Gearing Up For the Holidays!

My Kiddos with their cousins

With the holidays fast approaching a lot of excitement is in the air! We have already done our Thanksgiving shopping so we didn't have to fight the grocery store crowds the week of! Plus Bequita and I are headed to Oklahoma this week. We are going to have an early Thanksgiving with my family. I am so excited to see everyone. It was August the last time I got to see everyone, which was at Jane-Jane's funeral, so hopefully this will be a better visit. I know it is still going to be hard though because this will be our first get together without her. I know there will be tears but in the Dees family one thing is for sure, LAUGHTER! We always have great stories to share and fun times to remember to keep the day up beat! For that I am very grateful. Everyone is so excited to see Miss Mady Jane because she has grown so much since they have seen her. And of course their little Cannonball too!

Cannon has been seeing a lot of toy commercials lately. Let me tell you, those advertisers are good! He knows exactly what toys are boy toys and which are meant for girls. He tells me when barbies are on the tv that those are my toys I can get, then a commercial for some fighting zhu zhu pets is on and he tells me those are for boys. He also wants EVERY SINGLE TOY he determines is a boy toy. He will come tell me daily what toys he wants for Christmas. Stinky the Garbage Truck tops his list. I have no idea what this Stinky does but he LOVES it! One thing my Child doesn't need is more toys though. How do you handle this?? He has a large toy room FULL of toys. He doesn't want for anything but yet on Christmas I can't bear to think of him not receiving a toy that he really likes. I don't know what to do because since we have Madison she will begin to receive a ton of toys too. I try to go through periodically and get rid of toys he no longer uses (or that I would rather not listen to anymore! ;-) )

I am also trying to figure out what to get Miss Madison. She has a lot of baby toys that were Cannon's that she uses now. There are so many cute little girl baby toys though. A few of Cannon's don't work anymore so I am thinking she should get a few new ones. And of course, CLOTHES! :)

I have been working on a few projects lately and I will share them with everyone soon. I am just hoping they turn out like I picture them in my head! I am using ideas I have seen else where and trying to recreate without any pattern. Yikes, could be scary! On second thought, maybe I won't be sharing! You will just have to keep checking back to see...

Convos with Cannon

Here are a few cute conversations I have had with Cannon lately:

Cannon: Mom, umm we are out of shape.

Me: Yeah I know.

Cannon: Yeah, mom, you really need to start working out!

Me: Thanks.

Cannon: Here is your workout video.

Me: (Thinking to myself) Wow, I look that bad, that my child has to make me workout! Yikes! :)


Convo #2

Cannon: Mom, I want to give daddy a good bye hug.

Me: Okay well he is already gone but I thought you gave him a hug already.

Cannon: Yeah, that was just a regular hug, I want to give him a GOOD goodbye hug.

Me: Oh, well when he gets home you can give him a welcome home hug.

Cannon: Yeah, not just a regular one.


Convo #3

At Target buying things for a little boy for Operation Christmas Child.

Me: Okay Cannon which car do you think he would like.

Cannon: Umm... I want this one.

Me: No Cannon, this is not for you it is for a little boy who doesn't have very many toys.

Cannon:Oh, yeah. Well why does he not have toys?

Me: Well some kids aren't lucky like you who get to have tons of toys. This little boy probably only has one or maybe two toys! What do you think about that!

Cannon: Yeah, he should probably have about 5.

Convo #4

Bequita was telling me about when Andrew was little he would complain about his legs hurting. She took him to the doctor and found out he had a lot of hairline fractures from growing so fast. Cannon overheard this conversation and this was a product of that:

Me: Come on Cannon lets go inside this store.

Cannon: I can't walk mommy. My legs are hurting.

Me: Oh no! I am so sorry! What is wrong with them?

Cannon: They are broke mommy. I got a bunch of hair in them.

Bequita and I were rolling!

Cannon's one liners:

That helicopter was freakin' me out!

Keep your eyes peeled Papa!

Ahhh, that Madison Janey, she's a silly girl!

Man I love that sweet, sweet boy!

Our Days these Days...

It seems that since we have moved life has become more hectic. It isn't like we have added a lot more to our schedule but it seems like I am always going, going, going. Cannon has started wee school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and now we attend church on Wednesday and Sunday nights. That is all we are doing different but let me tell you, it seems like we have added about a hundred new things to our schedule! I guess when you are use to staying at home all day with no schedule and then switching to having a schedule it makes a big difference.


