Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas 2012

January:  We celebrated the new year with a fondue bang!  We had delicious food, including fresh fish from the Azorean Ocean a friend spear fished and caught.  The freshest fish we've ever had!  Denver turned 32 years old.

February:  We took a trip to Italy and visited Pompeii and Naples!  We learned a lot of Italian history.  We also had great pizza and ice cream there.

March:  Garrett was involved in basketball.  We enjoyed going to his games.

April:  The kids had a week of no school (Spring Break) so we took a C130 to Germany! We loved visiting this beautiful country and tasting the delicious foods from there.  We also went to France while we were there.

May:  The kids were involved with baseball.  It was fun to go and watch their games.  Garrett turned 7 years old.  Debbie left to Germany so she could deliver the newest baby Palmer.

June:  Deacon Windsor Palmer was born at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at 3am Germany time.  He was 6 lbs. 6oz.  Maelie turned 9 years old.

July:  We spent the 4th of July apart as Debbie was still in Germany waiting for Deacon's passport and Denver and the kids were in the Azores.  We were finally reunited on a wonderful July 13th.

August:  We made a move from one house on base to another.  The new house has an ocean view with no obstructions!  The kids started school. Maelie: 4th grade.  Garrett: 2nd grade.  Sterling turned 5 years old.

September:  Sterling started Portuguese preschool.  Debbie turned 31 years old.  Our family went on a trip to one of the other islands, Sao Miguel.  We took the ferry over with our car and because of the weather (hurricane nearby) we flew back and left our van on the island!  Luckily we got it back the next week.  We loved the island of Sao Miguel and would love to go again.

October:  The month of Halloween.  Colson turned 3 years old.  Maelie dressed up as Rapunzel, Garrett as Batman, Sterling as Spiderman, Colson as Spiderman, Deacon as a pumpkin and Dad and Mom as babies.  Denver went to Garmisch, Germany.  

November:  Debbie's dad had a stroke so Debbie left with Deacon to Utah to be with him. We felt the love of our Heavenly Father at this time as he was well and recovering. We ate Thanksgiving Dinner with friends and six missionaires.

December:  We have alot of traditions we do this time of the year.  We made gingerbread houses, advent calendars, cookies to give away, we did a service for a Portuguese family, and much more.  We want to wish our family and friends a very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas and family pictures attempt

Getting ready for Christmas:

We made some candy advent calendars.  (A tradition we learned form Suzy)

We decorated our home with Christmas lights. 

We have had a lot of beautiful days full of sunshine this month. 

We hung up our finished calendars (sorry these pictures are out of order, I don't know why, but am still trying to catch up so I don't want to spend time fixing it.)
Our smiley baby, Deacon.

Maelie and I went out together for a ladies night.  We went to Buzios for dinner and then to the ocean view grill for ice cream.

One of the Spirit Houses right by Buzios.

Some pretty pics while driving home from the beach.   I had to pick up some sand to use it for something for YW.  I am now the YW President and wanted to make a handout for Young Women in Excellence and it needed sand.  Lucky for me, I can drive 5 minutes away to get some.

I like this wall.  I think it would make for a pretty family picture spot.

We have a small manger that is empty and every time someone secretly does something nice for someone else, they get to put some straw in the manger to make it soft for baby Jesus.  They have until Christmas to do these small acts.  Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.

Maelie made Garrett's school lunch and then put this note by the made lunches so he would be thrown off and not know who did this for him.   We (mom and dad) thought it was pretty funny and picture/blog worthy.

The handout with the sand didn't work out like planned so instead I made these boards with the theme on it so they could always remember the 2012 theme.

Lots of rain and wind

Denver and I take turns planning date nights and on this particular Friday he planned it.  We played games and the loser had to spin the wheel and do a task.  I lost 1 out of the 6 or 7 games we played and had to drink this concoction of strawberry syrup, cocoa, fanta and milk.  It wasn't too gross, just really sweet and left me feeling a little sick.  Denver lost the rest and had to do things like roll a b-ball with his nose across the b-ball court outside our house (the ground was wet so it made it alot funnier) among other things.  He did a good job planning that one.

One sunny Saturday we attempted to take family pictures.  We found a beautiful spot, got everyone ready and took shots.  Before we could take the whole family, the batteries died.  And our camera isn't the greatest (just a cheap $100 Nikon) so the pictures aren't professional at all.  We need to get a nice picture so we can save money and do our own family pictures. 

All the kids

All the individual shots: 

After the batteries died, we went home, plugged in the camera and set up some indoor picture shots.  They were a flop, but at least we have everyone in the picture.  Deacon isn't in our family picture yet so we had to get him in it.  There isn't a place that I know of to go get pictures taken and we can hire someone, but it's very expensive.

This last family picture is the best one.  Deacon wasn't smiling because there was no one to smile at.

 The base put on a huge Polar Express Event.  The kids got to ride a bus instead of a train.  The evening ended up at the Lajes Base Christmas lighting event.