Sam's Birthday #2

Sam's second first birthday celebration with the Palmer's was a few days later. We had all the Calgary Palmer's over to have Sam's favorite foods: chicken finger's (hand made by Bryce with plenty of dipping sauce choices), mac and cheese, grapes and chocolate milk. We had a balloon theme and filled up a bunch of helium balloons. This may have resulted in some high pitched conversations among cousins.

Hyrum loved collecting all the balloons but never did float away.

Sam with the balloon cake.

Sam got his very own recliner and felt like such a big boy. Now there is less crying over the one chair we had...2 is better than 1.

This is Eloise enjoying the chair and her gift hand picked by her cousins of new shades and shirt.

Sam's Birthday #1

Sam was on lucky 1 year old and had 2 birthday parties this year. The first was on his actual day of birth January 14 with his Salmon grandparents. We had a delicious Pizza Friday party. We are so blessed to have Sam as part of our family we love his fun adventurous spirit.

Grandma and Grandpa got him this cool truck and the picture only half shows how much he loved it. he pushed the buttons and got on and off all night and then it was the first thing he did the next morning.

He was very spoiled with so many fun gifts thanks everyone!

Reading stories with Grandma.

I made cake pops for the occasion which turned out pretty yummy and fun to eat. I did forget to buy some foam to display them in and so we stole some packing foam from the printer and made it look as cute as possible.

Happy Birthday Sam!

New Year's

So this post is very late and I apologize. I was recently called to be the Primary President in our ward and since I have felt like I can barely keep my head above the water. I am just now starting to feel a bit more normal and like I can catch up on all the 'other' things on my very long life list. Here is a few highlights from our New Year's adventures in Medicine Hat.

On the 30th we had a fake new years party (due to other happenings on the 31st) and made some yummy Chinese cuisine and a Wii competition.

We made sure to do plenty of dancing.

Dad made his traditional New Year's day Italian dinner. So delicious!

Here is my fist attempt at a video on the blog. Finger's crossed. The cousins had so much fun together. Happy New Year.

A Palmer Christmas

We were lucky to get to spend Christmas in Edmonton this year at Grandma Palmer's! On Christmas Eve Nicole and Terry hosted a wonderful 'Ugly Sweater' Party with a delicious Asian food inspired dinner.

Nicoel had a gingerbread cake for the kids to help decorate. Eloise and Micheal took this task very seriously and as you can see it turned out beautifully.

Christmas Eve PJ's from grandma. So cute!

Christmas morning Elosie loved opening each gift and the asking for 'mores'. She got a new baby, a toolbox and a backpack from Santa.

By the time Elosie woke up at 9:00 Christmas morning Sam was already down for his morning nap so he slept though most of the present opening madness. When he woke up he got to have his very own Christmas and could not have been more pleased.

Here is how we spent most of the rest of the day in our PJ's relaxing.

The Week Before Christmas

Some of our adventures as the big Christmas holiday approached:

We got a new TV (a bit early due to a good pre Christmas sale at Costco) and the best part was and still is the house/store made from the box. This is Sam making his way inside (which annoys Eloise to no end) and me 'buying food' from Eloise through the window. She still asks me a couple times a day "Mom buy food" which means we go downstairs and I buy cookies, pizza, bread etc. and make sure to pay with monies and mores monies. Always fun every time.

As you can see Sam and Eloise had very different reactions to the Santa at Bryce's work Christmas party. Although Eloise talked about 'Santy' for days with found love in her eyes.

Sam stuck in the heating vent once he figured out how to remove the top.

This is an advent that I made for the kids this year. It was a fun project and I spend many hours creating...it was a real hit until the home teachers dropped off an advent that dispensed candy each day...who can beat that!

Snow Fun

We have been trying to enjoy the snow as much as we can (which means when no one is sick or napping and it is not too cold or dark) here are some of our adventures.

I took the kids out today and Sam was playing in the snow having a lovely time when I looked over I noticed that he had lost his boot and was playing in his socks...whoops!

Our first snowman. The snow was a bit crunchy so it was a small little guy.

First snow face plant of the year.

Helping shovel snow with Ethan.

This was one of the first snow days this year and Eloise was super nervous, she eventually got used to it and continued to clean the snow off all the patio furniture and toys.

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday has now come and gone but here is the story of the best birthday yet!

To start I came downstairs in the morning to a handsome husband and cute kiddies along with an invitation to breakfast. Which lead to my realization that Bryce had planned the best gift of all...him! He had taken the day off from work. We went out for breakfast at Cora's which was delicious and on to some Christmas shopping. Bryce made dinner and I got a new Kindle. Later Bryce and I went on a date to see the new Harry Potter. It was a lovely day thanks Bryce!