THE CANNON FAMILY

Her "best" rainbow

2012-01-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

Sadie brought this picture into my room and said:
"Mommy, because you're a little sick and you have a baby in your tummy, I colored one of my best rainbows for you."
I love her!!

Bad Santa

2012-01-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

Overgrown trees equals squirrels on the roof, which is so cute, right? Cute until those squirrely squirrels chew a hole in your attic and move in to have more squirrely squirrel babies. To trim the overgrown trees (and to hopefully get rid of the squirrels), our landlord hired some interesting, Austin-esque characters who somehow have a license to not only drive, but also to own a saw. Seriously, though, this guy was impressive: he could balance on a ladder, smoke, hang on a limb, and operate a chainsaw all at once. While watching his perilous actions cautiously from our kitchen window, Jack pretty much summed up the sentiments of us all when he said, with a tenuous and disgusted look: "I don't like that Santa, Mommy. He's messy."

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

Who says 2-year olds, 5-year-olds, bald men and pregnant women can't party? Thanks to our friends, the Baumeisters (that means the "masters of BAU"), we learned that all four can, and will; but only on New Years. While Sadie and Jack watched a movie with some of their friends in the garage (it was carpeted out, but still smelled a little like gas), the rest of us (the Baumeisters other friends) chatted, snacked, and danced away the last few hours of 2011. Nathan and Janae built a dance floor in the backyard, and hung Christmas lights and lanterns above it. They also had loud music that was awesome. It was seriously fun to just hang out and dance!

Abby was a huge hit on the dance floor. She pulled out all of her old moves, and did so as a 9-month pregnant woman! It was amazing. Stomach-bump and all, she was rockin' the dance floor and shaking circles around the non-pregos!

Seriously--how do you have that kind of balance when you are laden with child??

Only my wife, i tell ya!

Amazingly, Sadie and Jack made it to midnight. After watching Toy Story 3 (and who knows what else), eating popcorn, and drinking juice boxes for three straight hours, i guess we shouldn't have been surprised. But both wanted to come out and dance at around 11:45 or so. Sadie has some funny moves, where she points her fingers and wiggles her hips, like all disco-style and stuff. Jack also likes to swivel and dip, although it's usually just one or two moves, and then he just runs around and laughs. Both also enjoyed being thrown in the air and touching the lanterns, which provided me with a pretty intense end-of-year workout.

Both Sadie and Jack were in their Santa peejays, which made them like the coolest party animals evah! They also liked wearing Hawaiian leis, glow stick bracelets, and party hats. Who wouldn't? Sadie and Jack didn't get to bed until almost 1:30 AM. Toots and I didn't get there until around 2:00 AM. Party on rock stars: 2012 is off to a bloody good start!

A Decade...

2012-01-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe it's been ten years since I entered the MTC. I was reminded today on facebook by some of the other missionaries in my district. I don't know if it's being pregnant or if I'm am just cursed with an unstable amount of emotion, but just thinking about that day puts a huge pit in my throat. The same wretched feeling occurs when I read the letters he sent me over that 18 month period of time. This is not to say I wasn't ready and willing to serve a mission, but having known Chase for two years leading up to that day made it VERY hard to leave.

I'll never forget the night before when I was set apart by the stake president. Chase and I went for a drive a few hours prior to President Clark Hinckely's arrival. We didn't go up the canyon for one last "filling of the tank" so to speak, but we did drive up Emigration Canyon, got out of the car, and just hugged for an hour straight. I never wanted to let go!! I literally felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest and I knew that in a short 30 minutes I wouldn't be able to hug my best friend for another 18 months. I hate to be dramatic but looking back, I really don't know how I got through saying goodbye to him.

The next morning I had to say goodbye. Chase came over and it felt so awful to not run into his arms for a squeeze. He helped me pack a few last minute things in my room and then I had to get in the car. My Dad snapped the photo above right before I headed down the stairs. Aren't we a pathetic looking lot? I love that we are about an inch apart but nothing more:-)

Oftentimes I wonder why we put ourselves through such agony. We were in love. Why didn't we just get married? Knowing how much I would miss him then, I probably would have thought twice about sending in those papers. The overwhelming urge to serve and the amazing spirit I felt when deciding to go couldn't be denied. I'm sure God would have been pleased either way, but maybe getting married would have robbed us of the knowledge that through the atonement of Christ even the most miserable of heartache can be healed. We wouldn't have those treasured 18 months of letters, the experience of supporting one another through our trials, and the realization that we really were welded souls, not to be separated EVER again!!

I don't know a better man than my Chase. I'm so glad he's sitting next to me right now and that he'll be at my side forever and ever. Funny that we were apart for 18 months and some days I can barely stand for him to go to work in the mornings. Those 9 hours are just too long!!

Going...going...GONE!!!

2011-12-30T19:13:00.000-08:00

This is the gingerbread house Sadie and I made right after Thanksgiving. Jack helped by eating the leftover candy. The first day I kept finding Jack sneaking more and more candy off the house. We had a chat and I told them both they could eat it after Christmas was all over. I didn't think they would remember, but they did.

It was one of those days that they were both home and driving me crazy!! I stuck the house outside and let them just "go to town." Chase came inside from the garage and we both noticed how quiet it was in the house. Best 30 minutes of the day!!!

We'll just try to ignore and forget how much sugar they ate that day!!

Looks like the remnants of a house destroyed by a bunch of rodents.

Etheringtons in Texas!!

2011-12-30T15:09:00.000-08:00

Hooray!!! I love it when my family comes to visit!! They arrived the day after Christmas which was heavenly considering school was still out and the kids needed to be entertained. This can be pretty hard when you're 9 1/2 months pregnant, so I was happy to have some help. We've kept the leaves on the lawn because not only my kids have had fun raking and jumping in them, but they have been attracting the neighborhood kids too.

Grandpa had the fun idea of making a huge pile of leaves and then having Sadie swing through them. He always pretended to be mad when she "messed up" his beautiful pile of leaves and it made her laugh all the harder. They spent a lot of time playing outside.

They came at the perfect time. It rained all day the day before (Christmas day) and once they arrived the temps shot up to the 70's and it was beautiful all week. We were able to go on walks, hit the parks, and even eat outside. I love Texas!!

Aunt Jane is semi-obsessed with turtles. I knew the perfect place to take her so she could get her fix before heading back to Utah. The university has a little turtle pond down town. I was right to assume that Jane would be in heaven watching those little turtles.

I loved watching my pasty white family soak up the sun rays. The inversion is so bad in Utah it's rare you ever see the sun during the winter. I was glad Texas was able to give them a little suntan at the end of December!!

Grandpa kept asking where we could go to climb some trees (a big kid really). Texas has some awesome material to work with when it comes to scaling up a tree. I drove us all to the Circle C park and we (not me) climbed any tree we could find.

I couldn't get enough of the amazing weather. While the kids played in the leaves, I just bathed in the sun with a nice cool breeze to keep from sweating.

Any and every visitor who comes to Austin has to experience the best view possible of the city, that being on the water...in a canoe. Not super comfortable with this huge belly of mine, but fun to show my family how beautiful Austin really is.

One night we stopped at the "Clark Griswald" house just down the street from us. This guy spends $7000 a year putting these lights up and it takes two weeks for him to put it all together. It's pretty amazing what this guy does every year just for the enjoyment of others. Love the Texas peeps here!!

Mimi brought Sadie and Jack a lot of new books; one being 100 dresses that she read to her every night. They finished it right before they had to go back to SLC. Sadie LOVES reading with Mimi. She continues to be the best "book lady" ever!!

Thanks for coming guys. I can't wait to see you again when the baby is born in January. Sadie and Jack can't wait either!!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas was so fun this year!! I have to admit I had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited to see the kid's faces in the morning. I just LOVE giving gifts!! I had a lot of fun surprises waiting for everyone. We were worried that the kids would come down to get us (our bedroom is downstairs) and see everything before we could see their initial reactions. So we stuck Henry the Elf at the top of the stairs and recorded him to say, "Merry Christmas. Don't go downstairs until your mom and dad come up to get you." We told them to simply talk into Jack's monitor and we would come up with a quick breakfast before we could all go downstairs. They were sooooo excited!! I brought up an english muffin for Sadie and some oatmeal for Jack (we knew they couldn't wait through a gourmet breakfast) and then headed downstairs.

We knew the "show stopper" gift was going to be Sadie's pony. She asked Santa for a pony and he brought her the next best thing. You can sit on it and it moves at the touch of a button. You can clearly see how pleased she is.

I was really excited to give Chase his Mexican Coke. Apparently it tastes better than American Coke. He's had a bottle everyday. His sugar induced gut will thank me later.

With a new snow white dress it was necessary to ride "side saddle." A princess would never dream of sitting any other way!!

When I went to Goodwill to find stuff for Halloween costumes I totally hit the jack pot!! I found a ton of plastic sandbox trucks for Jack. That's where I found Sadie's pony too!! I love buying toys used because kids grow out of them too quickly. Besides, I have a hard time putting a brand new tonka truck in the sand box. Jack and Sadie thoroughly enjoyed the peanut butter cups in their stockings and Jack's "new" bulldozer was great at hauling them around. CC and Pops gave me a new mini camera so Sadie got my old one (that barely works) and she's thrilled about taking her own pictures. Chase got me some new rain boots. My old ones had holes in them so water would seep in. Kind of defeats the purpose. I LOVE my new ones!! Flarp was a big hit with the kids. Sadie was playing with her friend Avery's a few days before and they couldn't stop laughing at the silly sounds it produced. Santa was kind to her this year:-)

I did my best to use less paper this year. I save all my boxes and ribbon every year but even after all that recycling, it still looked like a bomb went off in our living room.

I was so glad Christmas fell on a Sunday. It's always nice to put the presents aside and head to church to feel the real spirit of Christ. Chase and I were pretty involved in the program as we were both performing in at least three musical numbers. We had to be there 45 minutes early and while practicing through some of the songs, the words really got to me and I totally started weeping. There's something to be said about the "heaven's exploding with music everywhere" when Christ was born and singing about Mary and her baby is just too, too much for a 9 month prego lady. I'm glad it was just a practice. I held it together for the real program. I just didn't look at anyone in the audience especially while singing Mary's Lullaby.

My mom sent some adorable new outfits for the kids to wear to church. I think Sadie looks like an English princess and Jack looks like a botanist, ready to go examine some plants. His face is filled with glee because inside that wrapped fist is a melting Reeses peanut butter cup.

When we got home from church we were finally able to relax, get back into our pajamas and make our traditional gourmet breakfast. Sweet rolls, little smokies (cooked in Chase's Coke of course), and spinach/cheese eggs. Jack surprised everyone after eating about ten little smokies!!

After breakfast we cleaned up the Christmas explosion in the living room and got ready for our friends to come over. Jaime brought the ham, Shayna made the rolls, and I whipped up a Southern chocolate custard pie.....YUM!! Chase turned culinary on us and made a whole crock pot of wassail. It was delicious. The kids had a great time being wild and it was fun to wrap up the day celebrating with friends.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

This year was definitely an unconventional Christmas Eve. We spent most of the day getting ready for Santa by cleaning the house. It was rainy and pretty gloomy outside so the kids had to play indoors which always makes cleaning harder.

We had arranged with some friends to either have dinner together Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and we all decided that the eve of Christmas is too hectic to try to whip dinner together as well. So Chase and I, for the first time, were to have dinner on our own with no Grandma Beth party or Etherington candlelight dinner. It was a little depressing but not as depressing as traveling to Utah for the holidays where it's FREEZING!!

We made plans to head downtown to see the train display and get some Chinese take out for dinner (I wasn't about to cook an entire ham for just the two of us...the kids don't count). Little did we know our plans would be completely shot!! The train display was totally closed down (perhaps we were misinformed:-). The kids were pretty upset because it was the first thing we had done all day that was supposed to be fun (other than Chase calling me while at the grocery store asking for "Mrs. Claus". Talk about pressure!! I tried my best to sound as much like NPR's Diane Rehm as possible). Instead we drove to Amy's ice cream (the only place we could find open) for a little treat.

While sitting there with our ice cream we were hit with the fact that it might be hard to find a place open on Christmas Eve for dinner. Austin was practically a ghost town and after driving around and calling any and every restaurant we could think of, we realized that at 6 p.m. we would be lucky to find a grocery store open, let alone a restaurant. Eventually we drove by Panda Express (i.e. vomit inducing Chinese food) and realized they were our last hope. After finding Pei Wei, PF Changs and our favorite Indian restaurant Tarka to be closed it was definitely a last resort option. The food was disgusting (even though at the time Chase and I both reassured each other it was "decent") but we were overjoyed when the kids TOTALLY gobbled it up. Christmas miracle!!
When I was little I used to look forward to the opening of one gift so much it was absolutely unbearable to wait through dinner, dessert, carols at the piano, and some Christmas books. In fact, there's a pretty funny picture of my mom reading to us four kids with this sweet enthusiastic look on her face while the rest of us look as though we are being tortured. Funny enough, I now put my kids through the same agony. I now see that my parents were simply trying to fill our hearts with some Christmas spirit. Now I get it!!
Sadie and Jack made it through the anguish of patience and were finally allowed to open one gift. Sadie chose Pops and CC's gift so Jack did the same. Lets just say that we wished they had picked something a little less exciting because it took us until 10 p.m. to get them to bed that night. Their new toys were just too amazing to put down!!

After we got them in bed Chase and I sat down and watched Love Actually (all the gifts had been previously wrapped a few days before...we like to be prepared:-) It took us about 10 minutes to play Santa and then it was off to bed. Unconventional, but wonderful just being with my little family and my best friend Chase. Merry Christmas!!

Out of Control!!

2011-12-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

This whole binky thing with Jack is really starting to get on my nerves. Now that he can get in and out of his crib, he can also access his pacifiers much easier too. No matter where I put them, he always seems to find them and carries not one, but as many as he can find around the house at all times. He is so great at talking that I'm not worried about them impeding his speech. I just think he needs to not be so obsessed with them.

On this particular day I couldn't get them away from him. It was almost easier to just let him have his way because the whining associated with no binky is sometimes too much to bear. I am determined to make them a nap and nighttime only reward. We've always had this rule but Ive been really lazy enforcing it lately.

If we find him with his binky during "off hours" we tell him to take "one last suck" and that usually works. If he has multiple binkies at the time he'll give each one "one last suck" before handing them over. It's pretty cute but not so cute when you see a five year old in a stroller with a pacifier in his mouth. I think three is the limit and even that seems a little old for me. I'll let him get through the birth of this new baby before I take them away for good but it won't be long before the binky fairy comes to our house.

Santa!!!

2011-12-24T12:26:00.000-08:00

Our little community in Austin has such a fun holiday party every year. This year we feared it would be cancelled due to rain (glorious rain...we'll never complain again about any kind of moisture around here:-). Thankfully the party went on as planned but indoors instead of outside.
They still had a petting zoo, pony rides and lots of stations to make crafts, get your faces painted and pictures taken. Sadie was more excited to ride the pony than to see Santa but that was to be expected. Jack took some huge strides from last year of screaming his little eyes out on Santa's lap to only having a very concerned look on his face this year. Such a brave little man. We could clearly see that Santa's lap was the THE LAST place he wanted to be sitting at the moment but Sadie made it more exciting for him so he pressed on and endured,
It was a fun little party and we saw a lot of friends from school. Sadie got Rudolph painted on her face and then went out to hold some bunnies, pigs, and goats. Of course the pony ride was the highlight. My favorite memory of the whole day was hearing Jack in his sweet little voice say "hello Piggy...hello" as he greeted his fellow snorter. Jack's tendency to snort while he laughs will always be so endearing to me.
WE saw Santa getting into his car in the parking lot as we too were making our way home. Sadie was so confused as to why Santa wasn't riding around on his sleigh everywhere he went. He also was one of those "skinny" Santas that had to stuff a pillow inside his costume. It won't be long until Sadie starts to figure this whole Santa thing out. She's already made some serious inquiries as to how he gets into our house and how he can possibly fit down a chimney.
We had Henry the Elf come to our home December 1st to "watch us and report back to Santa." Chase placed the three inch elf on the doorstep and raced away after ringing the doorbell. Sadie and Jack were thrilled to have a visitor but Sadie was absolutely perplexed!! She couldn't figure out how an elf so small could ring a doorbell so far off the ground. Chase made the mistake of telling her he used pixie dust to jump to the doorbell. I later found her asking Henry to tell Santa that she too wanted pixie dust for Christmas:-)
I love how magical Christmas is and even though we are essentially lying to our children about where the presents come from, it's so fun to see their faces light up when Henry tells them (he can speak recorded messages) they are on the nice list for the day!! He even showed up a couple of times bearing gifts throughout December. One day he brought Frosty the Snowman and the next time The Grinch who Stole Christmas.
Hopefully we have a few more years before Sadie sees Dad racing through the garage after leaving Henry on the doorstep. Jack is still just along for the ride at this point:-)

iPhone trip through the holidays

2011-12-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness for my handy little phone that goes everywhere with me so I can snap these photos along the way. We've had a jolly holiday to say the least. Knowing that we will be spending Christmas here is enough to celebrate. I don't think we'll ever travel somewhere freezing again unless we have to.

After Pops and CC left we were a little depressed so we put up our Christmas tree and felt much better. I finally gave in and bought the 9 foot pre-lit tree from Costco. I LOVE IT!! It was the easiest "putting up the tree" I've ever experienced. My Dad was complaining about putting up another tree this year with all the lights and ornaments. It's usually an entire day affair at the Etherington home. I had to tell him all about how easy it was to put up this tree. You take it out of the box, attach the plug and voila!! Easy peasy!! I didn't even have to shape the pine needles like I did on our last tree (may it rest in peace).

