Colton's 1st Christmas! It was a big deal to Cannon :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

So Grama had a little Elf on a shelf that helped report to Santa Claus on Cannon's behavior, Cannon named him "Furry" (because one of his story books the girl gets to name her pet and she names it Furry but anyway) so Cannon would be mischievous and I would say "Furry is watching." or "Do I need to have Furry tell Santa about that?" To which Cannon would reply "I want presents!" Every time. It was pretty hilarious.

Cute little Cann Man went shopping with his dad on Christmas eve and picked me out a "Activity" that's what he calls Nativity scenes, its pretty cute.
My older brother is Mr. Tradition and he loves Christmas. I tease him about it relentlessly (because I've teased him relentlessly since I was 6 months old but that's a story for another post) anyway, truth is, I get just as excited about it as he does. I love it.

 

After being up pretty late Christmas Eve Cann slept in pretty good Christmas morning (longer than any day we've been here so far) When he got up I took him to the bathroom and asked if he thought Santa had come. He said "...No I don't think so." Good thing he was wrong. :) So Cannon had asked for a backhoe with stablizers that go up and down and a down and a dump truck for Colt (as well as a dozer for his dad and a ladybug for me...ladybug??? anyway) He found Colt's dumb truck first, I kind of had to show him his sock and backhoe.

 

But when he found them he was a pretty happy camper! Actually besides filling requests Santa also brought Colton a little backhoe with stabilizers that move and Cannon a little dump truck. Santa is so awesome, either he loves my boys an extra lot or maybe his little elfs ordered a backhoe and when it came it was definitely little brother sized so then he had to get a big boy one for Cannon. Either way, we love Santa and all his magic.

The tracks on dad's new dozer run. So Cannon let them massage his teeth??? I can't explain a lot of what he does. I loved this picture with Grampa laughing in the background.

 

 

Cannon helped Colton go through his stocking. And then below he's showing us the cool Samuel the Lamanite figuring that Santa put in his sock. He got Abinadi too, it was so cute he saw it and exclaimed "Its Abinadi!, Where's King Noah?" I guess Silly Santa only brought the good guys. He didn't recognize Samuel as well, but I'm sure if there had been some arrows he would have.

Then Cannon found an AWESOME surprise. A package Santa had left all wrapped up by his backhoe. A big excavator!

He gasped and said "I've never seen a huge excavator before!" Because all his other toy ones are small. Anyway when he got all the paper off and had his dad to work getting it out of the package he turned and said "THANKS...Mom?" I said "Great manners but we'll probably have to write Santa another letter and tell him thanks huh?" It was so cute of him though, I was proud of him for remembering his manners!

 

Testing it out!

 

 

It was extra fun getting to help Colton with all his presents too!

 

 

Colt did like the paper and would shake it and make noise.
Cannon also got to help Poppa Great open his Christmas, and of course a little Christmas Mini time!

Cannon's getting pretty good at running it, and mom even got a little lesson and practice too!~
Grama and Grampa got shirts (for the little grandkids) that say "I love my Papa" and "I love my Grandma" We wanted them to smile and remember how much we love them anytime they see us wearing them but the toddlers (any of them)  couldn't really be bothered with my trying to take a picture in their cute shirts. Oh well. I tried to get a Christmas day pic of both of them.

 

Colt was up for it, what a cutie huh?!

Anyway, we had a great Christmas. I know this post was mostly about the material stuff that doesn't really matter, but its fun memories. We truly did enjoy the love of the season and remembering our Savior, all of season long, and hope you did too! We loved being with family and got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa Ison on the phone. It was a good day!

So Cannon has this thing where he gets in trouble then promptly says. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I did that." The other night as I was saying my own prayers I realized I'm pretty much the same as my  2 year old when it comes to parenting (admittedly I've been at it for 2.5 years so it kind of makes sense but...) In my prayers its basically "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I did that." Over and Over. YIKES. Maybe that realization will help me be more patient. We can hope. I do find GREAT JOY in being a parent. I love it, I'm also learning it exploits every weakness. Oh well, about that learning. Also Isaac and I read Alma 37 this week. I really like the part toward the end that says it is easy to follow Christ, I thought of that in reference to my lack of patience, it doesn't seem easy sometimes but it is, its me that makes it hard. And the promise-eternal bliss- (see vs 44) SO worth it, I need to do better!
So the week:
Friday Colt got to go see Grama Cottam

Saturday we slipped up to Cedar City and hung out with Burke and Emily's Blake and Annie came too, it was really fun. We had a great time. Such good friends. Cute little Daphne loved Colt, the kids played (and fought) and we visited and ate pizza and it was just really fun.

