MARCH
We spent spring break up in Wisconsin with the Jeppsens. We walked the beach of Lake Michigan and swam at the indoor water park at the hotel. The weather had not quite warmed up so it was a good thing the waterpark was indoors. However, there were no indoor hallways to connect the waterpark to the hotel rooms so we had to run from the waterpark to our room wet outside in the cold. It was a small distance but boy was it COLD! Brrrrrrrrrrrr!
APRIL
The boys got new "big boy" bikes complete with all the gear.
EASTER
Annual egg dying
The Easter bunny visited us.
Easter Sunday.
Easter egg hunt at the Hales. Byrce, Krystal and Bridger stopped in on their way while they were driving out East to join in the festivities.
Easter dinner with the Hales and Taylors.
AQUARIUM
For preschool we took a field trip to the aquarium with the Hales.
MAY
In May Rob finished his academic work for school. At the end of May we said goodbye to our little house. We sure did love it there and were very sad to have to move. We sure do miss living close to the Hales and all of our friends we made while we were there.
JUNE
Rob had to start his residency on June 1st but our home that we were renting was not going to be available till the middle of July...not the most ideal situation since we had be out of our old place by June 1st. We had the hardest time finding a new place to rent here. So in desperation we agreed not move into this new home until July....so that left us homeless from June 1st till mid July. So, the plan we came up with was Rob would start his residency while me and the kids traveled to live with my parents for a few weeks. Rob ended up renting a small and nasty apartment on the hospital's campus while me and the boys lived with my mom and dad. It was so fun spending so much time with family but it was really hard being away from Rob.
JULY
Rob was able to come visit over the 4th of July. It was so great to finally be reunited as a family again and to celebrate with all the holiday festivites.
We started the 4th off early with the annual parade. Every year Great-Grandpa has all the grandkids ride on a float in the parade. The kids LOVE it. For some reason they think it is way funner to be IN the parade than watching the parade... :)
After the parade we headed over to the park and had lunch at my grandparents house After that we headed over to my sister's house for some water fun.
Rob's sisters drove down and joined us there. It was so great to see them and it was so nice of them to drive so far just to see us!!
We had a ball. We played on the waterslide, played water kick ball, slipped and slided, and played some other fun water games that Grandma put together!
Cannon sliding "home"...
Rob's sisters Crystal and Suzanne.
Waterslide fun.
Boating
Granpa took us up to the Dam one day. We had so much fun playing in the sand, swimming, riding on the boat, and most of all tubing.
Thanks Grandpa! You're the best skipper in the world! We love you!
Tubing.
For those that aren't quite as adventurous a nice relaxing boat ride.
LET'S PARTY!
Leave it to Gradma to plan the BEST party ever. Grandma wanted to throw a just becasue party for the grandkids. So she put together a princess party for the girls (Sorry no photos of this party seems how we don't have any princesses in our little family...yet :) )and a pirate party for the boys. It was so much fun!
Thanks Grandma for all your hard work! We love you!
This was no ordinary pirate party. It was complete. Grandma dressed the boys up like pirates complete with painted beards and hooks. They played tons of pirate games including walking the plank and going on a treasure hunt. So much fun!
Arrrrgh!
Walking the plank...
The pirates are checking out the loot they found on their treasure hunt.
The temple---sorry for the side view I don't know how to rotate pictures on the blog... :)
I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE
We took a day to go to the temple open house. I felt like this was a wonderful opportunity and blessing that we got to take part in. I wanted my boys to see the temple and what a wonderful and sacred place it is. I hope they came away with maybe a little more understanding of where mom and dad go when they say they are going to the temple. I also hope that there was a small desire placed in their heart to return to the temple one day to be sealed for eternity to their future spouse and family. ( I know that's alot to hope for condsidering Carter is 5 and Cannon is 2 ....but you never know what they retain...they say it is quite a bit in these early year. ) :)
Families are FOREVER!!
The temple---sorry for the side view I don't know how to rotate pictures on the blog... :)
MOVING
The time finally came to go back to "real life." My mom and dad came out to help us unpack and get settled. Man, it was such a blessing to have them here. I don't know what I would've done with out them.
