Leap Day

Happy Leap Day. I had the Today show on this morning while I was doing a few things around the house, and they were sharing some leap day statistics. They were all very interesting and i thought to myself, oh that would be fun to put some of those on my blog. So here I am, ready to do that and I can't remember any of them. The only one I can recall is how many days in the year in a leap year...366. I probably remember that one cause it is ridiculously easy, believe it or not the gal on the today show got it wrong. Stupid girl. Anywho...so yeah, leap day...once every four years. Did you all make it special.


I started with some chocolate chip cookies. The other day I was restocking my brown sugar and ever since then I haven't been able to get chocolate chip cookies out of my head. Seemed like a good day to bake some.


I even added some Reeses eggs on top of them...in pretty pastels. I think the pastels are kinda contradicting the snow we just got hit with tonight. Lots of big, fat, fluffy white flakes. Sure doesn't feel very springish. But tomorrow is March 1st, so we are gonna pretend.


Funny, little side note about my Carson. It is Dr. Seuss week at school. Every day they have a silly little theme that the kids can participate in. Such as dress like a farmer and backwards day. I kept asking Carson if he was excited and what he wanted to wear for backwards day (clothes backwards and inside out and such). He kept acting weird and not really giving me an answer. Finally, that day rolled around and I started discussing clothing choices with him. He finally looks at me and says "mom, don't feel bad but I don't really want to do that, I just want to wear all my clothes the right way and not look silly. I do want to take my stuffed animal on stuffed animal day but that is it. No funny clothes". Ha-ha...my cute boy, is he my child or what. I said to him "no big deal honey, I don't like doing things like that either, you don't have to if you don't want to". He makes me smile.


Here he is with Shamu today on bring your favorite stuffed pet. Even with this he kept asking me if I was sure it was okay, and if he was really allowed to bring it. My little rule follower for sure, such a good boy.


After I dropped Cars off at school, I dropped off Lincoln-boy for his little play date. His date was Elle Bell. He thought he was pretty cool stuff though, usually it is Carson and Brev at each others house and the three year olds get left with their mommies. Well, Ash decided that they deserved some fun of their own and invited the little tike over. He was sooo excited. Loves that Elle bell.


I then headed on home to make up some playdough. Wanted the kids to have a fun "leap day activity.". You know something to make the day special instead of the usual cleaning, errands, laundry etc. A friend of mine posted some homemade playdough on her blog and it gave me the idea as well. It was super easy and turned out really well. The dough was so soft and not messy at all. The only rough part was the food coloring. Once I figured out the smarter way to do it, it was just fine. However, I kinda made a mess in the beginning and my hands are now various shades of the primary colors. Pretty.


Since my kitchen was already in use, I decided to throw our sandwiches for dinner together as well.


Once my chores were done, I had about a half hour of complete solitude. Drake was asleep and the big boys were gone, ahhhh lovely. A whole 30 minutes on my own in my nice, clean house...why can't that happen every day??






The playdough was a big success. I invited the Phongsavath's over as well and the kids all had so much fun. Carson made about everything there was to make...cookies, pies, volcano's, snakes, snowmen, speghetti, birds nest, swimming pools...all kinds of things. Lincoln's main goal was to see how many pieces he could get his pile of dough into. Oh this kid, he definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. Such a goof. Drakey bug just sat in his highchair enjoying the tupperware containers. Fun for all.


Happy Leap Day friends...til it rolls around in another 4 years!

About my boy

Not the little ones...the big one. My main boy, my favorite. He gets mentioned here and there in this little ol' blog, but those teeny tiny ones have a way of hogging things around here. Not today...today we are celebrating someone else.

