I LOVE Christmas

Christmas has always been my favourite season. But having a daughter who is old enough to get the whole gift giving thing makes it even better. Christmas Eve and Day were filled with lots of fun, family and laughter. We are both blessed with fabulous family. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and a few friends from church. Every year my family (since I was about 6) has done the 12 days of Christmas for a family in need. I forgot about it this year with all the craziness of work. My sister in law came up with a great variation that made this season fantastic. We did the 12 days of Christmas to the missionaries here in Powell River. We took turns with supplying member referrals to the missionaries. On the fifth day my mom gave 5 names! It was really nice to sit as a couple and come up with names for the missionaries. We realized how many people we knew who would enjoy a positive Christmas message. It has been a wonderful experience for us. On Christmas Eve the missionaries let us know that it has been a great experience for them as well. Especially Elder Dayton who only arrived in PR last week. Sadly Elder LeBaron left us right before Christmas. He was called to be a zone leader in Abbotsford. We will miss him. Elder Dayton is a great missionary as well. And of course Elder Mori we love. (From Japan) He makes us laugh. He does pop and lock moves to make Collin grin. We opened gifts at our house Christmas morning and then headed to my parents for more gifts and family fun. We played Band Hero, taking turns singing. So much fun! Here are some of my favourite pictures. (There were so many I ended up putting them in a slideshow....)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Merry Christmas

We wish all our friends and family wonderful blessings this Christmas season. We love you! May the spirit of love invade your home and that we may all remember the reason for this season.
Love The Palmers

Collin's First time swimming

Last night we went swimming at the pool with my parents, Steve, Matt, Ashley, Ethan and Sariah. When I told Emily we were swimming she said, "Thanks Mom I love swim." When I told her that we were meeting Ethan there she said, "I love swim E." So cute. This was Collin's first time swimming at the pool. He wasn't a fan of water during the summer. Actually he has only started liking baths since he can sit up. He LOVED the pool. He got frustrated because he wanted to swim without anyone. He crawled in a few shallow places and he loved that. Only problem was when he would try to go deeper. A few times his face went under the water, he came up spluttering and then giggling. He tried to crawl up the stairs out of the kids pool. Eventually he did by pulling himself to standing and then swiveling until his bum was on the next step. He was so proud. He even got back in the pool by himself! Landon helped Collin "slide" down the slide into the pool. He giggled and reached for it again. Emily has suddenly become aware of deep water and does not want to go anywhere by herself. She has finally become cautious. We used to have to watch her because she would try to go down the slide by herself. Now she won't go down it unless Landon is holding onto her and helps her. Both Collin and Emily were sad when it was time to leave. That is until Grandpa asked if we all wanted to go for ice cream at DQ...

They both slept well last night. I love the pool!

What makes your day?

What makes your day? I find it is just simple things that usually involve my kids.

This morning it was Emily asking for a snack. She wanted a fruit roll up. She patiently waited unti I grabbed the box and then she said, "Yeah, you got it!" - followed by a fist pump. Hilarious!

Congratulations Haylee!

I get to be an Aunt again. This time to twins! Congrats Kenton, Haylee, Zack and Kenlee! Love you guys!

Gift for Matt and Ashley

I picked out my brother and his wife's names for Christmas this year. I didn't know what to do until I saw a tutorial for silhouettes, here. So this is what I came up with. I love them and am excited to do them for my family.

Christmas Present for myself

We bought a storage ottoman when we moved into our house last November. I'd always wanted one and I loved the one we got. However Emily is very hard on furniture and the only one in town we could find was from Walmart. Do you see where I am going? Within a few weeks of Emily climbing onto it, one of the seams had split. I tried taking ribbon and gluing it down over the seams. Didn't look good and Emily found it was fun to pull off and pull out the stuffing from the ottoman. A few weekends ago I went to Nanaimo to shop with a friend. I was picking up material for my brother and sister in laws Christmas present and I spotted it. The perfect material. See the ottoman is black, as is our tv but most of what I own is brown with burgandy trim. This material brought in all the colours. So last night instead of finishing up presents I decided to re finish the top of the ottoman. I LOVE it! So does Landon. Emily was so cute while I was doing it. She said, "I help you?" She sat on my lap while I sewed. She even took pictures as I was cutting and putting the tacks in. Enjoy the pictures.

Before


Picture Emily took of me cutting out material


Picture Emily took of me putting in the tacks, etc


Finished Product


My beautiful Model


Silly Emily

The Human Flute

On Sunday our gorgeous friend Jordan played her flute in sacrament meeting. She was accompanying my father and Rosie Fleury. She did a wonderful job. Today Emily picks up brooms, drumsticks, etc and holds them like a flute. Then she oohs a song. She even sounds like a flute. I will try and get a picture of it. It makes me laugh every time.

Lucky me!

Have I said how much I love my family, lately? Well I LOVE them. All day today the kids have bringing a smile to my face and Landon has been doing all sorts of little things to make my day. I am one LUCKY woman! Here a couple of pictures from yesterday. I tried to get a nice photo of all four of us and Emily refused to cooperate. So here is a nice one of three of us and a nice one of my kids together. (Well a really nice one of Collin and it would have been nice if Emily would stop watching Treehouse for ONE second to look at me ...)

My Little Crawler

Enjoy the video!