He's Here

This was taken right after he ate for the first time and so his face got a little wrinkled, hence the red wrinkle marks. So content!

Daddy with his son

Right after he came out

We are excited to announce that Daniel Paul Palmer arrived at 6:20pm this evening weighing in at 9# 2 oz, 21 inches long. He is absolutely perfect! He nurses very well and has the most yummy face ever. He has as of right now blond reddish hair and looks like a Palmer for sure. I look forward to sharing his wonderful birth story soon. My twin sister and Mother-in-law were both able to be present which was a first for both of them. It was such a joy to be surrounded by those who love me.

Michigan! Oh How I Will Miss Thee!

My husband has been offered a job in Arizona and we feel that this is the next chapter in our families life. Even though we know it is the right thing it doesn't mean I am not overwhelmed with sad emotion right now. I love Michigan so much. I grew up here, moved away, came back, moved away, came back again and now we are leaving again.


I am terrible at good-byes. T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E! Each move gets harder and harder as the girls get older. It is especially hard for me to leave the school our girls have attended since we moved back 2 1/2 years ago. How do you thank people who have laid such a positive foundation in your children's learning. I fall short of word to express my gratitude to them. On the bright side, I will always know our girls will have very fond memories of their time and learning there.


My husbands been the Bishop of our congregation the last year in a half. This calling has brought many blessing into our families life. Often times when he has been gone for many nights a week I have literally felt the prayers of the members of our congregation give me the strength to do what I get to do. How do you thank people for that. It has been such a blessing for our family. I am grateful for the experiences we have had while living here again.


Our home. Ah our home. I often joke I have a love/hate relationship with it. We bought our home 8(+) years ago. 2 week before Emma our oldest was born. We have been through a lot together. When we lived in Nebraska for almost 2 1/2 years, we rented our home out. We left with 2 kids and came back with 4. The home is only 1875 square feet and it is a cape cod bungalow style. No basement. Not too big. I have had to use my creative juices majorly in this home to make it be functional. One of the things Emma expressed on what she loved about our home and what she will miss is how cozy our home is. Cozy is a great word to describe the home. In the winter it seems a bit more cozy than I would like, because we are not able to get outside as often.


Once warmer weather rolls around(as in, I don't have to put on several layers of jackets and snow pants, mittens, scarfs,hats etc.) I start shoving kids outside and making them play out in our nice big back yard. Oh how I love our backyard. Equipped with 2 tire swings and a ladder you can climb up to swing down from with the rope swing. My husband has over at his blog a little clip of the girls doing mud swinging. Beautiful mature maple trees. our strawberry patch I planted 6 years ago. Wild blackberry bushes. At least in Arizona I will not need to bundle children up in snow gear to play outside. That is a huge undertaking, let me tell you.


So many memories. As hard as it will be to say good-bye to Michigan again, I know that Arizona is where we need to be next. So we will pack up everything and "Go and DO!" and enjoy this journey and make new memories and grow in love as we serve those who I get to know in Arizona. So here's to a fun new adventure, hormones and all!


By the way I am due in November. What are we thinking!!!!!!!! You don't have to tell me we are crazy, I already know it, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Time Fly's When You Are Having Fun!

Happy 11th Wedding Anniversary and Happy Birthday to our little family!

Time really does fly when you are having fun.

Family Night Activity

A couple Mondays ago Lucy was in charge of our Family Home Evening (FHE) activity. She chose to go swimming. We have some friends in our congregation from church that practically beg us to come and swim because they want their pool to get used. We don't mind because the girls LOVE to swim.






I am not sure how these girls became so fearless, but I went down this particular slide once and it was my last time. It is too steep of a drop for my liking. And a bit to narrow for my voluptuous hips.

This slide reminds me of a much larger slide I went down nearly 15 years ago at Seven Peaks
in Utah. Our family was on the last week of our 3 week cross country camping vacation and some friends of my parents, who lived in Utah, suggested this particular water park.


Driving up I was filled with great anticipation. I enjoyed swimming and water slides. Little did I know how these water slides would impact my feelings of them for the rest of my life.

If you click on the Seven peaks link right up there, it will take you to the tour of the park. You can view the different water slides available. I can't remember if it was the straight down blue one (sky Breaker) or the yellow one (jagged edge) but this is how the story went.

My twin sister, and little brother headed up the more than 6 story high stair way to the very top. Those slides didn't look to steep from ground level looking up. It looked like FUN! So up we went.

Once up there, we may have realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go on the BIG slides. We tried getting our little brother to go down first , but he was pretty panicky. My sister and I were pretty scared ourselves. Somehow I was the one who ended up going first.

Instructions from the water slide attendant : Cross your arms and lay them over your chest. NO MATTER WHAT, KEEP YOUR LEGS CROSSED TOGETHER! And stay flat on your back.

Okaaaayy?!!?

My heart was pounding so hard. I crossed my arms, tightly crossed my legs, scooted to the edged of the slide to start dropping, and the next thing I knew the force of gravity had ripped my legs apart making me vulnerable to what naturally will happen to anyone who does not successfully KEEP THEIR LEGS CROSSED NO MATTER WHAT!

I get down to the bottom of the slide in the 4.5 seconds it says it takes to get to the bottom, only to find that my bathing suit has been wedged so tightly in between my cheeks that it causes a burning sensation. I get up only to find that my bowels had been filled with, not mercy, but high velocity water.

My sister had gone right after me and we both realized that we needed to quickly get to the bathroom. So we waddled to the nearby bathroom to spend the next several minutes getting rid of the unnaturally given enemas.


We both laughed hysterically through our pain. My brother got off the ride jumping up and down saying "ow, ow, ow, ow!"


Needless to say we stayed on the much smaller less dramatic dropping water slides for the rest of the day.

So even though our friends water slide was not over 6 stories high, more like 7 feet, steep is steep to me. I am not one for the free fall feeling. But if you are the "thrill seeker" type or if you want to clean out your system, then I recommend you try out the Seven peaks water park.

