Trip to Amarillo

Thursday of last week Cannon and I flew to Amarillo (courtesy of Kim). It was so fun to get away and not have to go to work. It was great to spend time with Kim and her family. I think we've only seen each other twice in the last five years, so this was a special treat!

We mostly just hung out and spent time with our boys, which was exactly perfect for me!



Cannon was great on both flights. Each time, we had to stop in Dallas, but we didn't have to change planes. On the way back, I let Cannon get out of his car seat and walk around in our row. As he watched all the people leave he waved and said, "bye" to each person. It was so cute and I could see how he brought a little bit of happiness to each person.


Kim surprised us with matching Thomas pajamas for the boys. They were so excited to wear them. Cannon and I surprised them with matching trains for the boys.


One day we went to see this train. It's not a working train, but maybe one that was used in a parade. The boys had fun climbing around in it.






Later that day we went to the park to feed the ducks. When we ran out of bread Clay decided to feed the ducks his mom's camera!


Kim was able to retrieve it out of the pond. Unfortunately, the camera did not survive. However, the memory card did.


I decided to cut Cannon's hair on Sunday night. Here he is sporting the "baby poncho!"


Also, on Sunday night Cannon woke up a couple hours after going to bed with a bad asthma attack and a barking cough. He was pretty freaked out from not being able to breathe. I gave him his emergency inhaler and it helped to open his lungs. Erik is in nursing school, so he was able to listen to Cannon's lungs with his stethoscope. He also gave Cannon a priesthood blessing before we headed to the urgent care. The doctor diagnosed Cannon with croup (no surprise there) and he gave him a steroid shot. Cannon was upset with the shot, but immediately felt better when the nurse offered him a sucker. After almost a week, Cannon is finally on the mend. But he still sounds like he has a cold.

Our little trip was so fun and it was relaxing for me. Thanks Kim for your very generous hospitality. Thank you Clay for letting us take over your room, crib, and toys. And thank you Erik for keeping watchful eye on my little sickie.

$36.29...

...is how much it costs to replace two Thomas the Train library books. Thanks Cannon.

Brilliant Idea..NOT!

So my not so brilliant idea was to put Cannon in a toddler bed. He's been acting up during bedtimes and nap time, so I thought why not make it worse! Actually, I've been thinking about it for awhile. Ryan and I decided that this would be the weekend. Our original idea was to convert his crib to a toddler bed, because I thought it would be an easier transition. The guard rail is in our storage unit, but Ryan couldn't find it. However, we could find the toddler bed that belonged to Rob and Bev's kids. They had two and they gave one to me and one to Kristina. I could tell that we got Jade's because it had a couple of pink stickers on it. We also thought that we would just put Cannon's crib in the guest room so that Lyla or Ally could use when they are here. Of course when we were getting the bed from the storage unit, we found the guard rail to the crib. But since I had already moved the crib to the guest room, we decided to stick with plan B. We got it all cleaned up and put together and ready for Cannon. We had talked about the new bed and he jumped on it and played on it. When it came time for nap, he wouldn't have anything to do with it. I ended up rocking him to sleep, which was a rare treat for me, and then placing him in his bed. He only slept 1 hour and 15 minutes, but I wasn't too bothered by it. So then tonight we tried to get him pumped about his new bed. I recorded him jumping and playing on his bed (he loves watching videos of himself, so I thought it would help). But when it came down to it, he refused to go in his bed! I laid down with him for awhile and let him cry for a few minutes. Ryan gave up some of his March Madness to go be with him right now.

Just for my own sanity, here are the reasons why I wanted to do this:

1. To foster his independence and power with sleep times
2. He can climb out of his crib, although he doesn't do it very often
3. Do this now when he can't open doors (technically he can open doors, but he hasn't mastered it yet)
4. Do this now when there aren't any other changes in his life going on
5. Hopefully this will help him learn to sleep in a bed, so we won't have to take a pack-n-play on trips

This is one of those mom moments where you're not sure if you're doing the right thing or the right thing for the right reasons. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve, so I'm not ready to call it quits yet!

