The Kiddies

So here are some random pictures of the kids... ENJOY!

Oliver hiding under my sexy housecoat!!!

Eden sitting with Jaren. He wore this outfit to church on Christmas Eve at my Grandparent's church service. His hat stayed pointed like that! Too cute!

Oliver feeding Jaren some sweet potatoes.
Jaren had fallen asleep in his high chair.
Eden... looks like a ballet dancer... the house... looks like a bomb exploded!

Jare Jare in a "Sink Bath".
Eden and McKenzie doing some yoga for kids.

Ollie and Jaren

I LOVE THIS VIDEO!

Church News

There's been lots of new happenings with regards to church last month...

January 1 - "Experiment upon the Word" -Our new theme for church this year is a Book of Mormon reading program called, "Experiment upon the Word". We read a chapter each night with our family before we go to bed for the night. We pray beforehand, read and then have family pray before we go to bed. The kids seem to really enjoy it and it has really helped Oliver with his reading skills!

January 15th - Parenting Class - Ed and I started attending a parenting class taught by a representative from LDS family services. There are four other couples that are in the class as well. I'm optimistic about learning things that will help me raise my children and teach them gospel principles as well. I definitely need more help in teaching my children to be responsible and obedient. We are looking forward to having more classes. The last two classes have been postponed due to snowy and icy weather.

On January 27th, our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away at the age of 97. We were all sad to hear the news, but realized what a wonderful reunion he must have had with his sweet wife, Marjorie on that day! Our new prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. It will be interesting having a new prophet due to the fact that President Hinckley was the ONLY prophet that I've ever known. He was prophet from 1995 - 2008 and I was baptized in 1997. He gave some of the most wonderful talks and I just loved his sense of humor. He will be missed, but will remain in our memories.

Cookie Cutters Kill... or Severely Hurt People...

Alright... I couldn't help but blog about this. Just don't ask Eden about it... she might develop a complex.
So... about a week ago Eden took a bath. Ollie took a bath. They were both in their towels in the living room. Somehow Eden fell (or was pushed...) into Jaren's baby swing. *I had some papers to sort and a renegade cookie cutter to put back with the rest of its kind UNDER the swing.* SOOOOO... she falls into the swing, NAKED mind you, and lands on the pile that is underneath the swing. Yeeeeeaaaah... landing on the metal cookie cutter! "Owwwww... MY BUTT, MY BUTT, MY BUTT!!!!!" I didn't know what the crap she had fallen on, so I helped her up and realized that a metal cookie cutter had pretty much attacked her... leaving a bloody outline of a gingerbread girl on her buttcheek! We laid her on the towel and poured hydrogen peroxide on the gingerbread girl that was etched on her possibly forever and bandaged her up! It was only half of a cutout since it landed halfway on her cracky! I couldn't help but laugh! I think it may have mistaken her booty for some cookie dough!!! I really hope it doesn't scar or she'll have some fun stories for her doctors in the future!!! It also left quite the bruise! NOT HAPPINESS for Eden!

Sorry... no pictures to show! :) You'll just have to use that trusty ol' imagination of yours!!!

Primary Talent Show

Last week we had a Primary Talent show at church for all of the kids ages 3 - 12. All of the kids did such a great job! Eden said that she was too shy to perform so we just brought some cookies and Oliver originally signed up to perform some magic tricks. Well... after realizing that he really didn't know any magic tricks, he decided to perform Capoeira. I was nervous because he's really never performed in front of a group of people, but he really wanted to do it. His Uncle Bryan got some capoeira pants while on a trip to Brazil and so I hemmed them so he could wear them to perform in. I also found some Roda music online and downloaded that onto a CD for him. We brought our carpet from home and he was all set. Surprisingly, he did really well! I thought that he might have gotten stagefright, but he did GREAT! I was so proud of his first performance.

***Garran, a friend of ours who served his mission in Brazil, has been teaching Oliver moves since he was two years old. He always does it in the living room and watches the masters online. He just LOVES it!

