Thursday, December 29, 2011

(Birthday) Party Animal

**(The first part of the birthday celebration is just before this post...make sure you see that one too)**
We had to wait to celebrate Brooklynn's birthday with her parties until the weekend after since her actual birthday fell on a Monday this year.  Poor Brooklynn....her birthday has fallen on Opening Weekend for deer hunting season for the past several years....so this year was special since Daddy got to be here to help celebrate her on her actual day.  She doesn't mind though....and its easy for me to be able to pick which weekend I will do her parties - ha!

So on Saturday, November 12th we got to celebrate with all her friends at a fun bouncy place.  It was actually the same place we did it last year, but she asked to have it there again - which honestly it was FINE by me....they take care of everything - you just show up with cake and you are good to go...its a win-win!

Lots of her school friends got to come and play as well as lots of other friends too....she had a blast (and even some of the grown ups enjoyed the slides and bounce houses hahahaha) and the kids were sad when the time was up to move to the party room to eat cake - they wanted to run more!  The time really does go by fast when you are there running around and playing.  Of course once the kids were in the party room and served their pizza and cake, all was forgotten....cake and ice cream always makes things better - ha!  I didn't get too many pics of the kids playing - way to hard to keep up with all of them LOL....


Brookie was brave this year and tried out climbing the rock wall....getting all hooked up....


And off she went.....didn't reach the top but she did look pretty cute trying her hardest.....

Some friends jumping and sliding and being silly

Some more friends making the long climb up the big slide....


This slide is HUGE...and FAST!!!


Always fun to slide down in a group....


A friendly game of air hockey.....all the kids waited patiently for their turn..I can honestly say I have never seen an air hockey game in slow motion....hahahaha - it was cute and they had so much fun playing anyway!







Birthday Cake #2 for the week..it was delicious!!!



Time to sing Happy Birthday.....

Making her wish.....



After her party, several of her friends came over to the house to watch her open her gifts and play.....


So much fun celebrating with your friends....L-R - Chloe, Brookie, Elise, Olivia & Blakelyn


Playing beauty shop with Chloe & Blakelyn....


Taking her friends out for a ride in her new set of wheels....



 Sending her balloons up for a trip into the sky....

And finally after a fun-filled day, relaxing at home and playing with some more fun things received for her birthday.

The next day on Sunday, we celebrated her birthday...yet again..with Andy's family.  She had a blast spending the afternoon with them and got lots more neat things to play with.....

And yes....here is cake #3 for the week......another delicious treat (not sure why it rotated when I downloaded it.....)



It was definitely a fun-filled week with lots of celebrating and lots of cake eating hahahaha.  We had a blast and loved getting to celebrate our little girl turning 4 years old!

My Baby is FOUR!!!

Well technically she's been 4 years old for close to 2 months now....but who's counting right?  I just want to get this on here so I have it for memory to look back on.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Miss Brooklynn turning 4 years old back on November 7th.  Still hard to believe she is not a baby anymore.  Although it is hard to remember her being a baby since life was so hectic at that point with me still working full time and her being in daycare each day.  I am so thankful I get to spend my days at home with her now experiencing new things instead of just hearing about them.

Brooklynn had several birthday celebrations throughout the week.  She is such a loved little girl by so many....we had so much fun with her this year!  I'll break it down into a couple posts b/c it would get way too long to include all in one and I love to add lots of pics.

We started off by surprising her the morning of her birthday with a room FULL of balloons!  I got the idea off of Pinterest and just knew she would LOVE it.  So I bought a bag of asst'd colored balloons and figured I would just do a few from the bag.  HA - how wrong I was.....I should have known.  I ended up doing the entire bag of 72 balloons and had them all over her floor.  I always say, if you're going to do something, might as well go all out and do it right.  So other than about 20 or so balloons from the bag, I blew up each and every balloon by mouth by myself.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I get very light headed from just doing 1 balloon...so Im not really sure how I got that done - it was well after midnight by the time I was done...and I was seriously dizzy and barely able to walk without holding onto the wall for support.  That could have been a bad bday surprise for Brooklynn to find her Mommy laying on the floor passed out....but it all turned out just fine!  Andy had done the 20 or so balloons before he headed to bed and I told him I was done....but I changed my mind when I realized those few balloons just wouldn't do the job....lol!

This was the pile of balloons that were done before Andy went to bed when I told him I was done.....looks pretty decent right?  Well once I moved them to her room, it didn't even make a dent......so thats when I decided to do some more...hahahahaha!

