in Boise, Idaho) but he was missing a key signature and so the BSA would not accept it. Feeling frustrated and disappointed, Seth was discouraged and didn't pursue his Eagle any further at that point. In January 2016, when he learned we'd be moving to Billings, a fire was lit under him and he had a strong desire to complete a 2nd Eagle project. This time, he did a food and supply drive for the local animal shelter here in Minot (where we adopted Steve from in July 2014). He orchestrated groups of scouts to go to local businesses for donations, advertised in the community, gathered up the donations and then did the final delivery to the animal shelter.
* Ben and Dad participated in the Klondike (for Scouts)
* Ben had a winter scout campout
* Ben had a "going away" party with some friends
* Seth got all of his medical/dental exams taken care of for his Mission. He got his wisdom teeth out, final exam with the dentist (and had 2 cavities filled) and met with the doctor for his in depth physical and testing. Unfortunately, we couldn't find his shot records anywhere (and after mom spent hours calling all previous doctors and schools to see if we could get a copy sent to us to no avail) he has had to re-do his shots!
* August has been working 40+ hours a week at Papa Johns
* Dad took a business trip to Wyoming and Billings to check on the branches there
* We went to 2 baptisms. Mom spoke on the Holy Ghost at one of them.

In Our Homeschool This Month...
* Seth got accepted as a full time (on campus) student for BYUI! We are very excited and proud of him! We're now in the process of applying for scholarships.
* Lots of reading
* Ben has started another novel
* Aubrie has started writing her own book (and it's so cute! It's about a monster called Shneeble who causes shenanigans!)
* Working on cursive and Handwriting
* Timelines in History, Ancient Egyptians
* Real world Math, place values, multiplication, word problems
* Science experiments, making our own slime, Stars, Dinosaurs
* Library trips and participating in the classes at the Library
* Nathan worked really hard on his reading!     
* Lots of family games being played (Family Feud being the favorite!)
* I have felt that our Enrichments have been more enlightening. We've been going through the story of Alma as he preaches to the people and relating it to our own lives.

Spiritually Speaking...
* The Lord has made his hand known in our lives many times over this past month! We have also had some really neat experiences that I want to remember:
1) About 3 weeks ago, I (mom) was getting ready to go grocery shopping at Walmart. I was in the shower washing my hair when a very distinct thought came to me that said "You need to go to the thrift store TODAY! There is a suit waiting for you." I sort of brushed it off thinking that I didn't have time and needed to just get to Walmart and back as quick as I could (plus, I thought it was just my own thoughts because I love shopping at the thrift stores and hadn't been in a while)... So I somewhat ignore it when the thought comes even more urgently - "You HAVE to get the the thrift store right NOW!" At this point, I realize that this is certainly an impression from the Lord and so hurry and get ready and head towards the thrift store (we have 4 thrift stores in town and I didn't know which one to go to, so made a route and hit the first one). I went straight to where the men's suits are and.. nothing. So I head to the next one - and go straight back to the mens suits where I find TWO suits in what appears to be Seth's size! (side note: one of the suits was missing the pants but the tag said that it was a 2 piece suit so I start praying my heart out asking for help to find the missing pants... within about 2 minutes I had found them hanging on a rack by themself!). Like I said, I was fairly confident that they'd fit Seth but I wasn't 100% positive but figured if they didn't fit him, I would come across someone who needed them since the impression was SO strong about getting them. They each had a price tag of $19.99 and I was thrilled! I was even more thrilled when I realized that they were 75% off and so I got them for $4.99 each!!! Say what!? So I get home and casually ask Seth to try on one of the suits. He does, and... it fit beautifully!!!!! I then shared with him how the Lord is so very aware of him and how he'd inspired me to go get these suits that were in his exact size and just waiting for us to purchase them (they'd obviously been at the thrift store for quite some time since they were 75% off!). He looked so sharp in it and he ended up wearing one of them to church that week to get a "real world" feel for it! Truly so handsome! Now, both of the suits were the same size (according to their tag) but one of them was just a bit bigger (not much - but it did look a tiny bit big on him) so for fun, I had Ben try it on and... it fit him (there's a picture up at the top of him in it!) and so he's been wearing that one to church and looking snazzy! It just made me feel so very much loved and a testimony builder of how aware the Lord really is of us and our needs! He knew there was a suit in the boy's EXACT size at the thrift store and told me to go get them! How awesome is that!?

* Tithing. Tithing is something that we have never struggled with paying - and I'm grateful for that! We have seen too many blessings come as a result of faithfully paying a 10% tithe. August had been complaining that his tips weren't very good lately and he was getting discouraged. I asked if he'd paid his tithing. He said that he was very good about putting it in the tithing envelope when he came home from work each night but that he hadn't turned it into the Bishop yet (and hadn't since October). I shared with him that while he was still an honorable tithe payer - the Lord couldn't give him the blessing associated with paying tithing until it was handed over. He decided he needed to pay it that day before heading to work. Since the Bishop is our neighbor, I told him he could go drop it off OR he could just pay it online (this is a new feature that has been recently added by the church and it is so very convenient!). So he logged into his LDS.org account and paid all of his tithing and guess what... that night he brought home the most amount of money in tips that he'd made since last October ($170 vs the typical $50 he'd been making)! He was so excited! I asked him if he felt that it was a direct result and blessing from paying his tithing or if he thought it was just a "coincidence" and that he would have made that much money regardless. He answered that there have been too many things in his life for this to just be a coincident and that he knew it was a direct blessing from paying his tithing. He went on to tell me that he had thanked Heavenly Father for those blessings in his prayers that night as well. I'm happy that he has his own testimony on the principle of tithing at such a young age - it will bless him his whole life!!
* Ben was asked to give one of the youth talks today in Sacrament Meeting. This was his first time to be given this assignment. He was given the topic of "Using Good Language". He worked really hard on it and even had it completely memorized! (But once he got up there, he was so nervous that he ended up reading it - but he still did terrific!!) Here is a copy of his talk: (I will insert it soon!