Happy Birthday, Preston!

I can't believe my baby boy is THREE!!! I swear, every kid seems to grow up more quickly than the last.

We had family over for a little celebration with cake and ice cream. For about 2 minutes, I wanted to do something fun/fancy/homemade (the cake), but then I remembered Christmas was just two days ago and I just had a baby less than two weeks ago. Nope, not this time!Time to open birthday gifts! Francesco Bernoulli from Cars 2. He's really into Cars right now, especially Francesco, the Italian racecar!Buzz Lightyear Mission Command Center --- little did I know it didn't come with any figurines and Buzz, Woody and Zurg, the best characters, are impossible to find in stores. But you CAN get them on eBay for $25, $40 or $6o per figure (retail $10.99)! Nutso!

And his BIG birthday gift, this little trampoline. He jumped and jumped and jumped!!

Here he is in action:

Happy Birthday, sweet Preston!! You definitely keep us on our toes, but we love you SO much!!

3 year stats:

Weight-34 lbs (73%)

Height- 39.75 in (93%)

Merry Christmas ~ 2011

Blake and Gavin ready to escape through the trap Matt set this year!! Down at the bottom left is a door chime/alarm that sounds loudly when the two pieces are separated! Preston was the only one that made it go off!

Waiting patiently to come down...

Santa came!!! He brought a purple Bumbo chair for Hayden, Duplo Legos for Preston and Nintendo DSi's and a game each for Brooklyn, Blake & Gavin! Also Legos and the Lego Idea book for the kids, a pressure canner for me and a playground ball for Matt. ;)

Brooklyn and Blake were so SO excited!! They've been begging for a DS for YEARS!!Preston has really been wanting his OWN Legos

Everybody loved their gifts!
Blake really wanted this Hexbug Hive.

Brooklyn LOVES books like this!!

Gavin was excited to have his own, giant remote control Hummer!

Preston's favorite gift, Smokey the Firetruck. He moves and talks and shoots balls.

Hayden got a couple gifts~

Matt & I were supposed to only do one gift because we had recently purchased the new washer and dryer, ordered a new recliner for the family room (old one is in our room for night-time feedings) AND I just gave him a cute, brand new baby.... remember?I got Matt the complete set of Eragon books, including the newest one that came out last month.Matt got me Photoshop Lightroom (for me for him) and a new iPod nano with double the space of my last one. :) The kids helped wrap my gifts and they put them inside a box inside another box inside another box inside another box inside another box inside another box. They thought it was hysterical each time I unwrapped to find ANOTHER box!!

Our five, incredible blessings. ♥♥♥♥♥

The four big kids, all dressed and ready for church. I got to stay home and snuggle my baby girl!

When Matt got home from church, we headed over to his parents' house to exchange gifts with siblings and the little cousins. Hayden got a doll from grandma & grandpa that is almost as big as she is!!

Hayden & her cousin, Samuel, who is two months older than her :)

We stopped by Grandpa & Grandma LeBaron's real quick so they could meet baby Hayden.

This is the quilt grandma made for Hayden.

Then we moved on to my parents' house for Christmas dinner and more gifts. My parents love going out on date nights so we gave them gift cards for dinner and a movie, along with a box of See's candy- YUM!

The best/funniest gift was this fruit leather we gave Heston. He always is stealing fruit leather out of my pantry any time they come over!!! I can't believe he's going to be 18 in just a couple weeks!!!!

We stayed waaaaaayyyy late in the night and were practically delirious by the time we left. It's so nice that all of BOTH our families are nearby and that we can spend the holidays with them. I'm so grateful for the birth of our Savior and that we can be with our families forever because of Him. Merry Christmas!

Gavin lost his 1st tooth!!

I love this sweet little face. ♥

It's Christmas Eve and Gavin just lost his very first baby tooth!!! It's been loose for awhile now and the permanent tooth is already growing in behind it. He was chomping down on an apple this afternoon and all of a sudden, he came running to me saying, "My tooth came out! My tooth came out!" He had his tiny tooth in his hand (wishing now I had thought to get a picture of this...) and was just plain giddy!