Lots of holiday parties are to be had in Texas. My favorite was the Robinson's dessert party. It was fantastic!! Every kind of delicious dessert you can possibly imagine and all so beautifully decorated. I'm glad it's an annual party because my prego belly wouldn't let me eat as much as I wanted to. Until next year!
Macy Robinson is an amazing photographer and has a studio in her home (my life long dream:-). Naturally, she snapped photos of all the couples with Santa hats on. I hope she will eventually make the party an "ugly sweater" one like her brother Matt Sanderson in Virginia because that's all this picture really needs to make it complete:-)

My bunco ladies also had a party. We designated it a "holiday sweater" party (I had to wear my Unique sweater somewhere) so I went to town making my outfit. All the way down to wooden Christmas light earrings, the outfit seemed complete. I did my best being 9 months preggers.
Out of the 12 of us, only 5 really dressed up. We were crying from laughing so hard at the end of these pics. I didn't post the blurry ones where we were laughing so hard you couldn't recognize who was in the photo.
There's something even funnier about a picture when you are "large marge." Maybe that's why those Fat Albert flicks did so well because it's always more fun to watch a chubby person make a fool of himself.

Something else we did as a large group was head out to Burnet to see the live nativity. When I heard where we were going I thought it was on "burnet road" not all the way out in Burnet. What a drive!! The kids might have been a little too young for the long lines, the crowds and the cold weather (cold for Texas that is...around 50 that night:-) By the end they were pretty whiny and ready to leave.
The nativity was really cool. They had live camels, donkeys, and everyone was dressed up like the time of Bethlehem. Maybe we'll try again in a few years when it's not so crowded and the kids are a little older.

We live down the road from the Wildflower Center which is a really cool park run by the University of Texas. Every year they have a "trail of lights" and every night they have different performers. We got to hear the Austin Children's Choir" and they were spectacular!!
We made snowflakes inside, drank hot cider and got some free popcorn!!
We went there in our sweats and pajamas because you can do that in Texas. It's pretty much all that fits me these days.
We saw frosty the snowman (the kids wouldn't go near him) and enjoyed all the beautiful lanterns. Sadie thought it was just like Rapunzel and we sang "And at last I see the light."

There are a lot of fun places to see lights here in Texas. Cedar Park had quite a few last year but we didn't want to drive all the way up there. Instead we headed to Guadalupe street where you can see how some of the Austinites decorate round these parts.
One house was covered in lights with sock monkeys hanging from the trees and they had a projector in the backyard playing Rudolph the red Nose Reindeer.

Jack just couldn't believe how cool it was!!

One house was full of a bunch of male college students who surprisingly decorated better than anyone else on the street. One of them must be an engineer major because he had all sorts of fun gadgets on the front lawn for the kids to play with. The bicycle strobe light was a big hit!!

I just love how gaudy and cluttered these houses look. It's hilarious how over the top these people go. They would do Clark Grizwald proud!

An only in Austin will you find a flying pterodactyl and an enormous steam breathing dragon to celebrate the holiday season. Definitely "keeping it weird" as they say here in the capitol of Texas.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!!

Better late than never

2011-12-22T20:01:00.000-08:00

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our new neighborhood for many reasons, one being all the tall trees!! There aren't as many trees up north in Cedar Park so we were pleasantly surprised to find that Texas does indeed have an autumn season. It just happens a little later here.
I opened Jack's window the other day and the flood of orange light completely took me off guard. The tree outside was full of the most beautiful leaves!! I made it a habit to open his window everyday just so we could enjoy all that amazing color.
The kids had so much fun playing in the leaves the other day. I know you're supposed to bag them up for the winter to let your lawn breath but I am having the hardest time putting them away. I love seeing all the color in the grass and watching the kids rake them up only to jump in and start all over again.
I am just pleased as punch to discover that we have an additional season here. I initially thought it was just summer and spring (the winters are so mild you can't really call them a "winter.") So glad Jack Frost stopped by to make our leaves so breathtaking this year.

Sequence of events

2011-12-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

First, watch me organize these into colors.

Which one do I want to eat first.

Green!!

9 months

2011-12-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

We are officially in the "ticking time bomb" stage.

Love these little people

2011-12-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

Seriously?!!

2011-12-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

How can I handle how freaking cute this little guy is. I am completely obsessed with him!! Who wouldn't smile (or laugh out hysterically) if they saw this little face in their rear view mirror?
After trying to keep him awake by pointing out trucks and tractors on the car ride home from the grocery store, he finally succumbed to his little coma with out even having the energy to finish his goldfish crackers. Being a kid must be awesome. I sure love watching.

The wheels on the bus

2011-12-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

My kids aren't too deprived. They have a lot of fun toys. Sadie has an awesome new bike and Jack has a tricycle but what they mostly prefer to ride on are these silly infant leap frog toys they've had for years. They love riding all over the neighborhood on them.

Their favorite thing to do is go to the top of the drive way and ride down. Sadie goes so fast I have since made the wearing of a helmet a rule while riding the "buses." Jack is a little more cautious but still tries to go as fast as Sadie.

They just have so much fun together. I love watching them giggle and play, even if they are recreating on something a one year old would prefer. Whatever floats their boats I guess.

Chase was so proud of his Christmas lights this year. It seems strange to have lights mixed with fall leaves, but that's just how it's done here in Texas. They also only put lights on the trunks of their trees. We thought it was weird at first and now we do it too. We are so excited for Christmas. It doesn't hurt that I'm married to a little Clark Griswald. Chase is the ultimate in making the holidays warm and fuzzy!!

A celebration of life!!

2011-12-12T19:47:00.000-08:00

My sweet friends Jessica Cottam and Andrea Strong threw me a baby shower. When they asked if they could I was so overwhelmed because I wasn't expecting a shower for a third baby. I've always thought it would be fun because every baby deserves to be celebrated but usually even a second baby shower is hard to come by. The women around here love to party and will find any excuse to get all the girls together so I was thrilled to be their excuse.
What a fun group of women!! I don't know if I've mentioned before how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new ward. There is such a huge variety of fun people to hang out with and everyone has been so inclusive and welcoming to our little family. I've been the "new girl" in so many places that I've gotten pretty used to being an outsider but I don't feel that way here. They have really taken our family under their wings and made us feel right at home.
So I'm glad I have a few pictures to put in the baby's record book to show that even though he is the third, he is loved and people still celebrated his forthcoming birth. Happy day for us all!!

No cavities for this cool cat!!

2011-12-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

I'm embarrassed to admit that in the five years I've had children, they've never been to a dentist. I have some really good excuses like that we've moved a bazillion times, we were too lazy to find a good dentist in our particular area, and that we never really thought about it. These are ridiculous excuses, I know, but most excuses are. Oh well!

I noticed while brushing Sadie's teeth the other day that they were looking a little yellow so I finally got off my lazy arse and asked some friends for dental recommendations.
The kids never complained of tooth aches and I am vigilant (to say the least) at brushing, flossing and mouth washing their teeth every night. It was to be a pleasant visit where only cleaning would be necessary. Well, my vigilance paid off because I was not only told they both had no cavities, but that their teeth had been very well taken care of. Forget the kids, hooray for me!!!

Sadie was great at sitting still and getting her teeth cleaned. Jack, on the other hand, wouldn't let the dentist even look in his mouth at first. He had an angry scowl the entire time with his classic head down, "eyes rolling up" look. Eventually we got him to open up and get a good cleaning but it was tricky!!

Hooray for no cavities and no dental bills!! I can't say the same for me when I go in for a check up after the baby comes. I don't have the same expectations for my mouth:-)

Potty Language

2011-11-20T19:36:00.000-08:00

Lately we've had to have some serious talks around our house (or sometimes in the car). With the whole Sandusky news breaking out I felt I had to talk to Sadie about coming to me or Dad if she feels someone has ever touched her inappropriately and to never be afraid that something will happen to us if she does. She seemed to understand.

We've also had to rehash the "potty language" vocabulary again and again. Why is it so funny to say poo, bum, and pee and boobies? I don't get it? We haven't gotten into the really crass words thank goodness but I feel I am always handing her spinach leaves at least on a weekly basis. Now for a substitution for a nasty thing to call her brother Sadie will simply say "oh potty language!" It's actually pretty clever and makes me laugh every time I hear it. She also has a friend who lives down the street who takes the Lord's name in vain as a frequent part of her vocabulary. Sadie seems to be a sponge because I've had to talk to her about not saying "oh my God" several times for the last couple of weeks. I've explained over and over to her about why we can't say that and I think she understands. I also told her that it's ok to ask her friend (or her friend's mom) to say "oh my goodness" instead. Sometimes I feel we may seem like the Flanders family from the Simpsons and I don't want to come off snobby at all.

She has really improved in the last couple of weeks and am pleased to say I think we have a handle on the situation. I'm just worried for the high school years when "fudge, shiz, HEdouble hockey sticks, and dag nabbit" come into play. She does say some pretty funny things too. When she's cold she's say "I'm FREEZING Mom. Turn on the heat busters." Who knows where she heard that one:-)

Rain Rain You Can Stay

2011-11-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

Texas is finally getting some much needed rain and the kids are LOVING it!!

Guess what Jack's getting for Christmas

2011-11-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

A sandbox!! Otherwise, Mom will go crazy sweeping dirt off the driveway all the time!!

Cannonball Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-20T13:43:00.000-08:00

We loved having Pops, CC and Curt visit us for Thanksgiving this year. They arrived on Sunday and let Chase and I take off for a couple of days to San Antonio for a temple trip. It's hard to get to the temple when you have little ones, especially when it's an hour and a half away. Babysitters rake in the dough around here. AT $8 an hour when you're gone all day, it can get VERY expensive. We took full advantage of free babysitters and stayed overnight at the Hyatt and enjoyed every second of sleeping in the next morning. I don't think we left our hotel room to get breakfast until noon!

I had never heard anything spectacular about the city of San Antonio. Of course there's the Alamo, but I had never heard of the river walk which was right below our hotel. It was delightful and the food was spectacular. We ate at a restaurant that night that had the yummiest salmon I've ever tasted. The next morning we ate breakfast at the Guenther House which is known for their breakfast. I was impressed with the antique home and it's gardens but the food was nothing to rave about, especially after waiting an hour to be seated:-)

The temple was amazing!! It is one of the "mini temples" that was recently built when Present Hinckley came up with the idea. I loved all the hard wood floors and stain glass windows. Truly a beautiful temple. I ended up sitting next to Jessica Knepp who is the angel who jumped in the pool when she saw that Jack had fallen in last summer. I don't think I'll even forget this woman because she literally saved my baby's life. It was delightful sitting next to her as she has since moved to Arkansas and was only visiting Texas for Thanksgiving. On our way out of San Antonio we ate at an Italian restaurant called Dough which literally had the BEST PIZZA I'VE EVER TASTED!! If ever there was a reason to attend the temple more frequently, Dough artisan pizza dough has certainly made it an easier conquest.

As soon as we got home on Wednesday we took the Cannons down to town lake for a little Austin sightseeing, some Torchy's trailer tacos, and a relaxing canoe ride. I still can't get over how beautiful Austin is. even in a severe drought, the lake's shores were breathtaking.

After running around all day with no nap, Jack completely passed out on the canoe, sitting up!! Poor little guy was so tuckered out. I noticed he was drooping a little as he sat next to me and couldn't believe he was actually sleeping. My large belly was useful at this point for a little headrest:-)

Thanksgiving was exciting because I knew we were going to have Connie's orange rolls and I was excited to try all the other family recipes she had up her sleeve. Jack loved helping CC make the cranberry sauce and we all loved eating it!! We were pretty much in the kitchen all day while the men had their "cross fit" workout and took the kids on a long walk to the park.
It was nice spending so much time with Connie. I feel so fortunate to have such fantastic in-laws. They're so fun to talk to and always have hilarious things to say. The weather cooperated and we were able to eat outside on the deck with our new red picnic table. Chase and I love the ambiance of Chuy's so much, we decided to make our backyard look the same with a picnic table and white lights above us. We love eating outside and LOVE not having to sweep and mop the floor inside afterwards:-)
Dinner was fantastic. I made my Mom's stuffing and stuffed mushrooms, Curt made the potatoes, and Pops roasted the turkey. DELISH!! My only complaint was that I couldn't eat it fast enough and it got cold. That happens to me every year. I am an even slower eater when I'm prego.
Jack pretty much just ate CC's orange rolls. Who wouldn't?
We can never get him to stay and eat very long, especially when we're outside. It wasn't long before he was out of his chair and scooping dirt into his dump truck.

Sadie just relished her time with Pops, CC, and Curt while they were here. She talked about them coming for a month before they came and talked about how much she missed them after they left. It's hard living so far away from family. Even Jack who I think is pretty oblivious to life sometimes mentioned how much he missed Pops totally out of the blue and a while after they had already left!

Curt especially will be missed by the kiddos (and us too, of course). He has such a way with them that they never want to leave him alone. He brought them these cool wooden carved animals from Africa and his crazy self to keep the kids entertained. It was nice having someone else for Sadie and Jack to leach onto. I just hope they didn't wear him out!!

Thanks for coming guys. Come again soon!!

Growing up and climbing out

2011-11-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

Jack is getting old!! It makes me sad because he's always been my squishy, chubby cheeked, little buddy. He's still squishy, has chubby cheeks, but the buddy part is becoming more of a challenge. Lately he's been phasing into the "tantrum stage" and has recently learned how to get out of his crib. This has been nothing short of TOTALLY ANNOYING!! The first night we realized he could get out of his crib, we didn't get him to sleep until 11 p.m. that night. Being the geniuses that we are, Chase and I FINALLY figured out that we can lock him in after three hours of trying to get him to stay in his room. He fell asleep as we were changing out the doorknobs. All tuckered out!!

We have tried to compromise (with a two year old:-) and tell Jack that if he stays in his crib we won't lock his door. He does NOT like being locked in and tells us throughout the day "Don't lock my door Mom." He says this with a angry rolled eyed look on his face. Obviously he isn't old enough to "make a deal" with his parents and has only stayed in his room a few times when we leave his door unlocked. He now insists that we leave his door open at night. He goes into Sadie's room at 5 a.m. in the morning just to say hello. It's actually kind of sweet. Sadie has told me that he'll jump in bed with her and snuggle while they talk and giggle. When I hear their little voices up there I usually let them have a couple of minutes to bond before we stick Jack back in his crib.

The other night he and Sadie came into our room at 3:50 a.m. Sadie was clearly confused because she was fully dressed for school. If we hadn't been so tired it would have been really funny but IT WASN'T!! It's time to get Jack a "big boy" bed but I don't feel like I can do this right now. I'm worried that with the baby coming in soon he'll feel really misplaced with out his crib, especially if the baby starts to use it.

I'm just glad he's going through this now to "prepare" me for the hurricane which is bound to come when the baby comes. Sadie was a mess when we brought Jack home. Hopefully it won't be as bad with Jack but at least we are gearing up for it with him waking up SUPER early in the morning and needing to be rocked to sleep for naps.

He might be getting big but he still makes me smile when he yells "kissmas tees" every time he sees lights. He's been screaming it out the car window ever since Halloween when people had decorations up for the trick or treaters. Sadie is adamant about teaching him to say things correctly. He's told "it's Christmas lights, not Christmas trees Jack!" She tries to help him enunciate his words which makes me laugh because Sadie has one of the cutest little lisps every time we says an "S."

He loves to wrestle around with Dad and play fumble in the front room (which always ends in some sort of an injury:-). He insists on holding his Halloween bag while he eats his meals. "I just wanna hold it mom." I am such a sucker for this little guy. He got candy WAY earlier in life than Sadie did. I'm also a sucker when it comes to his pacifier. He loves his "bibi" and has at least two in his possession at all times. He also been seen carrying 4-5 around as well. Chase gets mad when he sees a binky in Jack's mouth and always takes it away. I just like the peace and quiet, so when I'm around, Jack gets his way. He just loves them so much!

He carries a Ziploc bag around with his cars inside almost everywhere we go. He gets sad when Sadie goes to school and asks where she is throughout the day. We had breakfast with some friends this morning and as we were driving away he asked me where Preston (his little buddy) was and said "I wanted to say goodbye Mom."

He's singing his ABC's and a lot of other songs I didn't know he knew. Often I'll hear him singing Happy Birthday, Thomas and his Friends, Jingle Bells, and Rudolf the Red nose reindeer. I love his little voice. Whenever we pass by the restaurant Chuy's he'll shout out "Chuy's!!" in his little enthusiastic chipmunk sounding voice. He's learning how to count VERY well. At breakfast I'll bring down puzzles and we work through them while he eats. He knows all of his shapes. I love hearing him say "trapezoid and octagon." It totally cracks me up! He's also learned a lot of the letter's sounds and will say them out loud to us when we pick up a letter. He's become amazingly proficient with my iPhone. He navigates around the apps. like it's no one's business and watching him play angry birds is hilarious. A little smarty pants!!

He'll say stuff like "that makes me sad" whenever he's not allowed to do anything. He'll give anyone a kiss if they are sad so we do the same for him. He's still a little snuggler and I wrap him up in a fuzzy red blanket every afternoon for his nap. We rock in the rocking chair and sing songs until his eyes get droopy. I know it's a bad habit to rock your kid to sleep but I'm relishing the time that he'll still let me do this with him. Cuddle time is my favorite time of the day, besides of course when he and Sadie are both in bed and I get to snuggle with my Chase.

