My vacation to Mesa.

Judy Blair (from the drill team I used to ride on) is making the front door to our house. Damon & I left the kids with nammy and drove to Mesa to deliver the mesquite wood so she could get started. I felt like a giddy little school girl as we pulled out of driveway. I was so excited to be alone with dom and have a real conversation without being interrupted. It was a wonderful day beyond words. I felt like I was flirting with Damon all day because it was such a stress free day without kids. But... You have to have the chaos to appreciate the freedom. Just wish the day wouldn't have ended so soon.

Oh Stratton....

So our Stratterbug had to get his final shots for school today. Damon took him because last time he went with me he was kicking ad screaming so bad I could hardly control him. Then when it was done he jumped off the table, ran out the door and was screaming through the halls of the doctors office. So I made Damon take him this time and right before he got the poke Damon have him a little pinch. Stratton said it didn't hurt at all cuz the shotter did a really good job. Makes sense! A person who gives a shot must be a shotter. Then right now we are waiting in line to pick up Dax from kindergarten and Stratton and he asked if he could get out and pet the horse. I told him no but I would roll down the window so he could talk to him. To which he replied "but mom, I don't know how to speak horse".

Boys trip to Lee's ferry!

Damon and the boys went fishing with grandpa bob to Lee's Derry this weekend. They are catching a ton of fish. Daxton can do it al by himself and Stratton can reel them in all by himself. Damon says they are having a great time and crashed out when it was bed time... But not fast enough for Stratton to notice something (he slept with grandpa). "Grandpa bob you have really big ears" ....after a closer look he said "and they've got whiskers in them!" Hahaha.

We've got movement!

Tessa crawled for the first time today thanks to the help of Doo-Doo's orange measuring spoons. Ellie helped by crawling around her in a circle showing her how to do it.

Traveling home from Utah

Our week long girls trip to Utah us officially over. Aunt Joan cooked a great Sunday dinner for us. Then we hit the road. Ellie and Tessa fell asleep holding hands within 2 minutes.

Damon took the boys to church today and Stratton asked him if I was going to be home before the resurrection. Oh it feels good to be missed!!

My what doesn't like this?

It's the first of October and after the boys learned how to swim this summer we can't keep them out of Doo-Doo's pool. Of course they wanted to go swimming today. Mom just laughed and said "ok, let's watch this" because it's freezing. Stratton didn't even test the water, just jumped right in. Daxton danced around a bit and slowly submerged himself 1/2 way and turned around and said "my tally whacker doesn't like this!" Hahaha.

Daxton to Stratton: "I can't wait till you go kindergarten Stratton so we can play on the playground together."

Tessa's first food

We do things a little different in thatcher. Tessa gummed a deer steak for dinner tonight. It was her first real food other than Ellie feeding her ice cream when she was 3 weeks old...which she loved by the way. We'll have to initiate her family as well by giving her a bone to chew on from nammy's Sunday dinners. It absolutely grosses me out but all of my babies have chewed on a Sunday dinner chicken bone before they have teeth. Stratton particularly loved the Sunday chicken bone and still does!!! He'll eat the joint right off. But for now, Tessa loved her deer steak. We went through 3 pieces because she kept wearing them down so much. I think it probably felt really good on her gums because she is starting to teethe. Yum!

Bugs, lizards....oh my!

So I am driving home from nammy's house and Stratton informs me that he lost his grasshopper... In the car!

Damon gets home tonight after being gone on a fire in Washington for 2 weeks. Since he's been gone we lost a lizard in the house, grasshopper in the car, and got 2 new turtles. On a lighter note, I potty trained Ellie, got her to sleep in her big girl bed and re-painted the family room. The things we do to stay sane!!!!

Hum drum....

Another uneventful day with Damon gone. 5 more days but who is counting. I am chomping at the bit to get our house started so hopefully when he gets back we can move forward. We are hoping to have 70 grand saved up to put as a down payment which is why I can't complain too much about him going on these fires.

