Jack!!

Jack, Jack, Jack!!  Oh how we love you!!  I have a serious crush on this kid.  Maybe it's because he's amazingly handsome and he has Chase's "easy going" personality, but I can't help but just smother him sometimes with snuggles and admiration.  He's four which means he's already too old.  Even more irritating is that I bought him size 5 when he was still 3 a few months ago.  What!!  He and Sadie wear the same size shoe and although he's just a few inches shorter than her, I predict by next summer, he'll be the one tall enough to ride down the Circle C slide and not his big sis.  I love that he's so healthy, long and lean, but I just need him to stay small enough that bedtime songs are still cool.  I also need to him to continue asking "Mommy, I need a kiss and a huh and a snuggle." Ok, Jack you can have those and whatever else you want because I CAN'T STAND IT!! One time he said "Mommy, you can sit here by me because you love me so much."  It's true.
I think I scared him one time because I told him he was so cute I wanted to "eat his face!"  He got a very worried look and said "but Mommy, if you eat my face, then I won't be here anymore and then we can't snuggle!"  It's all about the snuggles people.  That's all we care about 'round here. 

He must know he's got me wrapped around his little finger.  He'll come up to me and ask for something and will always give me either of these faces (above and below) and I pretty much have no choice.  Now that's he's potty trained (kind of..still wears a pull up at night and occasionally keeps it dry), I find myself at peace with Jack.  We don't have a great deal to argue about other than the usual 4 year old tantrums that erupt when I turn off the television, make him leave a fun place too early, or deny him something sweet.  He's pretty funny about the potty now that I think about it.  When he goes to the bathroom sometimes he'll say "I need privacy ok? Don't ask questions!" He thinks potty language is hilarious and after trying to keep him from saying "poo poo" over and over again, I finally threw my arms up in the air and decided that eventually he'll grow out of it.  He loves to tease Sadie as well by saying "na na a boo boo" or copying verbatim what she says.  It drives her crazy and I get to hear all about it, which brings me to tattle telling.  I'm so totally over it!  I've started ignoring that as well.  Hopefully they'll both grow out of that one too. 

 He plays amazingly well with his buddies (especially Chase) and also by himself.  Often I find him looking at books (below) or building great towers with blocks.  He still loves Bob the Builder.  One time while we were watching it together I said "Wow! Look at all that dirt!" to which he replied "It's not dirt Mom, it's concrete."

At Sadie's birthday party, he never left this position (below) the entire time.  He's quite content to play Angry Birds as long as he can (or until Mom discovers he's stolen her phone:-).

Perhaps my favorite way to find Jack is reading his books into the night with a flashlight.  We had just read Rumplestilskein and even though the lights were off, he just couldn't get enough and had to see the pictures one more time. 

 

Sometimes Jack is WAY to cool for school.  Once I said "Jack, you've very cute" and he shot back with "No I'm not!  I'm a strong boy!!"  He once said "Was that so hard Mom?" when I cut up his pancake for him.  Sometimes when I ask him what he wants for lunch he'll say "nuffing!  I don't want wunch."  This was probably right before he fell asleep in the car (he might be narcoleptic). He  has been playing Weezer every day non stop for a couple of weeks now.  He found Chase's old CDs and has been having a hay day with them.  Like a regular teenager, he blasts the "Buddy Holly" song over and over again and does his goofy little dance along side the cd player.  It's annoying but hilarious at the same time. 

He is really into what he wears nowadays.  He'll change his outfit up to three times a day and will only wear a shirt if it has a logo on it (preferably Lightning McQueen, an excavator, or a superhero of some sort).  He only wants to wear "basketball shorts" which means any shorts that have stripes going down the sides.  This can be a problem because he will often "leak" throughout the day (boys are gross) and by the time the week is over he's often seen wearing Sadie's short shorts because we have nothing clean left for him to wear.  The rule these days is "if you get it wet, you still have to wear it!"  When I know we are going on a trip, I will hide the clothes I want to bring for him because I know he'll find them and get them all dirty within a day's time.  The only time I'm allowed to "help" him get dressed is when something is "inside/outside" (inside out). 

