My 11:05 Project

I love to take pictures of my family but I am also the kind of Mommy who always wants my children to look nice in pictures. Most of the pictures I have ever taken are posed & I make sure my girls are wearing something cute & their hair is done (usually) & they are looking, in my opinion, "picture ready". I have begun to realize over the past year that this is an area of sin for me. It's a control issue, which is really just selfishness, pride & selfish ambition, if I'm being completely honest with myself. I have also come to realize that I have extreme fear of man, which is again, just pride, in the area of sinful comparison of how my pictures look. I love to go on photography websites or other friends' blogs & I have been sinfully comparing my pics to others & feeling "inadequate". I realized that this is hindering me in sharing some really precious pictures of my little girls just because I know they don't measure up to the ones my friends take. I have a really nice camera but I just haven't taken the time to learn how to use it properly. I am going to be learning but in the meantime, I am trying (by God's grace!) to not let my pride & discouragement about my own lack of photography skills affect me! I'm trying to grow in the area of humility so I'll be sharing some pics that I would normally think don't look as good as they could. I have the most adorable little subjects to practice on, so I'm having tons of fun learning! : ) The kind of pictures I *like* to take are not really a realistic representation of everyday life with 5 little girls 10 & under but rather what I would "like" for us to look like all the time. I absolutely adore my sweet little girls & no matter what they look like, if they have disheveled bed head, sleepy eyes, a crazy outfit or not-so-neatly-little-girl-painted-finger-nails, they are mine, they are precious & I want to capture these sweet everyday moments because that's what life is all about! So, in an attempt to capture the everyday real life of a 34 year old Mommy who loves God, is crazy IN love with my Hubby, absolutely adores my 5 little girls ages 10, 8, 6, 2 & 4 months, home schools, changes diapers, does laundry, tries to be faithful to have my devotions with God everyday & just really enjoys the sweet & simple mundane of everyday life.......I am starting a little project for myself & I'll be posting it on my blog every once in a while. I decided that every few days I would go around the house & take pictures of my girls at a specific time of day no matter what they are wearing, what they are doing or what they look like. I chose "11:05" am. I chose this time because "11" is my Hubby's favorite number & we have "5" little girls. This is gonna be *real* life folks! : ) If I were really brave.......ahem.......HUMBLE, I would be posting pictures of mySELF, but I'm not that godly yet! I would love to be one day but definitely not yet! : ) I loved seeing what my camera captured today when I was NOT trying to "make it happen" myself!

Amy in the living room!

Ashley doing school!

Abby being really silly!

Ava peeking through her hair!

Anibella happily sucking on her fingers!

I love these 5 little girlies ( & their cute Daddy too, of course!) so much & I'm so grateful to share my plain ol everyday life with my sweet little girls! : )

My little readers

This morning my little 2 year old snuggled up next to my little 4 month old with a book & said, "Okay Sissy, I read dis bookie to you now, k?" Anibella was actually very interested in the book that Ava was "reading" to her! It was SO sweet! ♥ I love how they both have their knees up too!

Palmer Pizzeria

For Valentine's Day I asked my Hubby to help me start a collection of fun thing for special themed family nights. The first set I wanted was a "pizza bistro" theme. He got me authentic "coke" cups, a pizza stand, 2 parmesan cheese shakers, a red & white gingham table cloth, a drink pitcher & 2 red crackle candle holders. I bought red paper plates & red & white gingham napkins until I can get real ones. I absolutely LOVE our pizza bistro stuff & look forward to lots of family nights with this fun theme! I'm thinking we can use it for any Italian food like lasagna, calzones, stromboli & lots more I'm sure. Slowly, over the course of a few weeks, we had been receiving different things by UPS for this & so the suspense was building & it was really exciting for our little girls! I told them that it was all a part of a surprise for family night & that they would get to see it when we got everything we needed. It was funny & cute to watch them try to guess & figure out what in the world it could be! If you haven't noticed by now, I LOVE SURPRISES!!!!!!! (they love em as much as I do too! My Hubby, not so much! He can hardly stand to keep any special thing a secret! It's cute, he loves to bless us so much that it's hard for him to contain himself about a surprise for us! Just one of about a billion reasons why I love my sweet man!) I really love keeping special things a secret & seeing the look on my family's face when they finally find out! I'm trying to figure out who had more fun with it, my family or me! I think it was a tie! : ) We used it for the first time this week & it was as awesome as I hoped it would be! I had it all set up & when the pizza was delivered, Daddy called them all to come eat at the "Palmer Pizzeria"! They were so excited! It was so much fun for my Hubby & I to see our girls so excited! I want my girls & I to learn to make our own pizza but for the first night I wanted it to be a surprise. (Actually my Hubby is probably gonna be the one to want to learn & then teach all his girls! He loves to cook & is actually very good at it!) Since we can't go out as often as we like to have family night, I'm so happy we can make it fun & special! : ) I'm so grateful for my sweet & amazing Hubby who loves to bless our girls & I with fun & special things! ♥

