Our 'Spring' Break

We went to Arizona for Spring Break and had a real break from the cold winter that seems to last forever in Philadelphia. The sun shone brightly everyday we were there. Thanks AZ for not letting us down!

It had been over a year since I had visited AZ so when we were driving from the airport to Denver's parents house, I kept thinking how everything was so clean! I got so used to the trash on the streets in Philadelphia that it just became normal to me. (not all parts of Philadelphia are dirty, mostly just the inner city.

Every time we visit AZ we like to visit Shelley's grave so the day we got there, we had a couple hours alone and decided to go to the cemetery. It's a good reminder to the kids about the resurrection and the importance it is to make good choices because we never know when it's our time to go. It's a great teaching moment for them and they ask questions and learn more everytime.
We headed up to Payson so stay with my parents for a few days. Here is some of the scenery on the way: Arizona is so beautiful to me.
The pictures were taken while driving so they are a little blurry.

At my parents, two of my sisters came to visit us there. Erin came and surprised me a day early (I knew she was coming, but i thought she was coming later) She was so nice to do my hair! thanks Erin!

My sister Kristen came up and brought her new twin babies that I was so excited to meet. Maelie wanted to hold the girl baby and Garrett the boy baby. Go figure. they loved holding them and feeding them bottles. One of the twins even fell asleep while Maelie was holding her!

Me holding both twins at the same time! That's a lot of work!

So much work that...

The babies with the blankets I made them. Left: Shelby Right: Jayden

We went on some walks at my parents house and my mom and I got to go to the gym together on 'bring a friend' day. Thanks mom and dad for playing with us!

On Friday before we left we got a picture of my parents and my kids.

Then we headed down to Mesa to visit the rest of my family that is still living in AZ. (9 of my siblings were still missing, but I had tons of fun visiting with the 4 that are still there) We ate and laughed and visited. The thing I love most about family is that they are instant, stuck friends. You never once have to worry about anything around family! It's the greatest!

My kids with one of their cousins.

Some of the group.

The next few days we spent playing with Denver's family. On Saturday we went to the temple together. I love going to the temple with family! It's so nice to be there with people you love. It was much easier than going to the DC temple: no tolls, free babysitting, a 5 minute drive instead of 2 1/2 hour drive, and a morning activity instead of an all day activity. It was so NICE!

Then we headed to the park for lunch and fun!

The kids fed the ducks, but the ducks weren't hungry. See all the white spots in the water? That's all the tenderly thrown, eneaten bread. The kids were sad the ducks weren't hungry.

Maelie's favorite thing to do at the playground!

Sterling and his daddy.

That night we went to dinner with just the adults. Thanks Kylee and Kaleb for babysitting. We had tons of fun! On Sunday, Denver's family got together for a delicious dinner. I am bummed I didn't get pictures. I thought about it after everything was cleaned up. Then we played some games. The teenagers in the family (niece and nephew) went to a fireside that night and came back excited to have met David Archuletta, the guest speaker! I thought that was pretty cool.

Our last couple of days were nice and relaxing. Grandma let us go on a couple of dates and get out without the kids! It was wonderful. We watched movies and just visited. We ate a delicious dinner with Denver's brother and his wife and had fun visiting with them. We also had a fun FHE with everyone on Monday night.

Thank you everyone for all the fun! We had a great, warm Spring Break.

Indoor skydiving

For all you who are sitting on the fence and don't know where to live, this is incentive to live in Colorado. This is my brother and his wife indoor skydiving! I'm going to do this! Much safer and looks like tons of fun! If you don't watch the whole thing, move forward to the end to see some amazing tricks by the instructor.

(no subject)

A few weeks ago, I gave Maelie a hair cut. She really wanted to be like her brothers who are always getting hair cuts so she finally got her turn.
Before: After:

On Valentine's day we went to Lancaster and one of our favorite places to go is Amelia's Grocery outlet. They have tons of grocery items for outlet prices. It's too bad we're an hour away because I would've stocked up on these: I got this sorbet for a quarter! It was delicious! I couldn't finish it all, but I didn't feel bad about it because it was 25 cents! mmmmmmm

Here are the pictures from the youth temple trip. It was freezing!!!

We were all ready to get a group picture when my camera batteries died :(

Oh well, at least I got some.

Sure enough at 10pm Garrett woke up and threw up (see post below). Maelie and Garrett both had high temperatures today, but by FHE tonight, they were feeling much better. Luckily it was a snow day today so Maelie was able to miss another day of school without really being absent. She's missed so much already. I think (hope) we are on the downhill side of sickness. It is exhausting and leaves parents feeling tired and sick themselves.

The Palmers are quarantined!