I'm so glad when Sadie comes home!!

2011-11-15T21:32:00.000-08:00

Having Sadie gone all day is hard for little Jack. When school first started back in September he asked where she was every day. He's now gotten used to her being gone in the morning and is elated when she comes home. I hear "where Sidi go?" or "lets go get Sidi" frequently throughout the week.
I'm so glad they're little buddies.

Third Trimester

2011-11-15T20:45:00.000-08:00

This picture, taken by Sadie, was at the end of the second trimester. I laugh that I "thought" I was uncomfortable then. Looking back I wish I was still that small. My only real complaints are the exhaustion I feel. I LOVE the weekends so I can sleep in. Getting Sadie up for school every morning is getting OLD!! My back starts to hurt in the same spot every night around 7. That's also about the time my nose completely clogs up and I have to bring out the nasal spray. JOY!! Another annoyance is the lack of bladder control. The lower this baby sits the harder it has become to sneeze or cough with out having little accidents. I feel like I need to be potty trained all over again!
Once we've hit the third trimester, non-maternity clothing goes out the window. Once this shirt started to look like this, we decided to let it retire for a season...or two.
Other than the fact that I am COMPLETELY addicted to Afrin and somewhat dependant on Unisom, this pregnancy is going along quite swimmingly. I have all these desires to improve our home and get it ready for visitors and the baby. The only problem is my lack of motivation at times. Once I stand up I get a lot done. It's just getting up that seems to be the real challenge these days. I have all these furniture pieces I want to paint and the thought of tackling the project seems TOTALLY overwhelming to me. A nap sounds WAY better.
Chase and I got a babysitter and went shopping the other night. We ended up at Forever 21 and Chase seemed a little bugged...at first. Then he noticed a men's section and I had to practically drag him up to the register as they were closing up for the night. He found this shirt and I approved not knowing that in a few days I'd be wearing it myself. Sorry Chase. It needed to be broken in before you wore it:-)

Trick or Treat

2011-11-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

Sadie was thrilled that we were going to be trick or treating with her best buddy Avery who also happens to live two doors down from us. They are in the same class at school and have quickly become bosom buddies. Carl and Stacey invited us down for a quick Halloween dinner and then we were off to "get candy, get candy, get candy."

Sadie and Avery ran from door to door. Jack and Avery's little brother Evan (also two years old) had a hard time keeping up. We shuttled Jack around in the stroller and all he did was hold up his bag at the door with out getting out. When he got sick of that, he and Chase ran around with him on Dad's shoulders.

You would think we had handed him the moon! He couldn't believe everyone was just giving him candy!! Sadie took full advantage of the couple of hours we were out. She knew what was behind every door!

Nesting gone wrong

2011-11-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

Ever since Sadie got pink cowboy boots for Christmas she decided she wanted to be a cowgirl for Halloween the following year. Our favorite book 'round these parts is Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse.

Chase and I are accustomed these days to reading the book in full Texas drawls and we're big fans of Miss Nellie Sue and her similar obsession with horses. In fact, it was because of this book that Sadie assumed we would automatically have a horse when we moved to Texas. Nellie Sue had a garage and that solidified the fact that because we too would have a garage, there would be a horse inside.

Miss Nellie Sue's outfit was my first inspiration when I thought of how I wanted Sadie's costume to look. However, I DO NOT SEW! My mother didn't sew, but both my grandmother's did. They also crocheted. I have since picked up crocheting in my spare and diminishing time so why couldn't I pick up sewing as well.

I brought out the sewing machine Chase gave me when I was pregnant (and also nesting) with Sadie. It had collected some dust over the years but I could still remember how to string the machine and thread a bobbin. Basics. I can do the basics. All of my previous projects had either been making baby blankets for the kids (sewing in a straight line happened to be very hard for me at the time:-), embellishing burp cloths (don't ask), an attempt at making Sadie a dress with bloomers (another sore subject you shouldn't bring up), and that's about it from the budding seamstress inside me.

One of my favorite blogs is http://www.dana-made-it.com/. I'm sure you've heard of it. She makes everything look really easy to accomplish and when I saw a link to a cowboy vest I was sold. I told myself "I can TOTALLY do this." Before I dove into the project of my second attempt at making "wearable" clothing, I searched online for cowgirl costumes that resembled Nellie Sue. There wasn't one and most of them were either too short, too cheap looking and had the WRONG color scheme. We needed pink!!

I gave in and got all the supplies. No turning back now. It must be the nesting mother inside me that wanted to do this because I only gave myself a week to whip these puppies out thinking I could do it in an evening like Dana did. I was WRONG!!

This mama bird was FUMING at the end of the week. I thought I had until Halloween which was a Monday but Chase kindly informed me that the ward trunk or treat was actually on Friday so I'd probably want to get them done by then. I know he meant well but I almost threw the felt fabric and needles at him. I wanted to scream..."YOU DO IT THEN" but then the little annoying voice inside my head told me, "you wanted to do this...remember?"

I finished the costumes about an hour before the trunk or treat. I ended up measuring Sadie's chaps with the wrong jeans so they were WAY too big. Jack's ended up being too big as well so I had to shorten those too. In the last hours I felt like a contestant on Project Runway racing the clock before it was too late.

Next time (if there will ever be one of those) I will try the outfit on BEFORE the last day. Sadie's outfit was WAY more time intensive than Jack's. I added sequins and realized halfway through that I was really pushing my luck. I was just beginning to work with fabric. I shouldn't have attempted the sequins. Sadie also mentioned a few days before that Nellie Sue had riding gloves. RIDING GLOVES?! No problem sweetie!!

I found some polyester white gloves in the dollar spot at Target. I just sewed felt on top of those and called them "riding gloves." They were hard to get on, but worked splendidly!! Maurine and Sara must have been guiding me from heaven because I finished right in the nick of time, well not really. We barely made it on time for the parade and most of the yummy dinner options were gone.

We took the kids to a field by our house with cactus for a real "western effect" photo shoot. It was all hunky dory until Sadie decided to touch a cactus and everything was downhill from there. Oh well, it was time to leave anyway. Candy was to be had!!

The best part of the Trunk or Treat was having Macy Robinson there to take pictures of everyone in their costumes. She's an amazing photographer in our ward and brought all her studio supplies to the ward stage. In between the chili and cornbread, we ran up there and got a few shots taken of our little lone stars.

We were sadly disappointed to not be able to find our billy bob teeth for the pics. You know you're getting old when you can't find your teeth right? The truth is I found about three (yes, that's right, I have three) of my own pairs but we couldn't find Chase's anywhere. I wasn't about to wear them if Chase wasn't going to wear his. I guess I'm not as brave as I used to be.

You can clearly see Jack's disappointment at not winning the best costume prize (I like to think he's making that face on my behalf:-). The bishop's family ended up winning (figures) and all they did was put white tape on red shirts to resemble a "Where's Waldo" get-up. Oh well. We know who the REAL winners are.

Happy Trails everyone!!

Severson Sweethearts

2011-10-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

What better way to celebrate the holidays than with friends. The Seversons had a grand old party with desserts, doughnut making, and pumpkin carving. Most of the evening was spent outside watching all the kiddos run around. Sadie has a little crush on Nate Severson who is in her CTR 5 class at church.

The other day as we were driving to a birthday party she asked if Nate would be there. I told her he wouldn't because he didn't know the birthday boy. She replied "well if Nate was there, then the party would be SO much fun!"

She also asks me if she can walk with Nate to class after sacrament meeting. Nate puts his arm around her shoulders and they walk right out together and down the hallway. I asked Chase how he felt about a boys arm around Sadie so early in life. He simply replied "I'm glad she is making new friends." I guess he won't be one of those dads with a shotgun when Sadie comes home late from a date.

My little Sadie lady is so social. All she wants to do is play with her friend Avery who lives two doors down. Another mom was telling me that her little girl won't tell her anything about school. Sadie still talks my ears off and after hearing this mom's complaints, I am pleased as punch she won't let us get a word in edgewise. The other night as we were driving home from a restaurant she didn't let two seconds go by with out saying something. It made Chase and I chuckle in the front seats.

Jack wasn't around much the whole evening. He and Preston Wright (his buddy from nursery) were upstairs playing with all the toys. When Chase went up to check on him, Jack gave Chase the glare, pushed his hand out to say "go downdares Dad." He was not to be disturbed during his playtime.

6 Glazed for 6 A's

2011-10-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Krispy Kreme does the coolest thing for school children. If you get 6 A's on your report card, you come in and get 6 glazed doughnuts...for FREE! Well, our Sadie lady came home from school with an ALL A REPORT CARD!! Hooray for Sadie!!

We were all the lucky recipients of her awesome grades in school and snarfed down quite a few doughnuts before dinner. I also love that they have a window to their little bakery so you can see how the doughnuts are made.

Sadie and Jack were in heaven and while eating my pumpkin old fashion doughnut, I was too!

Mimi Mail!!

2011-10-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while we get a package from Mimi and it's always filled with surprises. In order to make room for the new shipments coming into the Children's Hour, mom sends us some sale clothes to lighten the racks a little. Hooray for darling new clothes!! Sadie was so excited she wanted to try everything on and take a picture, just like a runway model. So we did just that and sent the pics to Mimi. Thanks again Mom!!

Hot and Cold

2011-10-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

I remember calling my mom in tears after Jack was born because Sadie was so upset about having to share me with another baby. She turned from a Sadie Lady to a Sadie Monster!! My mom told me that I needed to remember that in the long run, I was doing the best thing for Sadie by bringing Jack into the home.

We are finally experiencing the "long run." Sadie and Jack get along like peas and carrots. That's not to say they don't have their off moments.

Time-out chairs are used frequently around here when they hit or fight with one another. Sadie just festers and boils in her seat while Jack puts his head down but looks up with an angry white eyed glare. It's almost worth time-out to see him make that face. At first it was all Sadie's doing. Over the years she has constantly pestered and bothered Jack. Little did she know (actually I did warn her) that he would learn her tricks of the trade.

Every once in a while I'll see him come sit next to her while she's coloring and place a finger on her paper, just to bother her. And bother her it does!! He can be a real tease too sometimes.

He's also learned to "swipe" toys from her like she has always done with him in the past. They both know that if a toy is fought over I usually throw it away or put it up really high for a couple of days. With this plan of action in place, the fighting has lessened but I don't think will ever disappear completely.

Chase and I are still can't believe that they will go upstairs together and play in the play room for at least an hour. They also love to play in the front driveway together pushing around their leap frog carts. It makes me so happy when I see her helping him get strapped in his swing so she can push him.

Jack adores Sadie and always asks where she is when she's at school. She's usually the one to go upstairs and get him out of his crib (very ungracefully I might add...he's heavy!!) after his afternoon nap. They can't wait for their happy reunion.

The other day we found a lizard in the office. It was the first one I've found in the house and it scared me to death. Luckily Chase was home so he could rescue us all for the terrifying creature lurking in the windowsill. Once captured, Sadie and Jack took turns holding "lizzie." After the hype wore off, there weren't as many complaints about who got to hold her longer.

Words to the wise

2011-09-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've had my fair share of uncomfortable callings in the church. Some of them included young women (a calling I would have loved had the total four young women...that's it..four..weren't punching each other at school or getting pregnant at 14), choir director (another calling which would have been fun if I had any knowledge whatsoever as to how to direct a choir. There is a great difference between being in a choir and actually being in charge of a choir. This calling also would have been fun if I could get anyone to actually come to choir practice), and sunbeam teacher (a calling that would be a little more enjoyable had the children actually listened to what I taught and didn't fight over who got to sit on my lap that week).

I've also had some callings that I've LOVED including being a missionary in Spain, ward missionary, young women (different ward, different young women:-), relief society teacher (one of my personal favorites), and primary pianist (an extremely rewarding calling just to be able to listen to the funny things kids say in primary every week). My eternal calling (one I've had in every ward I've ever been in since Chase and I were married about 7 years ago) is the activities committee. I have always been mindful of being grateful for callings and have learned to never reject them. Some people will say no to callings and I've always thought this was lame because it made the job of the bishop, a calling I hope Chase NEVER gets, even more challenging.

There is however one calling that I have absolutely NEVER wanted. I never told anyone for fear of actually getting the calling to "teach me a lesson" in the future. Can you guess what it is? When we moved into our current ward we sat down with the first counselor in the bishopric as Chase was extended the calling of sunbeam teacher (hee hee). Brother Scott didn't have a calling for me just yet and I told him that was probably a good thing because I was as sick as a dog in my first trimester of pregnancy. Then I made a remark that I had always told myself NEVER to do. I told Brother Scott that I didn't want to be in nursery.

I wasn't feeling well and the last thing a mother of young children wants to do is take care of other mother's young children. I live in a nursery at home for Pete's sake! It wouldn't be right to have a worn out mom put in nursery who wouldn't be excited to be there every Sunday. Nursery should be extended to Dads, people who have grown children, or people who just can't get enough of snotty nosed, smelly, and wild rascals. This is the one calling I would probably say no to. For shame!!!

Guess what calling Brother Scott extended to me just a few short months later? I blame it on myself for telling him I didn't want the calling. He's either trying to "teach me a lesson" (I'm not 4 years old Brother Scott), or he is suffering from Alzheimer's because he obviously forgot that I clearly told him I DIDN'T WANT TO BE IN NURSERY!!! When he extended the calling I asked him if he was joking. I tried to hold back tears. I was not only offended that my one request was not taken into account, but I also had a ridiculous amount of self pity for my sad nauseated self. I pretended to get something from my diaper bag (that's right...DIAPER BAG...because I HAVE A CHILD IN DIAPERS BROTHER SCOTT), so he wouldn't see how flushed and angry I was. I choked down the tears and smiled at Chase who obviously could tell I was FURIOUS!!

I asked Brother Scott why he was giving me a calling that I clearly told him I didn't want and he asked me if I was going to make this calling the "first calling I would ever say no to." Was he challenging me? I did feel guilty. I worried about the consequences of being struck by lightning once I left the building if I did actually say "no." All I really wanted to do was punch the guy in the face but instead I said "yes" after he assured me I would be released before the baby is born in January. Gee, thanks! Only a man wouldn't take into account that by the time I give birth I will be so incredibly large that people will be asking me if I'm having twins. I won't want my own children crawling all over me, let alone other people's children whom I don't care a snitch about. I won't want to lift children off the tables, bend over to pick up toys, or go around sniffing every child's diaper in order to decipher whose bowel movement is the culprit of the foul stench filling the room. After I left his office I went to our 100 degree car in the parking lot and cried. It was pathetic, dramatic and completely childish. Maybe I am four!!

Time for a trim

2011-09-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

Jack's hair seemed to be getting a little out of control. I loved it in the humidity because it would curl and form these fantastic wings on the side. Still, it was looking a little unkempt so Chase got out his electric trimmer and went to town.

This pic is about three weeks later after it had time to grow in a little. When I first saw how much he had taken off I couldn't help but cry. Not only did Jack look like he'd been prepped for an operation, but he also looked a whole year older. I wanted the long curly hair back. Good thing hair grows. He does look quite handsome with his new look, but don't tell him that. I stated that he was handsome the other day and he replied "I'm not handsome, I'm a boy!"

Copy Cats

2011-09-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Whatever Mom does, Sadie does. Soon after, Jack quickly follows suit.

Endless Summer

2011-09-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

When planning this pregnancy I was thinking that by September the temps would be lowering and I wouldn't be too uncomfortable in my third trimester. No amount of planning could have worked it's way around this hot and ridiculously endless summer. We go to the pool almost every day after school and if it's even remotely under 100 degrees we celebrate and stay outside all day.

One of these such days we headed down to town lake for another attempt at canoe rides with out the fits of hysterics from Sadie thinking we will drown.

She was very pleasant this time around. Even with the smell of smoke in the air and fires looming to the East, there were still quite a bit of people enjoying the cooler (if you can call it that)

Originally we went down to watch Sammy Markham finish his triathlon. We met up with them, hung out on the water, stopped at Torchy's for a little trailer food heaven, and then headed to the bat bridge to watch them soar at dusk.

With cupcakes from Hey Cupcake and a view of the city lights, the day ended complete!

Texas on Fire

2011-09-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

When you hear the word "drought" you think...well I guess I should shower less, right? I never thought that we would ever get this close to being evacuated. I kept hearing reports while in Utah about serious water restrictions and 100 degree days with no signs of rain. I heard about some towns just turning their water off for a couple of days just to replenish supply. I was worried when I heard these things and would call Chase to make sure he purchased more water at Costco next time he went.

However, I had no idea how bad this parched land was until we returned to a completely yellow landscape. With 85+ days over a 100 degrees and no water the land was completely barren and vulnerable to any type of fire hazard. A few weeks after school started it seemed fires had started and weren't stopping all around us.
People in our stake were being evacuated. Our friends the Kings from Virginia who live in Leander had a really close scare as they were evacuated and the street below them lost 11 homes. Steiner Ranch just 10 miles north of us lost 25 homes. We almost rented a home there last year!! One night we had a really hard time sleeping. I thought with the thick smell of smoke in the air and orange moon, we were going to get a knock on our door at any minute telling us we had to be evacuated.

