Damon Turns 10!!!

 Damon Doyle is 10 years old!!!

Oh how we love our Damon Boy!! He is a caring, loving kid who loves to help people. If you're having a hard day, he'll give you a hug, a compliment, and make you laugh. People just love being around him.

Damon loves going to school. He always wants to get there as early as he can to play with his friends before going inside. He is so sad the school year is almost over. Sawyer moved into our neighborhood this past summer and Damon reached right out to him, and they have been great buddies ever since. As soon as they're home from school and put their backpacks away, they get together to play for the rest of the afternoon. Sawyer's parents thanked us for what a great friend Damon has been to him. 

Damon loves to play sports and to play with friends. He wants to sign up for as many different teams as he can. It seems like volleyball is a favorite right now. He wants to be signed up for that year-round, and play an additional sport on top of volleyball, depending on the season. He's loved having Tristan on his volleyball team, and they are signed up to play baseball and pickleball together this summer too.

Damon is a hard worker. He's mowed quite a few lawns already this year and loves saving up money for things that he really wants. He is also very generous with his money. He donated a good amount to a fundraiser at his school for a new playground for the kids in the autistic unit. He loves those kids and said he wants them to get a playground that will be more fun for them. 

We're so glad Damon is a part of our family. We love his silliness, his smiles, his hugs, and his kindness.

Damon was so excited for crepes and bacon for breakfast.

And of course a spray of whipped cream in his mouth!

He opened his card from Grandma & Grandpa Ham that morning. We had been watching America's Funniest Videos the night before and there was a compilation of little kids thinking George Washington on the $1 bill was their grandma. When Damon pulled the $20 bill out of the card he pointed at Andrew Jackson and said, "Look Mom, it's Grandpa!" Haha!

He wanted to open presents right after school.

He was excited about his crocs.

A couple of the teachers at his school got sprayed with silly string and he thought that looked so fun. I surprised him with a few bottles.

He wanted novelty socks, so I got him some volleyball ones.

He also got a Mario Party game for the Switch and some walkie talkies. 

He wanted to go to Cafe Rio for dinner. We don't usually buy drinks there, so he was so excited to get a drink and try the lemonades. He ended up loving the horchata!

We watched a movie that evening and had cake and ice cream. 

It was a great day!

For his party this year he invited Sawyer, Rockwell, Tessa, Wyatt and Hallee. I thought that was so sweet he wanted his siblings and cousins to come.

We went bowling and then they came and hung out at our house for the day. Wyatt and Hallee gave him a pack of novelty socks, and he loves them.

It was fun to hear them all playing games and laughing together in the basement.

Happy birthday Damon Doyle!! We love love love you!!!

This & That

Damon loves playing volleyball. He does such a great job! 

I was able to catch a great play where he served the ball, the other team returned it, Damon returned that, and scored a point. He loves when that happens!

Damon loved watching the Minecraft movie at Bode's birthday party.

We had another fire for dinner. The weather is a rollercoaster this Spring, so we try to take advantage of the warm, dry days.

We had a Stake Camp Activity to introduce the journals we made for camp. We did a Dora skit. :) Nikki, Karna, Susie and I worked really hard on making a spiritual, purposeful journal that will help the girls and leaders Look Unto Christ. We're really happy with the end result, and are excited to use it ourselves too. 

Mother's Day was a whole mess of emotions this year. It's so hard to see my mom decline as quickly as she is. It's hard to not be able to celebrate her and the amazing mother she has always been in a meaningful way anymore. It's so hard to watch this disease take so much away from her. I shed many many tears the whole weekend, and I just miss her and wish that she wasn't suffering like she is.

I did however have a wonderful time with my kids and Paul on Mother's Day. 

I love the About My Mom pages they fill out every year.

Rockwell had to help me read his handwriting. Haha!

Man I sure love these kids! I love love love being their mom. I hope that I can make them feel as loved as my mom has always made me feel.

We were all excited for Paul's tacos for dinner that night!!! Thank you for a wonderful Mother's Day Paul, Rockwell, Tessa, and Damon!

I love what these two come up with to do together on Sundays. 

Western US Regionals

 Tessa and I flew out to Pleasanton, California for the Western US Regionals Meet. Arden, Posey, Milan and Coach Leslie were on our flight. Arden and Tessa had fun sitting with each other on the plane.

We walked over to the mall after we got all settled in our hotel room. We window-shopped and then ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Tessa is a big fan of CPK now!

We spent the rest of the night binge-watching Haters Back Off and eating treats.

We ate breakfast at the hotel and then did Tessa's hair while we watched more Haters Back Off. :) We walked to the mall again for lunch and a little more shopping.

Then we made our way to the fairgrounds for the meet. Tessa, Morgan and Arden competed, and we were all so sad that Lexi wasn't able to come because she broke her ankle. :(

Arete started on bars. Tessa did great. It was fun to see her big smile when she finished. She felt really good about how straight her arms and legs were on her kip.

Next was beam, and she wasn't feeling too confident on that. Her back walkover kinda came around the side and she landed very off-balance. She fought very hard to stay on, but eventually crashed down and butt-bounced right off. 

She let her shoulders slump, and then got right back up and finished her routine. I know she was so disappointed that she fell, and also feeling a good amount of pain in her bum. When we were watching the video later, she was proud of how hard she fought to stay on though. After watching the video from the state meet, she was like, "Man, I didn't even try to stay on the beam. I just flopped right off." She was determined to fight if that happened again, and she did. It was great effort!

She did well on floor! She didn't have her usual pep and big smile, and she told me after that she was in her head a bit from the fall on beam still. But all her skills looked great!

Vault was good for her too. She and Lilia decided to have her do two half-ons. Her form looked really good!

Tessa took 3rd on vault with a 9.4

She took 2nd on bars with a 9.375

They medaled out 7 places, and Tessa took 8th on beam with an 8.8. So no medal for beam. She tied for 2nd on floor with a 9.575

She placed 3rd All-Around with a total score of 37.15

Congratulations Tessa Girl!!! You did so good!

We were the last ones in the awards room and so Stacy and I got some cute pictures of Morgan and Tess.

We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner again, and Morgan, Minna, and Stacy joined us. Then Tessa and Morgan went swimming back at the hotel.

It was a very fun weekend!! I love these trips with Tessa. We partied pretty hard (and she worked hard!), and she fell right to sleep on the way home from the airport.