Thanksgiving, Arkansas Style!

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to go check out Marisa's new home and drive to Centerton, Arkansas to celebrate. It is about a 9 hour drive from Houston and so we left Tuesday morning. We made a stop halfway in Dallas and visited with Ragnar's aunt Brigette and Uncle Kent and his cousin Stephanie. 

They were kind enough to feed us lunch and we enjoyed spending a couple hours with them. 

After our stop, we finished the drive to Arkansas. It wasn't a bad drive. We got there Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. Unfortunately, right after we put the kids to bed, Marisa's son Liam threw up and a couple hours later her other daughter Kate. Terrible timing for the poor kiddos. That put a damper on the first couple days as we had to quarantine a little and lay low. 
Wednesday we went to the Walmart Museum with our family and Marisa and Aubrey while the others rested. 

It was a small museum about the founder of Walmart. It was interesting though and we learned about a very successful family.  

The kids enjoyed the ice cream at the end of the museum.

Right down the road was a cute little ice skating rink. We stopped and skated for an hour and a half. 

It was Deacon's first time. He did awesome. After about 30 minutes he didn't need "walker" to help him anymore. He just kept saying "I'm great" . Haha, that kid doesn't lack confidence and has the coordination to back it up.  

He was pretty excited! Ragnar is pretty good at ice skating so he helped the kids along when needed. 

Cavin, on the other hand, is not so naturally coordinated. He has to try pretty hard. He did pretty well though after a little while he got it down.  

Marisa and Aubrey stayed pretty close to the railing. 

Channing did as well. She did a good job.  

Ella has more coordination, so she didn't have any problems and just happily skated around.  

It was a fun little outing and the weather was perfect. 

Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we played outside and ate, and learned the new game "Cover your assets" which we enjoyed and Ella really liked. Marisa and I also went to do a little black Friday shopping and we didn't have a ton we needed so we got to just enjoy the experience.

Friday we went to HighRise Trampoline park and the kids enjoyed jumping there and Cavin loves the dodgeball. That evening, we drove to the Stewart Family Light show. It was a nice way to kick off the Christmas season.  

The kids were a little chilly, but there was some fun lights to look at.  

The younger two kids even got to meet Santa.  

I love Christmas lights!

On our last day on Saturday we played games and played outside in the beautiful weather. Channing and Deacon were thrilled to drive around in the power wheels.  

 

The boys played football, then basketball and Cavin was excited that Liam was finally feeling back to normal. 

Addie and Kate were finally feeling happy and well!

Sunday morning we drove home and took the scenic route. It was beautiful and the kids did awesome! When we got home we played a few games to finish off the Thanksgiving break. 

Deacon was practicing his poker face :) haha.  

We love our Sunday night game nights. I won 5 crowns by 1 point by the way :) 

We had a nice week and I was grateful we got to spend time together and be with my sister and her family and so grateful for her hospitality.

Thanksgiving School Parties

Each year the kids have a Thanksgiving feast that I try to attend. This year they were lucky enough to have their Grandpa Speers join them.

We started the morning with Deacon's preschool Turkey bowling. He scored 104 without any use of a ball ramp and did awesome. He got two strikes and two spares. He had a blast.  

Afterward, we rushed to get food and go over to ESE to have lunch with Channing and Cavin.  

Deacon loves to go to lunch with the kids.  

Channing would chat with us and show us who her friends were.  

Cavin on the other hand, doesn't talk ;) He would just nod or smirk, so Grandpa gave him some left over ketchup and BBQ sauce packets and they were building towers. Good, creative entertainment I suppose.  

That evening I got to go meet up with my best friends from high school. Cameron, Stacey and Ben. Cameron and his wife Amanda and Ragnar and I went over to Top Golf first and played and that was fun.  

Afterward we went to the Childs house and talked and played games. It was good to see them all again. They are good people!

Annual Rockets Run!

Since Ragnar has been working for the Rockets for nearly 10 years, we have looked forward and tried to participate in the Rockets run each year. The kids love it and we have a fun time running together. The weather was pretty cold this year in the low 40s and we were pretty chilly running!

The kids and Ragnar started with the Kids 1k. They did a great job. They all ran the whole way which was great.  

Cavin finished first right after 8 minutes and he was 7th overall. Deacon finished next and was running pretty hard in. Next was Channing who stopped right before the finish line..had to teach her about running through all the way :) Then Ragnar came in trying to encourage Ella through the finish line. Ella does not enjoy running, much to my dismay, but she does it every year and I am grateful for that. 

Next was my 5k race. It was so cold that I literally couldn't feel my feet for the first mile. I did well enough and was happy with my effort. I do get frustrated that I am always about 30 seconds off my goal time, but I am trying to learn to just be happy with my best. 

I finished first in my age group. It certainly helps to get older when it comes to racing :) I was 6th overall girl out of 346 as well and 59 out of 828 participants. I enjoy doing a short, fast race once a year.  

We had a nice morning but were a little bummed that none of my family could join us this year. Hopefully next year they can again.  

After the race, we had to hurry home for me to turn around and drive back downtown to the Food Bank with the Young Women and volunteer for our church stake activity. It was great to serve and help and be with the youth.

A switch around!

This week we made some changes to the room arrangements in our home. The boys have been dying to share a room together and we finally felt like it was time. All Cavin wanted for Christmas was a new room. Since the sale was ending on this bunkbed, we went ahead and decided to move forward early. The boys are really close, but I have been hesitating putting them together because Deacon still takes a long nap everyday. He is only 9 months from Kindergarten, so I guess the beginning of the phasing off naps needs to slowly begin. Sad day for me ;) I hate to see how big they are getting.

Cavin wanted this bunkbed and was really excited to have a "boy" room. 

Our friend did the lego sorted shelves to help them play with their legos more, and it is a fun idea and he's excited about it...I just wish she would have warned me that it would take 3 hours to sort them!!! 

As you can tell I haven't really decorated yet, but you can see what the direction their room is going in..We love the Rockets around here! 

The cute boys were so excited and have done ok so far. Deacon just said.."now mom we can stay up and talk about disgusting things ;)" lovely!

With the boys moving together, it allowed Channing to have her own room. She has been saying she doesn't really want to be alone. I was worried how it would go. She has been loving it though. She was so excited about her own space that she kept jumping up and down!  

She has over 20 pair of shoes, so Cavin was excited to have some of his closet back! We love our girly girl and hopefully for her birthday we can decorate her room. This is just old stuff from Ella and my sister Natalie. 
Here is to new family adventures!