First Day of School

We have begun our school days. Conlan was up and revving to go, even a little excited. When we got to school he went in and got situated. Even started playing and going through some books. We were so happy because we thought it would be a harder transition. We gave our hugs and kisses good-bye and we were off. Mom began shedding tears immediately. When we got outside and around the corner we turned around to discover our little man completely overcome with tears and sobbing. That was enough to throw Mom over the edge! After walking him back to his class and trying to transition him, we tried to leave. Conlan would have none of that and in a fit of tears and clinging to Mom's hand we finally made our way home. It was a lot harder to do than expected, but we survived. What an emotional day for all of us. We are all happy to put this day behind us! We are hoping tomorrow will go a little better. We shall see. . . .


Conlan on his first day of Kindergarten looking handsome as ever! He is into Star Wars so he went with a Clone Wars backpack. We opted to keep the light sabers at home.

Conlan at his new desk and ready to start his day! This picture was taken when we first got there, prior to the crying fest him and Mom had together!

Pirate Day

It is the day before Conlan starts school and we decided to start a fun tradition. We decided on a themed day to celebrate and have some fun! We all thought it might be fun to have a pirate day. With our best pirate accents and gear in order we were ready! We started the day off with a treasure hunt around the house to find the gold (chocolate coins of course)! We then had a few sword fights, pirate themed games. Watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" and had a pirate themed dinner. It was a blast and think we will keep this tradition each year before school starts.



Pirate Tristan and Conlan. These two are such a crack up together. I asked them to put on a scary pirate face and this is what we got!

The pirate wenches: Destiny, Sienna, Aislinn and Gaga Nanny.

Ahoy there matey! Loved Caydon's tatts! You can't see it here but he had a Mom tattoo on his upper arm! You are such a good sport buddy, thanks for hanging in there even though you didn't feel so good!









Thar be baby Aisy.









After the treasure hunt sporting some gold coins.

Ships on the seven seas (hot dogs on fishy crackers), gold nuggets (chickenless nuggets), cannonballs (grapes), x marks the spot breadsticks, seaweed (noodles with pesto sauce), and pirates grog (rootbeer).

X marks the spot!

The only rule was that there were no rules! And of course, because we were playing pirates a food fight ensued! Everyone was rude and messy and we didn't use any utensils, just our hands! It was oh so much fun!

The after effects of the food fight!

Conlan needed a new drink!

Sienna enjoying the refreshing taste of the entire contents of her dinner in a glass! Yummy!

And with that it was all over! Dinner has been cleaned up, the kids are sleeping upstairs, the backpack is by the door, lunch is made and the new clothes and shoes are ready! The question becomes is Mom? I think this is going to be harder for me than it will be for Con. Only tomorrow will tell. I am reflecting on the last 5 years and they have been the most amazing adventure. I have to admit that I am so grateful that I have had the chance to be here for my little man. I love, love, love being Conlan's Mom! He is such an awesome, brilliant little guy and I am so happy for him that he gets to open up a new chapter in his life and embark on a totally wonderful new journey! I am trying to keep it together, but I have my tissues for tomorrow just in case! Got the sunglasses too!

The Natural History Museum

This was Conlan's last hurrah weekend before school starts. We asked him what he wanted to do and he decided he wanted to go to the museum like the one in the movie "Night At The Museum" with the dinosaurs. So we headed over to the Phoenix Natural History Museum. We had a blast and learned some things too. Here was our day!



The boys looking like a delicious snack for that ferocious T-Rex!










Such tiny feet when you compare them to a dinosaur's footprint.

Finding pre-historic Nemo.

The boys peeking out from one of the coolest meteorites ever. At least we thought so. This one is a cast of the one found in Tucson around 1893 (I think that was the date). The blacksmiths used it as an anvil.

This is how Aislinn spent some of the trip. In her chariot and happy as could be.

Are you looking at me?

