Where we've been

We got back from Bear Lake last night around 11pm.

Fun has it's natural consequences-

Tired family

Piles of laundry

Vacation Brain desperately trying to remember schedules and responsibilities

Good thing we came back a day early so we could catch up.

By the tail

I walked into the upstairs kids bathroom (it's now deemed Grady's even though he is obviously not using it) and a Beanie Baby monkey was hanging by it's tail.  

I'm guessing Colby did that because that is something Colby would do.  I looked at the monkey and thought to myself..."That's how I feel!"  I'm hanging in there but at the same time not getting a whole lot accomplished as accomplishments go...but still having a fun time doing nothing. 

 Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah.

So here is a list of "nothing" that we have been doing.

We finally, after living here almost five years, decided it was time to do something about our hideous flower beds on the west side of the house.  The soil was poor, the plants (ok plant.  everything else died) looked sad, and our neighbors beautifully landscaped yard made us feel a tad bit guilty.  Steve dug out all the clay like soil, put in a metal edging and filled the beds with top soil and bagged manure.  (yummy)  

We then picked out a few grasses and day lilies that we liked and finished flower beds.  I love when a project is finished and hard work pays off.  Steve bought enough metal edging to finish the edges around the east and back side of the house too.  He said he will do them after next week.  I'm happy and hopefully can keep the new plants alive.

My dream is to have my side yard look as fun as my front yard.

Took this a few days ago.

I figured if I ever wanted to sell my house, (ha ha)  I might as well have a picture of it when the flower beds look happy.

Saturday night I deemed our neighborhood Camelot as we enjoyed a neighbor hood BBQ and late night party.  The kids played, threw water balloons and snuck cookies all night.  The parents visited and ignored our children.  It was wonderful.  The night was finished off with a projected movie on the side of our neighbor's house.  Half the kids were asleep half way through, but its summer and summer is fun like that.  I love where we live.  It's blissful.

Our "grumpy old man" neighbor George and his darling wife Sarah are both in their 90's and have been self sufficient until just recently.  It came to our attention that George health has been declining and the condition of their home has been deteriorating.  George also has fallen multiple times in the last weeks.  Multiple as in three or four times a day.  Steve, along with many of our other neighbors has gone into their home and helped him get up after each fall.  We as a neighborhood have also been bringing in dinners to help out.  Saturday night, George was so weak, he was taken to the hospital.  Our neighborhood is doing what we can to help this elderly couple.  Steve and I have talked freely about the situation in front of our kids.  We may have traumatized them.  Carter was very serious in the car the other day and admitted that he didn't want to get old...me either Carter, me either. 

Andrew got braces last week.  He looks even more like a teenager now.  He lived off ibuprofen and Tylenol for three days.  He also somehow conned us into buying him a pineapple mango smoothie almost every day.  We are suckers for a a kid in mouth pain.   He hasn't let me take pictures yet, but his braces are blue and look gnarly like all mouths that have just had braces put on...crooked and crazy still.  

Taken right before his appointment.  He's got the ruler-closed-lip smile down already.

Colby played "I'm a Child of God" on his violin in sacrament meeting yesterday.  I was so proud of him.  He wasn't nervous or anything.  He just walked up and played his song like it was the easiest thing in the world.  This boy has more determination and pure character then I could possibly imagine  in a seven year old with half  my nervous-ninny genetics.  Love that boy...love him.

Saylor asked me a few days ago why I still had a baby in my tummy, that and she has picked up the word "ugly" and has started to use it quite often.  Ugly is an ugly word.  I'm hoping this is a short phase she is going through.

I spent my morning and afternoon today baking gluten free and gluten filled treats to take on a mini vacation this weekend.  I have a stomach ache from all the tasting.  It was necessary to make sure nothing was secretly poisoned while I wasn't looking before I served it to my friends.  

I'm generous like that.

I made snicker doodle cookies gluten free.  This is one of those cookies that doesn't have peanut butter or chocolate to cover the "whang" of a taste that most gluten free flours have.  I added vanilla and a little orange extract.  They looked perfect (looking not gluten free is half the battle) but I'm not so sure about the orange mixed with the gluten free aftertaste.  I might have to make another batch and try lemon zest this time.  Bummer...more cookies.  :)

(Oh...reminder to myself:  for the snicker doodles, 1 1/2 cup maninis flour, 1  1//4 domata)

Teenagers are lame

My sister JaNae has been in town this week.  

Hurray!

