small update

This blog is really suffering, but my journal blog is thriving so sorry to anyone that wants to read about what's going on in our family. It's limited. Here is a small update.

Each year we have a goodbye picnic to say goodbye to those graduating or moving from the area. It's always sad to see friends go. The kids new chore. Laundry. They only do their own. They can do it all, sort, start washer and dryer, and fold. They love to do it all, except fold it and put it away. It takes them FOREVER and we hear a million complaints and tears when they have to do that part.

Sterling is growing up. He looks like his dad here, just a smaller version of him.

The weather has been nice finally. It's been raining so much, but we've had a nice few days to enjoy being outside in perfect weather. Maelie has about 6 weeks left of Kindergarten. I'm excited for the summer to start and for her to stay home with us everyday. Garrett has a birthday coming up in less than 2 weeks. 4 years old! Today we were racing up the steps and Garrett won so he said, "I beat you up, Mom". kind of funny.

special olympics

Every year the youth in the Philadelphia stake help out at Buck's county's special Olympics.

A Journal

I've started a new blog for my personal journal where I can write my own personal thoughts, experiences, and things I don't want the world to read so unfortunately this blog is going to take back seat to it. I will still post pictures and write occassionally, but I am mainly focusing on my journal blog so I can have a good history of my life. This blog has been good in doing that, except I can't share as much because people read it so that's why I decided to start this other one. I will still post on this blog, it just won't be as often.

Easter 2009

Our Easter week started on Monday where we had an Easter Family Home Evening. We started with a lesson on Christ, followed by an Easter Egg hunt! We hid them so good, that we had to search to find the few remaining eggs that hadn't been found yet.

Hunting for eggs!

Some of the eggs had some jellybeans in them! yummy!

After the hunt, we colored Easter eggs.

The kids really took care this year to make them look good. It took us a long time to finish them.

After decorating, we each ate one.

This week was also Maelie's spring break. We had tons of fun with her at home all week. I REALLY loved it and can't wait for the summer when she can be with us all the time. About 3 weeks ago I called my mom and asked her how she knew we needed glasses because I was worried about Maelie's vision. She told me the school nurse told her and that's when she took us in. Literally one week after that phone call with my mom, the school nurse called me and told me that Maelie did not pass her vision test. So we took her in as soon as possible to get her appointment. On Friday of her Spring Break, she got her glasses with prescription and all of -2.5

She loves them and she looks cute in them.

On Saturday we went to the temple and it was CROWDED! It was such a nice time to go, just before Easter. We were able to go through a Mandarin Chinese session! The last time Denver got to do that was on his mission. He LOVED it.

Sunday we dressed up for Sunday.

Sterling G-Qing it with his Sunday best. So cute!

Garrett looking like a stud in his Sunday best. His new thing is to smile really big in all his pictures.

A week before Easter I decided I wanted to make Maelie an Easter dress instead of buy one. Here is the final creation.

Mom and the kids. If you notice the different vest and pants Garrett is wearing from the previous pictures it's because he had an accident (potty) during picture taking. We were both in the choir and we had to be there 30 minutes early so we had to make a quick change of his clothes. As we were going to leave, I found a little rip in Maelie's new dress! I didn't have time to stitch it, so with a safety pin and a sad mommy, we were out the door, a little late to choir practice.

Dad and the kids.

Bedtime faces

One of my favorite times of day-BEDTIME!

YW General Broadcast

Last night I went to the YW General Broadcast and dinner beforehand. There was good food, good company, and good speakers!

Egyptian flu clarification

I've had some confused people ask me why I called my pregnancy the egyptian flu so now I will clarify. I'm going to be a 'mummy'.

The Cat in the Hat

What a cute girl.

Sick again?

That's right. I have the egyptian flu again! Dr.s say it should last 9 months and I will gain some weight with it. I should be over it by October 13th.

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!