So last weekend there was a big ice storm in the forecast. We're just naive but everyone was freaking out. So I think to get the full effect I have to back up a little...or I just like telling stories...either way...Isaac took us out for Mexican food last Friday, well someone the next table over ordered dessert and Cannon was sold! We said "you wouldn't even eat that!" And it's true he wouldn't have but we settled on donuts for dessert-dad was totally spoiling all of us :) so after dinner we stopped at Walmart and that place was wiped out. The bread section-cleaned completely empty! There were a few loaves of the "specialty" type breads but that was it, eggs-gone, and much to our chagrin not a stink'n glazed donut in the place either! After all this is Northeastern Missouri, if you're panicking about the storm and buying essentials I guess that means donuts too. I confess we got in on the panic too-the cleaning lady at Isaac's school...typing that just made me realize that's always how we refer to her-whoops- I meant custodian! Anyway she got Isaac worried enough he bought a gas heater! I was good with it I'm thankful to have an alternate heat source even if it's just precautionary!
But about this storm-we had planned to go to the temple with the Pettit's and trade off tending kids. We were watching the weather but didn't want it to keep us from going. And we figured we were okay and off we went...Holy cow! That whole freezing rain thing was crazy! Isaac could hardly keep the windshield clear-ok he wasn't keeping it clear and I was freaking out. The rain would just freeze on the windshield. His only shot was the wiper fluid and he said things like "I hope we don't run out." Oh yeah-did I mention I was freaking out. Double mention! Still not overstated. Then ~thank heaven~ he realized the defrost wasn't even on...oh that helped-A TON. And really before we even got to Greentop (next town up ~about 10 min) it was clearing up and after that  we had really really good roads, which is what Isaac expected from the mdot website. But that first few minutes had me wondering if we were making a good choice. Well, we got just almost to Keokuk and we got a call from Pres Vorkink-ok he called Isaac's phone and I was trying to listen in the best I could but I hear things like "Oh but they didn't hit it?.... That's terrible but I'm glad everything is okay..." YIKES. And he asked about our roads and such. So we went North, then East and had great roads, they took off East first and weren't so lucky, we thought they had gone clear off the road but it turned out "just" clear into the other lane to avoid another car. In Keokuk we had a little slick spot and we like once we crossed the Mississippi into Illinois the roads weren't as good but we figured we were probably quite a bit ahead of Ben and Michaila because of the roads and we've heard there are bald eagles along there in the winter so my little bird of prey lovers-and their dad-were trying to spot some. They were sure they saw one! Then all of the sudden Isaac pulled off on this gravel road to look for more-it was downhill into like the power company's substation or whatever those are called. I didn't think "oh that was dumb we're never gonna no to get out of here" UNTIL he stepped out to clap at the bird and said "oh dang, this is slick!" It was like a freaking skating rink! But he clapped the boys and I laughed and decided that bird thought he was a goof too and then he got back in, I thought "oh boy, here we go" but Mr Optimist "Never a doubt" won out. We spun a little but kept moving fwd up the hill. I was holding my breath but hey we made it,  things we're good-it was back to eagle hunting. Shortly there after  the low tire pressure light came on...oh crud. But now we know just how slick it is if you pull off so we decided we needed to check it but we wanted to pull off somewhere where we didn't have to go downhill too much--we didn't really want to push our luck. Isaac said "I hope those rocks didn't slash our tires while we were spinning?" uhhh oh crud. So we pull off and Cannon spots this bird. These pictures don't do it justice at all, that sucker was massive! Cannon was so proud to have seen it and we had fun watching it fly off. Eagle hunting at its best I guess.

Isaac gets out checks the tire and you can just hear it losing air. So we had that... 

We let the boys out of their car seats, it was dang cold but we had to have the van opened clear up to let the spare down and rearrange the back to make room for the tire and steal the towels that I have on the seats to put down so the tire doesn't dirtiness everywhere. 
(it turned out it we had a nail and we figure that while spinning our tires up that ice over gravel we pulled it out and then had the hole...we think...)

