The Newest Panorama Pythons

The boys started their first day of school on August 15. Another move means a new school. I was excited because that means we are close enough to walk/ride to school EVERY DAY! Another good thing about Panorama is that they start earlier and get out earlier than they were before and it's the same schedule EVERY DAY--no early outs on Fridays. 8:30-2:35 every day...love it! 

The girls and I loaded up and walked while the boys rode their bikes. We were a little late actually arriving at the school so I told the boys to hurry and put their bikes in the bike racks (which were on the other side of the school) and I would meet them outside their classroom doors. The great thing was that their classrooms are fairly close to each other...well, their outside door is anyway. I didn't get a picture of them lined up outside their classrooms because we were too late but I did get to go inside Porters class and see where he sits and where to hang his backpack. I think I was more nervous than he was. He seemed to calm and collected when I waved goodbye to him.

When I asked how their first day of school went Porter said, "It was a lot longer day than I expected!" I forget that first grade is quite a bit longer than kindergarten. He comes home tired a lot but I think it will get better throughout the year. Porter has Mrs. Sabaitis for first grade. The first couple weeks of school he would come home and tell me all about the girls that chase him during recess.

Payton told me, "They had to find a bigger desk for me! I'm the biggest kid in the class...again!!" about his first day of school. He is a big boy. I don't worry about him getting bullied, but I do worry about him being a bully to other kids. Sometimes he's just playing with kids and doesn't realize how much bigger or stronger he is and ends up hurting kids. I'm hoping that doesn't happen this year. Payton has Mrs. Paxman for his third grade teacher. His handwriting has made a MAJOR improvement and that's thanks to his teacher. She said she really pushes the basics: handwriting, math. 

Jul's felt like such a big girl riding her bike with the boys on their first day of school

It's going to be a good school year! I'm looking forward to staying in Panorama for quite a while!

Pioneer Day

This is a bit of a back track post but one I needed to get done. We spent the 24th of July (aka Pioneer Day) in Hatch this year. We went up the night before, got there late, let the kids hunt for some night crawlers and then called it a day. We got up the next morning and headed to the park for the parade. We were an hour early--which is soooo unusual for us. I guess it helps to think the parade is an hour earlier because for the parade in Hatch you don't want to be late. It's over in about 5 minutes. The kids were loaded with their candy and then made their way to the park for the races. After the races we bought some tickets to play some fun games and win some prizes. We headed back to the 'Hatch House' for some lunch and to mow the lawn. There was an awesome rain storm which we enjoyed out on the deck. Todd took the boys fishing while the girls hung out with me and napped. Then we cleaned up and headed toward the dumpsters just out of town and shot guns before we headed for home. It was a quick get-away but fun for everyone to take a break together. I had a picture overload. Sorry. Trying out the whole B&W feature on the camera.

Porter's First Lost Tooth

It shouldn't take me so long to get updated, but for some reason it does. Porter lost his first tooth last month and it seems like it's taken me all day (or at least all afternoon with a few interruptions) to get a page for his book done. When I get so far behind on the kids pages it makes me not even want to get started again.

Porter's almost seven (at least he will be in September) so he's a little late for losing his first tooth. The worst part of it is that the baby tooth just next to it will probably never get loose--unless he bumps it really good. There is no permanent tooth underneath it. I guess we'll be looking at an implant down the road at some point. bummer. I know. It's fun to see him growing up though.

Todd's been gone on a fire for three days and I haven't heard from him since he left so this was a great way to pass the afternoon.

I like to Move it Move it

It came time to say goodbye to Fox Cove and hello to a new home for this Calico Family. We moved {almost} everything on June 28 and spent our first night in our new home that night. Saturday I went back to our Fox Cove home (aka 'the Bowling Alley' because of the long stretch/hallway into the kitchen) to clean. My sisters, Kandice and Tiffani, came along to help. It made the job go sooo much faster. Of course it helped not having the kids there as well. My parents helped out a ton with the kids during the move/cleaning of both houses. It feels so good to finally call someplace home and really mean it. It was hard for me to be living in 'limbo' while we were searching for the right house for us. I'm so excited to begin this next chapter in our lives.
The kids will be able to ride their bikes or walk to school again because we're only 2 blocks away from their elementary school. I'm not going to miss trying to catch their bus that shipped them all the way out into Washington Fields for school. I don't know what we'll do with that extra time not spent on the bus, but I'm sure we can think of something.

So far this is a really quiet neighborhood. We attended our new ward yesterday and I'm so excited for the new people I'm already meeting. Porter is ready to go meet and greet all the new neighbors...again. I wish there had been someone in his primary class that really peeked his interest because that would have solved his desire to meet new people. I hope that means he's going to make a great missionary someday!
This house is great for us because it's got more space for all of us along with a fenced in back yard.
We currently have a hole in the back yard while we patiently wait for a trampoline to fill it with. With a new house comes a 'to do' list, which I'm trying to figure out some kind of coverings for some of the windows. No one can see in during the day but EVERYONE can see in during the night. Maybe when I get ambitious and do some of those Pinterest ideas we won't show everyone so much of our night time life.

