low expectations..

today is picture day at rje. to say my expectations are low would be an understatement. i am completely convinced that school pictures are the last remaining rip-off in photography and its a real shame that you cant just submit your own pics for the annual. oh.. dont get me wrong i know they cant take much time with each of the 701 children.. and that even the best coached.. not to mention best looking kid ;).. sometimes makes a goofy face. but the last time i checked (potentially) $14,000+ {700 [students] x $20.00 [the least amt you can spend on pics]} was a lot of money. you'd think they would care just a little.. anyway :) to remember what we hoped school pics would look like this year...kennedy was gracious enough to pose for about 3 seconds for my camera before she left this morning. we will have to wait and see what we get for our $45 in a few months when the pics come back. after a little prodding from a few friends.. on monday i secretly opened a facebook acct just to see what it was all about. fear of commitment and low expectations {not necessarily of facebook..but of my ability to keep up with something else} kept much interest at bay. this morning.. jenny invited me to be her friend. CRAP.. i had been found! i called her right away only to learn that she too was new to the whole facebook thing. there's strength in numbers. so, tonight im gonna edit my profile a bit -- and try to make some friends.

for a while now i have been wanting to start this blog to share the ins and outs.. or at least some photos from my little daycare. i dont expect that anyone would check it often.. except for maybe the mommies. but i wanted to share just the same.

here's to hoping low expectations will yield surprising results..

GNO turned date night..

a few of my girl friends and i planned a girls night out for sat the 27 of sept. we had the best of intentions of getting together.. but it just didnt work out for everyone. plan A was for all the girls to visit the mckinney square for our very own oktoberfest.. the boys would stay home with the babies. plan B involved finding a sitter and the boys joining us. i do love girls nights..but im glad oktoberfest turned out the way it did. team minchey, team carter, team palmer.. just a bunch of mckinney peeps giving back to the local economy...
a review in pictures..

the last 3 girls standing when the GNO plans fell apart..

two sweet little boys who dont mind hanging out with a sitter for the evening.. we each grabbed our guys..

and called it a date night instead.

we listened to a little blues at the cadillac.

L-O-V-E this pic of james and brye enjoying the music.

next stop.. the londoner.

kyle, can you find someone to take a group pic?

hmmm.. probably not my first choice. or my second or third..

after several attempts.. this is the best it got. but we will take it.

inside.. it was the same ol' same ol' except for one thing.

a SMOKE-FREE londoner!

thanks for hanging out girls!

date nights are so romantic.

yea right! but walking to the mincheys is definitely a plus..

everyone hand and hand..

well.. hand and something. ;)

SO MUCH FUN!

her name is talulah..

..but you can call her tutu. or lulu. or tayuya {korb's personal favorite}. and she is very sweet. we picked her up on wednesday night just after our birthday dinner.. and kennedy hasnt stopped talking about her {or to her} since. despite the fact that we had to get up this morning at 4AM to make her flight to LA.. i had to go up to her room about 15 times last night.. after i put her to bed.. just to make sure she had put talulah in her cage and laid down herself. the last time was at 11:15PM. crazy kid! she's going to miss her this weekend. and i suspect she is going to be a very good mommy to her for the next few years.

..today the little kid is nine.

nine. 9. NiNe. nine? i guess we have to let her grow up. but it sure isnt easy. weve gone from crawling, walking & running.. to cell phones, ipods & instant messaging in the BLINK of an eye. i am so thankful i get to stay at home and not miss a minute of it! she is stubborn and sweet. she is smart and sassy. she is her own person and i love her so. like last year i created this photo book to help her remember 8.

she had 4 friends over for a sleepover last friday night. we all had dinner at chick fil a. and then came home for cake.. designed (mostly) by kennedy herself. and opening presents! she got a TON of webkins.. which are the coolest things right now. and she got a few new pairs of earrings courtesy of the fam.. along with a framed poster-size replica of the rolling stone cover featuring the jonas brothers. that was the hit of the night. the girls stayed up WAY too late singing karoake and dancing the night away in her room. first thing saturday morning we got donuts and spent a little time at the playground. tonight we are headed to dinner at pf changs. she's had that much of the evening planned since last christmas! and then we are off to get a guinea pig. parents are such push-overs for birthdays. stay tuned for pics of kennedy and her new furry friend. on friday morning kennedy is flying to LA for the weekend to celebrate with her father. she is going to log a week FULL of birthday fun this year!

happy birthday baby girl! we love you..

