Tim and Shay

I'm a Mormon

2011-09-27T14:34:00.000-04:00

Check out my profile on Mormon.org

http://mormon.org/me/37ZQ/#

Tyler Piano

2011-06-14T12:50:00.002-04:00

Here are the songs Tyler enjoys playing most and the two from his piano recital. The other recording at his recital didn't turn out very well but hopefully these do. And YES, I know the piano is out of tune. :o) Woring on finding someone to tune my mom's piano.

Sar Wars - Imperial March

Star Wars teaser....

2011-06-14T12:06:00.002-04:00

Zip-a-de-do-da from Song of the South or better know from the ride Splash Mountain at Disney.

Star Wars Main Theme Song - He's still working on learning this one....

More Tyler Piano

2011-06-14T11:22:00.002-04:00

These two are from his Piano Recital in May 2011

Minuet....

Pink Panther...

When I go running....

2011-05-16T23:04:00.000-04:00

This is a beautiful spot where I go running. Most of this path is covered in trees on both sides but this spot is a little more open with a big field on one side. I love it!!! This is at 6:30 am when I was out running with Tim. The fog in the field looked cool.... Sorry they are a bit blury. I took the pic while running. I didn't want to stop.

We be CRUSIN'!!!!

2011-05-16T22:57:00.000-04:00

I know I am a little out of order. I posted a bunch and then forgot about the Temple open house and Easter and my CRUISE!!! How could I forget to Blog about my Cruise with my girlfriends??? Well.... I guess that shows how busy I have been lately. Anyway.... I came home with a TON of pictures!!! I will try to just give the highlights.

I went crusin' with 11 girls/wives/mothers from our ward/area. We had something like 24 kids betwen all of us at home. What great husbands we have. We had lots of fun!!!

My first Sushi! I loved it!!! It didn't have raw meat in it though. I still wont do that.

Reading the Hunger Games. So awesome!

I think I gained 5 lbs. just looking at this dessert. Yum!!!

Snorkeling

Our fun group...

So many cute shoes in this group. Had to take a pic of them... :o) haha!

Easter

2011-05-16T22:37:00.000-04:00

Saturday Easter Egg Hunt at the park...

Sunday, Easter morning we woke up to breakfast on the table. Tyler got up early and made breakfast for all of us and set the table and wrote a note that said Happy Easter. What a sweet boy!!!

CANDY!!!!

Egg hunt...

Atlanta Temple Open House

2011-05-16T22:25:00.001-04:00

We are excited to have our Temple back!!!

Tim got to see his cousin at the open house, Elder King who is from Arizona but serving here in the Atlanta North Mission.

It is so beautiful inside too....

Mother's day 2011...

2011-05-16T18:36:00.001-04:00

I just did a brag moment but I have to do another one. Tim was out of town for Mothers Day helping with the Tornado Relief. Tyler and the girls arranged a fantastic Mothers day for me all on their own. I felt so spoiled!!!

I got to sleep in!!! Tyler got Katie out of bed and got her breakfast and took care of her and his sisters while I slept. When I woke up I laid there in bed just relaxing for a bit. I didn't hear any yelling or fighting. It was wonderful! Then I thought, I better go check on the kids. Just then, I hear little feet coming up the stairs and Tyler comes in with a plate of scrambled eggs and a bowl of my favorite cereal. What a treat! Breakfast in bed!!! (He even brought a cup of milk separate so my cereal wouldn't get soggy.) Then the girls came up with presents. They all crawled in bed with me and watched as I red their hand made cards and presents. It was so sweet. Then they all left to go clean up while I laid in bed and slowly ate my breakfast in peace. What an enjoyable morning.

My loot of hand made cards and presents. Kenna rolled a ball of 3 different colors of her favorite candy, Laffy Taffy and gave it to me. I know that was a big thing for her to share her favorite candy with me.

She also made me a jar of bath salt at Activity Days. It smells wonderful. I can't wait to take a bath with it.

Brag moment...

2011-05-16T16:15:00.000-04:00

Tyler mow's the lawn for me now. He has done it twice for me! I am so lucky!!!

Peachtree City International Triathlon

2011-05-16T15:55:00.000-04:00

Tim's second Olympic Triathlon. He had so much fun. It's my turn to do another race. I am getting ready to run the Ragnar in Florida.

Tyler's Piano Recital - May 2011

2011-05-16T15:54:00.003-04:00

Tyler's played two songs. Minuet and The Pink Panther. Video Below....

The Video... sorry the video is horrible. The file was too big to upload to this blog so I had to record it off the lap top to a lower resolution. It looks bad and it doesn't help that I had a child on my lap during the recital when I was trying to record the orignal so it is all over the place. It's more for listening than seeing. :o)

Helping Tornado Victims - May 2011

2011-05-16T15:54:00.001-04:00

Tim and over 1000 other members from our chrurch in this area went to Alabama over Mothers day weekend to help clean up from the recent Tornados. What a great service they were able to provide.

Tim and Tony Peterson...

Members of our Ward that went to help...

I am amazed the damage a tornado can do. I can't beleive it uprooted two big trees...

trees through the roof of a house.... I guess this is not bad compared to some areas. Some areas were only home foundations no structures left.

Look at the size of the treee and the roots.... holy cow!!!

Shane, Erik, Tim and Tony

Thunder Storms - April 2011

2011-05-16T15:50:00.001-04:00

The thunder storms bring our kids together and I don't blame them. They get soo loud, it's scary!!!

Principal Pal - March 2011

2011-05-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

Tyler was selected for the Principal Pal Award. He invited me to come to the breakfast with him.

Daddy Daughter Dance - February 2011

2011-05-16T15:49:00.000-04:00

Pinewood Derby - January 2011

2011-05-16T15:48:00.003-04:00

Tyler's Star Wars Lego Rock Band Birthday Party - January 2011

2011-05-16T15:48:00.002-04:00

Katie has a shoe obsession

2011-05-16T15:48:00.001-04:00

One of the funniest things is that if Katie relly likes your shoes, she will stare at them until you take them off and then she will steal them. She is so funny. She LOVES shoes!!!

Pre-school laughs

2011-05-16T15:48:00.000-04:00

Katrina provides a good laugh to her pre-school teacher sometimes. Especially when she dresses herself. Her teacher took this picture at school. She put her pants on backwards and they were unbuttoned. LOL!!!

Katrina and two of her friends she loves pre-school. She can't wait to start Kindergarten in August.

Christmas in Tennessee 2010

2011-05-16T15:47:00.002-04:00

We didn't actually have Christmas in Tennessee this year but we went to hang out with my sister-in-law's family for a few days before Christmas. My brother and his wife drove from Arizona to Tennessee so we had to go visit them since we don't get to see them enough. My sister-in-law's parents are so sweet to have us in their home. We enjoyed it! We had to leave a day early because Katie got sick. We had to drive an hour to Nashville the night before Christmas eve to take Katie to the hospital. She had 106 temp. Very Scary!!! We spent that night and the next morning (Christmas Eve) in the ER with her. She had phenomena and double ear infections. Poor girl was very grumpy on Christmas but I can't blame her.

Christmas Eve...

2011-05-16T15:47:00.001-04:00

Buddy the Elf...

2011-05-16T15:47:00.000-04:00

Last year the kids named our Christmas Elf, Buddy. So this is a few of the things Buddy did this year.

Buddy leaves on Christmas Eve to go back to the North Pole to help Santa. He ALWAYS leaves PJ's for the kids on Christmas Eve.

Gingerbread house making party

2011-05-16T15:46:00.000-04:00

December 2010

Tyler's Piano Recital December 2011

2011-05-16T13:37:00.008-04:00

Tyler and his teacher, Andrea Stroud at his first piano recital. He did a great job for only playing a few months... (Video below...)

Tyler and his best friend Zack Peterson take piano from the same teacher.

Video of Tyler's first piano recital....sorry the video is horrible. The file was too big to upload to this blog so I had to record it off the lap top to a lower resolution. It looks bad and it doesn't help that I had a child pulling on my arm during the recital when I was trying to record the orignal so it is all over the place. It's more for listening than seeing. :o)

Lasik

2010-12-21T14:22:00.000-05:00

I had Lasik on Saturday 12/18. Allthough I was almost in a panic before the surgery started, I made it through and I am enjoying the clarity of my vision without my contacts. Tim recorded it. I cringe every time I watch it and say.. "Eww... I can't beleive I let them do that to my eyes!" I'm glad it's over!

The Video anyone????

Family Photos

2010-12-04T13:15:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends...

2010-07-21T12:29:00.002-04:00

We have had so much fun here visiting with old friends.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
We got together with Janice and Katie - Friends from Elementary/Jr. High. It was so much fun to hang out witht them

All of our kids together. What a bunch of cuties. We are missing one little girl who was at gymnastics.

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We also got to see some our friends from Queen Creek like the Jacksons. They are so awesome! And our kids have so much fun together.

This is Katrina, Kenna and Ryan Jackson

Tyler and Noah playing rock band

Kenna and Ryan Playing Rock Band

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Tim and the kids went to Mirana (Tucson) to see our friends the Beaches. Isabelle was getting baptized. I'm glad they were able to do that. I was in Utah so we got together again later.

