Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Larsen family. My food assignment was yams. I have never made yams so I was a little nervous. But never fear my wonderful mother came to my rescue and taught me how to make wonderful mashed yams. They were so tasty and of course I forgot to take a pictures. Thanks mom, I couldn't have done such a good job without you. There are so many of us in the Larsen family that we rented 2 rooms at a convention type center called My Noah's in Lindon. It was so fun to have everyone together and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

Dad, Mom and Bri on one side of our table.

Mickelle, Paul, Kels & Krista on the other side

We have a family tradition of going up and staying in hotel the weekend after Thanksgiving. We got see the Lights at Temple Square, draw names for who we are buying Christmas Gifts for in our family, see a movie, shop and play games. I think this is one of my favorite family traditions that we have. Friday we always go to dinner and see the lights. This year we had dinner at the Lion House, it was pretty good, but not my all time favorite. Kenny and I did not go see the lights because it got really cold as soon as the sun went down and we didn't want Mason out in the cold longer than he had to be. My family was great and took Kels with them so she could enjoy the lights. The next morning we wen to the movies and saw Tangled. I loved the movie! It was so cute. Mason even let me enjoy the entire movie, he was so good. We also enjoyed the BYU/Utah football game, and lots of game playing. It was a great way to end the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Kenny and Kels at dinner showing off their food

Mason all bundled up for the cold.

We had so much fun this Thanksgiving and made us all extremely grateful for all that we have been blessed with. I am extremely grateful for my family and our new little addition, I didn't realize how much he could and would add to our little family. I wouldn't change anything for the world. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

1 Month Old

I know this is late, but better late than never. I can't believe my baby is a month old. The last 4 weeks have flown by. I love being home with him and seeing him change every day. I love watching him grow and learn, but it also makes me a little sad because I love him being my cuddly little lump. He is still kind of a shrimp, he still is wearing all of his newborn clothes and no sign of wearing anything bigger anytime soon. So far he has been a great little eater and sleeper. Since we brought him home he has slept at least 3 hours at a time. I feel extremely lucky to be getting a decent amount of sleep with a newborn. He is starting to recognize mine and Kenny's voices and will try and look in our direction when we are talking. He still has all of his hair which I am so happy about, I didn't want him to loose it. He gets more adorable everyday. I took this picture of him with his monster and I'm going to take one each month to show how big he is getting each month. I'm so thankful to have this little guy in our family, each day just gets better and better. Enjoy some of his one month pictures.

I just loved his face in this picture. He looks so surprised by his monster.

Mason Pictures

Just a few pictures for everyone to enjoy. I can't believe how big he has already become. I will soon post his one month old pictures.

Robert Mason Palmer's Story

My little boys' story. Mason's due date was November 5th, I was hoping he would come early, but the closer it got to the 5th I was losing hope. I wasn't having any regular contractions even though I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced 2 weeks before his due date. We were trying everything to get my contractions going, mostly walking and that would get them up to about 6-10 min apart but as soon as I would stop walking they would slow way down and usually stop completely. We were kind of hoping for a Halloween baby, but as that day was coming to a close we knew that wasn't a possibility. 9:30 Halloween night I start having regular contractions, they were about 5 min apart, but they weren't really strong. We decided to head to the hospital anyway because I was delivering at American Fork Hospital. We arrived and they hooked me up to the machine to monitor my progress. After an hour they told me my contractions weren't doing anything to help me progress so they sent me home, by this time it was 1:30 in the morning. We got home and everyone got into bed for the night. I had just laid down when I got a really sharp pain in my back. I didn't think anything of it and rolled over to fall asleep. Another sharp pain, I thought I had been asleep for awhile so I wasn't going to check the time, but I did anyway and to my amazement it had only been 10 min! I got up to go to the bathroom before going back to sleep and as soon as I got into the bathroom my water broke. I went and woke up Kenny and told him we needed to head back to the hospital. We were home barely an hour before we headed back. This time they admitted me and got me hooked up with the Pitosin and the nurses left Kenny and I to try and get some sleep. About an hour later I decided I really wanted an epidural. That was the best decision I made, I felt so much better and actually somewhat enjoyed my delivery, as much as you can. I ended up having to push for 2 hours because unknown to us Mason decided he wanted his hand to be the 1st thing out, not his head. Our wonderful little boy was born at 12:47 pm. He was perfect and had a whole head of hair. I couldn't believe that he was ours and he would be part of our family forever.

The nurses were a little concerned about his breathing so when they took him down to the nursery they had a specialist come take a look at him. They ended up giving him an IV and that helped, thankfully no other problems with his breathing after that. I was so happy that was all it took, but his little arm looked so sad with the IV port sticking out of his arm.

If you look at his arm you can see his IV tube.

My mom and lil' Kels were at the hospital when he was born so they were the 1st to see him and Kels was the 1st to hold him after getting all cleaned up. The rest of family came that afternoon to see him and hold him. I love having my family so close by that they could come and enjoy our new little addition with us.

Lil' Kels holding him after getting cleaned up

I am so thankful to have him in our family. I couldn't ask for a better baby and I am so lucky to be his mommy. I look at him every day and think how did I get so lucky to have him. I look forward to watching him grow and develop, just hopefully not to fast. I love this stage of being able to just hold him and cuddle him.

He's Here!!!

