Landon's Birthday

Happy Birthday Landon! One year older and wiser too, is that right?

Delwyn made fried chicken for dinner and Landon requested applesauce cake with brown sugar frosting. We haven't had that cake for a long time and it was extra good! All the kids want to help with the candle blowing and presents. Three candles in a row on one side plus one on the other side equals 31!

Make a good wish and blow hard!

Many hands to open one small present.

Landon has been wanting a red eye scope for guns and here it is! Can't wait to try it out! Happy Birthday to one of our favorite people! Landon is a great Dad, a hard worker, smart, fun to  be around, musical, thoughtful, and knowledgeable, and has great relationships with each of his siblings. We love you!

Ryan Visits Britta and USU

Ryan applied to Utah State last fall all by himself without any help from Delwyn or me and he got accepted! Britta has been dying for Ryan to come and visit and see what college life is all about and he has been wanting to see the campus. He has a four day weekend for President's Day, so this is the perfect time!

He flew to Salt Lake Friday morning and arrived at noon. Denya picked him up and took him to lunch while they waited for Britta to finish her class and drive to the airport. They packed a lot into one short weekend! Rock climbing, bowling, game nights, Buffalo Wild Wings, and of course Aggie ice cream!

They also made Valentines for a rest home! How thoughtful!

Britta snowboarded a few times in Colorado, and she is going a lot in Utah. There are a couple of ski resorts that are only a short drive from Logan compared to the hour and a half that it takes to get to one in Colorado. Her friend Derick taught snowboarding lessons before his mission and he has taught Britta quite a few things about how to improve. 

Ryan has never been skiing or snowboarding and was so excited to try it.

Derick gave him some quick lessons and he caught on pretty quickly even though everyone falls quite a few times at first.

Getting the hang of it.

Three happy snowboarders headed up for another run down the mountain. Ryan said snowboarding was his favorite thing of what they did while he was there.

Heading to church.

Ryan had a super fun time! He was impressed with how welcoming and friendly everyone was. Even though they didn't know him, they still talked to him and wanted him on their team to play games. We better watch out, he's going to want to move up there next week!

President's Day Cousin Fun

Melissa invited us to come and play at their house today since there is no school. The cousins love to play together and the basement is a kids dream with all the fun toys and dress up clothes they have.

Austin's family got this cat about a month ago and his name is Beau. Lincoln LOVES cats and was so excited to finally get to see him and pet him.

Claire told me that Beau could shake hands. I was a little skeptical because I have never seen a cat shake before. I think that is a dog trick. Maybe it was coincidence or maybe this cat does know how to shake, but when Claire put her hand out, Beau lifted his paw! Smart cat! I was impressed!

More cat paw/hand shaking.

The girls love art--drawing, coloring, water coloring, and Claire and Millie both have pretty fancy art kits that they won at school. Even Maddie is learning how to use a brush. Lincoln wasn't interested and was happy to play down the basement by himself.

Healthy girls eating carrot sticks for lunch!

Sandwiches for Lincoln and Millie.

Austin has the perfect sledding hill right in his backyard and the kids spent quite a bit of time sledding. It's a steep climb to the top.

Claire and Dagny shared a round sled. Ready, set,

GO!! They came whizzing down faster than I expected, but Dagny loved it and was ready to go again immediately.

Millie has a pink rectangular sled that she shared with Lincoln. Sometimes they slid together and sometimes they went separately. 

A small crash into the fence, but no injuries.

Melissa made some delicious peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for us after the sledding.

The kids were playing downstairs when I told them it was time to go. Millie and Dagny were sitting on the couch next to each other and they grabbed each other in a fierce bear hug and  said, "NO!!" and begged to play longer. They were so cute sitting there hugging each other so hard. I love these kids with all my heart and I'm so glad they get to grow up together!

Valentine's Day

There is no school today because Monday is President's Day and the schools always give a four day weekend for this holiday, so the kids had their Valentine's Day parties yesterday. Lincoln's was in the morning, and Dagny's was in the afternoon. The kids all brought a cup of something, pretzels, raisins, M&M's, etc, and they stirred it all together to make Friendship Gorp. What a fun idea since Valentine's Day is about love and friends! Lincoln was excited when it was his turn to dump an ingredient.