Isaac's a champ! But then there was no tire shop open in Nauvoo on a Saturday. But it all worked out, we stopped at walmart in Keokuk on the way back and he bought a plug kit took care of it. We've been talking about buying new tires for a while now, we probably just need to do it. But we got to the stake center, surely he's gotta know if he's going to skate on the parking lot I'm going to film it right :) 

https://youtu.be/9H9WIq74Nm4

We took the first tending shift. If you think we had 7 kids you'd be wrong, Isaac counts at #8 :) He was having Cohen fly the helicopter while he tried to shoot it down with the bow and arrow. And I say he's the biggest kid...true...but he got me to try it too and I admit, it was pretty dang fun. I was starting to tell Michaila about it and she had already heard about it from Cohen, I figured that was a good sign. And Cannon told me about the game they played with Ben while we were in the temple too. I'm so happy they had such a great time, and we got to go to the temple. WIN WIN

We got home safe and sound without any extra adventure...oh well I guess we stopped at a little cafe, that adventure for us and that was consecutive nights of me not having to fix dinner, that was awesome!! But while we were in Nauvoo we got a text that church would be canceled because of the ice storm. I confess Sunday morning was pretty nice not having to get anything or anyone ready but HOLY COW do you know how long Sunday is when there is no church. Yikes. We napped at 10:30 and we were ready to feed the kids dinner and put them to bed...but it was only 2:30. It was a long day! Monday there was no school for Martin Luther King day but Isaac was going to come home from work and take the boys swimming. They were excited...but the pool was closed. Oh it was a long day too...

After all day in the house Sunday and all day Monday by 2:00 I was going crazy so I called Michaila and we took the troops down to the church, it was a much needed out. Her sister came and the kids played and played and had a great time. Then we ended up going over to their house for dinner and having a little FHE with them. So it went from I was going crazy to a pretty fun day. Tuesday I guess the week settled into normal, I signed up for a BYU independent study class because I need some CE credits. I'm taking the stess managment class--ha I'll let ya know how that goes. After paying for it, I decided maybe I should sign up to teach the BYUI pathways program math classes instead of paying to take any math classes. They didn't have any openings but I'm hoping that will work out! Otherwise its will end up being over $2K to keep my teaching license up...I know I'm cheap but that seemed really steep to me!

Here's some tanner fun. He was just playing in his room when I hear him start crying, it quickly became a MAD cry, I found this...

He's learned early to love my phone (so maybe I'm on it too much...probably) but he ends up holding the button and Siri talks to him. The text you can see is Siri saying "Sorry I didn't quite get that." over and over. The big boys think its hilarious and laugh and laugh--Tanner gets a big ole grin on his face and is so proud of himself for making him laugh. 

Isaac wanted a picture of the boys to show his classes, I have cute ones of Tanner, I had this of Colt and I thought oh I'll just take a quite current one of Cannon and send it to him. This is what I got. 

...he just used the blog header pic! Thank goodness. 

We scored a little Tilton time this week, these boys are the best little friends! Today Cassie and I were dumb enough to take them swimming. I swear we've done it before-six kids between the two of us, it easier in the summer when you're not trying to get coats on and I would have had Tanner in the car seat instead of my arms. Holy cow it was a nightmare! But...look at those smiles. 

Well Colt was mad he didn't get to hold Tanner...but he had fun too.
Tonight the Lingwall's invited us and some other friends over for homemade Pizza, it was delicious and we had a good time visiting. I love that the kids basically tend each other too...well they had a movie on, that was a stroke of genius, whatever works! It got late on us though--the boys were tuckered out, it made the bedtime routine pretty easy...and now all the house is quiet. I think I'll join in on the sleep! Until next week.

I don't really know what we've been up to the last week. Usually its the pictures that remind me but when I look back at the pictures it doesn't even seem like there's that many compared to when we've been to Utah. Early Monday morning Great Grandma Kenworthy passed away, we will miss her here but we know she's in a better place and we look forward to seeing her there! Even though we were just there and we said we wouldn't go back we toyed with the idea but ultimately decided against it. I was for it, or for Isaac flying and going by himself but he just decided he had too much to do here and really he'd kind of planned on this.   Him and Jeff have been putting in a lot of hours on a paper they are submitting for publication. (Its a big deal in the profession--just to clarify, in case any or your necks are as red as mine.) So we will miss her funeral but our hearts and life's have been touched by the special person she was. Not long ago she posted on Facebook (Oh yeah, Grandma totally had Facebook before I did-she's part of the reason I gave in) about how it was pretty lonely with just Dolly dog after Grandpa Bob and then Tiger (the cat) had past away. I'm sure there have been some happy reunions on the other side! At least we got to see her over Christmas and Isaac got to spend some time sitting with her.

We have pretty serious construction projects around here. Tanner loves getting in on it. Oh lets. And its been almost a year and a half since they were Santa and Rudolph for Halloween but, they take their roles pretty seriously. The laundry basket sleigh is a nice touch right? When I asked where Tanner fit in in this scene they said he could be on of the other reindeer...

