Monday, November 26, 2007

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday of the year.
I love getting together with the whole family and not having the kids worried about when we are going to open presents, or do the egg hunt. Everyone just gets together and has a great time and you just think about what you are thankful for.

This Thanksgiving, although was yummy and a great family get together, was also filled with sadness. A great family friend, Gene Lindstrom had a terrible tractor accident and is no longer with us. Gene and his wife Jan, were best friends with Chris' parents. They were "traveling buddies". They had all just gone on a week long road trip and had the most wonderful time. As Carol put it in her speech, who knew that 48hrs later he would be gone. Carol also said that he was the most outgoing person she had ever met. He would talk to anyone, would always help anyone who needed it, and was just a wonderful caring person. He was a random act of kindness kinda person. So when you are out and about shopping for Christmas, try to look around and see if anyone needs help, say hello with a smile to the person next to you, and most of all, make sure you tell the people you love that you love them.

What are you thankful for this year?
I am thankful for my family, my children, my husband, all of my friends, and I am thankful to live closer to home. I am thankful that my children are healthy. I am thankful to have all of our parents and grandparents in our lives. I am thankful for all the love that surrounds me every single day. ( Im am thankful for my clothes, ha ha ha, remember that Cassie?)
Oh, and I am def. thankful for chocolate! : )

Everyone here at the Power house is doing pretty well.
Ashlyn is having some trouble with her breathing and is back on breathing treatments. We are hoping this doesnt land us in the hospital as it always has in the past.
Brandon's face is healing nicely, and he is still crazy as ever.
Kathryn is growing up way to fast for me, and is just beautiful... I am soo scared HA!
Chris is doing well with his job, still likes it, and has become quite the woodworking baker..
He enjoys building things out of wood, and can cook up a mean turtle pie and chocolate chip cookies. YUMMY! He's def. a hit with all the mom's on the train when he brings in chocolate.
I am busy cleaning like mad for Christmas.. I am very excited that my parents will be coming up Christmas eve and staying the night to be here Christmas day to open presents with the kids.
I hope we can turn this into a tradition.

I hope everyone is doing well, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I send you all Lots of Love,
Shel

Monday, November 19, 2007

OH BOY !!!



Brandon fits the old saying... boys will be boys.

Man he is so different than his sisters. He is wild and crazy and he is all boy for sure.

Well, he was swinging on the swingset, he was trying to swing as high as he could so he could jump off really far. He was getting ready to jump and went for the final pump before jumping.
So on the back swing he leaned back real hard to pump as hard as he could, and when he did that he leaned too hard and did a back flip off the swing and landed on his face.
He couldnt see anything but black for a few seconds and then he couldnt remember what happened. He's much better now but we are still trying to keep him relaxed.

His poor little face looks sooo horrible. But he is lucky that he didnt break his neck, nose, arm or a leg. All this just in time to go home for the holidays.

Shel

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Little Man



Brandon, my little man, is the best little guy ever.

Brandon will always have a special place in my heart cuz he's my only boy.

I tell them all they are special...
Kathryn is special cuz she made me a mama.
Brandon is special cuz he's my only boy.
Ashlyn Grace is special cuz she's my last baby.
I am so in love with all of my kids.
Branner is a bit of a scare dee cat. He HATES when someone jumps out and scares him, and he wont watch scarey movies. He's really a lot like his mama. I am a HUGE chicken. Well he went to a friends house the other day, and they showed him this Email and all of a sudden this scarey face jumps out at you and he let out this scream and was bawling his head off. His poor friends thought it would be funny, but then were really upset that Brandon got upset. You have to know these kids are the best behaved kids ever and would have never done that to him had they known how much he gets scared. My poor little man was then connected to my hip all night. Which I didnt mind because I love to cuddle him, and since he's such a big busy boy, I dont get to do that often.


Also, my Bran changes so dramatically with his likes.
We have had our share of hair styles. He has had long hair,he wanted a "reverse mohawk" so he could look like his grandpa Jim. He's has has a buzzed head, a shaved bald head, a mohawk, and now he wants to grow it long again and pierce his ear. Im not sure about the pierced ear, but we have plenty of time to talk about it before his hair is long again. I just love how fun he is.

Raising a boy, is so much different than raising a girls.
Luckily though, he is turning out more and more like his daddy every day.
Shel

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

My awesome girls!


My girls are totally awesome.

They love each other so much. I always knew Katey ( I mean Kathryn) would be a great sister to Ashlyn. She's been awesome with Brandon, but I never knew how close they would be since they are 8 yrs apart. But Kathryn is wonderful with Ashlyn. I love watching them together, Ashlyn really looks up to both Kathryn and Brandon.


Anyway, today Branner went to a friends house and Kathryn of course came home from school and immediatly wanted to call a friend. (ahh the life of a pre-teen).

So Kathryn is on the phone and totally into her conversation and Ashlyn has 2 baby dolls in her arms. She comes up to her sissy and says "Sissy, baby is crying" and without missing a beat, Kathryn scoups up the baby and starts to rock her and pat her bath, all the while talking a mile a min. with her friend. This made Ashlyn really happy and she started to rock and pat her baby too.

A few mins. later Kathryn is in her room, still on the phone, and Ashlyn notices the baby laying on the floor. She says "oh no" and picks up the baby and walks up to Kathryn's room.


She knocks on the door and says "sissy, sissy, your baby, open the door".

The door opens, and Kathryn takes the baby, ushers Ashlyn into the room, and shuts the door. She didnt see that I noticed because she was so into her phone call, but I stood at the end of the hall, smiling and thinking to myself...

I love being the mommy of my 2 girls.

Shel

Jumpin in the leaves

Yesterday evening Chris decided to rake the front yard.
He raked all the leaves into this HUGE pile in the center of the yard and Ashlyn followed him around like a shadow. She had a kid sized snow shovel and was helping Chris "clean the grass".
After they got all the leaves in to a pile we told her to jump in the leaves. She was laughing so hard and throwing the leaves into the air. It was really cute. We let Capone (our 5 mth Great Dane) out, and he went crazy in the leaves. He would run straight at the leaves and then leap into the center and he would bury his head under the leaves and then hop thru the entire pile.
The whole time he's doing this, Ashlyn is histerical laughing at him which just makes him more wound up. Even Chris and I were laughing it was so funny. I told him when we do the back yard we have to get a video clip and some pictures of the kids and the puppy playing in the leaves.

Watching them laugh and play in the leaves made me think... How lucky am I to have such a wonderful family? I must be the luckiest mom in the world.

We also got the kids new winter coats. Brandon's has a lighter jacket thats inside that is removable, and its an orange coat.. Hopefully people will be able to see him with such a bright coat.... lol Ashlyn's coat is bright light green and pink. She was so excited to get her new coat and she thinks she is so big wearing it. I'll get some pictures of her in her coat to share.

Kathryn and Chris just want it to hurry up and snow already.

Me??? Im ready for summer!

Shel