Tyler and Christian

Isabelle and Kenna

Katie (Beach) and Katrina

We got together again the next week with the Beaches and went to Sun Spash!!! The kids had so much fun

Tyler and Christian

Katrina and Katie (Beach)

Kenna and Isabelle

Abigale Beach

Mom and Katrina on the Lazy River

Palmers and Beaches (Our Katie is missing because we left her with grandma. It was too hot for her to be out in the sun that long)

Twins or Cousins

2010-07-19T17:44:00.001-04:00

Cousins - Kenna and Brianna. They did not plan to wear the same dresses on the same day, but they were so thrilled when they discovered that they were wearing the same dress to church. Everybody at church asked if they were twins. Since we are visitors they don't know who they are. They thought it was so much fun that people asked if they were twins.

Palmer Reunion 2010

2010-07-19T17:28:00.001-04:00

We had so much fun at the Palmer reunion. We are so glad we were able to make it part of our vacation here in Arizona. We traveled 1,700 miles for this reunion and it was a blast!

Swim Lessons in Arizona - Summer 2010

2010-07-18T20:57:00.001-04:00

Good Bye Elder Baldwin.

2010-07-18T20:03:00.001-04:00

We went to Joseph City for Tim's nephew's mission farawell. He will be serving in Missouri.

_______________________________

Tim and Zack Baldwin

Tim and his nephews Remmington and Zack Baldwin. Such cute Boys!!!

This is my experiment with adding scrapbook pages to my blog. This is a very plain and simple one. Didn't want to take alot of time on something that wouldn't work. But, it worked! And, It looks ok.... SWEET!

2010-07-15T03:35:00.009-04:00

Now I need to go back and fix my older posts...

Jones Reunion 2010

2010-07-15T02:33:00.007-04:00

The kids had alot of fun camping. Sadly it was really cold and windy, that made it hard for the kids to fully enjoy themselves. It started HAILING when we arrived at our camp site and started setting up our tents. We had to rush get them set up! It was so painful as the hail was beating down on our hands and heads. I was so greatful to Tim's mom for giving us some jackets before leaving to go camping. I didn't think we needed them but I was so WRONG! I'm glad I brought them along "Just in case".

Katrina was so exhausted after camping. When we got home, she fell asleep right inside the door. :o) LOL!

Kathleen Ray Palmer x 2

2010-07-14T19:14:00.002-04:00

Katie was finally able to meet her Great Grandma Palmer who she was named after.

Katie finding a love for the pianoCousins - Reese Cardwell & Katie Katie loves to give hugsCousins - KaylieRae & Reese (sisters) and Kenna & KatieCousins - Katrina and ChloeCousins KaylieRae and Tyler and their tower

Cooling off in the water

2010-07-14T18:32:00.000-04:00

The kids have had so much fun swimming and playing in the water on Grandma Jones' back porch.

CousinsSisters

Tim's getting buffer!

TWINS!

2010-07-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

Really, they are cousins. This is my Katie and nephew Joshua. They were born 10 days apart. It's so cute to watch them interact. They LOVE eachother. Over the past two months Joshua has learned that he has to crawl really fast away from Katie to keep her off of him. But, when she doesn't follow him, he turns around and looks at her and makes a noise like he is saying "come on Katie, chase me"

Happy Fathers day...

2010-07-02T17:03:00.005-04:00

This is so cute! I stole this idea from a friend last year.

IT says:
these shoes are too big on me, as you can plainly see.
but when i am grown, they will still be big on me.
the reason is quite simple, i'm sure you will agree.
no one can fill these shoes quite like my daddy.

My Everyday Hero...Shirley Jones

2010-02-26T11:51:00.012-05:00

Last month Tyler came home from school with a paper, It was about an essay contest and they wanted our children to write about their "Everyday Hero" Tyler expressed that he wanted to write about his hero but wanted some ideas as to who he should write about. I kind of passed it off by telling him to think about it and I would think about it too. I thought for a little bit and then got distracted and forgot all about it. A week later he came home with a Blue First PLACE ribbon and an invitation to a Reception in honor of all the First place essay winners and their heroes. I was SHOCKED! I asked him "Who did you write about?" He said "I wrote about Grandma Jones". I said "Really? What did you write about grandma?" He said "I wrote about how much I love grandma and that she teaches me to choose the right and she always does stuff for us". I thought "wow" and started tearing up. I knew my mom (grandma) would be touched and so I called her right away! I told Tim about it later in the evening and he was so excited. I found out that he had helped Tyler with coming up with the idea of writing about grandma. Tyler loves his grandma dearly and would live with her year around if he could. I think she is the main reason he misses Arizona. He is very close to my mom. I love it!

The reception was on Tuesday. It was neat. It was a district wide essay contest so there were kids there from all different schools. One child from each grade at each school won. It was neat to see that out of hundreds of kids Tyler's age, he won first place. Sadly, grandma couldn't be here for it.

They got their photo taken for the paper.

This is what the paper article says:

The Forsyth County Council of PTA’s launched a new writing program called “Honoring Our Heroes” this year. Any student enrolled at a Forsyth County school with a Parent Teacher Association was encouraged to enter an essay about their favorite hero. Local school PTA judges could then submit 6 essays to the Council. These students would then be recognized at a special reception and receive a commemorative book with all the Council essays. The students were encouraged to also invite their hero to the reception to receive a certificate and a book. Over 30 students and their heroes were recognized at the reception held at Midway Elementary school.

According to Jodie Barger, Council Coordinator, overall the students recognized family members. She said "This is one of the most rewarding positive projects I’ve worked on in awhile. The voices are fresh, honest, and truly filled with love and just reiterate all the goodness found in our community and the world. We are thrilled that these students went beyond their normal school work to enter the program and show their appreciation to a hero.” The program was well received and hopefully will be offered again next year.

The Council would also like to thank some of the cast members of “Beauty and the Beast” from West Forsyth High School for the entertainment and Midway Elementary PTA for their hospitality at the reception.

Zip Line

2010-02-22T14:46:00.011-05:00

Do you need a good laugh? Here ya go.... feel free to laugh at me. I got in touch with my adventurous side last week and I gave into peer pressure. What was I thinking?

Our neighbors put up a cool zip line in their back yard. I have been wanting to try it out since they put it up. Tim was working from home last Thursday and so was Shane (our neighbor) so he invited Tim over to go down the zip line. I was heading out to go Visiting Teaching and I stopped over there first. Tim asked if I wanted to go down. "Yes, of course I do" But then Shane said that they needed to fix the breaks first. So I was happy to wait. But then Tim said I could do it with out breaks, I just needed to put my feet out when I got to the tree to stop myself. I said "No, that's ok, I'll wait". Then Tim called me a chicken and said I could do it no problem, after all... he just did it a bunch of times. So I gave into peer pressure said ok and I went for it. It was so much fun!!! Until I got to the tree. I didn't have a successful stop and smacked right into the tree! Like George of the Jungle. I got a couple cool bruises out of it though. They are proof that I have an adventurous side. Here is the video...feel free to laugh at me. I do every time I watch it.

Shay on Strouds Zip Line

I did it again two days later on Saturday after the breaks were fixed. It was fun!

Check out my sweet bruise... My brothers will be so proud! I have a matching one on my bum... You don't want to see that one though. :o)

More SNOW!

2010-02-17T09:13:00.014-05:00

According to people that have lived here in Georgia longer than us...this is the most snow they have seen in years. It only snowed lightly once last year in March when I was in Arizona visiting. It just snowed a good amount a few weeks ago in January and then we got even more snow this weekend (Valentines weekend) We were planning on taking a trip to the Temple this weekend, but because of all the snow and ice it wasn't safe to drive to South Carolina to go to the temple (the Temple here in Atlanta is closed for reconstruction) we had to stay home and have fun playing in the snow! It was REALLY fun!

I didn't realize there would be so much snow so fast. I took a picture when it started snowing because it was coming down fast and looked so pretty but it didn't look like it was sticking to the ground.

And then 10min later, I looked out side and the snow was actually staying on the ground...

Then 15 min later I looked outside and there was alot more snow on the ground! It was so cool! Look at these trees with all of that snow. It's beautiful!...

Tim's truck...

The neighborhood...

Neighbors snowman...

Snow on our Baskeball net...

The kids were outside as soon as they could see snow on the ground on Friday (they didn't have school) and stayed outside until they were frozen and had to come in for dinner. Then they were outside again the next morning on Saturday playing in the snow all day! And then Sunday morning while we were getting ready for church, I realized I hadn't seen Katrina in a while. I hunted everywhere in the house for Katrina and couldn't find her. Then I looked out the window and there she was in her pj's and snow boots.. no hat, no gloves, no jacket, just pj's and snow boots, playing in the snow! It was cute... I wish I took a picture, we were in a hurry so I didn't think about it.

Tyler, Kenna and Katrina sledding down the hill all together. Weeeee!

Tim sled skiing....

Tim and Katrina sledding...

Our house...

Katie and the kids...

Tim, Tyler and Katrina making snow angels. Kenna had given up by this time and gone inside she was soooo cold!

KATIE

2010-02-17T08:48:00.005-05:00

She's a pro...

She is sitting up like a pro...

She holds her bottle on her own like a pro...Yay! That free's up so much more time... :o)

Kenna loves making a soft bed for Kate. She is her little baby doll. Tyler loves playing with her too. Katie was getting fussy and so they made her a bed to sleep on. :o)

Stylin' with a cute pair of Minnie Mouse sun glasses...

