6 months

***Note, I actually wrote this post a month ago and was just waiting to take some pictures to accompany it. Haha, SLACKER!***

Have I told you the story yet about how Canyon came into this world screaming and then continued to scream the first 4 months of his life?  In fact right after he was born he screamed and hollered and carried on without pausing for a good 2 hours while I cooed and caressed and ogled over the sweet little fire ball that was now mine. My nurse (loved her) kept chuckling and commenting on how we were going to have our hands full with 'that one'.  And boy did we ever. 

And then... 4 months hit and a strange thing started to happen.  He started to chill out a bit.  And now at 6 months he is an absolute delight.  He is so calm and easy-going and loves to smile.  Every once in awhile we will still catch a glimpse of the little fire ball, though.  His birdie toy brings it out in him.  Remind me to tell you that story sometime.  It's quite funny.

So here we are at 6 months and I am more in love with my sweet/fiery babe than ever.

 He is such a mama's boy!  Seriously.  I love it.  We spend more time together now than when I was growing him in my womb.  Not possible?  You'd be surprised.  Just ask Dave.  Poor Dave ;).  I have to confess... I baby Canyon. Perhaps to an extreme.  Dad-stop laughing this instant!  In my defense, he's my baby baby. My last. And he loves his snuggles.

A little bit more about Canyon...

He still doesn't sleep.  He will take a couple 20 min. naps during the day and then is up every hour to two hours at night.   The longest he has ever slept in a stretch was 3 hours and that was back when he was a newbie.  I plan on sleep training him a bit when we move and he has his own room. Ha!  We'll see how that goes ;).

He only rolls one way.  He spends most of the day on his tummy.  As soon as we lay him down on the floor he flips over onto his belly.  You could say he likes his tummy time. He is starting to figure out how to bring his knees under him.  Whimper.

He takes a bottle and a binkie.  Miracle!  My girls never did.

Head tickles/rubs and lullabies calm him down instantly.

He drools...a lot.  If I had a dime for every time someone asked me if he was teething I'd be rich. 

He loves playing handsies. He has a thing for hands.

When he laughs he sounds like a squeaky toy.

He has the most edible thighs I have ever seen.  Yum.

He is in the 10th-15th percentile for height and weight.

His nicknames are Brother Bear and Rawr-Rawr.  Rawr-Rawr because he growls all day long.  It's quite endearing.

He loves his sisters.  He lights up when he sees them.  Yes, even though he has been sat on and body-slammed by Ali numerous times.

If you haven't guessed it...we love our little Canyon man!

Fun Facts About Our New Home

*  You need 4-wheel drive to reach it.  And if it's really snowy...chains too. 

*  During the winter the water is shut off.  Luckily we have two huge water tanks, one in our garage and one in the "water room" in the basement, that we live off of.  Together they hold 4,000 gallons of water.  The problem?  They are almost out.  We are on major water conservation.

* Almost every day we see herds of deer, elk and some wild bunnies scampering about.  The deer are actually pretty tamed.  Rumor has it you can feed them from your hand. 

* It has 5 gas fireplaces...one in every room.  Delightful!

* We have to drive 2.5 miles to a dumpster to deposit our trash.

* Our house is pretty much made up of windows.  And the views out of each are amazing.  Here's a peeksy off of our front deck.

* Our driveway is long, steep and kind of squirrely.  Tricky to drive on but excellent for sledding.

* We have to plow our own roads.  We were able to borrow a 4-wheeler and hooked a plow up to it.  Dave is in serious heaven every time it snows.

* The handful of neighbors we have up here are awesome.  There is actually a family with two little girls Emma's age that live in the house closest to us.  The kicker?  They moved from the exact same neighborhood we just did 7 yrs. ago.

* The nearest McDonalds is over 20 miles away. Ha! Take that fake food!

*We have to be careful when we let Howie out that the bald eagles don't get him.  And to think, I always thought that one scene in, The Proposal, was a joke.  You know, the one with Kevin and the eagle?  Bwahahaha.

I know it sounds cheesy but I still can't believe we live here.  It's pretty much, to a T, our dream home.  Well, besides the whole water part ;).  Small price to pay though, right?  When I get everything in order I'll post more pics.

Unpacking

Almost done!  Unpacking that is.  And by almost done I mean we still have at least 15 boxes left.  Sheesh.  I'm having an awful hard time buckling down and getting to work.  I can't help it, this house makes me feel like I'm on a never-ending vacation.  It's that fabulous. 

And how about that turkey in a box?  Pretty dang cute, eh?  We tossed him in there with a plastic hanger and a small, random purple dragon toy and he was happy as a clown for a good half-an-hour. Nut.

Book Review: The Memory of Water

Meh.  Didn't even finish it.  It was a little too dark for me.  That and it bugged me how the nine-year-old boy spoke and thought like a college grad.  I'm talking finger nails on the chalkboard and chewing on cotton kind of bugged me. 

Then again, I suppose it's not entirely fair to judge a book off of only a few chapters.  Ah-Well.

Proud Parent

(picture courtesy of Melinda Smith Photography)

"MOM, COME QUICK!!!"

So of course I grabbed a very wet and naked baby out of the tub and went running off to the girls' room...

"Look!" Emma yelled while pointing down at a piece of paper Ali was practicing her letters on, "Ali knows ALL her letters!!"

Emma then proceeded to ask Ali to write specific letters and applauded - and by applauded I mean jumped up and down clapping and whooping with joy-each and every time Ali did it.  Emma then looked up at me with tears glinting in her eyes (seriously) and her arms hugged tightly to her chest and said,

"I think I'm going to cry.  I'm so happy I'm going to cry.  I don't want Ali to grow up."

That Emma girl, she's a proud parent ;).  Love her old soul and tender heart.

Valentines, Ali style

I'll admit it,  every once in awhile I'm one of "those" parents. You know...the kind that FAKE interest and supervision.  I was in the middle of a project of my own and Ali wanted to put together her Valentines.  I gave her the ok and would holler out a "you're doing great!" or "looks good!" in her direction every few minutes happy that she had found a project to keep her interest for more than 20 min.  When she finally and proudly announced she was done I headed on over for a look....

Hmmmm.

Wow.

I take it she didn't see the box of  mini fruit by foots designated for the Valentines?

It's a good thing 6 out of the 11 friends on her list are in fact dogs.  I just hope they don't mind the glue she used to stick it on the back of her soccer cards.  The cat on her list shouldn't mind too much either, I suppose.

 To the rest....I'm sorry. And remember, it's the thought that counts.