Our three year wonder!!

Baby Jack is now officially a toddler and even though I still call him baby, snuggle, and rock him to sleep, he is officially getting too big for me and that rocking chair.  I love this kid!!  Sometimes I can't handle it and squeeze him until he freaks out.  I'm almost borderline obsessed and find myself holding my hand over my heart when I watch him sleep because he's my sweet little guy and he TOTALLY has me wrapped around his chubby fingers. 

For his birthday we thought it would be fun to go see the new Disney documentary about chimpanzees.  Jack wasn't on board.  I think movie theatres kind of creep him out.  All the kid wanted to do was go to the bounce house and eat some good old P-Terry's.  He and Sadie had a blast!!  Normally when we go to the bounce house with all the other mom and kids, Sadie and Jack rarely play together.  It was so fun to go with just our family and watch them laugh and run around together.  They really are such great little buddies. 

There are so many things I love about my little Jack.  I love that he changes his R's and L's into W's when he talks.  When I put flax seed oil in his oatmeal he will always say without fail, "wook Mom.  It wooks wike a wiver." He says "seben" for seven, "fibe" for five, and "eleben" for eleven.  "My weg hurts and I wuv you."  My all time favorite was when he said "Mom!  I'm shibbering" while walking back to the car from the pool.  Makes me want to just eat him.     

He's such a happy little dude.  I love how excited he gets even if the puck goes in on his side.  He'll shout GOAL no matter who's winning.  Whenever he and Sadie are racing and she's proclaims that she won by shouting "I win.," he comes back with an equally enthusiastic "I lose!!!" 

Here's a couple more of his one liners:
"Daddy, I have a duker."-when he needed his diaper changed.
"Dad, that room is too ghosty.  Will you turn the wite on?"
"Wook Mom.  George's bum is cracked open."
"There's a tomato outside."-when it gets really windy (tornado)
"Mom, I want some brestbis (breakfast)"  Sadie corrected him and said "no Jack!  It's Brectfist!"

He has discovered that watching golf (one of the most boring sports on television) is REALLY fun to watch with Dad.  He also LOVES Bob the Builder and knows the opening song by heart.  He'll sing it on command and with out hesitation.  I've noticed that after he hears a song, he memorizes the words pretty quickly.  I'm impressed with his current repertoire.  Another favorite song is his "excamater (excavator)" song.  While singing it he puts his hand in a fist and pretends to be the boom of the excavator with his arm.  He LOVES all kinds of trucks but gets really excited about excavators. 

I loved watching him open his birthday gifts.  It was amazing to see him dedicate time to each present.  Usually kids his age just open the present and toss it to the side so they can open the next one.  He was driving Sadie crazy because she wanted him to keep opening his presents and all he wanted to do was look through some of his new books.  CC and Pops gave him a sweet polar bear book and animal and as you can see, they're buddies now. We also got him some new running shoes which have officially been named his "cool shoes."  Every time he meets someone new he'll ask them if they want to see his "cool shoes."   

He's becoming very independent and loves to do everything himself.  He fills up his own water, gets in and out of the car on his own, and always want to help me in the kitchen while making his "brestbis" or washing the dishes.  We took him to his three year check-up and he was super shy with the doctor at first and then warmed up as soon as she said he was up to date on immunizations and wouldn't have to get a shot that day.  He is 38 1/2 inches (75th percentile) and 32.8 pounds (63 percentile).  He's growing like a weed and is almost as tall as his petite older sister. 

He's probably ready for a big boy bed and rarely takes naps anymore unless he falls asleep in the car.  We find him somewhere different almost every night when we go upstairs to check on them.  Sometimes he's asleep on the floor next to Sadie's noise machine.  Sometimes he's on top of her pillows at the foot of the bed and sometimes he's snuggled up next to Sadie.  It's never in his own room because he loves his big sis so much.

We've attempted potty training and I won't get into that now seeing as that deserves a post of it's own and I should probably keep things positive for a birthday post.  Lets just say it's WAY harder to train boys than girls and Sadie was REALLY REALLY hard to train!! 

