The Powells

Park Hopping Anyone?

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:56:39 +0000

Usually you hear this question in reference to hitting multiple Disneyland Parks in several days. My friend, Racquel, and I decided we were going to take this to the extreme and take our kids to 10 parks around the American Fork area in ONE morning. I made our list and we loaded the kids in to the van and started at the Northern most AF park. The kids each had a camera and took great pictures from their point of view at the parks. We spent about 15 min at each park and had a blast. We made it to 7 parks in a 2 hour time period. We went to some parks that we have never been to and revisited some that we don’t get to very often! The end result: tons of pictures, parks we want to go back to and spend more time, sprinklers coming on in one (in the middle of morning–LAME!), tired mommies, happy kids, and lots of fun memories! Here are a few of my pictures of Spencer, Josey, Kira and Olivia:

MISSING: One Tooth!

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:49:59 +0000

He did it! One lost tooth! After months of telling me he had a loose tooth (thanks to the unit on teeth in Preschool) and then weeks of realizing he finally did have a loose tooth, wiggling, pushing with his tongue and hanging on by one little root. I told him to take a deep breath and I was going to just push it back into place, but I pulled it forward quickly instead and it popped right out! He was so very excited to go through this right of passage! To celebrate we had to read the book “The Night Before the Tooth Fairy” at bedtime and he wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy telling her where his tooth was hiding and went to bed only to wake up and find a silver dollar under his pillow! He was thrilled!! He had to call the grandparents and tell them all about it. Grandma Teeter couldn’t believe the going rate for teeth now a days. “Inflation!” she said. Then for the next week he would walk up to people and pull his lower lip out to show them his missing tooth…he was just a little enthusiastic!

Mommy, I have princess hair!

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:02:05 +0000

There is a really supportive group of women in my area who have also adopted transracially and I am so glad that they have learned skills and are willing to teach them to others. They had a hair class and so I went with Josey to learn how to do the braid extensions to save us some money. I am so glad I did! 5 hours (broken up into 3 sittings over a Saturday), $7 worth of microbraid extensions, a couple of movies, and lots of treats later we had a little girl that had aged a few years and loved all of it! She woke up the next morning, looked in the mirror and said, “Mommy, I have princess hair!” The best part? I don’t have to do her hair for 5-6 weeks! Wahoo!

Her Inner Dancer SCREAMING to get out!

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:06:54 +0000

Josey LOVES to dance! Whenever music comes on she gets her groove on. She shakes her hips and shoulders and gets down! She asks me just about every day when dance class is. She is so darn cute at her class and is getting ready for her first little dance recital at the end of the month. She practices her dance moves anytime and anywhere and is really good at remember what comes next.

Tee Ball Anyone?

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:43:39 +0000

Every parent has to go through the tediousness of t-ball for the sake of a kid learning a sport…you have to start somewhere, right?!? Spencer’s team was the St. Louis Cardinals. He learned to bat left handed and half way through the season he figured out how to bat without using the tee and wasn’t happy when he had to use it to hit during the games. In fact he preferred practice to the games. He complained that the games were TOO long! They were sure cute though. I have decided that Spencer is too busy of a kid to play t-ball…too much standing around time. He is a kid that needs to be on the move all the time!

My Crazy Life…that I LOVE!

Fri, 21 May 2010 22:22:12 +0000

Man! Have you ever had those days, those weeks, those months, where life never feels like it slows down? In fact it feels like if you cram one more thing into it you are going to explode!? That’s how I have felt the past 2 1/2 months. Every week I look at all of the things on the calendar and wonder how we are going to make it through the week and then Sunday rolls around again and we start yet another crazy week!

I love my life! I love my two very, energetic busy children that make me simultaneously want to smile and pull my hair out at the same time! Is that possible?! Those moments are priceless to me and I always am so grateful for their birthmoms in those moments. Being a mother is HARD work, but the rewards come in hugs and kisses, those “I just love you mom!” from Josey or the “i heart Mom” written is Spencer’s hand. Little gifts that make the hard times seem not so hard!

Spencer has accomplished so much in the past two months. We went skiing at Snowbird again, just the two of us and had a ball. In fact he informed me that he wants a helmet, goggles and skiis for his Christmas present this year! We got to go to Joe’s Valley for Easter weekend and he had so much fun coloring Easter eggs with the cousins and hunting for them on Easter morning. He had his first gymnastics showcase–he is really good at it, and is starting the boys’ preteam group in a week! He also graduated from Preschool yesterday! I look at my little man and wonder how the almost 6 years has flown by and cry knowing that he is starting kindergarten in the fall and wondering if I have prepared him enough so that he will choose the right, love learning and be kind to everyone around him. His exuberance for life makes me laugh on a daily basis! He is so silly and loves his daddy so much. Wow!