Baptism

January 19th - Mandy's Baptism


After much preparation, many discussions and personal pondering, a wonderful friend of mine has entered the waters of baptism. What a wonderful decision she has made! I'm glad I could have been a part of the journey for you, Mandy!


*For some reason I can't get the photos to come up.

Soup, Sandwiches, Scrappin' and a little Rockin'!

January 18th - Girl's Night Out

Tonight we were invited to dinner and a scrapbook night at Meghan Horan's home. She had gotten a panini maker for Christmas and tonight was the virgin run! She also made some homemade soup for us as well! We ate and chatted for a while and then cleared the way for some scrappin'! I really wasn't in the zone tonight, so I helped Meg make some cards for her sister. We were all so goofy, it felt like I was in Jr. High again! I can't remember the last time I've laughed sooooo hard... it was such a fun night!

After we scrapped for a while, Meghan showed us how to play 'Rock Band' complete with guitar, drums and microphone! I had already played 'Guitar Hero' the last time I was there and I loved it! I wanted Meg and Krista to be able to play and see how fun it was! We all rocked out for a bit before they had to leave. I even stayed 2 hours after the other gals left! I did pretty well on the drums I must say! We had such a fun time! Thanks Meg! (Meg and I have been friends since second grade! It is a blessing to still have her as a wonderful friend!)

Me in all my glory with my sweet rockin' guitar.

Here is video of us playing 'Rock Band'. Meg G. had said that I looked so serious so then I threw in some pelvic thrusting and head bobs, ya know... just to jazz it up a bit. Yeeeeeaaah... didn't know the camera was rollin'... ENJOY... at my expense!!!

"Girl Rockin' Club"

Mandisa's Challenge

Okay... some of us were out to dinner one night and we were talking about our pregnancies and labors. Then we talked about how crappy we looked in our post labor pictures. I was thinking, "I'm sure I have the most horrific looking one...". But... I'll leave that up to you all!

***BABY NUMBER ONE***

Pregnant with Baby #1 - Unknown Sex. I think I was about 8 months pregnant here.

Looking like the 'Stay Puff Marshmallow Man'! I am soooo swollen! I pushed and pushed soooo long with him... my lips were tingling and I felt like I was going to pass out! Come to find out... he was stuck on my pelvic bone. I almost had to have an emergency C-Section, but they used the forcepts instead... NOT HAPPINESS!

My first baby, Oliver Young Palmer. He was 5 days late, but came on his own. My labor was 13 hours with Oliver. He was 21 inches long and 6 lbs 8 oz.

***BABY NUMBER TWO***

Pregnant with Baby #2 - Girl. I felt sooooo huge with this one!

This is my favorite post labor picture with one of my babies. Just Eden and I. I was in labor for 4 hours. She shot out like a cannonball in four pushes!

My second baby - Eden Lucia Palmer. She was 7 days late and I had to be induced with her. She was 21 inches long and 9 lbs 3 oz.

***BABY NUMBER THREE***

Barefoot and pregnant with baby #3 - Unknown Sex. Again... I felt huge, but I was 9 months prego!

This was my post labor picture and the first time I got to hold Jaren... I think it was like 6 hours later. He had a rough start to life and was in the NICU for the first week of his life with pneumonia.

My third baby - Jaren Freeman Palmer. He was induced one day before my due date. I wanted him to have a different birthday than his Daddy's! I was in labor with Jaren for 7 hours. He was the most difficult pregnancy, but the easiest labor and delivery. I didn't have any stitches and I healed really quickly. He was 21 inches long and 8 lbs 5 oz.

Snow Day Fun!

January 17th - First of all..."Happy Birthday, Bry!" I hope you did something fun! (You are the same age as Jaren is in this photo of you... 7 months old!)

Today the kids had a snow day! Snow days are hard because I have to think of stuff for them to do other than popping in DVD's all day! (I'm not saying that I NEVER do that... moms need a break sometimes!) Anyways... they each wanted a temporary tattoo to stick on themselves. So... one tattoo turns into another and another. I finally stopped them at three a piece because Eden's last one ended up in the middle of her forehead!!!