We love, love, love our Jack.  He's the sweetest little guy on earth.  I love that he sings "somewhere over the rainbow and la la loo" to me.  I love his enthusiasm and "go with the flow" personality.  I love that all he has to do is smile at me and I'll pretty much give him whatever he wants.

Happy Birthday little buddy!!  I can't believe you're already three!!    

The DARGERS!!!!!

Do you see that smile on my face?  Well there's a reason for such splendor and glee.  The Dargers have officially moved to Texas!!  And not just Texas, but Austin and in our ward!!  It doesn't get much better than this people.  We've been chatting about them moving here for about a year now and always had high hopes but we never thought it would really happen. Well,when there's a will, there's a way dag nabbit!!

To make a long story short, Ford and Julie left New York for a new and improved lifestyle and headed to Georgia for a few months until Ford found a new job.  In the mean time an attorney at Chase's work also left her job for a new and improved lifestyle of working at home.  When Chase told me this I immediately said "What about FORD!!!"  We weren't too optimistic because although Ford is a tax attorney like Chase their work couldn't be more different as Chase works in employee benefits and Ford in estate tax.  Well, we thought we'd give it a try anyway. 

Chase recommended Ford for the new position and because they love Chase so much and wanted another one just like him (this is his proud wife talking:-) they were totally on board to giving him an interview and flew him out right away.  Ford obviously blew them out of the water in his interview because here they are!!!!  I couldn't be more pleased!!  Julie has always been like a sister to me and even though we only knew each other for a short while in San Diego, we've kept in touch over the last four years and now we get to hang out all the time again. 

As if it couldn't be more "too good to be true," our kids get along swimmingly!!  Over the course of four years we have managed to also produce the same amount of children at nearly the same time as well.  I'm just going to let this bliss last as long as I can because sometimes life is just too good and that's the truth!!
TEXAS FOREVER!! 

Looping in style!!

HU 

LA

 

HOOP!!

Four Months of George

George is changing so fast right before our eyes.  Sometimes we see Sadie in him and other days we see a little Jack but it's been decided that George is George.  He's a Cannon for sure but has such a different look than the other two.  What a handsome little delight!  This month he has really gotten the hang of sleeping through the night.  There will be an occasional 8 hour stretch but mostly I will feed him at 11 and he'll wake up at 6 or 7.  It's heavenly getting that much sleep every night. 

He's really discovered his hands this month and is always taking his binky out and putting his fingers in.  He loves his two middle fingers.  For a while I could only get him to nurse on one side but he has since given up that annoying habit and is now a very efficient eater draining me completely.

He is smiling and cooing a lot.  Mostly he sounds like a canary with his high pitched squeals.  I have gotten him to laugh a few chuckles here and there but I'm not funny enough for him.  It literally do a song and dance to get him to giggle. 

For a while I could only get him to take 20 minute naps here and there and it was driving me crazy!!  Out of desperation I finally knelt down and prayed to know how to get him to sleep better and the answer I got was to quit swaddling him so tight.  He really likes to suck on those fingers and I was depriving him of that pleasure.  So now he is only swaddled around his legs.  He sleeps much better through out the day now. 

We blessed him in the same little outfit Jack wore.  He looked so handsome I hated taking it off so I took a million pictures instead. 

He is also rolling a ton.  He can roll both front and back, still hates tummy time and loves sleeping on his side with his two fingers in his mouth. 

His thighs are so chubby I find myself just squeezing them for a full five minutes.  The combination of soft skin and squishiness is just too tempting for me. He has really started preferring me over Chase lately.  Only I can put him to sleep and if I'm in the room he'll cry until I hold him.  He LOVES Sadie and is usually pretty content if she's around.

He still seemed hungry one day after an afternoon feeding so I whipped up a little oatmeal for him and he totally gobbled it up.  It's amazing to me that he just knows what to do when I put a spoon near his mouth.  We tried avocado and banana a week later and he didn't like that as much. 

