Damion's Birthday

My baby boy turned 7 today. I was going to say that it just seemed like yesterday when he was truly a baby boy, but it doesn't seem like it was that recent. I was looking through some older pictures and found some of Damion when I first had Heather. He was only 18 months old when I had her, not even as old as Connor is now. And I was like "Wow! That was forever ago!" He always did seem older than he was. He still does. He is so smart it blows me away! And he is so mature that I forget how young he really is. He is my sanity saver when it comes to the little ones. He is always (well almost) willing to help out with his younger brother and sisters. Shayla loves him! She is very picky about who she will let hold her, but Dami is on that list! I think he even out ranks her daddy! For his birthday he wanted Legos, Converse High Tops, Resident Evil 3, and turtles. Well we were able to accomidate him on 3 out of 4 lol! He also got some clothes which he loved! Darrel ate lunch with him at school. D said that Dami seemed embarresed lol! I took some treats over later in that day for him to share with his class. For dinner we went over to Nana Rushton's house (Kyle-nana's) she made homemade pizza and bought a HMS pinata. We opened presents and ate Dami's cupcake cake! It was fun! It was so hard to explain to Dami that he couldn't put all his Lego Star Wars ships together tonight, that he had to go to bed and it would have to wait until after school tomorrow. I feel bad cause I would hate that if I got all those neat presents and then couldn't play with them until the next day! Well anywho hear are a few of the pics from the party - hope you enjoy!

making mini pizzas

Damion steps up to bat

Kyle swinging for a home run

Heather takes a swing

Connor gives it a try

Gathering the loot

Blowing out the candles

Letters to Santa

Every Christmas the Rushton/Cameron family gets together to write letters to Santa. Sometimes serious, usually silly, and always fun these letters are read aloud (usually by mom) then placed into the fire where the ashes and smoke travel to Santa. Damion was able to write his own this year (he is so smart!) He asked for a Razer Scooter and Star Wars Legos 1&2. Heather wanted to write her own so we just had her read it to everyone herself. She asked for a box of bandaids with pictures of Barbie on them!! She is so adorable!! We ate pizza and watched a movie on TV. It was a blast! We wanted to go to Temple Square after to look at the lights, but because it was snowing we decided to go on Wednesday. Fingers crossed that the weather will be a bit better!


Daddy helping Connor write his letter. He asked for cars of course!


Damion reading his letter



The kids watching Mike put the letters in the fire



Shayla really enjoyed playing with Isabelle's toys



Kathy and Heather. I love this picture!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. First thing in the morning Darrel, Damion and Heather joined in the traditional Rushton family Thanksgiving football game. They had a great time! It was to cold to sit outside so I stayed home with the 2 little ones. Then afterward we all went to my parents house for dinner. It was delicious! We were joined by my sister Kari and her kids Wilson, Austin, and Kennedy, and by my sister Holly and her kids Brady, and Braxton. We brought over our Wii and actually got my parents to play it! It was hilarious! Every time my mom got a spare or a strike she would do a little shake-your-booty dance! After dinner we went to Darrel's mom's house for dessert. Jessie made an amazing pumpkin cheesecake. Normally I don't like cheesecake but ooooohhhh this is sooooo good! We played a game of Scene-It on the XBox 360. Of course Julie and Jessie kicked all our butts! I am sure Carrie would have won but her and Mike skipped out early so they could go see 4 Christmases. She said it was super funny so hopefully Darrel and I will get a chance to go see it. Here are a few pictures. I didn't get as many as I would have liked because things were kind of crazy with everyone running around. Plus Shayla was fussy and didn't want me to put her down.


I think Shayla looks like a doll in this picture

"The Boys" Wilson, Austin, Damion, Connor

Shayla loved the jello Darrel gave her

Connor with the classic olive fingers

me and the kids making trukey day crafts

Heather and Kennedy showing off their Thanksgiving Day spirit

My Connor

Connor in hospital 5/31/06 Connor at home 10/17/08

It is amazing to me how fast little kids grow. I can't believe it has only been 2 years since he was born. He is so big now and so smart! He is at that stage where every day he adds a new word to his vocabulary. He always says "thank you" and "please". It is hard to get him to say "sorry" when he hurts Damion or Heather. Sometimes I wonder if he doesn't say it because he feels justified in beating them up since they are so much bigger than he is. You know, pay back for all those times when they bully him :D

Connor loves his cars. Anything with wheels on it. He gets upset when he sees cars get wrecked on the TV. He goes "oh no, cars!" with a very concerned look on his face. He will share any of his toys - except for his cars. I have tried to explain this to Heather and Damion time and again - if it has wheels it is automatically Connor's and you need to find something else to play with. Sounds unfair but trust me - you DO NOT want to come between this boy and his cars!! Recently he expanded his love of ground vehicles to air vehicles. He is starting to get into airplanes and helicoptors which he also calls planes. When ever he hears one outside (even if he is in the house) he has to stop what he is doing and go search for it. He has got a truly unique personality. I love my Connor Bonnor!

Halloween

Ok I am really hating how fast time flies!! Again it has been a month since I last blogged!! Oh well what can you do? I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween with lots and lots of candy, candy, candy, candy! Our family had a crazy but fun Halloween. We carved pumpkins at Nana Rushton's house. Connor tried to eat the pumpkin but I guess it didn't taste as good as it looks? The kids picked out the design and some how Darrel and I ended up carving all of them! On Halloween both Damion and Heather had a school parade. Damion dressed up as an Army zombie and Heather as a kitty (thanks for the help mom it turned out great!) Connor dressed as a car mechanic and Shayla was also a kitty. Both Damion and Heather had a class party and I was able to go to both and help out with the games. (thank you mom-in-law for watching the babies!) After that we all loaded in the van and headed to Darrels work for his work party. They served us lunch (soup bowls, yum!) and afterwards the kids got to go around to all the desks and trick-or-treat. They got so much candy that they didn't mind not going around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Also at Darrels work they had a costume contest with different catagories, Darrels won for scariest! People said they voted for him because it was so realistic for him to be covered in blood!

Pudding

I asked Heather to play with Shayla while I did some work on the computer. When I went upstairs to check on them a little bit later Heather had put Shayla in her blue baby chair so that they could both sit and watch SpongeBob. She had buckled Shayla in and everything! Totally adorable!! Then Heather asked if she could have some pudding. I told her that was just fine and I went back downstairs for a few more minutes. When I came back up Shayla had this innocent look on her face, along with globs of pudding! So being the good mom that I am what do I do?...... Rush to get the camera!!! It is so cute because Heather had even put a bib on her!! Shayla looked like she wanted more so I put some on the spoon, but as I brought it to her mouth she held her hand out for it. I put it in her hand and she put it right into her mouth all by herself! She licked it for a minute and then dropped the spoon. I put more pudding on it and she did the same thing. I realized that she was sucking all the pudding off and then dropping the spoon when it was empty so I could give her more! She is such a smart cookie!!!

Time

I can not believe it has been a MONTH since I last wrote something! Alice called today and asked why I wasn't updating my blog anymore. I didn't realize it has been that long!! I wish I could say that my life was so exciting and so busy that I just didn't have the time. Unfortunatley I have done nothing exciting. Darrel has spent the last month working late hours. It takes everything in me to be mom and dad 24/7. There is no time left over to do what I want. I think it is crucial for everyone to get that time to do what they want. To be who we are instead of what we are. What I am is a mom. But that is not who I am. I need to do things like scrapbooking with the girls, date night with my husband, or even just soaking in the tub with a good book to help me remember that I have a name other than mom. So I want everyone who reads this to make sure they take some time for themselves to remind them of who they are!