February 17, 2015 - Our "Welcome Home!"

Katie and kids arrived first on Friday afternoon; then came Mandy and little ones plus Ben Godfrey.  Next came the Jeff Palmer family and then the Larsons, Atkinsons and later on that evening Jana, Dallin and Abbey and Josie and Atlas.  Grandpa fixed two different kinds of soups from his new cookbook and I fixed Chicken Noodle, plus breads, ice cream and Valentine Cupcakes.  I think I counted 34 that stayed in our house that night!  The next morning, Grandpa made his scrambled eggs and sausages and I was in charge of pancakes.  The weather was nice, so kids could play outside - what a blessing!  We had enough soup left over that we had that for lunch and then pulled pork sandwiches and salads for dinner.  Kids decorated Valentine cookies, made "love bugs" compliments of Jessica and played Valentine Bingo, with plenty of treats.  We gave a short report of our mission to the kids and grandkids, Tom gave Clair a blessing (at the request of our stake president) and Clair gave me a blessing.  There was plenty of visiting and a bit of game playing and by Sat. night, there were a lot of tired kids!  I think I counted 56 of us on Saturday.  Katie left for home Sunday morning and after stake conference and dinner,Travis, Lindsay and kids and Mandy and kids and Ben G. and Clair and I went over to visit Uncle Joel and Aunt Lois and Nathan and Mandy and family plus Jeff and Kimi and Jen and Troy.  The Palmers and Dallings left for home on Monday morning.  I hope we made some good memories for everyone, but especially for the children.  It was a good weekend and we missed those of you who couldn't be here.

Love to all,
Mom

When double chins are adored

Hello, Palmer family! My life hasn't been much more then cleaning up baby stuff, but in between, I find my reward in Atlas' laughs and smiles and daily chatterings. Being a new mom, I find myself taking at least five pictures of him a day and, naturally, must share them with everyone I know. It's crazy how much you can love something that screams at you half the time.

Isla, Grayson, & Atlas

Bath time 

The blessing outfit Jeff wore exactly 28 years before!!!

A rough panorama of the family luncheon after the baby blessing!

Sunday best--ready for prayer

You will probably see some more soon;) It is fun to have such a sweet baby boy.  

January 4, 2015

Here a few pictures from the holidays.  I don't know what happened to Thanksgiving pictures Amy?  Do you have some?  Please post them if you do.

I know that the Dallings and Fryars took some pictures when we were there for Will's Baptism the weekend of Dec. 6.  Please post those too.

These pictures are of the Wisconsin Palmers and a few at Jen and Troy's when we gathered after Christmas to celebrate Mat's 40th Birthday.  Good times.

Love you all - Mom

He Passed!!!!

Shawn passed his boards and is officially a PA!! I know many of you have been praying and fasting for him and I know that he felt those prayers and sacrifices and that he did receive blessings from the Lord, so thank you!!!
Shawn took the test in Salt Lake, so of course we stayed in the Davis Hotel. I just love visiting Elder and Sister Davis, to see where they work and feel the spirit that is on temple square. Monday morning while everyone was gone, Kanyin and I explored temple square and met up with grandpa and grandma for lunch, while Shawn was taking his test.
After Salt Lake, we headed up to Rexburg and stayed with Katie for a few days. We got to meet baby Atlas, who is so so precious. Kanyin loved playing with her cousins and getting to know them. When I would put her to bed at night she would tell me, "Mom...I have fun my cousins." Even though we do miss the east coast, I am so grateful we are closer to family where Kanyin will know her cousins and everyone else. Shawn and I got to go to the temple, which was very needed. Thank you Katie for watching Kanyin so much for us. We also rented a Uhaul trailer and started collecting our things that have been stored at everyone's houses for years! Shawn's beloved table that has been stored in the Dalling's shop is now in our possession (oh boy). Thank you Dallings! We stopped by Pocatello to collect our junk from Dan and Lila and spent the day with them. We made it to Preston late that night and of course had fun with the Palmers and Larsons listening to Jeff's crazy stories.
I just love this family so much and count my blessings that I get to be apart of it.

Here are a few pictures from our visits last week. I didn't get very many.

These girls were hiding in this closet for a long time, patiently waiting for Shawn to get out of the shower to come and find them. 

Look at those cute kids!!

We had about 16 totes of our junk stored in Dan and Lilas attic in their shed. This is Shawn making his way up there.