Last picture of the crib:



New bed:


By-the-way, he doesn't like sleeping with a pillow.

San Antonio

Today we took a little day trip to San Antonio. We first stopped at Sears to pick up Cannon's pictures, but they weren't ready yet. Then we went to Toni's Merle Norman store. Kylene did my eyebrows and makeup. Cannon ate lunch there and then we left during his nap time so he would sleep in the car.

When we got to San Antonio our first stop was Lulu's Cafe so we could finally taste that three-pound cinnamon roll! And here it is:


It was pretty tasty too.

Then we went to visit the San Antonio Temple. We didn't go for a session, but rather we wanted Cannon to have a temple experience. So we just let him walk around outside while I took pictures. We pointed out the Angel Moroni and now that's all he wants to talk about! Moroni, Moroni, Moroni!







Afterward, we went across the street to the bookstore. They had an Angel Moroni kids toy, so we had to get it for Cannon. Apparently it wasn't as good as the real thing. The whole ride home he kept saying, "More Moroni. More Moroni. Moroni again," with each request louder than the first. Finally he resorted to saying please. Hopefully the pictures we took will appease him until next time.



On the way home we stopped at Mamacita's in San Marcos. They have the BEST tortillas which are made fresh in their tortilleria. Cannon enjoyed watching the tortillas come out of the little machine.

We had a great time and it was a nice way to spend the day together as a family.

I Want to Remember This

I updated Cannon's baby book the other day and I realized that I don't want to forget these little moments and the funny things that Cannon does each day.

One of my favorite things he does is his prayer face. Any time we tell him it's time for prayer he does his version of closing his eyes and folding his arms:


Hilarious! I don't know why he has to open his mouth too, but we chuckle each time.

Awhile ago I bought Cannon a potty seat and a potty chair in hopes of planting the seed of "potty learning." I know he is nowhere near ready to actually be potty trained, but I thought this would be a comfortable way to ease into things. He tells me when he has gone potty in his diaper and he used to sit on the potty, but now he refuses. I got a Mister Rogers potty book at a garage sale and it's one of his favorite books right now. It's actually a pretty good book, but Cannon wants to read it over and over and over again. He still won't sit on the potty, but he has figured out other ways for his seat to be useful:


Ta-da!

A couple of months ago Cannon got really interested in animals, particularly farm animals. I had intentions of taking him to the zoo, but the weather or time always got in the way. For Christmas we had given him a little barn set with animals, which at the time, he wasn't very interested in. One night he just started playing with it. He made the animals do things, he was talking to them, and putting them where he wanted them to go. It was really fun to see him take his play to the next level. So for a couple months we read about farm animals and talked about them. The other day we went to Half Price Books and on the way there I told him to think about what kind of book he wanted to get (I kinda just said that not really expecting any result). Well, we looked at the kid books and I showed him some that I thought he would like, but he wasn't really interested. Then all of a sudden he kept saying choo choo book. I thought maybe he saw one, but I didn't see any. I looked through the books and found a Thomas and Friends board book and it was love at first sight! So now it's all about trains. He loves that book so much he wants to sleep with it. I did let him watch a Thomas and Friend show. It's only 18 minutes long and he only gets to watch it once a day. He get SO excited to watch it every morning after breakfast. And the other day we went to Zilker Park to ride the train, but you've heard that story.

Cannon has also been interested in who is a boy and who is a girl. Today he pointed to Ryan and said, "Daddy is boy." I guess that was his first sentence! He always points to himself and says boy and he points to me and says girl. But he still gets confused if I ask him, "Cannon, are you a boy or a girl?"

