snow, valentines, and other sundry...

Really honestly though, isn't my blog mostly all *sundry*? Hmm....

We got hit with the massive snow storm that hit most of the country a few weeks ago - only we didn't get much snow, just bitter bitter cold. It was horrid. I really miss St. George. Negative temperatures are so wrong on so many levels. It did warm up and is now 70+ degrees (at least for the next week). Our weather has schizophrenia.

Some pics from the week of bitter cold and little snow:


Next up - Valentine's Day. We did homemade valentines this year. First time ever. Stole this idea from various other blogs - and pretty much copied it straightforward. Very little time - and Zane definitely had the best valentines in the class. Look for a repeat next year - with a variation (Zane's idea) that I'm not going to spoil right now!


The actual V-Day itself was mostly a large disaster. John left early in the morning for a workout session, which left me to get up with my early rising kids (ugh). I woke up to Evan screaming - a quick jaunt into his room - and poop everywhere. Yay me. Finished up clean up and bath just as John walked in. John had some redemption coming seeing as how he stopped at the store after his workout and got me flowers - (even though, I'm still not sure that makes up for the poop cleanup).

Next up - the struggle of getting Zane to school. He has been having some anxiety about school lately. We have come to the conclusion it has been set off by his starting a new medication. Monday's battle reached epic proportions. We finally got him there just short of calling the police to help. Only 1 1/2 hours late for school. We love him so much, it is hard to see him struggling so much. We have made some adjustments to his current medication and the rest of the days this week have been a piece of cake. We hope he will be feeling completely better soon.

The day does not end there! Evan developed a fever - so was pretty tired most of the day. Lily said she wasn't feeling well, and didn't eat much - but she wasn't really complaining of anything. Zane got home from school - and about 20 min. later - Lily threw up all over the floor. Good thing she waited until Zane got home - because he isn't completely phobic about puke or anything. Ugh. Not the best Valentine's Day ever.

Some pics of the morning present opening - that actually went ok. =)



I got a silhouette craft cutting machine for christmas - which I have been LOVING. I've made a few things with it - but can't wait to do more. I made a couple of t-shirts for the kids today. Zane wanted a Clovis Wildcat t-shirt. Their colors are purple and white - but he really wanted the black *sparkly* stuff. So - that's what he got. Lily's shirt is made with a flocked type of material so it's fuzzy.
Turned out cute!:

Jewelry business has still been going - slowly, but better than last month. I'm happy to do it as a little side hobby that makes me a little money. We are doing really well out here in Clovis, and really enjoying being with family. We miss everyone else that isn't here though, and do get *homesick* of St. George at times - but in all our moving - we really know that you can be happy wherever you are, just have to make the effort.

Some pics of the cutie kids - just being silly:

it's about time I posted about christmas...

*SUPER DUPER LONG POST AHEAD*

We all got sick (stomach flu) the week of Christmas this year - but had all gotten over it by Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, we ended up giving it to all of John's extended family so that they got it just in time for Christmas. So our holidays at home were pretty quiet - since we didn't spend a LOT of time with extended family. We had dinner on Christmas Day together, and also had everyone over the next day on Sunday for dinner. As a family - we all participated in the Christmas program that John's mom put together for the small LDS branch that they attend 1 hour away (well, honestly - we WERE the program). It was a really neat experience.

Playing Wii the day after Christmas with the Collins' fam.

Zane's Christmas Program at school. He got to sing a small solo in one of the songs. It was a very well put together program and the perfect length. That's what you get when you have an elementary music teacher I guess. One good thing about the Clovis schools....

One of the many visits with Santa's lap. Evan just loves loves loves Santa!

