2013 Christmas Update

Wow what a year it has been for the Powell family. Kristen and Jim are still happily married and celebrated year thirteen of marriage! We also celebrated our 7th year of having children in our house, which continues to be a great blessing and,of course, a challenge as well. We are in the middle of our first year of elementary school with Jack (7yrs old--first grade). Thomas (5) is in preschool at Grace Christian preschool. The twins turned two in August and remind us of the Jerry Seinfeld quote:

“A two-year old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it.”

Except there are two of them. All at once. Being 2 year olds.

If we ever needed proof that we are incurable optimists it would be this:
Roughly once every 6 weeks or so, we decide to go grocery shopping with all four children. Its either optimism or it takes about 5 weeks for our minds to erase the previous trauma.

So, there isn’t much downtime in this current stage of our life. But so many fun moments help to balance the exhaustion and constant laundry.

2013 Favorite Things:
Jane:

Her baby doll (ask her, what is your babies name? she says, “baby”.)
Princesses
Superman Pajamas. Tries to wear these ALL THE TIME
Songs of all kinds. The Ocean Song, Twinkle Twinkle, My God is So Big, Itsy Bitsy Spider
Sneaking into our bed throughout the night.
All kinds of foods.
Anything her older brothers do.

Andrew:

Tractors & Backhoes. He sings about them, talks about them, spots them from miles away, carries them about the house.
Singing, Guitars, and Drums. He won’t sing louder than Jane. If you get Jane to stop singing though, he will really belt it out, but otherwise he’s her backup vocalist. His Guitar shirt is tied for favorite with his backhoe shirt.
Rock Star Hair. Our only child with curly hair, and given the chance he will sneak off with his Dad’s hair clay and apply lavish amounts to his locks.
Apple Juice, Raisins, & Clif Kid Zbars. The boy has subsisted for days on those 3 items.

Thomas:

Pilfering his brothers legos, hiding the evidence, feigning innocence
Golf.
The Ravens
Tumbling in the playroom. He puts the toddler slide up and uses Jim’s VMI Hay as his gym mat. He’s got flips with no hands, forward rolls with a twist, lots of flair.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tricking you into saying the word “Underwear” and then smirking.
Legos.
Puzzles.
Mac & Cheese

Jack:

Loves riding the bus to First Grade. Loves being around all his school friends. Sometimes we threaten to drive him to school as a consequence for bad behavior, and he views this as a fate worse than death.
Legos. Especially Clone Wars Legos.
Soccer. Lots of want to, we hope the actual skills will follow soon. Had that moment when your child in mid-game catches the flying soccer ball with his two hands and all the parents on the sidelines turn to look for his parents.
Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, all things having to do with war, battles, and weapons. His Granddad takes him to Gettysburg when he visits and the two of them couldn’t be happier than on the battlefields talking strategy.

Kristen:
1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Such a fan of this book and Ann Voskamp’s blog www.aholyexperience.com. Life Changing. Transformational for my attitude and perspective in the midst of these busy parenting days.
Dressing a girl.
Speaking occasionally to the 20-Something fellowship group at Crossroads
The rare dinner with grownups, quiet voices, and a leisurely pace.
Working with an amazing team of volunteers to paint cheerful murals in the Crossroads Kids’ hallway this summer.
The twins when they giggle.
Chocolate covered banana chips (now playing at a walmart near you) yum.
The Preschool Mom’s Small Group at Crossroads.
Jim. Still. My favorite.
Singing on the Crossroads’ Worship Team.
Pretty much anything Jen Hatmaker writes.

Jim:
Living in Ravens territory.
Dinner at Charlestons in Baltimore (once in a lifetime…amazing!)
Cooking and baking
Wrestle mania with all 4 kids ganging up on me
Pastoring at Crossroads
Hikes in the woods with the family
Kings of Leon, U2, Zac Brown Band, Hillsong and Mumford & Sons
That time when Kristen won 2 pounds of colossal shrimp and I ate them all. Mostly. I did share some...

Thankful for these gifts this year:

Trip back to Texas in May which included the live Rodeo, amazing tex-mex and BBQ, backyard kid rodeo and great time with family.

Our new house! We moved to Manchester, MD last January. The last time we bought a house and moved into it we had…oh, right, zero kids. So that explains why we thought this move would be no big deal. It has been quite the journey getting moved in with 4 little people "helping" us (yes, we still do have an unpacked box in our living room and our “need to paint” list is very lengthy). BUT, as God so often does, he provided so much more than we could have asked or imagined. We have lots of indoor space, a fenced yard and a great neighborhood with lots of young children. And a garage for the first time ever(who knew this could be such a life changer)! Despite the “Terrible Red Crayon Incident” involving Thomas and 64 linear feet of carpet in 5 rooms and the entire stairway, it is shaping up to be a lovely durable home.

