Baby Philip is 1!

My parents, who are saints, offered to host Philip's 1st birthday party at their house, and we gladly accepted their offer! Our house still hasn't been cleaned up from Charlie's party last weekend!

It took him a few minutes to get into the whole cake thing, but once he tasted it, he loved it! A boy after my own heart! Kirkland & Charlie thought it was hysterical that he was eating it with his hands! I love the picture of Kirkland pretending he's going to lick Philip's fingers!Philip got a lot of help opening his presents from 2 very eager older brothers! Philip is such a delight. He is very laid back, and is all smiles, all the time! He always gets complimented on his big brown eyes. He has a deep belly laugh that melts my heart every time. He can say "mama", "dada" & every once in a while we swear we hear him say "Kirklan". He isn't walking yet, and that is more than fine with me! I need my baby to stay a baby! What a fun first year it has been!

Charlie turns 3!!

Charlie boy turned 3 on September 2nd! He has known since March that he wanted a Little Einsteins birthday party & that he wanted to have a party at home! (Even after I pleaded to have it at a park, the beach, the playground...basically anywhere that I didn't have to clean up to get ready for!)

We had several friends over for his party & Charlie had a blast! We did it outside & set up a pool at the base of the playground slide, and had a 3 person slip n slide, water balloons & lots of little einstein favors & decorations!

Charlie is such a delight! He has such the sweetest sounding voice! And, he loves to talk. ALL the time! He's big into questions...he wants to know everything! And, he will keep asking questions until his curiosity has been satisfied...usually around 8 o'clock every night. He has one volume & that's loud! And, he has one speed: Fast! Always moving! He is an excellent storyteller with a vivid imagination! But, if Kirkland is anywhere within earshot, he repeats, verbatim, whatever Kirkland has said. Whenever he hears sirens, he asks us to stop & pray for whoever is in the ambulance. He's 100% rough & tough, but with just the right amount of gentleness to melt your heart!

Me, Charlie & Philip all have birthdays in September, and poor Charlie's b'day fell on a Friday this year. At our house, Fridays in the fall mean 1 thing: FOOTBALL! Which means, Geoff leaves before daylight and comes home after dark. So, he didn't get to see Charlie on his birthday until we got to the game & he was able to wave to his birthday boy from the pressbox. On his way to the locker room for halftime, he stopped by our seats to give Charlie a big birthday hug & kiss!

One of the other coaches wives brought cookies to the game for his birthday, and we had a mini party right there in the stands during halftime!

It was a great weekend celebrating our Charlie!

We have a potty training mindset!

Geoff forgot his shorts for last week's football game, so I was telling Charlie that we needed to run by the school & take daddy some shorts.

Charlie responds with, "Oh no, did daddy have an accident in his pants?"

Love it!

Cinnamon Beach Vacation

We had such a good time at Cinnamon Beach at Ocean Hammock last year, that my parents took us all again this year! We had a great week of relaxing & having fun together as a family. We spent the days lounging at the pool & at the beach & we relaxed at night & went out for ice cream & took walks on the beach. The boys are already asking about next year!

The condo has a zero entry pool & a fun water playground for kids. The boys loved this!

We literally spent HOURS every day on the beach. It was just perfect!

One day, I'm going to get a picture of all 3 boys looking at the camera!

Sweet Philip playing in the condo. Grandpa in the background. You can find my dad on that balcony 90% of the time. He probably reads 10 books per vacation!

For our 8th anniversary, Geoff was going to be out of town at a football camp, so we celebrated the week before on vacation. My parents keep the boys & we went to St. Augustine & went on a 4 hour kayaking trip! It was awesome! It was so relaxing & peaceful. We even found some dolphins & one of them jumped out of the water so close to Geoff he could have reached out & touched him!So thankful that my parents aren't scared to take our crazy crew on vacation every year! We love to all be together!

Sweetest.Boys.EVER!

Life doesn't get much sweeter than this!

So proud!

The last 18 months at the Cannon house have been a little hectic. On top of Geoff's normal crazy coaching football & track schedule, he's also been on the pastor search committee at our church (which has brought such a major spiritual attack on our family that I wouldn't even begin to know how to explain) & has been working on his Education Specialist degree at Valdosta State. Oh, and we had our 3rd baby! Geoff works so hard at work, at church, at school, but most importantly, he works hard for our family. No matter what he has going on, he always makes sure we know we are his #1 priority!

Here is us waiting on Graduation to start! (Caitlin, aka "miracle worker" kept babies Philip & Cassie so we could actually see Geoff graduate!) He has put in countless hours for this degree & I am beyond proud of all he does!

He is now a graduate of Auburn University, Troy State University & Valdosta State University! Way to go!

Why you shouldn't take kids to a funeral by yourself!

