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! :)

"That's Why He's Called... HEAD BANGER!!!"

Okay... this is probably one of the CUTEST pictures that I have of this kid!








"BIG BOY!"







Oliver and Jaren. Look at those sweet smiles... and dimples!!!

Too cute!






Mike and Mandy Williams came over to play some games and chat. Mike LOVES Scrabble and so he brought his game with him. He, of course, won! After the games we sat in the living room and chatted for a while. Mandy was holding Jaren and all of the sudden he started banging his face into Mandy's shoulder several times and then would stop and lay his head on her shoulder! It was soooo stinkin' funny!



Now you all know why Mandy is laughing! This went on for like 15 minutes! It was sooooo hilarious!
The rather large wet marks are from his headbanging episode!!!

Wiggle Worm

As Jaren grows bigger, he grows more wiggly.
Here he is sitting and smiling while in his little chair...

Here he is wiggling his way down the chair...

And finally, in a heap UNDER the chair!

My Apologies...

Okay... so for Christmas I made a "Christmas Favorites" music player for my blog to get you all in the Christmas spirit. So... as I recently found out... I unknowingly downloaded like a XXX rendition of the beloved song "Jingle Bells". SO... if any of you were shocked to hear what I heard coming from my blog... I DO APOLOGIZE!!!