No particular subject

i keep on getting lots of great ideas to write about and i think in that moment "oh this will be a great topic to write about, I most definitely will not forget about it!"


and every single time i forget. what is worse is i have not corrected this problem i just continue to think i will remember, and then i forget. whatever.


as excited as our home is to welcome a new person to the fun, i wanted to document some of the true feelings i have had about adding a different gender to the group.


i was completely terrified. was being the key word in that sentence. for some reason going out to utah and being around all of our family helped me switch my thinking. i now find myself thinking about our little boy and anticipating his arrival.


speaking of arrivals. Monday on labor day, yeah i just about went into labor several time. our home was built in 1940. it is old. anyway, you know the girls and i were pretty much gone for the whole month of august. jared was gone at work and then to various church meetings and so forth so he was not at home often as well. this is the only explanation i can think of for what i found monday afternoon when i was ready to load in my last load of laundry into the washer.


there was a little mouse that scurried about. i screamed a scream that made me feel like the baby was going to shoot out of me. i do not do well with scurrying things. not one bit. i paused for moment to make sure the little thing was not going to jump on me. it moved again and i screamed again as i leapt to leave the laundry room.


i then yelled from the back door to jared, who was dutifully obeying his wife who had told him to finish his shed project, to stop what he was doing and to come quickly. he ran and came to save the day.


i told him the new top priority was to kill the mouse and to make sure that any further invasions of a mouse would ensure that upon entering our dwelling they would suffer a slow death from poisoning. i will spare you the details of how he handled the situation, but i will say that he was successful.


i was so worked up about the whole thing. i just don't like surprises like that. my body certainly didn't either.


the second time i almost went into labor happened later on in the day when i was going through the girls clothes to prepare for this cooler weather. i was moving some things and this BIG spider comes out of nowhere. I nearly popped the baby out again. especially when i went to kill the filthy thing.


i may or may not have cried several time on monday because my body was so stressed out from all of the surprises. unwelcome ones might i add.


anyway...... the girls started school tuesday. girls as in emma and sera. they were sooo excited! lucy and kady are doing mommy school. we did this last year and had a great time. eliza is on the verge of walking, but has been for the last 3 months. we shall see when she crosses over from babyhood to toddlerhood.


here is a random question. are there others out there besides me who does not measure the amount of water when you cook your pasta? i thought this randomness sunday evening as i was preparing some egg noodles to accompany out delicious dinner. i thought about if there was anyone out there who actually measures 4 quarts of water to boil their pasta in. if so i have nothing against you i am just curious if people really do this.


Sera was in charge of closing prayer for our family night on Monday. As she prayed she somehow included how she was thankful to God for GPS's. mind you, we have never had one and do not recall ever talking about them. but i am sure for many out there GPS's is something you are thankful to God for.

Good-bye Why-homen-ing

So on our way out to Utah I was safely able to capture the girls excitement as we left the great state of Wyoming. I especially love how Kady said Wyoming. Enjoy!

We survived

The girls and I drove from Michigan to Utah last week. Really they were the BEST! Our drive was uneventful. My make shift porta potty was my saving grace. We left last Tuesday and got to Utah on Thursday. This is the second time I have gotten on the computer since last Monday so I am not planning on being on here for the next month very much. Just wanted to let those who knew we were making the trek, that we had made it and survived with smiles on our faces. We won't be home until the end of the very end of the month. We are soaking up being with our family that is out here, and excited to celebrate with my youngest sister and her fiances marriage later this month. Yeah for joyous times!

The wearing of clothes

I find it completely interesting how each one of our daughters wears out clothing differently.

When Emma was younger she had a thing with chewing holes in her sleeves or at the base of the neck/collar. She wears out the knees of pants rather quickly, so I am always grateful when warmer weather comes and out goes the pants and in come the shorts or skirts. When she puts her clothes away she sorta puts them together but it is not important for her to have a structured organized drawer. She is not so much of a get dirt or food on her clothes, she just wears the life out of them.

Sera is a very clean child. Her clothing rarely has stains on them. She doesn't chew on her clothing, probably because she has never had enough teeth in her mouth at the same time to be able to do so. But even if she did I could not see her doing that. When she puts her clothing away she makes sure they are folded properly and organizes her drawers. I love that I can easily pass her clothes onto Lucy.

Now Lucy on the other hand. Well she uses her shirt lately for a napkin all. the. time. I ask her constantly to not use her shirt to wipe her nosehandsface. It is a yucky habit that ensures that Kadys clothing when she is Lucy's age will not look as nice as they did when they were passed down from Emma and Sera to Lucy. Lucy is a very active child too, so she doesn't mind getting in the garden and pulling weeds or digging in the dirt so she gets some good wear out of them.

Kady. Poor Kady. Most of her clothes have gone through 3 other people so I am not sure how she wears out her clothing. She seems to be more like Sera though.

And Eliza well again most of her clothing has been worn by Emma, Sera, Lucy and Kady so you get what you pay for.

For the most part though I have been able to salvage even the "damaged" goods and repair them to be able to last as long as they can. Because I am a cheapy when it comes to clothes for kids. Especially younger ones. Stains do not bother me. Well some do, like the skid marks I find. Luckily our washing machine is amazing and handles getting stains out fairly well

Sera first day of Kindergarten 2008

Kady July 2010

Lucy summer 2007

Eliza June 2010
You can tell the writing is
fading a bit. It is only 7 years old.

The why child!

This is how I feel at the end of the day

Mostly because I feel like a lot of my time and energy goes to this child.
And it is not always good time or energy that I give her.

I know all the text book "experts" say to just ignore your children when they push buttons, but I just have not figured out how to ignore button pushing. Sera seems to have a great talent in button pushing. I guess a more positive way to put it is she is persistent. I told her that one day her persistence would pay off, but when I say NO it means NO.

She wants to negotiate everything. Under normal circumstances I am just fine with a good negotiation, but not lately. Tonight for instance:

Earlier in the day I had purchased some cheap MP3 players ($20 dollar ones from Staples) for our upcoming trip out west. I had told the girls that while tucking in that if they wanted to be able to have said MP3 players they needed to stay in bed and go straight to sleep. If they got out of bed and talked they would lose being able to have an MP3 player and I would return it. They would not have an opportunity to earn it back. (Harsh, but I was desperate to finally get them to bed at a reasonable hour so I felt like I had to take dramatic measures.)

Emma's response "Okay Mom I will go straight to sleep because I want the MP3 player!"

Sera's response "Well how will you know if I don't go to sleep?"