He's very particular about his hair too.  When it gets long, I like to mess with it and make it look all skiwampus.  He gets really mad and says "stop making my hair crazy mom!" as he flattens it against his head.  He let me make it crazy one time for "crazy hair day" at school (below).  I'm also noticing that he allowed me to put a striped shirt on him as well which means EVERYTHING else was dirty.  

At his 4 year check up he ranked in at 80%tile for height and 50%tile for weight.  Like I said, "long and lean." 

His latest obsessions have been superheroes.  I was wondering when this was going to happen.  Doesn't every boy go through this phase?  He's gone from loving Spiderman to Batman and sometimes will represent all of them by wearing a spiderman or superman t-shirts with Batman's black cape. 

There was a time that he would wear this black cape EVERYWHERE and sometimes to bed as well.  Julie gave it to him for his birthday and it's gotten some serious usage!!  He says he loves it because it's "really long and touches the ground." We have a Backyardigan's CD in the car with a superhero song.  Jack asks to hear it over and over again so he can belt out every word.  "WE ARE STRONG, WE ARE BRAVE AND THE WORLD WE WILL SAVE.  WE ARE SUP-ER-HEE-ROES." 

Judging from this new obsession, I wasn't surprised to find all he wanted was a superhero party.  Your wish is my command! (Post in the making:-) 

He and Sadie have their moments but they really play great together and are fantastic friends.  One day I overheard him say to her "Sadie, you wook boootiful!" after seeing her ready for church.  Or he'll say "Sadie, you're my best friend" which would warm any mother's heart, I'm sure! He noticed that Sadie has quite a bit of freckles and has asked me to count his (he only has a few tiny adorable ones around his nose).  He wants Sadie to validate everything he says.  "We aren't going to clean up our wooms, wight Sadie?" or "we aren't eating our spinach, wight Sadie?"  One particular exchange between the two of them was so hilarious (and a little crude) but I wrote it down anyway to remember because I was laughing pretty hard when it happened. 
Jack:  Sadie, do you want to see my poop?
Sadie:  No, I'm good (clearly not phased at all by the strangeness of the question)
Jack:  Sadie, I'm going poo poo.  Do you want to come see it?
Sadie:  No, I'm good jack.  I don't really want to see your poo poo.
.......really loud sound from the bathroom
Jack:  Sadie!  Did you hear that?!! That was a weely big toot!

These two KILL me sometimes!!

 

Jack has an amazing little group of buddies to play with around here and he's so fun!!  They are all in the same preschool together and I'm so excited for him.  He also has Evan down the street which has been awesome because they play together all the time!  Evan comes over here and Jack goes over there.  Makes my job easier, that's for sure!

 

Jack and Chase are the ultimate buddies for sure.  Dad will always rough him up, shoot hoops, and play fumble.  Jack will wait for Chase to get home so they can build a train track together.
 
He's also a great buddy to little George. He makes him laugh really hard when he smacks his "bah" against the wall.  I'll lay them side by side sometimes and let them just giggle together.  You can tell G really loves jack and follows what he does a lot of the time. 

 

 
For Jack's birthday we got him 4 doughnuts (he barely ate one) for "brestbiss." We were lucky that his preschool was having an "end of year" party that day too so it was literally a day packed full of fun!! Lots of sprinklers, ice cream, friends, and "mommy snuggles."  We hit P Terry's that night and opened presents.  I love celebrating this little guy!

I feel spoiled to have such a handsome little devil in my life.  He keeps me laughing everyday.  Here's a couple of his "Jackisims" I wrote down over this last year. 
Mom: "Jack, are you having fun over there?" (as he plays basketball in the living room)
Jack:  "Ya, just getting cooler doing my tricks" (while out of breath!) 

Mom:  "What's on your face Jack?"
Jack:  "Wipstick so I can wook boootiful."

"I burpted (burped) two times!  Excuse me.  Excuse me."

"What did you said?"

"He has a wittle feber" (about sick little George)

My mom made dinner for us.  It was curried shrimp over cous cous.  I thought it was delicious but perhaps a little sophisticated for his palate.  He looked at his plate and said "can I have a hot dog?"  He couldn't have sounded anymore Texan!  Love this little guy!!


