And Its........

IT'S A GIRL!
We had our ultrasound this morning and everything looks perfect on our little princess. She is a busy little thing already. She is always moving around in there. We are so excited to add her to the family and Mommy is excited to start making cute little things for her to wear. I am still suffering from a severe PUPPP rash. I have never been more miserable in my life. I have these itchy hive/blisters ALL OVER my body. Nothing has been spared. I even have them in my belly button and ears. I haven't slept in weeks, I mean really slept. At night I just kind of doze inbetween scratching episodes. I can feel people looking at me when I go out. I know they think I have something horribly contagious with all of these welts and scabs covering my arms and legs. At a primary activity a couple of days ago, a mother asked me with a horrified look on her face: "Do you have chicken pox?"
I am going to start telling people "No, but I do have the black plague. Don't worry, it's only contagious if you get withing 20 feet."
Sorry to whine so much. I really am excited for my little girl to get here. REALLY excited.....seeing as the only cure for this condition is to have the baby. Four more months.

Solutions anyone?

So I'm pretty sure that I have PUPPPS disease. Every square inch of my body is covered in an EXTREMELY itchy red rash. The only parts that have been spared are my face and the bottoms of my feet. I need any input available from anyone on how to relieve the itching! I am desperate and think I may go out of my mind before too long. Help PLEASE! So far anything that the doctors have prescribed has been a joke. After almost four weeks of this I am ready to try anything.
And by the way.....I think that this disease was created by Al Quiada to drive the infidel white pregnant women mad. It's a brilliant strategy....with a bunch of insane, itchy women out there, the nation will fall under the control of militant islam much sooner, especially if they have the cure for this disease. The Infidel women would most likely sell their souls for relief.
You see, I'm rambling. Do you need any more proof people?

Prayers Needed

The past week has been a little bit helter skelter. We found out last Sunday that David's sister, Becky, has an aggressive form of leukemia. She had been feeling sick for only a couple of weeks and been to the doctor a couple of times. Finally, on Sunday, her awesome husband Garon took her to the emergency room and within hours had a diagnosis. She has been in the ICU at Uof U and is now stable and undergoing Chemotherapy at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. She is a tough cookie and a wonderful person but she needs our prayers. The family and I would love it if you would keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Chase. Becky and Garon's youngest at 4 months old. He is sooooooo adorable.

Tyler (7) and Natalie (4), Her two other children. Love these kids. Tyler is a little giant, I love and respect that little guy so much. He has more faith than all of us put together.

Becky and her awesome husband Garon. They are a strong couple and will get through this. We love them and keep praying for them.

December 4, A Big Day

I couldn't find a good clipart picture of a fetus in the womb and I'm not going to post a picture of my expanding self right now so I'll just say it. Baby #3 is coming on or around (preferrably before) December 4 2010. I am currently at week 15 in my pregnancy and feeling so much better. I am lucky to not puke when I'm pregnant but I still felt exhausted and sick for three months. I've gotten bigger faster with this baby than my other two, I feel enormous, and Clare has confirmed that little fact. The other day she said to me: "Mommy has a big belly, the baby is in there........"
"Yep," I answered "the baby is growing big"
"Your bum is big too Mommy." She replied.

I laughed. She's right. In fact, that's the only place I get stretch marks. Anyhoo....we find out the gender of the little peanut in about a month. I'm guessing it's a boy. Let me know what you think.

