Oh boy it's Friday again, so let's see what have we been up to? Last Saturday Isaac and Cannon headed out to a guy in our wards farm but I'm pretty sure Tanner, Colton, and I had more fun because we went to a "baby party" it was great! Sit around, eat yummy stuff, visit, Corinne knew that what babies need most is happy mom's so they had chocolate for party favors-

The babies might not remember Corinne (and her parents) after they move but the moms sure will! We love the Orton's! 

Sunday Isaac made rice-a-roni for dinner then set up a little picnic. Who can make rice-a-roni fun? Isaac! 

 

 

As I look through the pics this week nothin too exciting-just normal for us, we had some friends over for dinner and that was fun. We do a lot of things like this blurriness: (thanks for sharing your sunglasses with me boys)

 

 

Oh and we love to "play Smiles" with  Tan Tan and try to get him to smile back at us. 

 

 

(I feel like I post pretty much the same picture of Cannon and Tanner every week but its so dang cute every time I see it!) 

And speaking of so dang cute...I kinda like this little guy! ~and all the faces he pulls~ (The Cardinals gear is courtesy of my friend/counselor at church...I mean if the kids going to have a Missouri birth certificate...it kind of makes the Cards the home team)

 

Colts my little monkey man but Cannon's getting pretty darn good at the Monkey bars. Colt wanted my help which is a little tricky with Tanner in my arms, but we did it a few times. 

 

We did get to go to the park with Noah and Zach once this week but after they left town I really had to force the boys to go, they just think if we are going to the park then their friends should be there. So we busted out the USA puzzle and had a little geography lesson to learn where Wisconsin is :) Oh and one of the days I asked Colt what park he wanted to go to and he said "Preschool" we might have to see what Mrs Hardee is up to next week ;)

Today at the park though we made some new friends, actually they were there for a while and I didn't talk to them at first but then I crossed paths with the mom and said "Hey can I ask you about your baby carrier?"  Because it was one of the sweet ones and I just had Tanner in my arms, so it looked really REALLY good.  (I told Isaac that little conversation is going to cost him about a hundred bucks! lol- we've managed without one for two kids but my rationale is yeah but now I really DO need a good one cuz I don't have a 3rd arm. We'll see.) Anyway, it turns out her husband is a professor at Truman too-they are super SUPER nice. They actually invited us over for dinner tonight and we went and had a great time. The kids had a blast playing in the rain then coming into the screened in porch and doing "the dry off dance" it was fun. They are a good little family. We're happy to know them, I guess Isaac kind-of knew him, or at least of him but still...
I think that's pretty much it has far as the weekly happenings. In other good news Tanner's goopy eye seems to have cleared up, YAY! Weird, it was seriously just overnight, but we'll take it.

My boys love the Kratt Bothers-or I guess the show is called Wild Kratts or whatever anyway they are always "activating" their "cheetah powers" and such Cannon usually plays like he's whatever animal they've learned about (resulted in a biting yesterday-that was bad news)  but the other day he and Colt were "Chris" and "Martin" it was hilarious when they'd call each other those names and then they fight (cuz they always fight-UG) but over whose turn it was to talk ~like they are talking to a camera~ I assured them I've never heard the Kratt Bros fight, which only slowed them down long enough for Cannon to think up his argument that he HAD heard them fight. He is soooo sassy and talks back lately, not my favorite quality. But let's talk about that favorite for a minute or at least one of them, he is So Smart and he really just has a knack for memorizing things~so I have to keep his little brain working in a positive direction-or. Else! Ya know? Anyway so he's got the 13 articles of faith down so we've started the Living Christ document, he's doing pretty darn good. I mean, at the end of the day-he's still only 5!

https://youtu.be/2pQWGizVZig

He gets better at it everyday (ok with the tablet time bribe, but still) and we add a sentence or two. Sometimes its hard to keep up with him! 

Colt, oh man just last night Colt came in our room in the middle of the night and asked for milk "Me tan have some milk?" Oh it was AWESOME!!! Because normal for him is to just wake up screaming, sometimes whining, but usually screaming. Oh it was just such a nice peaceful question. Sure buddy! I'm hoping it is the new normal, then I'll hope he just sleeps (which he does sometimes already). The other thing he's been up to is coasting (aka "Toasting") on his little blue bike. He's going to be ready to pedal soon!

https://youtu.be/Ns2mDN4lDuU

Now Tanner and I, we just have this rough life, we'll take it, we love it!

