Thanksgiving Weekend

My goal was to get Thanksgiving posted before Christmas. I'm cutting it a little close, but here you go...

Turkey Trot

I have always wanted to run the Turkey Trot, but have always been either out of town or pregnant! This year it finally worked out so I woke up early Thanksgiving morning and ran the 10k race around Dana Point. It was a beautiful race to run as you could see the ocean the whole time. I usually run half marathons and marathons at a 10 minute mile pace so I was determined to run this 10k (6.2 miles) faster than that. My goal was a 9 minute mile, but I ended up running 8:20s (according to my Garmin) so I was really excited!

Robyn and I have been running together for the past few years- she's a great running partner! Our next race is the Irvine half marathon in a few weeks- wish us luck!

It was fun to run a race with my sister, Holly and my brother-in-law, Brodie. Okay, so I didn't really run it with them since they run just above the 7 minute mile pace, but it was fun to start with them!

Pretty sure Jon and I will never look like this no matter how hard we try!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Later that afternoon we headed over to my parent's house for dinner. Everyone was there except for Wendy and her family, even my Grandma Mary came down! We missed you Wendy!

The boy table

The girl table

And the babies

(With 5 boys born in the past 2 years we are now even- 10 girls and 10 boys!)

I found these hats in the dollar section at Target so I bought some for all of the cousins. They all looked pretty cute in them!

Wait, except for these three who refused to smile. Is it really that painful, boys???

Laney keeps telling Christy that she wants to marry Nathan and Christy keeps trying to explain to her that you can't marry your cousin!

I hadn't seen my grandma for a long time so it was really fun that she was there with us!

Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner table pic!


Delta, Utah

Friday morning we packed our things and headed up to Utah to see Jon's family for a few days. It's always fun to see them, but I'd have to say that the highlight of the trip for the kids was definitely jumping in the leaves!

Jon's mom had been saving leaves all season long and I think she had 25 bags ready to go by the time we got there! What a nice grandma!

First they had to rake the leaves into a big pile...

Then they had to throw them around for a little bit...

And then the serious jumping began...

I think Jon enjoyed it more than the boys!

Grandma Lorelei bought these horses for the boys as an early Christmas present. The boys spent most of their time inside galloping around their house making horse noises or just plain screaming, in Nathan's case!

After church family picture- I must admit that the boys actually all look really cute. Way to go, boys!

BYU vs. Utah Game

(I have to add that Jon was very adamant that I write the title this way. He really doesn't like Utah!)

The highlight of the trip for Jon was going to the game in Provo on Saturday. We left the kids in Delta and got there just in time for kick-off. It was such a great game- we were really glad that we were there, especially since Jon didn't go to the Oklahoma game and has been regretting it ever since! I could have done without the 30 degree weather, but once I bought a BYU beanie and gloves at halftime I was good to go!

BYU ended winning in overtime. Here is the sequence of events captured on film:

The final play...

The fans storming the field after we scored...

More fans storming the field...

And even more fans...

The final score...

What a great game!

November Fun

November marked the official end to the soccer season. Nathan improved a ton and really enjoyed his first experience playing soccer. Jake started off loving it and scoring goals, but by the end we could barely get him to go out on the field and play. He would get so frustrated if he didn't score a goal everytime that he just wouldn't even try anymore. This made it frustrating for all of us and I'm thinking that this might be the last year of soccer for Jake. We'll see... For now I am just going to enjoy not having to get up so early on Saturday mornings to go running- that is until baseball starts in a couple months!

They were both pretty excited to get a big trophy at their end of the season parties. They are displayed proudly on the shelf in their room.

Nathan's preschool had a little Pow Wow where they dressed up like Indians, sang songs and played Indian games. Nathan's name was Running Buffalo!

Nathan did really well in the games. He won the running one, the arm wrestling and did really well in the spear throwing and jumping games! When it was all over he came running up to Jon and I and proclaimed very loudly, "I won all of the games. I'm the best!" We quickly told him to quiet down and looked around to see which parents heard him say it. Thankfully only a few were laughing, but it was pretty embarrassing!

(I just have to throw in that while I am typing this, Nathan is laying on the bed playing a game on my iphone. I just heard him exclaim, "Wow, I certainly am amazing!" The kid really needs to work on humility!)

The kids came home from school with lots of fun Thanksgiving outfits so here is my attempt at getting a picture of them all together...

