Mine

Adam is at the age where he "posses" everything. You know the "mine" faze. Though we continue to give him opportunities to share and take turns the phrase "NO! MINE" is often uttered. It had become so much of his daily life that I thought implementing some help from above might be good. So during one of his evening prayers (the kind where he tries to repeat what I say) we said something like this:

mom- "Dear Heavenly Father..."

Adam- "fa"

mom- Thank thee for Dad

Adam- tank, Dad

mom - Thank thee for mom

Adam- mum

mom- Thank thee for Josh

Adam - dosh

mom - Thank thee for sissy

Adam- sissy (at that point he couldn't say her name yet)

mom- Thank thee for cars (he spotted one during the prayer and wouldn't move past it until we mentioned it in the prayer. I suppose since they are one of his favorite toys, he probably is grateful for it.)

Adam- cah

mom- Please help me to share

Adam - NO. MINE!


Ah, yes, even here he understood the concept of sharing, but was unwilling to do it. I wonder how often Heavenly Father gives me instruction and I say, "No! my way."

Canning Security

The last couple days I've canned pears & pear sauce. I mostly do this for my own knowledge & experience and know that it is part of our emergency food supply. Today as Josh was lapping up some pear sauce (just like applesauce) he said this: "Mom, I sure am glad you can do these things. If the store ever closed I wouldn't worry 'cause you know how to do this stuff." I was touched at how profound that little statement was. I'm not sure where the comment came from, but was surprised at how much security it gave my son to know that we could be self reliant.

A Beautiful Thing

During Sacrament Services it is a family rule to always sing. Everyone has an open hymn book & participates. So far for Emily, her participation has depended on me. I tell Em a line of song just before we sing it and then she repeats it in time with the music. Though she follows the words with her finger, the music is usually moving much too fast for her to read the words. Well not this last Sunday! I glanced over and noticed that she was following the song with her finger AND her mouth. Yes, she was reading the hymn and singing too, all on her own! It was Beautiful. Thankfully the song was a little slower and the words not especially complex. She beamed with such pride. We totally hugged at the end.

Love

Emily is such a lover. She is always the best at giving a lot of hugs & kisses. This love does extend beyond family affection I am afraid. She has always crushed on boys, even from an early age. Sitters, family friends, even a new uncle-in-law for a while there. I am amazed at the confidence she has around them.

Last week at Josh's ball game, Emily was chasing around 2 babies, trying to keeping them out of trouble. Most of the older kids at the game happened to be boys. A group of them ranging in ages from 8-10, palled around trying to entertain them selves. Once when the group was close enough to our chairs, Em, who I remind you is six, hoisted a baby on her hip and walked right over to them to chat. She did it in such a way that it seemed she'd know the boys forever & was comfortable & belonged there. I'm not sure how they felt, but I was impressed with her confidence and bravery and yet horrified. What will I do with a girl who loves boys so much?! And we haven't even thrown hormones into the mix yet.

If you choose to continue reading- Please know that you are now sworn to secrecy & not allowed to tease Emily about the following. I am hoping that by not making a deal of her crush, that it will be that- not a big deal. Her latest & greatest crush now is Bob. Okay, his name is not Bob, but for to protect the innocent it's Bob. He is a young man we see often. Maybe it was his talents that inspired her, maybe his bow tie. I'm not sure, but she is smitten. She smiles a certain "new" smile when she leaves her lessons. Her latest crush episode was Sunday. When she saw Bob passing the sacrament I heard her whisper to me "I hope my Bobb- y comes to our row." MY Bobb-y?!!!! Yikes, I wanted to laugh and hurl all at the same time. And indeed, he did come to our row, followed by Emily's not so reverent hellos and attempts at conversation. We then had a nice discussion on reverence & how we can help the boys using their priesthood stay reverent too. Needless to say, her sweet feelings are so cute now, but I sincerely dread those upcoming teenage years.

