It snowed!!!! I can't believe it we went out to eat and then came out and it was snowing! It snowed for quite a while and in the morning we had some that even stuck to the ground. Of course as soon as the sun came out it melted but it was cool to see! We definetley are not used to this snow and the freezing weather! Merry Christmas!!!!!!




I love Christmas! I am so grateful that my family was able to come down and be with us! We have a tradition on Christmas eve that we make ginger bread houses. We love competing to see who can make the best! Of course Steven and I won!!! Ok, maybe we all did great! Christmas was great for us this year. We were able to talk with both brothers on missions! They are doing great and we are looking forward to Craig coming home in 6 months! We hope each of you had a great Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Year!!

The Palmer's Homestead

This morning we went garage sale-ing. We expected to maybe buy a tool or two. The first thing that we saw at the first garge sale, were these trees. We have been looking for some good trees and these were perfect! Gotta love garage sale-ing. We are also very excited about our new wall! It doesn't seem like much, but we love it. It makes us want to stay here for a little while longer! (shhhhh) Sorry Reynolds & Pitts! Just kidding.

Just picture a garden between the house and the lovely chicken pen. Then some grass between the camera and the garden. Lastly, one of those new fancy trees to the right of the picture... muah!

Kami and I are debating and we want your input... in this corner, we have two options. 1) Rebuilding the nasty, tin, rotted-wood, old shed that we took down to build the wall and saving a buck. OR Buying a very reasonably priced, brand new car-smelling, stable, strong, eye-pleasing shed from home depot! Is there really a choice? Kami seems to think so, so help me out! :)

San Diego

This weekend we went with the Reynolds clan to San Diego. It was alot of fun. It was so funny to see the difference between Madison/Me and Kami/Leslie. When we went to Sea World and the beach, we were like deprived kids in a candy shop! Kami and Leslie were having fun, but nothing like when we decided to go shopping on the Boardwalk. Then the tables turned! I truly love you Kami!

The vacation was awesome! It is so nice to get away from everything. Plus, the Reynolds are just a blast to be around.

The water was freezing, but Madison and I couldn't resist!

This was a cool exhibit!

Tears, Scars, Cars, and Food!

Sorry that we haven't posted for so long! We have not had internet. Finally, I tapped into someone's wireless internet in the area and now we do......

Anyway, my brother Levi left on his mission. He was a huge cowboy who loved to ride in these hills behind my parents' house. Well, as Levi was driving away with my sister (in the black van), my brother David rode up the hill and waved from the top. It was pretty cool. Levi loved it.

I know what you're thinking if you read my sister's blog a few months ago... no, she did not punch me in the face...again. This was just a basketball accident. I didn't want to post it, but Kami made me promise. Notice, I had to shave half of my eyebrow! It gets worse... now it's healed and I still only have half an eyebrow! Oh well, Kami still thinks I'm hot.

Kami and I are taking a cooking class and we love it. I think I'm more into it than she is. She occationally doesn't like to go, but I look forward to it all week. It is a blast! We basically go and make gourmet food and then eat it for a grade! How do you get any better than that, I ask myself? You don't.

Kami and I in our cooking class. This dish was our favorite. It's called Baahmi. It is Indonesian and wow, it's good!

Our teacher showed us how to do this. It was awesome. Unfortunately it was just for looks because the pan is empty... just oil and lemon juice! Oh well, it looks cool!

And last but DEFINATELY not least, my new truck! I have always wanted a truck and I finally got it. We were always borrowing people's trucks and trailors. So finally, we sold my car and bought this. It gets about 25 mpg and is a stick shift. It works perfectly. The only thing is that it doesn't have much power.

We hope y'all are doing well. Thanks for taking interest in our lives (or at least doing a good job at faking it!)

Palmer Family Pictures

My brother Levi is leaving on his mission to Australia tomorrow. We got together yesterday to take family pictures and just hang out. Levi is going to be an awesome missionary. He is a great example to a lot of younger an us older family members!
Kami and I are going to school this semester and we are really excited about our cooking class we have. Every week we sign up for a different course and then once we are all finished with our assigned meals, we eat!!!
The best news of all is that I sold my car and we bought a truck! It's a 2002 Chevy s10. Pictures will be posted.

Aubrey

Aubrey's headstone finally came! We just had a conversation about whether to put an exclaimation point or not. It is tough, because it is really "bitter-sweet" for us.

We are excited that now there will be a marker on her grave so that people will know that she is there and that we do have a beautiful baby girl.

On the other hand, it is a reminder that we have lost our child. It has been incredible to see many good things come from our experience. We are so blessed, in so many different ways. However, we miss our Aubrey!

If you are ever in the Mesa Cemetery, stop on by and see her headstone. It is kinda close to the front, ("front" meaning Country Club Ave.) in the baby section!

