Lincoln Lately...

My little Lincoln is quite the artist. He loves to color, craft, draw and paint. He is always making books and pictures for everyone in our family. Lately he has decided that he loves Pokemon cards and he and Palmer sat for hours making their own as we don't have very many of them. I love to watch them be creative and work on projects.
Another thing going on is that I have introduced the boys to the Disney princess movies. They have never seen them before. I have put them in our van in the DVD player so the HAVE to watch them. I thought they would fight me on it, but they actually have liked them. "Sleeping Beauty" was the first one we watched. Hunter loved it the most, he ADORES Prince Phillip. We have also watched "Snow White" and are currently watching "Cinderella". They really liked the first two, but they are not loving Cinderella so much.

Michelle's Wedding!

My little sister Michelle got married a few weeks ago (I am pretty behind on the blog). It was such a fun time to see her and Tyler so happy and also get to see friends and family that we don't get to see very often. They got married in the Salt Lake Temple and the ceremony was beautiful. They were both smiling so big and were just glowing with happiness.

It was fun to be here together so close to our anniversary (May 9th).  It was a wonderful day for us as well 9 years ago.

As we were waiting for them to get ready to come out of the temple, Josh got a little carried away with the camera.
I mean REALLY carried away. I have a lot of crazy pictures :) This might be the best one. I have a pretty awesomely funny brother in law who always makes things fun.
I have such a great extended family that I don't get to see nearly enough. This is my cousin Rebecca. She is a doll and it is always fun to have an chance to see her.

They finally came out with a grand entrance. The photographer's arm was in most of my pictures. I guess he has a right to be front and center...but he and his elbows were pretty rampant in my photos.

After getting the pictures at the temple (I will post some of the family if Shell with share when she gets them *wink*). We headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for a luncheon hosted by Tyler's family. It was wonderful.
Michelle and Tyler sang "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland and it was darling. They are the cutest couple.
The bride, groom and the proud parents.
The happy couple.
Later on that night there was a reception at the "Old Meeting House" in Salt Lake. It was lovely and so fun to once again, see all of the the friends and family we just don't see enough. I didn't have my camera with me until the end of the night, but I caught this picture of my niece.  I was one of Michelle's bride's maids and I didn't get ONE picture of me all night (I guess that is pretty typical since I am usually BEHIND the camera.)
Michelle and Tyler did the traditional dance. It was so sweet to see Michelle and my dad and Tyler and his mom dancing.
My nephew was actively involved in the dance. He was so cute I had to get a picture of him.
Then Tyler and Michelle got to dance.
Throwing the bouquet.
The lucky winner.

Michelle and Tyler heading on their honeymoon to Florida. It was a beautiful day and these two are such a great couple. It will be fun to see the amazing things they accomplish together.

We are moving!

We have found a house and are moving in 3 weeks! I am freaking out a little bit as that is pretty quick and I don't really have anything packed. I struggle with change. Good change as well as bad change. I am such a creature of habit and love things on schedule and that I am familiar with.

But I am so excited about this new adventure that our family is going to be experiencing. I am also finding that we know a lot of people that have kids going to the elementary school that our kids will go to. I took these pictures from the website that we found the house on. I hope it is okay that I share them on here.
Kitchen
Great room
Master bedroom
Master bath-Josh asked me what I wanted in a new house and I told him I didn't care about much as long as I didn't have to share a bathroom with the boys anymore. Do you know that Josh and I share a bathroom with our boys???? It isn't my favorite thing to say the least.
Another angle of the great room.

It is a darling house and seems to have a great neighborhood. One of the nights that we went to see it there was a mob of boys about our kids' ages running around. I am so anxious about everything but thrilled at the same time.

I will post more pictures when it is actually OUR stuff that is in here!

Date with a Cutie

I have been wanting to take Palmer to lunch all year.  The year as it always does got away from me.  Luckily I forgot to send him with a lunch the other day when I was volunteering in his class.  It was great to have an excuse to go out with him, even if his choice did happen to be Micky D's (I loath that place.  I tried to talk him into Wendy's. They have a balsamic chicken sandwich that I have a crush on).

So I just asked him questions while he told me all about school and friends and life.  I love to hear what my kids have to say about the things that go on around them.  We had a good talk and Palmer thought I was the coolest mom in the world for buying him a couple of chicken nuggets and some chocolate milk.  It was a good time.  Love my boy.

Mother's Day 2011

This year Josh and my wedding anniversary fell on Mother's Day. We do quite a few double holidays in our family. Josh's birthday is on Valentine's Day and Lincoln's birthday falls on Thanksgiving sometimes. Josh was so cute to try to make the day extra special for me. I woke up to the boys and Josh all trying to frantically get breakfast in bed ready for me. Darn it, I ruined the surprise. Josh had made these cute signs to celebrate the day.
I guess while I was gone the night before he took the boys to the store and let them each pick out some flowers to give me. Josh picked out the red roses, Hunter picked out the pink roses, Palmer picked out the bright green flowers and Lincoln picked out the purple ones. Then they put them all together in a vase. I also got a whole bunch of chocolate. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE chocolate as Josh well knows, but I have NO self control at all when it comes to chocolate. I told Josh that if anyone asked me what I got for Mother's Day I would tell them 5 pounds.
Random fact about me, I don't really like breakfast foods. Not too much of a fan of waffles, pancakes, french toast etc. I do however like eggs and omelets. Josh made me a vegetable omelet with everything I like it in. It was DELICIOUS!
After church, where Josh spoke and said some really kind things about me and his mom, we headed over to my parent's house. My sweet dad planned a dinner where the guys all had to make something to contribute. They were each invited to bring something that was one of their "strengths". Josh was asked to bring rolls (he is a GREAT roll maker) and brownies. He was baking up a storm after church. Not to mention he did the rolls in star shapes which we all thought was great :)
I got some great gifts from the boys. Hunter made me this cute little decoration to hang on the wall and a cute card. I had gotten Palmer's awesome gift at Mom's and Muffins the Friday before.
Lincoln gave me strawberry scented bath salts that he made at school (I have got to learn out how do that!). I really lucked out with all of the great gifts.
The boys made my mom these butterflies out of their handprints. I got the idea here.
We had a great time with the Palmer side of the family celebrating Mother's Day. I am so grateful for the two WONDERFUL mothers that I have in my life. My mom and Mother-in-law are such great examples to me.

