Thanksgiving and such...

Colt thought he was being nice but really he was torturing me with a banana!

 

Hey Colt, what does a bear say?

 

RAwR

Happy Thanksgiving!

At first thought I couldn't even remember last weekend but last weekend was really exciting, last Saturday Isaac and I got to go to the temple! By ourselves! no kids! no worries! Just an awesome trip to the temple together! It still took 12 hours cuz Isaac stayed and helped with baptisms and the the kids did 40 names each. So that got a little long and Grama had her hands full with the boys, but it was great. Really I was pretty nervous those last several hours leaving her with our kids after she's been so sick for so long, but they got along pretty good.

The real reason Grama came back with us was  because I had surgery scheduled for Tuesday. Getting a temple trip out of it and having Grama here for Thanksgiving were both just AWESOME bonuses. Monday I did the pre-op stuff and Colt had a Dr. appointment too. That poor little guy had an ear infection. Anyway having never had surgery I was pretty nervous, I asked Isaac about the whole "they put ya out" thing he just shrugged and wasn't real helpful but the nurse at the pre-op stuff was awesome I didn't ask her but she told me everything anyway "They only thing you'll feel (until afterward) is the IV then they just give you medicine to relax you and you'll do great." I came home and told Isaac she was way more helpful :) I guess it is her job... So there I had it-all I had to do was survive the IV-that's not a big deal deal. So that was the plan Tuesday morning UNTIL Isaac started interrogating the nurse that was doing it, and totally razzing her! I could have rung his neck! She assured him that she was good and that she'd been doing it for 9 years and bla bla bla but he TOTALLY got in her head and I became a pin cushion, she missed, then she missed again, and she was fishing around like crazy. She finally got it the third time, but when she left I let Isaac have, I said "Are you kidding me, you totally got her all wound up-she was a nervous wreck!" Which he thought for a minute then said "Ya know...I don't respond to normal motivation...so I guess maybe I don't give it out either-I was just trying to make sure she was on her 'A'game." He really did feel really bad. Oh well, it was fine and shortly there after I got the medicine to relax me and...the next thing I remember is the Dr. giving Isaac instructions and me mumbling something about how he's not very reliable with details. The Dr. laughed and said he was "more reliable than someone who was 100% stoned" probably true. But hey the great news is I no longer have an umbilical hernia (we're blaming Colt for being so big) but there were actually 2 and one was bigger than he thought once he got in there...or something like that. I don't know. But I'm getting along pretty good. One of the only things I remember from Isaac's hernia surgery 4 years ago was we hadn't picked up the pain meds-he just wanted to go home and sleep then he woke up and needed them....that's pretty much exactly what happened to me but we got them quick, and by today I really don't have any use for them. Isaac is a really good helper and I'm grateful for all of Grama's extra help. I'm not supposed to lift-Colt's not loving that part he wants those snuggles! Anyway that is that. But it was a big part of the week.

We combine efforts with Miss Suzanne for Thanksgiving and then invited the Hicks over, it turned out really nice. Great Food. Great Company. So much to be thankful for!

 

And now...Happy Black Friday-from the friendly confines of my apt. I'm not going out in that mess!

With Grama's help it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Cannon (and Grama) are having a ball.

I think that's it...for now!

Rough Draft!

When blog day is travel day...something has to give. I'm tuckered out and we're headed to the temple (early) tomorrow...so I started putting pictures on here a few days ago-and that's going to have to be good enough until I can get caught up. This post is a bit of a work in progress :)

We had SOOOOOO much fun!

We had planned to go see the Allred's on Sunday but we lucked into finding out Trey was playing baseball in St. George on Saturday! Awesome! I swear he got a hit every at bat we saw too it was just a great day to watch baseball (except for the lady who's window got knocked out with a foul ball then she got hit with another foul ball like 5 minutes later-terrible!) And another bonus was it was at the Elks field and Cannon kept looking up and saying "Look mom! The St. George Temple!" So cute.

 

Sunday we got to join in on taking Duke for a hike, the weather all of the sudden turned cold on us but it was still fun. Cannon was in heaven and check out this darling picture Becky got of Trey Cannon and Duke, I loved it, Trey and Cann man have always been such good buddies!!

