While last weekend was anticlimactic-Isaac went to school Saturday too. Monday was plenty nerve racking and by today: He's made it through the semester!!!! We're done with 2 years of Phd school! YAY, Blake at Annie were at this point when we moved here so its like I can see that there is really light at the end of the tunnel! And praying we can get done a little early like they did too! Pretty Happy and very proud of Isaac, he's worked very hard and and done very well in school.
Tuesday was actually a lot more nerve racking than Monday and the tornado...I didn't really want to leave the house cuz we were still on watch and it was in the back of my mind what if there's another warning, I don't want to be at Kroger with my kids, that would be horrible. So we stayed in and I took more pictures of my kids than usual :)

 

Wednesday however I was down right giddy, just bursting with excitement because Grama and Grampa were coming. I really hope someday when my kids are grown (ok well first I hope they don't live so dang far away) but I hope my kids are even a fraction as excited to see me and Isaac come as I am to see my parents. My heart just jumps! I love it. We were walking to the mail and I said "Oh one of the things I need to get when Grama and Grampa are here is a new family picture." Cannon countered with "One of the things I need to get when Grama and Grampa are here is a prize." That kid, he's a character! They didn't get in until 11:00 Cannon and I were both pretty wound up but he did give up and go to bed. But when he woke up, they were here and the spoiling began. :)

Grama didn't make him get in the cart at the dollar store. Mistake.  He's cashed in on a prize or two. We went to Chuck E. Cheese, and to the Braves game.

I have pictures but we're just having so much fun and playing that I almost forgot its Friday and I needed to post (and that's saying something for me) so I'll catch up later. For now we're just soaking up the Grama and Grampa time! 

(oh and Isaac's back at school working away...but we really are technically done with the semester)

Colt buddy has been doing a few little crawls but the bigger news is as of yesterday he's pulling himself up to things and standing up instead of  just kneeling ...(and tipping over too-that parts been a little rough)

Here's Cann helping me get ready for company :)

Picture Catch up:

Tomato? Tornado...

A guy in my ward took this...his dad sat in the parking lot and watched the one in Northern Mississippi go by...maybe it runs in their family.

So I knew there had been a tornado watch for a couple days but all of the sudden when I was feeding the boys dinner Monday the tornado siren started going off...umm...crud? So we moved dinner into the bathroom. I had Cannon say a little prayer (lets be honest he's way more of a spiritual giant than me) he said "Thank you for the picnic in the bathroom."

 

So cute. Then my mom called in the middle of it, while I was blessed to be able to remain relatively calm-her, not so much, :) so I figured I better do a non-Friday blog update. First off all and foremost we are all fine! :) And thanks for the extra prayers if you were by chance one of the people sending them up for us. (And even though she was freaking out thanks Grama for requesting those prayers for us.)
Once in the bathroom I called my good friend Liz Shields and she was a huge help just to have someone who knew what to do, and she checked on us after too, so sweet. We hung out in the bathroom until the power started to flicker (on the phone with Grama again--totally freaked her out when I was like "I've gotta go the power's going out") then  we headed to the tub with Cannon's mattress over us. It was hot. (and wet because I'd washed the shower curtain and just let it drip into the tub. whoops.) Colt hated it.

Cannon's head make this picture blurry but you get the idea we were crammed in there...and yes I was taking pictures...well trying, it was pretty pitch black except the glow of my cell phone that didn't glow when I was trying to take pictures but then we got the big flash.. anyway--
Cannon went from thanks for the picnic to "I don't like the tornado" pretty quickly, he was pretty nervous.  But all was fine. The power was off for a while but we got it back last night :) Learned the emergency radio I had doesn't do me any good in the pkg with no way to open it. Its open now! Actually I learned a lot in the process but just thought I better report we're safe :)
Here's a little map of where they touched down...we live just off I-20 in Pearl right next to Brandon (on the north side of the freeway though) really we're probably right about where the red on that freeway sign is that's in the middle of the 3 T's

Ann told Grama there was a "Tomato in Mississippi" that's why the post title!
Isaac was gone to school, it was no big deal there (thankfully)

There, at least that's a little update!
Again, thanks for your prayers!

