Little Snuggle Bug

    Ever since I can remember, I've called little babies who just get out of the tub and get wrapped up in a towel a snuggle bug... Don't know where I got it, but I called my little brother Hunter that, the kids that I nannied, and now my favorite snuggle bug of all time, Cannon. He didn't like being wrapped up all tight with his arms tucked in after the bath until just recently. He'll let me snuggle him tight then we look in the mirror and do a little dance and he thinks it's hilarious. It's completely adorable. Marc had the idea the other day to see what Cannon would do if we tried swaddling him again. At first Cannon tried to resist, but then thought it was funny after Marc had finished. We used an extra large blanket (Cannon is a big boy!!) and Marc started pulling the blanket around while it was dragging Cannon (he was safely secured in his tight swaddle). I chased Cannon around and tickled his chest when I caught up to him and we were all having so much fun. Then we were swinging Cannon around in his blanket singing "One for the money, two for the show...." Cannon wanted to do it over and over and over again. He probably would have done it until he puked! Laughing and playing with Cannon and Marc is my absolute favorite thing is this world.
     Cannon was mesmerized by the snow falling a few days ago. He wanted to go out and play in it so bad, but we didn't have any snow clothes for him. In fact, I've been searching high and low for less expensive snow clothes for him and it has been a huge pain! I still have yet to find him snow pants and snow gloves, but I found the other items and he played out in the snow for the first time yesterday. He was having a ball. Too bad the snow was crunchy though, and he didn't have water resistant gloves so we didn't stay out for long. He looked adorable all bundled up in his snow gear. It made him look like a total toddler!
     Last Friday night we hung out with our friends Dayne and Elizabeth. We haven't done anything with them for awhile because Elizabeth is pregnant and hasn't been feeling great. Most of the time when we invite people over we just plan to play games, but this time I wanted to do something different. We decided to make our own pizzas and then make Indian vest in honor of Thanksgiving. Dayne is graduated in Business and once mentioned that he doesn't really know what to do with it, so he said he might just open up a pizza place because he loves pizza. Haha, pretty sure he was half serious, half joking so Marc and I decided to hang up a sign for him that said "Welcome to Great Dayne's Pizza." We wanted Dayne to prove his pizza making skills to us! The pizzas turned out fabulous and making the Indian vest was actually a lot of fun too! It was hard to think of a Thanksgiving related activity, but I think we pulled it off. It just might become a tradition of ours and I told Marc that he has to wear ours on Thanksgiving Day! We had a great time with our buds.
    Saturday my brother invited all of the bro-in-laws (and my little bro) to play the new Halo at my parent's house. While the boys sat downstairs for HOURS playing and eating pizza the sisters did some crafts. I've been working on a Christmas Countdown pretty much non stop and am almost finished. Each day you can pull out a tag, which on one side has a little fun activity to do (such as dance to Christmas music, make snowflakes, go to the Festival of Lights etc...) then on the other side of the tag it has a spiritual quote about Christmas and Christ and the Spirit of Christmas. Cannon isn't really old enough to understand Christmas this year, but I thought we'd get started on the traditions anyway. I cannot wait for Christmas. Marc won't let me decorate until after Thanksgiving (which is reasonable...) but I've already started to listen to Christmas music like a lot of people! I can't wait and having Cannon around makes it ten times more fun!

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On a Happier Note...

     Since my last blog was such a downer here's some fun things that we've been up to! Last Friday Marc and I went to Hee-Haw farms with Jenica and Tyler. We always have a blast with them! Hee-Haw farms added a Haunted House last year so we decided to try it out this year. Most of the haunted house was outside in a corn field and walking around the farm and some of it was inside. We all got spooked a few times and had a great time. The haunted house wasn't the most extravagant and scariest haunted house that Marc and I have been to, but the tickets were only $10 which made it worth it. The only thing that really bothered Marc and I were that the "actors" were all young teenagers and a lot of the time pretty unbelievable and laughable. Other then that though it was great. We also had fun walking around the farm and sliding down the huge slippery slide a few times and playing in the sand box filled with large corn kernels. Cannon would have had a blast and I kept thinking that the whole time, but we went late at night and went to the haunted house which I don't think would be his favorite!
     Saturday night we went to a neighborhood adult Halloween party. We played "bloody elephant," ate treats and played another superhero game. Marc and I re-wore our costumes from two years ago (he was a matador and I was a bull). We decided to wear those costumes instead of our new costumes this year because it doesn't seem complete without Cannon. This year Marc is a magician, I am the magician's assistant and Cannon is an adorable white bunny in a black hat. It all came together really well! Except for the fact that I bought my gold sequence dress from DI without trying it on and when I tried it on it home it fit very snug! I've tried to eat good the last few weeks so that I can fit better into my dress! Haha. Hopefully it's not ridiculously tight...
     Two weekends ago we went with Jordan, Rhonda, Ellie and my aunt Kristin and her two kids to the pumpkin patch. It was a bit chilly, but we had fun doing the activities there. I know Cannon had fun also, but he doesn't seem like it in the pictures we took. Marc and I were laughing because we were going through the pictures later and Cannon has the same "unimpressed" somewhat grumpy looking face in all of his pictures. He's so silly. Especially when we go unfamiliar places he hardly cracks a smile, but I know that he's having fun and enjoying himself, he just doesn't care to show it. Especially not for the camera! We love him and his serious faces!
  

