We always have so much to be thankful for but this thanksgiving weekend I'm especially thankful everyone seems to be healthy. Thank Heaven! Its been probably 2 months!! Isaac didn't have to work this week (he always still goes in) but it just frees him up a little schedule-wise so we've really had a great week. 

Saturday all I really accomplished was getting the  extra chairs set up and copies of the primary program printed off, and Sunday we checked that off the list until next year. (-sigh- such a relief) the kids really did a great job. Colton's fever finally broke Friday in the night but then it came back Saturday evening so we were making the one of us stays home with sick kids plans but he woke up fever free and wanted to go so we went with it. I wanted SO BAD to video them doing their parts but...I didn't think it was appropriate -isn't it really even against the sacrament meeting rules?- and really it all happened so fast that I couldn't anyway. But Colt had practiced his part at least 50 times the week before, he had it down! But in the moment he let his teacher help him-I think kind of because he was helping most of the kids. But it was fine he still did a good job and said (loudly right in to the mic) "The scriptures teach us about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! My favorite word in the scriptures *are 'Behold'" *that are was supposed to be is but if I'm typing what he said I might as well keep it accurate. Cannon nailed his part-he did a great job all by himself said "The church of Jesus Christ has been restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith, I love the Prophet Joseph Smith, I'm thankful for his testimony of Jesus Christ." ...after his part he was goofing around and messing with chairs--it wasn't good I kept looking at him with the "knock it off" look and finally mouthed to him that I was going to drag him out of there and it wasn't going to be pretty to which he rolled his eyes-he's 5 the little stinker- but then he did shape up. SO it all worked out!

So happy its over.

 

Pictured above is the grin of a dad-shopping for an excavator! The boys were all about it-totally enthralled.  It was just that nights whim...I think...I mean I've been assured that at some point they will have an excavator but...I wasn't thinking quite yet. What happened was he looked into how much it would cost to rent one and thought-why don't I just buy one, use it, then sell it-or I could rent it out. So he headed to the auctions sites. Of course I'll keep you posted. We don't really know what were doing next year as far as living arrangements but we're considering a few different things. We spent some time looking around on Zillow this week, we've talked about his little projects on the lot(s) he bought...who knows-time will tell, and I try  not to lose sleep over it. 

Monday Cannon's school had a literacy/basketball night. It was a fun little event we called family night-they fed us pizza so I didn't have to worry about dinner. I was sold. It was a fun little event though. They did a nice job with it. Colt...yikes...but he did warm up and ended up loving it when his name got drawn and he got to pick a new book and a prize. 

 

These boys--its just so good so see smiles instead of little sickie eyes I probably took more pictures than normal. 

Oh but it wasn't all smiles. Tanner has two teeth!!!...I'll take better pictures when they get a little further in--but he was about this happy about it....at least they're through now! He's had a big week-he's also been getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth a lot too.

 

Wednesday evening the Gordon's got here! So. Dang. Fun. It was totally like having family for thanksgiving. I've felt like they were family ever since we went to lake powell with them while we were dating. So in Missouri you have to be all of 6 years old to hunt. (What? Crazy right?) But hey its what got them here so we'll take it. As of tonight-still nothing though, such a long way to come (and buy and out of state tag UGH) to go back empty handed. So they still have tomorrow morning hopefully they'll have some luck. Anyway here is Nick putting on the crossbow demonstration. Colt was all about it. 

 

Nick and Don had new crossbows they were trying out then Harrison had a rifle. Hunting in here is so different though-there's no hiking around, it more like sit and wait. But anyway this is the little Rifle Nick built for Harrison.  He's 8 and hoping for his first deer! He couldn't actually hunt until today so yesterday he just stayed and hung out with the boys and they had a blast. They have played and played and played and he's been a great little helper too. I only have blurry pictures but he and TanTan have been best buds with a mutual adoration, its pretty cute.

 

 

We've had so much fun having them here and they've spoiled us. They showed up with a ham and a turkey! (And a delicious pumpkin roll!) So we pretty much had two thanksgiving feasts the last two nights! ~after hunting of course~

Today when they went hunting-the entertainment left- my boys were so restless. "What should we do? What should we do?" So we made the only logical choice-the day after Thanksgiving-we busted out the Christmas stuff. Oh but first my little scripture lover--he's so dang cute.

