Daddy, I want a Violin...

Kenna watches Tim and I play our violins together often (but, not often enough) and she has been casually asking for a Violin for her birthday since we played in church in January. I'm glad she has picked the Violin as the instrument she wants to play because I can teach her and not have to pay for private lessons. But, I didn't think she was totally serious and put it off. Then we were watching America's Got Talent and there were these Triplets playing their Violins. They were really good. The winner of the show gets a Million Dollars. That was when Kenna started asking DAILY! (And she was asking Daddy daily. -Smart girl) She wants to play so she can go on that show and win a Million dollars. Ha,Ha! That will probably never happen but hey, whatever encourages her. So, while I was laboring in the hospital with Katie, Tim and I were shopping on e-bay. We bought her a beautiful 1/4 size violin. We didn't tell her we got it so it was a total surprise when it arrived via UPS on Monday and not in October for her birthday. She was so excited. She plays every day. It is really cute.

Happy Birthday Tim!

Asside from the best birthday present in the world (Baby Katie) We still had to celebrate Tim's 31st birthday. The weekend before she was born, we had friends over for a BBQ and to celebrate.
I made an Ice cream cake...


...Happy Birthday, to you!

Presents from the kids...

Present from our Father in Heaven....(and mom)

Tim went to Chilies and got himself and I a dessert to celebrate his birthday while in the hospital. It was soooo good!...

Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie. YUMMY!!!

Kathleen (Katie) Ray Palmer

Born 7/20/2009 (Happy Birthday to Tim!) at 4:27 PM. She was 7lbs 6oz and 20.5 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing great, and Katie has a healthy set of lungs.

6:30 AM - Arrived at hospital

Somebody is tired.

I told Tim to get comfortable. I knew it was going to be a long day.

4:27 PM she arrives! YAY!

I predicted she would weigh 7 lbs 4 or 5 oz. I was off by .5 oz. YAY MOM!

I may be tired, but I am as happy as a new mom can be!

And Tim is as happy as a new dad can be...

Checking out his little girl...


If the nurse walks in, she will not be happy to see this... (but, I thought it was cute)

7/21 - Tuesday- The kids came to visit.
All Katrina wanted to do was kiss her and kiss her and kiss her....

and kiss her...

Big brother Tyler...

Big sister Kenna...

Big sister Katrina...

Lovely family pic... why do we do this to ourselves? And yet, we still post them on our blog...

Katie. The kids loved the hat he nurse made for Katie...

First ride in car/car seat...

Welcome home sign the kids made with Dawnell Benson. She is so awesome! She took the kids for the evening and through the night monday night and had them Tuesday also. She is such a trooper! I am so blessed to know her. Being away from family, I was having a hard time with leaving the kids with somebody else. But she is so sweet and she is someobdy that you know will take good care of your kids and treat them better than you would treat them. :o) It was such a releif to know they were with her.

I'm having a baby on MONDAY!!!!

So my previous post was a vent session and a little bit of a downer. So I have to post something different and EXCITING! Even though I did just post this last week. I am having a BABY on MONDAY!!! YAY!!! I go in at 6 AM (3 AM Arizona time) Happy Birthday to TIM! If this baby hangs on until Monday that will be a fun Birthday present for him. :o) Thank you Dr. Graham. You are my favorite person in the world right now!!!

I have to VENT!!!!

We had our walk through on our house that we moved out of at the beginning of the month today. The walk through was ridiculous! First of all, 8 AWESOME ladies from our ward came to help me clean Monday and Tuesday. I painted and had carpets cleaned. I thought the house looked AWESOME when we were done cleaning and painting I was not worried at all about the up-coming walk through. I thought they would be happy about how GREAT it looked. (Wouldn't you be if the your house looked like this-pictures below) But, we were under a microscope the whole time. I left crying. The walk through took over an hour. They pointed out every tiny little surface scratch or water mark on the counters and floors. Some I KNOW for a fact were all ready there. Any little scuff on the walls (even though I painted after someone scrubbed them) If the sinks had water marks they pointed it out. She said the kitchen sink had not been cleaned but I know it had. It's stainless steel. IT is going to have scratches! A couple drawers got missed wiping out up stairs in the bathroom. They were not bad at all (just a little dust) but she complained about it. I was so mad by then, I went and got wipes out of my car and did it myself right there in front of her so they couldn't whine about it. They want to charge us to have the whole house cleaned again. They said it wasn't done good enough. They want to charge to have the house painted. They want to charge to have all the counters in kitchen and bathroom's buffed (they are corian counters so any scratches can be buffed). They wanted to replace the carpets before we moved in because of some stains and bleach marks that were already there (you will see them in pictures) and we asked them not to because with kids they would probably get more stains so they didn't replace them and now they are being so picky about 3 little stains we got on the carpet (and you CAN'T see them in pictures) and want to charge us to have the carpets replaced. I paid $350 to have the carpets cleaned and they did a great job but it wasn't good enough for the owners. We cleaned ALL the windows. I thought that was a stupid request but did it to make them happy (you will see how many there are in pics) The list goes on and on of things they were writing down and taking pictures of and saying we were going to have to pay to have fixed. I couldn't believe it! I was in shock. I have a feeling they are being so picky because they don't want to give us our deposit back. They are expecting it to look better than it did when we moved in. I wanted to bring up the fact that they wanted to replace the carpets before us and we said not to and the fact that the a/c was broken in the basement and they didn't tell us and our first month's bill was $800 and we didn't ask them to pay for it. We paid every month a week before rent was due. We paid them rent for July even though we moved out on the 2nd. They got extra money from us. I have been playing their "realtor" all week being inconvenienced by showing the house to people when I should be at home getting my house organized before this baby arrives. (They live in Louisiana so I was trying to be nice and help out) I was using allot of gas to drive over there every day (15 min drive) to show the house. I'm sorry, but we have gone above and beyond for them. It was just so frustrating!!! I still think we did a great job getting the house clean. I have a feeling, no matter how good it looked they would have found something to complain about. I told Tim we should have just moved out and not worried about doing all of the cleaning and painting and let them take care of it since they were going to complain anyway about how it looked. Oh... I am just so mad! We didn't even get our deposit back today. I don't know when we are going to get it or how much we will get back. It doesn't sound like much. I've NEVER been through such an ordeal after moving out of a rental. We have lived in allot of rentals. AHHHH!!!! OK, I'm done! Mainly because it is midnight and I need to go to bed. If you are still reading this, THANKS for listening.
Main Floor...



Red paper on the floor from the cleaners saying "Wet Floor"



Another "Wet floor" sign on the floors...







Up stairs...






The red is papers on the floors are from the cleaners saying "wet floor"








Basement....



Need I go on??? Every room in the basement looks just as awesome as the rest of the house.