The Zoo

We went to visit my mom for a couple of days while my dad is out of town and Bryan is super busy finishing up the summer semester so we went to her house. She only lives a hour away and has a crib and a couple of beds in her basement where it's easy to have the kids sleep. We went shopping and hung out at her house mostly but we also went to the Hogle zoo. I had got free tickets at a radio station thing awhile ago so we only had to pay 9 bucks for all of us to go. We went early in the morning so it wouldn't be too hot and had a great time. I am not used to driving in a city like Salt Lake so it made me a little nervous I was going to get lost but I did really good.

Stockton is asleep in the stroller. What would I do without a double stroller?

They had these dinosaurs all over the zoo that would move and make noises. Ty was totally in love with them. I love how he is watching the T-Rex.

Usually the giraffes are inside the building but the one was right next to the fence (below) and was the perfect place for a picture. The boys loved being that close to it. I was a little nervous it was going to spit on me or something.

This is my mom with my boys

Ok here is one of my pet peeves. So if you are somewhere that people like to take picture at be mindful of those around you. Don't walk into someone's picture and stand there- don't make people wait forever so they can get a picture too and watch your kids so they don't ruin someones picture. Ok I'm done venting now. I had to wait 5 minutes to take this picture and only and about 20 seconds to get them in place and snap one picture before this mom watches her little girl stand right in front of my boys and didn't say anything. So this is the best I can do.
It really was a good day though. My boys loved it, we got out of the house and we had fun. What more can you ask for?

My artist

Tyson has really been into drawing lately. It's usually pictures of monsters of vampires or deer and deer getting shot by guns. Yeah. So I have been talking to him about trying some new things in the drawing department because I'm a little worried I'm going to get a call from Providence Elementary saying my son is drawing bad pictures of things being shot (deer and monsters) and I think he is doing pretty good. Here is some of his sidewalk chalk art:

Sun

Monster Rock

My favorite is this one- it's a witch

Ty at my mom's house- he covered her back patio with his drawings. He went to water some of her plants and it started washing away his artwork and he started to cry. He loves his drawings. I've bought him some little notebooks and he will sit at home and draw and draw.

Extended Palmer Family Pictures

I had this wonderful idea to get my mother in law a family picture for a mothers day or birthday or christmas or whatever present when I was pregnant with Stockton. Along with one of my sister in laws we decided that May would be prefect because our babies would be older and we could do it outside. We had a hard time finding a photographer for our price range willing to do a big group and Heather (my sis in law) found this great girl who was perfect! So we all bought new shirts for everyone so we match and lined it all up and got them all taken. The weather was perfect and it all worked out. After Cancun I got a call from Heather that in her words "something horrible had happened" -which was that all of our pictures were on the memory card were lost. The card was corrupted. I just laughed- this would have to happen to us. The poor girl that took our pictures felt SOOO bad but it really wasn't her fault. Palmers aren't as into getting pictures taken as I am so this was really ruff. So we all got ready again and got back together again and got them taken... again. Which really ended up very well for me because my original family pictures were also on the card that got corrupted so she took my wonderful pictures another day on the posts below. All's well that ends well!

All 5 kids and spouses, grandparents and 18 grandkids

Grandma and Grandpa with all the kids

The boys and grandpa

The group

Just the kids

The original 7

Grandma and the girls

Swimming

We just finished up with swimming lessons last week at the aquatics center in town and my boys loved it. Blake has been pretty scared of the water for awhile so I was worried about him being in lessons. Bryan told me out of either kid Blake needed them more because he was scared. The first day I walked him up to his class and said have fun and walked off and he got right in. The biggest problem Blake had was going under the water and now he does it all the time- even by himself! Ty was a fish like always and is actually swimming around a little big. We also had our annual swim party our dentist puts on so we have had a lot of swimming. I don't have a picture of Stockton (because I was holding him) but he loved the water at the swim party. We took the kids one other day and Stockton went nuts. Ty even mastered going down the big twisty slide alone! I'm so proud of him!

Tough guy

Blake is the second kid on the right- he just jumped in the water

Ty going down the slide alone

Blake

Silly boys

Ty doing his kicks- he is the top left kid.

On our last day when we were walking to the car Blake says "mom I'm going to miss this place."

Stockton

Stock has been changing to much lately! He is 8 months old and I can't believe it. I got his walker out and this week he has figured out how to cruise around my kitchen in it. I saw him eyeing my vacuum in the living room and before I knew it he was over to it and pulling it down to him. He is getting fistey if you aren't doing what he wants. ESPECIALLY when you have home made root beer in your hand and he knows it and you aren't giving it to him fast enough. He is rolling around (my first kid to really do this before crawling) and is getting on all 4's and rocking back and forth so crawling might not be too far away. I noticed today he is figuring his toys out. We have one of those farmer wheels (the one that you pull the lever down and it goes "the cow says" ) and he was pulling on the lever today trying to get the middle to spin. I still can't believe that. He did it again later too. Stockton is turing into a mama's boy a little bit. All my kids do around this age but give him a few months and he will be back to daddy. I love when he reaches for me. When I go in his room in the morning he does this to leg bucking kick and gets all excited. He really is a good baby.

Blake

My little Blake is a total crack up. He has been following me around lately which kind of isn't like him. I like his company though! I will say something like "pick up that toy you were playing with Blake" and he will say something like "I don't really care"- like he doesn't have time for such things. When he decides he doesn't like something- and it is usually his clothes- he will throw a fit to the death over it. He only really hugs and cuddles with me (Love it) and he can't get enough of Stockton. Man I love that kid.

It took a lot to get him to smile like this- he is such a stink.

Tyson

By far my favorite pictures Dani took were the ones of my boys alone. I think the ones of Tyson take the cake too. I think they are my favorite pictures I have of him ever. There have been moments in Tyson's life where I wonder how much of a stinker he really is going to be. One minute he is driving me crazy and the next he is hugging me and is the sweetest thing ever. He is starting to be a really good helper to me. Guess what else he has been doing? READING! And for a past elementary school teacher I couldn't be more proud. He loves it and is so excited that he is doing it. He could play in his sandbox all day- even if he is alone. He is so brave too. That wasn't something he got from me. He has been really into drawing lately. Mostly monsters but I'm trying to talk him into drawing other stuff too- I wonder what his teacher would say about a monster with crosshairs on it's chest? I love to go lay by him before he falls asleep and hear about his day from his eyes. I am sad he is leaving for kindergarten soon. I love spending my whole day with him.

Family Photo's 2011

We had some family photo's taken yesterday and I already have them back! Enjoy!

Water Baby

My baby loves the water. He would rather be on his back kick his feet though... which makes it hard for me to hold him! The older boys have swimming lessons and I was too cheep to sign Stock and I up for water babies but I am thinking he would have loved it! So I let him kick in the water while the other boys are doing lessons.

Fireworks 2011

We had so much fun at the fireworks this year. Tyson was counting down for about two weeks so when the day finally came he was going nuts. We went to our usual spot next to the university and I bought glow sticks for all the kids. Even Stockton was awake for them and was a little worried at first but then just watched. Blake was asleep though them last year but was right up there with the rest of the cousins this year.

I used to feel like Bryan ruined the photo when he did stuff like this but now I'm so used to it it doesn't faze me.

We gave Stock some home made root beer and he went CRAZY. You have to click on this picture to see it bigger and look at his lip in the cup.

Stockton and Grandma

My boys earned this glow stick things all week. They were worth it too because they loved them

Bryan with all the cousins (that came)

Stockton and cousin Ava