 

I told Isaac today I think we're going to keep this little $3 yard sale Christmas tree forever...but someday it's going to go in their room and I'm going to have one that I decorate. But for now...why not this? Its about the light of Christ and the light in their eyes when they are helping. They were so dang cute. As we were fluffing the (pathetic) branches they asked to sing Jingle Bells. So we did. When they were decorating it they made a little system where Colt got stuff out  of the box and brought it over to Cannon to put on, I tried to take a video to get the full effect but I haven't even looked at it. I'll have to check it out and maybe put it on youtube then upload it here. We'll see. And try as I might I couldn't convince them that the ribbon was a job for me. I took the picture of him trying to toss it but then I was in the other room with Tanner when they actually put it on, the dialogue was great though I kept hearing things like "Are you ready? Here it comes Colton!" and the finished product...

 

But for a little better idea of the ornament clusters and ribbon wrap check it out in the background of these proud little star heads. But, they love it, so I love it. And they had fun so we'll call it a win. Make no mistake about it though-their work of art is under attack by little Tanner the tree Terrorist.

Ha! Good times! We as so blessed, and looking fwd to this special time of year!

Sick Is-on shheesh, I could rename the blog!

Last weekend was horrible I was supposed to go to Nauvoo for some primary meetings and I was going to take Tanner with me but he was too sick. So we stayed home.

We ended up staying home Sunday too, well Isaac and I switched off for church. Waiting for Monday morning to be able to get in the doctor seemed like forever! I felt so bad for him!! But we finally got there and the poor little guy still had the double ear infection that had spread to his eyes plus all the sinus junk oh it was terrible! We ended up with a new antibiotic, why won't they just give them a shot and be done with it??? Tanner medicine =Tanner puke. He HATES it,  I don't blame him it smells awful, but it works! Here's a before an after just one day of medicine.

So its a twice a day fight that I totally dread-but I am also so thankful for. There are some side effects that are a little rough too, but I can't change 20 diapers a day if he will feel better! Now lets talk Colt. Monday when we were at the Dr. both the senior medical student and the Dr. told him it was good to see him feeling better and he responded "Fanks" and kept coloring. (He was doing a great job) At that point he had been done with the antibiotic since the Thursday before. That was Monday. Tuesday he was happy and himself but kept telling me how tired he was. I was fine with that and didn't think anything of it, I just told him to go in and lay down when he was tired. That night when I leaned down to give him a goodnight kiss he was burning up!!! I grabbed the thermometer and sure enough-more fever. Poor little guy! Here's a before and after of him. 

We had this random house guest. He was a really nice guy. He had done medical school here but then did his military pay back time before residency-so he's hoping to come back here for residency. Anyway he was just staying down in the basement, but I made him earn his keep and check Colt out. His ears and such were fine. BUT, he's not good! Poor little man. That guy said probably just ride it out...so I might be in for another awful weekend. He's hilarious when he talks about how he's feeling and describes his clogged nose as "His buggars being stuck" and such. But the poor little guy is miserable. Tonight he was saying his eyes hurt...so I'm wondering if it is like Tanner's minus the ear infections. Who knows.

On to happier things--Cannon pulled his own tooth the other morning! So much for me taking pictures, it was 5:30 in the morning, this is as good as it got.



Then we were down at the bus stop and I realized the other one was just about in!

I love that he is enjoying school so much. He got sent to Mr. Motley for anther positive referral. And I'm pretty sure the note says "I am happy." Which of course made a mom VERY happy to find.



I had half a mind to start another blog where I put pictures of school projects and stuff. I need to. Because I assure you I don't save stuff like this...hello recycling bin. But I DO want to remember it. So here for now...maybe a school projects blog later.

I remember Cannon always getting into the scriptures when we lived in Ivins. Tanner's onto it these days-ever since he's been feeling better. Well buddy-may you always get into the scriptures! Its a great place to be! Although that's not quite what the "feast upon the words of Christ" scripture means.

We've been practice our parts for the primary program. (I'm praying Colt is healthy enough to go Sunday...not that you ever get what you expect out of a 3 year old--but at home he's got it down!)

And he keeps telling me he can pull of funny face...what a goof! Get feeling better my little goof.

