I love to blog but sometimes when its week after week of Oh shoot, its 10 Friday and I haven't even started, I wonder how sustainable the blog is long term. But I love it, and I've kept is going strong for 7 years, so push through, right?! Here goes nuth'n. Its been a busy (and stressful) week. 

Saturday was the annual tractor ride out to Bishop's farm. It started out nice. 

But all of the sudden with about 30 seconds notice it was a crazy storm. Wind blowing all kinds of junk out of the trees and lawn chairs clear across the property, then a down pour. We we all running for cover.

Saturday  the boys also came home with these flowers for my birthday (Sunday) HaHa. I'm pretty sure the only thing holding these suckers up was the cellophane wrapping. I took this picture Saturday night but they looked like this most of the day...I hope they got a good deal (wink)

 

 

Sunday I told the boys I had something really fun for my birthday that they could play with but they had to be dressed and ready for church AND they had to practice their parts for the primary program first. (Then I posted the video on FB hoping to encourage other kids to practice too--

https://youtu.be/c1gyCGJJ3h4) 

And then I got out the fun thing...(but didn't take a single picture...I was to keep it from being destroyed. So here's one from a day or two later and you still can't see it) Buuuut....it was a little violin! The boys always want to play my violin, I want them to learn piano, but they just want to play MY violin. So I bought a cheap one off of Amazon but I didn't want to give it to one or the other, so "I got it for my birthday." Cannon said "But mom, its our size...so should keep it in our room, can we?" And already they want their own (of course) that they don't have to share but I figure if we really do let them take lessons we'll need bigger sizes eventually and...whatever, they were happy.

 

So we did the birthday thing, one year older and WISER too--you'll just have to trust me! But Since Sunday was my birthday I took 60 cupcakes to primary. Maybe I'm not wiser...oh well. Tanner was game for an excuse to eat treats!

I typically kind of just do whatever I want for my birthday (it works for us...when Isaac sees something new I just tell him then that I got it for my birthday and that he gave it to me. HA) But he got looking at the baseball schedule and realized we were not going to get to a professional game this year. He as been wanting to go. Well, he has a conference in Chicago at the end of October and I had to explain the only way that would work was if the Cubs were in the World Series again, and I assured him we didn't want to pay for that, and the boys wouldn't appreciate it anyway...so he was looking at the regular schedule and my Cubbies play the Cards in STL this week so he bought tickets right then and there while we were talking about it and said "Well blame it on you're birthday." Okay! My nose might be starting to bleed at even the thought of those seats...but they were a good deal (our number one requirement) and we're kind of excited.

Tanner is in the super cute phase of reminding us to Pray and meals. I LOVE IT. The other boys did it too--so I remember it but its just so sweet. I was happy to get a couple pics. (Whoops--if that took away from the reverence--WORTH IT) Sometimes its bite, fold our arms, bite, fold our arms, and so on but who cares? Its sooo cute.

 

These next pics... Poor Tanner was looking pretty rough, out playing baseball with his brothers it was almost a good story but Isaac said "Na, he just fell down." Bummer.

 

Dog in the house? Ya, well our friends in the ward that live one street over text and said our dog (who Isaac had just let run...someday...somehow I'm hoping to convince it life isn't really like where he grew up and you (or the dog) can just run free. Maybe someday. Anyway I passed message on to Isaac and he said "Eh, she'll come back." ...Well a few minutes later different neighbors brought her back, she'd been in a fight with the grouchy dog on the corner (through the fence) and had a big cut on her lip. Isaac decided we needed to glue it together, so he held her down and I squeezed glue out of the side of our old cracked super glue tube all over the best I could. Maybe you should call me Dr. Ison? Anyway. So dog in the house-yes-but that was why and it was only for a minute. 

I didn't take pictures of the multiple times this week that he had the chainsaw all torn apart on the kitchen table...to me its crazy...he says "Why? I put some thing down." Okay...

Every week I end up with several pictures like this...but its just his happy place :)

 

 

Last night I got to go on a date with my Cann Man to the Mother and Son Stampede! (It was way better than last year when I wrecked the cars.) We totally scored when we pulled in right at the same time as the Tilton's. There's a million people there, so it was fun to find our friends right off and get to hang out with them!

 

We topped off our date with pizza (and power ranger fruit snacks) it was fun to just hang out. And he's super agreeable when he's getting whatever he wants...Hmm...but I guess you could say the same thing about me. Ha. 

Today Isaac tended (and took Cannon to the dentist again where he did great!) And I went to Cannon's school for their Professional Development day to collect hours for my license renewal stuff. I new he was Kirks kid in September but I found this picture on the wall!

