First Day of School

After what seemed like the shortest summer, comes the 1st day of school! I always have the worst luck with cameras. I broke two cameras in a matter of about 3 months. Don't tell my dad because one the them was his. Bernice was generous enough to finally give us a really nice camera. Before this all happened, the battery ran out on the camera during Kylin's Preschool Graduation. So we have no documentation of that once-in-a-life time event. I took some really cute pics of the kids before they left for their first day of school. We took Ashlyn to her class first and the plan was to get that 1st day of school shoot with each of their teachers. For some reason the camera would not let me take anymore pictures because it said it was full. I was so puzzled because the camera showed that I only took 4 pictures. I went home upset because I got no pictures of the kids with their teachers. After about 10 minutes, I finally figured it out. I forgot to put the memory card back into the camera after uploading some pictures on to the computer. That's the reason why if would only hold 4 pictures. Then somehow I erased the pictures I took before we left for school that morning. I only had this one left. The after-school picture I for some reason took when we got to my mom's house. At least is was taken on the 1st day of school.

I really love do having my kids home. I enjoy the days that they have off. I don't really crave having them go back to school. I doesn't bother me having them around. That's why I had kids right? Here's how I spent one on my days this week.

Rain Gutter Regatta

The Rain Gutter Regatta is Half the Work, Half the Stress but just as fun as the Pine Wood Derby!

The Boats are raced by being blown down the rain gutter through a straw.


Taylor Won!

Garbage Truck Man

Like I said earlier, Andrew loves his cars and anything that has wheels. This is the Highlight of his every Tuesday and Friday! When we hear the garbage truck we run outside. Andrew waves excitedly and says HI to the garbage truck. The men are so kind. They always Honk their Horn and Wave at Andrew.

Bubble Beards

Cabin Fever

Steve and Kristina so generously invited us up to their cabin for the weekend. I never realized what all the hype was about. I'm and east coast girl. We got plenty of snow and cool weather. Going to the beach house was the thing to do. Well, now I have a severe case of Cabin Fever! This is going to be a long one because I enjoyed this trip so much so enjoy!

You'd think that leaving at a strategic time such as nap time would allow you to enjoy a 2 1/2 hr. drive with a guaranteed 1 out of 5 kids sleeping. Well, Andrew only clunked out for about half the time. Oh Well. The car was stuffed again for another journey.

Kaden - Thanks for sharing your 'elmut' and playing with me! -Drew

Nathan's first fishing lesson.

It's a good thing Steve's so patient and LOVES fishing so much that he does mind answering all of Nathan's questions!

This is what I see now every time I close my eyes. One day when I get to be on Deal or No Deal and I win enough money to pay off my mortgage, I'm buying a cabin right on this mountain side:)

Take a good look at this fish because I'm sure that if they retell this story to you. The fish will be as long as their wing span:)

Steve went to go get the truck and hook up the boat. Nathan had a hard time holding on to the boat because of the wind. Finally he said -forget it- and decided that there was no way he was going to stay dry.

So, you can see that Nathan got soaked. Look at how Steve handles the situation.

Steve decides that rolling up his pants is better than getting them wet!:) Sorry for teasing you buddy!:)

The fishing lesson wasn't over until the kids learned how to scale and gut the fish.

Ever wonder what the inside of a fish looks like? Well, now you can cross that off your list of curiosity.

4 Wheeling was a blast. Can't wait to get my pink 4 wheeler:)

The kids made best friends with Ani. Ani - Come and visit us. I'm sure Uncle Nate will let you in the backyard for a couple of hours.

They took off for Navajo Lake later in the afternoon and caught 5 fish. Great job Jalyne! Better luck next time Taylor:(

Nathan wanted me to take this picture so that M&M would be proud!

Unfortunately there's was work on monday and you can't stay out of reality for too long. Fortunately Andrew slept the entire way home and we didn't even run out of gas. Thanks for a great weekend Dixon's and can't wait till next time. We ran by these beasts on the way down the mountain.

More Bugs

M&M gave us this fly swatter. It's no ordinary fly swatter. It electrocutes the poor defenseless creatures!

The best part is that you actually get to see sparks and then smoke!

Fathers and Sons

Taylor was the ultimate first born son. He loved sports. He did nothing other than play sports. He wasn't interested in playing with cars or action figures, it was pretty much Basketball and Coloring. Come on, the boy was practically conceived in a gym. So, then along comes Andrew. The brother Taylor always wanted and the other son we craved. All he wants to do is play with his cars. So Nathan decided that is was time for Andrew to play more sports!

The activity ended like this. Andrew pretending to be a dog! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Chocolate Covered What's?

This is pretty funny. M&M texted us while they were in Cali to let us know that they went to some kind of bug, insect, weird store and that they bought chocolate covered crickets for the kids. I told her that this might have to end our friendship if this was for real. So when they came over for dinner, sure enough, she brought candy covered Ants, cheddar cheese Larvets, cheddar and bacon crickets, chocolate covered surprise, and a candied cricket. For those of you that know Nathan well, the fact that they remained in the house for as long as they did was a surprise. I couldn't even look or go near them. M said that it's a cultural thing and that a students grandmother brought him in a bag of chocolate covered crickets once. They go out into the fields to collect bugs and then cook them up with all sorts of chocolates and flavors. This is what I don't understand. If they can afford to buy flavorings then why do they need to out and gather insects?! Why don't they just buy more edible foods. I am sure that God did not intend for us to eat the bugs. They are there for larger animals to eat, not humans. Back to my story. So M was set on the fact that our kids were going to try at least one thing. I told her that they were not going to do anything unless she tried something.

This is her trying a chocolate covered surprise. Does it look like she's having fun. It looks like she's not really trying to have it touch too much of her mouth and that she's trying to make it seem yummy:)
Here's Nathan restraining Taylor from trying to lick the candy covered ant farm.
Love this look!
And Andrew is fascinated with Buggies!

So after a while of taunting and playing with the bugs in their boxes, Nathan steps up and says something like "Oh sure kids go ahead, everyone's doing it. It's the cool thing to do. Right M like when they go out with their friends and everyone's drinking and sure it's okay to just take one sip." The light went off in M's head and she starts to cry. She would never do anything intentionally wrong and when she realized what was going on she got really upset and felt horrible. Way to go Nate. It was a good learning experience for the kids. They were able to experience a situation that will come later in their lives and they can look back to this moment and remember to make the right choice. So off to the trash went the buggies and it was never spoken of again:)

THE END