Ropes and Rails and Rattlesnake Tails

May. Time for the annual Adams Ranch Branding. We made our pilgrimage during Memorial Day weekend. We arrived on Thursday and on Friday my Mom had all of the men ensnared in her plan to fence off the yard. After years of brown spots on her grass (from cows dropping their little treasures on the lawn) and uprooted plants in her garden, she has had enough. The guys made quick work of it and had most of the posts set in cement by the end of the day. Wahoo!
Saturday was the big day. Dad had rounded up enough help to have a roping team and a good ground team. The ladies mostly worked inside fixing a delicious meal fit for Thanksgiving dinner. One thing you learn on a farm is that even though you've spent the majority of your life doing "guy's work" once you get married and live on a paved street, you no longer qualify for "guy's work" and are replaced in your duties by your city slicker husband because they are obviously better qualified on account of their elevated levels of testosterone. I'm not bitter, just amused. This year I was grateful for a break from my "duties" at the branding. In the recent past I had been the designated castrator of male calves. Not fun.
The guys performed their duties with finesse though and the calves were branded, ear-marked, and castrated (when applicable) within hours. Good job!
Sunday was a beautiful day that turned out to be very relaxing and restful, something we all needed. After church, wonderful sunday dinner, and a good nap, we went outside and played a few games on the lawn. My sisters and sister in law are very musically talented so whenever we get together, it's always fun to gather around the piano while Carla or my Mom plays and sing hymns and oldies with everyone singing a different part. Some of our favorites are "Dream" "Abide With Me, Tis Eventide" and "If You Could Hye to Kolob" among many.
Monday was rainy and the day to pack up and go but David couldn't leave without getting a fishing trip in so early that morning he and my two brothers and nephew went fishing at the "White Bridge". They had a blast catching all kinds of big trout followed by a pit stop (snake pit that is) to kill some rattlesnakes. A friend of ours recently discovered a rattlesnake pit on his property and has invited anyone willing to come hunt them. They are everywhere. Glen recently killed about 25 there in one day. Another friend killed over thirty on another day. On Monday they killed five. David came back white faced, but with a prize of two rattles taken from the serpent's tails. Yuck! So, that was our exciting weekend, If anyone wants to join us on our next Adams branding adventure feel free to ask. You can expect a grand old time filled with hard work, blood, dust, cow poo, and deadly reptiles with a few tamer past-times intermingled.
Sawyer proudly showing off the day's catch. His brother Cody caught the biggest one at 19 inches. They went all the way down to the smallest at 13 inches. Way to go boys!

The ground crew. Hyrum threw the calves down while Sawyer branded and castrated. David was a little inexperienced so he just gave shots. What a rough and tumble group.

This is a calf fry, rocky mountain oyster, little sausage.........calf testicle roasting on a piece of corrigated tin. The dog ate this one but the humans saved their share too. Michael cooked some up inside and ate them with the girl he brought home to see the family. He knows how to show a girl a good time. He could have lit some candles and served them on fine china if he really wanted to impress her, but no. Testicles on paper plates is all she got. He also took her rattlesnake hunting. What a Romeo.

The roping team, well some of it. From left to right: Matthew, an italian cowboy from back east that I can't remember a name for, and Nate Allington. Great crew and good cowboys.

Clare and Hyrum loved riding on the horses. This one's name is Jake.

Moving

Sorry, no pictures. Just a quick update. We closed on our house May 14th, about two weeks early, everything went astoundingly smooth...no hitches whatsoever. We moved that weekend, thanks to the help of my phenomenal Sister in law Carla, and her totally awesome family. We owe them big! We were all exausted at the end of the weekend. We moved into David's parents basement. They have been very accomodating and have kept us well fed in the few weeks that we've been here. The kids had a hard time getting adjusted to sleeping in a room together and in grandma's house, but they are doing great now. We are grateful to have a place to live and in-laws willing to put up with us all.

Recent Events

The picture says it all. We've had our house up for sale for a year and finally got a really good, solid offer on it. It's been a long road. All I have to say is that the Lord does things in his own time and blesses those who (finally) listen to his council. We are really excited to enter the next faze of our lives, though we know that it's going to be tough. We will have to live with David's parents for a while......swallowing a gigantic dose of pride. And then hopefully we will be able to make our way to Idaho so that David can start his own business. We are livin the Dream baby! Our closing date is May 27th and we are crossing our fingers that everything goes as planned so that we can go to the Adams ranch branding that weekend

David and I, (before we got the offer on our house) put in this square foot garden. It's actually deeper than it looks, we dug down below the rocks and then filled it with a compost mixture. We planted green leaf lettuce, spinich, and buttercrunch lettuce in a couple of the squares. We also planted radishes and carrots. (I love me a good salad.) In the smaller planter we planted peas and the last one we gave to the kids to plant whatever they wanted. It is chuck full of stuff....that the new owners will have to guess what it is! I'm sorry that we wont be able to be here to reap what we have sown, but maybe the new owners will enjoy it.

April 6th

Four years ago on April 6th David and I welcomed our sweet little Clare into the world. She was so tiny and soft. I remember panicking while I was in labor because I was so afraid that I would be a terrible mother and not love the little one inside of me enough because in that moment ........I wasn't feeling much for the baby that was causing me so much discomfort and pain. Of course, all I had to do was see her chubby, soft, little cheeks and hold her in my arms to have all of that anxiety washed away. Clare has brought us so much joy and laughter in our home. We love her so much and are so glad that Heavenly Father sent her to our family. This is my failed attempt at making a princess castle cake. This is the part that I salvaged....the rest ended up in a big broken pile in a bowl. Interestingly enough, people ate more out of the bowl than the actual cake.

