HE CAME!

Now Cann man might think I was talking about Santa with that post title but really He Came! The Son of God came and what a fun time we have had this holiday season celebrating his birth, life, and mission! Cannon did say two of the cutest prayers this week one he said "thankful that we're all your children" and another one he said "thanks for Christ and that we can celebrate his birf" seriously melted my heart and made me think he's catching on. And he continued to Share the Gift :) Isaac scored some free deer meat and our neighbors stopped buy, they helped him cut it up-we had a little butcher shop on my counter- and then a backstrap feast...the baked potatoes were really good, I'll leave it at that....anyway, Cannon showed Miss Pat the He is the Gift video. We enjoyed visiting with them.

Sunday night Miss Suzanne stopped by with some yummy (crock pot-super rich-super good) hot cocoa and goodies for the boys (and us) she is so nice. And to be perfectly honest I don't know what happened Monday our Tuesday but I know I had a very very excited 3 year old on my hands.

We made goodies for the missionaries. I busted out the finger paints...he decided to paint his nose like Rudolf's, then the rest of him. "What else?" He'd ask then answer himself "Horns, Rudolf has horns" and paint them on...and when he went for Colton's face- I ended that fun. He wanted to guide Santa's sleigh SOOOO bad! I told him it was the reindeer's job he said well I can just ride with him and turn the pages (because in one of the Christmas stories we have the little boy gets to ride with Santa and turn the pages of his book for him) oh it was SO FUN, and SO HARD to deal with all of his excitement.

Colt got in on the excitement too by starting to say "ho ho ho" it was SO cute! So I made a video-even if it is the day after

And speaking of Colt, All of the sudden he couldn't be contained!! The trees been up how long? Since right after thanksgiving,  but he started climbing in this week-- at least we were close! Because that poor tree was toast.

 

And then we were on. 

I tease my older brother mercilessly about being "Ho HO himself" but...I might be right behind him--and especially since we didn't go home this year-somebody had to be the overly excited adult :) 

Christmas Eve we took the boys to the church to run around in the gym, we took turns racing Cannon and turned out great for us -having him wore out. Then we went looking for lights and got some pizza, when we got home we made smoothies (they were way better than hot chocolate-and its not that cold here) and decorated a few cookies for ourselves and one for Santa. 

We got the Colt man to bed and Cannon got to stay up and help get the tree out of the play pen and set a few presents that I'd had wrapped in my bedroom out. (They'd been taunting him for days.) He was bouncing off the walls with excitement...and trying-well kind of- to be quite and not wake Colt up as he pranced from our room with a package in hand to the living room where he stacked it under the tree. He kept saying "I'm like a little elf!" And he was. I had a really big present for Cannon and a really big present for Colton in my room (their bikes) so last thing after we read the Christmas story in the scriptures Cannon and his dad moved those packages out to the different sides of the tree so Santa would know what side to put their presents on then it was off to bed. And Santa Came :) :) :) AND CANNON SLEPT until 7:00--it was awesome!

Santa Got a little carried away filling Cannon's sock and tore a hole in it...whoops...dang dollar store stocking!

The boys really had fun opening presents and boy were they good at it! Santa set out the mini excavators so they got played with first-actually I LOVED the no rush-a new toy, play with it, enjoy it for a few minutes then slowly move on to the next thing. It made it so fun-and made it last all  morning. It was great. The mini's aren't really mini's (or so I was informed) they were supposed to be like Grampa's-and they're close, they're Kubota's, but they have a cab and the boom is off to the side, and the little blade out front rotates  ...whatever! They're fun, and they are different from the 6 other excavators we already have :) Isaac and I talked today, we're pretty sure Santa has brought Cannon an excavator EVERY year for Christmas. I told Isaac Santa would really do good if he'd bring him a real one one of these years, Isaac quickly hushed and quieted me. It was great.

 

 

I can't say for sure but...Hershey kisses for breakfast just might have been Colton's favorite part of the whole morning :) He was loving life!...until I tried to limit the intake...

 His eyes are closed I missed the big cheesy grin but Cannon shouted "Merry Christmas everyone!!" as his Dad was fishing out his new semi truck.