We spent part of the time chasing after the boys doing their best dinosaur impressions and the rest of the time being monkeys! Love those boys!

Panning for gold.








Challenging our minds in the discovery center.

Aisy giving it her best. A smart cookie already!

The Three Funky Pigs

It is always a challenge to keep the kids busy without them getting bored or picking on each other. The kids decided to put on a play. Sienna, Jenna's niece, decided to write and direct the play. She is quite the little writer already. She came up with a modern day version of the Three Little Pigs. After a few days of writing, making costumes, and practicing they were ready. The play was a smashing success and they are ready to go on the road!

Patiently awaiting the play to start.

They made tickets and programs for all of the patrons.

Building their house out of bricks.

Conlan in the role of Booger Pig.

Notice the cute squiggly piggy tails.

Taking their bows and a job well done!

Tristan, Destiny, Sienna and Conlan

Now We Can Be Twins

When my sister, Audra, and I were younger we wanted to dress like twins. So the joke became "now we can be twins" anytime we did things that were the same. Over the years we have had numerous twin moments. I wish I could find the picture, but one year when we took a family trip to Disneyland we came to discover that we had dressed like one another. There was also a Christmas when we bought the same gift for each other. Now that we both have sons that are inseparable they are getting into wanting to dress like each other. So, when we were doing back to school shopping the boys picked out twin outfits and have been wearing them often. It is adorable and it makes my heart so happy to see the two of them getting along like brothers. Since neither of them has a brother it is the closest thing they have got. You can't see it very well, but in the picture to the right the two have matching red spikes in their

hair. They convinced me to get a colored hair gel when we went to get Con's haircut. Love those two monkeys. They have a special bond and let's hope that the years will only make it stronger!

Shopping Can Be So Tiring

We went shopping at Trader Joe's today and boy was I tired. I was grabbing things from the shelves as they passed me by. I had several intelectual conversations with the other babies in their carts. But it is so tough to be a baby sometimes. I need a drink, where's the milk mom?

Here I am, all tuckered out!

4th of July Weekend

We spent the weekend playing some games, watching fireworks (Jenna's Mom has a perfect view of the fireworks show at Schnepf Farms), celebrating Jenna's birthday and having some fun together. Jenna's sister and family came out to celebrate and we now have 2 more California friends to join the Arizona gang.



Spoons anyone.

Conlan has seen a few of the poker tournaments on tv and has started to get interested in the game. So we are teaching him how to play. No, we are not playing with money, just the chips. Con is just starting to understand the basics.




Hey pirate Bryan! Jenna poked him in the eye during one of the poker hands, oops.







Best buds Aislinn and cousin Caydon.

Waiting for the show to start.

This picture is not very clear, but we got some of those glow worms. When you light the pellets they grow into flaming worms of death. Okay not really, but they were some of our childhood favorites.

We went to the Urban Tea Loft for Jenna's birthday brunch. It's a tea house with a modern flair, for us hip 30 somethings. Since the McCoy Family is into tea, it was a perfect place for eating, drinking and being merry!


The girls: cousin Kyla and Aislinn.

After tea we went to As You Wish and got creative. Everyone picked out something to paint and went to work. We had so much fun and cannot wait to see how our finished products come out!

Bree and Caydon painting a piggy bank.

Conlan and Tristan painting cowboy hat wearing rattlesnakes.

Jenna painting a cupcake platter.

Kyla painting a special plate for mom.

Bryan painting a water bowl for our kitty cats.

Summer Nights at the Drive-In

We were so excited to find out about the drive-in movie theatre. It reminded us of the times gone by and turned out to be the an awesome thing to do on a summer night. It was still warm, but was so much fun that we were able to overlook it! We watched the Transformers and the kids had a blast.

Conlan and Tristan (his best friend and cousin) perched themselves on the roof and had a perfect view.

Here is the girls car. Audra (Jenna's sister), Destiny (our family friend), Sienna & Kyla (Jenna's neices).