Merry Christmas!

I can never seem to find the time and energy this time of year to prepare and send out Christmas cards in the mail! Please consider this a decent substitute! We are so grateful for the year that we have had. Our kids are healthy and happy. They are always teaching us patience, love, and most of all with these three boys, laughter!

Brian is still working at Kirby Nagelhout Construction as a Project Manager. He is always working on a few different projects at a time. He definitely stays busy which at this place in time is a blessing! He has had a bit of a rough year just with some sports/recreation injuries. Santa brought him a new ligament for Christmas! He actually recieved it a day early on the 24th. The doctor called the day before to find out if he wanted the opening that they just discovered they had. He has been recovering over the holiday from knee surgery for a new ACL in his right knee. He likes to have his fun...He cut his leg open last January on a snow mobile (but it didn't hurt him enough for him to even know he did it so don't feel too bad for him). After that he has kind of been hurting his right knee over and over until about a month ago he finished it off on his dirt bike and the bummer is he wasn't even doing "anything cool" he says. He is excited to get fixed up so he can resume some of his(/our) favorite things; skiing, waterskiing, softball and riding his dirt bike. Oh, and he loves to spend time with the boys too!

As usual we had a great summer down at Lake Billy Chinook because it is only 30 minutes from our house. We love it there. Brandon learned to waterski at the age of 3 and Tyler continued waterskiing again as well. I was excited to be able to ski this year because I was not pregnant! (And still am not FYI). I have kept very busy with the boys and the various other jobs that I do. I teach fitness classes 4 days a week for an hour in the morining still and I enjoy that. I also sell Vinyl Lettering and on the side do a little selling of some really cool non-stick bakeware called Demarle.

Tyler is 6 now and started Kindergarten this year and he really likes it. He is coming along really well with his reading and writing so that is a lot of fun for us to watch. He is a very sweet boy and happy too. He loves to make gifts for people and wrap them. We had numerous handmade gifts for us under the tree from him for each of us. He stays busy also playing outside with all his neighborhood buddies, riding bikes, playing hide and seek and jumping on the trampoline.

Brandon is usually right behind him. He learned how to ride his bike back in May when he was still 3! My boys learn early, maybe it's the cul-de-sac we live on I don't know. Anyway, he was really proud of himself and even more proud now that he has turned 4. He reminds us often of the things that he can NOW do BETTER that he is 4. He is such a funny boy. I could literally go on and on about all the funny things he does and says in one whole day. And then I could start over again the next day.

Ethan is 16 months now and always right behind Brandon! He is definitely just another one of the boys now. He wants to be with them and play what they are playing for sure. He is starting to talk more and more and he knows what we are saying to him which makes things easier sometimes! One of his favorite things to do is dance, he is quite the little twinkle toes.

We are having fun raising these little guys here in Central Oregon around with lots family close by and great friends. We are grateful for the love of our Father in Heaven and our Savior. This time of year is such a great opportunity to teach our kids the importance of Christ and the meaning of his life for us. We are grateful for all of you and for the friendships that we have made over the years and all the family that we seem to keep aquiring with marriages and babies. We love you and hope you have a happy and safe holiday. Love, the Powells

SO the first pictures are of Ethan at Halloween because I never did post one of him as a gorilla! I didn't have it on my camera and I just got Brian's pictures off his. Here are some more of the kids (+neighbor kids) in the snow. We have been getting pretty good amounts. It is so dry that it is not really piling up but drifting against everything. I think it got like 18 below last night here. The kids have been enjoying it though. Last year was so difficult with Brandon, he refused to wear anything other than basketball shorts and t-shirts. This year, he still will only wear that if he is inside but will actually get dressed to go out. The minute he gets inside though, he totally strips down to his t-shirt and shorts (he leaves those on under everything.) He halfway does it in the car as well. He just doesn't like a lot of stuff on. Sometimes I think we should move to Arizona or something.

Tyler on the other hand runs around all day long in his snow pants. I had to convince him to wear jeans to school yesterday. He is totally in tune with how many days until Christmas, he reminds us each day.

