Twenty-nine

This month I have been celebrating me. Is that narcissistic? I don't think it really counts if its your birthday month. I have had a few people ask me how I feel about entering my last year of my twenties. It has made me reflect on my twenties, and honestly, I am not sad to see them go. While thirty does seem a tad too far on the adult side for my taste, I am perfectly fine with being twenty-nine. I used to hate birthdays, and I still do hate parts of birthdays, but for the most part, I enjoy them. I think birthdays are far better when you feel like you are settled in life, do you know what I mean? Like, I suppose I would feel completely different if I was 29 years old and living in my parent's basement playing video games all day, having accomplished nothing in my life. But I haven't wasted my twenties. I went to a few years of college. I made some amazing, lifelong friends. I got married. I had a kid. We bought a house. I work. Life is grand, really. And I am excited to see what the next chapter of my life looks like.

This year I think I celebrated my birthday for two weeks long. In fact, I am not even done celebrating as we haven't gotten the chance to have a Palmer family dinner yet. My wonderful, amazing mother took me and Leland for a three day excursion to Mesquite. My grandparents live just ten minutes away so they were kind enough to watch the kiddo so my mom and I could go to two productions at the Tuacahn, the most amazing outdoor theater in the world. This year we saw Peter Pan and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. They were both amazing, completely different, but absolutely spectacular. We also got to have a much needed pool day where my brave son went down the water slide all by himself and even swam in the pool without me holding him up- he just had on his wings. I love seeing him get braver and braver in the water, he is such a little fish! Anyway, it was a fast, but fun little get-away and much needed mommy and me time (and I am not talking about me and Leland haha.) A girl always needs her mom am I right?

For my birthday weekend Justin and I invited two families from our neighborhood to go to my parent's cabin in Bear Lake. We had never done anything with other families before, I felt like it was a big stepping stone into adulthood for us. We had so much fun playing games, watching movies, going to the beach, and riding four-wheelers. It was especially fun because each family has a son around Leland's age and the boys got along fantastically. My mom always told me that my friends would be my kid's friends parents- she was right- like always. I am glad that we found them and that we all get along so well. Hopefully we can do more with them in the future.

Remember that part that I hate on my birthdays? Well, that part is Facebook. I hate Facebook on my birthday. Hopefully I am not alone in feeling this way. I feel kind of selfish for even saying anything, but honestly, its the worst! The worst I tell you! For one day of the year I have friends and family coming out of the wood works to wish me a happy birthday. And all I can think about is where in the hell are all of you the other 364 days of the year??? Does anyone else feel like this? I definitely have a love/hate relationship with social media. I love that I can keep up with my far away family who lives in Florida, Oregon, Michigan, etc. But I also hate the flat relationships that social media can create. Actions speak louder then words after all, so all of the empty words that fill my news feed once a year leave me feeling empty inside. If you want me to know that you love me, show me. Call me. Go to lunch with me. Anything but write on my news feed once a year. I seriously hate that. I hate social media fake friendships. However, they definitely make me grateful for my REAL friends. The ones who show up and speak up. I am very lucky to have those friends in my life! Okay, enough of that whining. For the most part Facebook can be a good thing.... just not on September 2 haha.

To all of you that made my birthday wonderul this year, thank you. I love you all. I even love the ones who I only hear from once a year, but let's change that this year, shall we? :) As for pictures, I am far too lazy for that... go look at Facebook. ;)

THREE!

This blog post is a little late, but.... THREE! My baby boy is THREE!! How did this happen? Time really does go so quickly when you have kids. You blink and all of a sudden they are little people walking and talking with their own personalities. And boy, does my kiddo have quite the personality! Be prepared for a super long post because when it comes to Leland, I can talk and talk all day long!

Leland Justin Palmer at age three:
-Like most boys his age, he loves anything with wheels, and makes noises to match every vehicle in his extensive collection of toys. He once told me to make the sound of his motorcycle, then looked at me exasperated, explaining that that was the noise of a monster truck, and not a motorcycle. Geez, Mom!

-Leland loves books. We read books twice a day, before his nap time and before bedtime. I always have to cut him off and he always asks for more. I am curious to see how many books he would let me read to him before getting bored though.. I may need to test this theory. My hypothesis is that he would eventually just fall asleep instead of getting bored.

-My son is O.C.D. Really. I have come across his toys on several occasions lined up perfectly, and sometimes even according to their size. When he lines up his monster trucks the wheels are exactly matching. I moved one back just a hair to see if he would notice once, and he did. He also has to have "B" (his blanket) a certain way on his pillow. B has to be covering his pillow and the animals have to be facing a certain direction- if I do it wrong he will fix it.