The excited birthday girl the next morning when she woke up and saw her newly decorated room....


She had a blast rolling around and playing and kicking the balloons all over the place....






Of course Cannon loved his big sister's birthday surprise too.....

Since her birthday fell on a school day, we waited to do presents and cake until the evening when we were all back home so we wouldn't be so rushed.  Plus there was a big surprise too that we wanted her to be able to enjoy right away....



Her day was even better when she got to open presents with her 2 little best friends, Elise & Olivia from across the street....these 3 are inseperable!

I just LOVE this pic of the 3 of them - they are ALWAYS giggling non stop when they are together....so sweet!

And the BIG surprise for Brookie was her very own car to drive around in - a police car!  She had seen it a few months back at Toys R Us and fell in love with it and talked about it non stop.  I tried several times to see if I could change her mind and just get a regular car like a camaro or mustang...but nope...my little girl wanted the police car - LOL!


 She was so excited.....all the kids loved riding around in it and playing with the sirens and flashing lights.


Then we came back inside to sing Happy  Birthday to the birthday girl and pig out on yummy birthday cake.....


It was definitely a special day for all of us.....I just love this age - she really "gets" things now and was so looking forward to her birthday this year.....its so much fun making the birthdays fun for the kids....their own special day :)

**(Make sure you read the next post above for the second part of the birthday celebrations)**

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

21 Months

Well I obviously gave up on doing the monthly posts for Cannon and everything he was up to.  It got to the point where I was always so late getting them posted as well he has gotten to an age where there aren't such signifcant changes each month so I decided to just do a post every 3 months at this point until he turns 2.  From there, I'm not sure how often I will do it - probably just occasionally to keep up to date on what he's up to.  Plus I am just too busy chasing him around and keeping him out of trouble.  My mom came into town a few weeks ago and has seen first hand how active this little boy has become - definitely a huge change since she last saw him in August when we were up in Canada visiting where he had literally just learned to walk on that particular trip. 

I always joke that its a good thing he wasn't our first born child together - b/c he might have been the only one - ha!  I know several people that were pregnant the same time as me and are pregnant again - I shiver with that thought - I just can't even imagine having a newborn to take care of and him too.  I look at others and wonder how on earth they do it - and they have 3, 4 or more kids all close in age.  Seriously, I feel like I must have missed some memo or course that trained them how to do it b/c dealing with a 21 month old and 4 year old is exhausting....well actually Brooklynn is pretty "easy" these days - more just dealing with attitude some days, but she is such a huge help to me with him so its like I am struggling with just the one kid - lol!

Anyway.....despite being so energetic and challenging, we really do have such a fun time with him too.  He is a complete ham and loves to make us laugh - whether it be making a silly face at us, dancing like a crazy boy or just running around  being a goof ball, each day is definitely a new adventure with him.  Like I have mentioned before he goes non stop all day from the time he gets up to the time he goes to sleep.  Lets just say I have no problems falling asleep most nights due to the pure exhaustion of chasing Cannon around - hahahaha!

Well here's what Cannon has been up to these last several months between 18-21 months:

•Weighs 27.8 lbs according to our bathroom scale

•Wears size 5 diapers

•Wears size 24 months and 2T size clothing and occasionally 3T in some things

•He is such a busy busy, BUSY little boy....getting into anything and EVERYTHING he can get his hands on.  He goes from one thing to the next before I can catch him - its almost like he is testing me to see how fast I can move and if I can keep up with him (which apparently I can't)

•Completely and totally ALL BOY.  He is so rough and tumble and messy and loud...and anything else you think of when you think of little boys.  Definitely nothing left of the little baby in him anymore - all toddler....all boy!

•Loves to hear his own voice and can squeal and scream until your ears are ringing.  We are obviously trying to encourage this to stop - but he thinks its the funniest thing ever!

•Also continuing with the above point, being that he is so active, we have had our share of boo boo's already.  Im sure its just a small taste of things to come.  We've had a bloody lip from running and falling face first onto the floor tile downstairs, we have tumbled down the entire flight of stairs from the very top to the very bottom - and thankfully came out of it with just a scratch.  Unfortunately didn't do anything to slow him down when it comes to the stairs - didn't even phase him. He has fallen off his sister's little toddler trampoline and landed on his head, on the tile floor....fallen off pretty much all the beds in the house.  And yes....in case you are wondering, he is closely supervised but he still manages to get into these predicaments in record time.  Life with boys I guess. 

