Memorial Day in Plano

We spent a long Memorial Day weekend in Plano with my wonderful in-laws!  As usual, we had a BLAST!!  I was able to talk Blake into leaving Thursday night after karate rather than waiting until Friday morning.  I always prefer to to travel in the middle of the night because there is less traffic and it gives us another full day at our destination.  

We stopped at Sonic for dinner on our way out of town.  

And this is my GIANT coffee!  It was super yummy and helped me drive the first leg of the trip.  I made it just over halfway.  But I was cranky.  Poor hubby.  Austin slept most of the way but did end up having a night terror.  It was awful but we finally got him awake and settled back for the night.  

Our first day was not planned so we did my favorite activity ever...pool day!!

 My hubs is such a dork!  :)

Day 2 was a bit more eventful.  We went to the Dallas Zoo with Lili, Poppy, Uncle Alec, his girlfriend Lenore, Cici and her niece and nephew Natalie (5) and AJ (3).  It was so much fun!  

First we stopped at Poor Richard's for breakfast!  Blake ordered the most monster omelet I've ever seen:  bacon cheeseburger with home fries AND onion rings.  I'm pretty sure he finished it. 

Austin and I giving the spiderman hand sign???

You will just have to take my word that the zoo was fun!  I haven't uploaded those pictures yet.  I will do a separate blog post just for the zoo trip.  

After the zoo we stopped at Rockfish for dinner.  This was my first time at a rockfish but I can't wait to go again!  Super yummy and their shrimp appetizer tasted just like my favorite Bang Bang Shrimp from Bonefish!  

Henry enjoyed dinner too.  Especially his "adult beverage."  I like Henry.  

The drink special was half-priced wine bottles.  Why order a glass when you can get a bottle??

I love Texas.  You can brown bag your leftover alcohol!  How cool??

Day 3 was another fun day filled with family, food and sunshine!  Gran gran and gran mimi came over and we had way too much food and spent the day by the pool.  That is one of Austin's favorite activities at Lili and Poppy's!  Being the good sport that I am, I stayed out by the pool with him ;)

On our last day we had a yummy brunch with the fam before we started our trek home.  When we were making fruit salad we found a genetically mutated strawberry.  Hmmmm...

We had a safe and uneventful drive back to Arkansas and can't wait to see the Texas Cannon's again in July! 

3 years in the making...

While I know he doesn't realize it, Austin really missed having a dad in his life when he was younger.  I remember going to visit Lorrie and Rhom and he would call Rhom "dad."  Another time we went to watch a tball game and he was calling my friend's husband daddy.  I mean to him that was their name, just like his name was Austin.  Other children called those men dad and he didn't know what a dad was.  My greatest worry used to be how I would ever explain to Austin why he didn't have a daddy and other kiddos did.  Where his dad was and how it was not his fault his dad didn't wasn't around.  Then 3 years ago that all changed.  God sure knew what he was doing when he brought us Blake!  Austin was calling him dad very early on in our relationship.  At 2 I think he just "knew" :)  Then my biggest worry became how I would explain to Austin why his name was different.  Now that will no longer be a problem!  In the very near future he will be Austin John Miller Cannon!!  And we can't wait!

We got AMAZING news today! Our attorney called and Brandon finally returned the signed consent to adopt paperwork!!  Great news!  Laura emailed me the paperwork and we signed it immediately!  Luckily for us we have a notary in our office so she did her thing and a runner from the attorney's office came and picked up the adoption paperwork to file it.  Austin will be a Cannon in less than a month if all goes well!  How  will I ever beat this birthday present???

Yes, I'm a dork... I had the camera out taking pictures of each of us signing the paperwork.

And then Vicky jumped in to help us get one together.

All in all it turned out to be a pretty amazing day.  For me the hardest part has been waiting for Brandon to sign the paperwork.  I've never had a good relationship with him and he has never had any type of relationship with Austin.  Although I gave him one hell of a deal, sign away the rights to your child and you don't owe a dime in child support and you never have to deal with me again, he still stalled, lied and tried to fight about it.  Needless to say, I have deleted him from my phone contacts and hope I never have to deal with him again.  

The next step will be when we actually go to court.  I'm really excited about that!  Austin gets to go and we can make it a family affair.  Definitely this will be a hot topic in an upcoming blog post.  Our attorney, Laura, said it could happen as early as June.  That would be the best birthday present I could get!  A father, a real father for my son.  Not that Blake hasn't been a father already, but this will make it official!!  I'm actually wondering if the judge will talk to Austin.  I imagine a conversation like this... judge to Austin: do you want this man to be your dad?  Austin: WHAT?? He is my dad!  And as usual, Austin is right.  Blake is and has been his dad for 3 years and we couldn't be happier!

 

Happy Birthday!!

Happy happy birthday to the most amazing man I know!!

We didn't do much, dinner at the Mexican restaurant, super yummy!! I tried to get him ice cream, but he refused. He's watching his girlish figure I think :)

Love ya babe!!

Pre-k graduation!

Where did the last 5 years go??? My little boy is almost grown. He graduated preschool today. Unfortunately since his birthday is mid August, he will get to graduate preschool again next year too. I was a little teary eyed today, I can't imagine how many tears I'll shed next year when it's official. They are tears of joy though. Im a lucky mom and I know it. I couldn't be prouder of my graduate.