Daddy Daughter Dance

2010-02-17T08:34:00.007-05:00

Every year the Elementary School's in our area have a Daddy Daughter Dance. Kenna was so excited about this! She LOVES going on dates with her daddy! She is totally a daddy's girl. They got all dressed up, Tim got a boutonniere and got Kenna a wrist corsage. They went out to dinner and then to the dance. It was so cute! I can't wait for the Mother Son bowling night. I love that the schools do this. I remember the ward I grew up in doing a daddy daughter date once every few years but not nearly often enough.

Tim and Kenna

Sweet!

Cutie!

Dancing...

Kenna dancing her little heart out! She was trying to win a prize.

Kenna is right there in the middle ^^^ of the crowd

Pinewood Derby

2010-02-16T22:35:00.005-05:00

It's that time of year again! Tim and Tyler working on the pinewood derby car. They had lots of fun with it this year and mom helped a little too using her creative tools. She even suggested putting the weights through the center of the car so that they didn't take away from the look of the 'Lary Mobile' it worked out really well! She even found the perfect weight shaped like a bullet which is what we needed for the front of the car to look like a bullet. It was lots of fun!

A few Christmas vacation days spent working on the car....

Racing day...we had to do some modifications to get it to weigh 5.0 oz. It was .5 oz over but we got it down to 5.0 and it worked out well....

Tyler racing his bestfriend Zack...

We didn't win but Tyler received the 'most original award' for his car the Lary Mobile. For those of you who don't know... it is from the cartoon Veggie Tales. :o)

2010-02-16T22:20:00.005-05:00

I love my Elephant...

Kenna's Bendaroo headband and earings. So creative!

Daddy made Kate's first ponytail...{Cindy-loo Whoo} And she is sitting up on her own so well

Stylin'

Let it snow

2010-01-14T12:28:00.006-05:00

It snowed last week. The kids LOVED playing in it. They were outside until dinner time the first day and the next day was a snow day and they didn't have to go to shool so they played outside ALL day. It's not that we had so much snow that they couldn't go to school but they were expecting ice on the roads and so they cancelled school. I had my first expirience driving on ice. It was a little scary for me. I was trying to slow down without pushing on my breaks but I had to a little because i was coming up to a stop light and there was a car infront of me. I couldn't hardly stop and I was sliding on the ice. Aaaahhh! I tried to stay calm and not panic. Luckily I was able to stop intime and the car behind me stoped in time. YAY! I was so releived! There are still small patches of snow around because it has been so cold it hasn't melted all the way yet. But for the most part, it is gone.

Here are some pics from our snow day...
Day 1

They played until dinner time...

Day 2
Friday morning...

10 years!

2010-01-06T16:43:00.006-05:00

Happy Anniversary to the Love of my life and the greatest guy I have ever known. What I did to deserve you I do not know, but I feel like the luckiest girl in the World!

I know I had this picture on here last year but it's the only one I have on my computer. So you get to see it again. ;o)

October 2009

Happy Birthday to my first born...

2010-01-02T11:01:00.008-05:00

Today is Tyler's 9th birthday. We are so blessed to have him in our family. He is such a sweet boy and a hard worker. He has always been such an angel. Yes, he is a boy who LOVES to tease his sisters. But he also looks out for them. He is always there for Mom when needed. He does things to surprise me that make me so happy. We had a New Years eve party at our house and the night before, while I was getting ready for bed, Tyler cleaned up the toy room to perfection. He didn't want to use the vacuum and wake up Katie so he crawled around on the floor picking up every little speck. The next night after everybody left our New Years Eve party at 2:15AM, I began to clean again all by myself so I could have a chance to enjoy the clean house in the morning. (My sweet hubby Tim, and Kenna, Katrina were asleep on the couch). I was sweeping floors and wiping counters. I dreaded cleaning the toy room and was saving that for last. That is where the kids spent most of the night and I was not looking forward to picking it all up. It was almost 3AM, I walked into the room and it was clean to perfection! Tyler had cleaned it. I was so excited! He did all of this with out being asked. I could go on and on. Happy Birthday to my our baby boy. We love you!

I was sooo young... Me 9 months pregnant with Tyler...

Tyler's blessing day...

Tyler 6 months old... Tyler was always our over achiever. He started crawling at 5 months and walking at 7months. Katie is just over 5 months and she doesn't even roll all the way over. I can't imagine Katie crawling right now.

7 months...

2 years old...

8 years old...

Charlie the Elf

2009-12-31T00:47:00.007-05:00

This year we had an Elf from the North Pole stay with us. He arrived after Thanksgiving. Kenna named him Charlie Katrina called him Elfie and Tyler went with whatever (and Katie doesn't know the difference). They were so excited to have this Elf in our home. They did better at keeping up on their chores and tried to be on their best behavior. They were always excited to wake up in the morning to see what the Elf had done that night while they were sleeping. The girls adored Elf and took turns holding him tight at night while falling asleep. It was hard for the elf to escape their arms each night but he managed to get away too play. One night Kenna left her Lego's out and he had fun building with them. One morning he left a trail of ornaments on the ground and was found at the top of the Christmas tree. We even discovered that he is quite the ladies man. He was found having tea with Minnie Mouse, Tinker Bell, Ariel and Jenny (Kenna's doll). He also got all tied up in moms garland that was decorating the hand rail going up the stairs. It looked like he was swinging from it - like a vine. Silly Elf. On Christmas eve he had to return to the North Pole but left a letter with his report of what he observed in our home and told them that he thought they deserved to be on the nice list and left each of the kids a present to open. It was lot's of fun having Charlie the Elf or Elfie in our home. We look forward to seeing him next year.

Oh Christmas Tree...

2009-12-10T14:03:00.012-05:00

Day after Thanksgiving we went and picked out a Christmas tree. We didn't cut down our own tree this year like we did last year. We just did a quick and easy trip to Home Depot. That way we could spend more time at home together having hot chocolate, decorating the tree and house, and watching a Christmas movie. We watched Elf. The kids love that movie. We also enjoyed a few games of Rock Band. It was a fun day. Here are a few pics...

KATE

Decorating the tree

Rock Band

Katie found her thumb

Thanksgiving

2009-12-10T09:17:00.005-05:00

Although we are away from our families we are so blessed to have good friends here that feel like family. Like last year, this year we got together with our group of friends from Arizona that moved here for work. We all got together at the Peterson's and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. There was soooo much food! We got STUFFED!!! It was a great day. What more can I say? Here are some photos I stole from a friends blog...

Carving Pumpkins and Halloween

2009-11-02T13:42:00.020-05:00

We had to do our pumpkin festivities in spurts because Tim is out of town and it takes way too long to do it all in one evening. So each day after school they quickly got their chores and homework done and then after dinner we worked on them.
Day 1: We went to a pumpkin patch (on a lot, lame I know) the kids all picked out their great pumpkin.

And we decorated the outside of the house

Day 2: We watched 'The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' and cleaned out the insides of our pumpkins.

Day 3: We watched 'The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' AGAIN and carved the pumpkins. The kids did them all by them selves while I fed Katie. I tried to help Katrina but she wouldn't let me. And she did a really good job so she didn't need my help anyway. She was so patient with her pumpkin it was so cute! Luckily, her's was much softer pumpkin than Tyler and Kennas.

The finished product

Halloween
Tim's company lets them dress up and they do awards for best costume or best decorated desk or whatever and then at the end of the day the employee's families can come in and trick or treat. The kids love it. It's warm inside, they don't have to walk far and they get lots of candy in a short amount of time. I wish that was good enough for the kids. But they want to go out trick or treating with friends at night too. It's just a day full of fun and LOTS of candy.
Tim dressed up...

Our family at his work...

Our poorly decorated house. Oh well. It's more than we did last year.

Katrina's Pumpkin...

Tyler's pumpkin

Kenna's pumpkin

Halloween Night

Time for bed. They had matching Halloween PJ's too. Kenna was so tired. She fell asleep in the car on the way home. She woke up the next morning with 105 temp. so she really wasn't feeling good in this pic.

Apple Picking at Hillcrest Farm in Elijay, GA

2009-11-02T12:49:00.008-05:00

We took the kids apple picking. They had fun. They had their bag full in no time. All that practice picking oranges on Grandpa's farm made this an easy job :o). After we picked apples we watched the pig races, the kids rode on John Deere tricycles around a track and then ate a late lunch and went home. It was a fun experience.

We had beautiful scenery on the way there...

Tyler, Kenna and Katrina

Tyler

Kenna

Katrina

Katie

All the kids (Palmer's and Peterson's)

Enjoying fresh jucy apples

Kenna riding a John Deere tricycle

Katrina riding a John Deere tricycle

2009-10-27T19:20:00.001-04:00

Disney World...