We did work hard on Elle's potty training today. If she doesn't wear a diaper she never has an accident. But if I put big girl panties on her she can't resist that old familiar feeling of being covered up. So she has been commando the last few days. I could never get tired of squeezing her cute fat bum. Damon laughs every time she runs and it jiggles. Nothing cuter. Just like her mamas I say!

I did go to book club tonight. I have been so pleasantly surprised at how much fun it is. I really enjoy all of these girls so much. We talk and laugh hours. And to boot, we are all so different. One girl (who I guessed wasn't far from being translated) opened up and told us about her pot smoking, boozin' days. She can't hardly go to the grocery store without taking a walk down the liquor aisle just to get a whiff of the alcohol. Haha. CraZy! We just read a book about the salem witch trials. This month we are going to read a series by an lds woman. My book is entitled lemon tart. Should be interesting.

Well, Tessa is officially asleep. I type this on the iPad while she nurses. Better get back to the other monsters. :)

What a day!

We officially have a bike rider in the family. Daxton rode without training wheels for the first time at Doo-Doo and papa Bob's house. Grandpa took the wheels off of his bike so he would glide while pushing with his feet. Once he got comfortable with that we put the pedals on and away he went. He has a rough time starting off though and gets really frustrated because he can't grasp the concept that the bike needs to be moving to balance. He thinks he should be able to balance while just sitting there. We laughed our heads off because he blamed all his frustration on Stratton. If Stratton was anywhere nearby it was his fault Daxton couldn't get going. The madder Dax got the more it was Stratton's fault.

We are at grandmas because Damon is elk hunting. Daelun got an archery tag and so just the men went. Today when we went swimming Dax said " Doo-Doo this water makes my tallywhacketr hurt". It was cold!

I am on cloud 9 because I bought an island for our "kitchen to be" in Pima. It's 12x5' brazilian mesquite butcher block on top of black stained cabinets. It was selling for $900 and I got them down to $600. It's so beautiful. Makes me really excited to start building. I also ran into an old friend from high school, Michelle Burnham Garn. It's been almost 20 years since I saw her. Why do we have to get old?

The purple pill

Boy does this bring back the memories. It's almost a right of passage for starting preschool/kindergarten to get your "purple pill" to see how dirty your teeth are. The boys were bragging as to whose were worse. BOYS!

Artist or mess-maker? Undecided for now.

Damon took the boys to Show Low today to get the rest of his dental work done by Uncle Keith. Once Daxton was sucking the "laughing gas" he turned to Damon with a big grin and said he felt like he was floating. A 5 yr old on laughing gas...scary! Elle pee-pee'd on the potty 3x today which is why I can't get mad at her for getting paint all over the kitchen. When the kids got home, Elle was so happy. She loves her brothers. They got out of he car and immediately started catching frogs.... In the process of writing this text Elle just stepped on her baby frog. It's dead! Poor frog.

Today was Daxton's first full day of school.  When I picked him up he was so mad at me because "I left him there ALL day".  I stopped and got the kids a slushy a the way home to try and make it all better.  Daxton loves Tiger's Blood and Stratton loves Blueberry.  On the way home, Daxton told Stratton he was so lucky because he didn't have to go to school ALL day.  I think Daxton thinks his life is over!  Then later that evening, Dax was watching t.v. and said "Mom, I don't have to go to kindergarten anymore 'cuz I can learn everything on pbskids.org". Dang commercials.

Damon left for a fire in Idaho today.  It's going to be a struggle having him gone for 3 weeks.  I know we need the money to start building our house but with school just starting and all of us adjusting to a new routine...it's just going to be hard.  I teased him because tonight is book club and every time I have it "something" comes up and he can't babysit the kids.  I told him a week ago I had it at our house this month and now...of course the day of...he came up with an excuse not to be around to help out.  Next time I am not going to tell him until I walk out the door.  haha.  My sweet mom drove down to help me out so I could get everything ready.  I made creme' brulee for the first time for dessert.  And in true MiQuel fashion, I washed the rug in the family room but it wasn't quite dry enough when I put it back.  I thought nooone would notice.  They didn't...except when I walked everyone out to their cars and walked back in the house it reaked like a wet dog.  So all the effort to clean my house, make a nice dessert, etc. went down the tubes because my house smelled like a dog and everyone was too nice to say anything.  Wouldn't be a MiQuel function if something like that didn't happen!  AY CARAMBA!