Rob had to work all day so he was only available during the evenings to help. We had so much to do. Not only did we have to unpack but we had to clean this place top to bottom. I mean washing mopboards, walls, mopping floors on our hands and knees, you name it we did it. Let's just say, I was a little shocked at the condition of this rental when we arrived. I knew we would have to do some cleaning to move in but boy, I sure did underestimated the AMOUNT of work it was going to take. It was pretty nasty in my opinion. :) But, we got it done and now I know we aren't living in someone else's dirt. :)
Despite how hard I worked my mom and dad they NEVER complained and did everything with a smile! Because of them we were able to clean, move in, and decorate all with in a weeks time. Which is pretty incredible timing if you ask me...considering ALL we had to do and what it looked like when we first arrived...YIKES!
Thanks mom and dad! Your help was soooo much appreciated! We love you!
One of the days we took a break from work and went out to a harbor. We ate some seafood and did a little sight seeing. It was pretty cool to be so close to the ocean.
One of the days we took a break from work and went out to a harbor. We ate some seafood and did a little sight seeing. It was pretty cool to be so close to the ocean.
ANTI-TIC GEAR
I have my family a little paranoid about tics. Here, we have tics and I've been told that they like to live in tall grass. So, here is Rob cutting our lawn taking preventitive measures...It was pretty hillarious if you ask me....make sure to take notice of the pants tucked INSIDE of his socks! :)
AUGUST
Cannon turned 3 in August. To celebrate we had a picnic at the beach, swam, played in the sand and went pirate minature golfing.
Golfing...
Sand sculpting...
The Ocean...I must say livng by the ocean is a pretty cool perk.
Rob's sand creations:
A dolphin...
and a shark...
Happy 3rd Birthday Cannon! After the beach we came home and celebrated with a Speed Racer party.
My attempt at a really cool speed racer cake...in the beginning I had grand plans of making a figure 8 race track thankfully that plan was aborted. I decided to take the easier route with a simple square track....it's a sorry attempt but Cannon loved it!! :)
My attempt at a really cool speed racer cake...in the beginning I had grand plans of making a figure 8 race track thankfully that plan was aborted. I decided to take the easier route with a simple square track....it's a sorry attempt but Cannon loved it!! :)
No party is complete without games...
We played pin the tail on the donkey...Rob got a little confused as to what "donkey" he was suppose to pin the tail on...silly daddy!
Keeping with the "racing" theme...
We had a "see how fast you can run" race--one of Cannon's favorites...
Hot wheel races...
3-legged race...
and last but not least pillow case races...
We hope you had a wonderful day Cannon! We love you and are so proud of you . We are so glad you are part of our family! Happy Birthday!!!
THE TIME HAS COME...
THE TIME HAS COME...
Well, with the move and summer finally behind us I decided the time had come to start potty training Cannon. I know all of you mothers are sympathizing with me right now. :) It is one of the harder tasks of motherhood in my opinion... I had decided I had dreaded this day and put it off long enough. I jumped in with both feet actually thinking it would be a breeze since he was a little older...boy was I mistaken. We tried sticker charts, bribes to go to the toy store, potty prize boxes, you name it I felt like we did it...my sister had the idea of throwing a potty party everytime he had a success so that's what we did...and it worked! Hallelujah!!!
At our potty party we got to eat donuts, Cannon got to blow out a candle, we made some noise with our party horns, and shouted hip, hip, hooray for Cannon! Yes, it is true, we did this EVERYtime he made pee pee or poo poo! He loved the attention. :)
Like I said earlier no party is complete without games. So we even played a party game at our potty party...it was called "pin Cannon on the potty game" :) He loved it! Thankfully all this attention worked! We are much closer to being potty trained we aren't perfect yet but we are just about there! Whatever works right? :)
Good job Cannon! We are so proud of you!
Well there you have it. A little of this, that, and a little catch up! :) Hope things are going well for everyone and I will try to update a little more often!