2009-10-12T18:55:00.021-04:00

8 days was a little much for me, but at the same time, it was a great trip! We had allot of fun accept for the weather. We thought it would be a nice time of year to go but it turned out to be so HOT and Humid!!! I can handle hot, after all, I grew up in Arizona. But when you add 90% Humidity to 90+ degree heat (maybe slightly exaggerated) that is when it kills me! I was DONE with the heat and humidity by day 3. Poor Katie was about to have a heat stroke on day 1 (at the park) after we had been there an hour. We stripped off her clothes and bought one of those over priced fans that has a water bottle attached. It was worth the $17 and two new AA batteries every day to cool her down and to keep her from over heating the rest of the trip. She was such an angel the whole trip. She never fussed accept when hungry and slept so good at night (considering we were all sleeping in the same room). We spent 6 days at Disney World + one day driving there and one day driving home. It is an 8 hour drive with kids(6 hours if you drive straight through.) But it wasn't a bad drive. :o) Of course we have a TON of pictures! I will spare you and not post all of them on here. Just the highlights....

DAY 1: We celebrated the girls birthday the first night we got there so they would have their new cameras to take pictures through out the trip...

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Day 3: Holywood Studios

Katie chillin' with the fan blowing on her to cool her down...

Day 4: The kids outside the dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. We went with the Petersons...

Katie in her little air condtioned tent.

Tyler and Zack Peterson cooling off in the fountain. It was a HOT day!!!

Day 5: Epcot

Monika talked me into learning how to ride a Segway with her. It was pretty cool!

Our family outside of Nemo

We went to the Better than Ezra concert there at Epcot.

Day 6: Magic Kingdom for the 2nd time.

Katie looking very comfortable

They had it all decked out for Halloween

Day 7: Animal Kingdom for the 2nd time and Katrina's 4th Birthday. Since Kenna and Katrina's birthday are back to back we celebrate them together when we can. Especially since this was our last day at DW. We had to make them both feel special. First thing we did when we woke up was give them their presents...The both really wanted baloons that they have in the parks and minnie mouse shirts so insted of paying the high price at DW, Tim went to Wal-Mart and bought them. They were so excited!!!

The Petersons bought the girls necklases. They loved them!!! They are still wearing them almost week later! Kenna's was Belle (She loves Belle from beauty and the beast) and Katrina's was Tinker Bell (she loves tinker bell)

Before we got on the bus to take us to the park, Tim went to the front desk at the Resort to get "It's my birthday" pins from them. The guy was so nice, he gave the girls each their own card and a Minnie Mouse plush toy. They were thrilled!!!

Our Family at Animal Kingdom

Katrina was so sweet and shared her Minnie Mouse with Katie.

Day 8: Kenna's 7th Birthday. Going home. In the morning at breakfast there was a clown there making baloon's. Kenna was sure to let the clown know it was her birthday. He made her a baloon flower and then she wanted Katrina to feel special so she told the clown it was Katrina's birthday yesterday so he made one for Katrina too.

And the boys got sowards of course!

On our 8 hour treck home we stopped for dinner at Outback to make it a special day for Kenna. They brought out a treat and sang happy birthday to her and of course Katrina too.

Too funny!

2009-09-30T11:23:00.002-04:00

Tim posted this on FB... I thought it was too funny!

Everyone says Tyler looks just like me. I think now I see the resemblance.

Can rain really be a cause for cancelling school?

2009-09-22T08:59:00.008-04:00

I guess when it looks like this it is.... I stole these pictures from a friend on FB. These are pictures of Bishop Hunters Christmas Tree farm. The rivers and streams here are so full, they are overflowing which is causing alot of roads to close because they are flooding the streets. It took the kids an exta 20 min to get home from school yesterday.

Not supposed to do that... This is their driveway!!! Their drive way also acts as a dam. The right side of the drive way is a pond but it is over flowing and going across the driveway and down the otherside.

Along the side of the road...

The Hunters have a neat little pond with paddle boats and ducks/geese and there is, I mean WAS a little Island. It's totally under water now. The white pole on the left side the picture WAS the edge of the pond.

Here is what the pond looked like before...

I'm 30!!!

2009-09-20T14:48:00.010-04:00

My Birthday was on Thursday. I can't believe I am 30! It's not as devastating as I thought it would be. I always thought 30 was so old! But, I don't really feel old. :o) I think having a tiny little baby helps me feel younger... Maybe? Or maybe it is the great friends I am surrounded with that made turning 30 OK. Whatever it is, it was a great Birthday!

7AM (still in my pj's) Tim and the Kids gave me my birthday present. It was wrapped in Katrina's shirt....

(Forgot my camera) Some girls in the ward planned a lunch and we all got together and hung out and ate lunch and they asked me a list of questions. Some questions I didn't mind answering and some were embarrassing. We had a good time though. I got pretty flowers!

That evening a couple girls and I went to Cheesecake Factory for dessert. (Deb White, Monika Peterson, Jessica Sherman and Me!)

Godiva chocolate brownie with ice cream. It was sooo sweet! It made me sick and I only ate half!

Friday night Monika offered to watch our kids so Tim and I could go on a date for my birthday. Tim let me pick where I wanted to go. Normally I would pick Stoney River, Macaroni Grill, Outback, Longhorn, Chilies or Ichiban but I didn't feel like any of those. I wanted to go back to Cheesecake factory for their awesome Grilled Chicken Toastada Salad. YUMMY!!! (Of course we took Katie. I can't leave her with a baby sitter yet.)

Baby Blessing

2009-09-15T20:29:00.008-04:00

Our sweet Katie girl was given a name and a blessing on Sunday the 13th by Tim. The circle consisted of 9 other people, all friends and one family member. Tim's cousin Aaron Shoemaker who also lives here in Georgia and drove an hour to be there. It was really neat, we feel so blessed to have such good friends who are our family away from family. Tim said it was funny to see the shock from his cousin Aaron when he said Katie's full name because we always call her Katie, Aaron didn't know her full name. We named her after her great grandma Palmer(Tim and Aaron's grandma), Kathleen Ray Palmer, fist, middle and last name. Even the correct spelling, that's a must if you are going to name your child after her great grandma :o). It was such a sweet blessing. I had tears. He blessed her to be like her great grandma, loving, forgiving and to see good in everybody. I am especially grateful for the forgiving part because I know I am going to need allot of forgiveness from her (and the other kids) as I am far from a perfect parent and make allot of mistakes. There was more but I can't remember it all. It was such a special day.

Yes, Katie is giving us smiles now. She is growing so fast!

Her dress...

A whole lot of us...Family pictures...

2009-09-07T17:09:00.008-04:00

I'm so exhausted from all this picture taking....

Peace out....

First day of school

2009-08-24T14:39:00.005-04:00

I know, I am behind... Tyler is now in 3rd grade and Kenna is in 1st grade. They are loving their new school. I am so glad. They have good teachers and good friends. Kenna fell asleep on the bus last week. That was scary for her. After the bus driver droped off all the kids he brought her back. She was in tears. But, she now goes to bed when we tell her to.

Katrina enjoyed a quiet day with mommy and Katie. She got to watch whatever tv show she wanted and got to have Katie all to herself.

Our Little Katie Baby

2009-08-07T15:00:00.010-04:00

Katie is almost 3 weeks old!
I was told I need to up-date pictures of Katie and tell my delivery story. So here is both...

My Dr. scheduled me to be induced on the 20th. {Tim's Birthday!} The hospital called me at 6 AM and said, "We have a bed for you, can you be here between 6:30 and 7". I said "Of course!" We arrived at 6:45am. I signed a bunch of paper work, I got my IV at 8:45 am, started the pitosin at 9:20am, Anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural at 10:15am, Dr. came in and broke my water, I was still dilated 1 to 2 (same as my appointment the week earlier) We did allot of just sitting there waiting. {What else can you do when you are hooked up to IV's and numb from the waist down?} We watched a movie. He's just not that into you. Didn't really like it. They had me turn from my right side to my left side to my right side, every hour. That was a new one for me. I've never had to do that before. Anyway, 12:18 pm Dilated 3 or 4, Then I got forgotten about for 3 hours! I was on my right side for 3 hours and by 3 pm I could feel everything on my Left side. I could feel the contractions and was getting really nervous about not being numb and feeling everything. I did that with the first two kids and I was not about to do that again. 3:15 pm I asked the nurse if I could flip to my left side and have more epidural to numb the Left side, My contractions were 2 min apart and I was dilated to a 5. 4:00 pm still not numb on my left side but VERY numb on my right side. I was still a little nervous. The pain was manageable. It was uncomfortable but I could deal with it. In the end, (looking back) I don't mind that I could feel some of it. It made things more interesting. I was able to time my contractions and I could actually feel the baby moving down. That is when it got uncomfortable but not unbearable. I knew when it was time to push! At 4:22 pm I started pushing, 2 good pushes and 1 little one and she was out! Katie was born 4:27 pm She weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. (Really 7 lbs 5.5 oz, they rounded up) We are so happy she is healthy and love having her in our family.

Kenna just adores her little sister

Katie likes to be upside down. She will squirm until she is like this and then she falls asleep.

Katrina can't get enough of Katie

Daddy, I want a Violin...

2009-07-30T20:20:00.007-04:00

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!

2009-07-27T16:00:00.007-04:00

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

2009-07-20T22:24:00.007-04:00

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!!!!

2009-07-15T11:46:00.002-04:00

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!!!!

2009-07-12T23:31:00.013-04:00

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.

12 days! Or less!

