One Year Older and Wiser Too

My Julia turned the big six this past week. Six. How is it possible that I am a mother of a six year old? These are definitely the years that birthdays are a BIG deal. She was beyond excited. She and Audrey were bouncing off the walls for an entire week beforehand and for three days after. We still have birthday hangover to be honest.

We had to have a little party at our house. Julia helped me decorate. Audrey was particularly enthusiastic about all of this and had to throw in some cheerleading moves. It was a pajama party complete with a movie and pizza.

Six years old. That's right. I remember when I turned six I was so excited that not only would I hold up one hand of fingers, but two hands.

They spent the evening decorating bags, making necklaces, eating pizza, watching a movie and eating cupcakes. Julia loved every minute. It almost made it worth my 9 month pregnant body sitting on the floor helping eight little girls thread beads onto their necklaces. Almost. I had forgotten what a big deal present opening time for little girls.

The next morning on Julia's "official" birthday she requested pancakes with nutella and eggs. She also requested a smiley face. I tell you what, this mom delivers.

We also opened some presents from us. Even though Audrey had found my hiding place earlier and given Julia a little sneak preview, we decided we'd give them to her anyways. She can't help it if her little sister is a sneaky stinker. Can you tell which present Bryan wrapped? We ran out of wrapping paper and rather than take my advice of finding a bag, he improvised.

Luckily she didn't care. She loves Littlest Pet Shop right now and was in heaven with her new toys.

This little one on the other hand had a little bit of a rough weekend. It is so hard when your sister gets all the attention. Audrey has spent a lot of time talking about HER birthday party. Unfortunately she still has seven months to go. I'm sure it will be magical when it finally arrives Audrey.

Lucky for her a friend from church was having a birthday party and she got to go. She wore her supergirl costume and looked oh so cute. I laugh every time she puts it on, revs herself up, throws her arms up and yells, "super doowl!"

I told Julia she had two full hours while Audrey was at the party with just Bryan and me. What did she chose to do with her time? Play with her new toys uninterrupted for at least an hour straight. I sure do love this girl and her imagination. Little sisters are the best, but sometimes having toys all to yourself is even better.

After that it was Connect Four and princess games.

Then to make it a SUPER birthday weekend we headed to a pumpkin patch with some of our good friends. These girls love playing with Riley.

Can you find Bryan?

There were so many fun things to do. The kids literally bounced from activity to activity. Audrey was so thrilled with this dress that she refused to wear a coat even though it was chilly. I suppose the running around kept her warm.

They played in the corn, which may or may not have been thrown a time or two.

We got lost in a corn maze for a bit. As we were in the middle of it we noticed that there was quite a large group that was following us, as if we knew where we were going. Little did they know that two three year olds were navigating. Following us may have not been their best choice.

Here's Audrey contemplating the meaning of life while staring in the distance. Maybe she was contemplating why she was so cold.

This picture SO reminds me of Bryan. Isn't that Ohio sunset in the background beautiful?

A family shot in the pumpkins. Audrey's face is literally covered in dirt. Always a sign of a good time I say. And she finally broke down and wore the jacket.

Overall I would say the birthday was a success. Julia sure is a sweet little girl. As I'm getting ready to have my third, I have thought back to when I was getting ready to have my Julia. There is something about the anticipation of your first child that is unique and indescribable. She has exceeded my expectations in so many ways. She is such a source of joy in our family. We sure do love you Julia and are so thankful that Heavenly Father sent you to us. I cannot imagine my life without you and my life certainly wouldn't be complete without you. Happy birthday sweetheart.

Dancing Queen

The day finally arrived. Audrey finally started dance class. She was so giddy with excitement the entire day and hasn't stopped talking about it since. She was very focused and she wasn't going to have Julia telling her what to do, no sir. She's three now and three is BIG.

Here's her cute teacher Miss Sherri. She does such a good job. My girls love her.

Some of the crew after dance.

We have had an indian summer around here and the weather has been SO warm. We took advantage and headed to yet another park. Of course I had to take more pictures than necessary.

The leaves are so amazing right now. I am going to miss this so much next year.

The girls sat and played in these leaves for a very long time.

We found a giant mushroom that looked like a ball. So what did we do with it?

Smash it of course. We had to see what the inside looked like. Actually Bryan smashed it. I probably was telling him he shouldn't and to just put the dang thing down.

I took some pictures of the girls by a tree.

Such a perfect family day. I am going to be so sad when the weather turns cold and all the leaves are gone.

And here we are just shy of 35 weeks. The countdown is on. I am getting excited/nervous/scared/claustrophobic/anxious (can you even feel all those emotions at once?)

I do know that I will be happy to NOT be pregnant but I am going to take time to enjoy this last month. October in Ohio is so great and I'm going to do my best to not spend it sitting on the couch with my feet up. Even though sitting on the couch all the time right now is VERY tempting.

It's That Time of Year

We headed to the apple orchard once again this year. There is nothing better than a crispy apple picked right from the tree. I love this fall tradition.

The trees were just filled with giant apples.
Julia recently lost a couple of more teeth so she has to improvise when eating apples.
Audrey had hold as many as possible.
They have a great little farmer's market there at the orchard and we love to go there and get jam and other goodies. This year the smell of apple fritter and apple donuts was intoxicating to my pregnant nose. I had to have one immediately and sent Bryan over to make a purchase. At that moment I honestly didn't care how much they cost. While the girls and I were waiting we were surrounded by bees that must have been attracted to the sweet apples. One landed on Julia's braid and I went over to try and get it out of her hair. Unfortunately I was too slow and it flew down the collar of her jacket. At this point Julia started screaming. By screaming I mean SCREAMING. In order to avoid the staring crowd I led her to the car and examined the aftermath. She had been stung. I felt so bad every single time I saw the welt on the back of her neck. Fortunately she made a full recovery and now has a very healthy fear of any flying insect.
After apple picking we headed to a local metro park. It was such a perfect day. We hiked for over a mile and the girls didn't even whine!