Easter

Grampa needed a new pic so Cannon and I finally got Colt's "Feed Yard" hat made...shirts that match them a little better are on the back burner.

Friday night Cannon and Isaac went fishing again. Cannon kept saying how beautiful it was and how much he liked being out in the country. They were at a little pond smack in the middle of town. He is such a character. They caught another fish--even took another picture, for me- then when they were washing their hands Cannon fell in, and Isaac stepped like a normal person in his efforts to rescue the Cann Man-thereby setting back the healing of his foot, he was hurting! BUMMER. Colt and I we just did a little Easter shop'n. We talked about Going to the Braves game but just decided it was going to be late with the kiddos and turned it on the radio and found out we missed out on seeing Murph there. If I would have known he was going to be there I would have been all for it, he was a childhood favorite.
Saturday Heaven smiled on high, I know it did, Grama Frei was up there smiling as I was passing on the old Swiss tradition of dying Easter Eggs. We went up to the Shields and had a great time. Well, ok, really we pulled up and Bishop was standing there with a snake in his hands, I really would have been fine with pulling back out. I don't do reptiles! Later they had a lizard. Cannon held it, one of the boys let bite and hang from his ear, I just think its gross.

 

 

But the egg dying project was fun and we stayed for dinner which was delicious and fun and we met Bishop's brother and his wife and visited and laughed and laughed, as we left I told Isaac we have got to do something with them again. It was just fun! And it seems too rare that we get together with other couples (and enjoy ourselves so thoroughly.)
Saturday was Easter--so fun.

The Easter Bunny came but the boys slept in. (I usually don't complain about that) But we couldn't hide the Easter Bunny stuff so it made getting to church on time a little tough. The very first thing out of Cannon's mouth was "THANK YOU!" I love that. Then he looked up and back at me and asked "Do you think the Easter Bunny heard me?" ...I assured him he did :) We had a guy in our ward invite us to a little get together with some of the other people in the ward that don't have family close. (So while the boys slept in I was up before the crack of dawn playing Betty Baker for the potluck thing.) That little shin dig was "right" after church but nothing's ever right after church and Cannon was running around and ran into the chalk board tray--it was nap time anyway--we totally vetoed that little event and headed home for naps. Cannon assured me "milk and a silk would help his face feel better" so we headed home. Then the cute Blalocks (who are like our family out here) invited us to their family Easter celebration. Sage, Ginger's daughter had asked me at church if we were going to be able to make it and she told me that her uncle "had a caste and a cabin" I was total thinking Playskool back yard kid thing, boy was I wrong, it was a castle!

It was really fun we felt very welcome, Cannon was one of only 3 kids on the little kid Easter egg hunt so boy did he make a haul. We had a wonderful time, it was so nice of them to invite us!

 

I think Easter marked my first major holiday with no family (obviously we felt very loved and plenty of people stepped in) but Monday I loaded the boys up and headed for Memphis-and family- we had to get to see Sarah and Ryan and their cute boys before they move. The boys had a great time playing, Sarah and I had a great time visiting. She's such a good mom! I want to be more like her. They are moving to Portland for a year and going from their home and wonderful backyard to tiny apt life. My heart really aches for her!
For FHE we made resurrection rolls (and Easter activity they hadn't quite got to the day before and I taught the boys how to "bust eggs")

 

Colt Man puked in the car seat on the way up I thought that was pain...oh that was before the ride back when we had 8 stops-8!!!!! Its a 3 hour drive...well its supposed to be but I figure 4 with the kiddos and really this time it was ever bit of 5 and Colt SCREAMED most of it. Oh my goodness, it was awful. And I'm getting really proficient at taking the car seat apart and washing it because once again he puked and puked and puked. It was awful! A horrible drive--but we made it. We're thinking maybe he gets car sick? I don't know but the kid is not a good traveler. Cannon was a champ though--and really 2 of the stops were just to try to get the tablet to work for him (unsuccessful) but he  really did good all things considered.