2009-07-09T17:26:00.007-04:00

No, not 12 days til' Christmas. 12 days until the baby arrives!!! Could be less but I know that I will be having this baby in 12 days! My Dr. is inducing me on the 20th. That is Tim's birthday! I need to kick it into high gear and get this house un-packed! I am really surprised this move hasn't put me into labor yet or broken my water. But I am actually glad about that. I have sooo much to un-pack. I haven't been feeling the baby move much. I told my friend Emily who is a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital and she suggested I go to my Dr. just make sure every thing was ok. I knew I needed to, but I kept procrastinating it because I have so much going on. I needed that extra push to go. For peace of mind. My Dr. is out of town and everybody covering for him was gone for the day so I went to the hospital. They hooked me up and everything sounded good. I was even having a few contractions but nothing consistent or enough to keep me. Which is fine. At least I know all is well. :o) I am sure the baby has dropped. I can breathe! And she feels like she is going to just fall out anytime. It is a crazy feeling! My sister-in-law Tasha had her baby yesterday 07/08/09 her birthday is the birthday I REALLY wanted to have. 7-8-9. So cool! My other sister-in-law Donna is having her baby today 07/09/09. Lucky girl! Two of my good friends from Queen Creek in Arizona had their babies on July 1st and the 6th. AWESOME! And I am the tail end. I will be joining you girls in the new mother/sleep deprived club soon!
UPDATE: I got a text from my sister-in-law Donna today (7-10-09) She just had her baby today at noon. She went in yesterday to be enduced. I bet that was a LONG night for her. Baby Joshua is ADORABLE!!! Havent seen pictures of Tasha's baby yet but I bet she is adorable too!

Awesome friends!!!

2009-06-27T18:43:00.004-04:00

I have to say, I have the coolest friends! I feel so blessed. I feel so SPOILED! The girls in my ward have totally jumped in to help me with packing and getting ready for the move. They even sent a sign up sheet out in an e-mail and around in church to have people come help with packing, meals and babysitting. Both of my visiting teachers, who should not be doing much came to help. One recently had surgery and the other one is also pregnant. Ladies I don't hardly know (I just see them each week at Church) have come to help. WOW!!! What a great act of service! Not only that but the men, yes, the men from our ward have also gotten together and planned to help us move our stuff from this house to the other house. It actually isn't unusual for the men from church (no matter what ward you live in form Arizona all the way to Georgia) to help with a move. But, I couldn't believe we didn't even have to ask. They heard we were moving and asked when and said they would get help together. Isn't that AWESOME! I am so relieved. This has taken a lot of stress off the move. We have so much packing left to do but have also gotten allot done. I AM THRILLED!!!! And so VERY BLESSED!!!! AND to top it all off, they are throwing me a baby shower on Tuesday. How cool is that!?!

We found a house.

2009-06-20T15:40:00.016-04:00

We are moving 4th of July weekend. Ugh! I am not excited. I have no Idea how we are going to do this. But, we are. I don't care if it puts me into labor early, I just don't want to go into labor too early and have something happen to the baby. I am really nervous about that. We are going with the house that is still in our ward. YAY! Call me spoiled, but I couldn't live in the other house that Tim wanted. There was just too much that was icky too me. The biggest thing was the kitchen and it was really small and icky. The kitchen in the new house is small too. But I can deal with it. At least it is clean. It is a 4 bedroom 3 bath (the 5th bedroom is the retreat off of the master bed room). That is a good amount of space for us. I've been spoiled in this house. It is so nice and spacious, I love that part. But, that is also the problem. It is too big for me. I am going nuts having to go up and down the stairs ALL DAY LONG!!! We will still have stairs but no basement. So one less set of stairs. So anyway, here are some pictures of the house we are getting....

Kitchen

Kitchen looking into "formal dining"/play room. No, it is not that color anymore. It is painted cream.

"Breakfast nook" I call it the dining room since the formal dining room I am using as a play room.

Family room

Retreat/Baby room (Scrapbook room) off Master

Master. looking into master bath

Girls room

Girls room again

Office/Guest room on Main floor -Tylers room up stairs looks about the same.

Back Yard

Cul-de-sac, I just found out that the house directlly across the street from us is the Strouds house in our ward. They have a boy Tylers age. YAY! He will be so excited!

What's new?!?!

2009-06-20T08:33:00.002-04:00

Well, two things since my last post....My dad and we are moving AGAIN! Ugh!

My dad has gone in for 7 surgeries in 2 weeks on his leg. 3 of them were simple, flushing of the leg but he still had to be put under for it. His last surgery (on Thursday) was to do a "flap". It is like a skin graft but they take muscle with it. They have to do that because the opening in his leg (where the bone was sticking out)they can't close it. So they have to do a "flap". They had to stop surgery and put him in ICU because his heart was showing signs of stress. WELL YEA! What can you expect?!? You are taking a 72 year old man in for Surgery every other day. They need to slow down and give his body time to recover. After he has the "flap" surgery, he will be given two weeks to recover and then they will have to do one last surgery to do a skin graft. We are praying he makes it through these last two surgeries. It has been a little scary and all of this over a dang broken leg!

NEXT! We are moving. Yes, moving. We have been in this house a year as of August 1st. I don't want to move, but the owners of our house want us to buy the house or sign another year lease. We can't buy it. And we were thinking of moving to a smaller house w/smaller payment in January. But we weren't going to do that for sure. We just started thinking about it. We don't want to sign another lease here. But I don't want to move yet. So, it REALLY STINKS!!! Did I mention, I don't want to move yet? I wanted more time but they are totally unwilling to work with us. WHATEVER!!! So now we have to find a house and move in the next couple weeks before I have this baby. I'm so mad. I DON'T WANT TO MOVE!!! But, we really need a smaller house and a smaller payment. We found a house in our ward (AWESOME) but it is a little more of a drive for Tim to work (stinks) This house is my favorite out of all the ones I have looked at. We found another house that I don't like as much but it is closer to Tim's work, close to all the shopping in a GREAT area and a little bit cheaper and it is in our old ward that we lived in for two months. I really liked that ward and didn't want to move out of it when we did. Now, I have made friends here in this ward and don't want to leave it. I don't like that house but Tim REALLY likes it! AHHHH!!!! I'm going CRAZY!!!!! We need to decide FAST and I hate that! Why can't the house I like, be the one close to all the shopping and Tim's work and have the smaller payment and be in our current ward???? That would just be too perfect!!!

June 5th - Another eventful day!

2009-06-08T21:41:00.006-04:00

Well our trip to AZ has come to an end. I leave back to GA tomorrow. But I couldn't leave without another BIG eventful day! (Not by choice)

As most of you know, my parents live on a citrus farm and my dad works it himself. He is 72 years old (Next week) and retired and so that is his full-time hobby. He gets up early and goes to work on whatever needs to be done around the farm. He LOVES it!!! Well, at about 10:30 this morning, my sister was in the shower and my mom was still in her room (I think in the shower too) I was the only one to answer the phone. My dad called and asked me to come get him on the other side of the citrus orchard. He said "I fell out of a tree and I think I broke my leg." My dad does not call anybody for help. He will come in bleeding and hobbling before he will call. So I knew it was bad when he asked me to come get him and when he said "I think I broke my leg". I am so grateful he has a cell phone and that he keeps it on him. If he kept it in the truck or something he wouldn't have been able to call. So I asked my niece to run and tell my sister what happened so she could watch my kids when she got out of the shower and then asked my 16 year old niece and 13 year old nephew to come with me because I knew I would need help with my dad. And we ran out the door. As I was looking for my dad, I saw my 17 year old nephew who was looking for grandpa for some other reason (a major blessing) so I told him to follow me and then a minuet later I saw my other 20 year old nephew who is married and has a job but luckily wasn't at work today and so he was over mowing his dad's lawn (another big blessing!) He saw me and I waved at him to come over. I know the lord put them there right when I needed them. Being 8 months pregnant and knew I couldn't lift my dad up myself. And I wasn't sure if my niece and nephew that I brought with me would be enough help. We found grandpa (my dad) he was laying on his tummy, on top of a ladder that was on the ground. OUCH! He was up in a palm tree trimming the limbs and a friend of his called him asking if he could get some citrus from my dad. So he was getting out of the tree and as he put his foot on the ladder, the ladder fell. So he was hanging there and he thought he could just scale down the tree but little limbs on the tree gave way and he just fell right to the ground instead. He says he landed standing but then when his leg broke he fell. So anyway, my strong nephews lifted him up off the ground and got him into the car. Then my brother pulled up. He looked at my dad's leg and told me to get him right to the ER! He had a compound fracture. A bone was sticking out of his leg. So I took him to the ER. I stayed with him until my mom showed up. She came right after they did x-rays and I took off. One of my brothers came and my other brother was on his way so the ER room was getting too crowded. So I left. I needed to get back home anyway. But after the x-rays, they said he broke both bones in his leg and broke his ankle. They had to do surgery today and put medal rods through his heel and leg above the break and attached a big metal plate. He has to stay in the hospital til' at least Monday maybe longer, I'm so bummed we are leaving tomorrow. But at the same time I am so glad I was here to help and so glad that this happened at the end of our trip so we could spend as much time as possible with him. The kids and I went down tonight after his surgery to say good-bye. He has to have another surgery in 2 or 3 weeks to actually fix the break (I guess to cast it?) because they couldn't fix it today. I guess it was so badly broken. He will be in a wheel chair for a long time! Which wont go over well with my dad. He can't sit still for very long. And they say his ankle will never be the same. I am so glad my parents have an elevator in the house so he doesn't have to sleep on the couch. He can go upstairs to bed. Anyway, It was a very eventful day!

