Grampa's Song

So somewhere along the way...well really it back when I was tending Ann and learning the primary songs for myself, I thought it would be for Ann to sing "My daddy is my favorite pal..." to her dad when he got home (Cannon wasn't really saying much back then)--so we were practicing it, but really Ann just LOVED hang'n out with Poppa, so I think it was originally Grama's idea but we ended up changing the words and making a song for him for Fathers day a couple years ago. (You can see it here: http://youtu.be/USL6G_6rvDM ) but...that might have started something--we love to make up songs! So we had Uncle Klint grab some treats for him from us but here's what we really did for Grampa Chip's Birthday...

The best part was when we'd try to practice and Cannon would add in/sing his own additions. We'd sing "I wanna go check on Poppa Great" and the next thing I know he's singing about checking on the cows with poppa great, it was priceless!

Poor Colt thinks he's going to get something good and Cann's just feeding him letters.
Well last weekend we had the season's first frog hunt. I thought I'd sent myself pictures off Isaac's phone but I must not have, they were all pretty blurry anyway. Cannon is definitely not afraid to touch or hold them this year. (darn) All was well until I had my "season's first heart attack" if you will, when they informed me of their intentions to (one of these times thankfully this isn't something that has already happened) bring the frogs in the house and have a frog race in the bathtub. Isaac can see NOTHING wrong with this scenario, and I can see NOTHING right with it.  I know boys will be boys, I know they love the outdoors but No. NO! NO!! NO, this mom will be mom aka party pooper! Not in our home, not where we bathe our kids, oh I was fit to be tied! And Isaac was honest to goodness SHOCKED that I wasn't okay with the idea, couldn't for the life of him figure out why I would think anything was wrong with it "they are clean animals" I bet I heard that 15 times-not exaggerating. Ya, clean like raw chicken is clean, gross. He wanted to reason with me about it--I'm not interested in negotiating! Anyway the long story short is we settled on a frog race in the sandbox. And I HAVE TO PARTICIPATE, as in they will catch me a frog too...they might even mark it with pink fingernail polish for me so I'll know which one is mine and if it wins and such but still, I'm roped in... Stayed tuned, I'm sure this is not the last you'll hear of this--lets be honest I'm going to end up videoing it, and I did point out to Isaac that even though he might want the frogs to race--what is going to make them want to race??? Whatever, like I said-stayed tuned-and I'll move on for now.
Saturday was pretty normal we got our short little bike ride in, then Isaac went out with the missionaries, they got stood up, typical :( Sunday night these two made a hobo dinner (we always called them tin foil dinners but same thing) in the oven, set up the little tent in the house and had a great time eating and reading stories. What a fun dad! Colt joined in too a little later-just enough to make a mess. 

Tuesday Isaac had that late class but I needed to help decorate for the combined baby shower we were throwing for the 2nd counselor and one of our teachers in primary. So I took my little helpers, I thought they were pretty good all things considered but...I wasn't much help. And when Cannon dumped the garbage out just for fun to play in it (with Colt) then I knew we were working backwards. So much for the tablet babysitting, Oh Well. Kim that I serve in primary with is so much like my Aunt Kay! They just do cute stuff! So it was super darling and totally fun to be her accomplice--but like I said I really wasn't that much help. I had fun visiting with her and Karen though.

Wednesday we had the shower and Isaac had signed up to feed all 6 of the missionaries ... so basically I told him he was on his own and to order pizza, actually it worked out great. I made a salad in advance so that was my contribution. They were cute and super grateful and I think I learned I usually worry too much about it, they don't care "as long as its not Ramen." They're funny.
Lets see about my boys...
I got a marriage proposal from Cannon this week, it was pretty darling. I told him I couldn't marry him because I was already married to daddy but that I could always be his favorite and that would be just fine. :) I'm sure a future daughter in law will really appreciate that one. He really is growing up! (Although you might not guess it by this picture...I knew I bought the one with a hundred pound weight limit for a reason.)