Wednesday we tried to play catch up on laundry and such, we also planted our tomatoes. Time will tell on those. I should've tried to play catchup on sleep instead because by Thursday afternoon the craziness of the weeks caught up with me! I felt terrible, but Isaac took over and I went to bed and I think I'm on the mend :)
Colt hit the 8 month mark this last week. (When he was chewing on a new shoe I stopped to take a picture.)

 

 

I think the up on his knees pics are going to be old news soon, but they are sure cute now. He crawls up to everything like this!

And I'm really not one for nakey pics but these two cute little bums lured me in. Cannon rolled over to play with his new bath toys and Colton wasn't 2 seconds behind him flipping over.  And is it just me or do Colt's thigh's look bigger? Their waists comparable too... one of my kids eats, and one doesn't.

Rain rain go away--please head out our grampa's way! It's April, and its the rainy season here...and I'm still a desert girl. The other day we had a 2% chance of rain and 89% humidity! That's just sticky gross! I was happy to hear the fireman at the station last week say he'd never seen lightening like we'd had that week. FlashBOOM I was sure the trees outside our window were getting struck it was crazy and I wasn't happy about getting woke up, I'd run in and check on the boys and they were just peacefully sleeping. Thankfully! When Cannon does hear the thunder and starts to get a little scared we've just taught him to sing the "Go Thunder" song :) Thank you DHHS :) actually in the middle of the night when I was awake and complaining about it that's what Isaac told me to do...after I've been up 7+ times I wasn't amused!

 

Anyway, two weeks ago we had SO MUCH FUN on a Friday night playing a little soccer as a family that last week we headed out to do it again. Cannon wanted to take his excavator-which we were fine with but ultimately that meant he wasn't at all interested in playing soccer. We ended up with a little game anyway, in and around the playground equipment with some of the other kids that were there AND Isaac also ended up with a broken foot, via kicking a pole.

OUCH! As soon as he did it, he looked at me and said "I just broke some toes." Apparently, there's a common nauseous feeling when he breaks bones and at first it goes numb then it starts to throb. (I hope to never experience it.) But he just hobbled around the for a little while and we still cleaned the church that night. Saturday morning he was REALLY hurting, he called our friend who is a radiologist, who told him that just having a shoe on will help, cuz it will give it some support and protection.  (We took our shoes off to clean the church because we were afraid they were muddy.) Anyway I was really worried about him Saturday morning but when he volunteered that afternoon to go help cut down and move trees at a guy in our wards house I decided he must be fine. He's hobbled around but steadily got quicker and quicker so I guess he's fine. (If he can just keep Cannon from standing on it.) The soon to be Dr. Ison is going to be a Doctor of Philosophy NOT Medicine...but I guess don't tell him that.
When he got back from clearing out trees, our  #1 dad took Cann Man fishing. They had a great time! When the missionaries were over he was showing them a picture of his fish and he was said "It was a fighter!" So funny. So cute. I guess the truth be told he ran away but then Isaac talked him in to coming back and he really did reel it in himself. So I can just hear Isaac encouraging him. "Keep going Canny- he's a fighter."

And Saturday's other notable adventure is...I've been fighting it for 16 years but--I finally went dark with my hair. I know it doesn't show very much but a "Selfie" it's the best I've got so far.

I'm happy with it, and getting used to it too. By Wednesday I recognized myself in the mirror. (Who am I kidding it's up 99% of the time anyway and it looks the same when its up!) Anyway...

Colt has been up on his knees and rock'n... if he isn't crawling by time Grama and Grampa get here I'll be really surprised. Shoot, he might be crawling by Easter but that's in 2 days and remember how I thought he was working on teeth 2 months ago? Still no teeth, just a great happy kid with Frei Ornery streak. See on the right of this next pic...I dared set him down. Outrage!