Oh I'm totally in love with the new blog header :)

So I have a story...I go to pick Cannon up and Colt doesn't want to come stand in line with me. Ok-so I leave him to wait in the car. I get back and he's crying and says "I already peed." I sigh and say "In the van?" And he says "no outside." (So honestly I'm relieved) but I look up and there's an older man in the car next to us. So I'm like oh crud, so I approach his window to apologize and he tells me he "thought it was inappropriate" no kidding why do you think I'm apologizing dude? This  town. These people. Ahhhh another great journal entry right? But what does he want me to do about it-at that point it's water under the bridge--or pee under the tire-- I just kept saying "I'm sorry, I really had no idea, he just didn't want to stand in line today so I thought he'd be fine, I'm sorry." And the guy says "So you don't teach him to do that?" I say "no!" And thankfully Michailia walked up and he pulled away...then I remembered about 3 weeks ago at the park-why do the lock the bathrooms? Again, this town! Anyway so yes we opened the car door and kinda hid behind it and he peed so yes, I guess I did teach him to do it. I still don't know why he was crying...and I'm still happy he didn't pee in the van! And we talked about how he should have come and got me and we would've gone inside so it's fine. But it's dumb-and oh well. You might be thinking why would the person who had CPS come for leaving her children unattended be leaving her child unattended so that could even happen? But I assure you I always (now) park on the closest row so I would've been able to see him but the nice lady in line just got asking me about the boys names and then telling me about her grandchildren's names and (sigh) it's always something. 

Tanner finished up his antibiotic Sunday and has slowly but surely gotten just as sick as he was--haven't I been typing for 6 weeks now how ready I was for everyone to be healthy?!?! I'm grateful for the mom blessings though-I've had a couple cruddy days this last week but for the most part I've been dodging bullets. 

Meetings in Nauvoo last Sat (Isaac had obligations at Truman so it was me and all three boys...) it hard to go that far then kids don't want to go to the babysitting and Tanner was sooooo tired but wouldn't sleep. BUT, at the end when I got to meet the new temple pres and matron (she is Pres Nelson's daughter) it was all worth it. They are so sweet and when he was a mission president one of his missionaries was our neighbor in Ivins--it was neat to visit with them. They are great. Sunday we had a satellite stake conference plus the end of daylight savings so it felt like forever until it was time to go to church but with that extra time and a few marshmallows I bribed the boys into getting that new picture.😀

A few more pics:

Park pics, Colt show'n off his new hair cut. And what it often looks like when we pick up Cannon. Tan happy-Colt zonked. 

Man, seeing Tanner's little eyes in that picture just 2 days ago make me realize how sick they look tonight 😞

Oh and Cannon has a loose tooth! They tried to pull in the other night but it was too small for Isaac to get ahold of and all I got of the attempt were blurry pics with arms in the way--but that should happen for too long.

Until next week! 

Little buddy is always after the books. 

Dang I love these boys. I took these pictures when the two big ones were jumping off the hay stack and I wanted to print them out...when I tried they were totally blurry. Oh well. The blog can handle blurry-and I made it the background on my phone-because I tried the scripture to ponderize thing and I hand changed it since April. (So I'll have to work on that little piece of council with some other tactic...)

We are miss'n that tickle Grampa and him spoiling us. Did I mention last week that he took 2 days off work to hang out with us--that's kind of a big deal!

The Rhino ride turned quickly into a nap. Cannon on the dog--too perfect. Saturday was a jam pack fun day. It was our cousin Bri's surprise birthday party! When I went to Lins to grab the dry ice for the homemade rootbeer I ran into our old neighbor Bruce. He invited us up to the annual Gubler family pumpkin fest. It would have been so fun but we weren't able to squeeze it into our busy day. So we just slipped up earlier in the day and said Hi. It was fun to chat even if it was only for 5 minutes. The neighborhood has changed so much but Bruce and Kalyn and the Stouts are still keeping it anchored. I still like it!  Anyway from our stop there we slipped out the street to Harold's to see if we could find any Mississippians. Laurie had posted on facebook that the Turners were going to Ivins I thought "No way!" But I didn't comment instead planned the sneak Hello. But when we stopped by they weren't there. :( We had to chance it. We said we would try again later when we went to feed poppa's horses and they said Horses? Go get some Carrots, Harold had a bunch in his green house that he didn't want to bottle and had gotten a little old. SO...Monty and Holmes got the hookups. 