Sunday we went up to the Ivins 2nd ward. So fun to see so many great friends!!
Colt got to try Elsie's birthday 4 wheeler-and a little cereal from Grama (in this bottle) he slurped it right down, didn't even phase him.

Monday we slipped over to Jim and Celia's and got to see the Jeffery Clan, including Max and Calvin!! :) That has been a really fun thing, getting to see our friends from far here in Utah :)

Ryan also checked out Isaac's ear for him, and let Isaac use his otoscope and check out mine-just for fun :) Isaac is fascinated with Ryan and his wealth of knowledge, I told him I think he's his favorite person in my family. Its true.
They also snuck out on a little Rhino ride Thurs (probably good for them both-a little reprieve from the in laws) We snuck in a little Dixie rock time while we were waiting for a prescription. Cannon loved it and wanted to go back first thing the next morning to climb on the HUGE rocks.

And me, I do love myself some red rocks!
Tuesday I braved the stores for just a few minutes. Then we enjoyed my mom's traditional awesome Christmas Eve Dinner.

Our friend in Ivins recommended this book called "I believe in Santa Claus" it draws comparisons between the Savior, the true meaning of Christmas, and Santa. So I ordered it and it totally made it in one day, so we got to read it Christmas Eve. It was fun.

Loved the pic of Isaac Grama and Colt, red eyes or not.
Of course Cannon didn't eat much with the cousins around, too much to do. Then at 9:30 or 10:00 when all the kids are supposed to be asleep with vision of sugar plums (or sugar dog) dancing in heads. My kid was up eating soup with his dad, explaining to Grama that he needed to eat to grow big and strong... I swear I heard Santa's sleigh bells ringing so we hurried and finished and made it to bed, and luckily Santa did find us.

...about that Christmas post--next :)
I don't love living far away but I love that when I come back out its 100% vacation!

So I'm skipping around a lot but we'll get to Christmas and go with Thursday, while Isaac was out playing on the rhino, we found some little rocks/dirt to play on. Then my 2 little cowboys got to help Grampa cowboy'n (or meet him when he was done) I call Colton "Cowboy Colt" a lot, turns out its a great nickname he loved the horses! Cann was pretty shy but finally did get on. 

And even shared his cowboy hat with little Cowboy Colt :)

Cannon had so much fun playing with Ayla last weekend, he kept waking up asking for her. At the ward Christmas Party I think the two of them made about 20 laps running full speed. Cannon was exhausted!

 

Couldn't talk Cann into sitting on Santa's lap but Colt can't really refuse yet. He was waving his candy cane around like a wild man so all the pictures were blurry, this was as good as it got, but oh well.
Part of having the funnest dad in the whole world is getting to make AND SLEEP IN forts...it was both nights last weekend and I was wondering if we'd ever get him back in his bed.

 

So, I destroyed it in the early morning hours Monday before we left town. I'm definitely the party pooper around our house.
Except for the fact Colt's car seat didn't make the transfer in Houston our flights were great. (And BIG thanks to Miss Suzanne for taking us to the airport at 5 in the morning...yikes) but both boys traveled great, love those empty flights and lots of space!! oh and we ended up just borrowing an airline car seat so we're good.

So happy to be home for the holidays! Grama was saying the prayer at breakfast the first morning and Cannon interrupted her and added "And thankful we're in Utah" :) Yes we are!
Grama had a donut party and gave the kids Christmas pajamas the first night. (more pics on her blog...and if I get around to posting them here later-we'll see. )

Cannon was having a hard time being nice to Riley-I think the root of the problem was they both wanted Grama's train. He better watch out though-Grama has an elf on the shelf that's reporting to Santa, and every time he gets in trouble he says "I want presents, I want to mind."

So the bad news is the semester finally caught up with Isaac, he has been SO SICK, I can't remember seeing him like that-ever. It was a bummer!! But I think (hope/pray) he's on the mend. The first night I crawled into bed and he was burning up. SO HOT. (Well, we got in to town and I thought we was just going to have a little nap, but he slept for like 4 hours and never showed his face at the donut party, when I came to bed and reached over and touched his face I knew why, he was on fire) Then the next night I reached over to see if he was so hot again and he was pouring sweat, it was just awful. I'm sure he doesn't want all of these details on the blog but the poor guy has been miserable. Not a very Happy vacation. :( Not sure we're out of the woods yet.