 

And tonight we spent a few minutes at the Conservation place with the Keelers. It was really fun. I can't believe we'd never been. They boys loved it.  And Tricia noticed both our little guys were wearing the headless sport shirts...so we took a picture.

We've been sending Grama tons of pics and movies. We wish we were there but so far we're just settling for thoughts and prayers!

Oh man, a lot has happened this week! I'm getting a late start on the blog, but we'll see what we can do. I ran some stuff down to the church tonight and we saw the cars and lights at the football field, Cannon wanted to go so bad because the high school helper that comes to his class plays. So in the end Isaac took Colt and Cannon and I stayed to put Tanner to bed and blog :) I'm sure I would have enjoyed the game but the plan was too good to pass up.
Last weekend I participated in my first ever color run, it was pretty fun. By fun I mean I signed up and paid for it so I kept getting up in the mornings to run so I guess that's a win.
So I got out and moving but by Saturday afternoon the boy needed OUT of the house. So we went on a bike ride, then Tanner wanted a turn not in the trailer so we went around the block again and Cannon took the skateboard (acquired from the renters...) That night when he got in the tub and I saw his knees! Oh my goodness!

Monday I got up so early for no reason but I didn't worry about it thinking I would just nap with Tanner after I dropped Colt off at school. That morning we got to see Mrs. Hardee for a few minutes. We LOVE her! I laid down at nap time and shot her a text saying how good it was to see her when my phone rang. Cannon's school called and told me I needed to come get him and that he more that likely needed stitches. That was kind of a crazy call to get! Adrenaline took care of my need for a nap. I didn't even know where to take him. Since all the pediatrician in town moved I've taken both the other boys to a family med guy in the other ward-he's great we love Dr. Beal. But Cannon hasn't been up for a well check yet so he didn't really have a doc, and there's no insta-care here...I guess there's is an Urgent Care place but I didn't think of that until I'm typing this. Anyway, I woke Tanner up and then called around as I drove down to the school. We ended up going to Dr. Beal's office but he wasn't there. The nurse at school has thought stitches for sure. The resident Dr. thought a stitch or two, but the old timer Dr. guy came in and was like "Eh, you can glue that." Cannon was super relieved but I was kinda think "Common man, its his FACE, fix it right!"  But I didn't say that and they glued it up and away we went! (The first pic is the selfie he took of it 😉)

All glued up and ready to go-but not back to school! 


He hated the ice on it but finally the swelling got to the point it felt good and he crashed pretty hard that night--Colt got in on the late afternoon nap too!
Saturday after my run-all painted up and gross-I swung into the thrift store to buy zippers for the Halloween costumes because you can get them for a quarter! They had a couple but they also had a little Tigger costume for Tanner for $3. Sold. If I was picking I would have bought a bigger one, but hey, the price was right and it was close enough. One less tiger costume I have to make. Colt said "Mom, you still need to make Tanner cuz mine is so much softer than his." Oh that boy! But here's the Halloween preview:

(Ironically I still haven't used zippers...) Colt was hilarious though, making movies practicing his "moves" and his part for the primary program for Grama.
Colt has this fast friend at preschool. Its really fun, he is in the other ward and his mom went to high school in St. George. The bummer is as soon as their house sells they will be moving, his dad's residency switched. But we're happy for them to get the residency they wanted, and we'll stay friends, extra hook ups in STL is never a bad thing either.

Wednesday night we fed the missionaries but I had cub scout committee meeting so Isaac got the kids to bed. He had to slip back to work to put some finishing touches on a test. The big boys were out but Tanner was struggling. After I realized he was in a poopy diaper, things got smoother. Isaac is the best dad, we love him. However, there is a reason God gave children mothers! Thursday night I had to present at relief society (actually got to present, it was on what we do to involve the kids with general conference and it was really kindof fun) anyway so it was dad for the bedtime routine again. I went into give the boys kisses when I got home and they were still in the same clothes they'd worn all day. I said to Isaac "You didn't tubby them again?" He said "I just wanted them in bed, I think its easier when we do it in the mornings, Cannon gets up so early anyway..." I said "We?...Cannon is independent and I have to do the other two." He shrugged and said sorry or something like that. Well then Cannon was up at 12:20...and still up at 2:30 by 2:30 I had had it, and I crawled into bed and said ....well lets just leave it at something really ornery (and tired) about how his early to bed routine was messing up the whole night! To which he said "...Cannon didn't really eat anything...maybe a few tater tots." (sigh) Thankfully he got up with him at that point and I fed him and he got back to bed...at some point. I gave up when Isaac took over. The morning was a nightmare trying to get him up and fed and convinced he had to go to school. (I didn't even try on the tubby thing.) Anyway. Today's adventure was taking Cannon to get two of his cavities filled. It was the craziest thing, he had two cavities right next to each other and they one tooth went numb but the other one didn't at all. The dentist gave him as much stuff as he could, but it didn't touch it. Poor kid. It was really kind of awful. But he survived (filling the one numb one) they just had to give up on the other one,  and he didn't freak out when I told him we have to go back in a couple weeks. We might have to switch over to a pediatric dentist (but not before we switch to having the kids on the dang dental insurance) but about those hook ups in STL! We had some really great friends in Mississippi (that we only overlapped there for about 2 months but we love them!) and he is in the St. Louis area doing pediatric dentistry now, so giddy up.

