October 31st - November 20th

In Our Family These Past Three Weeks...
* Halloween! We wen to the Ward Trunk or Treat and then hit some more houses in the neighborhood by the church
* The Presidential Election! Donald Trump is the new President-Elect for the USA
* Dad went to Gillette, WY for 3 days
* Dad flew out to Bakersfield, CA for 4 days
* Dad went back down to Gillette, WY for another 3 days (yes, he has been gone quite a bit the past 3 weeks!)
* Ben went to the movies with his friend, Cale
* Ben and Nathan spent many nights at August's apartment so that August could take Ben to Seminary
* Pack Meeting for Nathan
* Had a snow day!! Beautiful!
* Face timed with Grandma Vogt for her Birthday on the 13th
* Face Timed with Grandma Carlson for her Birthday on the 20th
* Had some overnight guests (the Erickson's from Minot) as they traveled to Spokane for Thanksgiving
* Regional Stake Conference where we got to hear from the Apostle - Elder Rasband

In Our Homeschool...
* We've started a new read aloud called "Math & Magic in Wonderland" and it is fabulous!! It's an interactive math adventure book that integrates literature, puzzles, logic and loads of math concepts. We follow along two twin girls (named LuLu and Elizabeth) and help them figure out the puzzles! Each of the kids have a Math Journal that they use to solve the problems. We have discussed: alliterations, Pi, Palindromes, Tangrams, Circumferences, diameters, types of triangles, Soduko puzzles and even Shakespeare!
* SuperSpeed 100 to work on fluency with Nathan and the girls
* Multiplication, Math War
* Scripture Memorizations
* Enrichments
* Reading

Seth Spotlight...
* Had his first Baptism
* Says he was not prepared for how HOT and HUMID it is
* Struggling with the Language and feeling downtrodden at times
* Went to a Wedding Party and saw the goat they ate for dinner get butchered
* Says he knows he's where he's supposed to be

Spiritually Speaking...
* Ben and dad went Home Teaching. This was the first time for Ben and he was thrown right in and gave the lesson. Dad said that he stood up (vs. the traditional just sitting where you're at), walked across the room, unbuttoned his suit coat, gave a little cough and then proceeded with the lesson. His recap of it was that "he made the Home Teaching lesson lit and fun for once!"

* Mom was asked to give a talk at a Baptism. It was for one of the little boys in her scout group. It was a very spiritual time and as she sat singing the opening song, she couldn't help but think that Seth was participating in a baptism in Nicaragua that day as well! She was asked to speak on Baptism and she found a cute idea of the "3 Bears of Baptism" from Pinterest and it went over very well! Here is a quick summary of what the 3 bears represent (hint, they represent the promises we make when we are baptized).

• The first BEAR of baptism is to bear HIS name. You bear your father’s name. Your name shows others you belong to your father, to your family. By being  baptized, you take on the name of Christ and become an official member of his church. You will try to do things that Jesus would do.
• The second BEAR of baptism is to bear testimony, or to bear witness and share with others that we know Jesus is the Son of God. That we know he is our Savior and we know His gospel is true. Always remember him in your thoughts, actions and the example you  set.
• The third BEAR of baptism is that we bear one another's burdens, that they may be light. That means we help each other with the work that needs to be done and also we help others when they have trouble and sorrow so they won't suffer alone. This is one way we can  follow the Savior's commandment to love one another, the same way He loves us.

* The dryer went out back in August and mom has been trekking to the Laundromat for the last 4 months!! No fun! We kept putting off getting it repaired because 1) we didn't want to spend money to repair an appliance that wasn't ours and 2) from what we had read on the internet our particular problem was VERY expensive to fix. Well, this past week, mom was reading through Facebook and saw someone had asked for a recommendation for an honest repairman and she saw that one of her friends highly recommended a person and she felt that she should call him right away - so she did. He was able to come out 2 days later (even though he said he didn't service Park City) and fix the machine for less than 1/2 of what we were anticipating it to cost us! What a Blessing!