Labor Day Wknd in Washington

Labor Day Weekend in Washington

For Labor Day weekend we decided to brave it and try taking Cannon on his first real roadtrip. Because it's such a long drive from Rexburg to Pateros (about 11 hours) we decided to break it up into 2 days there and 2 days back with an overnight stay in Missoula, Montana. And a good thing too! Cannon did pretty well being in his carseat, but Dad and Mom really needed the break.

On the drive up we stopped at the Cabelas in Cour d'Alene (Anthony's new favorite store). This will probably be a new pre-planned stop for us from now on when we drive to WA.  Cannon really enjoyed trying out the camp chairs in the store, especially this "moon chair." and after putting him in the darling little kid sized camp chair we just couldn't resist getting it for him. And with cousin Madison's birthday coming up soon we thought it would be fun for them to have matching chairs. It was so adorable watching them sit side-by-side in their chairs holding hands (Madison insisted :) ).

This was a trip of many firsts for Cannon. There were lots of new animals for Cannon to see. He was mostly impressed with the goldfish and the bunnies. Anytime he got fussy we sat him in front of the fish tank and he perked up and would talk or sing to the fish.

Here he is with the bunnies. It startled him when they hopped, then he would laugh.

On Sunday we enjoyed going to the Brewster Branch. And a Sunday wouldn't be complete without a big family dinner with the Grandparents, missionaries, and Uncle Ron, Aunt Susie and Nick. It was a lot of fun having everyone together.

The orchard was beautiful this time of year. There were tons of raspberries ripe for the picking.

Aunt Alyssa and I took Cannon on a four-wheeler ride through the orchard. He was very good about sitting still and loved watching everything as we drove by. In spite of the challenge of the bright, high sun and the heat we found some good spots in the orchard to take pictures. Sadly though, Cannon was not his normal happy self by the time we got around to snapping shots. We got a few cute ones, but no smiles.

The day we had to leave we tried to take some cousin pictures with Cannon and Madi. We also ha quite a bit of difficulty when trying to take cousin pictures with Madi and Cannon. I sympathize now for parents with multiple children trying to take a nice family portrait..with everyone sitting still and smiling. Ha ha!

Madi was so sweet to share her ice cream cone with Cannon. And as we were getting all packed up Cannon decided to serenade Pappy. 

Just before we left we were able to get a four-generation photo of the Armstrong boys. Great Grandpa Larry Armstrong (C was born on his birthday), "Pappy" Marc Armstrong, Anthony Marc (the first Armstrong grandson), and Cannon Marc (the first Armstrong great-grandson).

It was such a fun long weekend with the family! We are so happy that we were able to go. And with as good as Cannon handled the drive we are looking forward to more trips with Lil Man.

Haircut & Fruit Ninja

Baby's First Haircut

All that thick, dark baby hair has fallen out....waaaahhhh! It wouldn't have been so bad if his hair would have all fallen out evenly, but instead he was left with a bald spot in the back and a long, stringy island of bangs. It was getting so long Cannon was looking very homely.

Now Cannon has a nice "swoop" bang kind of thing going on. :) And we kept his first lock of baby hair in a silver box that Oma gave him.

 Fruit Ninja

And here are the "fruits" of Daddy's teaching labors. Cannon loves playing Fruit Ninja on the iPad. And he's actually pretty good at it...until he decides he wants to eat the iPad instead of swipe at it. 

Meeting Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt LoLo and Cousin Liam

The weekend of August 17th-20th my Dad, Step-mom, baby sister Laurel, and her little boy, Liam, flew out to Idaho to come visit us and meet Cannon for the first time! We had so much fun.

Friday the fam flew in and we went out for brunch. That afternoon we went to Bear World per the request o birthday girl, Laurel. It was time for her to return to her bear family that she met about 4 years ago when she came out to Rexburg to visit us for a week. Bear World was fun. The petting zoo was fun for the little boys. Dad and Nancy were also pretty happy to see a magpie, a "life bird" to mark off their birding list.

 

On Saturday we celebrated Laurel's 19th birthday by doing a day trip to Yellowstone. It was Cannon's first roadtrip and he did pretty well...especially considering he was cutting his first two teeth that weekend. We patiently awaited the magnificent eruption of Old Faithful.

Dad looked like an anxious and excited little boy watching and waiting for the geyser to go off. The most exciting part of the trip though was the matching coonskin hats that Grandpa bought for the boys. He had wanted one as a little boy, but sadly, never got one. So he insisted on spoiling the grandsons with a coonskin cap of their own, complete with a real raccoon tail. :) Lol!

I wonder if they realized that they wore matching clothes all weekend? Ha ha!

Sunday was a nice, relaxing day. After church the Mommies (and Dad) hung out with babies at home while Grandma and Grandpa had a chance to go out birding. We had a lot of fun letting the boys play together...even though Liam seemed pretty intent on wanting to poke Cannon's eyes out.

It was so precious to watch Grandpa having so much fun loving on his Grandsons. It's moments like these that make you realize what life is really all about...Family.

4 months!

15.5 lbs (62nd percentile)

16.25" long (83rd percentile)

16.25" head (25th percentile)

Four months hit and all of a sudden Cannon pulled some new tricks out his sleeve. It's like he was just waiting to actually turn 4 months old and then within days he had mastered blowing raspberries and standing up. 

 
In the past Cannon has blown raspberries, but it was exclusively when he was upset and/or frustrated. Now he does it for entertainment and likes to mimic Daddy doing it. He's so drooly right now (because he's teething) that when he does it spit goes flying! He ends up soaked in saliva but thinks its hilarious.

Lil Man also likes standing up now. When we hold him in our laps he likes standing, legs locked and bending forward to drool on your face. Ha ha!

At four months old Cannon is still a chatterbox. His "vocabulary" of noises and sounds continues to expand.
He gurgles and gargles and still let's out a high pitched squeal when he doesn't like something. He's quite the communicator and very expressive. We love how he has conversations with us and takes turns going back and forth talking.

Sadly, Lil Man's hair continues to fall out. The front "island" (as Anthony likes to call it) stayed long and stringy as the rest was rubbing off short or just all together falling out. We finally decided it was time for a haircut. We just trimmed the top so that we can still spike it in the front. His first haircut curl is now safely tucked away in a silver box marked "first curl" that Oma gave us.

Feae waking Up displaced
Pushes off with his feet

15 Weeks- accomplished in the last week

7/28 this morning I watched a video of cousin Ramona when she was 15 weeks old (I like to see if the cousins at the same stages). Cannon was nursing while I watched Ramona jabbering in her high chair. Cannon would stop nursing and look at my Phn and shoot dirty looks as if to say "hey! Who's interrupting my breakfast?!" I showed him the screen and told him it was. cousin Ramona. He raised a curious eyebrow (he has such an expressive face) and watched the rest of the video with me then contentedly went back to finishing his morning meal.

For whatever reason Cannon has started putting his hand on his face all the time. We were worried that maybe he had an earache or something, but over time it seems to just be a preference.


Cannon is becoming curious about food. He likes to watch us eat. And looks very inquisitive about what we are doing. He's really good with a bottle and recognizes what it means when he sees Anthony holding one. When we drink water bottles C gets a little miffed because he thinks it's his "ba ba" we are guzzling down.

Lil Man no longer gets cold and frustrates with baths, rather he loves the bath now.