I looked out the window and saw four squirrels hanging out on the bare tree limbs in our front yard. I motioned for the kids to come over and keep their hands off the windows as to not scare them away. I dug through Ollie's toybox and found two pairs of binoculars, one for Ollie and of course one for Eden. They had a blast watching the squirrels chasing each other from tree limb to tree limb and down the tree... across the street... up the neighbor's tree... (you get the picture)! I think that one of them was pregnant because of its girth! Let me tell ya... she could keep up with the quickest of them all! After they all ran away, Ollie says, "Mom, I want to be a squirrel when I grow up! That one had a mohawk!" Crazy kids!

Oliver/Mom/Dad

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Eden/Mom/Dad

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Antique photographs

Jaren/Mom/Dad

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Ancestors

"Night at the Roxbury"

He is so much fun at this age... well... when he's not fussy from being sick or teething! He does some of the funniest things that I just don't remember the other kids doing!

"Is This Heaven? No... It's Burek."

Before Burek...

After Burek...

So... my mom introduced me to Burek, a yummy wrapped sausage swirl, a while ago. She got it at a local Bosnian bakery here in town. I introduced it to Meghan (who LOVED it) and now it was Mandy's turn. I said, okay... it may not sound good, but trust me... it's delish! So I waited in anticipation for the thumbs up or thumbs down response! YES... another enthusiastic thumbs up! It is sooooo good. I am seriously addicted. I could eat Burek everyday! I could eat it in the hay... or while my kids play by the bay in the day... or at night... I WILL fight... for my Burek! Seriously folks... it's yumtastic! Three bucks for a little slice... or swirl... of heaven!

HuHot? YOU Hot!!!

Last Tuesday, we went to HuHot Mongolian Grill for dinner with the Williams'. It was a celebration of her decision to be baptized!

It was really good I must say! We grabbed a bowl and started on our food journey. The first food bar contained several trays of frozen meat; chicken, beef, pork, sausage, several types of fish. The second food bar contained three types of noodles; Pad Thai, Chinese noodles and one other kind that looked alot like Ramen Noodles! On to the fruit and veggie bar where there were sooooo many choices to choose from. The last bar was FULL of different sauces that varied from mild to very spicy. After we filled the bowls, we went toward the grill area and put our bowls on the ledge. The "Grill Warriors"... Yes... "Grill Warriors" (a bunch of white guys) grabbed the bowls and threw them on the circular slab to sizzle for a bit. I tried two different dishes and of course... some crab rangoon! Ed had one dish that tasted EXACTLY like my Grandma's homemade Lemon Meringue Pie!!! Everyone but Ed agreed with me!

Here's Ed posing by the front door!

Ed and me waiting for our food.

The "Grill Warriors" cooking our fabulous hand picked cuisine!

Mike feeding Mandy! You can tell by the look on Mike's face that he has a toddler at home!!!

I realized that I am a very sloooooooowww eater when I use chopsticks! Maybe I'll use some at home when I eat! It was a really fun night out!

"Oh Happy Day!!!"

I was recently surprised at church when one of my closest friends said that she decided she wanted to be baptized a member of the church!!! We've been friends since the summer of 2004 when I met her while out with the Sister missionaries, Sister Escalante and Sister Keliiheleua. I just knew we'd be good friends after the first time we met! We both had a similar sense of humor... which is hard to come by!

She's been looking into the church for sometime now. Her husband was born into an LDS family and after their first son, Isaac was born, they'd been looking into religion a bit more. They are such a WONDERFUL family and I know that along with the struggles of life, they will be so blessed for all of their efforts! They will become closer as a family and closer to Heavenly Father! I'm just so excited for them! I've been trying to assist her with planning her baptism so that she has a wonderful for her as well as her family! I'm sure it will be a "FANTASTIC" day! :)