January is finally over!

     I can't believe it's already Friday! I don't know where this week has gone, but I'm sure glad it's the weekend. Monday I did the usual Monday routine; cleaned the house, did all the laundry, went grocery shopping and made dinner. Luckily to my surprise though, one of my best buds Cass was visiting from St. George and called me last minute to come stop by. It was so great to catch up with her and her adorable 5 month old little girl. It was also a nice break from my boring routine! Also Monday night we invited our friends (and landlord's) over to dinner to break the sad, sad news. Marc and I have decided to move in with his parents for a few months. If I'm going to be honest, I never thought that we would ever move in with family, but we decided it will be the fastest and most convenient way to save up for a house. We are completely devastated to leave our apartment now. We have loved everything about where we live. We've loved our beautiful apartment, the friends we've made in our great ward, the perfect location next to our favorite park and the convenience of living next to any shopping and restaurant we could ever need. We have made so many great and lasting memories here. What I'll miss most are the warm spring, summer and fall days spent walking to the park and feeding the ducks and hanging out in the giant backyard. Cannon loved picking raspberries and eating apples off of the apple tree and swinging in the backyard. We did these things EVERY single day when it was warm enough. It makes me sad to think that our apartment is the place where we first brought our little Cannon home to. We have made great memories here that we won't forget. We're moving out the end of this month so if anyone is interested in our apartment to rent let me know.
    On Tuesday one of my good childhood friends invited Cannon and I to go to the little paleontologist exhibit on BYU campus. It was small, but really fun for Cannon and the other kids who went. Cannon recently started being interested in dinosaurs and especially loves their big sharp teeth. It was so fun to get out of the house and do something new. This cold weather is driving me NUTS!
     Wednesday Cannon had his 18 month check up. He's healthy as can be! He's also a very big boy. He's 95th percent and above for height, weight, and his large head. He did really well with his shots and doesn't have to get any more until kindergarten. That's good news! The doctor always comments on what a good behaved boy he is. Then after Cannon's check up another friend invited Cannon and I to go to the BYU Art Musuem. Their theme right now is monsters and superheroes, so it was fun to walk around and see the interesting and sometimes strange things that people come up with and call art. In the basement of the musuem there is a "display" of large rectangular balloons that are blown around an area by fans. Cannon and his cute friend Kaiya loved playing in the balloons. It was such simple, yet fun entertainment for the kids and for my friend and I. Cannon loves balloons and had a blast. After the museum Cannon came home to take a nap and then we went straight over to my friend Ariel's house in Lehi to see her cute newborn twin boys. It was so good to see her and her sweet little babies. Cannon was kind of a stinker while we were there because I was giving the babies attention and not him, so that was interesting! I wonder how he'll do with a sibling someday. After we left Ariel's we went right over to another friend's house because I had left a pair of Cannon's shoes at their place over the weekend. Then after that we went and shopped at Walmart and finally came home around 7:00 pm. Needless to say it was Pasta-Roni for dinner that night!
    Thursday I went to my cousin's house in Springville to babysit. I usually watch them on Tuesdays, but my aunt wanted me to switch for the week. So I got to watch my cousins and my cute little niece yesterday. The kids had a lot of fun playing together, which makes it easy for me because they pretty much just entertain themselves with occasional screaming and fighting over toys. Right after I was done babysitting I got to have craft night with some of my highschool buddies. We try to get together once a month a have a make your own craft night. I didn't have anything I was working on at the time so I came up with a last minute craft to do which ended up looking like a three year old made it. It was ridiculous and will probably go in the trash! It didn't matter though because we have fun just getting together and laughing and talking anyway. Surprisingly a lot of our conversation revolved around what TV shows we are currently in to and it made me feel better about how many shows I watch. I really am not that passionate about any of them except for The Bachelor. I am a sucker for that ridiculous show. And every Monday night I dream about Sean... Details about the dreams will be spared, but just know Sean always ends up picking me. Haha.
     Today (Friday) I am watching Cannon's buddies Colton and Aveya (who are napping at the moment). The three of them actually play quite well together. In fact the only one that is ever a stinker is Cannon. I hope that is just because he's home and around me. I would hope that he's not such a stinker when he's having other people babysit him! I just want him to be sweet and respectful and considerate and nice and loving and have good manners and share his toys. Is that too much to ask?? :). Ok, maybe that's a lot for an 18 month old and he really is such a good boy I just get worried that I'll have the child that is the bully or something. If he is, it's not my fault, I've been a good parent, I swear. Haha. Tonight we're having our fun and fabulous friends, Jenica and Tyler over to make pizza and play games. I'm sure it will be a great night!
     I love the weekends so much because Marc gets to be home with me and Cannon. I can't believe how fast the week has gone, but maybe it has something to do with all of the things we did! Tomorrow if all the snow doesn't melt we planned a snow day outing with some friends and one of Cannon's favorite friends, Kaiya. I am in need of some outside time and I know Cannon will love it as well. I know everyone feels the same way too, but I am having major cabin fever. Isn't January such a yucky, awful, horrendous month, or is that just me? I'm so glad it is a new month and have new things to look forward to. We are going to enjoy our last month here at our apartment while we have the time and are making plans for the move and maybe even a trip to Disneyland in April. We'll see. Well Happy February everyone I sure hope it's warmer then January was!

