Happy Birthday Canny Lou.......

Happy Birthday Canyon!!
Today is Canyon's 5th birthday..... so here are the 5 random things you may or may not know about him.....
1. He has tons of nicknames, and will answer to all of them.... to list a few.... Canny Lou, Canny Manners, Calouey, Lou, Louey, Lou Lou, Mr Fornortner, Fornort, Mr Fornort, Fortnorty, Lukey Duke, Babysita.........
2. He has a really funny personality, growing up with teenagers will do this to you, but he keeps us all laughing.
3. He has a small obsession for Toy Story.... He knows at least 1/2 of the lines in all 3 movies, and he relates things he sees etc to the movie always. He has a little red cowboy hat he likes to wear around, and he labels the foot of all his toys with his name, like Andy in the movie.
4. He love loves to swim, he likes to go swimming all the time, he is getting pretty good too.
5. His favorite foods are, Cheeseburgers(in paradise as he calls them), doughnuts, cottage cheese, and Popsicles..
It is hard to list only 5 things when you have such a sweet, fun, cute little guy! They always say "Good things come to those who wait" This is our little Canners.....We love having him as part of our family... and like I tell him every day, I'm so glad you came to our family.... I love your little face, and of all the people in the world Heavenly Father game ME you.... I must be the luckiest mom in the world!!!
So Canyon has known for months what he wanted to do for his birthday, and we all have been invited and uninvited a thousand times. (He absolutely loves birthdays and giving gifts.... but the excitement for his own has been just overwhelming I think).....
So here is a rundown of how we have spent his birthday....
Yesterday we had a little friend party, we took his best buddies to the Pool....
Above is all of them getting ready to jump in together. (from left to right) Zarley, Lila, Dilyn, Brevin, Canyon and Owen.
Here are the 3 musketeers! They're missing their side kick little X-man though...
Even a car ride is good times right!
check out their faces!
Here is today.... He woke up very early and came to wake us up telling us he knew their would be decorations and presents waiting for him down stairs... Tom always decorates for birthdays and I'm glad they look forward to it...
Here he is with R.C... He loves it....He wanted only Toy story stuff. After opening presents we head out for the first thing on his agenda for his Birth Day...
the doughnut shop, you know the one with hats.... (Krispy Kreme) and no other place would do... He loves watching the doughnuts being made.
Hats were a must for everyone...
I mean everyone too.....


We were all pretty excited about the doughnut shop!!
2nd item on the agenda was Cowabunga Bay... we tried and tried to talk him into something else, but he has had his mind set on this like I said for months....
He waited for almost 5 minutes with his face just like this waiting for the big bucket of water to drop.
He loves all the slides, even the "dark" one this year, he is a brave little guy.
It finally dumps!


Canyon and Liv a love.... We had a lot of fun....
Isn't that the cutest little face!!
After Cowabunga we had some cheeseburgers of course, and set up the Movie Toy Story outside.... So he is right now outside with Tom and the neighbor kids watching it like they are at the drive in, and sleeping out in the tent... the last of his list/agenda. I hope he had a great birthday, and that we completed his list of fun things to do. We love you Canyon Happy 5th!

Humble Pie

Have you ever had a big slice of humble pie?
You didn't ask for it, or order it, yet when served to you, you have no choice but to devour it??? The past few weeks I have been working at a retirement center. I used to work there a long time ago, I felt very free once I quit and so going back was the first bite of humble pie for me. Sometimes things in life all though hard happen for a reason and it is to keep us grounded I believe...So it is with the change in Tom's employment. I have found myself doing things to bring in a little extra money. The Sarah Daft Home was nice enough to let me fill in for vacationers. Boy was it a large bitter and sweet serving of humble pie!
My first week I was filling in for house keeping. I have never done this sort of job and the snob that I am quite honestly felt this was not my kind of job. The first day I kept envisioning other people I know even trying this job and my attitude was not so good. I kept thinking of a documentary film, or one of those reality TV shows showing people being forced to clean toilets for the older generation. It would be a great show I tell you.... Like I said BAD attitude.....
The end of the first day I had some good and bad news to report to my sister Autumn (I was trying to find the humor in the situation)....
Bad News.... I had to clean a residents room who still in his old age stands to use the bathroom and his aim is quite a bit worse then a newly potty trained youngster
Good News.... I found an old tried with no success to use suppository behind the toilet. Any takers??
Bad News.... I had not been finished cleaning the urine coated walls for more then 1 minute when he returned to use the sparkling throne....
Good News.... He was comfortable enough with our new found friendship to not feel the need to shut his door.

