The Messes He Makes

Seriously.
The messes that are constantly made at the hands of both boys are amazing.
I guess that comes with having kids!

Tonight, in the span of an hour, Colson created three big messes.

This is only a portion of the trucks he pulled out. 

He pulled over the plant stand and the pot was upside down.
I cleaned up part of the dirt before I remembered to get
the camera!

Of course....Tupperware all over the kitchen floor!

Lots of clean up for me, but still....
Enjoying every moment!

Date with Cannon

Yesterday I enjoyed a date with Chris and today I got to enjoy a date with Cannon.  Lucky Me!

Cannon and I went together to run a few very quick errands and then stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate.  Cannon also ordered a mini doughnut and we sat together, sipped (Cannon gulped) our hot chocolate and talked.  Boy do I love that kid!  Cannon enjoyed being inside the Starbucks and sitting down (at the table he picked.)  We then headed to church where he sat with me and listened to the worship songs before going to his class.  He clapped along with everyone and really liked watching the band on stage.  After church, we ran to the mall to pick up a package and stopped for some frozen yogurt.  Cannon told me he was just going to get a little this time because the last time we went there he got too much and he couldn't finish it all.  He put sprinkles and gummy bears on the top of his along with a few other things I can't remember.  I stuck with granola, fruit and coconut on mine.  Yum!  Again, we sat down and enjoyed each others company.  I love talking with Cannon and listening to his thoughts.  He is a very sensitive boy and takes everything in, processing it for later.  I'm glad to be able to spend time like this with Cannon and hope to continue our little 'dates' as time goes on!

Hot chocolate is the best!

Waiting for church service to begin.

Cannon and I at church...it was
dark when I took the picture!

My yummy frozen yogurt!

Cannon's yummy frozen yogurt!

Enjoying every moment.

Hello Saturday

You gotta love Saturday's.  Sleeping in (a little).  No work.  No routines to follow for the most part.  A day to relax but also to accomplish things.

Today Chris and I got out of the house by ourselves....no kids....for a few hours and went to lunch and a movie.  Granny Joy came to watch the boys and they had a blast together, as always.  We're thankful that Joy is close and enjoys coming over to hang out.  Chris and I headed into Kent and had lunch at the Ram.  Good food and good company.  No rushing.  No kids to worry about.  After lunch, we walked around Kent Station and did some window shopping to kill some time. We used a gift card we received for Christmas (thank you Kay and Karen) for the movies. We saw, Haywire which was good.  It had been a long time since we had been to a movie so it was nice to get out.

Cannon and Colson love playing with each other.  Colson especially likes to play with Cannon.  This evening, Cannon had Colson laughing as he was trying to block him from crawling to the kitchen.  And again in the bathtub, Colson was belly laughing when Cannon would put his face under water and blow bubbles.  I loved sitting back and watching them interact.

A souvenir from our afternoon out.  

Colson laughing at Cannon.

Colson didn't want to get in with Cannon,
but he wanted to watch what Cannon
was doing in the tub!

Yes, that is a piece of cheese being used as a ramp...or wedge.
You'll have to ask Cannon!

Such a great day!
Enjoying every moment.

Cannon's Winter Warm-Up Program

Tonight we attended Cannon's "Winter Warm-Up" at school.  The four preschool classes all performed some songs and movements on stage.  Cannon has been looking forward to this night all week long.  He's been telling me bits and pieces of the songs they are singing and was very excited to get to go in the gym to practice the last two days during school.  All of the kids came in their jammies, which was very cute!

When I asked Cannon about the program, he said it, "was cool."  His favorite parts were "the tummy song and the good-bye song."  He liked "seeing Maddy (his friend in class) and eating popcorn."  Cannon said he wasn't nervous at all!

We sure were proud watching Cannon sing (a little) and perform on stage.  He enjoyed the movements and smiled through most of it.  It was a great evening!

Performing on stage.

Eating popcorn.

 

Cannon's teacher, Ms. Teresa.

Cannon, Ms. Teresa, and Maddy.

Enjoying every moment.