A little change of plans...

     Ever since Cannon turned 1 I started feeling like he was growing up too fast. It seemed like over night he changed from a pudgy, round headed baby who wasn't even mobile until 11 months into a mess making, silly, tall and filled out little toddler. Cannon turns 18 months in a couple days and literally changes every single day. I love all of the new things he's learning, but it has really tested my patience! I'm pretty sure he mostly loves to do all of the things he's not supposed to do. For example, play in the toilet, unroll all of the toilet paper, open up the dishwasher while it's running and take out all of the dishes, bang anything he can on my coffee table and the list goes on.... I feel like the more I tell him "No," or "Cannon please don't do that," the more he thinks it's funny and wants to do it. Not exactly sure how to handle the dilemma. But besides all of the little messes he likes to make he is one awesome dancer. I really wouldn't be surprised if when he gets older if he has his own little groovy moves. He still loves to dance and loves music of any kind. He is really great at telling me what he does and doesn't want. He LOVES jump, jump, jumping! He thinks anything is a trampoline and jumps on his highchair, jumps on our couch, on our lovesack, in his crib and we're borrowing a little tramp from a friend that he loves. He says, "Dump, dump, dump" and loves it. He's also getting better at saying some of my family's names. I love how he says "Nana" and "Papa." He is so much fun and there isn't a day that goes by where we're not laughing and having fun playing together.
    So since I felt like Cannon was getting too big it made me feel like it was time to have another baby. When I first had the thought I really thought to myself, "Am I nuts??" I never thought I would want to have children so close in age. After thinking it through I decided that two years in between Cannon and the baby would be far enough. But as it turns out, my body isn't quite ready for a baby yet. There were so many reasons why I thought having a baby now would be perfect timing, but the timing isn't up to me.
     Marc and I have decided to take some time off from trying and not to worry about it. I know that there are a few more sweet, precious little babies coming our way in the future, and although I can't wait to meet them, we still have plenty of time. And while I have the time, I'm going to enjoy my silly little Cannon while it's just the three of us! Oh and in the meantime I told Marc we have to go on a very sunny and fun vacation. We also hope to buckle down and really start making plans to save for a house. Will we ever have a house of our own??? :) Good thing we love where we live now! I'm excited for the future and what is to come, but have so many things that I am blessed with now. I haven't blogged in forever so here are a few picture updates...

Marc's Birthday. We had some family and friends over for a good time!

What a cheeser!

    Turns out I didn't have that many pictures to update! Guess I haven't been so great at taking pictures lately. Oh well. I didn't even blog anything about our wonderful, perfect Christmas, but just know it was great! :)

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!