October 2009

October was a good month for an anniversary, wedding, and a new birth. Not too much happened at the beginning of the month. On the 20, Jon and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. We were going to go out of town without the kids, but we couldn’t get away. So instead we went to dinner and a movie.

On the 23, my youngest sister, Valayne got married. I wasn’t able to go to the wedding, but did make it to the reception. It was fun to see most of my family there and just hang for the night.

On the 25, our boy rabbit, Goose had 5 babies. I was sleeping when Austin woke me up. “Mom, there is a mouse in our bunnies pen. Come see, come see.” I wasn’t very happy to be woken up for something that wasn’t possible. When I got to the pen, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were six babies, daddy sleeping and mom cleaning up. (Just like a man to be sleeping during all this.) We lost one baby. We will have them until Christmas, when they are done nursing; they will go to new homes.

On the 31, we celebrated Halloween. Austin was a Dragon and Coy was Frankenstein. We went to my friend Rick’s house and trick or treated in his neighborhood. The older the boys get, the better Halloween is. They had so much fun this year.

At Valayne's Wedding

Riley, Coy, Darin, Austin at the wedding.

Halloween

All of us on halloween.

Jon & Austin with 2 of our babies.

September 2009

In September, the boys both started soccer. Austin only has three kids on his team and Coy has 6. Coy played last year and he couldn’t wait to get playing again.

Jon had another month with weekends off, so we camped and visited friends all month. This will be the last month of weekends off this year.

I got a promotion at work. I’m now the vet tech assistant. Once a week a vet comes to the shelter to spay and neuter the animals. It’s my job to help him. Its great experience and I love it. I just wish it was more than once a week.

We added two new pets to our home, this month. The boys have wanted a cat ever since our rabbit died. But one of our dogs would hurt; possibly kill a cat, so we got two boy rabbits. Austin named his Maverick and Coy named his Goose. If you’ve seen Top Gun, you may remember those names. I didn’t get any pictures yet. I’ll explain in October’s post.

Austin at his first game.

Coy with his friend Hailey, in Snowflake.

Austin playing with our friends cat.

Austin tring not to wake the cat, while he napped.

August 2009

Our August was full of firsts, good times and sad. Coy started kindergarten on the 5th. Hooray! Coy has been looking forward to this for two years. He now rides the bus and gets to eat in the cafeteria. He loves it and can’t wait to tell me all about his day.

I had an exciting first at work. I got to assist in a spay and neuter, with the vet that comes in to the shelter. I was really nervous because the thought of blood makes me faint. I prayed a few times before I got started, but to my surprise I not only did well, I loved it. I didn’t get to do too much but it was fun. I don’t get to help on a regular basis yet, but hopefully in the future I will be.

Jon has had weekends off this month, so we have gone camping and gone out of town to see friends, we haven’t seen in a long time. I love when Jon is home on the same days as me. We never just sit around the house. We always have something planned.

Now for the sad part, our rabbit Toby died this month. I thought we’d have him for 15 years but he only made it 5. He got a cold and I thought he’d get better, but instead he died 3 days after getting sick. We had a big talk about death and had a little funeral for him. The boys took it pretty well.

On the 28th, my Granny past away. It wasn’t too much of a shock, because she had not been doing well for about a month. She was a wonderful Granny and always had a way of making me feel special. We got very close while she lived near me for 6 years, right after I married Jon. I saw her often and built a great relationship with her. She moved back to Phoenix a few years ago, so I didn’t get to see her as often. I feel fortunate that I had those six years with her. But I feel sad that the boys will never know her, the way I do.

Coy on his first day of school.

Camping.

July 2009

July was full of family. We kicked off the month by going to Phoenix for the 4th of July. We met up with my sister Bethany and two of her kids, Vanity and Riley. We stayed in a hotel and the kids swam all weekend.

Then on the 5th, Jon and the boys got on a plane for Pennsylvania to see his family. They were in Pennsylvania/ New York for 2 weeks. They stayed with Jon’s parents for a few days, and then headed off to a Dexter family reunion. After the reunion, they went to Little Falls, NY for 2 days, to see Jon’s grandma and grandpa Quinn, his sister Bethany and his aunt, uncle and cousins. They had so much fun! This was the longest I’ve ever been away from the boys and I missed them so much! I had to stay home because I didn’t have any time off with my new job.

The weekend after they got home, the boys and I went to Safford to see my family. (Jon was working.) My brother Curtis and sister Amber, who I haven’t seen in two years, were both in town. My Mom had a family breakfast, Sunday morning and most of my family attended. It was fun to get together and hang out, but it went by too fast and soon it was time to head home.

I’m glad that we had the chance to see so much of our families this month. I wish we could see more of them and didn’t live so far away.

Dexter family reunion.

In front of race car in Hershey, PA.

With G & G Quinn.

Jon, Austin, Aunt Shelly, Natalia, Coy, Uncle Dom.

The boys with Jon's parents at the zoo.

June 2009

I didn’t take many pictures in June because it went by so fast. We celebrated father’s day by staying home. The boys made Jon a card and magnet at school; they picked out a new NASCAR t-shirt. He also got a new watch, since his old one was broken.

My nephew Riley came for a week visit. He went to an animal camp at my job and had a good time. The boys love to see Riley and they always cry when it’s time to say good- bye.

I put on a picture of my Dad and Coy because of Father's Day.

My 3 boys on father's day.

My Dad and Coy, July 2006.

Austin with an ice cream face.

May 2009

On May 6, we celebrated our 3rd year as a family. It was very hard the first year and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it as a family, but I’m happy that we are united! Nothing can change that now. I posted pictures from our past. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Coy April 2006

Jon and Austin Nov. 2007

The first time we met the boys. Dec. 2005

Coy took this picture of me at the petting zoo. Jan. 2009

Austin March 2006

April 2009

April was a wonderful month for us. The first week, I got a job offer to work with the humane society in Sedona. I’m now a kennel associate that means I clean up after the animals and help with adoptions. I’m so happy to be done with being an office manager. I’ve been trying to quit for two years and now I finally have!

We celebrated Easter. We went to the towns Easter egg hunt, went to see a monster truck called big foot, crush some cars. The boys both loved it but Austin is bothered by loud noises, he covered his ears and asked to leave just before it was over. Then we headed home to dye Easter eggs. This is the first year the boys got to do this. They loved it and didn’t make too much of a mess.

We also went on vacation to San Antonio. We decided at the last minute to take my niece Vanity. We headed through Safford on our way to pick her up. It was a super long drive, 16 hours to be exact. The boys did so well, that’s big because Austin hates being in the car. We stayed in a town called Bandera, just outside of San Antonio. We went to see my brother Darin in Austin, had a really good time with him. We went on a bike ride to the river so the boys could swim and just hung out for the day. Went to the river walk boat tour, everyone loved that. We went to the natural bridge caverns. Since Jon pretty much grew up at Kartchner Caverns it was nice to see another cave. Natural bridge caverns were not nearly as cool as Kartchner. We went to sea world, Coy’s favorite part was seeing Shamu and Austin’s least favorite was seeing Shamu. He splashed us and Austin didn’t like getting wet. Austin liked the penguins. We ended the week by seeing my sister in law, Tracy and my nieces, my brother Curtis was out of town doing training for work. I haven’t seen him in a few years and was bummed we didn’t get to see him. But the boys and my nieces had a good time playing.

Hope you had as good an April as we did!

Darin and Austin

Vanity, me, Coy, Darin, Alanna.

The boys at the river walk.

Austin and Coy at the Alamo.