Oh Jack, how we love you!!!

Let us list all the reasons why!

Jack loves to "Shoot the hoops." He's obsessed with playing basketball on either one of his two mini-hoops. He can do "Clyde the Glide", says "swish" after he makes a shot, and loves to pass out the assists, Stockton style, while he says "Daddy shoot". He also loves the basketball hoop at the pool in Circle C. He stands on the side and watches everyone shoot, while he waits until he has a chance to shoot his mini-ball. He thinks it's hilarious when others make it in the hoop. It's become quite difficult to get him to go to bed as he runs around his room throwing balls all over the place. He breathes heavily as he starts to wear himself out. It's entertaining enough that he usually gets us all involved and bedtime waits another half hour.


He absolutely loves swimming, and will put his arms in the air and basically do a belly-flop off the side of the pool into my arms. He even jumped off the swim team blocks at the Twin Creeks pool. He is basically fearless, which can be bad. But putting his head in the water doesn't bother him, and he enjoys blowing bubbles and trying to emulate Sadie's swimming motions.

His "no fear" attitude got him into trouble the other day. We were at a birthday party at the Knepp's pool and after seeing Jack was safe in the shallow end of the pool throwing rocks and dumping water in his buckets, I turned my head to watch Sadie go down the slide on the opposite side of the pool. Three seconds later I heard Jessica Knepp scream "baby in the pool" as she jumped in fully clothed to save our little Jack as he had made his way past the boulders dividing the shallow and deep end. It really shook me up. I was composed at the party but TOTALLY lost it when we got home and cried almost the rest of the afternoon. The thought of my precious Jack ever being harmed or hurt in any way was just too overwhelming for me and it KILLED me that he fell in under my watch. Made me feel pretty lousy, guilty and eternally grateful all at the same time that he was still alive and in our lives. We love him too much to let him go!!


Jack is the ultimate warrior wrestler. He loves to rough house with his Dad. He puts his arms in the air, and does a body slam right on top of Chase's chest. He usually laughs as he does it. And laughs even harder when Chase reacts with an "Owwwwwwww!".

Fumble!! Jack loves running around with the football, getting tackled, and then having Daddy knock the ball loose and yelling "Fumble!!" He then gets up and chases the ball down.

Loves to run into the kitchen and say: "Uh, snah. Snah." (Snacks.) He also loves to ask for "snahs" when we get in the car. Dinner happens to be his worst meal and we rarely get him to eat anything at the dinner table. He loves playing with the water at the sink and after telling us he's "hungee" and "play in da wa wa" we set him up with a stool and spoon feed him baby food. I can't believe he will still eat the stuff. He still asks for his "utmeal" every morning and has now requested that he sit on the counter while I mix ingredients so he can "I do it" himself. He'll pour the oatmeal, scoop in the formula, and flax seed mill. He's all about being involved these days.


Loves having Sadie chase him around the house or wherever. Hilarious to hear both of them running after each other and giggling uncontrollably. He likes to be chased but not caught by Sadie because it usually entails a longer hug than he prefers. They are both so cute as they run around the room chasing each other.

Another funny thing these two like to do is pretend to cough and ask one another if they are "ok." Jack has gotten to the point where he will cough and ask himself if he's ok. "jack ok?" It's adorable!! He's totally into looking at himself in the mirror as well and pointing as he exclaims "JACK!!"

He's always quite interested in where people have gone when they leave the room. Sadie's name sounds like "Sidi" and we love it when he asks.."wheh Sidi go?" Or if I'm calling for Sadie to come into the room Jack will do the same and yell "Sidi...Sidi!!" LOVE IT!! These two have really become the best and worst of friends. They love each other and drive each other nuts too. One of his favorite games is blowing small raspberries and having Sadie pretend to be startled by saying "ope!" Jack then follows with a chuckle so fantastic his shoulders move up and down with a big grin on his face.

Jack still takes a long two to three hour nap everyday and is usually so worn out he falls asleep in my arms when I sing him songs in the rocking chair. I love it when he falls asleep so I can just rock and stare at him and his long eyelashes. It's so rare to have him so still in my arms as he's such a wiggly little guy. He's very funny with his songs. I can only sing a select few. If I try to branch out and sing something different he raises his arm, turns his head at me and says "no! A-na-na song." His songs are "Jesus song" (Child of God), I love you, Baby Mine, A Dream, So this is Love, Stay Awake and anything else is forbidden! When I finish with a song he says "A-na-na song behind his blue binky." We sing songs at night as well and ONLY Mom can put him to bed. Chase tried one night and he kept screaming "ma ma song!!" with tears rolling down his face that I had no choice but to oblige. He's become very particular in his two years of life.