After some explaining for Sera I felt assured from both Sera and Emma that they were going to make the choice to go straight to bed, and that they understood the consequences(good and bad) I finished tucking them in, I came downstairs to take a breath and within 2 minutes I hear pitter pattering from above. I felt my blood start to boil. Mostly because I wanted them to have fun with these new little music gadgets.

So I stomp upstairs like a big fat angry bear and swing open the door to find Sera over at Emma's bed and her eyes bulging out of her head as if to say "How did she know?"

Emma tries to explain but I quickly cut her off and in a very loud tone express my disappointment in the situation. I am not sure if Sera's feet ever touched the ground as she got back to her bed in record time. The explanations start coming. Sera supposedly "had a scary dream"

Me:"Tell me how you can have a scary dream within 2 minutes?"

Sera:" Can I earn back the MP3 player?"

Me: "Um, NO!"

Sera: "Why?"

Me: "Are you kidding? What did you hear me say?"

Sera: "Can I earn it back Mom please? I really want the MP3 player!"

Me: "WHAT DID YOU HEAR ME SAY!"

Sera: "We can't earn it back" pathetically crying at this point "But I had a scary dream!"

Me: "Sera you knew what the consequences were for staying in your bed and going straight to sleep, and you knew what the consequence was going to be if you chose not to do that, you made your choice already, I am done with this conversation, I strongly suggest that you close those eyes of yours and go to sleep!" My tone was extremely unpleasant, and I am sure my eyes were bulging out a bit.

I left the room feeling completely frustrated. WHY? Why did she make such a stupid choice? Did she really want to see if I would know if she didn't go straight to sleep. I wanted her to have that stupid MP3 player. Some people learn from others mistakes and then there are others who learn from making their own mistakes.

I come downstairs and a few minutes later I hear sup sups coming from the stairs. "Oh please, are you kidding me?" I tell myself. She really is a glutton for punishment.


She turns the corner prepared with a speech that you would have thought she had been preparing for the last week. After several minutes of debate she comes up with an idea. She asks if she can buy her own MP3 player.

I told her she was more that welcome to buy her own MP3 player. She then asked what she could do around the home to earn enough money to buy one. I told her that I would talk with her Dad and we would let her know. She then starts to give me ideas of her own, like if she scrubbed the bathroom floor. I then said "What did you hear me say?"

Her response "That you and Dad would talk about it. But why can't you discuss it with me?"
I told her because she was not my husband and that this was something her Dad and I get to discuss together before we talked with her.

She seemed satisfied. I then told her again that it would be in her best interest if she went back upstairs and go straight to bed.

After Jared got home later this evening, I was able to discuss with him what went on and how overwhelming this behavior is for me. She is a very quick thinker, and she wants to know all the details of everything. The why's of the details.

It was nice to be able to get Jared's feedback and how we can better help encourage her to take responsibility for the choices she make. We also talked about how important it will be for us to reassure her that we will love her unconditionally whatever choice she makes. And that it will be especially important to explain "stuff",however exhausting it may be, for her so she can have that information. That is what seems to be important to her. Knowing details.

So as exhausting as this child may be for me it is worth it. And even though at the end of some days I may feel like Goldie Hawn on the movie overboard(the part where she is saying blub, blub, blub over and over), because of Sera, I know that she is the one who is teaching me to endure to the end and I am slowly but surely learning to endure cheerfully!

We are having a....................

A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the baby giving his thumbs up!

HIS HEART WAS STRONG AND HEALTHY AND EVERYTHING IS GROWING GREAT! WE ARE SO VERY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fancy Haircuts

I cut the girls hair this week. Do you know how long it takes to cut 4 little girls hair? It started out on Monday night, and I finally finished Wednesday night. It takes this long because I am not a professional and it is no easy task to make little people keep their heads still or in the right place.

Tuesday I fixed Emma's cut from Monday night, to look more like Sera's. On Wednesday afternoon I had cut Lucy and Kady's hair shorter from Monday nights cut because they wanted it shorter. The are all so pleased with their new hair cuts. Here are some pictures to give you a rough idea. Really the pictures to me are not the best at showcasing how cute it looks, at least to me.

Emma's sorta front view and side view.

Sera's back view and side/front view

This was the only picture I could get of Kady that was not blurred

Miss adorable Lucy in her favorite place, the tree ready to
swing from the rope.

Poor Jared will come home to a home full of strangers. He has been gone all week for work. We sure have missed him A LOT! At one point yesterday late afternoon I thought about his hugs and re-assuring comments and I lost it. I cried like a big baby in my room. I didn't want to scare the girls. Luckily no one came trying to find me to do something for them. I just needed a few minutes to myself to re-group. I am looking forward to him coming home soon!

Here are some first attempts at trying to get jumping pictures.
It will be even more fun when Eliza is able to stand and jump so
she can enjoy the fun too!

Parenting 101

When I was in High School I took a Japanese class. I loved the class, but I was not good at the whole figuring out a new language thing. I was failing the class. Bummer. But it turned out to be for the best because I transferred out of the Japanese class into a Childhood Development class.


Since I knew I wanted to be a Mother someday I figured this would (a) fulfill the requirement of whatever credit hours I needed to be able to graduate and (b) hopefully teach me some useful information about how to be a great Mother.


Our teacher had been teaching for a couple decades and was very captivating and knew how to engage a room full of teenagers. As students we got to have the opportunity to learn about childhood development and how to manage a childcare facility. But I found the information to be very applicable to being a stay at home Mom as well.


Our teacher taught that when it came to children, that as the authority figure, we always needed to be firm, fair and consistent with them. She drilled this into us and not only said the words but, at least for me, taught how to do this. We would role play situations where we would need to implement how to be firm, fair and consistent. She would give us a scenario on paper and we would have to write out a resolve for the scenario.


Because I had been an avid babysitter in my youth I got to practice on a regular basis this concept. So when it came time for me to become a Mother myself I felt somewhat prepared for the task of knowing how to raise that little bundle of joy. What I wasn't prepared for was the tiring effects of having to be consistently consistent with being firm, fair and consistent.


There were, and are days where thoughts run through my mind of just giving in, but then the words of that teacher echo loud and clear and I stand firm. She explained the importance of teaching children boundaries. She taught the wonderful powerful effects of "obeying" this concept will have on the children you are responsible for.