Colt's rolled a few more times. Back to front this time though...Grama was coaching him one night. I guess he's coachable. That's important! The rolling is great, Cannon tackling as he goes, not so great. 

We've had lots if fun with cousins and rhe dogs so far-and more to come!

Cann's had my folks cracking up with the things he says, he's a funny kid. There were a few I was sure I would remember but I'll have to add then in later-my mind is drawing a blank right now.
We've definitely been enjoying the Christmas spirit and fun. Chip has a buddy that he knows from work who came over and sang a few Christmas songs with his kids. And he quoted the Christmas story from Luke 2. It was impressive and very cool. They are doing a great job of honoring the Savior this Christmas season. Oh yeah, the daughter was a gal I coached basketball against.
Ok I guess that's all...until I remember more :)

Last weekend it was ridiculously busy. GO GO GO but a lot of good things. As part of learning about the true meaning of Christmas we went to Miss Suzanne's bookstore to what I thought was a storytime type deal but really it was a book signing (I ended up buying the book because I felt obligated-lame-but SO Worth it for the other goal) anyway we took a book of our own. A Book of Mormon, all wrapped up with a pretty bow on it and this attached to the front cover.

Cannon told her that Christmas was really about Jesus and gave her the present. I was proud of him! But that was really all he said. Oh well. 2 1/2 and he gave away a BoM. Good enough. That night Elder  Zwick was in town and doing a special leadership training here in our stake, but they invited anyone that wanted to attend, not just ward council. We checked on a a babysitter but failed but I still wanted to go with, so I did, and hung out with the boys in the nursery with the speaker turned on. It was really long! But really good. I didn't hear it all because there was one other little family in the nursery with a very chatty 9 yr old. Oh well, I'm glad I went, I told Isaac "You wouldn't have been able to do that justice if I had asked you 'What was it about?'" and he agreed. I'm also glad we didn't have a babysitter, that would have a been a long long night for a babysitter and I would have been a nervous wreck. And by the end, boy was I done, probably since I knew we had to be on the road at 5:30 the next morning for the ward temple trip. It was a late night and an early morning, but very cool to be in the temple with so many people from our ward.

Then when we got back we went to a new gal in our ward's baptism. (Which we both ended up giving talks at, its definitely an honor, but still make things busy) And then it was Sunday which is generally not the most restful of days...but we made it and we even got Sunday naps and as busy as it was it was still a really good weekend. That night we watched the Christmas devotional. We were just watching it at home but Isaac was in charge of setting it up at the church, the only people to show up there were the Sister Missionaries and their investigator, so he just invited them over instead and we ate popcorn and slushies while we watched it. :) I liked it all but  Elder Rasband's question really stood out "What will you do this Christmas to honor the Savior?" We are trying but I do get caught up in the other stuff sometimes too.

Anyway, on to the rest of the week. 

Confession: I've betrayed my anti-facebook friends :( (most notably Jill and Kristin) So 6 years ago or so my friend set me up a Facebook account, I hated it and "cancel"ed (yeah right the stalkers never really let you leave) anyway but I shut it down, as much as possible within a few weeks. But the other day I caved and logged back in. I've actually been going to do it for a while, since I found out one of my best friends here in MS was pregnant when I went to the dentist. It seems like a pretty good way to keep up with people that are far away but it also seems to have TREMENDOUS addictive potential. So here's the deal I've made with myself. (And I'm committing to it here on the blog, so you will all know and I will feel guilty if I break my own rule) Facebook/family seach or family history stuff equal time. So far, in one week its been pretty cool, I'm just getting started with both, I don't know how to use or do facebook (I mean I can read all the stuff but...) but I don't really know how to do family history work either. So here I go! I hope it helps me be a little more productive in those few seconds I have to get on the computer. Anyway...that's that. We can "Be Friends" on Facebook now if you want too :)

Cannon and I got to be Santa's little helpers, we made some socks for missionaries here in Mississippi that might not get much support from home, an idea I got off of drum-roll please...Facebook. Anyway then Cann wanted to give 2 of the socks to the Elders here that he know and likes- they called Isaac and I picked up his phone and handed to him and said "Its the missionaries." So Cannon yelled at the phone "We have stocking for you!!" so we will.