Up date: June 8th- My mom called today, my dad is still in the hospital and she said they are moving him to Scottsdale Memorial Trauma Center. I guess they feel like the break is so bad they need a Trauma Specialist to work on it. WOW! Totally crazy! I feel so bad for my dad.

Here are some pictures....
On Saturday (a week before) Riding in Grandpa's truck. Going to feed the cows...

Helping grandpa feed the cows.

Kenna thinks the cows stink...

WARNING!If you have a week stomoch, DO NOT look at this next picture....

Friday at the ER (bone sticking out of his leg)...

Visiting grandpa after surgery...

Good-bye hugs for Grandpa...

Some of the cousins that came to visit grandpa that night...

Arizona - May 24th

2009-05-25T20:06:00.015-04:00

We are enjoying our summer vacation in Arizona. We have only been here 4 days and have all ready had a fun incident. Katrina and her cousin Kylie were playing in the Family room at grandmas house and they were throwing stuffed animals in the air and catching them. Katrina lost her balance and fell and hit her head on grandmas tile hearth (the seat in front of the fire place)and she split her head open. She was gushing blood and had a DEEP cut! We took her to the new Banner Gateway ER. It was really nice, we had no wait, they took us right in. It was great! Then Dr. Price came in! He is in my parents ward and we just saw him at church a few hours earlier in Sunday school. The lesson was on keeping the sabbath day holy and he was talking about having to work in the ER two Sundays out of the month and that last time they had this lesson he had to sew up brother ?(somebody) that evening. Well, it was us this time. He actually was the Dr. that sewed me up when I split my chin open when I was 4 years old. He was the Dr that sewed up my sister when she fell out of the tree and split her leg open, he sewed up my brother twice!!! Anyway. WE have a history with Dr. Price. It is funny! Here are some pics of Katrina.
OUCH!!!

Really Gross!

I couldn't stand the sight of her cut. I had to put something over it before we left. She fell asleep in the car on the way to the ER. I had to hold her head up.

Then the Dr. had me take it off so he could look at it. I felt SO BAD for even putting it on after that! I think it hurt her worse than actually hitting her head. Poor girl!
Waiting to be sewn up! She was only awake for a little bit and then fell asleep again right after this.

She's back to sleep..

Dr. Price sewing her up! She was so tired... They had lots of help there just in case she woke up and started screaming and trashing. But she didn't.

She slept the whole time he was stitching her up. It was a nice quiet evening in the ER. I was so worried about her waking up and SCREAMING the whole time. (Like I did when I was 4) But she was a perfect angel!

Yard work and D-backs!

2009-05-18T14:33:00.004-04:00

Saturday began with Yard work and ended up with a rewarding evening with dad at the Diamondbacks game here in Atlanta. WE WON!!!!

And just for fun....

Explain this to me....

2009-05-17T13:21:00.001-04:00

How the heck do you go from looking like this....

To looking like this in a week and a half?!?!?! I HAVE NO IDEA!!!

Baby Girl - 3D/4D Ultrasound

2009-05-09T23:18:00.003-04:00

I am working on getting the video on here.... but not having much luck. Here are some of the pictures. She liked sticking her toung out alot but we didn't really get a picture of it. You can see it in the video (if I can get it to post) but not really in the pictures. Here are 5 of my favorites! And yes, it is confirmed AGAIN that it is a GIRL! No doubt about it! Oh also, last week at my Dr. appointment I measured a week early. Today at the ultrasound it was saying more than a week earlier. It said the 18th. Yahoo!
Yes, she is smiling in this picture! CUTE!...

Our CRUISE!!!

2009-05-05T11:49:00.022-04:00

WARNING! This is by far my longest post ever!!!

We had such a blast on our cruise. Our destination was switched from Cozumel, Mexico to Key West Florida. What a blessing!!! (You will see why later.) Us girls had so much fun. I went with Monika Peterson and her friend from her ward Lisa. Our sweet husbands stayed home with the kids and did a great job holding down the fort. Tim even tried to take the kids camping but because of bad weather and tornado warnings they had to come home. But they went back the next day for breakfast. It was a fathers and son's camp out but he took the girls too.

Day 1: 5:30 AM - Monika came to drop off her boys (Tony had to work so Tim watched them) and to pick me up. We went back to her house to meet up with Lisa who was driving.

6:30 am - We were on the road to ALABAMA!

11:30 am (Alabama Time) 12:30 pm (Georgia Time)- We arrived at our port in Mobile, ALABAMA. We got all Checked in and on the boat within 1/2 hour. We went and had lunch while waiting for our room to be ready. Our room was ready by 1:30 so we went and hung out.

4 pm - DRILL. We had to grab our life vest and go to the assigned area for the drill. We listened to an announcement that told us what to do and where to go if there was an emergency and then put on our life vest. That was it. We were now leaving the port. So we went out to the deck and hung out for a little while. The breeze was so nice. The port was ugly and dirty. There was junk everywhere and the water was brown and gross. But that didn't last long. After we got out of the port and actually into the ocean, it was Beautiful! It took about an hour to get out.

5:30 pm - We went and took naps. We were sooo tired! Our dinner reservation wasn't until 8:15.

7:30 pm - We woke up and thought we were gong to be late for dinner. We hurried and went to dinner. When we got there the guy said your reservation isn't until 8:15, come back in 1/2 hour. Or cell phones had switched to international time and said 8:20 - we didn't know what time it was. I had to go buy a watch from one of the stores there so we would know the time. So we went out on the deck again to enjoy the ocean view until our dinner time.

8:15 pm - Dinner. It was really nice. We had more silverware and cups on our table than we knew what to do with. It was all fancy and gourmet. Which doesn't mean good. With me, it usually means disappointing. All I wanted was a yummy juicy steak. I got a Flat Iron Steak (the only steak on the menu)and it tasted like a Salisbury steak from those frozen dinner meals. Oh well. It was a dinner I didn't have to cook or clean up after. The other girls LOVED their Shrimp Cocktails and fish. I am not a seafood person so I wouldn't know.

10 pm - After dinner we went to one of the shows. It was a welcome aboard show they did some relay races and then a guy came out and did comedy. We had some good laughs but we were so tired that we were falling asleep too.

11:30 pm - We went back out on the deck for a few min to enjoy the night air and then we went back to our room and discovered our first towel animial. Oh, we had a letter on our bed when we got back that they took my Iron because they we were not allowed to have ions in our room. They said it was a fire hazard. So now I have to worry about remembering to get my Iron before we leave the boat. Dang it! Then we went right to sleep!

Day 2: 9 am - Woke up and got ready to go out and see some sun!

10 am - We got breakfast

11 am - Got a good spot on the deck and began our sun bathing process! We laughed and talked. Read some good books/Ensign Articles and drank Virgin Pina Coladas! It was a blast! We were really enjoying our day. It was beautiful. The sun was out but there was a constant cool wind to keep it a nice day.

2 pm - Went in for a late lunch and discovered the famous animals made of fruits and veggies. I realized I was getting burned. I knew I needed to be a little more cautious in the sun and cover up more.

2:30 pm - Back on the deck to hang out more in the sun! Monika and Lisa went for a spray Tattoo! I just hung out and got back to my book that I stole from Lisa. It was so good! By Dr. Laura - In Praise of Stay-at-home Moms! I was LOVING it! I put on Sunscreen first but my can was almost empty and so I really had to spread it thin. But I thought it would still work. We watched a guy on the deck do an Ice carving and watched a Hairy Chest Contest - EWWWW!!!! I am not a person that likes hairy chest. By this time I was feeling burned and so I put a towel over my legs, shoulders and chest.

4:30 pm we went in to start getting ready for dinner. But FIRST! Had to go buy alovera spray because I was feeling really BURNED! They were too but not as bad.

8 pm - We went for dinner. It was formal night so we had to dress up in our nicest attire. I had another Steak but this time it was a - NY Strip? I cant remember. It was good. And so big, I had to split it with Monika. The girls again loved their shrimp cocktails and Lobster.

10 pm - we went out on the deck to enjoy the night air for a few minuets and to eat Ice cream. We had some good Laughs! We were like 3 teenage girls. We went and saw a show. And then went back to our room and discovered our next towel animal
and then
went to bed. Well, Monika and Lisa went to bed, I laid in bed in pain from my sun burn and couldn't sleep. After a while, I was up pacing the floor in TEARS from the PAIN!!! I could not sit or lay down to relax because I was in so much pain! I paced the hallways and said multiple prayers begging the Lord for some relief so I could lay down and sleep.

Day 3: At 5 am I again, tried to lay down and sleep after pacing the hallway all night. I couldn't. I got up and went into the bathroom and sat in the shower for a hour and let cold water run on my legs. By then, I was so tired and worn out I laid down and slept for about 20 min. Then I was up in pain again. So I got ready for the day. I couldn't wait for the medical center on board to open at 8am so I could go down there to get some pain releif for my legs.

Finally at 7:45 am I went down there and talked to a nurse. She said all she could give me was Tylenol and Alovera. I told her I already had alovera on my legs and I took the MAX Tylenol I could take in a 24 hour period! She said she couldn't help me. I called Tim in tears. He gave me some comfort.