Forget it, we'll just do one or two at a time!

I'm not going to pretend like finding these sweaters in each of their sizes was an easy task. I need to thank Jon, Robyn's sister, the Corona Children's Place and many others for making it happen! But wasn't it all worth it...

When will I ever learn my lesson to stop trying to get a picture of all THREE of them together!!!

Christmas Cards

I realize that I have a lot to catch up on... Max's update, Thanksgiving, the BYU game, etc. However, in the meantime I am trying to get our Christmas cards out and need addresses. So if you have moved in the last year or you didn't get a card from us last year and would like one, please e-mail me your current address to swdraper@hotmail.com.

Thank you!!! And stay tuned for some updated posts- someday I'll get around to it!

Primary Program

Sunday was our ward's Primary Program which is always my favorite Sacrament Meeting of the year! This was Nathan's first program and Jake's third and they both did a great job. Nathan has had his part memorized for weeks and was excited to actually get to say it. His class said their part all together and of course all of the little Sunbeams got as close to the microphone as possible and said it as loud as possible!

Jake wasn't quite as excited about the program. His class had a part that they said together and then Jake had a little part that just he got to say. As the class was saying their part Jake started backing up away from the microphone knowing that his part was next. When the time came his teacher got him to step up and he actually said his part! Unfortunately the microphone wasn't working so no one could really hear it, but fortunately we were sitting right up close so we could!

For the closing song we all sang the new family song (not sure what it's called). It talks about how the family is of God and I was overcome with the spirit and a feeling of love for my family. I am so grateful for my kids and for moments like these that make me really step back and realize that all of the hard times are worth it!

Jake also had to give a talk in Primary right after the program. I was a little worried about this since I couldn't even get him to go to Primary. Instead he was walking around outside saying that he wanted to go home. I finally convinced him to go inside and when we walked into the room he went straight up to the front and sat in the 'talk' chair. When it was time I went up and helped him with his talk and to my surprise he said the whole thing and he actually talked loudly! I almost broke down crying while I was helping him since I was so proud of him, but I held it together and we got through. I need to not worry so much about things like this, but you just never know what he's going to do. I was so glad that he decided to perform on Sunday!

And yes, my Christmas tree is up (though not finished- I still need to add ribbon, a topper and a tree skirt) and I am working on getting the rest of the decorations in the house up this week. Can you tell that I'm a little excited for Christmas?!!!

My Little Major Leaguer

Saturday Jake had the opportunity to play a baseball game at Angel Stadium! The Challenger Little League is for kids with special needs and every year the Angels organize a day where all of the teams get to come out and play a game on a major league field. This was Jake's first year participating and he loved it!

The Angel's 2nd baseman, Howie Kendrick, along with ex-player, Matt Luke, were there to support the kids.

Some of the kids from the regular Little League were there to be 'buddies' for the kids with special needs. Jake's buddy was so awesome- he stuck with him the whole time and really helped him out. He even brought over a bunch of the other buddies while they were waiting to go into the stadium and they all stood in a circle around Jake and played catch with him. Jake was loving all of the attention!

The kids finally got to go out onto the field. They started with the National Anthem and then recited the Little League pledge. Then it was time to play ball!

Howie Kendrick went around to the different games and pitched to some of the kids. It was so cool that he was there and was interacting with the kids.

Jake was a little rusty at first since he hasn't played baseball since last Spring, but once he got the hang of it he had two good hits!

He ran the bases really well, but needed a little help finding home plate!

Matt Luke came out and gave Jake some pointers on how to stand while waiting for the ball to come to you. It was cute how Jake was totally listening to him and trying to copy what he was doing.

They had camera guys going around putting the kids up on the jumbo tron throughout the game. I was excited when I looked up and saw myself up there so I had to take a picture!

They put Jake up there while he was hitting. The camera guy filming Jake in the picture was hired by the Angels to make a promo video of the event to show during the Angel games. They filmed Jake hitting and then running all of the bases. They then interviewed me for the video! I've never been interviewed for a news clip before and I was a little nervous, but it was kind of fun! So if you're at an Angel's game next season, look for me and Jake in one of the promo clips!!!

Here is Jake's cheering section! Jon was a good sport and watched Nathan and Max as they ran around the stadium during the game.

It was such a cool experience for all of us to be a part of!

Here's a link to an article in the OC Register if you want to read more about it.