But the dentist and getting brother Rogers backhoe (that he finally has running again) stuck are the extent of today's adventures.
Anyway...just me and the quiet house, and this is getting long. Maybe I should leave switch over from blog mode to clean some of this disaster area mode. Its and effort in futility. I swear.

Here's a little hot dog smile--look at the twinkle in his eye! And he stomps around the house with that little toy drill, pointing like a gun, and making shooting noises...boys! 


Have a great week! 

Saturday morning my little Cann man and I went for a run/bike ride. That is one of my favorite things because one on one time is pretty rare for the two of us. He'd pick his dad over me a million times over and his brothers keep me pretty busy so while I usually like to listen to conf talks while I jog, I just turned it off so we could chat. It was a little longer than I bargained for because he wanted to go by Sams house, but we had fun. When we got back Isaac was out working on the motorcycle, phew, that saved me from having to go back to the yard sale we'd just been by! 

Cannon is adamant that he is Isaac's #1 helper...but he has some competition...

So we didn't get out of town real early, in fact we're kinda dumb, we left with 3 little kids at just about 11:00 with no real plans for lunch! Dumb! Of course we'd stop and get something but it was not well planned (and quite frankly not soon enough)

We kept our every time we travel somewhere we get pulled over streak alive-dangit-but what's worse is we ended our escape without a ticket streak. Double Dangit! It's not the end of the world but it definitely did a number on our mood (and we were hungry which typically isn't pretty with me, and factor in that morning  run with Cannon I was tired!) But hey, we saw some sacred ground!! The Far West temple sight, it was cool. It feels pretty middle of nowhere, it's crazy to think there were 5000 saints there back in the day!!

After that we finally found some pizza and a park. Isaac had been dreaming of something he'd had in Utah early in the summer. When we got there they said oh sorry that was a promotional thing we haven't had it in months...AND  it was the worst crazy bread I've ever had in my life. (I usually love that stuff) but--at least we'd eaten, and we were headed down town to the Thomas the Train exhibit! The boys were excited and Colt was even dressed for it! 

There was also an Irish fest going on. Greeeaaat, just what I want my kids walking around in. But Colt thought the green fountains were pretty cool. 

After looking around all over a security guard finally pointed us in the right direction...and broke the news to us that it was closed. Bummer! 

So Isaacs next plan was the amusement park--he just wanted to ride one ride with Cannon but he couldn't quite figure a way for them to just let him in, I was dying that he was trying. Then he considered just paying for the whole day and getting the most he could out of it but it was already 4:30 and I reminded him the whole reason we even went to Kansas City was to see his parents. I just think he was determined to do something fun! 

We settled for swimming at the pool and Grandma and Grandpas hotel. Only I never planned on taking my suit and he forgot his. Tanner had to just play on the edges but still pooped in the only swim diaper we had! I'm telling you it was comedy of errors all day long...but did you see that happy little Tann man eating Swedish fish? Totally worth it to get to see Grandma and Grandpa. (They'd had quite a trip across the country to pick up a trailer so they were ready for a shorter travel day too.) Isaac had called the temple that morning and they said they were open with normal hours so after swimming we left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and off we went. Rejected. Again. I don't know what time we got there but they came to the door and said, "We're closed, we're cleaning up and going home, the last session was a 4:30." 

We said "Can we help clean?" So the guy escorted us up to the cleaning coordinator and he said "We're done, all I need is the garbage taken out." We went to the KC Temple and took their trash out. That's all. 

So we grabbed some dinner and took it back to the hotel. 

Driving home Isaac said he was fine but he looked so tired. So as tired as I was I was too nervous go to sleep so I stayed up and chatted with him. We got home around midnight. 