Honey had a big, exciting week last week. And since this is our family story, we have got to make note of it. He got a promotion...a good, good promotion. We are still kinda on cloud nine about it. He got made the regional sales manager of Northern Utah for the company he works for. Its a pretty big deal, and I am pretty freaking proud of him. He has worked for the same company for almost 8 years and has done pretty dang good in sales. Very good, always at the top good. For a few years now they have had talk of making him sales manager when the guy who is in there now moves on. Although things would always fall through, and the existing manager would stay put. The current manager has held the position for almost 10 years. Thiago was offered the same position in different locations but always out of state. Not an option for us. We have just been holding out for this job to open up here, in our lovely Utah home. 2 weeks ago, rumors started floating around that the current manager was being promoted and yours truly was going to get offered the position. We held our breath, but tried not to put to much thought into it cause things had fallen through before. Every day that passed, seemed to make us a little more certain that this could really happen. Finally, Thursday rolls around and it is announced the former manager is moving on and my honey was offered his position. Holy smokes friends...we were excited to say the least.

The two of us kept texting back and forth that day, discussing the details and what not. I sent him a message that said something like "congrats again babe, i am so excited for you". He sends me one back that said "thanks honey, i am just excited about what this means for our family". Now that right there tells you all you need to know about this guy. Me and the boys are truly the reason behind everything he does, he is so devoted to us. Everything he does in life, always has us in the back of his mind. I am truly so grateful to call him mine. I am so incredibly proud of him, he has worked hard for 8 years now and he completely deserves this. It is going to be a big adjustment for him and a whole lot more pressure but I know he is more than capable and is going to do awesome. Congrats, to my love.

So that is our exciting week...in other news,




what do I do with myself while my husband runs around getting promoted...I stay home and spring clean the boys' bathroom. Equally as important..haha.


I also take care of these three goof heads...


All of which have been sick...nasty colds. The childrens ibuprofen is for them, the caffeine is for me. Cause ya know, with sick kids a girl needs all the help she can get.


They did a whole lot of this, this weekend. Just laying around, feeling crummy. My two youngest both had fevers to go along with it.


Look at that sweet, sad little face. His eyes just kill me, don't ya love that glossy, watery little look...poor baby. All in all, they have stayed in pretty good dispostions. Well, all but Lincoln. Shocker right, he is by far my nastiest patient. He's mad that I gave him the wrong sippy cup, mad that he woke up and Thiago was already gone for the day, mad that he can't hold a cucumber (so what does he do, well he picks up the broccoli and chucks it across the room, you all do that when you are mad to right...and then fling yourself on the ground and scream at the top of your lungs...no, huh...just Lincoln)

So far I remain healthy, which is by far the most important. Cause we all know there is no such thing as a sick day for the mama, life just keeps moving and we have to move right along with it. Cross your fingers for me....




And thats that folks...pretty good week for the most part.


Sure do love our dad, my sister took this picture and we all stood around laughing at it. Appearantly, just about anybody can be a sales manager, no need for maturity or anything like that...he is such a weirdo.

Happiness

So there's this boy.
He kinda stole my heart.
He calls me mom.




or in my case 3 boys. Love that quote.

Its been a good week for us little Cano's.

Counting our blessings...more on that later though.

Happy Weekend friends!

Date Night...and a few other things

hello, hello. My goodness, I haven't blogged in a whole week. That is unheard of for me. I have no good excuses either. Just laziness and lack of inspiration I suppose. But here I am, sharing with you just a little of what we have been up to. Anybody else feeling the spring fever blues. I am. I get so antsy this time of year. Ready for the sunshine but the dreary, dark weather lingers on. And on, and on. Sometimes winter can last a very looong time in these neck of the woods, lets hope spring is just around the corner. We shall see.

Anywho...I had a hot date this past weekend.


This guy took me out. Making up for staying at home on Valentines. We needed some him and me time. So we made a night out of it.


I got all dressed up in my leggings and Uggs, spritzed on some of my new Victoria's Secret scent and we hit the town.


I love this boy.


I love him a whole lot.


February...ahh, the month of love. Always gets me thinking about what a lucky girl I am. I don't know how I got so blessed, but this boy sure does make me happy. I don't know who I would be without him. Can't believe it has almost been 9 years, I am so proud of the little life we have built together. And most of that I owe to him. Sure do love ya babe, more every single day.


