Wouldn't it be nice!

Wouldnt it be nice if we could solve all of our problems with chocolate?

Extremely sleep deprived-chocolate

Havn't cleaned the bathroom in 2 weeks-chocolate

Fighting kids-chocolate

No dinner prepared-chocolate

Really bad hair-chocolate

World Peace-chocolate (although preferably from the Swiss)

And Parkers lastest:
Can't possibly finish my homework-chocolate.

This was his latest scheme after we argued for several hours about writing his letters for school. We had gone back and forth much longer than was needful until I was finally out of ideas to encourage and even coerce him into cooperating. I finally decided to make him go outside until he cooled down enough to reason with or he turned into a popsicle, whichever happened first. (I really thought the latter might actually happen.) After about 10 minutes he comes in and tells me, " Mom, I have a great idea. I think if I have a little bit of chocolate I will feel better and be able to finish my homework." Where did that come from? However at that point I really didnt care, so I consented to a piece of leftover christmas candy. He sat down smiling, ate the candy and didnt speak another word. A few minutes later the entire paper was finished without any further arguing.

I have to hand it to the kid. He can be pretty creative at times. Ah, to be a kid again when chocolate really can solve most of your problems.

So next time I am having a really bad day or a difficult time with something I think I will just sit down and have myself a good piece of chocolate.

Christmas Eve

Despite all of the craziness of the season, we did have a

wonderful Christmas Eve.

The Powell side of the family gathered at our home this year to celebrate. We started the evening with a wonderful steak and prawn dinner with all of the fixings. Since I didnt bake really at all this year we had little fruit tartlets and ice cream from Costco. They were actually really good and kept me from gaining a few extra pounds from all of the baked goodies!!!!!!!!!

We then gathered in the living room to talk about the gifts that we would be giving the Savior this year. My gift would be to listen and act upon the promptings of the spirit. It is something that I am not great at. I may hear-but the acting part often times gets shuffled to the side or forgotten in my busy life. Randall decided that he would give the gift of more strict obedience. The kids of course decided to read the scriptures and say their prayers-the most basic things that we even as adults many times forget.

Parker then delighted us with some riddles. He loves to be in the spotlight and show off his reading skills. We then sang christmas carols and the little girls shared the stage to sing Away in a Manger.

Papa read everyone The Night Before Christmas just after they opened up their new christmas pajamas. Parker got The Grinch and Abrianna Sleeping Beauty. Nana and Papa also gave each one of the grandkids a sleeping bag, and a book. Parker got Scooby Doo (of course), and Abrianna Princess. The kids then snuggled down in their new bags to watch a Dora Christmas Movie.

Brenna and Abrianna in their new jammies and sleeping bags.

We concluded the evening sharing our service projects that we had done for Mom and Dad. It truly was a wonderful day and we had so much fun with all of our family.

CHRISTMAS IN REAL LIFE

This is the only way that I can come up with to explain our Christmas this year. It was simply crazy, and I was too tired out of my mind to care. Thus a real life christmas. Nothing magical or out of the ordinary wonderful about it-but hey, I'm okay with that. We have just simply been too busy with life to even care that Christmas had come. With Randall serving as theBishop, our lives are now busier than ever and I am trying to adjust to the single life. LOL(its actually going really well, just completely exhausting!!!) Then on top of that I decided to volunteer myself to sort of head up the Ward Christmas Party just 6 days before it was to happen. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking. The clouds of insanity must have parted for a breif moment when I decided that it was a good idea. Well, 5 hams, a no go Santa, an impropmtu Nativity, and countless hours at the church later, it was a success. I was exhausted but not done yet. 3 days later Abrianna had surgery, so we spent the entire day at the hospital. By then it was only 2 days until christmas and their were still last minute presents to buy and my entire house to clean. Usually I am such a fanatic about christmas making sure that all the halls are decked with just the right decorations, wonderful goodies fill the kitchen and of course presents perfectly wrapped under the tree. Christmas is such a magical time of year and I love to make it extra special for the kids. Perfectly planned FHE nights about the Savior, cookie plates to all of our friends, and a Polar Express party for the kids. Of course we would attend a Christmas concert, go to zoo lights, decorate our tree together and frost yummy homemade sugar cookies.

But this year I just decided to admit defeat and move on.

None of those exciting things happened. Not one. It was so bad that my mom actually had to come over and decorate our tree the day before christmas!!!! Now we had gotten the tree 2 weeks before but just simply had not had the time or the energy to do anything with it. I actually thought maybe we should just leave it bare to remind us that in the grand scheme of things, it really isnt that important. But nonetheless I am grateful to my angel mother for saving our poor sad tree. I actually even hired someone to wrap all of our presents this year. And you know what, it was the smartest thing I have ever done. What a relief it was to not stay up all night on Chritmas Eve. I think I may do this every Christmas. Why do I tell you all of the things that I have completely failed at this year-well for the simple fact that, IT'S OKAY!!! Some days and even the grandest of holidays are just plain crazy, rotten, frustrating, exhausting, ordinary real life. There will be other years to deck the halls, years when everything goes just as planned, years when your heart is overflowing with the spirit of the season-but until then just sit back, breathe deep, laugh a little and enjoy your REAL LIFE!!!!