There is still a pile at the door of all the things we would take with us if we had a short time to evacuate. Pictures, back up discs, and Chase's cello all seemed irreplaceable. I sat around looking at all our "stuff" and thinking that even though it's just ordinary belongings, I still needed and used them every day. These poor people in the fire East of us in Bastrop lost everything. 1500 homes were destroyed in this fire and huge relief efforts have been made on their behalf. Imagine having to buy everything all over again. Simple things like a curling iron or a spray bottle. Friends in the ward mentioned video taping all our belonging for insurance reasons to make claims easier. I couldn't believe we were to this point of worry.

We prayed earnestly for rain. Stakes were fasting and still for two weeks the fires kept blazing and more homes continued to be destroyed with out a drop of rain in the forecast. It all seemed ridiculous that New Jersey was flooding with water and we were on fire. Every time we heard a fire engine we were alarmed and got ready but were never actually evacuated. Our little neighborhood made it through with out any damage and a great deal of sorrow for those who had lost their homes.

It finally rained yesterday. It wasn't a lot but after two weeks God finally answered our prayers. I still can't seem to put that pile away at the front door. It hit too close to home this time around.

Things they do and say....

2011-09-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

The other day it was just Jack and me at home and I have the sniffles. Jack turned to me and asked "your nose running Mommy?" I said yes. He asked me if I wanted a tissue and ran to the bathroom to get one. He gave me the tissue and said "blow Mommy." It made my having a cold totally worth it.

Some of my favorite "Jackisms" lately are just watching him run. He literally prances everywhere. He also enunciates his words very well lately. If he isn't interested in something or if he wants you to stop he'll say "I don't want it." When he wants to hold something "I hold it." When he wants more than what we gave him of something it's always "BIG one Mommy.". We also love that he says "again" like a Canadian and "ya" like a Swedish countryman. "Ca ca stick" for Chapstick and "puffin" for muffin. And my personal favorite...."I can't not open it." Nearly everything we do from getting into the car, out of his car seat, into his highchair, or fixing a toy, it's always "I want to do it." Everything takes about ten minutes longer this way but he insists.
Lately he's really been into reading books. He would read them all day. He'll point to the pictures and say "what's that Mommy?" I love that most of his sentences end with "mommy." He's been carrying a big pile of books around with him in either his stroller or a laundry basket. He'll throw a couple of trucks and trains in there too because those are always at an arms reach.

He loves to listen and dance around to music with Sadie. Those two seem to be be playing VERY well together lately and it's been so nice hearing them talk to each other while in the other room and laugh when someone does something funny. I've said this before but no one makes Jack laugh harder than Sadie. All she has to do is pretend to fall down and he's giggling uncontrollably.
Sadie has been loving school. Every day when I pick her up she has a half a Skittle or M&M for me. I love that it's never a whole piece of a minuscule candy. Always half. She loves to share what's delicious with her mommy even if it's so small you can barely taste it. Today I got the tail of a goldfish cracker. Yummy!

The other day we were reading "Quick as a Cricket" (Jack's new fav.) and when we got to the pic of the whale Sadie said in her most grown up voice "I really like this picture guys. It's really quite fantastic. I love the waves and the feet coming out of the water. It's just really a great picture." She's been taking art at school and I can tell they have been talking about art just by the way she's starting talking about the pictures we see at home.

She came home the other day from school and told me she was going to marry a boy names Mossimo from her class. I guess his name doesn't bother her. If Chase's name was Mossimo he wouldn't have gotten a first date. I asked her what he said when she told him that. I guess he turned her down flat but she told him "well I'm going to marry you anyway." There's also a boy in her class named Chris who calls her "cutie" instead of Sadie. I'm glad she finally acknowledges boys as human beings. Before they were absolutely "disgusting" to her.

She's already the teacher's pet too. She's been the line leader for two weeks now and gets a great report every day. My favorite thing is how much fun she has with Jack when she gets home from school. I guess being apart has made them fonder of one another and they will play upstairs forever together while I cook dinner. It has FINALLY happened. My kids play well together.

Jack and Joy School

2011-09-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Jack started joy school this week. I joined a group with four other moms and since I did it with Sadie when she was two I thought it was time for Jack as well. I love Joy School. I have to admit that when it was my turn to host all the kids it totally stressed me out with Sadie's group. This time around I am going to take a more "laid back" approach and not over think too much about what these little two year olds are learning (or not learning:-). Maybe it was the influence of the East Coasters that gave me such anxiety but I'm feeling much more "easy peasy" down here in Texas. It's going to be a great year.

With Sadie gone at school every day, Jack is TOTALLY bored. I like having the alone time with him because he rarely gets me all to himself. He's such a fun and pleasant little guy to hang out with. It stung a little when I heard they wanted to do school twice a week because I feel like these next four months are the only time I am going to have with just my Jack before baby number three arrives. Still, Jack loves to be around other kids and has such a great time being social. I couldn't deprive him of such a fun time every Tuesday and Thursday. I also REALLY look forward to my morning naps while he's gone:-)

I thought he would be a little sad when I dropped him off his first day but reassured him he would have "new toys" to play with inside. He loves playing with other people's toys. Jack was fine when I left and the whole time I was gone. Kelsey told me he literally played the whole 2 1/2 hours. He didn't want a snack and didn't want to listen to the lesson...just play. I guess that's why they call it "joy" school.

We have a Kindergartner!!

2011-09-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

I remember when Sadie was born Chase and I talked about how far away Kindergarten seemed. I knew then it would be an emotional day with her sleeping little body in my arms. Why are parents sad when their kids go to school all day for the first time? They drive us crazy when they're home and we're always looking for something to do to entertain them. Why then do we cry days leading up to the event? Probably because we're handing our child over to someone else to mold and influence every day for 7 hours.
The night before while I was packing her lunch it really started to hit me. Have I taught her how to be brave and how to stand up to bullies? Did I teach her to be nice to everyone and obedient to her teacher? She certainly didn't always obey me at home:-)

While writing her a little note to put in her lunchbox, I totally broke down. Probably because I'm pregnant and probably because she's my first baby and the younger years are over. I don't have too many regrets. I just hope she'll be ok.
Her school starts at 7:30...brutal I know. We were used
to getting out of bed at 8 every morning so that alone made for a rude awakening her first day. I somehow managed to get her breakfast while my eyes filled with tears. I was dreading the next half hour. I knew I would lose it once we dropped her off.
I cried down the hallway, composed myself to say hello to the teacher and then hid my wet eyes from her while I hugged my little Sadie and watched her hang up her back pack. I cried the whole way back to the car and nearly fainted when I got home because through it all, I forgot to feed my pregnant belly that morning. That's the sad part. The joyful part is, Sadie was TOTALLY fine!! She walked right in there and sat down like it was any other day. I guess I did teach her how to be brave.

Watered down

2011-09-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ever since we left Utah and returned home to Austin Jack has had some interesting diapers...to say the least. Em's kids had their bout of the "runs" while we were there and it turned out to be giardia. After seeing what poor Andrew went through I am convinced Jack doesn't have the same infection.
In retrospect I realize that he probably drank a lot of gross water while we were there. We spent a ton of time playing in the river at Garden Park Ward, playing in the streams at Liberty Park and he was playing with the hose just about every day.
Grandpa let him water the yellow spots on the lawn and after that the hose was HIS. He wouldn't let anyone else touch it if he was around. He quickly learned how to press his fingers at the top and make a sprinkler for the other kids to run through. It was his way of "letting" them have fun with the hose too:-)
Utah's water is my favorite. I love the taste of a nice cold glass from the tap. I'm not so sure about drinking it from the hose. It could be worse. At least it's not the toilet.

So if you happen to drive by my home and you see a naked baby outside playing with the hose it's because there was feces all over him and I didn't want to get the said feces all over the bathtub. Yuck!!! Lets just say the grass got it's fair share of compost that day:-)

Oh the joys of motherhood!!

Bear Lake

2011-09-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'd like to think Chase returned to Utah to help me fly back to Texas with the kids. I wasn't supposed to do any lifting so we thought it was a good idea for him to come back for a long weekend and fly home with me that Wednesday.
Like I said, I'd like to think he was overly concerned with my prego well-being. But we all know why he REALLY came back. For three reasons: the Gardners, Bear Lake and WATER SKIING!!!
John and Jess invited us and we just couldn't turn them down. We miss our besties so we decided it was time to "rekindle" our relationship:-)
We had FUN!! The kids spent most of their time playing in the sand, on the trampoline or throwing rocks in the lake.
Being preggers I wasn't allowed to ski. In fact, that was one of the things the doctor specifically told me NOT to do when I started bleeding a few weeks before.
I wasn't too bummed on Saturday when the water was pretty choppy but when we skied on Monday the water was amazing and I was sad to not be out there on the glass.
After watching Lizzy and Tommy get up on their trainer water ski Sadie decided to be brave too and consented to sit on the ski but "NOT STAND UP." Baby steps. I was just proud of her for getting out there!
I love this picture of Sadie and Chase skipping rocks in the water. She was teaching him how to crouch down for a better skip. They both look ridiculous but really cute too.
We promised the kids two nights in a row that we would roast marshmallows and make s'mores by the fire. At the end of the day we were just too exhausted and we promised them the next day. Well, our last night came and we just didn't feel like bathing everyone afterwards so Jess had the brilliant idea of making them in the microwave and having a "campfire" in the bathroom. She told "child appropriate" scary stories and they got to eat their s'mores. It was WAY easier than the real thing:-)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of Jess skiing. Not only does she look great on the ski but she can also give us a big smile while she's out there. There's a reason why I like hanging out with her so much and why I was so depressed when they moved to Utah from D.C. She is so fun!! Life is so boring with out her:-)

Jess asked me to take pictures of her family while we were up there and I was totally excited because I LOVE taking pictures of her kids. They are so photogenic. (John and Jess are too:-) It's way more fun to take pics of cute kids (not that I've ever shot a family with ugly children, but you know what I mean:-).
Here's a few of the ones I liked the most. What a beautiful family. Thanks for the trip guys. We had a blast and we miss you already!!

Mimi's tea party

2011-09-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

My cute mom hosted a little tea party for all the grandchildren. You would have thought she was planning a wedding! She bought flowers for the table and more for decorating head wreaths. She bought scones and macarones from a french bakery and had such fun crafts for the kids. They were all in heaven.

Of course my camera's battery decided to die right after it started so the Iphone took over for the rest of the party. In fact, most of the pics I took in Utah were taken with my phone. It's just WAY more convenient than lugging my big Canon around.
The girls made wreaths and sparkly wands while the boys made robin hood hats and wizard wands.
They all looked so cute around the table sipping their lemonade and eating their cookie cutter sandwiches.

Aunt Jane brought out her violin and serenaded them while they ate but once the music started all the kids wanted to do was dance. They played Ring Around the Rosies and just danced all over the back yard while Jane played tune after tune.

Such a fun little party. Thanks Mimi!!

In some places, water falls from the sky

2011-09-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

It doesn't rain very much in Texas so Jack was pretty excited about how much it rained in Utah. The kid loves water and will do just about anything to play with it. I can't count how many times I had to change his outfit while we were in Utah after finding him with the water hose, playing in the toilet, or just dumping his water cup all over himself.
Apparently rain storms happen to be his favorite. He loves stomping in the puddles and playing in the gutters. A lot of fun for Jack and lots of laundry for Mom!

An introduction...

2011-09-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

By far the best part of being in Utah this summer was being able to meet little Emma Dalton. I was there for big sis Alice's birth too. Perhaps I'll make it a tradition. She is the snuggliest little bundle and I immediately fell in love!!
Lizzie had an amazing labor and delivery. She and Chad went in for a scheduled induction and had the baby a few short hours later. What a woman!!
The proud father. These two have a great gene pool! Dalton babies are adorable!!
I headed over to the hospital and took some pictures of the little nugget and then Sadie and I continued to go over to their house whenever Jack was sleeping at Grandpa's house so we could get another snuggle.

A little scare...

2011-09-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

When Chase went back to work in Texas we really missed him. You never realize how much you depend on a person until they leave. It was nice to have Emily there at the same time to keep me company but it just wasn't the same as having Chase and Patrick with us. Many phone conversations later we had to convince Sadie that even though she missed her Dad, it was WAY better to be in Utah with 80 degree weather than Texas where it was so hot in the 100s that we couldn't even go outside.

Of course when Chase left, doing it all on my own was hard on my body. After Wheeler farm, the zoo, and This is the Place park, I was exhausted from all the walking and lifting and actually ended up having a little scare on Em's birthday. I noticed that I had started bleeding a little bit where you aren't supposed to bleed when your preggers. This had never happened with the previous pregnancies so I was completely hysterical and thought for sure I had miscarried at 14 weeks.

The first thing that popped in my head was wanting an ultrasound IMMEDIATELY to let me know the baby's fate. I had to know either way. I started thinking of where I could go in SLC with out actually having my doctor there. I called urgent care and was informed they didn't have the equipment to do ultrasounds. I was about to go wait for hours in the emergency room when it popped in my head to call Connie. Aunt Lori (her sister) has a son in law who happens to also be a OBGYN out at the hospital in Murray. I called Connie and I'm surprised she could even understand me on the phone because I was crying so hard. Somehow she translated through the sobs and called Lori right away.

She called me right back and told me Dan's office could see me ASAP and that I could head over there immediately. Jim and Connie were literally on their way out the door. They were packing the car to drive up to Vancouver to meet Cate for a harp festival. I was amazed at how they literally dropped everything to not only call the office but also offered to drive me over there when they really should have been on the road by then.

Connie drove me to the hospital while I cried the whole time in the passenger seat. I had so many mixed emotions. It's amazing how attached you can become to a little person you haven't even met. I kept thinking of how utterly devastated I would be if I had lost the baby and also kept thinking of how hard I had worked to get to this point. My first trimester was a nauseated mess and the thought of having to do those three months over again was just too much to bear or even think about.

Connie talked to me about the several miscarriages she had when trying to conceive Curtis. It broke my heart to hear about all she had been through and it also put things into perspective for me. If others can handle multiple miscarriages, I certainly could too. In retrospect I am grateful for the experience because it hopefully will make me more empathetic towards other friends and family that have and will miscarry in the future.

Still, I was very emotional and borderline hysterical when I walked into the office. I tried avoiding the eyes of all the other patients in the waiting room and through tears and gasps of air I told the receptionist who I was and that I was told I could have an ultrasound right away. They immediately whisked me into the backroom and away from the gawking reception area to a dark room where I heard that GLORIOUS heartbeat and burst into tears all over again. The baby was alive, had a strong heartbeat and was the most beautiful living creature I had ever seen on screen. Connie was right there holding my hand and it was so amazing to have her there to comfort me. It was also fun for her to see the ultrasound as I believe she never saw them with her own children.

While they were checking everything to make sure the baby was ok, I asked if they could tell this early on what the sex was. They said they would try and apparently it wasn't too hard to notice that there was another little BOY in the there!!!! So amidst all the chaos and hysterics, we found out that we had another son on the way and that he was as healthy as can be. I was told to "take it easy" and also that I had to return the next day to get a rogham shot to prevent any further problems with my O negative blood type.

Those two days were just full of needles. That morning before I had started bleeding a nurse came to my parents house to do a physical for our life insurance policy. She had to draw blood for that and I got to hear all about her nasty divorce and dating again at 40. Poor thing! That afternoon after the ultrasound I had to get my blood drawn again (in the same arm mind you) for preparation of the rogham shot the next day. No fun at all!! The next day I went back for the rogham and it hurt!!! I don't like needles but at that point I was so happy that the little man was alive I would be willing to take a shot wherever they wanted to poke me.

Through the whole experience I learned many things but overall that I have AMAZING in laws. They have always taken such good care of all of their children and spouses and you could never deny their love for all of us. As you can see, nothing is inconvenient enough than to help one of us out. I was so overwhelmed with their kindness that I couldn't talk about it with out crying. They exemplify Christ in so many ways and I feel so fortunate to have them as part of my family. Connie and Jim....we love you!!!

Spoiled!!

2011-08-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

We were never bored in Utah which is saying a lot coming from being inside all day every day in Texas with this blasted heat. We have felt so spoiled not only to have so many fun people to hang out with but with so many fun places to go as well. We met up with Aunt Brooke and the kids at Hogle Zoo one day and gratefully Jess let me borrow her double stroller. I am always impressed with how much Hogle zoo has improved since I was a kid.
They had a great dinosaur exhibit that both intrigued and terrified some children. Sadie was fascinated and we searched all afternoon for the enormous T-Rex. We found him!
Jack was more on the terrified side and could only stare in disbelief at the enormity and terror the monster in front of him beheld.
The next day we met up with Jess and the kiddos at This is the Place Park which is another place I was totally impressed with. There was nothing there when I was a kid. They had train rides, and trolley tours, animals and pony rides.
The heat of the day started to get to me a little. Sometimes I have to remember I'm pregnant and take it easy.
The hills at hogle zoo really wore me out. I feel like when I'm pregnant my body totally rejects any form of exercise. I don't know how these women run and do their spinning classes when their 8 months prego. It's ridiculous. I'm only jealous, that's all.
Jess eventually took her kids home and I took mine over for a pony ride before we headed home ourselves. Of course we spotted an ice cream store and had to get one of those too.

They only had one size...BIG. I'm used to getting Sadie a kiddie cone. It took her FOREVER to finish this cone and she eventually had to throw the cone part away. It was too much for her. I never thought I would ever have to throw away extra ice cream when it came to Sadie.

Makeshift Double Stroller

2011-08-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

There was no way I was going to take my double stroller plus the car seats and all of our luggage to Utah for the summer. I feel like Sadie is old enough to walk these days and she'll have to be once this new baby arrives. Of course every once in a while she "just can't walk anymore" and this is what happens.

