I love me a chunky baby!

I love my little guy. He is starting to giggle! (mostly at dad) and he is starting to sleep a little better. My favorite thing is when he is cooing at me. Makes me feel like he is trying to talk to me and is connecting with me.

Brothers

I go back and forth on who Stockton looks more like. I think he is starting to come into his own more then anything but today I was looking at him and thought he looks so much like Ty did then the other day he looks a lot like Blake did. Now I get all three pictures in a row and I can't tell who he looks more like. Can you?

Ty

Stockton

Blake

Stockton

Blake

Ty

I need to get a picture of Stockton in the chicks dig me outfit. Note to self!

Birthday boy

My oldest turned 5 this month. We were actually healthy for his birthday but his cousins were either sick or scared to come over because we were so ill before his birthday. I feel really bad for him because we always go to his cousins birthdays and he sees them come to his brothers and they don't come to his because we are always sick! He kept asking about why they weren't coming. I tried to make it up to him but who knows if I did. I think as parents we sometimes try too hard when all they need is a couple of presents and a cake. He got a shark ballon and a game for his leapster he loves. I tried to make him a ocean cake and he liked that. He is my sweet little guy and I love my buddy to pieces! I'm going to cry when I take him to school this fall!

My boys all in their PJs!

Little party at my parents house

Isn't he handsome!

I took treats to his preschool that morning and he loved the extra attention.

11 step program

My friend had this linked to her blog- it is just too funny!

11 Step Program for Those Thinking of Having Children

Enjoy!!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Hair mishap

So Bryan started cutting his hair a couple of years ago to save $ and I think between the 2 of us we do a pretty good job. The other day I could hear him yelling then laughing in the bathroom and he came out with the front part of his head shaved. The attachment wasn't clipped on all the way and it came off while he was cutting thus shaving up 4-5 inches too far. As much as I love my husband I prefer the baldness of my baby over Bryan's.

Resolutions

This is who I'm working for- man do they keep me busy! 3 is a lot harder then I thought!

Every year we do a new years party with Bryan's siblings but this year with our kids getting over illness we hunkered down at home for the evening. The baby actually feel asleep around 9:30 so I went to bed the same time he did. Don't worry- I was up at midnight feeding him and got to see the ball drop. What losers we are on new years- going to bed before 10.

I do have some resolutions this year. First I want to loose my baby gut I got. Mostly for the fact I can't fit into my pants and I'm sick and tired of having to ware maternity pants so I have something that fits. I gained more weight then I ever have with Stockton so I have more to loose. It will be easier now Christmas is over and there isn't treats and egg nog around. I want to turn the TV off more and do stuff with my boys. Some days they spend too much time in front of the TV and I need to be reading and doing more with them. I want to stay on top of my house cleaning too. (my husband will die laughing when he reads that.) I have a big problem focusing when I do stuff and it takes me twice as long to do one thing. I end up doing 10 little things instead of on big and I end up getting very little done. I mostly just want to enjoy my boys instead of being stressed by them. I know I'm going to miss this cute age when all of my kids are small. Ty starts school next year and I'm going to miss having my kids home with me. It's going by too fast. Love more and yell less. That's the goal.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas besides Ty and Bryan having strep throat- which Blake and I ended up catching a few days later. That's another post for another day. I was all excited Christmas eve to do all these things and we ended up not having time for 90% of them. I was lucky to get some things wrapped and to the store but it was still good. We went to my in laws house that evening where Bryan's whole family was there. That is so rare to have us all together now a days. The boys were in heaven with so many cousins there. We did our normal little nativity where Stockton was our baby Jesus and Ty was Joseph. Ty was acting funny but at that point I didn't know he was sick so when we went home and he feel asleep at 8 I knew something was up. I was kind of disappointed that they weren't up and at em a little more because the excitement of Christmas Eve. We made cookies but the boys were too out of it to help me decorate them for Santa so I did. I hope next year will be a little better!

My little snowman. Isn't he so stinkin' cute??!! He is 13lb 5oz. What a tank.

Baby Jesus (Stock) Joseph (Ty) Mary (Laycee) at the nativity we do every year.

All 17 Palmer grandkids and there is one more on the way.

Stockton and his cousin Ava who is about 3 months older then him.

Christmas morning we ended up waking the boys up at around 7:30 (again Ty wasn't feeling well or I'm sure he would have woke us up). They were still really excited. Ty starting opening presents that had his name on them before we even knew it. I think he had a couple opened before we noticed. The boys favorite presents were the buck hunter game for the TV and their guns I think. Bryan and I didn't do too much for each other this year due to our mega hospital bills but I really didn't mind. My parents did buy us a stand up freezer.

I finished his stocking Christmas eve. I'm sure he was thrilled. I bought the boys some PJ's that matched they got Christmas eve but they were so tired and out of it they didn't even care when I gave it to them. I never got a picture of all three of them with them because Stockton poop all over his before I could. Oh well!

He actually really likes this toy.

Christmas isn't christmas at our house if someone doesn't get a gun.

Blake got his chess set and started hopping up and down and said "I'm bouncin!"

Look at those rolls! I love my cuddle buddy!

I'm glad Ty wasn't sick enough to have it totally ruin his Christmas. He woke up the next day very, very sick and we ended up taking him to the dr and we found out he had strep. They said it's harded to catch when you don't have tonstils but of course Ty still catches it. Tuesday early morning Stockton woke up with a fever and at 5 am Blake came in my room with a high fever too. The dr. said Blake had a ear infection with what looked like strep starting so we got him on some medicine. Stockton I had to take him in the dr. and they tested for strep but he didn't have it but had a really bad cold. They tested for RSV and a UTI and they took some blood. That was the worse part because they had a hard time finding his vein. It's hard for me to hold it together when my kids are in pain like that and there isn't anything I can do about it. I've never had a newborn so sick before. He has a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE cough and he is very congested. The first day and a half I had a really hard time keeping his fever down. We are on day 6 of this cold and it hasn't made too much of an improvement since it started but at least he is eating now and has no fever. I think Bryan is still about to have a total nervous break down over it though. He doesn't take the stress of sick kids very well because he worries too much. So Bryan and I spent our wedding anniversary at the dr. office with the baby. Here's to 6 years of marriage!