In other drama the dog came in the house. I was in the other room feeding Tanner and I don't know what Cannon did to coax her in but she knows not to come in (and will stand by the open door-so we know it was on his invitation) So, we did some lame consequence like took away a couple of his toys but told him if it happened again she wasn't going to get to go to Utah with us. Well, once again I don't know what happened but and I don't even know if she was clear in, but I was in feeding Tanner and I heard him telling her to get out. But the first thing Cannon told Isaac when he walked in the door  was that she was in the house again. So time will tell if the consequence holds? I told him (Isaac) I didn't care but whatever-his dog- his problem. Unless it comes back in the house, I guess its my problem then... He said "what a pain" (as in to find a dog sitter for 2 weeks) but then said "but it was going to be a pain to take her too" It was nice to hear him admit that! I don't know what will happen. 

Until next time...

Isaac has the patience of Job-we know that. Me, not so much, we know that too. Its not my favorite thing when I see my weaknesses in my boys :(! Tanner will fuss a few times when he's hungry or unhappy in the car seat or whatever but then after those initial little efforts to communicate-it is GAME OVER. He's screams his head off, (and when he starts to sound more and more like a duck it breaks my heart) but I thought of myself with the older boys, I ask nice once, maybe two or three times but then I get cross. Hmm too bad Tanner couldn't have gotten Isaac's patience.
Tanner's definitely holding favorite brother status in Cannon's world these days. Cannon will get so excited and say "He smiled at me!" And then Colt will get right in Tanners's face and say "Div me a burp Tan-nore." I'm not sure why a burp is preferable over a smile??? They both are always wanting to hold him. They were lifting his whole little vibrator chair playing "Space Ship" umm NO. Mom always ruins all the fun but--too bad!

Super dad was at it again last Saturday morning, making breakfast for the boys and the whole nine yards and boy was I grateful! Then they decided they needed a project so they took on the garage--sweet and thanks guys! You can't really tell in the pic how much of an angle but-if you park on an angle the van fits :)

The bad news was we totally forgot I'd signed us up to help clean the church that morning so we stood up the other family--whoops! Oh and the other bad news was well into that garage project even Job ran out of patience. At first I was feeling totally vindicated, like,  I'm not so bad after all, I deal with these antics all day every day. But then it became somewhat of a learning experience, I listened to Isaac after his patience was far spent I kept thinking "oh that sounds just like me" like when I told him he was being really impatient with them and maybe he should just take a break -umm total role reversal- but he snapped (ok, as much as Isaac can snap) "no I'm not! It's fine" haha yeah right,  but from the outside it was easy to recognize. So it was good to be on that side of things, and know what I sound like to him.

Solution? No clue! But we can work on figuring it out together! 

Sunday we had the Thatcher's over for a little impromptu BBQ. I was a little panicked after Isaac and Cannon took the dog for a walk while I did some damage control on the messiness of the house then Isaac comes in and tells me he invited some random neighbors I've never met "oh they're really nice you'll love'm" he said, classic Isaac right? But he was right, they are a great little family and it's good to know people in the neighborhood but sometimes I sweat those situations because Isaac just has a knack for recognizing we are all God's children and only seeing the good in people! It's really one of his best qualities and maybe I should be a little more grateful, maybe it's why he married me! I'm just saying you never know what's coming when Isaac says "they're real nice you'll love'm" but-it all worked out, they were great and we had a great time. 

A few pics from Sunday morning-I come out of the bedroom Cannon's got Tanner while Isaac was reading something...umm...ok? Maybe?

No to be outdone of course Colt wanted to hold Tanner too-I let him later that evening but hey Colt, not quite what I had in mind when I said "make sure you hold his neck" obviously he was fine enough I dared snap a picture but easy buddy! Then the next one, so loving and cute of Colt. Tanner however-his face says it all! "Why does he STILL have me?!?!?!" 

Tanner is starting to make cute baby noises and give real smiles :) The best way to not have your mom frustrated with you when everything is quiet as a mouse the rest of the house (and world) are asleep and you really should be sleeping too: smile at her! 