Temple Square

2011-08-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

I love walking on the grounds at Temple Square. Chase's flight was cancelled so we were able to spend a little extra time together. Temple Square seemed to be a good place to visit that night.
The best part was running into Brecca Bowen, my mission president's daughter who was then 13 when I was serving. She now has a baby and is pregnant with her second. Made me feel VERY old!! I saw her and knew she had to be a Bowen. It was wonderful talking to her and getting an update on her parents.
Trying to keep Jack out of the water was a challenge and eventually we gave up trying. He just loves it too much.

The Weber 2011

2011-08-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

We made our yearly pilgrimage to the holy land this summer. You can't go to Utah with out spending at least two to three days up the Weber. It was on the top of our list while Chase was in town and it held up to every expectation. We love it up there!
The Olson's joined us this year and the kids had a fantastic time playing in the river and hiking to the waterfall. They only stayed the afternoon and even though we thought Sadie would go through Ruby withdrawals, she had the horses to keep her company. Year after year, she continues to be obsessed with the ponies.
She of course named one particular pony that continued to come over to her whenever she was seen with a handful of grass. The others weren't amused but "Rose Petal" was quite taken with her. She was the only horse that would eat our left over corn on the cob.
I was cracking up while listening to Sadie talk to Miss Rose Petal. "There you go girl, easy, easy, that's a good girl. Come on girl, eat the grass." Sadie continues to wonder why she still hasn't gotten a horse even though every time she throws a penny in a fountain, she wishes for one. We've had many discussions over "realistic wishes." They seem to be going in one ear and out the other. She REALLY wants a horse.
I love taking pictures of the kids at the cabin. It's just so beautiful and you see them in their raw, unprimped state. I enjoy capturing their smiles and thrills with nature's every encounter. Of course there were ponies, but we saw beavers, and a nest full of baby birds as well.
If I didn't always sleep so horribly up there we would have a hard time leaving. We always have such fantastic late night talks with Pops and CC after the kids are asleep and I could go on and on about Pop's special eggs in the morning. He even made a pregnancy run for me all the way to Oakley to get me some much craved nacho cheese Doritos. What a father in law!
We love you WEBER. We'll see you next year!

Utah in a nutshell

2011-08-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

With Jack and Mom (ridiculous cough and allergies) on the mend we sat around in our pajamas a lot the first couple of days in Utah. Instead of rushing out to see family and friends, we went to bed at 9 every night and did our best to get better ASAP. I love this pic of Sadie and CC in their silky pajamas playing with the dollhouse.
The best part of staying at the Cannons is Leslie living right around the corner. As soon as we started feeling better we walked over there for a play date which translated into Les and me talking (and drinking her delicious smoothies)and the girls playing off and on in between Iphone experimentation. What would we do with out our friends and our smart phones?
Em and Pat are moving from New Hampshire to New York and their apartment won't be renovated until September. This was great news for me because that meant I got to hang out with Emily the ENTIRE time I was in Utah. The last time I saw her was two years ago at Rosemary Beach. It was perfect timing to have her there at the same time. It made for lots of cousin time and late night talks. Love my sisters!!
I was in desperate need for a haircut and did just that before we got Etherington family pictures taken. It's the shortest it's ever been and the easiest hair ever!! Just blow dry and flat iron. Now I know why the majority of Mom's have short hair. I've finally joined the ranks or low maintenance moms. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing:-)
Connie planned a fun little trip on the front runner to Ogden. I knew Jack and Sadie would be excited to ride a real train. I was a little worried I would get sick because I usually did on the metro in D.C., especially when I was pregnant.
Everything went very smoothly. Connie brought all sorts of games and toys to play with and the kids watched out the window for horses and big trucks. I think SLC is pretty cool for having such a convenient way for people to get SLC from Ogden.
Once we got there the kids found the old trains to climb on and play with. We ran around and played for about an hour and then got back on the train to go back home. It was funny to ride a train just to ride but it ended up being fun for the kids and I enjoyed talking with Connie and Jar.
Jack checked out in the car ride home. I put him on Cate's old bed and we snuggled until he woke up. It was heavenly!!
Lizzie was ripe and ready to pop with her second baby so we headed out to her neck of the woods to take a dip in the Dalton's pool. Sadie was brave enough to jump off the diving board and the rest of the time we attempted to keep the three two year olds from drowning and NOT running on the slippery, wet cement.
Jack, Eloise and Alice are so fun to watch together because they are all the same size and all ridiculously full of life. I'm glad our kids will have so many cousins. I never had a lot of cousins. There are thirteen combined from both my mom and dad's sides. Not very many. I have a feeling at the rate we are going, there will be quite a few Etherington and Cannon cousins in the next 10 years. There won't be a beach house big enough!
My parents have an AMAZING children's book collection. A day didn't pass with out everyone snuggling up on the couch for some old classics. When the kids got bored from playing with Jane's old Barbies and Lincoln Logs, they were often found on the couch looking at books or being read to.
We always laugh about the fact that when my parents pass (morbid thought I know) we'll probably fight more over who gets which children's book than over who inherits the furniture, silver or whatever else they leave behind. Books bring back so many memories of my dad sitting in the hallway in between mine and Lizzie's doors to read to us while we fell asleep at night.

The East High 98ers met up at the Dodo one night and it was heavenly hanging out with all of them. I sometimes imagine how much fun I would have if I lived in Utah playing with all these fun women and their children. I feel fortunate that we've all stayed close and still get along swimmingly. We had such a fun class of people. It's always great to be reunited. I didn't get home until WAY too late that night:-)
Utah's weather was absolutely delightful compared to any weather but especially Texas' unbearable heat. We spent every waking moment outdoors. We went to zoos, arboretums, parks, ran threw sprinklers, wheeler farm, and climbed trees...of course. Summers are meant to be played outdoors and we did just that.
One particular park that has been around forever that I've never experienced fully is Liberty Park. They have a whole little oasis of water tunnels and splash pools for the kids to run around in. I met up with some old San Diego friends and it was so fun to see new children and discover how big the once babies had grown.
Sadie and Jack had so much fun becoming best friends with their cousins. Sadie and Ruby particularly hit it off. They spent their days playing Barbies, searching for snails outside, searching for Grandpa, jumping on Grandpa, and dancing to music in the kitchen.
They are such giggly little girls together. It was so fun watching them form such a fun attachment. Having us all under one roof was overwhelming at times but it was worth the chaos watching all these kids play together. I'm sure (I know) we drove Mimi and Grandpa to the point of hysterics and Em and I are both so grateful they opened their home up to us and provided such a fun setting.
Chase left after the first week and Jack really clung onto Uncle Nick. Anytime he came over he wouldn't leave him alone. Nick was such a great sport to carry him around everywhere even though he has two kids of his own. I always notice a difference in uncles once they have their own children. Chase used to be the favorite uncle on the Cannon side and it has quickly turned to the younger brothers with no children because they aren't as burned out. Nick still has the fun, playful energy of a childless uncle. He's just too much fun and Jack couldn't get enough of him.
After Lizzie had her baby we took Alice for the day to give her a much needed break and nap. She is such a fun kid. We spent the morning at Laird park and made cookies. I even got to sing her to sleep for a nap which was a fun "Aunt Abby" moment for me. I have to admit I was envying all the family Lizzie has around when she has a baby. I feel like I get a week when my parents come out and then I'm completely on my own with the new baby. I need a sister to move to Austin! I'll take a pseudo one. Jules?
Speaking of sisters, we got in a lot of Gardner time as well. Jess was my pseudo sister in D.C. when all we had was each other to lean on. She and Lizzie have never forgotten their baby years with Moriah Mecham and learning to share, not hit and play together. They are such great little buddies now.
The Beckstroms also overlapped a little on our Utah trip so we got to hang out with them a little as well. Andrea's little girls are ridiculously cute and they all had a ton of fun playing.
Mimi and Grandpa took us to the Tracy Aviary to look at some birds. The older kids seemed to be interested but Jack was more into any body of water or rock nearby. We headed over to the rides afterwards and the kids had a blast.
It was hard to explain to them that we had to pay for each ride and they could only ride each one once. This was a hard concept for Jack who wanted to ride the cars and planes over and over again.
If it weren't for Mimi needing to catch a flight to New York we probably would have given in and purchased more tickets. It's so hard to say no to those faces.
Jack's obsession with water reached a new level under Grandpa's watch. Em and I were cooking dinner and Dad happened to mention how much fun Spence and Jack were having in the bathroom. I assumed he was talking about them playing with the sink. We ware baffled by the fact that he knew they were playing in the toilet and didn't seem to worry or care one bit about sanitation, giardia, and water all over the floor. Grandpa only cares that they are having fun. Gross!!
Grandpa also happens to make THE BEST pancakes known to man. Somehow he makes them flat and crispy and oh so delicious that they were requested every morning by Sadie (and secretly by myself). I watched him carefully and may have mastered his chef's secret but I still don't think anything can compare and I'm not talking about pancakes here.
Chase came back into town to help me fly home with the kids and recreate in Bear Lake with the Gardners. The night before our flight we all met up Millcreek Canyon to make s'mores with all the kiddos. There's nothing like s'mores when your pregnant. They taste SO good. The fire was hypnotizing for the little kids and I was a little worried the little ones would get too close but we got through the night burn free.

Em's kids were all sick. Andrew especially had the runs so we whisked Ruby away to have a little fun after she'd been inside all day with her sick brothers. Turns out Andrew actually had giardia. Poor little guy couldn't keep anything down and lost a ton of weight but once they got his infection taken care of it got better.

What a great family I have. Such a fun trip. It's nice to be back home and sleeping in our beds but we will miss those cool summer days and conversations rich with laughter. I miss everyone already!!<

Perfect Timing

2011-08-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

It is HOT in Texas so we planned a trip to Utah for about a month to escape the heat and enjoy the outdoors a little more than we are enjoying them here.
Of course the day we are to fly Jack decides to throw up his breakfast. He became really lethargic the rest of the day so I knew he had definitely caught a bug. Delta doesn't change your ticket with out paying a ridiculous fee. The thought that they would rather get an entire airplane and crew sick than let you change your flight to another day is very rude to say the least. To avoid the fees, we decided to fly that evening as planned. Poor Jack!
He continued to be pretty lethargic on the plane and slept most of the two hour flight but about 2 hours into the flight he woke up, started whining and decided it would be a good time to vomit. Chase acted fast and grabbed his blanket for Jack to throw up in. Mess was minimal but the looks of the passengers around us were anything but compassionate. One guy asked if Jack had motion sickness and we lied to console his overly anxious hypochondria.

When we got to Utah he only wanted to eat marshmallows that he spotted at Pops and CC's house. After a few days of fever he was back to normal. It was a sad beginning to our Utah trip but the good news is, no one else got sick.

Little helper

2011-08-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Jack rushes over whenever we turn on the water to wash hands or dishes. He'll always ask "I want to play wid da wah wah" or "I want to wash hands." He'll get completely drenched so the clothes are usually removed. With Texas in a drought, this activity has become a rare occurrence and he relishes every second!!

Bath time keeps me sane

2011-06-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Especially if these faces are looking up at me.

The Lime Lights

2011-06-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

In Virginia we always signed Sadie up for the Tiny Tutu's class at the rec center. It was just for fun. When we got to Texas I was graciously informed about a ballet class which had a lot of girls from the ward participating as well. What a great way for her to meet and make some friends! Little did I know how intense it would get at the end.
Apparently football is REALLY big in Texas for the boys and ballet is equally as big for the girls. I saw a lot of stressed moms and couldn't get over all the fees attached to seeing my child perform for 2 minutes on stage. With class pictures, costume fees, tight fees, participation fees, along with the month's tuition I might as well have signed her up for private school that month. I'm starting to figure out how much money my parents spent on us four girls. My goodness!

It was really fun watching her perform and seeing her confident little tike shine on stage. I was so proud of her for not being scared and for doing her best to smile. This was her first performance on stage and we were very impressed with how natural she seemed.
I also love that she's the shortest one in her class. It makes her seem younger to me. With her entering kindergarten and Mom feeling all emotional and nostalgic, the shorter she seems, the better for me!

Moving Day #9

2011-06-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Nine moves in 6 years makes for a very tired Chase and a very frustrated Abby. When we landed in Austin we had no idea Cedar Park was so far from Chase's work. We also didn't know our back yard would have massive semi trucks rumbling to and fro all day long either. So we decided to move yet again. Are we too picky?
Of course the nausea decided to kick in about a week before the big day so I was RIDICULOUSLY sick and had to lay down in between packing each box. Chase hired a guy to help us move the big stuff thinking the Elders quorum would help out with the rest. Too bad only one guy showed up from our ward. LAME!! Especially after how often he helps people move.
The good news is once he got to our new house with the moving truck (dreading the very thought of unloading it himself the whole 20 mile drive) there were four guys there waiting for him from our new ward. Way to go Hill Country Ward. We are already really excited about this new area and thrilled to meet some new friends.
We do however miss our buddies up in Cedar Park. Sadie will especially miss her girl friends Addie and Emma. Moving is hard but she really should be used to it by now. I might as well be a military wife.
The hardest part about moving is figuring out what to do with the chiddlers. Some friends took turns watching Sadie while Jack napped which was really helpful. When Cyndi offered to watch the kids and bring me dinner that night I had to hold back tears because I was soooooo grateful especially because when I'm nauseated I NEVER want to cook anything. We ate WAY too much Chick Fil A and McDonalds.
So the kids watched a lot of movies and for the most part were pretty bored. After waiting for the cleaning lady and carpet cleaners to finish up, they were all tuckered out and collapsed in the car when it was all over. Hopefully this next house will be "the one" at least for the time being.

Cannon baby #3

2011-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Another little person is on it's way to our family in January around the 12th. We are very excited to meet him/her. The last month I have been feeling great but just this last week right around Jack's birthday the nausea kicked in.

This move to Circle C next week is going to be very interesting with me wanting to lay down every second. The hardest part is not wanting to eat anything and feel like I'm starving at the same time. It's also been quite a picnic taking care of Sadie and Jack when all I want to do is sleep all day.

I ordered some meals off an online company offering a huge sale and was so excited to have someone else make me dinner and decide for me what we will eat that night. When we called to claim our order they informed us that they had such a huge response to the Groupon that meals aren't available until September! Well what good is that for me now? I'll probably feel like cooking again in September. I need the meals NOW!! I always tell Chase that I would much rather have the relief society bring me meals during the first trimester of pregnancy rather than when the baby arrives. At least when they baby is out, the nausea comes out too. Hopefully this will just last the first trimester! The good news is I get to have another yummy baby for Christmas.

Oh Jack, how we love you!!!

2011-05-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-05-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

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"

2011-05-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-05-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-05-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

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

A Hunt of Our Own

2011-05-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

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!

Beachy Egg Hunt

2011-05-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon Shores put on a Easter egg hunt on the town green the Saturday before Easter. We thought this would be a good time to get the kids in their Easter outfits and get them all cute to find some eggs. The hunt was a total joke, especially if you have younger children. I have to laugh at the parents that bring their 12 or 13 year old children to these events and I laugh even harder that they allow them to collect so many eggs when they see that the little babies haven't yet collected one single egg. It's pretty ridiculous.

I wish I had been in charge. I would have allowed 3 and under to have a minute head start, then 6 and under, and the big kids could find all the harder ones. These kids were picking up eggs that were in plain view, most likely intended for (OUR) younger babies. I think if you are old enough to wear a bra, you're too big to be at a community Easter Egg event. Those are my two cents. There...I'm done.
The kids were a little frustrated after learning they would only be going home with one or two eggs while watching their older counterparts take off with baskets full of them. They did still had fun running all over the place in search of whatever they could find.

We got them all together to see what they found and it was pretty cute seeing them all lined up in their little outfits.

These next few pictures tell a story. First Sadie and Jack are looking in her basket. Jack is quite interested in some of her chocolate (melted BTW).
After realizing she isn't going to share he longingly looks at her while she scarfs down her measly pickings.
Then he sulks. Poor little guy just wanted a little treat.
Good things the Easter Bunny comes to beach houses too because these kids got ripped off.

The Beach

2011-05-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

Of course the beach was the main event of the Port Aransas experience, and where we ultimately spent most of our time. I was a little weary taking the camera down to the beach with all the sand and water but what I should have been scared of was the humidity and sunblock. After a while my lens was completely fogged up and I wasn't about to clean it around all that sand. I did get a few good shots before this happened.

Sadie was the first one in the ocean and played for hours in there running in and out of the waves. When we lived in San Diego she was NOT at all a water baby. It's nice to see her enjoy the beach more than when she was a baby.

Jack was a little more timid, rightfully so, with the big waves crashing in. He spent most of his time playing in the sand and the miniature pool we toted along. The odd thing about this beach was seeing cars drive up and down the sand through out the day.

It was nice to fill up the Willard's truck with all of our gear and get it to the beach in such a convenient manner, but we did NOT like having to worry about the kids getting hit by a car speedily driving by. Katherine and I had the idea to stick my stroller right in the middle of the beach so the cars would either have to stop or drive very slowly to get around the road block. It slowed them down but it was still a little worrisome. It was also little "redneck"ish but we're in Texas so I guess that's how they "beach it" here.

My sweet little Jack was quite a delight the whole day. He skipped his nap and you wouldn't have known. It takes a lot to get this kid in a bad mood. What kid wouldn't want to play in a giant sand box all day? I really enjoyed watching him play in the water, and latch onto a certain yellow truck that belonged to the Willards.