If he's still awake when I put him down at night it's very hard to leave him in his darkened room as he calls "ma ma" in the most desperate tone possible. I am such a softy with this kid! I go back in and we play "monkey" as he wraps his legs around my arm and traps it as he gets tickled. My arm goes from a fist to crazy monkey fingers and he laughs like a lunatic. It's hilarious and gets him all riled up before bed. Very bad habits we are forming around here.

He also does NOT like to be in time-out. He's usually pretty good but will sometimes just walk by Sadie and smack her on the head. When this happens we sit him down and he looks down with his lower lip sticking out and moves his eyes to the side as he knows he's in trouble. He never looks me in the eyes when he's being talked to in time-out. I hate putting him in there but it's pretty cute watching him look so remorseful.

He also DOES NOT like smoke alarms. They terrify him and sometimes when they "tweet", he'll run to me in fear of the world ending and screaming "loud beep!!" Sometimes parking garages have "beeps" that go off and it's just too much for him to handle as he buries his head in my shoulder.


He likes to do whatever Sadie does and one day as she was pretending to die from eating a "poisoned apple" he followed right along. He loves his big sis and is always interested in what she's up to.

His cheeks are still super round and chubby and they shake when he walks around.

He's started singing a little bit and when we clean up the play room he'll sing "kee up, kee up" while picking up his toys. He also has learned to sing a few lines of "happy birthday" too but I think only Mom knows what he's really singing. When I count next to him he'll fill in the numbers when I pause. I think he can count to ten but I can't get him to do it on his own yet but he certainly recognizes the numbers and their order. He's also finally into reading books. They have to be short board books or he gets bored (no pun intended).

I was a little worried that Jack was behind in the "talking" category but a few months ago he went from knowing just a few hand fulls of words to speaking in sentences. I've heard of this happening and it was amazing to see him all of a sudden talking!! His favorite phrases are "I hold it" when he wants something, "I dun wit dis" when he's all done with something, "Go to the wa wa or "play wit the wa wa" when he wants to go to the pool, "cola wit dis" when he sees Sadie coloring at her table and wants to join her, and "shoot hoops" when he doesn't want to go to bed, and others that I am already forgetting.

I guess I'm just one of those people who doesn't want to forget ANYTHING so I write all these little details down about these little people in my life because they make me happy and I figure one day when it will make them happy too when they are older and can read about how fantastic and entertaining they were.

We love you little Jack. Thanks for these incredible two years!!

Jack's Day!!

Thinking of ideas for Jack's birthday party was somewhat difficult for me seeing that even if I pulled one off, we wouldn't have anyone to invite. Jack is the only little boy his age in our ward so we didn't really have too many options. Seeing that he's still pretty oblivious to birthdays in general (especially his own) we decided to dodge the "crazy party planning Mom" bullet and have a relaxing day at home with just our family.
We wanted the day to be fun for Jack and because he loves playing in the water so much, we centered the entire day around just that...water.

First off, we headed over to our neighborhood pool. Jack LOVES the big water slide and says "gen, gen" (again) every time he hits the water at the bottom. We must have walked up those three flights of stairs at least 20 times that day!

Sadie of course came along too and they both had a lot of fun splashing around and swimming. It was Memorial Day that Saturday so the pool was REALLY crowded with people.
We didn't mind. It was kind of fun thinking that all the live music, smell of brisket smoking on the grill, and the the people were all there just for Jack to celebrate two years of his fantastic little life.
He really has been such a joy to raise these last 24 months. I couldn't ask for a sweeter little boy!!
Eventually everyone got pretty worn out so we headed home for some rest and relaxation. I love this picture of our nerdy little Sadie going down the slide all by herself (which could only be accomplished once we reassured her she could go down with her life jacket on.)
When Jack woke up from his nap we took him straight to another one of his favorite places, which again includes water. Our little pool on the back deck always provides hours of entertainment while Mom cooks dinner and gets other stuff done. He loves hanging out in that little pool filling up cups or dumping buckets of water on himself.
That evening our friends invited us over to their pool for a Memorial Day BBQ. We of course were thrilled because not only are they great friends and have an awesome pool, but that meant one more great thing for our little Jack...more water to play with. I guess without planning a party we still have to have a theme right? He made Chase take him down that slide over and over and over again and never got sick of it!
We all sang to Jack after dinner and he tried with all his might to blow out the candles. I love that every time we read Goodnight Moon and he sees the fireplace, he tries to blow out that flame as well. It seems we already have a Pyromaniac in the works (just like his mom:-).
He was pretty well spent by the end of the night so we decided to wait to open presents the next day, which happened to be his real birthday. Seeing as it fell on a Sunday, we felt we better do all the celebrating stuff the day before.
Jack loves to doodle on anything and will be heard saying "I colah dis" when he wants to play with some crayons and paper. He loved playing with his magna doodle so much that it made Big Sis Sadie SUPER jealous. Even after me throwing her a party and receiving gifts from all of her friends, she still felt she had the right to open and play with all of Jack's gifts too. Poor guy!!
Sadie went to bed early and Jack stayed up a little later with Mom and Dad so he could enjoy his new toys in peace. We got him a Mr. potato head because he's learning all the body parts, but he wasn't too interested. He's also really good with his colors, so I thought a stacking cone would be fun too. We love our little Jack so much. Happy Birthday buddy!!

