Goodbye 2021

What a year-

A little Christmas morning fun. 

Isaac wanted to get the boys a 3D printer so that kept him busy most of the day. (Better than a home improvement project-but I agreed to the printer on account in lives downstairs…it’s still on the counter…but hopefully it moves before too long) 

Grama goodies. 

Cannons (guilty face) when he realized he could take pictures with his new watch on my phone if the camera app is open. 



Launching Cannons rocket. 





And we’re switching church times…and we get the cleaning assignment. 

Last year we wrapped up the year eagerly anticipating our little brother. And this year we wrapped up the year cleaning up his cemetery. Bummer. But-it has never looked better (well not since we’ve been taking care of it!) 

Its way easier to mow over there in the winter! Isaac had the brush hog on the tractor and I ran the yellow mower. We both still hit a couple headstones but for the most part you could see them and avoid them. And today was the perfect day to do it because it got up around 50 the snow is going to fly tomorrow!  So I was pretty happy and tonight they are prepping for the snow by building the new sled they got for Christmas. I hope it’s a good one. 

Bout it.

Definitely not my favorite year-but hopefully we’ve learned (or are learning) the things we need to. 

🤞🏻

Holy Cow it’s Christmas Eve and these kids are wound up! I still need to blog -Isaac is zonked in the chair…so typical but in his defense this time he hasn’t been feeling well. But it’s going to be a late night. 

Saturday fun. Always a project man-he was putting a fan in the boys bathroom and I admit we needed it but what a mess! 

I was super happy Tanner was a little more aggressive, he swiped the ball a few times when kids held it out in front of him but this kid out muscled him…he hung on for the ride though 🤣 it was pretty funny. 


We took a couple Santa’s with us to Tanners game and got rid of some of the extra Candy I had bought for the kids school things. 

We were also messing around with my phone and found the stage light settings…that made for some fun Sunday morning pictures. 

I had to talk in church (thanks Bishop) but went pretty good. It’s stressful but always good to have to prepare. 

Cannon was messing around with super glue that he shouldn’t have had without asking and glued his foot to the floor. Tanner helped him get it off-I headed for the camera first. 

Sethy and I put up Rizzy’s lights-we’ll get them up sooner next year! 

Man Christmas time is tough! 

Seth is the best guy to pull me through though! 

He wanted to dig a hole and bury a toy for Riz to play with. So sweet, and so sad. He says things like “We wuv you Rizzy Roo we can’t wait to snuggle you up in heaven.” True. 

Tuesday Cannon got to be Santa again 👍🏻 And I got some help with the dishes 👍🏻



We put together some little goodie bags for some people that live in a rehab place and probably won’t get anything else for Christmas-that was hard for the boys to wrap their heads around they couldn’t figure out why Santa wouldn’t just go there but they were great helpers! 

And today they got to do brother gifts as  “x” presents. We went caroling at a gal in our wards nursing home window played a little basketball at the church and anxiously await Mr Ho Ho. Good times but I think that’s it. 

Holy Cow! December is flying by! I haven’t wrapped a single thing. Hmm. 

Saturday was a basketball day. Cannon asked if I took any pics of him. I was like are you serious? Did you forget I was coaching???

His team won one-a pretty even matched team for us-and got killed one. It’s nice to have a point guard this year but…trying to dribble through the 1/2 court trap still doesn’t work. 

Oh well 

Tanners team (is mostly first graders-1 redshirt kindergartener and 2 true kindergarteners) played two 2nd grade teams and it was ugly! 

But oh well. He so timid I hardly recognize him! Who is this kid and what did he do with Tanner?!?! But today he actually played with Cannons friends at open gym and looked a little more like his feisty self, hopefully it will stick. He was pretty pumped he made a shot on the 10 ft rim!  
Not timid Tanner was rough housing with Cannon playing football in the house when he knocked a tooth loose. Dad had to finish it off when he got home. The whole root was still there so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t like it was ready to come out anyway…



But oh well. 

In other Saturday fun we decorated the porch! I’ve wanted to for a while but since Grampa hooked us up with an outlet when he was here so it made it easy 😊 it’s certainly not perfect but it was fun and we like being festive. 

I actually ordered some Solar powered lights for Riz’s grave this week too. They just came today so we haven’t got them up but hopefully tomorrow. We’re missing that little guy and not having a first Christmas, but we are super grateful for the first Christmas, and our knowledge that because of the Savior we will always have our little brother! 

Not very many pics from the rest of the week-we we’re making Cannon a Santa costume for spirit week (and I didn’t get a single pic🤦🏼‍♀️ So I messaged his teacher to snag one for me but I never heard back-he might wear it again next week too-I’ll do it then) but Seth wanted to know if I had one for him…I did and I did get a pic. Part of why I was willing to make one for Cann was how much mileage I’ve got out of this one that I made for Colt when he was 2! 

Seth is pretty good help! 

Tanners Kirk’s kid pic from a few weeks ago- it came home in his backpack (lots of Tan this week) 

Our ministering bro brought us a little fruit basket the boys loved picking out the pomegranate 👍🏻

And Sethy said “look I have new eyes” then apparently he shared with me…there were about 45 pics like this or similar on my phone. 



