Happy 30th to ME!

It's true, I'm officially OLD now!  People always talk about how they d-r-e-a-d turning 30, but I'm totally embracing it!  I'm really looking forward to discovering myself and growing and maturing as a mother and wife.

First of all, I just have to say a huge THANK YOU to Matt.  He pulled off a SURPRISE party for me!!!!  Saturday night, he told me we were going to some fancy restaurant in Scottsdale.  Immediately I got defensive. I'm not a fancy-type of girl.  I don't own very fancy clothes, fancy food kinda freaks me out and I was soooo nervous that I'd be in an uncomfortable setting all night long while trying to celebrate this momentous occasion.  He said we needed to stop by the Turner's first because Rocky wanted to show him his new firepit, and all I was thinking was that we'll be late for our "fancy" dinner reservations.  When we walked in the door, everyone yelled "SURPRISE!!!!" and I was so shocked!!  Some of our good friends, along with Derek & Kristin were there to help celebrate my 30th birthday.  We ate dinner and played a little Dance Central on the Xbox360.  I was so relieved to spend the evening hanging out than going somewhere "fancy."  I've been telling Matt for ages that I love the giant decorated cookies from Paradise Bakery and look what I got!!

On my actual birthday, it was a pretty typical day.  Lots of calls and messages from friends and family!  Matt gave me my birthday gift, a Clarisonic facial scrubber thing, which I've been wanting for awhile.  Then we packed up the family and headed out to Joe's Farm Grill for dinner.  It was yummy!

When you get older, birthdays don't always have the same pomp and circumstance as when we were younger, but I spent the day with the people I love most and wouldn't have it any other way!

Fathers & Sons / Girls Day Out

This past weekend was our ward Fathers & Sons campout, a time we ALL look forward to in our family! Matt took Friday off from work so they could spend the extra day up there before everyone else was set to arrive.  They left late Thursday night and came home Saturday afternoon.  Blake's one request was to go fishing so Matt took his gear and they found the perfect spot.  They caught 12 fish in all!  Each boy was so thrilled to tell me about the fish they got!  Matt only took these few pictures with his iPhone.... I'm just glad I got ANY!

Matt - I have really looked forward to Fathers and Sons every year. My favorite part is going up on Thursday and spending time with just me and my boys. On Friday when everyone shows up the sons go play and fathers hang out and the two groups don't interact much. Because I go up Thursday I get my time with them and when their friends come up I have no problem letting them run around having fun. This year we went to Flowing Springs just north of Payson. It was a good spot only for the fact that we caught fish pretty easily. I really enjoy fishing and love having a fish on the end of the line. When I fish with my kids all I do is tie hooks, bate hooks, fix rats nests and police the banks to keep the kids from throwing rocks in. The boys did better this time because the fish catching was regular enough to keep their attention, but it still took an hour for me to get all three poles in the water. Partially because we were catching and releasing and I had to cut some hooks off. I thought Preston wasn't having so much fun until he started huffing and puffing and finally blurted out, Dad, I wanna catch another fish!!!"

Friday night the kids were beat! They were begging to go to bed after the ward campfire(Blake fell asleep during the campfire). After I got them all settled in I sat there laying on my sleeping bag(a new 850 down expensive bag :) ) looking up at the stars and beaming with joy. I LOVE my children and I LOVE my boys. I felt so grateful for Heavenly Father sending them to Lindsay and I. They are so precious and wish I could keep them like this forever, but  I know they are growing up and will someday be doing this with their children. I love you Blake, Gavin and Preston!

I kept Brooklyn home from school on Friday and turned it into a GIRLS DAY!!!  We did the movies, Build-A-Bear Workshop, lunch at Grimaldi's Pizza, browse through Barnes & Noble bookstore, Dairy Queen for a cool treat on a HOT day, then to the ribbon store so I could get some headband elastic for baby girl.  Hayden was a perfect angel and Brooklyn had an absolute blast!  I was plain exhausted after such a long day with my girls!  Makes me so happy to say that. :)

Hayden, 4 months

Someone was not entirely cooperative during our monthly photo shoot.  Starting to see a little drama queen coming out here... haha
I swear, I blinked and now my baby, who was just born, is FOUR months old!! She is such an easy baby! One day last week, she was a teensy bit fussy and I was like, what in the world is wrong with my baby?!!! I had to rock her to sleep, then I got to snuggle and stare at my precious sleeping beauty.Gavin doesn't hold Hayden much, but he loves her and is so sweet to her.

Tummy time for a spitter-upper = barfy face!

Matt gets a kick out of the bloomers on the head

Just a tummy time photoshoot ---  you can totally see the skin tag on her neck here

She chews on her thumb a LOT. I keep wondering if she'll eventually start sucking on it... we'll see!

