Service Project for the summer

Seth and I belong to a small group through our church and absolutely LOVE it!!  All of us have become like family and we have a blast whenever we all get together.  For the summer, our fearless leader Ryan volunteered us to maintain four of the flower beds on the church property.  Last night was the first go-round of prettification (is that a word?) Between the 4 couples we have 7 little ones so it's always an adventure to keep everyone entertained and happy but we're getting pretty good at it:

Josiah and Norah all ready for the fun to begin!

What is a kiddie get together without bubbles??  Sophia was delighted that no
blowing was necessary, just hold the bubble wand up and.....

...VOILA!!  Bubbles galore!

Josiah didn't pick up on that so quickly....

...trying to blow the bubbles...not as successful:-)

No climbing toys available?  No problem
 for Miss Ashlyn, she makes her own in the car:-)

Giant fields = running kids and happy parents 

We did actually do a little work too...and by "we" I mean everyone else as I mainly stuck to my forte of wrangling kids:-)

After all the hard work, we of course had to have nourishment:

If you're counting kids and thinking we lost one, don't fret,
Miss Raegan is only 5 months old so she was hanging out in the car out of the wind

Here we all are relaxing and eating while Matt
is still working hard....thanks Matt!!

And we wrapped up the evening with a yummy treat:

Root beer floats all around!  I think they were a hit:-)

Yep, bath needed after this evening but totally worth it!!

Fun-filled weekend

I just realized that it has been a month since I blogged anything but in my defense, I have tried SEVERAL times to post a video I edited of Josiah and his new words but Blogger and I are not seeing eye-to-eye on the issue since it refuses to upload the video....grrr...  November literally dissolved this year, I have no idea how it is December already but here we are.  As I have said before, I absolutely LOVE this time of the year as the snow starts falling and Christmas lights go up and the world seems like a softer, friendlier place in general.  I realize that isn't true if you venture into a mall or superstore but if you stick to quieter places, you'll find that it's true:-)  This weekend was a whirlwind of holiday preparation and fun.  Friday night was our Small Group Christmas Party (we missed you Rogers'!!), this year's event was an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" contest. We all hunted high and low to come up with our most hideous ensemble.  It was a close race....until Matt showed up and then it was all over, he won HANDS DOWN!  Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

The Friedts

The Millers

The Kelms

Aren't we festive??!

 Saturday morning found Josiah and I at the portrait studio with Erik, Vanessa and Addison.  All we wanted was a picture of the kids together in the outfits that Grammy Cindy bought them....simple, no?  Um, yeah, maybe if they were not TRIPLE booked with people!  Our appointment was at 10:00...picture taking commenced at 10:40.  The whole thing took us 2 and a half hours and was quite a circus...at one point, Josiah joined another family in their Holiday photo because I was busy picking poses and pictures and he moves like lightening.  Oh well, they had a bunch of kids in the picture already, I'm sure they won't notice one more:-)  Even though it was a work out for all of us, the results were worth it, here are a few sample photos, these are not the best ones, you'll have to wait for our Christmas card to arrive to see those:-):

"I'm outta here!"

Silly face!  Cheeeese!

"Let's look opposite directions so they can't get a good shot!"

And again...we did eventually get a good one, it will be on Cindy and Gary's Christmas card!

Saturday afternoon, Auntie Blair and Uncle Brian wanted to take the little boys sledding so we bundled them up and ventured to our old stompin' grounds at Harriet Bishop Elementary to get in on the fun!  I have no pictures yet but stay tuned for those, it was a blast!

Josiah spent Sunday at Nana and Papa's  while Seth and I headed to Marc and Jen's to help with the ongoing "settle in to the new house before baby arrives" process.  They have done an amazing job so far and the place is looking great!  They will be done just in time for baby to make the grand entrance in a few weeks:-)  Henry and Robin were there to help too, here are a couple shots of the "painting party":

Henry Bug was the project manager for the day

To paint the wall or not to paint the wall, that is the question....

As you can see it was another fun-filled weekend for the Friedt's, hope your weekend was a blessing to you also!

Small Group fun!

As I've mentioned before, we are part a small group through our church and have had SO much fun with this group!! We all have young kids (9 in total between 5 couples), the youngest 5 were all born within a year! We had the chance to get together with everyone on Tuesday night for dinner and play time and had a blast as usual. Then we decided to try to take some group shots of the kids. Successful?? You be the judge:

Ryan attempts to wrangle the kids

The older 4 should be easy, right?

We've got all of them smiling, can we get them to look at the camera? Nope, this is as good as it gets folks:-)

Now for the babies...

We've got them all calmed down...

...well, 4 out of 5 ain't bad (I love Norah's look in this one!)...

...and here it is, the best one of the night (in birth order from L-R: Owen, Ashlyn, Norah, William and Josiah)

A flashback to how they looked Nov 09...

...and in July 09, where does the time go??

I love this one, Sam sums it all up in a picture, no matter what chaos is happening around you, rock on!!