We're not really, but we should be.

Friday evening Sterling threw up all over me. Saturday I took the youth to the temple to do baptisms. When I got to the temple I called Denver. He had a fever of 103 and he was taking care of sick Sterling and two other kids. Poor guy. What was I to do? We did our baptisms and then I called him again. His fever had dropped to 99 and he was feeling much better so we decided to stay and watch the 'Joseph Smith' movie in the visitor center so the youth could see it. About an hour into the drive home I talked to Denver again and his fever had shot up to 103. Once I got home at 10:30 I did my best to take care of him. His fever finally broke at midnight and we fell asleep just to be awakened by an emotional Maelie who had an ear ache and couldn't sleep. I sat with her and held her until about 7am when she finally fell asleep again. Needless to say I was exhausted from the temple trip and being up most of the night. Denver felt much better after getting some sleep and he let me go back to sleep.

At about 5:30pm today, Garrett said he wanted to go to bed, which he never does. He fell asleep quickly and we're thinking we might be up again tonight with a sick Garrett.

Sterling hasn't thrown up again, but has had tons of diarrhea.

We've had better winter seasons. Our 2009 year has brought us this by way of sickness:
starting mid Jan:
week 1: Maelie threw up, followed by diarrhea
week 2: I threw up (luckily it was just a 24 hour flu)
week 3: Garrett threw up, followed by diarrhea
week 4: Sterling had croup and pre-pneumonia
Now: week 5: Maelie had high fever and ear ache. Denver had high fever. Sterling had fever, throw up, diarrhea.

We are normally a very healthy family and don't get sick very often at all, so this is really throwing us a for a loop. I just want it all to end and to have at least one solid week of NO sickness!

More google fun

I had so much fun doing this for my name so I had to do it for Denver (DJ) and the kids. (see post below to understand or you will be completely confused at this post) You DO NOT have to read this whole thing. I just think it will be fun to have in our own blog book someday.

"Denver needs..."
1. more big blue sculptures (it helps that his name is also a city)
2. moisture (ha ha ha. It's been pretty dry in CO lately)
3. more bike lanes

"Denver wants..."
1. Delegates to see the old and the new (you'll have to ask him, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't care)
2. $1000000 (gettin' greedy)
3. to watch the super bowl in HD (probably, if it weren't on Sundays :(

"Denver likes..."
1. to play with his food (ha ha)
2. love (awwww)
3. Russell's experience (this was from the Deseret News, but I have no idea what it is)

"Denver hates..."
1. NBC too (no)
2. Rivers (no again)
3. democracy (3 strikes you're out)

"Denver is..."
1. America's most popular city (nice)
2. (Mile)-high on bike sharing
3. beer country

"DJ needs..."
1. to know
2. a heart
3. to step it up to secure Hip Hop's future

"DJ wants..."
1. work with 23 years experiance (it was misspelled too)
2. answers
3. you to know

"DJ likes..."
1. zebra print (ha ha, I never knew)
2. Maggiano's little Italy
3. to play mostly drum & bass music

"DJ hates..."
1. you on MySpace music
2. everyone
3. You's video channel and video clip
(now that was just weird and negative)

"DJ is..."
1. the guitar hero
2. actually mistaken
3. a tool which allows you to write generic Java programs that are easy to evolve and reuse.

"Maelie needs, wants, likes, hates, is..."
Nothing... I couldn't find anything. Her name (or spelling) is not very popular

"Garrett needs..."
1. a ride in a brand new 816d27
2. to get Barber going
3. to go

"Garrett wants..."
1. to save the turtles (ha ha. He would, too)
2. to end whaling
3. feedback on Lakes plan
(can we say, environmentalist)

"Garrett likes..."
1. chances in open-general-sport
2. it fast and faster
3. candy (oh so true!)

"Garrett hates..."
1. Pain
2. puppies (no, actually opposite. loves them)
3. voting rights (he's only 3!)

"Garrett is..."
1. scary (hardly)
2. doing something (aren't we all)
3. called back by rams (???? there must be a man by the last name of Garrett with the Dallas cowboys)

"Sterling needs..."
1. a new contract (what's wrong with the old one)
2. to consolidate (is he paying off all our school loans? Yesssss!)
3. to correct weaker

"Sterling wants..."
1. his number to stay retired (yeah, he was that good)
2. to use computing power to help society (what a saint, I think)
3. to join a volleyball team

"Sterling likes..."
1. to reward the loyalty of our employees.
2. to finger-feed on rice cakes
3. to talk about performance optimization more than any other aspect of PHP.