Santa was really good to the kids this year, and they deserved it. Zane got "boomwhackers and handbells", the Mindflex game, and a projection clock. Lily got a Lalaloopsy doll, some princess dolls, and a neat Leapfrog writing/alphabet toy. Evan got some blocks, and a fun car ramp toy. Oh, and we mustn't forget the Pillow Pets. Zane got a penguin, Lily - a unicorn (and a ladybug from Grandma Lisa), and Evan - a dog. From Mom and Dad - they got some Wii games , BandHero, the Liken scripture movies, and I'm sure more stuff that I've already forgotten. I got a Silhouette cutting machine (so cool!), and John got a bluray player and stereo. As a family we got a new TV/entertainment center from John's parents. We really were super blessed with way too much this year.

Somehow the only picture I got of Zane on Christmas morning (and it's blurry) Sorry bud!

(well I guess there is half of him in this picture too - but still blurry!)

A couple of days after Christmas - we headed to Phoenix to see my family. It was so fun that everyone was able to be there - including both sets of my grandparents. Our gift for Christmas from my parents was a hotel room for the 5 days that we were there. It was sooo nice to have that. Would have been a little crowded for everyone at their house! We got to meet the newest nephew - Boston. So fun!

I couldn't tell you about this trip without mentioning the not-so-great start we had getting there! We left really early (7:30 am) to head out there. It's about an 11 hour drive, so we wanted to try and get there early enough that the kids would be able to unwind a little before bed. We made it to Santa Rosa (about 2 hours or so) before we had to make our first bathroom stop. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately, we had to stop every half hour after that because Lily and Evan were having some *number 2* problems. The weather was snowy off and on , but it was still too warm for it to stick to anything - so it wasn't bad. By the time we were about 9 miles outside of Flagstaff, it started really snowing, and sticking. There was already a good 6 inches on the ground. As we got into Flag, the traffic was dead stopped. I called my Dad and he said he had heard that I-17 (the freeway we needed to get on to) was closed - but only Northbound (we were going south) - so maybe we were ok. We were stopped in Flagstaff for about 30 min. and then were able to get onto I-17 and start heading south to Phoenix. We made it about 5 miles, and then were stopped again. At this point, there is quite a bit of snow on the road, but nothing that wasn't driveable. It's now 6:00 pm. We didn't move for almost 3 hours. We were sooo blessed that we had a car full of gas, food and diapers - though that last one didn't help me! We finally started moving slowly and finally went the 20 miles to come down out of the mountains and snow. We had heavy rain the rest of the way to Phoenix. All in all - we made it to the hotel at 12:30 pm. That's 7 1/2 hours from the time we got to Flagstaff - normally a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive. Yikes!

The next morning, Evan woke up with a fever. We didn't have a thermometer with us, so we just got him some tylenol, but he was certainly acting very sick. Just wanted Daddy and laid his head on his shoulder all day long. By New Years Eve (day 3), he was still fevering and sick, so we got a thermometer. It was 105!! Now, he has had a 105 temp before, but it went down after the tylenol/motrin combo. He was loaded up on both and it still hadn't come down - so we took him in to the closest children's clinic (which turned out to be a Children's ER). John and I rang in the New Year in the hospital with our poor sick baby. He had some blood tests done and an X-ray. Everything came back negative - so the Dr. was pretty sure it was flu, and gave us Tamiflu. Evan was such a trooper. They gave him another dose of tylenol when we got there, and his fever finally came down a little. When we got home from our trip - there was a message from the ER that his tests had come back positive for RSV. (It's basically a cold, but a really bad one that can make little babies very very sick). We took him to the Dr. here when we got back just to follow up and make sure that he was fine - and he is all better now! It was kind of a bummer that the family in Phoenix only saw him sick and didn't get to see what a super funny silly chatterbox he is.

The horrible monstrosity they had to put on him in case he needed an IV. They were already drawing blood for some tests - so they decided to go ahead and hook that up too and not have to poke him twice.

Sleeping in between all the tests. He did NOT like getting woken up to be poked, swabbed, x-rayed, etc. Poor little boy!

The next morning we went to the church where baby Boston was blessed by his Dad, Justin. It was nice to be a part of that day. We decided since the Cannon family was all together we would get some family pictures taken as well. The last family picture we have is when Zane was about 1 year old, and I think we were missing at least one person. So - it will be nice to have these *hint, hint* Mom - where are they?? ;-)

All dressed up for family pictures!