Bad News.... I am easily saddened by these lonely old people, and their aimless wandering.
Good News..... I am easily saddened by these lonely old people and their aimless wandering.

I started to look around and see what they found important enough in their life to take with them to a one room existence. Mostly photo's and awards. Nothing really of material value... my heart was softening to my own life by the second. One lady had a picture (not a spectacular one just a snapshot not edited in anyway) of her and her husband dancing at what I guessed to be their granddaughters wedding. They were older (not as old as she is now) but the twinkle in their eyes as they danced with each other caught my eye, I'm sure if you were to find a picture of them dancing at their own wedding and went close up to their eyes, they would look the exact same. So is life in a flash they went from their wedding to their granddaughters to her alone in this old home waiting out her last season!
You can tell who was more wealthy and who came from nothing even though they now are in the same boat in life... funny how that works out.
I also started watching the people and wondering which one would I be... There are two old ladies who sit by each other right outside the dining room waiting from one meal to the next they don't really talk to each other much they are just waiting life out. There was another old lady, that I liked to watch I picked her as me... she was a wanderer... she would walk into her room look around sit, stand back up walk out and down the hall, sit and walk back, she did not really know what to do with herself. I think this will be me, sometimes if I don't have anything to do, I don't know what to do with myself, or if I have too much to do I don't know what to do with myself. I later found out that this woman was 99 years old and will be 100 years old in January... I was amazed, I don't know that I will make it that far! She stills seems pretty with it, and later when I helped her to see the podiatrist she was the only one to take off and put on her own shoes.... I think this kind of attitude is what has gotten her so far.. I am so intrigued by her, I want to know her whole life story. A long with a few others.
A few other tastes of my turning sweeter with each bite of humble pie....
As a house keeper, people look at you differently which too me is sad. I started out thinking I am too good for this job and ended up thinking how grateful I am for my own life. The people I was covering for do this job every day of the whole year, I watched one lady when done with her shift walk to the bus stop to catch her ride home. I am so completely lucky/blessed in my life and can't believe I have wasted even a minute crying poor me!
The doctors who came into the home look at you one way when you're the house keeper and treat you completely different when you are working as the office staff. This was also sad to me. After a few days of housekeeping, they asked me to fill in, in the office instead. (A way way easier job). I felt sad for the other house keeper standing next to me (even though she would not share her toilet brush with me and told me just to use a sponge with my hand in the stinkin toilet) The look on her face was sort of like why does she get to move to office staff when I have been here for years, let her clean the toilets for me and I will work in the office. The office job was easier and a lot more fun, yet still life learning lessons and sweet bites of humble pie were still being offered to me.
I got to help with an auction one day, just donated items for the old people some old some new, lots of it looking like just junk to me. They were so excited over the stuff, they had so much fun too, they each had 30 beans to bargain with and some of them were great barterers.... while others were silent watchers.
All in all I am very appreciative of my serving of humble pie, I am glad for the lessons learned, to appreciate what I have, to love my family and friends now, life goes way to fast and one day we will be little old people wondering where our life went to, and the struggles and hard times will just be steps along the way.
I know that we are being watched out for daily and that we are led down paths that alone we may not take but in the long run are exactly what we need. Sometimes these paths still may be uphill, but worth the climb. (a side note to this, I am a blog stalker and daily look at a few blogs, one day I was looking at one of my regulars people that I don't know mind you, and I clicked on a new one. It was all about this farm girl who lived in her dream house on a farm and now she had to sell it because her husband had lost his job, her attitude was so great she was thankful for the new adventure she was about to take... why can some people just be so positive and me such a whiny baby??? I do have to say in my defense their are some extenuating circumstances besides just the giant cut in our income that make the job change harder then normal and more then meets the eye! But none the less I will learn what I can from it. Thank Heavens for people out their posting about such things and for a loving God who leads you to read such trivial things!

Happy Birthday Tommy T....

