Our First Grade Boy

 I still get hugs and kisses from this handsome first grader.  I'm sure that will never stop...

His favorite part of school is:

"Three recesses"

It's what we do...

This is Mina's spot in the kitchen.  She is frequently sitting here snacking while I am cooking up a gourmet meal (ahem..) or a lousy semi-sustaining meal.  She was particularly cute so I captured the moment and the cheezy grin!  Recognize those shades Lins??

Yah, I'm lookin at you!

Shoes, must be a girl thing.  In Mina's words, "Miiiiine Daddeeeee!"  Either that translates to, these are mine daddy, or these are my daddy's.  You choose.

This morning the boys discovered that rug + pillows = mountains.  Awesome!

First snow.

I love the snow.  It is cold and makes me shiver.  It makes the kids crazy to go outside at 8:00 in the morning.  I get to bundle up each child one by one in cozy cumbersome clothing while the waiting children lovingly repeat my name over and over as though I dont see them awaiting my patient assistance with the stubborn glove or boot.  It means setting aside the lazy am hours for the constant beckoning at the sliding door or the call of "Quick mom, look at this!"  "Mom, how do I make a BIG snowball?"  "Mom, get a picture of my snow angel."  And then it means the snow clothes finally get to be spread all across my livingroom wet and dripping so as to not delay the toasty warm bath to thaw the 2 hour chilled children.

Yup, It's worth it.



I'm thinking it's obvious, but for you dummies out there, Rulon is mining for gold in Alaska.

One of the many angels in the yard.

Mina was out in the snow the whole 2 hours with the boys.  She had no trouble at all keeping up with her big brothers.



Happy Thanksgiving

Two boys in long underwear showing off their thanksgiving crafts...  Rulon made a pilgrim hat and a placemat.  Mads made an indian headdress, of course he ha to strap on his holster and draw a gun on me for the picture.  Duh.

 ok, one with normal clothes on.



Happy Birthday to Julie!

Turning 36 never felt so good!!

I dare say this was the best birthday in like 6 years.

Chester wins the grand prize for making my day,

and the boys were so excited that they successfully tricked me...

The night before my birthday the boys all went to the tire store to look at tires for the Chevy, again.  No convincing needed, this was normal.  In the morning I awoke to a table of gifts from the little "tire shoppers"

 Chester made me a delish birthday cake with writing on it, decorated the table, blew up balloons, bought party hats (just 2, such restraint) and took me on a date to swap out the jacket he had bought for my birthday present.  I got so many hugs and kisses from my little family.  Even Birdie was singing her version of "Happy Birthday" all day long.

Since I didnt have a picture of Chester with the bday pics, I threw this one in.  This is his smooch for his mom... awww, so cute!!  Just by way of note, he shaved the masterpiece mustache for my birthday.  I mean shaved it OFF, not sculpted it into existence!!

That is love!



Happy Halloweeeeeeen!!!

What a boo-tiful day!!

We all went to Rulon's school this afternoon for the halloween parade, he did not want to walk in it with his class... so he sat with us on the stage instead.  Too bad we couldn't run around in the park all day, it was super nice this afternoon.

Fairly serious cowboy

Nice ghost who doesn't eat people.

Pirate girl who thinks all the booty it hers.
Totally smiling over this one, I made the hat, skirt, and vest.  Sweet!!

Had to eliminate the sword... too much chopping of the momma going on.

Big daddy cowboy and momma drill sergeant and the chillins.

Look out neighborhood, here we come!!

Just the Girls

Having found out that this last baby we are having is going to be (well, IS) a boy...

I felt the need to pay tribute to the girls in the family.

Mina Mina you're so fine-a!

Julie Julie you are coolie!

Hm, maybe someone else should pay tribute, I stink at it.

But aren't we a cute little pair of chicks?!

Boston Bums

"I just have to touch the wall of Fenway Park before I go to sleep tonight."

We got to our hotel late, like I dont know what time, I just know I was tired... but before Chester could sleep he had to touch Fenway Park.

We, yes we, not just Chester, had been looking forward to this trip for MONTHS!!  And finally being in Boston was amazing.  We even took the subway from the airport to the hoteland loved it, I'm sure that would wear off if we lived there, but we don't so it was awesome!

The next morning after an attempt at sleeping in, we hit the ground running.  What a pretty place, so much brick and oldness.  (I'm so descriptive)

Chester about fainted when we went in the pro shop/team store (whatever)!! I'm not even kidding, I thought he might go down with a thud.  The shop was huge and you've never seen so much Red Sox stuff, it was overwhelming!! I reminded Chester that we had several days and to pace himself.

A tour of Fenway was top on the list, and it was really cool.  The tour guide had all kinds of trivia questions and Chester whispered all the answers to me before anyone else came up with them.  Aww, that's my guy!

Atop the Green Monster, catching a phly ball. (that means a fake fly ball FYI)

Out pretty faces in front of a pretty wall.

Chester had more than one round of park food, the sausage dogs ,not sure what they are really called were pretty good with peppers and onions... don't mind our breath afterwards...

Signing Pesky's pole...

Signing the Fisk foul pole while standing on the Green Monster.

Chester's mark on the Red Sox dugout... he made sure to put his name all over the park!!

Our first game was a night game, great seats!! It was crazy fun to be there and Chester had been there 2 hours before me to catch batting practice.  I caught a little nap!!!

The next day was a day game in SPECTACULAR seats!!  For real, we were 5 rows from the Red Sox dugout and all the players saw us and were like, " Hey Powelson's, nice to see you, lets catch up after the game!!"  Yah, amazing, I know!

See there they are, just after the shout out, duh.

 I'm pretty sure Jason Varitek was coming over to say hey to me, but then he remembered the game and all.  For the record, he's my favorite player.

Need I mention the happiest guy alive???  It was the most fun ever watching Chester's face all week, he was the happiest I've seen him since he locked eyes with me like 13 years ago.

Let's go again!!!!!

No Fear

This snake didn't stand a chance against Mads' speed and stealth!

Brave boy that Madser man!!

Mads was quite proud of himself and told Rulon all about it when he got home from school.

St George for Labor Day

Visiting mom and dad in St George was like magic!! It was such a nice vacation for us, I dont know who enjoyed it thte most.  The boys were in the pool as much as possible and mom and dad made it real easy on me doing as much as possible for the kids so I could... not do so much.

The boys got brave in a hurry!!!  In no time they were both jumping, diving and flipping into the pool.  Thanks to the life jackets nobody drowned.  I do think these boys could learn to swim in no time.



Mina warmed up to grandma in no time, except at nap time, but she didn't like me so much at nap time either!

Mina sat with grandpa for the longest time squirting him with little fishies.   Sometimes grandpa was fast enough refilling the fish, sometimes Mina let out a squeal of impatience.  She was loving it!!

Thanks so much for the wonderful long weekend mom and dad!!

Cookie Monster

I gave Mina a chocolate cookie...

I think she liked it!!!



Brittney and Beckett!!

While Brittney was here helping me with everything, the kids enjoyed the last few days of summer before school started.  Becket was totally awesome to have around (Brittney wasn't so bad either), Rulon was especially attached to Beckett and spent a bit of time playing with him... it was CUTE!

Thanks to Brittney there are bright smiling pictures of the kids playing together.

Man work!  I think Mads is the supervisor.  Beckett got a little hot at the work site, did a little cooling off of his own.  Cute buns Beckett.

Those are some big birds in our tree!!  I think they are the flightless kind, Lindsay, do you know about this species??  

Just plain darling.

If I was a good sister in law I would have evidence of Brittney here... but I am not.  I love you Brittney, you are like gold!!!  (only better)