I new I couldn’t keep my eyes open and he was jibber jabbing away at me but I didn’t know he had my phone. Ha. Oh well. I guess I can’t say I didn’t get a power nap today. 

That’s all the pics-so that’s about all I can remember! 

Next week will be Christmas Eve…either I’m going to have to get my crud together a whole lot between now and then or I might have to skip the ole blog…time will tell! 

I’ve have a lot to blog about! Oh trip was fun…I loved not having to cook for 2 days. Staying at the same hotel as our friends was pretty fun but overall I dunno-it was an experience (Isaac’s kinda thing) mixed with a ball game (my kinda thing) but really I’m good with watching things on TV (better seats…cheaper…etc) when I looked over and Isaac was sleeping I was just kinda like hmm why are we here? I did enjoy chatting with Michaila it had been a way long time since we’d had a chance to just chat but it was obvious Isaac did that little family adventure just for me-very nice of him-but I’m not sure I’d do it again. 

We went to the worlds biggest bass pro shop, where Cannon found a cannon. There were a lot of museums and stuff minus Seth it would have been awesome the big boys did pretty good but a 2 year old in a store that big…was kindof a pain. 



And then the game. 

It would have been better if it wasn’t so far or if we hadn’t had to go the day before…whatever. Oh and the Cougs BARELY won-sheesh!! 

Sunday vibes! It’s just a pic of the backs of their heads but I love it! 

Monday didn’t make the picture file therefore I don’t remember anything—well I know it was a day of laundry catch up (always). 

Tuesday Seth and I worked on some t-shirts for Tans class, he’s a heck of a helper. 

Tanner had a basketball game that night so we bailed on the missionaries, they came anyway and heart attacked us (which the boys love and …I have to clean up) it was kind of awkward cuz I was like eh Tanners game got moved so tonight’s not the best. So they thought we’d be gone but we were back Isaac was like hey the missionaries are here I was like what? I told them tonight wasn’t great. But oh well whatever. 

And when Isaac couldn’t find his wallet this week Sethy told him it was in the couch…and then proved it! 

This is how close to IN my house the chickens come! I swear we open the door and they come running or when we come home the try to follow us in. 

The best is when Seth mutters about the “Stupid dumb chickens” in my exact tone of voice! Ha! I mean it’s good and bad. But at least someone empathizes with me. Trying to get groceries in the house is a nightmare!  But good news-Isaac’s ready to sell them. Which is great but….what the heck? Is he surprised there a lot of work? Or that the charm would wear off?? Why was he so bent on getting them? I dunno I definitely have more questions than answers. 

On to more positive things! 

We missed Grama’s annual Christmas donut party, so Wednesday after school we had our own and it was a blast! (Except when did I become so sugar intolerant I could only handle one donut and nothing else 🤢 well there was a LOT of frosting on it!) but we did donuts and ice cream and Christmas crafts and it was pretty darn fun! 

The boys had children and youth that night, then basketball Thursday (makes such late nights) but that’s  about it. And shoot if we make it to Friday we’ll call it a win!! 

It’s a busy time of year but it’s good. 

It’s Friday and we’re on the road-headed down to Springfield to watch our Cougs play Missouri State!!

We stopped in Columbia-the kids wanted to go to Bonkers…I was game to break up the drive, I did not realize it was a giant arcade with a little play place. I guess I was thinking it was the other way around. Cannon was super disappointed I wouldn’t go for it, the Tan and Colt just made the most of the play place and Seth never ate his lunch so he didn’t get to play. Bummer. 

How the rest of the family adventure goes remains to he seen. Isaac has been on the phone with his pump truck stuff all morning so far. Oh well. 

So what else happened this week? 

I have NO Pictures from the weekend…crazy right? I took some family pictures for my friend-totally screwed then up, they were awful! AGAIN! It happened with my other friend, then I did some for Ben’s work that worked great, so I wasn’t really worried. But I should’ve been. Dangit! 

Sunday morning Isaac asked what we were having got lunch/dinner? I just looked at him like he was crazy-of course I hadn’t thought of it! Then he said “oh President Thomas is going to be here I wanted to invite him over.” So I said I’d see what I could find and we had a roast from Grampa Chip’s crazy cow in the freezer I defrosted then threw in the crockpot and added some veggies as we walked out the door. We really didn’t know if he would come of not but Isaac text a little while after church and said he would. It was so fun! Whoever you are-wherever you are I highly recommend having your stake President over for a simple lunch! We LOVED having him in our (crazy and messy) home and getting to know him a little bit. Such a nice man! With no pictures that really all I can remember from Sunday. Monday Seth and I drug the tree out. The Christmas mess is here!! 

We did basketball Monday. Tuesday I took this picture of the chickens.

 I hate them. Isaac and fhis “social” animals they come running every time we walk out the door. Thankfully they aren’t overwhelming us with eggs. 

Look at all the help I get 😬

Tanner was making assessments