Today is Tom's Birthday ..... I won't say how old he is, but in tradition with my 2010 birthdays I will list 39 random things you may or may not know about Toe mass 1. He likes to take pictures of himself when he is on trips for work.... It cracks me up and I make fun of him but.... funny story about this, I had to get a new Visa card and you know they do the ones with the pictures you give them, well he sent in a picture of him much like the one above however he did not have his shirt on.... I had made fun of him for posting it on fb so he thought he would be so funny to get me a visa card with that as the front of the card so I would be embarrassed when I used it. The funny thing is when he got one for me, it came with one for him too, and his other card wouldn't work, he could not get a new card for so many months too, so he had to use the card with the picture of him with out shirt on the beach looking oh so cool... like above.
2.He is the most patient person I know...
3. He is way funny, he has a really funny sense of humor.
4. When he laughs really hard his eyes go Chinese and you can't help but laugh with him even if you do not know what he is laughing about.
5. He is the best most creative gift giver. I cried our first Christmas because I thought I had a lot for him and he had so much more for me and was so creative with what he bought etc.
6.He went on a mission to Japan
7. He loves to read and loves to read church books and mystery/killer books, quite a difference I know.
8.He loves video games
9. He love star wars (both of which I do not care for)
10. He loves scary movies (another not me)
11. He is not a big meat eater (Never eats steak except when my brother Josh cooks it)
12.There are very few people that Tom does not get a long with, I can only think of 2 or 3 people he has not "liked" in all the years I have known him.
13. He has chosen stress to be his diet of choice.
14.He had a 6 pack when we got married... ok maybe just 4 he always tells me its still there just under all the other stuff...
15. He loves the Thomson Twins
16. He also loves gay music like Enrique...
17. He love loves to travel especially to Florida or somewhere with the Ocean preferably the Atlantic..
18.He is a better cook and cleaner and cake decorator and party decorator etc etc person then me.
19. He is a very good artist. He really should have gone into some thing to do with Art for Work.
20.He can do the "Terminator run" like no ones business!
21. He is great with kids, that has always been one of my favorite things about him. He doesn't mind when we have a house full or when we take a bunch of extra's with us.
22. He used to have long super blond bangs that he would do this super cool head nod thing to get them out of his eyes.
23. He pulls this funny face whenever he looks at himself in the mirror, it looks similar to the picture above.
24. He loves to go to the gas station to get a drink.
25. He plays the piano
26.He doesn't like to dance
27. He loves to sleep in and could sleep til noon easily if he were left alone to do so.
28. He is really good with the computer and makes videos with pictures and music you know the kind and does a great job at it.
29. One of his first videos contained a secret message for my parents pretty funny story... I better leave out.
30. He is really easy going, and will just go with the flow, once in awhile, he gets his mind set on something though (men in black inside joke Amber..) and there is no changing it. It only happens once or twice a year on random things but we know we will just have to go with it.
31. He is a great dad and our kids are really lucky to have him!
32. He is even a better husband and I am lucky to have him
33. He is my best Friend and has been for 17 years. We do almost everything together and are a team in almost everything we do. I love it.
34. He bites is nails, especially in intense movies
35. He can teach you how to drink from the sprinkler and to climb on roofs of churches just in case you need to know that kind of stuff.
36. He can eat pudding out of cup when someone needs it in a jiffy for a toilet because Cujo is right outside the tent door. (really a golden retriever).
37. He hates to do projects but when he does he does a great job and will teach himself how to do things that he doesn't know how to do... like plumbing etc....
38. He loves cinnamon bears, hot tamales, coffee flavored ice cream and diet Pepsi or Mtn. Dew.
39. He is the best road trip partner, the best parenting partner, the best Friend and husband (I already said that)... I love him with all my heart!!!

Happy Birthday Tommy T!!!

Happy Birthday Hayder doo.....