After watching him carry it around the ENTIRE trip, they were kind enough to give it to him. He still carries it around everywhere we go. if you see me at Target with Jack, that yellow dump truck is likely to be there as well. (this is when the lens got foggy...can you tell?)

And with the large waves and high tide came tons and tons of sea weed. I've never seen so much sea weed in all of my life. The community had bulldozers down there in the morning trying to remove it all but it was an endless battle with the waves bringing in more each day. We didn't mind it too much. It was definitely a sight to be seen. It's not everyday you see a bulldozer on the beach.

I really enjoyed just talking with Katherine and Dana. I don't think Moms get enough time to really sit down and talk to one another with out interruptions from the little ones. So great to have the dad's there to play with the kiddos while we relaxed for a while.

Of course when Sadie plays hard, she crashes hard too. It happens every time we go to the beach. Her eyes get all bloodshot and she becomes super cranky and irritable. This little lump is Miss Sadie after she had hit her quota of fun at the beach.

And this is our "sweet" Sadie after she had quite enough at the pool and her mom taking pictures.

We had great weather, warm water and fantastic company. I have to say it again...WE LOVE TEXAS!!

Port Aransas with the Winegars and Willards

2011-05-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

We have some fun friends that live up in Georgetown that we love seeing every once in a while. Sadie LOVES Lucy and Savannah so whenever we can get them together to play they have a fantastic time. We really looked forward to this beach vacation because Sadie would have built in playmates for three whole days. That makes our job as parents a whole lot easier. Just about every day in April Sadie asked if we were going to the beach yet. It was an agonizing wait but we finally made it after a four hour drive.
We stayed at Cinnamon Shores in Port Aransas and it is the cutest little community of darling, pastel color beach houses. I felt like I was walking through a Martha Stewart Catalog. The house was adorable and perfect for three small families. We put the babies in the walk in closets and the kids slept on the floor with mats.
The best part about the whole vacation was having so many fun people to hang out with. I had a great time getting to know the Willards (some of the coolest BYU people I've ever met:-) and a hilarious time reminiscing with Katherine over our old Chi Omega days. The kids got a long swimmingly and the husbands talked sports. What else would they talk about? Other than the power going out on the island our last night, it was a perfect vacation. Even the power outage was kind of fun.
Every morning whoever was in charge of breakfast turned Backyardigans on for the kiddos so the other parents could sleep in. I love how hypnotized they are in this picture. We all know Sadie is an early riser. It turns out all the other kids are too, especially when sleeping in such a fun beach house. They found plastic mermaid martini toppers in the house and that was their entertainment for a couple of days. That and Angry Birds on all of their parents iPhones.
Our house was right on the nearby lake so if you walked outside our bedroom there was a beautiful view of a cute bridge and sparkly lights at night. It felt a lot like Balboa Island. We tried fishing but didn't catch anything. Did you know I've never caught a fish? Probably a good thing. I'd probably cry if I did. I don't like hurting wild life. I don't mind eating ones that someone else killed though.
It was fun having Dana there because not only is she great company but I loved talking to her about her blog. You've probably heard of it: www.dana-made-it.com. It's my new favorite blog to read. She takes such amazing photographs and even though I can't sew, I love looking at the the creations she makes every week. It was also nice having another person there who takes as many pictures as I do. I took pics of her and her kids and she did the same for me. Sometimes it's nice when someone else is taking the pics for a change. I'm the only one who does it in my family and it's gets a little exhausting after a while.
She took these pictures of Jack and me and I LOVE them. He looks so handsome in these photos. Such a little bruiser. I love my little Jack and she captured us so well.
Chase sat out there for a while one morning taking turns with all the kids. Still no luck. Our neighbor caught one after having the hook in there 20 seconds so we thought it would be an entertaining activity for the kiddos. It was still fun even though there were no fish to be had. I love this picture of little Sadie and her dad. There's something so special between a dad and his little girl. I love watching these two together.

She's FIVE!!

2011-05-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

I remember when Sadie was born and thinking "one day she will be five and go to Kindergarten." It seemed like an eternity away! She's been quite a delight along the way with her sassy little personality and sweet spirit. I'm going to miss her this fall when she's in school every day and Jack will too. They have really started playing together for longer periods of time and it is so fun to watch them FINALLY get along.
Sadie's birthday happened to fall on Mother's Day this year so we got to share the day together. I wanted to make her breakfast in bed but Chase insisted I stay in bed as well. I was too hungry by the time he got the delicious crepes made so I had a frozen waffle with Sadie at the table because she didn't want to eat it in bed. A strange concept for her still. Why would someone want to eat in bed when you can wake up at 6 a.m. and start the day with more energy than a race horse?
So breakfast in bed didn't happen and even though it was Mother's Day, Sadie made it quite clear it was HER day too. When I asked her to open some of the blinds to let in a little more light she said, "sorry, not on my birthday." And, when Chase presented me with a wrapped gift she asked "why does Mom get to open a present on MY birthday." I hope we never have to share this day again because not only is it hard to share her toys, apparently it's hard to share her birthday as well. Good thing she's not a twin. I also don't like working so hard on Mother's Day. I spent all morning making cupcakes for her CTR 4 class and the rest of the afternoon making her birthday cake for our family that night. I guess I didn't have to do this but it's my little lady's birthday for Pete's sake.

When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner she requested "soup and bread" which happens to be one of the only meals (other than Chick Fil A) that she will willingly eat. Chase BBQed some fantastic chicken kabobs on his new grill. So glad he has his own way of cooking for me now.
I have to laugh about the fact that in the years past we got her trains and cars for her birthdays. She has really gone pink these days and is totally into dolls, dressing up and everything fancy. Skirts have to twirl, pink must be worn at all times and she likes pigtails so she can "tag" them with her fingers.

It was a great day. Sadie couldn't bear to wait until after dinner to open her presents so she opened one or two throughout the day. CC and Pops sent her Ferdinand the Bull and an actual bull that resembles a Texas Longhorn. Sadie's named it "Tex" and he's kicked Clifford out of the bed the past few nights but we know it's only temporary. Clifford will always prevail.
Chase and I tried to keep it simple with gifts because she was getting a birthday party with friends the next week. She still had some gifts from Mimi and Grandpa as well and got a Rapunzel Doll from us which of course was a HUGE hit.
Mom always puts chocolate on her teeth and pretends she doesn't know it's there and Sadie has totally caught onto the scheme. She's such a fun little girl to have around. Her favorite things of late are Angry Birds and Barbie Fashionista games on my phone. These are of course limited mainly because after she's been playing on my phone for a little while I've found she's purchased an actual stuffed angry bird and other apps I'm not at all interested in. I do like her to play word games on the computer whenever I remember to hook her up to it.

She's reading amazingly well and we're ready to move onto level three in her Bob books. She still has an adorable little lisp that seems to be slowly going away with age. Her S's sound like "echh" and we try really hard not to laugh when she says words like "schee horsches" and "poneesch." She had her five year check up with the doctor and was so engaging with him. She told him all about her birthday party, how she was five, how she was getting bigger, and all the cool stuff she can do. She passed her eye and ear tests with flying colors. I'm hoping she inherited my eyes because poor Chase is as blind as a bat.

Sadie is the first to rise and would love to be the last to go to sleep. She's a party girl and always wants to stay up late with Chase and me. She's become quite social with her little friends but I've noticed at play groups she still wanders off on her own from time to time as she seems to be overwhelmed with larger groups. She's much more of a one on one kind of playmate. Playdates are a must at our house. I often feel like a personal assistant making sure her week is all scheduled with friends. You don't want to get Sadie bored. After ballet one morning, Chick Fil A with the ballerinas, and a playdate with Linley, kylee and Renn in the afternoon; Sadie begrudgingly asked me if we could do anything "fun today". I can't work under these conditions!!

She loves to snuggle up and be read to. I love to do this but my only issue with snuggling up to read is I ALWAYS fall asleep. The same thing happens when we play Polly Pockets together. Having to use my imagination and high pitched voice for over an hour is so exhausting I need a power nap afterwards. We're usually always doing these things right around 4 when I am my most tired in the day. I don't know how I could ever go back to school. I would fall asleep three pages into a text book.

Sadie is great at reminding us to read scriptures every night. She has her little comic strip ones and LOVES to be read to. She is always asking for one more chapter and I know it isn't just because she wants to stay up later. She seems to really enjoy the stories.

Sadie's a little dare devil and I always cringe when I see her race her bike, training wheels rattling against the pavement, down the street. She's also found it amusing to get her old leap frog baby bike and ride it down the side walk at lightning speed as well.

She can be heard throughout the day singing to herself. She's made up a song about lightning and thunder that's especially entertaining. We get a lot of storms out here and lately she's been setting them up to music: Lighting coming in, lighting coming in really really fast. You better better watch out, and go inside. Go inside now. Then the lightning won't see you, so go inside and see what happens, see what happens, see what happens. (Imagine the sweet sultry voice of a tone deaf five year old and it should sound about right.)

She continues to terrorize Jack whenever we aren't looking but loves it when he "trusts her" and will go into the play room to "play choo choos" for a minute. She's also developed a little potty language and thinks talking about private parts and bowel movements is about the funniest thing ever. It has started to get a little out of hand so we've come up with a new method that whenever I hear a potty word she gets to chew on a hand full of spinach. She hates spinach so it's been working pretty well until I found a pile of chewed up spinach in her sink the other day. Now she is monitored while chewing to make sure it's swallowed.

She's a sassy little thing and I can't get too upset over her feisty behavior because she's a miniature version of me at her age. I seriously see so much of me in her it's ridiculous. The other day she didn't want to share something with a younger child at play group so I told her it either had to be shared (it wasn't hers to begin with) or I would throw the frisbee she found in a field away. She handed it to me and said, "fine...throw it away." I guess she'd rather have it in the garbage than let the screaming little girl have a chance to play with it. (I would have done the same thing if it meant Nick not getting his way). I know she's working out all these childish notions and it's really hard to watch as a mom knowing it will affect friendships in the future. I just hope she will be a nice girl and be happy. Ultimately that is my greatest goal for her is to be a happy, vivacious, and sprightly little girl. As of yet, she seems to be this way 80% of the time so we're on a good path (I hope).

Despite our little qualms and frustrations with one another (we're a lot alike) I love the little peanut to pieces. I see such a strong desire from her to feel loved. Maybe it comes from having to share me with Jack but I find I need to give her double hugs after I give Jack one. Apparently she doesn't like sharing her Mom either. It's ok, I wouldn't want to share her either. I love you Sadie Lady. You're such a fantastic human being and I'm so excited to see where your strong personality takes you.

Poppy Festival in Georgetown

2011-04-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

No, we didn't take a trip back to D.C. There's a Georgetown here too. It is one of my new favorite places to visit. Such a cute, quaint and picturesque little town with antique shops galore. My friend Dana told me about a festival they have every year in honor of the beautiful red poppies that emerge in the spring. We debated over the butterfly festival in Wimberly (same day) but decided because Georgetown is much closer and the festival was validated by Dana, poppies won over butterflies.
It was a beautiful day and there were fun activities everywhere for the kids. Jack especially enjoyed the train and even rode alone with his big sis which was a first. We enjoyed dollar cupcakes at the local bakery and loved looking at all the local artist's booths. I can't get over how creative some people are. Of course there were about ten booths dedicated to tutus and hair bows (I got sucked in..of course) but we also really enjoyed the local paintings, wood toys, and food.

To avoid sunburns on naked shoulders we headed into a few shops that made me smile. One was a modern wooden toy shop that kept the kids entertained FOREVER. It was hard getting them to leave. From Lincoln logs to marble blocks it was looking like we would be there all afternoon.
You can count on live music anywhere you go near Austin and we had a lot of fun dancing in the street with the kiddos.
Jack eventually passed out which meant we could finally go into some more shops with out the worry of a tornado on the loose.

I fell in love with this bookstore. All the stones, winding staircase and books made me smile. It's always nice to go into an independent bookstore and be reassured it will be there forever for it's unusual charm (did we all hear Borders went out of business? Always a happy day when us booksellers or a has been hear these words.)

After ice cream and more fun finds we realized we still hadn't seen one single poppy. Wasn't this flower why they were partying in G-Town? We asked around and learned that most of the poppies were in front of the older homes off of Church street.
We found them and decided they're worth a celebration of their own. What a beautiful flower!

A new addition

2011-04-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

After 6 years of being a "grown up" we finally bought a lawnmower. I had serious issues with this purchase. Everywhere we have lived in the past I watched the HOA cut our lawns. I always thought they cut it too often and wasted too much petrol. Don't even get me started on leaf blowers that move leaves from one end of the yard to another to find the next day another pile has fallen from the trees. Besides, I like the look of crunchy fall leaves on the grass and sidewalks.
When we moved to Texas this was the first home whose lawn care fell under our responsibility. I wanted to buy a push lawn mower to reduce carbon emissions and all that jazz. Chase was on board until we both realized that our lawn is HUGE and the grass is the cheap, thick kind (I'm sure it has a name) that not only is hard to cut but the kind of grass you would never want to lounge on for an afternoon nap. Our lawn was neglected for far too long even though the kids enjoyed the ever growing forest enormously.
Because I am half Craig, the thought of polluting the air to mow my lawn just made me angry. Besides I have always encouraged others to buy push lawn mowers. I couldn't be a hypocrite. So instead, I washed my hands of the whole experience. I told Chase because he would be mowing the lawn I would be the ignorant party and let him take the reigns. He bought a used motorized lawn mower for $80 and reassured me that even though we're polluting the air, we saved a TON of money. Such a republican.

Just don't tell my Dad. He's the kind of guy that kept our house at 68 degrees in the winter (no exceptions), 80 in the summer (that was cool for us), and allotted us 5 minute showers. Oh, and when we got toilet papered, a large sack of twigs, leaves and toilet paper made it's way to the kid's bathroom where we had to use every last sheet. This was a secret we kept from EVERYONE until the toilet papering days of high school were over. Kids can be so cruel. We couldn't give them that kind of leverage.

Cookies!

2011-04-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

What is it with kids and cookies? Jack just about has a heart attack having to wait for them to come out of the oven and cool before he can sink his teeth into one. They usually perch right there in front of the oven because apparently watching cookies bake makes them cook faster.
And while we're on the subject, I am constantly noticing a quiet hush through the house when Jack's asleep. This is when I know that Sadie must be up to something. She's most likely nibbling cookies in the pantry. She closes the door behind her and eats as many treats she can before she gets caught. The little bandit.

Sadie's testimony

2011-04-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

The other day while we were sitting in Sacrament meeting Chase suggested she bear her testimony and tell everyone about her little miracle when he blessed her and she was healed. She asked me if she could eat as many licorice whips she wanted if she went up there and I said, "why not." I really wanted to see if she would be brave enough to go up there. She was. Anything for candy, but I genuinely think she wanted to tell everyone about her miraculous recovery from itchy, watery eyes. Chase went up there with her and it went a little like this:

"Hi everyone, my name is Sadie. I have really bad allergies. they make my eyes puffy....(pause) and they itch. My Dad gave me a blessing that I would be healed. He said if I believed in Jesus, I would be healed. I believed and guess what....(pause) I was healed. My eyes don't itch anymore because I had faith in Jesus. I believe in Jesus and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ...Amen."

It was the sweetest little testimony I've ever heard. As her mother I was of course all choked up and watery, and so amazingly proud of my sweet, faithful little Sadie. Every person that saw her told her what a good job she did and thanked her for her testimony. After all the praise, she's decided she wants to bear her testimony every month. I always think it's cute when kids get up there but I wonder if they understand what they are really doing. You don't get up just to have fun in front of the microphone. We've all experienced the "kids tesitmony meeting" where only about three adults get a word in edge wise.

I explained to Sades that because she bore her testimony, she made others happy and helped them to believe in Jesus. She also was able to show Heavenly Father her gratitude for the blessing he bestowed. Hopefully the licorice was just an afterthought.

The church is true!! I loved Sadie's testimony because it reaffirmed to me that the priesthood is real and that we still see miracles in these latter days. So, sorry to get all preachy on you, but I had to record that. Such a sweet experience for everyone in the room that day.

NEWSWIRE: ABBY ETHERINGTON CANNON TURNS THIRTY-ONE, STILL LOOKS HOT by Chase Cannon

2011-04-19T04:04:00.000-07:00

April 19, 2011
AP Story (Pictures pending)

Abigail Jane Etherington Cannon, famous mother of two and stupendous wife to the super hot Chase Kimball Cannon, turned 31 today. As the news spread through the nation, many eyewitnesses and noteworhty individuals weighed in on the happy birthday event, and shared stories of occasions on which they happened upon the amazing woman, known simply as 'Toots'.

Sadie Elizabeth Cannon (Austin, TX)
My mommy is the nicest mommy all the way from here to the moon. I love when she makes me pancakes and ice cream cones. I think I will squeeze her to death when I see her.

Jack Etherington Cannon (Austin, TX)
Maama. Mama! Wah-wah. Uh-wah-wah. Sidie, uh-wah-wah. Boh. Boh. Maama!!