 

Colt man-love'n life. His gifts closely resembled Cannon's from the year he was one (in my little quirky way I loved that :) But his excavator and dump truck are John Deere and distinctly his :) and his sick horse is named Jethro-not Monty) And next...Why not dance on the presents? We were having a blast!

 

 

That's Helaman, on his horse leading the stripling warriors that's getting hung upside down and he tests our his new remote control crane. Sweet. Sorry Helaman.

The bikes were big enough boxes that Cannon didn't freak out when Colt helped him. Then Colt laid completely out to open his own it was too cute and too fun.

 

 Of Course our AWESOME DAD got right to work on putting them together! I swear I'd cleaned the floor up at least 10 times prior to this picture...to no avail-obviously!!

Both boys ended up with bikes that are a shade too big--but won't be for long! Cannon because his was a big boy bike didn't want anything to do with the training wheels. And Colton didn't want anything to do with his new helmet--but don't be trying to take mine off him or you'll have a war on your hands! Funny kids.

Finally Isaac convince Cannon that he really could do it all by himself if he would let him but the training wheels on--so he gave in.

We lasted until there was a big crash -I was supervising (or not) at the time :( - then we headed in for naps. And although its been picture overload-I didn't really get the camera out after that.
Our neighbors (Bob and Pat that we had over the other night) invited us to Christmas dinner at their daughters house. They were so nice to have us! We had a good time and enjoyed visiting until the boys had had it we when headed home. (Well first we made one Santa stop to a gal I visit teach, she'd said they didn't really celebrate when we were there visiting so I told Cannon they forgot to write letters to Santa so he didn't know to stop and we filled them some stockings and stopped them by. Not celebrate? That sounded terrible--see maybe I am Ho Ho like I tease my brother about.) Anyway then it was home to all those new toys!!
We got to Skype/Facetime with the grandparents.  It was fun but the Poor Connection and low battery kind of stuff gave us fits a little, it cramped my style--and we even upgraded our internet beforehand to try to fix it. Guess we'll be downgrading again. Oh well. I'm thankful for technology so at least we got to see everyone even if we didn't get to be with them. Going some random place for dinner and eating food that was different than we're used to and being with people that weren't our family was probably the worst part as far as how I handled being away. (I'm hoping none of my neighbors have my blog address and it was so nice of them and we had a a good time and we're grateful but...you know what I mean? It was different. It just wasn't family.) As we were playing with all kinds of new toys that night I thought holy cow-maybe I went a little crazy-but...that's how I dealt with not getting to go home. And things didn't have to be able to fit in a suitcase, and we didn't buy plane tickets sooo....see me rationalize and justify...it was really fun and that's what I was going for.
Lets see what else?
Santa left my boys Mississippi Braves hats-Awesome! I love them, Isaac wore his all day -handsome devil- and I loved it. I love the colors. Isaac's is white -he's needed a new white hat for SOOO LONG that dang cubs one has never fit right but this one does :) and the boys are navy and red. I love them and thought to myself: Isaac needs to teach at a school with these colors because I love them...wait! Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking??? Doesn't Dixie State have those colors... :) :) :) hmmm Perfect! Ok really a J-O-B will be perfect to start...and we'll go from there. I'm just saying-I like the colors.
Oh yeah, I was doing the what else thing, so here's what: that awesome Santa Claus wrote back, love him!

I think that's about it. Our first Christmas away...Merry Christmas Y'all. (Y'all...something I swore I'd never say...but then again I probably swore I'd never move here too-so if you can't beat'm I guess join'm.)
It was a fun day we had a great time with just our little family but it was definitely different and I missed being with extended family.
Today we took the boys to play tennis, then it was dark/kinda cold and the bikes were still new and clean so we went over to the church and let them ride them there. I told Isaac as he was unlocking the door "This calling and you having church keys might be the best thing that's happened to our little family."  He didn't laugh but I thought it was funny. Cannon's doing way better, he's coming along quick. Colt...well he likes to put his feet up and be pushed around, he gets this big ole grin on his face...that's what I was hoping for but instead he fell on his face...whoops.

Until next week...

Share the Gift!! & Santa at the Ward Party

Not great pictures of either one of them but...