Today is little Haydee babes 14th birthday! Like I always say time goes by way too fast! I wish you could have each year of childhood doubled... so today would be Hayden's 6/7th birthday...but I guess its a lesson to us not to rush each day away and to savor the little tiny bit of time we get to have these beautiful little people in our homes! In 5 birthdays I will be getting ready to send him on a mission.... only 5 birthdays ago I was getting ready to have Canyon and that seems like a couple weeks ago....anyway the tears are a streaming now... so lets just move on to 14 random things you may or may not know about Hayden... 1. He likes his hair long.... he actually spends lots of time on it (even though it does not look that way) he had really curly hair as a baby... I cried when we cut it off knowing it would not stay through his childhood, I figured it would come back with puberty, but I did not know that would come as quick as it did... anyway it came back with a vengeance and he hates it... (I love it curly) He has to use the straightener every day!
2. He was the happiest smiliest baby of all of my babies.... I know your shocked because it takes a lot to make him smile now, but its the truth... we called him smiling charlie!
3. He is Peter Pan and a cynical old man all mixed into one person... he does not want to grow up and never has... when he was little we went to see "My Dog Skip" we left the theater and he was sobbing and sobbing.... I tried to talk to him about how dogs die etc... but he was actually sad because the little boy grew up! Don't ask him what he is going to be when he grows up or who is going to marry etc because he refuses to talk about anything that has to do with him not being a kid!! Oh how I too wish we could freeze you little Hader babes...

4. He is a man/boy of very little words.... mostly all you hear him say is "ok" actually more like mmmk... even as a little guy his first words were full sentences he only says what he needs to and nothing in between.

5. He has a great sense of humor and can tease his dad like nobody else!! We laugh so hard so many times at Tom's expense because Hayden can imitate him perfectly.

6. Babies and really small children love him.... He doesn't try to make them like him like I said he is a man of little words.... but they seem to just like him...

7. He prefers to be alone for the most part and has always been that way.... when he was really little if people came over, even family he would go in his room by himself and stay away from any kind of crowd coming out when everyone was gone.

8. If he does let you into his world he loves you with all his heart....you may not see that but he really does... he has a few people that he seems to have a bond with or that I can tell he really likes.... Autumn, Josh, Brian and Robyn and Grandpa Tom and his Friend Jesse don't anyone else feel left out, I'm not on the list either don't get me wrong I know he loves his family......

9. He is a pretty intolerant person he does not tolerate a lot from people and is fine to be alone if you bother him in anyway... He likes Dogs more then people I think.

10. He is smarter then smart.... as a 3 year old he could hook up computer systems, game systems etc.... he likes Math and is good at it.....

11. He is very afraid of death, words like eternity, together for ever etc FREAK him out yet black is his favorite color!

12. He loves amusement parks, rides etc etc.... we went to Disneyland just the 2 of us 2 years ago and had the best time ever! Even though the first time we went to Disneyland all he said about each ride was "not today huh mommy" we forced him to ride and now he LOVES it all!

13. He loves "Top Ramen Noodles" he eats them everyday.... he also (unlike the rest of his family) loves meat, he loves doughnuts and used to dream of owning his own Krispy Kremes!!

14. He is the best surprise I ever got!! I love him more then he will ever know, he is my first son, he gives me someone to watch play baseball, to listen to the piano being played by, to help me when I am computerly challenged, to teach me great life lessons, to always have around, to help with his younger brother and to make me laugh. I love you Hayden Happy Birthday

The Everyone Wins theory.....

Let me first start by congratulating Madz on making the Herriman High drill team! Way to go!! Maybe my post would be different if she had not (I am not excusing myself from any of this)