Happy Birthday Jack!!!

 

Bake Shop Party!

Throwing a surprise party for a seven year old is tricky work!  I only had two hours to set everything up while Chase took the kids out to lunch.  After they left, Julie and Kristin came over to help me whip things up.  Julie helped with set up and Kristin made her delicious frosting.  I had baked and frozen everything so all we needed to do was defrost everything and set it out.  The girls would decorate everything. 

 

Sadie kept asking me as I pulled cupcakes and cookies out of the oven a few days prior why I was making so many goodies.  I lied and said they were all for a Relief Society party.  She gladly accepted my story and was never once suspicious. 

I made the baking hats the night before and again she asked me why I was making them.  Relief Society got the blame again and I even asked her to model one for size.  Still, no suspicious behavior from the lady.  I was the most excited about these hats.  I made them out of doilies, floral paper and lace ribbon. 

The aprons were easy.  I just bought some white ones from Michaels, wrote their names on with puff paint and tied some pink ribbons on each side.  I think they turned out pretty cute.

Of course a lot of the ideas came from Pinterest and even though tin cans with floral paper have nothing to do with baking, I couldn't resist.  I also wanted to tie in the paper I used on the baking hats. 

 

All the guests arrived right before Sadie.  We got them all dressed up and hid them behind the counter so she wouldn't see them.

Sadie saw balloons on the door and was immediately intrigued.  She came in to see a big banner that read "Happy Birthday Sadie" and was still VERY confused (probably because I told her she wasn't going to have a birthday party:-)

She came around the corner and they jumped out yelling "surprise!"

Lots of hugs and laughter even though mom got a little teary...are you surprised?  They acted like they hadn't seen each other for weeks and not just the day before at school. 

 

 

We got Sadie all ready to bake and had to take pictures of her little party guests.  I'm glad we kept it small because had we invited even one more girl, we would have been pretty overwhelmed. One girl in particular was throwing sprinkles all over the place and was pretty hard to contain. 

 

 

These girls had so much fun.  We let them have free reign on the frosting and sprinkles.  They decorated their mini cupcakes first, sugar cookies second, and then dipped cake balls. 

They were so stuffed from all the sampling that when it came time to sing happy birthday and cut the cake, none of them wanted another bite of anything.  We still sang to her anyway.  I love her face in the first picture.  Priceless!



We wrapped up all the girl's goodies in separate boxes to take home to their families and then we opened up some presents.  Heavy Heavy Hangover was played...of course! 
 

A birthday party is never complete without a dance party especially when Sadie is involved. 

So glad the "mom guilt" took over and we were able to throw her a party.  She's seven but she's still little and had a great time!!  Couldn't have done it without my sidekicks Julie and Kristin (and Chase of course!!) 

 

Happy Baking!!

Happy Birthday Sadie!

I still can't believe I have a seven year old.  I know I'll write the same thing next year about having an eight year old (WHAT!!) but seriously, how did this happen?  She doesn't look seven but she acts 17.  We've got a lot of spunk, drama, attitude, and enthusiasm wrapped up in those 46 inches of Sadie. 

She sometimes likes to be silly and will often talk like a baby but behind all that, Sadie is as sharp as as a two edge sword.  Nothing gets passed this little one.  She notices if Jack got four carrots and she had to have 5 (I don't count...just grab a handful and put them on their plates). She observes and listens to EVERYTHING Chase and I say to one another.  We've entered the stage where we have to be very careful what we say around her.  I've had her repeat word-for-word conversations Dad and I have had in the car when we think she's listening to music or playing on the iPhone.  

She loves her morning snuggles and is always hoping carpool will be late so we get an extra five minutes of her wrapped in my arms as we watch out the window for her morning ride to school.  She longs and cherishes the moments when George will snuggle with her (who wouldn't...he's so squishy!).  Whenever G wakes up from a nap she BEGS me to be able to get him out of his crib and play with him in his room before I come up.  If I'm not in the room, G will sometimes sit on her lap to read a book or snuggle with her for a bit. 