Teaser Picture

More to come, once I get a little more sleep. I hope you enjoy the picture.

BYU 23, Washington 17

Football season has officially begun. We were lucky enough to get to go to the BYU's home opener against Washington with my dad. We had our BYU shirts, our flags for the car, the parking pass and of course the tickets to get into the game. This was lil' Kels' first time every going to a football game, however at the beginning she was more excited for the food at the beginning of the game. My dad buys season tickets every year and as part of that we get to go to the hospitality tent for food before the game, at halftime and even after the game. For dessert they have chocolate fountains with just about everything you could think of to dip. Kels was in heaven, between the ribs and the chocolate fountain she didn't think it could get better.

I didn't get any pictures during the game, we were to busy being excited, nervous, & cheering lots. The 1st half was a little warm, ok super hot, but was still fun. By the 2nd half the sun had gone behind the stadium which made it much more enjoyable. Through out the game Kenny would explain what was going on to Kels and by the end I think it was starting to make a little more sense and she even said she would go to the games and not just because of the food. We had a great time cheering on our team and can't wait for the next game.

Kenny & Kels after the game

Changes

Lots of changes have been going on at our house and not just with the impending arrival of our baby boy. We officially have Kels for the school year!!!! It was something she had been talking about all summer, but needed to talk to her mom about and get her ok. Well she got her ok on a Sunday night and Monday Kenny was at school registering her and she started school on Wednesday. We are so excited to have her for the school year even with the homework. So far everything has been going great, she loves her new school, her teacher and she has made some great friends that live in the neighborhood. Below are some pictures from her 1st day of school.

Getting ready to leave for school.

No 1st day would be complete without a picture of her and her dad.

It's a.......BOY!!!

So today we got to find out if our baby is a boy or a girl. We are so excited to announce that we are having a BOY!!!! We are so excited to have a boy join our all girl families. My family is all girls and Kenny has all girls, as well as his side has only had girl grandbabies. I will post pictures in a few days, but I was just so excited that I had to post it now.

Memorial Day Weekend

This is going to be a wordy post because I forgot my camera one day, and then enjoyed the pool too much to take pictures, so I hope you still enjoy reading it.

Memorial Day weekend is always one of my favorites because it kicks off the summer, and luckily this year it turned out to be good, weather wise. We started it all off on Sunday by going to my Grandpa Larsen's parents, sister & her 3 children, brother and nephew's graves in Midvale. We have done this almost every year and it's a lot of fun because it was the only time we get together with my Grandpa's Larsen family. This year we had sloppy joes, salads and some great deserts. It's always fun to see and talk to this side of the family and learn more family stories.

Memorial Day is what I call the official opening on the pool! We started off the day with everyone meeting at my Grandpa & Grandma Larsen's graves. This year the aunts & uncles asked the grand children questions about my grandparents, like who when with my grandparents on their honeymoon? Answer: Grandpa Larsen's parents, it was during the way and gas was being rationed so they had too pull their ration tickets together to be able to go, funny the things you learn. After we were done at the graves we headed over to my parents house for a pool party. We had lots of good food, visiting and a lot of swimming!!! Thankfully the weather held out for us and there was no rain. It's always a fun way of kicking off summer and breaking in the pool after a long cold winter.

This is the what the back yard looked like as we were trying to get all the tables set up before heading over to the graves sites.

Last year we received a great gift, a giant beach ball. We loved it last year, until one night an unfortunate accident happened, that popped our beach ball :( (we still don't know the name of the boy that popped our favorite pool toy). This year it was our mission to find another one, so far we have found 3 and are still on the hunt. This is Paul and Kenny blowing up 2 of our 3, they were a little light headed after they were done. We have decided we need to invest in an air pump. Thanks boys for being such good sports!

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. Thanks for all the fun laughs and memories.

Exciting News

To all those that still read this Kenny, lil' Kels and I are excited to say that we are having a baby in November. I just got back from my 2nd doctor appointment and they told me everything is looking great, the baby has a really strong heartbeat and I'm right where I need to be. Below is the picture taking at our 1st appointment. I think it is too cute not to put up. I think it looks like a sour patch kid (like in the commercials) and Kenny just laughs at me when I say that.

We get to find out what we are having the end of June, Kenny thinks it's a girl and I think it's a boy. Kenny's family has one sister that things its a girl and his mom and other sister think it's a boy. My family is all going for a boy. We will see, the end of June can't come soon enough!

Christmas in Pictures

Ok, so I usually don't put pictures up, but that's because I didn't have a great camera. My wonderful husband has fixed that problem by buying me one for Christmas. So hopefully I will have more pictures on this thing. This post it going to be mostly pictures so I hope you all enjoy them!

We always start Christmas morning off with a big breakfast cooked by my dad & mom with a little help from us. We invite my aunts, uncles & cousins that live near us to come over. It's a fun tradition we do every year and we look forward to it. Below are pictures of getting ready for the dinner. I don't have any of everyone over because I was too busy enjoying the wonderful food.

This year we did not get lil Kels for Christmas, but we did fly her down the day after. Here are a few of us opening our presents a day late.

Our Christmas Tree

There was $50 in her card, couldn't tell she was excited.

She was so excited to finally have an ipod.

Christmas was so much fun, but New Year's was even better. That post to come later this week. I know I'm slow, but I'm trying to be better.