WOMEN'S BROADCAST TRADITIONS

Saturday marked the beginning of our holiday celebrations!  We celebrate for 3 1/2 months!  Amy described the holiday celebrations best this way:

Soooo... General Conference, Halloween, NaNoWriMo,

Thanksgiving, Winter, Christmas, and New Year's Eve!

Kotten Kandy, Fig Newton, Me, Amy
Marmalade and Raisin

General Conference is the first holiday that we get excited about at our house!  And last night was the Women's session for the event.  For the past 3 years, we have celebrated the broadcast by all the DeGooyer and Bettenhausen women go out to eat for oriental food.  Then we go to the broadcast together and watch, while taking notes.  We love sharing our favorite talks with each other. 

Last night we ate Thai food with the gang....  (We really missed Key Lime Pie, but we knew she was celebrating the Colorado way with her cousins.  Thank you Shortbread, Shaved Ice and Mariah for taking care of our almost 18 year old daughter!)  After dinner, we congregated with other women in our ward.  We have a great ward with great sisters in the gospel!  We  LOVED the broadcast!  It was was AMAZING!  Every single talk was gold!  Amy and I decided that this was the best women's broadcast ever!  (Of course, we probably say that every session!)  I loved learning about charity, doctrine and faith!  Key Lime Pie's favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's.  He talked about faith - and Kotten Kandy turned to me and said, "that's my sister's favorite talk!"  Kotten Kandy also said it would be "cliche to say Uchtdorf was her favorite talk last night...."  She loved them all.  Fig Newton said she loved the choir!  She thought they sounded beautiful!  I also didn't have a favorite talk, but I realized that I need to think of strengthening my faith and my charitable feelings more like a quest.  I can change for the better!  I love growing and learning and becoming more of what my Heavenly Father wants me to be!

Excited to watch our leaders and prophets!

Key Lime Pie and Shortbread also enjoyed General Conference!

They had a dinner before the session with their stake...

It's hard to believe that those two absolutely gorgeous girls looked

like this only a few hours before as they worked HARD!!!!!

SPIRITUAL DISCUSSIONS, WALKS, CAMPING, AND MAKING MEALS

What a fun, and exhausting, and busy week it has been....  But I love this crazy family of ours!
Sooooo... Scott had this AWESOME idea!  He decided that once a month we should feed our DeThorntenhausen family and have a spiritual discussion.  We've done it for two months now.  It's loads of fun, delicious and spiritually uplifting!  Everyone participates... and the kids keep entertained by coloring (and they love the Jets bean bags that we finally got out of storage {aka. Chris' house}... Karmel loves the bean bags too!)

The gang - while we "discussed!"

Little Artists

Little Dancers

Nuts

Jelly Bean

Yes, I think Karmel is cute... sometimes...

And spoiled...

Our walks are still wonderful!  I love the beauty of Beckley Park.  And it's fun to see Amy's kids get into the spirit of it!  They all started stretching without any encouragement from us.  It made me smile... so I took a picture.

Marmalade, Nuts and Apple Pie stretching before their run....

The ward camp out was last night.  I don't like camping.  But Fig Newton and Kotten Kandy do.  They got to go with the Fieldings.  And they had a blast!  (Thank you, Trina and Doug, for accepting two more daughters into your crew for the night!)  I REALLY LOVE these 5 beautiful girls!!!!  And Fig Newton liked "American camping!"  (Apparently Taffey and Maple came out to play games last night... but since I wasn't there I couldn't take pictures.  They had fun hanging out with them too!)

Fig Newton, Kotten Kandy, Apple Jacks, Chex and Red Hots

Eating Breakfast....

Marmalade, Nuts and Apple Pie went camping too!

Chili Cook Off

Chex, Fig Newton and Kotten Kandy

Chex, Kotten Kandy and Fig Newton putting up the tent.

Today was spent making freezer meals.  Amy and I decided to make over 10 meals for our families.  It makes meal prep during the week TONS easier and the cost is better when you buy in bulk, etc.  Yay for freezer meals!!!!

Each family gets: 3 pans of chicken enchiladas, 2 pans of pizza casserole,

2 small pans of meatloaf, 4 bags of pulled pork (and lots of leftover ingredients)! 

Our little "helper" loved hanging out under the desk.

Isn't Raisin adorable?

It's been a fun week!  More tomorrow....

HARD WORK, LIARS AND BOY

Soooo... Sometimes I am so proud of my eldest daughter.  Today she worked HARD!  She held her own as she cleared land with her grandpa and two other young men.  She is growing so much!  And I really like the young woman she has become!

The work crew!

(Poor girl.  She was "forced" to work with good looking young men!)

Grandpa Mac really carried his weight too!

The mess.

 More mess.

She's worn out....?!

So.... good job, y'all!

And...

I read Glenn Beck's newest book, Liars.  It is very enlightening, and I learned a WHOLE lot.  BTW I really, really, really don't like LBJ.  He's a bad guy.  The facts in this book can be verified easily, so Glenn Beck is either right on the mark and all he claims is true, or all the facts are lies?! I believe the former.  I'm glad I learned these things and I'm glad I read this book.  As President John Adams said over 2 centuries ago: "Facts are stubborn things!"  