Jane Etherington (SLC, UT)
A story I always love to hear about Abby is how excited she was when our parents announced they were pregnant with me... especially because I think everyone else was a little thrown off by the surprise! From the day I was born, Abby has always been a very attentive and loving sister. She taught me to make pastries, she let me join in on her video workouts, she took me to hang out with her friends, and together we made, the ugliest faces we could muster! When Abby and Chase were married and moved away, I made it a habit of visiting them wherever they were for my spring breaks. Let's just say that Abby definitely takes the prize for best hostess! Among many other fun activities, Abby took my friends and I shopping and to the beach in San Diego and took me on a five star tour of DC when she was 7 months pregnant. Abby has always been and continues to be one of my best friends and I feel so blessed to have her as my affectionate, hilarious, supportive, crazy, and beautiful sister. Happy birthday Abby, I love you!

Craig Robert Etherington (SLC, UT)

The following excerpts are recorded in my journal:

Nov 15, 1986 when Abby was 5 years old: "Life is so carazy lately, Diane is gone almost every evening and many times during the day with her book parties. This afternoon she is at the bookstore and will go directly to a book party this evening. In the mean time I am trying to run my business , which is doing better than ever. Both of us are trying to run the house with four kids, laundry, food, cleaning, homework, bed, baths, etc. We still have only one car, the dented "beetle" ----CRAZY. Last night after Diane had left for a book party, Nick and I wrestled at the top of the stairs. After the wrestle I stayed to rest ( I was exhaausted). Abby came up and snuggled against my chest and demanded that I put my arm around her to keep her warm. I obeyed. Soon, we were both fast asleep at the top of the stairs together."

Jan 9, 1983 "I wanted to remember a few cute things about Abby this Christmas. Christmas is pronounced "Cripamus" and Santa Clause is pronounced "Samma Clause."

Dec 7,1982 "Nick and Abby have had so much fun together tonight. They had a bath together and went through 2 tub fulls and soaked the upstairs hall and bathroom. they kept jumping in and out and running around chasing each other, amaking a lot of noise with their laughing. They had splashed so much that I was half afraid water might come through the ceiling. They are so adorable, and have such fun."

Jan 15,1983 "Diane is trying to potty train Abby. When she sits her on the potty with her legs together (the right thing to do, and was told to do) the pee squirts up through the top instead of down, because of her chubby thighs."

Diane Frischknecht Etherington (SLC, UT)
I have so many memories of Abby, but one of my favorites is when she just hopped on Nick's little BMX bike without training wheels and took off without any help from anyone! I think this is a perfect example of her confidence in herself which accounts for her ability to do whatever she sets her mind to do! She is amazingly talented in so many ways!!

Connie Duncan Cannon (SLT, UT)
Abby forever endeared herself to me, (and horrified her mother), when we first met her back in D.C. interning with Chase at the U.S. Treasury. We took her and Chase out to lunch while we were visiting there, before they found out they were "an item." (We actually found out before they did). At any rate, during lunch, Abby demonstrated the missing front tooth routine by putting chocolate on her tooth so it looked blacked out. It looked really choice. Then she blew us away by telling us that she and Chase had been invited to a reception to meet Larry Summers, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the next President of Harvard, and had fully planned on shaking his hand and flashing him a toothless smile. At the last second, they lost courage and swallowed the chocolate and greeted him with dignity.

Forever etched in my memory also, is the glamorous picture of Abby on the back of Chase's windshield visor. It was a picture of her asleep with her mouth open, looking like a half-wit. Most girls would want a really hot picture of themselves on their boyfriends visor....especially if they were leaving him behind for 2 years to do a mission. But not Abby, she gives him a picture of herself that anyone else would've burned. Alone in the car and driving along unsuspectingly, I pulled the visor down to shade my eyes, and there she was. I laughed out loud....a belly laugh. Chase had warned me that she was funny. He was right.
Love,
CC

Lizzie Etherington Dalton (SLC, UT)
I have so many wonderful stories about the Snabigail. I will give you two. One that shows her nausty side and the other that shows what a wonderful sister she has always been to me.

Story number one:

When Abby and I were growing up, we spent almost all our time together. I can especially remember the summers. Abby had this cool over sized white t-shirt that went all the way down to her ankles. On the one side it said " I need them... I want them... I have to have them..." and then on the other side it said "earrings". I would say the front part of the t-shirt as fast as i could and then Abby would have to jump with her back to me in time for me to say "earrings" We would spend oodles of time saying the phrases and watching Abby jump back and forth as I screamed the words as fast as I could. We were really into our t-shirts, oh and speaking of t-shirts, like I said, Abby and I would spend pretty much all day together. At the end of a wonderful day of playing in the sun, climbing trees, running through the sprinklers and playing with dolls, we would go to our rooms to get ready for bed. Many times I would find surprises on the back of my t-shirt. At one point during the day, Abby, being the lazy bum that she is probably thought it would be much more convenient to wipe her nasty, gigantic buggers on my back. Here, as the little sister looking up to her big cool sister, thinking my sister is patting me on the back and loving me, she was wiping her nasty buggars (sometimes with blood streaked in them) on my cool t-shirts. Lame.

Story number two:

When I started high school at East High, I was nervous and excited. I remember my first day. I was walking on the main floor holding back nervous tears. I did not know where my classes were (even though I had been there two times before to walk through my schedule) and just as I was about to loose my cool, I hear it... "Liiiizzzzzzzzzzziiiiieeeeeee" Here comes Abby in her cheer leading uniform arms open wide running toward me, screaming my name. Wow, the looks she got from the students in the hallway, they looked at her like she was insane. When she finally reached me she gave me a huge hug and walked me to me class. I remember having mixed feelings of feeling cool, but also a little embarrassed for the production that had just occurred on my behalf, but as I look back on it, it stirs my emotions with gratitude for the older sister who has always been there for me. Even though Abby and I fought like dogs, whenever I needed her, she was there. She always remembers my birthday and has always given the most thoughtful gifts. Abby has really formed so many parts of who I am. I feel so grateful for the blessing of having a sister and best friend like her in my life.

I love you Abby, even if you are dramatic, crazy and torturous at times.

Happy 31, you ol' geezer

James Edwin Cannon(SLC, UT)
The first time we met Abby was in DC the summer the two of you were interning at the Treasury Department. We all had a great time at lunch, with lots of laughter and many good stories. The best one was the chocolate on your teeth just prior to greeting the Secretary of the Treasury. Knowing both of you better now, I'm only surprised you wiped the stuff off your teeth prior to the face to face meeting! After Abby left, I asked Chase what the relationship was, to which he replied, "Just good friends, 'cause she's dating one of my best buds, Steve Akerlow.) I later said to CC, "Mark my word, there's more than just friendship between those two!" It took a few years for both of you to get on the same page, but we are surely delighted with the end result.

Seeing the joy and vitality she showed as she danced and visited the evening away on your wedding night, and then, as the two of you escaped on the Vespa for your run to Little America. I think I followed you there in your car so I could return the scooter, but as I arrived, there was Abby having a blast riding the scooter around the Little America parking lot. I knew then that the two of you were well matched and that you could look forward to many happy (and often crazy) times together.

Cate Cannon Todd (Lansdowne, VA)
At our house, we have certain foods that are known as "Abby Foods." My kids are always asking me to make "Abby's chicken" (cranberry chicken and rice), and of course, "Abby's cake" (the famed and favorite cinnamon chocolate cake.) Chase and Abby stayed with us several times as they were between residences in DC, and we loved having them with us - and having Abby's yummy cooking! They made the best house guests, because they were super fun to have around, they cleaned up after themselves, and they carried their weight in the kitchen. Abby would make dinner and Chase would do the dishes

In addition to cranberry chicken and cinnamon chocolate cake, we also think of Abby every time we come across flaxseed and Brewers' yeast - and of course, homemade green avocado/spinach baby food. (How did they get Sadie to eat it for so long?!) Abby is the ultimate healthy eater and healthy cook!

We love you, Abby. Have a wonderful birthday - and let us know if you come across any good recipes!

Nicholas Carl Etherington Williamsburg, VA
I remember one morning when all of us were sitting around the tableeating breakfast before school and all of a sudden Abby appeared out ofnowhere in her bath robe. As always she made a random entrance andlifted up her bath robe and mooned us all. I think she was trying to befunny, but we were all pretty surprised. I think I was the only one whowas able to speak and unfortunately I wasn't very nice. I think I saidsometime like "that was the most disgusting thing i have ever seen. Ofcourse Abby ran of crying not having received the reaction she had hopedfor. This is a classic Abby story.

Kim Sanders Ujifusa (Portland, OR)
Where to begin with someone that means so much to me? I can hardly think of a single memory of childhood that didn't share a portion of you in it! You are so deeply intertwined with the things I considered happy, fun, sacred, and meaningful. And, maybe that is one of the things I love most about our friendship-it is so lasting and so encompassing in my life...it is SO nice to know you "belong" to someone. You and I have always "belonged" to each other in a way. I feel like you know the details of who I am, and I know all the details of you. It is a cherished thing to have a friend like that!

I love every detail of you, Abbs! I have always thought you were SO beautiful inside and out. You are absolutely stunning-always dressed immaculately and well put together, but that is not what makes you the most beautiful. You have the MOST beautiful spirit. Your smile lights up your whole face and it makes every one who is around you happy. You are so kind, empathetic, and deeply loyal to family and friends, and you are a great friend to have because you are a good listener, but aren't afraid to give advice when needed. I love how much fun you are to be around. It is no small task to sit in front of a blank wall and see the humor in it, but you and I can do it! You are BUNDLES of fun to be around! You are literally the life of any party. I cannot stop laughing when you are around. But, on the flip side-I love that you are serious when it's necessary and you know how to see when something is tender, sacred, and needs stillness-and you treat it accordingly. You have SUCH a beautiful spirit, like I said. I love that you have such a strong testimony and love the gospel. You have always been inclined to righteousness and I adore that about you. You really are not afraid to be who you are in that way, and I think it will change others lives for the better. I know that you had a huge spiritual influence on me growing up, and I think your children and husband are abundantly blessed to have such a sweet influence in their home. ( just please stop teaching them by the bound legs method ).

You have ALWAYS been there for me, Abbs. You step in when others step out, and you make life easier when things are challenging. You were there when I fell on my bike as a child, you were there to share in Dairy Queen delights, you were there to tackle elementary school and high school by my side, you mended hearts broken by dumb boys, you permed your bangs along side me. You told me when I was being dumb, you and I cried over struggles in each others' arms. You were a voice of reason, a contributor to tormenting SLC as teenagers, you were the most fun and the best of girls to have around. You were there through the fear of having a child so young, you were the person to arrange gifts and parties for that, you were the gal who arranged a care package for an ill little girl in the hospital, and YOU, sweet friend were the one who sat by my side at the hospital-tears running down your face, as Grace got chemo. You have always been THERE, no distance, time, or space has or ever will displace that. I am so blessed to have you in my life. Thank you for sharing your heart and friendship so readily with me.

I can't wait to grow old as friends, watching our children grow up together and exchanging stories, help needs, and advice about parenting. I hope someday we will live closer so our little ones can share in our bond. I hope most of all that you have the very best birthday! It is well deserved. You are an amazing person all around and anyone who comes in your path is blessed by a touch of Abbs in their life! I love you love you love you and just wish I could be there to celebrate with you...ahhh well, some day Golden Girls style!
XOXOXO
Kim

Jill Stewart Tabatabei (McLean, VA)
Abbs and I used to drive around in high school belting our favorite tunes in the car. Some of our favorite tunes included songs from Anastasia, Cowboy take me away, and Dancing Queen. It was always so fun being in the front seat with her movin' and groovin' to the music. Every once in a while we would turn off the CD player or radio and do our own rendition of "I'm Wishing" from Snow White. I still think that Abby can sing that song WAY better than pale and frail little Snow White ever could. The best part is the way she does the "a ha ha ha haaaaaa" section. I am laughing right now just thinking of it; she should record it and put it on you tube. Good times, good times.

I also remember sumo wrestling together one night at Mo's house. I still have no idea why to this day, but for some reason Abby and I decided to wear pajamas and stuff them with pillows to make us look like Sumos. We each blacked out a tooth to complete the ensemble. We had so much fun running from across the room, colliding stomach to stomach, and falling to the ground. We laughed so hard and it was one of those nights that just randomly turned so fun. Abby was always up for something spontaneous which is the reason I love to hang out with her.

Another recent memory I have illustrates how Abbs has got some serious guts. I definitely didn't think it was funny at the time, but looking back on it I always smile when I think of how brave Abby is. We were at Tyson's mall with the kids letting them play in the play area. They have a big sign in front of the play area of a little girl holding her hand to a certain height; the sign clearly indicates that kids over that height are not allowed to play in the area. Unfortunately, there are still lame parents who allow their kids to play there even though they are way over the height restriction. On the day we were there, there was an 11 or 12 year old boy running and jumping all over the place. He knocked some kids over and we were both annoyed. But unlike me, Abby had courage and told the kid he was too big to be playing there.

The kid's Dad happened to be listening and proceeded to yell at Abbs. He told her to mind her own *%@! business (this guy was seriously the biggest jerk!) and to go find someone to enforce the height rule if she cared so much. She continued talking to him despite his horrid behavior and explained why she didn't want a big kid pushing little kids over. I stood like a shaking leaf in the corner while Abby stood up to this jerk and I will never forget her being brave enough to call him out on breaking the rules. Abbs, you rock. I admire your ability to stand up for what's right when others (like me) are too afraid. I have a lot to learn from you and admire you so much.

I wish you a very happy 31st birthday and love ya.

Jessica Morrow Gardner (SLC, UT)
I feel like everytime I am with Abby there is another story to add to my memory! It is always a good time! One that she might've forgotten is when we were in college and she was driving a car full of hyper girls in her car. It was very late and we were driving down foothill Blvd. When she started to laugh and say "Oh, a cop is behind me with his lights on!". When the cop came to the window he told Abby that he had been trying to pull her over for a while and she wasn't paying attention and that she was swerving in and out of lanes. He then asked us if we had been drinking. We all started to laugh (which I am sure didn't convince this cop we were sober). Poor Abby was asked to get out of the car and walk the line. She was trying to keep a straight face during the testing but she could hear us all laughing at her in the car. The last thing I remember is the cop telling Abby that shockingly she passed the test but I distinctly remember the final statement of "I can't imagine what you would be like drunk if this is you sober!". That is the story of Abby! I have always looked up to Abby as a friend not just because she is fun but because she has so many other qualities that go with her silly personality! She is smart, and cares about others. She has a great fashion sense that I am always jealous of. She is a great Mom! One of the Mom's I look up to more than anyone else! She can knit a freaking hat for crying out loud! She set goals of going on a mission and graduationg college and she did them both! The girl has it all! I am lucky to call her my friend! Happy Birthday!

Frontier Days

2011-04-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

I promise this will be the last post involving livestock but when I say it's everywhere, I mean it. Every festival around here has animals which I love because Austin doesn't have a suitable zoo. My kids need to get their animals fix somewhere. Every year they have a Frontier Festival at the park to celebrate Texas..I guess. It seems the people here find any excuse to celebrate the Lone Star State. We don't mind. Free and fun activities for the kids are right up our alley. As long as it's pleasant outside we'll be there. We're trying to get in as much outside time as possible because we've heard about the horrific summers and the need to stay indoors for two months straight.
Of course there were pony rides so that was a given. I was pretty impressed that the petting zoo included a lama, a huge tortoise and a camel! I've never seen one of those up close before. I might have enjoyed all the scruffy, dirty animals more than my kids.
Of course Sadie was thrilled to ride a pony again but Jack only stayed on for a minute after saying "all done...all done" several times. I guess he's not as into them as we thought.
After the train ride (which Jack thoroughly enjoyed) and some dancing with the live country music Sadie asked for a treat. These kids of ours are sure cute but they really seem to get in the way when I just want to line dance and swing with my hubby. Jack wouldn't even let me put him down. The band was so fun and I feel guilty saying I just wanted the kids to disappear for 5 minutes...that's all. Just one dance with my Chase. I bought her a shaved ice and it took some persuading to get her to like it. After a while she liked the ice so much she started screaming when Chase put a spoon full in his mouth. This was our cue to get going. When something this small sets her off we know it's time for bed. Sadie never really got over the fact that she had to share with her Dad so we threw the slush in the trash because we're really trying to work on being "grateful." If she can't be grateful and polite when we give her something nice, it goes in the trash.

Once we had them strapped in their car seats we closed the doors, shut out the screams, and could finally hear the awesome band playing in the distance. This was our chance for five minutes of freedom (where's Grandma when you really need her). With the children safe and screaming in the car Chase and I danced in the parking lot! It was short and extremely sweet. Sadie kept opening her door to tell us we could "dance when we got home." We continued to ignore her and kept on dancing. It was dreamy and kind of fun to make Sadie mad...is that bad that I'm already teasing my children?
Sadie was so upset that we threw her slush away, the defiant little thing went into the pantry while we were getting Jack ready for bed and ate a "starwars" (starburst) just to prove she was in charge." Sadie rubbed her defiant little act in our faces a week later. She wouldn't dream of telling us she was disobedient the same day. She's smart like that. Oh Sadie, please be a nice teenager...please!

Movies in the Park

2011-04-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sadie's friend Addy had such a cool birthday party. We all met at the park for pizza and cake and then headed over to the field where others were gathering to watch Despicable Me ("Expicable Me"...Despicable is WAY to hard to say for a four year old) on the screen set up for the summer months. Sadie and Addy were so into their party favors and candy I wonder if they really even watched the movie. The best part of the night was the 76 degree wind blowing to keep the bugs away. Sadie told me it was the "funnest party on the planet" on the way home. Thanks for the fun fiesta Forts!!