Totally forgiven for keeping me awake ;) although I will say I wrote not long ago about loving the newborn phase-true! But the charm of the up all night is wearing off! Little buddy has been so stuffy lately it's awful, he can hardly breathe through his nose-which also makes eating a bit of a circus, last night we slept in the chair because it was game over if I set him down-UG, he slept in my arms I tried to sleep in the chair. I was pretty darn tired today! 
Wednesday was a great day! Miss Dorothy had the boys over for a play date!!! Could we possibly love her any more??? They had so much fun and just played and played, they read stories, the did the rhythm things, played ninja turtles, tried to fly a kite, turned "the park" (indoor playground) into a haunted house by decorating it with fish? oh their little imaginations run wild. She had them ALL day too, we packed a little lunch. I had a blast getting the reports back when I text her to check in, it turned out perfect because I actually had a Dr. appt that day and I got to brave walmart with just Tanner-so nice! And it just made my heart so happy because yes preschool is over but we still have (and get to see) our dear friend, we win.  Oh and she told me she LOVED the songbook and has learned a lot about our faith from it. She loves the songs and the "truths in those melodies" it was neat. The rest of the week we've cashed in on some good times with the Tilton's, we are so grateful for good friends! The Lord is mindful of all of us and knows what we need. Our boys are just best friends and wake up asking for each other, both Cassie and I are kind of like whoa every single day isn't really sustainable but we figured they are going on vacation then we are so they will have some separation soooo let the good times roll, it's good for everyone! :)

 

Colton LOVES monkey's. Monkey jama's monkey noises and especially climbing all over everything and everyone like a monkey. I tried to take a picture of him grinning from ear to ear hanging around Isaac's neck but it was right into the light and didn't turn out but the one of him over my shoulder I was just talking on the phone-and that was his idea of a good time, he's crazy.  

I don't know where this really fits in the blog post so I'll just throw it on the end here but one of my favorite things right now is just chatting with (and learning from) other people. The gals in my ward on a variety of subjects, Cassie at the park~we fight a lot of similar battles~ and she's just a really good mom. The Tilton's are our Missouri version of the Belk's :) I think just adult conversation is really a nice thing for me at this stage of life! 

I have to post the new blog header-because it doesn't print out in the blog books. Not exactly a good picture of Tanner but at least he's in it... I'll keep at it~maybe

 We tried so hard out on the front porch but I ended up really liking the ones from when we came in and they just laid down by Tanner. And I wish Tanner's head was turned, and I didn't love the bink-but hey, that or the scrunched face? I dunno

Mostly I just love being these guys mom! (Even if they fight, and regardless of what I say about Mother's Day here a few lines down.)

Holy Cow this week...the truth is I'm so sick of fighting kids I could just rip my hair right out! 

I think this week has been extra long because I had been eyeing it for so long to be the one we were in Utah for...but we're not there.

People ask about adjusting to 3 kids all the time, its nothing compared to adjusting to no preschool.

We were running a random errand this week and afterward pulled out on to the street Mrs. Hardee lives on and Cannon said "Can we just go to preschool?"  We might have just headed right down to pop in and at least say "Hi" but I was trying to give Mrs. Hardee a little break :) We've worked on the workbook pages she gave them, done math with fruit loops,  been to the park a few times ~I have happy boys when the Tilton's meet us there~ We made cookies (I made them grind the wheat for our "healthy" cookies haha they love it though.) And who knows what else, just tried to stay busy I guess. 

We've been going to brave Walmart all week but I really am just a big chicken about taking the troops~hey you never get out of that store for less than $50 bucks so lets just say I'm saving money :) But there's always walmart.com...
Anyway, last Saturday was graduation at Truman so Isaac was busy with that, look what I snagged off the Truman business school Facebook page, Dr Ison at the hooding ceremony for the masters degree students

He's perfect for it, even if he thinks its dumb, and never would have went to one, look at that smile-he's a good sport. It's poetic justice, him NEVER going to a graduation in all of his schooling and now he has to. 

Sunday was Mother's Day, what a dumb trick, it's like you think oh it's Mother's Day I won't have to deal with fighting kids...ya right! It was bad, plus Colt's tantrum at church was a doozy! One of the days this week Isaac came home and was going to let me have a nap, only he let Colt scream "I want mom" by the bedroom door, then came in and said "You'll be able to fall asleep right?" Um while he's crying? Not a chance-this is what I do all day-plus, he doesn't realize what an amazing skill set he has when it comes to sleeping! Anyway back to Sunday, The boys did sing their cute song from preschool to my mom ~probably the highlight of the day for me! And my primary kids sang "the miracle" and in sacrament mtg and it was awesome.

