Korbin's 1st Birthday!!

I can't believe our baby boy is 1 year old. It went so fast. It seems as if he was just a tiny little guy a couple of months ago. It's so sad!

Korbin is a pretty good boy and is growing so fast. He's still a crawler and doesn't seem interested in trying to walk yet. He loves to say "Beow" at our cat over and over and it seems as if he is calling all of us "daddy" right now. There have been a couple of times when I have been counting at Scotty One, Two, ........and I swear it sounds like Korbin tries to say "three." He isn't really big into playing with toys right now. He loses interest in each toy about 30 seconds after he starts to play with it. He would crawl around with my cell phone all day though if I'd let him. He loves to "wrestle." He thinks it's so much fun. Derrick and Scotty like to call it "Baby Pile." He loves to watch Little Einsteins and developmental programs for baby. He loves: food, patty cake, clapping for himself, baths, following Scotty around, and so much more.

Now on to the small family birthday party we had last week.

Korbin was not interested in opening gifts at all. Didn't even want to play with the wrapping paper. He would just crawl away. Scotty unwrapped all of the gifts and would then hand them over to Korbin.

Here's the birthday boy surrounded by presents!

Daddy and Scotty tried and tried to get him to tear at the paper.

Yea!! It's my birthday!

The cake and cupcakes I made. (I'm loving owls right now.)





I think he liked the fire.

Korbin's first cupcake. Yummy!

We love you Korbin Dodge!! You're such a fun, adorable boy and we are so grateful to have you in our family.

Mothers Day

"In our society, we give motherhood plenty of lip service," says Oprah Winfrey. "We pat moms on the head, bring them flowers on Mother's Day, and honor them before crowds. But at the end of the day, we don't extend them the same respect we would a professor, a dentist, an accountant, or a judge.

"I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is. To create an environment that's stimulating and nurturing, to pass on a sense of responsibility to another human being, to raise a child capable of anything--I know for sure that few callings are more honorable. To play down mothering as small is to crack the very foundation on which greatness stands.

"The world can only value mothering to the extent that women everywhere stand and declare that it must be so. In our hands we hold the power to transform the perception of motherhood....We should no longer allow a mother to be defined as 'just a mom.' It is on her back that great nations are built." ("What I know for Sure," O, The Oprah magazine)

(Korbin and Scotty on Mother's Day)

Look at these adorable boys. I am so glad that I made the choice to be a mother.

I am so blessed to have them in my life.

I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with them. While there are times it isn't easy, I'm so grateful that I do have that time with them.

This Mother's Day was great. How could it not be with little boys this cute?? Sure they're naughty sometimes but they are sweet and adorable enough to make up for it!!

Catching Up-- Easter and Alpine Trip

Easter

The past couple of Easters Scotty was able to go on a few Easter egg hunts each year. Well, living here in Casa Grande, I hadn't really heard of any. So, I asked some of the moms that came to play group at the park if they would be interested in doing one for play group.
We made the kids construction paper bunny ears.

Then they were ready to run off into the field to hunt the eggs.

After clearing the field of eggs, they sat in a group on the grass and started checking out their goods and filling up on candy.

On Easter we were able to go to dinner at Grandma Palmer's house. She gave each of the kids a Easter gift. Scotty was so excited about his Batman toys!

Scotty was most excited about getting to hunt for Easter eggs with his cousin Rigley.

All the grandkids sat with Grandma Palmer, Kerry, and Cierra for a picture.

Alpine

In May we were able to go visit my parents in Alpine again. The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed our time there. Both Scotty and Korbin had fun with Grandma and Grandpa Hansen.

Daddy and Korbin loving the pines!

We went for a little hike to a small lake/pond near the girls camp. It was great to get some exercise in the cooler weather.

We had fun trying to skip rocks on the water. I don't think any of us were able to get any more than 3 skips but it was still fun.

We also took walks around the camp, cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire, watched the funny little chipmunks and the various kinds of birds, and just sat around enjoying the weather and nature. It was wonderful!!

Hittin' Wiffles

Scotty loves to hit wiffle balls in the back yard with his daddy. He not only likes to hit but he likes to "pitch" to daddy as well. He'll hit a bucket of balls and on the last one, after he hits it, he runs the "bases"..................usually after throwing his bat way up in the air and behind him. It's pretty dang funny. Good thing it's a plastic bat! He also likes to wear daddy's old baseball hat from his coaching days at Snowflake.

Pre-hitting smiles.

Getting ready to SWING!

Yea!! Wiffles!!

Pitching to daddy.

Back when Korbin was 6 months (he's 8 months now,) I took some pictures with the intention of quickly putting them on the blog. That obviously didn't happen. So, a couple of months late, here is Korbin Dodge at 6 months.

So calm and precious.

Playing in the crib.

Derrick on YouTube

Here is a YouTube video of Derrick interviewing U of A Women's Basketball coach Niya Butts after a game in New York. The interview was for the radio but someone with the team took this video with their camera.


