Our Disney Adventure Begins!

Being the wife of a high school basketball coach isn’t always as glamorous as it sounds.

*cricket....*

*cricket...*

It does come with a few perks however.  Like trips to Disney World for the whole family for a basketball tournament.

*ooooohhhhh!*

I’ll admit, that my mind wasn’t really on the trip at all during the weeks leading up to it.  I’d been busy with photography, decorating for Christmas and redecorating for Christmas.  Suddenly we were leaving the next evening.  So I started the laundry and got to packing for five people.

Our flight left at nearly 2 in the morning so 5 in the morning was the perfect time to meet my Mommy and our friend Annie at the Seattle airport Starbucks during our layover.  Driving an hour to the airport to hug your grandbabies for a bit before driving an hour home?  That’s love.

Back through security and back on the airplane.  We don’t look too excited do we?

To be continued....

It has been brought to my attention that I haven’t blogged in over a month.  I have plenty to catch up on for sure.  To tide people over, here’s a big huge MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours.  We attended a wonderful morning service this morning and all the kids went up on the platform to listen to the Christmas story being read by our pastor, Dr. Prevo.  It was awesome to see a packed house on Christmas morning!

We’ve had record snow fall this November.  So it’s not surprising that this happened.  Pulling our own car out of our own driveway.  My 5 year old Doobie took this picture with my point-and-shoot camera.  Then he proceeded to walk around the house taking pictures of EV-ER-Y-THING.  Here are some examples.

 The living room.

 Jordan’s latest set up.

 His own closet.

 The corner of the fireplace.

 The flowers.

 This photo.

 My desk.

 His perspective of our Christmas tree.

 The refrigerator decor.

Our stockings.

I do believe, I have another photographer in the family.

Christmas Decorating

I LERV Christmas time.  I love decorating for Christmas because it gives me a great excuse to change the look of my whole house, just like I want to do just about every five minutes.

 Above left you will find my DIY dining table center piece.  I crystal vase I had in a cupboard, filled with those cinnamon pinecones that you can buy for $5 a bag, and then I stuck some berry branches in it.  They were normally 59 cents each at Michael’s Craft Store, but I scored them 60% off because I’m amazing.

Next to that you will see my DIY red berry trees that I made two years ago by sticking red berries into styrofoam tree forms.  There is supposed to be three but the third one is still not finished...from two years ago.

And on the far right we have my giant ornament collection from Costco perched precariously upon assorted candle holders that I collected over time from thrift stores and then spray painted.  My husband hates them because he likes spontaneous pillow fights and he knows he’s going to break one.

My son wanted to pose next to this silk poinsettia plant.  Under that we have my new black and white curtains from Fred Meyer decorated with garland and wooden beads.

 Top left, more wooden beads draped through my chandelier and accented with glittery green snowflake ornaments from Walmart.  Under that, these three candles have been sitting in this spot since the day I moved in.  Holders and candles from Walmart, I added the green ornaments.  My fireplace vignette includes a vase dressed with the same red berry branches as the dining table as well as a glass container filled with leftover green ornaments from the tree.  During the fall a giant pumpkin holds that spot.  Handmade stockings were a gift from my friend Lucy of LUMA Threads.  The lens cap is not supposed to be there....

 My tree.  It’s standing on top of my coffee table in the peak of our pointed ceiling.  I had nowhere else to put the table so, it was a happy accident.

 My newly arranged living room (on a diagonal because I’m weird like that) with my hidden office area behind the couch.

 The view from my office.  Pay no attention to the lettered wooden blocks, they don’t spell anything on this side and it drives my 2nd grade son CRAZY.

 My Doobie really got in the mood for photos today.

 Another view of the couch/office situation.

Obviously Christmas has hit the Powers’ house in a mighty way.  I don’t think I’m done yet though...

Christmas Tree Time!

It is time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We rocked Thanksgiving a little different this year.  Instead of me and my mediocre cooking at home, we all headed to a friend’s house and spent the day visiting and watching tons of kids trash someone else’s house.  It was a very relaxing day for me.  Of course, I don’t have photos from the feast because I suck, but I did snap a couple of the kids doing a Thanksgiving craft at home before we left.  Hurray for the $1 bin at Joann’s!

 Later in the evening we snuggled up to watch movie.

After the movie, I sent the kids to bed and rearranged the entire upstairs of the house.  Sometimes I do that.  It’s Hubby’s favorite.  

Veteran’s Day 2011

I never have the words for this.

