Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny must really like Corbin because he got some things he has been wanting for a while now. He finally got his own cups with straws, bath toys, a tooth brush, snacks and even a silly songs CD.

He wasn't quite sure about this basket full of goodies on the living room floor when he woke up, but once he realized it was all kinds of good stuff for him, he got very excited.

I think I took it too far ... Corbin was far from thrilled when I put him IN the basket.

The Fish Family Easter Egg Hunt

One of my best friend's family throws a giant Easter Egg Hunt and BBQ every year, and now that we have a little one, we get to take in the festivities! Corbin got all dressed up in his Easter best and we headed over to the Fish farm. The weather was pretty cooperative and all the kids seems to be having a great time. Corbin was able to crawl around and find a couple eggs of his own, before I tortured him with his first holiday photo shoot. He was happy as can be shaking the eggs he found, and I've found if I sit him on a blanket he stays put.

After the Easter egg hunt, we ate some great food at the potluck, and Ashley's grandpa knows how to cook hot dogs just the way I like them ... charred and crispy. So delicious that I ate two!

Now we're looking forward to next weekend to see what the Easter bunny brings for Corbin.

Happy New Year!

2011 is bound to be the best year yet!

While 2010 brought us the greatest gift yet with the birth of our son, it also brought us a few set backs, challenges and the unfortunate passing of a few family members. I think we delt with our fair share of issues last year, which only means one thing ... nothing but positive things in store this year!

And it doesn't hurt that the number 11 is a favorite number with many people in our family, as well as the birth date or anniversary of seven of us! That's grounds for a pretty awesome year, right?

I don't think I will be making an "official" New Year's resolution this year, but am just resolving to be "healthier" in all aspects of life.

Happy New Year to you and yours! Here's wishing you nothing but happiness this year and all the years to come!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I know we sure did!

After not making it home from Texas last year for the holidays, you have no idea how excited I was to be able to spend Christmas with my family this year. Corbin was spoiled rotten as expected, and Brian and I were spoiled as well! Santa and "Nanta Clause" must have thought we were very good this year!

We mixed things up a little this year and went to my sister's house for Christmas Eve. Brian's family, my family, and the entire Powers family were there. It was great to celebrate the holiday with such a large group for a change.

Christmas morning was spent opening presents at our house with Brian's family and then we headed to my mom's house for the day to open more gifts and eat lots of tasty food (my mom's signature meal on Christmas is Prime Rib ... need I say more?)

I feel so blessed to have such a loving family and didn't need anything more than just their company for the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Over the river and through the woods ... to my momma's house we went, for Thanksgiving. No, seriously ... she lives over the river and through the woods. We braved the snowy roads which weren't nearly as bad as we thought and spent the holiday out at my mom's house with her boyfriend, my sister and her kiddos.

We had all planned on starting a new tradition and doing the Turkey Trot 5K that morning, but everything was still snow covered and frozen (too cold for the babies at least) so we decided to skip it this year ... well all of us except my sister's hubby Joe ... who has promised to not let any of us live it down that he is the family Turkey Trot 2010 champion, even though no one else participated!

This allowed us to start dinner early and have a more relaxing day. We had quite the feast of traditional and non traditional fare. Mom made a fantastic turkey and my sister fixed up this great corn bread stuffing recipe from The Pioneer Woman, filled with pork, apples, mushrooms and who knows what else, but it was quite tasty. I'm just glad that one of my two dishes turned out. The jalapeno popper dip was delish, while my apple cranberry soup ... I mean pie ... could use some help. (I realize now that the oven at our new house doesn't cook nearly as hot as it says it is so it was just totally undercooked.) Lesson learned for next year, but at least the soupy pie still tasted good, just a little embarrassing! Although the cranberry whipped cream was fantastic.

Mom and Candice slaving away in the kitchen

Baby's first Thanksgiving

All the grandkids ... Kendall, 3; Brock, 2 months; Corbin, 4 1/2 months; Paige, 19 months

My boys!

Oh Christmas tree ...

The weekend after Thanksgiving we met up with my sister and her family to seek out our perfect Christmas trees. We went to The Red Barn Tree Farm in Orting, and I have no clue how we ever picked a tree there were so many. The Powers and Hall clans decided to divide and attempt to conquer the tree farm.

Brian and I had a very specific size tree we needed. Since our new house doesn't provide ample free space, we were in search of a skinnier, yet still fairly tall tree. After wandering through the farm for a while, we finally found the most perfect tree ... and the fact that we were able to actually find the one we liked again after looking a little longer was a sure sign that we had to get it.

Of course it was the most expensive type of tree but it was so worth it because every time I see it, I wish it was a fake tree so we could put it up year after year its that perfect.

The Powers eventually found their tree too and after our manly men chopped them down and hauled them to the cars, we all loaded up on the train and took a trip around the tree farm. While it was a little muddy and a little cold, it was a great day and another tradition I hope we continue for many years to come.

Happy Halloween!

As most of you know, I am not the biggest fan of Halloween. But once you have kids the holiday becomes so much more fun! Although Halloween was also moving day for us, I couldn't miss the opportunity to take Corbin trick-or-treating with his cousins.

And they had quite the cute costumes. Kendall was Tinkerbell, Paige was a Bumble Bee, Brock was a football (LOVE it!) and Corbin was our little Kangaroo.

While the boys can't tell us what they were thinking ... I'm pretty sure they were thinking ...

Corbin: "We're in this together buddy! Our moms are crazy!"

Brock: "Seriously! And why am I drowning in this giant football?!"

The perfect holiday photo of the Powers family! So festive!

Corbin was much more content laying low in his stroller, even though he had a giant Kangaroo tail to sit on.

I can't wait for next year when he can actually enjoy the night of ghosts, goblins and candy.

A day at the pumpkin patch

One of the great things about living back up in Washington is getting to do the little things, like going to the pumpkin patch, with my sister and her kids. We packed up the four kiddos and headed down to Spooner Farms in Orting. While the little boys couldn't really enjoy the activities, the girls had a great time. They got to see a bunch of animals, do some activities, and the best part ... help pick out the perfect pumpkins.
I think these two in this picture are by far the most perfect pumpkins!


And of course I had to make Corbin take his first of many pumpkin patch pictures. He wasn't too thrilled at the idea but I think he is getting used to humoring me and my picture addiction. He will thank me when he is older I'm sure.

It was a perfect Fall day with great weather and fun times. I'm so excited for many more outings through the holidays with the Powers clan!

Snapshots from the holidays

I finally got my camera fixed, sort of, and was able to save some pictures we took over the holidays. Here is a montage of holiday photos from ICE! with the Hall family and the snow on Christmas Eve, as well as our first family photo with the dogs and my nieces while we are at it! Enjoy!

ICE! was giant ice sculpture exhibit with The Grinch theme. It was 9 degrees in the exhibit so they give you big blue parkas to wear.

The dogs were so excited at this "white stuff" ... oh who am I fooling, I was running around playing in the snow with the dogs.

Happy holidays from Brian, Jen, Roxy, Mack and Baby Hall!

And one last picture of my beautiful sister and her adorable daughters before we went to see Santa!