I've spent most of my week at my mom's house spending time with both JaNae and my mom while the grand kids hang out and thrash my mom's house.

Good times.

JaNae and I thought we would shake things up a bit and take our oldest boys (Andrew and Walker) out Monday night late for some good Twin Falls fun...aka things we used to do as kids.

Yeah...they weren't impressed- the little bums.

First we took them to walk behind the water fall down by Centennial park.

You'd think we asked them to watch Barbie movies in front of their entire school student body all while wearing pink wigs and lipstick.

I practically had to strangle Andrew to get this picture.

The beauty of the Snake Rive Canyon was completely lost on these ungrateful boys.

Did we get a thank you from either of them ??

Nope.  All JaNae got were blisters from touching stinging nettle.

We then took the boys out for frozen yogurt while waiting for it to get dark.

(No pictures there...I was stuffing my face with coconut and pineapple yogurt mixed.)

After our treat, we took the turds (yes, I just called my 13 year old a turd....he deserved it) to walk across the Perrine Bridge in the dark.

I still, to this day, think it's a fun thing to do.  It's a scary dark view all the way to the river and the bridge shakes like crazy when a semi truck crosses. 

I jumped out of my skin when one of the trucks honked its horn.

We also told the boys tales of the things we may or may not have thrown off the bridge in our day...and a few things Andrew's dad may or may not have thrown off too.

Once again, the boys were not impressed and acted bored out of their minds.

I jokingly write about this, but honestly, my heart was broken after my son wouldn't even try and have fun with his aunt and I.    He acted way too cool to hang out (even in the dark where no one could see him) with his mom.

It's a good think I know this isn't normally how Andrew acts and that nine times out of ten he is a delight to be around...being 13 must have gone to his head.

Andrew, here's some advice for the future, being on my good side is a very good idea.   Acting like a spoiled snot will get you no where. ...and by no where, I mean sitting at home on the weekend with a long list of chores.  :)


My experience Monday night made me grateful for my little Grady on Tuesday.  He had is four month check-up and immunizations.   I appreciate how little he is and how I have 12 full years of him most likely thinking I'm not to bad to be around.
Here are his stats for four months.

Height:  25.2 inches
Weight:  15 lbs 7 oz
Head Circ:  16.75 inches

The only % I remember is his head circ.  He's in the 80th percentile.  Awesome.

We were cool parents for about 2 hours

Our boys have been begging for an air soft war for the entirety of the summer.

We relented and allowed them to invite all their gun owning friends for a "smallish" war in the back field behind our house. 

It wasn't fancy, there wasn't enough cover, and it was still light outside...but the boys didn't seem to care.

They brought their weapons of "not so massive destruction" and vowed to shoot up the neighborhood.

All I could think when seeing these boys with guns was "When in the crap did we let these boys buy air soft guns...who's bright idea was this anyway?"

The size of the back yard war was masked only by the smiles on my two oldest offsprings' faces.

I hate violence and I hate air soft guns, but my opinions have been squashed by my significant other and all reason and sanity have been thrown out the window. 

Thankfully there were a few rules.

Everyone involved was required to wear eye protection.  (My dad and brother are eye doctors...I would be a fool not to require that!)

Parental permission was required for everyone involved.

If any adult or child showed up that wasn't already present, the shooting had to stop immediately for safety reasons.  We also warned the kids that if any neighbor complained, we would end the game.  (We don't want our neighbors to hate us.)

For about 2 hours the shooting commenced and happiness ensued.

(I went inside and baked cookies trying to pretend my children weren't pretending to kill each other.)

By the end of the night, the teams were completely unfair with the teenagers on one side and the 10 year olds on the other.  The younger kids were completely out gunned.  Their shrieks of "Stop shooting at us...we're trying to reload!" were hilarious and slightly pathetic.  

My favorite part of the night???

The fact that our darling neighbor girl showed up as Captain America!  

It was great to have goodness and justice on our side.

And...she shared her costume with Colby and Say.

Love that super hero girl!

At the end of the night, there were only two casualties.  Two of the younger kids got beaned in the face from a CO2 gun.  There was actual blood drawn.  We will outlaw those next time. 

We handed out ice packs and cookies to the wounded...because these warriors trying to kill each other are still young enough to think ice and cookies might just fix something.

Car Show and Fishing

After spending the afternoon in downtown McCall, we decided to attend a car show in nearby Riggins Idaho.  We saw a flier for the "Hot Summer Nights" car show and thought it would be worth the hour drive north.  My boys are all fans of a good car show.

