Lucky 7!

It's been 7 years since James and I said our yeses.  We've changed and life has changed over the years, but we still choose each other every day.  I love my choice.  He's pretty great and not bad to look at either.
We hadn't been on a real date in awhile, so we went to a movie and out to eat at Whiskey Cake.  It was divine.  We will be going back for sure!  

Balloon Festival

I think we've been twice now, and we thought we'd go again this year to the Plano Balloon Festival.  We had quite a walk to and from, but I think the kids really enjoyed seeing the hot air balloons glow at night.  There's something magical about a hot air balloon!  We all shared a few corndogs (so now I don't have to go to the fair) and we even got to see the fireworks show right before we got in the car to go home.

 

Pre-Pre School

My friend Joey and I decided to do a little preschool one day a week with our kids.  We switch off weeks and focus on a letter and do any sort of activities/crafts that go with it.  It really just makes our already weekly playdates a little more structured and allows the moms to have an hour or 2 alone or, in my case, some time alone with Grayson.

Here's Hazel on her first day.  Nice pose, eh?

Joey and I get a kick out of the human letters.  Hazel is a lowercase "b".  

For our Mommy-son date, I take Grayson to the library for Rhyme Time.  He really just likes the bubbles at the end.  "bubba" 

When I did "D", we had donuts for our snack, and that was a hit... especially with Zachary.  

Notice Grayson in the back.  When preschool is at our house, Grayson is all about participating, especially at snack time.  The best is when we do the human letters and he goes and plops himself on the ground.  Seems like everyone is happy with the new routine!

First Real Haircuts

I've cut out Hazel's hair knots before and Aunt Christina has buzzed off uneven parts of Grayson's hair as a baby, but they finally had their first real haircuts!  My friend recommended Sweet and Sassy to me, and it was a success for Hazel.  She ate it up.  Purple cape, spray glitter, glitter hearts on her face, and a neon green "extension."  Now that's a deal for $10.  Now she keeps asking when she can get another trim.

Grayson, on the other hand, got a black "Cool Dude" cape and a sucker, but he mostly laid his head on me and ate hair as it fell and stuck on his sucker.  Good times.  We left with a little bit of a butchered hair cut for him, but I evened it out over the next few days.  Poor guy.  I was mostly worried he'd lose his curls, but luckily, they seem to be peeking out again.  Whew.

St. George 2014

Traveling to St. George with the 2 littles went surprisingly well.  The kids were troopers, and Grayson even napped on my stomach/lap for an hour.  I'll take it!  We stayed at the Worldmark where we stayed a few years ago, and it worked out great to have our own place.  The kids shared a room and we had a room; Grayson didn't even mind sleeping in the closet!

Friday night we all gathered at Chris and Christina's for pizza, so we got to see all of them as well as Tod and Chandler and Amy and 2 of her kids, Reagan and Darren.  It's nearly impossible to get all the Palmers together at one time, but we had at least one representative from each Palmer kid's family there that weekend.

Saturday we went to Tanner's baptism and then went to see Grandma Brown's gravesite.  Since we didn't make it to the funeral, this was our first time, so it was very special.  Hazel is always asking about her grandmas in heaven, so I just tell her we'll get to see them again one day.

Angels

Sweet Grandpa Brown hung back with Grayson when everyone else went back to their cars.  He was willing to stop and watch a little squirrel on the path with my little man even though he had to have been super hot in his black suit.

For lunch we all went to Outback and then sang to James because it was his real birthday!  Yay for the big 3-0!  Then for his bday activity, his brother Chris took out all the guys to go shooting and the girls hung out at Christina's.  Now James seems to think we need an Assault Rifle.  Great.  I can hardly get used to having a shotgun in the house!

During the week we just played with cousins and ate out at our favorite spots like Cafe Rio, The Pizza Factory, Nielsen's, Kneaders, Swig, and we tried Bear Paw for breakfast.  They were all super yummy!

Sunday we hiked around a little after church, and most of the cousins went through the Narrows, including James.  I was a little worried he wouldn't make it, but he made sure he went after some of his nephews to see if they could fit through first.  Nice uncle!! 

