Clever Ender

Andrew makes me smile with his creative energy. Here's a few samples:

Andrew was delayed in the bathroom as he discovered the empty toilet paper roll and blue towel was perfect as an elephant trunk spraying water. He insisted we find a way to attach it to his face and then went off to find a tail, which he found in a necktie.


Andrew set up a drive-in movie theater for his cars (which were of course arranged in perfectly straight lines and grouped by color).

He loves building all sorts of  crazy and tall towers with staircases that start and lead nowhere.

Andrew has really taken interest in and shown progression in his artwork. He devotes himself to very serious writing, drawing and coloring sessions. Here's some of my favorites;
He often likes drawing really long people with big heads and eyes but also draws characters like skeletons, pirates, monsters, and superheros.

He also has a particular interest in drawing naked people. Thankfully his drawings aren't very detailed although the "manbots" and belly buttons add a bit of humor. Hopefully this nude art will not continue past his very young years.

 

Christmas 2012

 

 

Christmas Eve

Jamie and Emma were laying around sick all day so we had to cancel our plans with our friends but we managed to pull together the traditional Cannon nativity reenactment. Jamie did the narrating between sniffles and the kids each took on double roles.
 

Looks like Joseph feels like most new dads feel.

"and they were sore afraid"

Oh look, the shepherd's brought a gift too

Can you spot the star?

Thanksgiving 2012 with Cannons

Let's see, two days after Christmas, sounds like a good day for a Thanksgiving post.

My Mom and Dad flew in to spend Thanksgiving with their Texas family, Jesse and his gang came down from Dallas, and Nate's family has been living in Cedar Park. The Liddiards (my SIL's parents) invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them but Jesse had sick people so they didn't even make the dinner :o(. But they came the next day and we ahd a fun weekend. We played at the park and in our favorite trees while the mommas did some Christmas shopping,

we went to the zoo, 

we took some family pics. and ate ice cream,

Nana made pj pants for all the grandkids,

we ate ar Rudy's for Jamie and Pop's birthday and went back to the house for cake and ice cream for all the November birthdays (Angie, Maisy, Jamie, and Pop and I ate for Hunter and Lindy).

So grateful for family! Thanks Mom and Dad!

The Faith of a Child

I love my sweet Weston. When I asked him what he was grateful for today he said, "that David could get better." David is his cousin who's had several surgeries and procedures in the last few months with another big one coming. I was touched that he stated it as something he was grateful for not a blessing he's asking for. It's the same in his prayers. After expressing gratitude for the blessings he has, instead of asking for blessings Weston will continue saying he's grateful for things that he's asking for like, "we're grateful that David could get better." At first I was tempted to teach him how to "properly" ask for blessings but stopped myself as I thought of the faith this child has in prayers, that he knows his Father in Heaven will answer his prayers and he is grateful to him for it.

The Avengers

We have some home teachers that always tell Jamie he looks like Hawkeye from the Avengers so when we started talking about Halloween costumes I knew exactly what Jamie should be. I had a leather jacket so I though maybe I should be Black Widow and then it became a family theme. It was fun and a hit at the ward trunk-or-treat!

Great quotes this week

We were having fajitas this week and had guacamole. Emma said, "We should call it Barackamole."
So anyone having an election party, don't forget the Barackamole and Romney Noodle Soup.

One of Andrew's teammates came back to the dugout crying and Andrew told him, "There's no crying in baseball." (you've seen A League of Their Own right? Well, Jamie has).

One of my preschoolers was looking at our children's  body book at a drawing of a baby in the womb and said, "there's the baby in the mommy's tummy and there's his power cord."

If you can't decide what to be for Halloween, be everything.
 

You better watch out, you better not cry

I don't think I ever noticed before but Satan and Santa look awfully similar in spelling. I guess that's why Weston got them mixed up tonight in our scripture reading. (3Nephi 18:18) "Behold, verily verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Santa desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."

It'll fry your brain

Emma's a clever girl 

 

Andrew, the cooker

Andrew likes to come in the kitchen and tell me he's the cooker or the baker. Sometimes he'll tell me he's go to cook something for me and will pull some random food out of the fridge or pantry and give it to me. Or he likes to pack his lunch. Here's what he packed himself yesterday. He zipped it up and was ready to take it to his playdate. Hmm. He loves to eat plain tortillas or bread and steals them out of the pantry all of the time. We would never survive on a no-carb diet here.
 

