Golden Corral

Ok let's see. Mostly usual happenings around here. Last week felt really long. Partly because I've been pretty bad with sticking to our grocery budget (which Scott increases every year and I still go over). I was trying to do better but I was already over pretty early on. I tried to just eat food we have around the house so that makes an already hard job of deciding what to make for dinner that much harder. I wasn't as hard core as I used to be years ago when I would use powdered milk and powdered eggs if we were out of the real stuff. Barf! I did go to the store and buy a gallon of milk, a carton of eggs, and some cheese to get me through the rest of the week and that definitely made a huge difference. Good news is it's February tomorrow. Can't wait. January is not my favorite, there I said it.

On Wednesday I decided that Scott and I should take the little two with us out to lunch. I figured taking two kids on a date was about as convenient/annoying as having to wait and arrange for a babysitter for all 4 kids. We grabbed a gift card and went to the Olive Garden. It was fun. The little two kids thought it was a pretty big deal too.

On Friday my parents and my sister Trisha came to town for Jory's brother's open house (they didn't have a formal funeral). I went to that and just ended up staying there for a few hours and talking to my family. It was kind of weird not having a funeral because funeral's help me to mourn and really cement it in my head that the person is not alive anymore.

On Saturday morning my parents took all of us to breakfast at the Golden Corral. Corbin especially loved it and said he wanted to go again as we were leaving the parking lot. We went out in celebration of Alex and Lance's birthdays last week.

After breakfast my parents and Trisha came over to my house. I asked my dad if he could help Scott put in a new bathroom sink because our old one was gross. The weather was good so my mom was willing to hang out for a bit while my dad did that. Meanwhile I had my sister and my mom help me figure out decorating one of my walls. After we got our new TV part of the old picture arrangement was hidden by the giant screen. So we went to Hobby Lobby and figured something out. So glad they stopped by, new sink and new wall. Hooray!

Piper quote: "I'm going with mommy, just me and not the beast." (Ryan). Ha.

Cool dude.

Piper making a home or a castle or bed or something for her animals.

These two kill me!

Old yucky sink I couldn't get clean.

Ahhh...new sink!

New wall arrangement.

Scott skiing in Vale and Other Happenings

Scott left for Colorado on Sunday and he came back on Wednesday. I survived with the kids pretty well especially since over those four days the kids only went to school on one of them. Scott had a great time. He visited Jarom and Melissa and their two boys. Jarom and Scott were able to go to Jarom's dad's time share and just have some time to catch up and watch movies and go skiing and whatever else they managed to do. They went skiing in swanky Vale. His flight was delayed on Wednesday so he got in around 7:30 pm instead of 3:00 pm. He did have a longer layover in Salt Lake so he was able to meet up with some of his family for a late lunch at the Little America.

On Monday the kids were out of school for Martin Luther King day. We just hung around home. We busted out the Sorry game Carole got us for Christmas and the kids played that for about 3 hours straight. In the late afternoon it was pretty warm (46 degrees) and sunny so we went out in to our back parking lot to play. The kids rode their bikes and had a pavement picnic. It was pretty great. It's nice to have quick access to that, especially when everything outside is mud and yuck.

On Tuesday the big kids went to school and I volunteered in the school that day. I found out that day that my sister in law's only sibling had died tragically the day before. That was just a really heavy and sad day. 

On Wednesday Corbin was too sick to go to school and Gabby was sick too but she could have gone to school. Oh well. I kept them both home. Corbin spent the whole day on the couch. He had a bad head cold and by the night he had a slight fever as well. I had to have someone come over to watch my kids while I picked up Scott. I discovered after loading all the kids in the van that the car wouldn't start. We think it's a battery problem, Scott ordered a battery charger or something online. We'll see if it helps. The kids and I were happy to have Scott back home. He even brought them little treats from the airport which made it extra special. 

On Friday we bought some candy and rented Hotel Translvania 2 for our movie night. We loved watching that. I think the kids watched it 3 times before we had to return it. 

Scott did end up getting paid for his two last jobs with Auric which is great. That definitely gives us even more wiggle room while Scott figures out what he wants to do. His bosses at his part time job are loading him up with lots of work right now because they know he's not working for Auric anymore. That is keeping him busy and making some money, both are good things!

Kid quotes:

I really wanted Ryan to be able to sing Jingle Bells at Christmas so every night before bed in the month of December I would sing him Jingle Bells along with I am a Child of God. Well Christmas is long gone but if I sing I am a Child of God Ryan says, "jingle bells" and I have to sing that too. Ha. I should have known that would happen. 