Well...it might have been a mistake on our part because there were only about 15-20 cars displayed total.  Pretty disappointing.  Andrew was downright miffed.  We laughed it up and decided to have a good attitude about the $20 we threw away...oh I mean donated to the town of Riggins for our family to attend the tiny excuse for a car show. 

However, our good attitude open wound was doused in lemon juice when we got back to McCall and found out there was a HUGE corvette convention in McCall and we could have gone to that.  Bummer.

Lesson learned:  Don't attend car shows in Riggins Idaho even if the bathrooms at the local Chevron station are really clean...its still not worth it!

Carter loved this muscle car and took quite a few pictures of it.

Colby found a car our entire family would like to own.

The tear-drop trailer was actually pretty cool.

If I would let him...I think Steve would buy one and enjoy making breakfast!

It was hot and Saylor was grateful to have a strong grandpa to carry her around.

Cormac, Carter and Colby trying to stay cool in the shade.

I have no recollection of why I took this pictures.

Maybe I just like this kid's huge grin and teeth!

Steve wanted a picture of me with the Land Cruiser.  Silly Steve.

Carter took full advantage of showing off his muscles.

He's a ham...a ripped ham, but a ham none the less.

I think she secretly wishes she was a mermaid.

I tried to get Andrew to stand behind a few of these posters, but he respectfully declined.  And when I say respectfully, I really mean he scowled and walked away.  Must have been the heat making him crabby.

If a failed car show wasnt' enough fun for the day, the Dixon men threw in a bit more and took all the kids fishing later that night after dinner.

They caught a total of 13 fish that we grilled the next day after church for lunch.   Yum!

Which is Which

I was comparing pictures of all my babies tonight.  It was a kick to see how similar yet totally different each of them are.  I wonder if I'll ever get to the point where I won't be able to tell which baby was which.  I certainly hope not but who knows.  But for now, I can totally tell who is who.  Grady is the easiest...he is the only one with blue eyes.

The following pictures were taken when each of my children were about 4-5 months old. (I think)

 Grady

 Grady

 Andrew

 Andrew

 Carter

 Carter

 Colby

 Colby (closer to three month I think)

 Saylor (wearing hand-me-down boy pjs)

 Saylor

Not Quite Sure How It Happen

In a blink of an eye he went from this...

to this.

 Andrew became an official teenager yesterday as he turned the ripe old age of thirteen.

Man the past 13 years have flown.

Andrew had only one request for his birthday present...money.

The birthday fairy delivered.

 ...cant ya just smell it??

 We celebrated pretty simply.  Steve picked up Cafe Rio for dinner and I made a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and M&M's per request.   

We're party animals around here.

 (Ummm...Steve doesn't love his picture taken while he's eating, hence the dirty eyebrow look.)

 My mom came over to help us celebrate.

Carter and Grady have colds so my dad had to stay home.  Radiation and Chemo does nasty things for an immune system and we don't want him sick.

 Steve, Andrew and Mom are all on their tippy-toes.  

It doesn't work if everyone is doing it!

 My parents gave Andrew exactly what he wanted...more money.

Andrew is saving all his cash for an Ipad mini.  (I'm not even sure what that is...I'm old and lame.)

I think after his birthday haul and his next mowing check, he will have enough.

 This picture is just because I love pictures of Grady with my mom!

 Not everyone shared the same enthusiasm of Andrew getting filthy rich.

It's hard sometimes when it's not your birthday, even when you are nine and should know better.

 Andrew insisted on lighting his own candles.

 He then insisted on cutting the cake too.

Steve had to parent our now teenager on knife handling and how its not proper, polite or safe to rip knives out of your father's hand.

 Ratty 13 year old!

After cake Steve took Andrew to see the new Wolverine movie.  I think Andrew mostly wanted to see it because it was PG-13.  We've been banning such movies for years and must now come up with a different reason besides age for him to not see them.  Dang.

They were the only ones in the theatre and were too full of cake to eat the popcorn they bought. 

Happy Birthday Andrew!  You're dad and I love you and your slightly obnoxious self to death.

We can't believe you are 13 already and that we're old enough to have a teenager in the house.  Please know that we are proud of you and the decisions you have made so far regarding actions, friends, character, integrity and work ethic.  We are excited to see you grow and change and we pray the next few years go WAY slower than the past 13 have gone.

Love you Andrew!