Jack is 5 months old. Of course, being his mother I think he's extremely handsome!! I seriously can't stop taking pictures of this little fellow. His face is just too cute. He's doing a lot these days. He pulls himself up to a sitting position but falls forward pretty easily. He can't keep his balance quite yet. He's rolling over both back and front and on a good day I can make him laugh pretty hard. Eating some oatmeal cereal has been his biggest milestone yet. Sadie didn't start solids until 6 months but I felt like Jack was still hungry after nursing, so we introduced solids a little earlier with him.
However, I can't complain because although he takes little cat naps through out the day, he sleeps soundly through the night and into the morning. He takes a great morning nap but usually likes to sleep on my chest during the late afternoon. A bad habit, I know, but I love it too much to stop.
He loves putting everything in his mouth from my fingers to his rattles. His new favorite toy is Sadie's plastic necklace which he can only play with while she's at preschool. We're still learning to share at the Cannon home. I love this little guy SO much. I just can't get enough of him. As you can see he's the happiest little guy with a very sweet disposition. I have such great kids!!
Cannon offspring!! It took us forever to get this picture. Note to self: Never try taking a picture of kids before they go out trick or treating. The two up top look very enthusiastic.
When we got back to the Todd's all the kids dumped out their candy for inspection. Mom's were given the Butterfingers, Almond Joys, and toothbrushes. Everything else was home free. I tried to monitor how much Sadie ate. Chase stopped me saying, "It's Halloween, let her have a little fun." I'm glad I have him around to cool me off every once in a while.
I can't believe how much candy kids get these days. I remember back when I was a youngster we would go for hours into the night to accumulate a pillow case worth and even that wasn't enough time. With "trunk or treat" every year, a kid can pretty much expect to fill their buckets before it even gets dark!! Lets not forget to mention that the distance between two houses is far greater than the space between two cars in a parking lot. The folks at the Oak Marr ward were generous enough to give the kids not one but several pieces of candy at each trunk. I would have killed for this as a kid. We didn't have time to go to our own ward's Trunk or Treat because of our traditional Leesburge adventure that evening. So we instead went to Oak Marr's and Sadie was in heaven with all her old friends. We were definitely "stow aways" but I have a feeling no one recognized us:-)
Napoleon Dynamite? No, it's just Chase looking very handsome indeed.
Jack was a little fish. Our outfits don't really go together but I was just proud of us for dressing up. We weren't planning on it until Sades asked us what we were going to be. I guess we need to start expecting full participation from this point on.
This is the first year we carved pumpkins with Sadie. It think we'll try again next year. She's too young to hold a knife, light a candle, and the pumpkin "stinks." She liked seeing them all lit up and that's all that matters. 
Seeing that Chase already took the day off for the Halloween parade we made it a "Cannon Holiday" and went to Cox Farms. This time I had help and it was SO much better. Uncle Curtis even came which was a real treat seeing he now lives in Dubai. We met up with Christie, Ben, Peyton, and Will from preschool as well. it was fun for Sades to have a little buddie. I love this place. They're closed now and Sadie still asks me just about every day.."is Cox Farms open?", along with.."is it Christmas yet, can Santa Claus see me, can we decorate the Christmas tree yet, can we watch Tercules (Hercules)" and my all time favorite..."I love you Mom....(pause)..can I have some fruit loops"(Daddy's stash of course).
These slides are so fun. Chase experienced them for the first time this year. Jack did too. I have a feeling this kid will be prematurely exposed to many of Sadie's activities...like plummeting down a steep slide for example @ 5 months. Next up...lollipops!!
I still chuckle when I see Sadie with curly hair. It lasted about 1 hour outside.
Looking like a real hick at the farm. What a pose! She was mad because she fed all the food too fast to the cows and wanted it back.
I'm sure Curtis was pretty excited about this place seeing that there's absolutely nothing to see in "boring" Dubai. Cows, goats, rope swings and manure can delight the eye far better than man made islands and skyscrapers that reach heaven.
I talked Sadie into putting sponge curlers in her hair the night before her preschool parade. I was shocked when she said yes and actually slept with them. Her hair turned out so cute. I covet curly hair and always have. Too bad all the women in my family have stick straight hair while the only boy was blessed with ringlets. NO FAIR!! I'm hoping that because Jack's a boy he'll inherit some curls. Anyway, the parade was fun. Sadie felt like a real fairy princess and it showed. She was in heaven. Chase took the day off so we got to hang out all day. Hooray!!
Showing us some serious fairy attitude. 
We took the kids to the Vienna Halloween parade. As you can see from the pictures Sadie still hadn't quite recovered from her bee sting. She's looking pretty sleepy. The little girl behind me talked my ear off!! She commented on just about every person she saw. I would feel a little tug on my sleeve as she would scream into my ear "look at the balloons and look there's a princess. My mommy says there are going to be ponies...I love ponies." Sadie just sat there. It was a rare time for her to be so silent. The parade was kind of weird. It happened right before Virginia's elections so pretty much everyone in the parade was a delegate holding someone's baby. We left after we noticed Sadie's expression hadn't changed in over an hour.
Lately I've been using IKEA's bag clips to keep Sadie's crazy hair out of her food. They work great for my hair too. One clip can hold my whole head's worth. Another reason to love IKEA.
We've been watching the leaves for a few weeks now just waiting for their peak and it finally arrived. We initially tried to go to Shenandoah Valley on Saturday but it poured. So Sunday it was. Feeling ambitious, we tried to drive there and back before 12:30 church started. We packed the car, put jackets over pajamas and headed out the door.
Although we didn't make it back until 2:30, it was totally worth the rebellion. What a sight! Sadie was completely into the whole experience. She kept saying "look at all these beautiful leaves" and while gasping would remark on their bright colors. We gathered several because she wanted to take them home.
This is the first year she has really understood the seasons. She is very much aware of all the leaves falling off the trees and had noticed all the pumpkins. She asks me daily when it's going to be Halloween. We stopped and had a picnic in a little town's meadow and saw a fox walk by. Other than the occasional "when are we going to get there" whining, it was a beautiful drive and fun to hang out as a family. 