He's the main attraction wherever we are and is always whisked away at church by some baby hungry mama.  He is so much fun and we love him so much. 

Happy four months Porgie!

Ironman Texas

Chase, Chris and Curtis decided to do another IRONMAN race and of course signed up last year before they realized we would have a newborn infant in tow when it actually took place.  I was ALL for staying home with the kids while they gallivanted away in Houston but I was lured into going and it really wasn't too bad, for me, that is.  For Chase however, the poor guy hardly got any sleep with George waking up every three hours in the hotel room and having to pick Chris up from the airport at 1 a.m. the night before (only having to leave the next morning at 5 a.m. to reach Houston on time for the check-in deadline).  Poor guy was doomed from the beginning.

The boys left early Friday morning and Pops, CC, the kids and I left later that afternoon.  The car was so packed Pops barely had enough room to wedge himself in between the double jogger and the travel swing.  The drive to Houston was HORRIFIC!!  George decided it would be fun to scream the entire way.  Poor Pops did his best to console the little man from the back seat but unless the car was going a steady 70 mph, George was furious!!  This was especially difficult with the back to back traffic leaving Austin and the stop and go country roads the rest of the trip. 

The entire drive I attempted to mask the steam coming out of my ears and I kept thinking that Chase needed to find a different hobby.  Preferably a hobby that didn't involve me driving five hours with a crying infant and an angry father in-law in the back seat.  He had already completed three Ironman races.  We get it!  You're an Ironman.  Lets move on to something else.  Painting, or automotive repair would be handy.  Carpentry and/or plumbing would also be a good choice.  Something useful.  I guess if someone tried to break into our house Chase can flash his medal at the guy and send him walking or if in a heated debate Jack's friend doesn't believe his dad is tougher, Chase can always show up wearing his Finisher t-shirt and put the rumor to rest.  Other than that, I'll take a nice new painting over the mantel over a shiny medal any day.  . 

As mentioned above we didn't get a whole lot of sleep on Friday night (screaming infant again) so Chase was in NO shape to complete an Ironman.  I tracked him the whole day and although he had an awesome swim, with the heat and high winds the bike got the better of him.  After vomiting several time and suffering through heat stroke, he called me and said he didn't think he was going to finish.  Well swipe my stripes NO!! He WAS going to finish!!  He had to just to make the hellacious drive from Austin worth it.  I told him we didn't come all this way to see Dad quit.  I sent him the above picture telling him we were all rooting for him from the hot tub.  I mean, if we can suffer all day swimming and lounging under the misters, he could certainly run a marathon, right?

Miraculously, after I sent him a few more funny pictures for comic relief, he started running and then started sprinting so he could finish before the midnight deadline.  So we waited and waited at the hotel.  We swam, ate dinner, and snuggled in bed with a movie and as soon as we got word we was close to the finish line, we jumped in the car and headed down there to see him finish.

The kids lasted about ten minutes in the stroller before they were totally asleep so they never got to see Chase finish.

The rest of us missed the finish too because we were too busy looking for his bike.  Eventually we had our Dad back.  He finished at 11:15 which wasn't his best time but considering his lack of sleep, we were just happy he was done!!

The next day was equally as chaotic as we speed raced back to Austin to be on time for George's baby blessing at 2:00 p.m.  We were making awesome time and then encountered a near accident when a huge semi truck rolled over expanding it's dirt and trailer all over the highway.  There was NO way for any cars to pass and we nearly slammed into the car in front of us trying to stop!  It was a very scary dodged bullet.  If we had been five minutes earlier it might have been us sprawled out on the highway.

A little shaken we finally arrived to the chapel at 2:05 hoping we still had time to rush in and sit down for the opening song.  But Cannons wouldn't be Cannons if they weren't inquired over at the pulpit as to where we could possibly be for our own child's baby blessing.  I heard Brother Scott asking for us and I quickly opened the door and as reverently as I could proclaimed that the Cannon's were indeed in the building and ready to bless George Edwin Cannon. 