"Sterling hates..."
1. that there's another compelling microblogging tool demanding his attention (you mean other than eating, pooping and sleeping?)
2. paying for anything more than he has to
3. calling plays and making passes, but his dad believes... (and then it stopped. i don't ever click on the link, even though this was from good sports.) You just never know.

"Sterling is..."
1. a good team owner
2. finished
3. at the Olssons in Arlington tonight for a reading from his new book (he always had high, noble goals)

I love Fridays!!! This was very time consuming, but hey, it's better than watching TV, right?

Google Fun

My friend Ashley did this on her blog and I thought it looked fun. You just google the following phrases (your name needs, your name wants, etc) and put the first three results that come up (that make sense). What can I say, it's Friday and on Fridays I like to play. :)

"Debbie needs..."
1. a saddle (hmmmm?????)
2. prayer (definitely true)
3. to look behind her (uh oh, watch out)

"Debbie wants..."
1. your feedback on WaPo's political coverage (that's news to me)
2. snow (no, I really don't)
3. to go on an adventure (you're getting warmer)

"Debbie likes..."
1. cereal's Page-YA for Obama (naw, I don't)
2. 2 read (yes, I do!)
3. ZoomInfo business people information (nope)

"Debbie hates..."
1. pictures pictures and videos on Webshots (????just copying the headline)
2. George and T2 (who?)
3. dust (now we're talking. I think I hate dusting more than dust)

"Debbie is..."
1. hot (ha ha what a way to build self esteem. On google headlines!)
2. forty (whoa, slow down there. I've still got some years in me until I hit 40!)
3. Awesome! (the exclamation point was not added by me :))

Try it out! It's fun. I tag whoever has some time to kill and wants to do it. :)

Nothing much

It's been awhile since I lasted posted. Nothing much has happened here. We're just trying to survive Winter. For those of you in warm country, send some warmth our way. I'm very ready. For Valentine's Day, we went to Lancaster to enjoy a day away. It was a fun, relaxing day trip. The kids traveled well and had a good time sharing "valentimes" day with mom and dad.

The kids are all doing so much better. Still some couging, but not bad. Maelie celebrated the 100th day of school yesterday. She brought in 100 cheerios to glue on a big 100. Garrett loves to play. He doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything, he just wants to play with his toys at home. He would, however, go to the playground everyday, but it's just too cold now. Maybe in a month or two. Sterling loves to eat! He would eat all day if we let him. When he says, "no" he means "yes". When we ask him if he wants to eat or wants more food, he'll say "no". It's a good thing we understand him or he would be one hungry kid.

We are really excited for March Madness this year! We love, love, love it and Denver will actually be able to watch the games this year!!! He's always been too busy studying, but this year it will be different.

We found a YMCA that has racquetball courts. There is only one in our region that has courts so we went and played. We hadn't played racquetball since Maelie was a baby. I wish that Y was closer so we could go more often. I love racquetball. It's exercising without really feeling like you're exercising. FUN!

It has been going around, but when will it end...

Once again we've had rollercoaster weather. Yesterday we almost reached record high. It was 66 degrees and the record in 1887 was 67 degrees. It was WONDERFUL! We went to feed the ducks, walk at valley green and play at the playground. The kids had a ball!

Sterling had a cough, but doesn't everyone? After he woke up from his really long nap, he sounded like he was wheezing. His breathing sounded labored and I was very concerned. His fever was also over 102. Denver had a basketball game at school so he wasn't home when I took Sterling to the Dr. at 5:30pm. They got us in right away. As we were waiting to see the Dr. I saw what I thought was a scab on his head amongst all his hair. I went to pick it off, and it started moving! It was a tick! yuck. The dr. looked at the tick and said it was still very active and flat and she didn't think he had been bitten by it. Now back to the diagnosis. The dr. heard a little bit of pneumonia when listening to his back and she said he had croup too. Poor little guy. He is such an easy baby. He just wants to play and he's so happy, even when he's sick. The doctor prescribed a steroid and an antiobiotic for his ailments. He has seemed to improve already, just a day later. the dr. wanted us to keep him in our room through the night so we could monitor his breathing. That made me nervous about it. I just wanted to cry.

After getting home at about 6:30pm I finished making the dinner (that I had left in the oven, but I had sense enough to turn the oven off) and we ate dinner at 7:30pm. Then I went online and learned all I could about croup and felt much better. I think he has a mild croup. Denver even commented, when I clicked on another website, "don't you think you already know everything about croup?"

Maelie and Garrett have been off and on with diarhea. they don't complain about their stomachs hurting, but they are on the toilet alot and for a long time. I couldn't send Maelie to school because she may not be able to make it to the toilet on time, etc. I've heard of alot of people getting sick, but when will it end? When you're dealing with sickness, it really makes you appreciate health.