He's a little chatter box and he's super loud. Everything he says he has to yell out. He repeats whatever his siblings say and he is ever ready to join in on whatever is going on. His latest favorite thing is, "watch, Ipad." Yes, we are junkies.

Piper: 

I can't remember what movie Piper was talking about but as she was telling me about it she said, "This is the scariest part...of my life!"

Gabby: 

While we were in the parking lot biking Gabby went to the other side and couldn't find us. When she came back she said, "when I couldn't find you, and I was looking all around, then I actually prayed and (hands up in the air) phew, I found you." That was cute.

Corbin gets to worry about scouts, Faith in God, and piano, all of which he is not excited about. I'm not excited about it either because that's three more things that I have to worry about doing. He's pretty sweet though and he will do it even if he doesn't want to. He doesn't tell me anything about school and he never has. I finally told him one day that he didn't have to tell me anything, but I wanted him to know if there was anything he ever wanted to talk to me about that he could, and that I always love him no matter what. He told me he knew that, so that's good at least. That kid is a bit of a mystery. I've been volunteering at the school since he was in Kindergarten and whenever I've caught him at recess or in the classroom he seems great so that's good at least. I will say that he did tell me he was super excited to get baptized and then he told me it was because I was going to make cherry limeade. Ha.

  

Skiing in Vale. They said it was an amazing day for skiing. Snow and weather and company was perfect.

Dorks!

My sister in law Jory with her dad and brother.

The whole family loves to ski, left to right Hart, Jory, Brynn, Braden, Jim, and Peter. Peter will be missed.

The girls worked on coloring their princess palace pets the entire time Scott was gone. I would have to help them find a picture and print it out. I think that's half the fun for them. It is annoying for me though, it takes them forever to pick a picture and adjust the size, print and repeat 10,000 times. Ha. This is Piper's collection.

This is Gabby's collection

The girls have spent the last two days cutting out tiny pictures of shopkins and taping or gluing them onto another piece of paper. I don't even know where they get their ideas. Piper's work above. She is so precise in her work.

Gabby's work above on the folding heart card she made. Gabby is pretty sloppy but she works fast. She can bust out any craft in a matter of minutes. 

Gabby's picture of a fairy.

Piper's picture on the top, Gabby's picture on the bottom. Can I just tell you that I love that these two girls are 18 months apart and get along so well (most of the time). Ha.

Piper at dance.

Kids playing Sorry.

Playing in the back parking lot.

Ha! This kills me. Corbin hurt Piper tonight while they were rough housing so Gabby helped her feel better. So cute! She really is compassionate. I mean that girl is set!

Gabby and Ryan riding on a motorized car together.

My friend's chair before.

After. I finally finished one chair. It took WAY longer than I thought it would. 2 coats of primer, 9 coats of red paint YES 9, and 3 coats of top coat. Sheesh! For chair number 2 I tinted the primer with some red paint and I can already tell that is definitely going to cut down the number of coats of red paint. I had to do 9 because for one painting red over white primer takes forever, two painting red paint evenly and so it looks good takes forever, and three because my friend changed her mind on the paint color after 7 coats of that color so I had to do 2 new coats with the new paint color. Ha. Chairs 2, 3, and 4 should hopefully be a breeze compared to that!

Piper's talk. She did great and we practiced a million times. Do you like how much I like to exaggerate?

Cabin Fever

I dealt with a cold all week last week. I was sitting in church at the beginning of Sacrament meeting and my body hurt all over and I just wanted to go to bed. I would have left but I had to teach my primary class. As soon as church was out I went home and took some ib profin and took a 2 hour nap. That is such a long nap for me. I don't normally get body aches with my colds so that was kind of weird. I took it pretty easy on Monday too. I'm almost all the way better now. On Tuesday morning I decided it would be a good time to take advantage of Scott's unemployment and go to the temple when it wasn't super early or a Saturday. It was really crowded which kind of surprised me for a Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday I took Ryan and Piper to music and movement at the library. That night I took Corbin to his second piano lesson. He's being a pretty good sport about it so far. He does have rhythm which is good. I'm not sure if I would be able to force him to take several years of piano lessons if he had no rhythm.

On Thursday I took Piper and Ryan to the indoor park and in the afternoon the girls had dance. That night a few friends came over because one of them hadn't seen You've Got Mail. Who hasn't seen that movie? Seriously.

On Friday I made the kids some muddy buddies and they also had their movie, popcorn, and sleepover on the hide away bed.

On Saturday we fed the missionaries and later my friend came over to watch the kids and Scott and I went on a super small mini date to Goodwill and Dairy Queen. I found a cool box to hold my piano music and a wok. I've been on the fence about buying a wok for at least 5 years. I found one that looked like it hadn't been used once for $5. Sweet. I already used it this morning and it's awesome. Scott bought a book called Punished by Rewards. It talks about the problem with gold stars, incentive plans, ect. It seems pretty interesting. I will probably be the one that ends up reading it.