Here's James squeezing through...

Baby looves dirt.

While James went with Dave and his dad to have lunch in Mesquite with Tod, I brought the kids to visit "Uncle" Dan.  He's in his 90s and was one of my Grandpa Paxton's best friends growing up, so my parents and Matt and Natalie, even, know him well and had great things to say about him.  It was great to catch him up on the family and to show him a few pictures on my phone.  He used to be a great pianist and could play by ear, so I wish I could've heard that!  He's been single his whole life, so he has his house to himself and it was kind of sad for me to imagine him being all alone as he grows older.  He's such a sweet man.  

Since the boys had their shooting night, we thought we should have a girls night too!  So we got tickets to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn, and it was incredible!  The little girls and mamas all loved it!  Hazel even took a nap (gasp!) that day so we could stay up to midnight, and she hardly even looked away from the stage during the musical.  It was her favorite princess after all!  

Hazel, Kaitlyn, and Cohlee - the 3 little Palmer girls

The sisters-in-law - Melissa, me, and Christina

Some other highlights were going Jud's - the first store in St. George where they sell delicious breadsticks, retro sodas and candy; riding the old carousel; swimming at the condo; going to a jump place with cousins; and playing in the new children's museum, which was awesome!  

 This used to be my favorite spot in the children's museum too!

Christina always tried to get loves from Grayson, but he finally opened up the last day (of course) and couldn't get enough of her.  Sweet little flirt.

We'll see if we continue to make it to St. George every few years, but we love it every time we go!  I think the next Palmer reunion will be at Disneyland next fall.

James is 30!

Here I was, excited about turning 30 and looking forward to the start of a new decade, and then James's 30th came along, and he was all depressed about it.  The good news is I always know what will make him happy... SUGAR.  So, we celebrated about 3 or 4 times and had a different dessert each time.  Unfortunately, the bad thing we've heard about being in your 30s is that it's more difficult to lose weight.  Oh well.

We played Whirlyball with the Palmer side and had S'mores Bars (notice his awesome pin).

Another killer smile and Peanut Butter - Chocolate Trifle after pool ball. 

Outback in St. George (notice how excited Grayson is about the sundae).

  

Later that afternoon, James, his dad, his 2 brothers Chris and Dave, and older nephews went out shooting with Chris's guns and equipment.  It was the highlight of the trip for the guys, but of course, they didn't get pictures for me to share.  So sad!  At least they have the memories.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my #1!  He just gets better with age, thankfully!

3 Year Old Curiosity

I have always bragged about how awesome Hazel was as a baby because she never put anything in her mouth.  I could let her play with play-doh, dry beans and rice, beads, whatever, and she didn't try to eat it.  Well, just when you think you've passed a certain stage, you're proven wrong.
I was on the phone with Nat when Hazel was playing with a few beads.  I saw a bead in her hand and then I looked again, and it was gone.  Hazel pointed to her nose and had a panicked look on her face.  Uh-oh.  As many times as I've tried to have her blow her nose when she's sick or whatever, she hasn't quite mastered the skill.  In that moment, I was kicking myself for not having tried harder to teach her!  The most she would do is a little sniff, which made the bead go up farther, so we tried the nose vac, tweezers, and more nose blowing.  Fail, fail, and fail again.  Off we went to the ER for what was the most drama-free visit I bet we will ever make there.  Luckily, she wasn't in pain and the doctors were very nice and calming.  They had me try to blow on her mouth while holding her nostril closed, but that wasn't quite powerful enough.  Then they pulled out the Katz Extractor... genius invention!

I was pretty annoyed at various times during the whole ordeal, especially with the fact that she refused to try and blow her nose, but I was grateful she was so calm and everything went smoothly at the hospital.  I'm sure we were just a good story for the doctors to tell to their family members and co-workers, but it was a $100 story/lesson for us!  That's not too bad really when I think about all the reasons we could've been admitted to the hospital.  Hazel was so sweet to continually tell us and the doctor that she would NEVER put a bead up her nose again.  Lesson learned.