Valentine's Day with my 6 sweeties!

I really love doing special things for my sweet family & letting my girls know how precious they are to us! What makes it even more fun is that my little girls love it & they're always so grateful & excited about it! (Right about now you're probably feeling a little sorry for my Hubby but don't worry! Our girls & I also love to go all out for him for his birthday, special games that the Cowboys play, his college graduation & things like that, all in very masculine colors, mind you! : ) I just have to recognize that my sweet & very patient Hubby really does endure a lot of girlie-ness around here! He is an amazing girl-Daddy & we are so grateful for him!) We had a very sweet little family Valentine's Day party today since Daddy had today off. We had a yummy breakfast & my Hubby made his famous chocolate chip pancakes in heart shapes, which, of course, our girls LOVED & other yummy stuff! Our girls got little baskets of treats & we just spent the day doing fun stuff together! Yesterday was also my littlest Valentine, Anibella's , 1st Valentine's Day! I'm so grateful to have another sweet little Valentine to love this year! : ) I adore my 5 precious little girlies & my first true love, my Randal! I thank God for my sweet family!

My Valentine! : )

This man.......MY man is the absolute love of my life! I am still amazed that God has given me my precious Randal to love & share my life with! I adore my sweet Hubby, the most wonderful Daddy to our 5 sweet little girlies, my one perfect love, my leader & my very best friend! This is our 17th Valentine's Day together & my love grows deeper for the man who holds my heart every day! Happy Valentine's Day Baby, I love you with all of my heart!

My Yummy Baby!

Here are a few more pictures that my super talented friend Molly Flanagan (click HERE to see more of her amazing work!) took of my sweet Anibella at her newborn photoshoot when she was only 6 days old! I love these pictures of my yummy baby & I just couldn't resist sharing them! I am so grateful for Molly & what an amazing job she did capturing my Anibella's sweetness! Molly was so patient & gentle during our photoshoot & made it such a sweet & special experience for us both! Thanks again Molly! : ) I have to say that the plate that Anibella is on is a regular dinner-sized plate which shows how teeny tiny she was when these pictures were taken! I love it! : )

My sweet Anibella Bug is 3 months old!

I should warn you that this is very long! It's mostly for our far away family who miss their little Anibella & want to know *every* sweet little detail of what she is doing now! I know they all want to cuddle her in person so hearing about what she is doing & seeing pictures of her cute little babyness is the next best thing! : )



It's hard to believe that my sweet little Anibella is already 3 months old! She really is such a sweet & happy baby! Here are some of the things she is doing now!



