Hilton Happenings

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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.

Monday, April 13, 2009

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

Thursday, February 12, 2009

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.

Friday, February 6, 2009

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!