Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Peter Danial


I thought I would do a blog post about Peter.  I still need to do one on Thomas, since I haven't done one since he was a few days old., but I have a bunch of pics of Peter ready to go, so I'll do him first!  He was born May 4.  Our little Star Wars baby.  Peter is a name we love and hesitated to use for the first 2 boys because we were worried Peter Palmer sounded too nursery rhymish and Marvel characterish.  We decided to get over it this time around and are so happy we did, because Peter is the perfect name for him!  Danial is his middle name and it is from one of Jeffrey's best friend's growing up.  It's spelled differently than the traditional Daniel, so there is no question as to who we got it from. :) Peter has been such a sweet baby from day one!!  We had nursing issues, and I discovered a link between nursing and my post pardum depression, so on day 3 of nursing, we quit! No looking back and no regrets (only a couple of times of longingly watching the sweetness of Heather and Melinda nursing their babies). He was such a good baby, he was my only baby who loved to be swaddled, nice and tight! He slept well and was happy and content when awake.  He was, of course, loved by his older 3 siblings and this time around, my older 2 were actually really helpful with a newborn, so I was able to leave him in their arms or watchful eye to get things done.  Peter has also been my only baby who has sucked his thumb!  It's the most adorable thing I've ever seen!  He has a fox blanky/stuffy which he holds in his hand and up to his mouth, while he sucks his thumb.  He only sucks his thumb while holding his fox, and I usually only give him his fox while he is in his bed, so he associates it with sleeping. I don't know what we'll do one day when we want that to stop, because I can't fathom taking his precious little Foxy away!  But I won't worry about it today. :)  Up until a few months ago, Peter was a little angel, never into trouble, happy as can be.  Content to play and pitter patter around.  But alas, he is taking after Thomas.  He's still as happy as can be, but he is into everything!!  Takes books off of shelves, dumps out everything, eats dog food (and sometimes poop), and climbs as high as he can!  I am pretty sure that is typical little boy behavior though, not just something Tommy did and now Peter is doing.  Because I had Jacey first, he was my "norm", and Jacey never did stuff like this.  He would rather look at books, and do puzzles, and find every letter and number in the house and tell me what they were.  He was more of an intellect, rather than physical.  So though I shouldn't be, I'm still surprised by how active and exhausting little boys can be!  Peter has been melting us lately with the new words he's been learning.  He says Daddy, Mummm, Hello, Hi, thank you, there you go, yes, oh, wow and what. We are all so in love with him!!  I love that older siblings can be fighting and Peter can break the tension by his sweetness and goofiness!  He loves to dance and shake his cute little tushy! He smiles so easily and has a contagious laugh!  Jeffrey can get him to laugh the hardest by tickling him.  Speaking of Jeffrey, he is such a Daddy's boy!!  Which is so nice for Jeffrey, because Thomas is completely a Momma's boy!  I'm jealous of him, but I guess it's only fair!  Peter has a mouth full of teeth, only needs his two bottom eye teeth and he'll have 16 in total. He's been walking since just before his 1st birthday and is now mastering the stairs.  He is progressing from crawling up and sliding on his belly down, to actually walking up and stepping down.  Crazy how fast he's grown!!  My only complaint about Peter, is that he doesn't snuggle enough!!  He will give you a hug after he wakes up, and he'll stay in your arms while drinking his bubba, but other than that, he doesn't want to be held or cuddled.  It's a little heart breaking, but we're hoping we can just snuggle him into liking it.  He wouldn't be a true Palmer without a love of snuggling! ;)  Oh yeah, the other adorable thing he does is give kisses!!  He puckers his lips and makes a "mmmm" sound and leans forward just a little bit.  He goes 10, wants you to go 90.  :)  But it's always worth it, such delicious kisses!  He also blows kisses.  We just love him!!!  This is just a brief glimpse into his life.  He has been such a dream baby and we are so grateful Heavenly Father blessed us with him!!



 My first attempt at giving him a "real" haircut and not just a buzz.

 First day saying "Hello" and "yes" (he surprised us with the yes!)
 At the park!

 First day saying "thank you"!
 Everyone love him!
 Watching his older siblings on a ride at Calaway Park.
 A rare nap out of his crib.
 
Always smiling!

Being the sweet and lovable boy he is!!
 Bubba and fox in hand!  And his sidekick, Frodo. This is a common sight.
 Enjoying a beautiful fall day in the backyard.
New-to-him jammies.  Buzz Lightyear for Halloween maybe?