Derby, Dirt & Deoderant

Josh has been a busy boy. He had a ton of fun at Pinewood Derby last week. Dan & Josh learned a lot & Josh did a fabulous job on his car. He made it every step of the way too. He sanded it, painted, & he even detailed the car! It was dubbed "The Wedge II" after Dan's derby winner in his scouting days with the original "The Wedge." Josh's car did really well in the beginning before all the graphite wore off. He placed about 4th in the Wolf pack & won an award for good Sportsman ship. On one of his races his car did a wheely and consequently came in dead last. Looking at his face you'd never know. He was laughing and was so impressed that his car did the coolest wheely ever. What a kid!


Dirt, well, that's how we all felt after sweating out every Saturday on the baseball fields with Josh. He had a great season with an amazing team. Below is a picture of Josh getting the game ball a couple weeks ago. He got his first hit and score that game. Kid-pitch sure makes for a much different game that Coach-pitch. Josh learned this year, that he makes a pretty great catcher too. Go #30!



And the deoderant. It was kind of in consequence of playing ball. All that heat and sweat made me realize that his time was due. So Dad gave him a quick lesson on how to slather the smelly stuff on. I loved these pictures. He thought it was weird he had to wear it occasionally now, but had fun in the moment.



I couldn't come up with another "D" word, but here is Josh at his school program. It was all very patriotic & Josh was great. He is quite the singer, though he might not admit that. This is Grandma Hilton, Josh & Emily afterward.

Six Eyes

Hers are "eagle eyes" and practically perfect.


Mine are nearly the same as ever.


And Josh, well, he's not too exciting, just a little change.


Thanks to Uncle Matt,our peepers are all checked up!

He's On it!

So, I'm running around this morning, I'm trying to do all the mom stuff that needs to get done on a school morning when I hear this whirring & thumping sound. These sounds are typical around our house, but NOT usually unless I'm involved. The cause. . .Josh was doing his own vest! Usually Josh is good about doing his routine breathing treatments, but I usually call him over & get him all hooked up. Today, was a nice treat. Josh took the initiative to get all strapped in and started without a word from Mom. For those of you that may not know, Josh has Cystic Fibrosis. He wears his vest, which inflates & then shakes the daylights out of him in an effort to clear his air ways. Josh's last cold hit him pretty hard and left him with lots of extra goo! (nice, I know) So Josh and his vest have become closer friends lately. Yesterday's check up at PCH left us less than satisfied. Still too much goo in the lungs, so more treatments & meds and we'll see how we do in a few weeks. Not that any of this slows Josh down. He has been as active & energetic as ever! See, he can do his vest, nebulizer AND the Wii at the same time.

All this while we've been. . .

All this while we've been. . .




. . . Learning to shoot a rifle. Josh went with his Dad, Grandpa Palmer & uncles. He learned gun safety and went target shooting. He even got a bulls eye! Josh loved finishing out his basketball season & is on to baseball. He is an amazing catcher and loves the game. It is especially fun since we know almost everyone on the team.

. . . Starting piano lessons. Emily has been wanting forever to learn how & I'm astonished at how naturally her fingers flow and cross on the keys already. She also starred as Little Miss Muffet in her Kindergarten Nursery Rhyme Program.


. . . Learning to talk. Adam's first sentences. "Bye Da!" & "Tank (thanks) Da!" Everyday now he is learning new words and sounds. He loves singing and dancing to all kinds of music. Oh yes, & he's mastered the word "no."

. . .Welcoming Uncle Karl who came home after serving 2yrs on his mission. Meeting him at the airport was such a fun adventure. It is so nice to have all the family together again.

Having a sewing mania- Alterations seem to be MY lot lately. I've fixed 2 bridesmaid dresses and 2 flower girl dresses for 3 different weddings in just the last few weeks! Cutting into that first $200.00, irreplaceable dress was a little nerve racking. I started to wonder what I was thinking, but in the end, it turned out better than I planned. Below is one example of some sleeves I added to a little strappy dress. I should have taken pictures of the formals I hemmed, oh well.

