The Beal/Cannon Family: We Survived!

It's been a crazy week but it's over and we all survived. Amazing! Scott headed down to Vegas last Saturday and made it back yesterday. It was definitely a long week and I missed Scott a lot but I could definitely feel answers to prayers in my behalf this week. Things with the kids went really well. I mean I counted down my time to bedtime that's for sure, (but I pretty much do that all the time anyway). If anything I was more patient with my kids and we had an busy but enjoyable week. I sure enjoyed my nightly phone calls and texts from Scott throughout the day. Scott had a two day test prep with 3 days of testing. His test sounded pretty crazy hard and intense but he feels good about it and we will know in a month if he passed.

On Monday the Boise Beals got together and went bowling at the BSU bowling alley. I didn't want to go down there by myself with my four kids and try to find a parking spot downtown and walk in the freezing dark cold with them to the bowling alley. Luckily my sister in law Anna was willing to help me out and she came and picked us up. We crowded in her van and drove down. I'm so glad we did because I didn't know where it was and there wasn't a lot of parking either. Plus she brought a double stroller for Ryan and Piper. Yay! We ate pizza and tried to bowl. It was a little crazy and ridiculous. We have a lot of small children between all of us and we needed more lanes. Almost all of the little kids were on one lane and they had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for their turn, which for a 2 to 7 year old is FOREVER! The three families with little kids only lasted half a game and we headed home.

Tuesday night was Corbin's school Christmas concert. I dropped off my girls at a friend's house and took Ryan with me to watch Corbin's concert. It was at the high school auditorium and driving there was crazy. It took forever even though it's only a few miles away because everyone and their dog was driving to take their kid to the concert. The auditorium was filled to the brim. All the seats were full and people were lining the walls up and down the aisles. It was a madhouse. I was SO grateful I didn't have my 3 and 2 year old children there as well. I found a seat on the aisle and enjoyed half the show. After Corbin was done I grabbed him and we left. It was too crowded and I didn't want to worry about getting out of the parking lot with a hundred other parents with a hungry baby. Corbin was so cute in his concert! I was sad Scott missed it. Kindergartners are the cutest! The best part was I could tell Corbin had to go to the bathroom the whole time. Poor kid was dancing a little and occasionally crossing his legs. Oops, should have had him use the potty first. The best was when they sang their second song that was a soul Christmas song and they were dancing back and forth. Love! It was the best.

On Wednesday was the ward party. I made cupcakes and baked a bag of potatoes for the ward party. We got to the party and I sat the kids down and we ate and stayed for most of the program and left. They were pretty good but it's hard to wrangle all of them. Really the ward Christmas party is not entirely entertaining for the kids. They have to sit and be quiet at dinner and sit and be quiet during the program. By the time we left Ryan was hungry and it was time for us to bail.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were pretty low key. Scott drove all the way back from Vegas in one day yesterday. He made it home just in time to be my date to the ugly sweater party. Love him! We went to our party and had a great time. We ate lots of food and played some games. It was fun. For the white elephant exchange I gave a box that said "Cookin' with Cannons" with all of my melted cooking utensils. So funny and sad that I actually use all of them and had to steal my own gift back. I also had some wonderful recipes to share like green jello with mayo, onions, and seafood salad. Along with spam and limas because "cold or hot, spam hits the spot." It was pretty funny if I do say so myself.

I uploaded pictures to last weeks blog post so be sure check them out if you're interested.

Ryan intentionally smiled at me this week! He also slept last night from 10:30 to 5:30 straight. That is his best sleeping stretch yet. He is so cute!

Corbin's concert. I couldn't get a good picture and the video didn't work out either. Darn. Just trust me, it was cute!

I found another Christmas tree! I'm so excited about it. My kids don't like my Christmas tree because it has white lights and they don't like white lights. Boring! I found this tree with colored Christmas lights for $15. Score! I am super excited to have another Christmas tree to put all of our handmade ornaments on it.