But I did leave him TWICE this week, once to go visiting teaching and the other at preschool and it wasn't a crisis either time! But hey, Jake had awesome trains and preschool was with sister Shields and they talked about robots so he was set! We also got to see Elder Johnson, one of the missionaries that served here came back with his folks. I said Cannon, lets go see Elder Johnson. He was just in street clothes and a ball cap and Cannon said "I wanted to see the missionary one." It was cute.

And Colt Buddy, have I mentioned here on the blog that Colton is truly a perfect baby? He smiles, he's happy, AS LONG AS--he's in my arms and getting his own way. Oh my goodness, its exhausting! The kid is so spoiled, (I know I know--who's fault's that? But that's why we have'm too right? To spoil them? I'm going to regret typing that at some point.) He throws a major fit if I put him down and quite frankly sometimes I HAVE TO! I think the whole apt building probably woke up to his screams Sunday. He used to let someone else hold him once in a while--not lately. Well Isaac's still got the touch but he's up on the stand during sacrament meeting and well anyway its an adventure. He's got a mind of his own as far as naps go too-doesn't want to miss anything. He's still loving the books! And still no teeth yet.

Today is Grampa Chip's birthday, Cann sang him a song (I'll post later after its made its debut for Grampa) my sweet friend Kristy played the piano for me so we had a little accompaniment to work with this time which was GREAT but the down side was Cannon can't keep up with it so the song goes on with or without him. Oh well.

I listened to a really cool Elder Haight talk this week called "Love All" it is so cool how even though it was 30+ years old, it was spot on for challenges we face today (and in the South) then I asked Cannon who he wanted to listen too and he picked Pres. Monson, so I pulled him up but I had the old conferences up, Cannon was like "That's not President Monson!" I said "Ya it is, it was just a long time ago when mom was a baby." (Isaac and I have this weird thing where sometimes will look up the old ones from the year he was born or I was born etc...we're weird...and we're good with it.) Anyway in that talk President Monson mentioned "Santa Clara Utah" Of course I loved that but when Cannon lit up and said "That's where Grama lives!" Then I really loved it!
I really have it so good! Sometimes I kind of reflect on that (usually its when the boys are asleep and Isaac's breathing has slowed--)and I am just so happy. So my next project is I need to figure out how to bottle joy! You know, so I can have a little to spare when I'm at my wits end NOT smiling and loving life.
I'm work'n on it.
Until next week...

Service and 7 months

Oh its Friday and blogging time again already, boy the weeks sure seem to go fast, really that's a good thing since we're students right? Don't blink though, my boys are growing up so fast! Colt Buddy is 7 months old today!

I keep thinking he's working on teeth but we haven't seen them yet.
Saturday was a super lazy day for us but we were still fighting the lingering sicknesses and Isaac was catching it. Sunday I went to the 1st and 3rd hours of church (church with no kids...that was unbelievably peaceful) and Isaac did the middle hour then went back after ward to help with things. When he came back my Good Samaritan had that wry little smile on his face as I asked him if he wanted me to make him a plate of nachos (I know, hardly Sunday food, but just to get something in his tummy before naps) and he said "Ya, only thing is the missionaries are coming too." (4 of them not just 2) He is so good, he knew they didn't have anywhere too eat, so he invited them over. (He thought I would just make them nachos too-but A: we didn't have enough stuff for that and B: back to the fact it is hardly a meal) I frantically started peeling potatoes for some soup and thankfully I'd been to the grocery story Saturday and we pulled it off. (He always offers to help after he does things like that but really it's in everyone's best interest for him to stay out of my way...but help with the kids more-and that counts!)
Then it was back to the grind of school and work, Monday we made sure to have some St Patrick's Day fun...We made some treats for the missionaries, for a gal I visit teach, and for our Home Depot friend Cheryl. I had a hard time getting a hold of ANYONE to get the treats too but...we tried, (and eventually had some success) And trying to track down the missionaries we found out about fire trucks at the church.

