Adam Turned 5!

Adam turned 5 yesterday, December 28, 2009. I can't believe he is already 5. He happily opened all his presents and then we had cake dipped in chocolate fondue. Happy Birthday, Adam!

Merry Christmas From Maui

Here are some pictures from our Hawaii vacation. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Made You Look! :)

Hi Everyone!! Made you look. The answer to the riddle is that the last bulleted item is NOT true. It would be fun but I have to say that I am a little to old. The above picture was taken in 1995 just before Tanner was born.

By the way, feel free to visit this blog whenever you might be wondering what the Powells are up to. And please come visit us whenever you are in the Draper area.

We are off to Hawaii for the holidays and will be posting pictures soon.

Happy 14th Birthday Tanner!

Wasn't he a cute 2-year-old? He's a cute 14-year-old too.
For his birthday he wanted to go paintballing so David took Tanner and 8 other boys (including Joshua) to have a paintball war. Below are a few pictures. Tanner loved it and was so happy! Thanks David for taking them.

APX Grand Opening

Yesterday, Rachel, Adam and I went down to Provo to the grand opening of APX Alarm's new building. We got to sit in the chairs with the executives' families (I felt special). There were lots of men in suits (bankers, investors, executives, people from the press and politicians). APX did a nice presentation about the company and then the president of the company, Todd Pedersen, spoke. Then Governor Herbert spoke and to top it all off, Govenor Mitt Romney spoke. I had never heard him speak in a setting other than stake conference (he was our stake pres. when we lived in MA). He was very good and and inspiring. I sure hope he runs for president again. Of course I had to take a picture of him speaking:

This is the actual ribbon cutting. Notice that David is standing next to the lady in the white sweater who is standing next to Gov. Romney. The next person is the APX Pres. and then Gov. Herbert. It was kind of exciting.

The Christmas Season Has Begun

We put up the tree and decorated it to the max. It's always fun to put on the ornaments because we have so many with special meaning. We get to talk about the people and places where they came from and share our memories. It's fun.

The day after we decorated our tree, we went to see the Christmas Lights at Thanksgiving Point. This is Adam showing you how happy he was to get to do that. He is smiling as big as he can. (I can't ever get him to smile naturally.... it's always this big teethy grin and I love it.)

We also ventured out to the new In N Out Burger in Draper. The boys had been there a few times but the rest of us haven't wanted to brave the lines. (The lines have been literally blocks long, 2 cars wide) We finally went and it was as delicious as I remember. :)

Jared is in the Philippines

Jared called us Monday night from the LA airport on his way to the Philippines. We didn't get to see him at the airport because they don't allow that anymore, so we just got to talk on the phone. It was so good to hear from him and he even spoke Cebuano ... it sounded like gibberish to us but he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He said he was only a little nervous but was really excited. He flew from SLC to LA where they had a 5 hour layover, then on to Taiwan where they had another long layover, and then to Manilla, and then to Tacloban. I think he said it was going to take about 2 days to get there. So now he's there and I wish we could call him and see what it's like. I guess we'll have to wait for the next email from him. He would love to hear from everyone and anyone. His email address is jared.powell.tacloban@myldsmail.net and his mailing addresses are as follows:

Elder Jared David Powell, Philippines Tacloban Mission, POB 30150, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

That is the "pouch" and is best for all letters.

Packages should be sent to:

Elder Jared David Powell, Philippines Tacloban Mission, 511 Maharlika Hwy, Fatima Vlg. Tacloban City, 6500 Leyte, Philippines

Just so you know, US Mail is really the only affordable way to go but anything of value will probably disappear once it reaches the Philippines. I guess they like to go through the mail and take whatever looks good. I think he would mostly enjoy letters.

He sent me his memory card from his camera and I sent him a new empty one. It was fun to see all his pictures from the MTC. Below are just a few of Jared.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone! I am thankful for EVERYTHING... I just have too many blessings to even begin to list.

Last week I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum. We saw the 3D movie about the ocean and it was very cool. It's amazing how they can do that so you feel like the fish are right in front of your face and you want to just reach out and grab them. We also spent some time playing in the sand which is always fun.
Pardon the picture quality on this post.... these are all pictures taken on my phone.



