Palmer Family

Friday, January 13, 2012

Collin and his Pound Puppy

Santa came to visit my parents house a few days before Christmas. He skyped with Collin and Emily and told them that he had brought stuffed animals for them but he would send them home with Aunt Rita. My kids were so excited. When Collin received his new puppy he was so excited. His mom was excited that it was a pound puppy. :) Collin showed it to his dad who told him that he would have to make sure to take good care of his new friend. Collin has taken this job very seriously. His puppy goes everywhere with him. (Accompanied by either Batman or Spiderman) Every night he curls up with him under his arm to go to sleep. It is really cute. Last night we all curled up on our new couch (another post topic) to watch an episode of the BBC Planet Earth. (My Christmas present) Collin does not usually join us as Emily and Landon take the show very seriously and Collin likes to chat during shows. :) Collin came downstairs with his puppy and crawled up next to me. He told me his puppy was cold and wanted to snuggle with mommy. We grabbed a blanket and Emily, Collin, the pound puppy and I snuggled up under it. Collin patiently explained to me the proper way to pet his puppy. "Pet him softly. Not like this." And he proceeded to mimic smacking the puppy. I agreed that was a good idea and so the two of us sat and petted his puppy. More than once he reminded me to be soft. At times he would instruct me to scratch the puppy's head. He told me that puppies like us to be soft and so do cats. He told me if you aren't soft with cats they scratch you. (He would know.) Then he whispered into the puppy's ear. Then very softly he said, "I wuv you puppy." Then he looked up at me and said, "I wuv you mommy. You wuv me and wuv you. I wuv daddy too." I will admit I teared up. The dad had been a little frustrating at work and so to have my little boy repeat this sentence three times touched my heart. I WUV being a mom!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

New Years Resolutions

Basically I didn't make any. They are the same every year. Instead I decided to just start living the way I should. Thanks to some encouragement from two wonderful friends I have gotten up at 5:30 am every morning this week and worked out up at the university at some aerobic classes that start at 6am. I am sore but feeling great. I had forgotten how much exercise makes my day go so much better. I better lose these last 10 pounds but even if I don't it is nice to start my day off exercising with two wonderful people. :) Peer pressure can be a good thing. Five days a week. And if I leave 15 minutes early (so I get a 45 minute workout) I have enough time to go home, get dressed, put on makeup and make it to carpool by 7:05.So I am having a good start to a year that I haven't set any goals for. Who would have thought?!

Emily's Dance Recital Part 2

Emily's Medal. She wrote her name on the back.

Emily was done having her picture taken. This was after tap and receiving her medal.

Isabel, Emily, Caitlyn, and Cassie

Cassie and Emily

On our way! This was the best I could get with her hair done and makeup. Can you see her 1 inch long chunk of bangs?

Emily is on the right and Cassie on the left. For your information. The little girls in black are in their first year of dance. They get to gether to go in a circle and the little girls wouldn't turn. Eventually the older girls (in white) get them to twirl. Sadly I missed the last 20 seconds of their dance as my memory card filled up. Oops.

Emily's Dance Recital

Emily's dance recital was last night. Since Emily cut her bangs off a few days ago (another story) I creatively did her hair for the night. The teacher had asked for two pony tails and lots of volume and curl. I accomplished volume and pulled back with two bobby pins. But she looked very pretty. I was impressed that she sat there long enough to do her hair and her makeup. She is growing up so fast. We arrived a half an hour early, as requested by the teacher. When we got there we discovered that Emily's dance class was number 34 and 38 out of 40 dance numbers. Usually they are in the first 15. Landon headed home due to the large number of people crammed in and his growing claustrophobia. Emily, Collin and I sat with Cassie, Russell, Maggie and Rita's in laws. Rita wasn't able to be there due to prior commitments until just before Cassie and Emily went on. Nic and Tyson had to leave for an hour for Tyson's basketball practice. Maggie was really cute during her dance number. Emily and Cassie were really well behaved while we waited. Collin not so much. He wanted to be in bed. He survived the night due to the grace of God. :) Landon was on his way to the recital when I called frantic that I had forgotten Emily's tap costume. He turned around, picked it up, and made it back in time to watch the last 40 sec of Emily's ballet number. I videotaped it for him. :) There tap number was to "Animal Crackers" sung by Shirley Temple. She held a stuffed animal during it. Soooo cute. Emily did such a wonderful job. She will be with a different dance teacher this next session for tap and ballet. It was sad to say good bye to Caitlyn. I have included the videos and few pictures. They give out medals to all the performers if you are still there at the end of the recital. This was the first time Emily has ever gotten a medal. She was so proud of her self. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Creche Exhibit