The only picture of me at Christmas this year. Parker took it as we were wrapping last minute gifts. Hey at least it's one picture!!!!

Surgery Day!!!

Well it is finally done. Last week, just 2 days before Christmas Abrianna had surgery to repair her hernia. We found it about 2 months ago just before our big trip to Disneyland. Luckily the docotor said that it was not urgent to do the surgery so we went to D-Land and scheduled the surgery for December. Having surgery is never something you look forward to even if the procedure is pretty routine. To calm her nerves we told her that she would get to go see the doctor and he would give her some medicine that would make her take a long nap. Then she would wake up, have a popsicle, play with toys and go home. Doesn't sound too bad right. This is obviously the before picture. She still looks pretty happy and unsuspecting.

After a long 3 hour wait at the hospital they finally took her down to the OR. The sedative hadn't fully kicked in when they came to get her so she was a little hesitant to go. But she did enjoy the ride down in her big bed. The surgery went really well and they had her out in 40 minutes. When I was finally allowed to go see her in the recovery room she was still conpletely out. They said she woke up crying so they gave her some more sedative. BAD MOVE!!! I am really sensitive to any medication-even 1/2 a benadryl will nearly render me unconscious. SERIIOUSLY. No joke, I cant even take Nyquill. So just like her mother she was out for nearly 3 HOURS after the surgery. We kept trying to wake her up but to no avail. So here she is out cold. I know she will hate me someday for these pictures, but I couldn't resist.
When she finally did wake up it wasn't pretty. This is the awake picture. Yeah I know she pretty much looks like she was drinking all night. She couldnt even stay awake enough to eat the popsicle. I had to keep reminding her to put it in her mouth. Well lets just say after 2 popsicles and a nice release of her bladder all over me- it was finally time to go home. Thank goodness, it had been a really long day for all of us.
Going Home!! She was a little sore but really no worse for the wear. The next day she was up and running around like normal, and showing off her "special glue" to everyone.

Little Lady

Just wanted to give a quick update on the little lady of the house. Autumn is almost 5 months old now and growing every day. We are enjoying her sweet little spirit in our family and get lots of laughs from her funny personality. She is generally always smiling and an overall very happy baby. She learned how to roll over just 2 days ago and she thinks she is pretty hot stuff. Autumn loves to sit in her bumbo and in her bouncy seat to watch her baby einstein videos. She has been sleeping through the night for almost 2 months now, for which I am very grateful. She is probably the most vocal of all of our children. She loves to voice her opinion on everything and likes to chat it up with mom and dad late at night. Bathtime is her new favorite time of the day. She splashes and splashes with her arms and legs and could stay in the bath forever. We are loving her up and feel blessed to have her in our family.We love you Autumn!!!

Sitting pretty in her bumbo in the kitchen.

A little bathtime fun.

Family Pictures-or something like it

Well its that time of year again. You know, the time when you get all dressed up to take that elusive perfect family picture for the christmas card. I'm not quite sure why we torture ourselves this way. I guess we are hoping that just maybe this will be the year that everyone will actually cooperate and we will have a beautiful family portrait. I guess our first mistake was doing it for family night at about 7 pm. With Randalls busy schedule however this was the only time we had available. Well I'm sure you know how the story goes. So instead of me writing about it I will just show you. I know you all have plenty of your own photos like this, so I will try not to be too embarrased. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!

In the end we scratched it all and had our pictures professionally taken. Although I was tempted to send out the worst photo just so everyone could get a good laugh!!!

Happy Thanksgiving -A little late

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So I know this post is very late, but we have been extremely busy lately. Randalls new calling as the Bishop has really thrown us for a loop. We are loving the opportunity to serve, but in the meantime are trying to adjust to a new schedule, or more like no schedule at all. Our family is already seeing so many blessings and we have many things to be thankful for this year. We hope this holiday season finds each of you well and that you are enjoying this exciting time of year.

It was another great year filled with yummy food and fun for all. We held Thanksgiving at our house again this year and celebrated with the Powell side of the family. Nana and Papa, John and Joy and baby Carter, and Crystal and the kids came over for a scrumptious dinner of turkey, swiss beans, homeade rolls, sweet potatoes, and stuffing with all the trimmings. Joy and I spent the entire week before preparing the house and decorating for the fall festivities. We of course began the day with the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade while we cooked and played games. The kids and I went on a scavenger hunt-in the pouring rain, and then returned for some hot cocoa and a nice warm dinner. We ended the night with a thanksgiving story read by Papa and an impromptu talent show by the kids. Parker sang his song Albequerque Turkey, Brenna sang Twinkle Twinkle little star, and Abrianna sang the ABC song.

Papa with Abrianna and Carter.

Our beautiful table.

Joy and I worked so hard to make this an extra special day for all. We had tons of fun coming up with all sorts of new decorations for the table this year.

Getting ready for dinner

Happy little Autumn!!

Parker and Papa

Playing a few early christmas tunes on the piano.

Our pilgrim hat craft. Shortbread cookies turned upside down with a chocolate dipped marshmallow on top, and white piping for the buckle. So simple, but tons of fun. They tasted great too!!!