First Independence Day!

Our friends Jordan and Hilary hosted the best backyard bash to celebrate the 4Th of July! It was amazing, they had everything you could possibly hope for such as this giraffe tent Olive loved playing in!

Olive's pal Dallin was also there. He is making her laugh with his crazy head banging!

Here is our beautiful party girl!

Jordan and Hilary have a tradition of doing a neighborhood parade with their friends and family. We put all the babies in strollers decorated with streamers and flags and with patriotic music playing, marched the streets of their neighborhood. We ended by saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag in their front yard. What an awesome display of pride for our Old Glory!

Olive discovered she actually does like watermelon...when she can dig into an entire slice herself! She was loving it!

What an adorable (and sticky) little face!

Olive had her first adventure in a blow-up jumping cage! She of course loved that too!

Playing in the giraffe tent again!What great fun we had!

Uncle James & Aunt Kyleigh!

We had some visitors last week! Uncle James and Aunt Kyleigh came to visit from Phx, Arizona. Olivie wasent sure she remembered them at first.

Hmmm.... You do look familiar...
We had a great time with them. Yummy food, a trip to Easton, and being together as a family!

Anniversary Date Night

Saturday night Jason and I went out! out...alone...at night! mmmhmmm! We had a yummy, free (gotta love gift cards and the wonderful friends who give them!) dinner at the....

one of my favorite places to eat. I, of course, had my two favs- Thai lettuce wraps and Tuxedo Cream cheesecake! We had a great time and spent the rest of the night at my new favorite bookstore...Half Price Books! I got Olive several books, some will be birthday, some christmas, to add to our collection. And they really were Half Price! I was in heaven!

This pic will only load sideways for some reason but hopefully you can still see the beauty of the flowers Jason brought home to me Tuesday the 22nd, our actual anniversary.

There is a very sweet tale of how we met involving a shared frisco melt from Steak N'Shake....so to commemorate the occasion, my romantic, sweet husband brought one home to share! We later snuck out to grab some Rita's! If you are not blessed to have a Rita's close to you...I am so sorry! Fantastic custard and Gelatis! Mmmmm!

Sometimes I wonder why I am so blessed and what I am doing and/or did to merit it. In those moments, my testimony burns with confirmation of how much my heavenly father knows and loves me. Jason and I were sealed together in a beautiful temple of God for time and ALL ETERNITY. Could there be any greater blessing than that? And yet, life gets sweeter everyday as we grow, learn, love, serve, and even repent to start again better than we were. I am grateful for the daily serenity the gospel of Jesus Christ gives me and even tuxedo cream cheesecake and gelatis cant beat that. But.... the combo is pretty spectacular!

For the Love of Pancakes...and my husband!

We celebrated our sixth year of marital bliss this past week. :) No, really, it has been quite blissful! I've heard some say that having kids can have put stress on your relationship... we dont have "kids" yet, just "kid" singular, but so far I feel its done the opposite for us. Seeing Jason unfold as a father, his love for Olive and his concern for her and my happiness has made me fall in love with him over and over again this past year. We started the celebration with blueberry wheat pancakes...you decide, were they enjoyed?

The work is so worth it! I love being a mom!

6 YEARS!

Wow, as of today, Jason and I have been married for six years! It's gone quickly but we've had some great times and I love that there are more to come! Will post pics from our Anniversary date this coming Saturday....and yes, that will be our third date since Olive was born eleven months ago. Cant wait!

Visit with Grandma Marge

Olive met her Great Grandma Marge for the first time on Saturday. She is here visiting from Florida. We really enjoyed our visit!
Smile! I had already changed Olive into her Jammies for our drive home so she looks a little under-dressed but she really wasent in her PJs all day!

Great Grandma, Olive, and Aunt Marian

Mommy, Olive, and Grandma. Olive loved Great Grandma's top with six buttons to play with!

Mommy, Olive, Great Grandma, Aunt Jean, and Aunt Marian

We had a great visit. It has been four years since we have seen Grandma so it was great to catch up!

Weekend getaway

We snuck away for a quick weekend trip to Newport, Ky with our bestest friends! We got a hotel and enjoyed the swimming pool and free breakfast and spent Saturday at the Newport Aquarium. We had such a great time! (We need to do it again Palmers!)Olive wasent sure about the swimming pool right away. She alternated between smiles and whimpers for the first five minutes but then totally loved it!

My first Swim!

i love my papa!

Dylann and Olive had matching jammies on! They thought it was great! Such sweet girls!

Saturday we headed to the Aquarium. Olive was mesmerized!

Check out this ugly creature. I really have something against spiders so this spider crab really creeped me out. Ugh!

I loved this Starfish just chillin on the glass!

We were attacked by a gigantic Octopus!

They had these really neat tunnels that went right through the aquarium!

There was an amazing display of jellyfish-They are so beautiful!

This Great White Shark swam just a few feet above us in a tunnel! Wow!

With my papa's help, I'm as big as this shark!

Overlooking the Ohio river!

We had such a great time! Every moment of joy and discovery little Olive experiences brings me to my knees in gratitude. I am so grateful I get to be a part of her growth and learning. I am so extremely blessed. Such an awesome and wonderful husband and an amazing and beautiful daughter of my heavenly father both sent to me...

wow. that's just about all I can say. wow.

P.S. Check out this awesome wreath I made with some crafty friends out of paper bags! Its fun to get your craft on...and very therapeutic too!