Mother's Day

Mother's Day weekend started with a girls night while James and Grayson went on their first Father-Son Campout.  Hazel, Jada, and I picked up Cerra and Faith and we had Taco Bell, did our nails, had root beer floats, danced, played Twister and watched shows.  Hazel slept in James's spot in the bed, and in the morning we went to get French Toast at Great Harvest.  Yummy.  Then the guys got home, we painted faces, went swimming (well, not Jada and me), James finished the beautiful deck, and we went on a date!  Another busy, fun weekend. 

On Mother's Day morning, Grayson spotted a duck outside our kitchen window.  We went to investigate, and we discovered the cutest little duck family!  It was so random because we don't live that close to a pond or anything.  Watching the daddy duck lead and the baby chicks follow closely behind their mom was too much.  It was the perfect beginning to Mother's Day.  

I just love my little chicks and am so grateful to be their mom.  I hope I'm teaching them something because they're sure teaching me a lot!

James and I have been blessed with the greatest moms.  They are the best examples of Christlike love and service.  For example, my mom sent ME a card for Mother's Day, and Barbara swore that babysitting her grandchildren was the best "gift".  I hope they know how much they're loved and appreciated.  Being a mom isn't easy, but it's what I've always wanted to do, and I love it.

My 33rd Birthday

I was very spoiled this year.  Again, I still feel 23 or so, but somehow I'm in my 30's!  Dennis and Barbara offered to watch the kids so we could have a long birthday date.  We drove out to Fort Worth because neither James nor I had been there... and we're Texans!  We walked around to all of the little shops, had some samples of jerkey and olive oil/vinegars, saw the longhorns go down the street, watched a "shoot out", had dinner, and went to the Rangers game with Dave and Melissa.  It was a fun packed afternoon and evening!

James made reservations at a nice place called Del Friscos.  My tomato salad was divine.

The Rangers game was super fun!  We pulled out a win at the end, and it was gorgeous weather.  Of course we love being with family too, so that made it even better.

On my actual birthday, we had breakfast at home (Jada did not want to stop eating for a picture), went to Torchy's for lunch with friends, and had pizza in the car with the kids after tumbling.  James brought me my favorite treat after work- Tiff's Blitz.

Paxton took this picture and did a pretty decent job.  Bri was there too, but she had already gone home.

The next day James's friends came over for the NFL draft, and Bri was so sweet to bring a cookie cake.  It was delicious as usual.  She, Renae, and I had a great time chatting the night away while the boys did their own thing.

I also got to celebrate the next week with my friends from church.  We tried out 2 places I've had my eye on - Cinnaholic and Tom+Chee.  Cinnaholic had over-the-top (vegan) cinnamon rolls, and Tom+Chee had delicious grilled cheeses and tomato soups.  After we were stuffed we went to a Hollie's house for chatting and cards.

I have such fantastic family and friends!

Easter 2017

On Good Friday, James didn't have work, so we took the kids to their favorite park in Rowlette.  

We also dyed eggs with food coloring and cool whip.  They turned out so pretty!

Saturday was Grayson's birthday party, but after that, James worked on the deck with Dennis and Dave while Melissa and I took the kids to an Easter egg hunt at Bass Pro Shop.  Unfortunately, it was over when we got there.  We still had fun though because it had a lot of cool stuff!  The kids loved shooting the fake shotguns and watching the big Koi fish.

On Easter Sunday, we had a Passover type meal, and the kids really loved it.  We also tried out the "resurrection rolls" you see all over the Internet.  They were pretty cute and tasty!

Because of the miracle of the resurrection, our family gets to be together forever.  I couldn't be more grateful.

Birthday Buddies

We celebrated Grayson's and Jada's birthdays all month long.  We celebrated with the Palmers, the Hayeses, and then friends!

Kaye made this beautiful cake.  We celebrated all of the April birthdays in the Palmer family the week before Easter.

Then my parents came in, and we went to Stonebriar to have lunch, play, and ride the carousel.

Over the weekend, we had a friend birthday party for Grayson.  He chose a PJ Masks theme, and he loved every minute of it.

We had breakfast food, coloring, a mask craft, a pin the tail on Gekko game, and we threw water balloons at the night ninja AKA Eva.  She was a great sport!

FOUR!  Grayson's getting so big, but it's fun to watch him learn and grow.  He has such a tender heart and is the best brother (but that doesn't mean he doesn't occasionally get in a few jabs at his older sister).  At his 4 year check up, he was brave for his shots, and the doc said he'd be a big boy.  He seems pretty athletic and coordinated, and we're pretty impressed that he's already learning to read.  I think he'll love 2 day preschool this fall.  Jada and I will miss him though.  Grayson is the greatest, and we're so grateful he came to our home.

Baby Jada turned ONE on April 12th.  She has truly been a joy all 12 months (only minus some sleepless nights in the beginning).  I don't regret holding her in my arms to sleep for the first several months and then sleeping in the guest bed next to her for a few after that.  It seems to have worked out okay since she now loves her crib and puts herself to sleep for naps and nighttime.  She has the perfect little head, cutest little bob, cutest little brick feet, squishiest thighs, best giggle when Daddy tickles her neck, and just the cutest personality.  I only ever get frustrated at meal time when she constantly yells at me and demands another bite.  She definitely knows what she wants.  I also love how she tackles her siblings, points at everything, loves water and sand, blows kisses by smacking her face, conquers the stairs 100x a day, absorbs everything she sees us do and tries to mimic us,  calls everything round a "ball", eats anything I give her, puts on everyone's shoes, crawls in and out of the Barbie Jeep, loves our fish "Oscar" and does the fish mouth, and gets ready to launch with her arms up when she wants me to pick her up.  Best of all, I love that she's a mama's girl for now.  It may not last long, so I'm savoring that special relationship. 

This wasn't the first time we've caught her silently eating candy in a room alone.  

Gotta start flossing early!

Everyone loved her bday gift.

But we love her even more!

Conference Weekend

One perk of teaching sharing time in the month of March is that I taught about latter-day prophets, so I had a lot of material (mostly thanks to Mom) to teach my own kids in preparation for Conference.  We tried to review each of the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles at dinner as if they were our dinner guests, so the kids really enjoyed that.  I got the idea on Pinterest, of course.  As we listened to conference, the kids colored and looked for the names we'd reviewed.

In between sessions, James made a cute discovery... a bunny nest in our garden!  They were so tiny and looked like little mice.  The kids enjoyed watching them grow, but after a few weeks, they jumped out of the little box nest we made for them.  I just hope they don't come back and eat all of our vegetable plants!

During the Priesthood session, Melissa and Kaitlyn came over and we went to eat and watched Moana.  Such a cute movie and such a fun time with the fam.