Yesterday was a weird day.  I was able to read an entire book between taking pictures of classes.  I picked up the book, Boy by Roald Dahl, on the shelf and began reading.  I liked it.  I'm glad I did read it.

I'm a Dahl fan.  I've enjoyed his children's books.  I think the key to his success as a writer for kids is that he doesn't think kids are stupid or don't understand what's going on.  This book is a collection of sketches of Dahl's school years.  It helps you understand many of the stories that appear in his other books.  This book is full of family love and anecdotes about child's view point,  It was kinda shocking to me that children were beaten with canes and bullied by older boys mercilessly throughout a lot of his young life.  But mostly, this book was an easy, fun read.

MUSICAL, WALKS, ANOTHER TEEN PARTY AND YA RETREATS

Fig Newton, Kotten Kandy and I went to see the Charlotte's Web musical on Thursday night.  It was fun!  The kids did a good job.  The actress who played Charlotte was one of the young women in our ward.  She sang beautifully and did amazing acrobatics while high in the air on her web.  And one of my wonderful piano/voice students also stole the show, dancing and singing with Charlotte.

Fig Newton, Me and Kotten Kandy

Here are a couple more pictures from our walks at the amazing Beckley Creek Park.  It is GORGEOUS!

This tree was sooo cool...  I loved how it extended out over the river.

This picture doesn't do the lilies justice.

They were so pretty and yellow.

Friday night the girls attended another teen party.  They played volleyball and made smores.  I only got a few pics, but these kids are top notch!  They had a good time....

Fig Newton with her famous peace sign.

Kotten Kandy ready to serve.

Key Lime Pie got to go to her first Young Adult Retreat this weekend.  She had so much fun with her cousins.  They went repelling, boating, dancing and got to listen to great speakers.  (In other good news, Key Lime Pie got a job at Chick-Fillet.  She starts Monday.)

Ragged Mountain

Key Lime Pie, Short Bread and Mariah on their way.

On the way home with friends.

The back seat = Key Lime Pie, Lexi and Sister Sherman

The red head is Justin.

Dinner with Mariah, Carrie and Rachel

ANOTHER RANDOM POST WITH KEY LIME PIE

I got to go walking this morning.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I've missed my morning walks with Amy and Kotten Kandy.  The yellow flowers were in bloom!  The weather was nice!  And I really enjoyed being in nature!

I LOVE yellow!!!

And I LOVE flowers!!!

Isn't this scene BEAUTIFUL!?!

Then we saw this unusual fire truck sight...  We have no idea why they were spraying the lawn with all that water.  It was cool.

I  also got some cute pics from Key Lime Pie with her cousin, Mariah.  They spent the day together: shopping, looking for work, doing yoga, etc.  They had a really fun day!

My sweet daughter and my sweet niece!

Mariah

Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie took this picture because it reminded her of home!

This gorgeous girl is my daughter!

I just finished reading a book series by Brandon Sanderson: The Reckoners.  It's a 3 book series.  This series is a twist on superheroes.  It's a fun book that in clever and imaginative.  In these books, the superheroes are the little guys and their power is that they don't give up.  It was fun, but not my favorite books by Brandon Sanderson.  I didn't relate to the main character that much so that was frustrating.  But I love Brandon Sanderson's creativity and unique stories.  I would recommend it to young adults - especially young boys.

LONG RUN REENACTMENT FIELD TRIP AND COLORADO DAUGHTER

I went back to work this week.  I love my job.  But unfortunately I have to miss some fun things because of it.  Friday was one of those times.  My daughter, Kotten Kandy,

got to go on a fun field trip with the Bettenhausens and the Pinas.  I gave her my camera, but she didn't feel like she took many good pictures so she gave the camera to Almond.  He took some awesome pics.  (Regrettably he isn't in any pictures....)  Here was their fun day:

This guy taught about guns, food and tea stamps....

Listening to another presentation....

Raisin CHOSE Kotten Kandy over Juice!

And Kotten Kandy was OK with that!
We all love our Raisin!

Marmalade was helping with the yarn display....

Apple Pie tried grinding corn for corn meal....

The leather bibles were beautiful!

They loved learning!

Almond loved getting this silly shot of Kotten Kandy...

She didn't want me to use it - but I think it's funny too!

And then there is my Colorado daughter, Key Lime Pie.  She is thriving in Grand Junction.  She's enjoying her two institute classes.  She likes her single's ward.  She loves spending time with her cousins and grandmother.  She is really liking the gym - she often exercises twice a day.

Key Lime Pie LOVES wearing her tiara.

Everyone knows she wears it ALL the time!

Spending time with her cousin's dog!

Shortbread kissed a frog...

The willow tree statue on the right is a gift from Aunt GJ to Key Lime Pie for graduation....

She loves willow tree....

After picking lots of free fruit, Mil and Key Lime Pie heart attacked to show their appreciation!

My daughter is SOOOO excited about her new blender!

She got it at a yard sale....

This scarf is another yard sale find!

I love this girl of mine!