HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!

Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you...happy birthday dear Melanie...happy birthday to you!

GENTLEMEN...START YOUR ENGINES!

Saturday was the Cub Scouts long-awaited Pinewood Derby Race. Since this is Adam's first year in Scouts, and we had never made a race car before, we called in some expertise...our good friend Robert (who by the way has way cooler tools than Rob!) After spending two evenings last week at his house designing, cutting and weighing the car (thanks again Robert!), Adam was able to paint it however he wanted. He chose a USA theme because, in his words "America never loses!" His car did pretty good and came in second most of the races. Overall, Adam finished around 26th out of about 60 cars, so he was pretty happy with that. Rob and Robert are already figuring out what to different next year to make it faster!

Our pack's racetrack was pretty neat. It had the timers at the bottom of the track so you could see how fast each car was. It cost our pack about $4,000 to purchase this track.

Adam's car...he chose to put his soccer number (#3) on his car.Adam, Dad and Emily...before the start of the races.

Ryan, Jack and Adam

I took some pictures of other cars I thought were pretty cool (along with the fact I was trying to get ideas for next year!)

This was my favorite car...the pencil. Very original!

I also liked the Wii remote car :)

The Cubs car belonged to one of the boys in our den.

Our Weeblos Den. They are a pretty good bunch of boys and it was fun cheering

all of them on!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM K.!

A big "Happy Birthday" to our little buddy in St. Louis! Can't believe you are 4 years old!!!

SATURDAY PLAY DATES

The kids had been bugging us to have some friends over and I kept promising "after the holidays"....so since we had no plans for Saturday, they each got to choose a friend. Emily chose the twins, Megan & Morgan, and Adam chose Andrew. They are all friends from pre-school and they always have a really fun time together!

There was a lot of Barbie doll playing going on all afternoon!

Emily, Megan & Morgan...all dressed up in Emily's gymnastics outfits and bling!
Adam and Andrew had fun playing Legos and Nerf gun fights.

LAST DAY WITH AUNT STEPH & INDY!

Well, the dogless Powers family sure had a great time with Indy over the holidays (and Aunt Stephanie too of course!) We really enjoyed having them around and it was a nice reminder of what it's like having a dog in the house. Rob didn't care for some of the golden clumps of hair we found on the carpet, but he called her "sweetie" a couple of times and even shared his bbq pork roast with her Saturday night! I don't think we changed his mind about getting a dog, but we'll keep working on it! Indy is the only dog I've ever known that loves to snuggle, hug and kiss more than humans! This is just one example of her trying to smooch Emily!
Bye guys...we'll miss you!

BRIDAL SHOW

Sunday was the Bridal Show at the Crowne Plaza that Emily got to model in again. Adam passed this year, but she was excited to wear 3 pretty dresses! We ended up having to leave after the first show because of a pretty painful ear infection. At least she had fun at the beginning of the day!

Dress #1 Her favorite "Top Model" pose!
Practicing spinning! Dress #2

Dress #3...starting not to feel good at this point!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

New Year's Eve we decided to just hang out at home. We had a Wii tournament...with bowling, target shooting, laser hockey and tennis. Adam had fun setting up the brackets and keeping track of everyone's wins/losses. I didn't win any of the games, although I may have let Emily beat me at laser hockey :) We celebrated "Kids New Year" at 9:00, put them to bed and then watched The Dark Knight. We almost missed the new year because the movie wasn't over...but heard some fireworks outside and then checked the clock! Here's to a happy & healthy 2009 for ALL our friends and family!

Dad & Adam

Indy, Mom & Emily (Indy is definitely a lap dog!)The target shooting event of our tournament.
The winners!