Even though it was quite an eventful trip - we really enjoyed it. I think it helped keep the stress down since we were staying at a hotel. And although it was sad that everyone missed out on Evan's fun personality - it was maybe a blessing that he was so mellow. He certainly stayed out of everything! Love everyone and can't wait to see you all again - hopefully soon! p.s. next time - MORE SHOPPING! ;-)

here comes santa claus...

My Christmas shopping is 99% done. I did almost all of it online. I got it done early so that I could spend time making a lot of gifts. Unfortunately, I've been super busy with my jewelry business this holiday season. But that's not really unfortunate. I guess other people wanted a "handmade christmas" too - so I'm glad I can give that to them - just my family may not get it. Oh well, we've more than enough presents to substitute if I don't get it all done. So - that being said - I've been SUPER BUSY! Today I took the day off (of jewelry) and just cleaned my house. It took all day long. And it's still not 100%. That's how neglected it was.

Tonight was the christmas program at the elementary school. Zane volunteered for a solo part in one of the songs and did great! I was quite impressed with their program - they kept it short, but the kids were really good. They have music class once or twice a week with a music teacher that is just at their school. I think they are lucky to have that! In fact Zane asked for "Boomwhackers" and "Handbells" for christmas as a direct result of this music class.

So - other than being busy with Christmas - not a lot is going on - so I thought I would jot down some general stuff about the kids.

Zane is doing great at school. He has learned cursive this year, and is working on learning multiplication. He really loves his teacher. He tries so hard at school, and I'm very proud of him. He loves to play with the neighborhood boys. Generally I have 1-3 boys at my house 3 or 4 times a week. They all come over and play various video games of course. I'm certainly glad to have them here, and glad that Zane is happy to be home and play!

Lily is really growing up - getting smarter every day. Right now - what she most wants to do is watch tv and movies. It's hard when I'm so busy, to get her away from it. She sure loves to follow her big brother and is really quite a sweet little girl. She loves her playdoh, and often surprises me with things she says. She's always been the one with a great sense of humor. She really understands humor. It's easy to distract her when she is grumpy with a tickle or a "Don't You Smile". She is so easy going (most of the time) and certainly the peacemaker in the family.

Evan is all boy. He loves to make messes and throw. I can't believe how fast he can destroy the entire house. It's quite amazing. He gave up the binky a couple of weeks ago too. Just out of the blue. He was definitely the easiest one of the three to give it up. Maybe potty training will be that way too?? He is so sweet and talks SOOOOO much. He has an ear infection right now - and the only reason I knew he did was because he told me "ear hurt". I don't think I've ever had a child of mine tell me that. ESPECIALLY at 20 months old. He LOVES Santa and babies. Lately - all he does all day long is chant "Tanta, Tanta, Tanta, Tanta". Crazy boy. Luckily we've already seen Santa 3 times this year. He loves to carry around baby dolls, and hug them, and say "ni-night". Whenever I put him in bed he tells me "Bye Mama". It's super cute.

John and I are still in our weight loss adventure. John has lost close to 50 pounds now. I'm hovering around 20. I wish my loss was going a little faster - and that it was more noticeable to me- but really it hasn't been difficult so I can't complain. Especially since I have not exercised one single bit. Gotta love that. But I imagine I will have to pretty soon if I want to keep losing.

I'm too tired to add pictures right now - but I will soon!

thanksgiving 2010...

Boy, it's nice to not travel for Thanksgiving and still get to see a lot of your family!
We actually had our family thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday due to scheduling issues on turkey day. John's parents were going to be serving dinner for branch members at the small branch they attend - so we decided to make it easy and just do it Weds.


We felt like we still needed to have turkey today, so we also had a small turkey feast for just our family. All the good stuff: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, home made rolls, red hot applesauce jello (that's the stuff!!), and pumpkin dessert. (Yeah yeah, those aren't recipes from weight watchers). Super yummy!!

