smarties, braids, and climbers....

We had the first Parent/Teacher Conference of this school year. They always make me a little anxious. I see Zane's teacher every day and I know that she adores him (how could you not?) - but I still get nervous that I'm going to get hit with something terrible. Especially after the incident at the beginning of the year with some of the staff members. (I'm not going to write about it because Zane reads the blog, and it would upset him). Here is the report: Zane tested at a 5.3 STAR level on reading. That is almost middle of 5th Grade. He is in 2nd grade. His math was at 2.8 which is really good too. She is going to have him tested for the Gifted program, which we think is great. She has had no attention problems or behavior problems at all. She did say that she turned his desk around because he kept getting into it. Too funny. WAY TO GO ZANE you are doing AWESOME!

Lily has an aversion to having her hair done. Most of the time the only way I can get her to let me put a ponytail or braid or any sort of clip in her hair is if I refer to it as a "Princess Pony", etc. So, one day I somehow was able to talk her into letting me braid her hair. It turned out cute and fun, and I think she actually liked it. She left it in all day and even slept on it! Sweet girl!

Here is what the little stinker is into lately. He loves to climb. He loves to slide (and he can actually do it quite well on his own!). He talks sooo much and has been cuddly and giving hugs lately, which is so fun. I love him to death!!

a camping experience....

We headed down to Roswell, NM this past weekend. It is where our LDS Stake Conference is held twice a year. It's a couple of hours away. John was singing in a special Men's Chorus for the meeting which included an early morning practice, so we decided to make a weekend of the trip. We had already planned a hotel for Saturday evening, but thought we ought to try a night of camping. The youngest two have never been before. There is a small campsite a short distance from Roswell that is very family friendly called Bottomless Lakes State Park. I have to say that "lake" is used in the LOOSEST sense of the term. It should probably be called Bottomless Puddles. Anyways - we arrived around 6:30pm ( a little toooo close to bedtime) and got set up.

When we arrived, the camp hosts stopped by our site with a big bucket and asked the kids if they wanted to see a rattlesnake! A few days before, a camper had shot one that was trying to get in his tent. There are so many things wrong with that sentence. They hadn't been able to find the snake until that evening when a new camper was setting up camp. I have to say, the snake was the size of one you would see at a zoo. IT WAS HUGE! All in all - the wildlife seen on the trip: lots and lots of dragonflies, mosquitoes (8 bites and counting for me!), antelope, a tarantula, and some sort of humongous porcupine looking beast.

After dinner (in the dark) - we tried to get the youngest to bed. Evan wanted nothing to do with the tent. Anytime you put him in there, he tried his best to get out. John ended up taking him for a short drive (it was 9 pm at this point - 2 hours past his bedtime) to get him zonked out. Once he was asleep - he was ok - at least until 1 am when he woke up screaming. He ended up on the air mattress with John and me, so we didn't get much sleep. Other than that - we really can't complain! The kids did great! It was a chilly morning, so we decided to skip playing at the lake (they have a nice sandy beach and a playground), and headed in to the big metropolis that is Roswell, NM. It's sad - but it really is big compared to Clovis.

Evan escaping through the bottom zipper of the door. He unzipped it himself. Pretty clever little kid!



Roswell is known for the big UFO cover-up that happened back in 1947(?). We went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center and that was disappointing. It was nothing more than a glorified science project. However, it did make me interested in reading more about the "conspiracy". Roswell has fully embraced the aliens. I think it might be a requirement that if you own a business, you must have some sort of large alien sculpture outside your door. Not only that - it must be hideous. "Downtown" Roswell is complete with street lamps the shape of alien heads that glow green with black eyes painted on. This is not a joke.

Zane pretending to be scared of the "alien" in the glass and Lily trying to copy her older brother, but really kind of concerned about what is in there.

Lily liked the "happy" alien.

Yes, I know, I look thrilled. I really was having fun. I was just squinting at John trying to figure out if he was ever going to take the picture!

We then spent the afternoon swimming at the pool and went out to dinner with extended family. It was quite a nice weekend getaway. Stake Conference was edifying even though we sat in the very back on the hard chairs. Zane played on uncle Dan's iPad the entire time, and Evan slept. Very good. It was really nice to have a fun outing!!

princess party...

Last weekend, John took Zane to the high school football game. Football is big out here (people in Clovis think they live in Texas). And there is only one high school. The whole town gets into it. Lily was upset that she didn't get to go, so we had our own Princess Party. Evan went down for the night, and we got all dressed up in our princess outfits and had a "tea" party. She only lasted about 20 min. before she was ready for bed too, but it was fun, and she sure is a super cute girl!

*Lily has a hard time smiling for the camera. This was one of the attempts. Click on it to see it larger, it's really quite funny!

the plagues for fhe...