-Leland's favorite foods are the normal things, but his obsessions are cherry tomatoes out of the garden, Grandma Palmer's mini banana muffins, raspberries, and pickles.

-He has a very extensive vocabulary. Add that to his height, and no one can guess his age correctly. In fact, I have noticed other mothers at the park judging me for having my "four year old" in diapers still... and this was back when he was two. Someone in our ward came up to us a few weeks ago and asked if he was starting kindergarten this year.

-Leland is smart. Not only does he use big words, but he knows his colors, shapes (including shapes like pentagon and octagon), numbers, counting, alphabet, and has dozens upon dozens of songs memorized and can sing them perfectly. Maybe I am biased on that one though. I don't know what is normal for three year olds seeing as he is my first one haha.

- He is one of the most polite kids I know. He says, please, thank you, and excuse me frequently. I have been complimented on this on several occasions and am thrilled that I am raising such a kind and polite boy. He will even say excuse me when he farts or burps.. which is often!

-He is not potty-trained. I tried going diaper-less and it was the worst three days of both of our lives. He was emotional, ornery, and irritable and I knew that was his signal to me that he was not ready. I will not force him in this.

-Leland likes to be methodical. He thinks things through before acting. He studies out situations.

-He is thoughtful and emotional. Leland gets really sad when other people cry and will always try and comfort them. He has seen me cry on a handful of occasions and always gives me a big hug and tells me its going to be okay. He is kind and has a tender heart. He has very big emotions for such a little body and doesn't always know how to process them. He makes friends easily and loves his friends fiercely.

-His favorite places include both grandparent's homes, Jessica and Joeys apartment, Bear Lake and the cabin (obviously), parks, and the Bounce and Slide in Logan.

-His favorite shows right now are Bob the Builder, Daniel Tiger, Peppa Pig, Thomas, Diego, Winnie the Pooh, Paw Patrol, Little Einsteins, and of course, Blaze and the Monster Machines. (We don't have cable in our house so he has a basket full of DVD's that he can watch, and also, thank you Netflix!)

-And lastly, whenever you ask him what he wants to eat, his answer is almost always chocolate cake!

Hey You. It's been a while.

I realize that my last decent post was in October. Wow, those holiday months really get away from me. A brief recap:

Thanksgiving: Was spent with the Palmers and Olsens. It was relaxed and good and also spent in sickness... those nasty colds!

Black Friday: Was spent in Bear Lake having a last photo shoot with the Wright family before my little brother left for his mission. The pictures turned out great even though my little family was so sick we wanted to die. For reals though.

Saturday after Black Friday: Was spent in the Preston area. It's tradition to go up the canyon and cut down our Christmas trees on that day. Fortunately for my lazy out of shape side, Leland is too small to hike up a mountain so we sent Daddy while we played in the snow with Tenley. Uncle Tyler made a snow slide and Leland though that was pretty great. After we got our trees we headed to the bed races down Main St. and then had lunch at Arctic Circle. We were thankfully feeling much better today.

First of December: Was full of Usborne booths for me.

Middle of December: Was full of lights, Christmas merriment, shopping, and you know, regular December type activities.

Christmas:

• Christmas Eve Eve: Went to the Olsen's for dinner, Santa, games, and gift exchange. Leland was too scared to sit on Santa's lap, so he made sure that Grandma Palmer was with him.
• Christmas Eve Morning: Breakfast with the Palmers and opening lots of presents.
• Christmas Eve: Drove to Bear Lake to meet the Wrights. We got our Christmas pajamas and watched Frozen while I did some assembly work for Santa
• Christmas Day: Had an absolute lovely day at the cabin in Bear Lake. We played games, ate food, laughed, exchanged presents, told stories. It was a grand sort of day. Christmas spent in a cabin is MAGICAL by the way!

New Years Eve: Was spent at the Palmers eating pizza, playing games, and watching the ball drop while throwing confetti and blowing horns. Not everyone made it to midnight but Leland and Tenley sure did! They were troopers!!

New Years Day: Was lazy. 

Beginning of January: All I could think about was how my little brother was leaving me for two years. It sucked. I spent five days at my parents house to soak up as much Zach time as I possibly could. The farewell went really well, he gave an amazing talk that made me bawl my eyes out. Dropping him off at the MTC was seriously SO MUCH HARDER than I thought it was going to be. My eyes ached from crying so much. Not fun! Not fun at all!!!!!!

Currently: Getting a letter from Brother was very exciting and he is doing very well! I took Leland to his first movie in the theater. We went and saw Penguins of Madagascar. He didn't make it though the whole thing but he lasted an hour, loved the big bucket of popcorn, and laughed out loud twice- I would call that a success! I had a booth in Malad today. I threw my SIL a wedding shower that I think turned out really good. I always get nervous for those kinds of things but I think it was a success. She is getting married in less than a week so I am sure this week will be full of preparations for the big day! I also have an Usborne conference in SLC this Saturday that I am really looking forward to!