Elyse, Garrett, Ellie and Cannon

Marc thought this was funny. Nice moon...

My favorite of all the pictures... Gotta love that face! Haha

Cannon looooved the goat. Can't you tell?!

Aunt Syd made Cannon this hat last year to fit him over his helmet. It ended up being a tad too big! So it finally fits him this year.

Rough day with the Baby

     Yesterday was quite the day with little Cannon. To start the day off we have 9:00 church and Cannon did not want to sit still for 5 seconds. Cannon will be 15 months in a week and it's a ridiculously hard age for church. He's not old enough yet for nursery, (although we have taken him twice because the nursery leader just told us too, but he didn't do that great) and the books and toys and snacks I had packed for him weren't cutting it. He just wanted to walk around, everywhere. Ughhh. We were exhausted after church and so was Cannon.
     Because Cannon was acting super sleepy and cranky during church I knew for sure that he'd take a really long nap and wake up happy and refreshed..... Wrong! Cannon woke up after 45 minutes crying and crying and crying. I tried to let him cry it out and then I went in and put his binky in his mouth and that upset him even more. He has been sick the last couple of days with a cold so that has been the biggest reason for his crankyness, but the real reason he was being so cranky and ornery was because he was over tired. So I got him out of his crib, tried to rock him, sing to him, play with him, anything to get him to stop crying and he just wouldn't. When he acts like this and I can't do anything to calm him down I start to get super frustrated, so I put him back in his crib, woke up Marc from his nap and just said, "Your turn."
     I was having a poor me moment yesterday and started to feel really bad that I'm Cannon's mother and I couldn't do anything to calm him down. Shouldn't I be able to? Then I started being dramatic and told myself that Cannon doesn't even like me. Here's the truth, I know that Cannon loves me and there are moments that I'll never forget when he shows me. Honestly though, those moments don't seem to happen very often. Cannon hates to cuddle, he doesn't like to hold hands and he only kisses me when I tell him to or bribe him to. I feel like he's not as attached to me as other babies are with their moms. Cannon has a very independent, low maintenance personality and there are times when I feel super lucky and grateful that he is like this. He easily entertains himself and for the most part has a mellow, easy personality. But there are many times that I just wish he'd let me rock him and snuggle him and I wish he'd slobber me with kisses all day!
     Although I wish Cannon were more affectionate with me, I wouldn't change a thing about him. I truly love everything about my little man and even though I have rough days with him, there are many, many more wonderful and happy and precious days with him. Him and Marc are my everything and I am grateful to have them in my life. Rough days with Cannon just make me appreciate the good times with him!