"Gucks"

We have a new obsession in our home....TRUCKS!! Jack calls them "gucks" and sometimes something else but I won't write it down for fear of offending virgin ears like my own. We were at the grocery store and he saw a package of five trucks hanging next to the laundry detergent isle. Even if you try to avoid the isles that will give your child a fast and easy tantrum (like the toy or candy/cookie isle), you can be rest assured that even if avoided at all costs, toys will somehow appear where you least expect them. They will entice kids to say "dis...dis...dis." as they point wildly in the direction of something you never expected to find next to Tide and ironing boards.
To keep him quiet I gave Jack the box just to look at and planned on handing it over to the cashier on the way out. The last thing we need at our house are more toy cars.
It turns out Jack likes to chew and slobber on things (Children's Hour beware!!) so when handing over a chewed up box of Matchbox trucks, I realized I had no other choice but to buy them. He's a smart kid, that Jack. We agreed that because his birthday was in a few weeks, he couldn't play with the trucks, only the chewed up outside box.
That scenario lasted about a week after the box started resembling something from the recycle bin, and Jack was finally allowed to open his trucks. Man oh man, did he enjoy those little pieces of metal. He has since learned their names, ..bump guck..(dump truck), red truck, and so on. It's fun buying stuff for Jack. He enjoys all aspects of toys, including the package they come in.


P.S. Don't we all love Jack's hair when it's humid outside? WINGS!!

The Graduate!!

Sadie's graduation ceremony was hilarious!! Literally...Chase and I were laughing hysterically. The songs the kids sang were so ridiculously cheesy that suppressing laughter would have only made it worse. They sang songs like "He's (God) still working on me, to make me who I ought (Sadie says "off") to be, it took him just a week to make the moon and stars, the sun, the earth and Jupiter and Mars. Loving, patient he must be...he's still working on me." Another one goes like this..."HEY (shouting with fists in the air) JESUS LOVES ME...HEY JESUS LOVES ME!!!" Imagine a kid xylophone in the background and hundreds of toddlers belting the words out at the top of their lungs.
Now try to imagine a larger girl standing next to a smaller, thinner boy whose actions are so strong she ends up practically punching this poor boy next to her every time they scream "HEY" which is at least 30 times throughout the song. Everyone around us who noticed this small form of violence was laughing pretty hard too.
Quite entertaining I must say. Sadie is now officially done with preschool which means I don't have to pay tuition anymore. HOORAY!!! She loved her teacher Mrs. Rice and I'm convinced she got the greatest teacher in the school, totally by default. She and her friend Addy became the best of friends as they were in the same class. I love that they practically sang every song to each other during the ceremony.
Next up...Kindergarten!!

A Fashion Fairytale

We've come a long way from Nemo, Thomas and Lightning McQueen. This year Sadie requested a "fashion show" birthday party. Whenever she has friends over, she likes to turn on music so they can get dressed up and walk down the runway (hallway) in our house. It seemed only fitting that this would be the theme this year to celebrate 5 years of life with Sadie Elizabeth Cannon.
Upon Sadie's request...NO BOYS ALLOWED!! This turned out to be a pretty exclusive party especially when it came to a pair of twins whose male half wasn't invited. I reassured the mom that even if he came (which he was more than welcome to do) it probably wouldn't be very much fun for him anyway. It was all about pink, make-up, dressing up, jewels, feather boas, high heels and giggles. ALL GIRL!!

The party actually didn't cost me a lot of money, just a lot of time. I spent a few days drawing up plans for the actual runway, and figuring out ways to actually execute them. I made a zillion little paper napkin flowers, baked a delicious cake (and even put some paper napkin flowers on there as well), hung more paper napkin flower balls from the trees, set up the little tables, and the makeup/accessory tables. It was such a fun little set up. I have Dana to thank for the paper flowers idea. They turned out really cute.