I See You

I see you, Colson.  I see your curious nature.  I see how you are learning from everything you see, touch and hear.  I see your smile and how it lights up the room.  I see how you explore.  I see you wanting to do things that your brother is doing.  I see how you like to play.  I see how you love to 'dance' to music.  I see you taking things one by one out of boxes or drawers.  I see how content you are in my arms.  I see a wonderful, growing little boy.  I see you and I love you!

I see you, Cannon.  I see your new haircut and I love it!  I see how sweet and sensitive you are.  I see how much you take things in and how you process things in that amazing mind of yours.  I see how excited you are to swim and how you have become so comfortable in the water.  I see your progression.  I see your love of learning and your enjoyment of school.  I see how much your school friends mean to you and how you enjoy playing with them.  I see your how much you love to talk and share you thoughts and ideas.  I see your sense of humor.  I see how important your family is to you.  I see how much you love.  I see how you notice every detail of things. I see you and I love you!

Can you see that I am in awe of my two boys?

Enjoying every moment.

The State of Our House

In honor of tonight's State of the Union address given by President Obama, I thought I would give our own version...The State of Our House.

In our house, we are thankful for so many things right down to a good nights sleep, food in our bellies and a roof over our head.   Chris and I are blessed that we both have jobs we enjoy.  Every day is different for each of us, which we thrive on.  Yet teaching also provides a lot of routine, which I like, too.

Cannon absolutely loves preschool.  He attends in the morning, four days a week.  Currently, they are studying animals and are working on sorting in math.  Also, they are preparing for their Winter Warm-Up on Thursday night where they will be performing songs and dances for the families!  We are amazed by how much Cannon learns.  He is a good listener and observer.  We find him applying his new knowledge to other things when he is  talking or playing.  He can count to about 40 on his own and then gets stuck...or board counting and seems to forget what comes after 49 or 59.  He is counting by 10's to 100, and is really understanding what addition means.  He's great at the concepts more and less and loves to compare things.  Patterns are another favorite of his, too!  I am also impressed with how his writing has improved, his pictures are becoming more representational and his phonemic awareness is amazing.  He is beginning to spell simple words and likes to ask  how other words are spelled.  I could go on and on......

Colson just turned 10 months old on the 15th of January.  He is doing something new every day it seems.  He seems to pick up on things quickly and then uses trial and error to figure it out.  He can push the correct button on the phone to turn it on and off.  He's recently taken to dipping a small Tupperware bowl in water and dumping it in his bathtub, which he watched me do a couple of times.  He crawls at lightening speed and is into everything.  Colson still only has the two bottom teeth which came in about 3 months ago.  Those top teeth will be making an appearance soon.  He loves to kiss people and things and pictures in books.  And he is "talking" up a storm!  He drinks wonderfully from a sippy cup (just water).

The boys are starting to play together more. Cannon really wants to do things with Colson, but Colson doesn't really have the stamina or the understanding to play how Cannon wants.  Cannon is very caring and constantly watches out for his brother.  Cannon also likes to give Colson rides on some of the toys we have.

Our house always has piles of toys everywhere, even though we try to contain them in baskets.  It's obvious kids live in the house!  There is also the never ending pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away.  Chris is the laundry folder in the house and I am thankful for that.

We all do lots of reading at night.  Cannon likes to choose his books and will pick anything from a train book to a Curious George book to a non fiction book on the moon.  Chris and I like to unwind by reading before bed, usually magazines.

Currently, we are in the process of changing up the decor downstairs in the living room.  We are also painting and updating the guest bedroom.  Neither project is huge, yet it's all overwhelming.  Everything always leads to something else and it always takes longer than you plan.  Our goal is to finish it by Colson 1st birthday in mid March!  I certainly hope so! Our wish list for other projects around the house is long.  Some will eventually get accomplished and some probably won't.  Oh well!

Our family is in need of a camping trip and are hoping to get out of town soon.  Where?  We don't know.  But we just need to go.

I watched the State of the Union address tonight. 

Thank you Chris for painting.  Now to buy and install the
chair rail molding and put the room back together. 