~ She is very conversational! She started "talking" about 4 weeks ago & is becoming more animated & loves to squeal too! She is just a very happy baby & she just really likes to talk! In the picture above she was "talking" to me as I was taking her picture! Her eyebrows get red because she gets all excited & animated & she tries so hard! I love the way her little mouth looks when she's talking! It is so sweet! : ) The other day we called our Poppy Palmer for his birthday. All of our girls talked to him & then I told him that Anibella was going to "talk" to him. I held the phone up to her little mouth & she started this cute & very enthusiastic little conversation using her little eyebrows too! I could tell when I told Poppy that Anibella was going to "talk" to him he was going to sweetly listen even though he expected just to hear silence & me trying to get her to make some noise. Right when I put the phone up to Anibella's mouth she started talking & squealing to her Poppy! She was so excited, kicking her little leggies, wiggling her cute little body all over as she talked. It was SO sweet! When I got back on the phone Dad said, "What were you doing to her?" & I told him that all I did was put the phone up to her mouth. He started laughing & he said that he thought I was tickling her to make her make all those cute sounds! He couldn't believe how talkative & excited she was! He felt very special that he got to have such an animated conversation with Anibella (& all his other sweeties too!) on his birthday! : )



~ She loves to suck on her hands any way she can! She tries so hard to get her cute little thumb in her mouth but usually ends up getting a finger or two! She will endure with her passy but really prefers her hands!



~ She discovered LOOKING at her hands a few days ago! It's adorable how fascinated she is with them! She's probably thinking, "Oh, so those are the yummy things I love to suck on!" : )

~ She is very strong & "sturdy" as my friend calls her! She has amazing upper body control & some major baby abs too! When I try to lean her out from me to put her in her swing or car seat she literally does a baby ab crunch & holds her little self upright! The look of determination on her little face is just too cute!



~ She is a very good "self-soother"! She doesn't "sit" very often because her big sissies (& her Mommy : ) !) love to carry & cuddle her but when she does she loves to observe everything going on around her. When she is done looking around or if she is sleepy, she will suck on her hands & fall asleep. It is SO stinkin' precious!

~ I'm not sure how much she understands yet but she definitely knows who "Daddy", "Mommy" & "Sissy (ies)" are! The other day my Hubby was holding Anibella & talking to her. He said, "Where's Mommy?". Anibella turned her head to find me, smiled the sweetest smile at me & did her whole body happy wiggle! Talk about heart melting!



~ Her hair has not turned the classic Palmer Girl blond yet but her roots are almost a white blond. We'll see if it turns soon! I love the color of her hair now anyway! She is the first of our girls to have very curly hair! Our other girls' hair would curl when it was wet but quickly straighten back out. Anibella's hair has these adorable little "flippie outs" as our girls call them, all over & they are just precious! As you can see in her other picture, she has enough hair for her cute little piggy tails!



~ She just got her little ears pierced yesterday & she looks SO adorable (although of course she looked just as precious before!)! She did amazing! They pierce them with one-time-use sterile guns & they have two ladies do it at the same time so it wasn't as painful or scary for her! She jumped, let out the saddest cry & then turned to look at me as if to say, "Mommy, did you see that, those ladies just hurt me!? What is going on here!?" It was SO sad! All my other girlies were huddled around watching & when she started crying they all said, "Oh, my baaaaaby!!!!!!!" It was so cute how sad they were for their baby sissy! Even Ava said, "Mommy, what they doing to my baby?" SO cute! : ) As soon as I turned Anibella around, hugged her tight to me & kissed her cheek, she calmed down right away & just melted into Mommy! I was able to discreetly nurse her right away so that comforted her & made everything better! She was so good & sweet! So far, she hasn't pulled on them or even seemed to be bothered by them. I'm so happy & grateful for that. Some might wonder why we pierce our girls' ears so young & it's just something we like to do. My Hubby grew up in Texas right near the border of Mexico. It was customary & pretty much the norm to have baby girls' ears pierced right away. We just think it is so sweet & feminine! : ) The blue around her earring & on her little face is just what they use to mark the spot so they don't get the holes uneven!



We love our sweet little Anibella Hope so much & we are so grateful to God for her! I can hardly believe that my baby is already THREE months old! She is growing so fast & I'm trying to cherish & savor every sweet moment & every amazing little thing about her sweet babyness! When I look at her & think about the passionate, fierce love I have for her I am reminded how much *more* God loves me/us! I am also overwhelmed with gratitude because I know that my amazing Hubby & our 5 precious little girls are an expression of God's sweet, unending, mysterious & unfathomable grace to me & love for me! He is so good & kind beyond what we deserve or could ever imagine!