My Handymen

Since we moved into our new house last October, we've been meaning to build the gate to the backyard that the previous owners, for whatever reason, decided to rip off. We had intentions of doing it immediately, but you know how it goes, other things came up and it went to the back burner. A few weeks ago, we finally bought the stuff to do it and Wes went to work. I should say Wes and Liam went to work because Liam was so excited to be able to help his daddy.

I love these photos because they really show what an awesome dad Wes is. He never gets frustrated during a project, with Liam constantly asking him to help, and he lets him be as involved as possible. Liam thought it was the greatest thing ever to stand on the boards as Wes screwed to keep them in place.

As the project progressed, Wes decided to let Liam have his hand at the screw gun. He did a great job and was SO proud of himself. :)

And here is the beautiful finished project! It looks fantastic and I'm so happy to not have our backyard open to the world anymore. :) Good job, boys!

Kids Fish Free Day

The Nevada Division of Wildlife and Rotary Club put on a free fishing day at the Sparks Marina each year. It has sort of become a tradition that it's a 'daddy thing' because it entails getting up at 6am and going out in the chilly morning to stand in line to catch fish. Last year Wes and Jake took the kids and it was a smashing success. This year, since we had Izzy overnight, I decided to venture with them because I thought she'd love to go, so we all went. The benefit of me going with them is that I actually got some photos of the event and got to see what it was all about.

Let me just say, what a GREAT event! The kids all get a couple of free t-shirts each, a free fishing pole, free bait, free lunch vouchers, free face painting, free bounce house entry, etc. You do have to get their pretty early to get in line to get your stuff and to insure a good spot where the fish are planted.

Liam and Izzy were VERY excited. Izzy was a little confused because she wanted to know EXACTLY where the fish were and why they didn't hand them to us when we got there. Here are the excited kids waiting in line:

They were very excited once we gave them their poles. You can see that Liam was using his to karate chop some invisible something and Izzy was inspecting hers to see how pretty it was. ;)
I took some photos so Erica would have some as well, and I thought this was such a great, manly, fishermanly shot of Jake, which it is, until you realize that he's holding a lime green and blue pole made for a five-year-old. ;)
I love this photo of the dads getting all the poles baited up.



After Liam and Izzy's attention spans were done with fishing, we went and did the free face painting. When the lady asked Liam what he wanted on his face, he matter-of-factly replied, "A Potato." I have no idea where that came from. I convinced him to choose something else so it didn't look like he had poop on his face all day. ;) He then chose a hot dog. Maybe he was hungry?
Ethan was the big fisherman of the day! He caught the one and only fish. He was also really the first one in our area to catch a fish at all. Izzy and Wes almost caught one but it broke the line. :(

I love this picture because you can see how proud Ethan is and Izzy is quite concerned behind him looking at it like she wants to run and say, "Get that thing away from me!" However, she was brave and just looked at it. Later she came and sat on my lap and said, "Titi, that fish scared me. He was going to get me! I don't like him." Maybe she'll like fish more next year...
Even though we personally didn't catch any fish, we had a great time! Liam is already looking forward to next year!

Slumber Party!

A couple of weekends ago, my sister needed someone to watch Izzy on a Saturday, so I decided that it was time we try out a little slumber party. I knew I was being brave. ;) Izzy and Liam get each other so wound up, that I was worried no one would get any sleep. However, I knew that I had the motherly powers of threatening no fruit snacks for the next day if certain little children didn't sleep, and it worked. They had a GREAT time and it went perfectly. Really, couldn't have been better.

They enjoyed a little fruit snack treat before bed time and a little bit of Monsters, Inc. :) Don't they look so sweet in their jammies?
Then Liam INSISTED that HE read us the bed time stories. He's really getting to be quite the little reader.
I really wish I could have taken a picture of Liam sleeping in his bed and Izzy sleeping on her little mattress on the other side of the room, but I was afraid to enter their room because I didn't want to jinx a night full of sleep! However, once they were tucked into their beds, we didn't hear a peep from them! It was a real miracle!

The next morning, we headed out bright and early for the Kids Fish for Free Day at the Marina. They were both super excited!
Many photos of fishing to follow...