8:05 am - I went back to my room. The girls were up getting ready.

8:30 am - We got breakfast. I couldn't even sit still to eat. I ate so fast and was up walking again. I sprayed LOTS of sun screen on my face legs and arms and we headed off the boat on to the Island of Key West. As soon as we walked outside the heat hit my legs and it was more painful. It was like getting sunburned all over again.
We walked around and found a place where we could sign up to do some fun stuff. Because I am pregnant I can't really do anything. So I just went along to video Monika and Lisa. There were so many things to do. They all sounded fun. We decided on Para sailing.

11 am - we got on a boat to para sail. I kept a towel over my legs. That kept the sun from touching them but that didn't help when somebody bumped my legs. Every time somebody bumped my legs, I was about to cry in pain. It was lots of fun to watch them para sail though. I was so envious. I really wanted to go.

12 pm - we got off the boat and started looking for our next adventure. We didn't get far. I told the girls I was in so much pain. We decided to go sit at a restaurant in the shade and relax for a bit and get lunch. Right after we sat down I looked at my legs and they were swollen up twice their normal size. I broke down in tears!!! I couldn't take it any more. I told them to go do some fun stuff and that I would meet up with them later. I was going to the hospital. They were so sweet. They said they would come with me. A guy (who was on the same cruise ship as us) in the restruant saw what was going on and offered to take me to the hospital. We had to go to a different Island to the hospital. This is my reason for being so grateful that we we did not go to Mexico or Bahamas. I don't know if I could have gotten help on either of those Islands.

12:45 pm - We walked into the hospital and Tim called to see how I was doing. I broke down in tears AGAIN! It was good to talk to him though. The girls were so sweet and kept me in good spirits. We had some good laughs.

2:45 pm - We finally got in to see the Dr. He totally understood what pain I was in. I had a 1st degree burn on my legs. He said as the cool air came across my legs my body would jump and cringe because my legs were so HOT (not sexy hot, but temp. hot). He knew it was painful. He said my legs were swelling up as a reaction to the burn and would swell more if I didn't keep the elevated. He said stay out of the sun and keep those legs elevated. He prescribed me the best pain medicine he could considering I am pregnant and couldn't give me much. I was happy with anything that would take the edge off the pain. He said there was a cream that would help more but couldn't give it to me because I was pregnant and it would absorb into the skin and go to the baby. They called us a taxi cab to take us to Walgreen's to get my prescription filled. We got it along with some Coco Butter with Aloe and some burn spray to numb the skin.

3:30 pm - We called another Taxi Cab to pick us up at Walgreen's and take us back to the Island of Key West. I went straight back to the boat and the girls went shopping. Since I didn't get a chance to get any presents for the kids, Monika grabbed a couple things for me to give the kids. I went right to my room, took my pain pills, elevated my legs and crashed! I was so tired! And I was finally able to have some relief from the pain. Oh, before I fell asleep I called Tim to give him the update. He was so sweet not to lecture me or make me feel stupid for doing a stupid thing by laying in the sun for too long without a sufficient amount of sun screen. I love my sweetheart! anyway, then I crashed. The medicine did not take the pain totally away, but it did take the edge off so I could relax.

4:30 pm - Time to be back on the boat. The girls came back and told me about the cool private beach they went to. I was so glad they went and did some other fun stuff. I felt so bad that they even went with me to the hospital. They are great!

5 pm - I ordered Room service since I couldn't walk anywhere. It was yummy! The girls ate with me since they missed lunch because we went to the hospital. We had more good laughs and hung out. Then they got ready to go to dinner

8: 15 pm - They went to dinner. I painfully got out of bed to take a shower. That was not fun! It hurt so bad!!! Then I took another pain pill, filled out my room service card for breakfast put it outside on the door and went to bed for the night. I slept soooo good!!! We didn't get a towel animal this night because I was in my room when room service came so they did the minimum and left! I only had to get up once to go potty. The pain from standing after having my legs elevated for so long was so horrible. But I had to do it. I took ANOTHER pain pill and went right back to sleep.

Day 4: We laid in bed until 9:30am when room service showed up. I was so excited because I had put on the card to come at 8:30 and I had ben awake since 8:30 waiting for it. I was so hungry. I ordered a Banana, Muffin, Milk and Cereal. The guy walks in with 10 plates on his tray along with 8 boxes of cereal 3 different drinks, plus Hot chocolate. I was thinking he had somebody elses order on there too. Then he gives it all to us. I looked at the girls and said "did you order something?" The guy handed me the room service order card and the girls started laughing. Every thing accept Coffey was checked off on the card. They did it the night before and thought they would get a good reaction out of me. They also changed the time on the card to 9:15. That is why it came so late. It was pretty funny. I was so confused at first. Between the 3 if us we ate it all. The portions were so small it wasn't that hard to do. We hung out in our PJ's until 11. IT was great! We just talked and had some good laughs.

12 pm - we got ready for Lunch. I rented a wheel chair since I couldn't walk. That was great! I think we got down to lunch about 1:00. There was a nice family that came and sat by us. We had fun talking. Then they told us there was a Chocolate Buffet upstairs until 2:30pm.

2:15 pm - We rushed up stairs to get some chocolate. Some of it was good. It was mostly gourmet which to me means, disappointing. IT was not very good. Oh, on our way to the elevators to go up to the chocolate buffet, we saw the guy that took us to the hospital. He was such a nice guy. We were ever so grateful to him for doing that.

2:30 pm - The girls took me back to the room so I could elevate my legs again and rest. On our way back to our room, I got in a wheel chair accident. Monika was driving. We were laughing so hard, I almost peed my pants! Monika thought it would be fun to run down the hall way and then jump on the back for a ride (like we used to do with shopping carts when we were kids) She ran and then hopped on and we ran right into the wall but it wasn't just the wall. It was somebodies room door. I've never seen anybody come out of their room so fast! I don't think he expected to see 3 girls with 1 in a wheel chair. I think he expected to see drunk teenagers or something. His face changed so fast from a Mad, "what was that" look to a concerned "are you ok?" He even said, "are you ok?" we were trying to not laugh and said "yea" he just shut his door. We were trying so hard to be quite until we got in our room. And then we just busted out laughing! Then went up on the deck to swim and enjoy the day. Then they came back and got ready for the evening.

7 pm - We went to the last show of our trip. They had some good performers. Their costumes were kind of small which I was disappointed about. It was supposed to be a family performance. I guess the actual performance was for families but not the costumes. Anyway, we had a good laughs with one of the guys trying to keep his pants up while dancing but they just kept falling and eventually were down around his ankles as he finished the dance. It was really funny! Luckily he had shorts on underneath.

8:15 pm - We went to dinner. We had the same waiter the whole trip so when he saw me in a wheel chair he was shocked! He said what happened?! Telling somebody you got a bad sunburn seems so stupid. And I am sure lots of people thought, I've had a bad sunburn but it didn't put me in a wheel chair. How do you explain how bad it really is? You don't. I just let them think what they wanted to think. Believe me, if I could walk, I would have. Despite the pain. But seriously, It was that painful and my legs were that swollen. My ankles wouldn't bend. So when I walked I looked like a lobster colored penguin walking or worse. LOL!

Baked Alaska

Dang! I wish I could remember the name of this one...

We got another cool towel animal

We had fun dressing it up

We also had to take some fun pictures before we returned the wheel chair.

10 pm - The girls went to another show while I stayed and got ready for bed. My legs and feet were killing me despite the pain pills. I called room service to reserve the wheel chair for then next day and found out that we needed to have our bags outside of our room by Midnight so they could pick them up. That way we didn't have to worry about carring all of our bags off while pushing me in a wheel chair. So I quickly packed. The girls came back at 11:30 and quickly packed too. We got all of our bags out by midnight and then went to bed!

Day 5: We woke up at 7:30 am. The girls went and got breakfast. I couldn't because I didn't have a wheel chair (I had to return it the night before) and it was still to painful to walk. I had a granola bar in my bag that I ate. They came back and we hung out until our number was called to get off the boat.

9:15 am - A lady came with the wheel chair and got me and the girls. She took us to get our bags and then all the way out to the curb where we waited for our car. It was so nice that I didn't have to walk at all. Then we got in the car and left. I expected it to be a sunny day but the sky was totally dark and it was raining hard. I asked the girls. "Is there a tornado warning?" I called tim to ask him and he said yes. Oh, how exciting! We quickly got on the road and got out of Mobile, AL. The sky cleared up about an hour outside of Mobile. Then I realized I forgot to get my Iron. I was so mad! I called them 3 different times for different reasons and asked them each time how to get my Iron back and they kept telling me they would give it to me when I lef the ship. Well, they didn't give it to me and I forgot to ask, as I figured I would. That is why I kept telling the girls to help me remember but, I still forgot. Dang it! Anyway, We drove back home. It took us about 6 hours to get home. Which sounds long to me but it we had so much fun talking that it did not seem that long. IT was GREAT! Dispite the PAINFUL 1st degree sunburn.

On our way home

I brought the kids some star fish.

What my legs look like today. Not lobster Red anymore but they are turning purple which is making me nervous! And still painful. I can't wait until I can quit taking these dang pain pills. They make me dizzy.

I'm going on a CRUISE!