She told me the other day that she's in "charge of the kids."  As the Mom, I'm in charge of the family but she is essentially the "mom" of the kids.  She loves bossing everyone around and Jack likes having someone with an agenda to tell him what to do.  I heard her yell "Jack Etherington Cannon, what do you think you're doing?!!" the other day.  They'll often team up against me and confer upon each other for support.  "We're not going to church today, right Jack?"  Because if Jack agrees then it's pretty much set in stone.  I love that they team up though, even if it's against me, because I just love seeing them get along.  I overheard her using her power of persuasion with Jack the other day. She can pretty much get him to do anything if she says "superheroes do it too."  I also heard her say "Jack if you want to be a superhero you can't knock down the picture frames with your ball."  She's kind of like the old lady on Monster's Inc. who's "always watching..always watching." and makes sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing.  I just love her!

This year she got her cinnamon roll in bed but was awake and dressed before we got up there.  This happens every year.  Nothing gets past this girl.  I'm surprised she hasn't figured out Santa and the Easter Bunny yet.  Of course, she preferred to eat everything downstairs with the rest of us because who likes eating alone in their bed on their birthday? (ME...ME...ME!!!)

I spent quite a bit of time the night before making and decorating these cupcakes for her school class.  I know it's probably a waste of time but they were just too fun to make and I think they turned out pretty darn cute. 

 

It might have stung just a little when the kids pulled out the toothpicks, threw them on the floor and devoured the cupcakes in 20 seconds.  Oh well, at least they were fun to look at the night before:-)

Sadie didn't take her crown off the whole day and when we arrived at P.Terry's (her restaurant of choice) the cashier gave her a free cookie for her birthday!!

So normally this time of year TOTALLY stresses me out.  I have two birthday parties to throw and I decided that this year we'd only do "even" birthdays. Sadie was turning seven and I had a little chat with her about the fact that these parties are kind of stressful and that they were only for the even number years from now on.  She was pretty accommodating especially after I told her we'd get her a new scooter instead of a party and I felt totally relieved when I went to bed that night.  Then I started thinking about how little she is still and how she won't always want to have a party in the years to come.  I called my mom and she made me feel even more "mom guilt" for not throwing her a party.  She suggested surprising her with a smaller party (ya right...I don't know how to scale down) because like I said "they're only young once."  So on her birthday I didn't make a cake because she had already gotten a shake and cookie from P.terry's (and I knew she'd be getting a big one at her party a few weeks later).

It was hard not telling her about her party.  Sometimes she would get really sassy and I couldn't remind her that she should be nice because I was "throwing her a party."  I was pretty amazed with how contented she was to have a simple celebrating at home with our family.  Her favorite gift was her snorkel and flippers of course. 

I just love this little girl.  She's always up for a dance party and is constantly giving me an update on her loose front tooth (it looks hilarious hanging in there:-) and the pictures she's drawn.    
Sometimes I look at her sleeping at night and can't believe how calm, beautiful and serene she is.  During the day she's pretty much a spazz but so fun to be around and gives me a HUGE hug every time she gets home from school.  Jack anxiously anticipates her arrival as well and the dynamic duo are inseparable the rest of the afternoon.

She loves my iPhone and if I'm not watching over my back she's usually watches me put in my passcode (we have to lock them because they disappear throughout the day and are often found attached to little sticky hands under covers or in dark closets..little stinkers!).  She memorizes the code and stores if for the next opportunity mom mistakenly leaves her phone unattended.  However, I do get some great pictures when this happens.  I "photobombed" her in the one below.  Like mother, like daughter.

The other day she was complaining about going to school because it was "SOOO BORING." I asked her why she didn't like school and she said "because I have to work ALL DAY!!" I responded that I had to work all day too and so does Daddy. She shot back with "No you don't!  You get to sit home and play on your phone and play toys with George and Jack all day."  I think my phone must be the "Holy Grail" of toys because I get full access when she is only granted usage in desperate situations. 

There she is on her new scooter.  Her "not having a birthday party" substitution gift. I'm such a sucker!!

