Winds of change...

March came and left faster than I could believe.  Along with all those March winds came a whirlwind of change and excitement for the Palmer family. 

First of all our little sara girl decided to start walking and she has become our little road runner ever since.

we had some beautiful "summer-ish" days in March that got us excited to pull out the summer shorts and tee shirts.  We even gave sara her first pair of crocs (though sadly, sara also learned this month how fun it is to throw random items into the garbage can and before we realized what was happneing one of these crocs along with a couple other shoes got lost forever.) 

Scott man has really grown over the winter and he is becoming such a good helper.  James taught him how to prune our garden and he was immediately put to work.

These two have so much fun playing together.  Its amazing to think that scott lived almost three years without his best playmate. 

One sunny afternoon we met up with some friends at Crocker Park (a nearby outdoor mall in Westlake)

Scott and sara loved running around the chess board with their friends paige and natalie.

and these kids were so cute acting all grown-up with their game of chess.

and i couldn't resist this picture...

my birthday is in march and a big goal i had for myself was to run a 5k.  so on march 17th i ran in the Lakewood St. Patrick's Day 5k.  For anyone who truly knows me you know that running in any kind of race is a huge deal for me.  But I really wanted to do it and i really wanted to finish it in 30 minutes.  The day of the race I wasn't feeling as in shape as i was hoping to so i began hoping to finish it in 35 minutes or just finish it at all.  But in the end I felt great and finished it in less than 30 minutes!  I was very stoked and very grateful for james and the kids who were there to support me.

And the biggest change that March brought in was that we found out that James matched to Phoenix, Arizona for his pschiatry residency.  He will be doing the bulk of his training in Mesa and some in Phoenix itself.  We can't wait for our new adventure and scott's new favorite thing is to say, "Tell me more about Arizona."   

Congratulations James!  And thank you for working so hard for your family.  We love you!!!

Sara's 1st Birthday

i can't believe our little sara girl is already one.  it feels like just yesterday that she and i were hanging out together in the hospital.

sara's bday was low key but sweet.  a couple days before her actual birthday we got a free birthday cupcake from barnes and noble.  i love both james and sara's wide eyes in this picture.

scott got in on the birthday cupcake, too.

and this was on her actual birthday.  we made "healthy" cupcakes that sara loved. the rest of us hated them because they didn't have enough sugar but sara thought they were the cat's meow.

she really is such a precious girl.  she loves to smile and laugh.  she loves to get chased and now that she's walking she loves to run as fast as her little legs will move her all the while squeeling with delight.  she loves to get hugs and kisses from scott and she even loves it when he wrestles her to the ground (despite my concenr).  She loves it when scott climbs into her crib every morning to play with her but she hates it when he takes toys from her.  she gets really impatient when someone close to her is eating and not sharing with her and she loves that scott shares just about everything he's eating with her.  they are the best of friends and i love watching them together.  its a bit of heaven on earth.

oh and one more thing... sara's most favorite thing to do is to climb!  she climb's everything from stairs to chairs to stools to ladders and anything else she can get her hands and feet on.  she gets really angry when i carry her up (or down) the stairs because she wants to do it herself.  this girl is the sweetest thing but she definitely has an opinion and she's not afraid to squawk at us to let it be known.

happy birthday sara p!  we love you!