I got to go to Cannon's class on Monday-he and his little group were so good while I was there, I made sure to tell him how impressed I was. I'm glad all indications are he's well behaved at school. I noticed some things in some of his classmates that I've seen at home. I'm not a fan. But its seems like he experiments with naughty-or sassy behavior at home. I think its better than if he was like that at school.

Tanner is getting to be quite the little jabber man. Its pretty cute. Some of my favorite memories this week are just of him playing with Colt. They basically play peek-a-boo but Colt calls is hide and seek because he runs from place to place to hide then jumps out to say "Peek" Tanner just giggles and cackles at him. I hope I can remember the sound of that laugh forever! I keep trying to get it on video-but he keeps seeing my phone and becoming 100% distracted because he thinks he had to have it. I'm glad they are buddies. In this next pic Colt said "Look Mom, Tanner thinks I'm a bed, he's laying on my while he destroys the magazine." Ya...I'm sure it was Tanner's idea...But he seems to be enjoying it.



Above Colt is so blurry but...you get the idea and below, is it just me or is Cannon a little overly determined to ride his bike??? The snow pants were an after thought-after he tipped over in the snow once he thought they would be a good idea. And I left the dog in the picture on purpose. Isaac bought a heat lamp for her house the day we got back...then she had a brown spot to go with the black...whoops. He decided she must have just stood up into it or something. Then this day when they were outside she broke her collar, he came in and said "I think I spend more money on that dang dog than any member of our family." I laughed because while we all cost more than the dog that statement is 100% accurate as far as him being the one that actually makes the purchases.

 

 

The above pic was Waaaay Cuter before I cleaned up puked up watermelon all over my floor today. But he was so excited about that dang watermelon. And below is just an example of the kinds of random pics I find on my phone. 

 

Today I took Tanner in for a well check appointment and Colt colored a picture he wanted me to show him how to put his name on it and this is what we got. I was pretty proud of him. The second t is because the first one "was too close" I wish I'd gotten the picture taken before I started adding the blue to the C but I thought he did a pretty good job.

And last but not least-little green died this week. Isaac had been out to Milan Saturday and then didn't even try to drive her Sunday but Monday was a no go. He tore into here, and called his dad like he always does but was ready to get a new vehicle...when she came back to life! With a little Gas. Hahaha. The gas gage doesn't work-hasn't for a LONG time. But he just fills her up and resets the odometer and figures he can go about 200 miles. Well his odometer only said about 100-he said he didn't remember to reset it right away but he could have gone THAT far...but we think he must have been getting fuel and jumped back in the car because its cold then it just clicked off like the pumps sometimes to and he just figured it was full-but it wasn't.
Anyway, boy was he happy when she fired back up. He loves dang car. I teased him about Do I make you that happy? But really he said stuff like "You know that song, I once was lost but now I'm found? Its kind of like that but she once was dead and now she's not." Oh he's such a character, he makes us smile. Little Green and Amazing Grace-pretty sure only Isaac would have put those two together.
That a good stopping place. We're headed to Nauvoo tomorrow and its getting late. I'm going to have to pay the fiddler!

 

Christmas Fun Continues

Last week's post ended with a hike-and that's where this one starts...
Nate and Mel came down and Isaac's cousin Phillip came and we met up with Grandma for another hike and picnic lunch before heading back to Huntington...
So I had to do some major cropping to clean up this picture so Isaac's crack wasn't hanging out and it lost the effect a little too, you can't see his other hand on Colton's head for balance...they were so determined to play with their equipment in the mud...it rode  clear home on back by the dog carrier and its still covered in mud out in the garage...whatever works I guess

We had a great time, it was so fun to visit! Poor Mel is now the primary president in their ward--its like 3 times the size of our primary! Count my blessings right?

After lunch we hit the road...that's a terrible drive because its long (4+ hours) but compared to the WHOLE drive from Missouri its so short--so we try to tough it out, and make it in one shot, when maybe we shouldn't with 3 little kids. Tanner was fussy the whole last hour. When we finally got there and got him out it was because he had a nasty dirty diaper--Poor little guy, I'll take my  worst mother award now. Once we were at Grandma's the boys were pretty excited to have Christmas keep going!

The boys were hesitant but ended up both LOVING primary-in fact they told me it was "way better than our ward" ...what should that tell me.