First Day of Kindergarten

Today, 8/8/12 was Daxton's first day at Kindergarten.  We have enrolled him at the charter school in Pima called Discovery Plus Academy.  We met his teacher, Ms. Willis, and saw his classroom last night. He's all set with his spiderman backpack and matching spiderman shoes. I was so heartbroken and emotional last night knowing that from here on out he is going to be spending more time away from me than with me.   I guess it helps me to realize how fortunate I have been to be a "stay at home" mom. Fortunately, this school is on a 4 day school week and so I get Friday, Saturday and Sunday with him all to myself.  School starts at 8:00 and I have to drive him from Thatcher.  We were almost late on the first day which led to very little time for me to be emotional or upset about dropping him off.  Here's the best part, I FORGOT to pick him up.  Damon called me and said "Did you forget something?" "Uh NO, why?" "Daxton's school just called and apparently you forgot to pick him up!"  hahaha.  Oops.  It was only a 1/2 day today and I didn't know it.  Guess I'm not off to a very good start.

Stratton also started preschool today in Pima at Brighter Day Preschool.  Fortunately for him, he gets to ride the bus to school, the short bus.  :)  Stratton has a hard time saying his "c, k, g, l, th, r's" and so he qualified by 1 point to attend this speech therapy preschool.  It's wonderful.  His teacher is Ms. D'Ann.  He goes Tues-Thursday from 12:30-2:30.  The bus came and got him.  I loaded up the girls and we drove to his school so we would be there when he got off the bus.  I didn't want him to be scared on his first day.  I told him we would be there to pick him up.  Well...being that Daxton only had a half day I didn't have a reason to be driving to Pima in the afternoon.  So, I called his school and told them to send him home on the bus.  Big Mistake!  I guess he started crying and said "my mom said she is going to pick me up".  He got on the bus and as the bus driver told me "he just knew I wasn't going to bring him back home".  Poor guy.  As the bus was going to everyone's house but his, he thought he was never going to see us again.  He was so distraught when he got home that he got mad at me because I didn't pick him up and told me not to ever do that EVER, EVER again.

Tomorrow the boys start school.  We went to Daxton's school and met his teacher, Ms. Willis, for a meet n' greet.  His classroom is kind of small but I really think he is going to like it.  I can't stop crying.  My heart is pounding out of my chest.  I wish I could have his first 5 years all over again.  How is he five years old already and leaving to go to kindergarten?  I just hope he knows how much I love him and that I'm not abandoning him by making him go to school.  I really hope I did a good job raising him thus far because now all the influences of the world are going to be upon him.  Wish I could keep him in my little bubble.  Damon gave all the kids a blessing tonight.  Even Ellie.  When he was done with Stratton she said "me" and sat down in the chair in front of Damon.  She wants to be big just like them.

Daxton and Stratton both start school this week.  We will be turning a new page in our book.  I will have boys in school.  Daxton will go to a charter school in Pima called Discover Plus Academy and Stratton will go to Brighter Day (also in Pima). Brighter Day Preschool is a speech therapy school.  We tested Stratton over the summer to see if he qualifed.  A score of 78 or below means the student is eligible for free school and the bus will pick him up.  Stratton scored 77.  hahaha.  I guess we won't be able to hear his cute "oh-tays" anymore.  For family home evening, Damon took Daxton and Stratton to see Spiderman at the theatre on a "boys only" night because it is their last NON-school night before life changes for them.  They both love spiderman and both picked out a spiderman backpack for school this year.  All went well, except Stratton fell asleep during the movie and somewhere between the movie and the car ride home pee'd his pants.  Hopefully he can laugh about that someday. He's still my little stratterbug. :)