We Love McKay

Tonight for our Friday Night Activity we went to IKEA. Yep, pretty lame as far as the boys were concerned (I had to get some things there and tomorrow is jam packed). We made it up to them with buying them dinner in the little restaurant that they have there so I am sure that it went down on their list of memorable activities...I really shouldn't write posts at 10:03 at night. Any way I tweaked my hip somehow and it is KILLING and I am having a hard time walking. In fact I walk like you do when you are 8 and 3/4 months pregnant, but I am not pregnant, so I just look like I am a weirdo. Oh well.
Josh took these pictures of the boys with McKay a few weeks ago when I was at Special Needs Mutual (for the last time...I am so sad!) He gave them all bathes (yes, he is my hero) and then let them push McKay around in a laundry basket. That little boy sure is loved. Mom and Dad adore him, his brothers think the earth revolves around him and even those he doesn't know come up to him and try to get him to smile at them.
McKay DOESN'T give kisses. Have I ever mentioned that on here before? It makes me sad, but is funny too. If you ask him for a kiss, he SMACKS you in the face (has happened a million and one times to me.) Tonight while hobbling around IKEA (hobbling I tell you), I asked McKay for a kiss, expecting to get slapped and he leaned his head in so I could kiss it.
That is some serious progress in the kissing realm. I am thrilled about it as well as being thrilled I didn't get slapped. Baby steps right (speaking of baby steps, he is 16 months and still not walking...but it is fine...really...I am not worried...well maybe a little.

My Poor Teething McKay

Poor little McKay has a ROUGH time teething. Every millimeter of tooth that comes in hurts him. He has gotten 3 of his 4 molars in the past 1-1/2 months and is currently working on the fourth. Let me just say it has been a rough week for him as well as his family :) We have been looking at some prospective houses and have had to drag the kids all over and McKay has NOT liked it one bit. I feel so bad for the poor boy. I am happy this is the last of his molars for now and hopefully the rest of the teeth will come in a lot easier (I am not counting on it :)

Partners in Crime

Last week when we were having our beautiful weather (it is currently raining cats and dogs), the boys had a ball playing outside. We have a little patch of wilderness in back of our house that the boys like to play in some times and Lincoln and Hunter decided to have a little picnic. The sneaked out our HUGE box of Goldfish crackers (how in the world did we miss that thing going out the door) and some paper and pencils and had a good ole time eating most of the box and drawing. Josh saw them from our window and took these pictures. Such a fun moment, it makes me even more excited for summer time (better stock up on the Goldfish crackers).

Moms and Muffins

So you probably know by now that we adore our kids' teachers. All three of our boys in school have the best of the best as far as I am concerned. The first grade teachers at our school put together a program for the kids called "Moms and Muffins." It was the Friday before Mother's Day and each of the moms were invited to come to a program put on by her son or daughter (Palmer chose to wear his Kindergarten t-shirt, since he had worn his 1st grade one the day before).

The kids did some seriously great dancing that one of the teachers had choreographed. I just sat and laughed with delight through the whole thing. It was A.DOR.ABLE. Seriously so cute to see all these kids dancing their little hearts out.
I had no idea that Palmer had such good moves! I wished that I have video taped it...oh well I have lots of great pictures.

Then they sang some way cute songs and had all of the mothers doe eyed over their children. It was perfect and wonderful and in heaven I am going to watch it again (I figured we get to do that in heaven, we can watch our life over again, especially the good parts).
I sure love this wonderful boy. He has decided that it is okay to hug and kiss me in front of his friends. I don't know why the switch, but I will take it while I can get it because I know it won't last much longer.
My mom and niece Savanna were there too, right across from us. It was fun to have his grandma there.
Palmer made this great place mat for our little snack after the program. I have used it a lot since.
Then we got to do a scrapbook page together. Palmer took charge of that one.
Palmer filled out a sheet on my likes and dislikes. He is pretty aware as they were all pretty spot on. He wrote that I am "thirdy three" years old (some of those moms were being speculated to be in their 50s by their children), my favorite food is "seafood" which is definitely one of my favorites, my favorite thing to do is cook, my least favorite thing to do is "go to McDonalds." I think I must complain to loudly whenever we eat there for dinner, which is rarely. Palmer wrote that "she helps me when she does my homework". I swear I don't do his homework for him :) and he likes it best when I help him with his homework.
This was our scrapbook page. We both a section to write how we felt about the day and each other. We also had really yummy chocolate chip muffins that his teacher made for us. I tried to get Palmer to give me his, but he said no :)
Then Palmer took me back to his classroom to give me his Mother's Day present that he made for me.
He opened it himself :)
Isn't this cute!? Palmer was so proud of it. I LOVE that his teacher has taught them to do pottery this year. We have some really wonderful things that he has made. This cute little hand soap dish has changed locations about a million times in our house. You never know where it will turn up next. I love it. This was seriously a day that I will never forget. What wonderful teachers to provide such a great memory.