At ISU tonight, at the Stevens Performing Arts Center, there was an exhibit of nativity scenes and original Greg Olsen paintings. Rita had told us about it and I thought that it would be a good way to get the kids out of Landon's hair as he was studying for his two finals tomorrow. Emily brought along the sacrament quiet book I made her to show Cassie. (We had hoped to run into Rita's family but they weren't there before we left. In the quiet book there are small pictures of Greg Olsen's paintings with quotes on the back along with pictures of different temples. Collin has one as well but he didn't bring his. I did not know the paintings would be there and Emily was so excited to see them. Right away she remembered which ones were in her book and which were in Collin's book. She would flip through her book at each new painting to find its "match." She was so excited. It was her favorite part. She and Collin got a kick out of the nativity's that used bears for the people. She saw a nativty that was carved out of yellow wax. She giggled and told me that baby Jesus was yellow like cheese. We left when Collin started getting out of control and almost knocked a couple of people over as I tried to catch him. It was a beautiful exhibit that showed the meaning for this season.

Visit to Rexburg and my finished pillows

We drove up to Rexburg and took Jordan Coe out to dinner. We met a few of her roommates and walked around the temple grounds of the Rexburg, Idaho Temple. It was a lot of fun. The kids have missed her. They told her that "next week we are going to Powell River to see Serena and Grandma and Grandpa." My kids sure miss their friends and family in Powell River. I also finished making the pillows to go on my recovered couches. I love that I had all the fabric and pillow forms in my house already so it didn't cost me current money to make them. :)

Pictures from my Birthday

Here are a few pictures that Rita took before and after I got to my house for the surprise birthday party. Thanks Rita! Enjoy the picture of me catching my breath and calming my heartbeat of coming home and having my nephew run at me out of the dark. :) The top picture is the birthday cake I made for our joint party on Sunday.

Emily's First Field Trip

Emily's first preschool field trip was during the second week in October. I decided to take a personal day and take her on the field trip. I drove Cassie as well as Rita had Maggie's dance class. We were all excited to go to the corn maze, do some fun activities and pick out some pumpkins. Sadly, just after we arrived Cassie accidently squirted hand sanitizer in her hands. It was really sad because she had gone into the porta potty proud to go all by herself, and the hand sanitzer didn't squirt downwards but right into her eye. I asked her if she wanted to sit out but she wanted me to carry her in the corn maze. I told her the tears would help the eyes feel better. I carried her crying through the maze. Sad to say I lost patience with her because Collin kept running away so I couldn't find him and I wasn't able to carry her the whole time so sometimes she refused to walk and would just cry. It was a really long maze for that reason. I felt extremely bad for all of the kids because of my poor attitude. It wasn't the kids who were upseting me so much as it was the fact that there were parents everywhere who knew what was going on and no one offered to help. Instead they would loudly tell their kids about how some kids push in mazes and they shouldn't (when Collin would push by), or remind their kids that parents should keep their kids with them at all time in the maze, etc. I was very disappointed and extremely embarrassed. When we got out of the maze Rita was waiting for Cassie. (Cassie was better by later that afternoon.) My kids were excited to play with the bean bag toss, and the kiddie corn maze. They loved picking out mini pumpkins to take home.

The kids all ready to go (It was cold outside when we first left but it warmed up.)

The kids at the beginning of the corn maze

Collin running through the kids maze

Emily and Collin with their pumpkins

Halloween 2011

I haven't had much time for our family blog lately so I am going to try and do some catch up. I am not sure anyone reads this anymore but for the sake of family memories we are going to fill in some blanks. Emily and Collin were superheroes this year. They were able to wear their costumes to library time the Wednesday before Halloween. Emily wore her costume to dance class and school the Thursday before Halloween. I was able to have a coworker switch after school homework lab with me so that I could be home to take the kids to our ward's trunk or treat. I got home with enough time to get the kids into their costumes, dump the candy in a big bowl and head to the church. We got there 10 minutes early and it was packed! Landon had to take our car into the shop so he got there 20 minutes later. Rita's neighbor was nice enough to pass out our candy for us so I could go with his wife, their kids and my kids. Their son, Jake, is 5 years old and he and Collin call each other best friends. It was great because he helped keep an eye on Collin for me because he kept wandering off. There were so many cars that it took about half an hour to weave our way through all the vehicles. The kids saw lots of their friends and people in our ward. Collin had to empty his small bag into Emily's because it was full. By the end I was carrying Emily's because it was so full. Our friend's the Stein's invited us to pizza at their house and then trick or treating around their neighborhood. Before we ran up there my friend Lorilee and I went to old town to take the kids trick or treating. They had just ended so we went to a few homes in the ward instead. The kids were so excited to see Kestrel. They had a "moster in the bush" that the kids thought was fabulous. We left Lorilee to trick or treat with our friend's the Moores and headed up to Steins. It was a lot of fun to visit with them. Not many people go around their neighborhood so the kids made out with a HAUL! I could not believe it. Emily and Collin were most excited about the microwave popcorn, juice box, and pencil they got. :) It was a great day! Enjoy a few pictures.

On our way to the Trunk or Treat