Such a Smashing Night!

In a land far, far away I have been blessed with "Fairy Date-Parents" who genuinely care about the frequency (or lack of, rather) date nights in our kingdom.

Using their magic postal service I was bibbidy-bobbidy-booed a fully loaded gift card to this place:

I sent a royal decree to my Prince and informed him of his pending date with his Princess.

The royal babysitters were employed and the carriage was called for.

(I even had my hair done for the occasion. Well not really just for this, but I had it done the day before. You're wondering what's different? In real life you can see it better; it's not black anymore, it's dark brown. Getting five years of black out is not easy, so my super stylist, Jessica, is taking it in stages. This is the dark brown stage. Two more stages and I'll be where I want it, back to my natural brown or something close to it. Likey my hair clip? Me too! .) 

Pretty hopping place on a Friday night.

We wait as our burgers and sweet potato fries are prepared.

Olen couldn't take a clear picture of me to save his life. I'll spare you the other blurry 127.

He was like, "Hold still!" so then I would and he got pictures of me like this:

These burgers are worth the wait, so to pass the time Olen played photographer. Yes, people were staring. More fuzzy photos of me...

"Put it away! People will think we don't get out much..."

Olen's first Smash experience. He's speechless with emotion.

"Can you please eat slower so I can take your picture?"

Physically impossible, people. I was starving and the fried dill pickles were capital A-mazing.

"There. I'm waiting... Did you get it? My root beer float really needs me."

My "Fairy Date Parents" are humble and I know praise is not what they seek, but I want them to know how much their kindness has blessed my life and filled my belly.

Thank you so much for being the one who returned.

What is $71.50?

The number of coins you could find on your husband's dresser.

The way I figure it, I just made $35.75 an hour.

A Rainy Day in Arizona

As I was setting the table for dinner yesterday a loud crack! came from outside.

Porter and London ran to the windows to see if it was thunder or just the neighbors. The sky was orange and the wind was whipping the lemon trees left and right. More thunder clapped and the sky opened fire like water bullets out of a Tommy gun.

It's pretty much impossible to stay inside where it's dry and boring when outside there is sideways rain and puddles calling your name. We made them eat their dinner first and opened all the windows to watch the lightning show. You never know how long a good rain like that is going to last here in the desert so after shoveling in a few bites we released them outside to feel the rain on their faces and the wind as it rushes by.

Yes, they asked for umbrellas and then held them as they jumped in the puddles.

That's one of the secret ingredients of childhood that we forget when we become adults.

 We were given children to remind us again.

All About Porter in Six Sentences

We're in the third week of third grade for Porter and he still likes it.

He reports that his teacher is nice, even though she's 50 years old, he was made the Teacher's Assistant (it's "basically the teacher's right-hand man" I am told) for the whole first week of school, and his new school shoes seem to be making him run faster than last year's school shoes because he's even better at kickball.

"All About Me

I would like to tell you some things about me. My birthday is in Dec. 19th. My favorite food is pastae. I like to build cool stuff. I am really good at reading. When I get older I want to build a rocketship. There are 5 people in my family."

Driving Miss. Daisy

Loose Strings

Summer break ended too soon and I've still got a few blog-worthy posts left in my pocket.

This summer London became an artist. She started drawing pictures with such detail and thought.

Here she is with a ponytail. She is sitting "crisscross applesauce" and playing with blocks on the floor.

This was done in May.

This is our family.

From left to right: Olen holding Daisy, Me, Porter, and London

She gave me rosy cheeks.

I just loved how we are a family of balloon heads. The lines and curves are just awesome.

I was doing a lot of sewing one week and Porter asked if he could sew something too. I told him if he could draw his own pattern he could make his own stuffed animal. He came back to me with this.

It's a dragon. He looked through my craft dresser of fabric and chose his own colors for his dragon. I helped him cut it out and sew the bigger parts then he finished it by stuffing it and sewing the details by hand.

After the button eyes had been added he was so happy with his work. He took it to his room and laid it on his pillow and looked at it. Then he said when he walked away it slipped off his pillow and moved its head on its own to look at him. He gave it to Daisy then and there. It's been sleeping in her crib ever since. She crews on his beak face and loves it. 