The Never-Ending Saga of Bubble Boy

As most of you know, we've had quite the sickness-filled winter. It's been just one thing after another to the point where Liam would be healthy for one week and then sick again, healthy for one week, sick again, etc. Because of his dog allergy, we found Albus another home and thought that he would improve drastically. His improvement wasn't as drastic as we'd hoped for, but he did improve. Finally, we got him back in with his allergist so that I could talk to her about what had been going on.

She decided to do another scratch test and test him for environmental allergies. He had about 30-40 scratches on his back and all but, oh about 5, came back positive. I have a picture on my phone that I'll have to figure out how to post. All of the grasses, trees and weeds that he was tested for were highly positive. His sesame allergy is unchanged, which is actually good because it means it hasn't gotten worse and that it still has a chance of getting better. He was such a brave boy and did such a great job during the test. I don't know if I would have been able to handle having about 35 hives on my back and remained still.

After the doctor reviewed everything and we talked about what had been going on throughout the winter, she diagnosed him with asthma. While I knew it was coming, I was still pretty upset about it. Because of all of his environmental allergies, we've also changed and upped dosages on medications.

To treat his asthma and get it under control, we've been doing a daily nebulizer treatment of Pulmicort, which does seem to be helping a bit, which is good news. Liam thinks his fish face is pretty funny:


So, we're going to be trying this new regiment for a few weeks and then we'll head back to see Dr. Hogan. She'll then evaluate how well everything is working and we'll go from there.

The good news is, that after the age of 5, we'll be able to start allergy shots. She'll retest him next year and create a shot formula for all of his allergies that he'll get over the course of 5 years. Hopefully, this will help lessen or eradicate some of his allergies, which would be wonderful!

We've joked for a long time that he's a true bubble boy, but he continues to surprise us, and not in a good (!) way, that he really is a bubble boy. But, hopefully with such an awesome doctor, we can help control the situation and have a better winter next year as well.

Summer!

We finally had a week of summer-like weather! Hooray! So, my sister and I decided to get the kids into their swimsuits and let them go crazy with the sprinklers. They had a blast! It was so much fun. It was a wonderful kick-off to summer. Summer has taken a while to get here this year, so here's hoping for many more such days this summer.

Liam decided he needed to teach his cousin how to pee outside. I could not resist this picture. It didn't work out so well with Izzy, but fortunately she figured out how to squat. ;)
I LOVE carefree summer days and am SO glad that they are here.

Izzy and Peyton's Baptism

Isabelle and Peyton were baptized a few weeks ago. It was a lovely day (if not FREEZING at the end of May). They had a children's mass that Liam thought was great and he loved seeing his cousins be baptized.

Both Izzy and Peyton did a great job with the baptism. I love this picture of Izzy, Heather and Shaawn.
Sweet Peyton's turn:
Peyton with his Godparents, Shaawn's friend Troy and my mom:
Izzy with her Godparents: Mitch and Alicia Klaich:
Nana and Papa with all of their Grandkids: (as you can see Liam was determined to hold Peyton)
Heather and Shaawn and Izzy and Peyton with all of the Godparents:
They had a wonderful BBQ following the baptism. Heather ordered this amazing cake from Isabel's bakery here in Sparks. It was delicious! Thank you for a beautiful day, Cannon Family!

Baby Girl Fun

After our big ultrasound we had to stop at Carter's Outlet, of course, and then we went out to lunch. Liam was very excited about the pictures of his baby sister. He was proud to show her off. :)
One of the many fun things found at Carter's...
Our original ultrasound wasn't scheduled until June 1, but the ultrasound tech had to reschedule it, so not many people knew that we were having it that day. We decided to surprise our family and make cupcakes to tell them with what we were having. Wes injected pink frosting into white cupcakes frosted with white frosting so that when you bit inside you saw pink!
Liam's baby cupcake:
GG knew what was happening, but Grandpa-Great ate the whole thing without looking inside. ;)
It's a girl!
And a baby belly shot from 17.5 weeks! She pokes out some days and sits back others. :)