This morning we dropped of Scott at the airport because he's going to Colorado for a few days to see his friend Jarom. They are going to ski,watch movies, and play video games no doubt. I'm excited that Scott is finally taking a trip to see his friend and that he is going to go skiing. Every member of my family that talked to me said, "Scott skis?" Ha. Actually I hear he's an amazing skier but I've never seen him ski. He used to have season passes back in his single days when he lived right next to famous ski resorts.

I invited Alex and Anna's family over for dinner tonight. We had my experimental vegetable beef soup (that was pretty good) although the kids all filled up on cookies. Then we played Disney Scene it and Pictionary. It was fun.

My kids have been crazy the last couple of days. So were all the kids in primary too. I think everyone has a serious case of Cabin Fever. My only beef about Scott's trip is that he planned it on a 3 day weekend (not intentionally). Tomorrow the kids are out of school and they may make me bonkers. Bring on Spring!

The kids gathered around for Scott's FHE on finances. Corbin probably knows how to budget better than most adults. It surprised us both how much he knew about this stuff. I guess we talk about it a lot. 

This picture is too cute. They are watching something on Gabby's phone.

Yes my kids are electronic junkies. But seriously they're cute right?

I think Ryan weighs more than Piper. So good luck with that Pipes. 

I'm out of projects around the house  that I can afford and do by myself so I asked my non project friend if I could paint her kitchen chairs for her. They were planning on painting them one day. I'm taking my time though. I just want a little side project that I can work on here and there. Something to help me deal with winter. She said she was okay with that. I am almost done with the first chair. It used to have dark stain on it with lots of wear and tear. 

My wok. A wok is a deep pan used for making dishes like stir fry. In case you're like, wok?

Gabby and Ryan are so cute together.

Update

Well we made it through the first post Christmas break week. We got up early Monday morning to take Scott to the airport for his mandatory work meeting, more on that later. Anna came over and we chatted while I made frosting for Gabby's STEM project i.e. gingerbread houses. A couple of friends came over and watched a movie with me that night, one of my friends hadn't seen While You Were Sleeping, GASP. Anyway on Tuesday evening we picked up Scott from the airport. Corbin went to his first cub scouts meeting on Tuesday and he hated it and doesn't want to do it. That should be fun. I'm hoping he will like it better as time goes on. This week I know that for scouts they are learning about the organ from Sister Schilds. Barf. So I'm guessing he's not going to like it for awhile...

On Wednesday Corbin started piano lessons, (rough week for him). First it was scouts and then piano lessons. I decided that I didn't want his piano lessons to be total drudgery for him so I told him that every time we went to piano we would stop by Sonic on the way home and he could get a small limeade. My sister in law Jory is teaching him and he is taking them at the same time slot as his cousin Brigitte. She had them learning and practicing together so I think Corbin actually kind of enjoyed it although I doubt he would admit it.

On Thursday night I went to my book club. It was fun, I missed last month so I hadn't seen them for a couple of months. I really like that group of girls. After that I went to my friends house for a girls night. I had hours of girl time that night.

The indoor park opened this week and I took Piper and Ryan on Friday. That place it great! That night Hart and Jory came over and watched the movie The Visit with us. Everyone had seen it except for Scott. We really like that movie. Scott liked it better than he thought he would. It's a good one, (it's scary).

Scott has been unhappy with his job for quite a while. By Christmas break he was pretty decided that he was going to quit. He was waiting for one last pay check before he left. At the mandatory meeting in Salt Lake it just continued to confirm to Scott that this was not the company for him. He was pretty obvious with his discontent and so on Thursday he was fired. They broke up with him before he could break up with them. They told him they would still give him his two last payments. We will see if they actually do. So Scott is on the job hunt again...TO BE CONTINUED.

Kid Quotes:
Ryan came running up to me, I knelt down and said, "can I have a hug," "UH UH, don't like it!" he said as he immediately ran away.

Piper:
Me: "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings and if I hurt your hand." Piper, "you hurted my feelings and you broke my heart."

Piper speaking to me, "that's what I was trying to tell you in the car when you weren't listening to me." Me: "I'm sorry." P: "That was frustrating to me, but I still really love you."

Gabby, "Piper didn't respect my privacy in the bathroom." said the 5 year old going on 35.

I made Corbin a late birthday cake.

Building blocks

Cute bubba trying to fall of the bed.

Gabby's STEM project. They had to build a model and the house had to meet certain criteria. They also had to work in partners. It was a pretty big deal.