On one of our science project days, we made prints using some photo paper I picked up at the teacher's supply store. London and Porter gathered neat twigs and leaves and toys with cool shapes and we made a bunch of these prints in the sun. It was such a blast.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Alright. I think that's all I've been holding onto. Now I feel a lot better about moving on to the next season of life.

Molly's Rule of Life #17

Never underestimate the power of flowers.

Robin Hood and Little John

 In January Olen applied for an elk tag just like he does every year. Except for this year instead of a rifle, he decided to mix it up and applied for an archery tag.

It's a raffle drawing here in Arizona. You mail in your selection of what areas of the state you would like to hunt in along with your money and your name goes in the pot for the draw. If you don’t get drawn you get your money back and earn a “point”. One point for every year entered, but not drawn. The more points you have the more pity the Game and Fish Gods have for you and you're more likely to get drawn next time. Olen only applies for the best areas of the state, known as “trophy” areas that yield the biggest bulls (or bucks if we’re talking about deer season) so he rarely gets drawn because every other hopeful hunter puts his (or her?) name in for the same areas. He wrote the check, sealed the envelope with a kiss, and probably said a little prayer.

His dreams came true the day the draw results were in and his name was on the list. It cost him all 14 points, but he’s got his trophy hunt at last. He tried to convince me when he got the tag just how amazing it was (“Love, this is the hunt of a lifetime!” Riiiight.) but I’ve gotten used to our little game of sending off the money and then getting it back when he wasn’t drawn. It wasn’t until one week after the results were announced that we started getting letters, pamphlets, magazines, DVDs, and brochures from hunting guides and different outfitters trying to entice Olen (and his tag) into choosing them to take him on his hunt “of a lifetime” that I began to understand that Olen’s excitement might actually be legit.

If you know anything about how Arizona is divided into hunting units, then you must be awesome. I don’t know anything about how Arizona is divided into hunting units, but I do know that it is divided, so I’ve got that going for me. (I’m still learning; it’s only been nine years but who’s counting.) Well, Olen’s hunt is in Unit 9 around Flagstaff. It’s one of the Premier Hunting Areas of the world for elk and has been showcased on hunting shows and the National Geographic channel. I guess it’s kind of a big deal.

Olen looked at all his mail but he's already got his hunt set up with our good friends and their guide company, Arizona Mossback Outdoors. Olen has even got himself a small army of friends and brothers coming along on his hunt just to lend moral support.

For the last few weeks, Olen has been dusting off his bow skills and preparing for his September hunt. He’s taken Porter with him the last couple of times to the Usery Pass archery range and we girls were beginning to feel a little left out so we went as a family yesterday evening to see what all the fuss was about. I already knew Olen has good aim but so does Porter. It made my heart melt to watch Olen teach Porter the proper stance and safety techniques and then see them celebrate the straight shot into the target together.

The sun was going down telling the nocturnal things that live in the desert to wake up. All kinds of noises began to come from the bushes and creek beds and started to worry London. She has never stayed so close before! I gathered a few ripe prickly pear fruits for fun and Daisy hung out in her stroller and watched us all from on high.

Bethany's Baby Shower

We have all been asking Bethany to please wait till her baby shower and then she can have the baby anytime she wants.

Bethany made it to her baby shower last night and then once all the gifts were loaded and the last cupcake given away, she went into labor. She and Chase are, as I type, at the hospital awaiting the arrival of their little baby boy.

London was a sparkling mess by the end of the night thanks to Auntie Darcy showing her how the glitter from the frosting could be used on one's cheeks and eyes.

With the excitement of school starting for Porter, my brown-eyed girl was needing something special of her own so she came to play at the "big girl party" with mommy.

Oh, and eat cupcakes. Mostly just to eat cupcakes.

She was cracking up just seconds before this picture with Darcy, but, in true London fashion, once the camera came out this is what I get.

Blanket made by our littlest sisters.

Per tradition, a diaper bag made by Mamasita.

Sugar high kicking in.

That's Braylon, Jessica's baby, that Meagan and Courtney are playing with.