Whoa! Of course I went and took a picture. It turns out it was an electrical fire ...or something. I finally got a picture of the popcorn popping blossoms.
We like to read the scriptures, Cannon loves them, but they are hard sometimes. Like after reading David and Goliath I get questions like "Why is he a giant?" Okay, I can handle that but "Why did he chop his head off with a sword?" Dang the scriptures are pretty gruesome! It's good for us to read out of the Old Testament once in a while though, its certainly not my strong point! After David and Goliath and several discussions of the chopped off head we had to make a change! We turned our focus to King Benjamin, and what he taught us: Service! So I told Cannon we would do a service project. Well when I told him we were going to the store Tuesday he asked "To buy some service?" So cute but I realized if I told him we were going to do a service project I'd better hurry up to prevent more confusion, so Wednesday morning we made it happen! How cute is this?

I was so proud of him. He was great. We picked up garbage across the street from the church, it is a really busy road so no in action pictures -well kind of one, (below) but- I was busy holding his hand (and the garbage bag) -Colt was strapped to the font of me- all of the sudden just typing that I'm thinking Oh Ya, no wonder I woke up with a sore back the other day. Hmm. Oh well. Anyway Cannon was so SO CUTE! I loved it. He asked me "Why don't people pick up their own garbage?" Great question buddy, but we just talked about how they should but since they didn't we had a chance to do service and that him helping made Mom really happy and Dad really happy and then I said "And who else?..." Totally fishing for "Heavenly Father" but instead Cannon said "Abinidi! He will be so proud." It was darling. With our project I thought I might as well teach him a scripture to go with it...so we worked on "...When you are in the service of fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." SURPRISE! "Beings" really just sounds like "Beans" if your almost 3 it was hilarious to Cannon so then of course we went the rounds "Not beans like beans you eat, its beings like people." But he'd laugh and every time we'd practice the scripture I'd say "When your in the ........., of your fellow....." and he's say "service" but then "beans you eat!!!" and laugh...pretty much every time. Oh well we had fun and I was very VERY proud of him. We did find this big stick I made him wait to pick it up until on the way back to the church but he got to carry it to the dumpster all by himself...he was really disappointed we had to throw it away.

I really think that was the highlight of our week. I can't think of much else. We did a little FHE on Thursday with a recent convert that Isaac home teaches, its March Madness-that is always fun but sometimes its embarrassing to be a Cougar fan (I tell Isaac that every time after they lose.) Oh and preschool was here this week-I only remembered that because I'm eating the left over treats as I type.
Here's a little brothers bath:

And Colt had these weird red spots one night, I sent this picture to Grama asking here opinion, luckily they were cleared up the next day but he spit food all over when I tried to snatch a picture to send her of the cleared up version...silly kid- at least he was happy, well, and better!
Monday night I couldn't sleep, as I lay in bed I dreamt up -while awake- a quick trip home, to leave Friday for Grampa's birthday just be gone a week it would be so fun, we've found cheap tickets on flying Allegient only 10 days out before, oh, my mind went wild! I started packing in my head and everything. Isaac was...okay...with the idea when I mentioned it Tuesday morning but I caught him a little off guard, but I was still set-until I looked up tickets and they were super expensive :( not going. It was big bummer and let down after my surprisingly enjoyable sleepless night. In the words of Cannon "Maybe another time." And how I always answer him "Ya, maybe another time."

Saturday we took Cann Man to the Lowe's kids kids workshop (kinda cheated on Home Depot right?) Anyway he made a birdhouse, and they hung it in the tree outside our apt.  (Isaac said it was packed way more kids than HD, I just stayed in the car with Colt who was sleeping.)

Then we headed up to the res for our bike ride. We are on a mission to get in as may fun bike rides as we can before it gets too miserable and hot. As we were loading the boys in the trailer I noticed Cannon totally looked pale. But we figured, he was just riding and he would be alright. It turned out he fell asleep and really it just got worse and worse.