Gabby was the student of the month last month. Way to go Gabby! Compassion is a good thing.

Making a no Piper sign is not very compassionate Gabby. Ha. I love she drew the Piper face with a frowny face. 

Cute Pipes at the indoor park.

Cute Bubba at the indoor park.

Christmas Break

Wow Christmas Vacation is coming to an end. I can't believe it. In the first week of Christmas vacation we mostly lounged at home until we went to Utah. I made soup for Christmas Eve dinner and a banner for my friend's birthday party. I decided we would do a mini Christmas morning here where the kids would open one present and open up their stockings. I figured that would be less things to pack and worry about. So Tuesday morning the kids had a mini Christmas morning. We also had bacon and homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It was fun. On Wednesday we got packed and headed down to Salt Lake. The road to Utah was closed according to the road report website but we decided to take our chances as it was a sunny day. As I suspected by the time we made it to the junction the roads were open. Hooray, no driving through Pocatello! We made it in time for dinner at Hires. Second hooray. That night we just visited and played a game.

The next day was Christmas Eve. In the afternoon Scott and I joined Nana and the kids to the movie, "The Good Dinosaur." It wasn't my favorite per say but the animation scenery was amazing! That evening we had soup and salad and rolls for dinner. Carole's salad was so delicious, I had fourths! I wish I could eat some right now and I'm not just saying that because I'm fasting right now, ha. After people decorated gingerbread men. Then we sang Christmas karaoke songs. Corbin and Gabby especially liked that, they wished they knew more Christmas songs to sing. After that everyone acted out a Nativity play. Followed by a few rounds of Ninja. Then we put kids to bed and watched The Musical Scrooge. I fall asleep for part of the movie every year. This year I think I caught too many late night z's and then I could hardly sleep that night. I had my worst night sleep Christmas Eve and felt kind of crummy on Christmas day. Not bad, but not great.

Christmas morning the kids opened their presents and then we headed next door to a delicious Christmas breakfast hosted by Colie and Rustin. After breakfast we headed back over and the adults continued to open presents for a few hours. Corbin and Gabby went sledding at Colie and Rustin's in the afternoon. Piper literally played with her Christmas presents by herself the entire day. It was kind of crazy. Everyone gathered again for a delicious Christmas dinner. After dinner I went and danced with my kids on the x-box next door and everyone else tested a new game. Then we played another game and played feats of strength. We competed to see who could do a wall sit the longest, a plank, balance on one foot, leg lift. Plus arm wrestling and push ups. It was painful. Ha.

The next day Ryan barfed twice at breakfast and I was having visions of St. George vacation all over again. I was ready to pack up and go home if that was the case. Ugh. Luckily he didn't throw up again after that. Random. That afternoon several of us went to the new star wars movie. I am not a Star Wars fan but I enjoyed the movie well enough. That night I stayed home with Ryan and everyone else went bowling for Corbin's birthday.

On Sunday there was a family missionary homecoming that we went to in Pleasant Grove. The food after was so good. That night everyone gathered again for Sunday dinner and Corbin birthday presents.

On Monday we got packed up and headed home but not before stopping for lunch at Hires, where it all began. It was a good time with the Cannons as always. My kids LOVED every minute.

We mostly just vegged at home the last week of Christmas vacation. Some days we didn't even get dressed. It was great! I went to the movie Joy on Tuesday night with a friend and I loved that movie. On New Years Eve I got my house decorated and set up our annual New Years Eve party. We had lot of eats and played different games all night. It was a lot of fun. On Friday I went to my good friend's 40th birthday party. There was so much yummy food to be had there too. Oh man I'm afraid of the damage I may have done this Christmas break. Ha. We also took the kids out to Pojos on New Years day and grabbed a pizza on the way home.

Now it's time to stop stuffing my face every minute and stop sleeping in and back to reality. It sure has been great while it lasted though. I should have taken a picture of my kids with their presents. Oh well, Gabby said "I can't believe I got everything that I wanted."

Boise "Christmas morning"

Cuddles

Gingerbread decorating.

Santa Clark came by

All the Cannon grand kids.

Christmas Karaoke rock out. 

Gabby and Attie

Piper, Angel

Gabby, Mary

NINJA

Clark was super sad I stole back my own present at the gift exchange. Ha.

Christmas breakfast. 

Rustin dancing with the kids.

New Years Eve. Gabby made the decoations hanging from the fire place. She's a crafty one.

Jen on her 40th. I made the banner it says "Over the hill never looked so good"

Ryan pushed this cart through the whole store.

Scott built the kids each their own shelf by their bed so they can put their own stuff on it. Brilliant!