... we've been trying really hard amid all the excitement of Santa to focus on the Savior this Christmas season. We've done a couple different things but I think the boys have had the most fun with "Sharing the Gift" via handing out the He is the Gift cards that came in the Ensign. I've even taken to Facebook with it :) and done the #SharetheGift thing and all :) We're regulars at the dollar store and Kroger so that's where we give away most of our cards :) I'm proud of the boys and glad the help me share through them too.

 

Mostly Cannon hands them out but Tuesday Colt got in on the action too and it was awesome. I only had 1 card left and I decided not to give it to the cashier-as we usually do (the deal is I run my card the boys give out a card) but as Colt and I were headed out of Ross this old timer said to me "You read'n to that boy every night?" I smiled and said "You bet we love to read, don't we Colt?" as I slid my 'buggy' (southern term for cart) over toward him and out of the way of other people leaving Ross. He smiled and said he was just and old teacher that wanted to make sure. I told him we love to read stories every night and we read scriptures too. He said he was a retired teacher but now he was and assistant minister-or something like that- anyway we chatted as I fished out my last He is the Gift card, (I have more now though) he played football at Auburn back in the day, he taught band, when I told him I taught math he said "Well, I was a physics and science major, but the band teacher in my home town left so somebody needed to teach band." I told him I want my boys to learn to play the piano and eventually Colt gave him the card I shook  his hand and told him my name and he said "I'm Coach T" --he was awesome! I would love to run into Coach T again-what a cool guy!

Last Saturday Isaac was SO SICK...wait just typing this I remembered when we got to Utah last year Isaac was SO SICK...maybe his body can only take it until mid December and then it rebels?? Hmm I was just about to write I don't know when I'd seen him that sick-but last year. Different kinds of sick, but just sick I'll watch out for next December! At any rate the boys and I hit the ward party by ourselves. We had a great time though!

"Umm Umm Excuse me, Santa..." I can just hear it even if I didn't technically hear it. Ginger told me he told Santa "Hey Santa! We have the same hat!!!" (Cannon's Holding his)

I really should have collages for all the Santa pictures but I don't so oh well. 

 The best??? Pic I got of both of them with Santa-terrible! Oh well.

 

After a while even ole Colt was warming up to Mr. Ho Ho. 

 

 

How bout that picture with Bro Blalock. He is so dang cute with the kids always letting them on his scooter, taking them for rides, letting them honk the horn. Such a nice guy. Oh and spoiling them...well us too!! The guy has a heart of gold. We Love him!!!
And how bout these last two:
A terrible picture but I LOVE that it shows how Cannon wasn't let'n the big guy out of sight OR reach! Santa read them a story then when out in the foyer for pictures, Cannon was right on his heels!

 

Then still just hang'n out, chatt'n, after all the other kids had kind-a died down and fizzled out. Cannon would have stayed all night! Too bad Santa is REALLY busy this time a year. "darn"

So...besides the real meaning of Christmas-He is the Gift/Share the gift and then Santa...what else could the week possibly hold?
Isaac had lots of meetings. Colt got a hair cut. Cut off a lot of red :( hate to see it go cuz Cannon's isn't read hardly at all anymore but I'm just a short hair mom, I couldn't take it. (I might write the same thing every time I cut Colts hair?...that just seemed really familiar...shrug)
When we have the other missionaries over Cannon want to have these two, then they needed to go and he said "But we need to take pictures and send to their parents." Funny kid. He knows the drill.

He got to use Patrick's sander...see how close Colt was, I took one picture and we headed in.

We hit story time the library and got to eat cupcakes for Jakes birthday, we got to play with the Belk's-actually I totally forgot about visiting teaching but Jenna ended up tending for me spur of the moment it was great, she's the best!  I told Isaac that night that when I get to visit with her it's the same good feeling as when I get to visit with my best friends back home! I love it! ...She's moving... And eventually so am I. Such a pessimist-- just enjoy it Lyndi!!!!! Anyway...
Colts like a bull in a china shop when we're playing trains! We've been playing a lot lately--they love it and as long as I'm  full time track repair worker we get along pretty good :)

These two characters of mine fight all day long, put'm to bed and they play like champs-but they're supposed to be in bed. The squeals of delight and cackles we hear across the baby monitor are priceless! I enjoy it so much I usually don't do anything about it.

Until next week...oh and Merry Christmas!