Grammy's Big Birthday and Fun around the house

Guess what? I am finally downloading pics and updating our blog!! You want to know how I have time to do this, two days before Cade's birthday party? I have a MAID coming tomorrow...actually, an entire team of them!! It has been 10 weeks since we have had professional cleaning help around here, but who is counting? I am SO EXCITED to not be mopping my floors right now or cleaning bathrooms! So, I've got a few mounds of laundry to work on, but those can wait!

First of all, we celebrated Grammy's birthday back on July 12th. We had so much fun since we were all together for it this year!!Grammy just loves all of her boys!!


We had to purchase a new waterslide. GRRRR! Ours decided to crap out right after I had sent out Cade's party invitations. I was so mad!! The boys are thrilled though....I got a different kind and it shoots water out of a cannon...not sure that was a great idea! This picture sums it all up...Cade coming down, Carson shooting him and Cannon SNEAKING into the pool with his clothes on!!
Love Cade's expression here!

The boys going down like a train...
This just has disaster written all over it!

Check out Carson's arms! Okay, it is partly shadows, but the kid is ripped.

I got to sneak away for a much needed girls' weekend to Dallas. Thorsen and Scott have an awesome new home with a POOL! Katy and I kept saying that we felt like we were at a resort...reading a magazine by the pool was something that I haven't been about to do in a LONG time.I was watering in the front yard the other night, which Cannon LOVES!! He freaks whenever the hose is out.And gets so mad when the water gets turned off!!Cannon is such a litte toot these days!! Very much into throwing temper tantrums...actually, he'll throw just about anything!!

The Woodlands Children's Museum

HA! I finally updated this blog and I am SO PROUD of myself for figuring out how to do it! Special thanks to Amanda!! ;-)

We met Jill, Ryan and Koen at The Children's Museum in The Woodlands this morning. The boys had a great time! It isn't very big, but it had A/C and lots of space for them to run around, so it was a winner in my book.

Check out Cannon's faux-hawk! SO FUNNY!! Carson and I thought that it would be a good idea to gel his hair up today, and he looked pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself. This 'do fits his spunky little personality!

Koen and Cannon checking it all out...probably scoping out a big kid to go beat on or steal their shovel!

My little firefighters! Aunt Jill dressed them up and they very much enjoyed these costumes.
An attempt at a picture of all 4. Maybe we will get one before they have to go home to Germany? Maybe??

Cannon's 1st Haircut

Awww, how sad is this? He is officially a big boy now!! I was pretty torn up over this little milestone! However, he had quite the baby mullet going, as his hair has been slow to come in. So, we just had to trim it up (which means the curls are gone!) and even it out a bit.

Here he is, ready to go!

Things started out quite calmly, with the help of sucker.

Going okay (good bye baby hair....)

But they quickly turned south!

All done, getting cleaned up and still really hacked off!
He's out of there...still has tears! Check out this look he is giving me!
Oh, and now his big boy cut. SO SAD, but he's so stinkin' cute!

Big brothers got a trim too. Carson and I compromised on his. We've been working on growing his out all summer, and it's hard! That boy has some crazy, funky hair!! We cut it short enough to spike it up a bit and make it crazy, which makes Carson crazy happy. We didn't cut off that part at his crown that was next to impossible to get long enough so that he doesn't look like he has a sprout up there 24-7. Cute, huh?

Cade got a trim too! He looks so clean and little boyish now....I'm secretly missing the surfer look though and we'll be probably growing that out! Everytime we get it long and go in for a trim, they wack it all off!

July 4th Weekend

We had a great holiday weekend, but it seemed to fly by! We started off by going up to the Y pool on Friday and meeting the Blakes up there. The boys had a good time! Here are Carson and Cannon sliding.

Also, on Friday, we had a visitor on our porch. A very unwelcome visitor. Matt sent me a text while I was getting a pedi that said, "I just caught a bat on the porch. Think I should call animal control?". Ummm...that was just weird! To make a long story short, we don't have animal control, but you could pay $100 for some company to come out and assess it! Matt traped it in the sidewalk chalk box, anchored down by our huge bench. The company advised him to leave it trapped until night and then see if it flys away. It did....THANK GOD. Carson though Matt should have "hit it with a hammer" and I kind of agreed with him! Here it is....NASTY.

On Saturday, we hit The Woodlands parade down at Market Street. The boys had a great time for the first half of it....they were totally impressed with all of the firetrucks and the sirens! Cade had this look of awe on his face. Cannon even set in the stroller for that part, which is quite impressive these days! There were lots of service men, hummers and guns, which also were quite impressive in the boys' books! Then, on came the beauty queens and such and they could have cared less. If somebody was passing out candy, they would smile and wave, otherwise, they were done!