Temple trip

This weekend we took a trip to the DC to go to the temple. It had been a while since we took advantage of our military benefits so we decided to spend the night at the airforce inn on one of the two bases in DC. We took Maelie out of school early on Friday and left. We made good time (the worst is getting stuck in DC traffic and knowing that it was a Friday and still the work week) and got there by 4pm. Of course our first stop was the dental clinic. They close at 4:30 so we had to go there first. Denver went in to check it out and ask questions while the kids and I waited in the car. Then we headed to our room and then we went shopping at the commissary for dinner and food to take home with us.

The kids LOVED being there. They were a little over-excited. Maelie and Garrett watched some TV while I was making dinner. Maelie has this thing for Hannah Montana although she's never watched it. While we were flipping through channels (cable TV!) we saw Hannah Montana. We kept it there for a while so she could see a bit of Hannah Montana. Then we found a cartoon and the kids watched that, but Maelie said to Denver "Daddy, I don' t like Hannah Montana anymore. Her friends aren't modest." Yeah! She's learning, recalling, and choosing good on her own!

The next morning we went to the temple. It was a great experience. After picking up our kids from the church across the street, we changed our clothes and went back to the temple so the kids could see it. We walked around it a bit and went into the visitors center. The weather in DC was in the high 50s or low 60s. It was awesome and it felt great!

Weather rollercoaster

Part 1

On Monday this week we had a beautifully, warm day with the high reaching 54 degrees. It was a day to go out and play on the trampoline. The kids had a ball.

Sterling was happy to be on solid ground. He doesn't like the trampoline...yet.

Free to explore

What a wonderful sunny day. It was a nice break from all the winter blasts we've had this year already.

Part 2

On Wednesday that same week (just 2 days later), this is what we woke up to.

I think we got 4 to 5 inches of snow. The news this morning said we haven't gotten that much snow at once for 3 years, so for Philadelphia, it dumped. What a beautiful scene. These pictures were taken from inside.

School was closed for the snowy day so we took advantage of it again and went outside to play.
Garrett making a snow angel. That's the first thing he did when we went outside.

Maelie embracing a big chunk of snow.

So, this AZ girl doesn't really know how to make a snowman, so we made a snow ghost. Our friend chillin' in our front yard.

Maelie is standing in the snow. It didn't really snow this much, it's just like that because of the shoveling of the sidewalk.

Maelie saw our neighbors tree and thought it had a ton of beautiful white flowers on it. She thought it was so cool when I told her all the white is just snow. She tried to make 'snow flowers' for our little tree. It didn't work so great.

Garrett laying out in the snow, basking in the sunlight.

The view of our street.

We have a great little hill the kids can sled down. I had so much fun watching them. Unfortunately I didn't catch them in action, but the big dry patch is where they kept sliding down on their bellies and backs.

All the while, Sterling was cozy in his bed napping.

Part 3

On Saturday of this week, the weather is supposed to reach up to the mid 50's again for the high! I'm really excited. Even though I love the snow (for a day), I'm always ready for warmer days.

Our weekend

Last Friday the youth had a stake cultural night activity and our ward chose to do our presentation on beautiful Jamaica.

We presented facts about Jamaica...

...the Jamaican flag...

...sang the Jamaican national anthem...

...taught a famous Jamaican game, and made and presented a delicious Jamaican food...fried plantains.

the two sisters in this picture are actually from Jamaica and they helped us out a TON!!! The one on the left taught us everything we presented and the one on the right made a variety of different Jamaican food (not the fried plantains) that was extremely delicious and spicier than anything I've ever tasted in my life!!!

One of the wards had us play a game. The leaders had to get inside of a sleeping bag and had to jump to the boomerang (they presented Australia) and answer the question with the answer their youth gave. It was a lot of fun. I only fell twice, but I (the youth) answered 3 questions right. After the game I was hot and sweaty from jumping around in a sleeping bag.

The fried plantains our young men prepared.

Look at all this delicious food! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

It was a pretty fun evening.

On Saturday morning, our stake had a Stake Women's Conference for the Relief Society. I went and really enjoyed myself. All the workshops I went to were incredible!!! I really needed to hear the things I learned thoughout the whole conference. The Lord really knows us and what we need and he provides if we let him. I'm very glad I got to go. Saturday evening, Denver and I finally got to spend some time together and have a 'date' at home after a long, busy weekend.

On Sunday, Denver was released from his calling as 1st counselor in YM presidency. The kids are pretty sad about not getting to go to mutual anymore. They really loved it! I will miss not seeing Denver at church every Thursday night, but am looking forward to not bringing 3 kids every week!