sick. . .

So incase you've been wondering why I haven't posted lately. . . it's because I don't really feel like doing anything except lay on the couch and fight the yuckies!!! (fun huh? Well, my kids think so because they are getting lots of great movie and computer time).

However, we did have a GREAT thanksgiving. I actually didn't start feeling to sick until Saturday, so thanksgiving was actually nice and I could eat my favorites. :) We went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving day. I took pies--banana cream, chocolate, and a pumpkin cake. It was so fun to see my sister and her family. And of course my kids had a blast with their cousins.

The 28th, we headed to Darin's brother's house for the Palmer side dinner. It was fun to see everyone and enjoy another dinner. This time I took rolls. YUM. :) We went to our 2 cousins baptism in the afternoon and then stayed the night at D and S's house, which is always great. :) The kids got some nintendo time in and thought all was great.

Despite that I am not feeling well, I've been trying to count my blessings. I really am grateful for my little family, the country that I live in, the gospel in my life and as my neice said all the pleasant things. :)


walk after thanksgiving dinner. C pushing Z-man



J, Ella, and L eating Thanksgiving dinner


cousin sleep over on the air mattress!!! :)

July 27

not that it's any one's business, but for those of you who MUST know. . . yes, this pregnancy WAS planned. :) :) and we are super excited. :)

phew, the toothfairy remembered to come.

Sooo, J lost her first tooth. She has been so excited that she had a loose tooth and told everyone. Yesterday she could bend it horizontally, so we knew it wouldn't be long. Last night I went to enrichment (a church class) and got a phone call on my way up from J that she had lost her tooth while brushing. :) she was SOOO excited. D helped her put it in an envelope and put it under her pillow. Well, the toothfairy was all snug in her bed when all of the sudden she remembered. . . AHHHH, out she jumped onto the cold floor, found the money stash and quietly tip toed to put the precious dollar under the pillow. :) Our tooth fairly leaves the teeth . . . so J took it to school with her today in a zip lock bag to show her friends. . . umm, o.k. :)

art work

Here is more art work from mostly J and one from L. :-)


This is L's one painting. He likes to paint a lot, but most of the time they don't get preserved.


the next two go together. J made this for me when I was gone to time out for women. First the front and then stapled to it is a not on the back saying she had a fun time at a friends home while I was gone.

Fun scarecrow J made in school.

spiderweb from school

J's painting of a rainbow.

For some reason both J and L are WAY into drawing houses.. . . so here is her version.

I am soooo lucky I get notes like this all the time.

o.k., I know this isn't art work, but I was going through some of my pictures and found this. Those two crack me up. :) They LOVE swimming. :)

here's the proof

Here's the proof that Z-man is really crawling!!!!


I'm not sure if it's because he just had 2 teeth pop through or if it's because he's learned to crawl and get to what he wants, but z-man is sooo much happier these days. . . yeah, for happy babies. :)

Z-MAN IS CRAWLING!!!!

Holy COW, Z-man is already crawling. Did I just bring him home from the hospital??? seriously. On Sunday, I noticed he was starting to scoot a bit more than normal and yesterday, he just up and started crawling. . . . ZOIKS. time to bring the vaccuum out and the cupboard locks!! :)

first snow and family night

Today was our first snow. . . . o.k. so it was a 'skiff', but the kids had a BLAST. They got all bundled up in the coats, hats, gloves, scarves, (I cannot tell you how long it takes to get everyone ready to go outside!) seconds after they went outside, the door bell rang. . . were they done???

no, just wanting the garage door open. SECONDS after that, the door bell rang (not sure why they can't just come in.) and they wanted to know if riding bikes in the snow was a good idea. . seeing how L just got stitches from a bike accident we decided against it.

THEN to the back yard they went where the REAL snow was. (the slight amount that built up on the trampoline). and the snowball making began.

Soon after this, L came in needing to go to the bathroom. . . off come the gloves, the hat, the coat, the scarves, . . . go potty,. . . back on goes the coat, the gloves, the scarve, the hat. . back out the play. Next J wanted to show me her snowball, so in comes the snowball. . . out goes the snowball. HA HA. It was fun though. :)

Happy first snow of the year. Kids always make the smallest things exciting. Where do we lose that excitement along the way?

Tonight was family home evening. J wanted to give the lesson and did a great job. She gave us a lesson on how Heavenly Father created us. She asked each of us how Heavenly Father created us. L said with arms, and legs, and tummies. . . J said, "yes, but HOW?" L replied, "magically. . . . . in our house." So there you go. :) They are a funny pair.