Clare had Grandma and Grandpa Palmer over for her birthday party, along with Natalie, Ty, Becky, Garon, baby chase, and our neighbor girls, Josie and Bailey. So much Princess fun!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Easter! My most favorite holiday of the year. I love the easter colors, coloring easter egss, easter baskets, easter decorations, and celebrating the resurrection of the Savior! The most wonderful gift that our Father in Heaven could bestow. This year we got a bonus blessing too! We were able to listen to prophets and apostles speak to us in general conference. AAahhhh. I am looking forward to listening to them again and again via the internet. BTW Did anyone else hear the 20-dollar-bill analogie and LOVE it? I thought that was a great way to illustrate the worth of a soul even though we have sinned. Please share your favorite part of Conference!

Yesterday David's parents had their traditional Easter get together. We ate great food (the Palmers love food) visited with all of David's siblings (everyone made it this year!) and had easter egg hunts. Hyrum caught on pretty fast!

The big kids are always so great to help the little kids.

Diving for treats in Sawdust. The kids have a Blast (refer to the post below for more Sawdust fun) and come out really dirty.

Clare was pretty proud of herself and all of the candy she collected........If you look in her basket it's mostly filled with sawdust but Hey! she had fun doing it.

Diving for Quarters

One Palmer family tradition that I really like (there are a lot of ones that I like, but this is one of my favorites) is "diving for quarters" that they do at easter time. Because the bigger grandkids are too big for easter egg hunts, grandpa put a bunch of sawdust in a big pile and then dumps a bunch of quarters in it and lets the kids dig through and find what they can. It's so much fun to watch. This year he put $35 worth of quarters in it. woo hoo!

Catch Up

Because I'm a lazy cuss, I have not made any posts lately so I'm doing a little catch-up today. Two weekends ago the Fam and I headed up to Rexburg, ID to meet up with my Mom and Dad to watch Michael's basketball game. He was playing in the championship Intermural game. Mike played a great game but unfortunately his team lost by a measly 6 points. It was way fun to see him play though! After Mike's game we all went to Bajio Mexican Grill (for our first time ever) for dinner. WOW! I am impressed and I now have a favorite new place to eat. Thank goodness we have one 1/2 hour away in Logan. It's a must try!
I haven't been to Rexburg in years and it was really fun to see how it's changed and how it's very much the same. I was especially excited to see the temple! It was so beautifull! Being there in Rexburg brought back a lot of good memories. It's where David and I went on our first date, where Joyce and I roomed together for a year and had a lot of good times. I loved my time at BYU-I but I was so glad that I am at the point I am in my life now. I have two beautiful children and a great husband. In the last 7 years, I've learned so much about myself and about life and I look forward to many great memories to be made with my kids, my husband, and my friends. Hyrum, of course, had to get into some of the ball action after the game.

Clare thinks that Uncle Michael is super cool (isn't he sooooooo cute with her?) In fact, every time she hears the song "Soul Sister" by Train she perks up and says "This is Uncle Michael's favorite song!" I'm so glad that my kids have such fun and great examples to look up to.

Mom and Dad while we are waiting for Mike's game to start. If Dad looks grumpy, it's because Mom forgot her purse at Carla's house.........5 hours away. It would make me grumpy too. It's always an adventure with my parents.

Developing Talents (emphasis on DEVELOPING)

Don't look too closely at the stitching or you may see that it's not completely even.

I've got some cute kids right?

First of all, I'd like to ask all of you who are accomplished sewers to please disregard my obvious novicity (is that a word?) at sewing. I just completed my first piece of clothing and I am brimming with excitement and itching to do it again. I made a skirt for Clare and then appliqued a shirt that I got for just a few bucks on sale to match it. I stayed very basic and I think it turned out really cute. I just have to say that my inspiration came mostly from my cousin Jessica who has a super cute blog and an adorable etsy shop. You should totally check it out.

Family Pix

We just went and got family pictures for the first time a couple of weeks ago. We went to the Target Portrait studio which I probably wouldn't do again for a variety of reasons. The pictures turned out pretty well, here are a few of them.