Birthday, Ender style

Ever since Emma's birthday, Andrew's been telling me he wants doughnuts for his birthday. Come to find out the 19th was Pirate Day at Krispy Kreme and if you dress like a pirate you get a free dozen doughnuts. Arr, this here boy be 5 today! He liked watching how the doughnuts were made.

Then he had his other favorite food for lunch, sausages. He's nuts about sausages and terribly cute the way he says it. Then true to nutty Ender form, he wanted to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy. He loves that guy, especially when he talks about naked mole rats.
We headed down to Sonic for dinner with Nate, Angie and Maisy and went back to the house for cake and ice cream. Last year for his birthday Andrew was talking about a hot dog cake. I dismissed him as strange but when he started talking about his hot dog cake again this year I decided to grant some birthday wishes and made this beauty: 

Tonight (two days later) he said the family prayer and said "thank you for that hot dog cake I had and for those trains I got (from Nate and Angie)." Andrew was very excited to have a birthday and wanted to call his cousin to let him know that he's five now too. He told me he's not a baby anymore, he's a big boy now and when I started to look sad he told me that big boys still snuggle their moms sometimes.

 

It's been a crazy month. The kids of course went back to school and the next week Andrew and I started preschool. Tuesdays and Thursdays I've got these cuties (+2 that didn't make the photo op, including Andrew who was off throwing a fit ). 

Then in the afternoon (Tues and Thurs still) I watch my friend's kids while she teaches a class. One Emma's age, one Andrew's, not a bad playdate arrangement.

Weston started baseball. For a Texan he's starting late in the game and these people take their sports seriously so we've got some catching up to do. The coaches have put these boys to work. They had a practice tonight, one tomorrow, one Sunday (well, we won't be there), and one Monday. Then a game Wednesday. He's already had a bloody lip and a black eye.

Andrew's doing t-ball. Ever seen The Sandlot? I think of that movie every time I watch Andrew throw.

His first game he covered his face with his glove while playing left field then he lay down in the outfield not even facing the field, doing what looked like the backstroke. And he tells me every day he doesn't want to go. Why am I doing this again? It is cute to watch though. Everyone cheered for him last night when he finally made it to first (yup, I'm the mom of that child :o). Then he got confused and froze between first and second until someone came over and tagged him out, baby steps.

Emma got put into the QUEST program (Texas' gifted and talented program) so she's got extra homework and still devouring books. I'm trying to continue Emma's piano lessons I gave her over the summer and keep up with my calling. I think about my mom and how the six of us kids were doing sports and piano and clubs and the rest while my parents did bishopric and RS president, and I have no idea how they managed!

My big little girl

Tried to post this a couple weeks ago but got in a fight with the blog so here goes again:

My little girl turned 9. Emma’s getting all grown-up and mature, she’s not much of a little girl anymore. Her birthday was Sunday (well, Sunday two weeks ago) but the celebration went all weekend. Friday after school we headed up to my brother’s in Ft Worth and the kids hung out with cousin while Jamie and I went to the Dallas temple. Saturday Deborah and I took the girls to Hawaiian Falls water park (a reading program reward). Monday we took Emma out for her new favorite, sushi. She fell in love with California rolls from the HEB samples so I got a Groupon for a sushi place and Nate and Angie joined us. We also went shoe shopping but the highlight for Emma was the surprise trip to the pet store where Emma picked out her new pet, a dwarf Russian hamster she named Sweetie. She’s been begging for a pet for some time now and has gone great lengths to prove she can be responsible. Emma is one spoiled and happy girl! She even had fireworks for her birthday.

 

 

 

Back to School

The kids started back at school last week. Andrew still has one more year home with me but Emma and Weston headed back last Monday.
 

Waiting at the bus stop. After sleeping in, vacationing, and changing time zones all summer I was worried we didn't have it in us to get up this early anymore (it's still dark out when we get out of bed) but somehow we made it.

And there they go.

So, how did Andrew feel about being home alone again?...

Oh he managed :o)

No, he likes playing with his brother and sister but too much summer and not enough schedule and sleep makes Andrew an anwry boy so he was ready for things to get back to normal.