2009-04-29T08:32:00.008-04:00

I'm so excited! I can't believe the time is finally here! A couple girlfriends and I got together and decided to go on a CRUISE! Just us GIRLS!!! I wish a few more friends were able to come, (I asked 6 other girls to come) but I understand that now is not the best time for allot of people. Plus my ward is doing a girls weekend away down in Florida. I'd LOVE to do that too. I wish they were on different weekends so I could do both. Next time GIRLS! Anyway, We got tickets so CHEAP!!! $219 + taxes and fees $250. We leave at 5:30AM tomorrow morning to drive down to MOBILE, ALABAMA and we get on the ship there. We are, no, WERE cruising to Cozumel, MEXICO. Now that the whole Swine Flue has the most naive people in a Panic (thank you exaggerated media) we will be cruising to a different destination. Either Key West or The Bahamas! I'm really hoping for the Bahamas! I wanted to go there in the first place but the tickets to go there were about $75 more and they were for next week (bad time for Tim). Please don't be offended by my comment above. There isn't anything wrong with being concerned and cautious. I AM concerned and cautious and therefore glad we are going to a different port. But, I just think those who say I am "risking my life" by going on a cruise there is a little naive And over panicked by the media. Yes, somebody actually said that! I had to vent, Enough said! I'm so excited to go. I really wish I was going with my sweet husband but it just wasn't going to work out. He says if we were in AZ he would go because we would have a baby sitter. And it is cheaper to leave out of a port in California ($160). I can understand that. Next year babe! Just you and I. :o) We have had allot of fun getting ready to go. We went and got pedicures, manicures, and spray tans. Now I won't blind everybody by my ultra white legs that never see the sun! YAY!

Kenna came with us girls to get some pampering....

Kenna moved to my seat since her chair was't working. She was LOVING the chair massage. Next to her are Monika and Jennifer Smith. My fellow crusie buddies... (We have 1 more coming with us but she wasn't able to make it to get pampered)

They moved me from my comfy pedicure seat to do my finger nails. This sweet girl sat on the floor to finish my toes. She did an AWESOME job wit the flowers...

Our Nails...

Mine and Kenna's nails....

Our toes...

3 NEW Posts

2009-04-21T16:25:00.002-04:00

I have gotten behind. Between Spring Break and Easter I have so many pics I haven't had time to post them. So now I finally got a chance so here they all are. 1.) Aquarium 2.)Spring Break and 3.) Easter

Easter

2009-04-21T15:55:00.006-04:00

Saturday night we colored eggs...

Eggs

Sunday morning. The baskets are hidden.

The easter baskets have been found...

Ummm...candy for beakfast!

We had friends over for Easter Dinner and an Egg hunt afterwards...

What do you get when you put Katrina and 5 boys on a trampoleen? I tried to tell her.

MORE CANDY!!! Kids lined up for the Pinyata...

April 6 - 10, 2009 - Spring Break....

2009-04-21T13:58:00.018-04:00

We didn't do much on the 6th and 7th. The kids and I just hung out. Tim had to work. On the Wednesday, the 8th we ventured out to Northern Georgia to see the beautiful Minihaha Falls. It was only an hour and a half drive. And this is the beauty we got to enjoy.

Hiking the short trail to the falls... One of Trina's hair bands broke. So she has a funny hair do.

Tyler, Kenna and Katrina...

The end of the trail...

Tyler

Kenna

Katrina

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On the Thursday the 9th we ventured to 6 Flags over Georgia. It is a 35 minuet drive from our house to 6 flags. But not on this day! It ended up being a 4 hour journey. Traffic was so bad! We spent 3 ours in traffic going to 6 Flags and the worst part for the kids was that we could see the park and people on the rollercoasters the whole 3 HOURS! As we sat in traffic. Poor Kids! After we finally got there, we spent 1 1/2 hours in a ticket line. By the time we got in to the park, we only had 3 hours left to play. We got to ride 2 rides and then went home. UGH! Suprisingly, we got season passes so we can go back whenever we want. Hopefully it isn't ever that bad again.

The kids dreaming of going on those rides sometime today...

The constant TRAFFIC!!!

FINNALY here. Waiting to go on Tunder River...

The kids and Zack Peterson...

Waiting patientlly with smiles

Can't beleive we waited 90 minuets to get wet on a 60 degreee day. I got the most wet but I had to take the pic. Sorry Tim, I didn't mean to cut your head off. Or maybe I did since you were the one that talked me into going on that ride. :o)

The boys went on Superman while us girls waited. I whish I could go. But don't think the baby would really appreciate that.

There they are...what, you can't see them?

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Friday, the 10th we spent 1/2 a day baby sitting for the Petersons so they could go to the temple and then we switched and we spent 1/2 a day at the Temple for stake temple day while the Petersons watched our kids. It was so neat to be able to do that. After the temple Tim and I went to Costco for dinner and dessert and to get food for Easter dinner. We got stuck in costco because of a TORNADO!!! IT WAS CRAZY!!!! IT was so loud Tim could not hear me talking and I was standing next to him. It was quite an adventure! When we thought all was calm, we hurried over to the Petersons to get our kids. They were so scared. Tyler kept calling me asking if we were ok. They were in the basement at the Petersons. On our way there it started up again. IT got really windy and it started HAILING on our CAR! I was so afraid it was going to leave dents all over the car. But it didn't and we safely got to our kids. Our friends the Whites were at Zacksbees (a restruant) and got stuck in a back room. Some other friends were at Kroger (fry's) and got stuck in the freezer. Come to find out the tornado touched down right outside of our neighborhood. YIKES! I'm glad we weren't home. But everything was fine.
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Saturday, the 11th we got brave and decided to try 6 Flags again. We left at 8 am and got there before it opened. No traffic at all. It was great! Because of the Tornados the day before and the weather (it was a cloudy day) it was not busy in the morning. We got to go on Lots of rides and left a 1pm when it started getting busy!

As you can see from the sky. It was really cloudy. But soon after the sun came out and it was a really nice day.

Tony brought Katrina to me because she was soaking wet and in tears. There wasn't a dry spot on her body. Poor girl. But Tim, Kenna, Tyler and Zack went again...

March 29th - Atlanta Aquarium...

2009-04-21T13:38:00.005-04:00

The aquarium had a Mommy and Me deal. It was $20 for Katrina and I to go. A bunch of girls in the ward got together and we went. It was really cool!

Trina was tired of walking around by this point. She just layed down to relax and check out the sea life. This is a HUGE sting ray!

A HUGE Whale Shark

Baluga Whales. I think these are so cool. I love how white they are. Can't see very well in the pic. sorry.

After the aquarium we went to the park across the street in downtown Atlanta. It is a great park! Katrina climed on this thing and it started spinning. You are supposed to sit on it and it spins but she didn't get to that point. She just layed there and spun for a while. It doesn't spin very fast. I think she was kind of relaxed on it or too scared to move.

I WON!!!

2009-04-05T14:23:00.012-04:00

I wish I could say I won the lottery, but you can't win if you don't play. Our ward did an Auction for the Young Women to earn money for girls camp. It was lots of fun! I won a cute girly diaper bag set w/blanket, changing pad and pouch. It is so dang cute!

I asked a girl on e-bay who is going to make me a carseat cover, if she had matching fabric to make me a carseat cover to match the diaper bag. She sent me a picture of one. IT is PERFECT! I'm so excited!

We also won a personalized, autographed baseball for Tyler from Dale Murphy who played for the Atlanta Braves. I guess someone in the ward knows him. It's coming soon.

We won babysitting from one of the YW to baby sit

We won a photo session from an awesome photographer in the ward.

And we won this "smart treats". It had a school learning 4th - 6th grade computer game in it. By the time we got it home it had had been picked in by the kids and was falling apart.

As soon as Tim spotted this he was sold on it. We bought it for $5. It was so YUMMY!

And to add some fun to the night, some kids brought a worm on a plate to Bro. Fagg (the auctioneer) and he said he would eat it if the bid got high enough. It was crawling off the plate as the bid was going on. He ate it for $35. I wouldn't have eaten it for $100. But, It was a hoot!

APRIL FOOLS!

2009-04-01T20:10:00.003-04:00

In 2004 my sister-in-law did this cool April Fools dinner for our family. Every year I forget to do it for the kids! But this year I remembered! (Shocking considering my memory has gone out the window on everything else.) So here is the APRIL FOOLS MENU
First start with dessert! What child doesn't want to start with dessert first?
We had "CUPCAKES" AKA: Meatloaf w/ Mashed Potatoes on top (add a little food coloring for fun. Making it look like frosting)
And a Scoop of "ICE CREAM w/ CARMEL on top" AKA: A scoop of Mashed Potatoes w/ gravy on top.
Then for the dessert. OH, I mean...The main course!
"GRILLED CHEESE SANDWITCHES" AKA: Pound Cake or Butter Bread toasted, w/Orange Frosting in the middle for the "cheese". :o) The kids loved it! It was lots of fun!

Checking in....

2009-03-27T09:54:00.008-04:00

I thought Kenna wiggled alot in her sleep but she is nothing compared to Katrina. Before I crawled into bed the other night, I checked on the kids one last time. I saw Kenna in bed...

But, I didn't see Katrina in her bed and started looking for her...

Then I discovered she was actually there...... I'm so glad I checked on them. That would have been so uncomfortable to wake up to.

Ahhh...there ya go! That looks much more comfortable....