3 Sleeping...

     Today I am watching 3 adorable children. I'm watching my favorite little baby of all time (that would be Cannon :) ), a friendly and fun two year old, who I watch weekly named Colton, and my adorable 10 month old niece, Eleanor. You might ask, am I a bad mother and babysitter if I'm watching 3 children and I'm on the computer? The answer is no because miraculously all three children are sleeping at the same time. Boy, I sure love watching kiddos and playing, but nap time is a marvelous time! Especially when 3 kids with usually different naps schedules decide to nap at the same time. What to do with myself???
     I don't usually watch both Colton and Ellie on the same day, but Marc and I are going out of town this weekend to St George, so I'm watching Colton today instead of on Fridays like usual. We're going to St George because Marc's sister had a baby Monday morning! Mr. Blake Adam was born almost one month early and he's Cannon's first boy cousin! We're SO extremely happy for Heidi and the rest of her family. I've been thinking about her so much the past couple of days and remembering what it was like to bring home a newborn. (She already has two daughters, so she's basically a pro at it). But I was just thinking about how new and unfamiliar it felt to bring home a newborn that I was terrified to take care of on my own. I also felt strange because I felt like everyone was just going about their normal business while I was at home in a whole other world learning how to become a mother. Those first few weeks and even months adjusting to being a mom and taking care of a newborn completely changed my world! I think it took me about 3 months until I had pretty much adjusted to the new lifestyle and felt more confident in my mothering abilities. I had been a nanny for 3 years when I had Cannon and so I thought to myself that taking care of 1 child instead of the four I was used to was going to be a piece of cake. Wrong! Haha, I didn't realize the depth and strength of how much love and worry and concern I was going to have for Cannon which made having a newborn unfamiliar territory. There are absolutely things that I miss about Cannon when he was a newborn and younger, but I love the stage that he is at now and I want him to stay 1 forever! He is just so much fun and still so innocent and adorable and small and sweet. Marc and I were checking on him last night before we went to sleep and I felt like I was looking at a toddler sleeping instead of a baby. I love all of the new and funny things he is learning daily, but it just reminds me that my first baby is getting older. Stay little Cannon! Please! :).
     My favorite thing that Cannon does is his awesome dancing. Anytime there is any kind of beat or tune or music that he can hear he starts to jig. He crouches down super low and bounces up and down while nodding his head at the same time. When Marc plays his electric guitar Cannon literally rocks out and vigorously nods his head up and down. Don't worry though, those are not his only moves. He also tries to clap his hands to the beat, spins around in a circle, and puts his hands in the air. And Cannon loves dancing with me to my ultimate favorite singer, the one and only Michael Jackson. We have SO much fun dancing around together. (I can only imagine that the older he gets the better his sweet moves are going to get!) La-uvvvvvv my baby!
     Hopefully the weather is super warm in St george. We are excited to have a little mini vacay. Last weekend we had our first fire of the whole year! We went up American Fork canyon and roasted hotdogs with Marc's parents and his Cousin Mike and his wife Jill who we love. We played games together afterwards and talked about Halloween costume ideas. Marc and I already went shopping for our costumes and have about 1/2 of ours done. Can't wait for it to come all together. We love Halloween!
    Well that's it for now. I have fun pics I want to post, but they're from my phone and the cord is in my room where Ellie is sleeping... Have a fabulous October!

Perfect weather

     Hasn't the weather been awesome lately? Too bad it won't stay like this for long. Because of the perfect weather we've been making sure to spend lots of time outside. I keep dreading what the winter is going to be like with a mobile baby... I'm going to go nuts staying inside! A few weekends ago we went to the splash pad in Spanish Fork with my older brother, my niece, and my sister and her husband. The babies loved playing in the water but only lasted for about 20 minutes because both of them started shaking from being too cold.
     After the splash pad we played at the park for a few minutes and Cannon went down a slide all by himself for the first time! It was just a small one, so I thought he was big enough to go down a little bit bigger slide. Turns out I was wrong and he ended up whacking his head on his way down. Whoops! I felt so bad, but he wasn't too hurt. After the park we ate at Bajio and then played some games over at Rhonda and Jo's. We played sequence and Taboo (which I haven't played forever, but I love that game!) We had a fun night and I'm so glad that I actually like, and a lot of the time, prefer to just hang out with my family. Besides, we all get along so well all the time and never argue and we never get too competitive when playing games ;). Despite the few arguments we get in, we still love being with each other.

Jordan and Ellie. (Here ya go Jo, you said there weren't enough pics of you on here, right?)

The sun was just a little bright!

What a cutie!

Her face here cracks me up!

Cannon has never minded when water splashes him directly in the face. In fact, I think he likes it that way