Dan has taken over new responsibilities at work and though the season is over, he is busier than ever. At home he's constantly doing projects like building our hamster a shelf & helping Josh with Pinewood Derby.

Conference Madness. This is a bucket of treats & goodies for the kids to much on during General Conference. Every time and Apostle spoke, they got to eat that treat. It was a bit more of a distraction than I thought, so we'll have to tweak this for next year.

Easter

Sunday Superbowl Dinner

Usually on Sunday evening we are at Grandma's house. Usually the food resembles roast & potatoes. And usually we don't eat until 5:30pm or so. But this was an Unusual family dinner.


And this is only part of the food, not to mention the dessert on the other table. Can you believe there were about 20 of us there?


Yes, those are a homemade Dan specialty. BBQ Wings! A specific request from Uncle Matt.




It was really fun getting the 3-D glasses for everyone including the kids. What a hoot watching the 3-D commercials. My favorite is the picture of grandpa. I'm not quite sure why wouldn't put them all the way on.

Disneyland (better late.....)

Disneyland almost didn't happen! With all the wild fires in CA we were worried with reports of intense smoke and ash in the area. With much thought we headed out anyway, hoping that all the reports about the smoke blowing over were going to be accurate. Thankfully they were. The skies were clear as could be and the fires were much more controlled by the time we arrived. You'll notice a certain someone missing from all the photos. Yes, Adam stayed home with G&G Palmer since the other 2 kids were big enough to ride all the rides.

The Hotel room was amazing. It had a bed room & a sitting room with fridge, stove, freezer, dishwasher, & foldout bed. The bedroom had 2 beds & 2 closets. Every night we had hot chocolate and popcorn. With Target across the street, we stocked up on goodies to leave in the room and bring to Disneyland. One of our favorite parts was that our hotel provided Breakfast AND Dinner. Breakfast was real elaborate, while dinner was pretty simple but always tasty. With most of our meals already taken care of, we were able to eat lunch in the park each day.

This is us waiting for the shuttle at our Hotel. It was a nice ride just down the street. We even shared the same shuttle with Jim, Candace & Hilton boys once. It was so fun to see them every so often.
Dan trying not to toss his cookies into the tea cup. What a good sport.

Kids enjoying the Tea Cups while mom laughed hysterically

Hat Day

Emily's hat was cute and sassy, just like her. Josh, well, everywhere we went people kept saying, "That sure is a Goofy hat."

Josh & Em were so glad to both have been picked for the Star Wars training show. They had such a good time learning how to be Jedi Knights. They got a certificate at the end too that was proof of their training. Josh really had the moves down as he battled Darth Vader(?)

The first couple of days had no lines at all. We took our time and meandered where ever we pleased.
Small World opened our last day at Disneyland. It was really wonderful going before Thanksgiving because it was all decorated for Christmas, Even in Small World
Chicken salad Duo
Corn Dogs as big as your head.
The river rafting was definitely a fun ride. Josh always got the wettest. We went at least 10 times, many of them right in a row because there was no one even waiting to get on.
Day 2, California Adventures. Family Favorites included Flying over California & River Rafting and Tower of Terror. Dan's favorite was the giant roller coaster in California Adventures. Josh got lucky enough to go with Dad while Mom was so grateful Em was a little too short.
3-D movies. Emily jumped at every move & special effect. I still don't think she realizes the idea behind 3-D glasses. She thought she was being touched every time.


Characters





Sorry about Jasmin, I was really glad that Josh was actually uncomfortable standing next to her. Sheesh, put some cloths on!

All in all our 4 day adventure was a dream. With so much time to enjoy it all we really were able to ride everything as much as we wanted without rushing about. Well Disney, see you in about another 5 years!