We are loving life in Longview so far. We love the beautiful tall pine trees that are EVERYWHERE! It is like living in a forest compared to Dallas! We have gotten involved in Andrew's families church. This is the church he grew up in. It is a lot smaller than what we were use to but we decided we would give it a try. I love it! I was raised in a smaller church and something about this church reminded me of that. The closeness there is, the love and support, and the fact that if you are a new face you are going to get noticed! The first time there I had several people come up and ask me if I was new because they didn't recognize me. I think that is so great. We had been at our church in Wylie for a year and never met anyone or were noticed as new people. It wasn't until we plugged in to a Sunday school class that we met people. There is nothing wrong with that either. We LOVED our church in Wylie, but it is just so big that unless you get involved you could there for a while without ever meeting anyone. So we are enjoying the small church for a change.

Cannon is in Cubbies on Wednesday night and he is sooo cute in his vest! He is loving wee school too. Yesterday when I picked him up he said "Mommy, I love this place!" He has already made lots of friends being the social boy he is. He continues to drive his sister crazy and me as well. He is such a silly boy sometimes. He is great at making Madison laugh. She will crack up when he is dancing around or sometimes just talking. She thinks he is just hilarious! That is until he lays on top of her or hits her, etc. :) Cannon the other night at dinner was telling us he didn't want to eat his broccoli because he didn't like it. I told him that he had to eat it any way. Well he finally ate some and said, "Hey! I like broccoli after all!" It was the way he said it that made us all crack up! He has become quite the comedian lately too. Here is Cannon's new joke he tells all the time!




Madison is able to sit up now. She can do it without any support for a little bit but if I put the boppy behind her she is great for a while. She has tried all the stage one foods now. She doesn't care for squash and peas much. She loves to talk to me while I am fixing dinner. I place her in the bumbo and she will just squeal and jabber away. She is also getting more fascinated with toys. I got the tub of all of Cannon's old baby toys and brought them back for her to play with. Cannon has loved showing her how they all work. I was thinking the other day how happy I am that I have a daughter. I love dressing her and thinking about all the fun things we will get to do when she gets older!

Time for an Update!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I have heard some of you have given up reading because I don't post often enough. Sorry! (Dana) :) Life has been crazy busy this last month. We have finally made our move to Longview. The transition has been quite easy. I have wonderful in-laws that have made it easy to adjust to our new living situation. Bequita and I have a nice deal going where she does all the laundry and I do all the cooking. To me that is a GREAT trade off! I H-A-T-E doing laundry. My husband is enjoying having clean clothes weekly instead of monthly! :) Oh and his mommy fixes him breakfast in the morning too. So I guess she does that cooking. My husband might just want to move back in with his parents for good! Hopefully he will buy me and the kiddos somewhere to stay...

Cannon has started MDO. He loves going. He tells me all the time that he can't play right now because he has homework to do. How cute it that?! Just wait until he actually has homework and we will see which he decides to do then! I am not sure what all he is learning though. Every time I pick him up I ask what he has learned that day. He just tells me about the playground. One thing he has told me is that he needs to climb with his toes or he will fall and bust his head. I guess he learned that one on the playground. :) He also said during nap time his teacher said, "Cannon, are we suppose to be laughing right now? Go back to sleep!" Sounds about right.

Madison had her 4 month check-up at the beginning of September. She weighs 13 lbs 9.5 oz and 24 1/4". She is already fitting into 6-9 month clothes. This is so funny to me because Cannon was such a little baby compared to her. He always wore his clothes a couple of seasons because he was so skinny. Now he is finally changing though. I am having to buy him 5T clothes because he is so long-legged! Mady Jane is a chubby girl! I am having SOOOO much fun buying clothes for her! I need someone to stop me though! She has started eating rice cereal and I have introduced bananas and apples to her. She is still not to sure of the fruit so I have decided to hold off a little long then try again. She is laughing a lot now. She has discovered her toes and loves to hold on to them. She also is becoming pretty vocal. She likes to make all kinds of noises during the day, especially if she isn't getting the attention she wants. She is such a sweet girl and so fun to play with right now. I love how if I just talk to her she gets the biggest grin on her face. Precious!

Both kiddos are enjoying the love and attention they are getting daily. Cannon likes that when one of us ignore him or don't want to do what he wants he just goes to the next person. He eventually finds someone who will play his games with him! :) We are all being spoiled by living here. I don't know what we will do when life gets back to "normal" for us!