Thursday they had a little high priest activity~the boys got to fish, Tanner and I showed our faces but that was about it.

They fish story I heard was that they had a big one but Cannon gave up? didn't want to? got scared? I don't know but quit reeling it in, so Isaac took it and was trying to hand the pole to Colt and their line broke. Hmmm maybe a little fishy-just kidding. Then tonight we were off to the work shin dig at the Kaden's~we had a great time AND I didn't have to worry about dinner :) win win. 

Some pics:

Grama calls this guy "failure to thrive baby" Grampa somehow turned it into "Little Mr. Never gets to eat" haha or something like that, but I say the cheeks don't lie!

 

And he sure is lucky to have good big brothers who love him so much. Cannon is all about helping with Tanner, it's actually pretty great! Now if I could just get him to quit teasing Colton and Colton to quit tattling and screaming ~I'd be golden!

 

I was peacefully feeding Tanner the other evening when I heard squeals of delight in abundance. I had to go check it out--bathing the dog--it figures! 

Who knows what adventures next week holds, time will tell. 

5!-one month-preschool graduation

Holy Cow we've had a busy week around here. There's so much...but I think I'll just go in chronological order. Even though I have way better highlights and way better pictures from the week than a dog carrier-oh well it is how the Saturday morning started.

 

The dog carrier they bought didn't fit on the rack he bought--so of course they loosened a few bolts and ended up being glad it wasn't any heavier duty plastic because they were able to make it fit. This little project was so important to Isaac and Cannon so they can take Belle to Utah...I'll give 2 guesses how excited I am about traveling across the country with a dog. Isaac's convinced it won't be more work...but then again we already knew the eternal optimist is a little delusional...

Isaac is hilarious-we know this right?- but on Saturday's he always tries to help. (And I do appreciate it!) His brain just shifts into that mode but it was like he needed or wanted to do something (I don't remember what) and he said "No, I can't do that, that would leave you with all three kids." I laughed and said "You do realize I have all three of them all week right?" Funny guy! And on that note...thanks for your help Hun

Playing in the mud was 100% his idea but I admit he did a pretty good job of cleaning them up after too!
I was going for a little variety this week with the Tanner pics...how's this? These two are the only ones that got Saturday naps. Lucky them!

Sunday Cannon got his  much anticipated primary shirt. Although I admit I didn't get a picture until Tuesday when he ~proudly~ wore it to preschool. He put it on over his shirt and tie Sunday in primary right after he got it though and it was pretty cute.

 

Monday we ventured out and found a tennis court. (Ok truth, it was after Isaac let Cannon get his racket out and told him it was ok to play downstairs-"Just hit it against that wall" was the same wall with the sliding glass door down there. I put the kibosh on that! Yes, I ruin all of their fun but then again its a good thing I do. But I told him we'd see if we could find a place to play...so we did.) It was so good for the boys to get out and run around...however Colt and the court had a little run in, I took the face picture later during naps when I realized he'd skinned up his forehead nose and lip in the crash too. (I missed it because it wasn't really bleeding and his whole face was red from crying, I'm not completely negligent.)

 

Tuesday was super fun. Last year we pretty much drove all day on Cannon's birthday-even though he probably doesn't remember, I do, so I was determined to celebrate! There's not a ton to do in Kirksville but we asked if he wanted to go bowling and he did when we asked who with he picked Noah and Zach! So we started the birthday celebration early and went bowling then had the Tilton's over Tuesday night. It was fun, those boys are such good buddies. Maybe we need to work on the concept of rolling the bowling ball instead of throwing it-oh well they haven't kicked us out yet.

 

And we started with presents Wednesday morning! 