It is not always easy to be firm , fair and consistent. But the dividends far outweigh the internal constipation you may experience from time to time as you look at the small picture. Because for the most part, being firm, fair and consistent initially does not make you the "nice guy", and may result in some conflict between a child and yourself.


I have every confidence that one day these beautiful little people will one day have little people themselves and they will thank me for always being firm, fair and consistent with them as they grew up.

Potty Training Progress

Kady had a difficult time figuring out how to put some underpants on. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this one.

Monday will mark 2 weeks of potty training for Kady. She has done brilliantly! It helps that she is fiercely independent.
I have to say that Sarah over at Clover Lane is a genius! Her thoughts on potty training, perfect!


The first couple of days were funny to me, because Kady absolutely hated peeing on herself or having a poopy accident. Because of the advice Sarah gave I knew this was a great sign and knew that it would be sooner rather than later that Kady would figure out the timing of it all. It was up until a couple days ago that she finally got the timing down for the pooping.


This girl has a bladder of steal and I think it will only be a matter of time before she is dry throughout the night. WAHOO!


Tonight for cuddle time the girls wanted to tell stories about memories they have from when they were younger. Sera brought up this story "Oh the poo that ensued!". We all got a good laugh remembering the frantic-ness of that situation.


Tomorrow is the girls last day of school. I think our school district may be the last one to get out for summer break. It is okay with me. Especially since we do not start until the day after Labor Day.


Happy Summer!

I KNOW!

Have you ever noticed that when children get older they have a need to say "I know" whenever they are reminded of something they are supposed to do. But then they continue to not do what has been asked of them.

This has been a frequent phrase that has come out of Emma's mouth lately, and I don't know if it is the fact that I am completely hormonally imbalanced right now, or if it how she says it, but it makes me want to go over to her and take my middle finger and thumb and squeeze her cheeks in and make her look me in the eye while I tell her to not use that tone with me, and then I proceed to tell her that if she knows then do something about it.


This morning as I was grouchy as all get out and throwing tantrums that pale in comparison to a 2 year old, I thought, "I KNOW" how I am suppose to act and yet I feel I have no control over these hormones that are raging right now. It really is driving me crazy.

I never remember feeling so aggressive and hormonal with the other pregnancies. SO why now. What is going on with my body. A couple of my friends said I am probably having a boy because that is how they felt with their boy pregnancies. All I know is, if it is a boy I am not sure I want to go through the risk of having another boy pregnancy and feel this way again. All these aggressive tendencies makes me want to rip peoples heads off. Maybe I need to take a kick boxing class or something or a dodge ball class. I don't think yoga would do it for me.

On a happy note. So I started the 21 day challenge on Wednesday. I am happy to report, of those 5 days from Wednesday, I was successful to be completely positive for one whole day. Friday!

I think I was that way because I deep cleaned the whole home which makes me feel completely and utterly joyful and positive. Cleaning is my drug of choice, and makes me feel so much better and in control when I am able to get in and scrub things and throw stuff away we don't need. The other 4 days, we won't talk about them. I am learning a lot though.

Like, if you are a parent with many children you may find that you will need to get ultimately creative to be able to succeed at the 21 day challenge.

I'm just glad that it does not require our thoughts to say positive things. Because a lot of times what I really want to say to a child and what comes out of my mouth are on entirely 2 different planets.

It would not be nice to call a child a name, so I make the hugest grin possible and through gritting teeth I may quickly find something positive they are doing, even though it has nothing to do with what I have asked them to do 10 times now, and thank them for that positive thing.

I know I am so creative. I don't know about anyone else, but those are the moments that really stretch me as an individual. I KNOW how I am suppose to act and yet my initial response is not always conducive to what I KNOW I am suppose to be saying or doing.


Some more happy notes.

Eliza turned one this past week. She is such a joy! My husband posted on his blog pictures and then he has a link to her birthday video that makes me laugh. She sure loves to eat.


Our garden is planted and thriving. Our strawberries are starting to ripen and this makes me happy. We love when the strawberries start to ripen in our little patch. There is nothing quite like a fresh picked strawberry from the garden.

Sera has been in the habit of writing me wonderful notes of her love and adoration for me and that makes me happy.

Starting tomorrow, Kady will be only wearing diapers at night, as I am going to take the plunge and test myself once again and potty train another child. She helped pick out a potty chair and some cute thick training panties. I gained some courage and helpful insights this week from one of my favorite blogs "Clover Lane" I love how Sarah expresses herself. Wish me luck as I am not the best when it comes to staying sane through potty training season.

Lucy is crazy athletic and I am amazed at how determined she is for only being 4. She puts her mind to accomplishing a task and she "digs her heels in" and figures out how to succeed at it. She is a tenderhearted ball of joy. She has the most infectious laugh too.

Emma spends most of her time day dreaming. I am begging to think it may be the age. She excels at school like no bodies business. She loves to read and thrives on her teachers praise with how well she reads to the class. She signs like an angel and even though I have to remind her the most, she is always willing to help. That makes me happy.

The 21 day challenge

I got this timely idea from my dear friend Adrienne. I came to know and love this woman when we lived in Scottsbluff. Last week she posted about this 21 day challenge she did.



Adrienne said it took her 7 months to go 21 days to accomplish this challenge. This got me thinking how long it would take me to complete this challenge.



I really need to do this, as my focus on life in general has become more on negative things instead of positive. I knew I needed to change and am grateful my friend had posted this to plant the seed in my mind so that I could feel like this could and would be something I can and will accomplish.


Here's to being positive! Happy June 1st!

Wetting The Bed

Holy cow! (That is not in reference to the state of my body right now) Did May just fly by or what? Actually how about the last 5 months.

Anyway- So my story for this Sunday is more on the personal side. As a child I wet the bed. I think until I was close to 6. I could have been older but we will say 6 cause that sounds better than 7 or 8.

This caused me a lot of anxiety. I couldn't sleep over at my friends homes because I didn't want to have "an accident" at their home. I think my Mom just put diapers on me at night.

When I was, I think, in kindergarten my Mom wanted to try out this product. It claimed that before a child started to pee in the bed it could detect that the child needed to go to the bathroom so it would sound an alarm to awake the child in time for him/her to make it to the potty in time before peeing all over the place.

