the secrets out!!

My little sister and her husband called me last week and made me keep a secret!

But now it's out......

Baby Danilson is set to arrive sometime in March or April 2013!!!

Congrats Sara and Jeremy!

a great day!

Saturday, Garran and I traveled down to Nauvoo to be with Garrans little brother Sam and his fiance Ashley as they went through for the first time. 

Garran and I had not been alone for a whole day together in I don't know how long. 

It was much needed and we had such a great time!

 This was a cool bridge in Burlington that we went over on our way. 

It was not a super long drive, but I was ready to get out of the car when we got there!!

 Woo HOO! 

Once you see the Mississippi, you know you are close!

 I just decided to take a picture of this. 

I mean how often do you see an enormous ice cream cone?

 Finally we arrived!

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, it was a little humid but not to bad.

We bumped into a lot of our friends from Waterloo while we were there which was fun. 

 Here are my father and mother in law with my soon to be sister in law Ashley and my brother in law Sam. 

 A group shot of all of us.

 The soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie!

 Can't you just see how excited they are! 

It's love.

And the cherry on the cake was bumping into this lady. We have been friends for a while now but she lives in Indiana with her family and so I don't get to see her as much as when we both lived in Iowa. 

Well I never get to see her really. 

Anyways, we had a great time chatting and catching up. 

It definitely was a great day!

I can wait till next week to see all of Garran's family and see Sam and Ashley's big day!!

wedding bells

getting excited about attending the wedding of Garran's little brother Sam and his soon to be wife Ashley!!

Only two more weeks!!

Looking forward to all the family fun!!

so excited!!

going to do this in October!! 

I can hardly wait!!'

Looks like so much fun!

here is the 5k info if you are interested. 

http://thecolorrun.com/

love

this picture says it all...

she loves her daddy

Golden Birthday!

July 11th was Oliver Palmer's Golden Birthday. 

The Palmer's did a balloon release at his grave side, but obviously we could not be there. 

So...We decided to do one on our own. 

 Here are our balloons. All bagged up. 

 We bought these balloon stickers to decorate them and spell out his name!

Then we each took turns writing Oliver a message. 

I had the kids tell me what they wanted to say, because I did not want to risk popping a balloon. 

 I forgot to get one of Garrans because he came home late from a meeting and we just went outside with the last bit of day light we had. 

We attached this little baseball to one of the balloons. 

Oliver loved baseball. 

I thought it was cute and the kids loved it. 

Here goes the big moment! 

Our big release!!!!

Happy Golden Birthday Sweet Boy!

excuse me..

which way to the gym.

ayla kept walking around the other night trying to show off her muscles!

grandpa j visits.

it was a family kind of week. 

we went to my moms for the 4th and then my dad came to see us for the weekend.

so we did a lot of swimming and visiting@

The 4th....a little out of order.

 on our way to iowa to spend the 4th with the family.

 Our Family on the 4th!

 Left to Right

Garran, Ayla, Victoria, Sara, Jeremy, George

Nanny, Briea, Moe

Kael, Cullan

 Garran lighting some sparklers!!

 the kids enjoying some sparklers.

 my moms neighbor Wade has a huge 4th party every year. This year he had a face painter.

Kael was a bear.

 Briea was a butterfly.

 Left to Right

Victoria, Briea, Garran, Ayla, Meg

Cullan, Nanny, Kael, Moe

 Sara and Jeremy came in 2nd place in the bags tournament!

 Cullan with his sparklers. Notice the cup. Such an ingenious idea. poke a hole in a cup. slide the sparkler through. no burned hands and the kids still have fun!!

 swimming at the hotel pool.

my kids love to swim.

 myself and my older sister victoria.

 my sisters, victoria and sara

 little lizzy lu at the pool

 my little swimmer boys.

all the ladies.

myself, nanny, mom, victoria, sara

i had to include this video.

my moms neighbor wade does this INSANE fireworks show each year. as you can see my mom live in a neighborhood and not out in the country. 

this video is a one minute clip of about a 5 minute show. 

you have to see this. 

it is insane!

sisters.

so cute.

just keep swimming.

i have been doing a lot of swimming at the Y lately. Don't I look cute in my swim cap!!