Philip's sunday school teacher is wonderful! She has 3 boys & she has loved on all 3 of mine while they have been in the bed babies at church. Her mom passed away last week & I thought we needed to go to the funeral.

We walk in and say Hi to Mrs. Faye when I see Kirkland staring at the casket. (I knew what was coming, but I couldn't stop him from talking). He asks, "Why is there a head sticking out of that oox?" I pretend like I don't hear him so that I don't have to answer in front of Mrs. Faye. So, he asks louder, "Why is that woman sleeping in that box". I have to answer at this point, there is no pretending like I didn't hear him. So, I remind him that this is Mrs. Faye's mom & that she died. Kirkland, ever the theologian, says, "I thought you said she was in heaven. What is she doing in that box?" Excellent question that I then had to answer in front of the entire crowd that had now gathered.

A few minutes later, I am talking to someone for like 2 seconds when I hear Kirkland gasp & say, "CHARLIE, NO!". I turn around in time to see Charlie pulling his hand out of the casket.

Clearly it was time to go!!

5 kids under 5! Whoa.

Geoff's sister & brother in law were both in a wedding & needed us to watch their 2 kids while they were out of town. So, we had a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, a 10 month old & 9 month old for 6 days! It was a zoo! Fortunately, God had compassion & sent Caitlin Hollenbeck to help us! Without her, we wouldn't have made it! Literally! I had time to take about 2 pictures the entire time, and this is the best one!

Kirkland's future wife

Me: Who do you think you are going to marry when you get older?

Kirkland: Sara Jane Veal (Her daddy coaches with Geoff & she really is a great choice)

Me: Um, what if you don't marry her?

Kirkland: Then I won't get married.

Well o.k. then. Good talk.

Charlie on the other hand has a different approach with girls. He'll hug on all the girls he can. Kirkland noticed this one day & said, "Why does Charlie hug every girl? Does he want to marry all of them?" I didn't really know what to say. Charlie just likes the ladies!

Soccer Star!

Kirkland played soccer this year & he loved it! When we got in the car after the first time he scored a goal, he asked me, "Did I kick it in the right goal?" So cute! He plays in a league that doesn't keep score until you are on the 6 year old team, but our little perfectionist always kept score in his brain! It was fun to watch him out there. Hope to watch him compete for years to come!

Baby Philip

So my little-est man is 8.5 months old! Until about 2 weeks ago, I had no idea he could sit up on his own. We were playing outside one day & my cousin took Philip inside. When I came inside later he was sitting up all on his own in the middle of the room. She asked me how long he could sit without falling over. I was like, "He can sit?!?!?" I had no idea. I never put him down. Don't need to! He's such an easy baby that I just carry him with me all the time! He doesn't fuss to get down, so I carry him everywhere I go. Now, that he can sit, he's trying to get all sorts of crazy & is attempting to crawl. Whenever I see him starting to make forward progress, I scoop him up! No need to crawl sweet boy, mama still needs you to be a baby! I'll be happy to take you anywhere you want to go!

Oh, & he got his first tooth! He was giving me kisses all over my cheeks & I realized that I felt something. Sure enough, his first tooth is on the bottom left. My baby is growing up way too fast. But, he looks so cute with it!

And, apparantly, he's old enough to eat Cheerios now. I dropped him off in the church nursery last week, but I forgot something so I had to come back by his room. I noticed he's in the highchair table thing with another little boy & the teacher is pouring cheerios out for both of them. I say to her that he is really not ready for cheerios yet, that he's only capable of eating puffs right now, he might choke, etc. She looks at me & says, "Oh, sorry...he's been having cheerios in here for a couple of weeks. He seems to really like them!" Who knew?!?! I guess I really do want him to stay a baby forever.

This is his first bath with the big boys! I don't know who had more fun: him or his brothers! He splashed & laughed & they just loved it! He tries to eat the bubbles when they get on his hands, much to the delight of Kirkland & Charlie. So great to see them all having fun together! My prayer is that they will always love each other as much or more so than they do now! Sweet, sweet boys!

Playing trains one morning...

I love Charlie's expression in this picture. I just had to share!

The Zoo

My mom & I thought it would be fun to take my 3 boys, and my 11 year old cousin to the Jacksonville zoo one day during spring break. We pull up to the zoo after an hour car ride, and I reach in Philip's diaper bag to get his bottle so I can feed him before we go in, and I realize that there were no bottles or any formula anywhere to be found in the car.