YAY!! We got our first egg this week and since the first one they have layed two more!! I am so excited that the chickens are finally laying!!!
It rained really hard last Sunday and Steven and I ran outside to cover up our chickens and we were just soaked, so we decided to stay out and play in the rain! It was so much fun! I love the monsoon season and all the moisture that we are able to get!
Steven and I celebrated 2 years on last Sunday and we decided that we would do something simple for our anniversary so we went to Kartchner caverns the day before! It was so cool to see this massive cave under this normal hill. It truly was amazing to see the stalagmites and stalagtites that have formed over hundreds of years! The tour wasn't more then an 1 1/2 but it was just nice to just be together and not worry about a thing! I love Steven so much and I am so grateful to be married to him for ever! He is my very best friend and I am so grateful for how supportive he is of me and out little family! He is such an amazing DAD, even though he doesn't get to play the normal role of Dad right now he is showing Aubrey how much he loves her by treating me so good and always doing what is right! I love you Steven! Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!

Greer-Property-Camp and Boys Night!!!

Here are a few things that we have been doing the past few weeks! We bought a piece of land with my parents and we have been fixing it up and are preparing to build a duplex. I am kind of scared but it will be a fun adventure for us. We also had a boys night (plus me) with the nephews that live in Thatcher. We had a ball! I just had to put this picture on because the boys were so excited to help with dishes!! Gotta love those boys!

Steven went to be with his family up at Greer for a week. I was at girls camp and I couldn't go but he said he had a ball! They were playing pit/spoons and if you didn't grab a spoon then you had to get eyeliner markings on your face! Steven and his younger brothers were in charge of cleaning up one of the meals while at the cabin and his younger brothers had no idea how to wash the dishes without a dishwasher! So Steven showed them how and fortunatley they were able to learn!

Girls camp was very fun and I loved being able to get to know the girls better!! We stayed up in Alpine and it was beautiful up there! We have a lot of great girls and I am glad I am in young womens!

Steven and I are trying to be better with our food storage so we decided to get chickens! I can't believe I wanted to get them because growing up we had them and I hated them so much. You would have to duck to get into the coup and thentry and grab the eggs which usually are covered in poop. They stunk like crazy and I really didn't like to clean out their water. I guess things hange when it's your own home and your own family you are trying to help.Here are two of the mom chickens. They have about 6 babys under them in this picture. It is amazing how they protect their chicks. They really gather them under their wings and protect them from everything! Sometimes we see the chicks sitting on top of the moms its really kind of cute.
We had a rough few days this week because our swamp cooler wasn't working and it was about 100 degrees outside. I was dying of heat and when you are hot you don't want to do a thing, so I would just sit by the fan and watch tv. Finally we figured out what was wrong. We had to get a new pump and new pads and now it is working like a charm!
I really love this time of year because everything is green and pretty! I love working out in the yard!! Just like with the chickens I hated having to work all day saturday when I was young, but now that it's my own house I love being outside planting, mowing, and just making our yard look good. I just love working with Steven to make our home better! I love you Steven!!!
p.s. Thanks for fixing the swamp cooler!!!

YAY!!! WE HAVE A LAWN MOWER!!

For the past year Steven and I have had to borrow a lawn mower and a weed eater every time we need to mow our lawn. Since our lawn grows so quickly we had to borrow one once a week and it was just a pain. It was a pain for us and a pain for my grandparents and in-laws. So since we have been saving some money (hence me riding my bike and Steven sometimes going with out lunch) we were able to get a lawn mower. FYI.. Steven does eat lunch most days, don't think I am a bad wife! We were so excited to finally have one of our own!! So we broke it in last night! Steven put it together and then he went to town cutting our lawn and it worked wonderfully!!! Our weedeater is also a plus! Now we don't have to call someone every week and ask if we can borrow their lawn mower!!

Steven and I have been trying to save money and like you all know it is kind of difficult to do. It always seems like something comes up and then you are spending again. Well I decided that I would try and ride my bike to work everyday. I have only been doing it for a few days now and it actually is kind of fun. I really don't like to ride it when the wind is blowing and that happens a lot here. I get a lot of funny looks but oh, well. I'm not sure if I can ride it in the summer because then it will be to hot! Steven and I have gone on a few bike ride together and that has really been fun. I used to love going on bike rides with my family! Hopefully I will be able to stick with it for awhile! Heck, maybe I will get nice legs out of this!!!

We just can't get enough of the roping at the Palmer's! We love being out there riding horses and roping. I thought I would try it this time and it was a blast. Of course I was more worried about staying on the horse then actually catching the cow!! Steven was doing fabulous out there! He really doesn't like the cowboy stuff but he is pretty good at it. Steven is done with school this week and he is so excited. He will get his associates degree this friday and I am so proud of him for reaching this first step. We are one step closer to getting done with school! We both will go back to school in august. We have decided to stay in Pima for one more year and then we will head to ASU.