"One Thousand Words"

School Days

Yes, preschool. Andrew is loving preschool and especially his teacher. Whenever I ask him to tell me about his friends at school he tells me that she is his friend, ahh cute. I really think we hit the jackpot with this one...it's an in home preschool, (I wasn't thrilled about that idea at first) but just look at how cool her set up is. It's very classroomy. (pretty sure that's not a real word, but it works here) She is a great teacher and Andrew loves going, but I think his favorite part might be doing homework. Homework is fun right now because the cool older cousins have kindergarten homework, so it's the in thing around here. who knows. maybe that will last another 10-15 years, what do ya think? Just check out the pictures. (Spencer is in most of them, he really wanted to stay and be part of the fun)

First thing you do at preschool is find the apple with your name on it and move it from the 'tree' to the 'school'

Can you see the reading tree in the corner? She made it!

Reunion - Camp

Every Labor Day the "Palmer Pals" reunite! This year was the 30th reunion of the reunion. So, we packed up the camping gear and the 4-wheelers and headed up the mountain. For me, this was the best reunion I've been to in the five+ years I've been a Palmer. Most of that had to do with the ages of my kids I think, well, and my attitude! The cabin is always crowded full with Palmers, so we just pitched a little tent city out in the meadow beside the cabin. Even in the rain we had a great time!

Andrew didn't use a toilet more than once the entire weekend! This, I'm sure, is his favorite part of camping....no matter the size of the audience! ;)


Spencer's new favorite word..."QUAD!" he repeatedly told us to get the "keys" so we could "ride!"

The kids earned prizes all weekend. Here is Spencer with Andrew's prized sword! (It has since been cut up into tiny pieces and put in the trash....mean mean mommy!)

Andrew also got a dart gun.....oh what fun.

Where have I been?

It just keeps getting more and more difficult to find the time to hide in my room to blog. Spencer (22 months now) must be sleeping, or supervised by another adult, in order for me to be all the way up here in my bedroom at the computer. Or, I can choose to take my chances on the mess I will have to clean up after I come back down the stairs. Can it be possible for a child to become more destructive by the moment? I usually just refer to him simply as a "handful" or I say, "he keeps me busy" because it's hard to explain, you just have to witness him in action to truly appreciate his genius.

It's a good thing I love him!

I have loads of pictures I want to post and some fun stories about the Palmer reunion, I'll try not to wait a month to get to that! Andrew also starts preschool in the morning!!! I'm sure that will be blog worthy as well!

The 'Pirate' Party

I decided Andrew is still a little young for the traditional kiddy birthday party this year (yes, I'm aware, I'm a control freak). So we planned yet another fun family BBQ. I do love to plan a good party, but I wanted Andrew to help me out so we went on a shopping trip to Party City together. Of course he was immediately drawn to the cheesy character theme decor. But, like I said before, I'm a little controlling and maybe a bit obsessive, so together we decided on a pirate theme. Okay, I guided him to this decision. I thought that could work since we were having a swim party, and it's certainly better than Wall*E or Sponge Bob!! (Side note: why are children drawn to Sponge Bob? Andrew has never seen the show, but knows all about the...ugh!)
Anyhow, we got a volleyball net set up for the pool, and tossed in a few beach balls. We also rearranged a bit to provide as much shade as possible (not that it helped much it was another scorcher.) Everyone that couldn't or didn't want to swim stayed cool in the a/c playing Mario Kart on the Wii. It turned out to be a great party, with delicious food, thanks to my husband the grill master, and Fry’s grocery store for some fresh produce! Yum! I also spent plenty of time last week making homemade ice cream, like frozen custard...the real stuff! It was a huge hit, very tasty stuff and not very good for you at all! Andrew loves ice cream, so we just stuck candles right into the frozen treat...no cake required for this birthday party. That's enough to read, now look at the pictures...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

4 Year Flash Back

Today is Andrew's 4th Birthday! We had a fun celebration yesterday (Saturday) so that he could have a swim party (more of that in the next post.) After church today I sat down at the computer to load all the pics and I started looking back through the "Baby Andrew" file. It was fun to reminisce about the last four years, but a little sad to see how fast he is growing!!! Here is a look back....

4th Birthday. Wow a bike!

Just after his 3rd b-day. Ahh, the old house...when we had grass.

Andrew's 2nd birthday party was in WY at G & G Harvey's house.