Chase and the other male Cannons speed walked in through the side door with the angelically clad (and chubby) George in white.  I sat down and as soon as I did I just started to cry.  It might have been the spirit or the humiliation of walking in 5 minutes late for our own son's baby blessing.  It could have also been some anger at Chase for being an Ironman and putting our family through such a saga.  But as soon as Chase attempted to compose himself and quickly collect his thoughts, George gave two little sneezes into the microphone and then looked up at Chase with a huge smile.  Chase told me at that moment everything was put into perspective. 

It didn't matter that we were late.  It didn't matter that no one's hair was done or that Mom couldn't find her eyebrow pencil.  It didn't matter that shirts weren't ironed.  All that mattered was George.  Sweet George and him being here on earth and in OUR family.  How we love him so!!  The smile overwhelmed Chase and he too got a little emotional and then gave one of the sweetest baby blessings I have ever heard.  He blessed George with an alert mind, the power of discernment, to be a good friend and to find good friends.  He blessed him to have a testimony of his own of our Savior and of the restored gospel.  He was blessed to one day be baptized, serve a mission, and be married in the temple.  He blessed him with gratitude and health.  And through the whole blessing George didn't make a peep. If we hadn't been late it would have been a perfectly spiritual moment.  It still was pretty amazing and I kept thinking of how grateful I was we weren't involved in that terrible accident.  All in the name of George Edwin Cannon did we make it to church that day.  I expect great things from this little one. 

Happy Mother's Day to ME!!!!!

 

I love these little munchkins!!!

Texas Tea Party

After last year's extravaganza I told Sadie (and my inner self) that I was NOT going to throw a big party for her again this year.  I must not know myself very well because although it TOTALLY stresses me out, I can't help but overdo it when it comes to celebrating these little people in my life.  Once again, I started small and ended up overexerting myself.  During the chaos of preparation before our little guests arrived, I stopped in my race tracks and had a little moment.  I think deep down I always knew this, but when I go overboard on these parties, I'm not really doing it for the kids.  I'm doing it for ME!  It's so selfish!  The same thing goes for making Valentines.  Weeks of preparation goes into this little card I present to Chase on V-Day.  I know he would love just a sweet, simple, and heartfelt card but instead I scour Pinterest for the coolest, most fantastic way to show my love.  I end up spending HOURS making these crafts and after all is said and done, instead of Chase getting up in the middle of the night to admire my handy work, I am the one putting George back to bed and smiling as I admire the scalloped edges, the pretty ribbons, and the overall back braking waste of time.  I guess I just love to create.  I would never feel comfortable pinning any of my own creations for others to see, but the need to make beautiful things has become an ever increasing obsession.   

Because I didn't want to be the crazy lady from last year's party, I decided to make things easier on me and just buy all the food.  Making it would have probably sent me over the edge.  Friday night before the party Julie forced me off my procrastinating bum and took me to HEB to get all the supplies.  I love it when friends realize you're overwhelmed before you even get started and totally step up to the plate!  Julie helped me pick out the cutest food, whipped out tissue paper balls, made adorable fruit skewers, and kept me laughing most of the night.  I failed to mention that they are moving here and my life will drastically increase in joy about 110%!!

I decided that in Texas, a tea party is TOTALLY appropriate around a bright red picnic table:-)


The first thing the girls did was come in and make party hats and necklaces.  The all looked so cute with their accessories.

Girls are much more behaved than boys.  But to be sure everyone was aware of what table manners were expected at a fancy tea party, we read "Tea for Ruby" by the Duchess of York. 

I could tell they were listening because I heard very little shouting and lots of "pleases" and "thank yous."  Such sweet little girls.

Jack was sooooo bored!!  He spent most of his time eating doughnut holes at the refreshment table.

Next up the birthday girl requested a dance party.  We turned on some fun music and they pranced all over the back yard.  Jack could finally have some fun too.  He jumped right in and ran circles all around the dancers.  I love him!!