Arizona Women's Basketball's Head Coach Niya Butts speaks with Derrick Palmer of KTUC 1400 AM after UA's season-opening victory over Iona

Christmas '09

We spent Christmas with Derrick's family this year. We started it off with dinner, ice cream, and some gifts at his mom's on Christmas Eve. Scotty and Korbin got to open 1 gift each from us on Christmas Eve. They opened these cozy Christmas jammies.

Scotty was so excited for Christmas morning. He was also excited to see that Santa had brought him a cool Spiderman scooter.

We took a family picture before we made a huge mess unwrapping gifts.

Scotty had so much fun unwrapping his presents. He was a little impatient while we all took turns unwrapping gifts but was happy with his gifts.

Derrick received some of the books he asked for.

I had fun helping Korbin unwrap his gifts. Mostly I had to make sure he wasn't shoving wrapping paper in his mouth.

After we did our family thing, we went over to Derrick's mom's for brunch. Then we headed over to his sister Brianne's house for Christmas dinner. It was a lot of fun eating, hanging out, and eating some more. I didn't take many pictures but here are the ones I was able to capture.

Brianne and Jamie

Cierra, Missy, and baby Riley

People in the hallway/entry way. It's the only one I got of Scotty there.

Derrick taking a break from the festivities to play with Korbin.

Cute little Korbin on his first Christmas: 5 1/2 months

Santa Claus is Coming to Grandma's

We got together for dinner at Derrick's mom's house a little before Christmas. After dinner, we had a fun visitor. Santa Claus came to grandma's house.

Santa sat down and had all the kids sit down across from him. He held up a black leather book and asked, "Who can tell me what this is?" Scotty yelled out, "Scriptures!" Great guess (and I was very proud), but it happened to be Santa's "Naughty and Nice" book.

Santa talked to the kids for awhile and asked some questions about how nice the kids had been this year. Scotty sat very quietly. I'm sure he wanted to look as "nice" as possible so that maybe Santa would believe him when he claimed that he had been a nice boy. (Oh, and don't be jealous of Scotty's Transformer rain boots.............they're freakin awesome!)

One by one, each kid got to go sit on Santa's lap and Santa gave them a present. Scotty had told me earlier that he didn't want to sit on Santa's lap but he would stand next to him. I guess when Santa was really there in front of him, he changed his mind.

Santa even had something for Korbin!

After Santa left, the kids decorated some gingerbread cookies that I had made. The boys also had a Nerf gun war. They had each received a little mini Nerf gun in their gift bag. Korbin got a stuffed reindeer in his bag and loved sucking/chewing on whichever part he could get into his mouth. Thanks Santa ( and Nolan, Missy for setting it up and Grandma for, well, you know what part!) The kids LOVED it!

Big Oopsie and Thanksgiving '09

A lot has happened since I last really blogged about anything BUT I accidentally erased all of the pictures off of my camera. Scotty's birthday........Gone. Cute pictures of Korbin as he's growing......Gone. Pictures of Thanksgiving......Gone. Luckily I was able to "borrow" some Thanksgiving pictures from Derrick's sister Brianne's blog.

First, for journaling purposes, I'll write a little about Scotty's birthday. I got an idea from somewhere in blog land to decorate Scotty's door for his birthday. While he was sleeping I put up "Happy Birthday Scotty" posters, twisted streamers, and balloons. He was so excited to see that when he woke up in the morning. Then his Grandma Palmer came and took him to breakfast and shopping for birthday toys. She sure spoiled him with a cool Clone Trooper hat/mask thing and other cool toys. Later that evening, we had a quiet little family party. We went to eat at Barros Pizza (Scotty's favorite), came home and unwrapped presents, and ate Star Wars cake and cupcakes. Scotty got Star Wars figurines, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Iron Man Mega Blocks, a Hot Wheels Race Track, Bat Man shirt, and a few other small random things that I can't remember now.

Scotty had been to his cousin Rigley's birthday party right before Halloween and right after his birthday we drove by the park and someone was having a birthday party with one of those big blow up jumpy things. Scotty started to realize that maybe he had been ripped off a little in the birthday dept. So, he kept telling anyone who would listen that at his next birthday he was going to have a party at the park with a jumpy thing. He talked to his Grandma Palmer about it and she decided to let him pick one out for her to rent for Thanksgiving.

We went to Willcox for an early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night. My dad had an elk hunt that was starting Friday and wanted to get up to Alpine to get ready for that. We enjoyed that dinner with my parents and my sister Jodi's family. We drove back home that same night and then went to Thanksgiving with Derrick's family on Thanksgiving day. The Spiderman Jumpy thing was up and ready. The kids jumped all day and had so much fun. The adults enjoyed food and conversation.

Scotty and Adilyn in the jump house

Rigley, Adilyn, Scotty, and Palmer

Adilyn holding Korbin

The kids "eating." Not much eating was done before heading out to jump some more.

Thanksgiving was very enjoyable and even with two Thanksgiving dinners, I didn't gain any weight this time................can't say the same about Christmas though!