Three Years and Counting

Today, Jake and I are celebrating being married for three wonderful years! We got too excited to exchange gifts and actually ended up doing that 2 days in advance...so we're making it a three day long celebration! We're really looking forward to our 50 year Anniversary when we get to celebrate for 50 days! :) It's been a great day so far. Jake brought me flowers and a card on his way home from work and then we received an amazing fruit bouquet from Mom Powell. Chocolate dipped pineapples and strawberries, yum yum! Tonight we plan to go out to dinner (probably Red Lobster so Jake can try the coconut shrimp which I've been raving about!), and then afterwards we're going to hit the mall (Jake gave me a Bath and Body Works gift card). So far it's looking to be a pretty memorable day. Here are some pictures from our celebrations so far.

The super yummy and pretty fruit bouquet from Mom Powell

Woo hoo...I can't wait to dive in!!

Jake's gift to me was a bag...for carrying Calvin!

He loves it!!!

Family Night brought to you by the letter 'P'

On Monday night, we had a fun night centered around the letter P. (Coincidentally, I'm not that organized to plan ahead!) For dinner we had a Pineapple Pepperoni Pizza Picnic and for the activity we carved Pumpkins and watched "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". Here are some fun pictures from our night.

Our pumpkins (Left-Tiff's, Right-Jake's)

Carving the pumpkins
(Calvin had fun jumping and watching us make a mess!)


Our family tradition, watching "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown"


Our Pineapple Pepperoni Pizza Picnic

The Yummy Pizza, I think one of the best I've ever made!

Meet me in St. Louis

Calvin and Hobbes enjoying a day at the zoo.

A couple weeks ago, we went to St. Louis to go to the temple and the zoo. It was so nice to get to the temple finally, although it ended up being a short visit. We took turns doing initiatories, while the other stayed out with Calvin. It was all supposed to work out that Calvin would stay awake on the drive to St. Louis and then sleep while we were at the temple, so when we went to the zoo later he'd be well-rested. But of coursde, babies never do what you plan. The first part went fine he stayed awake all the way to St. Louis (a 2 hour drive) and was just falling asleep when we pulled into the temple. But as soon as that car stopped...BAM! wide awak! So I spent the first hour there trying to get him to fall asleep, while he was having too much fun being in the car not strapped into a carseat. So much to explore! Finally, he ended up crying himself to sleep just as Jake was getting out of the temple. So I thought, "Good, he can sleep for an hour while I'm inside." But just as I started initiatories, they decided to close it for the next half hour. I hadn't been in the temple maybe 15-20 minutes when I was all of a sudden done! Needless to say when we went to the zoo, we had one very sleepy boy. But who can sleep while at the zoo? :)

The zoo in St. Louis was amazing and best of all FREE! We met up with our friends, Jared and Suzy and their little boy, Van, who is only 3 months older than Calvin. They had driven over from Rolla, MO. At the zoo, we saw grizzly bears, rhinos, hippos, elephants, giraffes and so much more! One of the best 'exhibits' was the penguins! You seriously are right next to them! It's worth to go to the zoo if only for the penguins. It was such a beautiful day too! Since it was a cooler time of year, all the animals were very active. The tigers were chasing each other around and playing, the camels were up walking around, and even the bears were up playing with a ball. Such a great day! Afterwards, we went out for pizza with Jared and Suzy and then headed for the long drive home. Thank goodness, Calvin was so exhausted from the day, he slept the entire way home and then all through the night.

I was impressed with my cool picture of the elephant.

The Malaysian sun bear, he totally knew how to please a crowd!

A native to Missouri, the rhinocerous beetle.

Daddys and their boys.

Family picture in front of the seals, they were so talkative!

In the penguin exhibit at the zoo.

The grizzly bears were so active...and smelly.

Halloween fun

Halloween has come and gone this year. But we sure had alot of fun creating memories as a family. To kick off the season, we went to our friends, Joe and Alyson's, Halloween party in West Plains. It was an Old-time Academy Awards themed party. Jake dressed up as Howard Hughes and I dressed up as his date, basically dressed in formal attire. (Pictures to come later.) It was so much fun. At the party, we played a murder mystery game throughout the night. There were two murderers who were supposed to wink at others and "kill" them off throughout the evening. Those who died then were supposed to shout out a clue about who killed them as they dramatically died. I was actually the first one of the evening to die. We were playing a boys vs. girls movie quotes game and I looked over at Jake and there it was, a sly wink. We had three minutes to plan out our death and we were supposed to die by a certain way (given to us on cards at the beginning of the game). I was supposed to die by rapidly talking myself to death. So at a point in the game, I started cheering on one of my teammates "you can do it, you can do it, you can do it" until I was standing up talking so rapidly then I collapsed shouting out "blonde hair." My death was so well-played that I won the best actress award!! If that all wasn't funny enough, talking to Jake later, he had forgotten that winking was how the killers were supposed to "kill" and he had actually innocently been winking at me to say hello from across the room!! So, I died in vain, but thankfully both of the killers had blonde hair. :)

