Thanksgiving Pics

Here are some of our Thanksgiving pictures:

The "kids table". Remember when you had to sit at the kids table? Our kids probably sat there for like 3 minutes, then they were off, except the good boy Gavin.



Cameron had a rough Thanksgiving, this is where I found him most of the day, clinging to my legs.



We found some of the kids at the Wii.



The food was great, I just didn't have the most elegant presentation. And I didn't really care.



Matt took charge of the food. Seriously. And his turkey was delicious. Then he did the dishes. He pretty much rocks.



Jen made the awesome pies.



4 out of 7 siblings isn't too bad.



And Donovan's first 5K race. I was very proud of him, he ran the whole thing!

Oh yeah, soccer season is over

I wanted to play a little catch up. I never posted some of these soccer pictures.
Donovan gets so excited for soccer season to start. He seems to start out with tons of fire, then he kind of fizzles out by the end of the season. Donovan scored two goals in the first 2 games, then became a little more timid as the season wore on. His coach (who is wonderful!) is starting to teach Donovan how to stay in his spot on the field, which will be an interesting challenge. Here is Donovan's team:



Howie has the opposite experience in soccer. He starts out kind of timid, then ends with a bang. Howie loved to play and loved to socialize with the other kids on the field. Here is Howie's team:



Howie's team had an end of the year party at one of our favorite pizza places



This kept Nina busy for a while

Another date

We found out at 5:00pm that we could go to the Monday Night Football game that started at 6:30. We kicked it into gear and got a babysitter, got the kids in their pjs, got dinner ready and headed out the door. Unfortunately the Broncos didn't show up for the game, but it was fun nonetheless!



And this is the kind of picture you get when you ask a security guard to take it. He didn't feel it was okay to leave his post, or to even turn just a little. I guess we were lucky he did it at all. I guess we could have asked a drunken fan. Either way I'm sure it would have turned out the same!

A Wicked Date

When Matt and I were in New York with my family, we all went to see Wicked on Broadway. But if you will remember, we brought Cameron along as he was not yet 2 months old. Unfortunately, babies aren't allowed to watch shows on Broadway. Something about crying or being disruptive. The ushers there were as accommodating as they could be. They let Matt and I split a ticket. So I got to watch the first half while Matt kept Cam in the lobby, then we traded at intermission. And back to our date night. We have fabulous friends who took our kids overnight while we went to see Wicked here in Denver. It was fabulous, and I was finally able to have some closure. You don't know the suspense I was feeling!

A Happy Halloween

When we got 2 feet of snow during the week, I wondered if we would be trick-or-treating this year. I love Colorado - all the snow on our streets had melted in time for us to venture out in the neighborhood. Despite having to corral the gang by myself, we had a great night. When you love candy, it pays to have 4 kids! We are well supplied for quite some time.

Since Thursday was a snow day, we were worried our kids would suffer from the pause in their learning, so we stepped in and provided them with a good day's worth of education. We covered math and art by having the kids divide their box into squares and paint their Rubik's Cubes. Reading was tough, they had to read the cover of several movies to decide which one they wanted to watch, and when they didn't agree, they had to demonstrate problem solving skills to come to an agreement. Public schools have nothing on us! Then came PE and recess, outdoors of course. Donovan and Howie helped Matt shovel a couple driveways and sidewalks, then they all played in the snow. Here are the kids hard at work on their Halloween costumes:


On Friday, Donovan and Howie's school had their annual Boo Ball. There was an initial disappointment when Donovan found out that it would not be a night of throwing balls at each other, and that the word "ball" sometimes refers to a dance. "You mean we're going to just be dancing all night? That's gonna be so boring!" As soon as we walked in, Donovan was gone with his friends, running around and yes, dancing. A lot. We only took a couple of pictures that night:

Donovan's costume won a prize for the "coolest costume". At the last minute, Howie and Nina decided not to wear their rubik's cubes. They looked cool to us though.


The kids reunited with us for a quick bite to eat. And you can you guess who Matt dressed up as?



Here's a closer look.



He put that beard he's been growing to good use and dressed up like Wolverine. Very cool.

On Saturday, Matt took the older 3 sledding while I made sure Cameron was safe during his nap. It was a hard job.



A well rested Cameron got to enjoy on of the cupcakes our neighbor brought over. We had 4 neighbors bring the kids treats!



That night we had our Ward's carnival and trunk-or-treat which was a hit, and finally we made the rounds trick-or-treating on our street. Unfortunately Matt had to miss the night's festivities to help coach his varsity soccer team's playoff game. And unfortunately they lost. At least he has a lot of candy to drown out his sorrows.