March

We haven't been up to much lately.....We hang out in our house when it's cold, and when the sun is out, we go outside. I'm getting so excited to get working in my yard but it still too early yet. (As witnessed by the snowflakes floating down outside my window as I write.) So here are few random pictures of the kids. Hyrum is in the loving shoes stage. He likes to walk around in my Fat Babies. (why not? I LOVE them too.)

Clare and her very best friend and cousin, Natalie. They are so cute together don't you think? They even have matching jammies. It wasn't planned, I promise.

The Funny Farm

On our way home from Crane, we stopped at my sister Carla's house. We had a lot of fun eating WONDERFUL food, watching Martin's band concert (IT WAS AWESOME!) and playing outside. The kids enjoyed doing some of Lemur's "work". (See Carla's Blog about Montessori work for toddlers) Hyrum spent a long time on the magnetix and seemed to get the whole concept really well.

Lemur in his working garb. He is so funny. He tells the most animated stories even though you can't understand a word he's saying. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Yak. Also adorable, I just want to eat his chubby cheeks.

Clare loved the swing.

David pruned some of their fruit trees. He did a great job and stuck out the cold wind. Way to go, Idaho!

Thanks Carla for a great time.

P.S. Clare has been saying some pretty funny things lately. The other day as I stepped into the car with her she piped "You a hottie!" Hyrum, being a typical little brother began following suit, yelling "hottie, hottie!" I think they may have had some coaching from their father. :)

There's No Place Like Home

We got to go to Crane for a few days last week. It was a lot of relaxing fun. Unfortunately, I am horrible at taking pictures so I didn't get a lot of people that I wanted to like, Joyce, Mom, Baby McKee, Vince, and pictures of the process that Glen was going through to load up tons (literally) of steel onto a trailer to scrap it. These are things that have been sitting on the farm for decades and Glen finally talked Dad into getting rid of. The kids had fun helping a being outside! Clare LOVED Aunt Joyce and Grandma and Grandpa. In fact, about five minutes after being home (after a 9 hour drive) Clare was on the verge of tears saying "I need my Joyce, I need my Gwamma" Clare made sure that Grandpa was warm enough when He took his naps.

Clare, Cassie, and Hyrum. Cassie is Nate and Lisa Harrington's little girl and the most adorable little girl. She came to visit with her Dad who was buying my Dad's bayler.

Hyrum and Clare got lots of rides on the four wheeler and trailer. They Loved being outside without snow! We still had 18 inches in Tremonton when we left.

A Budding Artist

Clare LOVES to draw. She will sit and draw for long periods of time and she's getting very good at it. I just wanted to show all of you her dog that she just drew. Look Mom! A dog!

I thought this was pretty darn good for a three-year-old!

I heart Spray Paint

I have been doing a lot of spray painting lately. I've become a little obsessive. The D.I. is my new favorite haunt. I search for old, unique things to spray paint and have found a few cute things. The candlestick holder in this photo use to be a bronze color. The flower was black as you can see below. I love spraypaint. A bright, springy flower.

The Dark, funerally flower.

Another Talented Family Member

So I just wanted to brag on another talented family member. My sister Joyce has always been a great artist. When she was five she was drawing way better pictures than I was. Now she has her own website and draws portraits on commission. Head on over there to check out her work.
http://www.jacustomportraits.intuitwebsites.com

This is a Long one...Sorry

We haven't been up to much lately, mostly hiding from the snow that is piling up 2 feet deep outside...but we have done a few projects around the house: We painted the bathroom this funky color of green which we are still in debate about. We had to paint to cover up the bright red fingernail polish that Clare had painted on the walls. I think we are going to have to paint the cabinets white to make the green look okay.

I made these curtains for Clare's room. I LOVE the fabric. Now I just need to hang them up.

David and I made this coat hanger/message board to hang by our back door. Now are banister will be free of coats! I perhaps I won't forget half of the things I'm supposed to be doing like...Taking dinner to Amber tomorrow.

David periodically has back pain. It is usually set off by some incident where it gets tweeked. Well, he tweeked it last week playing elders quorum basketball. Heat packs help to relax him and relieve the pain somewhat so I made him a rice pack. (He complained for a very long time about how "cutsey" it was..but that was the only kind-of-manly fabric I had that was big enough.) Clare loved it so much that David didn't get to use it much so I made her and Hyrum one too.

Clare and Hyrum have just been hanging out, reading books, sliding down the makeshift table slide, playing "bedtime" (they get all of the blankets out with their pillows and spend about an hour on the floor snuggled up in their blankets saying "goodnight mommy!" Super cute.