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Fall Kids' Pics!

We had a get together at Heather and Charlie's place at the beginning of September and Heather texted me that morning telling me she would take some fall pics for the kids if I wanted.  And of course,  I did!  So we throw together some nice clothes and did their hair and off we went.  These are such cute pictures and I love that she always manages to capture real smiles and personality.  Thanks Heather for the pictures, we love them!! (Sorry, I had to post them all, color and black&white.) :) Click on individual images for a clearer picture!
























I'm Back!!!

Life as I know it is changing!  I'm leaving Facebook for good!!  :D  I am such a time waster on it and as embarrassing as it is to admit, I'm totally addicted! I can't just cut back, or limit the amount of times I check it.  I've tried several times, I just can't do it! So for my own well being and the well being of my family, I have to eliminate it from my life.  I already feel so much freedom!  I am on it until the end of the month to finish up some stuff I've started in a couple of groups, but come November 1, I'm done!!  People do this all the time, say they're leaving Facebook and then get back on a little while later, so I know there are doubters out there, but I will prove them wrong!  I'm done!  I still have instagram because I love my chatbooks!!  And I will now be starting up my blogging again.  It's nice to have a place people can keep up to date with my life (if they so desire) and somewhere to journal what's happening with my family. I've never been very dedicated to my blog (my last post was 3.5 years ago, haha!), but hopefully with no Facebook to get in the way, I'll be able to blog once a week.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving and we had no dinners planned on either side of the family.  With my parents on their mission in the Congo, my siblings and I are hit and miss on planning family dinners for special occasions.  This time we didn't.  On the Palmer side, Cyndi was in Hawaii, so we are planning to do our dinner when she is back in town.  So that left us alone this weekend.  I've never made a turkey before, nor did I have the desire to try now.  So I bought a pot roast and planned to make a traditional Draper sunday dinner for Thanksgiving. Potatoes and yorkshire puddings are easy and I've done a thousand times, but this was my first time doing a roast and gravy.  Turns out it's super easy and I should have tried it years ago.  Jaclyn loved helping me in the kitchen.  In the morning, we stuck the roast in the crock pot and then we made pumpkin ginger snaps to have for dessert with ice cream.  Next, she learned to peel and chop potatoes and then make yorkshires. It was so fun to work side by side with her, she loves to cook and bake and try things for herself, not just observe!  The total opposite of me as a child. :)  Thank goodness for that!  She made name place settings and her and Thomas made some handprint turkeys to cut out and decorate with.  It was such a fun, relaxing afternoon.  Thomas and Jeffrey mowed the lawn, and Jacey was good to play with Peter and keep him out of the dishwasher, his latest obsession! I just realized this is the first time I've mentioned Peter on this blog.  Haha!  My last post was about Thomas just after he was born, in April of 2011.  Well Peter was born May 4, 2014.  But I'm not backtracking, I'm only going forward from here.  Thankfully, I have an actual journal I write in and I've documented Peter's birth there. :)  After we had our "fancy" dinner, we played a game to see who would help Mom with the dishes in the kitchen.  My family used to guess the right number to choose who would help (choose a number between 1-100.  30! Okay now choose between 30-100.  80!, choose between 80-100) Every one would take one turn guessing and the person who finally guessed it would have to help clean up until the next person guessed the number and they'd trade out.  For us, we got two dice and took turns rolling them.  The person who got doubles would help me until the next person got doubles.  The kids actually thought it was the best thing ever and laughed and laughed when they had to help! It was so nice to have cheerful help and it got the job done much faster!  Plus I just enjoyed the company, I didn't even mind doing it all by myself,  I just liked having everyone around me.  We ended our night with cookies and ice cream and played some Wii U Nintendoland games.  Mario Chase and Luigi's Haunted Mansion to be exact.  The kids' favourites.  They love it so much more when Jeffrey and I play.  Which I get!  Doing anything with mom and dad makes it so much more fun!  I remember that feeling from when I was little too!  Even now, when my parents play games with my siblings and I, it's more fun!

I was sad at first when I realized we weren't having a big Thanksgiving celebration with any family, but during and after our day yesterday, I was so thankful that we had this opportunity to celebrate it alone!  It is for sure one my favourite Thanksgivings to date!! I am thankful for my kids and Jeffrey, I am so blessed to have such a special, loving family!!