 

Colt was mostly clingy and had to be held--by me! (And I obliged because earlier we had tried to get him to lay down by Grampa for a nap and he was so upset and got do worked up he puked all over, once was enough for that!)

On our way back we decided to swing over and say Hi to Grandma Cottam, it was good to see her. Uncle Steve was there too and Uncle  Robert and Bronson came later but by then my tired kids were out of control and we high-tailed it out of there! It has to have been at least 5 or 6 years since I'd seen Bronson though! Grandma looked so pretty...not that you could tell after the wrestling match of trying to get a picture! (The boys were game on when she offered them a slice of Apple though)

 

 

I always love the pictures of my kids with the grandparents! The linking of generations is so important to me!!

 

 

And speaking of those important relationships--Grampa and his little helper have quite a bond!

Make that 2 helpers--so cute when Grampa would come home and Colt too would point at the door and want to go with him, or when he'd squeal with delight when we'd pull in up to the new corrals. Upset is not Colts cutest side but even being so upset when the door shut without him was so darling. He had a blast up and the corrals. (Even if those darn cows wouldn't eat right out of his hand.)

 

We snuck onto Grampa's computer and changed his screensaver to this:

It kind of just looks blurry so big but zoomed in the boys both have pretty cute smiles. And how bout Cannon's jacket -the only one I packed-...I should be a little smarter and know I'm going to take 500 pictures in Utah so...pack something I like instead of the $2 clearance item...oh well, I got it for 2 bucks-that's impressive right? And we did end up finding a old one up to Grampa Greats. Then he looked like a real cowboy.

 

Cannon kept telling me "I'm a big boy, I'm free (3) so can go chase cows with Grampa, I'm old enough mom I AM!" Maybe someday bud but for now you going to have to settle for riding grampa's horse when he gets back but he was pretty proud he got to go up on the hill like a "real cowboy".

And how bout Colt chasing after those two cowboys. I'm telling you Grampa has two helpers!

And who besides two helpers would get away with this mess in the garage? And I will verify that dog food on the garage floor is slippery.

Anyway...I'm so grateful for the relationships my kids have with my parents despite the distance. Grama was pretty sick for the first 1/2 -or more- of our trip, stupid flu shot, so we didn't really get any pictures but its okay because she got better enough to come and we brought her back with us!!! So glad she could come and SO SO glad she's feeling better. I knew she'd been sick but when I saw it first hand in Utah I was pretty worried. But she's here!!!~more on that next week~
What else?
Every time we went into St. George Cannon asked to climb the Dixie rocks--so we made sure to make it happen before we came back :)

 

We got to go up to Uncle Klint's and play with Riley and Alaina one day too--a good time was had by all!

 

Grama wasn't going to do Christmas jamas this year...yeah right! We had a fun little hot dog and doughnut party with the cousins.

 Just a lot of fun with cousins!

 

So somebody likes chocolate :)

And this little video is really just for anyone in my family that seen my grampa walk...its totally the same! And the pants hang'n off is totally the same too!

And it technically might still be pretty rough...but this draft is done :)

The Gray's are the sweetest family. People like them is why it's great to live in the South. They are our neighbors across the street from the church, they have the horses Cannon (and Colton) love to go pet. We took our family pictures in their little lane a couple of years ago. They are so sweet, we just love them. Anyway, we went their house on Halloween and Katie and Callie invited us to Callie's birthday party that was this last weekend. We had a blast!!! Seriously, we love they Gray's, we met some of their extended family and they treat us like we too are family, just SO SO NICE! Here's a couple videos...