We had a grand time at Olive Garden, many thanks to my Grandpa Cherry for the gift card. And Tam, you will be pleased to know I got the braised beef tortellini. Oh my heavens, it did not disappoint. Soooo good. I will never get anything else. I loved it.


Then came the great debate. I had originally planned on seeing "The Vow". Much to Thiago's disappointment. Lets just say he does not enjoy chick flicks. However, he told me it was my choice and he was just happy to be going with me. I know, I know...he's full of crap, but still sweet of him to say. Anywho, I started to hear some not so good things about it. Kinda boring, doesn't make you laugh or cry. Started to hear good things about the new Reese Witherspoon movie "This Means War". I couldn't decide all night. Finally, at the last minute I went for the Reese movie. It was so hilarious. Truly friends, go see it. Just such a fun, happy, pleasant movie. And she is adorable. We both were laughing so hard (granted the lady in back of us had a pretty unique laugh, and that was making us chuckle as well).

It was such a fun night. I love dates. I love that after 14 years together (9 of them being married) we can still have that much fun. We can talk and laugh and flirt like two 17 year olds. Love you babe...thanks for the great night.


Sunday brought another day of ice fishing with my dad. Not me. I would rather die. My dad calls up occasionally and takes Thiago with him. Which means I stay home from church. I am just not brave enough to tackle church with all three kids on my own. Uh-uh..no thank-you. So instead we stayed home and played.



See how much fun we had. Later that day was my grandma Williams' 80th birthday. So we met up with family for dinner. On the way home we stopped at my moms to get my kids in their pj's and feed the baby and such. Well, we got talking and all the sudden it was 11:00 at night, the kids were all still bouncing around her house. My mom and Thiago both had the day off on Monday since it was a holiday so next thing I know, my mom is saying just sleep over and I found myself saying okay. My kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. Ashley and her kids were already spending the night cause her hubby was out of town. So here we are waaaay past their bedtime and announcing a sleepover with cousins and grandma. And to make it even better one of us got a craving for Mcdonalds fries, so off thiago went to get some fries and chicken nuggets for us all. It was so unplanned, unexpected and just fun. I know my boys will never forget that night. And neither will I. Thanks mama, and Ash, and my honey for being so dang easy going and go with the flow. Loved it.


Monday I had plans with my sisters and mom to head down to Salt Lake. We wanted to hit Nordstroms, and baby Gap and H&M, and all those other fun stores we don't make it to very often. I didn't come home with a whole lot, mainly just some new spring stuff for my boys. I did however, get these new earings at Nordstroms...


Also a new pair of yoga pants. A girl can never have too many. I may or may not have worn them for the past 2 days, you know just trying to break them in. Ha.


And finally a little hair pick me up. My sister colored me and trimmed me up yesterday. Gotta love a fresh color. I am kinda crazy when it comes to my hair, I probably go too long in between cause I am so afraid of it damaging my hair. It was looking pretty bad, those roots were scary. Feels good to have it all trimmed and pretty again.

So thats that...now you are all caught up on every last detail of me. Which I am sure is all very interesting. Yeah right.....have a good one friends, you'll hear from me soon.

LOVE day

Valentines has got to be one of my favorites, then again I say that every holiday. But truly, Valentines is pretty special. Any day that is devoted to the people you love has got to be a good one. The older I get, and the more of life I see I realize how fragile our lives really are. How quickly things can change, our lives can be turned upside down in a matter of seconds. I am feeling a little down tonight, heard some unexpected news about a friend that has got me looking at life a little differently. I had a positive, happy post in mind....however my mood has changed. Now all I can think about is my 4 boys who I love so much and the honor and privledge that is mine in being their wife/mom. I am grateful for the time I have been given with them. I am grateful for those tiny little moments shared in an ordinary day that all the sudden make it extraordinary. I am grateful that I know what it feels like to love with my whole heart and have that love returned. I am grateful for love...fitting isn't it.

Here is a little recap of our day, it was such a good day. I tried to just keep it open and simple and see where the day took us. I was pleased with the results.

Honey had to work as usual, so I was left with my three little Jr. Valentines (cause ya know, my guy is my number one Valentine).







