Can rain really be a cause for cancelling school?

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!!!

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

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...

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

Peace out....

First day of school

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

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...

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

Happy Birthday Tim!

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


...Happy Birthday, to you!

Presents from the kids...

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

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

Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie. YUMMY!!!