He was so sick. I hate having sick kids! It makes me feel so inept as a parent! I just want to help them, and make them feel better but I haven't been able to so far. Colt wasn't too far behind Cannon on getting it, he just didn't fight me on medicine as bad.
Sunday sick as can be I asked Cannon what he wanted and he said "I just want to play with Colt." Melted my heart. Its been a bummer that so many of our friends (all that we ever did stuff with) moved away but I guess maybe it's helping my boys to be better friends with each other so for that I'm thankful. Cannon had several naps Sunday and every time he woke up he would think it was "tomorrow" and ask if we got to go to the beach. We had decided to go to the coast for spring break and Cannon was very excited. Tuesday night it seemed like everyone was good enough to go so Wednesday morning (not early) we headed south. Colt didn't travel very good and they freeway ended up being closed in Hattiesburg so it took us a while to get there! Before we got there Cann said "I'm ready to go home." We said we hadn't been to the beach yet and asked why did he want to go back and he said "I'm just not sure about it, and our apartment is nice." Funny kid! ("I'm not sure about...." has kind of been the phrase of the week) Where we really messed up was not getting him to sleep though. No nap (well maybe the final 20 minutes of driving) after he'd been so sick. It made for an awful night plus we forgot his medicine so Isaac made a 1:00am Walmart run, and we decided in the middle of the night it was only going to be a one night trip! Anyway, lets get to the good parts.
Mississippi beaches might be man made...but this is what I love about them, they are empty!

 

Empty except my cute boys!
Isaac loved feeding the birds...

See the ship off in the distance, Isaac pointed it out to Cannon

To which he said "Is that the one that Jonah got on?" We'd read that story recently, I love how sensitive his little spirit is to the things of God, and his perfect faith, I need to be more like him. I was coughing at dinner one night and he said "Mom needs a blessing!"
Aren't these two cute? Just taking their equipment to the beach to build...a road or something. 

 

We'd had visions of peacefully biking along the beach, and up over this cool bridge then playing in the sand some more...yeah, Colt wasn't buying it. We went, we took pictures, we high tailed it out of there!

I may or may not have told Isaac I never wanted to go on "vacation" again. To grandparents only! Where upon arrival we get extra help with the little monsters :) I'm not serious...but kind of... the truth is: I've never liked traveling. My Grama Frei used to tease my Grampa mercilessly about not going anywhere or doing anything. She'd say "If he mentioned, we'd been." Honestly, that sounds perfect to me, a mention of it is ALL I NEED!...just show me a picture. Poor Isaac, we really are polar opposites in that department (and most others too but opposites attract right?) but I'll tell you one thing we both love, we love listening to byu speeches while we drive, we listened to some really good talks. One was an Elder Staheli talk, he had some great quotes. One was about our "irritants" to obedience, I liked that. The other thing he was talking about was prayer here's his analogy: "Prayer is as essential to a righteous life as food and water are to our daily sustenance. Taking this analogy one step further, if we had to live on the sustenance and the frequency and intensity of some of our prayers, many of us would be much thinner than we are today." My fight with fitness or lack there of is a story for another blog! But I got a good smile out of that analogy.
I think that's about it. A couple quick Colt updates: He is LOVING reading books...turning the pages and exploring the flaps. I made the other boys a milkshake, I know its against the rules but maybe he got a taste and he was SOLD. It was pretty funny. Isaac got his out of the freezer and Colt saw it and was having a fit until he got to taste it. Really I say milkshake and  it had a little ice cream in it but I tasted it and all it tasted like was the banana I put in it to me! That kept me from eating it! But it really was mostly fruit so...we let him have a few little tastes. He's also getting really quick with his hands and grabbing stuff. I loved watching him explore the sand too.

We also have a little Monkey See Monkey Do going on, Colton will see a silky on the floor and pick it up and put it in his mouth. So far he seems unimpressed and would rather his bink. Thank Goodness.