•Loves to climb on anything that he can - I have found him climbing on top of our kitchen table, climbing up on a chair that he has pushed to the counter to reach something that was not meant for him, swiping forks and knives off the table - he seriously is such a handful!

•Has adjusted wonderfully to going to school 3 days per week - no more tears after about the 2nd week when he first started.  Now he barely acknowledges me when I drop him off - he is already telling me 'bye bye' before I am walking out of the room.  But luckily he is always so excited to see me in the afternoons when its time to get picked up.  Brooklynn will always run ahead of me to give him a hug, and he just pushes her aside to get to me.  Definitely a Mama's Boy!

•He is also definitely testing his limits and boundries with us.  He will do something he knows he is not supposed to do and turn around and look at us and continue doing it and laugh.  We are working on learning discipline - fun times let me tell you!

•Performed in his first Christmas program at school - and totally surprised me.  Of course they really didn't sing esp since most of them are barely talking, but Cannon was up there on stage dancing and goofing off - such a ham!

•Celebrated at school with his first Christmas party.  None of the kids really had a clue at that age, but they were all so happy to have their mom's there that day to help celebrate.  Of course he was being a little stinker and getting into mischief - although his teachers assured me that he normally isn't like that when I'm not there and does listen most of the time.  I sure hope so b/c I can just imagine the phone calls we will be getting from the principal's office in the future *gulp*!  He was definitely the most "energetic" one in his class that day...

•His eating is really hit and miss.  He was really picky for the longest time since the last update, then finally seemed to be turning the corner and eating most meals most days...then he got sick about a week ago and now we are back to the picky eater.  Our only sure bet on days like this is fruit - at least its a healthy choice.

•His newest obsession is Mickey Mouse.  I have DVR'd several episodes and that is the first thing he wants to watch every morning.  When we are out shopping, if he spots anything with Mickey Mouse on it, he will start shrieking until we move closer to where he can get his hands on it.

•Loves electronics - loves to play with Grandma's iPad or my phone and play games....and will throw an epic temper tantrum when its time to put them up.

•Hates being in the car and being strapped down in his car seat.  Also hates to wear shoes and socks and will remove them the minute I shut the door after strapping him in his car seat.  I have no resorted to just bringing him out in bare feet and just putting them on whenever we get to where we are going.

•Still a great sleeper and gets 12 hours of straight sleep during the night - although when he is sick he is like a newborn all over again - up all the time....poor guy just doesn't do well with sleep when he isn't feeling great

•Still takes 1 nap a day - usually around 1:30 and goes for about 1.5-2 hours hours on average so that has been cut down a little since last update. He also is napping at school on his napmat like a pro - they said he is normally one of the first ones to fall asleep - definitely depends on his naps after all the mischief he gets into on a daily basis.

•Immitates everything his big sister does - from brushing his teeth, to coloring, to playing with babies - he tries to be just like her.

•Despite the fights that happen between his big sister and him, he really does worship the ground she walks on and wants to be right beside her all the time.  He loves his big brother too and is so excited when he gets home each day from school.

Here are the pics from his 21 month old mini shoot.  I only got 1 decent 'standard' pic of him on his chair with his sign - and it was the first one I snapped luckily b/c he very quickly jumped down from the chair and proceeded to go looking for trouble - LOL!




I even tried to bribe him to stay and pose for pics with all his Mickey Mouses.....

Of course that lasted all of 2 seconds before he was off....

And into the wipe container he goes....one of his favorite pastimes....pulling out ALL the wipes and then shoving them all back in - makes for interesting diaper changes trying to pull just one wipe out!



Of course, it was hard for me to tell him no - he just wanted to help clean/dust his shelves....which they desperately needed anyway - ha!

I HAD to get a close up of his hair - it is SOOOOO CURLY!  I love it!  Its time for another haircut again - its right on the border of becoming out of control again hahahaha!

Busy playing on his laptop and his piano....

Then he sat down with his favorite person and just watched her play with stickers.....

I think he was probably thinking "What in the world is this girl doing now????"

Then of course he thought she was the funniest thing ever!

My 2 goofballs...they are always cracking me up - I love this pic - such a sweet pic of the way they love playing each other and the fun they have

Then he thought he was the luckiest boy alive - he got some of the stickers too!

And this was the end result.....

And this......

So although I didn't get as many of the standard monthly pics I usually get, these pics definitely show more accurately my days with Cannon and all that he is up to :)