Sunday was our first time practicing for the primary program. Ug. Bedlam. Praying it goes better this week. At least going in with a better game plan, and it's not fast Sunday so that helps! We can bribe'm with treats! 

Monday...The boys didn't have school but I think Isaac still went to work and honestly I can't remember anything except bemoaning what a disaster primary had been. 

Tuesday we made it to the new Hobby Lobby store in town. It was super fun! I'm going to like this😉 I still can't figure out how our little town of 17k landed a Hobby Lobby but hey, I'll take it!! 

Colts more brave than I am, I wouldn't let Cannon clip my finger nails!! Then just TanO being a goof


And Colt doesn't have school on Fridays so since we were watching sister for Miss Cassie today we upped our game and did a project! I want to do projects with Colt where he gets to create things like Cannon did in Mrs Hardee's preschool, I think that was sooo valuable! But sometimes I'm lazy so I was glad we tried something today! 

I think that's about it.

No internet connection on the computer tonight??? So I've plunked this all out on my phone. Typing on a keyboard is much quicker-and you might get more detail but oh well! 

Maybe next time! 

Tonight I was going to blog earlier while Isaac and the boys went outside but...he had a project going and I'm just not comfortable with them out there (in the street) when he's distracted. So Tanner rode his trike and the other two boys and I roller bladed. It was so fun. We had a great time. The boys both loved it too--Colt just came out of bed to tell me "It was the funnest day ever." Pretty sure that's a win! ...now for getting him back to bed, hmmm, wish me luck...

Last Saturday we hired a babysitter and went on a date. Mexican food and toured the new Harbor Freight in town. We're big time. Then the grocery store where I just ran in while Isaac ran over to the project house. He told me to take my time...his mistake...that put a damper on the date--oh well. 

Its crazy but I don't have very many pictures this week. This one of a door at Colt's school however, might have inspired this years Halloween costumes. We'll see if I can't really pull off tigers. My wheels are spinning. Tanner was no where near the door but when when he saw me pull out my phone he immediately said "cheese" or deese...he knows!

 

 

We fed the missionaries this week...okay I made them frozen corn dogs and fries. So lazy. But that's every dinner for me lately. The next day I ended up saying something to Isaac like "We'll just do something easy for dinner." Ummm so it will be like EVERY single other day when I scramble to make the easiest thing I can think of because I haven't even thought about it until 45 min before he comes home. Yup. Normal. I see no change in sight--oh well. 

A fun thing that happened this week was I got to go to Cannon's class. He gives me a hard time at home pushing boundaries and such but he really is on his best behavior at school and I'm grateful. I was just helping students log on to the laptops but I snapped this quick picture, then his teacher sent me one of him checking out the caterpillars (I think that's what they were) in class.

 

And the backhoe saga...you knew there was one right?! Oh for one thing Isaac's legs arms (and face where he probably wiped sweat off) are in full blown poison ivy reaction. (Or whatever it is we get into around here.) Cannon has some too but not as bad as Isaac and I'm just counting our blessings it wasn't Colt! The week and a half delay is consistent for us, we know they got into it the Saturday that they were cleaning up the project house. Oh I guess that's the other news-he did rent it out to the couple in our ward. Ok the backhoe: I said to Isaac "Is this the last time you're going to borrow Bro Rogers backhoe?" And he said "It should be." But I didn't feel like that was the commitment I was looking for. He had ordered some stuff to try to seal up the gas tank though it got here this week-that took all night Tuesday. Then Wednesday it was out on the deck just drying or "curing" Isaac had to go to YM/YW  Well, Colt put a stick in the tank. He's a 4 year old little boy...what did we expect? Luckily we stopped it before Tanner got any in there but he was right behind him. So that added to Thursday's adventures, but thankfully he got it out. And got the backhoe back together Thursday. I just told him I was so tired of doing the bedtime routine by myself. (I'm a wimp but I like his help!)

Today he got some gas in it, and...it still leaks...but apparently not as bad. But he was pretty happy to at least get it started back up. But they didn't get it welded, and Monday's a holiday so...Maybe next week we'll get brother Rogers his backhoe back.

We are getting back into a routine with school and such and have been able to hit a park a couple times with the Tilton's. That's good for mom's and kids! And all of the sudden Colt can do the Monkey Bars? I asked him when he learned and he said he just watched Cannon. Okay, that sounds about right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_up1tYJeQA

Tomorrow we're going to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Ison...somewhere along I-70...I think we're leaning KC way. But that should be fun. 

Other than that...we're just plugg'n along.