Share the Gift!! & Santa at the Ward Party

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Until next week...oh and Merry Christmas!

These two have a neat little bond. Colt figured out pretty quickly that mom couldn't pick him up but Grama would! At first he seemed so frustrated--but after a few days he'd just look for her when he wanted up instead of me. 

We read a cute little story in the friend magazine the other night that was about the authors Grandmother, then it encouraged kids to ask their grandparents their favorite Christmas memory. It was neat (for me at least) for Cannon to be able to ask Grama while she was here. The first memory she told us was heart warming and gut wrenching. She told us about how someone left a big box of food every Christmas and how much they looked fwd to, it always had peanuts and candy and a ham and it was such a special treat. I knew they were poor growing up but it was just kind of humbling to hear it as a favorite Christmas memory from a little girls perspective, and to think of someone doing it again and again, so nice. She also told us about the time when  her older brother bought her roller skates that she had wanted so badly, and about when she was a teenager and her dad being sneaky the time he made her a cedar chest and swapped it out for my aunts that was similar that was usually in the room. Anyway, it was neat. I wanted to jot them down here so I wouldn't forget.
Our friends the Belk's (met them at the park right after Easter before we headed to Utah for the summer-but they are awesome! We love them and we LOVE feeling like we have friends here, it was hard after everyone moved but slowly and surely we are making friends!) Anyway they told us about a Bounce House place and coupons that come on the back of our grocery store receipts so we hit that up with Grama. We had a great time-and we will be going back with the Belk's soon!

 

Saturday  Grandma Colt and I hit up the Jingle Bell Market and Cannon and Isaac did the Home Depot thing. Then that night we went to the live nativity at the church on the Corner--or course Frank the Camel was a big hit again. 

Saturday night Isaac and I snuck out on a date-cuz we could! We'd already eaten, and we didn't really have anything we wanted to do so we just went to Walmart and Christmas shopped for the boys. It was fun though to get to go together just the two of us. 

Cannon wanted to go so Grama told him they could go on a date Monday morning before she left instead. They went to McDonald's and got breakfast but little Mr. Hates to Eat, told her going to eat was not a date, so they stopped at Walgreens on the way back and he got a truck. So spoiled. I guess that's her job.

In the middle of the night Sunday night with Grandma headed back that next morning it hit me pretty hard-we're really not going home for Christmas this year. I was so sad. But its an up and down thing, sometimes I'm fine, sometimes I'm not. Isaac and I ... Well I could write a book or two on our differences in this department. Remind me again that I married the guy that didn't write home for SIX MONTHS when he was on his mission and it would have been longer than that had his dad not called the mission president. ~if I understand the story correctly~ So on one side I struggle--and on the extreme other opposite side, he struggles too. (Well from my perspective that is.) So back to Christmas, I'm ok with staying here-I know it's for the best this year especially with dissertation stuff, there are even somethings that I'm excited about! Ole Santa could've come anywhere but we're getting the boys bikes this year! ;) That would have been impossible if we flew and that drive is just awful! But I'm sad too, and sometimes I just cry. ISAAC. DOESN'T. GET. IT. Sometimes I get so frustrated that he doesn't get it-or his lack of emotion in general- but later on in the week I realized if Isaac were the author of this little family blog he would have plenty of opportunity and reason to type LYNDI. DOESN'T. GET. IT. (But the difference is he NEVER would--he's a better person than me though, Mr. Respectable, and that's why I married him) Anyway, I guess maybe its part of life-learning to "get it" for each other. I love him. We're working on it!
Tuesday I had a Post-Op appointment, that morning Cannon locked me out of my bedroom. Its just one of those simple bedroom bathroom locks but I couldn't pick it! Disaster. I was 1/2 dressed and luckily I had a pair of pants and socks in the dryer-my phone was in the bedroom but I found shoes keys and diaper bag in the living room so I emailed Isaac where to meet me and off we went. I just met with the nurse practitioner but she asked me how I was doing and I assured her I was great, the only trouble was how CRAZY itchy it was then I said "But that's normal right?" like I thought it was part of the healing process. She kind of squinted and said no, so then I showed her my belly and apparently all that redness wasn't normal either. Hmm. I just figured because it was gradually getting less and less red it was normal. I had a severe allergic reaction to "Mastisol" whatever that is. But under all the redness it was all blistered up and everything-kinda crazy. She gave me a prescription and I'm very happy to be on the mend for real now :) So now I no longer fit into the "No Known Allergies" category. But I'm happy to know, cuz all of the itching isn't fun. Colt rubs his belly (random but he does it all the time) I scratch at mine. Oh and the other thing I learned at the Dr. was I'm still not supposed to lift for 2 more weeks...I do the best I can that-yeah right not lift, but I try to make sure to lift with my legs and such.
One of the nights this week we snuck over to Patrick's house and borrowed his sander for the little Nativity project I've been wanting to do for months! Maybe we'll get it done before Christmas...maybe. We love Patrick, he sits behind us at church in our unofficial assigned seats and he's always so nice to help me wrestle the boys! Cannon was so excited to meet his new dog.