This worked great for my twin sister. She learned quickly. I, on the other hand, had a more difficult time waking up, since I was apparently a really deep sleeper.

One night I didn't wake in time. I awoke to a lot of pain on my side. So I pulled myself out of bed and dragged myself to my Mom and told her my side hurt really bad. It was still dark out. She kindly told me to go and lay on the couch and she would check it when the sun got up.

Well to her surprise she found 2nd degree burns on me. The contraption apparently had gotten sick of being peed on and short circuited and electrocuted me. My Mom felt terrible. We went to some kind of doctor they took pictures and fixed me up and then sent the pictures to the company.

Funny thing is I stopped wetting the bed after I got electrocuted.

Why Mother's go crazy

Last week for art I got creative and took what I had and created a water table. It was going to get up in the high 80's that day.

I needed to get a lot of work done in the yard and knew I didn't want to have the kiddie pool unattended while I was out of their sight. I came up with a simple solution. I took 2 picnic table benches and a kiddie pool and loaded the pool up with empty ice cream pails and empty shampoo bottles from our recycle box and cups and the girls played for hours.

This way they could stay cool but I didn't have to worry about them drowning, or peeing the pool. When Emma and Sera got home they played for 2 more hours. Love it!

While I took a break I brought out the camera to record their fun and one of the snippets was this little video that explains why Mother can go crazy at times. I felt like I was in Bill Cosby Himself , where he says "Stop it, stop it stop it!" After I caught this, cough cough, rare moment on digital, I found myself asking Lucy to "come here, come here, COME HERE!" to explain why it is important to stop when Mommy say's stop. I laughed to myself after this incident, pondering the wonderfulness of "brain damage!" One of the many fabulous things we get to learn about and from.

Luckily this was just a little hiccup in the day, but is it not frustrating for a parent when a child is young and they choose to ignore you. I know they can hear me, because I do what I call the cookie test. If I am being ignored and I need their attention I simply say, rather softly I might add, "Do you want a cookie?" And by golly all of the sudden they can hear me. They never get a cookie of course, I just want to have a feeling that their ears do indeed work.

It is a good thing they are all so cute to me and that I love them sooooooo much!

I can't get enough

Of this little girls "surprised" face

Without fail this face makes me laugh and smile so big. It is even better in person.
I have another fun full week. This past week I spent outside working in the garden and yard.
Thought's that have filled my mind this past week are:

How and what circumstance will take place that will help us know when we are done having children? This has consumed my mind.

How are we going to fit another child in our home?

I hope my garden will do well as it has in the past.

Those are just a few thoughts from this past week.

Happy May!

Engagement and wedding celebrations

Jared and I dated for about 18 months before we got married. He lived in Buffalo New York most of that time. The company he was working for at the time flew him back to Salt Lake every other weekend. SO we got to spend time 2 weekends a month.

On Sundays we would go and have meals with his family. I typically got to drive him back to the airport. It was hard for me to not cry. Those 18 months were a wonderful growing time for us. We had built a firm solid foundation of friendship by that point. We knew we were going to get married some day, and once we realized it was the right time we got married 6 weeks later.

Jared proposed to me through a video he had sent to his parents with the ring. When it was time to ask the question he had me stop the video and call him. Not conventional by any means. But it suited us.

Jared's Mom and myself pretty much planned everything. Both Jared and I are extremely practical people so there was nothing extravagant about our wedding plans.

I found a great deal at a bulk card stock supplier and got 500 card stock invites and envelopes for something like $30. I then found a printer shop, that when I brought my format and information I wanted on the invites, I negotiated a price and he printed 500 for something like $40. This was a great deal as all the other places were more like in the $100's. The thing that sold me was this particular printer was willing to not do a fancy print on it. I just wanted a basic color and no embossing stuff. My thinking was why waste money on something that most people will throw away anyway. I thought the finished product was tastefully done and looked fabulous.

We had a beautiful quote at the top of the invite "Absents is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great." Comte de Bussy-Rabutin

Jared's Father took our lovely engagement pictures and we got those printed off for fairly cheap as well. The stamps were the most expensive thing about our invites. Gotta love postage!

I borrowed a wedding dressed that fit me just right from my future sister-in-laws sister. I loved it too!

We had an outside reception the night before our wedding ceremony, at Jared's Grandma and Grandpas, "Better Homes and Gardens backyard." We had these cute little tea candle tree lights all over in the trees. It looked like fire flies were in the trees at night. The weather was perfect.

Because our reception was more like an open house we served pie and ice cream, which was perfect for the fall setting. We got an excellent deal on the pies too. How can you beat .99 cents a pie. They were not gross pies either, very yummy.

I am sure there are some who are reading who may think, "How could they do things so chintzy? You only get married once!" I say to you, getting married does not mean you have the privileged of going in debt. Whether it is you who is paying for the wedding or someone else. But that is just my opinion. You can disagree.


I stayed at Jared's Grandmas that night. I slept(tried to) on a water bed. I don't recommend that. Too many things raced through my head that night. One of which was that I was extremely uncomfortable in that bed and how I wish I could fall asleep. My parents slept at Jared's aunt and uncle's home. Looking back I am not sure why I was left all alone the night before I got married. At least if I would have had someone to talk with beside myself that night my lack of sleep would have felt valid.

Wedding day morning, I got up and showered, had a small bowl of cereal and then my Mom came to pick me up to take me to the Jordan River Temple, where Jared and I would be sealed for Time and All Eternity later that day. We stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading to the Temple.

We got to the Temple and Jared was there waiting for me. I felt so happy. We walked in as 2 and walked out being sealed together as 1. It was a wonderfully sacred and exquisite experience. The best choice I have ever made. After the ceremony we took pictures outside with family and friends at the Temple grounds.

We then went to a church building and had a celebration luncheon. Which included pizza and party hats and ice cream sandwiches. If you haven't figured out yet we apparently are not fancy people. Very simple and practical. Oh, and FUN!

Even though we had 6 weeks to plan, I don't recall being stressed at all in the planning process. I had a clear vision, and budget.

About 2 weeks after we got married we had an open house in Buffalo. It was a small setting, but many came to congratulate us. We served homemade brownie sundaes. YUM!