Hallelujah he has a mining shovel. He wanted Santa to bring a real one, he wouldn't believe us that he couldn't. Thank goodness Santa left a note --he wasn't about to believe us ;) So then he decided he wished Santa would have brought a toy, oh maybe the Easter Bunny would-and could I please call Jenna because she has the Easter Bunny's number. (The kid remembers EVERYTHING-he probably totally remembers we drove his whole birthday last year.) Anyway, the Easter Bunny fell through. I told him Wednesday I was so glad the Easter Bunny didn't bring one because I had already ordered this one from stink'n Australia! Maybe the Easter Bunny just knows things???  Serious though, Australia! The dang things aren't cheap but I did at least find this one that wasn't several hundred dollars. When Colt said "Me wanna mining shovel for my birt-day." I said "How bout just play with Cannon's? Lets think of something else fun for your birthday!" And hoping to stick to that plan!

5 Years Old. How bout it? Love him!

And the next day--little Tanner hit the 1 month mark.  He sure is one loved little brother!

 

My heart melted when I got this pic this week from Mrs. Hardee!

Preschool has been the BEST experience! Oh we have loved it, oh we will miss it!
Thursday the mom's got to come and they did this darling little program for the moms. They had mugs and muffins and mints for us cuz they all start with M. Plus they'd made us the darling little crafts for Mother's day. (The tulips and the hand print flowers-I hung them up in the kitchen)

It was so darling.

https://youtu.be/VfRDUejwKEU

https://youtu.be/I0v8IMRsfgQ

Colt wasn't much of a performer, but boy-he's been singing ever since, its sooo cute. My kids have learned to much. Cannon can tell time-as long as its "O'clock" but our clock has Roman numerals and he just counts around and tells us what "o'clock" it is. Colt was singing the days of the week the other day. Cannon knows all the months and some math facts, they have songs of how to spell the different colors. Its just awesome. Here is Cannon putting up the 5 on the calendar because it was the 5th.

 

They made us muffins--so cute...and NO WONDER Cannon always tells me he can crack the eggs at home!

https://youtu.be/XGljSJmELnQ

https://youtu.be/xzqLlaopQeA

When Cannon wore his primary shirt Tuesday Dorothy told me she loved it. So we made her one, that was kind of fun. I had they boys write here thank you notes and I tried to put some my feelings into a note for her too. What a fantastic experience though! We will definitely stay in touch, the boys love her, I love her, and she loves us back too :)

Thursday we also drove down to Columbia to meet up with Blake and Annie at  a park for a couple hours as they were passing through. SO SO fun. Too short though but such a blast to see them and catch up a little. I told Annie I needed about 10 more hours of visiting like that, it just did my heart good. Cannon and Ayla were just long lost best buddies. Cannon asked to get to play with her more about 15 times on the drive home.

And with so much to blog about I wasn't going to take any pictures today--yeah right. I took some with my real camera I HOPE to turn one into a new blog header, later, its getting dang late! But when my boys wanted to play baseball...I couldn't resist!
It was baseball/park, that play ground lured them in. At first I thought they weren't going to play baseball at all~for all the effort of dressing up...

And adventures with dad always abound. Grandpa Ison at least got them wearing helmets, that's good. And why can't we go back to this being the kind of dog he plays with-someone else's then give it back! 

And in rotten news I finally realized I CAN'T travel with the boys all by myself. I told Isaac I look at tickets every day and I needed to buy some or resign myself to not going. He gave me the go ahead (Cuz I didn't want to just ignore his counsel but if he was game, I was going.) So he have me the nod and then the wheels of reality came off. Kind of devastating for me. Tanner was struggling to eat/burp, the boys were running wild-neither would listen to me. They were supposed to be eating-simple enough. Colt is a beast when you wake him up. He'd had accidents back to back nights. Tanner really does need me-pretty much all the time. Colt just thinks he does and won't let anyone else help him with anything and its a major meltdown if they try. The melt downs aren't short. I was picturing that in the airport or on the plane. Tanner screams the whole way on a short little drive down to preschool a lot of the time. Lest Cannon comes off as innocent...that kid doesn't mind. He's a major antagonist and he and Colt fight light cats and dogs...So I really can't do it. :(
Somehow no matter what anyone said I still wanted to do it. I guess it was just a realization I had to come to myself. 
When I told Isaac my conclusion Mr Sensitive said something nonchalant about well its only twenty something more days and he knew if I looked at it logically...bla bla bla. I know the blog is supposed to stay positive but lets be real, I was fuming mad, I wanted to load up the van and all 3 kids and go...but I'd just realized I couldn't. And Isaac's never going to think or feel like me, but I did make it clear I want to go home for Christmas this year! I figured I better start now!
The End