Not for the faint of heart

This is our recent urgant care visit. L was VROOMING down the sidewalk on his bike and hit something (he said it was a rock, but I didn't see a rock.) that flipped him over his handle bars and onto the side walk. chin first. :) poor guy, huh? He did not like getting shots in his chin to numb the area for stitches, and screamed bloody murder. After it was all done, however, he was super excited to go get ice cream. I was paying the co-pay and he decided he would venture to the other side of the reception area, stand on a chair and wave to me. He was so excited he could climb high enough that he could see. He waved with great excitement and said, "hi, mom. I can see you." All the nurses gasped and were trying to get him down (as did I after this experience), . . . I'm thinking it won't be our last 'stitch' visit. :)

book fair

Tonight we had fun at the elementary book fair. They combine the book fair with some other activities that I took the kids to.

First we watched the jump roping group perform. They actually had to try out for this group (seriously. . . elementary) because there were so many that wanted to be in it. (Not sure why they can't have more, but whatever??)

Next we listened to gregory the terrible eater. It was about a goat and his eating habits. :) My kids love listening to stories. However, I guess it helps when the story book is the size of mount everest.

At first the kids didn't want to get their face painted, but eventually wanted to. after face painting they jump roped, but I was helping Logan so I didn't get pictures. :)Ummm, ya, I think L was getting tired by this time. . . or maybe just tired of pictures. :)


these were taken a few days ago, but I wanted to post them. This is my smiley boy, z-man. How can you not smile when you see that???

Have I ever posted how much I LOVE L's hair??? I love that it's red and that it has some curl to it. when he was a baby the back was SOOO curly until we cut it. :( Anyway, I took a picture the other day after we did our hair for the day. Handsome Man. It's hard to tell in these pictures, but I love it.

silly faces

When J goes to school, Z-man is asleep, and it's just L and I around, I become the play date. so along with our normal story time, alphabet time, car racing time, today we had fun taking pictures of silly faces to send to grandma and Papa. (see below)

I don't get a hole lot done on those days, but that's o.k. I'm glad I have a bit of time to spend with L. He is such a crack up. He makes me laugh alot. He is soo people aware it cracks me up. I love/scares me that he opens the door on Mon. Morning to tell the garbage man his mommy sais he can't come out. That he starts random conversations with random people at random stores.

Lately we've been reading dora and the deep sea. He is convinced that it is a submarinechine(cross between a submarine and machine) that she rides in to go into the deep sea to save the treasure chest.

silly boy!! :)

$1.93? Are you kidding?

We are totally loving the gas prices. Here it is $1.93 today. :-)

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

I was sung to about 20 bazillion times today and loved it. I think the kids enjoyed my birthday just as much as I did. I had a great day today. D took the older two with him while he ran erronds, ate lunch, etc, etc and I was able to have a quiet day to do whatever I wanted. Z-man slept for most of the time we were home. I did some scrapbooking in the morning, went shopping (with only one child by the way), and came home and made my birthday cake. I know it sounds funny, but I look forward to making my own cake each year. I love to try new cakes each year and it's fun for me to create something new. this year, I made an ice cream cake. It was pretty fun. :) After D and the kids came home, we played soccer and watched some football. . . I really love watching college football. It was a great day.

Here are some pictures of the cake and presents, but they aren't in the right order. . . sorry.


Me blowing out my candles

Everyone excited about CAKE!!

ooohh, candles

Heavy, Heavy, hang over. . . . TRADITION. . . Tradition.

More hang over!!

J's present that she made me. It hooks to my hair so I can wear it all day and make faces out the whole. . . . I am SOOOO lucky!!
Hug for L's present. He made me a GREAT picture. :)

This is a gift bag at our house that gets used over and over again. It's my favorite one. :)

My mom sends me these slipper/socks periodically and I love them. They are so warm and stay on my feet. :) She always knows when to send a new pair. :) thanks MOM and DAD

More Heavy, Heavy, Hang over. . . . L hit me hard on this one. . . he had FUN. Normally hitting is not allowed, so he takes advantage of the time it is allowed. . . who came up with this tradition anyway??? LOL

Just look at the sly grin on his face. . . yup, he's excited.