The following weekend we had a more formal reception in Michigan where I am from. My Dad did a wonderful soup buffet. It was fall time. I believe he had a spread of delicious sandwiches and some fruit platters and cheese and crackers. Our wedding cake was to die for. A chocolate chiffon cake with white chocolate mousse and white chocolate shavings. That's what I'm talking about.

One thing I do want to know. Who ever started wedding lines? They are agonizing for me. I think mostly because I am not good at all with small talk. Which is pretty much what you have to do when you are in those wedding lines. Is there some kind of college class you can take on how to make you an equipped small talk person? Or is this something that is either in your DNA or not?

Mother's Day

You know how I talked about last Friday that I got to go to the School for a Mother's Day muffin breakfast with Sera and she squeezed me and smothered me with hugs and kisses. Here is a little evidence. I am going to savor all I can get!

Mother's Day this year was great! The girls showered me with cards and wanted to be near me all day to make sure it was a good Mother's day. Sera woke up early to put together a re-gift collection of a play hairbrush, and one of those doodle pads. She was soooo excited to give me her presents. Emma made this cute flower pot with a flower pen in it. Lucy conjugated a card with various word letters that talked about how much she loves me and appreciates me. She verbally translated for me:) Kady gave me a back massage. Loved it!

With the help of Jared they made me breakfast. As the girls sat around me before I ate, I offered a blessing on the food, I couldn't help but thank the Lord with great emotion for the wonderful gift of being a Mother. Kady came up to me afterward and took her cute little fingers and said as she wiped a tear from my face "Sad Mommy?" I told her I was not sad but so happy I am a Mother.

At church, Jared had planned on having all of the women meet 15 minutes before the end of our 3 hour block to address us. He summoned in the help of the men and young men of taking care of the primary children, so this could happen.

He talked about how he had thought about how he wanted to address us. He said something like"I thought about those who may have had bad childhoods and how I could tell you to just get over it but thought that would not be the best way to start, or those who may be having difficult times right now, and to just over it, it is a apart of life, but thought that probably would not go over too well either" He then proceeded to tell us how wonderful we all our and then serenaded us with the help of 2 other men, with the song "Walk Tall You're A Daughter" It was wonderful!

They then handed out a cute little bag that had 3 Lindor chocolate truffles in it with a nice message. I think this is what he had been dreaming and stressing about last week.
"In the Lord's language, the word Mother has layers of meaning. Of all the words they could have chosen to define her role and her essence, both God the Father and Adam called Eve "the Mother of all living" and they did so before she ever bore a child. Like Eve, your Motherhood began before you were born. Righteous women were endowed premortally with the privilege of Motherhood. Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. it is the essence of who you are as women. It defines your very identity, your divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us. For Mother is the word that will define a righteous woman made perfect in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom, a woman who has qualified for eternal increase in posterity, wisdom, joy and influence."

Jared got home early and made dinner. I enjoyed my hamburger! He made my favorite Marie Calender pie (Razzelberry) for dessert. It was a wonderful day for me.

I know that not all women like Mother's Day for various reasons. I really loved what this blogger wrote about Mother's Day. I really like her style of writing, she just says it like it is.

What to do?

We have done family prayer since we first were married. So it always leave me a little perplexed why our children are still not able to kneel and fold their arms and keep their eyes closed and their mouths closed. We have had numerous lessons on how to be reverent and still our family prayers look nothing like this:

(picture from LDS gospel art kit)

So why is this?!? Are my husband and I not doing enough in teaching them? I feel like I make a point to teach them this concept, and yet it still is a struggle. I have learned, though, that they eventually "get it!" and that it never is in my timetable.

So I guess I will just continue and be consistent even though it can frustrate me at times. I bet that is how God feels at times with us, "Why can't they get this already?" "I sure love them though, I will just keep reminding."

Courtship Part 2: First kiss

A week prior to our first kiss, Jared had taken me to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City. For those who have not been there, it is quite the climb when it is dry, so imagine how easy it was to try to climb when there was snow and mud. It wasn't. Naturally, I clung to Jared in an attempt to not kill myself sliding down the mountain side.

We eventually made it to the top of the peak. It was so beautiful. While we were up there, my sister and Jonathan called (the ones who set us up) and asked if we wanted to come over and watch a movie. We thought that would be fun, so we headed on over. I remember how nice it felt to hold hands.

At the end of the night, he drove me home. We had built a tradition by this point (the whole 2 1/2 weeks of dating) of sitting on the porch swing and talking for a few minutes before he took off. When it was time to go, we hugged for quite some time. Funny how those little moments can be so intimate.

A week later, we went out to the Murray Art Dance Center to go ballroom dancing. Now before you get any ideas that we are good dancers, we are not. In fact, quite the contrary. I am too much of a control freak and too clumsy to make our dancing look any good. But we had fun. It felt like we were in our own little world.

On the drive back to his condo, we had discussed how we promised we would be completely honest with each other no matter what. Even if it meant it would hurt some feelings.

We got back to his condo, scooped up some ice cream, sprinkled it with jimmies, and started to watch a movie about C.S Lewis, "Shadowlands". Sometime at the beginning of the movie, I asked some out of the blue question. Something like, "What do I mean to you?"-type of question. He stopped the movie and we talked for a bit. We then decided we wanted to dance. He asked what music I wanted to dance to.

[Side note: At the time, I loved the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. My twin and I listened to that over and over when we would drive back and forth from Salt Lake to Cedar City. I especially loved the Louie Armstong songs.]

I asked him if he had the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack because it would be fun to dance to one of Louie's songs, although I didn't know the names of the songs. Jared pulled out the CD and found a Louie Armstrong song. The first song on the CD that Louie sings is "Give me a kiss to build a dream on":



He read into this a little too much. He thought that I was telling him, in a subtle way, that I wanted him to kiss me. He later found out that was not my intention at all. Regardless, we danced to several songs on the soundtrack.

When it was nearing midnight, we knew it was coming to the end of date. As we were wrapping things up, Jared said, "How about one more song?" "Okay," I replied.

He played that first song again, "Give me a kiss to build a dream on" and as the music started, he said softly, "I hope I get it right this time!" And then he leaned in for the kiss. So nice and simple. I loved it!

We pretty much saw each other every day after that for a month, until his company he was working for at the time, transferred him to Buffalo.