Ethan is starting to really talk a lot. He will imitate most of what you tell him so say and the boys are having a lot of fun with it. They laugh histarically when Ethan tries to say what they tell him to.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Our funny little man turned 4 yestereday, we had a party for him on Friday with all of his cute little friends. Brandon has got some pretty loyal friends, he is very liked I think because he is so funny and fun to be around. He had a little trouble with some scissors the day before his party and so we had to buzz his head! In the middle of winter-brrr. He was so proud of the job he had done so I didn't get that mad at him. Christmas pics should be pretty good though! We had his party at McDonalds which was great, they did everything from games to cake to prize bags, I just showed up! That should be how all moms do parties, so much less stress. He has never had a friend party so it was really cute to see how excited he was about it all, especially the presents. After each one that he opened he would stare at it with big eyes and say, I lllike this one!

We went up into the deschuttes forest on saturday with some friends and had a great time. Usually there is snow (we go up the weekend after Thanksgiving each year). It was nice and dry and even a little warm later in the day. The kids stayed dry and warm for a change. It was a bummer to not get a tree in the snow I guess but the trip lasted longer and kids were happy longer because they were dry and warm! We ended up getting a tree at a near by vendor because when you cut it down yourself around here it is a total Charlie Brown tree. We have always cut it down since we've lived here but gave into the commercialism of the perfect tree and I love it! Our friends did some really fun stuff, Casey and Julie did a treasure hunt. Heather and Trent brought their 4 wheeler and trailer to take the kids on "hayrides" - let me tell you it was such fun for the kids. My boys would hardly leave when it was time.

Here are some other funny pics and a video of our three funny boys. They are a lot of fun and sometimes a lot of work but mostly fun. There is a picture of Brandon washing dishes which happens to be one of his favorite past times. Ethan is starting to talk a bit, he usually says "I did it!" after much of what he does! He says Uh-oh a lot and after that is mostly mamma and da-dee.

"OSM"

So this post is called "OSM" because I have included only one example of many that Tyler makes every single day. This is him on his new skateboard that he got for his birthday. It is OSM. I thought this was so funny and cute. He is really enjoying learning how to read and write.

The waffle picture is to show that this is much of what Brandon's diet consists of lately. He won't really eat anytyhing else for breakfast. He will eat other stuff in the day but does ask for these Cinnamon Waffles every meal. If you haven't tried the cinnamon flaver yet you should, they really are good. They are also whole grain which is a nice plus. I like them with Banannas and whipped cream myself!

Here are some other pics of the Halloween party we had at church last week and the kids were so excited that I dressed up as a witch. Is that because they really think that I might be one?? Tyler is not Edward Scissor Hands by the way, he supposed to be Wolverine from X-MEN, it was the best I could do. Ethan was a Gorilla but I didn't get to take any pics of him, you'll have to stay tuned for Halloween night to get that pic. It's pretty cute as well.

The other pictures are of the "Tot Trot" that we had at the shcool next to us at the track. It was so cool, my friend Krissy put on this benefit for her sister in law's nephew who has hypoplastic left heart syndrome and has to have multiple surgeries. The kids all paid $5 to run and got a T-shirt and goodie bag and a medal. They ran once around the track and it was really fun. It was neat to teach them about serving others. Brandon however had this to say when the whistle blew to run. He started to cry and sat down and said "I hate thith game, thith ith a sthupid game!!!" He was mad I think because there were so many people there. My kids have never liked being places where there are a lot of people. Tyler is over that finally thank goodness and did great.

Funny Video Of the two Crazy Clowns

Our Two Little Ones

Well, Brandon and Ethan are quite the pair I decided today. I took them on a whirlwind errand day to get all my stuff done that I needed to. They both took naps in the car which was great, they both woke up and laughed at each other for like a half hour or so. They were so funny. Ethan has such a mouth full of teeth and looks so old now. Brandon is just so dang funny. This morning he put Tyler's helmet on his waist and had the helmet part on his "bummy" or his "but-tocks" as has somehow learned to say. He went around all morning long like this laughing histarically. Kids are so funny. Tyler was at school as I took these so there are none of him.

Things are going well here, the weather has been so nice. We have just been trying to keep up with all that we are busy with, Tyler is playing soccer and he likes that. He really likes kindergarten which is so nice because he is so excited to go everyday. Brian and I have taken on some fun little prjects, I found a cute kitchen table for only $75 and so Brian mostly is re-sanding and staining it for me. We got some chairs on craig's list to go with it and got an extra table in the process so we (he) will sand that and finish it an sell it. I will post a picture when we get it all together in our dining room. We fianlly decided to get rid of the tiny little round table and chairs from TEN years of marraige ago...can't belive I even kept it that long.

