Cousins

After church on Sunday, Alicia and Ben invited us all over for dinner. Grammie really wanted a picture with all the grandkids. There was some serious bribing with homemade brownies going on to get everyone to cooperate.

Ice Skating

Our kids had never been ice skating before, so we thought it would be fun to give it a try. They all loved it! They had these cute "walkers" for Drew to use his first few times around.
Then he was able to go around with our friends Joe and Marissa Bradley helping him.

And finally he could do it by himself! He was so proud!

Volunteering at the Salvation Army

Last Saturday we went with a group of people from our church to volunteer at the Salvation Army. On this particular day, they were putting together food baskets. I was really happy that Grant and Brady were able to have the opportunity to do this. They sat on huge piles of canned goods and dropped them in baskets as other volunteers pushed two baskets at a time by on grocery carts. We worked for about 2 1/2 hours and filled almost 3000 baskets. It was definitely a sense of accomplishment to see all the finished baskets.

Thanks for Giving Run

On Thanksgiving weekend, we signed up for the "Thanks for Giving Run". Grant and Brady were running the 1 mile fun run with their friends Jared and Faith, and Drew decided he wanted to do it also. I was afraid he wouldn't quite make it, so I ran the 1 mile with him instead of the 5k. I thought I might have to carry him part of the way. It turns out that he didn't need my help at all. He finished the race all by himself. My baby is growing up! Drew, Grant, Brady and Jared getting ready to race

After the race Drew was pretty excited about the medal and the free pizza.

Great Wolf Lodge

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, Steph and I took all 7 of our kids to Dallas to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. It was so much fun to hang out with the Wixoms and play in the giant water park. The boys loved the freedom of roaming the hotel with their friends playing magi quest. It was an awesome couple of days, and I can't wait for our next adventure together. If we can take 7 kids to a water park by ourselves, I'm pretty sure we can do anything!

Soccer