Sadie then requested musical chairs.  I didn't want to drag out 11 chairs, so we used place mats instead.  It worked out swimmingly!  At this point all the manners the Duchess of York instilled had all but disappeared!

Then it was time to sing to the lady Sadie!!  I love how bashful she gets when we sing to her.  When I brought cupcakes to her school she just looked down and colored when her class started singing.  It's hard to be famous, even for only a moment:-)

Our fancy and dainty little party guests!

After it was all over I told Julie to remind me next year (because she will be here!!!) to keep it simple.  We both laughed because we know that will NEVER happen. 

Happy Birthday Sadie.  I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!!

Six and Sassy!

Sassy is a word I use to describe Sadie often these days.  The smarter she gets, the more personality I see shining through.  I have been amazed at how much she has already learned in her first year of Kindergarten and has turned into such a wonderful little helper at home (sometimes;-).

Sadie was so excited to see me come in with a big tray of cupcakes on her birthday.  I watched a tutorial on Pinterest on how to make them look professional. It's a good things kids aren't judgemental. That tutorial didn't teach me squat!!

On Sadie's birthday we planned to give her cinnamon rolls in bed but found her downstairs when we woke up. Totally Sadie to be up before the birds. I'm sure the excitement over her birthday was just too much to be able to sleep past 7:00. We had many fun activities planned but the world decided to rain on our parade. Instead of going downtown to ride in a carriage around the capitol and stop for a cupcake at the trailers, I drove her to Target after school to pick out a fun toy. Of course she chose a pony in it's own carrying case. We then picked up Z-pizza and had cake at home with lots of presents from Mom, Dad, Pops-CC, and Grandpa-Mimi.

 

Mimi sometimes lives vicariously through Sadie's obsession with ponies because she too loved them as a child.  A new pony jewelry box!!  We watched Secretariat for the first time about a month ago and during the scene when the horse is winning by almost an entire lap Sadie went absolutely berserk!! She fell on the ground and ran around in circles over and over again like a cat chasing it's tail.    She then jumped up and started screaming "go Secretariat!!  You can do it!!  You're winning!!!"  I guess she's into horse racing too. 

 

I scrambled around quite a bit trying to think of something fun to do for Sadie's special day.  The rain really put a damper on things.  I was emotional anyway (milestone days usually have that affect on me:-) but after trying to find the "perfect"cake at two different bakeries while running through the rain only to discover their cakes were super sized and super priced.  I just wanted a cute little cake.  Once Sadie saw me get a little teary in the HEB parking lot she asked me why I was crying.  Deep down it was probably because she was turning six, but I told her that I just wanted everything to be perfect for her birthday and it just wasn't working out.  She told me it was ok and would LOVE a cupcake from the HEB bakery instead.  I need to remember to keep things simple.  Of course she wouldn't mind just a simple cupcake from HEB.  Crisco enriched frosting.....hey why not!!  It's not a Hey Cupcake product but it makes her happy and that's all I wanted that day.  Darn that rain!! Thanks for putting life into perspective for me Sades.  Love that about her.

Also love that ever since George was born she insists that Clifford be "swaddled" every night as well. 

Even if we aren't at the pool, she struts around in that cute little suit with goggles digging into her forehead. 

She's such a smarty pants we "have to" go get delicious doughnuts every time a report card comes home from school.  She gave a talk in primary about choosing the right.  I wrote out a talk for her and she got up there and read the whole thing all be herself!!  I was so impressed and so was everyone else.  Such an amazing little reader!!  She has tested well into a first grade reading level.  So proud of my smart little lady!! 

She's very much aware of every situation we are in.  She observes the group and automatically puts people into categories.  "Mom, there are two girls and three boys at the table right now.  I'm the only little girl in our family.  Daddy and George both have bald heads" and so forth.  She loves to identify whether something is fiction or non-fiction.  Fiction has been renamed "fantasy."  If something wacky happens in a movie she's explain to us all that it's only "fantasy" and then we are all relieved that Ursula the Sea witch isn't really going to stir up the ocean and drown us in the depths of the sea. 