 

And his new favorite place to play is in the pantry! Those cans are super fun. When Cannon asks to "Play Cans" with him then I really have a mess. It's also a sure bet if we leave a shoe out he will find it and chew on it. So gross, I stop it as soon as I see it, but he's sneaky and quick about finding them, he's chewed on way more shoes than I want to admit!

Cannon got to have an Easter Egg hunt at preschool this week. That was fun.

 

And we fed the missionaries. It seems like we end up feeding them quite a bit but I feel bad for them when they pass the little sign up thing around and no one is signed up. Sometimes its a lot of work but usually we feed them pretty cheap-not that that matters but when there's six of them and its once a week it could add up but we end up doing something with rice or potatoes or pasta...anyway I'm way off subject from where I meant to go with this. What I wanted to say was having the missionaries in our home so often is probably my favorite thing about living here. They have a tremendous influence on little Cannon. (And I'm sure Colt is right behind him.)  He learns there names and he asks about them even after they transfer, this week he was quizzing them on their favorite animal, then color, then scripture story. It was darling and he didn't let any of them off the hook either! Sometimes when he's tired he gets really shy but usually he just eats it up. He asked them why the Nephites and Lamanites were fighting, then he told them it was because they were "rebellious." It was so cute. Then he had them reading to us about Mormon, ran and got his other Book of Mormon story book opened it up to the part about Mormon, handed it to them and said matter of factly "Here, you can match it up!"
Little Smarty pants spiritual giant boy also (thinks) he as a new trick to get out of time out. He was in time out and Isaac and I were discussing the summer (which is TOTALLY up in the air still and its really only 2 weeks away--how's my anxiety?...) Cannon was standing in the time out corner and saying..."Mom, mom, mom, I'm going to saying a prayer." Until he finally got our attention and we folded our arms. He went on and on and on prayed for pretty much everything including "Please help mom to not be mad at me, please bless her!" Yes Heavenly Father, please bless me, I need it! Later in the week another 5 minute prayer when he got out of bed (cuz the longer you pray the longer you get to be out of bed--we are totally being manipulated) but anyway after praying for everything his little brain could think of  I leaned down and whispered "And please bless the food, in the name" to which he cut me off and said "NO, I didn't say that yet" Oh brother! At one point it was "And please bless that Aunt Kami can take care of....(dramatic pause) Ole Ky." Ole Ky! It was so funny, I'm still laughing.
We followed that Bundy Ranch mess on the news--ok really I just loved seeing that desert and the cows on it. Looked like home. Actually my dad used to run cows there on the Gold Butte but they haven't for years...probably since the federal government got involved. I'm just mouthing off-I don't know that, or when they stopped. I know the situation probably wasn't handled the best from either side, and thankfully it ended before more than (a ton of) cows were lost. We do have a book of all the high priests in our old ward, one of them figured his house was burned down by the BLM, and another worked for the BLM for 29 years--but had since retired whenever he was interviewed. His comment was that the BLM used to manage land and now he's not sure what they do. Hmm.
I better stop.

Look at that! Colt made the blog header! FINALLY! I'll work on one with the whole family in it later (maybe) but I've got both my cute boys on there so for now I'm content.
And I'm re-posting the picture right here because I think its cute and I want it when I print out the blog (which still hasn't happened for 2013 yet but it will) but the header doesn't print when I do it the easy way. So...

Isaac always says "This is the Life!" when were just hanging out enjoying time as a family--so that's where that quote comes from. Its a family favorite.
And on to the week:
In trying to make conference fun for Cannon...I totally made if fun for me. 
We had "Fun Bags" full of the simplest things. A silky that he got to have-out of his bedroom (kind of a big deal around here) Stickers, Popsicle sticks to build a ship like Nephi, Fingernail polish to get to paint my fingernails, and toenails too, Kool Aid packet to get to make a slushy, a bag of popcorn to pop and so on. I did spend a max of $1 on a few of them, like a new coloring book from the dollar store. He got a couple new Matchbox cars (50 cents) but overall good cheap fun that had my little guy on the edge of his seat for when the speakers switched.