Since I am the first counselor in Primary at church, I am in charge of sharing time often. I had the month of August. Last week our lesson was on how Faith precedes the miracle, and that signs do not give you Faith. We talked about the plagues in the bible on the people of Egypt and then contrasted that with the story of the Brother of Jared from the Book of Mormon. To teach the plagues, I had three kids come up and dress as Moses, Aaron and Pharoah. They loved it. Then we acted out each plague and had Moses/Aaron ask Pharoah to "let my people go" and have Pharoah say "no" (occasionally he would say "yes" only to then say "no" again). We talked about how Pharoah had been given all these signs, yet he didn't believe. I then told the story of the Brother of Jared and how he had so much faith that he knew that his rocks would be light if the Lord touched them, and then because of his faith, he saw the Lord. I painted some rocks with glow in the dark paint - and then also gave them each one to take home.

Since it went so well in Primary (and Zane didn't get picked to get dressed up) - we did the story again for family home evening. Here are the cast of characters: Zane - Pharoah, Lily - Aaron, Evan - Moses. So fun and so cute!

first day of school...

School seems to come earlier and earlier every year. Zane started school last week - big 2nd grader! I'm still anxious about the school and his teacher and how it will work out, but I imagine I will be like that at the start of every school year. So far things seem to be going ok for him. Although this school does seem to be very strict and controlling - which I'm not sure how I feel about - the jury is still out. Barring any more mandatory "tuck in's" of shirts, or scary "corporal punishment" policies - I think it will be ok. I sure do love this kid, and he is really growing up!

cannon girls extravaganza weekend....or CGEW...

I sort of lied a little bit in my previous post of not having any vacation this summer. I got a vacation, but my family did not. Every year, we Cannon girls get together for a weekend. This particular weekend, we combined it with throwing a baby shower for the youngest Cannon girl, expecting her first baby. So, the week/weekend was actually spent together planning, shopping for, making, and doing her baby shower. Sort of a vacation and sort of not. John and I actually got to spend a couple of nights together in Albuquerque before I left for Phoenix. Turns out the NM Bar was the same week I was leaving - so we worked that in. While in ABQ, I got to have lunch with a couple of BYU friends from way back when, nice to see you girls!! Thanks for the yummy lunch Taffy!

(*Depressing side note about ABQ: it was our first ever night(s) together away from the kids since Zane was born 7 years ago! So, BIG thank you to the MIL for watching my kids and feeding my family dinner all week. And of course John as well, while I was gone!!! *mwah*.)

This is where we stayed in PHX:




For the shower: I was in charge of decorations and also one of the cakes. We decided to do a silly cake a la cake wrecks. We picked a funny yet, mostly tasteful one to copy. I baked and frosted it in it's entirety and I think it turned out FABULOUS!!!!! Not to mention the frosting I used was DELICIOUS. It is now my favorite go to recipe for frosting for everything from now on. Maybe I will share in a later post. (Now, I really hope you understand, this cake is a JOKE - really totally not meant to be serious)

The cake:

The original post where the idea came from:
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/04/belly-cakes-continued.html
(and yes, in case you were wondering...we filled the belly with red tapioca pudding and a plastic baby and Meme removed it with kitchen tongs, I have the video to prove it hehehehe, don't you wish you were there?!!)

Pics from the shower:


My gift to Amelia was also a decoration. I made a diaper cake with some appliqued onesies and burp cloths I made in addition to a layer of diapers.

I love the pom pom flowers! Thanks to my sis' for helping out with those, I was DEAD tired at that point. (Hmm, not sure the rug in the background went with the decor!)
Do you take a picture without your tongue hanging out Vic? I already know your answer...you have no opinion...and we love you anyways!
I love this garland. It is the colors that Meme is going to use in her baby's room, so I hope she can put it to use in the nursery as well!!


The game I was in charge of - what goes in must come out. If you look closely at the picture, no further explanation is needed.

And now the lovely ladies:

Minus Amelia - plus Vicky!

Aren't we gorgeous?! Love you all and miss you!

alert! alert! front tooth missing!

Zane has started his own blog. If you are interested in following it, email me and I will set you up. I'm keeping it private for obvious reasons! He has typed his own titles, posts, and everything. He comes up with what he wants to say, and how he wants to say it. I have very little to no influence (except to keep it safe and appropriate), and I think it's been turning out great. He is such a little smartie.

Thus, I stole this post title from his blog. He lost his first front tooth a couple of weeks ago, and then just this weekend lost the 2nd. It is so fun to see kids with their front teeth missing. Here he is in his toothless glory!

summertime...

