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.