Reading every night!

Cannon after his haircut tonight.  Thanks daddy for being
such a great barber!

No matter what....we are enjoying every moment. 

Oh, Colson

Oh, Colson....you just keep us on our toes every day!  We all love you so much and enjoy all of the things you do.  Here are just a few current things we've observed:

You have been walking behind a few of your toys.   You will grab on, stand up and push whatever it is around with a huge smile on your face.  Cannon has named himself, The Director, because you aren't very good at turning and will run into whatever is in your way.  So Cannon 'directs' you around things.  We love watching this unfold.  I know it won't be long before you are walking along all by yourself!

You are into everything.  This, I hate to say it, was on my watch! Dirt must taste good and be fun to play in because you had it all over!

I know that I can always open the Tupperware drawer and you will be entertained.  Tonight, you really went to town, taking everything out one by one.  Sometimes you would inspect the bowls and lids, sometimes you would just throw whatever you had on the floor.  One thing is for sure, you were having a good time!  Cannon was eating dinner at the time and he kept getting down to look at the mess you were creating!

And really...you just melt our hearts and make us smile.  Every day is entertaining with you.

Enjoying every moment!

The Snowstorm Aftermath

The snow came and was beautiful....then it froze and that is when the problems began!

The poor trees, laden with fallen snow, grew heavier under the weight of the ice and one by one, snapped.  The power outages started Wednesday and the amount of people without power grew to well over 250,000. And to make matters even worse, the wind picked up Friday night.  

We lost power Wednesday night and were lucky enough to get it back on Thursday morning.  I walked cookies out to the linemen to thank them.  Wish I could have handed them each a hot coffee!   Then those tree limbs began their destruction and were falling everywhere.  The power went out again Thursday about 3:00 pm.   Looking around the neighborhood, we knew it would be awhile before we would have power again.  Every yard has tree limbs down and there were snapped power lines all over.

Thanks to a big, diesel generator we stayed warmish and had 'luxuries' many didn't like lights, TV, a working refrigerator and heaters to warm the house.  I counted my blessings many times over for that generator, especially with the boys. We didn't have hot water but we did have the motor home.  So Chris turned on the hot water heater in there and we took nice, long, hot showers!

Finally, after nearly 48 hours of outage #2, the power returned and we cheered!  It had been a long couple of days, even with the blessing of a generator.

No school all week for Cannon or myself.  What an adventure.  Lots of great and interesting moments.  Lots of memories.

Enjoying every moment.

Snow...Finally!

We finally had some significant snowfall!  Overall, we had about 4 inches.  It is sure pretty to look at.  It snowed for most of the morning and I enjoyed looking out and seeing a "Winter Wonderland."

We were out of school for another day.  So that is two days that will be tacked on to the end of the year.  :(  But it is nice to be home.  I'm not complaining.  The boys both played outside, Colson enjoying his first snowfall!  He was very interested in the white stuff and did a lot of putting some in his mouth.  (Luckily it was clean!)  Cannon ran around everywhere.  He jumped.  He fell. He climbed on the big toy.  He pushed around his toys.  He had a grand time!  Both Cannon and Colson came in with red cheeks!  Cannon went out a couple more times throughout the day but that was enough for Colson.

This afternoon, Cannon and I went to do a bit of sledding down the small hill at Holly's house.  Cannon really enjoyed himself.  I had fun watching him, taking pictures and pulling him around on the sled!  It was cold out and by the time we went in, both of our hands were cold!

Later, Chris pulled Cannon around on the sled behind the 3 wheeler.  They made quite a few laps around the  backyard and then made some big loops around the neighborhood.  Both of them came in soaked!

There is a small chance of a few more snow showers, but it's supposed to warm up so our precipitation may be in the form of rain.  Today was the best day to enjoy the snow so I'm glad we did!

Enjoying every moment.

Random Shots

Snow day for us...and an extra day to our already long MLK weekend.  However, there is NO snow at our house!  But up the hill, they have 4-6 inches, depending on location and who's measuring!  We wish there was snow down here so we could actually enjoy the "SNOW" day!  