We had a great time with the "fun bags" and hey why not? It was like getting to open a present every 15 minutes for him. (I need more next time, "fun bags" for all speaker not just quorum of the twelve and first presidency, because its really hard for him to understand why it could be a new speaker and him not get one. Luckily with naps by Sunday we had enough for every speaker.)

We also built a train with things he recognized. He wanted the train to be Thomas and it was actually Isaac who said "Thomas....S. Monson??" And then we had it! The "Thomas S. Monson, General Conference Express! Making Tracks to Eternal Desinations" Corny? Maybe, but we had a blast! Here it is, I love the one of him showing President Monson HIS train!

We also hung up the picture of the first presidency and quorum of the twelve as they spoke and it was pretty awesome having their pictures fill our living room. I loved it! They are welcome any time! Last but not least we even snuck in a little park time before dad headed to priesthood session :)

I knew Monday when Cannon asked to watch conference again that my efforts had been a success :) but he was disappointed we could watch it but didn't have anymore fun bags. Tuesday he asked to make more fun bags, THEN watch conference again.
What else?
I've been ordering a few things for Easter. Super fun! But in Cannon's world (because he does have some of me in him) Packages must be opened immediately. So the one day, I got a box snuck it in my bedroom stashed the Thomas outfit in the closet then planted the box back in the living room. He got to it opened it up and said "Oh...we got nuffin." It was pretty funny. But then we got another box with some new scripture books in it, I put it in my bedroom but Cannon asked 5 or 6 times if we could open the box...I held off. That night I snatched the books out and planted some water colors in the box so the next day when he asked we actually got to open the package. He wanted it to be an excavator from Grama SOOO bad...but the water colors (the only thing I did have left over from the fun bags) did keep him busy for quite a while.

And he did get an excavator from Grama...I was going to save it for Easter...but, oh well. I took a video of him opening it but no pictures--that's not like me. Anyway, he was cute. 

Colt's been scavenging for snacks under Cannon's chair (he knows where to find stuff!) And then Cannon joined him.

Colt also made Miss Parki's day again when Patricia brought her and met us at the park. Cannon wanted to go so bad and wanted to make sure we called to see if Patricia wanted to come too. It worked out great, I was glad they could come. 
My little eater boy has suddenly decided he has an opinion on food and if he doesn't like it he spits it out all over like a sprinkler. Great. And trying to keep Cannon from encouraging it is no small task. Oh well. Here he is driving the tractor--he's getting so big! He's also pretty fun to play pat-a-cake with!

 

When Cannon whines I've been telling him part of the reason he has to stop is because it hurts my ears. So I was playing "So big!" and "patty cake" with Colt when Cannon tells me "that hurts my ears" Oh brother. I swear, I've got my hands full!
Yesterday we went to the fire station for Preschool, Cannon got scared (???for who knows why) and was pretty timid but we had a blast and after I asked him to hold Colt on the fire truck he loosened right up and was himself. It was really fun. I was extra impressed with the firemen, they were darling with the kids!

  

 

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

Ok so lets start with the Cann man classic, then get to the good church stuff. We were looking through the gospel art kit and Cannon was looking at the picture of Christ on the cross (fitting for us to learn about the crucifixion and resurrection as Easter approaches right? Cannon picks'm and I just do the best I can) Anyway the question--that came up more than once: "Why's he in his undies?"  He asked who the other guys were I said thieves and he wanted to know if it was the one in the Good Samaritan, he is so good at making connections!
Anyway... This weekend we have this to look forward to:

And make sure to check out Lizzy's Small Seed post, she is so awesome.
I will admit I could have used some of the joy I was hoping to have bottled last week...
Sometimes life is hard and sometimes we get curve balls but I listened to my all time favorite President Faust talk on forgiveness this week. Remember it? When he talked about the Amish community and their ability to forgive. Wow. I know that through the Atonement of of Jesus Christ EVERY WRONG CAN BE MADE RIGHT, I don't know the details of how... but they don't really matter.  I need to stop thinking about the "yeah but..." stuff, like "Yeah but that doesn't bring those little Amish children back." I know we can be free of hurt and pain and heartache, and really that just needs to be it, in the words of Elder Anderson "You know enough!" And its true I do know enough!
So I'm just writing a little of my study this week--to document it--to remember it--to hopefully become a better person because of it.