Blogger vs. Facebook

2011-04-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

Lately I've felt like Facebook has taken over my blog. I rarely take pictures anymore unless it's with my IPhone and they usually turn out like this...blurry and flashy. And because I took it on my phone, it's usually uploaded to Facebook first. I don't know why this makes me sad. I feel like I'm neglecting a person, not just my blog. I heard from someone that Facebook is the biggest threat to Bloggers these days and I can totally see why. It is such a ridiculous waste of time and I'm totally hooked! (The real addiction is actually my IPhone...if I got rid of that we'd have no issue here:-) I guess I just like to know what my friends are doing AT ALL TIMES! I recognize my addiction and have resolved to spend more time blogging. This is my family journal for Pete's sake! Facebook can't turn my profile into a book one day. Blogger can, so I'm banking on my first love and hopefully the treasure of having our lives written down and recorded will make all the FB deprivation worth it. Now about this picture. We went to the rodeo that night so Sadie had to take a nap. This is rare and only occurs when we'll be out late. Chase LOVES taking naps with Sadie. Who wouldn't want to snuggle with that little peanut? The only downside is Sadie's tendency to turn into little oven when she sleeps and you wake up way warmer than you want to be while sleeping. The snuggle makes it all worth the discomfort. The little leopard in the picture totally cracks me up because it used to be Chase's when he was a little guy. Connie gave it to him when Sadie was born and Sadie always brings it into Chase in the morning. She can't understand how he cold possibly forget to take him to bed with him that night. We're so glad she's watching out for us. When Chase was in Dallas for a business trip I found the leopard on his side of the bed every morning, filling Dad's void.

Punky Brewster and the Punk

2011-04-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

I LOVE the outfits Sadie puts together. Have you ever seen so many different prints and colors in a single ensemble? LOVE IT!! Jack didn't take a nap this day. He was GRUMPY. It was one of those "fell a sleep in the car for 5 minutes" kind of days, and he made us ALL pay!

Ponies!!

2011-04-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Texas is full of them!! Everywhere we turn there are free pony rides. To Sadie, Texas=ponies. Jack has become a fan too. I can't get over how big he looks on that horse. I don't even want to mention how old Sadie looks (I just did:-) Change of subject, I love that we were suckered into the Austin Rodeo for their $4 pony rides when just about every festival around here gives them out for free. You live, you learn.

What I wake up to every morning...

2011-04-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

Meet my little alarm clock. Jack sleeps in late so if it weren't for this little face, I would be rising around 8 or 9 as well. On the weekends she ALWAYS goes to Chase's side of the bed. He'll feel a little slap on his shoulder and see her eyes directly in front of his. She loudly whispers (just in case we didn't hear her little footsteps on the way in) "Daddy...Daddy!! I have Go Fish all set up Daddy. Come play with me." How can he say no to that! She's a gem. It's torture at 7 a.m. but I know we'll miss those big eyes when she's a teenager and sleeps in until noon.

"You live in a Zoo"

2011-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Every time I find something like this crawling near my garage door, I text it to my family. With in a week I had texted them a lizard on Saturday, a frog on Sunday and on Thursday we saw a really beautiful turtle moving surprisingly fast down the street. Emilee was dropping her kids off to play and discovered the turtle on the way to the door. It was the entertainment for the afternoon.
After this third and final text my mom wrote back "you live in a zoo!" I also got jealous emails from Aunt Jane who owned (killed) a few turtles of her own back when she was a kid. Hopefully these pics will entice them all to come visit more often:-)
I was convinced that this turtle was too cool to just be walking around in "the wild." While taking some pics of our new pet we had in a cardboard box all afternoon, I started an investigation. This turtle had to belong to someone. After talking to a few neighbors we found his home. I guess he lives in the backyard of a guy three doors down the street. When I knocked on his door he was thrilled to find we had found his "African Leopard Tortoise" that had been missing for three days. They thought the backyard was tortoise proofed but he got out anyway. Herbert (that's what we named him) will one day be as big as a hubcap. After seeing him poop three times in our cardboard box, I was more than happy to give him back to his rightful owner. It was fun having a pet for the day.

Old Geezer!!

2011-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Chase turned 35 this year. I find it hard to believe that I'll be married to a 40 year old in 5 years. He's still hot and that's all I care about. Why is it that men get better looking with age and women droop, sag and wrinkle. No fair!!
We had a great day with our dad. We surprised him with balloons at work and took him to lunch. Once we got back we got to work on his two favorite foods for dinner. He's gets them once a year (unless I'm feeling really generous) because I really don't care for either one of them. Shepherd's pie for dinner and Angel Food Cake with chocolate whipped cream for dessert.

We've become pretty boring with gifts lately. Chase picked out his own BBQ and I got him some stuff for grilling. Hopefully this will encourage him to grill more so I can cook less:-) I love my Chase. I hope he felt loved especially after we watched ESPN all night as an extra birthday perk. Happy birthday to my bestest bestest friend!!

Austin Rodeo

2011-04-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

I had this vision of going to the local carnival in Austin. I pictured myself wearing boots in a floral breezy dress (inspired by Hope Floats of course) with my cowboy on my right and the little'uns running around at my feet. I pictured the family riding rides together, eating funnel cakes, carnival lights sparkling in our eyes, and Chase winning me a giant hot pink panda bear. We heard about the rodeo and waited until after spring break to go (I learned from my San Antonio Zoo experience) and were pleasantly surprised by the small crowds of people that Monday afternoon. We soon discovered why there weren't very many people. The Austin Rodeo/Carnival is expensive!! We expected an admission fee but parking alone was $10 and then the rides were absolutely ridiculous. You pay for the rides with tokens. Each token is a dollar but each ride is four tokens. We're talking the little train that goes around in a circle....$4 dollars for a 2 minute ride. Carousel...$3 tokens. If I was a zillionaire I would still be angry with the system. These were just the kid rides. The adult rides were 8-10 tokens per ride. We ended up buying an all day pass for one person so Sadie could ride all the rides and occasionally bought a ride or too for Jack. He was too short to ride most of them. By the time we got hungry I refused to give the people in charge any more of our money. We ate granola bars from my diaper bag and gave the kids stuff from our mini cooler. We ate when we got home. It was painful because even though Sadie and Jack were having fun we couldn't stop thinking about the fact that we probably could have purchased Sea World passes for the dough we spent that night. I would have been happy to pay a dollar for each ride but seriously three tokens to go down a long slide? Four dollars to ride a pony?! At the end of the day we decided it was semi worth it because the kids had so much fun, but our feet hurt (cowboy boots...I wanted to be Sandra Bullock for the evening)and our stomachs growled. The highlights were seeing a Texas long horn, riding the pony (for Sadie), playing in baby land (for free) while Sadie and Dad rode some rides, riding the roller coaster over and over again with Sades, seeing Jack's face on the carousel, pig races, laughing that Jack was more interested in the buckets of water near the animals than the actual animals, and not when Jack got his finger caught in a turkey's beak. To top it all off, we got pulled over for running a yellow/red light on the way home. The cop asked us how the rodeo was and I said "well after this ticket...expensive!!!" He took pity on us after the kids woke up from flashing lights and the suddenly motionless vehicle (it was 10:45) and were screaming their bloody guts out. It was the first time I've welcomed such behavior because I wanted the cop to feel bad for #1 pulling me over for such a dumb reason and #2 for waking up the tired and sleepy kids. He gave me a warning and then practically followed us home afterwards. I maneuvered the car like I was taking my driving test back in 1996. As Sadie always says "red means stop, green means go, and yellow means hurry up."

My little bug caught a bug

2011-03-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

It was bound to be a long day. Sadie threw up last night and then a couple more times through the night. By morning she was feeling a lot better but she still couldn't go to school so she got to sit in my bed and watch movies all day. Anyone who knows Sadie also knows this is her personal form of ROYAL treatment. The kid is addicted to all forms of media.

Spring!!!

2011-03-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

I think it's kind of funny to be so excited for spring because it has felt like spring all year. Spring here means upper 80's and an occasional cooler day in the 70's. I am excited to see the fields of blue bonnets (pics to come as soon as I find the fields I've heard so much about) and see our yellow grass turn green again. There are blossoms everywhere and we're loving it. We thought by moving from Virginia Sadie's allergies would improve but we've found that her eyes still get a little red and puffy at times. I have my own theory for why she gets pollen related allergies and the rest of us don't. We were all born in places with high pollen counts and our bodies therefore adjusted to the exposure. Sadie was born in San Diego (paradise) where there is little to adjust to. Poor Sadie was introduced into a perfect environment and is now suffering for it.

We've been reading the new testament stories with her and after seeing how the people were healed by Jesus, we decided that Dad should give her a blessing. He gave her one right before she went to bed and truly and honestly her eyes have totally improved!! We no longer have her drugged with Zyrtec and she doesn't need prescription eye drops anymore. We just use plain old Visine and it works great! Sadie had faith and witnessed her first miracle.

Hitched for Six!!

2011-03-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right...six years I've been married to the man of my dreams. Being a Saturday, we did all the ordinary weekend stuff. Sadie had a birthday party, Jack took a long nap and Mom and Dad just hung out. Kudos to me for getting out of bed early to make Chase some sweet potato pancakes.

We got a babysitter and headed to Chuy's for some delicious shrimp tacos, pina coladas (virgin of course), flan and tres leches. Chuy's is definitely our favorite Mexican restaurant around here mainly for the food but for the ambiance inside and out. The art inside is awesome with hubcaps all over one wall, pics of dogs on the other, and thousands of wooden fish strung from the ceilings. I prefer to eat outside with the stringed lights and picnic tables. It's is very retro/romantic and I love it. Chase and I laughed about the fact that our "big night on the town" involved getting a babysitter for three hours, drinking non-alcoholic beverages, and really "going all out" with some tres leches. Boy, we have seriously been desensitized to this house bound lifestyle. However, for us to be with out the kids for a few hours is reason enough to celebrate. We had fun just hanging out with out having to get out the baby wipes or clean up sugar packets off the floor.

For all of you who live by your parents, soak it up because it's a serious perk! We love being on our own but would also love to take a trip somewhere over night or even drop the kids off with out having to fork up all the cash for a babysitter. One day we'll live near family but it will probably be when our kids are old enough to babysit themselves. The good news is it doesn't matter where we go or what we do, it's always a party with Chase. Cheesy I know, but it's true. I'm so glad I married him.

Spring Break

2011-03-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me mention that Spring Break is NOT a break. Moms work harder this week than any week of the year (unless they're on a Disney Cruise with 24/7 provided day care). I was a little worried about this week seeing that Sadie can be quite hard to entertain these days. A whole week with out school or dance was a recipe for disaster in our home. This is why I kicked into high gear and worked on getting some stuff planned. I tried to have a play date for her every day and the week actually went pretty well. We spent Monday at the lake with some friends, Tuesday at the zoo in San Antonio (that's a whole other blog post), had kids over all week, met others at parks, and wrapped up the week on Friday with face painting at IKEA and another round at Torchie's Tacos.

This was the last day of Ikea's spring break festivities. You could tell that the magician and clown were more than ready for it to be over. When Sadie asked the magician to make her a pony out of a balloon, he drearily told her that he can only make a flower or a bear. When she told the sad looking Raggedy Ann clown that she wanted a pony painted on her face, she just shook her head and said she only did rainbows, stars, and butterflies. I'm sure after a week of loud and crazy kids these guys were spent. I know I was:-)

San Antonio Zoo

2011-03-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

Austin has a lot of fun things to do but they are lacking a good zoo. We have always lived in an area with an awesome zoo. I don't even have to mention how amazing the zoo is in San Diego. the National Zoo in D.C. was a great zoo as well. There's a zoo here but I've been told by EVERYONE that it's not worth the drive or money. So, I've never seen it and probably won't. Word of mouth is everything I guess. A bunch of us mom's decided to make the drive to San Antonio to see the zoo up there. Anything to entertain the kids during spring break, right. Well, after a two hour drive and another 30 minutes finding a parking spot, we sadly realized that 18,000 other mom's had the same idea. The zoo was a zoo!! There were people everywhere! Heather and I decided to stay until the zoo closed to avoid traffic coming back into Austin and most of the people had left by then. Our plan worked but we didn't end up getting home until 10 and we were totally wiped out!! It was a fun adventure that I probably will never do again, at least not during spring break. It did afford me a trip to McDonald's where I got that yummy little hamburger with the tiny onions. I love that hamburger but I only like it on the road or in airports. McDonald's food reminds me of camping food. It only taste good when there's nothing else to eat. The kids loved seeing the animals. Sadie searched for ponies (the zebra was the closest family member we could find) and Jack searched for water. The kid is obsessed.

St.Patty's Day

2011-03-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Those tricky leprechauns sneaked into our house and left golden coins all over the kids rooms. When asked why they didn't leave chocolate coins in Mom and Dad's room we decided it was because being as small as they are, leprechauns aren't scared of children...only adults. They only dare to go into the kids rooms. Too bad for Mom and Dad I guess.

Sadie wakes up early, as we all know, and the prospect of finding chocolate coins at the first sight of the sun doesn't help the situation. Before Dad left for work he helped Sadie find a couple in her closet and then it was my turn to get out of bed. Booo!

Jack slept in, of course, but we helped him find his coins once we woke up. We didn't tell him there was chocolate inside. He had to eat his green oatmeal first. Poor guy doesn't know any different. He always gets green oatmeal (kale:-). It was spring break and even though Linley came over NOT wearing green, we decided it would it would be rude to pinch a friend. I was just shocked she didn't know what we were talking about.

We made spinach and zucchini quiche for dinner (thanks Erin) and got through the whole day with out being pinched. That's not to say we didn't make it through without having to take the chocolate coins away after some naughty choices. Am I the only one who notices that when I do nice things for my children, like get them a treat or a toy, they seem to turn into monsters at the end of the day? Shouldn't they be bowing down to me and asking me to clean their rooms after my kind gestures? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The red haired leprechauns must have left some of their spicy tempers behind as well. Overall a great and green day.

She's Ready

2011-03-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

Sadie has always been somewhat of a little duckling at my side these last four years. I never had to worry about her running off at the playground or getting lost at the mall. She has never been too far away. Sometimes this can drive me crazy when it's "quiet time" and she's still right there...by my side. I hope I don't shrug off her affection too often when I tell her Mom needs some "mom time." She's the kind of kid who wouldn't mind me playing with her every second of every day. I can only play "Go Fish" so many times. Chase continues to remind me that I will miss her when she's gone all day at school next year. I know he's right. Life will be so boring with out her but I can definitely see that she is READY for school. Her time has come to be entertained through out the day with numbers, words and social interaction. I've been told that it happens to every bored first born and it has happened to mine.
With all her dependent personality traits (she's sitting next to me right now) Sadie can be quite independent when it comes to doing what SHE wants to do. If it's her idea she's all on top of cleaning her room or putting her plate in the sink, but if Mom asks her to do these things it's like I asked for her right arm. She wanted to learn how to tie her own shoes the other day and after showing her a couple of times, she didn't want anymore help and wanted to do it herself. She practiced for a while and can now tie her own shoes (and Jack's if he'll sit still for her).
We got her her own swing so she doesn't have to be pushed anymore (mainly so I can cook dinner and have her play in the backyard with out my assistance for longer than ten minutes). She's figured out that standing on a tall chair and jumping off onto the swing gives her a much higher advantage over the ground. I love watching her swing like Tarzan back there.
I mentioned this before but she's all about making her own breakfast in the morning. This is something I don't meddle with because I love that she will let me sleep in a little longer while her waffle is toasting in the toaster. We make a big batch of sweet potato waffles at the beginning of the week and freeze them so she can have a healthy breakfast every morning. I love coming out in the morning to see her little plate with remnants of syrup (probably half a bottle) at the table. She's really growing up.

Ever since I got a smart phone she begs me to play Angry Birds just about 10-15 times a day. Note to self: NEVER buy a Wii or any other video game because this kid has it in her to become serously addicted. For an electronic fix I've been hooking her up to starfall.com where she plays around with words and reads stories. I love this website because I don't feel guilty having her spend a while learning to read rather than vegging in front of the Backyardigans (a show I can't dis too much because even I like to watch every once in a while:-).

Everyday it's "how will we entertain Sadie today?" Poor Jack is usually just along for the ride. Although he's easy going enough to sit back and play with trains while Sadie and I read books. We've started a new game where I give her a sentence to write on her dry erase board. If she spells everything right she gets a chocolate chip. As you can imagine, she loves this game. Her new favorite thing too do is read scriptures. For a while I was noticing a big change in her attitude after we had been reading for about three weeks. She was kinder to Jack, more willing to obey, and was all around a happier chick. I thought all my toddler problems were solved but realized after a few days that even the scriptures can't make a 4 year old into a perfectly obedient child. Although a challenge to excercise patience with the sass, I can't deny she's adds quite a bit of spice to our lives.
I do think she's pretty fantastic. I love her vivacious little personality. She dances in stores when she hears music, she picks dandelions and brings them into the kitchen for me. She wakes Dad up in the middle of the night because she just "wants to snuggle." She watches American Idol with us and comments on J-Lo's "beautiful lips" and gets out her plastic microphone to sing along with the girls in "pretty dresses." She loves to clean the mirrors with Windex and spray Jack's room with Febreez. She'll mop for me any day of the week and can always be seen humming a tune while at work. She's knows how to operate the DVR and find the recorded Backyardigan episodes. She can dominate anyone in a game of Go Fish or Memory. She's one in a million and quite a delight (when she wants to be:-).