My little brother, Nate

This is my little brother, Nate, 2 years ago. He left to serve a mission for our church in Ogden, UT. He has had some great experiences and now he comes home on THURSDAY!! Wow!! I can't believe it!

Here he is, just last month at Conference. Conference is a time when our church leaders direct us. We watch it on TV, or the internet, and he got to see it live. Our church then publishes all of the talks and puts it in a magazine, called the Ensign. My brother got his photo taken with some of the other Missionaries on his mission and they put it in the magazine! Here is the link to the whole magazine: he is on page 96. We can hardly wait to have him home!!

Bobcat

Payton was SOOOOOOO excited to turn 8 so that he could get baptized, but also so he could start SCOUTS!!! He LOVES going. They have so much fun and he gets to be with all BOYS!! haha! Well, last Tuesday was his first pack meeting, so they introduced him

to the pack (they have LOTS of boys), then he earned his Bobcat, so he had to "bob" for his "bobcat" award.

His patch and pin were in a plastic bag in the water, so IN HE WENT!! he loved it, and he grabbed it with his teeth. Then he got to pin the pin on me.

He was soaked, but so proud of himself, and in complete HEAVEN! Way to go, Payton! He also got 2 belt loop awards as well. He can hardly wait until the next pack meeting to see what other awards he is getting! haha!

Happy Halloween!!!

I know everyone has posted pics of their kiddos from Halloween, but since this is my journal, you also get my pics!!

Maddie was Hannah Montana. I must say, this little girly knows how to strut her stuff! She has my little bird legs, and it shows, with these leggings! She loved the hair (Thanks, SHelley) and Tyler made the microphone/headset for her. And, she had to have th make-up!!

Payton was bound and determined to be Mario! I had looked for a costume but they were $35 online + shipping!! YIKES and NO WAY!! So, I mentioned that I would just make him one, and he responded, "well, maybe I will be something else instead!!" (Little booger!) So, a friend mentioned Walmart had them, but they only sold Smalls, which were WAY too small, so I bought one and used it as a pattern and made this for Payton. He was pretty impressed and LOVED it! This is him, Jumping like Mario. What a CUTIE!!

Lexi was very indecisive. Originally she wanted to be Dora, and I LOVED her outfit, but then she decided she didn't like Dora anymore, so she wanted to be a fairy, then Ariel, then a horse then a witch, then a butterfly, and she finally landed with this, the Pink Princess. She loved it, and she loved acting like the Pink Princess as well. (And, luckily, we already owned it! Woohoo!)

Here are my 3 little "Monsters." We had a great happy halloween, and we hope you did too!

SO DANG CUTE!!

Lexi is in a neighborhood soccer group and I think it is SO cute to watch her. She has short legs, and she is one of the youngest on the team, but she likes it for a little while (She usually only makes it through half a game! Haha!) But, doesn't her little soccer shields and ball make her look so grown up! She loves kicking it, but doesn't get the chance much! Go LEXI!!

Fall Break

So, what would a break be without us going to Disneyland and Seaworld?? Haha! Fall break actually started back on Oct 11th, but I am just now getting to the post! It started with a day on the beach, and celebrating our friend, Kaeli's birthday! (Sorry, no pics of that, yet. I didn't have my camera). Then Mon-Thurs we went to Disneyland with our very good friends, the Linfords. The kids had a blast together!

Lexi was FINALLY tall enough for most of the rides (with the help of some VERY tall cheerleading shoes I found! haha!). She has been looking forward to riding some of the "big kid" rides for a LONG time, and I must say, she loved most of them! Here she is on Splash mountain! I love her "nervous" face that she does. She actually liked splash Mountain! She also LOVED Thunder Mountain. She wasn't too sure of Space mountain, but I think that was because it was all done up for Halloween and had some pretty creepy monsters on it. She also loved Star Tours. We took her on Tower of Terror, but she would only go once, but she went!! What a trooper! She also loved Soarin' over California. It was fun to be able to ride all of the rides and not have to wait on the outside of the rides with a child!

Jakey's stone was IN!! We found it pretty easily. We stopped by a couple of times. Thank you so much to all of my amazing friends for putting a stone there for us! We love to visit it while we are there. I know Jake was on our vacation with us. It is very cute because we have an uneven number of people in our family, one of the twins usually sits alone, but they always say, "I'm sitting with Jake this time." It's cute. I like that they include him.

We also had lots of fun at Sea World on Friday. We love Sea World. The shows, petting the sting rays, and the water rides are all perfect when it is warm outside!

Baptism Day

I have seen lots of posts from friends telling about their children's baptism day, and always thought that I had LOTS of time before my kids were old enough to be baptized. It is amazing how fast it has arrived! I remember when Maddie and Payton were just newborns, and I cried when they were too big to fit in the preemie diapers, and now, here they are, big enough to be baptized! They were sooooo excited! Maddie got a new dress. All white with light purple accents and Payton got a new suit. They looked fantastic!

My amazing friend, Shelley, took some photos of them, and here is what they looked like!

My cute Angels!

Here is a copy of the invitations. Don't they look so sweet!

Here we are on the way to the baptism. They look so excited!

They were so excited to wear the baptism clothes, all dressed in white, with Tyler. Don't they look precious? I think they are glowing!

After the baptism, they got a photo with Grandma and Grandpa Palmer. We are so glad you came, Grandpa!

The baptism was very sweet. It had a very good spirit. Maddie and Payton kept commenting about how good they felt. I hope they always remember that feeling. I am so proud of them. They are such great kids. They try to do what is right, and I love that about them. They have sweet spirits. Congrats, Maddie and Payton! I love you!

Busy, Busy, BUSY!!

So, I know I haven't blogged in a while, and I have a TON to blog about, but I only have a little time. I will try and slowly catch up, but this was part of my week last week!

Wednesday, these two turned 8!! I can't believe they are 8 already! They grow up too fast!

Thursday was our 11 year anniversary! WOW, 11 years with my best friend and I know it will continue to fly by! I love you, babe!!

Friday was Lexi's 4th birthday and birthday party!! She wanted Dora, so she got Dora!

Friday afternoon Tyler took Lexi and Maddie to Daddy/daughter! Fun fun fun!!

Friday Evening was Payton's birthday party-all boys and all Mario!! My amazing friend, Shelley made this AMAZING cake! And, this was her first cake to make! WOW!! Thanks, Shelley. The kids had a blast playing Mario Kart and doing obstacle courses!

Saturday afternoon was Maddie's b-day party. She wanted Littlest Pet Shop. It was really cute, and all the cute girlies had fun.

So, that was only party of my week, last week. I wasn't going to do birthday parties, but Maddie and Payton won't get baptized until Oct 17th, so I wanted to make a big deal out of their 8th birthdays right now. Happy birthday, Kiddos, and happy anniversary to us!!