Martin Blog: Thanksgiving {Part 1}

We have started decorating our home with all things Christmas. I love seeing how excited Lance gets. I am so fortunate that he loves to decorate for the holidays. He and Abby have Christmas music playing non-stop.

It is a must that we make sugar cookies multiple times during the holidays. Just look at these kid's faces. They are on a definite sugar high. I hope they are able to remember all these fun things we get to do together. That is one of the reasons I feel so compelled to document everything. I don't want any of us to forget these fun times. So many great memories. I can't think of too many things that I enjoy more than looking back over the pictures from past years and seeing us all together. I have been warned way too many times of how fast time flies and I know they will be gone before I know it. Until then we are gonna have some fun and document it all as we go along. Hah!

Ethan's church class was asked to make a dozen rolls for our Thanksgiving feast as a ward. He did a great job! He really does enjoy being in the kitchen. Such a good sport.

I can't seem to get enough dinner pictures. It is my absolute favorite time of each day. I love when we all come together and catch up on each other's busy days. We have a tradition where we each tell what our favorite part of the day was and our least favorite part. I remember reading that this was a good way to get your kids to tell you about things that were bothering them. We love it and having been doing it for years.

Grandma's yard has so many leaves. This year she asked if my older kiddos would like to earn a little cash by helping her clean and rake her yard. These kids piped right up when they heard about earning money. Plus, extra bonus that they got to be with cousins.

David and Rachelle's family flew into town for the week. So excited that I live here and get to enjoy their visits now. Lance and I offered to pick them up from the airport. Ethan spent the night with all the boy cousins and Kate and Emma spent the night with Maren, Caroline and Lily. They all get along so well.

Ethan was super excited because he was able to spend the night with his boy cousins. Bright and early Thanksgiving morning the boys woke up to played a round or two of football in our "family turkey bowl". The good news was that no one was seriously injured. I always cringe when I hear that Lance is going to play because that is exactly how he tore is ACL when Kate was a baby. Thanksgiving football can get crazy.

This year our family decided that we wanted to do some service on Thanksgiving morning. A good friend of mine, Karen Christensen mentioned that her family was going to go to a soup kitchen and serve food to less fortunate families and people. I loved the idea and decided our family should give it a try. I am really excited to see how our family does. I am hoping that it will give us all a greater understanding of those less fortunate than us. I am hoping that we all walk away feeling very fortunate and grateful for the things that we do have. I have always wanted to do something like this.

Allie joined along.

Sam is in a backpack asleep. It was a miracle.

Here are the Christensens that went with us. Such a darling little family.

Sam fell asleep on my back and then I transported him into his stroller. He was worn out.

After the soup kitchen we headed over to my parent's for our Thanksgiving Feast. My whole extended family was there, which is over 50 people. I love knowing that I will never have to spend another holiday away from family. And best of all, these crazy people are my family.

My mom with my two Aunt's (dad's sisters)

Look at all these cute girls. So much sass going on you can just see it.

Thank goodness the weather was perfect so the kids loved being outside for most of the day.

We always tease Lance and Cole about being "posers" (boy who knows he is cute and poses for others). Well, Lance was a poser back in the day. Six kids has totally humbled him.

The kids loved playing in the leaves, playing football, and I think Lance even got a game of hacky sack going with the older kids. My parents have the perfect yard for being outside.