Last weekend we had Cole and Lyla here while their parents were in Florida. This was the first time Kristina has left them overnight, but they did pretty well. Cole was super easy. He did really well and didn't get upset or have any tantrums. Lyla did pretty well too, but she was teething and I think she really missed her momma by the last day. I'm mad at myself because I didn't get any pictures when they were here! I did try, but my battery was dead. Cole and Cannon got along pretty well. They loved playing together and getting in trouble together. At times, however, Cannon did get jealous and protective of his toys, which came out in the form of hitting. But he did getting better at waiting for his turn with things. He usually got jealous when I was holding Lyla, but he had some nice moments too. It was like one big party with all three kids, but we had a fun time together.

My Little Stinker!

Yes, my little stinker climbed out of the crib! I don't know why, but I honestly thought that he would stay in his crib until he was three. He, of course, had his own plans. On Friday night Ryan put Cannon to bed when I was at work. Ryan left Cannon in his crib to go downstairs to get his blanket and some water. When he returned, he found Cannon running around upstairs! Luckily, his crib was able to be lowered one more, but I think we are just delaying the inevitable. I'm REALLY not ready for him to move to a toddler bed, partially because I don't want to mess with his good sleeping habits and also because we will really have to baby-proof his room so he doesn't kill himself in the middle of the night. We'll just have to wait and see how long it takes him to figure out how to climb out again.

My little stinker has also decided to be a daredevil. While I was at work today, Kristina and Kylene took all the kids to the park. The boys wanted to go down the big slide and Kristina went down with Cole first. Instead of following behind, Cannon decided to walk off the 5 foot ledge! He got the scare of his life, but was otherwise fine. Kristina and Kylene were so freaked out that they took off all his clothes to look for any injuries, but they couldn't find a mark on him. I have no idea how he didn't break something or get hurt! I attribute that to his guardian angels. I also blame Ryan, since it's in his genes. Ryan has random scars from doing dumb things like jumping out of a window or jumping off the monkey bars when he was a kid. He also has a metal plate in his foot, because it shattered when he jumped off a balcony. I was hoping that this wasn't a sample of things to come, but then I remembered that a few weeks ago Cannon leapt off the counter twice in the same day. The first time was in the bathroom when I was putting on my makeup. The second was at Beverly's house and when he fell, he hit his head on their metal trash can causing it to dent. I was standing right next to him both times, but I guess that's why you shouldn't set your kid on the counter.


I got this cute picture of the boys in their matching outfits after church on Sunday. I recently bought this sweater for Cannon at a consignment shop. When I showed Kristina what I bought, she had to remind me that I had purchased the same one for Cole before he was born! It was part of my baby shower gift. That was like the time I bought the one cent ties, but we never got a picture of them wearing them. In fact, I bought the ties the same day that I bought Cole's sweater and I wasn't even pregnant yet!



Just a random picture of Blue Girl. I put Cannon's t-shirt on her just for kicks and giggles. I thought that she would feel ashamed or try to bite it off, but she actually didn't care. She wore it for a couple of hours until Ryan came home and felt ashamed for her and then took it off.

Gotta Love Texas!

Why? Because in the same week it can be 80 degrees and 17 degrees.

Sunday:

We play outside and go for a family walk.





Monday and Tuesday were also warm.

A cold front comes in on Wednesday and on Friday we wake up to this:



Underneath the snow was a layer of ice, so all the schools and most of the city shut down for the entire day. Lucky for us, Ryan was able to stay home and play!

We bundled up and headed out for the snow! When Cannon first saw the snow he said, "Oh! Wow!" I loved his reaction, however, Blue acted like there was nothing different.







He kept taking off his mittens, so he learned the hard way that mittens keep your hands warm. His hands got so cold he started to cry and he kept saying, "Hands! Hands! Cold!"



We came inside and drank hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows (BTW, Cannon is obsessed with marshmallows).



And Blue got warm in her blanket.

Today, Saturday, was fairly warm again-in the 60's. I LOVE Texas!