It has been pretty rainy this week and so I figured I should try and make some effort to be a better mom rather than the "sit on the couch and ask the girls to pick stuff up for me all day" kind of mom. So we made pumpkins. Look at their concentration.
Audrey showing off her good work.
Julia has been very enthusiastic about making Halloween decorations this year. I love having her pictures hanging up around the house. I haven't even put up our store bought ones. I think I like the homemade ones better.
As mentioned before, we have been losing teeth around here. When you lose one it makes a great place for holding food.
As you can see in this picture Julia has lost yet another tooth. The tooth fairy is going to go broke at this rate. I had to take a picture of the girls in their cute Buckeye gear even though the season is looking to be less than stellar. At least they look cute.

A Pretty Big Day

We've had a rather eventful day here.

First of all let me start about a week ago. I received a phone call from the hospital from someone other than Bryan. To be honest, I initially thought there must be something wrong. I kind of had that, "is Bryan okay?" thoughts racing through my brain. Thankfully he was fine and the kind lady was just informing me that Bryan was receiving an award. She reinterated several times that this was a BIG DEAL. She didn't have to tell me twice. The only downside was that we had to be there at 7:15AM. For those of you that know me, know that 7:15AM and I are not very good friends. 7:15AM and my two daughters are even worse friends. But to see Bryan win an award was worth it. So I got up bright and early and woke up two VERY grumpy girls bright and early and this morning we headed to the hospital.

The best part of the whole experience was that Bryan had no idea he was receiveing the award and had no idea that we were coming. I will never forget his face when he walked into Grand Rounds amidst many green scrubbed doctors and saw me and his two little girls sitting there. He kept mouthing, "what is going on?" I just pulled out my camera and said, "You'll have to wait and see." Such a great moment.

So Bryan was the recipient of the Compassion in Medicine Award. Dr. Krantz gave a very nice introduction and presentation. This was the only grainy picture I got of Bryan actually receiving the award.

This is an award given to outstanding physicians for their compassion in medicine. Nominations have never been made for a resident until this year. So Bryan is the first resident to ever receive this and I couldn't be more proud. He always tries to downplay things and hates being the center of attention so I'm glad we could surprise him for this great acheivement.

Here are a couple of proud/tired little girls. Thank goodness "Grand Rounds" included a little breakfast as well or I don't know if these girls would have made it.

Not only was it a big day for Bryan, but for this little one as well. It was the day she's been waiting for. She asked me this morning, "Am I five mom?" No Audrey you are three, but three year olds get to go to preschool!

I don't know if I've ever seen a child more excited. she picked out her outfit and topped it off with the most important part, the headband. Here she is with her friend Aaron. The great thing about preschool this year is there are four boys from our ward in her class!

Here she is in the classroom ready to learn.

Now for the time being I've got 2 1/2 hours all to myself in the afternoon. I almost didn't know what to do with all the quiet! We are so happy for our little Audrey and know that this is going to be a fun class for her. I can't believe that she is old enough for preschool.

Round These Parts

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Audrey loves to dance. She has these hot pink church shoes that make her dance EVEN better. Whenever a song comes on or she is playing house she HAS to wear these shoes. She is a very fashion forward thinking three year old

She is getting very good at twirling as well.

Over Labor Day we took a trip up to Cincinnati to see some of our favorite people. Julia says, "you remember Zachy? He's like my cousin but not my cousin." That is exactly how we feel. We just love spending time with the Gaileys.

Cincinnatti is so beautiful and we went to this park filled with waterfalls and a great trail. The kids had the best time.


Kristi was kind enough to cut all three Palmer girls' hair. I have told her frequently that because of her Julia and I can be friends again. Combing those long locks was becoming a source of contention in our home. The trim makes it so much easier to cut. Thank you so much Kristi.

Kristi even took this picture for us. Though I gave her specific instructions not to make me look fat and she failed miserably. We'll go ahead and blame the unborn fetus.

The next weekend we had the treat of meeting James and Natalie halfway between the two of us. We ate ourselves silly at a Dutch buffet. It was great mixing conversation elbow deep in delicious fried chicken. Honestly that is the way I prefer to have a conversation.

The kids rocked in rocking chairs while we watched the rain pour down.


It is so great having family close by.


And these kids loved playing together.


And finally I decided I would break down and take a pregnancy profile shot to document our third child. I am not one of those that enjoys and embraces the swelling and glowing that come along with pregnancy. I wish that I were, but mostly I feel uncomfortable. That being said, I never regret documenting things like this on the blog to look back on in the future. So here we are in all 31 1/2 week glory.

A few weeks ago Bryan came home and said, "Boy Annie! You really are gestating aren't you?!" I think that wives of Ob/Gyn's are the only lucky ones to hear awesome phrases like that.


This pregnancy has been going pretty well so far. I can't complain. I am definitely getting into that "how in the heck am I going to fit 4-5 lbs more baby in here?" stage but I'm hanging in there. I crave cereal and could eat it for every meal. I swear I go to bed excited about it for the next morning. Popcorn has also been a weakness this time around. Bryan brought home chocolate covered caramel popcorn last week and let me tell you...I think I gained five pounds in one sitting. The girls are getting really excited. Audrey is having a few mixed feelings about not being the baby any more. She asks me if she can be the baby or if she can take her blanket everywhere like a baby does. I think she'll come around. I feel like I am "blossoming" more and more by the second and I hate maternity clothes and my pants keep falling down. You know the drill. I am still feeling good for the most part. We are definitely getting excited to have another little one in our home. Those babies are totally worth it.