Cannon & Chandler's Big Birthday Bash!

We celebrated Cannon's 1st and Chandler's 30th Birthday a few weeks ago (March 19th, 2010). Cannon's real birthday is March 12th  and Brian's is March 15th, so I decided to have a joint party since it was a big birthday for both of them but truth be told it was really ALL ABOUT CANNON.....lol.....but Chandler did have a great time too! We celebrated it a week later since that weekend fell on Spring Break for most of our family, which worked out perfectly for everyone.

I worked myself up into a frenzy a few days before the actual party, thoughts of "it has to be perfect for him, it's his first birthday" just kept invading my brain, when in reality the only thing he is going to remember about this party is the pics he has to look back on but those who know me, know how I am when it comes to parties and details! Since we did not have a "home of our own" to host the party I decided to reserve a room at the country club and have a "golf" themed par-tee and it turned out fabulous! It was an evening party so I made it a catered event with all your "typical" golf themed foods - hot dogs, mini corn dogs, hamburger/chicken sliders, fries, chips and salsa, beer, wine, water, lemonade, tea, cake, cupcakes, donut holes, and cookies. The two birthday boys had about 40ish guest, mostly family and close friends. Cannon's Poppa and Yaya had their golf cart all tricked out for his birthday party and took all the kiddos and babes on golf cart rides. Right outside the room was a nice playground for the kids to play around on after dinner and cake. I strongly recommend using Decordova for any type of catering party, the food was great and they did a very good job of checking on guests through out the party, setting up for the party and take down - I was very impressed! If you haven't used the Grand Cakery yet, I strongly recommend them also, they did the cake which was decorated in a golf theme (I went with marble cake and butter cream frosting), not only did it look good, it tasted great too. I have to give a major shout out to my college bf for doing such an awesome job on the custom paper designs for the invitations, stickers, banners, cupcake sticks, food place cards - if any wants her info let me know she is amazingly creative! I had fun challenging my own creativity with this par-tee theme - I did all the table center pieces on my own, my Gram made the cupcakes/cookies and me and my sis decorated them, my Mom, Sisters, Cousin, Gram, and Aunt all helped me decorate the room the night before (I want to send out a HUGE thank you to them, I couldn't have done it without you ladies - eventhough I was somewhat of a control freak while they were helping, they know how I am - so they graciously ignored me and helped so much), I used the internet some to help me think of some ideas but most of the creativity came from me and my love for these two boys for whom I wanted to throw a very memorable par-tee for. Everyone had a great time and I am so glad we had such a wonderful reason for everyone to get together for a little celebration of two people we all love and fellowship. I want to send a special thanks for everyone who came to the party, we are so glad you came and love you all!

The two birthday boys had a great time. Cannon is always in the mood for a golf cart ride with his Poppa and Yaya, except this time some of his friends were able to join him in the fun. Cannon enjoyed swinging outside with some of his friends. Shockingly he isn't a big fan of sweets, it is shocking b/c me and his daddy LOVE sweets but he did have a few tastes of his Texas cupcake which I guess is better than nothing. He really doesn't like to get messy either, so if there is anything of a liquid or gooey texture on his plate he usually won't touch and the only way he'll eat is if I feed it to him with a spoon.....I guess we should be thankful for that but on the other hand that's what little boys are suppose to be all about right.....I am betting this phase won't last for long, so maybe we should enjoy it while it lasts. He had fun opening his presents and has had a fun time playing with them at home. The only really 1st birthday faux paux I made as a host was forgetting about the opening of the presents since I put on the invitation "your presence is the only present required" (knowing that their would be presents brought still, at least for Cannon), I guess I just blocked that part of the party out of mind until someone asked me when are you going to do the gifts which was like an 1 1/2 after the party started.......lol.........but hey at least we got to it and I hope none of you think that since I didn't remember about this part of party, that I didn't appreciate your gifts because I did very much so. Which I should probably mention I am in the process of writing thank you notes for now, I am the World's Worst at sending thank you notes in a timely manner, a personal faux paux of mine! Cannon played so much that he was so tired when it was time to go, which was already passed his bed time. He was such a good sport the entire party and never got cranky until it was well past his bedtime. He loved being held, kissed and pampered by everyone all weekend, I think he could get used to several birthday parties throughout the year with this kind of personal treatment alone.

