There really are too many things to list here. But we are so very thankful to God for so many reasons this year. A few of them are things that we'll be thankful for every year. Things like Jesus' faithfulness to us, each other, our families and on and on.
But there are also a few things that we're thankful for this year that are more specific to this past year, and I want to make sure we don't forget them as time moves forward.
One of the biggest praises is that Ben's body has been so receptive to the the Growth Hormone Treatments. In the first 6 months that he's been on it, he grew a full pound and a full 2 inches!!! That may not sound like much to you. But to us it's monumental, and it was enough to get him onto the weight growth charts for the first time in his life. We are thankful that we have Doctors in our lives who love our children and who we trust, like Dr. Leeper and Dr. Guy. For us, that response was the affirmation that I had really needed to know that we had made the right decision. I mean, its not an easy task to give your 3 or 4 year old a shot 6 days a week. He does pretty well with it, but its still not really fun for him. We prayerfully made the decision to do it, but the doctors never said that it was something we HAD to do. So, we are thankful for two growing boys.
We are also so thankful this year for Michael's job. Seems like we know so many who have lost their jobs or are struggling in this economy. And the fact that Michael can still work and allow me to be at home with Drew and Ben is a blessing.
Fall has always been my very favorite time of year, and Thanksgiving is such a special holiday. This year we were able to spend it in Missouri and as usual we jammed so much into the few days we were there.
We celebrated with more food than we could eat and the day after Thanksgiving Uncle Dan volunteered to take all the kids to play on the farm so all of the rest of us could find some great steals on Black Friday. I'm pretty sure he wanted to do it because he loves spending time with the boys and Dresi. But I'll bet that getting out of shopping was a pretty good reason too. So we loaded up his truck with the car seats, hitched up the trailer with the 4-wheelers and sent them off for a day of fun on the farm. They had so much fun!
We also got to go back to this place called Bonkers that all the kiddos love. Its a cross between Chuck E Cheese and a kid-friendly climbing gym made of woven mats so they kind of bounce as they climb from place to place. I've never seen anything like it, and its really pretty cool. They love it at any rate, and we enjoy watching them have so much fun. 
Happy Thanksgiving indeed!
...And Drew chose Batman (possibly because of the extra cool gloves). They were both decked out and ready to go catch some bad guys (and candy).
Here are all of the 
And with a few more buddies while getting candy from car to car. I took Drew around to the cars while Ben opted to hand out candy with Daddy. It took him about an hour to warm up to being in a costume, all the loud noise, and all the people before he decided he was comfortable enough to go get some candy of his own. I just love their little personalities. They are each so special and unique in their own way. 
So the next day we figured we'd better get a move on and carve ourselves some pumpkins. Here's how you do it!
Step 2: Get your carving and scooping tools ready
Step 3: Pull off the top of the pumpkin 
Step 4: Pull out all the pumpkin guts and seeds and be sure to yell "
Step 5: Run around the house all hopped up on Trunk or Treat candy while Mommy does the actual carving of the pumpkin, then come back for a picture and take credit for the jack-o-lantern
Step 6: Take it out to the front porch, stick a candle in it and say "ta-
So here's where Drew's black eye came from (as seen in pictures below and a few soccer pictures earlier). We had saved the pumpkin seeds to roast them when Daddy came home. That night after dinner we were getting all the stuff ready to make them. Now, the boys help me cook pretty often....they love to be a part of whatever is going on....so they know the rules and they are used to sitting on top of the counter. I turned my back for literally a split second, so I'm not entirely sure what happened. But from what we gather, we think that Drew shifted how he was sitting, then Ben shifted just a little bit, which made Drew lose his balance, and he fell right off the counter. The eye was pretty bad, I'll have to say. And we were all pretty upset about it. We called all the right people and the good news was that he was and would be just fine. The bad news was that it was going to look pretty gruesome for a couple of days. And it did. Poor buddy. But he is such a tough little guy and doesn't ever let much get him down for long. We gave him the option of not participating in the next Halloween event, but he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to be on that stage. 
Next was the boys' classroom party at school. They first got to go to the craft table and make pumpkin picture frame magnets. 
And then got to enjoy many Pumpkin-themed games around the room. Here are all the Batmen.
And here are all the boys in their class (except Ben, who was not in the picture taking spirit at all.). 
Daddy even came up to the school to celebrate with us!
Drew with a couple of his girlfriends, Emma and Ava.
The whole class (minus Ben again...see above for details).
And one class picture (albeit amid tears) WITH Ben in it! One day he'll thank me. But I assure you it wasn't that day.
They trick-or-treated to Miss Pat's office to get a piece of candy, and each class gets to parade their costumes to all the other classes. After all that we all came back for some treats. 