Last Friday, David and I kidnapped the kids and took them to Park City to spend the night. We told them we were going out to dinner and we did do that. It was yummy and we found a Cold Stone that was going out of business so everything was 50% off. At 50% off I thought the prices were just getting reasonable. After we ate, instead of driving home, we drove to the condo. in Park City. Adam was so excited he started jumping up and down in the car and banged his head on the roof. Needless to say, we had a great time. We went swimming (yes, it was 25 degrees outside but the pool was warm and steaming and the hot tub was awesome). We played games, ate popcorn, and watched a movie. In the morning when we woke up, it was SNOWING! It really was beautiful. I made breakfast for everyone and then we packed up and headed home. This is kind of what we could see out our window. It looked way prettier than it does in the picture.


Last night for FHE we went to the Gingerbread House Festival at Thanksgiving Point sponsored by the Boy Scouts. It was so fun and amazing to see the creativity. We saw everything from "Huts in Tahiti" to "Hagrid's House". I included a few pictures plus some of the prize winners.






This won 1st place. Isn't it just amazing?

Halloween at the Powells

We carved a few pumpkins - about 6 of them - then we prepared for trick-or-treating. Tanner was Luigi, Rachel was a bee, Rebecca was a monkey, and Adam was Batman. Joshua was a scary monster at the neighbor's haunted house. Everyone had a great time. Each kid went out with a group of friends. Even Adam was with his big group of friends but he didn't last long because he got tired and came back home. The candy take was ridiculous. We're going to have candy for 2 years or else we'll have no teeth in a few months.

Rachel did this pumpkin.

Josh did the witch pumpkin with the monster peeking through the blinds on the side of it.

I am now in charge of activity days for the 8 and 9-year-old girls. Last week we decorated pumpkins with long pins and beads. It was really fun. Here are a few of the pumpkins that were decorated.

Braces... Snow.... Lots of Changes

Rachel got braces! Isn't she cute?

And... we got the first snow of the season today. Rachel and Adam went out immediately to play in it and Rebecca did when she got home from school. Joshua is beside himself with joy that the snow is starting to pile up in the ski resorts. He can hardly wait.

Having a Blast in October

Last week I took Rachel and Rebecca up to Park City where we stayed at a hotel for one night for a Mother/Daughter Overnighter. We figured the boys get to go on the Fathers and Sons every year so we should go for once. We had a great time. We went ice skating. We went swimming and hot tubbing. We went to dinner at the oldest restaurant in Park City called Red Banjo Pizza. We played games, watched movies, stayed up late, and slept in. On our way home we stopped and went to a movie. It was so nice to spend time with my daughters. I love them both so much.

Rachel made this gingerbread haunted house. YUM!

Rebecca and Adam went to a costume party at Rebecca's gymnastics place. They had a great time and as you can see, Adam went as Batman and Rebecca was a monkey. (I stayed up til 1:00 am making Rebecca's costume. I lost the pattern and had to make up my own since there weren't any left at the store. It turned out pretty good and she was thrilled).

It was crazy hair day at school for Rebecca.

We had FHE at Cornbelly's. We spent about 4 hours there and had a blast. Adam's favorite thing was the Hay Ride. Joshua, Tanner and Rachel went through the Cornophobia Haunted Corn Field. They said it was pretty scary and really fun.

Happy 11th Birthday, Rachel!

Rachel turned 11 on October 14, 2009. I found this cute picture of her when she was about 3 1/2 or 4 years old. The next picture is of her having breakfast in bed.

She got to have presents on the day of her birthday and one present was a new fleece blanket in her favorite design.... tie dye.

The next day I took Rachel and Adam on a walk in the mountains to see the pretty leaves. Fall is definitely in the air but a lot of the leaves haven't changed yet.



We had a a birthday party for Rachel on the weekend. She invited 8 girls over and they had a blast. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I posted a post a few weeks ago about Joshua and his first date on his 16th birthday. Here is the picture of him and his date, Ali.