The latter worked as a great slide to get the totes down.

and a pic of our halloween costumes just for fun. :) 

November 9, 2014

Hi everyone,

I had a great birthday weekend!  Thanks for your calls, gifts and well wishes.  I loved it! We so enjoyed having Mandy, Shane and baby Meg with us Friday night and Saturday.  Because of his foot surgery last Wed., Clair has been somewhat homebound, but he has enjoyed working on his latest family history project.  We finally got him out of the house yesterday and went for a ride up Emmigration Canyon.  The leaves are gone up there, but we are enjoying the beautiful fall colors here in the city.  We also went to lunch at the Lion house.  Thanks for that Shane!  We accomplished a lot in the two days the Dallings were here.  We were finally able to find them a recliner that they could both agree on!  It took a lot of talking to Ashley Furniture, but we got the job done!  Shane was able to go to a Jazz game with his brother Ryan Friday night, and Mandy and I had a nice walk up around the Capitol Sat. morning.  We took the Trax to the Clark Planetarium for an Imax movie on Pandas, but got on the wrong train afterwards and ended up walking several long Salt Lake blocks home. I'm lost around here in the big city without my husband.  I hope you made it to Smith and Edwards Shane.  Thanks so much for coming down; we loved it!

Clair is doing well and will go back to work tomorrow.  I think most of our sick and afflicted missionaries are making progress too.  I guess health problems just go with the territory (getting older).

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!  The first one was family that came to celebrate Michael's Birthday.  It was after our sealing session in the Salt Lake Temple.  The second is of the Dallings on Sat., Nov. 8th and the 3rd of our missionary, Sabrina Bush in NYC.  If you can't remember how to use this blog, call us or Torrey!  It's a way to journal, which I hope you are all doing.

Love ya,
Mom/Grandma

The Caldwell Palmers

October 12, 2014

Last week, we posted pictures of our trip to Philadelphia.  We didn't have our pictures of the Caldwell Palmers in our folders yet.  I just wanted you to see this cute family.  They are on a family vacation to Disneyland this week.  We love having your families come to stay with us!

Hey everyone!  We couldn't figure out how to put the text with the pictures, so they are separate.

We arrived in Philadelphia about 3:30 pm on Shawn's birthday.  I happened to have my name tag on and there were some missionaries and their mission pres. and his wife waiting to welcome their new missionaries.  They saw my tag and we visited a few minutes.  I asked the mission pres. how long he had been serving.  He said a year and a half.  I asked him if he knew the Larson brothers?  He said they sure did - Dallin was his assistant!  I told them we were there for my son's graduation from PA school.  Sister Anderson said, "we've met your son!"  Small world.  Shawn picked us up at the curb and headed for Jenkintown.  For a country boy, he's become quite the city boy!  Kanyin was a little nervous around us at first, but it didn't take her too long to warm up.  We all went to Shawn's "white coat" ceremony that night and then went over to their friend's home for a little birthday party.  They have made some great friends back there, and it was hard for them to part with each other.  The next morning we all went to work, cleaning and packing and all the last minute stuff before they turned the keys over to the landlord around 11:00 a.m.  Shawn had a rehearsal that morning.  Kanyin stayed with friends while Torrey, Clair and I went to the graduation.  It was very impressive.  They had an opening prayer, sang the Star-Spangled Banner and had a closing prayer all in a Jewish Synagogue!
The speakers were great too.  Then it was visiting time, refreshments and saying their goodbyes.

We drove to Philly and stayed in the Day's Inn right down town.  We had chinese that night, got up the next morning and walked and rode the subway to Independence Square, where we went on a tour of Independence Hall and also the Liberty Bell.  We also went to Reading Station, which is a busy, food mall, with yummy donuts and Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches.  We said our goodbyes and found our way on the train to the airport.  Our flight was delayed and kind of rerouted, so we were late getting into L.A., so we missed our flight to SLC.  After a long wait in line, we finally were put up in the Sheraton Hotel right by the airport.  It was probably the nicest hotel we've ever been in, but we were so tired we didn't care.  We had our super expensive breakfast the next morning, caught our flight at 10:00 a.m. and arrived in Salt Lake about 1:00.  We unpacked, freshened up, bought a few groceries and welcomed Travis and Lindsay that night about 9:30.  I hope they enjoyed their Conference weekend.  We sure enjoyed them.  We had a picnic out in our back yard, and we went to the afternoon session of Conf. on Sat.  Travis, Clair and Jaren went to the Priesthood session, and the next morning, all but Kelsey and Dawson had prime seats in the Conference center for Music and the Spoken Word and Conference.  After the Sunday afternoon session, the Palmers packed up and we hosted the Sr. missionaries in our apartment for our monthly dinner together.  Whew!

We received word that the Shawn Palmers made it to Delta, Co. on Monday.  The past two years has been a wonderful adventure for them.  They have traveled and seen so many wonderful sights and met so many good people.  Now we are praying for Shawn to pass his boards the end of this month and to start his new job in Cedar Ridge Colorado in November.

Thanks to both Palmer families for a great week!  Love to all - Mom