     The other weekday the weather was just too perfectly perfect so we decided to go on a little walk to Bridal Veil Falls. The walk was fun and Cannon mostly rode on Marc's shoulders the whole time. We saw some dogs and he got overly excited and he loved seeing the fish in the pond. The water was extremely cold so we didn't do much walking in it, but we still loved to see the beautiful waterfall (that I forgot to take a picture of).
     While Cannon was just walking around enjoying himself, he hesitated stepping off a very, very small ledge. He looked at it for awhile and then went for it. Sadly, he toppled into the rocks head first and smacked his nose on the rocks. It honestly didn't seem like that hard of a fall, but he scratched up his nose all over and got his first bloody nose. It was sad to see! We didn't have any tissues or napkins with us so Marc would wipe his nose and then wash it off in the water. He also found the wrapper from a straw in his pocket and attempted to use that. Didn't work so well. Luckily Cannon is a brave little guy and he had a super sad cry for a minute, but then was fine after a few minutes. I hate seeing my little guy get hurt! (Which just reminded me of a funny story that happened today)
     Marc was getting ready to leave for work and and we were just talking to each other and Cannon was right by us. Cannon likes to put his Raffe over his face (a blanket/giraffe) and he put it over his head and then ran straight into the wall. It was a pretty hard bonk, but it seriously was pretty hilarious. Cannon whined for a second and then laughed a little with us. No joking, he did it again soon after and then ran right into his highchair. I swear he never learns! haha

Cannon and I jumped on the band wagon and I made some "finger paint" for him for the bathtub. He didn't quite get what to do, but he loved just putting his hands in the colors and eating it. Gross!

What a cutie. Love him

This is Cannon's first actual "funny face" picture. I told him to do a silly face and this is what he did. Atta boy!

Fort, Swimming, Zoo, Golfing...

     
     Cannon and I decided to make his first fort. We put blankets over the table and included all of his favorite stuffed animals. To top it off, we added a lantern. He played in it for a total of like five minutes. Was it worth the time? I think yes. haha. I think I had more fun in it than Cannon did. When my siblings and I were young every Sunday we would build a giant fort that practically took up our entire family room. It even had secret rooms built into it. They were much more creative than our little fort, but maybe one day we'll build a fantastic one together.

   
     A week or so ago Marc got off work right on time so that we could go to Seven Peaks one last time with our passes. We hurried and packed everything and got Cannon excited to go. He now knows what it means when we tell him we're going swimming. After we parked and made the long trek to the entrance (because we don't want to pay for parking) we gave the workers our passes and they told us that that night was a private event for certain members and that we weren't allowed in. Are you kidding me? We were so bummed! And Cannon was sincerely disappointed and cried lots when we put him back in the car. We decided not to waste the evening and went to the Scera Pool instead. To our luck that night for some reason was free for the public! And Cannon enjoys the Scera Pool much more then Seven Peaks because it isn't as busy and it's just shallow enough that he can walk in most of it. We were so happy we were able to still go swimming. We had a fun time! After the pool I wanted to go to The Chocolate to get a treat and Marc just wanted fries. We couldn't agree on a place so we did rock, paper, scissors and.... I won! Yessssss. So After the pool we had a delicious treat at The Chocolate.
 

      A week ago Cannon and I went to my friend Jill's condo in Saratoga Springs and we played at their splash pad. Cannon had lots of fun and it was fun for me to catch up with my friend! Below is a picture of Cannon and Jill's girl McKinlee.

     
     For the holiday on Monday Marc and I took Cannon to the zoo for his first time! We also invited Marc's mom and dad along and they were happy to come with. Cannon liked the animals, but he probably liked the rolling ball in water the most! He would've played here for hours if we'd let him.

     I think Cannon's favorite animal was the monkeys. He kept pointing at them and wanted to touch them.

Cannon and Grandma and Grandpa Hansen

Watching the elephant show

Cannon's second favorite animal! He loves giraffes because of his "Raffe."

Cannon fell asleep right before the train ride. We had to wake him up. Poor baby, he was such a good sport!

     After the zoo my friend Jess invited us over to their house for Alec's Birthday Party. Jess and Alec have a dog so they have a little dog cage in their backyard. Cannon found it and wanted to get inside of it. He practically stayed there the whole night and ate his popcorn. Kaiya joined in on the fun and they had fun together being caged. When I tried to take him out he cried, so I put him back in! It was easy for Marc and I to socialize because we didn't need to worry about Cannon! :)

Kisses!!

 

 

 

     
     Last Saturday we took Cannon golfing. We didn't make it through all 18 holes because it got too hot and Cannon was getting a little too hard to contain, but all in all we had a fun time. Cannon loved walking around and putting his golf ball in the hole. He didn't quite get the putter idea and gave up quickly on trying, but he was a pro at throwing his golf ball and tripping all the time. :)

      We've kept pretty busy the last couple of weeks, which is a good thing. I actually love being busy, that way I don't feel like I'm wasting my time and being lazy. Don't get me wrong, I love lazy days too every now and then and tend to spend my fair share of time on the computer! So that's what we've been up to.