Another one of Cade, looking thrilled!Cannon being a stinker on his Daddy's lapAfter that, we were hot! We changed into suits and headed up to the Cranebrook pool. Lucky us, it was Splash Day. That meant free cupcakes! Notice surfer boy's hair...it is the last one of it that long...he got a trim on Sunday. So sad, I've got to let it grow out again.Cannon was a big 'ole mess!After this, we put the boys down and then went over to Mom and Larry's to hang out with them, Jill, Ryan and Koen. Jill took this pic of us going in....too bad that Larry's work car is in the background!Sister, mom and me!We attempted a picture of all four boys...you can see how well that went.A cute one of Koen.Cade being his silly self.Lastly, Carson having a blast on this motorcycle at a birthday party on Sunday.

This was supposed to be his first "drop off" party. It was at Main Event here in The Woodlands. I went over with him the rules, my cell phone number...all of the stuff you are "supposed to do". Well, he wasn't having it! He kept asking me to stay, and quite honestly, I wasn't 100 percent comfortable with leaving him with parents that I didn't fully know. NOW, I kind of know them from school and the swimming pool and they are great people, but still! I was nervous!! So, maybe next time, we'll both have enough courage to master the drop off? Please make this slow down, please!!

Father's Day

So, I'm super behind on our blog!! I'm finally getting around to posting the Father's Day pics, which are now three weeks behind.

We started celebrating Father's Day with Matt on Saturday. Our boys are lucky to have a daddy that loves them so much and is so great with them! We took him out to dinner at Rico's to celebrate.

Some nice lady stopped and asked to take a picture of all of us, which was nice since don't have hardly any of all five of us!
They boys love to climb on this deal out front, which I'm pretty sure is not what it was intended to for!
Cutie surfer boy!
Cannon just goes for the ice cream!
We also pulled out the waterslide...I know! SHOCKING!! We have definitely put some miles on that thing this summer!!
Carson, never falls short on the air shots.Cade is such a silly goose! Always making us smile, that one!!
And a picture of baby blue eyes! Yes, he's eating margarita ice...loves it!
And Cannon and Daddy in their matching sunglasses! What a pair, right?Happy Father's Day, Daddy....we hope that you had as much fun as we did!

Odds and Ends

I have just some odds and ends of pictures over the last couple of weeks that don't really fit under any general description, so here it goes!

In addition to our new pet frogs, we're also finding tons outside. It turns out that they really like the waterslide when we have that out, as well as hiding out by the trees outside. The boys pretty much torture them. I end up feeling bad for the frogs and make them let them go!

Cannon thinks that they are a riot!

Jill, Ryan and Koen are all in town, and that has been so much fun! Koen is HUGE and just as cute as he can be! Cannon is thrilled to have somebody to pick on (though Koen is way bigger than him...but Cannon can out run him!). Here, Koen is enjoying his first popsicle ever and Cannon swiped it from him. That didn't go over very well! We were about to give them a bath, hense the diapers and no clothes.

Carson has been very sweet to him. He just pretty much dotes on him and treats him like he does Cannon...even picking him up and lugging him around. Koen is quite the trooper!Surely more pictures to follow of the boys together, but I haven't had time to get any more. It's always chaos and I'm too busy keeping up with kids to take pics.

Carson was jumping off of the playset here. Okay, not the safest, but it's a cool picture.

Whatever Carson does, Cade has to try.Carson found these great sunglasses at HEB for $1 and he feels like a rockstar in them...especially when rocking out to his iPod.And lastly, Ryan came up for a visit! We love it when he comes....the boys all play so well together and it makes for a good time for the parents. There is never any bickering or arguing. HEAVEN.With any luck, I will get the last of my pictures posted tomorrow and I'm wanting to update this blog look too. If you have any easy suggestions on how to do that, please let me know! All of my friends seem to have these fancy looking blogs and I'm still using the original template. I do good to keep up with the posts as it is!

Our new pets

So, we've got some new pets here at the Mitchell house. As for how, they came about...that's a good story. Poor Cade got yet another staph infection a couple of weeks ago. I noticed on a Tuesday that he had a spot that wasn't looking so great on the back of his leg. I watched it like crazy for the next couple of days and it just wasn't getting better and was pretty sure that it was staph. SO, on Thursday, I took him to the doctor and she concurred with me. They had to get a large needle and poke it and drain it. You can imagine how well that went over. AWFUL. The doctor asked me if we wanted to go straight to Texas Children's or try to do it there, I opted to torture him there. They sent it off for a sample, and sure enough, it was the MRSA staph. Luckily, we caught it very early and he started a strong round of antibiotics and was fine after a few days. THANK GOD! I am so terrified of that mess.

Anyway - some photos of the staph (sorry if you are easily grossed out!). At the pediatrician's office:

Day 2:Day 3:At this point, I was feeling pretty bad for the little guy. He was pretty much stuck inside...no swimming or anything like that. SO, I took him to Learning Express to buy him a new toy....we came home with these - FROGSIt's a pretty smart idea...they have their own little eco system in there. You have to feed them once or twice a week (kind of confused on that part...we are doing twice, just to be safe...) and change their water every 5 or 6 months. Not so bad! They have been named, "Mr. Froggie Froggie" and "Mr. Boing Boing". There is also a snail in there (which I am pretty sure is now dead) that they were calling Snowcone. Good times!