Since there is no school, we are hanging at home...  Relaxing.  Playing.  Catching up on scrap booking.  A little bit of cooking.  A little housework.  Still in our jammies! 

I was able to scroll through some photos from the last couple of months and thought I would post some random shots.  So here we go...

Chris and Cannon sorting and counting coins!
Cannon has been working on sorting in school and wanted
to sort things....so this is what they decided on! 

Our first snowfall of the season.
Cannon enjoyed playing in it!

Cannon and I out on an afternoon
date together!  We had fun!

Cannon received this CARS 2 coloring
page from a student in my class.  He
spent a long time working on it!  

Colson being an 'airplane!' 

My new red Tommy Hilfiger purse!
Only $10 (normally $89) which makes me
love it even more!

Enjoying every moment!

Swimming Lessons

Cannon started swimming lessons again this month.  The lessons are the Sumner Pool on Monday and Wednesday nights from 5:30-6:00 pm. Cannon is enjoying each lesson and looks forward to it, which we are thankful for.  He's improved so much from a year ago!  He swims with a kick board with a little help from the instructor.  He's great at kicking his legs, floating, holding his breath and lots more.

Tonight, Cannon accomplished a first:  He dove to the bottom to retrieve a ring!  Cannon had not wanted to try this last week, so we are glad he did it tonight.  He was very proud of himself and asked his teacher if he could do it again!

Love these times!

Enjoying every moment.

10 Months

Today Colson is 10 Months Old!

He's wonderful and amazing!
He's incredibly happy.
He's growing constantly.
He's eating everything in sight.
He's into everything.
He's in love with his brother, mommy and daddy.
He's great at pushing trucks around.
He's a talker.
He's such a joy!

We love Colson to the sky and back!

We gave Colson a little taste of what is to come for his 1st birthday....a little frosting from a cupcake!  He definitely liked it! :)

Enjoying every moment!

Five on Friday

1.  I got to visit Cannon in his class today for a short time.  I snuck out there on Wednesday, too.  This is rare because I don't have planning in the morning time so I have to have someone cover my class if I want to see him during his class time.   Cannon enjoys having me visit and likes to show me around, yet he still continues to be involved in the 'play' that is ongoing in the room.  Sometimes it is by himself and sometimes it's with other students.  Wednesday, he was doing a little bit of everything with a variety of classmates.  Today, he was interested in the play dough with Molly and then moved to the sensory table by himself which was filled with pretend snow and trucks.  I love being out there and observing Cannon and all of his friends!

2.  Colson is so fun to watch.  I love how excited he gets when he sees Chris or myself.  He is playing a lot with trucks and likes to push them around.  He is 'talking' a lot more and I hear the m, b, d, y, n, and u sounds.  He definitely wants to make himself heard!  He is not drinking as much milk anymore and is eating solid foods like crazy.  He cleaned his plate three times tonight!  He'll eat anything! I need to start giving him some more new foods.  Tonight, he was tired and went down early at 6:30 pm. 

3.  Left overs for dinner tonight!  We had left over stew and left over crock pot chicken.  It was nice to just pull out the Tupperware and let everyone decide.  I set out a plate of raw veggies and cut up an apple and everyone was happy!

4.  I am so ready for a 3-day weekend. The week was good and I got a lot accomplished....at least the priorities that needed to be done.  However, my list is long and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with where to start.  So an extra day will be nice.  I'd like to finish a few things downstairs and figure out some more ideas for decorating.  I also want to go over my ideas for Colson's birthday party and start making a list for that, including finding an invitation.  I found some cute Valentine cards to make for Cannon to give to his friends, so I better work on that, too.  That is all on top of the normal jobs of being a mommy and a wife! (laundry; sorting clothes for the week; grocery shopping; figuring out dinners for the week; making breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, etc., etc.) Plus we have pictures on Saturday and an appointment on Sunday. 

5.  Tonight was movie night with Chris.  We watched, Warrior.  Not bad.

And here are a few pictures of the boys: 

Enjoying every moment!