She's still the shortest one in her class but also the sweetest and most adorable too. 

Love the knee pop.  She never volunteers for the "speaking parts" in her plays at school so even though we never get to hear her say anything, we love watching her just look cute in the corner:-)  Good news is, she's always put in the front row because she's the shortest, so during the dancing part she was front and center where we could get a good look at her! She says school is "so boring" but her smile and stellar report card tell a different story. 

Did I mention she's a sass?  I love this picture of her.  It perfectly shows her little stinker personality that comes out every once in a while.  The other day she was being super sassy and I told her she was "dramatic."  She immediately snapped back "I AM NOT DRAMATIC" (very dramatically I might add).  She must not know what it means yet:-)



Practicing the piano has taken many different strategies and attempted threats to a peaceful and productive 30 minute session.  There have been times I've felt completely "at a loss" as to how to control and harness the negative and positive energy that she exudes while practicing.  It definitely brings out the worst in her, but on the flip side, she LOVES playing the piano and loves even more to perform for people.  I've made her write a contract that states I get her Clifford and Bahhs at night if she "talks back" and doesn't behave.  I've tried using the kitchen timer that starts at 30 minutes and 5 additional minutes are clocked on for any additional sass (we were in there for 2 hours one day...well.. she was).
Most recently we've explained to her that these lessons cost money and if she wants to continue to take them, she needs to work for them.  Everyday she has a certain number of chores.  If she doesn't do them, she has to pay me for her lessons.  She got some money for her birthday and it now belongs to me.  I'm going with the "I appreciated college because I paid for it approach" and it seems to be working but the hardest part is just getting her up to the piano every day.  It has certainly made me appreciate my mother for all the practicing she did with us kids.  I was a total sass as well and probably deserved a spanking..or two.  Practicing is definitely our biggest challenge with Sadie at the moment because I hate wasting money and I want her to really excel if I'm paying a certain amount of money for her to do so. 

She had her spring recital and did wonderfully!  You can tell in this picture she was a little nervous but you would have never known when she got up there.  She had amazing confidence and played beautifully.  These concerts are the end goal and are so fun for her.  She really shines in the spotlight and we couldn't be prouder!

At the beginning of the year I had a hard time getting her to read "for fun."  I always read with her and I guess I'm not very fun because she never wanted to read.  Mimi was always sending awesome series for her to read but she was never interested unless I wanted to read them to her.  After Christmas when she got her journal I told her she could stay up a little later on school nights if she was writing or reading.  This ended up being a stroke of genius on my part (doesn't hasn't often folks and I'm still waiting for the genius to show up in the piano department).  Sadie whipped through her whole Ivy and Bean series (9 chapter books) in a few weeks and will read anything she can get her hands on as long as she can "stay awake" later at night.  We've set up a little reading lamp in there and I love giving her a kiss goodnight and watching her from the doorway as she dives into her next book.  Adorable little thing! 

I love this little girl so much.  We definitely butt heads sometimes but I wouldn't trade her vibrant, sassy, and confident little personality for anything.  She's our little firecracker and we wouldn't want her any other way! The older she gets the more her "S" lisp goes away. It makes us a little sad because she sounded so cute whenever she used to say "schooper" or I'm "Schadie."  She told me the other day after hanging out with her buddy Peterson "Mommy, when I grow up I'm going to be so beautiful and all the boys are going to love me."  She'll come into my bathroom after brushing her hair and remark on how soft it is and ask to be lifted up to see her shiny locks.  She's girly but not "super girly" and I think she said that "all the boys were going to love her" because she overheard Chase and me talking about how because she's so athletic and fun she's bound to have a few fans along the way. 
I asked her while sitting in bed if she would fill up my water bottle with ice and water (because sometimes she loves being my little servant).  I told her I would "love her forever and always" if she did and she said "you'll love me forever and always anyway, even if I don't fill up your water bottle." She's right!!  She really is a delight and so exuberant (even if she won't fill up my water bottle sometimes).  We love hanging out with her and having her in our family.  Happy Birthday little Lady!!  Not tall enough to ride the slide at the Circle C pool yet, but old enough to rule the world!!