She also always has her feet in the air. ^^^ She grabs and holds her feet/toes lots.

She has evolved! Hayden now is a half swaddled baby. No more trapping the arms, but she seems to sleep more securely if she's still wrapped up on the bottom half. Probably will transition to sleep sacks soon?

She has discovered her mouth. Her tongue is constantly going, she blows raspberries and slobber bubbles. And she GROWLS. So cute!! This is a creepy looking, awful picture I took with my phone, but it shows exactly what she did over and over again once she realized she had a tongue! teehee

Her sleeping has become pretty scheduled, which is fabulous.  She sleeps all naps in her crib now and all I have to do is [half] swaddle her up, give her her binky (which she usually chews on then spits out), give her a blanket to hold, turn on her "fishies" and she goes to sleep.  She usually takes 3 solid naps a day, but is not sleeping through the night.  I cannot figure out rhyme or reason to her nighttime waking.  It's so sporadic, and it's killing me!  Once she gets into her own room, we'll work on that.

4 month stats --

13lbs 14oz

24.75in

17.25in ~ this is the 99th percentile!! Obviously keeping the tradition of big noggin children!

She's definitely more petite than the last two boys were.
I find myself frequently thanking Heavenly Father out loud for sending us this beautiful baby girl! ♥

10 YEARS!!!

What can I even say about this day?  Years ago, we always said we'd go to Hawaii for our ten year anniversary.  Then we decided to have a baby instead, so Hawaii wasn't going to work.  I just figured we do something to commemorate this BIG milestone, so I guess coming down with strep was just the thing.  I felt it coming on Thursday night and by Friday morning, it was no bueno.  I headed to the doc who pretty much confirmed what I already knew and I spent the rest of the weekend feeling miserable.  I kept apologizing to Matt for ruining our anniversary, especially since he'd actually made dinner reservations at the Melting Pot (we've never been).  He had our blog printed into books up until current, three books to add to our first one, that he wanted to spend the evening looking over and reminiscing.  We couldn't even kiss to celebrate!!  Such an anticlimactic day.  I sure hope I can get a raincheck on our celebration!

It's hard to believe that 10 years has already gone by!  And we have 5 kids!!  We've definitely learned a lot together and still have plenty of learning to do together!  Matt & I make a good team.  We don't always see eye to eye on everything, but with a little give and take, we make it work.

Easter 2012

Last Sunday (general conference), we did "Easter" with the Palmer side.  The grandkids had fun running about, looking for eggs in grandma and grandpa's backyard!

Preston goes for the easy ones

Boost from dad to retrieve an egg

Matt always gets a little one with the egg sticking out of his pocket

I wish I had a better picture of Brooklyn!  She was so cute with her hair and her outfit!

Hayden was trying to figure out what that green stuff was...

Blakester with his shirt buttoned ALL the way up to the tippy top!

Gav finds an egg!

Today, the kids woke up extra early to see what the Easter Bunny brought for them!  They could hardly contain their excitement!  Hayden had no idea what was going on, but she loved watching her big brothers and sister dig into their loot.

Hayden got a swimsuit & sun hat, toys and a taggie blanket

Chocolate for breakfast is ok on one day of the year!

Pictures of our beautiful kiddos all dressed up for church!! 

 I love how different all three of my boys are!

Pretty girls!

I was lame mom again and we didn't dye Easter eggs.  But we did save up all our blue/green chicken eggs for the occasion!  We managed to get a dozen (although one was bad).  Matt loves egg salad and no one else really eats hard boiled eggs, so he went about cooking and then found this special way to "peel" hard boiled eggs.

Straight after church, we ran over to my parents' house for a yummy dinner and egg  hunt.  Since we get out of church at 5pm, there wasn't much daylight left by the time we were finished with dinner so the kids had the extra challenge of searching for eggs in the dark!!  Preston missed out on the whole thing because he fell asleep on the drive over and stayed asleep all through dinner!

Matt being silly with Hayden

 Blake scored big time!

  Just like last year, Gavin found the MONEY egg!  5 buckaroos!

I find it such a struggle in this day and age to really make sure our kids know why we really celebrate Easter.  All around them, they are inundated with The Bunny, candy, plastic eggs, etc.  Even though stores are always pushing the next holiday upon us earlier and earlier, it seems as though it still sneaks up on me and I find myself wishing that I had done more thoughtful preparations on the REAL meaning of Easter.  My kids know that Jesus died for us and that He rose again on that third day, but I want them to KNOW how important the atonement is for each one of us.  It was because He suffered, died and was resurrected that we can live together again as a family, forever.  I want them to KNOW that He lives and loves each one of us.  It's our goal, as parents, to really focus on this more in the coming years.  Happy Easter!