Making gingerbread houses at Grandma & Grandpa's house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJkaKAIl_Fc
Check out this link to see Byren's favorite part of Horton Hears a Who.

Then look at Byren's impression of Katie. lol.

Don't be fooled . . .

It is just the eye of the storm . . .

He doesn't sleep - he recharges.

Don't mess with me . . .

I have no intention of making this the list of things we got for Christmas . . . but this is just too good not to share . . . .

I have shared before how Carra's little friend from next door doesn't call me Mrs. Powers, but addresses me as "Super Powers" . . . .

Well, my brother found me a t-shirt to wear supporting her brilliance . . .

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Letter . . .

Here is the Christmas letter from the Powers family - for all of you who aren't on our card list - or those I sent one too, but forgot to add the postage (the post office seems to be a little technical about those details . . . )

Merry Christmas to all . . . .

Ahh, yes, we are shoveling ourselves out from under mountains of snow, the decorations have been hauled out and the stockings have been hung . . . it must be time to write the annual Christmas letter.

Honestly, we are amazed that another year has flown by. We are trying to make sense out of the whirlwind we called life and give you an update of all the chaos. The year has been another testament of God’s grace.

Mikayla is officially 12 years old and has seen the most changes this year. She isn’t a little girl anymore. She skipped a few clothing and shoe sizes, throwing off any pre-planning for future wardrobes. The good thing about it all is we have begun to know the joys of having a built in babysitter with her around. She loves her music, her animals and her books and still thinks boys are gross. So far-so good. She also really enjoys baking – which didn’t help the rest of us with our New Year’s resolutions and the hope of decreasing waist lines.

Brice is 9 and has high hopes for becoming a helicopter pilot someday. If that doesn’t work out, he will be happy building Legos for a living. He is our creative child and loves drawing and art. He also enjoys being outdoors and is still bringing home any creeping, crawling or slithering creature he can capture. His greatest find was a four-inch praying mantis which left a sack of eggs behind that could hatch 2-300 mantis’ in April. We’re sure you are already eagerly awaiting next year’s Christmas letter just to hear how that one turns out. Yeah, us too. . .

Carra Grace turned 6, got her ears pierced, is learning to read, and has asked God for her own baby. She is our ranch-dipping, baby-loving, pickle-eating, lipstick-wearing, dress-up-changing, gum-chewing, sugar-obsessing, t-ball-playing kiddo that always keeps us laughing. She has added so many new words to her vocabulary that it would make Daniel Webster proud. In case you were wondering, "scubbles" is the skin on your eyeballs . . .

Owen made it another year and will be 4 years old right after Christmas. Actually, a better way to put it is that we survived Owen another year. There is a reason God makes the busy ones cute. Owen has a vast imagination (complete with many imaginary friends), no fear (he thinks the Halloween decorations at Wal-mart are cool), a constant vocabulary (seriously, he talks more than both of our girls combined) and is always in over-drive (he was here a minute ago). He really loves sports, swords,chocolate milk, and Buff’s side of the bed.

As for the parents of this clan, we have kept busy with the usual tasks. We actually made it to 15 years of marriage this year and hope to celebrate by going out to dinner and a probably a quick trip to Wal-mart. It is apparent that we don’t have any book deals in the making for "Fun Date Nights." We are thankful though for the marriage God has allowed us. It also helps that He gave us a good sense of humor, and we can laugh at ourselves.

Buff ventured to Romania and Azerbaijan again this year to teach pastors and has plans to go again next May. He is also thrilled to have an associate pastor at Lighthouse to help fulfill the vision of the church and to share the work load of teaching and counseling. In his free time, he usually sleeps, but can occasionally be found hiking with the kids or shooting guns on his days off (and hopefully not both at the same time . . .).

I (Tina ) made a futile attempt at gardening this year. If I had set out to have a rock garden, it would have been a very successful year. I did manage to nurture a few zucchinis, some tomatoes, and a cucumber or two. I hope to plan better for next year and at least get a green bean out of the deal. Otherwise, the kids, school, church and the chaos of reality generally consume the rest of my life.

As another year comes to a close, we look ahead to another year and rest fully in our faithful God and all He has planned. He has graced us with many gifts and we treasure them all. He gives us hope, rest, love and true joy – all gifts because of His Son, Jesus. May your year to come be filled with many reminders of His presence in your life also.

Because of grace,

Buff, Tina, Mikayla, Brice, Carra Grace and Owen Powers

Merry Christmas!!

Just for fun . . .

I read about this idea . . . and thought I'd give it a whirl . . .

1. Go to the place on your computer where you store your photos.

2. Open the fourth folder.

3. Post and explain the fourth photo in that folder.

Soooo, to make this a bit more complicated than it has to be - I did it two different ways . . .

First, I did it exactly as indicated above and got . . .

EMMA!!!

Explanation: This is my niece, Emma, on a class field trip to a pumpkin farm a year or two ago.

We love you and miss you, Emma!

But that is just an extra folder of photos e-mailed to me that I didn't take . . . so I picked the fourth folder from our family (from 2008) and got . . .

CARRA!!!

Explanation: Well, I don't know if I can explain Carra and why she wears what she wears - but then that is why we love her! I think she did something funny with her hair and was raiding her closet again . . . but then it was just another day in Carra's world.

Anybody else want to see what they come up with in their photo folders?

Pb & J

How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich . . .

By: Owen Powers
Age: Nearly 4 (in 16 days)

1. Jelly
(also pronounced Jewwy)

2. Peanut Butter

3. Smoosh

4. Cut
(Yes, that is a sharp knife.
Yes, he was supervised - I'm taking the picture.
No, he didn't even cut through the sandwich.)

