a week in the life..

it has honestly taken 3 days to catch up on 4 days of FUN! it all started last wednesday.. i was chatting over email with a couple of girlfriends about the girls dinner we were planning for thursday night. just working out the details of where and what time.. my friend erin was bragging about her concert tickets that night and i couldnt help but be a little jealous! so, i strolled by craigslist after our chat to find someone desperate to get rid of their tickets for the show that same night.. called kp at work.. scrambled to find a sitter.. and tada - coldplay. on a random wednesday night in dallas. thanks carters and mincheys for tag-team-babysitting the k's!
**clearly i didnt shoot these videos. TGFYT.. {thank God for youtube}

thursday night GNO. the where and what time turned out to be fireside pies at 8PM with 3 of my closest friends.. aka the fab 4. i didnt take my camera.. but nikki snapped a pic to remember the moment. we reminisced a little. talked about each others current events. and took a quick vote that next month {or whenever we get around to seeing each other again} we will be the fab 5! jenny, clear your calendar! LOVE THESE GIRLS!

ok.. lets see. friday night. king tut at the dallas museum of art. the kids spent the evening with their best friends. korb at gracy's and kennedy at kaylee's. thanks reddick's and wolf's! kp and i, along with derek and nicole, met kenny painter and a friend in dallas at the dma to see the king tut exhibit. it was interesting.. the boys loved it. {my favorite part might have been the new dress that kp picked up for me on the way home.} i was almost as bored there as i am re-reading this paragraph! ;) jokes! honey, jokes! after tutankhaman, the boy king.. the 6 of us made our way to the social house in the west village to hang out. what can i say about the rest of the evening. hmmm. not boring!

doesnt kp look completely thrilled to help me try out my new tripod?

saturday morning started early. nicole and i picked korb up from his sleep over around 8:30AM. we had breakfast together. mcdonalds. egg mcmuffin's rock. nicole headed home so that she and baby p could rest up from our long night and prepare for another! korb and i got ready, picked kennedy up, and made it to bexley's 2nd birthday party around 1030AM. so much fun. i CANNOT believe these boys are already two! there is an adorable slide show over on jaime's blog.. if i do say so myself.. if anyone is interested in seeing one sweet little blonde and his best buds! i think this ones my favorite..

that afternoon was spent cleaning casa de palmer. getting ready for the next thing on the agenda.. a going away party for uncle sam. kyle's friend sam.. the best man in our wedding and roommate i stole him away from years ago.. just accepted a position in austin. he is moving this week.. we couldnt let him leave without a proper 'going away' party. complete with about 20-25 guys {and 5 or 6 girls} and one heck of a sing-along in the garage until wee hours of the morning. we are so lucky to have good neighbors! everyone had a blast. we promise the same 'coming home' bash when he makes his way back to dallas. elvis cardwell and all... ;) we will miss you sammy b. we promise to visit lots!

**there were lots of pics taken at the party. kp did the honors. and i havent gotten around to editing them yet. if i find any blog worthy.. or maybe i should say blog appropriate ;) i will post them next week. stay tuned!

rounding out the week.. lazy sunday plus a cowboys win. lazy monday evening. super lazy tuesday evening. and there you have it. a week in the life of team palmer. a crazy week in the life of team palmer. the next 7 days look to be almost as eventful. thanksgiving in east texas.. helping nick and jenny bid farewell to H-TOWN. and a lot of packing and unpacking! bring it on!

happy birthday daddy!

happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday dear.. preacher-man, daddy, papa.
happy birthday to you!

i hope have a wonderful {mission} trip to mexico this week. you are so giving.. and it makes me so proud to call you my father. happy birthday-thanksgiving {thats a kobra quote from today} dad...we love you!!!

NO amount of money..

whats the magic $number$ ...that would get that guy in YOUR belly? 50 bucks? 100?

it was a quiet night in mckinney.. about a week ago. we were having dinner with the mincheys and kenny painter.

weve been trying to make a habit of getting together every other month or so. kenny gets a little taste of family life, ya know, kids running around.. nika looking for scraps. we get to hear his latest travel adventures. a little vicarious living. all while feasting on what ever derek thoughtfully prepares and enjoying each others company. and tho these get togethers almost always take place on a school night {its hard to book kenny on the weekend} we usually put the kids to bed and stay up til 11ish. party!