We are also busy maintaining our rental house south of Bend in La Pine which is where I took the little boys today while I cleaned. It was so great though, they just played and had a great time. I like easy days like today, but I am still really tired! Brandon really likes to clean bathrooms I found out! The kid goes crazy non-stop. Oh, and windows. This age is so nice because they actually WANT to help, even if I do have to follow him and do it right, get the straks out of the window and soak up all the water from his version clean. He is too cute. They can be pills at times, but I am trying to focus on the good here.

Well, here are som pictures of the two crazys. A lot of these are from our car ride, it is an hour from Redmond to our La Pine house, but only 20 minutes south of Bend! If anyone wants to rent it let me know by all means! We are looking!

Birthdays and School

Tyler started kindergarten and he loves it! He also turned 6 last week and had a great time at his BMX Track Party. The boys rode and rode for hours! We had to get them to take a break for cake. They hardly stopped for water, it was amazing. Brian and I even had a little race between us two on some tiny bikes and he won. Only because his legs are longer....?

We also got a bunny and the boys named him "Brown", he is shuggly and soft and I am totally allergic to him! That is why we don't have pets pretty much. My good friend Amy gave it to them and they love it. It is cute I just wish I could hold it without getting athsma! Ethan gets totally excited and crazy when we let it out of it's cage. We keep the cage in the garage so that I don't have to breathe the same air!

Tyler got some snazzy new church clothes for his birthday and this is how they posed for me for pictures! They are so crazy and goofy. The weather here is officially cold now. I think we only had two seasons this year it seems. Summer and Winter. Well, this post is mostly pictures so enjoy.

Already September?

Well, it has been more than a month since we updated our blog. We are getting ready to go back to school (just Tyler). He will start tomorrow at Tom McCall right across the street from us and he will be in afternoon kindergarten so that will be nice! It's still pretty laid back for us since our kids are still younger. Tyler is really excited to be at the "big" school now. Brandon is doing great and as always I have a funny story about him.

We were getting ready for bed and in the bathroom and he pulled out the scale to see how much he weighed. He stepped on and looked up at me and asked "Mom, how weighs I do weighs?" But he did it with his lisp and it sounded more like "how wayth I do wayth?" I was laughing so hard. He is seriously so funny, everyday.

Ethan turned one on August 25th and he had no idea but we had some fun (sort of) down at the lake that day. It was so unusually cold in August. Now that it is September it is hot again!

Cathryn, Brian's younger sister, went to college this week so that is always a bummer. We love having her here. Like I always remind those I love, we need you to move here!

We had fun with Paige and patrick here for a weekend and she took an enormous amount of cute pictures. Then for Labor Day weekend we went hiking with the boys and Grandpa John to Todd Lake by Bachelor and then up to Big Lake by Hoodoo ski areas. It was really beautiful. I love this time of year!

I just have to say that I think I am really in love with our boys! They do drive me crazy at times, but they are so cute. Mostly well behaved (except they really act like boys sometimes). "Tooting" since we don't let them say "fart". They do it ALLLL the time, even in church which Brandon got in trouble for. I think he really thought that it didin't matter that he was there! I am trying to teach him that they can only do that when they are their room or something. Ethan is just the cutest boy ever. I think I really like the one year old stage, still so innocent and cute and they just soak up everything you say and do. Tyler is just a sweet boy, he's very thoughtful and loving. Brandon is always bringing me flowers and making me pictures. Tyler is always making picures and books for his friends, it's cute.

Here is a sad picture of Ethan. Yesterday he got ran into by a neighbor kid on his BIKE, yes the front of the bike actually made contact with Ehtan's face! He has kind of a black eye now. The kid is only 4 but seriously, look out! I can't believe still that he just ran over my baby! We live in this cul-de-sac with boys riding bikes everywhere so I only let Ehtan walk around during the early day when most of the boys are in school. Well, this one is too young for school and apparently too young to drive safely! It was really sad. He is ok though.

This is Brian waterskiing again since I don't seem to get good pics when I get out on the water! Mt. Jefferson and then just pics. of the fam.