November Blessings!

November was full of scout campouts, family reunions, Battle of the Books, reports and lots of fun! Not to mention Thanksgiving. Here is how our November went:

Taylor completed his first competition for Battle of the Books. John was able to make it since I was unable to. 

This year they added a member to their team. Our neighbor.

 The first weekend in November, John went with the older two boys on a campout. I took the two younger ones out. Not sure where we were going to go, I started making suggestions. I said Target and Rebecca said, "YES! Let's go to TARGET! I LOOOOOVE TARGET!" You would think her mom took here there... :-)

While we were there, she found a pink tree that she thought we should buy.

 They tried on different props too:

 The boys campout was on the Mormon Battalion trail. The stake put it together and had a bunch of activities for them to do. They ended with a 5 mile hike.

 On Veteran's day, our ward was asked to help put together packets for the Ironman competition. It is normally the youth that does it, but this year they asked the whole ward to help. Even Grandma & Grandpa came!

 Rebecca LOVES to color. 

 We did a Skabelund family reunion. It was well attended too. The kids had a great time running around. We tried to get a group photo. I think we did a pretty good job for as many people that were in it.

(Judith, Kim, Cheryl, John, Kendall)

(Randy, Ken)

(Tom, Steve, Ken, John)

(Michelle, Julianna, Kalynn)

(Getting ready for the picture)

The surviving three siblings - Judith, Jeanne & Max (Plus Aunt Karen)

 That night, John took the boys to see Big Hero 6. This guy sure liked it.

 They also found this huge LEGO display in one of the stores. John has always wanted to have a Christmas train. Now he wants a LEGO Christmas train.

 Rebecca was so cute this Sunday. 

 Jonathan came home from school and mowed the lawn!

 Jonathan has his science fair project coming up. He wanted to see if you could infuse flavor into popcorn kernels before popping them. He used various liquids and essential oils.

 Taylor had to pick a historical figure and do a report on him. Then they did a wax museum and he had to dress up like him. Can you guess who he picked? Galileo of course! He did a great job.

 That brings us to Thanksgiving! We had John's brothers over as well my parents. 27 in all! (One nephew stayed at home.) Everyone had a lot of fun and no one went home hungry.

(Emma, Cheryl, Hayley, Taylor) 

 (Grandpa, Grandma, Chris, Amber, Mark, Michelle, Ken, Thomas)

 (Rebecca, Abbie, Jack, Thomas)

 (Nate, Keith, Matt, Bryan, Amy)

 I think at one point I counted 8 kids on the trampoline. 

John and I went out and did a little Black Friday shopping at stores that were not super crowded. We did not expect them to only have one working cash register though. We still waited almost an hour in line!

 Every year grandma gives us ornaments. The kids look forward each year to these.

Rebecca got a pink Minnie Mouse.

 Thomas got a soccer ornament. Grandma even wrote why on the back!

 Taylor got a piano sweater. He is doing really well on the piano this year!

 Jonathan got an eagle. 

 John got an ASU plate!

 And this was mine...

 We put the tree up and went to work!

 Saturday we had out Black cousins come over. These two girls had a blast playing with each other!

 Thomas made lawn angels.

 While the boys put up the Christmas lights.Somehow they felt Thomas had the better deal. They did a great job and worked together. The lights went up really fast this year.

 Here is our stocking mantle.

 This girl seems to think she can play with all the ornaments. So far I have glued 7 ornaments in less than a week. Funny how that works.

I went through a series of treatments this month called UBI's. Basically they take blood out, infuse it with ozone and then run it under an ultraviolet light on the way back into the body. It is suppose to clean the blood and get rid of the "bad guys". It led to a lot of nausea and detoxing. That is good though. I am not in as much pain as I was at the beginning of the month. That is the best part so far. I also have been able to add more to my protocol in treating Lyme. I am adding essential oils slowly and find I can tolerate more than I have been able to. I am very grateful for all I have learned this past month. I have truly felt directed in my path. That for me has been the best blessing of them all!