Life is busy at the Palmer Home!

(WOW, after re-reading this blog post I realized that I am VERY wordy, huh? As if none of you noticed, come on now! Sorry, I'm going to be working on being more concise, I promise! : )! )

Life has been busy at the Palmer home over the past few months! In November my sister Emily & her baby, Maya came to visit us for 2 weeks from Germany, my birthday was the 25th of November & we traveled to North Carolina to be with my Grandparents for Thanksgiving. In December our little Amy turned 9 years old on December 6th & we had her birthday party, then we spent an awesome, quiet Christmas Eve & Day just as a family. Our little Ashley turned 7 years old on December 28th & we had her birthday party, then, again, we spent a quiet, relaxing New Years Eve & Day as a family. I think Randal & I were in bed by 10 pm on New Years Eve! Whoa, we're getting old but it was still fun! In January Uncle Reed came to see us for 3 days & did all kinds of fun stuff with our girlies & our little Abby turned 5 on January 21st & we had her birthday party! In between all of the fun we had 3 rounds of the stomach flu, pink eye & 2 cases of strep throat! OH MY ~ we are SO grateful to God to be healthy again! Randal had a 4 week break from his college classes in December which was absolutely awesome!!!!!! It was amazing having Daddy all to ourselves in the evenings & weekends when he wasn't working since when he is in school every waking moment he isn't working is almost literally consumed by school! That is something we haven't had over the past 10 months since he started school again & it was really special for our girls, Randal & I to have that time together as a family! Randal & I actually got to have more dates than normal AND each of our girlies got to have TWO special dates EACH with Daddy during that time ~ WOOHOO! We had tons of fun & absolutely loved celebrating our girlies' birthday's & all of the holidays as a family! Now, the only birthday's I have coming up are Randal's on June 20th & my little baby Ava's 2nd birthday on August 10th! That seems like a breeze & I have plenty of time to do my normal obsessing, I mean, planning : ) for those birthdays! Those who know me well know EXACTLY what I mean! Hey, I'm trying to grow......! : ) Even though we've had lots of fun we are ready to get back to our regular routine, school schedule & everyday life! We are considering letting each of our girlies choose an activity that they want to do for the Spring. Amy wants to take Art classes or horseback riding lessons, Ashley wants to taking cooking classes & Abby wants to take tumbling/gymnastics. I am excited about this new season of doing "stuff" but I am a little concerned over the amount of time & toting back & forth that will mean for Mommy! It kinda feels like I'm ASKING for my life to be busier?! I also don't know how it will work for each of our big girls doing something different! That may mean lots of running around & waiting for Mommy & little Ava! We'll have to see what happens with all of that. I'm really looking forward to it & our girls are ECSTATIC about it! We have lots of other things coming up too. Dad & Mom/Grandpa & Grandma (Palmer) are coming to see us for a week in March, Auntie Raigan is coming to see us soon & Randal & I are going on a trip to celebrate our 15th Anniversary (which is April 30th) in May! I am so grateful that our lives are full & busy, not just for busyness sake, but because it means our lives are full of awesome Hubby's, precious little girls, wonderful family & friends & lots of reasons to celebrate together!

Here's where I'm tempted......when life gets busy, like over the last few months & probably the months to come, I get independent & self-sufficient! Although I will never ever be able to do anything on my own without God & His amazing grace, in my pride, I think I can. One thing I am hoping & praying for is that I will recognize my need for God & humbly seek Him every day! I adore my sweet family & it's great having lots of fun fun things to do but I want to remember that everything that we enjoy, all the sweet birthdays, fun family times & holidays are gifts from God! The reason we are so richly blessed is all & only because of our kind & gracious God!

AND, I DO happen to have one rockin' awesome family! : ) (Thank you God!)