A few snap shots of the party..........

Chandler Lately......

Well it has been awhile since the last time I blogged, not because I haven't wanted or even attempted a few times but lately or maybe since Cannon has been born there just doesn't seem like there is enough hours in the day to everything I need to do and finding time to do things I just want to do is a luxury in itself. So here are just a few updates on some of the main things going in our lives. Plus another drawback is we've had shotty internet service, so my connection is hit or miss.

Family - We have spent most of our Saturdays lately going to watch my little brother and sister's bball games and let me tell you if you already didn't know - 10 and 12 years are AGGRESSIVE and COMPETITIVE and so our their parents! From my observations, it seems like most 12 year old girls have that little pre-teen attitude going on so that's always fun to watch for the extra drama and 10 year old boys are such hustler's but so clumsy and when they lose it just takes one of the boys to start the water works and the whole team folds. As they are shaking the winning teams hand with one hand, they are drying their eyes with the other hand. I do have to brag on my little bro and sis, they both made All Stars for their age group and I am one proud big sis! We also have discovered that Cannon LOVES bball, he watches his Aunt and Uncle so intensely it is crazy! He will throw out a periodic yell or laugh and at half time he always looks forward to going down on the court and gets very excited to be a part of the half time huddle chant, he sticks his hand in and looks up in the crowd to find us to give us that big, sweet smile of his. Of course, he doesn't realize he only gets to do this because his Yaya and Poppa are the coaches BUT we would never tell him other wise because he thinks he is Mr. Big Time when he is down there on the floor, it is the cutest thing every. On Sundays we do what I call CFETWH - Church, Family Time, Eat, Tan, Work Out, House Work - not all of these things get accomplished every Sunday but at least a few are covere. This month we've enjoyed visits from my sister, gram, and grandaddy. In two weekends we will have lots of visitors coming in for Canman's 1st bday and we are so excited to see everyone!

Work - Business has been busier than ever in alot of different aspects! I am getting ready to open the lab diagnostics part of our the Assurance Medical Diagnositics & More, April 18th- this business development idea began about 1 year and 8 months ago and is now officially coming to life and I am so excited! I've been really busy working to get everything prepared for the grand opening and can't wait to see what God has in store for this career adventure in my life. I look forward to posting more info about this business soon and you can follow new updates on this part of my life and business on my new blog -

House - Well this issue has kind of been a BIG thorn in our sides since we sold our house. The major issue regarding our new house hunt has been COMPROMISE. Compromising on the size of house, to build or buy, amount of land, area, school district, budget, subdivision/non subdivision......you name it we've probably disagreed about it BUT somehow we have finally COMPROMISED on all of these things, which I thought was never going to happen. Two Sundays ago we went to church and the sermon was over a marriage series we've been attending at Stonewater, God definitely spoke bo both of us and we must have listened. Because after church we went to lunch and finally COMPROMISED on everything, so now that we have our house priorities aligned - what was once such a BIG thorn has turned into alot of FUN - Thank you God! I am so excited to see what God has in store for our next move and I know it's going to be something that we will all love and build lots of wonderful memories in.

Cannon - Well I could write all day on the new things going on with this amazingly, sweet boy BUT I will save it for next time. I will tell you Saturday is his first birthday and this momma has alot of bittersweet feelings about that! I can't believe it has been a year and how fast it has all flown by. I hope by Saturday I can treat all of my friends to a special blog, a re-cap tribute to what has been one wonderful year, fully dedicated to the toddler of the day.......so stayed tuned.

Today has not been so great in the sense that the only reason I have found time to blog is because I am at home with a sick, little baby boy who is napping right now! His first birthday is this Saturday, I can't believe it's been one year! His birthday party is next Saturday and it is a golf theme I can not wait it's going to be so cute and I am so excited to see our friends and family! Please tell after the year mark, the sickness starts to diminish........XOXO - Kristen

Snow Week!!!