She's also very good at covering up her mistakes.  Whenever she "accidentally" hits Jack he will of course start crying.  If I'm not there to see what actually happened she switches keys and turn "motherly" on us and in her most concerned voice ask him what's wrong and makes it seem like he hurt himself."  Pretty tricky, but not tricky enough for Mom:-).

First thing she does when she gets home from school is open her lunch and finish whatever she didn't eat with her class (which is usually the whole lunch because she's too busy chit chatting with her buddies).

I love her enthusiasm and zest for life.  She's the life of the party and tries to spice things up by turning on dance music and starting a "dance party" right before bedtime. One morning she told me she couldn't go to school because "I have to practice my dance moves.  I'm going to be on a stage one day.  I need my practice!"  Nice try.   

When she wants to be, she can be the sweetest big sister.  I love watching her and Jack play together.  Lately they have loved going into out room, closing the door and jumping on our bed while they pretend to be puppies.  Often times I overhear her calling him "sweetie."  The mother in her has really emerged since George came into the picture.  Here's a couple of my favorite quotes:
"Jack, don't bend that paper sweetie."
"Everything is easy peasy Mom"
"Jack, you need to listen to me.  I don't want to have this conversation again!"
"Daddy you child (George) is crying.  What's more important, your phone or your child?" 
After drawing some mountain peaks "aren't my mountains fabulous?"
She also talks to Jack in third person whenever a teaching moment arises...."Jack, Sidi (that's what he calls her) says you can't do that.  When Sidi says no, you need to listen."
"Mom!  George just said his first word in person.  He said ahhhh!"

Lately she has been coloring picture after picture and gifting them to people.  I probably have three or four on my night stand right now.  She picks flowers and puts them in baby food jars for table centerpieces.  She recently put a picture on her door that reads "no bois ulod" and on Jack's door "no girs ulod"  (no translation necessary:-) and there are little notes all over the house taped in random places.  Most of them are about Avery her new best friend.  But that subject requires a post of it's own.

I had to play in sacrament meeting for the Young Women and needed a page turner.  I decided to ask Sadie and gave her a little "test run" during rehearsal and other than few moments of her spacing out to look at all the youth singing, she was awesome.  A quick "Sadie" from me and she was right back on the ball.  She must have looked so cute up there all petite and little turning the pages for me.  Love her!!

She still hasn't acquired quite the Texas drawl that I'd like but every once in a while I will hear her say "I was fixing to do that right now Mom" when I ask her to do something.  LOVE IT!!  She also still has a little lisp whenever an "s" is supposed to come out.  It sound more like an "X".  As we were hiking the other day in Barton Creek she warned us of potential snake danger by saying "Watch out, the roxss might be xshnakexs so don't touch the roxzz."  "Xsea horxss" happens to be my favorite word of hers.  It seems to be wearing off the older she gets so right now instead of worrying about it, I'm relishing instead. 

Loves to hold baby George and if he ever coos she'll say in her most adult sounding voice "are you hearing this?" 
After she and George bonked heads a little she was relieved and said "well, at least he's still alive."

One morning as I was dropping her off at school I had a "moment."  I have the same moments whenever she comes in for a little hug and I feel her small frame in my arms.  She was walking into the building with a little green checked sundress and pink tennis shoes.  Her backpack was strapped on and her little buns on her head bobbed too and fro as she scurried to catch up with Josh.  It was one of those "you are so little" moments!!  Sometimes when she's sassy and talks back I react to her as if she's a mature young woman but really, she's just a sweet little girl who has to speed walk in order to keep up with the world.  She's six, but she's still so little to me.  That little girl in the checked dress is etched in my mind and will probably be there after every inch is achieved.  My little Sadie Lady.  STOP GROWING for heaven's sake.  My heart can't take it.