Josey. My little angel girl! She is a princess, a DIVA, sassy to the core and amazingly sweet! She takes no guff from anyone, especially Spencer. These past few months she has accomplished a lot! She potty trained herself (with a little, and I mean a little, help from me). She LOVES to dance. Every day she asks if it is dance class today. She gets her groove thing on whenever any good dancing music comes on. She loves Cinderella and The Princess and the Frog and whenever she has a pretty dress on she has to dance. My neighbor brought over clothes the other day and there was this beautiful pink frilly dress in the pile. When she saw it she said, “That’s a beautiful dress Mom!” We then put it on her, she did a twirl in it and then said to Chris, “Daddy, dance with me!” They danced around the kitchen floor as she sang “La, la, laaaa. La, la, laaaa.” It was so sweet. She also LOVES to sing. We did a Kindermusik class this Spring and she has an uncanny ability to memorize songs. She sings all day long. The sweetest is when she sings with me at night while I sing “I Am a Child of God” or “I Love to See the Temple” for bedtime. Her little voice is so pure and sweet and makes my heart rejoice!!

My hunk of burnin’ love of 13 years is incredible! We celebrated our 13th anniversary in Seattle, Washington for 3 days. It was a blast! We stayed up late, slept in, ate amazing seafood, enjoyed all the sights and sounds the city had to offer, and had a chance to talk a lot and reconnect! What a joy! I am ever in awe of how hard of a worker Chris is for our family! He is fabulous and amazing and I am so lucky he has put up with me! Here is to another 13 crazy, busy, magical years! By then Spencer will be graduating from High School and going on a mission!! That’s crazy to think about!

My blog has taken a back seat for a while and I apologize to those of you that care about our day to day activities and want to see new pictures of the kids….well it is now relatively current. Pictures are posted of the the goings on at the Powell house for the past two months. Enjoy!

Beautiful Girl

Fri, 21 May 2010 06:46:00 +0000

While Spencer was playing T-Ball tonight Josey was playing with Emily (her favorite friend that lives across the street) and some other little girls. Here are some pictures I snapped of her while they were playing…

Josey, you have no idea how beautiful you really are!

The Graduate!

Fri, 21 May 2010 06:27:52 +0000

Preschool is over! Sad! Spencer came home yesterday from his last day of preschool. I asked if he was sad it was over and he said, “Mom I only cried a little!” ABC Preschool was such a blessing for Spencer this year. Miss Annette is AMAZING! She harnessed all of his energy and directed it in such a postive and loving environment. He loves school! He loves to learn new things and he’s reading! (Not that that was the most important thing, but is pretty cool none the less!) He is so incredible at memorizing and was so cute with his part for the program. I am really sad that preschool is over and that he’s big enough to go to Kindergarten in the Fall.

Olympic Gymnast in training

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:57:47 +0000

Spencer has been doing gymnastics at our local rec center since he was 18 months old. We started with a mom and me class and then it turned in to a once a week class to keep my very energetic little guy busy. Now he goes to gymnastics twice a week and is moving up to the Boys Pre-Team class next month. It has been fun to watch his skills and strength grow. He is amazingly strong…seriously you should see his biceps (I think they are bigger than mine!) and the kid already has sixpack abs. Not fair! It has given him an outlet for all of his energy and he loves it!

This past Saturday they had a Twisters Gymastics All Star Show where the kids got to show off their skills and what they have been working on this past year. Spencer loved that he got to have his own gymnastics uniform and show off his talent. He did such an amazing job and we are so proud of him!

Spencer with his buddy Gabe.

“Dad don’t sell me!”

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:49:47 +0000

For Family Night last night we went to Pirates Island in Orem, UT. It is a restuarant/arcade similar to Chuck E. Cheeses but with WAY better food! Everyone that works there is dressed in pirate garb and the whole place is decked out in pirate decorations (really cool). When we were seated they gave Spencer and Josey pirate hats and after we put Josey’s on she wouldn’t stop saying, “Aarrrgghh!” Spencer on the other hand was VERY reserved and downright quiet and a little leary of the pirates. Chris told him that if he wasn’t careful the pirates would take him, or better yet he would sell Spencer to the pirates. Spencer said they didn’t want little boys and Chris told him that they buy little boys to mop the decks of their ships. Spencer listened to this and watched as pirates came and went past our table and then piped up and said, “Dad don’t sell me!”

While we were waiting for our food to come out we went and played arcade games, except that Spencer clung to Chris’ leg and wouldn’t do any of the games. He warmed up a little after dinner, but when it was time to leave and we headed down the “tunnel” to the bathrooms Spencer would NOT go in the Mates bathroom by himself. Oh that boy cracks me up!