How lucky that Santa and the Tooth Fairy get to visit on the same night!! We were wondering if maybe the Tooth Fairy might ride in Santa's sleigh with him tonight?? ;)

Ward Party, LeBaron Nativity and Palmer Santa

Since we just had a brand new baby, Matt has been on his own to take the kids to church and family Christmas celebrations.

The ward party was on the Friday that I was still in the hospital. The theme was A Night in Bethlehem so they all got dressed up for the occasion.
On Sunday was the LeBaron nativity. Gavin had the privilege of being Joseph this year. :) Preston was a sheep, and he wanted to be a "LAYING DOWN" sheep, his words! Haha!!
Monday night was the annual Palmer Christmas celebration. Blake got to be a special helper to Santa. Blake thinks very logically and was trying his hardest to figure out Santa's tricks!The kids got to sit on Santa's lap and tell them what they want for Christmas.Although this time of the year is completely insane with all the different celebrations to attend, I'm glad that my kids are growing up with good family traditions during the holiday season.

And I'm happy to report that Matt survived toting all four kids around to each of these special events. :)

She's HERE!!

Hayden Claire Palmer

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

7 lbs. 15 oz. 19 in.

Last pregnant belly shot, 3:30am - ready to head to the hospital for our c-section

There she is!

Mommy meeting baby for first time

Everything went smoothly with the surgery. I actually had more issues during prep with getting the IV placed and blood drawn; the nurse was having serious issues. I started feeling sweaty and like I might throw up and Matt said the color had drained from my face. By the time we walked in for the c-section, I felt pretty calm and was so excited to finally meet our baby girl! She had such a cute little high-pitched cry and chubby cheeks! I was surprised she wasn't bigger than she was. I felt pretty good in recovery and thought that maybe I'd manage to avoid the nausea issues I have after every c-section. But that whole first day, any time the hospital bed moved or I tried to drink something, I got dizzy or threw up. Matt was able to stay with me for a good majority of the day until he went to pick up the kids. We had lots of visitors throughout our hospital stay.

Grandpa & Grandma Hamilton were the first to hold baby Hayden

The kids were sooooo excited to see their new baby sister! Brooklyn had a perma-grin the whole time she was holding Hayden.

Blake was so sweet and gentle

Gavin loves his baby sister so much!

Preston immediately embraced his role as big brother. He was so enamored by her!!!

Proud daddy

Our family of SEVEN!!

Grandpa & Grandma Palmer

Sweet baby Hayden

Eyes open, checking out her new world

Precious, dainty features ~ button nose, perfect little lips

Me & my FIVE kids!!
(Gavin is thrilled)

Pretty girl~

All dressed and ready to go home from the hospital

I think I said out loud a couple of times, "it's so nice not to be pregnant anymore...." It was weird to hear myself say that because I was actually feeling pretty dang good those last couple weeks for being so pregnant! The rest of the stay was mostly pleasant. I battled with a headache off and on for the last two days and wasn't feeling too hot when we were discharged, but I was ready to go home. The aide wheeled me out to the car and as we were getting loaded up, I told Matt I felt like I was going to throw up and needed something to puke in. All he could find at the moment was a empty Happy Meal box. I promptly threw up once, then twice and the bottom of the box gave way, splashing barf all over the ground and my feet, right in front of the hospital. Embarrassing. Did I mention the kids were fighting at this very moment??! Not exactly the way I pictured our first car ride with our new addition. Then I got sick again on the way home, in a Ziploc bag this time, thankfully. Let me tell you how pleasant it is to use ALL those stomach muscles when you've just had surgery in that region -- NOT. I felt pretty lousy the rest of the day but just rested as much as I could and felt much better the next morning.

Hayden has been a great baby so far and we're so glad to finally have her here! Nursing is going splendidly and we're getting nicely settled here at home. Big sister and brothers adore her!! We're so in love with our precious little lady!