Happy 1st birthday! He wasn't too sure what to do with that cake.

My first baby... *big sigh* how sweet!

Last, but not least, a big belly shot! This is me standing on the view deck of our house that was obviously under construction when Andrew was born. (That's the house we sold last year)

All this cutsie-remember-when-stuff almost has me ready for another baby....I said ALMOST, Mom. For now I'm just grateful to have my 2 beautiful, happy little boys. Happy Birthday Bubba!!

Reunion

While I was hard at work with the steamer (see previous post), Spencer and Derek were having a ball at the cabin. Derek took a ton of pictures while they were there and the pictures really say it all! Take a look at Spencer and Gavin playing with marshmallow shooters. Spencer couldn't really blow hard enough so for him it was just a sword. What a boy.

Swinging on the porch swing.

A walking stick.......................or another sword?

"Wayne's Breakfast" anyone? anyone?

Blow off some STEAM!

Last weekend Derek and Spencer went to the LeBaron family reunion at the Cabin in Strawberry. (Pictures of that to come) Andrew was sick, so I stayed at home with him. The house was empty and quiet and Andrew was zonked out on the couch most of Saturday, so I went to work.....steaming! The kitchen floor was pretty sticky and gross and I just knew my mop wasn't gonna cut it, so I decided to mop the old fashioned way using a rag and a bucket of hot, soapy water. (This explains just the kind of freak that I am about cleaning. I get some weird kick out of a good cleaning.) While I was down on my knees scrubbing every square inch of tile, I decided to bust out the good ole Scunci Steamer.

Everyone who has a steamer knows that once you start steaming you just can't stop....you steam and steam until the water runs out or the cord won't reach any farther. After the kitchen tile, I steamed the bathroom, the baseboards, and that little spot on the family room carpet that has been bugging me for weeks. Whew! Thank you, Scunci. I love you!

So, that was Saturday, but on Monday I was enjoying the Bachelorette finale with Lindsay while giving myself a little pedicure. After the 'after the final rose' show was over, it was late and I was cleaning up my mess. Derek was in bed already (avoiding the Bachelorette) and I couldn't carry all my nail junk up the stairs so the genius in me decided to put all the little stuff in a baggy before loading up my arms and heading up the stairs. Great idea, until I dropped the bottle of my favorite hot pink nail polish on my kitchen tile!! Yeah, it shattered and splashed all over the tile and up on the drywall side of the island. Two hours later, after I had steamed, scraped, scrubbed and repainted, I went up to bed. The tile looks as good as new...again.

Potty Potty Potty!

Do you ever feel like you are repeating yourself repeating yourself? Andrew is closing in quickly on his 4th birthday and we have been trying so hard to get potty training done. (Are you ever really done?) I feel like a broken record constantly repeating these phrases:
“Do you need to go potty?”
“Are you all dry?”
“Did you poop?”
Anyway, one Sunday morning about three weeks ago he woke up on his own and went downstairs to the family room (this is his normal routine) but when we got up a little while later, he was in underwear already. He took off his pull-up and changed into undies on his own! Well, then when it was time to go to church he said he wanted to wear his undies, and of course I couldn't say no to that! At the time I was still his Primary teacher (that has recently changed) so I figured we would be able to make it to the potty since I would be with him all day. When I was rounding up my little sunbeam class to walk down the hall for a potty break, one of the sisters in the presidency came to see if I needed help wrangling them all down the hall. I was grateful for the extra hands and sent them on down the hall while I went after an escapee. Just as I rounded the corner to the bathrooms I realized that Andrew had just been sent into the men’s room and with a member of the bishopric too! Good thing Bro Davis is the nice grandpa type and didn’t mind helping Andrew get dressed all over again. So, that was our official day one (He was in underwear a lot before then, but never consistanly) and Andrew has not been in pull-ups since. Not even at night (that was his idea too.)
Sometimes it has been a struggle to get him to pee before going to bed and one night he insisted that he did not have to and went to bed without “going.” Just as we were heading to bed, Lindsay (remember my sis-in-law and fam that live here) knocked on the door to let me know that Andrew was asleep at the foot of Brooklyn’s (cousin) bed. After further investigation we realized that he had apparently sleep walked into the kids’ room instead of the bathroom that is right next door. He peed on the floor right beside the humidifier and laid down in a heap at the foot of Brooklyn’s bed. Oh, nice!
These things are always so much funnier the next day, when you are not in the middle of it all.