Day trip to the Ocean City beach for the twins 2nd birthday. Abundance of sun, sand and salt water, ice cream and cotton candy. All kids fell asleep in the car at the end of the day within one minute!

Friends who love our kids and offer extra hands to help us as we often seem to be outmatched!

Living in Maryland close enough to see Jim’s family often.

There are so many other things this update letter is missing. As you can see, this blog has fallen by the wayside, but if you are interested in "following" us and seeing a whole lot of pics and staying up to date with Powell adventures Kristen is on Facebook and posts often. You can also email us at Kandj(insert_ourlastname)@ gmail (dot) com.

Christmas Update 2012

Because God loves us with a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love - Heaven is breaking through! He is sending us a light from heaven to shine on us like the sun. To shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death. To guide our feet into the way of peace.
(from the Jesus Story Book Bible)


We'd like to share a few of our Christmas Card Pics that did not make the cut:

Really, taking a photo with our whole family is nearly impossible.

It has also been challenging to capture Jane and Andrew in one photo together ever since they started walking. I mostly get a photo of Jane running out of the frame because from the moment I sit her down next to Andrew her only goal is to be up and on her way. But, the day we went after our Christmas Tree, we snapped this rare shot:

Jane and Andrew are 16 months
Thomas and Jack turn 4 and 6 this week
We just bought a house in Manchester Maryland (15 minutes from church) and will be moving in after Christmas.

Sound crazy to you? Feels crazy to us.

Life with the twins:

Check out Jane sending off every Panera customer with her best Bye Bye.


And here are the twins playing peek-a-boo when they should have been taking a nap...


Christmas Update: Tommy and Jack both learned 9 bible verses this fall as a part of their "Hero Training Camp" that their mom bravely led. One of the verses that had the most impact (and practical usage) for us as a family was James 1:2-3. Our adaptation is "hard things can be good...because they make us stronger." The reality of that passage has been quite present for us. 4 young kids is physically, emotionally and mentally draining for parents--and thus for the whole family. It is hard. BUT it really is so worth it! Our kids are amazing little people and we are so very thankful for each of them.

Jack started half day kindergarten in the fall and is loving it. He just had a birthday, and his party was at the bounce place--perfect for his age. 2 weeks ago Jack had a wonderful adventure helping to cut down our Christmas tree in Manchester (our new hometown) and getting hot chocolate and brownies afterwards. Other highlights of the year for Jack were our trip to Ocean City and a great Saturday hike out in the mountains of western Maryland in September.

Thomas is in pre-school and is having a fun time learning and playing with his friends. He loves to ride his new hot wheels bike he got for his birthday from his kaki (Kristen's mom). Tom is a happy guy. He loves to make people laugh, run around naked (in the house). He loves his older brother, Jack, and would follow him anywhere. He is nick-named (in our house) hunka-munka, as he is known to take flight from the top stair and land in his daddy's waiting arms 10 feet below. We call that the "flying hunka-munka." His younger brother Andrew we like to call "hulka-munka." Mainly because he is a similar body density to Tom (quite dense) and I'm sure one day we will experience the "flying hulka-munka" down the stairs.....

Andrew is turning into a really fun guy, and developing his own wonderful, happy-go-lucky personality. (we were worried that he would get lost in the mix what with being the 3rd boy AND tied with the only girl...) He's really a superstar, and is a delight to be around. He loves to say "boo" at the dinner table and make everyone jump (we indulge him over and over). He laughs and laughs...

Jane is different than Andrew. She is a happy girl, but also has a very serious, task-driven personality (ala Jack and Mommy...). She is as cute as can be. She is quite cordial (as you may have seen in the posted video at Panera) and will always tell you bye-bye and give you a wave. She is still much lighter than Andrew but catching up quickly it seems. Jane's first 2 syllable word appeared a few weeks ago: Batman!

Kristen and Jim have their hands full, but their hearts full too. We love our kiddos and each other. We are excited about the new house in Manchester and looking forward to raising our kids there with all the adventure that come with kids growing up. We know it may feel hard or crazy...but, as our kids say around the house: James 1:2-3 "Hard things can be good...because they make us stronger!" I think our family should be mighty strong after all is said and done :)

James 1:2-4 in The Message Version:
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

We have a few fun videos to post too.