We also attended our Ward Halloween Party, well, actually we planned and attended the Halloween party. After that experience, all I can say is, there will be one big advantage to moving out of this ward in a year and a half...being released as the activities chair!! :) All playing aside, it did go rather well. Calvin wore his adorable pumpkin costume and was so good for mommy and daddy all night. Jake wore his old standby costume, Jack Bauer from CTU. (It is definitely time we ventured out a bit!) For the activity we had a dutch oven dinner/cobbler, little games for the kids to play and a pumpkin patch and trunk or treating outside. And barely a breather after that activity is over and now I'm on to planning Christmas's already! But that wasn't our last party for Halloween, we made it a month long celebration this year. We also went to surprise birthday party a few days before Halloween, the invitation said we could dress up, so we did. But we were the only ones to dress up other than the kids. But thankfully our costumes weren't so elaborate that we felt too awkward. We both wore all blue and wore name tags saying "Hi, my name is Gene" and "Hi, my name is Jean." Yep, you guessed it, we went as a pair of blue jeans!! haha! But funny thing was, half the people at the party didn't know our real names so they kept thanking us for wearing nametags and kept calling us Gene/Jean. :) Calvin went dressed up as Samurai Jack and was a huge hit! Up until halfway through the party, he decided he would rather be a screaming banshee and proceeded to act out that role instead. So we left the party, and as soon as we were outside, he again became the little angel we sometimes know and always love. We're guessing he had been overwhelmed by all the noise and commotion.

And finally, Halloween day came!! From a month's warm up of parties, costumes and treats, we were ready to really live up the day. We made pumpkin pancakes with buttermilk syrup for breakfast, and if that doesn't sound sweet enough already, Jake added chocolate chips to the pancakes! Yumm! Definitely a new family tradition on Halloween. Following breakfast, we went for a walk. It had been raining all week long and finally we had a beautiful sunny morning. It could not have been more perfect. Then in the afternoon, we went to a volleyball game at the university. We are friends here with a couple and he works as an assistant coach for the volleyball team here. He actually used to play for BYU and was on the team the year they won Nationals. Anyhow, we went to the game and hung out with his wife and their little boy, Brock, who was dressed up as Bam-Bam. So cute! Calvin loved being at the volleyball game and was charming all the girls he could! :) In the evening, we went to a family's house for a taco soup dinner before trick-or-treating. They had about six families over, most of us being the new ones to the ward, so it was fun to get to know everyone a little better. While all the moms took their kids out trick-or-treating, we put Calvin down for a nap and played games with the dads back at the house. We played "Ticket to Ride", which is a new game we've been introduced to out here. It is alot of fun! Finally, we headed home to tuck our little pumpkin prince into bed and say good-bye to all Hallow's Eve for one more year.

Having fun at the volleyball game.

Our noble hero, Samurai 'Calvin' Jack

The Pumpkin Prince holding session with his pumpkin court.

Calvin finally succumbing to sleep on our morning walk, he put up a good fight.

Having lots of fun being outside and all bundled up against the cool weather.

Mom and Calvin stopping for a picture during the walk.

Daddy and Calvin on our Halloween morning walk.

Daddy making our yummy pumpkin pancake breakfast.

Meet the Powells

One day, a young boy walked a young girl home from a church social. A tad bit shy and slightly soaking wet, the young boy feared utter rejection from the young girl if were to ask permission to court her. In turn, the young girl felt that he did not seem to reciprocate her affection. With the support of her bosom friend, the young girl’s courage was buoyed up and she asked him for a dance. A Dance, Dance Revolution! It was while dancing in socks and laughing over delicious Frostys and Jr. Bacon goodness that their future began. After five weeks of courting bliss, the young couple decided they were hooked. Next to a flowing mountain river with the wind whistling through the pines, the boy knelt down, the girl cried and a ring was placed upon her finger.

That first year of marriage was a dream come true. Living in an apartment in exotic Orem, Utah, the young couple grew together experiencing some of life’s unique happenings. An impromptu visit to the emergency room to remove a staple from his finger, teaching a hundred year old man how to shoot a basketball from a wheelchair, mountain biking Slick Rock trail in Moab, Utah, kissing under the Eiffel Tower and consuming many Little Caesar’s 5 buck pizzas. It was during this time, the young boy decided it was time to become a man. The requirements being to join the U.S. Air Force and attend medical school in Kirksville, Missouri. So, the young couple packed their few belongings into a trailer and drove cross-country to see what the wild, wild mid-west held in store for them.

As the couple soon found out, medical school is a tough battlefield, scattered with many dead corpses, literally. The couple rose to the challenge to find the best way to survive the demanding expectations placed upon them by the esteemed professors. Midnight study sessions, dinners on campus, and many lonely nights was all that it required. In the precious moments they had together, the couple created many fond memories, such as cooking dutch oven cobbler, playing Nerts with close friends, canoeing across a lake and cuddling in front of a roaring…cinema feature! It was not long before the couple decided they were receiving too much rest and relaxation and were ready to venture into the challenging world of parenthood!

Not long after, the young couple received all that they had hoped for...and more! Baby Calvin was a joy to all who beheld him! His insistent cries for food, sleep and immediate attention soon filled the home. A night’s rest had become a luxury fondly remembered from life’s past. But the joy that came with every coo and smile held no bounds. It was at this time, the young man decided he had received all the education he could from the good establishment in Kirksville. It was time to move his young family to beautiful Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

In Cape Girardeau, the young man would spend a month’s time observing and learning all he could from a doctor’s expertise, hoping to gain some insight into what destiny had in store for him. The young woman would spend her days teaching baby Calvin to play with toys, hold a spoon, roll over, and sit up. Until one day, to his parents expressed joy, Calvin decided to try his hand, or should we say foot, at walking. Holding onto his parents fingers, his determination and pleasure show with each hesitant, wobbly step that each foot makes. And this is where we find our young family at the moment. Looking together with excitement and anticipation for what surprises tomorrow holds.