Love You Forever Jane-Jane

The day we all knew was coming finally came. Jane-Jane went to Heaven to be completely healed by God. On August 21st at around 9:15 pm I held Jane-Jane's hand as she passed. It was one of the hardest moments in my life. She is the dearest person I have ever lost. I had no intention of being there in her final moments because I knew it would be way too hard. Unfortunately it happened rather quickly and I had no choice but to be there. I am now glad that I was. I held her hand the last three hours she spent on Earth and then as she went to meet our Savior. She was such an amazing Jane-Jane. I am so blessed to have had the time with her I did. Some of you might wonder why we call her Jane-Jane instead of Grandma or Nana or whatever "typical" name is given to a Grandmother. Well she decided when her sons started having children she was way too young to be called Grandma. She actually was pretty young so instead she decided Jane-Jane would be what she was called. It has been the perfect name for her. She once told us when we were older that we could call her Grandma because she felt she was old enough at that point. We just laughed at her and said "No way! You will always be Jane-Jane!" It bothered me so much at her funeral when she was called Grandma or Grandmother because that isn't her. She is Jane-Jane. No other name or reference will do! I told my Papa to make sure her headstone said Jane-Jane on it. He assured me it would because she would roll over in her grave if he put Grandma on there! :)

I have been so loved by such a wonderful women. She always made me and my sister feel as if we were the most important, beautiful, and smartest girls in the world. She cherished us. She will never know just how much we cherished her as well. I have inherited so many wonderful things from her. Some objects to remember her by such as her wedding ring, some clothes, and some really cute shoes. But also some physical characteristics. I have her beautiful green eyes and her beautiful finger nails and apparently her foot size too! :) I will always cherish the gifts she has given me. The best is the happiness she filled my heart with. I will forever miss her until the day I get to meet my Savior and see her standing there too. Beautiful as ever, healed, and happy! Love you Jane-Jane!

Gotta Love it!

Here is a quick post with Madison's newest thing. She has started making cute noises and we love it! Excuse my silly voice but if I wanted her to smile I had to talk to her. :) Enjoy!

PS. I will try to do another update soon!

3 Months Old

Madison is already 3 months! How in the world does it go by so fast! I want to keep her in this cuddley baby stage forever. Once they figure out how to crawl it seems like the baby stage is over with. They don't want to just sit and rock with mommy, they want down so they can explore! I will cherish these next few months with her. Mady has started sleeping through the night! YEA! I am starting to feel so much better getting straight sleep. It usually is about 8 or 9 hours. Amazing, I know! She is getting plumper and plumper each day. I love all her baby rolls. Andrew was making a comment on how chubby her thighs were. I promptly told him to leave her alone, that this was the only time in her life that she is able to get away with it! Men, they are picking on us about our weight from day ONE! We are slowly getting more giggles out of Mady Jane as well. She is going to be ticklish. We have found a couple tickle spots that get a laugh out of her. Cannon is going to have so much fun making her laugh. I can't wait.

Cannon is currently in Oklahoma with Grammy and Granddaddy. He will spend a few days with them and then he heads to Mimi's house. I feel pretty guilty because I use to have the hardest time letting him leave me for a week. Now, not so much. I love that boy beyond the moon but it is so nice to have some "down" time. He is full of so much energy. He wears me out trying to keep him busy all day long. Grammy and G-Daddy have a pool so he uses all his energy in the pool during the day. In a couple of week Cannon is going to start Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays. I am really looking forward to it. I know he will enjoy it because he loves to learn and is such a people person. He is going to be 4 years old in a month! How is that possible! My sweet boy is getting SOOOO big!

Finally, over the weekend my sister-in-law had her baby! IT'S A GIRL!!! They kept it a surprise until the baby was born. It was so exciting finally knowing that a sweet baby girl would be added to our family. It is really cool because Andrew and his brother now have a boy and a girl each. Also it is great because Madison and Aleia are only 3 months apart. That will be so great to watch them grow together and become great friends. Cannon and Caeden are about 2 years apart and they are just now getting to where they play good together. So 3 months difference will be great. So here is a picture of Nana with her two sweet granddaughters.



And the Daddy's with their baby girls. I know they will both have these guys wrapped around their little fingers. Madison already has Andrew!