Five Years...

Here is a look at our romantic weekend celebrating our 5th anniversary! I told Derek weeks ago, that I really wanted to get away (Motel 6 if we had to) so we could have some time away from the kids...you know. Well he went way above and beyond when he booked us a suite at Sanctuary! http://www.sanctuaryoncamelback.com/

The entire resort is built into the side of a mountain. The "rooms" are like little apartments. They call them casitas. The room we stayed in was similar in size to our newlywed-1-bedroom-apartment. The buildings themselves must be ancient- with brick walls and uneven floors, but it is all remodeled and decorated with a contemporary look! Here's a picture of the living room.

And here is the bathroom..... (peek-a-boo into the bedroom.)

Last, but not least, the Bedroom.

So, after we checked in Friday afternoon, we had plenty of time to freshen up and get ready for dinner at Elements. (the restaurant at the resort) Dinner was really nice, I sort of had one of those moments where I realize I'm still a country girl at heart, just experiencing a "city moment." And it's always a little awkward when the server is confused that you don't want a bottle of wine, or to "enjoy the bar before dinner." ...pretty sure we were the only people in the place not drinking! The food, however, was very good, and of course the company. ;) love ya, babe.

But, my favorite part was when we got back to the casita and saw this....

It had all been decorated while we were at dinner! There were rose petals everywhere! and candles lit up the whole place! They even had music playing. I'll spare you the details from here on... until Saturday morning, when we went down (literally down the mountainside) to the spa for a couples massage! How sweet! Thanks, Honey for a great weekend! What a great finale to our fabulous first 5 years.

If I had one regret, it's that we took 0 pictures of the two of us together! Here are some we took of each other just before we left.

Memorial Day

We spent most of Memorial Day in the mountains where Derek's family has a cabin. We drove up Monday morning with some friends in the ward and their gigantic trailer load of quads. They have five kids....all boys....so they had a quad for everyone! As soon as we got both trailers unloaded and all 9 quads (they have 7, we have 2) running, we hit the trails! We were at it for a couple hours before Andrew was in need of a potty break (not the kind he was willing to do in the trees.) While we were back at the cabin we made some sandwiches for lunch, although Derek was in charge of packing the food and left the bread at home on the counter. I enjoyed my "low carb" breadless sandwich anyway.

After we cleaned up the lunch mess, the Dads and the older boys went out for a faster/rougher/bumpier ride and Cindy and I stayed at the cabin with the four youngest boys. We took them all down to the creek down the hill and let them throw rocks and explore like little boys do so well. It's always fun for us to bust out the trailer and the quads, but it was really fun to go with the Holcombs, and get to know them better.

Spencer loved throwing rocks, of course.

Jaden, Jacob and Andrew exploring

The boys climbed to the very top of this tall tree house! This thing is OLD, scary!

The end of a busy day. I took the wet clothes off of them for the drive home! :)

Bring on the Heat

We love the summer heat!! Right? Well, we hit *110* yesterday so like it or not...here comes summer! For the first time in the six years or so that I have lived in the valley, I am really excited for the heat to hit! (call me crazy) Only because, for the first time, we have our own pool! We are so happy that the pool is all fixed. (We gave up and called in the professionals. Good thing too, because the vacuum line was broken somewhere under the pool decking.) Can you say expensive?

Finally some picture of blue water, not brown (see old pool post).

All of my boys!

Busy Busy

I cannot believe it has been two months since my last entry! I know my life has been busy, but I guess time just flew right past me. Anyway, lots of new and exciting stuff to blog about here. Matt & Lindsay (Derek's brother and his wife) have moved in with us, along with their three cute kids! Although it is always crazy combining 2 households into 1, there are some great perks that come along with it too!

Here are some fun shots of the kids @ play!

Blake and Andrew had fun shooting darts onto the ceiling!

Brooklyn testing the water.

Playing dress-up!! Blake as "Woody", Brooklyn as "Mulan", and Andrew as "Mr. Incredible" (Or MisterCredible if you ask him. lol)

All of the kids love to play outside! Here Gavin and Andrew are riding bikes in circles. Yes, Andrew IS in nothin' but undies. Potty training is coming along, slowly, but surely.

Finally, here is a great view of Spencer as he squats down to asses the damages of a roll-over on the bike circle. Don't worry, no major injuries this time!