So, I drop off my mom & the 3 older boys, and I go searching for a Walmart or a Target in an unfamiliar town. After missing the exit, and getting turned around, I eventually find a Publix. Well, they didn't carry our formula or our bottles...but at this point, it's about an hour after he should have eaten already, so I just grab some random bottles & formula and am praying that it all works out. I run to the bathroom in Publix to sterilize the new bottles (yeah, when I say 'sterilize', I actually mean I just got to run them under some lukewarm water & pray that we don't catch some random disease that comes from unclean bottles!) Ugh, I cringe at what I had to do. But, wouldn't you know, that sweet baby didn't even notice! He drank that new formula, with the cold water from my cooler, in the random new bottle & didn't even bat an eye! I'm telling you, God is good & gave me a great, laid back baby! Hallelujah!

We eventually got back to the zoo around lunchtime & had a great day! Well, other than the 2nd bottle I gave him had a torn nipple, so I had to go back to the car & get the dirty one that he drank out of at Publix. Yeah, I just rinsed it off in the parking lot with a bottle of water & again prayed we didn't catch something! (yes, please run out & get my "mother of the year" award! I am clearly a candidate!)


Anyways...here are the pictures! (I would have taken more, but keeping up with 4 boys is actually a lot like work! We did have such a great time! We even stayed until it closed!


The dinosaur exhibit was fun. We walked by some that even spit water. I love how Charlie is holding the map..he was our junior navigator of the day. Their favorite part of the day was feeding the giraffes & riding the carousel. I, however, have no pictures of this, but we made some great memories together!

My little man is 5!

Kirkland actually turned 5 over a month ago, but his mama is currently scatterbrained & rarely remembers to blog! :)

He wanted a spiderman party & the whole family got involved in pulling off a great party! My Aunt Wanda & Leighan made the webs on the cupcakes, My mom made all the other food & helped with planning, decorating, clean up & purchasing everything we needed (she really is the best!) Aunt Linda & Uncle Tom came over & put up a 10x20 ft web, a zip line, a tire swing, and an orange barrel rope swing thing...-it was all very fun!Everyone got to make a spiderman mask. Then, they went around the yard shooting webs (a.k.a silly string) at all of the "bad guys". Charlie preferred to drive around to look for bad guys!

Look at that happy smile!

I love how he is sticking his tongue out! Standing with him is one of his best buddies from school named Preston. Sometimes, they spell t.r.o.u.b.l.e!

The zip line was probably the biggest hit! All the kids stood in line & kept doing it over & over & over!

We know Kirkland had a blast because when it was over, he said he wants that exact same party again next year with the exact same people to come! :)

I never could have imagined how much fun I would have being a mom. The last 5 years have been such an amazing blessing!

The CAST!

So, I had this great idea that I was going to get the boys a trampoline for Christmas. I had found a fabulous deal on Black Friday, and so me & like 6 of my friends from church waited up all night long at Walmart to get our great deal! (It should be noted that I had a twinge of buyer's remorse, but my faithful friend Erica pointed out that I would get years of use out of it & that my boys were, in fact, not too young for it, despite what the directions say) All the guys got together on Christmas Eve & put everyone's up & my boys were THRILLED when they woke up Christmas morning & saw their new trampoline.

Fast Forward 1 month later: January 23rd, I'm jumping on it with Kirkland & Charlie. Charlie jumps up, but when he lands, he instantly grabs his left leg & falls face first on the trampoline. I sensed it right then that he broke it. I carried him off, and since it was Sunday night, we decide to wait & see how he feels in the morning. In the morning he is still crying in pain & won't stand on it. So, we take him to the Doctor, and his sweet leg was broken just below the kneecap. They put him in a thigh high leg cast & tell me to not let him put any weight on it whatsoever for 6 weeks. I tried to explain to the doctor that this isn't possible, I have a newborn baby at home, but he just laughed & told me he'd see us again in a week.

He was an amazing trooper about the whole thing. It took him about a week to get used to it, but once he did, he was up & down stairs & even got back on the trampoline & loved for Kirkland to bounce him. He loved to tell people what happened to it & that it would be on for 6 weeks. Watching that sweet boy crawl could rip your heart out. He dragged that leg like there was nothing to it. I can't tell you enough how great his attitude was. It really helped mine.

Sponge baths on the counter every night & trying to go places by myself with all 3 boys were the hardest parts for me. We would pray when we got out of the car that someone would come by who would help us get into places. God sent someone every time! During this 6 weeks: Philip had the flu, Kirkland got strep throat, my grandmother got very sick & then died, Geoff had to go out of town 2 weekends in a row, then started track season which took away his Saturdays (on top of his pastor search committee obligations & his work for his specialist degree), Charlie & I took a 4 day trip to Alabama for a funeral. and Kirkland started soccer & we planned his 5th birthday party. Whew! We laughed to keep ourselves from crying under the weight of it all!We made it! The picture above is us driving to have it taken off. It's been about a week. He is still limping pretty severely. We are praying that his leg naturally corrects itself, or he will have to start physical therapy to learn how to walk again.