Birthdays always makek me reflect on where I am in life for some reason. I'm so grateful for all the things that are in my life, especially D and my kids. they love and support me through my faults and challenges. It also makes me think of all the things I want to change about myself and who I want to be. So, I've made some goals and hopefully next November, I can report on the progress. :)

scrapbooking again

I had some time on my hands tonight, so I made another scrapbook page. This one is for the month of April when Z-man was born. I've really been enjoying digital scrapbooking lately.




the other great news is that Z-man cut his first tooth today. Go Z-man. :) He was also a bit happier today than the past few days, so that was nice.

a few pictures

First, sorry for the bad pictures. I always forget to take my camera to the library with us.

o.k. I'm wondering why it is so much more fun to play with the blocks at the library than the drawer full at home??? oh well. We had a great time at the library today. Even Z-man got in on the play this time. L loves to wrestle and tackle a gigantic stuffed bear. I didn't get a picture, but it's halarious. He likes to hide under it too. We loaded up on good books that are beginners so J has lots to read and some good movies. We played hard and headed home for dinner. :)














This is L 'helping.' He loves getting the cups down for everyone at dinner time. I think this was actually during lunch, but ya, I'm totally not surprised to look into the kitchen and find him
like this or other places similar. I think he's going to be a professional rock climber some day and hopefully the sport will be commercialized by then and he can pay for my retirement!! :)

who did you sit by?

Today after I picked up L from preschool, I asked him all sorts of questions like what did you eat for snacks, did you sing songs today, did you learn about a letter, etc. Today after the normal questions, I thought I'd ask a few questions to see if he is getting to know people in his class. i asked who he sat by during snacks today. He replied, "Noah." Hmm, o.k. so he knows Noah, we'll see if he knows more. I asked him who was sitting by Noah (I was meaning on the other side of Noah). He replied, "ummm, L" (His own name) so matter of factly. I thought to myself, oh ya, I guess that makes sense. :) anyway, it made me chuckle. :)

laughs

o.k., so today has been one of those days. Sleep in our house is an interesting subject. We have three good sleepers and two not so good sleepers that reside in our home. Somehow, although I am one of the good sleepers, I find myself up a lot at night due to the other not-so-good sleepers in the house. Last night I was up a lot and had pretty much set out the morning in a 'snap dragon' mood. I don't think anyone ever warned me about how much sleep, and internal and external energy is zapped from my body with children. I've decided each child zaps at an exponential level. I'm sure I'm not alone, but seriously, some days I am totally drained--physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.

With that said. . . nobody ever told me how much happiness and joy and laughter would enter my home with children either. I think I've worked harder as a mother than anything else in life. It's not a full time or a part time job. . it's an all time job. I've also found more joy in motherhood than anything else. I wonder why it is. that the things that take massive amounts of internal control and energy, work, thought, and concern bring about the most joy.

So, even though I've really wanted to curl up in bed with a good stash of movies, books, and cold cereal, I've persevered through teething babies who take EXTREMELY short naps, an energetic boy that has a 2 second attention span and then reverts to jumping off the couch to see if he can reach the ceiling fan, and being the chauffeur to school and events. And the following clip is my reward. Through the ride, I guess we focus on and love the 'vistas.' and be happy that we have something to work hard at that brings joy. :) I'm grateful for my kids. Sometimes it's really hard to be a mom, but I wouldn't change it.

we're going 'b'oting

Last night D and I were talking about what time we were going to get together and go vote. After a few minutes of discussing voting issues, L started asking us if we were going to get a fast boat or a slow boat. I didn't make the connection until later when he was asking me if he got to come with when we went boating. finally, I figured out he had been confused with voting and boating. He was REALLY disappointed today when we didn't get on a boat together and vroom on the water. He did get to 'kid vote' though. He thought that was cool, but not quite as good as a boat. :)

Halloween 2008

Oh, what fun Halloween is. We have a fun time with our neighbors. Here, everyone hangs out outside their houses and gives candy. Sooo, since all the neighbors are out, most of us gather at one driveway, start a fire in the portable fire pit, and hang out while we hand out candy. D took the kids around trick-or-treating with the other dads, and I stayed back and gave out candy. It's quite fun.
J was a flower this year, L was batman, and z-man was a crayon. :) L was SOOOO excited he could hardly contain himself. batman was literally bouncing off the walls. He was so fun to watch because he was so excited!!! J was a bit more contained, but she was excited and happy. Z-man was wondering what the heck we were putting on him and enjoyed it much more once we took the costume off and a neighbor snuggled him to sleep. :)

J before she went to school this morning.

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Most of the neighborhood kids. We are missing 3.

The new babies in the neighborhood.

Last minute instructions from dad before the fun begins. Stay close to Dad, stay on sidewalks, Say thank-you, etc, etc. :) isn't he a good daddy. :)