It was such a fun party, and Miss Fisher has a great group of kids in her class. Actually most of the kids in the class were together last year in Miss Betsy's class too, so they already have some pretty strong friendships. 
We definitely made the right decision to postpone the party by one day because the next evening was just perfect. The farm wasn't even that muddy considering all the rain we'd had. We had a bonfire for everyone to roast 
After each of the kids rode the horse, she taught them each how to lead. Here is 
Even all the little ones got to ride as much as they wanted (even if they couldn't keep the helmets on). Owen got a little extra help from his Daddy.
Martha Ann, Daisy, Ben and Josh down at the sheep pen.
Time for a 
Cousin Becca and 
Looking down from the arena
Then - as if all that wasn't enough - Tricia took all the kids into the stables and they all got to paint the ponies! She wrote "Happy Birthday Ben and Drew" on it, and they all got to paint him as much as they want and put their 
All that was left to do after that was take a picture with the pony and Patrick the pig. That was a little difficult since Ben doesn't like to be the center of 
But with a little 
Here they are each blowing out four candles.
And here they are licking all the icing off all the props on the cake.
I thought we were all done with all the excitement, but Tricia went way above and beyond for all these sweet kiddos and pulled out little horse-sticks for each of the kids to pretend to ride on in the arena. 
Once it finally all came together it turned out to be a really special day. Drew and Ben had been looking forward to their farm party for weeks and would ask every single morning if it was the day for their party yet. They loved every minute of it and we were so happy to watch them enjoy it so much. 
So he huddled them up, and the team decided their team name should the "The Swipers" (you know, from Dora). He had tried to explain to them the concept of the two teams of four running after the ball and trying to kick it into the goal. But I guess that felt much different than our nights of playing two-on-two in the den. Because that first game there were many tears over not getting to kick the ball in the goal and falling down, a little bit of timidity when lots of other unknown boys started running towards them, and generally not wanting to play on the field at all. Thankfully, we had a little boy on our team who had played the previous year, and he knew just what to do. He was our star player for the first couple of games, and then all the rest of the boys caught the hang of it. We had several games rained out, but once we started playing them again, they seemed to really enjoy it. Drew was hilarious and went after the ball every time he was on the field, cheering for all his buddies. Ben, very true to his nature, took a little while to get used to the idea of the game. When it was his turn to be on the field he ran right next to Daddy the whole time, cheered for his teammates, and avoided the ball (and any attention). I think that he finally did kick the ball once during the last few minutes of the last game. 
The way the Y has this age group set up is really great for introducing kids to the game. They don't have goalies, they don't keep score, every body on the sidelines cheers for all the kids, and at the end of every game all the kids get to run through a little tunnel made by the parents while we cheer for them. (But just so you know, we did win every game by a ton of goals....they were little star athletes, all of them, and - even though they didn't know it - they were by far better than any of the other teams we played. And no, I'm not biased at all.)
We got to make a few new friends that we really enjoyed getting to know....
...but one of the best parts for Ben and Drew was getting to play on the same team as Brax. (Doesn't he look so tough waiting for the ball here? Yes, that is a black eye he's sporting here. But its from an unrelated incident. That's another story for another day....more in the next post.)
One of the best parts for Michael and I was getting to spend our Saturday mornings hanging with our good friends Josh and Darci...and any of the other spectators that came out for some good entertainment (BeBe, Jeff, Aaron, Bobber and we can't forget Brody).
I confess, I stole this picture from Darci's camera. But I just couldn't resist putting it on here because it was just so cute. A little good-luck booty bump from a buddy.
And a good-luck-hug-turned-wrestling-match on the soccer field followed by lots of laughing. 
And here's our team from left to right: Cooper, Jayden, Ben, Michael, Drew, Jackson and Brax. 
I've never had so much fun cheering on my three favorite guys. Luckily they really enjoyed playing, so I think this was the first of many chances to be their cheerleader and biggest fan. 
The three macho tough guys with all of their loveys that none of them can sleep without. So adorable!
I will say I was prepared for the worst - crying at bedtime, up all night, maybe even some fighting over toys. But none of that happened. In fact, it was so much fun I told Darci and Josh that I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of this before. It was really the best of all worlds: something fun and special to pass the time while Daddy's away for us, and a small break for Josh and Darci.
And here Pop lets them see their first catch
They never pass up a chance to run at full speed and play outside
Playing at Uncle Dan's daddy's farm with the dog and the duck. The kiddos all chased the duck around and even got to feed it some treats. That little duck is the cutest thing, and loves people like most dogs do. 
Children of the corn
And - upon 
