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!

Jumping into 2012

This year started out on a great foot with my good friend Erica Zulnay's baptism.  The elders knocked on her door back in November and I have loved watching her grow in the gospel.  She has become such a good friend and I'm so proud of her! (Erica with Elders Dransfield and Parkinson)

This is Erica's son, Michael.  He and Scott are good little buddies.

This was our January trip to see the Jones's in Columbus.  We went down there when James was in Arizona doing his residency interviews so now Scott associates the word Arizona with Brody.  He's in for the saddest shock of his life in two months. :(
Here are sara and macie.  Sara's finally old enough to start playing with Macie.  I love it!

And of course the boys.  The. Boys.

For a few weeks in January and February we signed scott up for a basketball team and James was the coach.   Here is some live footage:

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and here are the kids just chillin' on the couch.  (don't ask me why sara is fully coated up and scott is shirtless.)

I was subbing for a primary class one day when the choister asked me if i by chance had a camera to take a picture of the kids for an activity.  i was happy that i did because now i have this treasure.  (scott's sunbeam friends: mitchell jones, ?, william o'neil, scott, paige bielozer and natalie critchlow)

one special night in february we watched some kids in the ward.  here are the four o'neil boys, scott and mitchell jones all making valentine necklaces for their moms.  it was a blast. :)

scott showing off his "new" cars pajamas.  His friend tyler weston (who sadly moved to alaska) gave scott a bunch of his old clothes before he left.  this one was much too small but (of course) scott's most prized possession.  it's a one piece cars pajama outfit and scott wore it so much that he wripped holes in the toes. 

and here's sara sporting the jean skirt and leggings.  i wish i could pull them off as well as her.

james had a day off so we took the kids to the rain forest at the zoo.  it was such a fun day that we felt like we were on vacation. 

we even have the family photo to prove it. 

two fo them actually...

on valentine's day weekend james let me go out for some "girl time" with a few of my friends in the ward.  when i came home he and kids had set up these flowers (my favorite...lillies!) with dove chocolates surrounding them in the shape of a heart.  it made me feel so special.  thank you james!!

scott and i have been working lately on another project.  we both had been eyeing a bird house at a nearby store and so i finally gave in and bought it.  we painted it one morning while sara was asleep, bought some bird seed at walmart, filled it up another morning while sara was asleep and hung it up on a tree outside yet another morning when sara was asleep.  so far we've never seen a bird eat out of it (apparently the birds in our area are a little too ritzy for walmart brand bird seed) but we keep watching out the window just in case.

another project that we've done (while sara was asleep) was work on scott's valentine box for preschool.  i was especially excited for this because that was the most exciting time of the year for me when i was little.   he scott is with all the valentine's day paraphanelia.

and here he is with his very special valentine's day box. 
he chose the colors... blue and green (his favorite.)

is christmas here?

I gave this post the title that i did because that's the question i hear a lot these days from our little scott man.  he was so sad when we took down the tree and the decorations and he frequently asks me if christmas is here again.  i think it crushes his soul a little when i explain that it will be here soon... in 300 days. 

since james had been traveling a lot for residency interviews we opted to stay in cleveland for christmas this year. it was sad to not see all of our family in utah but i L.O.V.E.D. not traveling over the holidays.


me and the kids.  still can't believe i have two.

me and the girls.  mom and my sister kim came out to visit for a few days before christmas.  here we are in our matching pajama pants.  small things like that make christmas magical.

mom took us out to cheesecake factory one night.  love that cheesecake!!

and here we are... matching again.  apparently we have the same preferences in clothing.

we had a mini "christmas morning" with grandy and aunt kimi before they left on christmas eve.  these are the "awesome trucks" that scott wanted very badly for christmas. 

and of course sara was spoiled with cute clothes.  my mom got her this outfit in the picture and her other grandma palmer sent out the most beautiful christmas dress i've ever seen.  seriously.  thank you so much grandma and grandy! 

and of course it wouldn't be christmas without making and frosting honey cookies.  they were perfect! (and apparently scott doesn't wear clothes.)



here's our little princess sara in front of the christmas tree.  she reminds me of the dolls my mom used to give me for christmas when i was little.

here's my little family on christmas morning.  it was a quiet day and we definitely missed being in utah with all the fun festivities.  but it was also nice to spend time with just the four of us. 

these pics are out of order, but this is a picture of us at our ward christmas party.  i loved it this year because the gym was decorated like bethlahem and we all had to wear clothing of that time.  they gave us food of the time and then some of the kids (and james) participated in the nativity.  it was a really nice, spiritual experience.

my good friend, erica zolnay, with her mom and son michael.  erica recently got baptized.  i love this girl!

gingerbread house making party with the westons and joslyn patee.  mine is the amazing looking one in the middle (sorry girls. :) )

and our boys scott and tyler weston.  the westons recently moved to alaska and cleveland doesn't feel the same without him.  scott still talks like tyler is going to come over any day and it breaks my heart every time.  just today he said, "Is Tyler home from his misson yet?" 

On christmas eve night we went to said weston's house for dinner.  our kids did the nativity which might be the very first nativity ever with a spiderman shepherd. 

again, these pics are out of order but i loved these ones of my mom reading to scott.

scott loved having his grandy here for tchristmas and so did i!

we really had a nearly perfect christmas. i wish we could have had all our family around us but for being so far away it was really a wonderful time.  thank you to everyone for the fabulous gifts and cards and love.  we can't wait for next christmas (in 300 days and counting...)