With all these tryouts going on I have had a constant question the past few days..... "WHAT Have we done to our children"??? I have had quite a few of my students, this year including my own daughter trying out for drill team or cheer or dance co. etc, and have watched the stress, the tears, the agony and the pure terror they all face with "what if I don't make it" I went one day to watch through the window at Maddie's clinics, I thought I would peek in for second, I had 7 girls in there and wanted to see what their chances were and how I could help them... my daughter would not be happy with me watching she wants to do this all on her own... however I did it anyway.... well do you think I was alone... no way there were tons of mothers all bobbing their heads trying to get a glimpse into the gym, most of them seemed extremely anxious with the same what ifs.... so here is my question and problem with the whole scenario..... What if they don't make it?? We will all live even us parents. I think we all look back at our own childhood and think "I didn't like how I felt when this or that happened" so we try to save our children from any hurt feelings or any disappointment at all. So what we have now is 15 year old girls (and boys) who have no idea with how to deal with the fact that not everyone will make it and not everyone wins!! We have created children/people who always get a trophy whether they win or not... kids who can not even have their name on the board in school for passing off math facts or anything else because someone might feel left out. Really TOO bad, that's how life works we now have children who are beside them self with grief because they didn't make the cut. The other thing I noticed is nothing is ever their fault or their lack of hard work everything is someone Else's fault, they have absolutely no ownership in their own mistakes or shortcomings.... Not everyone is good at everything, not everyone is going to get the job as adults etc so why not teach them a little disappointment and a little bit of try harder and maybe next time your name will be the one with all the stars next to it. With making everything fair and everyone always wins we are not teaching our children to work hard towards something and we are also not preparing them for the real world as adults... (Well maybe with Obama..) When I was a kid your name got on the board if you passed off your facts, you only got trophies when your team won. In fact in dance competitions all kids of the same grade went against each other, their could be 75 kids... and only 4 winners. When I went to drill team tryouts, my mom had nothing to do with it. She wasn't peeking in the window, she wasn't out in the hall after tryouts wanting to talk to the judges because they were obviously not watching her daughter fairly and their must be some mistake (I actually just heard of a mom having this exact conversation). Don't get me wrong my mom was very supportive she came to all my performances was part of the booster club etc, but it wasn't going to be the end of her world if I didn't make it. I think that is another part of the problem of what are we are doing to our kids.... we are so worried about how it will look for us, oh no our kid is not the best what will we do!! I am the worst I actually said to Maddie "do you know how this will look for me if you don't make it" I will regret that coming out of my mouth for the rest of my life.... (in my defense it is because I own my dance studio and the fact that my daughter again had a main part in the Production # stresses me out that other parents will wonder why she always gets them etc even though it was other teachers who helped me decide to let her do it, I am very very hard on her and no one understands the pressure I put on her, the constant critiquing she has to endure). I'm sure the added pressure was not something she needed and really was I worried about her feelings or just how I would look? Honestly both and that is very sad, it should be all about her and not at all about me, it should be how can I help her to make the team or to be able to handle the disappointment if she doesn't... I am failing as her mother I do have to admit and succeeding at being selfish and making everything about me!! I do have one family in my studio who have taught their children hard work and I have watched their daughter not make the team with more grace then I have seen in a long time...
Anyway what do you all think are we teaching our children to be whimps???

Tiff made the comment to me the other day that Canyon looked like he was from the Oriental persuasion. I stated that "I guess his eyes can look squinty" and left it at that. I don't recall teaching my 4-year-old Tae Kwon Do or Karate, and Mr. Miyagi has not been hanging out at our house. But, when I came across this picture all reason went out the window. He must be part asian... don't you agree?

Tom

How do you get your children to clean??

I do wonder myself how people teach their children to work and clean and have ownership in their homes etc.... I have had a couple people ask me how I get my kids to do their work...... Honestly I don't know some days they don't do it, and some kids definitely are better at it, but here is how we do it at our house.... 1. We have a job chart on the refrigerator.... It consists of 4 rotating jobs... The kitchen, the living room, the basement and a ? or clue as Olivia calls it. They each day just have to straighten up these rooms, and their own rooms before they can play etc.... The ? is whatever I decide for the day needs to be done. 3 out of my 4 children I have to bug to do their jobs each day... one (hhhmmOliviahhhmmm) does theirs almost every day without being asked (probably because she is the one who really wants to go play).

This obviously does not keep the house clean (as shown in above picture) and to be honest a few weeks during my really busy season it gets pretty dirty!! So when it needs a good cleaning I write down every job that needs to be done. Wash the bar stools for example would be on one little piece of paper, clean the mirror in the yellow bathroom is another... I get that specific, sometimes I even have them help me figure out exactly which jobs need to be done. Then we count out how many jobs their are and the kids draw out of a bowl or cup you get the picture. Then they have a certain amount of time when the time is up however many of your jobs are done you get to draw for money or prizes.... I used to just put $1 bills and up and they got to take their chance for high or low bills I offer them a set price but they like the gamble of maybe getting a lot more. Last weekend, I didn't have any money (under our new lovely circumstances) so I had to get creative and they actually liked it better. I have some tickets I wrote on the back of them.... some said just "thanks" some said "free sleepover", or "no job day", some said "ice cream" etc you get the idea. All 4 of them got their work done in time for this drawing.....

Sometimes you have to give a little help when its your 4 year old and your chair getting wiped off is still this wet...

How cute is he though vacuuming the hall way...


This is hopefully the first of 20 posts in 20 days, I have a huge back up of pictures and things I need to catch up on........