Love,
The Powells

See Jane Walk

After taking a step or maybe two at a time over the past few days, Jane finally figured it out. Here she is on July 15th at just about 11 months and 1 week old.




BTW, we know we haven't been posting lately. Maybe we'll catch up. It does seem easier to upload to facebook, you can always check there for the latest photos. Jury's still out on if we'll keep up this blog...

First Swing

Just About 6 Months Old...

Christmas Update 2011

Jack and Tom's Christmas Carol Medley 2011:


Something else in the Christmas Theme: Jim's December 4th sermon on Christmas. Haven't thought much about Joseph? Interested in Jim's Christmas Tree cutting experience as a kid? Listen to it here

Christmas Update 2011
As I (Jim. Kristen must be feeding 57 babies or something like that) sit down and begin to write this update, my Pandora (internet radio) station just started playing “Hold My Hand” by Hootie and the Blowfish (anyone?). It brings back wonderful memories for me. Memories of playing this song on my ovation bass with my friend Donnie Mitchell and Young Life leader Aaron at Young Life club back in the mid 90’s. The reason why this song in particular stands out is that I would always turn my bass up too loud on it when playing in front of everyone. Probably on the other songs, too, but this one had a really cool bass line, so I wanted my efforts to go noticed. The other guitarists asked me to turn it down. My friend who didn’t play guitar with us at all asked me to turn it down. Even a girl I thought was cute told me it was a bit too loud. And so I did. For about 7 seconds. The minute anyone left, that volume knob would head straight back to 10, baby! Yeah. Take that! I must have been a huge fan of me. Come to think of it, I definitely was. My name could have been Captain Me-Planet.

Not anymore. My kids punched Captain Me-Planet in the face, slashed him with their light-sabers and shoved him hard out of the Death Star.

In a good way, I’m pretty sure.

And with that intro, let the “It’s not about me (or Kristen)” stage be set for the 2011 Powell’s of Westminster, MD annual update.

At the very beginning of this year we found out that Kristen (I’ve learned not to say “we”) was pregnant. Two months or so later Kristen went to the doc by herself because, as she put it, “it’ll be just the same as the last two, so, no sense in you coming along.” ***Kristen’s note: I’m pretty sure that’s what Jim said when explaining why I shouldn’t need him to accompany me to that 7 week checkup…funny how our recollections can be so different…**** I wonder sometimes if it was that phrase of complacence that did us in…er…I mean…blessed us with twins…yeah…that’s right…a double blessing! Anyway, we found out that twins were in order. We had always said that we wanted our kids close together, but this isn't exactly what we meant... (And, yes, EVERY person’s first question is “do they run in the family?”—answer to which is yes, but we didn’t know, nor had it ever occurred to us that we might end up with more than one baby at a time).

So we did some pretty fun things with the two older boys, Jack and Tom, while preparing for the twins to come along. Sled Racing (Kristen and Jack v. Tommy and me), trip to Texas to see Kaki (which Kristen’s mom is called by her grandkids) and Grandad (who made a gun out of wood for Jack—can anyone say, “highlight!”) and, of course, rode a horse (they are starting to get more and more cars down there now, though).

Highlight of the boys’ lives was our trip to Ocean City, MD. Water was too cold for the boys, which was perfect, because we didn’t have to worry about them plunging in to the water head first. They kept to the shoreline and tried to karate chop the incoming surf and loved every minute. Or, every hour. They could have lived there. Jack learned to skim-board, and laughed off EVERY bone-jarring fall. Played mini-golf and wasted money in the boardwalk arcade (which may actually be called “The waste-your-money-here arcade.” Can’t remember.) It was sad to leave Ocean City. O.K…and the arcade.

Then final preparations for the twins was pain-staking as Kristen was still, in her last month of pregnancy, trying to clean the house and “get everything ready” while waddling around like a penguin who had just gobbled down a sea lion. And I mean that very affectionately. (though this part will probably get edited out.***Kristen’s note: actually, that’s pretty much how I felt***) Anyway, back to pain-staking. In the final month and a half Kristen and I went, along with some of my siblings to the U2 Concert at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. We were pretty sure she was going to have the babies right there on the field in front of Bono and the band. (We did agree that if delivery happened during the concert we would have to, out of respect for the band, name our children after them—but, thankfully, that didn’t happen. But I do still kinda like Larry for a boy…).

