Sarah's Birth

By the way, Sarah Joyce Powell was born June 10, 2012...about 2:30ish a.m.  She was my biggest baby so far, 7 lbs. 11 oz. though she lost almost a full pound within the first week!  She is the happiest, most content baby I've ever seen!  She also loves to dance!  Watch out world, here she comes!

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Yes, yes, we are still here, alive, and well!  I set up a facebook account and now I really struggle to remember to post to our blog. 
Shawn is in the middle of farm work as well as crazy busy with the embryo transfer business.  We all still fit in a tractor with him, so that has been fun!
Kyris is about to have a baby any second now...more to come
Brooklyn and Kassity have become best friends and partners in crime!  They love to play outside in the little play cottage we bought them this spring.  I don't even have to be around to help entertain them anymore.  They just play together so nicely, and I just check in once in awhile :)  So nice since I am finding it harder to keep up with them as this belly grows.
Dad passed away May 14th, the day after Mother's Day, and a couple of weeks after a surgery on his brain (not stroke related).  It has been a bittersweet experience, and we are all still trying to adjust to this new part of our lives.  We are ever grateful for our testimonies of the plan of salvation, eternal families, and the atonement.  This has brought much peace and comfort into our lives at this time.  We are also very grateful for wonderful family and friends who have been so supportive and helpful.  Even the seemingly simple phone calls and emails count for a lot!
Mom finished with her kindergarten class and will move to 1st grade next year.  Though she is keeping the same room, she still has a lot to get ready for next year!
More to come soon I hope!

I love the freshness of a new year.  A time to reflect on things of the past. A time to do some soul searching and decide what is good and what could be better.  Shawn and I had a "financial talk" to discuss debt reduction, retirement planning, and ways to improve our budget.  I think we got a lot accomplished.  I have also made it a goal to attend the temple more regularly-I mean, I really don't have an excuse not to be there!  As Flylady says (I'm paraphrasing), babysteps go a long way to getting us where we need and want to be!  Happy New Year!

The Perfect Job!

So my mom called me one day and asked if I would be interested in taking the extended day kindergarten job this year.  It is the same job she had last year, only it would be all day instead of just half day.  I thought about it, talked it over with Shawn, and then decided to take it.  It is only some Fridays (holidays throw it off a little), it is 8 hours, for 14 weeks.  Add to that the fact I get certified teacher's pay, and I'd say that's a pretty good job!  This class is for kindergartners who need some extra intervention.  If they go to kindergarten in the morning, I get them in the afternoon, and vice versa.  In my morning class I have 8 students, and in my afternoon class I have 14 (yeah, a little bit of a handful, but I also get an aid to help).  I've taught two sessions so far and it has gone great!  I really enjoy being in the school again, but I don't feel like I'm neglecting my duties as Mom too.  Like I said, perfect job!

Temple to Temple Relay-September 24, 2011

My sister, Tamara, talked Shawn and me into running on her team for the Temple to Temple Relay as part of  BYUI activities.  Neither of us has run a race since the Powell family put a team together for the Teton Dam Marathon relay...in 2007?  This was kind of a fun race because it starts at the Rexburg Temple, snakes along highway 33 towards Menan, around the Menan Buttes, along St. Leon in Lewisville, and to the Idaho Falls Temple.  A total of a little over 37 miles.  There are three different types of relays.  8 team, 4 team, and 2 team.  We were luckily on an 8 member team.  Shawn ran the 1st leg starting at the Rexburg Temple.  His leg was about 2.8 miles, and he made pretty good time despite not training at all.  We decided his time was about 22 minutes.  I ran the 4th leg, which started at the North Menan Butte trail head and ended at the Menan Stake Center.  This was kind of a blast from my past because we would run that road for high school cross country practice.  My leg was about 4 miles, though after the 4 mile marker I still had about a quarter of a mile left!  My time was about 40 minutes, which I thought was great considering I hadn't trained as hard as I should have, though I did put in a few more training miles than Shawn :)  I decided running races is like childbearing.  It sounds like a good idea at first, and you think, "I can do that!  No problem!"  Then you get into the middle of the race and think, "What was I thinking!  Never again!"  Then you finish, the endorphins have kicked in, you feel good about your accomplishment, and you think, "Well, that wasn't so hard!"  It may take a little while afterwards before someone is able to talk you back into another race, but we tend to forget what it was like in the middle! 

In other news...Kassity is finally walking!  She sort of started walking the beginning of September (about 16 months), but wasn't brave enough to try it without hanging on to something.  Then, September 20th she decided she could run across my mom's living room.  She considered it a game though and wouldn't walk just to get somewhere.  Then she took off on October 6th.  She still crawls and scoots, and she falls down a lot, but she will walk a majority of the time now!

A sampling of our updated family pictures taken July 2011

Aren't they cute? I spent several weeks this summer making "summer" bedspreads for my girls. These were my first two quilts ever! I even got to quilt them using my mother-in-law's long arm quilter! The one on the left is Kassity's (the picture shows it before I trimmed and bound it), and the one on the right is Brooklyn's. Did they choose? In a matter of speaking. As I was binding one, Brooklyn got my scissors and took a snip into the binding. That one is now her's, though I did a pretty good job of hiding it :) I can't say she was being naughty, I did leave the scissors right where she could get them, I wasn't paying attention, and she's seen me do lots of cutting on fabric.