So what turned into a snow day has practically turned into a snow week! I would at least like a memo at least one week in advanced from mother nature next time this happens so that I can plan for a family vacay to the beach!

Snow Day #1

We stayed in all day, all three of us - played in the snow for about a second (it was too windy for Canman to get the full snow experience but it wasn't worthy risking getting him sick again); cooked homemade chili for dinner and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. It was a lovely and relaxing day with my two main squeezes.

Snow Day #2

Cannon spent day with his daddy and poppa, which basically means that they all just played, ate, napped all day and I went up to the office because I had a ton of stuff to work on. We all met up for dinner at my favorite Italin restaurant and crashed early!

Snow Day #3

Cannon and I spent the morning playing and hanging out while Daddy worked half a day. Then I went up to the office for the afternoon while Cannon and Daddy spent their time playing, hanging out and going to lunch with the "guys". We had a low key night and tried to crash early but Canman wasn't having it.

Snow Day #4

Pretty much a mix of the rest of the snow days, I sure have loved spending this extra time with my little man but I am ready to get back to a structured schedule!

I am also ready for a ski trip, I am hoping that we can fit it in soon, we need a little winter vacay!

Pure Gratitude

Well the beginning of 2011 can be summed up in two words by me (U-T-T-E-R  E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-O-N), yes this is me yelling!!!

We started the new year off with a fantastic offer on our house, what was not so fantastic was the fact that after closing we were only given 6 days to be out of our house! With the holidays still going on, our household being sick pretty much the entire month of January, having to pack up the house we've made a home for the last five years, finding another place to live (we only had 6 days after the day we closed to be out of the house), while juggling the daily demands of life, and chasing after an on the move 10 1/2 month baby, has been difficult and stressful to say the least! But we did it, we made it out alive, and even on our grouchiest, most exhausting days we managed not to harm the other.....LOL.....but seriously that is something to celebrate considering our state of  health and mental capacity during this moving process! 

Our previously owned home was nestled in a beautiful gated community, heavily wooded, with a beautiful river that ran through it, wildlife frolicked without a care in the world - it truly is a very peaceful and serene neighborhood. So you may be wondering why in the world we would ever want to leave this little Granbury gem, right? Well back in April we decided we were tired of driving the 20-30 minute drive into town every day, so we discussed putting our house on the market and that following week we had a "For Sale" sign in our yard. Since we didn't have to sell our house or weren't in a hurry to sell it, we were really anxious to just to see what would happen with it. As the months went on we began to even forget it was still up for sale, we'd have a few showings here and there, but nothing ever really promising walked through our doors. We weren't really expecting to sell our house in a very fast manner, considering this economy, Granbury real estate, and the fact that we initially & purposely listed it unrealistically higher than what it was worth. In December we received an offer we couldn't turn down and from the moment our realtor felt like everything was going to go through on the buyers end, we have been going 90 miles to nothing.

Since we didn't have anytime to find a new house to buy right away, our realtor made accommodations for us to rent something on a month to month basis. The first rent house she found us would have worked out fine for a short term basis, if the suspicious man I noticed watching me move stuff in the first week we were there wouldn't have turned out to be a high risk sex offender. So........now we are moving into rent house #2, that we just happened to stumble across finding and it happened to be owned by some dear church friends of ours. Rent house #2 is cute and in a quaint, quiet neighborhood but best of all it is in town and only 2 minutes from work for me! It is quite a bit smaller than what we came out of but that is ok because we only moved our bare essentials in and put the rest in storage until we find something to buy. The rent house doesn't have the upgraded appliances, wood floors, crown molding, granite counter tops, light fixtures, garden bath tub, and the amenities of country club living that we once had at our disposal BUT it does provide a roof over our heads, has running water & electricity, is in a safe neighborhood, & is another place for to create some more wonderful family memories. So if you've lost counting how many times we've moved in one month this will be our 3rd time, so yes I am absolutely utterly exhausted!