While I was cooking this morning, I got out some stuff to have the kids make these super cute pilgrim hat treats. They really enjoyed making them but definitely enjoyed eating them more!



Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks Dan & Charity for having us over and thanks to everyone who made such yummy food! We are so thankful for our families and friends and love and miss you all!

halloween 2010...

Ok, I've put off doing a post for Halloween long enough. I didn't post pictures yet, because frankly, I don't have very many or good ones for that matter. We had our ward Trunk or Treat on the Friday before Halloween, and that night John and I came home completely sick with fevers and what turned out to be an all weekend lasting sickness. I didn't even get any pictures of our (John and mine) AWESOME costumes! I went as Medusa and John - a greek man that I turned to stone. Bummer! We didn't carve pumpkins (too sick), my kids hardly got a decent trick or treating - just 20 min. with a really sick Dad at the mall, and minimal pictures. I kept telling myself that I would dress them up in their costumes again and take some pictures - but it hasn't happened. I think since next week is Thanksgiving - that ship has sailed. Although our pumpkins are still on my dining room floor waiting to be carved...hmmm. So here's what I've got:

Can you tell what his costume is? I thought it was great!

The same monkey costume that I made for Zane at the same age.

My pretty princess. Still not sure if it was worth making, but it did turn out BEAUTIFUL!

visiting the PHX...

We drove out to Phoenix over fall break a couple weeks ago. It's not a short drive. I don't really know what I was thinking. It was a little bit of a rough weekend. We forgot Zane's medicine, and the kids slept horribly - which leads to bad things - but it was nice to be there and see my family. Despite the stress, it was a fun few days!

Dad got us some free passes to the Phoenix Zoo, which is always a favorite. We spent the morning there, before it got too warm, and the kids loved it. Evan and Zane had a blast on the carousel, but Lily wanted nothing to do with it. I started to get her up on the dolphin she had picked out, and she completely freaked out and lost it. She is my fearful one for sure. We realized we did a lot of playing at the zoo, but didn't spend a lot of time looking at the animals. Oh well, the kids had fun!

We did plenty of shopping, complete with a Build A Bear experience (thanks Mom and Dad!), and even took a quick dip in Amanda's pool. Really too cold for an unheated swimming pool in October. Even in Phoenix. And especially in the late afternoon shade. Too bad I didn't get pictures of that! Love you all and thanks for putting up with us. Can't wait for the holidays!

red jello...

school carnival...

Every school year the elementary puts on a carnival. Each of the classes has a game where the kids can win prizes. They also had a cake walk, a pop toss, and a whole bunch of very large bouncy inflatables. Our kids were in heaven. They had a blast playing the games, eating cotton candy, and Evan especially loved the bouncy house. He got right in there with the big kids and fell over and over again, laughing and laughing. I was a little worried, but he was having a blast!! Lily won some cookies at the cake walk (musical chairs). Lily and Zane did a "bopping heads" music video - which I may or may not post here... it's a little uh... annoying? I guess.

I couldn't get a good picture of the kids in the bouncy house this time, but if you look closely that is Evan in the background on his knees, and Lily in front by the net.

the sillies...

Some pictures of the kids and their silly adventures...

little stinker.


self-photo.

Lily wearing her baby blessing dress as her wedding gown, and Zane posing as the groom. All Zane's idea of course - I wasn't too thrilled he got her in the baby dress at all!

I got out the Halloween costumes. Evan insisted on leaving his monkey costume on, and this is where I found him. He's never fallen asleep on the floor before (in fact none of my kids hardly ever do this). So cute!

Her first hair cut! I am sad, I feel like I cut off tooooo much!

Lily's nice big shiner. She's never had one before. Of course, we are getting family pictures this weekend, so it is fitting. Lovely!

rainy days...

I love rainy days. A couple weeks ago it rained on and off most of the day. After we took Zane to school, Lily and Evan got all dressed up to go out and splash a bit. I had to take a video because it was too cute.