The truth is, outside of our church friends, we really don't know very many people here in MS. But the other day I thought of our Home Depot worker friend Cheryl, she doesn't have to work Saturdays anymore so we don't see her at the workshops but we still text her a picture every once in a while and we love her. So I'd thought of her for our second Book of Mormon. I practically had to force myself to leave the house Tuesday, but I did because I thought it wasn't an accident that I'd thought of her. So we headed to HD with another Book of Mormon all packaged up. She wasn't at work but we shopped a little for Isaac and Cannon was AWESOME telling the workers "Merry Christmas" and  "Christmas is about Jesus" and that "he gave us the greatest gift" and so on, oh he was darling! One of the workers was so cute with Cannon then all the sudden he said "One of these days when your bigger your mom will let you get a tatoo like mine." WHAT???????????? I do not want to know what my face looked like in this that moment. I did look at the tatoo in pretty cursive on his wrist it said "child of God" I said (Stumbled) "Oh Cannon knows that song, Cann do you want to sing it for him?" And Cannon got all shy and declined. (I'm sure he sensed that I was thrown a little for a loop) Oh well he was super nice, and it was better than most tattoos! Anyway we ended up just leaving the BoM at the front with a sticky note on it for our friend. Then Wed Cheryl sent this text that made my day!

That was pretty cool, but lest you think I'm a good missionary after all of this tooting of my own horn, there is another family here that we know and love and have prayed about, I saw the mom and daughter in Walgreens and totally ducked  in the isle (a skill I perfected as a teacher) because I didn't know what to say-I don't know why I couldn't come  up with "Hi" I'm retarded!
Sometimes I leave little notes of what I want to blog about...then my blog posts get really long. Like this one!  Oh well. I'm still going!!!

Anyway, Little stinker Cannon woke Colton up the other night then talked his dad into making him more dinner at 930 at night chattering away while eating he was talking about waking Colton up and said "It definitely wasn't the plan," in a very concerned voice then in a way only Isaac's clone could he chirped "but it's okay!"
Or we were at the park and I told him if he put that any of that gross ice (or water) from the slide in his mouth again we had to leave. He did, and we were leaving -Colt was done anyway- and he said I "I drink that gross water and I like it, its delicious." Like the gross description was just so I would know what water he was talking about. Gag. Then there was this morning when I about burned the place down cuz I turned on the oven to cook muffins but Cannon had put and left a hot pad in there, we had billowing smoke. I said "You shouldn't have done that." He repeated "I shouldn't have done that," then in that chirpy happy voice "but I did!!" ...heaven help me!

Colt man is not near the thumb sucker Cannon was, he goes for the whole fist! His fists are always clenched, from day one it's been war to undo them when I tub him, oh well.

Here is Isaac Celebrating the end of a really brutal semester:

I was so excited but this was really all he wanted to do, I don't really blame him.
I've posted a collage of Colts really bad hair before but it was getting worse- and before it all started falling out it used to be so cute!!

So I did it, I buzzed it with the other boys.

I think he looks a lot different! It was just yesterday and I'm still getting used to it, I miss his little spikies but I think it's for the best. I am totally a short hair mom!!!

The Nielson's came for graduation!! So happy to see Ayla!

Ok I've got to be done now!

Great news, I did have a picture of the trach operation on my little camera. Cannon was standing watching but the one with him in it wasn't as cute.

Cannon has asked a hundred times this week to go to Max and Calvin's house. I love that he wants to go there! I wish it were closer. I could however do without the whining that usually accompanies him asking! After Home Depot and Santa last week we headed back to the deep south. Isaac found a BYU devotional, well, I'm sure it was really a forum but whatever, anyway he found it to listen to, then wanted me to listen. The author was George F. Will, here's the link, it was called "The Political View" and was really good. Before we had listened to any of it together he was on the phone with Blake telling him about it. He assured me he was more excited to listen to it with me than to have Blake listen to it, we'll just have to trust him on that. :) But we enjoyed it. In fact, I'd recommend it.
Sunday just felt BUSY, I start getting the boys ready at 7:30 for 9:00 church but they were both sleeping (and we have a rule around here -let sleeping dogs lie-) so it was just a slow start then rush rush rush. My mom told me Ann Romney used to put her kids to bed Sat. night in their church clothes-that might be a stroke of genius.
I'm enjoying the holiday season, and looking fwd to heading home. We listened to "Christmas in Dixie" on youtube the other day and Isaac asked "Are we in Dixie?" I said "Yes" and he said "We're just kind-of Dixie people huh?" That was music to my ears! Yes we are! Now can we ALL PRAY that Dixie State has a job opening when we are done? So far in my life I think I've done everything I  "swore I'd never do" so I thinking about swearing I'll never move back to Utah's Dixie, do you think it will work?
Monday for FHE we had big plans to string popcorn for our Christmas tree...it was short lived.