Other: Leland started nursery and I am way happy about that. He has some separation anxiety but for the most part he does okay. I am suffering from the winter blues...grrrrr... I hate January. Is it over yet? We are talking about taking a REAL vacation this summer and we are having fun exploring our possibilities and deciding where to go. Thoughts? I am loving my calling as an activity leader... THE BEST CALLING EVER!!! I have also decided to join my wards book club and my first meeting is this Tuesday. I can't wait because I am in need of some SERIOUS girl time. When was the last time I did something with a friend??? Um.... (crickets chirping) ... oh that's right I can't remember cause it was so freaking long ago! Friends? Hello? Are you out there??? Girl time? Anyone? ... Anyone? (Damn those crickets!) haha... but not really. Call me. 

I applaud you if you made it to the end of this. Stay Awesome!

Cutting down the tree day

Christmas Eve Morning

Christmas Eve PJ's

I just love his Mickey slippers on him

Christmas Day

Cabin Magic

The Wright Gang

The Palmer Gang

Grandma and Grandpa

Siblings

MTC drop off

First Movie

World Travelers (just kidding)

For our third anniversary Justin and I went on a mini family vay-cay to Mesquite, Nevada. My grandparents were able to get us some free rooms at the Casablanca so that was really fun to stay at a nice hotel and swim in the seriously fabulous pool. My grandparents, who live in Beaver Dam, were kind enough to babysit Little Man for us and we went to the Little Mermaid at the Tuacahn. It was amazingly awesome, as all shows at the Tuacahn are! (Next year they are doing Beauty and the Beast! *gasp - Excitement!)We were only down there for three days, and it was kind of a long drive for Little Man, but we had a blast. I mean, how can you not in 90 degree weather am I right?! We spent two days at my parents house in Fruit Heights, one night before and one night after. And it is always fun for me to return to my roots (and my mom's cooking). Have you been to Station Park in Farmington? It is is FAB-U-LOUS guys! But like really. Better than City Creek and Gateway combined! And only two minutes away from Mom and Dad's house. I'm in LOVE!

The day after we got home we went to meet the boys in my family in Idaho at the annual Deer Camp, which is a BIG DEAL every year. Leland and I just went up for the day and it was fun to hang out with extended family members, sit around the campfire, have some good camping food, and be in some of God's most beautiful nature. Sadly I didn't even think about taking pictures there, I wish I would have. The only bummer part of this day trip was that Leland got his first bee, well wasp, sting. That sure can break a mama's heart! I hate when my baby is in pain and I can't do anything about it, it sucks hardcore!

This last weekend I spent in Bear Lake with Leland, my mom, and my older sister. We drove up Friday night and came home on Monday. It was a very relaxing sort of weekend eating junk food, watching movies, laying out in the sun, and playing on the beach. We saw deer on our property up there and that was pretty cool too. We couldn't have asked for better weather, I swear it was warmer than September and August!

So today I am home and it's back to the daily grind. Did I mention I got a part time job? Turns out we could really use a little extra doe so I found a job cleaning offices two nights a week. It is about 2 to 3 hours a night and you can go in whenever you want after six, so it seems like the perfect job for a stay at home mom like myself. So anyway, this week I work two nights, have two Usborne book parties scheduled, am in charge of my first activity days (church calling), and am working a booth for Usborne for a few hours- and there is talk about going to the Pumpkin Walk too- so wow. It's gonna be a freaking busy week I tell you what!

To end this post I would just like to tell you all how I am completely and hopelessly in love with the month of October, but if you follow me on Instagram you already know that with my endless hashtags of #octoberisthebestmonth. We are having the perfect weather, all of the trees in Cache Valley are full of yellows, oranges, and reds, my house is decorated from top to bottom in pumpkins, witches, ghosts, and skeletons, we've been drinking apple cider by the gallons (literally) and Halloween...(HALLOWEEN guys!) is just around the corner! HOORAY for OCTOBER! I just wish it wasn't going so fast. I think that in God's infinite wisdom, he knew how important of a month October would be, so that's why he gave us 31 days of it. Thank you God. Thank you for this beautiful month.

A Splendind Weekend!

For Justin's birthday, clear back in April, I bought him tickets to see Blake Shelton's "Ten Times Crazier Tour' at the Usanna Amphitheater in Salt Lake City. The concert was this last Friday, and oh my! It was a total blast! Before the concert we had dinner at Red Robin.... yummmm. Love that place. We had great service and great food. I had never been to a concert like that before and I honestly had no idea how many people were going to be there, especially crazy drunk people! We really did have a riot. By some weird luck though we kind of ended up surrounded by old people! And you know old people, always good for a story!