Clare loves to hear stories. She usually asks me to tell her stories when we are driving and when it's nap and bedtime. She asks for a plethora of different stories including "three bears story"

the "three kitties story" "three doggies story" "the banana story" . Most of these I don't know so I've had to make them up as I go along. Lately her favorite is the "shoes story". This one I had to make up and it goes something like this:

Once upon a time there was a princess that loved to dance. Her name was Princess Clare. One day the princess went to put on her dancing shoes so that she could dance and found that there were holes in them. She needed to have dancing shoes so that she could dance and twirl and spin beautifully so she went out in search of some new dancing shoes....... We then go through bunch of different things to make dancing shoes out of. We've made dancing shoes out of paper, wood, mashed potatoes, cold cereal, water, bread, snow...and all kinds of different things. Of course none of them work. The paper shoes are to crinkly and get holes too fast, the wood shoes are too heavy and make clunky noises when she danced, the mashed potato shoes are too squishy. The cold cereal shoes got mushy too fast. ....and so on.....Finally Princess Clare goes to the shoe maker who makes her some shoes out of leather. Clare picks the color and then declares that the shoes should be sparkly. Princess Clare takes her shoes home and wants to dance and twirl and spin but first she needs sparkles on them to make them the most beautiful dancing shoes of them all. She looks up into the night sky and sees the stars twinkling and decides to put stars on her shoes to make them sparkle. So she reaches up and takes some stars from the sky and places them on her shoes. Then she danced and twirled and spun in the most beautiful dancing shoes ever. The End.

Lately I've been hearing Clare telling the story to Hyrum during their "bedtimes" and I get a kick out of the creative twists that she comes up with. For instance, yesterday she included in the story shoes made of Playdough. but they were too heavy and Princess Clare fell down and got an owy on her bum which started to bleed and Princess Clare was so sad until her Mommy put a Dora bandaid on it. Then she was all better and got some blue dancing shoes and put twinkly stars on them so that they'd be sparkly then she danced and danced in her beautiful shoes. The End

Terrific Twos

Hyrum turned 2 on Monday. Aaah....it seems like only yesterday that I was screaming my head off as I squeazed his little melon out. He has been such a joy ever since. Hyrum is always smiling. He has always been such a happy little boy and a joy to have in our home. He is definitely a Daddy's boy. He LOVES to have Daddy home and follow him around, copying everything he does. He loves hats, trucks, and especially BALLS. Any kind of ball is his favorite but her recently discovered Basketball when we went and watched David play Elder's quorum ball. Hyrum was in bliss and had his eyes glued on the court the whole time. Now he gets super excited when we drive past the church and screams "BaBall!" I love my little man so much. I can't imagine life without him. Hyrum opening his birthday present.

Scary Hitler Grandma. They came all the way from Brigham city at 8:00 at night to celebrate Hyrum's birthday with him. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

They brought balloons! What a treat!

Hyrum's Baseball cake. I wanted to make a soccer ball cake but do you have ANY idea how hard it is to get all of those geometric shapes in there? There are Hectagons and sexagons (six sided things? I think that's what they're called) and the Sexagons surround the hectagons and they all have to be geometrically accurate to fit appropriately into they're designated spot. It's exhausting just to think about! Anyway....Hyrum didn't care. He loved the baseball cake.

Hyrum enjoying his birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa.

Great toy

We have discovered one of the great toys ever. I got our little folding table out and leaned it up on the love seat and let the kids use it as a slide. They've been playing NICELY on it for an hour! They are having so much fun and being so nice to each other. I've been able to blog while they are awake! I wish I knew how to spell Halleluja...because that's what I've been sing over and over in my mind!

Snow Daze

Having a lazy, snowy day today and thought that I should FINALLY update my blog. We haven't been up to much but we finally made it sledding. We went to "JackRabbit Hill". It's a hill in the middle of nowhere that is privately owned but the guy opens it up in the winter for people to sled down. It's perfect because it's not super steep but it's long. The kids loved it!

Hyrum giggled all the way down the hill. He thought it was the greatest! I'm worried. That kid already feels the need for speed.

Clare, as always, was fearless and kept saying, "Again! Again!" David and I had to convince her to wait a few minutes after each turn because hauling the kids back up the hill wore our poor, flabby, winterized bodies out. I think the my body goes into hybernation in the winter even though my brain doesn't. It would rather stay in bed and in the nice warm house and eat oreos.

Just had to include this adorable photo of my cutie pants kids. Aren't they munchable?