Rewinding back to the beginning of this month, I can recall my primary focus just being set on packing up our home and praying we got out by our deadline. I had little time to really reflect upon how I was truly going to feel about leaving it, I didn't have any time to take any moving pictures, I had zero energy to blog about it......all of my time was spent with my face in boxes. I went through several emotions after the move from our first house was officially over and it had time to finally sink in. Seller's remorse was the main emotion. I started thinking about all the memories we had their - the first house we bought together as a married couple, celebrating our first anniversary, our first fight as a married couple (LOL), our first christmases (without and with Cannon), bringing Cannon home for the first time, Cannon's first bedroom that I designed especially for him, all of the rooms that I so patiently decorated and made sure that everything I bought would fit perfectly for that wall space and that nook, parties we had thrown with friends & family, the wood floors & fence we put in........I could go on and on but after I got over all of that I realized that God must have a different plan for us, considering all of the circumstances with the sell of our house.

We are really not sure what our next "home" purchase move will be, in these next few months we are going to spend alot of time praying for what God's plans are for our next home. Whether it's to stay in Granbury, to buy on the water or land, to build.......who knows, but I do know that no matter where we end up as long as we are together the rest will work itself out. Through this move I've realized alot of things - we don't need a new or big house to be happy, we just need eachother; I can actually live with the bare essentials that I need, not necessarily what I want - eventhough our house is super bland because there is no decor, I can live without it but I do miss it b/c I love to decorate; we have a tendency to take for granted all of the things we are blessed with and with the next home we will definitely utilize all aspects of the house and the property; God is so good and is very protective over his children (the sex offender story is a long one so I will spare you) but everything that happened from the beginning to the end was all due to God's watchful eye over our family and that we listened to our hearts and his silent messages to discover that where we were wasn't where we needed to be. I felt so stressed during this whole transitions but God definitely reassured me that he was with me through it all, which was a very humbling moment for me. We are truly blessed in many areas of our lives and very fortunate to have family and friends who pitched in anyway they could to help and all of that definitely did not go unnoticed we owe alot of people our helping hands whenever they find themselves in need of extra help and we will be so happy to give back, we couldn't have done it without all of you that helped and thank you so much!

During that hectic time I decided to take a little break from facebook to focus on what I needed to get done and it was the best thing I could've done! I discovered that I can actually live outside of this addicting, social network BUT I did miss having a place to upload pics and videos of Canman so easily! So I am back but I am putting myself on a strict time limit when it comes to fb! I actually spent alot of time doing other more important things, that may have otherwise been spent on fb, so I learned a valuable lesson while putting myself on fb suspension and plan to stick to the new fb limitations I've put on myself!

As for Cannon he is doing great and I will blog about him soon. I am just hoping we haven't messed him up completely this month, I don't really think he knows where our home is! Original house, Yaya and Poppa's house, rent house 1, rent house 2..........that's alot for a little 10 1/2 month old to take in over a one month period!

Sorry for the long spill, but it's been awhile and lots of new things have happened! I sure have missed ya'll and will blog again soon!

Cannon's Torture Chamber!

Well today I learned something brand new about my sweet little baby boy - he absolutely HATES going through the car wash - I guess I should have thought about it before I so absent mindedly drove through what is now know as Cannon's Torture Chamber. He screamed, cried, threw his head back the entire way through it, so I definately felt like a bad mommy today - who would have thought that the loud blowers, violent water splashing, sponges slamming would ever scare a soon to be 10 month old, ummmm that would be this mommy - so sorry Cannon that I ruined your first trip to the car wash experience! I really hope you don't have nightmares about this episode!

Merry Christmas To Me!

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End

As I was driving today I heard this phrase in a song playing on the radio, “Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End,” and that could not sum up 2010 for our family any better. This year has been nothing short of many challenging, faith driven, risky, pray filled hopes for these new and uncertain beginnings, and in the end has left us wonderfully blessed with some awesome outcomes.

