4th of July

We traveled down to Draper to enjoy some time with family at a BBQ at Mark's parents' house.  I was looking all cute that day and was hoping to finally get a shot of our little family...but that never happened.  Cadence is 6 weeks old, and I still don't have a picture of the 4 of us. Oh well!  At least I got a few cute ones of the kids!  :)

Proud to be an American!!

And to eat Ice Cream

Sparklers Rock!

I just love her outfit.  Thanks, Aunt Connie!  Her onesie says, "I <3 BBQ"  The flower in her hair was a gift from MacKenzie Iorg.  Turns out that I use these flowers in my hair more than I put them on Cadence! :)

Climbing the Mountain

When I was in the hospital having Cadence, Mark would stay home at night and bring Canon to visit during the days.  On the way to the hospital there's a view of the huge mountains.  Canon then told Mark that he wanted to climb the mountain...so Mark told him that he might take him on a Saturday soon.  Well, every time Canon was in the car and he saw the mountains (and let's face it, we live in Ogden, UT...you always see mountains if you're outside!!), he would remind Mark that he wanted to climb that mountain.  So, Mark agreed and took Canon for a hike on June 30th.

Here are the pictures Mark got with his phone.

Mark said that Canon did a really good job on the hike.  They hiked in for about an hour, and then on the way back Canon got tired.  So Mark picked him up for about 10 minutes, at which point he said Mark's back pack straps were hurting his legs...so he walked the rest of the way.  What a trooper!

Canon seemed to enjoy that so much (and Mark figures he could use the exercise), we invited Mark's brother's family out for more hiking fun in the following weeks.  Brian, Megan, and Cameron all went with them this time.  Tiffany and Lily stayed back at our place with me and Cadence and had a nice little visit.

After they were done with their hike, we all had hot dogs and Italian sausages for lunch and then headed to the pool.  It was great fun!  Thanks for coming to visit,  Brian and Tiff!  I hope we can do it again before the summer is over...especially since now I can join you guys in the pool!  :)

Adventures in Potty-Training

We started trying to potty-train Canon when my mom was here.  So I guess we've been doing it for almost 4 weeks now.  He understands the concept of using the toilet, and he recognizes the feeling of when he needs to go #2.  I think he knows what it feels like for #1 too, but he's usually so interested in whatever he's doing that he doesn't pay attention to #1.  We're still working on that one!

He has his good days, like yesterday where his only accident all day was when he was upset and crying so he lost control.  He also has his bad days, like 2 days ago where all he had were accidents.  That was an interesting day... Canon was hitting me repeatedly with his stuffed monkey, and I told him to stop.  When he didn't stop, I grabbed his arm mid-swing, and that made him mad so he started crying...which of course meant he started wetting his pants.  I told him to get up and go to the bathroom because I was holding Cadence and couldn't drag him there myself.  He refused and just cried some more, which got me upset so I started counting toward a time-out because he was not minding me.  I got all the way to 5, so I put Cadence down and picked him up to take him to the bathroom.  I couldn't really see where I was going with the way I was holding him out in front of me, and I tripped on the car seat behind the couch.  I had a pretty nasty fall  (giving me a skinned knee), and therefore, so did Canon. Now he was really crying, and by the time I got him to the bathroom, there was nothing left to go into the toilet.

This was the same day that I asked him if he had to go pee..."nope!"...what about poopies?..."no, I not need that!"  So I made a 5 minute phone call, and when I got off the phone he was in the corner where he peed on the floor and pooped in his underwear.  I had to give him another time-out for that one because he knows better than that...and I had JUST BARELY asked him if he had to go.  Ugh!

After that ordeal I've decided to give Canon the choice of underwear or a diaper. If he chooses underwear, then he's choosing to go use the toilet...and I remind him of that often throughout the day.  So if he refuses to go potty when I tell him he ought to try, which he ALWAYS DOES, I remind him it was his choice to use the potty.  So far (in the 1 1/2 days I've been doing it) Canon has responded very well.

At the beginning he had to go sans pants to get the concept.

Very proud of himself for going poop in the toilet for the first time!!
Showing off his reward- M&M minis. 

Getting Into Stuff

My sister-in-law Mary once asked me if Canon has learned the tatic of waiting until I'm breastfeeding to "get into stuff."  Is this what she meant?

In the baby's crib, even though I told him not to.

In our audio cabinet, getting stuck too!!