Jun 16, 2010

Three


He's three. It's hard to believe that three years ago was the magical day I became a mom. After 17 hours of labor, Cannon was suddenly the center of my universe. He's been quick to do everything - always in a rush. He rolled over from his front to his back at 2 months. He crawled at 6 months. He walked at 9 months and has been running ever since. I look at his big boy frame and hear the things he says and I'm baffled that this is the little baby I brought home from the hospital those three years ago. Now he says things like "Mom, we have a problem", and "Mom, go away", and "Mom, can we make blueberry muffins, please?" Yes, Cannon, the answer is yes. As long as you want to make blueberry muffins more often than you want me to go away. And please, for the love of Pete, slow down.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy. How did I ever get so lucky? He's a wonderfully sweet, painfully smart little man. Yay for 3!


(As a side note, we decorated his room last night while he was sleeping and I can't wait to hear his reaction this morning when he sees streamers and balloons covering his walls. We'll be bouncing today and eating nachos and chocolate cake as requested.)

Update: This morning when Cannon woke up and saw his room he said: "My room is a mess, who messed up my room? Lets clean it!" That's my clean freak son. After I told him it was for his birthday I think he liked it. He's been calling it his birthday room. Phew!

Jun 6, 2010

The boy





I know the content of this blog has been 95% Hazel for the last few months. I'm hoping to decrease that number to 92% after this post.

Cannon is here too, and he won't let us forget it. In many ways he is becoming less and less a baby and more and more a boy. He'll be 3 in a little over a week. Jarom and I joke that I gave birth to my husband - their resemblance is uncanny. They love all the same things. Although he's going through a bit of a stubborn and naughty phase (at least I pray it's a phase), he is hilarious and perceptive.

He loves to sing and can remember songs after hearing them only once or twice. His favorites are "A Temple" aka I Love to See the Temple and "A Family" aka Families Can Be Together Forever. But he can also sing "Book of Morning Stories", "Bluebird", "Spider", Blackbirds", "Cannon Hammers with one Hammer" and lots of others.

He's crazy. He likes to jump off of high things and ride his 4-wheeler. He's not scared of much. He asks us not to buckle his car seat every single time we put him in the car. I always have to explain to him that it's dangerous and we love him and want him to be safe. He's starting to understand the concept of danger. Kind of.

He is obsessed with helicopters. Jarom took him on a real helicopter ride last week and he LOVED every second. He got to wear a headset and talk to Jarom the whole time. He was glued to the window and when he got out he said "can we do it again and again?"

He still takes a good 2-3 hour nap every day. He has to sleep naked for some reason and when I tell him it's nap time he never complains, but he'll start stripping himself down to just his underwear. It makes me laugh, but whatever it takes to get a few hours of Hazel or project time.

He has a neat streak. He likes things to be clean and in order. When he goes to bed at night, he has to have all his trucks and cars lined up against the wall before he can get in bed. He likes to help me sort the laundry and if I give him a baby wipe, he'll clean the floor, table, chairs and baseboards.

His very favorite activity is making blueberry muffins. We make a batch almost every other day because he loves them so much. He is capable of eating an entire batch all on his own. I always make a mini-mufin pan for him and a pan of regular sized ones. One day I was sick and making the muffins took a lot out of me so I went to lay down when they were cooling. I came back and he had eaten every single muffin!

It's no secret that Jarom is his favorite person. He wants to be just like his daddy. While I was pregnant with Cannon I had a vivid dream in which a little blond boy about 3 or 4 years old was sitting on my bed and asked me to "do his hair just like daddy's". I remember so much about that dream, and in many ways it has come true. When Jarom gets his tools out to work on a project, Cannon is right by his side with his little plastic tools. When Jarom mows the lawn, Cannon is right behind him with a plastic lawn mower. When Jarom laughs, Cannon laughs. And, well, you get the picture. It's a good thing he's got such a great man to idolize.

He's a great kid. It's been hard for him to be neglected while Hazel takes so much of our time and energy. He's faced this trial with love and understanding. He is very sweet to his sister and rarely shows signs of jealousy. He snuggles her and sings her songs and sometimes even shares his toys with her. I sure love him. He makes our house loud, fun and messy but I love him just the way he is.


(this picture was taken on Mother's Day by Jarom)

Jun 2, 2010

One


She's one. It's pretty hard to believe. I remember exactly what I was doing at 11:20 a.m. on June 2nd 2009 and I won't ever forget it. What a ride it's been. I wouldn't change anything about this year - although it's had plenty of tears and prayers. It's mostly been one of the best years of my life. Happy Birthday, Lovey lulu! I'm attempting to make an allergy-free cake for her to devour. It's not an easy task. We'll be swimming and partying with family later today. I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures of the festivities.






(A note about the pictures. Hazel is quite possibly the most difficult child to photograph. She NEVER looks at the camera and when she does she squints and makes her scrunchy face. I pulled out all my bag of tricks to no avail. I still think they're cute but I wish I could get one normal smiling picture, ya know? My across-the-street-neighbor, Monica made her cute bow. I love that it looks like a party. I knew the second I saw it that she'd wear it for her birthday. I just got the tutu at Kid-2-kid, although I wish I would have had my friend,Jamie make one. She does such a great job.)

May 30, 2010

Just Because. . .

Twas just a brief hiatus from blogging, but, I'm here if you'll have me.

I took some fun pictures at my parents house for family dinner tonight. I'll be posting some of those a little bit later, but, for now here's one of Hazel that I fell in love with. I love the scrunchy nose and disgusted sneer. I love the little heart clip in her delicate tousled hair. I love the newly plump cheeks and milky cream skin. Those eyes that seem to know so much. And oh, how I love this little stinker-ella. I just do. She'll be 1 on Wednesday which makes me both ecstatic and heartsick all at the same time. She's my favorite little girl in the whole wide world. The things she's taught me in the last year are profound.

May 15, 2010

We have a Winner!!

I decided to draw a winner from a hat - or rather let Hazel draw a winner...

Here's the hat, naturally.

Here are all the names of the awesome participants.
She digs in.

Now at first all she did was play with them. But - then she really did pick just one. She held it for a minute and decided this would be our winner.

Here's the name.

Congrats to Ginger - my totally rad neighbor!! Thank you to all who participated - I feel it was a successful week of awareness. Maybe I'll recover from blogging every day by the time next year rolls around. Then we can do this all over again! Have a great Saturday - and Ginger I'll bring this prize basket over and save on some postage!!

p.s. Blogger is being weird. My punctuation keeps ending up at the beginning of the sentence. Don't know how to fix it so if this is punctuated all crazy - I blame it on blogger.

Sorry for the Delay

I'll announce the winner... today. Just later than I thought.

May 14, 2010

Food Allergy Awareness Week - Day 5 - LAST CHANCE!

Today is your last chance to enter my wicked awesome Food Allergy Awareness Week Contest!!

Leave a comment (any comment) to enter today! (One per person, please)

Thank you SO very much for participating. It's been fun - I'm glad it's almost over.

Come back tomorrow and I'll announce a winner!!

p.s. Today is my 27th birthday. How in the world did I get to be 27? I'm eating cake and I don't care who knows it. No crumbs for Hazel, though, the poor dear. Have a great weekend!