so. back to last weeks dinner. the food was great. fajitas! a fitting mexican dish to eat while we heard a few stories of kenny's recent trip to oaxaca. where he purchased that lovely bottle of mezcal. we talked about baby minchey. korb took kenny to see the newly remodeled game room. kennedy amazed him with her 3rd grade math skills. and after they got into their pjs and uncle kp read baby kp a book. they went to bed. and we.....

well the truth is.. we played guitar hero. and looked at a beautiful photobook nicole just finished with pics from their honeymoon to italy. and we learned that dereks favorite band, of all times, is journey. {im sure he's gonna love that being broadcast on the www} and i almost forgot about the riveting conversation about gas prices and futures contracts. very exciting stuff! what can i say. we are getting old. but we always have a great time together!!! around 11, kyle decided it was time to go. as we were gathering our things i heard kenny say, "hey kyle. how much money would it take to get you to eat the worm in the bottle of mezcal." his reply, "no amount of money." the conversation that followed went something like this.

kenny: how about $250?

kyle: ok.

kenny: no. thats too much.

kyle: awesome. it was great to see you...

kenny: how about $150?

kyle: ok.

wait. what happened to 'no amount of money...'

i think they call that the give me my money dance.

and then we called it a night. myth says that the worm contains hallucinogens or aphrodisiac properties. we wouldnt know. after 'the dance' we loaded up in our tahoe. and went home. dont worry i drove, just in case. ;) we were all asleep within 20 min. im pretty sure the people of oaxaca would consider that a waste. but $150 richer.. i think kp would disagree! thanks for a fun night guys! cant wait til next time!!!

kennedy got a hairkut..

kennedy.. got a hairKut.

Korb likes it..

'Kause its fun.

and Kute.more importantly, Kenners likes it...

almost as much as mini muffins. ;)

2 years. 2 months..

and 2 days shy of 2 weeks.. guess what kp2 did? number 2 in the potty!!! so exciting! he has also completed number 1 two different times today for a total of 3 successful bathroom trips! not sure if this potty training genius will last.. especially since weve never even talked about potty training other than him 'watching' everyone else in the house. this was completely his idea. we dont have pull ups. or underwear. or a potty. or a step stool. guess i need to do a little potty shopping!

so.. in honor of korbs first day of potty training.. i want to remember a few other things he's said and done lately. wow. he is a HANDFUL to say the least. he cracks me up EVERYDAY! and even tho this stage is definitely the most work yet. i dont want to forget a minute of it.

he says the most random witty things.

• he left one of his favorite books within james' reach last week. when he found james tearing it up i heard him say, "nice job, james. nice job."
• last friday when i went to get him out of his bed in the morning.. the first thing out of his mouth was - "i want white donuts."
• one day last week maddie and gracy were arguing over a toy. g started to whine. then i heard korb say.. "gacy, youre being widiculous"
• on saturday while playing in the front yard at dalton's new house he heard the neighbors air conditioner come on. "dont worry, dalton's nana" he said, "its just a compressor"
• and this morning.. after dropping a toy loudly on the wood floor he looked at me and said "that scared me out of the crap" clearly he meant that it scared the crap out of him. not sure if thats an approved phrase yet.. but it definitely made me laugh out loud.

he breaks something different everyday. most recently, the light switch cover in the playroom. whacked it with a golf club... can you say destructive?

he CANNOT get enough of reading books. he doesnt care if its the same book over and over.. or one he's never seen before. he is also completely indifferent as to who reads it.. if you look like you know how to read - he will climb up in your lap. last night, he read a book with kenny painter. so sad i didnt get a picture!

he is a self-proclaimed yeftie (leftie-still working on the L sound in the beginning of words). and we (along with his pediatrician) dont see that changing.

he is definitely into music. and he wants to yisten to it youd.. wonder where he gets that.

he is so excited about daltons new house.. and he YOVES baby macy.

im sure there are tons of new things im forgetting.. it seems like thats easy to do when you spend all day hanging out with him and his friends. fun. fun. fun. thats the best way i can describe him right now. so much fun!

oops. i forgot..