Lincoln passes out his Valentine cards. They were Minons.  Each child had a bag taped to the cupboard to make it easy to just drop a card into each bag.

They made Valentine crowns. Lincoln made several L's on his his since he can't write his name yet.

Stickers and antennae to finish it off.

Each student made these adorable love posters for their parents using a handprint and a footprint. Super cute!

Dagny and Lincoln have the same teacher, so they had the same party. Dagny has a turn to stir the Friendship Gorp.

Dagny put a lot of concentration into decorating her crown.

She chose red and white antennae.

She was more than happy to model her finished crown for me.

Dagny passes out her Valentines, which were My Little Pony cards with stickers. 

She got so excited when she saw this Valentine had a lollipop attached to it.

Checking out the rest of her Valentines after we got home.

I miss Blake everyday, but I especially miss him on holidays. I really loved the big hearts we put at his grave the first year, but the cemetery people said  they were too big and colorful, so these small hearts will have to do. Sending you a  little extra love today Blake. 

Ryan is visiting Britta at USU this weekend. Denya picked him up at the airport and took him to lunch while they waited for Britta to finish her class and drive to Salt Lake. Denya posted this on Instgram and I thought it was too cute not to share on the blog.

Melissa and her girls were over today for Library Day and to spend the afternoon. The kids water colored and Claire made this picture for me. She spent a lot of time on it. The others were long finished and she was still painting all the little details. It turned out so cute!

She wrote this letter on the back and it just melted my heart! Being a Grandma really is the best thing ever!

Millie made this picture for me and I am so happy to have some new pictures to hang on the fridge.

Delwyn and I went out to dinner at Guadalajaras. Mexican food is probably my favorite type or food and I always have a combination plate of some sort when we come here. Tonight I had a chicken enchilada and a chicken tostado. Delwyn recently made tostados that he remembers his Mom making (Kim posted one on Facebook and that made Delwyn remember them and want to make them), and I must admit his were better! It was still tasty and we had a great evening.

Happy Valentine's Day to all those I love!

Super Bowl Party!

We love any excuse to party and eat good food! Some of us Palmers love the Super Bowl and others not so much, but we all agree it's fun to get together. Wade is making hamburger sliders and I am so excited!! I love sliders of any kind, they are so little and cute! 

Wade has this neat warming table that Village Inn was getting rid of.  It was great for keeping the sliders, wings, and mozzarella sticks hot.

Time to eat!!

Our party food consisted of shrimp, fruit and dip, sliders, hot wings, mozzarella sticks, crab salad, little smokies, and a chocolate chip cheeseball.

This party is all for you!!

The San Francisco 49'ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs.  The Palmers are for Kansas City all the way and we got the win! Pretty intense game, final score 20-31.

One excited girl when her team won! 

Austin and Melissa are in the third week of a four week diet plan. Austin's feelings about eating fake pizza and salad instead of party food. They can't have wheat flour or dairy, so they made this pizza with special ingredients and so I called it fake pizza. It was topped with turkey bacon. They have more willpower than me!

Melissa has lost 10 pounds and Austin has lost 15. And one more week to go! Go dieters!! I love to eat too much to diet. When I need to lose weight I have to up my movement and exercise because I can't give up all the yummy food.

Their salad looked pretty good! And that's a compliment coming from someone who's not a big salad eater.

Dagny loved the fruit dip. She is always wiggling around and waving, even when she's eating. Cutie!

The non Super Bowl fans sat around the table to eat and had some fun conversation.

Chocolate chip cookie dip by the spoonful! My kind of girl!

More cookie dip! Austin's girls are always wanting to know what for dessert. Wonder where they got that from?? Probably me! Haha!

Dessert time for Dagny too!

The kids were so excited to eat downstairs! That's not usually allowed.

Maddie is just the cutest! She follows the others and does whatever they do. Notice her spoonful of cookie dip!

Claire is growing up so fast. She was extra cute tonight with her hair in a bun.

Fun night with the family celebrating football!