In March, God blessed us with a handsome baby boy, who has been our sweetest and most adored blessing of 2010 but really the best blessing of our lives. He is so sweet, happy, loving, funny, spoiled, smart, crazy and I could just go on and on but I won’t because this blog would them become very long! He turned 9 months in December and is crawling everywhere, getting into everything, clapping, pulling up, resisting table food (which is crazy because I thought that would be such an easy switch), inquisitive, loves to play with any type of interactive toy, loves to try to get a hold of my laptop and I phone, laughs, plays hide and seek, points, pulls hair, shakes his head no, pushes things away that he doesn’t want, throws his food on the floor so he can watch Banquet eat it, loves to pet and pull on Banquet, loves to play patty cake, loves to push and ride his mobile toys and so much more! I can’t believe I am going to be planning his first birthday party in a few short months, time has flown by so fast! We would be so lost without our sweet Canman and praise God everyday for this wonderful blessing that has made our lives so much more exciting and worthwhile!

Christmas pretty much came and went in record speed this year in the Chandler home. I usually go all out the Christmas décor of the house and bake like crazy, this year however I put up limited décor and only baked a few loafs of bread and cookies. I definitely was a Christmas slacker this year without question but all of that didn’t matter I was just happy to celebrate our very first Christmas with our new little edition! My family came down and we had a wonderful time – eating, playing games, watching movies, opening presents, cookie decorating contest, practical jokes, played with Cannon and his new toys, played with our new toys, laughed, chatted……that was pretty much our Christmas holiday in a nutshell and it was awesome! As long as we have our family and God in anything that we do, that is ALL we ever need in our lives!

Christmas Afternoon Headed To Yaya and Poppas House!

TTU Bike That Yaya and Poppa Got Me

Feeling Pretty Miserable.....

Cannon’s first Christmas wasn’t exactly the picture perfect moment I had envisioned in my mind, on Christmas Eve he started running 102.2 degree fever and was sick for the rest of the weekend. He felt so miserable and just wanted to rest, he had his moments of excitement but they were short lived due to the limited amount of energy he had! Although he was really sick, I am pretty sure he loved every bit of being held and never put down all weekend. We made frosted sugar cookies for Jesus, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, left the cookies and milk for Santa to enjoy, and we listened to the voice recorded book of The Christmas Story that his Yaya and Poppa recorded for him before he went to bed. The morning of Christmas, Santa made a big appearance in the Chandler household, he left Cannon toys and clothes; ate his cookies and sipped his milk; and left Cannon a letter. Cannon was definitely overwhelmed with so many new things to figure out, he played until he started feeling bad again and ate his Christmas oatmeal and then it was back to everyday life for him – eat, play, sleep, poop and repeat – LOL! He definitely made out like a bandit this year with an overwhelming amount of toys and clothes, which we enjoyed watching him have fun playing with but concerned us a little, as we didn’t want to start his first Christmas off with crazy amounts of materialistic STUFF but I guess you can’t really control what crazy, obsessed and in love - great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles are going to do!

Christmas Oatmeal

2010 was a great year for our family and reflecting back to the beginning of it……….We found the perfect school for Cannon, that we all love and are so thankful for; we’ve made new friends that we cherish dearly; we’ve grown closer to God; we’ve fallen more in love with our church and church family; we’ve learned hard lessons in different areas of our lives but have found ways to move on and learn from them; we’ve experienced the love for our own child, which is unlike anything else; we are in the process of selling our house (please pass prayers along our way that everything goes as it should and we close on January 17th); God has opened doors and closed them; we’ve prioritized the things in our lives that we feel are important for ourselves and our family, which has come with some difficult, process of elimination decisions but in the end has created some new and abundant blessing through new friendships, our spiritual walks, financial peace, our family/friend relationships, parenting, our careers, new personal/family goals……….I know every day I receive a new blessing that I fail to see and my hope is that for the new year, I will learn to look beyond the major blessings and disappointments that happen to me or our family throughout the year and make a DAILY acknowledgement of the blessings that God gives me every second of every day! I hope to find a way to use all of the physical and spiritual gifts that God has blessed me with on a DAILY basis, rather than when it is convenient for me or on a special occasion.

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." - Erma Bombeck.............that's my hope for myself not just in the new year but throughout my life!

I can't believe this is my last post in 2010! May God Bless You All In 2011 – Happy New Year - We Love You All!!!