 

The boys love Grandpa Ison's model airplanes but they (and their dad) know the only way to get touch them is to help clean them. They love it! 

Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys a fun little kit where they got to use molds and plaster to make little dinosaurs and paint them. They were excited...we had to learn some lessons along the way too as Cannon got up early and helped himself to the project leaving a big glump of plaster in one of Grandma's cups. He also got into her sand dollars--little Mr. Independent was just pushing things a little too far, I'm not sure what got into him but I'm hope we're done with that phase...I'm not going to hold my breath though. The dinosaurs were really fun though, the only thing I'd do different is pack them way deep next time because they were within reach and I had to help find dinosaurs about 20 too many times on our long drive.

Monday Aaron and Tarra and the girls came over--its was so fun to see them, the girls have grown SOO much since I saw them last. It was really fun to see them and for the kids to play. We took them sledding while Grandma tended Tanner. A good time was had by all! Oh and Aunt Tarra for win! She hooked Tanner up with some cute little moccasins that actually stay on his feet! Such a big deal because its so cold Kirksville-and in our house. I've been putting Colt's socks on him because they are longer and it takes him a while to pull them off but he still does it so the fact the moccasins stay on is a BIG DEAL. They hooked us up with some fun new stories too.

https://youtu.be/RDl-QchY0j8

https://youtu.be/2tnWjxxz7Y8
 

Not really sure what happened on the above pic, ideally I would upload it again but...that may or may not happen. As you can see they were having fun!

An after lunch we hit the road...man that drive is awful. I'd do it again--to have the fun we had I'd do it a hundred times...but it still stinks. I think there is a prime time to leave to do the all night thing~around 5:00 pm when the kids deal ok with some driving then fall asleep and by the time they wake up we're not there but its close and seems do-able. BUT we missed that prime time both directions this trip. Going we were about 3 hours too late, coming back 3 hours to early. So the  kids had had it with the drive way too soon! We ended up stopping and not wanting to stop again too soon so we grabbed convenient store pizza, the kids gobbled it right up and we told them it was our special "anniversary dinner" HA. 7 years. Just like that, don't blink. But shortly there after the whining ensued, I even broke out the tablets--more whining, especially Colt I was getting to the end of my rope when I asked why he was so whiney and he said he just needed to throw up...Ahhhh scramble for a grocery sack got one in front of him in just the nick of time. Telling this story is too close to reliving it. It was awful. But we survived and it was a one and done thing-thank heaven! But now he was on empty again and the boys had all had it with that drive so about and hour our so later we ended up stopping at a chic-fil-a near Denver...that was a blessed break for all...except maybe Isaac who had to take care of the dog-and would rather just push through. I gave him a few breaks through the west side of Colorado and again in Kansas, that's really the best time for me to drive-flat, pitch black, no other cars on the road, middle of nowhere-sure, I'll give ya a couple hours.

We made it back Tuesday morning to a freezing house it was about 45. You've heard of a mean drunk? I'm a mean cold. I hate it and it makes me so ornery. No sleep the night before probably doesn't help. Oh and along with our cold house--we came home to freezer that had been warm...great. Luckily there wasn't much in it. And we don't know if the power had gone off or something was blocking it so it didn't cool, or if its broken or what, the verdict's still out.

And Christmas continued! I actually really really like spreading it out, it seems like they enjoy things more...I bought this for them last year-then the dog showed up. And lived in the garage-which was my plan for this if it didn't fit downstairs...

As is, its too cold for downstairs and now we park in the garage so the living room it is...

Even Tan Got in on the fun. Lest you thought for a minute I was the fun parent...not a chance. As soon as the boys realized it was something that blows up they wanted their blow up and of course super dad went for it. Look at those smiles. Totally worth it. They where calling the jump house thing the "north pole" and as happy as they were they were a little disappointed we wouldn't let Santa and Rudolph in the North Pole.

That was Tuesday, Wednesday I got out the one last present I had for them:

And then Tanner got "the last gift of Christmas" last night. --after they got done trying out the snow blower Bro Gilchrist gave'm.

And boy I'll tell ya-Colt's list of wants for next year is getting pretty long.

Last week Tanner pulled up to thing but stayed on his knee-this week he's standing clear up-that didn't take long! We had to lower the crib mattress all the way down. Oh the little guy is 9 months old as of yesterday too. Man it goes quick!
Oh and this is the face of someone who loves to snatch the plug in the tub...

 

He does have pajamas that fit...maybe...somewhere...
until next week!