..about tx v ou at the degele's. christy reminded me that i hadnt shared the pictures of all the kids. so i picked my favorite 40{ish}..and thru them on a slide show. we had a great time. thanks for having us guys! and im glad we got to hang out last friday night! we should definitely do it more often!

its official!

what an awesome day! today, i got to spend some quality time with this little bundle of joy!! she is so precious! and so tiny! and spending time with her would make any day awesome! but theres even more reason to celebrate.. her mommy & daddy spent those same precious hours that i was snuggling macy on a final walk thru and closing on their new house! right here in mckinney! less than 5 min away! i cannot begin to explain how excited we are! except for that brief-world-wind-chaotic time between the summer of 2004 and fall of 2005, that definitely counts for something.. {but not exactly quality time} my brothers family and my family have never lived in the same city. he lived in florida.. i lived in arizona. he lived in the metroplex.. i lived in hampton roads. i moved to mckinney.. he moved to houston. we just havent really been on the same page in a LONG time.. and it looks like things are finally coming together! in less than one month.. our boys will be able to see each other all the time and actually grow up together. not to mention all the school stuff his family will get to be apart of in kennedys life. and all the time we will get to help spoil the last baby in this shoffner chapter. BEYOND THRILLED! congrats guys! you bought a house today!

LOVE THESE MUNCHKINS!

november sickness = productivity & politics

much like this time last year. im sick. its been about a week now. however, instead of grinning and bearing it for a month, i saw my dr yesterday. bronchitis. ear infections.. yuk! one breathing treatment, one antibiotic injection, one steroid injection, three prescriptions, and 36 hours later. im feeling much better! however, some of the side effects of those miracle steroids are getting on my nerves! sleeplessness. and increased appetite. only 5 more days.. i am trying to use this extra time productively. i think im completely caught up on blogging! ive completed 4 posts {5 including this one} in one day. just keep scrolling if you are interested.. ive edited and narrowed down approx 1000 pictures taken in the last two weeks to around 150 images..

and ive seen the obama speach at least 4 times. i think im actually starting to believe him. ;) after making a conscience effort not to blog about politics.. i would like to publicly say how much i respect john mccain. i dont think there are many men left in this world who can say they have spent their entire adult lives serving this country and in my opinion thats remarkably respectable. i read on the blog of a friend who supports obama recently that she believed regardless of the outcome our country is still better for [obamas] presence in the political world. i feel completely the same way about senator mccain. this nation is a better place because of his life long commitment to patriotism. he may not be my president in the morning. but im proud to say that he did get my vote.

nascar 08

as planned, over the weekend kp and i attended the nascar races at texas motor speedway in ft worth. kyle got up early on saturday morning and drove the kids to meet his mom... letting me sleep in. what an awesome surprise! thanks honey! and thanks to gran gran and grandpa for letting kennedy and korb visit for the weekend. they had SO much fun! it was a long weekend..but a great time to hang out with friends and family. of course, i took a ton of pics. so once again.. a slide show is a must.

our halloween. 2008 edition

halloween was SO much fun for kennedy and korb this year. they got to wear their costumes 3 different times.. and had a blast every time! on friday the 17th, kennedy's girl scout troop participated in a carnival with all the other troops in our area. kyle, korb and i joined her for the evening. there were SO many kids there..

kennedy was a cowgirl. and her friend danny was a very friendly blue witch! korb was a pumpkin this year.. and during this outing he could NOT have been any less concerned with my camera. he just wanted to GO, GO, GO! thursday the 30th.. we attended the fall festival at kennedy's elementary school. here she is with her 3rd grade teacher. we LOVE mrs twist!

kyle was not able to go with us to the school.. and korbs fascination with this putting game kept me from taking many pictures. he was a regular pumpkin-tiger-woods. he needed to dominate the game. :)

we ran into a friend of kennedys from kindergarten that i havent seen in years. you might remember a little boy who 'poisoned' her by putting hand sanitizer in her water bottle.. oh the things boys do for attention. this pic is from her 6th bday party. thats grady sitting in the window in red.and my how grady has grown up!
and finally.. we put out a bowl of candy for trick or treaters visiting our house on halloween. and jaime & bex joined korb, kyle and i for trick or treating on our street. i LOVE that we can take our boys to do things like this together..

i wanted desperately to get a pic of bam-bam-bex and pumpkin-korb walking down the sidewalk.. but this is the best one that i got. they were in a hurry..

they HAD to get to the next house..

and the next..

until korb decided walking was over rated..

trick or treating is hard work..

kennedy spent halloween evening trick or treating with her bff, kaylee, in her new neighborhood. then they attended a halloween party from 830 pm-1030 pm. she is growing up WAY too fast.

all in all, we had a great holiday. and we have more candy than they will EVER eat! korb hasnt had much candy yet in life. but he definitely has developed a sweet tooth in the last week! oh well.. halloween only rolls around once a year, right?

meeting macy

last week, i had the privilege of meeting my sweet niece when she was only 6 days old! she is so precious. i cannot believe she is already 2 weeks old now! cant wait til she {and the rest of her adorable fam} are just down the street!!!