5. Done!
(He was thrilled when he realized he could cut it into SEVEN pieces!)

6. Eat

7. Well, eat . . . sort of . . .
he wouldn't want to actually TOUCH the crust . . .
(Can you tell there was ice cream being dished out nearby?)

Note: If I were to actually cut off the crust, he would then avoid the imaginary crust around the outside - and still not eat the edges.

Let it snow

Winter hit Wisconsin early and in full furry (or should I say flurry . . .?). If you haven't noticed, you've not been watching the news. If you can't tell on your own that there is a lot of snow on the ground, the news is there to pre-empt all daily programming and let you know - that it is snowing.

According to my unprofessional guessing (yeah, I turned the news off), I think we have gotten over 20 inches of snow in the last 8 days.



I think the woolly worm was right this year . . .*






The kids have taken advantage of the sledding opportunities already. It should prove to be a good sledding year . . .

Free Ride

Of course, Owen doesn't sled - he snowboards . . .

Still working on the stopping part . . .

Yeah, that's cold . . . .

Brice apparently left his face print on the hill too . . .

It's the new extreme sledding -
If Owen can go down on his feet, she can go down blind . . .

Look out!

(*Explanation: My dad would always predict the coming winter by the color pattern of the woolly worm in the fall . . .
dark = harsh
light = mild
So - this woolly worm predicts a harsh beginning, mild middle and a harsh ending to our winter . . . so far he is right . . .)

Checking in . . .

Life has been a whirlwind for a few weeks at the Powers' home - but I've been keeping notes so I can fill you in on all the excitement.

1. Remember the praying mantis? This morning we discovered an egg sack . . . . After a bit of research, it appears there can be as many as 2 to 300 mantis' to hatch in about 5 months.

Yippee Skippee.

And I thought the dog was a bad idea . . .

Apparently we were a little off giving it the male name Luther . . .


2. Brice finally had his teeth fixed. A long process - but he looks like a new man. I think they still need to be trimmed down some. Right now he REALLY looks like Mater. Tow Mater.










3. A few Carra-isms to share:

* * * Keeping in mind Carra's love for pretty clothes vs. practical clothes . . .

Carra: "Mom, I know what I want to be when I grow up!"

Me: "Oh, really? What?"

Carra: "An Awana teacher."

Me: Thought to self: "Oh, my dear child wants to help other kids learn about Jesus . . . "

Me: "Why an Awana teacher?"

Carra: "Because Awana teachers don't have to wear tennis shoes to Awana!"

* * * The inconsistency of the English language strikes again:

Snuck vs. Sneaked - I still don't know which is correct. Apparently the confusion can be added to the word freak . . . Carra was explaining how she surprised someone recently. . .

"When I jumped out at her, it made her fruck out."

* * * Carra was paging through her Bible story book and came to the picture of Adam and Eve leaving the garden fully clothed in animal skins. She stopped and looked and then with a puzzled look said, "I didn't know God knew how to sew . . . "

I can't say that thought ever crossed my mind. I just assumed Adam and Eve made their own clothes . . .

4. Owen's imaginary friends . . . .

Owen generally bounces around the house happily playing with his many imaginary friends. Some days he imagines himself to be someone else - playing with someone else - and is kind enough to introduce himself to me and his imaginary friend (so I know who I am talking to).

This week, the conversation went something like this:

(You may have to have a little Star Wars history in order to understand this dialogue.)

Owen: "Hey, I'm Luke Skywalker."

Me: "Hey, Luke."

Owen: "This is Annikan. I'm goin' to his house to play."

Me: "That sounds like fun."

Owen: "Yeah, I like Annikan's house cuz he has Star Wars Legos."

Me: "How appropriate."

Owen: "Yeah, and George is coming too . . ."

Me: "Who in the world is George?"

Owen: "He's the monkey . . . ."

Does anyone else sense a new and exciting sequel? I hope we get royalty fees for this suggestion . . .

5. Brice has been playing with the cups left over from the party. He asked me to take a picture and blog is accomplishment. He even gave the mountain a name - Mount Saint Louis. Today he rebuilt the tower and is now making plans to go professional (I am being serious). He is contemplating how to make a life size model of a man - out of Solo cups. Stay tuned. If he can support a family on cup sculpturing, I'm moving in with him when I'm 80.


6. We had a reunion of sorts with the South Africa missions teams because of a visit from one of the pastors from that area. It was the first time I met the family, and they were able to stay with us for 3 days. It was a fun weekend.

Here is a picture of everyone who got together for the reunion (minus a few faces). . .


More amusing perhaps will be the challenge to see if anyone can find Brice in the picture . . . It's our version of "Where's Brice?".

8. Last but not least (because ironically it actually was the first event of the month) - Carra officially turned 6 years old. For her party we went trick-or-treating and ate birthday cake (imagine the princess is curtsying for my sake). The cake tasted as terrible as it looks. Fortunately, the 6 year old was amused.

And because silly girls were present when we took the pictures, we have to include the classic "rabbit ear" photo . . .

And that is about all for now.

Consider yourself officially up to date.

Pictures

We headed out recently for the excruciating task of attempting to get a family picture for our Christmas card. This year I tried to do it myself with a tripod and a remote for the camera.

Here is an idea of how well the photo session went . . .

"Here, Owen, let me fix your hair . . . "

"Carra, your too stiff. Try crossing your arms . . ."

"Ummm, okay, I better state that differently . . ."

Just had to share my perspective of Owen
being "encouraged" to stand still.
A little over-exposed, if you ask me . . .


"Ummm, Carra, I think you are in the way . . ."

Owen's "not-so-good" side. . .

Buff being "punished" for his side comments trying to make Brice smile.

So, in the end . . . here is our Christmas card picture for 2008 . . . I think it shares the true side of the Powers' family . . . .