Christmas 2010

I finally went through our Christmas pictures. Here are some of the better ones. Parker's note to Santa.

Snow World.

Dad and Cyndi.

My sisters with the aprons I made for them.

Georgie and me.

My sweetie.

Diane with her eyes actually open for a picture. After many failed attempts to get this shot with her eyes open, I finally said, "Try to look at the flash". It worked!

Our girls in their beautiful Christmas dresses.

Parker Art

Christmas Banana Peel Punctured by Meat Thermometers
Parker creates some of the most interesting artwork. Her media choice often involves found art and objects from nature and around the house. I'll be posting pictures of her wonderful creations from time to time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER

Today marks the day when exactly 5 years ago a lovable little sparkplug named Parker came into our lives. It’s difficult to imagine now that there ever was a B.C. (before children). The life-long act of raising children significantly changes one mindset. It has a way of discounting the past (B.C.) while naturally gravitating the focus to be on the future.



PJ is one special girl. From the very beginning it was quite evident that she was going to be an active, cerebral little girl with an incredible sense of grace and kindness. She was talking at a young age, walking at a very young age (8 ½ months) and quickly developed a personality that evokes energy and fun. And all the while her little inquisitive mind is constantly in motion.


And now this little sparkplug has turned five years old. My goodness. It’s a relief to feel all the hard work is done, from here on out its just smooth sailing!

As easy as peeling a carrot!
As sweet and simple as strawberry pie!!

There snow doubt about it.

She's number one!!!

As nice as Barbie spending a hot summer day relaxing by the bathroom sink.


God Bless Parker and God Bless the United States of America.


Happy Birthday Parker. You've enhanced our lives in ways that I just cannot describe with the written word. Seeing you grow up one day at a time is a priceless gift that I will cherish and remember until the day I perish.

I expect this constant enjoyment to continue until you turn 18 and go to college and methodically cut me out of your life like what your cousin Zoey is doing to your Auntie Cyndi.

I did the same thing.

But when that time comes, please be gentle with me.

P.S. And what happened to those Santinos mugs?!?

Really Laura. Orange? Bright Orange?!? You think this template looks better?

We have not been blogging in a while. Well…to be entirely accurate Laura rarely posted anything on this site to begin with. The ratio of my postings to hers is probably 9 to 1 or so. I implored her to do so and she occasionally did but nevertheless I was running this show by default. I had always felt that this blog would serve as an interesting scrapbook and recounting of our life as a family. The careful documentation of our girls’ development and quick little stories about something PJ or Georgia spouted would be an interesting read later in life.

I put a lot of work into this blog. Then Laura comes along with her semi annual posting and decides to delete the template I labored over several weekends to create and change it to…bright orange. In order to create the prior template I had to learn the basics of html and figure out how to create a template and create the little pictures on top that would expand once you put your mouse over the photo and all that stuff. Ugh, that was a lot of tedious work. And yes, I should’ve saved the dang template somewhere but once it was up I never thought she would delete it.

Have I made you feel bad yet Laura?

I still love you. I was always impressed by your choice of colors when it came to painting the interior and exterior of our house. But this...is...fugly.

Trick or Treat

Parker carved the face of this jack-o-lantern all by herself (except the right half of the mouth). I couldn't believe it!


Georgia was so thrilled to be a ladybug. I wanted her to be Snow White (because we have the costume) but when my mom gave her some ladybug wings from the dollar store, she was so thrilled I knew we had to come up with a costume.
The thrill of being a bride wore off after PJ wore her costume to school the week before. Kids asked her if she was getting married and she didn't like that. I told her to tell people, "I'm just a bride but I'm not marrying anyone".

Maybe we'll show this picture at their wedding some day.

It took Georgia a few houses before she got the hang of trick-or-treating. Peyton seemed to know what she was doing.

Best Friends

This picture was taken at 7:45 on a warm east-windy morning. Jack was leaving for school when the girls saw him through the window. They ran out to wish him a good day at school.

Costume Party

I never dress up for Halloween. The last time I did was about 8 years ago when I glued some pennies, safety pins and other metal objects to my face because I was too embarrassed to go completely costume-less in the flamboyant Castro district of SF. I did get compliments for being "Magnetic Personality....so witty" (little did they know I was too unenthused and lazy to put a costume together).
This year my sister, Julie asked me to go to a costume party with her, Cathy and Loren. It was mostly Ventura College faculty there. They wanted to do a group costume and came up with the elements: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. I would be water. I should have known better than to go with a bunch of artists to a costume party. Of course they'd want to be something all "abstract". I wasn't sure I could pull off a water costume, but with the help of Cathy and my mother, we were able to come up with this.
The others costumes turned out great too.

And wouldn't you know it, we won second prize in the costume contest!

Loren really looked windblown.

Cathy's costume was amazing!

Julie put so much work into her seasons.
But next year I want to be Esther Williams or a synchronized swimmer!

The Corner of Sunset and Seaward

Dinner at Duke's always leads to some face time with the beach.

Birthday Ice Cream Cake

As usual Laura concocted another delicious cake for my birthday. She gets it right every year. This one is a baseball theme and includes little baseball men that my mom gave to us. She's owned them all of my life so it's fair to assume these guys were used on my cakes when I was a young'n.

I have an announcement...

In order to make ends meet I have started a new and different type of financial consulting/self help/life-coach operation. I know I look different in real life but it's well known that photos uploaded to the blog tend to make you look like a soap opera star.

The inspiration comes from something my father said to me..."Son, if you're planning on giving financial advice, make sure it's Rockstar financial advice!"

Rule number one: Always...protect your ASSets!



www.scott-powers.com