Much to be thankful for...

5 days after her 91st birthday, Grandma Ruby, (my dad's mom) has gone home to be with Jesus. She was still living alone until she came down with Pneumonia about 3 weeks ago. After a brief stay in the hospital, she went to live at a Senior Care facility down the road. Once there, her alzheimers accelerated at lightning speed.

But, last week, I took Philip to see her & her face lit up like she was 20 years younger. She held him & showed him off to all of the people there. She played peek a boo & sang him songs. She held him while I pushed her to the dining area & everyone said that was the brightest they had seen her. God was gracious to give me that sweet time with her.

She was put in the hospital on Monday, the day after her birthday. The doctors gave her 48 hours to live, but she showed them & lasted 4 days! When I went in to tell her bye, she opened her eyes & looked at me as I told her all of my favorite memories of her. My mom sang "Oh How I love Jesus" to her, and she raised her hand in praise for the last time on earth. But, she will be praising Jesus for eternity, and for that, I am thankful!

It's been a while

I was going to be a good blogger. Really, I was. I even got this fun Christmas background. I was going to keep everyone updated on all the fun things that the Cannons were doing in December. Then, I took my kids to the doctor for 10 weeks in a row & I honestly forgot I even had a blog!

So, you'll just have to take my word for it. We had a GREAT Christmas. Our house was so fun with all of these boys! And, because it's 2 months after Christmas, I'll just show you these 2 pictures.

Geoff & Philip were in the Church Christmas pageant as Jospeph & Baby Jesus. No, that's not me as Mary. They needed a Mary who could sing, so I got the boot! :) But, Philip did wonderful! Not a peep out of him! He was a great baby Jesus!

And, Kirkland was Joseph in the kid's childrens musical. He sang so loud & we were so proud of him!

I'll get to changing this Christmas background as soon as I have time! :) Maybe when Charlie gets his cast off!

Sorry...

If you don't get a Christmas card from us this year, it's because we can't get a picture of 5 people looking at a camera. Much less, all of us smiling at the same time.

We've had 2 photo sessions. One was even with my cousin who is a professional photographer in NYC. Even he couldn't help the Cannons!

So, this may have to be it, unless I can convince Geoff to try 1 more time! Poor Kirkland was trying to get the sand gnats off his face.

Geoff is my hero...

We moved Kirkland from a crib to a big boy bed on his 2nd birthday. We had to move him out of the nursery because baby Charlie was coming. Keeping him in his big boy bed was a nightmare! He kept getting up & coming down the hall to see us. We walked him back hundreds of times! It was crazy! We went crazy! We tried everything!

So, obviously, I wasn't super excited about doing that again with Charlie. So, we borrowed a friend's crib & decided we'd leave him in a crib for as long as possible. (at least until football season was over & I wasn't a single mom!)

Last Wednesday, I'm feeding the baby downstairs, and Geoff put Kirkland & Charlie to bed. Geoff comes down to tell me that he put Charlie in his big kid bed. I tell him he's crazy, and that he's on "Charlie duty" all night! Would you believe that Charlie didn't get up at all, not even once! He stayed in his big bed all night long! Since then, he's taken a nap in there every day, and he just waits for me to open his door before he gets out of bed! Who is this kid?!?

Geoff's book on parenting techniques will be available in stores coming soon! ;)

Just plain exhausted...

So, there is tired, and then there is "I've had a baby" tired. I walked in my living room this afternoon & saw leaves (like, from trees) I have no idea how I got leaves inside, and I didn't care. I stepped right over them to get to the kitchen. I'm just too tired to bend down & pick them up. I remember once upon a time when I used to vacuum my living room every single day when I came home from work. Those days are LONG gone.

I remember when Kirkland was born, I thought I was tired. But, I made sure to get a shower every morning. I washed, dried & fixed my hair & put on make up every single day. My bed was always made (before I went downstairs for breakfast) & I exercised on a regular basis.

When Charlie was born, I showered sometime before lunch. And, I managed to get on some make up.

Now? I try to get a shower. That's all. And, just sometime before Geoff gets home from football at 8:30 at night. It's a pretty picture isn't it? :) I rarely write anything else on my planner b/c I know I'm not going to get to it!

But, my 3 boys are a lot of fun & I am really enjoying the newborn phase again. My sweet baby loves to be held, and cries whenever I put him down. (Which is probably why I'm not having much luck getting a shower) Kirkland & Charlie LOVE him. Almost too much! The poor thing can't get a second of quiet time without one of them in his space trying to touch him.

I'll post a picture soon. But, right now, all 3 of them are asleep so I'm going to try to get a catnap in before Philip gets up!