A Whirl Wind of Vacation

Three days after we got back from Cali my mom, Leah, me and the kiddos traveled up to Utah for a family reunion. I flew and they drove. Bless Leahs heart for traveling pregnant with two kiddos from Az to Utah and Idaho. You are a super hero. I chickened out :)

We went up and stayed with my cousins Wendy and Cari in Idaho. Chaos was the only way to explain it. Fun chaos though :)

Right when we arrived we went to Lagoon. Its a theme park in Utah that has a whole bunch of kid things. Riley unfortunately was too small to ride on a lot of rides so he ended up napping most of the time. My mom was nice enough to sit with him. Thanks mom :)

Riley was big enough though to ride the Marry go Round. He liked it for the first few minutes but got bored with it after a while. I'm trying to prepare him for Space mountain at Disneyland. This is a start.

This is Riley, Mills, and Jace. Jace is less than a month younger than Riley which is kind of cool so he will have a "cousin" very close to his age.

The last day we spent a couple of hours at my cousin wendy's bead shop. She has every bead you could think of. It was like a candy store for crafters! I wanted it all.

It was a wonderful trip full of chaos, missy's emotional break downs, and LoTs of fun! We already miss our cousins in Idaho. :)

25 years and counting...

That's right I'm officially 25 and I can rent a car if I wanted to! I have mixed feelings about this birthday because its a mile stone. I'm no longer in the early 20's. I'm in the mid 2o's... No grays yet and my hubby looks like he's 18 so I guess I'm not too worried about getting old yet :) Like my dad I hope I stay a kid at heart forever! We got to celebrate the big 25 with my family at my favorite place Oregano's. Yay for Pazookies!!!

Here is Riley bear eating a lemon. The funny part is even though it was sour he kept on eating it. LOL Takes after his mom :)

My brother and sister-in-law Leah came with their kiddos Ryker and Mills and my soon to be nephew (name not known yet) :)

Nolan sent this picture to me on my birthday. He got Riley Laughing really hard and his eyes disappeared behind his cheeks! I love it!!!

Insanity final tid bits.

Since the birth of Mr. Riley Bear I have had an extra few pounds on me (like most people after having a child) but I was determined to not keep it that way. Nolan and I decided after seeing an infomercial to get Insanity beach body. Mind you that I think if I let him Nolan would purchase anything off of the television. He loves infomercials! Thank goodness he hasn't seen QVC.

Anyways with that said Nolan and I started Insanity beachbody a few weeks later. Just to recap, Insanity is not for the faint of heart. They actually say that in the start dvd. It is extremely hard core. We started the "warm up" and both looked at each other like "what were we thinking..." But the hard work paid off and after 60 days of literal Insanity I'm back down to my fighting weight and Nolan.... Well Nolan is still in great shape... (Darn man, He works out or doesn't work out and still stays athletetically fit.) But if anyone wants a fit challenge, Insanity is the way to go. Next on our list is P90X. We have had P90X for a while but purchased it 2 weeks before we found out I was pregnant and I quit working out after we found out :) LOL Thus probably explaining the weight gain LOL.

Eatin' like his parents!

So Riley is eating foods now. He has been for a while but I thought I should document his experience with food. Above is a picture of him trying to figure out how to push the food to the back of his mouth. It's so funny to watch these little things like learning how to eat and watching someone try them for the first time. It's something I take for granted.

The next picture was the happy baby Bear before I fed him baby food. The second picture was him having enough of trying... He has the patience of his mother :) I will say though now the kiddo eats and eats and eats. We haven't found anything yet he doesn't like. He definitely has taste buds like his parents. I love our Riley Bear so much and am excited to watch him change and grow!!

The new vehicle

Yes thats right the Palmers purchased another vehicle. Some of you may think Riley is too young for a car since he doesn't have a license yet or anything but Nolan and I couldn't resist. :) Thank goodness this one is a tenth the size of a REAL vehicle and a fiftyth of the price.

We found this cute walker Jeep Renegade online and had to get it. Riley loves it. He pretty much loves anything with moving parts. It so fun watching him put on his serious face when he's trying to figure out how things work. Man my lil' man is growing up so fast!!!

This is my happy big boy! I just can't wait til he learns how to get speed in this because it will be quite the site seeing him chase after our furry family members.
I was trying to teach him how to drive stick. This is his serious face. I love it!!!

We are now officially "farmers"

Like every spring Nolan and I planted our garden for the year. We are so excited to grow our own plants. For Christmas my parents gave us these awesome garden boxes that not only look nice but also keep the plants watered. Above is a picture of our watermelon plant planted from seed. yay!!!
Here is our red leaf lettuce. Wow if you can't garden attempt lettuce because it almost always grows and you'll use it for sure all the time.
Here is the whole garden box. We have lettuce, green beans, bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, corn, jalepanos, tomatoes, strawberries, and spinach all growing within our two boxes. Wish us luck!

Spring Break at the Phoenix Zoo!

Nolan and I aren't currently in school but since it was Spring break and his brother was in town, the family decided to take a fun filled trip down to the Phoenix Zoo.
This is how Riley spent most of his first trip to the zoo. He just napped away for a majority of the adventure. And yes he is wearing a skipper hat but there aren't many cute hat options for baby boys and since this lil' bear is fair skinned that hat was a must!

This is Adilyn ( our neice) and me by the monkeys.

This is Nolan by the monkeys. For some reason the monkeys seem to be our families favorite animals.... Who knows... I think if I'd let him Nolan would want a monkey of his own. He said the monkey could sit atop Fudges(our dog) back.

All in all it was a wonderful day filled with our furry friends and fun family. Hopefully next trip Riley will be able to stay awake ;)

Where did the Palmers go??

Some of you may be afraid we have fallen off the face of the earth but I post to assure you we have not.

So what have we been up to the last few months...

I went back to work in January thus the reason of the lack of posts. Between teaching CPR, working at the hospital, and being a new mommy I don't get much time to do much else.

But I am learning to manage my time a little better. Those of you that have a plethra of children I'm curious to know how you do it :)

Riley has been growing like crazy. He is now 4 months old.It's so interesting to watch how one day all they will do is stare at you and the next they overnight learned how to smile. I love it! Our current strides are he has learned how to roll over a few weeks ago but only did it a few times... I guess big babies don't roll as much. He is very alert and loves playing with his toys and any animal that is willing to get close enough to him which is usually Fudge our "scary" Pit bull. In all reality she is the calmest of our fur babies. She love Riley and is sad when he cries. She gives us the look like " I want to fix it but I don't have any thumbs gosh darn it!" It's pretty cute.

He just recently discovered his hands and feet and could spend hours just figuring how they work. I love watching this lil' guy experience the world.

Nolan has been lucky enough to keep his job despite Tempe's lay off's. Thank goodness! He's been keeping busy with his new lil' pal Riley Bear. He is such a great father. I couldn't ask for a better hubby! I'll try to keep posted a little better :)