Appearantly, my two older children will no longer wear Valentine attire. Aren't they too young to have such opinions. I was at Target the other day trying to find them a little something, I had 3 adorable red shirts picked out. Carson wasn't completely opposed to what I had chose, but he preferred the black one that he picked out. "look mom, it has red in it...does that count". Uh no, but oh well I guess. Lincoln was totally fine with the Popeye Valentine shirt I had...until he saw Darth Vader. He loves Darth Vader (and all other villians, should I be worried about that). Anyways, once he saw that shirt there was no turning back. So I walked out of Target with two black shirts and a red Mickey Mouse one for Drake. He had no say...least I still have control over one of them.


Black or red...they are still pretty darn cute. And they make this mama pretty freaking happy.


See how happy. (Carson took this lovely close up, and was so proud of the way it turned out...threw it in here cause the memory makes me smile)


Our fun actually started a few days before, here is Cars working on his class Valentines. He took this job very seriously. Had no time nor patience for any of Lincoln's antics while he was working. Linc was set up next to him working on his Valentines to give his cousins, he lasted about 2 minutes and then spent the rest of the time antagonizing his poor older brother. It was rough.


The night before, these little guys showed up on our doorstep. My mama always sneaks by and leaves them a Valentine. My kids have a love/hate relationship with this tradition. You see, she rings the doorbell and runs (its supposed to be a surprise). This really angers Carson, he loves the treat but can't ever understand why grandma just can't come in and say hi. Its kinda funny.


We also had a few Valentines show up in the mail from the 2 great Grans. Those sweet Grans.


Anywho, on with our day. We kinda just hung around until it was time to take Carson to school, here is the boy showering me with a little love. I tell ya, this boy is going to treat a lady right someday. Such a little gentleman.


Then he was off (to the great white north appearantly, the kid loves this coat, I told him it was too warm for it, but he insisted...he thinks he's hot stuff in that thing).


While he was gone, me and the babes stopped by Ashley's to drop them off a Valentine. Elle bell and baby Drake had on Mickey and Minnie attire, too cute to not take a picture of.


Then we headed on home...I had a little prep work to do. Got the kids' valentines put together and then set our table for dinner that night.



Aren't those glasses fabulous...super cheesy but my kids got the biggest kick out of them.

By that point it was time to go pick up Carson, after that we headed to the store to get a few finishing touches for our dinner that night.


Once we got home, Carson emptied his Valentine sack and spent the next hour looking through it. Does this bring back the absolute best memories for anyone but me. Oh, how I used to love doing that.


Finally my "real" valentine got home. Sure do love this boy...


Time for presents...



These two dug right in...


while the wee one slumbered away.



I majorly kept things nice and simple this year. Each of them got a small book and a few sweets.


Here is my honey's Valentine. Poor guy, not much. His favorite chocolate bar, oh well thats life.


Then it was time to busy myself in the kitchen. We tried something new this year. With three young kids, Valentines kinda becomes more about them and less about us. I wanted to do something special as a family to include them as well. The honey and I have a big date planned this weekend, so we left this night for all of us. I decided to make us a nice dinner and eat over on our table. This is a big deal for me. I do cook almost every night, but it is usually just the one dish and we all sit around our bar. Never the big table. With my fancy dishes and all. But hey, its Valentines and these little loves deserved something special.


I got my desired reaction...the boys, especially Carson went on and on about how nice everything looked and what a good job I had done. Too cute.


Drake was pretty excited as well...


We had roasted garlic sourdough bread,


Pork tenderloin with an olive oil and herb marinade,


loaded mashed potatoes,


and broccoli with cheese.


I gotta say, it turned out pretty dang good. I was pretty impressed with myself.

Thiago serves in the young men in our ward and they had a quick activity that night, so he headed out for about a half hour. I bathed the babies and quickly put our dessert together.


Made chocolate chip cookie bars...


loaded it up with this yummy stuff...


and that my friends is one tasty dessert. The cookie is all warm and gooey, and oh so good!


And that my friends is a Valentines wrap, it was a LOVE-ly day!