Making the runway was actually pretty easy once I figured out how I was going to do it. I borrowed nursery tables from the church, covered them with a red runway I borrowed from Christine, and built the stage out of PVC piping(borrowed from Melissa). White curtains, a stapler, and lots of paper flowers and voila! We have a runway!! I was just glad it held up the length of the birthday party. The girls LOVED it!!
When the models first arrived we got everyone into "hair and make-up." Cute Easton Webster (Sadie's favorite babysitter) came over to help me with crowd control. 9 crazy dressed up models can be a lot to handle. She did their make-up while I picked out shoes and accessories for them.
Look at all our cute little runway models. I was a little disappointed with the light at the party. It was 80 degrees so I wasn't about to have the whole thing in the scorching sun, so we had to deal with shadows under the big oak tree and equally dealt with squinty eyes and over exposure when they were in the sun. I was pleased as punch that the weather man was wrong. He forecasted a 94 degree day. We totally lucked out!!
Now, to the main event.....the Runway!! Sadie got up there first and showed the girls how to "walk" the runway. She was so sassy and informative all at the same time. All that was required was a walk to the end, a turn and a pose. Most of the girls did a curtsy which I thought was pretty cute. Linley (girl in the yellow) definitely had the most "model-esque" attitude, and Emma Johnson hands down had the best walk. It was hilarious!! We were all cracking up watching these girls strut their stuff and take their "jobs" so seriously.

Let them eat cake!! I wasn't about to make a cake from scratch seeing that all the kids really eat is the frosting. So I made the frosting from scratch and Pillsbury helped me with the cake. I remember my mom and I going to a cake decorating relief society activity and I absolutely LOVED it!! I have since forgotten how to make flowers out of frosting so I used Dana's paper flowers idea and made them miniature to put on the cake. It's the closest I could get to resembling a Backers cake on South Temple and even then it's a gross impersonation. Like I predicted, the cake was left on all the plates and zero frosting. I should just forget the cake and give them a dollop of frosting next year.
Sadie's only request (other than NO BOYS, mom building her a runway and throwing a ridiculously time consuming party) was a game of musical chairs. The girls who lost their seat sat by Easton or headed back to the runway to "practice" some more.

This is the first year I have let Sadie open her gifts in front of friends. I attended a party once in Virginia where this was allowed with a bunch of three years olds and it was so chaotic I vowed to never repeat such an offense. I like the birthday girl to be able to open each gift while everyone watches so she can properly thank her guests individually. I thought a game of "heavy heavy hang over thy poor head" would be fun but still had the small worry that being hit on the head with a gift was a little above their maturity level. I was wrong. The girls were so gentle and loved giving Sadie disguised voices and giggles so she could find out who they were. Sadie loved being the center of attention and opening the gifts most of all.

Sadie's other request (she had too many) was that she wanted to "fish" for a prize like we did at her Lightning McQueen birthday party. Chase had the great idea to have the runway models "fish for a compliment." It was a great way to give them their party favor and also focus more on the inside appearance than the outside.
After the feast of jewels, make-up, and pretty dresses, I thought the compliments should boost the self esteem rather than the self image. "You're smart, you're a good friend, and you make your friends happy" were some of the compliments given. I don't think the kids really cared what their compliment said, but of course I tried to make a point that what really matters is what's on the inside. That's when they ran off and jumped up on the runway again so they could strut, turn and pose one last time. Can't say I didn't try.
After everyone went home we just couldn't put the runway away with out having a fashion show of our own. Jack slept through Sadie's entire party (thank goodness) but loved showing his moves on the runway with bed head and all.

Happy birthday my little five year old...yes, you will always be "little" to me.

She's getting ready!

Sadie wants to have a fashion show for her birthday party, so we've been practicing.

A Hunt of Our Own

After the joke of a hunt the day before, the Easter Bunny TOTALLY redeemed himself on Sunday morning. There were eggs everywhere and the kids were going crazy waiting for us slow poke parents to get out of bed already!


We were mean and made them eat breakfast first instead of feasting on Kit Kats, Reeses, Jelly Beans and Rolos. I was pretty amazed at how patient they were. Can you see all the eggs in the background? That could be a form of torture for a kid. I know it was for me Christmas morning waiting for Emily to finally wake up.


Some were more patient than others. I didn't even know Sadie could make such a face! It's probably one of those contortions I hope to never see again. Kind of funny though.





After breakfast we got our cameras ready and the hunt began. The older kids helped their younger siblings find the eggs in plain view and it was chaos for about 10 minutes.





Then it was time to assess the loot.





I love these next two pics of Jack. First of all I love how handsome and adorable he is and second of all, I love that he organized his jelly beans in color groups.


I didn't notice this until I looked at the pictures when we got home. He must be a genius!


After everyone settled down we got out Sadie's comic strip scriptures and read about Jesus' Resurrection. We also read my favorite Easter book The Country Bunny.


It's a long book and some kids lost interest, but also being one of Sadie's favorite stories, she hung around till the end. I love her!