Now on with what my crazy boys have been up to: Saturday while I went to the women's broadcast the boys got ready to plant some seeds, actual planting didn't take place until I got back (I think Cannon was enough of a handful for Isaac--let alone having Colt too) by Tuesday night we totally had sprouts! I was super impressed! 

 

I love it when I find pictures of adventures on Isaac's phone, its just a cute little thing that I know he totally does for me!

Sunday we had our friends the Takishita's over for dinner before they moved Monday--I thought Cann Man was going to wear poor Richard out "Could you play with me?" He had to ask him 50 times, and it wasn't like he didn't play with him but if they poor guy sat down for 2 seconds Cann was back at him "Could you play basketball with me?" It was fun to visit with them. 30+ years in the military has taken them a lot of places, when they were telling us all the places, Isaac just thought it was awesome, just a little time and a few good experiences here then there and so on...not me I could have died in Santa Clara as St. George is just to far east. HA. Now look at me. Anyway... The boys also had a project that night since Colt and I knocked the magnent board off walking in the door from church.

 

It's probably a toss up as to who is more ready for the semester to be done, Isaac or me, ok--him because he's the one actually doing it--but its been a beast for us too!
(I made a list of things I was going to blog about like I usually do--just an on going thing throughout the week but then I did the ctrl x thing to cut it and I didn't paste it before I got distracted then reused the function ...at any rate-its gone so who know what you'll get this week.)
This week Colton hasn't been Colt Man, Colt Buddy, Cutie Colt or Colty Colt as much as usual,  instead he's been "Huki Buki" (Pronounced who key boo key or sometimes instead of a k sound its a g sound...ya never really know) But Cannon just calls him that when they're playing, gets right in his face and says "Hey Huki Buki" then they both laugh,  actually, its pretty dang darling. I think it originally derived from learning the Hokey Pokey at preschool a couple weeks back Cannon loves it and I think it was just his own silly little modification.
We went to visit Poppy on Tuesday, and we met this gal.

Her name is Marjorie Parkinson but she goes by Miss Parki She was happy to see us (it made me kind of sad, old people really do need more visitors) and sad to see us go. --By sad I might really mean ticked-- but I assured her we would be back. (Although it is quite a project for me to get both boys loaded up and to the assisted living place, not to mention it is NOT a good place for the wild Cann Man, we were in the courtyard and he saw someone's dog and the next thing I knew he was bang'n on their sliding glass door...sigh... my neck is still sore from the circus of holding both kids and the backpack.)
When we were leaving Cannon talked me into a stop at the children's museum, he's just too smart, he knew we were going to drive right by it anyway...when I give him reasons for things he deems them excuses and tells me "Don't worry, don't worry about it." He's his daddy's boy!
What else? Poor little Colt Buddy had shots yesterday. Oh I hate shots, not as bad as I would hate the disease but they're still rotten. He's been pretty sick with this batch, he fell right asleep and I think his little legs just tightened right up. Poor little guy. Preschool was a bust but we met Jake and Stacey at the park and even hit up the "Community Helpers" story time at the Brandon library. Cannon didn't last but he did get his picture with Officer Bunch.

 

We fed the missionaries and I actually cooked. I really like the sisters we have right now, they remind me of the first two that were here when we got here that were my instant best friends, so that's cool, now if I would actually help them get some work done right?
And I think that's about it. (Since I lost my list) Here's a few more pics of  the little Colt man...or "Huki Buki" whichever you prefer.
Loving some pineapple.  And Look! An Ison boy who likes to drive, imagine that!

 

 

And standing up to the couch! That grin through the bink is because he thinks he's going to get into something.