And Colt Liked his Rudolf.

Wednesday Jenna invited us over for a little play date with Rylee and JD (They are the a fore mentioned Belk's) It was so fun the kids had a blast and SO DID I! The only bad news is they are moving to the coast, but I just have to remind myself-we are going to be on the moving list before we know it too so just enjoy the friendships while they are here.

 

It seems like we are busy everyday even if I can't remember what we do. Today we went visiting teaching, I met a gal-on my list for a long time we can never catch- but she has family in Las Vegas and wants to go with us if we go out of Shreveport again. Perfect! And hopefully it was just the little connection we need! Tonight we went up to the park in Flowood that they decorate with lights. It was really fun. Santa was there and we got to ride a little train. It was a great family Friday night activity. (Another gal we went visiting teaching to told us about it so--good thing we went!)

 

And a couple random pics to end on:

I thought it was so silly Cannon trying to push the vacuum through all the mess on the floor-like he was kind of missing the point- but by time I grabbed my phone to take a picture they'd traded and it was Colton doing it. --all the same--

 

Cannon saw the guy that works here at the apartment complex picking up garbage and putting it in a bucket so he wanted to do the same thing with the leaves and his grapple. Said he wanted to service-how could a mom say no to that? I couldn't, and out we went. But notice the leaves...and the 5 or 6 we did pick up got dumped right back out :) oh well. 

Colt my cookie monster crawled up on the table and scavenged the leftover cookies out of Isaac's lunch box. (And who has leftover cookies anyway--not me or Colt)

 

Last but not least, putting the stools up to the tree makes having the tree in the play pen less than effective ...oh well. 

Well, Christmas is in the air!

 

But, Colt only knows one thing when it comes to balls, throw them! So the tree now lives in the play pen.

Saturday Isaac took the boys to Children's museum. They have a digestive system exhibit there, but you haven't seen pictures because I think its pretty gross. But they crawl in the mouth and come out, well, on a slide that lands in a big toilet bowl. Like I said- Gross. Anyway I got this text from Isaac, while they were there-it was pretty funny.

That night we did our thing at the church before having a little family movie night. Isaac is such a fun dad! They boys were loving the sheet, moved couches, and air mattress. We just borrowed the projector, but it was really fun. I might have a gift idea ;) Cannon got to pick the movie so we watched Thomas-of course.

 

 

Sunday morning I gave Cannon his new Christmas tie. Its one you have to tie, he looked at it and then said "Mom, if I have a tie like this, I probably need to go to primary!" So he did and I snagged this little picture. He's so dang cute.

 

It was a little embarrassing for me to have it be my kid that was interrupting every 20 seconds, but he was seriously cracking us all up. "Excuse me, excuse me Sister Thorpe!" Then of course when she does call on him he does the "um um um" thing before he asks his question. He had all kinds of questions~or rather answers. Especially to the little scenarios they had. None of his friends would ever be mean, he'd just teach them the gospel! Or he had a way for one of the kids to earn more money using his special friend Eric (its a toy excavator) And he asked Kim if a burden is a big...a big bird...or a big fish? Everything was very literal to him. 

That night we only got to talk to Grampa for a few minutes but he looked right at the phone camera and said "papa!" It was awesome!

Sunday night we also went to Miss Suzanne's church for their lighting of the sanctuary service. It was a cool experience and she played the bells. It was awesome. Cannon thought we were going to the Nativity church and wanted to know where the donkey and the cow were-that's tomorrow. 

We found out a gal from our old Sunday School class in Ivins is serving in the same mission as Grandma and Grandpa Ison, that was awesome. And Grandma got to meet up with our friend Kathy from the summer and they went for a walk. We knew they would get along great!

It was just a great day!

We've been having fun with Grama Nette, she's in charge of lifting Colt in and out of the crib and the high chair and other than that we just play.

 

I really love it when Isaac sends me pictures from his adventures with the boys. Pretty sure this at the CAT dealership. But I don't know what kind of equipment they were on.

 

Yesterday we hit of the AG museum and took some family pictures for a Christmas card. Here are a few that didn't make they cut, but I thought were cute. 

Anyway I think that's about it.