And we did meet up with the Turners later--so fun! Its just so fun when the big ole world shrinks a little!

Tanner got to go up to the feed yard that night-boy, he's on to us now. He loved it. He says "Dang, Poppa's sandbox is the fun zone! No wonder my brothers love it."

I love this one!!

Oh the trip back...traveling with sick kids...not so fun. Colton was miserable the whole time...He slept -kindof-on the plane but he was coughing his little guts out. When the plane landed he said "I need to poooooop." We were like ok buddy hang on we're close. The people behind us were like "Umm can we let the kid who says he needs to puke off the plane first?" But really we just filed out of there like normal. Tanner screamed pretty much the whole decent. We were like oh his ears probably hurt--then he pooped and I thought oh maybe it was that. Well at that point the seat belt sign is on-I can't go change him. So we were just riding it out to get out of there. I took Tanner and Cann and and went to the family bathroom and Isaac took Colt. Oh boy. Maybe Tanner was screaming because he didn't like having poop ALL OVER him. A mess, is quite the understatement. Then I had Cannon unlocking the door-so we got walked in on twice while I was dealing with that. Oh and the diaper bag clothes I had for him were soaked from spilled water. So I put on wet pants (they weren't too wet but the shirt was) and the jacket we had for him and that had to be good enough!

We made it home. Isaac drove most of the way. So I got a little power nap. He then stayed home with the sickies and Cannon and I headed to church to practice the primary program. Also Sunday Colton hadn't got any better from when I had him into the family healthcare place in St. George so we started him on the antibiotics too. Monday was Halloween and...look at those eyes. No improvement. 

So I stayed home with our little sickies and Isaac took the martial eagle and met of with the Tilton boys and they had a great time! (So much for all the time we spent on the Hawk costume right? Really its ok-they like to dress up all year long. Isaac told me we could trick or treat at his class but Colt doesn't really recognize what he missed out on so I think we'll just let it pass.) With the other boys being birds Tanner was going to be roped into being Big Bird even though Cannon wore that costume when he was more like 18 months but...as is--maybe next year and maybe Big Bird won't loose EVERY feather next year. 

Cannon shared his loot though-that was nice. And even Tanner thought the little lip blowing whistle thing was cool :)

Tuesday I took Colt into our pediatrician here. I was was just done with the not getting better and doing the best I could with no progress. Having sick kids is awful and its been a long time. (At some point I started dealing with it 1 piece of Halloween candy at a time...ok thats a lie-6 pieces at a time...hey I'll have healthier habits when I have healthier kids-probably not the best game plan but I'm tell'n ya, I was done.) We ended up with a better antibiotic and I'm so thankful!

Cannon on his own initiative got a Santa letter written out (and mailed) this week. He starts sounding out the words--writes the first letter-then his brain gets ahead of his hands (we must be related) and he just moves on. I'm not sure what is what on part of it. But he added in the end part a little later and Isaac helped-it looks pretty good. So I think is says: 

Dear Santa can you bring me an excavator with no cord. With a bucket that can come off and a grapple that can come off. 

My friend in Mississippi used to always call Colton "My little sweet potata" So I took the above pic to send her the next little sweet potato when that's what Tan was eating/wearing. I never got it sent to Sister Weems--but here it is on the blog:)
And here we are all dressed up and ready for game 7. HOW BOUT MY CUBBIES!!!! That game! I stayed up too late listening to it but in the end WORTH IT! We live in red bird country but we have one neighbor who has a Cubs BBQ cover and cubs stickers on their car so we made some sugar cookies with red C's on them got our gear on and went to meet the neighbors. It was fun. Cannon was freaking out about putting his jersey on -with shorts- and not playing. Funny guy. So we played when we got home. 

Here's his school pic--and then a few I missed last week. 
I don't how I missed the fort! This baby was hours and HOURS of entertainment at grama's house. Grama Kay hooked her up with it and it was a hit! Then below I have TanO in his Christmas jams. Since he and I missed the chaos...I mean fun...the night of the donut party because we went to see poppa great/watch the world series.