Today was a reminder to slow down and smell the flowers or play in the dirt or whatever else my little boy wants to do.

I heard a quote the other day: your children are not given to you; they are only loaned until the Lord calls them home. Great advice and I will do all I can to enjoy my little boy as long as I have him and he has me!

Mother's Day part II

For the month of May I wanted to do a blog post every day just to get the hang of it and see if I liked it.  Unfortunately after only 4 hours of sleep I did not post one yesterday so I decided to make up for that by doing 2 today.  That counts, right?  Sure it does, I made the rules! 

In honor of Mother's day I wanted to show the little guy who calls me "mama."

Yes, this is him at his only quiet and still time: sleeping!  But look at that sweet face, how could you not love that kiddo!  

My mother's day started off on Friday when my amazing step-mother brought this beautiful flower arrangement to my work!!  Sadly I was in a meeting but they made for a wonderful surprise when I returned to my desk.  Thanks, Gina!!  

This morning by boys brought me breakfast in bed!  My favorite, biscuits and gravy and coffee!! Yummy!  

And my card from my monkey had a monkey on it!  It was the perfect card from my favorite boys!  We even made it to church on time, making a great day even better! 

Freezer Cooking

In January I started freezer cooking, an awesome idea I stole from my MIL, Lea Ann!  So far it has worked out fantastic for our family and this Saturday it was time for a big grocery shop/cook so I decided it would be my Saturday blog (which I was too tired to actually post on Saturday).

The process started on Friday night getting my list and coupons ready then I hit Kroger! 

I actually thought I would cook Friday night so I didn't have to mess with it on Saturday but Kroger was out of rotisserie chickens and that is a staple in my cooking plan.  I did start Friday by getting all of my containers out and my ingredients ready. 

We were in no big hurry on Saturday morning and when I say "we," I really mean WE!  My husband is amazing when we do a big cook.  He takes on the role of sous chef and does all they icky things like keeping the pots and pans washed, grating the cheese, stuffing the burritos, etc. 

I'm really glad I didn't start on Friday night because it would have been a late one!  About 2.5 hours after we started we have food to last us 3 or 4 weeks, yahooo!! 

I made 2 pans of lasagna, a batch of tomato basil soup, Mexican chicken Alfredo, 2 packs of salmon marinating in a maple butter glaze, teryaki chicken, filling for 2 pans of Mexican casserole, taco meat, black bean, corn and beef nacho mix, chicken and cheese quesadillas and a ton of chicken and black bean burritos!!  Yes, my family really loves Mexican food!

I think our favorites are the burritos!  They are excellent for lunch or a quick dinner and super healthy!  Yes, I did make way more than 3 but Blake had already loaded them into the freezer and it seemed silly to pull them all out just to take their picture.  So I pulled these lucky guys back out :)

The restocked fridge!!  Using ziploc bags instead of containers for the meats and sauces was an excellent trick!

And here is the mess we were left with :(  I did tackle the kitchen but not before I laid down and rested for a little while.  I mean, it is Mother's Day weekend after all!

Mother's Day

Things I didn't know before I became a mother:

1. How rare and precious 2 minutes alone in the bathroom could be.

2. The importance of a pocketful of rocks to a little boy.

3. Why my mother said things like because I said so; don't eat that; wash your hands and one, two, two and a half...

4. What the phrase "pick your battles" truly means.

5. Why restaurants give children crayons with a paper menu or ban children completely.

6. Immortality and the fear of death.

7. You can never successfully hide a cookie.

8. How french fries and ketchup can be considered a vegetable.

9. Fish sticks. And chicken nuggets.

10. Why Kleenex were invented when there are perfectly good shirt sleeves and pants already. (ok this one is a question I have since I became a mother.)

11. The reason Legos should be outlawed or require a tetanus shot.

12. The importance of coffee and/or wine in a mother's day.

13. The fun of finger paint and sidewalk chalk.

14. The meaning of mother's day.

T-Ball

Gearing up for his weekly tball game! Watching the photographer try to get 10+ boys together for a team shot was hilarious. Hearding cats would probably be easier but alas she did get the shot.

I do feel sorry for the father of the little boy who showed up late and missed the picture. He will probably be in the dog house tonight. My husband would be.

New Project!!

Well I finally did it.  Posted my first blog.  I created this blog almost 2 years ago and have been waiting for the perfect time and topic to start blogging.  I thought I needed the perfect "theme" and never could find one.  Now I realize I've wasted almost 2 years when I could have been documenting all the fun things my little family has been doing.  We got married, bought and renovated a foreclosure, started and stopped my Specialist degree, took numerous vacations to Dallas, South Carolina, Memphis, etc.  And sadly none of it has been documented because...because my grammar sucks, I'm too busy, my life isn't interesting enough, I'm not creative enough and on and on and on.  So today is the day for no more excuses, I'm going to blog!  My grammar is not perfect and I accept it; I am busy but that will make for a good blog and my life is as interesting as it can be with a husband, a 4 year old and 2 rat dogs.  No, this blog will never make make money or be a hit with people who don't know us, but that's not who this blog is for.  Hopefully our friends and family near and far will enjoy our blog and use it to keep up with us when miles separate.  Enjoy!!

PS. This initial blog (and even the inspiration to do so) would not be possible without my SIL Liz Cannon!  She probably doesn't know it but I have blog envy of her awesome blog and finally decided to try it myself.  Thanks, Liz!!