Cannon was a big fat NO help (except for eating the broken ones) it was a quick 3 and out and we punted! Cannon did stick one lonely popcorn on the tree to which Isaac commented "He got more accomplished than I did." We picked up a few dollar store ornaments and let Cannon decorate it.

Also our cute neighbor Miss Suzanne gave the boys these darling ornaments her mom made for them. So cute so nice. 
As usual Cannon had me laughing this week. I don't remember why but he was definitely getting what I would call a good old fashioned "butt chew'n" that he undoubtedly deserved. It probably went something like: "I've told you a hundred times, your dad's told you a hundred times, there's a reason we ask ya not to do that, your a big boy-I need you to act like it, your just creating more work for me...la la la la la la" and so on. Cann just stood there big blue eyes gazing up, taking it all, then as soon as I stopped he chirped in a far to excited voice "You can be HAPPY now mom!" I just started laughing and gave him a hug, (maybe the hug was partly so I could hide my smile a little bit) I sure didn't keep a straight face though. He's right though, I do need to get over things. Heaven only knows if I am going to be able to handle all that this little firecracker has to teach me.
It was my turn to do preschool this week. I sucked it up and decided to have it here at my apt. I live really close to the grocery store and Walmart so I thought it would be a nice break for the moms to just have an hour and a half to shop or whatever. Anyway I put more time than I want to admit into the little craft and Cannon was so excited to have his friends come, but no one came. Bummer.  I had Colt down for a morning nap and it was totally easier for me to NOT do it, Cannon and I had some good one on one time and did little "projects" but he just kept asking "When are my friends coming?" and then he wanted to know if they would come after his nap but anyway, it made it a little hard. Oh well. No one responded to my text so I knew no one coming was a possibility...but still.

I threw together some Christmas cards and ordered them while I could get them @ 40% off, still haven't picked them up, hoping the thrown together cards turn out alright. Oh and speaking of 40% off I confess to doing a little cyber shopping this week too. I love it!

We've been trying really hard to learn about Christmas and what its really all about. Cannon knows the right answers but I don't know how much is sinking in. We talk about how Jesus showed us how to live and how he gave us the greatest gift, by atoning for our sins, so we can live with Heavenly Father again. (And he chimes in "And that old guy" which is Mormon because in his little Book of Mormon at the end there is a picture of Mormon when he is old and going to die and we told him he died but he lives with Heavenly Father again now. -I say I don't know how much is sinking in but really nothing gets by this kid.) We have a few books of Mormon to give away as part of our present to Jesus. Hopefully that goes well. I'm going to defer to an old favorite as far a little faith (besides the what Christmas is really about) for our post today. Its a President Eyring talk that I found in his Draw Closer to God book, in which he gives us 3 guarantees. Life seems so uncertain so often I like the idea of guarantees and knowing what's going to happen! So here they are from Pres Eyring: We will have a trial (or several) of our faith. We will have a chance to serve those UNlike ourselves. And someday we WILL see the Savior face to face!
I like it. It makes me think. It makes me want to be better. It makes me want to live more like Him. Even the trial of my faith one, I think well, I can handle it if I know its coming right? Anyway just something to think about.

Colts doing good and pretty happy most of the time, well when his tummy doesn't hurt, so sometimes is probably a better description. oh wait, and except if I have the nerve to set him down. We've been building up to this but this week especially its a major crisis if I set him down. Its annoying but I sure love holding him too so ya win some ya lose some right? He sure is a drooler lately, I don't remember ever having to go bib with Cann Man but its bib or 5 outfits a day for Colton. And I'm sure they are just moving around in there but I'm soooo not ready for teeth yet! And just this morning I was going to put a load of wash in, his tummy did hurt so I set him down on it for some pressure while I changed the wash,he arched up on his little arms so I moved them out from under him and walked back to the washer, when I got back to him he was on his back, so there ya have it. Today, Dec 6th first roll over. Grama thought he was going to wait until her house but Colton has his own ideas! Cute little stinker.

I think that is about it.
Christmas is such a fun time of year and I am getting so excited!!!!!