That song turned out to be somewhat of a prophecy, because 10 years later, we're still enjoying the "dream" built from that kiss. :)

Quality vs. Quantity?!?

A couple of years ago today I was attending a little "Mother's Tea" at Emma's Kindergarten class. I was enjoying the time and trying not to cry because I felt so overwhelmed with love and joy of being a Mother.

Today was no exception when I attended a muffin breakfast for the Mothers of first graders. Sera clung to me and was showering me with tons of hugs(full fledged squeezes) and kisses. I told myself repeatedly not to start bawling, because I didn't want to scare the children. But I felt so loved and filled with joy again for that of being a Mother.

Back to a couple years ago. A mother of one of the children at Emma's table started talking with me. Asking how many children I had. I told her 4. She gasped slightly and responded with a " I only have 2, that is all I can handle"

I responded with a "Oh, I am glad you know what you can handle." She inquired if we were done having children and I responded with a, no we are not done having children.

She then inquired about my friend who she knew from the school. She happened to have 6 kids at the time. She asked if I knew if they were going to have anymore children. I politely told her I didn't know and that it really was none of my business.

She then proceeded to tell me that her and her husband went for Quality NOT quantity. I quickly replied with a "Oh, I go for quality too." Where upon, she realized what she had just said and started to profusely apologize. I assured her I was not at all offended and that I understood what she was trying to say.


I really could have been easily offended by her comments and even the discussion itself. But I chose not to, for the shear fact that I was blessed with an abundant amounts of self-confidence.

Some women are great at cleaning and making their gardens look superbly beautiful. Others their homes look like something plucked out of Better Homes and Gardens.

My gift is, I know who I am and what my purpose here is on earth and I don't give into the seemingly constant stream of messages that stay-at-home Mothers are "Just Mothers"

Yes, true, I do have days where I feel like my job is a waste of time, and that all of my efforts are in vain, but in the big picture it is only a moment of time that I allow myself to feel that way because my desire to hear My Father's voice is greater than that of the worlds. He knows me. He knows what my potential is. He is forgiving when I mess up and encourages me to do better, and provides a way for me to accomplish that.

It is a honor to be a Mother. I am excited for November when our 6th child will make her/his(?) debut into the world.

Sleep talking

Last night I was woken frequently with a certain someone who had a problem with talking in their sleep. This certain someone talked of chocolate and things in a different language I am unfamiliar with. This certain some one also was found wandering the home on several occasions looking for chocolates.

This certain someone is my husband. Because of my lack of sleep last night, due from his talking and wanderings, I have not been very kind to him today. Giving him scowled looks and being snippy with him. You know what his response has been. Laughing hysterically at me. Yeah I have a funny husband. And I am thankful for that. I am thankful he doesn't take things personally and too seriously. It is a good thing he has a home full of women then, because life will not be easy for him in the coming years for him if he chose to be a serious person.

So thank you Love, for laughing at me when all I want to do is give you glaring evil looks because you interrupted my precious sleep hourly last night.

I wanted to tell a quick story about the above picture. This picture was taken when we lived in Scottsbluff Nebraska.

Jared came home from church meeting one Sunday and we were talking.
I stopped him and asked "why are your eyes not blinking at the same time?"

He responded by saying "what are you talking about?"

Me: "You can't tell that your eyes are not blinking at the same time? Go look in the mirror."

By this time I was laughing so hard and he was too.

Him: "That is weird, why would that do that?"

Me: "I don't know but your mouth looks weird too when you move it. Maybe you are having a stroke or something"

Him: "I will be fine."

We continue to laugh so hard we are crying because his eyes would not close at the same time and his mouth was slanted.

He did go to the doctors and they diagnosed him with Bells Palsy. This was at the beginning of the week.

Later on in the week he conducted a funeral for a member of our congregation. He was the Bishop at the time. Back up a little bit. When Jared did his first funeral he made the mistake of singing at it. Hence all of the elderly people in the congregation told him that if he was still around when they died that they wanted him to sing at their funeral. Fast forward.

He was asked to sing at the funeral. He also conducted it. The whole time I am sitting in the back watching half of his face move and the other half not and having a terrible time trying not to laugh. This affected his speech as well. The members were unaware that he had been diagnosed with Bells Palsy earlier in the week.

So after the services I am leaving and I was talking with some friends. I was telling them how Jared had been diagnosed with Bells Palsy that week. Their eyes lit up and they chimed in. "Oh I was wondering what was wrong with his face, I thought maybe he had gone to the dentist or something" We got a good laugh.

I guess my point in telling this story is we could have easily gotten overwhelmed with his condition, but we chose to have fun and relax. This life is meant for trials and upsets. It is not always going go the way we planned. But if we put our trust in the Lord and submit our will to His will, then we will have joy in the midst of trial. I am really grateful for that certain someone who reminds me of this in subtle kind ways.

Productive

I LOVE the feeling of being productive! Yesterday was a very productive day. It included me doing the laundry in the morning. Going through the girls clothes and making the final transition from winter to spring/summer clothes. Huge undertaking in and of itself. I meant to take a picture of our hallway upstairs to show you the craziness that happens.


I mowed the lawn. We have a little over a half an acre and I cleaned the garage. I also had a dentist appointment which I apparently must have been on something when I made the appointment because it was scheduled for 5:30. HELLO! Not the best time of day for me.


Also earlier in the morning I went up to the school to drop off my most delicious blueberry muffin contribution for the Teacher appreciation breakfast, and then helped a little with putting some finishing touches on some decorating they wanted done.


Today I want to make some garden boxes. The problem is our van is full of stuff that needs to be taken to salvation army or up to the church building. This was the result of my attacking the garage.


I love a clean garage by the way. I feel sooooo happy when I pull into a nice sweeped out clean garage.


Also within the last week I have gone through toys and clothes and have gotten rid of several bags of "stuff", because I mostly dislike "stuff" we don't need.


The girls were having a hard time putting "stuff" away in their play room and figured it was time to get rid of some of it. Yes I am a purger when it comes to getting rid of "stuff".


I love being productive and I pretty sure I am making up for my lack of productivity from last month. I think it may have taken me a total of 60 seconds to fall asleep last night. Happy Tuesday!