And then there was the “Urban Pirates” adventure that got a few people concerned (including her doctor). Apparently you shouldn’t go on long trips on small, ill-equipped pirate ships in the middle of the Baltimore harbor when you are 8.5 months pregnant. Anyway, we (she) made it off the boat with babies still in the oven, but not without raising a few eyebrows.

11 days later, the babies came. Andrew first, then Jane, breech (you can, apparently, come out however you like when you have your big brother creating the space for you—like a good fullback in football). ***Kristen’s note: God is so good! We happened to have the only Doc in the county who will still actually deliver a baby feet first, any other doc on call that day, and we would have had a natural delivery of Andrew, followed by an emergency C-Section of Jane. Whew. Thank you Dr. Constantini!***

Since then I can’t really remember anything. I think we went to a pumpkin farm in the fall.

Seriously, though, our journey has been messy, often exhausting, and certainly busy (neither of us has much "me-time" and I can confidently say that Captain Me-Planet is no longer a credible threat) and while we may dream of a 12 day cruise with no children in sight, this new life as a family of six is really, really wonderful, and nothing short of a miracle and blessing from God. We are thankful for our family, and the unique way that each one is created. Jack (just turned 5), still an “out-in-front” warrior of a little man. Tom (just turned 3) is the comedian. Anything to make people laugh. A very kind personality and tender heart. Andrew is intense (like Jack) and a pretty good talker for 4 months. Jane is a sweetheart and practically perfect. She will laugh and smile all day and rarely cries or demands much from us. We often say that if we only had Jane, this would be a walk in the park, we might even consider having more kids...wait, no, nevermind.

Kristen is a trooper raising 4 little ones. It is a crazy job, and probably not exactly how she saw her life playing out 10 years ago, but it is a really good hard. ***Kristen’s note: We talk often about how this new life with 4 under 5 is really hard, but also really good at the same time. I try to remember that as my days fly by without five minutes to sit down and rest (or it feels that way, but hey, no need to join a gym!). God is teaching me a lot, and changing me (whew, I must have needed some extra work!) through these kids and this season of our life. My goals are to savor this brief time with them before they are all grown up and obnoxious/stinky, to capture the opportunities to teach them and marvel with them about our God, his world, and his love, and to not obsess too much about the fact that I cannot keep the floor clean despite the fact that I have cleaned it three times already today and it is only 9 AM!!***

Jim loves his job at Crossroads Community Church. He is the Pastor of Worship and Ministries there and couldn’t be happier. Hopefully many more years to come in Westminster, MD!

Our Favorite Things this Year:
Jack (Jackster, The Buddy):
Superheroes
Warriors
Knights & Castles
Pirates
Transformers
Drawing
Ravens Football
Crabs

Thomas (HunkaMunka, Tommers):
Cracking Jokes
Preschool (first year! 2 hours twice a week!)
Anything Jack likes
Singing
Beer and Coffee (seriously, this is going to be a problem.)
Flinging himself off the top step into Jim's open arms. We call this the flying HunkaMunka. Does not always notify Jim before jumping.
Ravens Football

Andrew & Jane:
Mommy
Jack or Thomas singing songs to them

Kristen:
Bedtime
taking pictures of the kids with her new Nikon
the TV show Once Upon A Time
Dressing Jane
Friends/Family who fly in from out of state (or drive up the beltway) to rock babies and/or fold laundry

Jim:
Master Chef (TV Show)
Ravens Football
Crabs
Hillsong/U2/Coldplay

4 Months Old

4 Month old Stats: Jane is finally over the "less than 3rd percentile" category and officially at 3rd percentile for weight. Big Strides. But, her growth is steady and her length is actually 19th percentile. She's a whopping 10 lbs and 14 oz, 23.5 inches at 4 months and 6 days. Andrew is 8th percentile for weight which is amazing since he weighs 12 lbs 9 oz, almost 2 pounds more than Jane. He is 21st percentile for length (24.3 inches) and 53rd percentile for head size. We do marvel at the size of his Giant Cranium (So I Married an Axe Murderer, anyone?)

How They Sleep:

Around the House

Watching a Movie

Baby Laughter

So, we tickle her with her foot, which looks weird in this video, but so effective...

Video Interview with Thomas

Halloween

Seven of the Nine Powell Cousins (we missed you Asher and Elias!):

Tom and Jack were thrilled to be Batman and Clone Captain Rex and talked it up for several weeks before Halloween. On Halloween night, a little old lady asked the boys who they were, and the boys replied, loudly, confidently, and with great excitement: Jack, "Clone Captain Rex!" and Tom, "Clone Commander Cody!"