2 + 9 + clarine smith = A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

check out this post on terry's blog. we met last week at friendship park in frisco so that terry could help me document korb at 2.. and kennedy at 9.. like only she can. THANK YOU so much terry! i cannot tell you how much i LOVE these pictures! my new favorites.. and its hard to top all the others!

i know i do this every time. but i love to go back and look.. maybe someone else does too? here are the links to all our other sessions with terry. LOVE HER.. LOVE HER.. LOVE HER!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

clarine smith phothograpy ~ if you havent booked your christmas shoot.. better do it now!

over the weekend..

we celebrated kennedy's 9th birthday.. im working on a full birthday recap for kenners. however, her birthday is still 48 hours away officially - so you'll see pics of the party then. {8 and 9 year old girls are loud}..

celebrated gracy turning 2 {backyardigans style}.. i didnt get many pics at gracyn's party. bummer. but i think this one is pretty sweet!

and celebrated a victory over the pack {thanks for being gracious hosts y-rocks!}.. and about those cowboys.. it wasnt exactly pretty. but we will take the W just the same. i took LOTS of pics in their AMAZING back yard.. i will share more later. these are my fav's so far!

its football time..

so.. its been brought to my attn that i havent done much blog updating lately. sure ive been posting about my children and creating scrapbooks and getting ready for {or remembering} their birthdays. as well as documenting day to day life.. but i have failed to update the palmer plans with an important upcoming event. this sunday -- packers vs cowboys. always a good game, right? well, when you pair up the biggest packers fan {possibly} ever. and the biggest cowboys fan {in the whole world..except for maybe his mama}.. it makes the face-off that much sweeter. last year kyle and his boss spent a cold monday night in november at texas stadium enjoying the festivities. this year team palmer..and ALL of our romo jerseys.. will be invading packer country {aka red oak} for the sunday night game. i think we are actually leaving saturday night and sleeping over so that we dont take any chances on missing the 7:15 pm kick off. thanks for the invite weyrauchs. better get your popcorn ready!

*its worth noting that the 'art work' above..was created by the infamous derek minchey. crazy what you can do with a cigar that you dont particularly like at a dave matthews show. looks like he was ready for football season way back then.. :)

**AND i forgot to mention that i stole the title from the kobra. he tells his friends 'its football time..' several times a day. chip off the old block, i guess. it makes me smile. i just heard him say it to gracy as he threw a foot ball at..i mean to her. dont worry..his aim is still a little off.

korbs birthday revisited..

so its 8 AM..

ive been up for 1 hour and 20 min. and so far ive..

• made and packed kps lunch
• bathed, washed & dried my hair and gotten dressed for the day
• made my bed
• cleaned my playroom from yesterday
• put away all of korbs evening toys..so that he's not tempted by them all day
• made and packed kennedys lunch
• started a load of towels
• had my 7:35am daily phone date with my husband.. the highlight of every morning
• gotten kennedy up, dressed and ready for school
• made her bed
• fed her breakfast
• checked and rechecked her backpack to make sure all that she needs is inside.. daily folder with homework, lunch, water bottle, snack, a change of shoes so that she doesnt get her good sneakers muddy on her way to school, her phone... all the necessities
• checked my email and made my daily OCD stop at BofA.com
• said hello to my first daycare baby
• written this much of this post because i wanted to document all that i do in the mornings :)

and in the next 10 min i have to..

• curl the little kids hair.. curl my hair
• kiss her goodbye and get her OUT the door
• really start my day and ALL my daycare duties

seems like a lot in an hour and a half. no?

UPDATE:

....and NO, sweetheart. my intention was not to pat myself on the back. :) just documenting.. and maybe pointing out that in order to be successful in the mornings {success = helping everyone get their day off on the right foot} moms are really busy. however.. i just got an email from kennedys teacher saying that she was tardy for the first time this year by just a minute or two. should have skipped the hair curling, i guess. oh well, theres always tomorrow to strive to be supermom.

kids say the cutests things..

i dont do a very good job at blogging every day stuff. SO i thought i would try to make it a point to record some of the funny stuff my kids say to me more often! and i should note the pics have nothing to do with anything.. just a couple of my recent favs that i havent posted.

after a ride in the ha-hoe yesterday with his dad.. where im certain his sissy was watching a movie.. i had this conversation with korb.

korb: i dont eat remotes..
mommy: thats good baby.
daddy: ask him why!
mommy: why dont you eat remotes korb?
korb: it'll make your teeth fall out.

sometimes my husbands style of parenting makes me say hmm. but whatever gets the job done, i guess.

on sunday kennedy and i heard a song and part of the lyrics were about a phone booth. wondering if she had any idea what she was singing along about.. i asked -

mommy: whats a phone booth?
kennedy: you know.. its like that thing the terminator went in to find all the sarah connors in the phone book.
mommy: oic.

again.. the things they learn from their dad. :)

why is watermelon SO good?