Sunday we survived the Primary program I admit to having a few nightmares before, and one disaster...everything was going so smoothly until one girl (who had 3 parts) couldn't see her part so she just turned two pages until her next part. But that threw us way off so I  should have just stood up and went and changed it back, but I was crouched down trying to get the attention of and nod from Kim (primary president) to do that, I did get the nod from that crouched position and started to walk and stepped on my skirt!!!! I had a long shirt on. I had cat like reflexes in that horrifying moment. There were three little boys right in front on me with a front row seat and I didn't hear any giggles but even if I did escape without a scene it was still a horribly embarrassing moment to pants-or skirt- myself in that situation. Yikes. Glad the primary program is over!!!
On to Monday we headed across Louisiana, Cannon needed a pit stop so we stopped at a rest area in the middle of Louisiana and ran into some of the Gray family members that we had met at the party. They too were on a trip. It was so great. They were so nice and asked it they could pray for us. Of course we were game, they said the sweetest prayers. It was just great. One of them is going on an 11 month mission to several countries-so we talked missions briefly and she was familiar with LDS missions too. It was just cool. Then, we hurried on our way because I don't know what I was thinking-or not thinking- but I didn't give us much cushion for saying I was traveling with kids! It all worked out though, we continued on, made it to Shreveport and flew into Vegas pretty smoothly. That was the first time I've traveled across the country with both kids by myself, not easy, but good to know it can be done!

Being here--Cannon is in heaven! Cannon wanted to stop and see the horses on the way into town but it was dark already, we did make that first trip up to the feed yard aka "new concoralls" the next day though. Colty slept through it but Ann came, actually Colt slept through a couple trips but there were more :)

Cannon is getting to be a pretty good little operator (for saying he's 3 1/2) when he's on the mini but he wasn't so smooth with Ann's help...look at this bear hug. Grampa is such a sport to let them both on at once, he had his hands full too!

  

When he was on his own he did a pretty good job.

Cannon loves loves loves every minute, the mini, the feeding, the tractor, Grampa all of it!!! One funny thing happened when Grampa burnt a pile of old strings from the hay bales in an effort to keep Ann and Cannon away from the fire he said "Hey Cannon come're!" then Cannon said "I'm coming Sir!" Lol my little Southern boy I LOVED it

I say Cannon is in Heaven but really, Colton loves it too. And I don't know what's with showing off his belly but he does it all the time. He squeals with delight EVERY time he sees the dogs, and he's fearless. Sticks the treats right in their mouths. Good thing the dogs know how to be soft.

Mr. Fearles was showing off his balancing skills too. Uncle Ky has been call'n Colt "Mater" because of his little two toothed smile. Then we saw a Mater somewhere and Cannon said "Look mom, its smiles like Colt!" 

Today was a fun day I took the boys over to the temple grounds. They loved it. It was extra fun because the nativity was set up. (My photography skills are lacking...too much cement at the bottom and cut off the top of the temple :( oh well we were there, that's what counts.)

So fun. I tried to make a "no tackling at the temple" rule but it was futile, if Colt stepped on the grass, he was going to get tackled.
I had to include the picture below because right here is where Cannon was checking out the purple flowers, he loves purple, he smelled them then stopped and said "Mom, we should kneel and pray." He knelt down right where he was (I stayed standing) and he prayed the sweetest prayer. "Dear Heavenly Father we're thankful, we're thankful for to be at the temple we're thankful for the activity (what he calls the Nativity) and baby Jesus, thankful for the flowers, thankful that they smell good..." I don't know what else but it was pretty tender,  I love this kid, he is so sweet!...and then back to tackling..

This afternoon we rode up to Cedar City and we got to see Uncle Ky's new store (opening soon) but we also got to go up to Enoch to  Nate and Melanie's and visit with Mel and the kids and see their beautiful new home.  (And Emily--just in case your reading my blog I totally thought about you guys but it just got too late too fast :( Sorry,  it would have been so fun to see you all  meet Darcie)

I really did have a GREAT visit with Melanie, I loved it! It was so fun to see her and Cannon was in Heaven with his cousins. Actually I just realized I never went back downstairs and helped cleanup whatever kind of mess they made...whoops. Sorry Mel! Colt was mostly tired and grouchy because really that drive to Cedar isn't much of a nap. He's a trooper when I rock his schedule though, and he really hates to feel like he's missing anything so its rare that he'll just give up and go to sleep.  On our way to pick Grampa back up from Ky's store we stopped by Courtney's apartment with some goodies. She wasn't home but they boys had fun. 

It was a late night (Late night blog too) and short naps but totally worth it so fun.