Ok I think that's all...

Great News! They won it!

  Pics Via

I'm so happy for them! Cannon asked if they were going to "tie the hoops up" because they were the champions-so cute- I'd shown him pictures of cutting the nets down. Friday I found a link to listen to the St. George radio guys but no such luck Saturday, finally and somewhat reluctantly I just went to the ward activity (Pinewood Derby) knowing there was nothing I could do about that game whether I got to hear it/see it or not. There however, I had a stroke of genius and text my dear friend Courtney, and she text me back with updates throughout the rest of the game! It was great! Cannon and Isaac were racing away with their prize derby car. (By the way the CO2 cartridges and mouse trap he had dreamt up were a bust so Saturday morning they ripped the mouse trap off the back, filled the CO2 cartridge compartments with penny's Cannon painted that baby and off they went Saturday night)

They just kept winning and winning in their division. (First they let the cub scouts go then its open to anyone with a "legal" car) Cannon won the legal division, well we thought he took 2nd, (that was him showing me "2" ??? fingers in the top left pic) but then we found out Nick really had illegal wheels. So he won and got the cute little medal Colt's playing with in the collage. Then it was the no rules and guys in our ward are crazy! They have so much fun with it. This year one car had an electric motor in it, but not to be passed was the car that built bumpers off the front end so no one  could pass him. There was Wagon train looking car where the guy had swiped his "wagon wheels" off a pully that had ball bearings and everything. It wasn't fast though...but then again wagons usually aren't. Anyway it was a really fun ward activity and I was in an extra good mood cuz my girls won!
We also went for a bike ride up around the reservoir, Colt got hungry/tired toward the end which is never a good thing but other than that it was great. Beautiful weather, then it turned freezing cold the first of the week and we had to hide inside. I was feeling WAY TOO cooped up! But we lived to tell about it, I mean I pretty sure I should have been admitted to the looney bin but Isaac wasn't around to turn me in so...I'm still here. I try to keep the blog positive but rest assure Cannon and I have had better weeks! The scoot is legitimate, and he's recognizing it can be quicker than rolling. I said he was scooting before but that might have been more like squirming around. I think this video is from Saturday night but the kid just gets quicker and quicker every day!

Some funny Cannon quotes...
Me "Hey Cann can you grab me Colt's binky?"
Cann "No, I'm too busy." oh brother! he also says "Are you serious?" kind of a lot, I think he might have got that one from Ann, it sounds just like when she says it. And he says a pretty dramatic "Oh my gosh!" Speaking of drama, we have a story book called Llama Llama Red Pajama, and the punch line in it is when the Mama Llama says "Please stop all this Llama Drama and be patient for your Mama!" Well Colt was fussing about something and I that is what Cannon spouted off to him. It was so cute I loved it. Now if he could just heed his own advice!
Colt loves shoes (and chewing on them, gross I know I try to stop it while I'm taking them away Cannon is sneaking him a new one) and his new favorite place to play is in the books...disaster pending, so far he's only ripped coloring books...

And this morning we snuck over to the children's museum. We were going to go last night to celebrate Isaac's big midterm being done but naps took too long and we didn't get there. This morning I think every elementary in Jackson was there. YIKES! But it was fun, and even more fun was watching the drilling going on outside when we left.  

At the peak of my orneriness Tuesday I grabbed my Elder Eyring book, knowing I need a little something good. This isn't exactly what I was looking for but I sure liked it. "...  you, and I, and all of our Father’s children will someday know that being with God is being home. And that everywhere else, however beautiful it may be, will be a place where you long for home." It was a little perspective for me, sometimes I long for home as in Southern Utah (This might is probably the longest we've been gone and no trips really planned either-no wonder I was onery-) but it was good to remember that really even there isn't home. Back with Heavenly Father is home, so the goal, GET THERE!! Oh and probably get a trip planned too because that will just make me happy :)