Courtship part 1

Jared and I met on a blind date back in December of '97. My twin sister and her boyfriend at the time(with whom she later married) were friends with Jared from college. They called him up the night of the date and asked if he wanted to go out on a blind date. He was just finishing up the closing on his first real estate purchase when he agreed to the date.


That was the beginning of something good. The date was interesting to say the least. It was a group date and we had gone to dinner and then we went to a place called quick wits. A kind of comedy joint, where the actors have the audience participate with giving them the topics of their skits. Very fun. Jared should have gotten a clue then that I was strange. My mind was filled with clever things to yell out for the actors to use. Which they took for some reason. I yelled out "Nasal Spray!" one time and was flattered they used such an ingenious idea.


This date led to another the following week which started off with him being late, and the waiter at the restaurant pouring a pitcher of water on me. we then went back to his condo so he could show me his newly purchase condo and all of his trinkets. We had ice cream and jimmies(sprinkles). I lived with a family and the Mom always liked hearing about how my dates went and asked me to wake her whenever I came home. That night I informed her that Jared "was odd!" and that "I am not sure he is my type"


A month passed. Unbeknown-st to me my twin sister had been lying to Jared telling him that I was waiting for him to call me and that he better call mesoon. So about a month later I get a call. It went something like this

him: Hi Pam this is Jared

me: Jared who?

him: Jared Palmer you know we went out last month

me: silence and thinking, Oh, oh yeah Jared

him: Well I was calling because I wanted to come over and personally apologize for not calling you the last month

me: Huh?!?

him: I have class till 10:30 this evening can I come over afterward?

me: Sure, that would be fine ( I totally thought he was not going to show up) See you then
I gave him the address

him: Okay bye


Around 10:45ish he arrived. I opened the door and I was plesently surprised. He looked a lot more handsomer than I had remembered. I sat on the couch and he sat across from me on the floor in front of the coffee table and we talked til after midnight.


We went out again sometime within a couple days after that visit, and then another date a day or so after that.


The date that sealed it for me was when he had asked me to travel with him to attend his cousins baptism he was speaking at. His extended family was huge and they were all so loving. I felt like I was apart of their family. When he spoke there was such a strong spirit that was present.


I remember I was not feeling well and on our travels up I told him I wasn't feeling well and if it was okay if we didn't talk. The silence was very comfortable. He wanted to make sure I was okay and offered to take me to a little diner for some soup before the baptism. He was very thoughtful and considerate. On the way home he said to me as we approached the exit off the freeway how he wanted to drive slower so that he could spend more time with me. I just felt so super special and that he appreciated and accepted me for me. He actually liked my strangeness.

Next week stay tuned for details of the first kiss! OOH-LA-LA

Perfect

My blog friend over here a few weeks ago started a wonderful weekly post called "Christian Connections" Today's spotlight particularly was exactly what I needed and am very thankful for sharing. Please take a moment and go to her blog and then click on the links to her spotlighted woman today. Well worth your time. I am pretty confident you will feel very thankful you did!

I Hope.....

I hope that what I teach our daughters will be enough for them to have desires to continue to be good and do good.

I hope that when in life's difficult situations, they will know how to stand for what is right, no matter the consequence.

I hope they will come to understand the joys of having each other as sisters.

I hope that they will continue to want to serve those around them so that they will always know how joy feels.

I hope they will know the sweetness that comes from being thankful always, and will openly be genuine in expressing their thanks.

I hope that my example to them of what Motherhood is like and the joys and frustrations that come with the mantle of this great calling will be enough to create their own desires to be Mothers themselves.

I hope that they will all be able to find a wonderful spouse who will adore them and take care of them as wonderfully as their Father adores and takes care of me.

I hope they will know how important having a good education is and will always have an insatiable desire to learn.

I hope!

Family Pets

all images are from Google pics and are similar depictions of what our pets looked like





The first family pet I remember having was Hammie the Hamster. Hammie was loved, shall we say, a little too much. My twin sister had a habit of holding him a little to tightly and we blamed her for his death. It was late and my Mother had gotten us up to tell us the bad news. Hammie had died. We cried and we were upset of his departing this earthly life. We planned a proper burial the following day. We found a shoe box and laid him to rest, dug a hole in the ground and covered it. We said our final goodbyes.

We got our second pet a beautiful calico cat. Star was her name. She soon found Hammies grave and had a little snack. We were devastated. Star was a great cat. She was a perpetual hairball machine. The initial sounds of the cat needing to get rid of a hairball sent us into our own gagging as we knew what was coming. Nasty hairballs!

She even had the kindness of leaving a hairball for me on my birthday one year. It was in my direct line of walking path in my bedroom. Not something that I appreciated feeling first thing on my birthday. She lived for many years. She got along with all of us, and was a rather laid back cat. When it was soon for her to go the way of the earth she had wandered off one day. We hadn't seen her for several weeks. We thought we had heard her several time meowing but could never see her.

A very blustery day had come and the winds blew and so did Star out of the big pine tree out back. She landed on the ground very flat like a pancake. My Dad and brother wanted to give her a proper burial so they dug a hole in the ground to put her in. When my Dad went to put her in he discovered the hole was too small. Instead of making the hole bigger he made the hole work and got her to fit with the shovel.


Then we got the dog that probably had ADD. We named her Coalbin. Because she looked like she had jumped in a bin full of coals. This dog was challenged to say the least. We had a big sectional couch that she would run around for several minutes without stopping. She ate things like glass and bit my sisters ear and tore it. She took things out of the trash that were meant to stay in the trash. She had boundless amounts of energy. She just was too much for our family and so my Dad took her back to the pound without telling anyone. We got over it!

We had several goldfish. One had a sudden death in the sink disposal as we were trying to clean it's bowl. That was a bit traumatizing for me. Shiver! We had the occasional adoptive pet that we would take home from our elementary classes. Like the rabbit I took home for a spring break. We vowed after that to not have an indoor bunny, because all they did was leave little poopies all over. My eldest sister did have a pet bunny but failed to take into consideration the placing of the bunny outside and the poor bunny overheated in the direct sun location.


Gee I wonder why I don't want to get pets for our children? There are 2 kinds of people in this world, people who like having pets and people who don't like having pets. Right now in my life I am the person who does not like having pets. I am sure one day I will change my mind, but not in the near future. I am grateful for those who are pet people, because those cute little things needs good loving homes.