Bike + Ball = a good giggle

This was on my Face Book wall from one of the friends/neighbors (Megan Snyder) that lives in Fox Cove with us--or we live in Fox Cove with them...I'm not sure which:

"you know what made my day today? Your little Julia, riding her bike up to the park, with a basketball stuck up her shirt...and the ball kept squirting out, and bouncing off, and she would get off her bike go fetch it, and stick it back up there, hop on the bike, go about 10 feet, and out came the ball again. I helped her once, but she didn't seem too bothered by the whole thing. She just kept on truckin'. Seriously, so cute!"

 

She loves her bike and rides it everywhere. I'm glad G-pa Blair got it from his work so we could have it! And to think that I was complaining slightly that we got that bike. The first day she couldn't get on or off by herself. But the next day she could, thanks to a little help from dad.

While You Were Sleeping... I mean Working

You remember the movie? I've always liked it but it doesn't have much to do with my post...except for the fact that a lot has happened while Todd's been gone working. Here's the jest of it;

We bought a van. Todd got to test drive it before he left so he knew we were getting it, but I had to deal with getting the $ from the bank, paying the couple we bought it from, and registering at the DMV with THREE kids! Needless to say, I am LOVING the van. It's the nicest vehicle we've ever purchased (and most expensive--but worth it...so far). I hope the kids will help in keeping it looking nice. So far, so good. Check that off the list of things to do before we can go on a family vacation in California.

 

Payton had his last baseball game. He's had a good season and their team did pretty well. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the minor leagues next year. Machine pitch is nice because all the pitches are generally in the right area...most of the time. He had a good coach and enjoyed the season. That's what matters, right?
 

Jess took her first steps. I still have yet to catch it on film but I do have a couple pictures of her standing by herself. Her first steps happened while I was talking on the phone to Kandice. She was hanging on to my legs and took two steps to get to the wall. Shocked me! She's really not that steady, but apparently she's steady enough.

I took the kids to church TWICE by myself. This is huge. I could have easily stayed home but what would that have proven to the kids (and to myself and the Lord). Luckily Todd will be home this weekend so I don't have to go-it-alone. I'm not sure how those military wives do it for so long. {no picture to show you but just imagine what I might have looked like}


Porter graduated from Kindergarten. It was a tricky transition to move in the middle of the school year but we all survived. Porter went from an all day kindergarten in La Verkin to afternoon kindergarten at Horizon Elementary. I'm so glad we got Mrs. Key because she was so easy to work with and Porter loved her as a teacher. He even got a little embarrassed when I read the comment on his report card that said, "Porter is so cute." He's so excited to be big enough for 1st grade!

 
I sold our car. When we first bought the van I was sad about selling the car because I loved it so much. The gas mileage was great, parking wasn't a problem, and after we fixed the transmission it was a great little cruiser. The more I drive the van, though, the more I was ok with saying goodbye. The best part is that I was able to sell it for $500 more than I expected. $4500.00 later I watched it pull out of the drive way for the last time.

We had a visitor. It's weird how this one happened, and it's really not that big of a deal, but I had a cute picture to post with this one. We were on our way to put our 'car money' in the bank when I saw a car that looked like Todd's G-pa Roy. It turned around behind us and followed us to the main road and then turned back around up the street. I decided I better turn around too, just in case it really was G-pa Roy and he was looking for us. It's a good thing I did because it was him. He's never been to our house and he was lost. He was just bringing me a history of his Grandfather that I had asked about a few weeks ago. He's such a good guy! I had to help lead him out because he was a little turned around but it was fun to have him visit for a minute.

Busy week and a half...kinda...not really...but I tried to make it sound like I did A TON of things without the man of the house around. We'll be so happy to have our dad home again! 

Foot Napkin

Just a quick one tonight: PAYTON {he thinks he's so funny}

The other night we had eaten pasta for dinner. Of course we can't seem to keep things on our plates and at least some of it has to {JUST HAS TO!} hit the floor--and it's not just Jess that has this habit. Payton got up from the table and walked past the high chair when he hit a noodle with his foot. Instead of picking up his foot and wiping it off, he had to DRAG his foot across the floor-smearing it everywhere his foot went. I couldn't let it go. I had to get after him. He then walked over to the kitchen rug and continued wiping off his foot. That was almost worse! His excuse? "What? I thought the rug was like a foot napkin!" Son, son, son. Since when do we use ANY kind of napkins around this house?!

Maybe someday, somehow, someone will teach this boy some manners...Maybe!