Since most of our summer was spent moving and getting ready to move, we haven't done much else. Just getting settled and enjoying being around family. School starts in less than 2 weeks. Doubt there will be much in the way of vacations. So, I don't have any cool vacation pics to share. I'm still not used to the fact that you can actually go outside in the summer here. We end up not going outside a lot unless it's swimming at the Lindsey's pool (plus our yard is all weeds - the hard stick kinds, not fun to play on). I imagine I'll get acclimated back again at some point. Enjoy the pics I have and don't complain...

moving in...

Note: I have posted a LOT of blog posts today - so make sure you scroll through, and see them all

Moving in to our new place has definitely been an adventure. We have been so blessed to have family help us so much. John's parents own a home that they have been fixing up to sell or rent - so it worked out perfectly as a temporary place for us. When we got here, there was still some work to be done. Turned out to be a blessing that we didn't have our trailer full of stuff for a few days. It's much more liveable now!

(hanging out in the packed car)

Three days after we arrived, we were treated to a nice severe thunderstorm. The kind we remember from Texas. Only - obviously I had forgotten. My parents were visiting on their way back from Branson, MO, and my mom and I went to Walmart during a small break in the storm. (A warning to ya kids - really, DON'T drive in severe weather, REALLY). There was ping pong ball sized hail hitting my windshield. I honestly don't know how it didn't break. Sooooo scary. There was a lot of hail damage to roofs and windows around town.

When the trailer arrived, John and I started unloading a few things before we got help from people in the ward. John was carrying our heavy TV, and tripped over the dolly that was in the driveway. He really scraped up his leg, badly. Somehow he managed to not drop the TV, and gently set it down. His leg immediately began to swell. It looked terrible. We sent him off to a clinic, while people arrived to help. Dr. visit and xray later, he got back home just as we unloaded the last thing off the truck. I think he planned it, don't you? Even now, 2 weeks later, his leg is still swollen and healing (but not broken).

We are slowly getting adjusted to the move. Our place is still a wreck full of boxes, but it will get there. I'm definitely still adjusting as well. I miss our old place, and it's hard to think about it sitting there empty while we are here - but being around family sure has been NICE!

(can you see the dent?)

(this was taken just a few days after the injury - it actually looks much yuckier now)

moving out...

I'm not sure if I had ever mentioned on the blog that we decided to move. It has been a long couple of years for us. We have struggled with making a decision of what to do about John's job. He wasn't happy with the way things were working out at his firm - so we started looking. He interviewed in Phoenix, and Las Vegas, with nothing really working out. Most all of John's family live in Clovis, NM, and we always had the opportunity for him to work there (with his bro-in-law - an attorney as well). To be honest, we weren't really thrilled about the idea. It's a small town, and not really our idea of where we wanted to end up. We prayed about it, and knew that it was the right thing. (Even though I didn't want that to be the answer!)

We packed up the truck trailer on June 5th, Saturday. We had a lot of help from ward members, which was a great blessing. I somehow forgot to leave out tennis shoes for myself, so all I had were flip flops. Great for summer, not so great for carrying furniture. Our helpers will receive many blessings for carrying our heavy furniture (piano included) down our driveway and then climbing back up to get more. It went pretty smoothly.

The way the "trailer" works - you load it up, they pick it up, drive it for you, drop it off, you unload it, and then they pick it up again. So nice to not worry about having to drive a big Uhaul. However, it also meant that our stuff would not arrive at our new house until June 15th (which actually turned out to be a good thing). We decided to spend a couple days at home getting it cleaned and fixed up (since we are going to rent it out). So it meant sleeping on air mattresses, no tables/chairs/dishes. Just basically camping out in our house. It was a little rough on the kids, but we made it through. We ended up driving to New Mexico the following Tuesday, staying in Flagstaff, AZ overnight, and arriving in Clovis that Wednesday evening.

(Zane was sleeping in our room for a couple of nights, and we guess that Lily must have been looking for us in the middle of the night, and found Zane instead)

zane's birthday...

So - the day before we packed up the truck was Zane's 7th birthday. We have planned to only have big friend birthday parties when our kids turn 5, 8, 12, 16, etc. - you get the idea, milestone type of birthdays. However this year, since we were moving, we decided we would throw a big friend birthday for Zane. Since it was in the middle of packing and moving, we had it at a local swimming rec center. It worked out perfect, because they do everything for you - decorations, food - all you have to do is bring the cake! Zane decided he wanted an "only boy" party, and didn't invite any girls. He even tried to tell me that Lily and I weren't invited!! He picked out a dinosaur cake complete with volcanoes (of course). It turned out great!





For his presents from the family - he said he wanted a skateboard, hot wheels track, a club penguin membership (his favorite computer game), and books. What a lucky kid, he got everything he wanted!!




We let him choose a restaurant to have his birthday dinner as well. He picked Red Robin. We had a really fun dinner as a family (and great service too, which is always nice). Happy Birthday bud, you are such a wonderful kid!