The older couple sitting in front of us, I would say probably in their seventies, were hilarious. They were just dancing and rocking out to every song. And during the first love song, the old guy reaches around and pinches his wife's bottom. Justin and I were dying, it was pretty funny. Gotta keep that romance alive right? It was pretty cute- I hope me and Justin are still that "hot" for each other when we are that old haha.

The couple sitting next to us (late sixties I'd guess) were not as fun however. The guy definitely had a potty mouth and he was most definitely NOT a fan of this type of concert. He was very, and I mean VERY upset that he "paid for a GD seat so that I could F-bomb sit in it! That's why I am not on the D grass! Why the H is everyone standing up? Why pay for a GD seat if your not going to GD sit in it?!" It was colorful to say the least. After complaining to everyone around him, and asking the people in front of him to sit down (which didn't last long because then they couldn't see) he and his wife left. I felt bad that it was wasted money and wasted seats, but honestly, what did you expect at a concert of this sort?

Anywho... back to the concert. It was AMAZING! Neil McCoy and The Band Perry were the opening acts for Blake and they were awesome. I fell in love with TBP! They really know how to rock it and they are adorable and funny and I would definitely love to see them in concert again! Blake Shelton was everything you would expect Blake Shelton to be. He called Adam Levine a douche, talked about boobies, embarrassed a young couple on screen, and was of course drinking the entire time. In other words, he was frickin' hilarious! I was surprised at how many older songs he sang, and was even more surprised that I knew all of them. It did rain on us for a while but fortunately it was bearable and didn't last too long. Unfortunately I didn't plan very well and forgot a camera and wasted my phone's battery with GPS. We did manage to get a couple of pictures before our phones died but they aren't the greatest quality.

After the concert we kind of chilled in the parking lot for an hour to let some of the traffic die down. There were people partying and drinking it up in the cars all around us and two cars down a guy dropped his pants right then and there and relieved himself. He was shocked to find the car next to him full of girls and somehow managed to apologize profusely for exposing himself at the same time as shamelessly flirting with them. It was an incredibly awkward and hilarious situation to watch. We finally got out of there and didn't get back to our hotel until after one in the morning. 

So Justin's birthday was the concert and for my birthday we decided to make a weekend of it and get a hotel in SLC and spend the next day in the city. On Saturday morning we slept in, packed up, and hit up Denny's for breakfast. I had heard about a church history display going on at the Church History Library, so we decided to check that out. WOW! I don't really consider myself a history buff, but I really do love church history, so I found this display completely incredible! Some of the things on display are:

Joseph Smith's personal journal

A first edition of the Book of Mormon

A page from the Book of Mormon manuscript that was hand written by Oliver Cowdery

Wilford Woodruff's journal

Handwritten notes from the Relief Society's first meeting

Handwritten notes from the Primary's first meeting

A letter Joseph Smith wrote from Liberty Jail

A first edition of the Hymn book

And lots more!

It was incredible to see these items close up. They are of course in a display case but seeing them like that made it all so real for me. Joseph Smith is probably my very favorite prophet and I love learning about him and about the lives of the early saints. This was such an incredible display and you can feel the spirit so strongly being so close to these things. I would highly encourage everyone to go and check it out, but I think the display closes in October sometime so you gotta hurry!

After the Church History Library we made our way to Famous Footwear (did you know the one in Logan closed?) and the whole family got new shoes. I had to exchange some shoes I got for my birthday. Justin needed new work shoes, and Leland needed new church shoes. Shoe shopping is fun isn't it? I HATE shopping for clothes but I LOVE shopping for shoes. Shoes is definitely my favorite accessory which is weird because usually you can find me in flip flops.... weird... I know. Anyway, after our shoe shopping extravaganza we headed to my aunt's house to pick up Leland (thanks for taking such good care of him guys, he had a blast and was definitely spoiled!). We stopped in at my parents house and they ordered pizza and we ended up watching Dirty Dancing with my mom. After the movie we headed back to Cache Valley.... awwww. Home. 

So on Monday we went apple picking with my MIL and FIL. I feel deprived that I have never done this before. I thought it was going to be boring work but we actually ended up having a lot of fun. Leleand LOVED "helping" us. He loved the dirt and sticks and the throwing of the apples. We got caught in the rain but it presented us with a double rainbow which was utterly stunning. We picked a LOT of apples and then went home and got hamburgers and watched DWTS. 

It was a grand sort of weekend really. Concert, church history, new shoes, family, food, and apple picking. Life is pretty good.