“Reflections” by Lee Teter

My heart is just full of gratitude, respect, sadness, gladness and pride in the service men and women who have served and are currently serving our country.  This morning I spent time pulling some photos of families from this years photo sessions who currently have a member that is deployed.  I expected to come up with two but found four.

I also spent some time watching YouTube tributes to soldiers coming home.  Cried like an idiot for awhile.

Thank you veterans!

See my Facebook Fan Page tribute to our clients who are currently deployed by clicking HERE.

Conversations with Jayhawk

I don’t get the chance to spend a whole lot of one on one time with my eldest son.  He’s more of a Daddy’s man and he and I often fail to see eye to eye.  He’s very short you see.

Two days ago, while his younger sister and brother were watching a “girly movie” upstairs, I decided to hang out in his room with him and read while he played Legos.  We began to chat about his that and the other and like he always does, he asked me a “which would you like better” question.

     “Which would you like better, if I killed all the scorpions in the whole world - oh wait, I mean in America because I’m never leaving this country - or if I just never went to a place that had scorpions?”

     “Before I answer that, let me ask you a question.  Why are you never leaving this country?”

“Oh, because I don’t like it when somebody calls me an alien."

Thinking About...

My Grandpa.

He passed away on this date in 2004 from complications brought on by Alzeimer’s disease.  During the last couple of years of his life, when things became really bad, when he couldn’t remember anyone or anything, my grandma told me that he still could and did sit in his favorite chair and recite scripture.

The Spirit of the Lord, once received, never leaves you.

At Grandpa’s funeral, my most vivid memories are of person after person standing and sharing about how my grandpa had been the one to lead them to the Lord.  About how he witnessed and counseled and prayed for anyone he could get his hands on.

What a legacy to leave behind.

I have heard stories that he hadn’t always lived his life that way.  That he most definitely carried around some regrets from his younger years.  But such is the power of Redeeming Love.  He was made new by the power of Holy Spirit and everything old was washed away.

I know that, as he came before his Lord on this day five years ago, he heard, “well done, my good and faithful servant."

Today I’m thankful for grace and mercy and the forgiveness of sins!

Losing Teeth

Aaaaaand there goes another one!

Signage

Check, check, substitute “office” with “church” and check.

I be needing this sign on my door.

More Halloween

My PS Photography partner extraordinaire (OMW, I spelled that right on the first try!) Tracy Skipworth, held her annual Halloween party at her home and all comers are required to dress up or no entry.  So, about an hour before the party, I visited Hubby at work, scored some referee shirts, found a whistle on the floor of my bedroom (what?) and off we went with our Star Wars dudes and Ladybug to the party.

Which is where we got this nice family photo taken.

The only two photos of my family taken for Halloween this year were taken by two different professional photographers, and I wasn’t one of them.

Our little photographer’s assistant on a recent photo shoot.

Happy Halloween!

Anikan Sywalker, Pilot Clone and a Ladybug

Mom fail.  I didn’t take any pictures of Halloween this year.  It was chaotic and busy and we went to a party and I just forgot and ran out of time and didn’t feel like getting my camera packed and blah blah blah.  

It was a crazy blizzard during trick-or-treating this year.  We hit a very popular neighborhood in town and it was a zoo but it was crazy fun.  Very snowy.  Very cold.  We didn’t last long.  When we got home I sent my kids across the street to my neighbor Paula’s house (she’s a photographer too!) and she was camera ready.  Boom.  Halloween photo.  Thank you Paula!

The photo shows the awesome blizzardiness of the evening.  You have to wear snow clothes with your costumes in Alaska.  They don’t look like they are complaining though.

Embracing the Inevitable

I live in Alaska.

So, like, it’s going to snow eventually.  Just like it will eventually melt.  In June.

Come summer, we’ll be hating this, but for now?  Let it snow!

Operation Christmas Child

 Every year, our church participates in Operation Christmas Child.  OCC is a program by Samaritan’s Purse.  The purpose is to fill shoeboxes with gifts to be sent around the world to children who normally don’t get a Christmas.  Some have never received a gift in their whole lives.  

 Today was a day off from school and the kids and I went shopping for our shoebox gifts at Target.  Each of my kids was responsible for filling a shoebox for a boy or girl.

 We filled our boxes with school supplies, small toys, candy and personal hygiene items.

 The kids loved organizing their boxes and imagining how excited the children were going to be when they opened them to see what goodies were inside.

 Jordy was so excited to be able to include a little baby doll and in her girl box.

 They all had to pack and repack their boxes several times to fit everything.  Not everything fit, so we will be donating the leftover items to the church to fill some more shoeboxes.

Spreading the love of Jesus, one shoebox at a time!